“Just make it happen.”
“I’ll need to send a thousand at a time to complete the task by the time we invade.”
“MAKE IT HAPPEN!”
“I will start them now.”
The orange colored being smiled, and thought, “Maybe they’ll do this before the attack. That would be a gift from the Gods.”
• • •
A thousand Orange Ships jumped away from the giant ship gathering and an advanced scanner detected their path and surfed the waves in other space to their destination. It sent the location and ten more scanners surfed in and then scattered to examine other planets in the civilization they had found. They determined that the first planet was the location of the central government. The information was sent to the Obelisk.
• • •
Kregen looked at his communicator and immediately contacted Marissa, “I have our target.”
“When did it come in!?!”
“A few moments ago; I have the scanner in the target’s system sending a feed to your panel.”
“I’m on my way.”
“Did you handle the additional collector?”
“It will be installed in two hours. We should be ready to leave by tomorrow morning.”
“Good, I’ll see you at the ship.”
• • •
Kregen and Marissa were examining the feeds that had been sent back by the scanner and Marissa said, “They have too many holes in the planet’s defenses.” Kregen continued to stare at his display and grunted. “We should be able to do this if we plan a good approach.” Kregen grunted again. “Do you know how to talk or do you just make sounds?”
Kregen looked up and said, “Something’s not right.”
Marissa watched him continue to stare at his console and after a minute said, “Are you going to share what you’re seeing?”
Kregen looked up and she saw he was conflicted. “I’ve done an examination of the number of Orange Ships that have been sent to the invasion fleet.”
“So?”
“According to the scanner in their main system, those ships only represent a small percentage of their total ships.”
Marissa stared at Kregen and he turned back to his display, “So?”
Kregen looked up and said, “Most of the other civilizations taking part in the invasion have sent a larger percentage. Logic would dictate that the leader of the invasion would be more invested in it. This just doesn’t feel right.”
“Even so, we’re going to take that planet out.”
Kregen looked at Marissa for a long moment and then nodded. He looked up and said, “Moe.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Is it possible to have the scanner at the Orange World’s location intercept their transmissions and send them to you for analysis?”
“Yes, it is possible.”
“Do you have enough open memory to do that analysis?”
“Why do you want this done?”
“I want to know why they didn’t send more ships.”
“I’ll see what I can find out.”
“Thank you, Moe.”
Marissa looked at Kregen, “What difference does it make? That’s the Invasion Leader’s home planet.”
“Probably none.” Kregen looked back at his display, “But I don’t like unanswered questions.”
Marissa turned back to her console, “Then don’t ask them.” Kregen grunted again.
• • •
The Invasion Leader saw his second in-command come running on to the bridge, “Sire, a group of scouts were able to penetrate the galaxy and found a massive civilization.”
The Leader’s face showed his delight, “What did they find?”
“They followed a massive jump track to a group of worlds that are completely covered with cities. All the land masses are one large city.”
“How many planets?”
“About fifty thousand, Sire. They are heavily defended by orbital satellites but very few ships are at their location.”
The Leader thought, “Now this is good. If we can destroy those planets quickly, all their ships will go to my galaxy and start killing planets. I’ll be viewed as a savior when I return to defend them.”
“How many ships will we have to use?”
“The most recent estimate is fifty million.”
“That’s a thousand ships for each planet.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“Start sending the coordinates out and let me know when the last ships arrive.” The Second rushed off the bridge and the Invasion Leader leaned back in his chair. “This makes organization easier. A thousand ships are easier to organize than millions. They’ll destroy the planets and as many ships as possible before they jump away. Once the alien’s ships start attacking our home worlds, I’ll come back and finish the job in the spiral galaxy. Things were shaping up nicely. Now if they’ll just destroy Bradet.”
• • •
Dee looked at Doc, “Ian has just notified me that the Invader fleet is dividing into groups of a thousand ships.”
Doc thought a moment and said, “They must have been able to get a scout into our galaxy.”
