Escape to Earth 3: Defending Holy Ground (25 page)

Lukas looked at her and shook his head, “You know we have to find out what’s going on in M-87.”

“Send Loree and her scouts in to find out.”

“Her fleet is more than a year away from getting the new battleships. We don’t dare wait that long.”

“I can’t go with you.”

Lukas sighed and sat down on the bed beside her, “You have to stay here with Eve.”

“Lukas, please don’t do this.”

“Salud, Willow has been updated and I can outrun anything they send my way. She’s also been equipped with our newest scanners and I won’t have to get close to their fleets to see what’s happening.”

“You’re too important to lose, Lukas!”

Lukas smiled and shook his head, “That was true three years ago. It no longer is. Quite frankly, I feel pretty useless at the moment.” Salud started to speak and Lukas put a finger on her lips, “Darling, I’m a Welken Warrior at heart. I’ve been sitting on the sidelines too long. Who would be better to send and make the right choices?” Lukas removed his finger and Salud was silent. “I’ll be careful.”

“When are you leaving?”

“In about four hours.”

“Then give me three of those.” Lukas looked at her and saw her fear. He reached for her and pulled her into his arms.

• • •

Lukas walked out of his quarters next to the spaceport and carried Eve in one arm and held Salud’s hand. They arrived at the pad Willow was parked on and found Jinks and Stoney waiting. “What are you doing?”

Lukas looked at Eve and saw her frown. He smiled and kissed her on the cheek. He handed her to Salud and said, “It appears you already know.”

Stoney shook his head, “You can’t do this, Lukas!”

Lukas drew a breath and blew it out, “What made me so good at leading our efforts against the Fellowship?”

Stoney and Jinks’ faces showed their surprise at the question. Jinks said, “You knew the most about what we were going to have to face having been part of the wars.”

“That is no longer the case, Jinks. The only way I can be effective is to know what we’re going to have to face coming out of that monster galaxy. Sending someone else won’t cut it. If you really think about this unemotionally, you’ll know I’m right.”

The two stared at Lukas and then looked at each other. Stoney lowered his head and then looked at Jinks, “He’s right. Those new ships almost blindsided us.”

Jinks shook his head, “Then send me. You’re too important.”

“Jinks, you are my best tactician. You make things happen but it is my province to point the spear at the correct target. You’ll miss things that I won’t. You know I’m the one best suited to do this. At the present, I’m no more than just a figurehead. I don’t know enough to make long range plans and I really don’t think we have a long time before another invasion of the Milky Way. I must do this.”

Jinks sighed and shook his head slowly. He extended his hand and said, “You know you are more than a brother to me.”

Lukas ignored the hand and put his arms around Jinks and hugged him, “And you are as well my closest friend. I expect you to get us ready.”

Jinks returned his hug and said, “Every pod is being modified before we continue building the battleships.”

Lukas stepped back and smiled, “Now that is a great decision. Take care of Salud and Eve while I’m gone.”

“You know I will.”

Lukas turned and kissed Salud tenderly, turned, and climbed into Willow’s cockpit. Salud yelled, “Do not allow him to get into trouble, Willow!”

“I’ll do my best.”

The Attack Pod slowly lifted and Salud saw Eve staring at it. As it rose in the sky she said, “I love you, Salud.” All three of them were shocked that the three year old said it in the exact voice tone that Lukas used. Salud pulled her close and said, “I love you, too, my darling.”

Lukas heard the thought and smiled. “Get us out of here Willow before I change my mind.” The pod’s thrusters ignited into a larger flame and the pod winked away. Salud watched it disappear and started crying. Jinks and Stoney put their arms around her and Stoney said, “He’s right. If anyone can do this, it’s him.”

“I know. But that galaxy is a monster. It kills everything it touches.”

“Not everything.” Salud looked at Jinks and he smiled, “You know why he’s going. I mean really going.”

“What are you saying?”

“I think he’s tired of being a punching bag. He wants to take it to their territory.”

Salud looked up at the sky and smiled. Jinks knew him better than she did. She supposed that was because it took a warrior to truly understand another one.

