Lens of Time: Book 06 - Star Rover-Running Out of Time

by Saxon Andrew

  “You won’t understand this, but yes it will.”

  Dat stared at the two Madators and smiled, “I’ll do all I can to make it happen.”

  Ringie and Blacky had their arms around Dat in an instant and he yelled, “Not so tight, not so tight!”

  Gresha laughed and joined the three in a very large group hug.

  • • •

  Three weeks later after the news was announced, Dat was approached by Jon Anders. “Dat, Jill and I have been struggling to have a child. Do you think your friends can help us?”

  Dat smiled, “I’ll ask.” Six weeks later, Jon and Jill resigned their commissions to start their new family leaving Dat with a very distraught Fleet Admiral.

  Kat screamed at Dat as he stood at attention and winced at her volume, “How could you have done this? I’ve lost two of my best tools to use against the Servants.”

  Dat stared at Katherine silently until she ran down shouting at him, “Admiral, do you remember what they were like when they were fighting against the Masters and M87?” Katherine glared at Dat for a long moment and then sighed and nodded. “Sir, they are a shell of what they used to be. They reenlisted and I think they were hoping in the back of their minds that they might die in the conflict. They are products of two of the Unions strongest bloodlines and they couldn’t have children. They only had each other and I know you had to see the sorrow they were feeling.”

  Kat blew out a breath and nodded, “I know…and you’re right. They were back to their old selves when they came here and resigned. I’m being selfish and I know it. But we need them.”

  Dat stood and stared at Kat, “Admiral, it would be a crying shame if you never had children.” Dat turned and left Katherine’s office. Kat was shocked at the statement and then thought about it. After thirty minutes, she pressed her communicator, “Yes Admiral.”

  “Brad, please report to my office.”

  “Yes Sir.” Brad stood up from his desk and wondered why she had only used his first name. He found out why when he stepped into Katherine’s office and she came around her desk and wrapped her arms around his neck, “I’ve wanted to do this a long time.” She leaned in and kissed him hard. Brad felt her break the kiss and his smile was huge. He pulled her back and their kiss lasted much longer.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Dat sat in General Robinson’s office and waited for the transmissions to arrive. The Grillen Admiral was anxious about what they might see and was having difficulty being patient. “What have you collected so far?”

  “Eight of the trackers have sent their information. Two of them have not reported in, yet. We’ve been organizing the data they collected, so you can understand it.”

  Dat stared at the blank display screen, “Was the tracker that attached itself to the ship they sent here one of the ones that’s reported in?”

  “No, it is one of the two missing.”

  Gibbs looked at Dat, “Why does that one have your curiosity going?”

  “I suspect that ship reported to one of their major planets. If I sent a ship to scout a potential enemy, I would want to question the pilot personally.” Gibbs nodded.

  Shane arrived with Gem and Kelli walking in right behind him. Dat looked over and said, “I’m glad you could make it.”

  “I wouldn’t miss it, Sir.”

  “Take a seat, General Robinson is going to start the show momentarily.”

  Brad pressed his controller and the view of a planet from orbit appeared. The group stared at the image and Brad used a laser to point out various items, “This is a defense satellite just above the horizon.” He brought the view in closer and the satellite was huge. “They have four of these spaced so that the entire surface of the planet is covered.” Brad saw Dat look at him and he quickly said, “These satellites are not in place to defend the planet from an attack from space. Their weapons are pointed at the planet. My staff believes they are used to keep the population on the surface in line.”

  “Are there any ships?”

  “No there are not. And none have shown up at this planet the entire time after the tracker arrived. Apparently, it attached itself to a personal craft that belongs to one of the Servants on the planet. It dropped off before the ship entered atmosphere and started collecting data from orbit.”

  “Brad, what can you tell us about what we’re seeing here?”

  “Admiral, my staff and I believe that this is one of the planets the Servants invaded and conquered.”

  “And you know this because…”

  “The satellites are aimed at the planet. Most of the population on the planet are used to farm and, the biggest clue, Searchers watch over the workers in the fields.”

  Gibbs leaned forward, “Do you see any armored warriors?”

  “No, the Servants do carry hand weapons to maintain control and I’m sure they would use the satellites if anything major happened.”

  Dat shook his head, “They are so strong and fast, I believe armor would slow them down. They don’t need it.”

  Brad began showing image after image and continued his dialogue, “It appears this planet is controlled by the Servants and they have no fear of outside interference. The inhabitants farm and live their lives around that task.”

  Kelli leaned back, “How many of our civilized planets do you see warships in orbit?” The room was silent for a moment and she continued, “One might show up occasionally doing Union business but for the most part, it’s just business as usual with mainly commercial ships coming and going.”

  Gibbs stared at the display, “This planet appears to be self-sufficient; notice no commercial ships are coming or leaving this planet.”

  Dat nodded, “If the Admiral is correct, and they are a feudal society, they wouldn’t welcome anyone from outside the borders of the Lords fief.”

  Matt spoke up, “I believe that ships will come regularly to collect crops from this planet.”

