No Technology Is Invincible (The Death Prophecies-Book Four 4) (31 page)

“Captain, have you managed to decipher that ship’s language?”

“I have, Admiral.”

“Send it to my computer.”

“Sending now?”

“Chester, do you have it?”

“I do.”

“Is that vessel communicating with its leaders?”

“They started the moment they passed that probe.”

“Record it for later play.” Gabe stared at the long-range scanner screen and heard the noise of approaching stardrives over the sonic scanner before he saw anything, “It sounds like a large number of ships are moving this way.” Three minutes later, the first blips appeared on the scanner. “Chester?”

“Two hundred and fifty six large ships are moving this way.”

“Take us above the vessel we’re following to the point where it will meet those incoming ships?”

“How far out do you want to be, Admiral?”

“Far enough to be outside any firefight that breaks out but close enough where your scanner will make a good recording.”

“Eighty miles.”

“That would be good.”

Suddenly the sonic scanner started issuing a new sound. Gabe heard it and heard Chester say, “Admiral, I have five fast moving ships moving toward us from behind that black vessel.”

“Data?”

“They’re five times the size of the one we’ve been following.” Gabe waited and then heard Chester announce, “They’re the same type of construction as the scout. It appears they are the main warship of that civilization?”

“How does their speed compare to our ships?”

“They’re fast but not in the same class. Our ships are ten times faster.”

“That’s still incredibly fast, Chester.”

“They’re slowing down.” Gabe nodded.

Janell stared at the tactical monitor, “They’re going to wait and see what happens.” Gabe smiled and nodded.

“Chester, start playing the conversation between the five ships and the one we’ve been following.”

• • •

“…Legend, I am sending the video now.”

“Send me any response you receive from them.”

• • •

Gabe and Janell looked at the main monitor and saw the screen split in half. On the left side, it showed the black scout with the approaching ships moving toward it. The approaching ships stopped thirty miles away and the black ship remained in place. The right screen showed the approaching ships move past the thirty-mile limit and the black ship opened fire on them with its blasters. Gabe smiled and looked at Janell, “Now that is a clever way to get a message across when neither party understands each other’s language.”

“It looks like the approaching ships are responding.”

Gabe looked back at the monitor and it showed the black ship being attacked by more than two hundred warships and being blown apart. “Whoever is in those approaching ships is pretty good at manipulating the video they received. I think everyone understands each other’s intentions.” The wall speaker activated and Gabe listened.

• • •

“Legend, it appears they have no intention of opening a conversation.”

“It does appear you are right. When they cross the chosen distance, open fire on the first ships to cross. Let us see if they are willing to listen to a more forceful conversation.”

“And if they continue?”

“You will have clear directives to defend your vessel.”

“Do you intend to intervene, Legend?”

“Only to clean up if they still refuse to communicate.”

• • •

Janell looked at Gabe, “I’m not sure I understand what that leader just said?”

Gabe leaned back in his command chair, “If they don’t back off and open a communication channel, he intends to destroy all of them.” Janell stared at him and Gabe tilted his head toward the main monitor, “They will talk or they will die. Retreating will not be an option.”

“You are assuming that those approaching ships aren’t advanced enough to defeat them?”

Gabe looked up, “Jock, what about that?”

Jock was tied in to Gabe’s console and heard everything being discussed. “They are the most powerful civilization in this sector of the galaxy but their force field is nowhere close to the Black Ships. I’ve not seen them fire their weapons so I really don’t know about their offensive capabilities.”

Gabe nodded, “Well, that bit of information will be known shortly.” Gabe looked up, “Are these ships still in scanning range of the probe that was passed?”

“They are, Sir. The six Black Ships are being scanned now.”

“Jock, just how large is the civilization that sent those two hundred warships?”

“It’s not small. They’ve conquered fifty planets and they’ve constructed ship building facilities on forty six of them.”

Gabe heard the wall speaker and said, “Hold on a minute.”