Dee’s brow furrowed, “Why do you say that?”
“The estimate of the number of ships in the invasion fleet is about fifty million. There are fifty thousand former main planets of the Kilper.”
Dee nodded, “That would be a thousand ships per planet.”
“We didn’t detect those scouts. That’s bothersome.”
“They took the bait of the jump tracks.”
Doc scowled, “I know but I would have preferred them to have to organize after they discovered those planets. Now we’re going to have to assign ships to each of the main planets.”
“How many will be used?”
“We have ten million ships available. That means two hundred ships at each planet.”
Dee shook her head, “Those are not good odds.”
“We can only hope the orbital stations can cut their numbers down before our ships take them on.” Dee closed her eyes and after a few minutes opened them. Doc said, “Do you sense anything?”
Dee shook her head, “No, I don’t. This feels like it could go either way.”
“Let me know if you see anything. Maybe the attack on the Orange Capital might slow them down.”
Dee nodded but felt uneasy about something to do with that attack but she wasn’t able to determine what it was. She continued to struggle with it but came no closer to an answer.
• • •
Cole sat with Argel in the Science Center and heard her ask, “How many different ship types are there in the invading fleet?”
Cole looked at his computer and issued a query. After five minutes the computer beeped and he was shocked, “More than eighty thousand.”
Argel stared at him and said, “We have two civilizations and we’re facing eighty thousand. We also know many are not participating in this invasion. This is staggering.”
Cole looked back at his display and said, “They’re only sending about twenty percent of their ships for this invasion. Even if we win, the enemies facing us will outnumber us in the millions.”
“You think they’ll keep coming?”
“If they fear us enough, they will.”
Argel nodded, “We aren’t any closer to solving the problem of the Higgs Field collapse.”
Cole nodded, “We’ve got to find a solution.”
Argel nodded and went back to her terminal.
• • •
Kregen leaned back in his chair and shook his head. Marissa said, “What’s bothering you?”
“I’ve been looking at the information coming in from the scanners. I don’t understand the stupidity of the Invasion Leader.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s been sending about a thousand ships a day back for servicing on the main planet of the Orange Ships.”
“So?”
“He knows we’ve threatened to destroy his worlds if he’s successful with his invasion; why would he deliberately leave a trail to his most important planet?”
“Maybe that’s the only place there are service facilities.”
“No, the scanners have confirmed them on thousands of other planets.”
“Perhaps he’s just dumb.”
Kregen shook his head, “I don’t think he’s that dumb.”
“Leaving tracks like that is stupid. Chalk it up to a moron.” Marissa looked up from her display, “Fleet says we should jump to our jumping off coordinates. They expect the enemy fleet to start moving before long.”
Kregen entered the coordinates and before he pushed the jump drive he said, “Moe, do you have anything?”
“I do not. Nothing has turned up to explain the difference.”
Marissa shook her head, “Just let it go. We have a job to do.”
Kregen pushed the drive button and didn’t like what he was seeing.
• • •
The Invasion Leader kept waiting for the Home World to be destroyed but so far nothing had happened. What to do; what to do? Perhaps they were waiting for the invasion to begin before they attacked. “Second, report to the bridge.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“I want the ships that have arrived to jump to an assembly point half way between us and the spiral Galaxy.”
The Second looked puzzled, “Won’t that make things more difficult to get the ships organized?”
“Just do it.”
“Yes, Sire.”
• • •
Becky sat at her console and watched the massive fleet gathering to invade and still ships continued to arrive. She shook her head and looked at Dom who had his face plate lifted, leaning back in his chair, and staring intently at his display. “What are you doing?”
Dom was startled by the question and said, “I’m reading.”
“What?”
Dom turned his command chair around and looked at Becky, “Before Earth destroyed itself during the period of colonization, most of the colony ships took a copy of the central library with them to their new planets.”
“Yean, so what?”
