Star Rover-Chosen to Die (Lens of Time) (25 page)

“What has you bothered?”

“The beings from that Spiral Galaxy said that this was just an initial probe; we have no idea of the total number of ships the intruders have to use against us. It appears they know they aren’t our equal but they are still planning an assault. That tells me they have superiority in numbers and these planets alone would not be enough to overwhelm us. There have to be more warships we don’t know about.”

“Those planets are located in eight different galaxies; I suspect you might be right.”

“Did you mention this to the Lead Master?”

The Third leaned forward slightly, “No, he was not in a frame of mind to hear it. You know how he is driven to prevent any intrusion into his domain.” The Third hesitated and moved side-to-side, “It would have been dangerous to mention it.”

“I would recommend that you board your ship and stay there for the immediate future.”

“Why?”

“What happens if you poke a grunet’s nest?” The Third stared at the Admiral on his display in silence. The Admiral leaned forward and said, “You’ll kill several hundred at the surface but the thousands that immediately emerge will clean your bones. I suspect that if I’m right, the response from that civilization will be immediate.”

“You know I can’t leave my galaxy.”

“You just might not have a choice. Make sure you take your family with you.”

“How am I going to get the Master to agree for me to leave the table?”

“Tell him I’ve asked for you to come here and look over my plans. I’ll send the request now. I’ll include that I trust your judgment and want to discuss some issues with you.”

The Third hesitated and said, “Send the message.” The Third went back into the Chamber and the Second said, “Oh, there you are. The Fleet Admiral wants you to come and look at his plans. You should take your ship and go there now.”

The Third leaned forward and then turned and left the Chamber. The Lead Master stared at him but then turned his attention back to the table.

• • •

Dat sat in a chair in the Fleet Conference Room on Earth and watched the feed being sent from the probe that was still located at the Blue Ships Fleets. He shook his head, “They’re organizing to go after the hundred planets that our trackers have reported warships. They should wait and go take a good look at those eight galaxies.”

General Robinson shook his head, “We’re not waiting. I’ve sent every advanced probe we have into those galaxies. We should start receiving information shortly.”

Gresha looked at Brad, “Is that a good idea?”

Katherine looked at Gresha, “Do you think it’s a bad idea?”

Gresha looked around the table, paused at Dat, and then said, “I don’t know if they know our location. If they don’t, we shouldn’t make them suspicious of our presence.”

Admiral Gibbs said, “Their ships aren’t as powerful as the Blue Ships and we know our ships are stronger than theirs. Why would we worry if they did discover us?”

Gresha stared at Gibbs and said, “In Africa, what is the one creature that all other animals fear the most?”

Everyone looked at each other and Gibbs said, “I suspect it would be a Lion or the now extinct Tiger.”

Gresha shook her head, “No, it’s called a Driver Ant.”

Dat said, “You’re talking about Army Ants.”

Gresha nodded, “Everything in the jungle runs from the oncoming wave of ants. They devour everything in their path and no animal or insect is safe from them. They overwhelm everything in their path by sheer numbers.” Gresha looked around the table, “Any of us could easily kill a single ant. It would be extremely simple and even a few hundred don’t really pose a problem. However, none of us would survive a wave of them in the millions. Those creatures know they are no match for the Blue Ships but they’re still planning an attack against the evil carnivores and they all know they will emerge victorious. That tells me more than anything else that we must remain hidden from them until we can build our forces to meet them.” Gresha looked at Katherine, “Have you listened to the sermon being broadcast from that giant temple?” Katherine shook her head. “I have. It’s a call from their religious leaders to never lose sight of the holy mission or removing all carnivores from the universe. If just one of their ships takes a scan of Earth, what do you think they’ll see?”

Gresha waited for an answer and Angel said after a few moments of silence, “They’ll see our livestock.”

Gresha smiled and nodded, “Exactly right; and that would place us on their list of species to eliminate.” Gresha looked around the table, “All of you should listen to that sermon. It’s frightening and horrifying at the same time. They will show no mercy and I really believe they will come in numbers too high to comprehend. This entire species is driven by a collective religious fervor. They will not back off and they don’t care if they die in the conflict. That is a dangerous thing to have to face.”

