Star Rover-Chosen to Die (Lens of Time) (30 page)

“That sounds like a good idea.”

The Exalted’s display went dark and he sent the orders.

• • •

Trab’s warship broke into normal space fifty thousand miles from the planet and he moved into formation with his gathering. He had missed the attack in the Yellow Carnivore’s Galaxy; his ship had been destroyed by one of their attacks in the Herd’s Galaxy. He had taken possession of a new one two weeks earlier and was assigned a position in the next leading wave due to his absence from the prior operation. Everyone expected to be killed in the leading waves; they paid the price of having the highest casualties in most attacks made by the Believer Fleets.

They were little more than fodder used to open a path through enemy forces. At least he had a great view of the planet. He had mixed emotions about missing the last attack. Since his ship was destroyed, he and his crew had been taken off the active duty list until a new ship could be built. That allowed him and Jalil to have their bonding approved by the community Elder. She was now expecting their first born and he wished he would live to see it born. However, the odds did not favor that happening and Jalil had wept when he left. His tension was high and he stared at his scanners looking for an enemy vessel to come in and blow a hole through his ship.

The Gathering’s Commander warned of possible enemy ships that would not be seen by his scanners. He gripped the steering controls and saw the rest of his crew was also highly nervous. But…the planet was getting larger and no ships around him had been attacked. If they were going to attack, they should have done it by now. The planet was now in scanning range and he could see the locations of the black carnivores appearing on his panel. He knew his crew was worried and he announced, “Nothing has appeared on my detectors. The targets on the planet have scattered and I have selected one located in a cave in the mountain range that bisects the land mass below us. Weapons, lock a missile on the target and launch on my order.”

“Yes, Ship Believer.”

Trab saw the blue light illuminate on his panel and knew the data had been fed to the missile. He absently noticed that there were thirty thousand of the Carnivores on the planet’s surface. He sent the data on the one he targeted and he saw the number in the targeted total on his panel increase by one. He ran more scans but nothing appeared on his threat list. Did this planet not have any protection? He had another minute before he arrived at his launch location and he absently noticed that all of the carnivores had been targeted.

“Believer, a message just came in from the High Believer that no nuclear missiles will be used. It’s been determined that the local population is not carnivores. The Priests want the opportunity to convert them to believers.”

Trab reached forward and toggled the launcher from a nuclear missile to a high explosive, heat missile. He barely had time to make the change when the computer auto-launched the missile from just above the planet’s upper atmosphere. “Weapons, track it in and confirm the location of the hit.”

“Yes Believer.”

Trab watched the missile leave his ship and it left a long light trail following it down. He looked out of the armored viewport and saw thousands of bright lights moving toward the planet. He activated his look down system and focused it on the cave where the carnivore was hiding. It hadn’t moved and he suspected it thought it wouldn’t be seen through the rock surrounding it. It was wrong. The small hole in the side of the mountain disappeared in a massive explosion. Trab kept the site on his display and saw tons of rock sliding down the mountain. The wind blew the dust away and there was a huge gap in the mountain where the cave had been located. He turned on his biological scanner and saw a cloud small particles made from the Carnivore’s body being blown away in the dust. He pressed a button on top of his panel and the Target Destroyed total increased by one. Only nine hundred targets had to be hit a second time. Five required three shots; they were underwater and hard to hit.

Trab waited for further commands but none came. His Sub Gathering held their position above the planet waiting to see what they would do next. Then he heard, “Hold positions to support the transports when they arrive.”

Trab and his crew’s joy was immense. They had great fortune being assigned this mission. Their Gathering would now be placed at the bottom of the Active Gathering List and he would be in the back formation during the next attack. The Deity had looked after him and his crew. He couldn’t wait to surprise Jalil when he went home.

• • •

The Admirals watched the feeds coming in from the Servant’s Galaxy and their expressions were grim. Angel was shaking her head and heard her father say, “It appears their ability to scan for specific biological readings is phenomenal. I know many of those they found would have been missed by our scanners.”

“Admiral, transports are arriving at numerous planets.”

Dat shook his head, “More converts for the faith. That Galaxy will be the next one to build ships for them.”

