No Technology Is Invincible (The Death Prophecies-Book Four 4) (25 page)

Gabby shook her head, “I’m not sure she will, Gabe.”

Gabe’s eyes narrowed and then he sighed, “She will if she thinks I’m gone.”

“Is that fair?”

“Is what she did fair? It’s the best thing that could’ve happened.”

Ali looked at Gabby, “What about you?”

Gabby pursed her lips and raised her left shoulder, “I suspect there might be some that will celebrate my demise. I have a way of really ticking people off. Like you, no one is sitting around missing me.”

Gabe looked up and rolled his eyes, “Well, if I were there, I’d be missing both of you. The two of you have performed marvelously on this voyage. You’re a good team.” Gabby and Ali looked at each other and then at Gabe. Gabe stretched and said, “Alright, there are three of us so each of us will be on duty for eight hours. I’ll take from seven AM ship’s time until 3PM. Gabby, you will take 3PM until 11PM. Ali, you have from 11Pm until 7AM.”

Ali shook his head, “I’ve never been able to stay awake all night.”

Gabby smiled, “Ali, there’s no way to tell what time it is around the ship; there’s no sunrise to let us know that morning has started. Just change your chronometer so that instead of it reading eleven PM, it reads seven AM. It’s what crews do when they’re on deep space missions. Your body will adjust quickly if you do it that way.”

Ali thought about it and smiled, “There’s a lot to learn about living on a starship.”

Gabby nodded, “Yes there is. And since each of us will be sleeping eight hours, two of us will always be on the bridge, or at least available to be on the bridge. I might take the time to do some reading in my quarters.”

Ali nodded, “I’m going to take the time to examine the scans we just made of that giant vessel.”

Gabe’s eyes opened wider, “I think that is an excellent idea. Ali, why don’t you examine the power systems; Gabby, you look at their scanning systems, and I’ll study their weapon systems. We’ll get together once a week to share what we’ve learned.”

Gabby sighed, “I guess the books will have to wait.” Gabe nodded and she looked at her panel, “I’ve got to go to bed. I have the next shift.” She stood up and hustled out of the room.

Gabe watched Ali watch Gabby leave. Gabby disappeared out of the entry and he turned to see Gabe staring at him. “What?”

“You like her.”

“I didn’t at first when she violated my privacy.”

“But now?”

“She’s interesting.”

Gabe smiled, “Indeed she is. You should go to your quarters and start looking at the records.” Ali nodded, stood up, and walked off the bridge. Gabe watched him go and decided that he was not being used effectively in his current assignment. But that was a decision to be made later. He leaned back in his chair and saw a galaxy rapidly moving toward him on the left. The Prophet’s Eyes was traveling at an incredible speed. But the trip was still going to take a long time. He saw Janell’s face in his mind and quickly pulled up the scan on his panel. He focused on it and linked the weapon computer to his console. He had to stay busy.

G
abriel sat in the command chair and stared out of the forward viewport. The millions of lights in the darkness of space ahead of the ship were not what they had once been. He remembered his first space flight to the edge of the Milky Way where he had looked out into the immensity of intergalactic space. It awed him and made him feel small. Seeing the Milky Way spinning below him was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He leaned back and sighed…now it was…little more than a routine. He looked at the dark display on his console and saw his reflection. He had also changed. His face was…different. He didn’t smile as much as he used to, now his expression was somber. He was twenty-five years old and already becoming an old man.

Why? He looked at his hands. They looked normal but when he turned them over and looked at his palms, he saw where callouses had built up from where he gripped the thrusters and weapon controls too tightly for too long. He looked away from his reflection and knew that it wasn’t flying the ship that was aging him. He was put in command of The Bosrean and Earth Combined Fleets and that responsibility was more than he was prepared to handle. He constantly worried about making a mistake that would kill hundreds of thousands of ships along with their crews.

