The Pyramid Builders (36 page)
Dolly said, “George, I don’t understand. Why do you say that? He gave his word not to attack first.”
Everyone heard him sigh, “To understand, you need look no further than our own planet. Where’s the most dangerous place on Earth, Dolly?”
Jillian interrupted, “It used to be the Middle East, but that has settled down after the nukes went off. The entire planet is now working together.”
“It’s not on the surface, Jillian. It’s the oceans.”
“Exactly right, Chris. Look at the normal food chain in sea life. Everything, and I do mean everything, is a meal for a bigger and larger predator. Everything! Nothing is safe in our oceans. Every form of life has a predator that’s evolved just to eat it. The top of that chain is the Orca, and even they are killed by humans for their blubber.
The jungles are also dangerous places. Would you take on a lion or tiger or any of the other large cats in their domain without a weapon? Our planet is replete with examples of predator and prey. We are now swimming in the oceans of the universe, and the natural state of affairs is to kill or be killed. The predator-Prey relationship is the normal state out among the stars. The Moet with their millions of years of history bears that out and told us as much.”
Sasha said, “George, that’s an awful vision of creation.”
George sighed, “Years ago, one of the world’s greatest physicists, Stephen Hawking, said that we should avoid attempting to make contact other civilizations out among the stars. He feared they would arrive and conquer us. After meeting the Alliance and the Moet, it appears he was right.”
Jeff said, “Are you saying that we will have to fight any species we encounter?”
“No, not all. Some of them are not aggressive and will want to be left alone. However, I suspect those are the ones you would really want to stay away from. The natural state for those civilizations is to hide from being found and when discovered, remove the one unfortunate enough to have uncovered them. The ones out looking are the ones that are the predators. Those are the ones we’ll have to take on in most every encounter. Again, just look at our planet. There are many herbivores in the jungle that live in peace with the other animals and survive among the predators. Those herbivores are animals the predators go out of their way to avoid. Look at the rhinoceros and hippo; every other animal has learned to avoid them. Come too close and you won’t be walking away.
We are going to have to pattern ourselves after the Rhinoceros. The Rhino is an herbivore, but it has an extremely nasty disposition. Even a lion or tiger won’t take on a Rhino. Two thousand pounds of charging animal with a three foot long horn is not something that even the King of the Jungle would take on. The Rhino can take on any animal that threatens it and usually win. It, however, does not stand a chance against a human with a rifle. The only way we can survive is to have a big enough horn so that no one wants to take us on. Weapon development is crucial to our survival, and developing a nasty disposition comes with it. We have to make sure every aggressive civilization does all it can to stay away from us. We need to make an example of any civilization that chooses to take us on so that no one else even thinks about it.”
No one said anything. Then George made his point real, “The real threat we are now facing is the species that sent the Blue Ships. We know they came from the Andromeda Galaxy, which is about the same size as the Milky Way. Chris, you jumped the Cheops more than sixty five million light years away. How long did it take you to get there?”
“No time at all, really.”
“Well, consider this. Our galaxy is part of the Virgo Super Cluster with five thousand galaxies. Less than fifty five million light years away is M87. That galaxy has more than two trillion stars. It’s more than ten times larger than our galaxy, and many of the stars in it are older. Our galaxy has a hundred and twenty or so super clusters of stars in it; M87 has more than twelve thousand. We know that life eventually develops intelligence as a natural process of evolution. We can assume that galaxy has ten times as many as ours. If the Predator-Prey relationship is also a normal condition, then what does that say about the universe we live in? Think about ten times the number of Moet and Alliance type civilizations fighting there.”
Jillian sighed, “Well, you’re probably right. But think about it. We have always loved a good fight. First we deal with Andromeda, and then we take a page out of their book and go see what lies around us in our neighborhood.”
Hemon joined in, “I’ve heard it said, ‘Blessed are the Peacemakers,’. Perhaps that might be our role.”
George said, “Nothing quiets a room faster than a shotgun chambering a shell.”
“Good point, George. We just have to make sure it’s a big gun and it’s ours.”
Dolly listened and said, “So what happens now?”
“Meisa and I are going to take a honeymoon. I’ll leave the planning for you to handle in my absence.”
“Dolly, how many ships can we produce a month?”
“Chris, we can produce about fifty small attack craft per month, and ten of the Jukebox class. That number will double within three months.”
Chris thought about the number, “Are we going to have crews to man them?”
“That’s the easy part of this. Unlike the Moet and Alliance, our ships don’t require more than one or two people to fly them. We have more than ten thousand undergoing flight training as we speak.”
Jillian replayed the attack on her console and looked up, “Do you see any use for a ship larger than the Jukebox? It appears the Jukebox Class will not stand up to the Blue Ships.”
Hemon said, “We’re investigating that now. Meisa seems to think a reactor as big as the Jukebox would move us into an entirely different magnitude of power generation. I suppose that’s the reason those blue ships are so big. We’ll know more when she and George return.”
Dolly paused, “I notice that you had the Ninja moved back to the Jukebox’s landing bay. Is there a reason for that?”
