Pray for the Prey

by Saxon Andrew

  • • •

  Admirals Arvolo and Hardy were in the conference room on the Havana prior to jumping to the industrial planets. Standing at rigid attention in front of them was a young Needle Pilot. Lt. Kate Diamond was scared stiff. She thought that her little flight through the middle of a Moet Dreadnaught had gone unnoticed. She should have known better; this Admiral didn’t miss much. The explosion following her flight was hard to ignore. She remained at attention expecting the worst as the Admiral finished a communication. He looked up at Kate and said, “I’m curious about your use of a Needle as a missile. I haven’t found that particular tactic in our fleet protocols.”

  “No Sir, it’s not listed.”

  “Then tell me where you found the authorization to deliberately jeopardize a hundred million dollar starship in reckless behavior? Crashing it through the middle of a Moet Dreadnaught is not something we teach at the academy.”

  “I performed that maneuver without permission, Sir.”

  “Did you know your ship would survive that maneuver?”

  No Sir, I did not.”

  “Then why did you decide to do that?”

  “A dreadnaught was powering up its jump screen to escape. It was a coward and chose to run when all the others fought like warriors and died. I just couldn’t bear leaving without a perfect score, Sir.”

  “Perfect score?”

  “You know, 100% met; 100% killed. The memory of those that died on Earth at the hands of these cowards screamed for me to stop it.”

  “Why didn’t you just use your weapons?”

  “I was out of strikers and my beams were too low to penetrate its force field. It was worth my life for our future generations to point to this moment in time and know that we killed them all. If just one ship escaped, it would be a partial victory.”

  “So you were willing to die to prevent that happening?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “And you were also willing to destroy a hundred million dollar ship in the process?”

  “I would have taken out a billion dollar ship. That’s a fair trade off.”

  Cyanna snickered although she was trying her best not to show any expression. RV looked at her with a stern expression, “You find this funny, Admiral?”

  “Sir, no Sir.”

  RV continued to stare at Cyanna and then turned to Kate, “You will receive the appropriate action for your behavior, Captain.”

  Kate knew she was going to be court-martialed out of the service, “Yes Sir.” Then she thought, “Captain?”

  RV looked at Cyanna and said, “Have her sign it!”

  Cyanna pushed a document forward and indicated toward the bottom, “Please sign here, Captain.”

  Kate said, “Sir, my rank is Lieutenant,” as she stepped forward, took the pen, and signed. Cyanna pulled a copy and handed it to the young pilot and said, “Please report to the location on this document.”

  Kate saluted and said, “Sir, yes Sir.” She lifted the document and saw that she was promoted to Senior Captain and given the command of a brand new main battleship. Her mouth fell open and she stared at RV speechless, “If you’re going to crash through enemy ships, you need a bigger ship.” Kate continued to stare dumbfounded, “You can name her when you go pick her up.”

  Kate smiled and said, “She’ll be named the Scotland, Sir.”

  RV smiled, “That’s a mighty fine name there, Lassie. Let’s hope she can live up to it.”

  Kate beamed and said, “Oh, she will, Sir,” as she turned and ran out of the room.

  Cyanna looked at RV, “Why did you put her through that?”

  “I had to see if what she did was the result of an intelligent decision or stupidity.”

  “What if it was stupidity?”

  “That’s what the other document was for; but we didn’t have to use it, did we?”

  “No, thank God. Where is her ship going to be sent?”

  “She will be one of the ships in the Havana’s guard squadron. I feel safer with a Captain that is willing to use their ship to carry out their mission.”

  “You have a lot of those in the squadron.”

  “You never know when we might need them.”

  “Are you expecting something?”

  “I’m always expecting something. My first name is expecting.”

  “I thought it was enigma?”

  “That’s my suffix.”

  Cyanna sighed and said, “I’ll get your real first name one day.”

  “I just gave it to you.”

  Cyanna laughed and they left for the bridge.

  Chapter Eleven

  The new Hive Controller tuned to his bank of displays and checked on the progress of reconstruction. His former Scanner Controller was now the Fleet Controller and the former council had made a great meal over the last eight rotations. They should have backed him in his new position. At least the others had wisely chosen to remain silent and leave the new capital.

  He glanced at the display in the upper right corner of his display bank and saw the destroyed planet had started to heal from the nuclear weapons rained on it. The clouds had diminished and the ocean was shining bright blue. Most of the land masses were still barren, but there were large pockets of green starting to show through.

  He continued to stare at the display and wondered why he had kept it. He still had nightmares of that small white ship hitting the former Hive. It had been five months and nothing had appeared, but he couldn’t bring himself to change the view. He took a deep breath and called in his top aide, “What are the Yellow Ships doing?”

  “They have pulled a large number of their ships from the neutral zone to fight off an attack at their inner border.”

  “Do we know if they were successful?”

  “Not yet. We can only hope they are.”

  “I know. Better the enemy I know than one I don’t. Have we heard anything about the core expanding again?”

