Dahlia's Deception (The Annihilation Series) (19 page)

Ping tilted his head, “There is that. I’m not wise enough to even start making sense of their motivations…but if that’s where those fleets are going, I suspect it is going to be quite a show.”

“Should we send a probe?”

Dahlia shook her head, “No! We should stay away from them, Tess.”

“Hey, I was just asking.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell at you; this is strictly between the Five and the Reg.” She looked at Ping and he smiled. Dahlia reached for the frying pan, “Ok, who gets this plate of fish?”

Victoria jumped up, “That one belongs to me.”

“Coming right up.”

• • •

The Five’s fleets jumped to the outer edge of the disputed star cluster and formed up to meet possible intruders. The Rageon Fleet Admiral looked at his sensor officer, “Which star is the one in question?” A moment later, a large G-Type star appeared on his display. He stared at the image and looked back to the officer, “Scan that star.” The officer pushed several buttons on his panel and then pushed a lever forward. An image appeared on the Admiral’s display showing the star with six huge planets circling it. The planets were huge but were extremely distant from the star. The Admiral looked at his Science Officer as he said, “Sire, no life form we know about could live on those planets. Three of them are gas giants and offer no surface for a civilization to exist. The others are frozen solid.”

“Notify the other fleets we are jumping in closer to take a better look.” The Rageon fleet jumped just outside the planetary system and the other four fleets joined them a moment later. “Sire, I have a huge debris field of destroyed ships around the star.”

“What? Show me.” The Admiral looked and saw thousands of destroyed ships circling the star at the same distance. He looked at his Science Officer, “Are those ships in the habitation zone?”

“Yes, Sire, they are.” The Admiral looked at the ships floating in space and brought one of them in closer on his display. It was clear that something had disintegrated the front half, leaving only the rear behind to circle the star. “Can you tell me how long that ship has been here?”

The Science Officer made a scan and looked up with shock on his face, “The low energy readings indicate it has been here more than ten thousand years.”

The Admiral immediately knew he was in over his head. He pressed his communicator and the Rageon Ruler appeared, “What have you discovered?”

“Your Majesty, I am not at all certain on what we should do. I need your guidance.”

The Ruler looked at his Admiral and said, “I’ll be there momentarily with my personal guard.”

“That would be good, Your Majesty.”

“Notify the Beast Fleet that I’m coming there.”

The Admiral lifted his communicator and saw the Beast Admiral on his panel, “My Sovereign is coming.” The Beast nodded and the display went dark.

T
he Beast Master arrived shortly behind the Rageon Ruler and listened as his Fleet Admiral brought him up to date on what had been discovered. He looked at the massive number of ships orbiting the star and couldn’t make sense of what he was seeing. He didn’t want to do it, but he contacted the Rageon Ruler, “What do you make of this?”

“We’ve been examining the derelicts orbiting the star and have determined that the thickness of their orbits indicate a planetary sized object killed them.”

“How did you make that determination?”

“The ships are scattered in a band that is more than twelve thousand miles thick. We think they were killed when they encountered something in this system. The fact they’re all orbiting the same distance from the star seems to give credence to something the size of a planet that killed them.”

“There is no planet here.”

“That we can see.”

The Beast felt a moment of dread at the Rageon’s remark and looked at his display. He shook his head; an invisible planet? He looked at the Rageon, “What do you think we should do?”

“Well, one thing I know for certain.”

“What is that?”

“Whatever it is, it is not associated with the ships that attacked us.”

“How can you know that?”

“Those ships attacked us after we invaded their space. Some of the ships circling this star were killed more than ten thousand years ago. Whatever did this has been here long before we became the powers we are today.”

“That doesn’t mean it is not attacking us.”

“Oh?”

“Invisible ships are being used.”

The Rageon tilted his head back, “Yes, I can see how you arrived at that conclusion.”

“What are we going to do?”

“We have to see if we can find it.”

“How do we go about that?”

“We’ll send scouts out in that orbit and have them make a high speed run around the star. I’ll send my scouts behind our fleets and you send yours from the front. If something is there, they should find it.”

