Planet Predators (18 page)

The view moved in rapidly to the fourth planet and he saw his home as he remembered it. It was lush and green with brightly shining oceans. RV looked at him, “Is there any where you want to see?”

“Yes, do you see that large city on the Northern Shore of the ocean on the large continent?”

“The one that has a large bay?”

“Yes, move the view to the southern shore line and follow the road as it moves north.” RV moved the view closer and stopped it a hundred miles above the planet’s surface. “Do you see those large buildings next to the space port?”

“Yes?”

“Just north of them is a yellow and white building about three stories tall.”

RV moved the view in, centered the building, and moved the view in closer. They watched as four people came out of the building and Zack took a quick breath. Izzy said, “What?”

“The young girl you see in the red uniform is my sister. She died two years ago in a head on collision with a hauler. The little boy you see walking beside her is me.” Zack looked at RV and said, “You’ve been telling me the truth, haven’t you?” Zack saw the sadness in Arvolo’s eyes that proved to him that he wasn’t lying. “I need to see what happened.”

“How far in the future was the attack by the Silver Ships?”

“Ten years.”

“Do you know if this planet was attacked?”

“Yes it was.”

“Let’s start there and move forward.” Arvolo adjusted the jump controls and jumped ahead. They emerged into normal space and moved the view out so they were looking at the Milky Way.

Izzy watched and said, “What are you doing?”

“Those silver ships had to come from somewhere. This is the year they attack and I want to see if they came from another galaxy. Arvolo moved the view to the edge of the galaxy and moved forward.

Izzy stared at her display and said, “There, in the edge near the blue star.”

Arvolo brought the view in close and saw thousands of silver ships in formation just outside the Milky Way. “Well, it looks like they came from another galaxy. Let’s move the view to the planet and see what happened.” He moved the view in to the planet and accelerated into the light being focused. Things started moving at high speed until they saw the silver ships arrive.

Zack knew that the Eight Fleet Command was located on his planet and knew that there would be thousands of ships in the system. The silver ships came out of green space and the Jenze Fleet fell on them like a pack of wolves on a Grizzly. The battle was ferocious but the silver ships did not have superior numbers and that spelled their doom. After the last ship was destroyed, two thirds of the Jenze Fleet jumped away to support other planets being attacked.

“What happened to the planet where I was injured?”

“It was destroyed.”

Zack slowly shook his head, “I think we won this war.”

“If you didn’t they would have never sent those ships to destroy your crashed ship. I think it’s a safe bet that the Jenze survived this attack.” Arvolo looked over at Izzy, “Show him the Jenze Ship that landed on Earth.” Zack looked at Arvolo with narrowed eyes. “As this attack was taking place, a Jenze Scientist, I think he was a scientist, landed on my planet and did some research. I want you to take a look at the recording and tell me if you can see what he was doing.”

Izzy started the recording on Zack’s display and as soon as he saw the small ship he said, “That’s Gren.”

“You know him?”

“We went to Military School together.”

“Well, our planet is about to be hit by a comet and most life is going to be wiped out.”

“I remember that mission. He was a member of our surveyors that found planets for us to use for expansion. They would catalogue them for future colonization. According to my ship’s commander, he was going to see if the planet was too damaged by the comet to use. What happened to him?”

Zack continued to watch the recording and saw the attack by the Moets and the T-Rex that killed his friend. Zack took a deep breath, “So much death.”

RV looked at Izzy and then said, “Zack, I’m going to start jumping a million years and see what happens to your home. If we find it destroyed after one of our jumps we’ll back out and see what happened.” Zack nodded.

Over the next four days the three of them watched the Jenze Planet attacked more than thirty times by different ships. Every time the planet managed to survive because of its planetary force field. In ten of the attacks, the field was breeched and some nuclear missiles made it through and though there was damage to some cities, the planet survived. When the Ninja jumped to four million years in the past the planet was destroyed and still burning. Zack stood up and looked in shock at the screen.

