by Saxon Andrew
Pray for the Prey
Lens of Time – Book Three
Contents
Introduction
Chapter One • Chapter Two • Chapter Three • Chapter Four • Chapter Five • Chapter Six • Chapter Seven • Chapter Eight • Chapter Nine • Chapter Ten • Chapter Eleven • Chapter Twelve • Chapter Thirteen • Chapter Fourteen • Chapter Fifteen • Chapter Sixteen • Chapter Seventeen • Chapter Eighteen • Chapter Nineteen • Chapter Twenty • Chapter Twenty-One • Chapter Twenty-Two • Chapter Twenty-Three • Chapter Twenty-Four
Excerpt from The End of Time
Books by Saxon Andrew
About Saxon Andrew
Introduction
Zack and Isadore made a fast run by M87, recording two weeks of reflected light, before jumping away to look at the results of their recording. The crew of the Ninja watched their monitors to make sure they weren’t followed and kept their weapons scanners active. After an hour, Zack ended battle stations and the crew started to relax. However, none of them moved very far from their combat stations and most left their weapons on standby for immediate activation. The twenty crewmembers chosen to serve on the Ninja were the best the Navy had.
The Ninja had grown in size and was no longer just a two man ship. With the increased power of the new reactors, it had to grow just to move a reactor inside its hull. It was a powerful weapon now but Zack was not willing to risk it in an engagement, he chose to run first. He finally jumped to Izzy’s favorite location to capture Earth’s light while he viewed the data collected.
Isadore stared at the display showing Earth thousands of years in the past and she was amazed at the beauty of the green and blue planet. Zack began running the recordings and brought the view in closer, “What are they doing?”
Izzy turned around from watching the scanners and saw two ships moving toward each other, “I don’t know.”
They watched as a Violet Ship and a Yellow Battleship moved toward each other in the center of the neutral zone between their vast fleets.
“Izzy, run this back.”
“Why?”
“I want to see who initiated this meeting.”
“You think they’re going to communicate?”
“I think that’s obvious. We need to know who wanted this meeting to happen.”
Izzy backed the recording up and they watched as a Violet Battleship moved out of their lines toward the center of the space between the two giant fleets. The Violet Ship did not have a force field raised and it was flashing a bright white light on top of it.
“I was afraid of that.”
“What?”
“I think the Violet Ships are going to ask their enemy for help.” Izzy looked at Zack and he was slowly shaking his head, “This is not good.”
“Why would the Yellow Ships agree to help them? They’ve been killing each other for thousands of years.” Izzy watched the recording as the two ships moved closer and stopped. She waited for one of them to fire on the other but nothing happened. Two hours later the ships turned and went back to their lines.
“Get this information out to Dundee, Izzy!” Zack hit the intercom and said, “Jump alert, we’ll be jumping in sixty seconds.”
Izzy set the drive and looked back at the recording. The Violet Ship that had gone out to meet the Yellow Battleship, jumped away. Just before she jumped the Ninja, she moved the view on her display to the Yellow ship and watched it jump away as well. She shook her head and hoped this wasn’t what she thought it was. She was about to hit the jump button when the Ninja was rocked.
Chapter One
Chris looked over at Dolly as they watched their displays showing the Shuttles flying around one of the destroyed Jenze Planets. So far no life had been found at the other seven, but this last planet was not hit as hard as the others. The savage defense by the Jenze Ships had slowed the Violet ships from their attack and they were behind schedule in meeting their fleet at the edge of the Galaxy. They had hit the planet, but had rushed the effort and left quickly so as not to slow the fleet down.
There were thousands of beam and nuclear missiles fired on the planet, but nothing close to the hundreds of thousands used on the other seven. “Dolly, how many survivors have we found?”
“Remarkably enough, more than seventy thousand so far; most of them were not close to the major metropolitan areas. We will continue the search until the radioactive clouds expand over the planet’s surface.”
Arnold Gordon shook his head, “We’re lucky we weren’t hit as well.”
“You’re right, father. Our subterfuge worked.”
Dolly looked over at Jeff and saw he was troubled, “What’s bothering you?”
Jeff Shook his head and said, “I’m not sure we should go after that fleet.”
“Why not?”
Jeff stood up and began pacing in front of the wall display. “What happens if we manage to kill that fleet of Violet Ships?”
Jillian said, “I suspect the Blue Giants will see that we’re being honest with them and they may be willing to work with us against those aggressive civilizations in M-87.”
Jeff looked at Jillian, “What would you do if one of our fleets was destroyed going out to defend us?”
Jillian started to respond but then sat back in her chair. Chris said, “I would send out scouts to find the ones that did it and come after them with all I had.”
Jeff nodded, “So would I.”
Dolly furrowed her brow and said, “Are you saying we shouldn’t go to the aid of the Giants?”
“I guess I am, Dolly. You’ve seen how many ships they have in their fleets. I really hope they don’t see us as a bigger threat than the Yellow Ships they’re fighting.”
