Lens of Time: Book 06 - Star Rover-Running Out of Time (3 page)

“Thanks, Blacky. We are unable to fight and depend on others to protect us. Your willingness to defend us means a lot.”

“Let me know when you need us.” Belwen nodded and Blacky changed his shape to a wider wing, turned into the strong wind, and lifted straight up into the air. He moved slowly higher and then extended his shape and flew away at high speed. Belwen shook his head and wondered what he had done and what effect it was going to have.

“G
ibbs, I need you to make a scouting run.”

“Where?”

Dat pulled up a star chart on the wall display and a cursor appeared next to a type G star in M87’s Red Zone. “This planet was invaded by the Grillen and they are building some kind of installation on the surface. We don’t have a probe there and I need you to send one of your ships to deploy one.”

“I’ll get on it and send a ship by the end of the day.”

“Make sure the drop is done quickly and the ship gets out of there as fast as possible.”

“What are you saying?”

“The Grillen wouldn’t have invaded without some belief that they can stand up to our ships. They’ve had enough time while we were busy fighting the Masters to build up their forces. I believe that installation is important in seeing what we’re going to have to face.”

Admiral Gibbs sighed, “Is it back to war?”

“I’m afraid so; I don’t think we have much time before it kicks off.”

“I’ll have the ship make a high speed pass in the barrier and drop several probes as it approaches the planet.”

“Contact me when they’re active.”

“Yes Sir.”

• • •

Katherine stared at her monitor and watched as the forty Grey Ships flashed in on the squadron of Rovers and opened fire. The hundred Rovers scattered but twenty six of them exploded in huge red explosions. The survivors turned on their attackers and started firing at them but their beams were shrugged off by the Grey Ships. “Where did those ships come from?”

Her Executive Officer nodded at the display, “They lifted off the planet they invaded six months ago. The squadron of Rovers were sent there to hit their ship building facilities on the planet. That planet was one of the first invaded by the Grillen and is ahead of the others in building ships.”

“Those ships are light years ahead of their other ships.”

“Yes Sir, they are. We’ve started taking a close look at the planets invaded in the Red Zone in M87 and we’ve discovered they were chosen for a reason.”

“What is that?”

“It appears all of them have an abundance of an ore that is used to build those ships. They’re starting to build them in huge numbers and it appears we can’t match them with our current technology.”

“How would they know about that ore? Or the technology to use it?”

“We don’t know, Admiral. However, if we don’t slow them down, we’re in big trouble.”

Katherine stared at the display as the other Rovers were being killed. Only ten ships managed to escape. “Brad, get Dat Arvolo here now!”

Katherine stared at a still of a small Grey Ship that spelled doom for the civilized planets in the Milky Way if an answer to them wasn’t found quickly…Katherine shook her head. Where did they learn how to build that ship?

• • •

Dat and Gresha watched the recording and Admiral Hull pointed at the display, “I’ve done some checking and more than a hundred of the planets the Grillen invaded have started producing those ships. They’re currently residing at the planet they were built to defend it against attacks. We could possibly overwhelm them with numbers and hit the installations from space but we’d kill a huge number of the local inhabitants if we did.”

“We may not have a choice; we have to slow down their production of that ship until we develop a means of countering them.”

“That probably won’t happen unless we capture one and examine it. So far they’ve proven to be immune to our most powerful beams.”

“What about a small penetrator?”

“Dat, they’re too small and can avoid it. We’ve fired at them and they just move out of its path and hit it with one of their beams.”

Dat blew out a breath, “We don’t have any other option but to hit them now and slow them down. I hate that the locals are going to pay a price for this but we won’t survive unless we stop them.”

“The Grillen will send in their fleets to assist those Grey Ships if we hit the planets. We may knock out the ones that are launching ships but we’ll face huge numbers afterwards.”

“Do we know what the Grillen have in their inventory?”

“They outnumber us three to one. They’ve been building ships at an incredible rate while we were dealing with the Masters.”

“What about the ships in M87? Can they join us in doing this?”