Stoney said, “I guess both of you know that Chad and Julie are now piloting one of the new Attack Pods?” Salud and Jinks looked at him and Stoney smiled, “I don’t think they’ve ever been really happy in the battleships. Julie tells me it’s like going home again.”

Jinks shook his head, “What’s the status of the force field?”

“It will be operational in another two weeks.”

Jinks smiled, “Once we have enough of the Attack Pods converted that is where we’ll send them. Their first task will be to take Jack back to be buried beside Mary. Lukas made a promise and he asked me to make it happen.”

“When did he do that, Jinks?”

“The day after he died a month ago.”

Salud looked up again, “He knew he was going then.”

“I suspect it was Jack’s death that prompted him to do it. He loved Jack so much.”

“That’s what Lukas is good at; loving.”

Stoney said, “Amen to that.” He looked at Jinks, “I thought you loved me like a brother?”

“Am I limited to having just one brother?”

Stoney started laughing and Salud said, “What?”

“I guess that makes Lukas my brother as well.”

Salud hugged him, “Indeed it does. He chose you to raise his son.”

Stoney’s eyebrows went up and he smiled, “You’re right. I need to thank him for that.”

Salud looked up into the clear sky again, “I pray you have the opportunity.”

• • •

“It’s been a long time since we’ve flown together, Willow. I hate to admit it but I’ve missed it.”

“It seems like forever since we were running from the Myot and Stalkers. So much has happened since then.”

Lukas sighed, “I never would have thought we’d be where we are. It really bothers me that I wasn’t able to prevent Earth’s destruction.”

“No one could have stopped it. Once Pat set up shop there, the end was inevitable. Where do you want to go?”

“Earth.”

“I thought we were going to scout M-87?”

“We’ll go there afterwards.”

There were a few moments of silence as Willow turned away from Andromeda and went to full thrusters. “Lukas.”

“Yes.”

“What are you thinking?”

“You probably know.”

“Still too much coincidence?”

Lukas laughed, “Willow, you never cease to amaze me. That’s exactly the issue.”

“You don’t think…”

“I don’t know. That’s why we’re going there. How long will it take us to get there?”

“About forty minutes.”

“WHAT?”

“The twins made it in a little over an hour but they didn’t have the new thruster system on their pods. The difference in speed is quite high.”

“Let’s make sure I know what they’ve done to you before we arrive. What changes did they make when you were modified?”

“You know about the new scanning system. I also have the Dark Matter cloud as well as the rotary guns and DM cannon. I also have three swivel-mounted disrupters. One of them covers my rear.”

“It’s a shame we can’t use the disruptors in the void.”

“The only thing preventing us is causing a disruption. Personally, I’d use them anyway.”

“Why?”

“Because the disruption will eventually fade and disappear. Being attacked by invader ships and not using every weapon to survive just doesn’t seem like good sense.”

Lukas thought for a moment and said, “If enough disruptions happened inside their formations, it would force them to break ranks to avoid them.”

“Other than leaving a disruption, every other thing appears to be a positive.”

“Have you thought about any escape maneuvers?”

“This new coating has given us one that I think will make a huge difference.”

“What is that?”

“We simply enter normal space if we’re surrounded and immediately go to full speed. In less than a second we’ll be outside the range of their scanners. They won’t know what direction to pursue us.”

“But those in the void will see us if we leave normal space.”

“That’s true, but we won’t be surrounded and we’re faster than them.”

“Have you discussed this with Jinks?”

“Yes. He’s going to see if several of the new battleships can catch Chad and corner him.”

“Good luck with that!” Lukas saw the edge of the Milky Way approaching and said, “Go into normal space, Willow.” They emerged just outside the edge of the galaxy and Lukas shook his head. “Andromeda is beautiful but not like home.” They stared at the giant spiral galaxy and Lukas sighed.

“What’s wrong, Lukas?”

“It just seems wrong that so much destruction and killing can exist in something so beautiful and every galaxy we’ve seen is just alike. The Creator didn’t do a good job.”

“The structures are magnificent. It’s up to those that live in them to make them beautiful.”

