Annihilation: Book 05 - Searcher (30 page)

The Sensor Male didn’t respond. The Ship’s Male looked at him and said, “Did you hear the order?”

The Sensor Male looked at his board and said, “First Fang, the two vessels have been gone thirty dihls. They should have reported by now.”

The Ship’s Male looked at his display and saw the planet they were approaching. The ships sent out to defend it had already been killed and there was nothing between them and the planet. He thought for a moment and then ordered, “Recall all ships. Start moving out immediately.”

The Eight Legs that had left the small attack craft that had already landed turned and moved quickly back to their ships and lifted from the planet. The planet’s inhabitants that were being eaten alive wondered what had happened to save them from this nightmare. They watched as the giant planet sized ship turned and moved away.

The red screened probe relayed the feed to Fleet Command and the Searcher commed Aladdin. “They’re on their way,” Al said.

Matt punched his com, “Alright, wrap it up. All defender class vessels will depart in three hours and the Searcher Class ships will leave as soon as the mother ship arrives at the jump limit. There will be millions of their ships flying high speed through this system and I’ll not risk a possible collision.”

The Ship’s Male pressed his communicator, “Yes.”

“Supreme Male, I sent two attack craft to investigate a system and they are overdue. I am moving to that system to investigate; it may be nothing but I feel I should keep you informed.”

“Do not go into that system with the main ship. Contact me as soon as you arrive and be sure to inform me as to what you find.”

“It will be done as you order.”

The Ship’s Male looked at the Sensor Male, “Inform me immediately if the two arrive before we can leave this system.”

“I have already planned to do so and I am keeping my sensors focused on the jump point.”

The Ship’s Male was worried. This didn’t feel right and he watched his display all the way to the jump point.

Matt and Melanie sat on board Aladdin as Matt watched in his mind as the huge mother ship arrive at the Hugon system. It stayed at the jump limit while all of its ships left and began moving in system. Melanie watched with him as she entered his mind. “Why are you worried?”

Matt sighed and shrugged, “They will know this time that the two ships were destroyed.”

Melanie thought a moment said, “They didn’t find all of the marbles.”

“I don’t know but that’s not what will give us away.” Melanie thought for a moment and then looked up at him with furrowed brows. “Melanie, we had to hit those ships multiple times to break through their hulls. I’m certain that small pieces cracked off before we broke through; our sensors wouldn’t be able to track them and our screens would not destroy them; that is what will tell them that we killed those ships.”

Melanie nodded slowly, “One never knows Matt. If they go find one of those balls I’m sure that it will have residue from the Eight Leg it went through. The tiny remnants of their ships, however, are in a very small area of space. Our chances are not as bad as you might think.”

“I would normally agree with you but I sense the full invasion beginning in three months. We are going to have to kill that mother ship before it begins; once there are millions of them in our universe it will be too dangerous to experiment on one. We have a very small window of opportunity here and we have to move quickly to use it.”

“Well, at least we know the Red Warrior’s guns fired too fast and the ship’s guns fired too slowly. We have at least a point to move forward in our weapon development.”

“Perhaps, let’s teleport to see what the Algeans have learned about those ships we captured. The probe will let us know if they find anything.”

“Fly Girl, will you follow us; I’m going to stay on Aladdin for a while.’

“I’m right behind you.”

The second Reg looked at the first and thought, “They are making amazing progress, brother.”

“It’s still not fast enough. I worry about the numbers coming.”

“Let’s see if they get the help they need.”

“Do you think they will remember?”

“I can only hope they do.”

The Ship’s Male watched as his millions of ships combed the solar system for a clue as to what happened to the two missing ships. Three missing children was one thing but missing ships was an order of magnitude greater. The planet that was being investigated was burning brightly. He looked at the Sensor Male and asked, “Does this match up with your data?”

The Sensor Male raised two legs and a picture of the system appeared on the Ship’s Male’s display. “That is the picture taken by the transport the first investigation. Notice there is no planet at that distance from the star in that picture. Now we find a planet that was not here before burning.”

“Do you have an answer as to how this could happen?”

“First Fang, I have looked at all the data we’ve collected for anything similar and nothing matches. I have no answer to this situation.”

The Sensor Male looked at his display and said, “You should tell the children to slow down. We have had four collisions between attack craft and one of them was damaged.”

“Issue the order please. I understand their concern.”

Six hours later one of the huge transports heard a loud ping. The pilot looked at his instruments and looked around his ship to see what could have possibly hit them and make that noise. The small brown marble was moving at fifty miles per second but upon hitting the transport it accelerated to more than five hundred miles per second and was outside the scan being used by the pilot. By the time the pilot extended the scan, the ball was lost among the other ships moving around the system. Seven ships briefly saw it but decided that it was just a small meteorite moving through the system. After tracking it’s trajectory they could see it was moving in system and at its current speed there was no way it could have been in the system when the ships went missing. They did not consider that when the marble hit the transport it had reversed direction. It was reported to the Sensor Male but after tracking it, he ignored it.

The Ship’s Male watched his display and said, “Those children, we’ve had another collision!”

The Sensor Male listened to his board and said, “They both thought they detected something and they both rushed without looking.”