  “No and we are unable to send a ship to investigate. It would never make it through the civilizations to see. I suspect that if the Horde is being pressured by the forces at its inner border, something is happening.”

  “If war has broken out among the Majors again, there will be a rush to escape the core.”

  “Send a ship anyway; we might get lucky.”

  The aide bowed and backed out of the Hive Controller’s cell. He thought about the possibility of leaving this galaxy but knew that would only be a last resort. Finding a planet with the right climate for nesting was next to impossible. Finding ten thousand would be impossible. He glanced at that display again and felt his fear.

  • • •

  Izzy watched Zack go through the new recordings of the Violet Civilization. There wasn’t much new so she turned to the scanners and extended the fields. She had found a place just outside the Milky Way where the light from Earth’s ancient past arrived uninterrupted by objects passing in its outward past. She pulled up the picture of Earth at a time when it was cool and the planet had vast grasslands with large land animals. She had tried to find man’s earliest ancestors in close scans but had been unsuccessful so far.

  Zack glanced over and said, “Planet gazing again, I see.”

  “Yes, I am. Thank you for finding this place. You have to admit our planet was beautiful in the past.”

  Zack looked at her display and smiled, “Yes, it was.”

  Izzy sighed, “I miss it so much.”

  Zack slowly shook his head, “I know that feeling, Izzy. I know it well.” He went back to work as Izzy continued viewing the display. The eighteen crew members sat at their weapons and scanned for possible attackers. One could never be too cautious.

  • • •

  The large creature sat in his deep dwelling and watched his console. A small tech crawled in and remained at the entrance waiting for instructions. “What do you know about that planet that was destroyed out on the periphery?”

  “Nothing; we recorded the explosion but don’t know what
caused it.”

  “Are those two civilizations starting to destroy planets?”

  “I have no information about that. My analysis of the explosion indicates that the yellow enemy did not cause it.”

  The large creature said, “Different form of energy?”

  “Yes, it was and it appears that most of the damage was not done by an explosive device.”

  “It wasn’t?”

  “No; it appears that several objects moving very close to light speed hit that planet and caused the destruction.”

  “Have you planned a response to the violation?”

  “I was waiting for your direction. At this point I have no idea as to who I would report the violation to; if the enemy facing them didn’t do it, I have no idea who did.”

  The large creature remained silent as it replayed the explosion. It ran an analysis and said, “There’s no energy to track this violation back to; perhaps we should go and ask those that were attacked about this?”

  “Is that what you want done?”

  “Have you checked with the other Majors?”

  “I have and none of them know anything more than us.”

  “Ummmmm…send a ship.”

  The tech turned and slid out of the cave. He sent the message to the surface and a ship was dispatched. It had been millions of years since the injunction against destroying planets had been violated. It really believed that the attacked civilization was not responsible. It did make one wonder who was. Well, whoever did it would not be around much longer.

  • • •

  The Hive Controller heard all of his alarms going off at high volume. He turned the sound off and looked at his main display and felt paralyzing fear; a Major Battleship was in orbit above the new home hive. He saw a message coming in and activated his board. “We are here to investigate the destruction of a planet in your area of responsibility. This is a violation of the Major Conventions and you will comply with this investigation.”

  The Hive Controller said, “Our planet was destroyed by a civilization from another galaxy.”

  “Why did they destroy your planet?”

  “Because we destroyed theirs; they represented a threat to our galaxy, so we attacked and killed the planet of a dangerous species.”

  “Why did you not kill them all?”

  “We thought we did, but found one ship survived the destruction of their home world. It was that ship that crashed into our planet and destroyed it.”

  “You were unable to prevent the destruction?”

  “I’m sending you the recording of all events associated with that civilization.”

  The Ship Tech received the transmission and went through them at maximum speed. “Have you not gone back to that galaxy?”

  “No, we are in a critical phase of our defense against the Horde. However, our probe has shown no further activity at that destroyed planet.”

  The Major Battleship disappeared and the Hive Controller fell back in his chair. This was a close brush with certain death. The Major Civilizations at the galaxy’s core remained in their deadlock, but they did not tolerate any violation of their laws. Any civilization that violated a law was targeted for destruction. That’s why this unending war with the Horde never ended; planet destruction was forbidden. The Hive Controller was thankful that those laws only applied to their galaxy and no others. He hoped his explanation satisfied the Majors. He waited for a return visit but after fifteen rotations decided that he was safe.

  • • •

  The large creature watched the recordings and was amazed at the ability of the small white ship to evade everything the bugs had used to stop it. It had replayed the conversation with the species from that galaxy that insisted that there was only one planet of the white ship builders. It also went through the other video and saw that only the ship that attacked had appeared at the destroyed planet. The creature thought for a long time about whether or not further action should be taken, but it didn’t make sense to send a ship that far for just one planet’s destruction.

