Lens of Time: Book 06 - Star Rover-Running Out of Time (7 page)

“Do you think they might put two and two together and be watching for another ship skipping through the barrier toward the other planets?”

Silence dominated the room until Blacky said, “What could they do about it? They can’t detect us.”

“No, but they can see the flames from your entry to the planet. I suspect they’ll fire on you from orbit. Targeting those bright lights will be easy.”

Blacky turned to Belwen, “Is he right?”

Belwen shrugged, “I’m afraid he is.”

“So how do we get in?”

“I need to think about it.”

Dat looked at Katherine, “We need to get them back to their planet so they can train the others. We need to be ready if another way to drop them is found.”

Blacky was reluctant to go without knowing what was going to happen but he finally agreed to go after Dat asked him how he was going to contribute to the effort. “Now, you know I’m not that good with technology.”

“So leave it to those that are and get your warriors trained to go.”

Ringie said, “You know he’s right.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Dat turned to Belwen, “Do you have any ideas?”

Belwen shrugged, “Let me work on it. I’ll let you know what we come up with.”

Dat looked at Gresha, “We will probably need to get our ships ready for meeting them. I don’t think they’ll take this lying down.”

“They’ll be reluctant to start something at the moment.” Belwen, Katherine, and Dat stared at her. “They don’t know how their ships were destroyed. They’ll investigate that before they use them against us.”

Katherine smiled, “I hope you’re right. We need to find their probes.”

Belwen said, “I might have an answer for that; they have to communicate with the Grillen and we have the frequencies they use. I’ve developed some of your probes to attack their probes. We need to trial them.”

Dat looked around, “Well, we all have more than we can do; we need to get on it.”

Gresha looked at Dat, “I’m going with the Madators to their planet to watch their training.”

Dat nodded and was secretly thankful she wasn’t going to be with the fleets.

• • •

Gresha sat on a wide open plain and watched the Madators working on their flying techniques. From a distance they looked like large sheets of dark paper that magically dropped a yoyo which fell to fifty feet above the ground and suddenly expanded, caught the wind, before flying back up into the afternoon sky. Off in the distance Gresha saw Madators flying in formations. They would disappear from view as they turned edge on to her. and suddenly reappear as they turned to move higher. “What are they doing, Ringie?”

“They’re practicing flying toward a destination and keeping their profile edge on to it. We can reduce our thickness to less than a hundredth of an inch and, moving straight at a viewer, we are impossible to see. It’s not easy to maintain that position and it will take a lot of practice to master it.”

“How do you avoid being seen by ships in orbit?”

“The easiest way is to remain below cloud level. We’ll assume our smallest size and just drop toward the ground until we’re low enough and then expand to our wing shape.”

Gresha turned to Ringie, “And if there aren’t any clouds?”

“We try to match the shape of a local bird or other flying creature. As long as we’re not gathered in a large group, it’s really difficult to find us against the surface. We’re fortunate that our bodies allow the scanner’s beams to go through us unimpeded.”

“I’ve wondered about that; how does the scanner not see the transmitter or the dot explosives you carry? I would think it would see them.”

Ringie smiled, “We are able to put objects inside our skins and manipulate them. Belwen thinks we can carry a new small energy sword that can penetrate armor.”

“I’m sorry, Ringie; you lost me.”

Ringie took one of her arms and reached inside her skin and pulled out her transmitter. She handed it to Gresha and said, “Scanner’s beams operate much like electromagnetic scans. The beam hits an object and the scanner reads the impact.” Gresha held the transmitter and saw it was shaped like a triangle with a very small base. “We keep the sharp edge of the transmitter pointed at the sky no matter what position our body is in. The most powerful scans come from warships in orbit and when the beam hits the pointed top of the transmitter it is reflected toward the ground. Scans that hit it from the surface are reflected into space by the base.”

Gresha shook her head, “Your bodies are incredible. That sort of control is unimaginable; and you say you do it without thinking?”

“Yes.”

“What about the energy sword? Surely the energy to power it would be detectable?”

