The Star Cross: Galaxy in Peril

by Raymond L. Weil

  Mara pointed to a nearby uninhabited star system. “Drop from hyperspace here, and I will speak to their commanding officer. My people trade with the Hanorians, and I’ll explain we are on an investigative mission involving the black ships. I will tell them we are seeking information that might be available on the core worlds. With the fear sweeping across the galaxy concerning the Destroyers of Worlds, I expect that will be sufficient.”

  Kurt nodded. He had to trust that Mara knew what she was talking about. “Lieutenant Styles, bring the fleet out of hyperspace in that system. Captain Randson, set Condition Two across the fleet, but I don’t expect any danger.” Kurt preferred to err on the side of caution.

  A few minutes later the eight ships dropped from hyperspace near a small white dwarf star about the size of Newton but with a mass similar to Earth’s sun. Thermal energy illuminated the star in a very dim glow. Any planets the system may have once had were long gone.

  “No planetary bodies of any type detected,” reported Lieutenant Brooks.

  “Most stars of this type have gone through a red giant phase before becoming a white dwarf,” commented Mara. “There are many such stars in the galaxy.”

  The fleet waited until finally the sensor alarms in the Star Cross sounded.

  “Hanorian fleet dropping from hyperspace around us,” Brooks reported, her eyes showing alarm. “I’m picking up sensor scans and what may be target locks on our ships.”

  “That was fast,” said Andrew impressed. “You would think they’d want to find out who we are before locking on their weapons.”

  “It’s because of the Destroyers of Worlds,” explained Mara. “In times past, this would never occur.”

  “I have a comm message from the Hanorian flagship,” reported Lieutenant Pierce from Communications. “They’re demanding to know who we are and where we’re going.”

  “Let me speak to them,” said Mara, stepping to Communications.

  Kurt nodded, curious to hear this exchange.

  “This is Mara Liam of the Lakiam battlecruiser Aurelia. We are on a research mission to the galactic core, seeking knowledge of the Destroyers of Worlds.”

  “What type of knowledge?” a gruff voice responded.

  Lieutenant Pierce had changed the comm so everyone in the Command Center could hear.

  “We seek any older world that may know of previous incursions of the black ships. Rumors on Lakiam and a few other worlds are that such knowledge may exist in the core worlds.”

  “If it does, I have not heard of it,” the Hanorian commander responded. “My ship’s database does not recognize the other ship types with you. Can you please identify them for our records?”

  Mara hesitated, looking first to Kurt, and then responded to the Hanorian. “The other ships are from Newton, which is far out in one of the spiral arms. It is a new world that has just reached Protector World status.”

  Silence on the comm reigned for nearly a minute. “We have no such record of a new Protector World. However, with the advent of the Destroyers of Worlds, that is not surprising. I have heard a Lakiam fleet was successful in driving off the black ships in battle. Is that true?”

  ‘Yes,” replied Mara. “Fleet Commodore Dreen led our forces in battle against the Destroyers of Worlds, destroying many of their small spindle-shaped cruisers as well as one of their motherships.”

  “We have only had one attack in this region. A world of over four billion inhabitants was culled. There were no survivors.”

  “Very seldom are survivors found after a Destroyers of Worlds attack,” replied Mara.

  “I have added the ships with you as belonging to the Protector World of Newton. You may continue on your course to the core worlds. Good luck in your search.”

  “Are there any black fleets in this region?”

  “No, not at the moment. However, attacks in an adjoining sector have steadily increased, and we expect the Destroyers of Worlds to be in our region shortly. When we picked up your ships on our long-range scanners, running with a sensor-dampening field, we feared the beginning of such an attack.”

  “Sorry about the dampening field,” replied Mara. “We used it as a preventative measure in the hope our fleet would not be detected in our travels by the black ships.”

  “A wise precaution,” replied the Hanorian commander. “If you do find any information on the Destroyers of Worlds I would appreciate it if you would send a copy of that information to the Hanorian homeworld.”

  “I will see to it,” promised Mara.

  The comm fell silent, and Mara stepped back. “They should be leaving shortly. The Hanorians are well on their way to Enlightenment. Those warships have crews of less than ten on them. They are mostly automated with repair robots similar to the ones you have here on the Star Cross.”

  “Just ten?” said Andrew, his eyes widening at the thought. “It seems to me that such small crews would make the ships vulnerable to boarding actions.”

  Mara shook her head. “Not with the combat robots on board.”

  “Hanorian fleet powering up their hyperdrives,” reported Lieutenant Brooks.

  Kurt looked at one of the viewscreens, zoomed in on a Hanorian battlecruiser. The ship was pear-shaped and obviously very heavily armed. Several energy cannons were visible, as well as numerous hatches for hyperspace missiles. The space in front of the Hanorian ship seemed to shimmer, and then the vessel vanished.