• • •

“Have you been able to track the lines of communication those vessels are using?”

“Yes Legend, I’ve detected and locked into my databank forty two lines of communication.”

“Determination?”

“It appears they all come from different star systems.”

“Is there one that’s sending more communications than the others?”

The Scout stared at his panel, “There are two that are sending the most communications. I have not been able to understand their language but one of the two appears to be sending attack instructions and the other is sending questions.”

“What have you determined from this data?”

“The channel sending attack instructions is the location of their Military Leaders.”

“So the other must be the location of the ones that govern them.”

“That’s what my computer has determined.”

“Any idea of why the other locations are communicating?”

“It’s purely speculation but I suspect they’re watching what happens to decide about sending a much larger force to confront us. They’re standing by to make that determination. Of course, I’m making a guess here.”

“You’ve not been wrong in the past.”

“Legend, what are we going to do if they launch a second attack?”

“Send me the data you receive and I’ll make that decision once this incident is handled. If they refuse to communicate, they will show us that they’re a hostile civilization.”

“Their first ships will cross the line in fifteen minutes.”

“You are free to defend yourself.”

• • •

Gabe stared at the monitor as he listened to the Scout communicate with his Commander and then looked out of the viewport at the millions of stars shining in the distance. The emptiness of space allowed him to see them clearly and he knew the light from some of them had traveled tens of thousands of years to arrive at this location at just this moment. The stars were going to witness the coming fight and he knew they wouldn’t feel anything about what happened. The universe provided the space for it to happen and felt nothing about the result. Life and death was a part of creation just like all the stars and galaxies that comprised it. Unlike the unfeeling stars, he felt emotions as he watched the rapidly approaching warships. They dropped out of their stardrives three hundred miles from the Black Ship and accelerated on their thrusters toward it.

• • •

Gabe watched them as he said, “Captain, does this civilization that sent this fleet to attack this single vessel have any redeeming qualities?”

“I don’t know, Sir.”

“Why not?”

“Sir, is a carnivore wrong for going out and finding a meal?”

“I’m not sure I understand what you’re asking, Captain?”

“Let’s look at it by examining Earth’s history. For more than a hundred million years, Dinosaurs ruled the Earth. At the top of the food chain were the Apex Predators, Allosaurus, T-Rex, and all the monsters that swam in those ancient seas. Were they evil for killing the herbivores?”

“No, it was the way they provided food for themselves. However, the Sauropods weren’t intelligent.”

“Do you think if they were intelligent that they would have not continued to kill to feed themselves? And would they have even considered that killing another species was bad? They are what they evolved to be; meat eaters that looked at everything around them as prey. This species of Carnivores went out from their planet and saw other worlds as a great food source to grow their civilization. Could they consume plants to survive? We know that Carnivores can only thrive by consuming meat. That’s the difference between dogs and cats.”

Gabe nodded as Janell’s head went back at the comment. Gabe said, “A dog will get sick eating cat food even though they love the higher meat content.”

“Exactly right, Sir. Dogs need more than just meat in their diet. A carnivore doesn’t have that option. They are not physiologically able to consume anything else other than meat and thrive.”

“Do you think that justifies their consuming intelligent species?”

“If we were pure carnivores, would you be asking that question, Sir? I mean no disrespect, but we can sit in judgement because we’re seeing them from our perspective. Did the Sauropods worry about the character or peaceful nature of the animals they killed. They could care less. For them to live, something had to die. Millions of years of evolution created what they became and I suspect this carnivorous species couldn’t care less about the qualities of their victims. They don’t just consume the intelligent species on the planets they’ve conquered but pretty much anything else that tastes good to them as well.”

Gabe looked at the monitor and saw the first incoming ships cross the thirty-mile limit the Black Scout had imposed. Brilliant beams flashed out and hit the closest incoming warships and blew them apart in massive explosions. The warships behind the ones that were hit scattered and flew at high speed toward the Scout and opened fire.