Jillian smiled, “It’s been updated with a fusion reactor and one never knows when it might be needed. I thought we might want to know what knocked the Moet back into the Stone Age. Was it those Blue Ships or something else? We need to know. There might be another weapon we’ll want to acquire. We should at least try to see what those blue ships are going to do when they invade. We should also take a look at what happened to the Jenze. Were they destroyed or did they evacuate? If they were not destroyed, I suspect their level of development will be much further along than the Moet and Alliance.”
George said, “I’d certainly like to know the answers to those questions. You should make that a priority.”
Dolly sighed, “I guess it’s just a matter of time until it’s used again.”
Chris smiled, “It’s always been a matter of time.”
Dolly shook her head slowly, “For our survival, that’s all there is. Let’s hope we’re given enough of it.”
George had the last word, “Remember that those giant Blue Ships will have their scouts looking for us. We’re going to have to go out and make sure they don’t find us. Things are going to get hot in this galaxy very quickly. Get the smaller ships out now searching for those scouts. We know we can’t stand up to a full barrage from one of those giant ships and that should be what we’re working toward. I can think of two million reasons to hurry and they aren’t far away. They’ll be coming as soon as they find us. Unfortunately, we’re forced to play catch up and time does matter. Let’s make the most of what we have.”
The End
Planet Predators
Lens of Time – Book Two
K
enny looked up from his panel, “We’ve just been ordered to go into Sierra Space and see if we can find a ship with a specific frequency.”
Arvolo looked over his glasses and raised his eyebrows, “Exactly what type of ship gives off that particular frequency?”
“According to the file attached with the download, it’s a Blue Giant Scout Ship.” Kenny continued to read his panel and said, “It’s about three hundred times our size and heavily armed. I’ve sent a picture to your console.”
“That doesn’t sound good. Does the message tell us what to do if we happen to find one of those ships?”
Kenny continued reading and then looked up slowly, “They want us to pick a fight.”
Arvolo leaned back in his chair and put hands on his large stomach, “They do.”
“Yes.”
“It’s surprising they’re sending us. They know I’m the peaceful sort?”
Kenny was taking a drink from his glass of water and sprayed it out his nose and mouth.
“Hey, I am.”
Kenny shook his head and snorted, “You’re about as peaceful as a tiger that just had his backside sandpapered. You are constantly looking for a fight. I’ve had to stop you more times than I care to remember.”
Arvolo shrugged, “Just checking to see if you were paying attention. Our selection makes sense.”
Kenny snorted again, “Dropping into Sierra Space.”
Arvolo thought about Kenny’s assessment and decided he was only partly right. He didn’t look for a fight on Mondays or Fridays. That’s the days he set aside to recover from the fights he had over the weekend and to rest before the next ones.
“I’ve found four of those frequencies and one of them is pretty close.”
Arvolo sat up straight, “How close?”
“Less than four seconds in Sierra Space from our current position. It just entered normal space.”
“That could be outside the galaxy, how close?”
Kenny looked back at his display, “Fifty light years from Earth.”
“We need to pick one further away to draw them away from this area.
“There’s one five hundred light years away.”
Arvolo tilted his head down and looked through his eyebrows.
Kenny started shaking his head and said, “Switching my board to weapons. You have the ship. Force field and weapons are on line. How do you want to handle this?”
“Let’s be subtle; we’ll enter normal space and hit them with a fusion missile.”
“That is pretty subtle for you. Are you sure we don’t need to kiss them first?”
“I’ll wait while you do the honors. But I want that missile fired before you get their communications number for a future rendezvous.”
“Why only one missile?”
“I’m sure Fleet wants to know what it’s going to take to handle those ships. We need to give them as much information as possible. If the missile doesn’t work, we’ll hit them with a beam. If that doesn’t work, we’ll use both. Make sure a record of this is being sent to fleet.”
Kenny nodded and activated the channel, “Just what do you think that ship is going to be doing while we’re playing around?”
“Why, finishing their kiss with you. We’re jumping in three seconds. Pucker up.”
The Havana jumped into normal space next to the large ship and fired a fusion missile. It hit the three thousand foot long vessel and exploded before reaching the ship. Arvolo applied thrusters and dodged left as a hundred beams ripped through the space the Havana had just left.
Kenny looked at his display and said, “Two of those beams would have killed us at our current field strength.”
Arvolo jerked the Havana hard left and dodged six missiles homing in on them. “I guess you aren’t that great a kisser, Kenny. I guess they expected more” The missiles turned abruptly and homed in on the Havana and hit it on the port side.
The Annihilation Series:
Ashes of the Realm:
Greyson’s Revenge (March 2012)
The Pyramid Builders
Planet Predators (April 2012)
S
axon Andrew is the author of the number one bestselling Annihilation Series. All seven books of the series have been a number one bestseller on Amazon’s kindle Science Fiction Series. Ashes of the Realm is the second series created by him and continues the history of the Stars Realm after its destruction. A third series, The Lens of Time, will be published in early 2012.
His books are written so that anyone can enjoy them and not worry about their children picking them up. He lives in Tampa, Florida with his wife and looks forward to each day so he can write the stories that his fans enjoy.
Copyright © 2012 by Saxon Andrew. All rights reserved. Screen Writers Guild no. VQEA3E380432.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.
First Electronic Edition: February 2012