Hemon said, “I think this is like when the Hyksos attacked the Pharaoh’s armies and made it appear the Nubians were responsible. How will we be targeted by the Violet Civilization if we are able to destroy their fleet? We’ll be attacking them in the Andromeda Galaxy.”
Jeff shook his head, “And why would the sensor buoy they left between galaxies be destroyed if it was only in Andromeda that the battle took place? Do you think that might make them come and take a closer look at us?”
George came on the display, “I’ve been listening to your discussion and we still need to hit that fleet with everything we have.”
Arnold said, “Why?”
“Because we must learn where we stand against them technologically; we know that all their surplus ships were put into this attack and if their enemy in M-87 has built their fleets up, the Violet Ships will not be able to come back for a long period of time. We need to know where we stand. However, I would recommend a hasty exit from that battle if we are successful.”
Dolly nodded, “I agree. We can’t delay.”
Chris said, “Why do you say that?”
“We are in constant contact with our ships, Chris. What would we do if one of our fleets suddenly stopped communicating and the sensor buoy we had to watch events also stopped broadcasting?”
“I would immediately send a ship to investigate.”
“Exactly, and we don’t want to be anywhere around the site of that battle if that happens.”
Jeff sat back down, “It may be a moot point if we can’t penetrate their force fields.”
George said, “And that’s exactly the reason we should go. We’re going to be producing more than a thousand ships a month shortly and if they aren’t effective against the Violet Ships, we need to stop and look at taking another direction. We also need to know which weapon system we should concentrate on producing; the strikers or the main guns. We can still make the changes we need if we know what will work against their ships.”
Chris looked around the table, “Before
we go any further with this, I need to let you know about a change.”
Everyone looked at him and Dolly asked, “What Change?’
“This conversation has only convinced me that I’m making the right decision.” Chris looked over at Jillian and she nodded. “Jillian and I have been discussing my having the overall command of our military forces. I am woefully out of my league when it comes to planning and executing naval strategy. I’m just a college professor who happens to have invented a remarkable device. I have no experience in military tactics. I am resigning my position in the military immediately and Jillian and I are going to take our ship and start doing a time study of M-87. It’s important that we learn how that giant galaxy developed and where any possible danger exists. Civilizations from there have been invading and destroying our galaxy for millions of years. We need to see if there is any weakness we can uncover and exploit. We can help our efforts best by doing that.”
Jillian said, “And don’t try to stroke our ego; all of you know Arvolo is head and shoulders ahead of both of us in using our ships effectively. I think we actually get in his way most of the time.”
The room was silent and finally Dolly said, “You’re right; your talents lie elsewhere.” She looked at Jeff, “Who should be in overall command?”
“You know the answer to that. Why are you reluctant to say it?”
Dolly shook her head, “You amaze me with your ability to read my mind. How long did it take you to see it?”
“As soon as he opened his mouth.”
Dolly laughed out loud as George said, “Now wait a minute. Where are you going with this?”
Jeff said, “We were sitting here struggling with what we should do and you jumped right in and told us what must be done and the reason why.” George started shaking his head but Jeff continued, “And don’t try to say you don’t know military tactics. I know you consumed the entire library at our Fleet Academy in order to build the best ships for our Fleets. You understand tactics.”
Dolly chimed in, “And I happen to know that your staff is now able to handle the construction of our ships. You know I’m right, George.”
George looked off the screen, put his hand over the microphone, and appeared to be listening. He kept the microphone pick up covered and said something. They watched as he listened for a moment and then he turned back to the display, “Ok, I’ll do it.”
Chris said, “Just like that; that was a quick decision.”
“Meisa just told me that she misses the adrenaline rush from a space battle. I must say that I happen to agree with her; however, Admiral Arvolo will remain in overall command of our Fleets and will be responsible for carrying out our directives.”
Dolly looked around the room and everyone nodded, “Done!”
“One more thing; Dolly; get some scouts out into a galaxy directly away from M-87 and find some planets for us to colonize. Get on that immediately as it is the most important task the command team needs to work on as quickly as possible.”
“You think they might come back here?”
“I do and we need to plan accordingly. We’ve got the colonization process down to a science and we need to move our ship building facilities out of the Milky Way as quickly as possible. You know we couldn’t escape a detailed scan if the Violet Ships really had time to take a good look.”
Dolly looked at Arnold and he said, “We’ve set up six more ships for colonization. We’ll slate those for another galaxy.”
George looked at Dolly, “Do you have an idea as to which one we need to move?”
“I’ll leave that up to Chris and Jillian. They can take a good look at any we select and see if we’re jumping from the skillet into a frying pan.”
Chris looked at Jillian and shrugged, “We’ll get on that before we start the scan of M-87. You’re right; we need to make sure all of us aren’t in the same elevator. I’ll let you know what we find.”
Arnold said, “I would start that search in the opposite direction of M-87. I think distance is a great way to hide.” Chris tilted his head left and right and then nodded.
George looked at Hemon and said, “You need to contact the Alliance and see if they’re interested in moving as well. I suspect things might get hot here.”