Arvolo stared at the dead planet and after a long moment of silence said, “Whoever did this was able to defeat your planetary defenses. I would guess that this is where your, and our, ancestors died. Are you sure you want to see this?”

Zack took a deep breath and nodded, “I’m staggered at the number of times we’ve been attacked. Does this happen to every civilization?”

“We’ve not found any exceptions yet. I’m backing up ten years.”

Izzy looked over at Zack and saw the sorrow written on his face. She reached over and squeezed his hand. Zack looked at her and continued to hold her hand as Arvolo jumped the ship.

Chapter Twelve

C
hris and Jillian looked at Dolly as she contacted George and Meisa. Dolly waited and said, “I don’t why you two are in such a hurry to leave; you just got back a few weeks ago.”

Jillian looked at Chris and looked at him through her eyebrows, “I agree with you. We’ve only gone dancing six times.”

“Oh, and you didn’t invite me?”

“It was a spur of the moment thing.”

“And you didn’t invite me?”

Chris smiled, “It was for professional dancers only. Amateurs were not allowed.”

Dolly looked away from her display and tilted her head, “You two old fuddy duttys can’t keep up with Jeff and I; you’re too stiff. You just didn’t want any competition.” Dolly stared at them and smiled, “You were afraid I wouldn’t dress appropriately, weren’t you?” She saw their guilty expressions and Dolly laughed, “I can’t go around like I used to; I’m a married woman now and I have an image to uphold.”

“You were married the last time you went with us and that didn’t seem to bother you.”

“Yeah, but Jeff put his foot down and said I have to uphold the integrity of my position. He refused to go again if I didn’t turn over a new leaf.”

“Leaves were about all you wore last time, Dolly.”

“Oh Jillian, they were big leaves and it was during the fall. However, I won’t forgive you if you don’t include me in the future.”

The display illuminated and they saw George and Meisa, “We’re sorry; we were ironing out a problem with the Jukebox’s reactors.”

Chris straightened up, “What kind of problem?”

“Relax, it’s nothing serious. We had to modify the frequency of the scanners so that they could see through the force field. It was too strong to allow anything to get through.”

Dolly smiled, “Hi, George and Meisa, it’s good to see you. How strong is it?”

“It’s too strong. We have to set it at fifty percent and have the reserve set to reinforce it if needed. We’ve installed two of the new reactors and one is used for weapons and the other for the force field. The synchronization of the beams was not easy but we solved that problem a week ago.”

“How would they ship match up to one of the Blue Giant Battleships?”

“If our readings are correct, they no longer pose a threat.”

“There are two million of them, George. They could gang up on us.”

“I really don’t think they could, Chris. The new ship is faster and can escape any attempt to overwhelm it. The ship that chased the original Jukebox would be left far behind in any pursuit. We probably need to go pick a fight and see how we do but I’m certain we could survive now.”

Jillian looked up from her display where she was viewing the new ship’s weapons platform and asked, “How may crew members does it require?”

“It’s designed to work with a hundred and twenty. Twenty of those are pilots of the Needles.”

Chris looked up sharply at the display, “What are Needles?”

“They are new attack craft that have been designed to launch from the ship’s hull. They are stronger than the previous ship and each of them are powered by a smaller version of the new reactors. They carry three fusion missiles and their beams are strong enough to penetrate a Blue Giant just long enough to launch a missile through the opening. The pilots are currently undergoing their training as we speak.”

Dolly asked, “What are the other hundred doing?”

“A third of them are responsible for making sure the reactors are at optimum efficiency. Forty of them have a beam platform, which are placed around the ship, to target selected bogies; however, the ship can be placed on automatic to fire at any ship in the vicinity. The beam operators can override the system if they determine a bogey should be hit immediately. This is designed to target incoming missiles that might not be given a priority by the master system.”

Chris nodded, “That’s a good idea.”

“The remainder of the crew is cross trained on both systems so that the ship can be run in shifts during normal operations. The cross trained crew will also be responsible for getting the Needles ready to launch or recover during General Quarters.” George saw Chris’ expression and said, “What’s wrong?”

