by Saxon Andrew
“He put me to sleep to fit me in armor.”
Rocky smiled, “Amber.”
“Yes.”
“Go by the building facility and have them install Jill’s armor on the ship. While you’re there, pick up some uniforms her size.”
“It might be easier for the two of you to meet us there and let her select her uniforms. What rank will she be? I’ll communicate with the facility and have them ready for her.”
“I don’t know. Give me a moment.” Rocky sent a request to speak with the High Leader and she instantly appeared on his wrist unit, “Yes!”
“We need to pick up uniforms for Jill. What rank will she be?”
“Commodore. Now get moving.”
Rocky’s head went back and Jill stopped dead in her tracks. She looked at Rocky, “Did I hear her correctly?”
“It appears the High Leader has looked at your records and determined that you are much more than I thought. I think it also tells us just how important this mission is.”
“Why do you say that?”
“No civilian has entered the service at that rank in more than three hundred years. She’s giving us the clout to make things happen.”
Jill shook her head. Things were moving too fast. She was dizzy with everything and hoped she could get a grip before they left for Feeder Space. She prayed Jack would be ok.
• • •
Jack sat in Geneve’s basement and wondered what was happening to Jill. He knew the military had to be grilling her about his whereabouts but he knew she wouldn’t give him up. She could block them from learning about Genève. He sighed and drank the remaining water in his glass and stood up. He stretched and started up the steps. He listened carefully at the basement door and didn’t hear anything. Genève would be back in about an hour. Her last class would be over in another fifteen minutes and she’d come straight home. He cracked the door open slightly and then slowly opened it wide. He walked over to the cooler and took out a bottle of water. “I suspect that’s probably pretty cold.” Jack fell back against the counter at the sound of the voice and almost fell to the floor. “Hey, hey, take it easy!” Jack looked into the dining room and saw a man in a military uniform sitting on a beach chair. He didn’t see him initially because he was below the level of the dining room table. “I was wondering if you were going to make an appearance before your girlfriend.” Jack looked around the small kitchen and the man pulled a blaster out of its holster, “I have it set on stun. If you try to make a break for it, I’ll be forced to use it.” Jack stared at him and the man shrugged, “You should know there are ten armored guards outside that door you’re thinking about using to escape. Why don’t you sit down and let’s discuss this like reasonable adults.”
“How did you find me?”
“Trust me, it wasn’t easy.” Jack stared at him and the man smiled, “I’m Admiral Lukas Ambrose.” Jack’s eyes widened and he immediately saw the man’s stars on his collar. “Will you relax!? You’re starting to make me nervous. Sit down please.” Jack slid over to a chair at the table and sat down but continued to look for a way to escape. Lukas smiled, “I’m not here to arrest you.”
“Then why are you here? And why are you here?”
The man’s eyebrows went up and then he smiled, “Oh, you’re asking why I’m personally here instead of one of my henchmen?” Jack nodded. “It has been brought to my attention that you have developed a device that allows you to hide your mind from other telepaths.”
“HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?”
“Well, since I want to keep our conversation open and honest, I’ll just say your sister told the High Leader about it.”
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER!?”
“She’s fine. And the High Leader has promised her that you will not be harmed or forced to go on a mission you want to avoid.”
Jack stared at the man for a long moment and then Genève came through the front door with an armored guard escorting her. Jack’s eyes went wide and the Admiral turned and said, “Leave us!” The armored warrior nodded and went out the front door.
“What’s going on, Jack?”
Lukas smiled, “Why don’t you join us at the table Miss Rodrigues.” Geneviève looked at Jack and he sighed and nodded. She went to the table and sat down next to Jack and took his hand as Lukas stood up out of the beach chair, “Miss Rodrigues, you really need to get a more comfortable beach chair. This one is hard on the back.” Lukas went to a chair across the table from them and sat down. “Was your sister right about the device?” Jack looked at Genny and then looked at Admiral Ambrose, “Yes.”
“Good.”
“What’s going on, Admiral?”
“Jack, your sister says that you aren’t cut out to be the warrior type. Is she right?”
“I have no desire to kill anything.”
“What if someone came in here and threatened to harm Miss Rodrigues, would you harm them to protect her?”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“They would be endangering her.”
“So you would be willing to attack and possibly kill anyone who threatened to harm her?”
“If forced to do it, I would.”
“The Feeders will be here in less than ten years if something’s not done to slow them down. I do hope you know about how the Death Feeders consume their prey.” Jack started shaking his head and Lukas said, “I’m being truthful, Jack. If they find us, they will overwhelm our forces and take Earth. I suspect you and Miss Rodrigues will be one of the first consumed because of your high intelligence.”
“Call me Genny.”
Lukas nodded, “I didn’t want to be too familiar.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“We need your device, if it actually works, to send out ships to slow them down. I came here to try and persuade you to work with us in using it to protect our pilots from the Feeder’s linkages.”
“Where is Jill?”
“She chose to go on the mission you ran to avoid.”
“GET HER BACK!”