Lukas shook his head. “Willow, have you thought about the magnitude of the task of removing the invaders from M-87?” Lukas waited and after a moment said, “Willow?”

“There’s more than a trillion stars in that galaxy. I don’t know that it’s possible to defeat the numbers we’d have to face. Assuming we could defeat their technology, it would take several hundred lifetimes to do it.”

“I have thought about it.”

“And?”

“It’s like a malignant cancer. You cut it out and it grows somewhere else. You keep cutting and you can’t stay ahead of the growth. The only thing you can hope to do is contain it.”

“With those new faster warships they’re building, that is not going to be easily done.”

“I know. We have to get at the source of the disease. Let’s go.” The Attack Pod dropped into the void and accelerated toward the spiral arm Earth was located in. They moved into the galaxy at high speed and Lukas heard Willow say, “We are arriving from Eden and should be there in ten minutes.”

“You’re cleared for entry and welcome home, Sir.”

“It appears they’ve been notified we were coming.”

“Who knew we were going to Earth?”

“I certainly didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t know until you told me to come here.”

Lukas thought for a moment and shook his head, “Eve must have told Salud after we left.”

“What?”

“It appears she can hear my thoughts. She must have said ‘Earth’ to Salud. This is Salud’s way of telling me I’m never alone.”

“You were really lucky to have found her.”

“Willow, there was no luck involved. Pat set that up from the beginning.” Willow arrived in orbit above Earth and Lukas stared at the planet for an hour. The planet was healing and the new force field stations could be seen from orbit. Finally he sighed and thought, “Pat.” He was greeted with silence. “Pat, you can’t fool me! You’ve shown your hand in recent events so you might as well admit it!”

“Lukas, you are the most damnably annoying creature I’ve ever encountered. How did you know I survived?”

“You nudged the twins into doing something they would never had done normally. They arrived moments before that Invader squadron showed up. That’s too much of a coincidence. It has your hands all over it.”

“Trust me on this; it didn’t take much of a push to get them to do it!”

“I can believe that. How did you survive?”

“I’m incredibly ashamed that I did. I knew I would die with your people.”

“You didn’t.”

“No, I went into the planet’s core just as the invaders fired on me. Their beams caused a large portion of my structure to disintegrate but they missed the central portion. Once I arrived close to the core, they could no longer detect me. I stayed there and watched them systematically kill every human on the planet. This is something that I will live in shame over for the rest of my life and I hope you understand that my life is going to be quite long. I should have died with your people, Lukas. I deserved it.”

“You caused them to stumble on Earth, didn’t you?”

“I did.”

“Why?”

“Because if they didn’t find it at that moment, that second fleet that launched from M-87 with provisions would have come here and killed every civilized planet in the galaxy and they would have found Earth. Earth’s destruction had to happen before that second fleet arrived.”

“You shouldn’t blame yourself for living, Pat. If you didn’t, all the work we’ve done erecting the force field structures would have been a wasted effort and it would have led to another invasion.”

“There will be another invasion soon. I can’t help but feel immense sorrow at the loss of life. I watched the invader warships scan the entire planet and use their beams to kill every human. There were thousands of humans that had a main disruptor fired at only them. The deaths of the children and babies still haunts me. I should be dead with them.”

“You’re going to have to deal with your sorrow the same way we are.”

“How is that?”

“You’re going to have to make them pay for their actions, which brings me to a request.”

“What do you want?”

“You probably know I’m headed out to M-87 to take a look at what’s going on. You could save my wife and daughter a lot of lost sleep by taking a look and telling me what you see without my having to go there.”

“I could, but you wouldn’t like the fallout if I did.”

“What are you saying?”

“If I allow my consciousness to go back into that galaxy, the species that sent those ships here will sense my presence and know they failed in their attempt to kill me. That will lead to an immediate invasion and this time they’ll be coming to kill every planet with intelligent life.”

“They must suspect you survived when we destroyed their advanced ships.”

“No, the twins did a remarkable job of attacking them from the rear and not from Earth’s direction. The only message they got out said they were under attack from another direction.”