Pray for the Prey (24 page)

“This doesn’t worry you?”

RV shrugged and said, “We know we can handle the Violet Ships. The Yellow Ships are not more advanced than them.”

“But there could be millions of them coming.”

“If we can’t handle that many, we’ll kill as many as possible and jump away.”

“What about our planets still in the Milky Way?”

“I doubt they will waste time here on them. If we jump away they’ll think we’re going after their home worlds. They’ll leave so fast it will spin your head.”

George thought a moment and started nodding, “That’s exactly what I would do. Do you think we can take on that many ships?”

“We’ll lose some vessels when they’re ganged up on but we should give as much or more than we get.” RV paused and said, “You know there are hundreds of aggressive civilizations in that galaxy with millions of ships. We might as well start learning how to fight in a major fleet action. This will tell us where we are in our capabilities.”

George ran his hand through his hair and said, “I want to come join the fleet.”

“I know but you also know why you can’t?”

“I know. It would cause a political vacuum if something happened to me. If we lose this, I need to be here to pick up the pieces.”

“Exactly right; and three years from now all of our ships will be replaced if we lose them.”

“The new leaders won’t be as good.”

“Don’t sell them short; they might surprise you.”

“Good-luck, RV; make us proud.”

“You know we will.”

RV hit a button and Jillian appeared on the wall display, “Jillian, where is the second Ninja?”

“It and its crew are on board the Jukebox.”

“Get them moving and plan to have them make a scan of M-87 focusing on the battle lines of the Violet Civilization in three days. I want the time from now to the present collected.”

“They’ll have to get extremely close to make that happen.”

“I’ll send twenty ships as an escort. Plan to finish the scan in less than two minutes. Is that possible?”

“If they make a high speed run from six light days out, they should do in in less than one minute.”

““Good, let me know when they’re ready.”

RV pushed another button, “Admiral Diamond, I need twenty of your best ships to make a quick trip to M-87.”

“I’ve got just the squadron, Sir. Where do you want them to report?”

“Contact the Jukebox and send them to its location immediately.”

“They’ll be there momentarily, Sir.”

RV leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. Cyanna looked at him, “Is there anything you need me to do?”

“Order all ships from general quarters and have them rest. This is not optional. Once this conflict starts there won’t be much time to take a break.”

“Does that mean you and I are included in that order?”

RV looked at her and smiled, “Absolutely.”

Cyanna issued the orders and stood up from her chair, “Captain Gonzalez, the ship is yours.” She looked at RV and smiled, “Come on, Enigma.” RV stood and followed her off the bridge.

• • •

The Hive Controller sat in his cell and looked at the center display. It appeared the Horde was going to keep their agreement. He thought about the conversation with the Leader of his ancient enemy.

“It appears you have jumped into something that will be your undoing.”

“I won’t argue that point, but you should be asking yourself what will happen if we lose.”

“Why would we worry about that? This is your issue, not ours.”

“Do you honestly think they will stop with us? Have you ever seen an invasion that just ends with one victory? No, they will be coming after you if they manage to get through us.”

“Yes, that is possibly true. However, you could force them to withdraw and then we will have our victory.”

“I’m going to send you a recording of what happened to us with just one of their small ships. Contact me after you’ve viewed it.”

An hour later the display illuminated, “It appears their ships are quite fast.”

“There are fifty thousand battleships with a hundred of those small ships attached to their hulls. Those battleships are more than a hundred times larger than the ship that destroyed our home hive. If they manage to get their ships into our territory, no planet will be safe and that includes yours. We must hit them in their galaxy.”

“We can agree to another armistice while you go and handle the issue.”

“We are not sure we can do it alone. I would think that you would also want to make sure this enemy of our galaxy is eliminated. There is also the issue of trust.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s say our roles were reversed. Would you send all your ships away and leave our ships behind just on the promise we would not attack? You know that one day the ones pressing you on your other border may require you take ships out of your line to hold them off. We could help you if that problem arises.”

“How would you do that?”

“We will send an equal number of our ships with yours to defend that border. We will repay you for assisting us.” The Hive Controller had heard that the Horde was being pressed, but had no concrete evidence to prove it. If the rumors were true, this offer may make the difference. He remained silent and waited for a response.

“Just how would you go about doing this?

The Hive Controller tried not to show his relief, “We will send one of our fleets into the middle of the neutral zone between us and you will send one of your lines to meet them. The two lines will then jump out to the edge of galaxy and form up. We will continue to do that until there is only one line left for each of us.”

“You’re talking about using more than twenty million ships!”

“I don’t want to take any chances. Have all your ships locked in their starting coordinates and they will jump back on the conclusion of the battle. We will honor a six rotation armistice while each of us reorganizes our defenses.”

“Who will command the attack?”

“I honestly don’t care. This is not an ego issue for us. We will gladly follow your commander’s orders or you can follow ours. If you choose to use yours, make sure he understands that our ships are at their strongest when they are linked by their force fields.”

“We are all aware of that.” The Horde Leader paused and said, “Organizing your ships so they can be used most effectively is not something we would be able to do. Our ships fight independently and that is easier to direct than large formations. I will agree to use your commander, but insist that we be kept informed of what’s going on.”

“I will certainly ensure that happens.”

“When do you want to start this?”

“To wait will allow time for them to invade. We should begin immediately.”

“I’ll notify my ships. It will take one rotation to insure their compliance with this agreement. You will move your first line tomorrow at this time.”

“We will do as you suggest. Might I make an offer while you are doing this?”

“What is that?”

“The ships we are leaving behind will go with your line to your other front and take part in the hostilities. Our ships might be able to break through your enemies lines and help you while this is happening.”

