The Pyramid Builders (34 page)

“Thank, God!”

“We also destroyed one of their ships. We’ll bring the video home, but I need you to invite Mum to come visit.”

“WHY??”

“She’s going to attend a wedding.”

“Whose?”

“Why, yours and mine.”

Dolly stared at the screen and started smiling, “I’ll call her now. Is three days after you arrive too soon?”

Meisa yelled from off screen, “Make it two days!”

George smiled, “I will but Mum can stay home. We’ll do it in Australia.”

Dolly started laughing hard and looked off the screen, “You heard me right. Are you up to it?” They watched as they saw an arm come into the picture and pull Dolly away.

George smiled, “Looks like he is.”

Chris and Jillian smiled.

Three giant blue ships followed the trail through no space that the giant blue ship had left pursuing the small white ship and finally arrived where it ended. They emerged into normal space and saw the remains of one of their main battleships. There wasn’t much left, and no one survived the giant ship’s destruction. They saw explosions still igniting in larger pieces of the debris and wondered what could have done this to one of their newest ships. The destruction of the giant ship prevented them from learning the weakness of their weapon’s system. The ship’s commander started sending a message.

The Messenger entered the room and waited, wishing there was someone else that could deliver his news. One of the six saw him and motioned him forward, “Why are you here?”

“One of our ships has been destroyed.”

The tall yellow creature stared at the Messenger; its anger was clear. “Show me.”

“We were unable to see the actual destruction, but this is what the wreckage looked like.” The Messenger sent the mental image of the derelict.

The leader turned to the other five at the table and the Messenger watched as they stopped what they were doing and looked at him. “Why were you unable to see this event?”

“Only one ship was close enough to chase the ship that scanned our fleet. The three that followed could not keep up with the chase. They were older models and their speed was not sufficient.”

The Yellow being thought about the image, “The ship that was destroyed was one of our newer models, and the ship it was chasing was faster?!?”

The Messenger felt his nervousness but continued, “It was one of our newest models. It was recently completed and had all the new systems on board.”

The messenger saw the anger of the Leader, “Last time you were here you asked about continuing the invasion.”

“I was asked to do so by our fleet leaders.”

The tall being stared at the Messenger and then examined his thoughts, “So it appears you are right. It was wise of you to decide not to ask that question again. Have the fleet leaders report to us here. Recall the fleet and send the scouts out to find the ones that did this. Do not survey, look for this enemy.”

The Messenger leaned back, and slowly backed away from the leaders. The six of them stared at him until he disappeared. “This could be a problem.”

The one that spoke to the Messenger turned, “It was bound to happen eventually. We’ll have to overwhelm this new enemy no matter the price.”

“First we have to find them.”

The Yellow being leaned forward, showing agreement.

The Messenger hurried away, knowing that soon there would be new leaders of the Fleet. It was never wise to ask questions or make suggestions to the Rulers.

T
he Moet Watcher heard the alarm reminder go off. He glanced at his board and saw a reminder that a system designated for destruction had lost its probe. He looked at the board, saw a ship that was not on assignment, and ordered it to deliver a new probe. The ship received the location, the crew was recalled, and it left orbit. Ten minutes later it arrived at the system in question and saw that there was a huge disruption in no space immediately around it. The ship’s Master sent a message to the Watcher and waited for a response.

The Watcher was working on another attack and designated its secondary brain to the task of receiving the message. The secondary brain took one look at the disrupted space surrounding the surface of the small black ball in no space and jerked the primary brain away from its task. The Watcher saw the boiling no space and knew that only an extremely high energy discharge could have caused that massive disruption. It assigned the secondary brain to handle the attack and turned its attention to the Moet ship hanging in no-space. “Go into normal space and investigate. Keep your monitors activated.”