“Their ships don’t match up with the Grillen. They’ll lose a huge number if they enter the fight.”

Gresha shook her head, “I’m sure the Grillen know that and will concentrate all their efforts on us and handle them afterwards.” Katherine nodded.

Gresha saw Dat’s expression, “What are you thinking?”

“I don’t want to do it this quick but we need information. I’m thinking about dropping Blacky and his team on one of the planets building those ships to see if they can gather information. We also need to see if they can take out those ship building installations.”

Katherine shook her head, “Dat, that is a suicide mission.”

“I know; but it’s suicide if we don’t do something to meet this threat. I’m going to see Belwen and determine if he has anything that might raise their chances of survival. They’ve been working with him for four weeks and my information officer tells me they’re making great progress.”

Katherine and Gresha stared at Dat and Gresha said, “I don’t like sending in any of our forces if there’s no hope of surviving.”

“If we don’t, then we have no hope of surviving. I’ll let you know what’s going on, Admiral.”

Katherine shook her head, “I know this shouldn’t bother me but I like that big black boob.”

Dat started laughing and said, “He does have that effect on people.”

“I’m going with you.”

“I’d love to have you, Gresha. Let’s go see what Belwen has been able to do with them.”

“You should know before you leave that the Grillen Negotiator has screamed to high heaven about our attack on that planet and is threatening to declare the ceasefire over.”

Dat shook his head, “Admiral, I suspect the talks have been nothing more than a delaying tactic. I’m sure they’re trying to build these ships so they can invade our galaxy. He won’t end the ceasefire as long as they can build up their numbers. You need to keep him talking and try to prevent the Grillen from bringing in their main fleets to defend those planets. We may be forced to hit all of the invaded planets simultaneously to protect ourselves.”

“Let us pray it doesn’t come to that. The loss of life would be enormous.”

“Just keep him talking; I’ll see what we can do.”

Katherine nodded and Dat left with Gresha.

• • •

“Belwen, I need to send in a scouting team to one of the planets the Grillen invaded.”

“I have four teams that are training on the new technology. The first one is close to being ready for you to use.”

“Really?”

“I think you’ll be surprised by what they can do.”

“Show me.”

Dat followed Belwen out to his ship and Belwen talked on his communicator the entire time as they left the building and moved to the landing pad outside Belwen’s lab. They arrived and Belwen said, “Tell your ship to start scanning for a possible attack.”

“Stein, did you hear that?”

“I did, my intruder systems are now active.”

“Tell me if you see anything.”

“So far, everything is clear.”

“Admiral, you might want to be in your ship as this happens.”

Dat looked at Gresha and they walked into their ship’s port and closed it. “Stein?”

“Nothing.”

“Loree, do you see anything on your scanners?”

“There were four small meteors that entered the atmosphere that burned up but nothing else out of the ordinary.”

“Is that unusual?”

“Not really; a large meteor probably hit the atmosphere and broke up. That happens a lot on every planet.”

After an hour, Dat looked at Gresha and shook his head, “Belwen.” He received no response. “Belwen, how long is this exercise going to take?” Belwen still didn’t respond. Dat stood up and went back to the port, opened it, and saw Belwen standing outside the force field. “Belwen, what’s going on?” Dat was suddenly lifted by two black arms and held off the ground. He was turned around in the air and saw a Madator toss a small object into the open port.

Belwen said, “The exercise is over.”

Gresha was following Dat and caught the object as it came into the port. She turned the small round object over and it had, “Boom! You’re dead,” written on it.

Blacky released Dat and said, “I finally caught you.”

Dat shook his head, “How did you get inside my force field?”

Belwen smiled, “Force fields don’t go more than a few inches into the ground. The Madators jumped from space, glided to this location and went underground waiting for you to open the port.”

“Stein?”

“Dat, we didn’t see anything.”

Belwen said, “Did you use your optical scanners?”

“No, why would we do that?”

“Because your other scanners will not detect anything without energy or metal content.”

“Yes, but they would see heat emitted by anything organic.”

“Have you ever checked the body temperature of a Madator?”

