The Star Cross: The Dark Invaders (19 page)

Continuing on
through the ship, they finally reached the Command Center. Stepping inside,
Kurt paused as he looked around. It was unlike any Command Center he had ever been in. The entire room was circular with six control consoles sitting in a
small semicircle in front of what appeared to be a slightly upraised command
dais. On the walls, numerous screens showed views of space. At the moment
several were focused on Newton Station, Newton, some of the ships in orbit, and
even one of the Orbital Defense Platforms.

Kurt stepped
up on the dais and sat down in the command chair. The chair adjusted itself
until it fit Kurt’s form perfectly. “What type of weapons does this ship have?”

“Some of the
most powerful weapons known to the Protector Worlds,” Lomatz answered. “Its
primary weapon is a force beam that’s capable of disrupting the atoms holding a
ship’s hull together. It’s also equipped with direct energy projectors, similar
to a Dacroni battleship but ten times more powerful.”

“What about
missiles?” asked Colonel Hayworth. “Or are the Lakiams so advanced they no
longer use them?”

“No, they
still use missiles,” Lomatz replied. “Their primary offensive missile is a dark
matter hypermissile with a five-hundred-megaton warhead.”

“Dark matter,”
one of the scientists said, shaking his head in amazement. “How did they ever
harness that?”

“Their science
is very advanced,” one of Lomatz’s technicians explained. “They’re one of only
a few races who have developed this technology.”

“What is the
ship’s power source?” asked another of the scientists.

“The ship has
two antimatter chambers which supply power to the ship’s systems as well as the
weapons.”

Hayworth considered
Lomatz. “If this ship were to attack High Profiteer Creed’s fleet, what would
the result be?”

Lomatz looked
long and hard at Colonel Hayworth before replying. “This ship, by itself, could
destroy all High Profiteer Creed’s ships without suffering any damage to
itself. Nothing currently in the Gothan Empire could be a legitimate threat to
this vessel. The only system that might have a chance of turning this vessel
away would be Kubitz with its massive orbital defenses and perhaps Marsten.”

Kurt closed
his eyes. This ship and the others that Lomatz was offering him were the
solution to keeping High Profiteer Creed from attacking Earth again. The
question now was, how did he convince Governor Spalding into allowing possibly
twenty thousand humanoids from Kubitz into settling on Newton and bringing with
them their corrupt way of life? Kurt knew what Kubitz was like, and there was no
way would he allow that to happen to Newton.

Studying
Lomatz, Kurt knew a lot of negotiating would happen over the next few days or
even longer. With a deep sigh, he felt a headache coming on. He strongly
suspected that, somehow or another, Grantz would play a huge role in what was to
come. Kurt knew he might as well delve into his supply of gold coins as the
greedy Profiteer would be expecting payment.

Captain Dreen
of the Lakiam battlecruiser
Basera
gazed with great worry at the
multiple viewscreens scattered about the circular Command Center. He had a
fleet of 208 warships sitting in the home system of the Visth. The Visth
themselves had nearly four hundred small automated patrol craft scattered about
the system, watching for any signs of the Destroyers of Worlds. Across all the
Enlightened Worlds of the galaxy, fear had spread like wildfire. The Destroyers
of Worlds had returned, and the civilized galaxy was reeling from their first
attacks. Seventeen worlds had reportedly been attacked, two more in just the
past week, and all upper life-forms taken. In their wake, the black ships had
left planetwide destruction and no survivors.

“Anything on
the long-range sensors?” Dreen’s fleet had been in the Visth home system for
nearly two weeks, waiting for an attack they all hoped would never come.

“Nothing,”
replied Sensor Operator Laylem as he checked his screens one more time. “If
reports from previous actions are accurate, we won’t pick them up on any of our
sensors, not even the hyperspace one.”

Dreen nodded
as he thought over the meager information they had on the enemy. The Andocks
had shared what had happened at Blisth, particularly since a number of their
ships survived, including Commander Lakor and his flagship. Crystal-clear
videos had shown the combat and how ineffective the weapons on the Andock ships
had been. Dreen knew, from the reported losses to the Lakiam fleet units at
several Enlightened World colonies, that their ships had fared no better.
Captain Veer’s fleet at Galian Five had been completely wiped out. Dreen didn’t
intend for his fleet to suffer the same fate.

“What’s the
current situation on Visth Prime?”

“They’re
scared,” replied Sheera Keenol from Communications, using her right hand to
move several long locks of golden hair that were out of place. Sheera was
nearly seven feet tall and very beautiful, as most Lakiam women were. “Many of
their media stations are discussing the recent attacks from the black ships and
what may be in store for the galaxy. The general consensus seems to be that the
black ships can’t be stopped. More reports of the Destroyers of Worlds are appearing
all the time. Many of them are from other worlds and can’t be substantiated.”

“Old legends
and fears,” muttered Captain Dreen with a deep frown, wondering how to tell
what was truth and what was simply unfounded rumors.