  “Hanorian ships entering hyperspace,” confirmed Lieutenant Brooks as the last Hanorian vessel vanished from the viewscreens.

  “Glad that’s over,” Andrew said with obvious relief in his voice. “I didn’t want to get into a shootout with them.”

  “There was never a chance of that,” said Mara, frowning. “We offered no obvious threat, and they recognized the Aurelia as a Lakiam warship. That alone ensured there would be no battle. Protector Worlds have never attacked one another.”

  “Lieutenant Pierce, get us back on course. We must hold these delays to a minimum.”

  Kurt wanted to get to the nebula as soon as possible. They had already been in hyperspace for a little over three weeks, and they still had at least two more to go before they reached the nebula. During most days Kurt scheduled one or two emergency drills across the fleet to keep his crews sharp. On long journeys like this, it was easy to become distracted and lost in boredom. The emergency drills helped to ensure that didn’t happen.

  -

  Prince Brollen gazed with satisfaction at the large fleet he had assembled to attack the next target world. He had summoned more of the spindle-shaped cruisers to increase the strength of his fleet. He was going to attack another Protector World, one of the more powerful ones. If he was successful, and he fully expected to be, then all resistance in this sector of the galaxy would collapse. He had ten harvester fleets standing by. Once the Protector World was destroyed and its inhabitants taken as food for the Vorn, the fleets would move in and harvest every world in the sector. An abundance of food species was in this region, and several should be suitable as sustenance for the Queens. Prince Brollen had already sent word to the Conclave Habitat, requesting additional harvesting fleets. He was concerned the harvesting was going too slow. If Queen Alithe granted his request, the number of harvesting fleets in this galaxy would be doubled.

  We are nearly ready to launch the attack, reported Military Commander Fraymot. All ships have been inspected and are ready to engage the enemy.

  This will be a major battle, replied Brollen. This food species has the larger antimatter missiles, which can damage and destroy our ships. There will be losses.

  Our fleet is large enough that a few losses will be inconsequential, responded Fraymot. We will attack in waves. The first two assault fleets will consist of our cruisers only. All motherships will stay back, protected by nearly one thousand of our cruisers, until the path to the food species planet has been cleared.

  Prince Brollen gazed at the multiple viewscreens on the front wall of the Command Cen
ter, his multifaceted eyes focusing on several motherships that were visible. As far as his eyes could see were Vorn warships. He had gathered an armada, a force powerful enough to roll over and harvest any world in this galaxy. Time to put this force to the test.

  Set course for the target world. It is time we sampled food species 111.

  -

  Over Andock Prime, Fleet Commodore Dreen had just finished speaking with Andock Fleet Leader Arlak Moor. They had signed a mutual defensive treaty, agreeing to come to each other’s aid in the case of an attack by the Destroyers of Worlds. However, the agreement only related to worlds colonized by Andock Prime or Lakiam. The Enlightened Worlds protected by each were not included. Dreen intended to pay visits to the Parmonts and the Bascoms in the coming weeks as well.

  Alborg stood in front of one of the Command Center’s large viewscreens, focused on Andock Prime. “Amazing how all home worlds are so similar. The clouds, the land masses, and even the large oceans.”

  “I was in a class on galactic civilizations at the academy on Lakiam,” commented Sheera Keenol, the communications officer. “One of the theories is that it takes a world like that to allow a highly developed civilization to come into being. Enough natural resources must exist to allow a civilization to advance from discovering fire, fossil fuels, nuclear power, renewable energy, and then finally fusion and antimatter. If a planet is lacking in resources, the civilization is in danger of collapsing into barbarism. Once that happens, in all likelihood the inhabitants will never recover.”

  Alborg nodded. “I’ve heard each civilization reaches a critical decision point. If they can get past it, they will continue on until they can travel to the stars. If they fail, then they become barbaric and, in many instances, die out completely.”

  “There is evidence of that on many such worlds across the galaxy,” said Sensor Operator Laylem, joining the conversation. “I have seen several myself where all that remains are a few crumbling structures which are thousands of years old.”

  “That’s one thing about time,” Keenol said. “After a few thousand years even signs of an advanced civilization will be eroded away by the wind and the rain. On some worlds, who knows how many civilizations rose and fell.”

  “The Destroyers of Worlds have caused too much of that as of late,” Alborg said. “From the records we have recovered, we know they have harvested our galaxy ten or more times over the last twenty-two million years.”

  Fleet Commodore Dreen had been listening. He wondered how many civilizations in the past had been ravaged by the Destroyers of Worlds. From the destruction he had seen that the black ships leave behind, Dreen could imagine all signs of an inhabited planet’s civilization vanishing completely in a few thousand years. On some worlds, new civilizations would rise, never knowing what had been there before. Beyond doubt this had occurred countless times since the advent of the Destroyers of Worlds. Dreen also wondered if the galaxy would eventually have fewer and fewer inhabited worlds after being ravaged by the black ships for so long. Dreen could well imagine, if the Destroyers of Worlds were not stopped, at some point the entire galaxy might be a barren wasteland.