The Moet ship broke into normal space and looked into the system. As it made a scan, a small white ship came in at high speed and stopped two miles from the giant grey ship. The Moet looked at the tiny vessel, and the ship’s Master waved a stalk at his weapons master. The Moet hit the small ship with a beam that was fifty times wider than the target. The beam stopped and the small ship was still hanging in space in front of it. The ship’s Master turned his full attention to the ship and waved again. All seventy beams fired on the small ship. The ship master nodded and the beams stopped. The small ship was still hanging there in space. Its communication console activated and a voice said in Alliance, “You will leave our system immediately, or you will be destroyed.”

The Watcher observed the small ship and was amazed. “Fire again.”

The Master looked at his weapons board and said, “Fire again.”

The giant grey ship appeared to explode as it fired all weapons at the small white ship. Suddenly a bright white beam shot out from the small ship and hit the Moet Battleship just behind the bridge, blowing a huge hole through it. Then the white beam started hitting the giant ship so fast that it looked like white tracers were leaving at an incredible rate. Ten seconds later, the giant ship exploded.

The Watcher hit his emergency switch and a Royal Master appeared on his display. “Why are you bothering me?”

“Please observe this recording.” The Watcher sent the recording to the Master and saw the immediate concern on its surface.

“I’ll dispatch a dreadnaught.”

“Thank you, Lord.”

Dolly saw the battle taking place on her monitor and looked at Jeff, “We can destroy the asteroid now. It appears the cat is out of the bag and we can expect a response in force from the Moet.”

President Suh, Arnold Gordon, and Ben Keenan were on the main display at fleet headquarters in Sydney. Dolly looked at the screen and said, “You should order the remaining colony ship launched, Mr. President. We expect a Moet attack in force momentarily, and we don’t know what the outcome will be. We would also recommend that you take the main government leaders on a ship and lift from the planet.”

Suh smiled, “A captain does not abandon his ship. I will not leave those I’m charged with protecting.”

Chris said, “I can understand that, but you might want to save your crew.”

Suh smiled and said, “Yes, I suppose you’re right.” Suh looked at Arnold, “You will go with the others. If something happens to me, you will take my place.”

“But, Sir.”

“No buts. You are the best qualified to do it. You’ve been in on the project from the beginning and I trust you. Protect my people.” Arnold took a deep breath and then nodded.

Suh turned back to the monitor, “Do we have no chance of success?”

Dolly sent a chart to their display and said, “We now have thirty fusion ships. We believe that they can handle more than they take from the Moet and the Alliance, but the numbers could be overwhelming.”

Ben looked at the chart, “How long will it take to build the fleet to numbers that can defend us?”

“Not as long as you think. Now that the factories have the reactors, we can have more than a hundred in two months. The problem is that we keep finding new ways to improve them. The Jukebox has just had three additional reactors added to support the force field and beams, and it will be the model for those that follow. It has also been loaded with the new model of fusion missiles that will blow its own hole in a force field. The ship that destroyed the Moet battleship was an old design with the small beam. We know we can defeat their ships, but if they send a million at us….”

Suh took a deep breath and said, “Is there any possibility of getting them to communicate about our common enemy?”

“Not without a fight.”

Arnold looked at the eight young men and women on the screen and asked, “What are you going to be doing during this fight?”

Jillian smiled, “We each have a ship like the Jukebox, and will be leading the fight.” Arnold stood up and started to object, but Jillian quickly said, “We know these ships better than anyone else. Our best chance of success is with us in our ships.”

Arnold sat back down.

Jillian said, “Dad, know you miss Mom and don’t want to lose me, too, but if we lose this fight, no one on the planet will survive.”

Arnold lowered his head and nodded. Suh looked at the group and said, “We’ll load up the colony ships and send them out to the edge of our solar system. They’ll leave if things go bad.”

Dolly said, “That’s a good idea, Sir. However, they should leave anyway. I suspect we’ll be successful against their first attack but the follow up will be huge. I don’t want to risk our leaders against the chance that the Moet will enter our Solar System where their ship is waiting. The Magellan has found three planets in M87 for colonization and we should get the ships on the way. Even if this turns out well for us, we must send those ships out. We might not be so lucky if the Blue Ships find us.”