It was much
the same across many of the Enlightened Worlds and their colonies. When his
fleet had left the system of Lakiam, he had been astonished at all the effort being
put into shoring up the defenses in the system. All Protector Worlds sat behind
a defensive grid of some sort, mainly to ensure the Profiteers didn’t raid. Now
those defenses were expanding, and warship production had been greatly
accelerated. Dreen had been told by a close acquaintance that many of the
Protector Worlds had planned a strategy meeting in the near future to discuss
how to deal with the growing threat of the black ships. Dreen couldn’t ever
remember the Protector Worlds coming together for such a meeting before.

Captain Dreen
saw Sheera’s eyes suddenly widen. She spoke rapidly into her comm and then
turned toward Dreen. “We have an unconfirmed report of unknown ships spotted in
the Alurr System. The ships didn’t appear on sensors but were spotted by an
observation satellite, studying a large comet.”

“Where’s the
Alurr System from here?” asked Dreen, shifting his gaze to the navigation
officer.

“Eight light-years,”
replied Jalad as he put a star chart up on one of the viewscreens. A blinking
red icon designated the Alurr System. “The system has no inhabited worlds or
outposts.”

“Where’s the
nearest Enlightened World colony?”

The navigation
officer spent a few moments checking his computer console. “Procom Four has a
Visth colony with nearly one billion inhabitants, but it’s fourteen light-years
away. If the report of the unknown ships is correct, they’ve already passed
it.”

Captain Dreen
felt as if ice water had just been poured over his head. If this was a black
fleet, and, if it had passed up the large Visth colony world, the only other
major target in this region of space was Visth Prime itself!

“Contact Visth
Traffic Control and inform them we may have a black fleet dropping from
hyperspace shortly.” Dreen knew this would greatly increase the fear on the
planet and would cause panic.

Captain Dreen
slowly examined each of the numerous viewscreens in the Command Center, searching for any sign of the enemy. It was highly aggravating knowing his fleet’s
powerful sensors were all but useless.

“Captain,
Visth patrol ship V-214 has just dropped off the sensors,” reported Laylem, his
eyes widening. “It was there a moment ago, and now it’s gone.”

The
Basera
was tracking all ship movements in the system. Cargo ships, passenger vessels,
the patrol ships, and hundreds of other vessels which moved about. As the homeworld
of the Visth, numerous ships were both inbound and outbound.

“Direct the
two patrol ships nearest that quadrant of the system to investigate.”

The Visth had
turned control of their unmanned patrol ships over to Captain Dreen and the
Lakiam fleet. He had dispersed the patrol ships across the system, hoping they could
spot the black ships if they put in an appearance.

“May not be
necessary,” Sensor Operator Laylem spoke, his eyes showing great concern. “Two
more ships in the same area have also ceased reporting.”

“All crews,
set Alert Status One throughout the fleet,” Captain Dreen announced over his
ship-to-ship comm, sitting up straight in his command chair. “Prepare to fire
weapons. From all indications, a black fleet has entered the system. Already three
Visth patrol vessels have been destroyed.”

“Visth Traffic
Control is bringing the planet’s defense grid online,” reported Sheera from
Communications. “Command of the grid has now been transferred to Lakiam
control. All cargo and passenger ships currently in the system are being ordered
to jump to Procom Four. All visiting ships are being told to leave the system
as soon as possible.”

Dreen nodded.
Visth Prime had one of the most powerful defensive grids in the entire galaxy.
Thirty-two Class One Orbital Defense Platforms orbited the planet along with
two hundred defensive satellites. The entire defensive grid was commanded from
a Class One Command and Control Station, which in itself was more heavily armed
than ten Lakiam battlecruisers. For this emergency, full Lakiam crews had gone
on board the defensive platforms as well as the Command and Control Station to
ensure maximum utilization of the powerful weapons systems.

After hundreds
of thousands of years of peace, the Visth were incapable of ordering the death
of other intelligent beings, even if it meant their own demise. In normal times
only the Command and Control Station had a small crew of Lakiams on board. The
rest of the defense grid could be operated by remote control, and not once in
the Visths’ long history of peace had it been necessary to actually activate
the defense grid—until today.

“Order the
patrol ships to return to Visth Prime,” commanded Dreen. While the small ships
were only lightly armed, he would take every warship he could get his hands on.
“Send out a general distress call on all hyperspace channels requesting more
ships.”

“Hyperspace
channels are jammed,” Sheera replied a few moments later as her nimble fingers
moved across her console. “All we have is short-range communications inside the
system.”

Captain Dreen
leaned back in his command chair, knowing help wouldn’t be coming. His gaze
shifted to one of the larger viewscreens showing the world of Visth Prime, a
beautiful world with large oceans, islands, and two major landmasses—home to
nearly four billion Visth. Large artificial habitats orbited around the planet
as well as several of the other planets in the system. The Visth System had
eight planets and twenty-one moons. On most of the planets and larger moons
were domed cities. The total population in the system was well above six
billion. Captain Dreen didn’t want to think about what would happen if he
couldn’t stop the black ships. Six billion Visth were depending on him to keep
them alive.