The blasters on the Scout swiveled at a speed that was remarkable and the attackers were being destroyed at an alarming rate. Janell turned to Gabe, “Why haven’t the five larger Black Warships entered the fight?”

“If they determine their scout is in danger, they’ll take part. They’re holding back to see if the attackers will stop and open communications. Gabe nodded toward the right monitor, “The Scout is continuing to send videos to the attackers.”

Janell looked at the monitor and saw a video showing the attackers backing off and moving outside the thirty-mile limit and white waves moving between the scout and its attackers. It was clear the Scout was asking them to stop and talk. It appeared to not be working. The attackers flew in on the Scout and fired beams that made the Scout’s force field flare. A moment later, the warship firing on the Scout began exploding in rapid succession. Janell looked up, “Chester, what’s destroying those close in attackers?”

The tactical monitor slowed and Gabe looked at it with Janell. The Scout was launching missiles and they homed in on the attackers and blew through their force fields. They didn’t cause a massive blast like the blasters but they did blow the attacking warships into pieces. “Numbers remaining, Chester?”

“The Attackers have seventy-five remaining warships. They’re not backing off, Admiral.”

Gabe nodded and then saw one of the attacking warships flash toward the Scout with the intention of ramming it. Three blasters vaporized it as the other attackers flashed toward the scout. The Scout’s thrusters flashed and it began evasive maneuvers. A moment later, the five huge Black Warships flashed in and blasted the remaining attackers into rubble and dust. Gabe and Janell looked at the wall speaker.

• • •

“Thank you for coming to my assistance, Legend.”

“I shouldn’t have waited so long, Zeree. What is the status of the communications?”

“I’m not receiving any now.”

“My examination of the communications during the attack more than doubled.”

“My scans showed the same thing, Legend.”

There was a very long moment of silence and Gabe and Janell looked at each other. Finally the Scout said, “Are we going to wait for them to come here?”

“Protocol in a situation like this says that we take immediate action. I just don’t like attacking a species that was defending itself.”

“It wasn’t defending itself, Legend. They had every opportunity to not do this and they refused to take it. The fact they were willing to ram my vessel shows the severity of their aggression.”

“I detected four more lines of communication during the attack.”

“That means they’re on forty six planets.”

“I’m calling in the Third Pagron to join us. The Pagron has been viewing what took place and is awaiting my request.”

“I think that would be wise, Legend. Are we going to invite the vessel that has been watching us?”

Gabe’s and Janell’s eyes went wide as they heard, “They’ve only been observers and if they want to see more, they can make their own decision.”

Gabe looked up, “CHESTER!?”

“I don’t believe they can detect our ships, Admiral, but I think they can detect the communications between our two ships.”

Gabe nodded, “Jock, get out of here now!” The small white warship beside Gabe’s vessel immediately disappeared. Gabe moved the ship further out and waited. Soon he heard the sonic scanner start making a noise that rapidly grew in intensity. Gabe turned the volume down as it became a roar and saw the first blips appear on the long-range scanner. “Chester?”

“Twenty thousand ships are moving this way.”

“Move away and follow them.” The six Black Warships disappeared from the viewport and Gabe looked at the main monitor. The incoming mass of Black Warships began arriving and falling into formations.

“Pagron, I am turning the control of this mission over to you.”

“Move in with the front group and prepare to move forward on the line of this species Governing planet. We will take them on there until the issue is resolved.”

Gabe watched the five large black warships move into formation and then the huge fleet disappeared as they activated their stardrives. Chester followed them from a safe distance.

T
he war fought between the Black Warships and the Carnivores was incredibly violent but brief. The Black Scouts were sent out to examine the forty-six planets the Carnivores controlled and the Pagron called in another two Pagrons to reinforce his fleet. Gabe and Janell watched the war and at one point Gabe said, “This really looks like what I was planning to do in the Carand Galaxy. It’s clear they’ve done this before.”