Probe Predators (11 page)

“What is it, Moe?”

The main wall display illuminated and the image of a giant Orange Ship appeared. Angela sat down in her chair and the rest of the attendees stared at the image. Angela sighed, “And so it begins. Everyone return to their seats; Moe, patch him through.”

The Sovereign appeared on the display, “When can you come and assist us with this?”

“Where’s the Sovereign I communicated with two weeks ago?”

“The information you gave the Gedna caused his main breathing organ to fail. He died before the recording ended.”

“I can’t say I’m sorry.”

“I don’t expect you to; he was my Father and I bear the shame of his actions. Are we going to go back and forth on this issue attempting to gain an advantage or are we going to cut straight to the issue?”

Angela smiled, “And just what issue is that?”

“You’re going to send your forces here to fight no matter what we discuss; so we shouldn’t waste time and just make it happen.”

Trip said, “How do you know we’ll come and defend an enemy who planned to attack us?”

“Because you’re not dumb; it’s the only strategy you could use to protect yourselves. Elementary students know that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

“That appeared to be only true when an enemy was around.”

“It took two thousand years for us to change our agreement; I suspect I’d accept that in a minute if I could get it. Don’t think that we won’t appreciate your help and we know we don’t deserve it. However, both of us have a vested interest in making this happen.”

Angela looked at the Sovereign, “I’m going to start launching our advanced probes around your galaxy. I want the coordinates of that ship.”

“I sent them with the image.”

“Moe?”

“I’ve got them, Your Majesty.”

The Sovereign looked at the Queen, “What do you intend to do?”

“The first thing you need to understand is that you and your civilizations are not in a position to demand anything. You will take a back seat to our decisions and if we say jump your only question will be, “How high?”

“Go on.”

“Your fleets will be functioning in a supporting role and we will not hesitate to use them even if we know there’s going to be a huge loss of life.”

“I do trust you won’t simply waste the lives of our crews.”

“Look at your history; if you had done this the first time there would have been fewer killed. I have looked at the history and know this is the only way to possibly survive this.”

“What do you intend to do?”

Angela smiled, “I’m going to pick a fight with those Orange Ships and get them involved before the Family can crash the party.”

The Sovereign shook his head and said, “I’ll notify all of the civilizations here; you can issue your instructions to the Mediator and he will pass them on to those chosen to organize our defense against them.”

“We won’t do this any other way. The first time you challenge our choices, you’re on your own.”

“We won’t challenge you but you know as well as I do that you won’t walk away and endanger your Union. You don’t need to threaten me to get your way; I’ll do what you require.”

Angela looked out at the attendees listening to the exchange and smiled, “This is what honest dialogue looks like. If more leaders were like this one, war would not ever be an issue.” Angela turned back to the Sovereign, “I need the capabilities of your ships sent to me.”

Trip expected the Sovereign to balk at that request; he wouldn’t have done it and he was surprised to hear, “I’ll have them to you momentarily and how many ships belong to each civilization. I know you’ll need that information to avoid sending the wrong ships in each engagement.”

“You’re right. I also need you to recall all the probes you sent out of your galaxy.”

“We will, of course, do as you order; however, we will then be blind to what’s happening.”

“I’ll get a frequency from your mediator and have our probes transmit a feed to him for dispersal to those of your choosing. I don’t want those ships to know we have the capability of observing their actions.”

“I’ll issue the orders, immediately.”

“I’ll contact you later tomorrow after you begin receiving the probe’s data.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Angela nodded and the monitor went dark.

• • •

Angela turned to Kyle, “Admiral, I want ten military transports loaded with the new advanced probes and launch them five hundred light years from M87.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Might I also suggest that we launch probes around our Galaxy as well to see if the Orange Ships come to scout here?”

Angela actually was shocked at the suggestion. “Why Admiral, you’ve surprised me with your insight; by all means make that happen.”

Kyle looked at Kragon, “You have the new probes?” Kragon nodded. “If you will take responsibility for getting them out on your side of the galaxy, I would greatly appreciate it.”