He had seen too much evil in creation and knew that a species could be eradicated in an instant. Well, an instant in creation time. The civilization that had built Poul was eradicated in less than a year by a much more powerful enemy. And what was really troubling is that he saw at least five more civilizations that could all kill the one that eradicated Poul’s. The threats out in the universe just never seemed to end. But here he sat in a tiny starship flying a hundred billion light years toward home.

Gabe saw something out of the corner of his eye. What was it? Poul, I just saw something for an instant on the long range scanner.”

“The galaxy we just passed had an explosion happen just inside the outer edge.”

“Natural?”

“No, it was artificial.”

“Can you take a look at it and see if you can determine what made it?”

Gabe waited and heard, “It appears a planet has been blown up.”

“What?”

“A planet has been destroyed.”

“Turn us around, Poul.”

“It’s going to further delay our arrival.”

“Take us back to the site of that explosion.”

“Admiral, you don’t appear to be concerned about getting back as quickly as possible.”

“Poul, you heard the same thing I did. The Black Species is going to wait for twenty years for the other Families to arrive. The Builders are going to build until they’re attacked again. We’re headed home but we have to remember that we should always look for new knowledge.”

“Or enemies.”

Gabe nodded, “We need to take a look at how that planet was destroyed.”

“There was a very large grey warship that did it.”

“Is it still there?”

“It is and it’s currently broadcasting to a group of warships.”

“Are you recording it?”

“I am. It’s going to take some time to decipher the language.”

“Are the warships from the destroyed planet?”

“I don’t think so, Admiral. There are large numbers of destroyed warships around the site of the destroyed planet. These came in from another place. It appears it has stopped communicating with the warships and they’ve jumped out of the system. Now they’re contacting a different place.”

“Track it and go take a look at who they’re communicating with.”

Gabby walked on the bridge and glanced at the main monitor, “What’s going on?”

“We’re looking at a civilization that just blew up a planet.”

“No kidding?” Gabe nodded. Gabby sat down and activated her panel. “Where are we headed?”

“The ship that destroyed the planet contacted someone on this line. Poul, have you made any progress in understanding their language.”

“Not all of it. If they’re using the language at the next place, I should have it down quickly.”

They arrived above a planet with hundreds of the giant grey ships that destroyed the planet in orbit above it. Gabe listened to the gibberish coming over the wall speaker as Gabby collected scans of the planet and put them on the monitor. “Gabe, it appears this society has classes.”

“What do you mean, Gabby?”

“The large majority of the species here are little more than slaves that live in conditions that are slightly better than squalor. The Upper Class lives in luxury that is hard to believe.”

“Gabby, have you actually seen a member of the upper class?”

“No, why do you ask?”

“It may be that the upper and lower class aren’t the same species.”

“Stand-by and let me take a better look.” Gabby manipulated her controls and her eyes narrowed as she scanned the planet’s surface. After an hour she looked up, “They can’t be the same species.”

“Why not?”

“The reason you don’t see any of the upper class is because they live in quarters that are sealed and use a different air supply. This planet was conquered.”

“Poul?”

“I understand the language and Gabby is right; this planet has been conquered. I’ve also translated the conversation between the Planet Destroyer and the warships at the site of that planet that was blown up.”

“And?”

“The Planet Destroyer told them that if they did not immediately surrender when one of their vessels arrived at their planet, all of their worlds would be destroyed.”

Gabe nodded and Ali entered the bridge. Gabby waved him to silence and he sat down in his chair. “Poul, we should wrap it up and head home.” He saw Gabby tilt her head down and glare at him. “What?”

“I thought you lived by the Death Prophecies.”

“I do.”

“Just how do you reconcile number eight with what you’re planning?”

Gabe looked at the scanner and saw the hundreds of large Grey Warships scattered in orbit above it. “Poul, just how large is this civilization?”

“They’ve not been predators very long. According to their communications, there’s eleven planets they’ve conquered and their home world.”

“Do they have any forces on the planet to force the population to follow their commands?”

“They do have some armored warriors but not very many.”

“Are they kept in one location?”

“As a matter of fact, they are. Since they require a different atmosphere, they stay in one large barracks and leave to handle any problems.”