Kune looked at Dat, “Admiral, shouldn’t we just destroy the probes when they arrive here?”

Dat shook his head, “They have more than a billion probes. If they choose to see something, there’s not much that can be done to stop them. Also, if we destroy their probes, they’ll know for certain that the ones they’re searching for came from this galaxy. No, we allow them to come through and hope when they find the Matador’s former planet they leave and look for them elsewhere.” Dat stared at the monitor and said, “Although, I really don’t think they’ll fly away.” The other officers looked at each other and were forced to agree with him.

Gresha stared at the monitor as well and shook her head, “I hate being right about this.” She saw Dat look at her and she continued shaking her head, “They’re going to look for ship building planets. That’s what will bring them here.” Dat nodded.

• • •

The Exalted contacted the Chosen and waited for him to appear on his panel. After ten minutes, the Chosen smiled and said, “Well?”

“This galaxy was not the Carnivore’s home.” The Chosen’s smile vanished. “However, the inhabitants here have been conquered in the past and are perfect subjects to become a member of the Herd. They are herbivores like us and accept the removal of carnivores from the universe without any issues. This will become another galaxy to join us.”

The Chosen’s smile returned, “Perhaps the Deity is leading us in our pursuit. What happens now?”

“We must be getting close to the home world of the Carnivore. The inhabitants tell us that they came with the white ships that killed their captors and stayed behind.”

“White Ships?”

“It appears the Carnivores actually work for, or with, the ones that built the warships that killed their captors.”

“Keep searching. I’m beginning to feel that we are being led by the Deity in this quest.”

The Exalted lowered his head and ended the call. He sensed that it wasn’t going to take much longer. He knew he had chosen the right path to search.

B
rad entered Katherine’s office and she saw by his expression that the waiting was over. “The first of their probes have arrived and are making a fast run through our galaxy.”

“Keep me informed; notify the fleets of what’s happening and keep them up to date on what develops.”

“Yes Sir.” Brad turned to go and stopped. He turned around and said, “Kat, you know I love you very much.” Katherine smiled and nodded. “I just felt I needed to tell you again.”

“Brad, turn your duties over to your XO and we’ll take a few moments for each other.”

Brad’s smile grew larger, “I’ll meet you on the first floor.”

“That would be good, Darling.”

• • •

Dat looked at the wall monitor in Gresha’s conference room. The Jukebox B hung in open space with the rest of the Union’s fleets and they waited to see if their prayers would be answered. Ten probes had gathered around the Matador’s former planet and they had not moved for more than an hour. Dat looked at Gresha’s blonde hair and marveled at how beautiful she was. She appeared to not have aged at all since the first day he met her on Haven. She was beautiful, brilliant, and breathtaking. He was so lucky to have found her. She looked at Dat and caught him staring. She smiled, “What?”

“I’m so lucky to have you.” Gresha stood up from her chair and walked over to Dat and sat down in his lap. She put her head on his shoulder and blew out a slow breath. “This is where I love being.”

Dat put his arms around her and held her close. Gresha closed her eyes and after a moment said, “It looks like they’re discussing what they want to do.” She felt Dat nod. She closed her eyes and found comfort in Dat’s arms.

• • •

The Chosen and Exalted stared at the images being sent from the spiral galaxy. The Exalted said, “We found a planet that was recently occupied by a huge number of the Carnivore that came to our planets. It appears they knew we were coming and they fled the planet.”

“Can you determine where they went?”

The Exalted’s nose moved to the left, “Probably not.”

“I don’t like that they escaped after sending one of them to the Holy Planet.”

“You know how big the universe is and we have no idea which direction to search for them.”

The Chosen considered the situation and after a moment said, “Didn’t the inhabitants of the galaxy we just conquered say they were allies with the builders of the white ships?” The Exalted’s nose went up and down. “I notice that one planet here has millions of white ships hanging in space above it.”

“I saw that as well.”

“If we attack that planet, do you think they might come to their aid?”

“That’s reaching.”

“What else can we do at this point? Besides, the inhabitants of that planet are carnivores and we will have to eliminate them at some point.”