“Any further
contacts with the inbound black fleet?” It was maddening that the ultramodern
sensors on his flagship were so impotent against the black ships.

“Nothing,”
said Sensor Operator Laylem, shaking his head. “I’ve tried every type of scan
we have, and they’ve all come back negative. If the black ships are out there,
I can’t detect them.”

Captain Dreen
nodded. So the rumors of some sensor-dampening field were true. It was also
possible the hull material the black ships were constructed of interfered
somehow with the scans. All of his ships’ targeting computers had been
reprogrammed to take either of these possibilities into account. The Andocks
had found limited success using their viewscreens to locate and plot the black
fleet. Dreen’s ships would do the same when the black ships drew near enough.

-

Minutes passed
and then turned into an hour. Captain Dreen watched with calm nerves as the
crew in the Command Center attempted to locate the black fleet. On the two
tactical hologram displays, hundreds of ships had jumped from the system, and
more were doing so every minute. A number of large passenger liners had been
launched from the orbital stations around Visth Prime with evacuees. Across the
system, every ship the Visth had was being loaded with evacuees and sent to
Procom Four.

“Contact!”
called out Alborg from Tactical as he pointed to a viewscreen, where a black
spindle-shaped ship appeared.

“Confirmed,”
reported Sensor Operator Laylem as a red threat icon suddenly appeared in the
holographic tactical display. Seconds later more red icons flashed to life as
other ships spotted inbound enemy vessels.

“How accurate
is that?” asked Captain Dreen, peering sharply at the display, which was rapidly
filling with red threat icons. It was true then; the Destroyers of Worlds had
come to Visth Prime. He felt a chill run through his body as he realized what
was at stake. Visth Prime was one of the oldest Enlightened Worlds and was well
respected throughout the galaxy.

“It’s
accurate,” Sensor Operator Laylem replied. “Our ship’s computer has been programmed
to use the viewscreens to correlate the exact locations of the black ships. It
should be accurate to within a few meters.”

“Black ships
will be in weapons range in nine minutes,” reported Alborg as he checked his
weapon systems. “All weapons are charged and ready to fire.”

“Now we wait,”
said Captain Dreen as several more black ships appeared on the viewscreens. On
the planet and across the system, frightened Visth would be rushing to board
any available starship to escape the coming of the Destroyers of Worlds. He
could well imagine the panic that was now sweeping the system.

-

In the large
Class One Command and Control Station, Captain Drale Latium watched as red
threat icons appeared in the two large holographic displays in front of him.

“All systems
powered up and working at optimum levels,” reported Mal Drume from Tactical.
“Energy shield is at 98 percent, and energy reserves are at 64 percent and
rising.”

Energy
reserves were the stored power that could be called upon if the antimatter
reactors were compromised or failed.

Captain Latium walked to stand just behind Drume, who was busy with his console. “I’m concerned
about these black antimatter spheres we’ve heard rumors about.”

“They’re more
than rumors I’m afraid,” Drume responded. “I’ve seen the video and sensor
readings from the Andock fleet that was decimated in the Blisth System.”

“Can we defend
against them?”

Drume slowly
shook his head. “It’s a form of antimatter we’ve never encountered before. The
science behind it is totally alien to our way of thinking. I’ve spoken to a few
weapon specialists and even a couple research scientists. They believe this
black antimatter doesn’t even originate in our universe.”

“How long can
our energy shield stand up to it once we’ve been struck?”

“We have a lot
more power available to us than one of our battlecruisers,” Drume answered. “We
also have our energy reserves.”

“Any
recommendations?”

Drume drew in
a deep breath. “From the data we received from the Andocks on the Blisth
attack, we know energy weapons are ineffective against the black ships. The
only weapons that might be effective are our dark matter hypermissiles. Even an
energy screen such as the black ships have must have a limit to the amount of
energy it can absorb.”

“So are you
suggesting multiple dark matter missile strikes on just a few of the black
ships in an attempt to overload their shields?”

“I think it’s
our only hope of success. I’ve taken the initiative to have dark matter
missiles distributed to every orbiting defensive platform. All of our missile
reserves have been committed.”

Captain Latium shifted his gaze from Drume to the two tactical displays, now showing hundreds of
red threat icons. Latium greatly feared that, even if the dark matter missiles
worked, they didn’t have enough to make a difference. Dark matter missiles were
very expensive and not easy to build.

-

Captain Dreen
stared in awe at the two ships now on one of the primary viewscreens. They were
massive, larger than any vessel he had ever seen before. “Mark those two motherships
as our primary targets.”

“Captain, I
just spoke to Mal Drume on the Command and Control Station,” reported Sheera,
turning toward the captain. “He believes by hitting the black ships with
multiple dark matter missiles we can overload their energy screens.”