  Everyone turned to him and Dat said, “Why?”

  “This is obviously not one of their major planets; that means it is a part of a higher ranking Lord’s domain. In feudal societies, you pay for the Lord’s protection.”

  Brad nodded, “You’re probably right. One didn’t come to collect while the tracker was above the planet.”

  Dat looked at Brad, “What else do you have?”

  “One of our trackers appears to have attached to one of their warships preparing to invade another planet.”

  The display changed and the viewers were shocked by what they saw. “Brad, how many Bronze Ships are in that formation?”

  “This is a view of the ships on this side of the planet. Notice the formation extends over the horizon from the probes location. My staff tells me there are close to eight hundred thousand ships in the view you see on the display.”

  “What can you tell me about the planet?”

  There are very few species on the planet other than the Servants. I suspect the other species are there strictly for reproductive purposes. All of the beings moving material into shuttles for delivery to the fleet are servants. They are apparently quite strong.” An image appeared showing a Servant carrying two huge boxes three times its size into a shuttle. “Some of them are carrying double what you see here.”

  “Defenses?”

  “There are twelve major defense satellites around the planet and they are oriented to defend the planet against any attack from space. I really can’t comment on how many ships are part of the planetary defense fleet; it’s impossible to distinguish which is which in the massive numbers above the planet.”

  Shane spoke up, “Did you see any troop transporters?”

  Brad adjusted his hand controller and entered a query into it. He looked up at the display and the view suddenly moved from the ships hanging in orbit toward the planet’s surface. The attendees watched as the view moved in on the southern continent and they saw what looked like giant mushrooms growing. As the view moved in closer the mushrooms took on the shape of giant spa
ce ships. Brad looked at his controller’s display, “There are about ten thousand of those ships on the surface. You will notice as the view moves closer that they are surrounded by an extraordinarily large number of Servants.” The view moved in and the number of Servants gathered outside the transports had to be in the millions.

  Matt shook his head, “It appears one of the Major Lords is planning to expand his domain.”

  Dat’s expression was dark, “How do you know this is a Major Lord’s planet?”

  Matt and everyone else in the room looked at Dat and Matt hesitated before saying, “I don’t know. I’m just hoping it is.”

  Kelli looked at Matt, “Why?”

  “If this is one of their Minor Nobility, what would that say about the scope of their civilization?” Kelli’s shock was clear to all. All of them hoped Matt’s original guess was accurate.

  Dat shook his head and didn’t want to ask the question but knew it had to be asked, “Brad, how many of the ships in orbit have the grey guns and missiles?”

  Brad looked confused but lifted the controller and entered the question. After a moment he looked at Dat and said, “A third of them.”

  Dat closed his eyes and slowly opened them. He looked at the Grillen Admiral and tilted his head. The Admiral looked at the display and said, “Those are the ships used to defend the planet. The others are used to invade other planets.”

  Katherine looked at the Admiral, “How do you know that?”

  “This supports the idea that my species was not the only one to be given the Grey Ship technology. The Servants are operating on the belief that any one that attacks them will probably have their grey technology.”

  Katherine looked at Dat, “What does that mean concerning us?”

  “We will have to face their ships that use standard beams and weapons.”

  “Is that good or bad?”

  “I wish we had not destroyed the Grillen production facilities. We could use the Grey ships to meet their initial attacks.”

  The Grillen Admiral looked at Dat, “If you want to assist us, we can rebuild them quickly if given enough support.”

  Katherine looked from the Grillen Admiral to Dat, “What do you think?”

  “We need the Grillen building ships, not Grey Ship production facilities.” He leaned back in his chair and thought for a moment, “Admiral Hull, notify the civilizations in M87 that we’re going back to those planets to build ships to meet an aggressive civilization that is coming to attack our sector of the galaxy. Ask if they can assist us in rebuilding the production facilities.”

  “Why would they agree to do that?”

  Dat smiled, “Greed….and fear; they want to get their hands on the new technology.”

  “Is it a good idea to let them have it?”

  “We can defeat the Grey Ships. They don’t know what the shards were designed to do. They jumped away from the negotiations before they determined what purpose the shards were used for and I’m sure all of them will fall all over each other rushing to assist us. They want the technology.”

  Katherine looked at the Grillen Admiral, “How long will it take to make them productive?”

  “About six months if enough resources are brought to bear; however, you should remember that we were only producing the ships on a hundred planets. If you can get all million plus planets that have that grey ore producing ships, we should have a huge number ready within nine months. The numbers will leap at that point.”

  “Do you think we’ll need a huge number?”

  Brad listened to his wrist unit and he announced, “The final two trackers have downloaded their data. I haven’t organized it, but it appears that the original tracker was taken to one of their major planets.”

  Dat knew that what he was about to see was going to be stunning. His worse estimate was far below what he saw. Brad sent an image of the planet to the display and the room grew silent. The entire planetary system all the way out to the fifth planet was filled with giant Bronze Warships. Dat shook his head, “How many?”

  “Initial estimate is more than half a billion.”

  “How many have grey technology?”