Suh looked out of the screen with determination on his face and said, “Win or lose, make them wish they had never come here.”

Chris smiled, “Oh, I think we can do that. They might drop the idea of attacking us faster than a bad habit.”

Suh smiled and said, “Godspeed.”

The display went dark and Dolly looked at the other seven sitting at the table, “Well, go to your ships and let’s go greet our visitors. Remember to be polite and not leave any mess to clean up.”

George said, “Just when I was looking forward to our honeymoon.”

Meisa smiled, “Shut up. You wouldn’t miss this for anything, honeymoon included.

Sasha said, “I’m so glad we got ours out of the way. The moons of Saturn were just beautiful.”

Chris said under his breath, “I hope we don’t have to use them to escape.”

Hemon said, “It’s a great place to escape to.”

Jillian held up an imaginary cigar, shook it, and said, “Easy for you to say. We’re going to have a real blast.”

Dolly looked at her, “You’ve been around him too much.”

Chris said, “What?”

“You know what I’m talking about.”

Chris put his arm around Jillian, held up and imaginary cigar, and smiled, “Well, if you believe in the hereafter, you know what I’m here after.” Dolly started shaking her head and left the room. Chris looked at Jillian, “Was it something I said?”

Jillian chuckled, “It always is, love. Now let’s go drop the Moet like a bad transmission.”

Chris looked at Jillian, “Dolly was right.”

“About what?”

“I’ve rubbed off on you.”

Jillian smiled, “I know.”

“Now stop that!”

“Never! Now let’s go play.”

“Now, you know you don’t play well with others.”

“For them, I’ll make an exception.”

“Works for me.”

George watched them leave and smiled, “Are we like that?”

“Well, you’ve kinda rubbed off on me.”

“How?”

“If I have to explain it, it’s no fun.”

“Explain what? I don’t get it.”

Meisa smiled, “Yes, you did.” They left the building and George burst out laughing halfway to their ship.

The Moet Prince looked into his display at the information in the database about the system to which he was taking his fleet. One of his nephews had showed him the video of a small ship destroying a battleship, and he immediately intervened, “You are not going there with one dreadnaught.”

“Why not?”

The Prince stared at the young Moet and sighed, “How many ships did the Alliance have to use to destroy a battleship?”

The young Master thought a moment and said, “Usually two hundred were involved in the attack.”

“Very good. Now how many ships were used to kill the battleship in the system you’re going to attack?”

The young Moet saw it, “One.”

“That doesn’t bother you?”

“You’re right.”

The Prince called together his personal fleet and took command of the exercise. He was probably overreacting but as he read the data, something didn’t seem right. The High Master had forbid him to take part in combat, and he promised to follow her command at a distance. He wasn’t worried; the fifteen dreadnaughts should make short work of the planet…but….something just didn’t feel right. The destruction of the probe had to be deliberate. How could this primitive system have advanced so quickly? The ship that killed the battleship didn’t match up with any Alliance ship in his records. Yet they used Alliance to communicate. He looked at his board and pressed a button. The Watcher appeared on his screen, “You’re the one that has been covering this planet?”

The Watcher was immediately nervous, “Yes, I am, Lord.”

“How do you account for the rapid development of this system?”

“I don’t have an answer. Four rotations ago they did not have a ship with interstellar capability. The scans showed no warships anywhere in the system.”

“So what happened?”

“I don’t know. We know that no Alliance Ships have come into this system for five cycles.”

“Something has happened.”

“I know.”

“I want you to stay on the channel until this is over.”

“I will, Lord.”

Dolly looked at the twenty eight ships gathered at the orbit of Mars. Each of the four main ships had six smaller ships in support. Dolly hit the open frequency and said, “I am turning the command of this exercise over to Admiral Connor. He has the most experience fighting his ship. Admiral, how do you want to handle this?”

“I am going to attack the first Moet ship that moves in-system. I’m going to do it alone.”