Leon sat in a chair away from the conference table and he stood up. Katherine looked at him and nodded. “I suspect they already are suspicious of our presence.”

Katherine’s eyebrows went up, “Why do you say that?”

“They encountered two of my species on two different planets. I suspect they will compare the odors and see that the carnivore was on two different planets. Oh they’ll know someone is on to them and they’ll know it isn’t the Pumgas.”

Katherine looked at Brad, “I want a probe sent to those planets where the Rust Fleets are located.”

Brad nodded and began speaking quietly into his wrist unit.

Dat looked at Katherine, “We need to know how we match up against them.”

“Why?”

“We need to know how many ships it’s going to take to defeat them.”

Katherine nodded and said, “I want the Strike Fleet jumped away from our galaxy and to hold station close to a distant galaxy where they cannot be followed back here. If the Yellow Civilization calls for our assistance, we’ll look at sending them in.”

Gresha shook her head, “I wouldn’t advise that, Admiral.”

“I know the danger; however, if what you suspect is real, the more of them we can eliminate with the assistance of the Pumgas the better.”

Dat said, “I worry that if the Pumgas are threatened with extinction that some of their ships might jump here to escape. We need Angel’s fleet to prevent that from happening.” Gresha stared at Dat and then nodded. Dat said, “If the Pumgas fall, we will send in Angel’s fleet at the end to pick a fight. We need to know if we can survive a space battle against their forces. They’ll skip away if things get dicey.”

Dat stared at Gresha and slightly shook his head. She was going to disagree but held her tongue. Katherine looked at Dat and the other Admirals around the table and then looked at Angel, “Take your fleet out into deep space and get them ready.”

Angel nodded and said, “Yes Sir.”

• • •

Gresha cornered Dat after the meeting and said, “We can’t reveal ourselves to them.”

Dat shook his head, “Gresha, we have to know if the Rovers can take part in the fight. I expect Admiral Hull to come up with the same idea shortly and we have to know. If the Rovers can stand toe-to-toe with them, we’ll have twenty million more ships we can use against them. We can also build the Rovers much faster than the Jukeboxes. I refuse to send Rovers in alone against them to see.”

Gresha stared at Dat and slowly started nodding, “You’re right. We have to know. I just hope they don’t track us back to our galaxy.”

“We’ll discuss this with Admiral Hull but, either way, we do have one advantage.”

“What is that?”

“All of the Union’s planets now have the updated force fields. We know they would hold off a Blue Ship Fleet for an extended time; I suspect that time will be longer with the Rust Warships.”

“Not if their numbers are too high.”

“We have more than eighty thousand planets in the Union. If they attack them all, they’ll have to divide their forces and we’ll destroy them piecemeal. If they attack a single planet, we’ll roll in with hit and run tactics. However, I want to avoid that if at all possible. I’ll meet with Katherine later next week after things settle down and see what we should do.”

“The Fleets are getting much better, Dat. I do have confidence that we can make a huge dent in their numbers…whatever those might be.” Dat leaned forward and kissed Gresha and then they turned toward the landing field.

T
he Third said, “I don’t think I am going to be allowed to stay here after you jump away.”

“Tell the others that I’m leaving a support fleet to be sent to assist any of our units that are threatened to be overwhelmed. You will receive our reports and decide on where to send it.”

“Would the Master in charge or the Military take offense to this?”

“You out rank him, he’ll say nothing.”

“What’s the real reason for leaving this fleet?”

“If things go bad, you should take the fleet and escape to a distant location and start a new civilization there.”

“I could go to that Spiral Galaxy and request asylum.”

“Do you honestly think they’ll accept a species that eats other intelligent species?”

The Third swelled with a large breath and said, “No, you’re probably right about that.”

“Just don’t wait until it’s too late. If we’re overwhelmed, get out of here. They won’t be far behind us.”

“Surely you’re not going to stay there and fight them off? You should bring the fleets back here to defend the domain.”