“We also have larger transports than the Union; why don’t we take the probes out to M87 and you handle the ones to be used here.”

Kyle nodded, “That’s a great suggestion; that way we’ll avoid overlapping their coverage and wasting them. Make sure you send the model with the trackers.”

“Do you think one of those ships might return to where it originated?”

“If we make it hot enough, they just might.”

Cole looked at Andi and saw her pride. Her father was so much more than Cole thought and even Trip was shaking his head.

Kyle turned to Trip and said, “Your Highness, you should bring your ships back to the Military Hangar on Euclid.”

“Why did you call me Your Highness?”

Kyle smiled, “You are what a Royal should be; you deserve it.”

Trip was confused but managed to say, “Why do you want our ships back?”

Kyle looked at Angela and said, “I imagine it is going to be his team that takes on one of those monsters.” Angela smiled and nodded. “Our Head Scientist has developed a new Peg and it exceeds the capabilities of the old model.”

Trip looked at the Scientist and said, “Say what?”

The Head Scientist smiled, “Contacting a force field will activate the new Peg; it’s more powerful and safer to transport.”

“What about firing them through a force field?”

“The frequency of our fields will have no effect on them.”

“We’ll be there immediately.”

Angela said, “You may do that first but your second task…”

“I know; watch the recording of this meeting.”

Angela nodded.

Trip looked at Andi’s father as he lifted his arm, activated his communication device, and started whispering. The probes would be in place in less than an hour. Trip looked at Andi, caught her eye, and nodded. She smiled brightly and felt a huge weight of her shoulders disappear.

A
ngela sat on her throne and looked at the twenty faces on the bank of displays Moe had put on his surface. She saw them looking at her nervously and said, “This is not the moment to allow distrust to affect our decisions. You’re going to have to believe that I do not have an agenda to weaken you.”

The Allowitz Leader said, “It’s hard to believe you don’t hold a grudge about what we were going to do.”

“I don’t have the luxury of doing that. If, and that’s a huge if, you survive what’s coming, I’ll visit that issue. However, we are all fleas on the same dog and if the dog dies we all go with it.”

“What’s a dog?”

Angela started to respond and the Sovereign said, “You know what she means. Don’t waste time with trivial questions.” The Allowitz nodded.

“I will not do anything with your forces that I wouldn’t ask of my own. I honestly think there will be huge losses in your fleets; your ships will not be as powerful as ours.”

“Are you sure about that?” Angela looked at the Sirag Leader and nodded.

The Sovereign said “I sent her the blueprints of our ships and her computer did the analysis.”

Angela said, “Once we started mobilizing, your invasion was going to run into, pardon the analogy, a threshing machine. However, I am going to have to use your fleets to make the most effective use of my ships.”

The Sovereign said, “We will do whatever you want; where would you like us to begin?”

“I need all of your ships organized into fleets of fifty thousand ships and I need them to start working together using tactics that would allow your penetrator vessels to get a close shot off at the invaders.”

“Do you have any suggestions as to what maneuvers would allow that to happen?”

“Moe?”

“I’ll send the maneuvers momentarily.”

Angela looked at the group, “Once you reorganize, contact the Mediator for the maneuvers.”

The group looked at the Sovereign who said, “I’ll notify you when the reorganization is complete.”

“That would be good.”

The displays disappeared and Angela said, “Moe?”

“They’re going to take a beating.”

“I know; but it would be worse if we weren’t involved.”

“Possibly.”

“What are you saying?”

“Their current ships could take on the ships the Family originally used to invade them. We just don’t know the capabilities of the Orange Ships.”

“The Grandfather said his ships stood no chance against them.”

“Their ships stand no chance against the ships in M87. That still doesn’t answer the question.”

“We’re going to have to go take one of them on and see what we’re facing.”

“I don’t see any other way to do it.”

“Let’s think about that.”

“That is a good suggestion.”

Angela thought for a moment, “Do you think he’ll do it?”

“He won’t like it; but I think he won’t disobey you…yet.”

“We’ll see.”