“Did they find anything?”

“No, they report small pieces of armor but it’s probably from their collision.”

“Are you sure?”

The Sensor male looked at the reported scan from the attack craft and said, “The pieces are very small and appear to be scattered from their contact. There is nowhere near enough to account for even a fin much less a ship. It’s also located at the spot they collided. If it’s from the two missing ships, there’s not near enough. You know that the surface of those ships cannot be destroyed. If I had to decide I would lean toward it being from the collision.”

“I agree but I’m probably just looking for anything that would tell us what happened. Those ships have to be here but they’re not. This is not a disappearance we can ignore.”

“What are your orders?”

“Assign a section of this system for every ship to investigate. Stop this rushing around the system by all of our attack craft and let’s take this systematically. I want some transports sent to the planet and scan the remains to see if our ships are buried in it.”

“Do you think they hit the planet and caused the destruction?”

“They would have had to be moving at top speed but if that happened they might have found themselves buried in the planets core.”

“That theory begs the question as to why they were in such a hurry.”

The Ship’s Male thought a moment and then said, “Is it possible to hide a planet so that it wouldn’t be seen until you were on top of it?”

“That would suggest a very high level of technology, First Fang.”

“Perhaps, but it would explain why we did not see a planet on our initial scan. Our children were probably in a hurry to return to take part in our next harvest and were rushing just like they are now. They might still be alive but buried in the remains of the planet.”

“If that were the case, we should be able to hear them?”

“I suppose you’re right; do you have another idea about what happened to them?”

“No, First Fang; we will have to scan the remains closely to eliminate the possibility of what you suggest.”

“Please bring some order out of this chaos and issue the orders, Sensor Male.”

“I am going to recall all of the attack craft and send them out in small groups to their assigned areas. I’ve already given the transports their locations.”

The Ship’s Male turned on his communication device and moved to the bed where the probe entered his abdomen. The Supreme Male didn’t say anything; he just down loaded what the Ship’s Male had seen. After a long pause the Supreme Male said, “I think I agree with your Sensor Male about the few pieces. There is nothing that can damage our hulls except another vessel made from the same material hitting it. I am moving up the schedule for the full family’s arrival. You will remain in that system and find those missing ships.”

“Your orders will be obeyed.”

The Sensor Male did not look at the Ship’s Male and let him see his disappointment. He suspected that they were not going to find those ships and remaining in one location, particularly a lifeless location, was going to cause hunger among the children. He also worried about what existed in this universe that could cause the disappearances. He knew that his race was indestructible but something had happened. He turned back to his displays and tried to hide his fears.

The Ship’s Male also felt what the Sensor Male was thinking and feared that once again his ship was going to go hungry. “We have to find those ships.”

Stem, Sprig, Twig, Matt, and Melanie watched the feed from the probe. “What are they doing,” Melanie asked?

“They aren’t leaving. The transports are moving out into the system in an organized fashion. I suspect that the small craft are being recalled because they are literally out of control. I’ve counted five collisions and one of them was near the site of the attack.”

“They went right through that area and it appears that they aren’t acting any different,” Stem commented.

Matt thought a moment, “That collision near the site may have caused them to thing that any residual pieces were the result of that collision. If that’s the case, we may have bought some time.”

“Why are those transports moving so close to the planet,” Al asked? Everyone watched as the transports selected a large piece of the planets debris and stopped above it.

Melanie watched the display, “They’re looking for the ships in those pieces of the planet.”

Twig thought, “I think you’re right. They must think that the ships collided with the planet and caused its destruction.”

“If they believe that, then they suspect that someone can hide a planet.” Matt paused, “That must be what they’re thinking. They think their ships hit it because they didn’t see it. That means we are going to have to be careful when the full invasion starts. They’ll look back at their data from the last invasion and select those systems that should have a developed civilization; if they see no life; they’ll investigate closely.”

Melanie looked at Sprig, “I hope we learned enough from the attack to make it worth the risk.”

“We have learned a lot. We know that only the outer hull of their ships are made from the green substance; the interior is made from normal alloys and building materials.”

“Are you sure about that,” Matt asked?

“It stands to reason. The easiest ship to make using a hundred percent of the substance would be their smallest ships. If they aren’t built that way then the larger ships shouldn’t be either.”

“How does that help us?”

“I’m not sure, but I know that normal weapons will destroy the interior which will probably stop them. We also learned how they penetrate ships. They fire their lower deck into the surface of the ship and penetrate it so that they can enter through the resulting hole. It didn’t work on the iron tree coating and actually bounced them away. That deck must hit powerfully to bounce them as far as they moved.”

“What about the Red Warrior’s weapons,” Fly Girl inquired?

“Mixed results; the swords were very effective, especially when swung using the power of their armor. The guns fired right through them and didn’t slow them down fast enough. We recorded Team Leader Brez’s results when he fired the marbles slower and the results were better.” Sprig pushed a button and replayed the results of the slower velocity projectile.

Everyone watched and Matt asked, “Why is that Eight Leg moving in so many directions?”

Twig thought, “Evidently that marble is bouncing around inside the green armor it’s wearing.”

“Uh, I have a question,” Al thought.