“Sorry, her ship has left and we have no way to contact it. She agreed to give her best effort in making the mission a success. At the moment, her vessel is the only one we’re sending to try and slow the Feeder advance. Your device would allow us to send more ships to assist her in the effort.”
“You forced her to do it!”
Lukas shrugged, “Yes, we did. Just like we would force someone to save you and Genny if you were attacked. She made one condition clear.”
“What is that?”
“That we would not harm you in any way. We will keep that promise, Jack. My forces will no longer pursue you and you are free to go about your life as you choose.”
Jack stared at Lukas and Genny said, “But you said you needed Jack’s device to send more ships?”
“We do. But that is something that Jack will have to be willing to agree to do. I’m hoping he will.”
“Why do you need my device?”
“Jack, what I’m about to tell you is classified to a level that could get you executed if you reveal it. It could cause a panic in the general population if it got out. The Feeders captured an advanced warship about three hundred years ago from a species that is actually more evil than the Feeders. That ship has the ability to face off with our most advanced ships on an even footing. If the Feeders can detect our ships. Well, you can imagine where we’d be.”
“I thought our minds are invisible to the Feeders?”
“They can’t see us or hear our thoughts but they are able to sense our presence. If they know we’re in their space, they have enough ships to find and attack us. I’m hoping your device will prevent them sensing our presence. That new ship has an advanced sensor array that detected one of our ships that entered that species domain. The Feeders now have ships that represent a real danger to our civilization. Will you help us, Jack?”
Jack sighed and looked at Genny, who stared into his eyes and no
dded slightly. He looked at Lukas and said, “If I say no, you won’t allow me to just walk away, will you?”
Lukas smiled, “I’ll do everything in my power to allow you to do just that. I’ll even allow the two of you to leave here with your device and hide from those that will accuse me of treason.”
“Why would you do that?”
“I listened to the recording of your sister when she chose to go on the mission. The love she has for you amazed me. That deserves my respect.”
Jack nodded and said, “I’ll help you.”
Lukas closed his eyes and nodded, “Thank you, Jack. I really appreciate it.”
“You were being honest weren’t you?”
“Yes.”
Jack smiled and stuck out his hand, “I’m your man, Admiral.” Lukas took it and shook it firmly.
Chapter Three
“Prime, we have failed to find the species in this cluster as well.”
“Did you find anything worth invading?”
“There are thousands of intelligent species in this cluster but none of them are telepathic. Do you want to extend our domain this far away from where we’ve consolidated out conquests?”
“No, I want that telepathic species found that attacked me and destroyed my largest city.”
“Great Leader, we’ve been unable to find anything during our search. We’ve gone more than a billion light years and have nothing to show for the effort.”
“So you are also of the opinion that the attacker went in a direction that was chosen to deceive us?”
“I must say that I am and I ask forgiveness for disagreeing.”
“That’s unnecessary. I want the fleets that have completed their searches to return to our domain and I will choose another place for them to search.”
“Do you think we should start expanding our territory again? I have received reports that population pressures are starting to be a problem.”
The first four fleets to come back will be sent to attack the next targets on our list. The others will be sent out to continue the search.”
“That species has not shown up again.”
“But they are still out there somewhere and represent a real danger to us. We will find them and remove them as a threat.”
The Senior Fleet Leader knew that the Prime’s thoughts were a product of all the Death Feeder Leaders on the two Capital Planets that were linked. The majority of them still feared the species that attacked more than three centuries earlier. “I will start the voyage back in six days, Prime Leader.”
• • •
Rocky listened to the powerful thoughts of the two Keeper Leaders and looked out of his viewport toward the bow where Jill was working on her panel. “How’s it going?”
“I think I’ve got a basic understanding of how everything works. I do have a concern.”
“What is that?”
“If you choose to attack a Feeder Fleet, we are going to run out of missiles pretty quickly.”
“I understand that we have more than ten thousand stored in the armory.”
“Have you taken a good look at the size of the Feeder’s smallest fleets? They’re larger than a hundred thousand warships and if we go in with our weapons blazing, we’ll exhaust the missiles in less than twenty minutes.”
Rocky sighed, “We’ll just have to use the disruptors.”
“That’s what I’m planning to do and only use the missiles to target ships that are moving in on us. Our disruptor beams will give away our position when they’re fired putting us in harm’s way even if we move the ship immediately after firing. Once we start using the disruptors, the Feeder’s Warships will start jumping in on us. We need those missiles to keep them at bay.”
Rocky saw Jill looking at him through her cockpit window. “What do you recommend?”
“Why are you asking me?”
“Because you are the weapons expert. I would think you know more about them than I do.”
Jill shook her head and looked up, “Amber.”
“Yes, Jill.”
“Do you know how far along Fleet was in producing the Missile Magazines when we left?”
“I believe I received an update that said the first transport had passed trials.”
Jill looked at Rocky through her viewport, “We need to go back to Earth.”
“For God’s sake why?”
“If they’ve managed to complete the construction of the Missile Magazine Transport, we need to pick one up and bring it out here.”