“I’m going to space mine out in the event something happens to the one that uncovers it.”

The Rageon smiled, “I think that would be wise. I’ll operate the same way.”

• • •

Fifty scouts from each of their fleets flew into the orbit of the derelicts and went in opposite directions. The formed groups of ten ships that scattered at different levels as they moved through the band of destroyed ships; the groups separated by two thousand miles and began rapidly accelerating as they move around the star at the center of the dead ship’s orbits.

The Rageon said, “Keep the front groups in your scans.” The ten groups of ten ships covered more than a quarter of the distance around the star, when suddenly all ten of the Black Scouts exploded. The Rageon stood and yelled, “Mark that position.”

The forty scouts following the first group stopped and waited. The five fleets moved around the star and stopped above the place where the ten scouts had been destroyed. The Rageon looked at his ship’s commander, “Order our scouts to move forward slowly and determine what the Black Scouts hit.” The scouts moved slowly forward to where the debris of the Black Scouts was scattered and slowly moved past them without being affected. The Rageon Ruler was confused until his Science Officer said, “If they hit a moving planet, the planet has continued in its orbit around the star and is no longer located at the point of impact, Your Majesty.”

“Why didn’t the Scout’s debris continue with the planet?”

“It would seem to be impossible but the evidence says that the planet’s gravity did not have any effect on them.”

“How fast would a planet have to be moving this far from the star to maintain a stable orbit?”

“Thirty thousand, four hundred and eight miles per hour.”

“Move the scouts forward the distance necessary so they would be at the place the planet should be.” The five Rageon Scouts accelerated forward and slowed down. They moved slowly forward until the leading scout suddenly exploded. The Rageon looked at the wall display and said, “Pace that thing, whatever it is, so we stay even with it.”

The five fleets accelerated and matched the speed of the invisible object. The Rageon looked at his Scanning Officer, “I want that space scanned with every scanner you have. Look for anything that is located in that area.”

The Beast Master appeared on the display, “This is disconcerting.” The Rageon nodded as he continued to stare at his panel. “What are we going to do?”

“What would you suggest?”

“They must be the ones attacking our production planets; we should launch an attack.”

The Rageon looked up from his panel and stared at the Beast, “I don’t feel at all comfortable doing that.”

“Are we just going to leave without attempting to stop their attacks?”

The Rageon didn’t want to do it but knew the Beast was probably right. He looked at the display with his Fleet Admiral listening in and saw him shrug. He pressed a button muting the Beast and said, “If we do this, you will not go in with our ships; is that clear?” The Fleet Admiral revealed his disappointment but bowed his head. The Rageon unmuted his panel and said, “Your forces will command this attack. Notify the fleets what you want done.”

The Beast Master smiled and began issuing orders. The five fleets spread out and after thirty minutes of reorganizing their ranks, they rushed forward and started launching missiles and firing their beams at the empty space in front of them. It did not remain empty for long.

• • •

The Beast had organized the fleets into five waves of twenty five thousand ships each. The waves were composed of five thousand ships from each of the Five’s fleets. The Beast was proud of the fact that no one could accuse him of not being impartial. He ordered the first wave to attack and sat back to watch the ensuing battle.

• • •

The first wave rushed in and as soon as they started firing the Beast sent in the second wave. The empty place in space that was the target of the first wave’s attack exploded with massive blasts and giant white spots that glowed brightly. The object being attacked was gigantic and the explosions revealed that it was round in shape and as large as a planet. The attacking ships quickly realized they were firing on an invisible planet. The first wave started to move away as the blasts and white spots started to fade but were suddenly hit with a massive barrage of multicolored beams that reached out and hit them. The entire first wave was vaporized as the third wave was launched. The Rageon Ruler jumped out of his chair and watched the destruction of the first wave and saw the second vaporized a minute later. He looked back at his Scanning Officer, “Lock on the site of a beam hit and do not lose sight of it. I also want you to keep the ship that fired the beam on your scanners.”