“The energy is going to be produced by mixing two plastic materials in a small chamber; the chemical reaction will provide the sword’s blade. The chemicals are not detectable and the blade will last as long as we hold the handle tightly. When we relax our grip, the chemicals stop flowing and the reaction stops. If we use them in an area with large sources of energy, they shouldn’t be seen.”

“I wonder where Belwen found the chemicals to operate the sword.”

“It’s my understanding that it’s the same chemicals the explosive dots are made of.”

Gresha shook her head, “Those are extremely powerful.”

“They are and the blade they produce will cut through armor.” Gresha stared out at the sky full of Madators and Ringie smiled, “You and your husband are remarkable beings.”

“Thank you, Ringie.”

“Are you planning to have a family?”

Gresha’s expression changed and Ringie knew she had made a mistake. “Dat and I are two different species; we are unable to have children.”

“I’m so sorry, Gresha; I didn’t know.”

Gresha sighed, “Don’t feel bad; it’s just a burden we’ll have to bear. When are you going up?”

Ringie smiled, “Blacky is due to come here shortly and I’ll go work with my units.”

Gresha smiled and Ringie thought about Gresha’s sadness. Blacky arrived and she lifted into the sky. Later that night, she went back to see Gresha and found her asleep. She smiled and decided she really liked the human female. She extended an arm into her room and rubbed her gently on her back.

T
he new Grillen Fleet Admiral waited on his ship for the chief scientist to arrive. His former commander had been executed by the King and he was told to not fail him again. He shook his head and read the reports that had been gathered after the destruction of the Empire’s Grey Ships and the construction facilities on the Red Sector planet.

It appeared they were all destroyed by the same weapon; at least the residue from the blasts was identical at both locations. He leaned back and thought about how the humans had done it. The human ships that had jumped in to the planet did not appear to have fired any kind of weapon. It was also troubling that the facilities had been destroyed at the exact time the locals weren’t present. He shook his head and waited for the chief scientist to arrive. Nothing about the attack made sense. He sat in his command chair and looked down on the planet. Smoke was still rising from the blasted ship yards. The wind was blowing from the east and the smoke was moving west across the continent.

The four destroyed facilities were easily seen from space. The Admiral shook his head and knew that the fuel trucks for the Grey Ship’s reactors had also gone up in the blast; there would be an ongoing problem with the levels of radioactivity being spread by the easterly winds. He really wasn’t worried about the local populations but they were moving away from the affected areas. If they chose to rebuild the facilities, they would have to locate them where there were enough inhabitants to work them. The scientist finally arrived and met the new Admiral in his conference room, “Tell me what you’ve discovered.”

“We’ve not found much.” The Admiral’s expression changed to anger and the scientist quickly continued, “However, we have some conclusions about how they did it.”

The Admiral leaned back in his chair and glared at the scientist, “Continue.”

“The only possible way the humans could have destroyed the ships above the planet, and the facilities on the planet, was to have placed explosive devices on the ships when they were on the planet’s surface. Obviously, the facilities were also sabotaged by the same agency.”

“Could the local inhabitants have done this?”

The scientist paused, “They are the most likely source; however, we’ve not found any of the substance used to destroy our facilities on the planet.”

“You know the level of security we have at our construction sites; how could this have been done by an outside agency? It had to be the locals.”

The scientist didn’t know this new Admiral and he didn’t like his expression. He thought about arguing with him but decided to play it safe, “You’re probably right, Sire.”

“How do we prevent this happening again?”

“The simplest way is to have the locals only wear uniforms that we will provide to enter our facilities. There would then be no way to transport anything inside our force fields.”

The Admiral looked at his Executive Officer, “Issue the orders to make that happen.”

The Executive Officer looked at the Chief Scientist and knew there had to be another agency involved…but he also didn’t know this Admiral and he saw the chief scientist wasn’t going to challenge him, “Yes, Sire.” He looked at the scientist and saw the knowing expression. They weren’t going to put each other in jeopardy by suggesting another possible scenario. This Admiral didn’t appear to like any sort of challenge and they were not going to give him one. Whatever had caused the destruction would just have to reveal itself; the two Grillen weren’t going to risk being shot.