“Indeed we shall.”

• • •

The Stalkers were released in open space and all of them disappeared as they moved at jump speed toward M87. Their programming directed them to find any objects outside the galaxy and they spread out at an incredible speed. The advanced Union Probes did not leave a signature in null space that could be tracked. They moved through green space and the green material passed through them like air through a screen door. They were too small to detect in null space and they were invisible in normal space.

Their hulls were made of string molecules that were constantly rotating offering no detectable surface to the normal laws of the universe. Even their means of transmitting was done in another dimension and only a string communicator would receive their transmissions. The Stalkers only took two days to find the two hundred Orange Ships. Once one of them was located, the distance of their scans was calculated and the location of the others were calculated, plotted, and assigned to a stalker. Upon arrival, the Stalkers released a tracker that moved to the two hundred ships and merged into the skin of the ships’ hulls. The remaining Stalkers scattered and waited for anything else to approach the giant galaxy. The ones locked on the Orange Ships settled in and began transmitting.

• • •

Trip arrived at the Mansion with the other three members of his team and went to the video room. He inserted a data cube into the player and started to activate it, “Aren’t we going to eat first?”

Trip looked at Dee and said, “Hey, I was the only one ordered to view this; you don’t have to stay and endure this again.”

Cole said, “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

“Why not?”

“One doesn’t receive a Royal Title every day.”

Trip laughed, “You’re absolutely right. Contact Andrew and…”

“You need me, Sire?”

Trip nearly fell out of his chair and turned around and saw Andrew standing behind him, “HOW DO YOU DO THAT!?”

Andrew just raised his chin and said, “I will have the evening meal brought here momentarily, Sire. Perhaps all of you would prefer to clean up first and then return?”

Trip shook his head and sighed, “That is a good idea. We’ll come back in…,” Trip looked at Andrew.

“Forty minutes, Sire.”

Trip shook his head and said, “Forty minutes.”

Andi looked at Dee, “I’m going to need an hour.”

“Me, too.”

Trip looked at Andrew and he nodded. “An hour it is.”

The four scattered and went to the quarters set aside for them on the top level of the Mansion.

• • •

“Andrew.”

“Yes, Marilyn.”

“He’s here.”

“Are you sure?”

“I am but he isn’t.”

“I’ll be there at the appropriate moment.”

“I know you will.”

• • •

The four entered the video room and found the Mansion’s staff entering with the evening meal. Even by Mansion protocols, it was one of the finest ever served and Trip was impressed. The laughter was loud as they made fun of Cole and his awkwardness at accepting the Royal Title. The staff removed their plates without being noticed and Trip finally said, “Let’s see what the Queen is so determined that I view.”

Trip really expected to be bored but found the interactions of the attendees interesting. He leaned back in his chair and watched the meeting with interest. Then he saw himself go out of his chair at a speed that shocked him and grab the Baron and lift him off the floor. He froze the image and stared at it. The room was silent and Trip put his hand on the chair’s arm pad and rotated the image from a side view to one from directly behind the Baron. He moved it off center until he was looking over Victor’s shoulder into his face. He looked into his image’s eyes and saw the deadliness in them. He stared at the image and couldn’t tear his gaze from it. The image was scary. The other three remained silent as they waited for him to speak. Fifteen minutes later Trip said, “That isn’t me.”

Cole stood up and walked over to the chair Trip was sitting in. Trip tore his gaze from the image and Cole said, “I thought I might need this.” Cole reached into his pocket and took out another data cube. He inserted it into a data slot next to the one being played and said, “Side-by-side images. Use image twenty eight on the second data cube.” Cole turned and went back to his chair. Trip turned and saw two images side-by-side on the high definition display. The new image showed him on a dance floor with a scantily dressed blonde woman trying to prevent him from falling over backwards to the floor. He had a wine bottle in one hand and a glass of gold liquid in the other. He had his eyes closed and a stupid grin spread across his face. The muscles of his face were so slack that they appeared to be fat tissue. Cole said from behind him, “Is that you?”