Pray for the Prey (17 page)

“I know; I just wish we had been able to start earlier.”

“This ship was worth waiting on and it’ll probably save us all the time we’ve lost.”

“I’m sure you’re right, but I hate being delayed this long.”

“You weren’t this impatient trying to get me to love you.”

“I knew you were in the bag. I could afford to be patient.”

“Oh, I was, was I?”

“You know you couldn’t resist my great looks and personality.”

Chris watched Jillian stand up and quickly added, “Besides, the scar on my head was irresistible.”

Jillian stopped moving toward Chris and smiled, “Using the ole scar against me again?”

Chris smiled, “Maybe it knocked some sense into me.”

Jillian sighed and said, “I thought I had lost you. Reminding me only makes me think about how lonely I would be without you.”

Chris said, “Come over here.”

Jillian ran and jumped in his lap and hugged him. “Do you think we’re ready for this?”

“I don’t know. However, it’s important we see what we’re up against.”

“How far back are we going to start?”

“I think forty million years would be a good time. With the new scanners we’ll be using, we should be able to process the information fast enough to do this in a reasonable time.”

Wing Commander Jason Gilstrap entered the bridge and said, “The ship has completed loading the provisions and is ready for launch.”

Chris said, “Dolly, what’s our status?”

A female computer voice said, “Commander Gilstrap is correct; however, I have one attack craft that needs the tie downs checked. I’m getting an error message.”

Jason said, “Which one.”

“Number ninety eight. I don’t think there’s a problem with the connection, but a fuse may have blown on the release board.”

Jason spoke into his transmitter and waited for a response. Jillian said, “What about our power reserves?”

“They are at maximum and the fifth reactor is at standby.”

Jason said, “It was a blown fuse. It has been replaced and the board is now green.”

“Dolly?”

“He is correct. We are ready for jump.”

Chris said, “Please contact the Command Team.”

George, RV, Cyanna, and the Moet Admiral appeared on their screen. Chris said, “Where’s Bender?”

George said, “He’s on his way up. Are you ready for launch?”

“We are. How much longer will it take for the colonies to be moved?”

“The bulk of the work has been done. The Alliance and Moet have also started colonizing planets in M-49 and will be well on the way within six months.”

Jillian said, “I’m still not sure about moving all of our populations to M-49.”

“It wasn’t an easy decision. However, if we destroyed a planet in another galaxy and were attacked in turn; do you think they won’t come and take a closer look to make sure of our destruction? I’m surprised they haven’t come before now. I may be wrong but I’d rather make a mistake being safe than sorry. Besides, most of our real activity is taking place over there.”

“I just hate to leave Dundee and the Milky Way.”

“Our new world will have the same name. We should be completely done by the time you return. The Capital for our union will be located on Sierra-Garcia.”

Jillian smiled, “That is exactly where it should be.”

Chris said, “If the Violet Ships come and scout the Milky Way again, they will only see the old Alliance and Moet planets without any of our new ships. That should throw them off our trail.”

George smiled, “That’s the plan.”

Chris looked at RV, “How are your new ships performing?”

“Our crew size has only grown to twelve hundred and fifty sailors. Our main battleships can now fire the beams and strikers without a crew. All of the sailors are now used to service and fly the Needles and Attack Craft. Being able to link our computers will make the fleet able to handle its own defense. At the rate of new ships being added, we’ll be ready to take on the Violet Civilization in a few more years.”

Jillian looked worried, “You don’t think we should just leave them alone and wait for them to make the first move?”

RV smiled, “What is the name you gave your Computer?”

Jillian sighed and RV said, “She asked us to make them pay. I, for one, want to honor her last request.”

George said, “We’ll make a decision about that after we hear what you discover during your scans of that galaxy. We don’t want to bite off more than we can chew.”

Jillian nodded, “We’re jumping momentarily and we’ll keep the communication channel open. Good luck on the move.”

The Moet raised his eyestalks and said, “Safe travel my friends.”

George said, “Will you fill in Bender?” The Moet moved his eye stalks forward and left the room. George watched him leave and said, “Be careful.”

Chris nodded and ended the transmission. “Dolly, make the jump.”

“Attention all hands; jump warning in thirty seconds. Remain in your ships until all clear is sounded.”

• • •

Eight hundred and fifty pilots activated their Needles and Attack Craft and waited. The first steps toward vengeance were being taken and they were honored to be present. They waited and double checked their systems.

The mile long Jukebox hung in space over Sierra-Garcia and then instantly disappeared. The new jump drives no longer had a delay in operating. This new ship was something that would be feared by many predators but for the moment, it was on a voyage to learn what it was capable of doing.

• • •

The large creature sat in its dwelling and read the message. This was ridiculous. It slowly raised its twenty appendages and said, “Come.” The tech moved into the creature’s quarters and waited at the entrance. “I’ve had eight Majors say that we should investigate that other galaxy to see if the builders of the small ship were destroyed. They think they may be a danger to us, which is ridiculous. I refuse to send any of my ships to do it, so go to the bugs and have them make the determination. I would have thought that after a full revolution this issue would be dismissed. Tell them I want the information quickly.”

• • •

The Hive Controller watched the Major Battleship disappear and leaned back in his chair. He pushed his console and the Fleet Controller appeared on his display, “We are required to scout that galaxy and determine if any of the white ship’s builders are still present. The Horde has been warned against an attack during our search and we’ve been given less than four measures to complete the search. Get the scouts and our defense line ships out and do it now! Do not waste any time and you don’t have much time to make this happen! If any of your ships stop to attack I will hold you responsible for the delay.”

• • •

The probe at the edge of the Milky Way detected the fifty million ships and sent a warning to the Command Center and every planet still in the Milky Way. George ran into the Command Center and stared at the incoming video stream. He saw Bender looking at the huge wall display showing the millions of ships forming up around the galaxy’s edge. As Meisa and the Moet Admiral ran in he said, “What are they doing?”

