No Technology Is Invincible (The Death Prophecies-Book Four 4) (30 page)

“How do we get one of the new communicators to Earth?”

“We aren’t sending them one.”

Gabe’s eyes narrowed, “Why not?”

“Because the Darkness is closely monitoring anyone we would want to communicate with. They don’t have to hear our communications if they are watching the one we want to contact with a scanner. Admiral Connor understands this and it was his orders that nothing was to be done to compromise the project.”

Gabe looked out at the valley below and saw huge clouds of dust rising into the morning sky. He stood on a high hill overlooking the valley and it was beautiful. He turned and looked at Emmitt, “I’m keeping the Fleets out to defend the colonies. I’ll pull them in as you need them to build the new warships.”

“The plan is to have the new ships coming on line before we pull the remaining ships in.”

“That’s good to hear. When will the other colonies start ship construction?”

“Not until we’ve built enough to defend them from attack. That will take a decade or longer.”

The left corner of Gabe’s mouth went up, “I guess I need to learn some patience.”

“Yes, you do, Admiral. The facility won’t just appear when you order it.”

Gabe nodded and Emmitt walked away. Emmitt was right. He thought for a while about what to do to fill his time and eventually came up with an idea.

• • •

Gabe put the pointer down and looked at the hundred pilots sitting in the room, “Are there any questions?”

A pilot raised his hand and Gabe pointed at him, “Sir, from what you’ve described, we are going to be little more than a probe.”

Gabe smiled, “You sound like that’s a bad thing?”

The Pilot shrugged, “We’ve always had the right to do the right thing if we encountered a situation that called for action.”

“If you don’t mind, describe what doing the right thing might look like, Captain.”

“If I were to stumble upon an alien fleet invading a planet and I could prevent that happening, I could make the decision to intervene.”

“And the invasion of a planet is wrong? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes, especially if the planet is not capable of defending itself.”

“So you go in and order the invading fleet to back off or what?”

“I guess I’ll start destroying their warships.”

“And let’s say they still refuse to stop.”

The Pilot shrugged, “Then I guess there’s be one less aggressive invader.”

The room burst out laughing and Gabe smiled, “Ok, let’s say you destroy that fleet and the planet that sent the fleet out needs it to defend itself along with six other planets that it governs. That missing fleet is noticed by another aggressive civilization and now you have seven planets being invaded by an enemy of the civilization’s fleet you destroyed. Are you going to go and stop those planets from being invaded?”

“Uh…probably not.”

“Why not? It’s due to your actions that they’re under attack.”

“But they’re an aggressive civilization.”

“So is the one that attacks after you destroy that fleet. Only in this instance, they’re carnivores that consume the beings on the planets they conquer. The one you attacked only enslaved the planets they defeated.”

The Pilot stared at Gabe and it was clear he was confused by the dilemma. Gabe tilted his head, “You choose to step into a situation that you have no idea of what the ramifications could lead to.”

The Pilot shrugged, “I can see that I didn’t have enough information to intervene.”

“And that’s the point of this class, Captain. You’ll never know all the forces that surround any intervention. You could be making things much worse.”

Another Pilot raised his hand and Gabe nodded. “So we should never intervene in any situation, Sir?”

“You should only intervene if our species is being threatened. If we’re not at risk, you collect information until you do know everything surrounding another species actions. You job in a nutshell is playing the role of an unknown enemy. You do not reveal yourself to any possible aggressor and, truth be told, you shouldn’t reveal yourself to peaceful civilizations either.”

“So what happens if an aggressive civilization’s scout is approaching one of our colonies?”

“You make sure it’s not going to change course and then if one of our colonies is going to be found, you destroy the scout.”

“They’ll just send another scout.”

Gabe looked at the Pilot and smiled, “And we’ll destroy it as well.” Gabe looked around the room and saw them deep in thought, “I know what you’re thinking. If we destroy two scouts, they’ll send a fleet to investigate.” The pilots looked at each other as many of them nodded. “If they send a fleet, we’ll destroy it much further away from the colony. We’ll destroy them and do it fast enough to prevent them sending out a warning.”