Hemon looked at Sasha and then nodded, “I’ll contact them and make the inquiry.”
Dolly smiled, “Well, now we need to see how we do against that Violet Fleet.”
Jeff said, “We’ll know shortly.”
Chapter Two
The Earth Fleet arrived just inside the outer edge of the Milky Way after assembling at Earth. Arvolo looked at his board and turned to Cyanna, “Before we begin our practice exercise and jump in on Andromeda, have you planned to dispose of the Violet Probe?”
“Yes Sir, one of our Needles was sent ahead to locate it and target it for destruction.”
Arvolo heard his board beep and he said, “Hold on a minute.” He began reading his display and after five minutes he looked up.
“Has that task been completed?”
“Not yet, Gretchen Logan is waiting for the order to launch a mini-striker on it.
“We’ve had a change in plans. We will be jumping the fleet to the other side of our galaxy to conduct our practice exercise. The destruction of the probe will be delayed until we’re ready to jump to Andromeda. At the completion of our exercise we will then jump directly from there to the location of the Violet Fleet to begin our attack. Order Captain Logan to take out the buoy the moment we jump to Andromeda and to join her wing afterwards.”
Cyanna said, “Yes Sir.” She began issuing orders to the fleet and wondered what was happening to make RV change the plans at the last minute. The Fleet jumped across the Milky Way and formed into three, four hundred ship formations.
Arvolo looked out at the twelve hundred Battleships and said over the fleet frequency, “We will only have a short time to practice for this exercise, so make it count. Each fleet will be assigned a line of Violet Ships and our timing must be exact. Make sure your needles have their weapons set for the correct timing, distance, and are assigned the appropriate place in their attack waves. Are there any questions?”
The channel remained silent and Arvolo took a deep breath and said, “Begin the exercise.”
The twelve hundred Earth Battleships jumped into position and launched their needles. Arvolo watched the fleet move into their assigned formations and go through their practice attack. He turned to Cyanna, “That’s not going to work.”
“I see that. Let me make a change.”
“You can make all the changes you want but our practice time is over. Form the fleet up and get ready to jump.”
Cyanna issued the commands and jump coordinates for the fleet as she simultaneously issued instructions to the Needle’s Wing Commanders. They received the new instructions and scrambled to make the changes before the Fleet arrived at Andromeda. It was going to be close. Cyanna delayed as long as possible but saw RV starting to get impatient. She announced, “We will jump into Sierra Space in fifty seconds.” She put her hand on the fleet jump control but watched the communication panel out of the corner of her eye. As she turned to Arvolo for the order to jump, she saw a green light go on in the upper corner of her board. She smiled, “Let’s hope they can do it.” She looked at RV for the command to jump.
• • •
Earth’s Command Team was watching the feed from the fleet and Chris said, “There is no way they can pull off that maneuver with the Needles. They need to change that plan before they jump in on the Violet Fleet.”
Jeff sighed, “I’ve listened to their fleet frequency and they have issued commands to change the attack pattern. I don’t know if they have enough time to make it work.”
Chris looked at Dolly and she could tell he was worried. She looked at her display and said, “If Arvolo takes the time to practice a new exercise, I suspect they will lose their opportunity to catch the Violet Fleet in open space outside Andromeda and th
en the entire plan will be for naught. Once they enter the galaxy, there’s no possibility of attacking them in their formations. I think it’s too late to stop this from happening. Even if the Needles aren’t totally successful, they should be able to destroy some of those ships if the initial phase is successful. We still need to know how our ships match up to theirs.”
Chris stood up and began pacing in front of the main wall display. Jillian got up and joined him. She whispered, “Either we trust Arvolo to make this work or George will have to assume command of the Fleet. If we override Arvolo’s decisions now, he will lose his ability to command those ships.” Chris stopped pacing and Jillian said, “Until our Crazy Cuban messes up, he should be supported.”
Chris sighed and watched as the twelve hundred battleships moved into their formations prior to jumping. “Well, it’s too late now. Let’s pray he’s got this under control.”
“Have you ever seen him out of control?”
“I did see him cry at his medal presentation.”
Jillian punched him on the arm, “What do you mean? You were crying like a baby as well.”
“I made the mistake of looking in a mirror and saw my full beauty in my dress uniform. That would bring tears to anyone.”
Jillian shook her head, “Now who has the oversized ego?”
“I’ll be close to you eventually.”
Jillian went to punch him on the arm again but he ran and hid behind Dolly’s Chair.
Dolly didn’t even look up as Jillian chased Chris, but looked at her fingernails as she picked up a file to work on them. Chris watched her from behind her chair and raised his eyebrows. Jeff said, “She does this when she’s not able to do anything but wait. If she keeps this up she won’t have any fingernails.”
Dolly said, “Sure I will; this file is smooth.”
Jeff flinched and came over and took the file from her hand and rubbed his finger on it. Chris and Jillian delayed their chase as he checked the file. He shook his head and said, “Just when I think I’ve got you all figured out I discover I’m not even close.”
