Pray for the Prey (7 page)

“What about those that aren’t aggressive?”

“If there is doubt about their status we will discuss it with you before we take action.”

Dolly looked at Jeff and saw him tilt his head and look at her. It was going to be her decision. “Before I agree, will you be able to keep this agreement?”

There was a pause and then she heard, “You worry that after millions of years we may change our mind?”

“I was more worried about a shorter time than that.”

“This is something that all of us have come to agreement on. We will keep this agreement as long as our two species exist.”

“What will happen if we are destroyed?”

“Then it will be our task to eliminate the one that killed you.”

Dolly smiled, “I am going to send you one of our battleships with all of our technology contained in its computer’s database. You may use that ship and its small ships to duplicate what we’ve developed. I will also be sending a new attack craft that we’ve just developed with it. If you’ll send me the coordinates you would like to have it delivered, I’ll have it there today. We will also continue to send you any new technology we develop.”

“We thank you for your trust. The coordinates have just been sent.”

“If you will bring some of your people to meet us there, we’ll show them how the ship operates and teach them how to fly it.”

“If you need our aid, you know how to contact us. I believe you were right in your earlier comments when we first communicated. I know that you are now a friend.”

The link was broken and Hemon said, “I wonder what is going to grow from this seed you just planted.”

Dolly smiled, “I never thought of myself as a farmer, but I do believe that this crop will bear a lot of fruit.” She looked over at Jeff, “Will you handle the transfer?”

Jeff nodded and sent a message to the fleet.

Chapter Five

C
hris and Jillian stood on the bridge of the newly christened Jukebox. The ship was one of the new battleships and it bristled with its main guns and launch tubes. Eight of the new Attack craft were anchored to the hull and the pilots chosen to fly them were the best in the fleet. Unlike the old model, the Jukebox had six of the new reactors and three of them were solely used for the force field. Two powered the beams and main guns and the other was used to power the ship’s massive systems.

Jillian looked at Meisa and said, “Are you sure you’re alright being away from George as long as this mission is going to take?”

“He can always come to us in an Attack Craft. I miss the action that happens on a warship. I’ll be fine. Where are we going first?”

“We’re going to M-49. It’s located more than a hundred million light years from M-87 and I don’t think the civilizations there are interested in anything that far away.” Chris looked at Jillian and said, “Take us out.”

Jillian worked the ships controls and the two thousand foot long ship slid smoothly out of space dock and turned slowly toward the direction of the distant Galaxy. They looked at their displays showing the six colony ships in orbit and Meisa said, “We need to find a place for them quickly. They will be loaded and ready to go within six weeks.”

“We should have some viable candidates in half that time.” Chris smiled as Jillian punched the jump pad.

• • •

The Jukebox broke into normal space just outside the edge of the huge galaxy and Chris extended the sensor fields in Sierra Space looking for planets that possessed a similar frequency to the one Earth emitted. After twenty minutes, thousands of coordinates began scrolling down the display. Meisa shook her head, “Wow, there are thousands of planets that are available.”

Chris shook his head, “Not so fast; some of them may be inhabited.”

Jillian said, “Pick ten that are the closest to Earth’s frequency and let’s go investigate.”

Meisa sent the conditions to her terminal and the list appeared at the top of the screen. “Try this one first.”

Jillian entered the coordinates and pushed the jump pad. The Jukebox emerged into normal space and they saw a beautiful blue and green planet below them. “Scan for intelligent life, Jillian.”

“Chris, there is nothing on the planet that has an electrical current. I also do not detect any buildings on the surface.”

“What about life forms?”

“There is a huge abundance and some of them are quite large. However, I don’t detect any that would represent a danger to us. There are some carnivores on the plains that are as big as the large cats on Earth. We would need to take a closer look to see if there is any other life form that might pose a hazard.”

Meisa shouted, “We have hundreds of ships entering normal space.” She hit the general quarters alarm and reached for the force field control.