“Actually, they’re omnivores; they eat plants, too.”

“That’s also reaching.”

“I guess. We’ve determined that most of the civilized planets in this galaxy are in an alliance with that planet. Are we prepared to attack all of them? We have two galaxies that are going to require most of our attention for the foreseeable future, melding them into the Herd.”

“I’m thinking that we were led to this galaxy for a reason. We have nowhere to go from here so I think we should take it and add it to our believers.”

“Are you sure about that, Chosen?”

“I am.”

The Exalted didn’t feel right about the decision but he didn’t have a good reason to turn away. He looked at his Active Gathering List and said, “I’ll launch an attack against the one planet and we’ll take on the others after we take it. You should send the probes out again and see if you get lucky in finding the carnivores.” The Exalted nodded and began sending orders.

• • •

Brad’s probes intercepted the transmissions from the Exalted and he sent a transcript of it to the senior Admirals. Dat read it and looked at Gresha, “Showtime, get your fleet ready. Brad and the SR’s have targeted the probes still in our galaxy and are ready to take them out.” Dat pressed his communicator, “Attention all fleets. Earth will be attacked shortly; lock your jump panels to the signal I’m sending and open fire as soon as you emerge into normal space. We’ll be activating the plan as soon as the Rust Warships are detected moving through Green Space.”

Gresha looked at Dat, “Have you heard anything from Admiral Young?”

“He’s spent the last eleven months learning the system. Let’s hope we don’t need him.” Gresha nodded and left the conference room with Dat for the Havana’s bridge.

• • •

Angel saw Shane appear on her display, “Stay alert. We’ll jump as soon as we detect another jump point.”

“Yes Sir.”

• • •

Angel activated her combat helmet and turned on the communication function, “All Admirals and Commodores, you know how to fight your units. Work together and stay in your formations. The enemy will be arriving shortly. Stay on your toes.” Angel ended the transmission and wished she had been able to see Bret. She missed him so much and she hated herself for sending him away. She had deprived herself of so much happiness; Arve was right; she was so stupid. She heard over the Fleet Frequency, “A massive incoming wave has been detected in Green Space.”

Then she heard her father say, “Take out the probes; open fire upon emergence in normal space.” She saw more than a hundred explosions in open space around Earth and then she saw the millions of Jukebox Battleships appear. They opened fire with all their blasters and the space inside their formation exploded into brilliant light.

• • •

The front ranks of the Believer Fleet entered normal space and disappeared in gigantic explosions. The following ships pushed through right behind them and the heat of the thousands of burning ships in the first wave coupled with the millions of blaster beams disintegrated them. Dat sat on the Havana and remembered the final battle with the Masters in the Haven Galaxy. The temperature was so hot that the ships emerging into normal space were burned out of existence and their molecules added fuel to the fire. Dat looked at the Weapons Officer, “Force Field status?”

“Sir, it’s starting to climb and will be in the red in less than ten minutes.”

Dat activated the communicator in his helmet, “All ships, back away from the point of attack. Continue to fire but move far enough away to prevent force field overload.” Dat looked at his Sensor Officer, “Lt. Towland, how many enemy ships have entered normal space?”

“Sir, I have no way of knowing. It’s impossible to scan through the heat.”

Dat looked at Gresha, “Do you think they are still coming through?”

Gresha looked at her visor and spoke quietly. She listened for a moment and looked at Dat, “The probe in Green Space shows the wave continuing to move toward the breakout point.”

Dat thought for a moment and then said, “Computer, how many ships are needed to keep that area at its current temperature?”

“One Fleet, Admiral.”

Dat looked at Gresha, “Move your ships around the area of devastation and continue to fire.” Gresha nodded and started issuing orders. Dat activated the fleet frequency, “All fleets currently in the Can Formation, except Admiral Arvolo’s, will disengage and join Admiral Matthew’s fleet and prepare to attack any other break out point that appears. Execute the order now.” Dat watched the giant cylinder dissolve until twenty million ships were left firing beams and barrages into the massive ball of fire. Gresha looked at him, “Why are you doing this?”