George looked at the display and said, “They’re coming to see if we survived.”

Meisa said, “How do you know that?”

“There are just as many scouts as Battleships. If this were an attack, the scouts wouldn’t be here. Notify all the planets to act normal and just ignore their presence. Tell them to keep all of their ships out of Sierra Space until this fleet departs.”

Meisa stared at the display and said, “It appears you were right about moving the colonies.”

“We aren’t ready to take these ships head on yet, so I hope I’m right about them just coming to scout. I think that’s what they’re doing, but it’s just a guess.”

“What are they doing?”

George looked at the display and saw half of the giant fleet disappear. Suddenly an alarm from a probe on the opposite side of the Milky Way started alarming. George watched and saw half of the giant fleet appear. “They have ten times as many ships scouting this time as the first. It appears they are going to start on opposite sides and meet in the middle. I think they are trying to do this as quickly as possible. It appears they aren’t wasting any time to do it.”

They watched the split display and saw the giant fleets of ships disappear. They waited in the Command Center for three weeks and hoped that none of the member planets were attacked. Finally, the probe at the core alarmed and they saw the two fleets arrive opposite each other. There was a twenty minute delay before all the ships disappeared.

George said, “Notify Zack and Izzy to prepare to make a trip in four weeks to gather information from a month ago forward. We need to see what’s going on in M-87.”

“What has you concerned?”

“How could the Violet Civilization take this many ships out of their lines to do this? Something is happening and I have no idea what it is.” Meisa replayed the recording and saw that George was right. What was going on? George looked at her and said, “Contact Chris and send him the recordings. See if he can get a big picture of that area of the galaxy without getting too close.”

Meisa turned to her board and downloaded the recordings.

Chapter Twelve

T
he Hive Controller consolidated the data from the fleets and condensed it into a video that reported anything of interest. He noted that the species that had come and warned him of the White Ship builders was scattered around the galaxy but he didn’t see any models of the ship that had come to his border. His staff went over the entire file and returned to his cell. “There is no evidence of any of the White Ships in that galaxy.”

“Are you absolutely sure?”

“We took a detailed scan of that ship’s hull and our scanners were set to alarm if that material was scanned. Even if the ships were on the ground and unpowered, we would have detected them. There are none of them in that galaxy.”

“Could they be in another galaxy?”

The most senior Controller said, “Which one? There are more than five thousand galaxies in this cluster and more than a million a long jump away. Which one would you suggest we examine?”

The Hive Controller knew there was no way to start a search without some clue as to where to go look. He checked his board and saw the clock go to zero. The Major Battleship appeared on his panel, “Well, they are predictably punctual.”

“Did you do as we ordered?”

“I did and there is no White Ships remaining in that galaxy. I’m sending you the condensed file along with the entire record for you to examine. It does appear that civilization was destroyed.”

“If we need any further action, we will contact you. You may resume your conflict with the Yellow Ships in one rotation of your planet.” The giant ship disappeared.

“Are our ships back in the line?”

“They are returning to their assigned positions as we speak. They will be ready before the time frame given by the Majors.”

“Good.” The Hive Controller put his hand on the display control to turn off the probe’s signal from the destroyed planet, but just couldn’t force himself to do it. He stared at the planet in the top right corner of his bank of display panels and slowly pulled his hand back. The staff watched him and wondered what was going on. The Hive Controller dismissed them and continued to stare at the planet. Fear can make one do irrational things.

• • •

A month later George contacted the Jukebox, “Chris, have you got a moment?”

“I do. The computer is currently analyzing our recent recordings and we’re waiting on the results.”

“Have you seen anything of interest?”

“We had to back out to sixty million years to get a full view of what’s happening in this galaxy. There has been constant war from that time forward so far. The civilizations in this galaxy are vicious and I’ve lost count of how many civilizations have rose and fell. Most of the heavy action has taken place around the core of the galaxy and has extended out toward the outer edges.”

“We’ve discovered something of interest.”

“What is that?”

“Zack and Izzy did an emergency jump and recorded the time before and after the violet ships came and scouted.”

“And?”

“A huge purple ship that flashed green appeared and communicated to the Violet Civilization. It was only there for about an hour but after it jumped away the violet ships pulled all of their ships from the front lines and sent them to scout our galaxy.”

“What did the Yellow Ships do?”

“They remained in their lines and did not take any action until after the Violet Ships had returned and assumed their positions again.”

Jillian said, “It appears that there is a species that commands obedience from those civilizations.”

“That’s how I see it. That ship returned soon after the Violet Ships returned to their territory and remained for less than an hour. I need you to see if you can determine the relationship between those ships.”

Chris nodded, “I’ll make it a point to look for them and see what I come up with. We’re still a while from getting close to the current time.”

“I think I need you to make that discovery a priority. We’re planning a visit to our friends in the Violet Ships, but need to know what might fall out of that contact.”

“How long will it be before you’re ready to do that?”

“Probably three years.”

“Then I will have that information in two. There’s so much more than I thought and this is going to take much longer than I anticipated. I’ll get it to you.”

“Thanks, Chris. Be careful. You don’t know what their scanners can see.”

“I will. Let me know if anything changes.”

George nodded and ended the call.

• • •

Kenny and RV sat in a booth in the restaurant on the Transport Shang-hai and enjoyed their lunch. Kenny took a bite of a salad and said, “I’m surprised Cyanna didn’t come with you.”

RV watched Kenny eat his salad and made a face, “No wonder you’re skinny; you only eat rabbit food.”

“I weigh a hundred and ninety pounds, RV. I’m far from skinny.”

“Trust me on this one; you’re almost anorexic.”