Chris shouted, “Don’t go to full power on the force field.” Meisa pulled her hand back and showed her confusion. “George tells me that the field is always active and it will automatically adjust to anything fired at it. Is that true?”

Meisa nodded.

“Well, if they are scanning our ship, they now believe that we have a very weak force field. They didn’t come in firing at us, so I would rather see how they act if they perceive us as weaker than themselves. What is the strength of their force fields, Jillian?”

Jillian looked at her console and said, “About the strength of an Alliance Battleship. They pose not real threat if their beams are on the same technological level.”

Chris reached in his console, turned off the general quarters alarm, pulled out the Jenze translator device, and put it on his head. He turned to Meisa, “See if you can get the frequency they’re using to communicate.”

Meisa scanned the electromagnetic spectrum and finally found the one being used by the ships that had appeared. Chris listened as they discussed what to do among their officers.

After thirty minutes Chris opened his eyes and said, “Jillian, are the scanners still active in Sierra Space?”

“Yes.”

“I believe those ships are waiting for someone in a position of power to come here to decide what to do about us. See if you can track where they come from to get here.”

“Why do you want to know, Chris?”

“I’m starting to understand more and more of what they’re saying, but what I think they’re planning to do is kill everyone onboard and take our ship to use as a transport for taxes they’ve forced on other planets. Give me a little more time.”

Jillian looked at Meisa and saw her expression turn hard. Jillian smiled, “Relax, we knew there were probably intelligent civilizations here. We just hoped they weren’t so advanced that we would have to run.”

Meisa looked at her scanner’s display, “Do you honestly think those ships are the most advanced in this galaxy?”

Jillian shrugged, “I have no idea, but they must be stronger than most to force taxes on other planets.”

“Humph, we’ll see.”

Chris opened his eyes and said, “Turn the bow of the ship toward the edge of the galaxy.” Jillian maneuvered the Jukebox around and one of the grey ships fired a beam across the bow. “Did you get a reading on that?”

“Yes. It wasn’t much of a beam.”

“According to those discussing our fate it’s the strongest beam they have.”

“What else have you learned?”

“I don’t think this galaxy has ever been invaded by a force from outside it. If what they’re bragging about is true, most of the civilizations they’ve conquered are basically peaceful. There were about a hundred aggressive civilizations long ago, but it appears this one is the one that won out and now controls this galaxy.”

“Is that all?”

“No, they go to each planet every year and sacrifice a hundred of their citizens to their god. They really don’t do it for that reason but use the ceremony to determine which planets are becoming rebellious. If they resist the killings, then that planet will be invaded again and brought back in line.”

Meisa said, “Just how did you learn that?”

“That’s what these ships were doing out in this part of the galaxy. They were conducting the sacrifices when one of them detected our arrival. They were bragging about how they outdid each other in the cruel way they killed the ones selected for them.”

Jillian looked at her display as it beeped, “A ship is moving our way through Sierra Space. I have its point of origin locked in.”

Chris sat down and listened to the grey ships.

• • •

“Oh no! They sent the pig.”

“Well there goes our portion of this find. We’ll be lucky to get anything.”

“I hope you didn’t send a recording of this ship when you notified headquarters about it.”

“Are you crazy? Didn’t you get the last message requiring a video of anything discovered out of the ordinary?”

“What message?”

“I’m sending a copy to you.”

“He may not have received it but I did.”

“I think all of us did and I suspect it was the pig that sent it. I’ve never seen anyone as greedy.”

“That’s why the Crown chose him.”

“Hey, I didn’t get this message. But I see you had no choice. Better hold it down; he’s almost here.”

The channel grew silent as a large ship emerged into normal space. “What have you found here?”

“We’re not sure, Excellency. We detected its arrival and decided to come and confront it. The force field around it is rather weak. We thought about destroying it, but decided that it would make a good transport for our spoils.”