Dat waited for an answer and heard Stein say, “I’m doing that now. Their temperature matches their surroundings.”

“Which means infrared won’t work.”

Dat stared at Belwen for a moment and said, “Those four meteorites were the Madators.”

Belwen tilted his head, “Yes they were. They were ejected from high orbit and they entered the atmosphere at high speed. They were protected by a polymer sheath that held their atmosphere and protected them from burning up. Once they were twenty miles above the surface they ejected from it and glided in to this location.”

Blacky put an arm on Dat’s shoulder, “We have come to the conclusion that my species evolved from a bird of prey. Flying is really fun.”

Gresha’s brow furrowed, “How are you able to fly?”

Blacky looked at Belwen and he nodded. Blacky ran forward and changed his shape into a large flat surface that he flapped several times and lifted off the ground. In moments he was moving higher, before disappearing into the night sky. Belwen shook his head, “I thought they might be able to assume a shape and learn how to glide if the winds were right. They’ve learned how to manipulate their bodies and flap their arms and fly without winds. They’re even better flyers than I thought.”

Dat shook his head and laughed, “Is there anything they can’t do?”

Blacky popped out of the ground a foot in front of Dat and said, “I wasn’t able to catch you on foot.”

Dat was shocked by Blacky’s sudden appearance, “How did you get back here? Stein, did you see him?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“I just glided in from behind you and entered the soil about fifty yards away. He didn’t see me because I thinned my surface to the thickness of one of your hairs and flew in less than two inches above the ground.”

Gresha handed Dat the small ball and he read what was on it; “What is this, Belwen?”

“We developed an explosive for them to carry. That small ball is a large example of a rather nasty device. That one is large enough to write on.”

“Why do you say that?”

Blacky pulled one out of his skin and handed it to Dat, “This ball isn’t much larger than a small ball bearing but it will blow a hundred yard crater into the ground about ten feet deep.” Dat looked at Belwen and he nodded. Blacky continued, “It’s made from materials that have no metal content and cannot be detected by a scanner.”

Dat stared at Blacky and then turned to Belwen, “How do they communicate?”

“They simply speak at a volume they can hear. We’ve placed a cosmic ray transmitter the size of a nitrogen molecule in their brains. They simply say the activation code and start speaking.”

Dat stared at Belwen and said, “No, I’m serious; how will they communicate if they’re on an enemy planet? Their transmissions would be picked up.”

“Dat, they are able to talk in a frequency that is above the hearing threshold of most species I’ve seen. They can hear it but I’m certain most other species won’t. The transmitter will pick up their speech and transmit it to the others. The charge is lower than a cosmic ray and shouldn’t be detected.”

“What if they’re not located in the same city? What’s the range of the transmitter?”

“They’ll be able to communicate on the same continent and all of the construction facilities are located on the same continent according to the scans taken by our probes. I’ve also given them a device to contact us if they need to be picked up but it should only be used in an emergency. It will be detected if it’s used.”

“How could we pick them up if the planet is defended?”

Blacky smiled, “We’ll just steal a ship and wait for a diversion to escape. I suspect several of your ships jumping in to the planet would be enough for us to get off the ground and make our escape.”

Blacky rolled his head down to Dat’s eye level, “Why are you asking all these questions?”

“I’m considering sending some of you in to scout a planet and I don’t want to do it if your chances of survival are too low.”

Blacky shrugged, “You won’t know unless you send us.”

Dat shook his head and turned to Belwen, “How can he cope with an armored Warrior?”

Belwen looked at Blacky and nodded. Blacky took one of his arms and pulled a small black dot out of his skin. He held it out to Dat and it was difficult to see it against Blacky’s black hide. “What is this?”

“This black dot has an adhesive that is extremely powerful. If an armored being walks on me, I’ll attach this dot to the bottom of his boot.”

Dat turned to Belwen and he said, “An armored Warrior’s force field does not penetrate the ground. That dot will remain dormant until Blacky transmits a word in high frequency on his communicator. That will cause all the dots in hearing range to detonate.”