Rocky’s eyes narrowed, “I don’t remember hearing anything about this transport you’re talking about.”
“I heard about it by accident. Two engineers were discussing it when the Commodore had me tied to the couch.”
“What is it?”
“It’s a large flat vessel that has more than two hundred portable armories installed on it. A ship like ours lands on the hull and is locked in place. The missile magazine in our ship will drop into an empty slot and another full magazine will slide forward and be inserted into our armory. The entire process takes less than ten seconds.”
“This ship isn’t designed to do that.”
“That’s why we have to go back or would you prefer to go back over and over to rearm our ship?”
Rocky stared at Jill and said, “Are you doing this to confirm the High Leader kept her word about your brother?”
“That’s certainly part of it. This does give me a good reason to go and see. However, if you don’t see the benefit, I’m fine with it. We’ll be going back a lot and I’ll see about him when that happens anyway.”
Rocky stared at her across the space between their cockpits and shrugged, “Amber, skip us out of here and contact Fleet Construction. Find out if they have this transport and how long it will take to modify our ship to use it.”
The galaxy they were in disappeared and the Light Ship reappeared in intergalactic space. Rocky waited and after a few minutes, he said, “Amber?”
“They have a transport ready but it’s not loaded. It will take five days to get it ready and about the same amount of time to modify our ship to use it.”
“Willow, where is the Fleet of that Keeper that was communicating with the entity in their central system?”
“That particular Keeper is on the right edge of the Keeper Fleets conducting the search.”
“That is the fleet we’re going to have to go after.”
“Why?”
“Jill, we have to make them think they were slightly offline in their searches. We’ll move in on that fleet from outside their locations and it may cause them to start searching again.”
“You’re right. That does make sense.”
“Fleet tells me that if we’re coming back they have a software update that will improve our targeting systems.”
“Then we need to go back anyway. However, I will not wait until that fleet packs up and leaves. If we’re not ready in five days, we’re coming back. Everyone understand?” His question was greeted with silence and he said, “Get us home Amber.” An instant later, they landed outside the construction facility and engineers and technicians surrounded the ship.
“I’ll see you shortly.”
Rocky saw Jill stand up in her cockpit and walk out of view. He stood up and pressed a number on his wrist unit, “I’m back for a few days. Are you free?”
“Rocky, I didn’t expect you back for a long time.”
“Something happened and I’m back for five days. I figured we would make the best of it.” Rocky saw Olivia’s expression change. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry, Rocky. I can’t sit at home and wait on you to just show up when you can. I’m seeing someone else.”
“Olivia, you knew I was in the Navy and what that meant.”
“Yes and it hasn’t been a problem in the past. However, Intelligence is of the opinion that your mission is a one-way trip. Tell me honestly, Rocky; are they wrong?”
Rocky stared at her on his wrist unit a
nd, after a long moment of silence, he said, “Good luck with your new relationship.”
“Rocky!”
Rocky ended the call. Olivia was a captain in Fleet Intelligence and she was privy to everything happening in Fleet Operations. She was beautiful, highly intelligent, and a fast riser in the Fleet hierarchy. He really cared about her. She had won his heart from the first moment she called him Stone Hinge. He had looked at her and she smiled, “Or should I say, Stone Head?”
She knew about his evaluations and used it to poke fun at him. He pulled up his files and saw that his promotion wasn’t recorded yet. He hated to believe it but couldn’t prevent the thought that if she did know, she wouldn’t have left so quickly. “Captain, are you leaving the ship?”
“No, I’ll stay on board and you can update me on what you’re doing. By the way, where’s Commodore Jekins?”
“He was reassigned to command the Planetary Force Field Projector located at the South Pole.”
Rocky smiled. That change didn’t take long to become known. He wondered how long it would take for his promotion to become known. That evening, his communicator on the console in his personal quarters beeped. He put on a shirt and pressed the button, “I just wanted to call and apologize for not offering you the courtesy you deserve with your rank, Admiral.”
“You didn’t know about it, Commodore. Don’t give it a second thought.”
“Yes Sir. I’ve brought in three shifts to assist in getting your vessel ready on time, Sir.”
“Thank you.” The display went dark and Rocky smiled. No Commodore wanted a Fleet Admiral anywhere near their command. The faster he could be sent out the better. No one liked a superior officer looking over their shoulder.
Two hours later, Olivia’s code appeared on his wrist unit and he ignored it. After ten more attempts at contacting him, he erased her code from his unit and blocked it. He hated being right about her. Sleep came hard but it finally overcame his melancholy and he closed his eyes. She was just one of many that proved to be less than he thought. The last thought he had before he slept was that after so many failures, it might be him that was the problem.
Rocky watched his ship being modified and he had numerous questions that were quickly and professionally answered by the teams working on it. It was surprising how much respect he was given by the hundreds working on the ship. He walked into the giant building and saw the Missile Transport across the huge hangar with large cranes lifting enormous containers and placing them inside it. The giant transport dwarfed his ship and he called an engineer over, “How am I going to move this vessel?”