“That is exactly what I’m going to do; however, they will arrive here immediately after we do. Jump the fleet out and don’t look back.”

The Third stared at the Admiral and said, “Thank you, my old friend.”

“Let us hope I’m wrong and it doesn’t come to that. I wish the Leader had taken a closer look.”

“Would it have made a difference?”

“We could have joined forces with the Spiral Galaxy and we might have been in a better situation. We’ll know shortly if I’m right.”

“The Leader would never agree to foreign military forces in our domain.”

“He would if his backside was about to be blasted.”

The Third jerked slightly in laughter, “That would tend to make one look at things differently. Good luck and keep me informed on what’s happening.”

“Just remember, don’t hesitate.”

“I will.”

• • •

“Admiral, I have a disturbing development.”

Katherine looked at Brad, “What?”

“One of our trackers followed a ship to a planet that builds those probes that are being used in the Pumgas’ galaxy.”

“And?”

“The scan revealed more than a billion of them around the planet.” Katherine’s eyes went wide. “If we send some of our ships against them, what do you think they will do, Admiral?”

“They’ll launch every one of those probes to go out and search every galaxy in this corner of the universe for the presence of a Jukebox Battleship.”

Brad nodded, “They’ll probably do it anyway due to two Matadors being detected. The point is; if they see a Jukebox, we will be their next target.”

Katherine leaned back in her chair and thought for a moment. “Do you think those probes will be looking for carnivores?”

Brad shrugged, “I have no real way of knowing but if their mission is to find the source of the Jukeboxes, they won’t have time to stop and look at individual planets. They have a giant area to scan and they’ll be focused on the frequency of the Jukeboxes.”

“That means we can’t destroy any probe that comes here.”

“That would tell them just as much as finding a Jukebox here.” Brad sat down, “The Rovers have a similar frequency to the Jukeboxes.”

Katherine leaned forward, “You know, I’ve been thinking about that. The Rovers can’t stand up to the Blue Ships; how do they stack up against the rust colored ships?”

“I honestly don’t know, Sir.”

Katherine shook her head, “Dat is right; we have to take a shot at them and we need to use the Rovers in the attack to see if they can survive.”

“What are we going to do?”

“Notify all our warships that once the attack on the Pumgas starts, every warship will jump out to the Strike Fleet’s location and form up. They will remain there until ordered otherwise. We’ll see if the probes are launched after the attack.”

“What if our ships are discovered at that other location?”

“We just might stick around and take them on before we run. However, at least they will be sent on a false trail.”

Brad nodded and left the room to issue the orders.

• • •

Angel sent orders for all her Admirals and Commodores to meet her in the conference room onboard the Wellington. Bret, Jillian, and Ray were on a Rover and skipped to the Wellington’s location. Jillian looked at Bret, “Are you going to be ok?” Bret smiled and nodded.

Ray frowned, “What do you think is going on?”

Bret blew out a breath and looked at him, “Combat. We’ll be going to war shortly.”

Jillian’s eyes narrowed, “How do you know that?”

“The Admiral was on Earth in a conference will all the Senior Staff. The first thing she does after leaving is call for an immediate meeting with her Senior Staff. She’s been given orders and I suspect they are war orders.”

Ray looked at Bret and tilted his head, “Well, this is what we’ve been busting our humps to get ready for; I’m glad we had the time to prepare.”

Bret nodded and heard Jillian remark, “The new Jukebox B’s really shortened the time needed to get ready.”

Bret nodded as he stared out of the viewport at the Wellington, “We should thank the Admiral for sending the initial delivery to our new fleet.” Jillian and Ray nodded.

• • •

The four Rear Admirals arrived with their Commodores before Jillian made it back to the Wellington and they renewed old friendships. Arve went immediately up to Bret and looked him in the eyes, “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Arve; thanks for asking.”

“I really don’t understand why…”

Bret interrupted Arve, “It really doesn’t matter, Arve; she had her reasons. She’s got a lot on her and we have to support her decisions.”

Arve stared at Bret and then slowly shook his head, “You’re a much better man than I am. I would have ripped off her neck and screamed down her neck.”