There was a long moment of silence and a pilot said, “What happens then?”

“If they’re foolish enough to send another fleet, we’ll destroy it as well and do all we can to prevent them from learning of our existence.”

“What would you do in that aggressive civilization’s situation, Sir?”

“If I had two fleets destroyed without knowing how it was done, I’d put out probes and stay away from that area of space.”

“Wouldn’t they see us as a threat?”

“They came to us. I suspect they’ll worry about it but hesitate to send more ships.”

“Until they send enough to find out what’s going on, Sir.”

Gabe looked at the pilot who spoke and tilted his head, “Did I mention that each time we destroy one of their fleets we’ll be doing it closer to the place they were launched.”

The first pilot raised his hand again, “And if they continue sending fleets, we’ll destroy their planets.”

Gabe looked at him and smiled, “How did you arrive at that conclusion?”

“Because they have proven to be a threat to us. What their interactions are with other species becomes irrelevant.”

“Exactly right.” Gabe sat down and looked at the class, “You should remember that we stayed away from the center of Andromeda because we knew a very aggressive civilization was there. Our fears of what might come through their black hole drove us to contact them. Now they are dominating Earth and we are little more than puppets.”

“But the Builders are a danger to our entire universe, Sir!”

“Yes they are; but due to our impatience, the Builders will probably now enter our universe through the Milky Way’s black hole. In which scenario would Earth have been safer? Allowing them to transit Andromeda’s black hole or ours?” The room was silent and Gabe’s eyes narrowed, “We will not reveal ourselves to any other species unless we are forced to do it. To all the aggressive species out in the universe, we will be their unknown enemy and as you all know…”

All hundred pilots shouted together, “THE UNKNOWN ENEMY WILL KILL YOU!!”

“I’ll be out scouting with you and if you encounter a situation where you need assistance in making a decision, contact me. My frequency is on the cover of the packet you received at the start of the class.” Gabe lowered his head, “If you call me in and it’s something you should have been able to resolve on your own, I will replace you with another pilot with better judgment. Any more questions?” The room was silent and Gabe stood up and the class came to attention as he said, “Your scouting zones are in your ship’s computer. Launch is at 0700 hundred hours tomorrow. Class dismissed.”

Gabe turned and exited through a door behind the stage. He immediately saw Janell and she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, “Think they got it?”

“We’ll see. They’re smart, they’re also just a little young and trigger happy.”

“The updating of the scout’s stardrives and computers is coming along but not nearly fast enough.”

“Can’t be helped, Janell. Our focus is on building the new warship. I’m surprised the engineers have been able to modify a thousand of the old warships.”

Janell shrugged, “I went by the facility and the process is now pretty much automated. The numbers will grow faster until Emmitt calls for the scouts to add their ships to the construction factories.”

“That won’t happen until we have enough of the new warships to replace them.”

“I really hope you’re right.”

“Emmitt has promised that he won’t leave the colonies undefended.”

“He’s already used half of the ships in the original fleets.”

“But that still leaves a million to defend us. By the way, how is Amy taking to replacing me over Planet Administration?”

“She wants to strangle you one moment and kill you the next.”

“She’s doing a great job.”

“Even so.”

“Are you ready to get your space boots chilled?”

Janell smiled, “I’ve missed going out to the stars. It’ll be good to see them up close again.”

“Is Chester up to speed on the new systems?”

“He says he is but I think he needs space time more than us to work it all out. His computing speed is incredibly higher than when we went into the Carand Galaxy. All of our scout’s computers are operating at the new speeds.”

Gabe pulled Janell close, “I’m going to really love being out there with you. We’ve not done this before.”

Janell smiled and took his hand, “Let’s go check out the ship.” Gabe nodded and walked out of the training building holding her hand.

• • •

“Admiral, I have an incoming message from one of our scouts located in the Coma Cluster.”

“Put it on the speaker.” Gabe looked at Janell, “This is the first scout to call me.” Janell shrugged.