  There was no prohibition against destruction of planets in other galaxies so the bugs didn’t violate a convention. Obviously, other galaxies did not fall under the conventions and punishing the planet that caused the destruction after it had been destroyed first didn’t make much sense either. Perhaps the bugs learned a lesson about killing planets? It paused and decided that they were too stupid to learn anything. Someday they were going to have to be removed but not until this forced equilibrium was broken.

  It entered a summary and sent the recordings to the other Majors. His duty as law enforcement required him to inform all other Majors of any violation, either real or perceived. His term would soon be over and he would not be bothered by this nonsense much longer. He turned back to his board and looked at recent weapon developments that would give his species an advantage against his enemies. It studied the new devices and snorted. There was great improvement, but nothing that offered the possibility of overwhelming the other four hundred Majors without being destroyed by them combining against him. The creature slithered further into his dwelling and longed to be able to go on the attack again. It had been too long and he felt his frustration.

  • • •

  A year had passed and Chris sat on the Jukebox getting ready for the jump to M-87. He had no idea that the development of his new ship would take so long. He looked at Jillian and she saw what he was thinking in his expression, “It was worth the wait.”

  “I know; I just wish we had been able to start earlier.”

  “This ship was worth waiting on and it’ll probably save us all the time we’ve lost.”

  “I’m sure you’re right, but I hate being delayed this long.”

  “You weren’t this impatient trying to get me to love you.”

  “I knew you were in the bag. I could afford to be patient.”

  “Oh, I was, was I?”

  “You know you couldn’t resist my great looks and personality.”

  Chris watched Jillian stand up and quickly added, “Besides, the scar on my head was irresistible.”

  Jillian stopped moving toward Chris and smiled, “Using the ole scar against me again?”

  Chris smiled, “Maybe it knocked some sense into me.”

  Jillian sighed and said, “I thought I had lost you. Reminding me only makes me think about how lonely I would be without you.”

  Chris said, “Come over here.”

  Jillian ran and jumped in his lap and hugged him. “Do you think we’re ready for this?”

  “I don’t know. However, it’s important we see what we’re up against.”

  “How far back are we going to start?”

  “I think forty million years would be a good time. With the new scanners we’ll be using, we should be able to process the information fast enough to do this in a reasonable time.”

  Wing Commander Jason Gilstrap entered the bridge and said, “The ship has completed loading the provisions and is ready for launch.”

  Chris said, “Dolly, what’s our status?”

  A female computer voice said, “Commander Gilstrap is correct; however, I have one attack craft that needs the tie downs checked. I’m getting an error message.”

  Jason said, “Which one.”

  “Number ninety eight. I don’t think there’s a problem with the connection, but a fuse may have blown on the release board.”

  Jason spoke into his transmitter and waited for a response. Jillian said, “What about our power reserves?”

  “They are at maximum and the fifth reactor is at standby.”

  Jason said, “It was a blown fuse. It has been replaced and the board is now green.”

  “Dolly?”

  “He is correct. We are ready for jump.”

  Chris said, “Please contact the Command Team.”

  George, RV, Cyanna, and the Moet Admiral appeared on their screen. Chris said, “Where’s Bender?”

  George said, “He’s on his way up. Are
you ready for launch?”

  “We are. How much longer will it take for the colonies to be moved?”

  “The bulk of the work has been done. The Alliance and Moet have also started colonizing planets in M-49 and will be well on the way within six months.”

  Jillian said, “I’m still not sure about moving all of our populations to M-49.”

  “It wasn’t an easy decision. However, if we destroyed a planet in another galaxy and were attacked in turn; do you think they won’t come and take a closer look to make sure of our destruction? I’m surprised they haven’t come before now. I may be wrong but I’d rather make a mistake being safe than sorry. Besides, most of our real activity is taking place over there.”

  “I just hate to leave Dundee and the Milky Way.”

  “Our new world will have the same name. We should be completely done by the time you return. The Capital for our union will be located on Sierra-Garcia.”

  Jillian smiled, “That is exactly where it should be.”

  Chris said, “If the Violet Ships come and scout the Milky Way again, they will only see the old Alliance and Moet planets without any of our new ships. That should throw them off our trail.”

  George smiled, “That’s the plan.”

  Chris looked at RV, “How are your new ships performing?”

  “Our crew size has only grown to twelve hundred and fifty sailors. Our main battleships can now fire the beams and strikers without a crew. All of the sailors are now used to service and fly the Needles and Attack Craft. Being able to link our computers will make the fleet able to handle its own defense. At the rate of new ships being added, we’ll be ready to take on the Violet Civilization in a few more years.”

  Jillian looked worried, “You don’t think we should just leave them alone and wait for them to make the first move?”

  RV smiled, “What is the name you gave your Computer?”

  Jillian sighed and RV said, “She asked us to make them pay. I, for one, want to honor her last request.”

  George said, “We’ll make a decision about that after we hear what you discover during your scans of that galaxy. We don’t want to bite off more than we can chew.”

  Jillian nodded, “We’re jumping momentarily and we’ll keep the communication channel open. Good luck on the move.”