“You made a good decision. Just how do you intend to take control of it?”

The channel remained silent.

“I see you need some help. Send several shuttles toward it and fire a beam across its bow. They’ll understand to drop their force field. Then board the ship and take control.”

“What do we do with the crew?”

“Put them in the shuttles and open the airlocks on the way back. That should remove any problems with them.”

“That’s a great idea. Get the shuttles ready.”

Chris pushed his transmitter, “I really don’t think that will be necessary.” Silence slammed down on the frequency. “I’ve been listening to your conversations and it appears that none of you possess any redeeming qualities. So let me tell you what is about to happen, so you have a moment to prepare. There are three hundred and fifty six of your ships here and most of you have bragged about how the ones you murdered on the planets you controlled begged for mercy that none of you were willing to give. You are all going to die in just a moment and I want you to see what the ones you killed felt before you took their life.”

All the Grey Ships opened fire on the Jukebox just before the Jukebox’s hundred secondary beams fired into them. The Jukebox’s beams fired so fast that they looked like a strobe light. In less than ten seconds, every Grey Ship was blown apart. More than half of them tried to jump away, but were hit before their jump screens could activate.

Jillian looked out at the wreckage of the grey colored ships and said, “I didn’t know you had it in you to kill that many.”

Chris looked at her with an expression that was hard to fathom, “Contact the fleet and have them meet us here.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ve just seen what these beings are like. No one should be under their control and I intend to remove them from their current lofty status.”

Jillian looked at Meisa and then started speaking into her communicator.

• • •

The Havana arrived ahead of the fleet and George took a shuttle to the Jukebox with Arvolo and Cyanna. Chris told them everything he had learned from the crews of the Grey Ships and then told them what he intended.

Arvolo listened and saw something different in the Professor. He was not the naïve person that had attacked the Alliance at the Moet Capital. Everyone was silent until he said, “Dr. Connor, are you sure you want to carry out that plan?”

Chris looked at Arvolo and said, “I do unless you have another.” Arvolo didn’t say anything and Chris said, “Do you?”

Arvolo tiled his head and then looked at Chris, “We’ve not been in the business of killing planets.”

“Can you think of a better candidate than this one?”

Arvolo just sighed.

George said, “I thought you were the one that said we had to save the Alliance and Moet?”

“I was.”

“How is this one different?”

“They have systematically killed a hundred innocent beings on every planet every year and they enjoy doing it; neither the Alliance nor Moet were that sadistic. This civilization is not fighting to save itself. It exists solely to torment the ones they’ve conquered. They cannot be redeemed.” Chris paused and said, “Do you have another plan, George?”

George looked Chris in the eyes and took a deep breath, “No.”

Chris looked at Arvolo and said, “How do we make this happen?”

Arvolo shook his head and said, “There must be another way to do this?”

Jillian said, “RV, can you leave a small amount of cancer behind because you don’t want to kill all of it.”

“That’s different?”

“How?” RV struggled with a reply and Jillian said, “It would eventually grow and endanger the body again. We didn’t hear the sadistic joy of those ships at slowly killing helpless beings. Chris did. If your family was killed by them, what would you want done?”

RV lowered his head and said, “Revenge is not a meal one should taste. It changes you in ways that can never be repaired.”

George said, “This is not revenge.” RV looked up. “What do you think will happen to this planet if we destroy their ability to wage war?”

RV stood and said, “Every planet they’ve been terrorizing will come and burn every one of them in a fire.”

“Then they will have tasted the meal and they would be less for having done it. Sometimes one must be willing to make hard decisions.”

“I will be the one to do it.”

Jillian looked sharply at Chris and said, “Chris, I don’t want to lose the man I love to this.”

“I’ll be fine, Jilly. I have no doubt about this choice. I won’t find pleasure in it, but I won’t be scared by the experience.”

“You’re not telling us something.”

Chris just stared at her.

“What are you hiding?”