“Admiral, I have a situation that I think you might want to observe.”

“Send me your coordinates.”

“Yes, Sir.”

• • •

Jock McTremble shook his head, took a deep breath, and sent his coordinates. Three seconds later, a larger warship appeared off his starboard side, “What’s going on, Captain?”

“Sir, I discovered an advanced civilization six months ago and their warships’ force fields are very close to the strength of the one we have on our scouts.”

“So?”

“One of their scout ships is moving on a course that will bring it into the territory of a very aggressive civilization. I suspect this will be the first opportunity to observe the weapons that this advanced ship possesses. I’ve checked with all the other scouts and it does appear that this civilization is the most powerful of all those we’ve scouted to date. I don’t need you to tell me what to do. I know I’m here as an observer but you will determine the rules of engagement if one of their scouts moves toward one of our colonies. I thought you might want to observe this confrontation.”

Jock lowered his head into his shoulders expecting a scathing reply followed by an order to report back to the colony. “Thank you for inviting me, Captain. I do want to witness this confrontation. Where is the advanced vessel?”

Jock exhaled and raised his head, “I’ve moved ahead of it and it should be passing us in six minutes fifty miles out from our port sides.”

Gabe looked up, “Chester, get a passive scan on it?”

“Scanners are operational.”

Gabe and Janell stared at the main monitor and they saw the dark image approaching. The ship moved past them at high speed and Gabe said, “Fall in to the side of that vessel and follow it. Maintain a distance of seventy miles.” The two ships fell in behind the huge black ship and Gabe said, “Chester, what can you tell me about that vessel?”

“Admiral, Captain McTremble was right about the force field and the active scanner it’s using is also as powerful as our own.”

“Weapons?”

“There are heavy blasters on all four sides of the ship. They’re on swivel mounts and I think I can assume the same number of them on the side of the ship away from my scan. They have a total of sixteen heavy blasters.”

“Missiles?”

“It’s hard to get a good look through its force field to see the hull clearly without an active scan. I can see the blasters because they’re really big.”

“Give me an estimate on our ability to defeat that vessel?”

“I think we’d take it out if we fired a missile at it from close range. If we were forced to attack from further than twenty miles, it would be an even fight.”

“Why is that?”

“I’m going to assume those blasters can produce complete coverage around the ship. A missile would be burned before it could hit if those blasters were active.”

Gabe sat back in silence and Janell said, “What are you thinking?”

“If we’re ever forced to attack a fleet of those ships, we’d have to assign each of their warships to a scout and we’d launch our missiles simultaneously.” Janell nodded. “Captain, how long will it be before they enter that aggressive civilizations territory?”

“Ten more minutes and they’ll be passing the early warning probes.”

“Do you think they’ll destroy the probes as they pass, Captain?”

Jock jerked his head up and knew he couldn’t ask for assistance from his ship’s computer, “No, Sir. They won’t?”

Gabe smiled, “And your reasoning behind saying that is…?”

“I think they’re pretty confident and want the ones who put those probes out to know they’re coming.”

Janell smiled and whispered, “He’s a pretty smart cookie.”

Gabe nodded and watched the monitor. He said over the communicator, “If they do take them out, then they’re also an aggressive civilization.” They followed the black vessel and Gabe saw the approaching probe on the tactical monitor. He pressed the red button on his chair and was immediately inside his armor. Janell activated hers a moment later.

“Admiral, I’m detecting power being fed to the blasters.”

“What about the force field, Chester?”

“It just doubled in power.”

“What?”

“Yes, Sir. It’s actually more powerful than the ones used by our scouts.”

“Captain?”

Jock shrugged, “Sir, this is the first time I’ve observed one of their vessels going into combat.”

Gabe nodded and was glad he was called in. Janell smiled and asked, “Does this surprise you?”

Gabe looked at her, “Yes, it’s a surprise.”

“This galaxy is older than the Milky Way. It would only make sense there would be older, more advanced civilizations here.” Gabe shrugged and had to agree. Janell smiled, she had seen something he missed. Each of those instances were a treasure to her.