“When D was in for servicing, I went to the Science Library on Euclid and discovered that they had copied everything that had survived from Earth to the main terminal in the archives. I did a little looking around and found some ancient books that were written thousands of years before Earth’s destruction. I find them quite entertaining.”
“What are they about?”
“Several are a series of books called Day Soldiers written by Brandon Hale. It’s a story of some highly trained warriors that are fighting to save humanity from creatures called vampires.”
“What’s a vampire?”
“You really don’t want to know.”
Becky stared at Dom and lowered her face, “You don’t think I can handle it?”
Dom shrugged, “vampires were creatures that were immortal. They were also the living dead. They survived by attacking humans and using their fangs to drain their bodies of blood.”
“Ooooooo, that’s gross.”
“I told you.”
Becky turned back to her console and after a moment said, “Can I read them when you’ve finished?”
“I’ll send you another book he wrote. You can read the series when I’m done.”
An hour later, Becky looked up and shook her head, “Vampires don’t hold a candle to the creatures in the Man from Newella. This is scary stuff.”
Nise said, “You need to link to me, Becky. I see some elements of the Invader’s Fleet starting to move.”
Becky saved the book and pulled her face plate down linking her to the computer. She examined the most recent scans and said, “Close it up, Dom. Something’s going on.”
Dom said, “Darn it. I was just getting to the good part.” He pulled his face plate down, “D, activate the force fields and weapons.”
“All systems are active.”
Dom sent the signal to go to condition red to the ten thousand ships assigned to his fleet and watched as they linked in to D’s tactical. He noted which planets were assigned to his fleet and pressed the general frequency, “If some of you are able to finish your initial assignment, don’t delay going to the other assignments to assist your comrades. Stay at condition Red until that fleet declares its intentions.”
Becky continued to watch the giant fleet and saw jump fields starting to appear, “They’re moving.”
Dom said, “Do not leave formation until they enter our galaxy. Maintain your position until released to go to your assigned planet.”
• • •
Ian watched the Invasion Fleet start moving and said, “Start the attack on the Orange Capital.”
Kregen received the order and said, “The attack has been authorized. We’re jumping to initiate our attack profile. We are now at Condition Red.” Marissa charged her weapons and smiled at the coming mission.
• • •
“What are you doing here? I thought you were with the invasion fleet.”
“We have a faulty feed to the number six reactor. We had to drop out and come see if it can be repaired.”
“I’m glad it’s you invading that galaxy and not us.”
“As if I have a choice; when the former Emperor was overthrown, I was one of the ships he chose to take with him.”
“Better you than me. At least we didn’t have a civil war to settle the issue.”
“There is that. Still, giving him ten percent of our ships and sending him on his way was not a good thing for those of us sent with him.”
“Sorry, but in the long run, I think the best thing happened.”
“You’re probably right. Permission to approach the Service Facility.”
“Permission granted.”
The Advanced Scanner recorded the conversation and sent it.
• • •
Kregen had the ship at a thousand times Light Speed and the star system of the Orange Capital was growing larger on the scanners. “Kregen, I have an answer to your question.”
Marissa shouted, “We don’t have time for this, Moe. We’re on our approach path.”
Kregen said, “What did you find out?”
“The Invasion Leader was overthrown in a bloodless coup. He was given ten percent of the Orange Ships to go and start a new Empire. It prevented a civil war in the Orange Empire.”
Kregen reached forward and pulled the controls toward him and the ship moved off its trajectory and began moving above the Galaxy. Marissa saw the move and yelled, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!”
“I’m not going to attack without our leadership authorizing it in light of this new information. Moe, get this to Ian, now.”
Marissa turned and said, “You are violating our orders. Turn the ship back on course.”
Kregen looked at her and continued to move away from the attack profile, “Not until we get authorization.”
Marissa stood and pointed her hand toward Kregen. A blaster appeared in it and she said, “You will turn this ship back on course or I’m going to shoot you for treason.”