Gabby smiled, “So how are you going to do this?”

Gabe looked up, “Did you happen to get the coordinates of the planets that Grey Ship threatened?”

“I did. They started communicating with their planets before they jumped out from the destroyed planet. I got a line on all of them.”

“Poul, do you think you can get all of them on a conference call?”

“Give me a few minutes. I’ll need to open a separate communication channel for each civilization.”

“Let me know when you’re ready.”

“Admiral, how do we shape up to those planet killing Grey Ships?”

“They’re far more powerful but we should be able to take them out easily enough.” Ali stared at Gabe in silence and Gabe smiled, “In order for those ships to be a threat, they would have to be able to target us and since we’re not visible on their scanners that would pose a problem for them.”

“Are we able to penetrate their force fields?”

“Our beams won’t but the missiles will. Don’t worry about it, Ali. Poul will keep us away from the beams on that vessel.”

“I have the six civilizations on our communication system. You may start when you’re ready.”

Gabe picked up the remote microphone, “I know that each of you are wondering what this is all about but I’m going to offer all of you some assistance in handling the civilization that destroys planets.”

A voice said over the loudspeaker, “Just how are you going to do that?”

“I’m going to each of the planets they’ve conquered and destroy the warships they have in orbit. Once I complete that task, I’m going to take a shot from space at the ground facilities. I’m going to depend on you to drop enough forces to maintain order and get the planet back on its feet. I am not doing this so you can take the place of the Grey Ships in ruling those planets.”

“What if we don’t want to participate?”

“That’s fine. I’ll go my way and leave you to face them.”

“Please ignore the Jrenca. They don’t like working with anyone.”

Gabe smiled, “Should I wait for them to be attacked and then do this?”

“NO! You’re right. We’ll cooperate.”

“I don’t want to draw this out, so please gather your landing forces and prepare to eliminate this aggressive species. Once I destroy the fleets above their home world, I’m going to leave that planet for you to do as you want.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m a traveler and I witnessed the destruction of a planet as I was passing. I stopped to investigate and decided to do something about it. Once this is handled, I’ll continue my journey.”

“We thank you for your help. I’m surprised you stopped to help us.”

“Let’s just say my crew prevailed on me to do it. Gather your forces.” Gabe turned off the communicator and leaned back in his chair. He was starting to sound like Stella. She appeared to have no patience for aggressive civilizations. He criticized her for that in the past but was starting to understand how she felt. There was just so many of them scattered around the universe.

He shook his head and Gabby saw him, “What’s bothering you, Admiral?”

Gabe tilted his head and raised an eyebrow, “Just a short time ago, less than a year or so, we only had one species that threatened to destroy mankind.”

Gabby nodded, “You’re talking about the Traugh.”

“I am. We built hundreds of thousands of warships to take them on only to have the Halo Civilizations from Andromeda come in and eradicate them.”

“Yes, but we had to use our ships to kill the Traugh Supreme Ruler, who was escaping to another galaxy.”

“We could have done that with one tenth of the number we built.”

Gabby shrugged, “That’s true. But we needed them to go into the Carand Galaxy.”

“No we didn’t. The only thing we’ve done there is just glorified scouting. We’ve not actually opened hostilities with them. Now we’re not going to attack them out of fear the Builders will go there and attempt to go through our black hole.”

“They won’t be able to that now that the Darkness Towers have closed it.”

Gabe looked at her, “Are you sure about that?”

“What do you mean?”

“Gabby, you’ve read the strength of their planetary force fields. Are you certain they aren’t capable of blocking the radiation from the jets? Remember, the jets the towers are producing at our black hole are nowhere near the power of those in M84.” Gabby stared at him and looked at her panel. She began pressing buttons and after a minute looked up at him. “Well?”

“It’s close, Gabe.”

“How close?”

“If the jets are slightly less powerful than the ones I measured in the Andromeda Black Hole, they might be able to make it through.” Gabe stared at Gabby and she looked back at her panel, “The Milky Way’s Black Hole is not as large as the one in Andromeda.”