“I was hoping I could take the ship out for a couple of trips.”

“I don’t see any reason why you can’t. The crew has been training for more than four months on the new ship design. The crew for the Jukebox is ready to go on its trial run. Do you anticipate any combat on these trips?”

“Yes, I do George.”

Dolly looked at Chris, “You didn’t say anything about combat!”

“Dolly, how can you go anywhere in this universe and not expect to encounter a rabid predator?”

“We’ve got our galaxy under control at the moment.”

“Who said my trips were going to be in this galaxy?”

Dolly leaned back in her chair but before she could respond George said, “You’re going to M87?”

Chris looked shocked, “How did you figure that out?”

“I’ve been receiving the feed from Captain Arvolo’s ship and it appears the Jenze were attacked numerous times by ships from that Galaxy. I suspect he will confirm shortly that the Jenze were ultimately destroyed by ships from that Galaxy. We need to see what the current state of affairs is in that monster. Where else are you going?”

“I felt that if this ship can stand up to the Blue Giants that we should let them know that they aren’t welcome to come here again. That was going to be my first visit.”

Dolly remained silent as she listened to the conversation. Then George said something that convinced her to approve the mission. “You should wait for the Crazy Cuban to arrive before you leave.”

“Why?”

“He can train those new pilots faster than anyone we have. They need to temper their aggressiveness with tactics and he has a natural ability to know what works. Those Needles are going to make a huge difference in the survival of your ship.”

Chris looked at Jillian and she nodded. “He hasn’t been trained on the Needles.”

George laughed, “He’ll fly one better with no training than anyone trained on them. Let him take one out and that’s all he’ll need.”

Meisa said, “We’d be glad to go with you on the initial flight.”

Dolly said, “Absolutely not!”

George looked at Dolly and started to resist but then smiled, “You’re right, of course. Our duty is here getting the rest of the fleet prepared.” He looked at Meisa and smiled, “You know she’s right.”

Meisa sighed, “I miss the good ole days.”

George laughed out loud, “Love, it was only one day.”

“I still miss it.”

Dolly said, “I want Admiral Ander’s ship ready as soon as possible. We may need to assist Admiral Connor and I want the ability to do it if needed.”

“He is out with his ship training the crew. He should be ready soon.” George looked at Chris and said, “I’ll send the Jukebox to Earth and you can start going through battle drills until the Ninja makes it back. Make good use of the time.”

Jillian looked at Dolly, “Then we have your support?”

“If you and George think this is needed, that’s all I need to know. You have your approval and I’ll notify President Suh.”

Chris looked at Jillian, “Will you take over the training; I need to visit some scientists.”

“Get back as quickly as possible.”

“You know I will.”

* * *

Arvolo entered normal space and sent out the field. After four minutes the board chimed and the Jenze planet was centered on the display. Zack looked at the display and said, “Everything looks normal.”

RV nodded and jumped ahead five years. The display once again showed the planet with numerous ships around it both coming and leaving the system. RV jumped three years and once the display illuminated they saw a huge fleet of starships moving in toward the planet from the outer system. Jenze ships started appearing in normal space to confront the incoming fleet and the numbers of defenders was growing by the second. Izzy looked at her board and said, “The incoming fleet has about two hundred thousand warships. The Jenze just matched their numbers with the last group that jumped in. The Jenze are continuing to arrive.”

Zack watched the massive Jenze fleet organize and start moving to meet the invading fleet. Jenze ships continued to arrive and join the rear ranks of the defenders. He knew that it didn’t matter how many ships arrived, they were going to lose this battle. He had already seen the burning planet and the blasted hulks floating in the system. Who were those invaders?

RV focused in on the invaders and saw them form four lines of fifty thousand ships in each line with a thousand feet between each one. Then he saw the force field activate. He stood up and pointed at the display, “That fleet is using one force field to protect it. It appears that each ship is contributing to the overall field.”