The Scientist decided that he would create an issue on the home world and get away from this new Admiral. If he wasn’t going to listen to anyone, the odds of another attack went up. He didn’t want to be on a warship when it did.

• • •

Dat contacted Belwen and saw his subordinate appear on the panel, “Where’s Belwen?”

“He’s working on a new covering for the Madators’ drop globes.”

“What sort of covering?”

“He’s working on one that won’t give off any flames during the Madator’s entry.”

“We need something urgently, before we lose our advantage.”

The associate smiled, “Have you been monitoring the probes around the Grillen construction planets?”

“I’ve seen the reports.”

“Have you noticed the astronomical data?”

“No, why do you ask?”

“You know that planets usually have multiple meteor strikes every few days.”

“Yes.”

“Well, none of those meteor strikes have been fired on by the ships in orbit.”

Dat thought a moment and then smiled, “They haven’t made the connection with the Madator’s first drop.”

“It appears they have not.”

Dat thought a moment and shook his head, “It could be that they’re waiting for another fly by before they open fire.”

“The probe at one of the planets recorded an incoming meteor and Admiral Hull sent a ship to do a fast fly by. The ships in orbit still didn’t fire on the meteor.”

“That fly by may warn them.”

“The ship was on a trajectory to go by a hundred other planets before it returned. If they had made the connection, they would have fired on the fragments from the meteor.”

“How long will it take to get the Madators ready?”

“The last energy swords have been delivered. They’ll need four or five days to familiarize themselves with it and then they should be ready to go.”

“I’m going to their planet and will discuss this with Admiral Hull and the Madator’s Leadership.”

“I’ll have Belwen contact you when he has a free moment.”

“That would be good. Stein, come and get me.” Dat ran to the roof of the Admiralty Building on Earth and saw the small ship moving toward him. It would be good to see Gresha again; he missed her.

• • •

Dat arrived at the Madator’s Planet and saw Belwen leaving his ship at the port. He jogged over and walked with him to the Union Embassy to meet with Admiral Hull and the Madators. “Do you really think they haven’t made the connection with the drop of the Madators and the flyby?”

“All the evidence seems to support that view, Dat. I don’t think they’ll miss it again, so you should make the next drop count.”

“What do you mean?”

Belwen stopped walking and turned to face Dat, “You saw the destruction caused by the first team. If you can get enough of them to the surface of those primary building planets, they can really set them back in their efforts to build a fleet of Grey Ships.”

“Let’s see what Blacky has to say. It might not have been as easy as we think.”

Belwen nodded and continued walking to the embassy. Dat glanced up in the sky and saw thousands of Madators soaring in the sky. He shook his head and was thankful they had not learned how to fly during the Union’s war with them. His run would have ended before it began.

• • •

They entered the main room and Dat looked around to see who was present. He missed Blacky who was standing off to the side of the group against the back wall but Blacky could see him. He rushed forward and wrapped Dat up in six of his eight arms, squeezed him tightly, and lifted him off the floor. “Owwww… put me down you big boob!”

“Oh, I’m sorry; I thought you could take it. This is what I’m going to do next time we run.”

Blacky put Dat down and he rubbed his abdomen, “You don’t know your own strength you idiot. You almost crushed my stomach!.”

“Blacky, please come over here a moment.”

Dat looked and saw Ringie next to the projector at the front wall and he ran toward her. “Wait a minute; I have some questions.” Blacky ignored Dat and ran over to Ringie. Dat saw him roll his head down to Ringie’s and they appeared to be whispering. What was going on? That’s when Gresha rushed up and wrapped her arms around him, “Not so tight, I think Blacky just pushed my intestines out of my mouth.”

“I’m sorry, you big baby. I’ll take it easy on you.” Dat smiled and leaned in and kissed Gresha.

• • •

“Did you get it?”