  Brad queried his controller and looked at Dat. His expression told them before he answered, “All of them?”

  Katherine stood up, “Alright, now we know what we’re up against. I’ll get the M87 civilizations building the Grey Ships we’ll need to face off with their standard ships.” She looked at the Grillen, “I need your civilization to make this happen.”

  “I will start working on it immediately.”

  Katherine turned to Dat, “I need you to develop the defenses we’re going to need to take on their grey technology.” Dat nodded. “Tell me what you’re thinking, Admiral?”

  Dat shrugged, “The only way we’re going to be able to buy enough time to build what we need is to distract the Servants.”

  “And just how are we going to do that?”

  “We give them an infestation on their conquered planets.”

  Katherine’s eyebrows narrowed and everyone wondered what he was talking about. “Infestation?”

  “We drop Madators on their planets and allow them to see if the Servants can remove them. I suspect it will take most of their attention away from what’s going on here. If we start rebuilding the Grillen production planets and the Grillen are directing the reconstruction, I believe they will think all is going well with their plan for us to weaken each other. We have fifteen million Jukebox Battleships to modify and that will take a lot of time.”

  Katherine thought about the suggestion, “Do you think the Madators will agree to go into such dangerous conditions?”

  “Katherine, do not tell them we’re planning to do it until the last minute.”

  “Why not?”

  “They’ll run you over trying to be the first to go.”

  Shane tilted his head, “Just how do you go about delivering them on the Servants’ planets without them knowing it was us that delivered them?”

  “That has to be done in three phases. We can’t send a probe into their space without them detecting it and knowing it is one of ours. First, we need to locate the planets we intend to drop the Madators on. We’ll send ten thousand survey ships outside their galaxy, where they will collect the light that left there a hundred years ago. They will be outside their detection range and the Survey Ships will be scanning for the frequency of the Bronze Ship that came to the Grillen home world. Since we know they’re used to invaders, our survey ships should be able to find the planets we’ll use to drop the Madators.”

  Gibbs said, “How do we get them there?”

  Dat thought for a moment and smiled, “We have two allies that were once located in M87. The Horde and Hive have mothballed many of their old warships and we’ll use them to deliver the Madators and knock out the satellites above the planets. Since the satellites’ weapons are all oriented toward the planet they’re circling, it should be easily done. We’ll load four penetrators on them to do the job, if necessary. The Servants have not seen us use a penetrator, so they won’t be able to track them back to us.”

  “What about the Madators?”

  Dat looked at Shane, “I can promise you that the Scout they used to see the destruction of the production facilities did not come anywhere near close enough to see a Madator. Matter of fact, even if they could see the planet’s surface, the Madators are never visible. If they capture a Madator, they won’t be able to connect it with us.”

  Kelli watched Dat and knew she was witnessing the most brilliant military mind in the Union. She looked over at Shane and saw he knew it as well. She knew she had a long way to go before she was at their level of developing tactical plans.

  Katherine stood up, “I’ll get the colonies to contact the Hive and Horde and request the use of some of their old ships. I’ll also get the civilizations in M87 started in helping us with the construction of the new facilities in the Red Sector. The rest of you have your tasks. Let’s get
moving; time is critical.”

  • • •

  Dat activated his wrist unit. Blacky appeared on it, “It won’t be long, my friend. You need to prepare yourself.”

  Blacky’s smile was instant and Dat smiled as Blacky started bobbing.

  • • •

  The Supreme Lord waited for his Advisor to arrive. He looked over a report with a status of his Realm and was halfway through it when the Advisor arrived. “I apologize, Lord. I was on the other side of the planet when you called.”

  “I know and you have no reason to apologize. I want you to send a scout to check on the Ally.”

  “Yes Lord.” The Advisor left and sent the orders to his military contact. The Scout left within ten minutes of the Supreme Lord’s command.

  • • •

  The Scout arrived in the Grillen Galaxy and tried to think about how to determine if the war was happening between the Spiral Galaxy and the Grillen. He thought about it and decided to jump to one of the former production planets in the huge ball galaxy. He was shocked to see the facilities had been rebuilt and were turning out Grey Ships at an incredible pace. He activated his main scanner for a quick view of the planet and collected as much data as possible in the short time he allowed himself. He immediately backed away and moved out of the system. He never saw the hundred trackers attach themselves to his hull. He arrived back at the main military complex and sent the data he collected to the Supreme Lord’s Advisor.

  • • •

  “What have you determined?”

  “It appears the Ally is holding their own against the Spiral Galaxy. The production planets have been rebuilt and huge numbers of Grey Ships are being manufactured.”

  “How many did they rebuild?”

  “I’m sorry, Lord. The Scout only visited one planet.”

  “Why?”

  “We did not want him to be seen by our Ally. It would cause suspicions we want to avoid.”

  The Supreme Lord thought about what the data meant and he knew the Ally would not be building Grey Ships unless they were needed against the Spiral Galaxy. They were still at war. He nodded to his Advisor dismissing him and went back to his report. They weren’t ready for invasion…yet.