The Horde leader looked at the Hive Controller for a long moment and knew that revealing the struggle taking place was not a good thing but knew the possible difference maker those linked ships could be in the current attacks. “We will accept your offer.” The display went blank.

• • •

Captain Phillips looked at his board and saw that all systems were active. He looked over at Commander Taylor, “Check the stealth probe and make sure the launch tube is ready.”

Liz smiled, “Already done, Captain.”

“Notify our escort.”

“Captain Gibbons, we are ready for launch. We will be jumping to the entry coordinate in five minutes. The breakoff code is Dolly.”

“Launch confirmed Commander. We have our boards synchronized and will be in formation on your arrival. All ships report confirmation on the breakoff code.”

Liz pushed the blue button on her panel, “All hands to battle stations.” She turned off the klaxon and watched the red lights. They went out in eight seconds. “That was quick.”

Phil smiled, “It’s a small ship.”

“Even so, that was quick.”

“Did they see you check the probe’s launch tube?” Liz thought about it and smiled. “They knew we were launching.”

Liz tilted her head and set the light fields to maximum. She restarted the computer to remove all previous tests and said, “Three minutes to launch.”

Captain Gibbons leaned back in his command chair and waited for the countdown to complete. His executive officer looked over at him and Gibbons asked, “What’s on your mind?”

“This will be our first real fight together and I was wondering what your first name is? Gibbons is all I’ve ever heard.”

“And I’ll never tell you. Just call me Gibbs.”

“Now you do have my curiosity up.”

“Worry about naming our strikers. Children’s names would be nice. You might have to name some new ones after this is over. Some of them might be ready to leave the nest.”

“You make a good point.”

Gibbs hit his panel, “Alright Lads, we’ll be weapons free on break out. We will only launch our small craft if absolutely necessary. Your computers will make that call. Be ready.” Gibbs flipped the communication panel to standby and said, “Faldo, are you ready?”

The computer responded, “All weapons active. Scanners are at 100%.”

“I do not want to use small craft in this mission. All ships are aware of this but I am not going to jeopardize the safety of our ships by being foolish. Keep me informed.”

“I will Captain. One minute.”

One moment, twenty one ships hung in space ten miles from the Jukebox. The next moment they all vanished and reappeared accelerating at 90% of light speed toward a gigantic galaxy.

The twenty ships flashed through space and Phil had recorded the first three days. As the fourth days recording started he yelled, “Jettison the probe now!” Liz hit the button. “Dolly, Dolly, Dolly.”

The twenty one ships vanished as eighty thousand ships roared out on them from the millions of ships gathered just outside the galaxy.

Gibbs punched in to the Ninja’s com, “What was that about?”

Phil sent a picture of the giant galaxy to Gibbs just before he sent a copy of the recording back to the Command Center. Gibbs looked at the picture on his main wall display and whistled, “How many ships do you see?”

Eric was slowly shaking his head, “Millions, Sir; millions.”

Gibbs smiled, “We should have a lot of fun in the play pen shortly.”

“We better bring some more children on board.”

Gibbs looked at his Exec and smiled, “Octuplets would be nice.”

“How do you name that many?”

“Well, boom, bang, bong, bash, batter, bump, bend, broke, and Betty.”

“Betty?”

“I like the name.”

Eric laughed and the bridge crew joined in.

• • •

George and Meisa watched the recording and Meisa said, “Can we handle that many?”

George shrugged, “We have more ships this time.”

Meisa looked at him with a shocked expression, “We only have three million. According to this scan there are more than fifteen million forming up.”

“You’re only talking about main battleships. There are a hundred and fifty million Needles and two hundred million Attack Craft.”

“Will a Needle be effective against those ships?”

“We really don’t know until we meet them head on but we’re pretty sure they can handle those Yellow Ships.” George looked over at his second display, “Have you started receiving the probe’s signal?”

Meisa punched a pad and a view appeared. They looked and saw the millions of ships. “Do you think they’ll see it?”

“I know we couldn’t. That probe is one of the most remarkable creations we’ve ever made; the only part of it that is in normal space is smaller than a wall nut.”

“How much is in Sierra Space?”

“It’s about the size of a large hauler.”

“Won’t it be seen by someone traveling through Sierra Space?”

“Remember that all things in Sierra Space are greatly reduced in size. In Sierra Space it will be the size of a hydrogen atom.” George looked at the display and turned up the volume. “Meisa, get one of the Moet Watchers up here to listen in on this while our computer learns their language. We can also receive their electromagnetic transmissions with this. We should be able to listen in on their communications.” George pushed his board and RV appeared. “I’ve got something to show you.”

“Do tell.”

George sent RV the probe’s frequency and he looked at the video. “Well, I guess our Violet colored friends subscribe to my philosophy.”

George said, “And that is?”

“Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.”

“It appears you’re right. Link Dolly to the frequency. We’re also receiving their communications. We should be able to listen in on their plans.”

“Do you have it, Dolly?”

“I’ve narrowed it down to their command frequency. I’ll relay it to your board as soon as I learn the language.”

RV looked at the millions of gathering ships and smiled.

Chapter Seventeen

T
he Hive Controller watched the center display and saw the largest fleet he had ever witnessed. This was a monumental undertaking and the Horde was actually giving their total support to the undertaking. His Fleet Controller told him that his offer to send a fleet to help defend them made a huge impact on their warriors. Truth be told, his own warriors seemed to be developing a liking of their enemies as well. He tried to remember why they were fighting each other and just couldn’t do it. They had been at war for millions of years and the reason was lost in history.

The Leader of the Horde appeared on his display and said, “That’s the last line to leave. I wish you success on your mission.”

Suddenly every display in the panel changed and the messenger from the Majors appeared on all of them. “You will disband this gathering of ships and move back to your former positions. You will comply with this immediately.”