The fourth wave leaped forward and the Rageon’s Scanner Officer shouted, “The place where that object was hit fired a beam at the ship that fired twenty seconds after the beam hit. The beam hitting that ship was more than ten times more powerful than the beam the ship used!”

The Rageon Ruler grabbed his communicator and yelled, “FOURTH AND FIFTH WAVES, BREAK OFF YOUR ATTACK.”

The fourth wave had almost arrived at their firing points and they suddenly turned and flew away from the invisible object. The Beast appeared on the Rageon’s display, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!

“Trying to prevent the complete destruction of our fleets; I’ve determined that any beam fired on that object is fired back at the ship that fired at it with more than ten times the power.”

“That’s not possible.”

“I had one of my ships fire on that object and immediately jump three thousand miles out; it was destroyed by a beam originating from the point of its beam’s impact. Would you like to prove this? Send one of your ships if you doubt my word.”

The Beast looked at his Admiral and gave him instructions. A huge Black Main Battleship rushed out of formation and fired on the object. It immediately disappeared. The Beast had the ship’s commander on his display and started to smile when suddenly the display went dark. The Rageon was still connected to the Beast and saw his expression. ‘Where did you send that ship after it fired?”

“To my Governing Planet.” The Rageon was stunned. He waited and listened in as the Beast contacted his fleet at the governing planet and learned that the ship had been blasted by a black beam that came out of empty space and vaporized it. The Beast looked at the Rageon and for the first time the Rageon saw real fear in its features.

The Rageon sat back in his chair, “This is not the ones attacking our planets.”

“How do you know?”

“If they can reach out across more than two hundred million light years to destroy one of your warships, why would they need ships to attack us?”

The Beast was speechless and watched the Rageon lift his communicator, “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to see if they will communicate with me.” He turned to his Science Officer, “I want this transmitted on every frequency we know.” The Science Officer reached down to his panel and ran his hand across a long row of red buttons. All of them turned yellow and he nodded to the Rageon Ruler. “I would like to communicate with the invisible object in front of my ships.”

Every ship in the combined fleet heard the request on one of their frequencies. The Rageon stared at the empty space in front of his ship and waited to see if he would receive a response. His Science Officer suddenly stood up and pointed out of the viewport. The Rageon looked and saw a huge square hanging in empty space with brilliant white light streaming out of it. The Rageon fell back in his command chair and stared at the opening.

“Well, are you going?”

The Rageon saw the Beast on his main display and said, “Why don’t you go?”

“I’m not the one that asked. What’s wrong; are you too afraid?”

The Rageon grew angry, “You want me to go so one of your enemies will be removed.”

“Then you shouldn’t have asked.”

The Rageon stared at the huge square and turned to the display with his Fleet Admiral on it, “If I don’t return, notify my son that he will assume the throne in my place.”

“Don’t do this, Your Majesty!”

“You will follow my orders!” The Admiral lowered his head and nodded. The Rageon turned to his ship’s commander and pointed at the square, “Take us there.” The huge Silver ship moved forward slowly and, after fifteen minutes, flew through the square. The square immediately disappeared. The Beast watched the Rageon’s ship disappear and sat down. He didn’t want to admire him but couldn’t help himself. He knew he would have never entered that square.

“What are we going to do?”

The Beast looked at his Admiral, “We’re going to wait and see what happens.” The Beast sat back and didn’t know what to expect.

• • •

The Rageon Ruler watched as his ship passed through the square and saw it disappear behind his ship. He saw his bridge crew staring at the viewports and he turned and looked out; he was stunned by the planet below him. It was bathed in brilliant white light and the giant crystal structures on the surface were astounding. He could only stare at them in wonder and shook his head at the possible danger he had put himself into. Suddenly a tall, triangular shaped, glowing crystal appeared on his bridge. He saw several of his officers reaching for their blasters, “DO NOT PULL A WEAPON!!” The officers pulled their hands away from their holsters and the Rageon heard in his mind, “That was a good decision.”