  His thoughts were interrupted as alarms sounded on the ship’s sensor console. Laylem hurried to his station, pressing icons, seeking the cause for the alarms. He turned toward Fleet Commodore Dreen, his face pale and his hands trembling. “Several of our ships are reporting sightings of black ships on their long-range scopes.”

  Commodore Dreen’s breath caught in his throat. All Lakiam warships had been equipped with special viewscreens, which could peer deeply into space, seeking anomalies.

  “How many, and where are they?” Surely the Destroyers of Worlds were not attacking Andock Prime It was held almost as strongly as Lakiam.

  “Unknown,” Laylem replied as he correlated the data from the other ships. “It could be just a few or an entire fleet. We’ll know shortly.”

  “Commodore, the entire Andock fleet has been placed on full alert,” Keenol reported from Communications. “I’ve received a confirmed report of large numbers of black ships spotted in the outer system, coming directly toward Andock Prime. Current estimates report four motherships and at least one thousand cruisers. There may be more that haven’t been spotted.”

  Commodore Dreen took a deep and steadying breath. It looked as if the Destroyers of Worlds were launching an all-out attack on Andock Prime itself. He worried there were more black ships they hadn’t spotted yet. “Contact our fleet and have them go to Alert One.” Dreen was glad he had brought the fleet that normally accompanied the Basera. He had 475 battlecruisers with him, all with full loads of dark matter missiles. He had a disconcerting feeling he would need them all. The fleet was two million kilometers from Andock Prime, while the Basera was in orbit over the Andock capital world.

  “Move us out to the fleet,” he ordered. “Keenol, contact Fleet Leader Moor and inform him that we’re joining our fleet. Tell him that we will assist wherever he needs us.”

  Fleet Commodore Dreen leaned back in his command chair as Keenol sent the message. The Destroyers of Worlds had come to Andock Prime, and Dreen could not allow it to fall. If it did, all hope of an alliance of Protector Worlds against the black ships would disintegrate. If that happened, there would be no way to stop the Destroyers of Words from rampaging across the galaxy at will.

  “Why would they attack Andock Prime?” asked Laylem.

  “To set an example,” replied Alborg as he checked the ship’s weapons systems. “By destroying Andock Prime, they send a message that no Protector World can stand up to them. It will reverse the positive moral our defeating one of their fleets has sent across this region of our galaxy.”

  “I fear Alborg is correct,” said Fleet Commodore Dreen. “This may be a direct reaction to us defeating their fleet.”

  The Command Center grew quiet as all eyes turned toward the tactical displays which showed the enemy fleet. Everyone knew what was at stake in the coming battle.

  Dreen waited anxiously as the Basera moved to join his waiting fleet. On the main tactical display, more red threat icons constantly appeared as Andock and Lakiam ships spotted more of the inbound enemy fleet. A chill ran down his back as over three thousand black ships were now being reported. The Command Center remained silent as the crew stared at the deadly red icons filling the tactical displays. Fleet Commodore Dreen felt his blood run cold. It would take a miracle to stop the black ships, and Dreen had no idea where that miracle could come from.

  Chapter Twelve

  Fleet Commodore Dreen relaxed slightly as the Basera rejoined the fleet. Sliding into its position in the center of the formation, Dreen stared in growing consternation at the main tactical display. His heart sank, and his breathing quickened as he contemplated the disaster about to overwhelm the Andock System. The ships of the Destroyers of Worlds were advancing in three formations. The two leading formations consisted of their spindle-shaped cruisers. Behind them came another formation of cruisers with twelve of the massive motherships in the center.

  “How many cruisers are in those formations?”

  “One thousand each,” replied Laylem.

  “From the way they’ve set up those formations, I would say the first two are aimed at overwhelming and destroying the Andock fleet and the defense grid,” commented Alborg. “The third with the motherships is aimed at culling the planet.”

  “Black fleet contact with Andock warships in twenty minutes,” reported Laylem.

  “The defense grid around Andock Prime has been activated,” added Keenol from Communications. “All noncombat ships capable of entering hyperspace have been ordered to leave the system. All other ships are warned to stay away from the planet.”

  “Fleet Leader Moor is moving his fleets away from Andock Prime,” added Alborg, noting the movement in the tactical display. “He intends to meet the black ships in open space. I’m not certain it’s a wise decision to be so far from the defense grid.”

  “Co
mmunication from the Kallnar,” reported Keenol as she listened intently to a message. The Kallnar was Fleet Leader Moor’s flagship. “He asks that we attack the black ships wherever we feel there is a weakness. He’ll engage the Destroyers of Worlds and then gradually withdraw to Andock Prime, where he can use the orbital defenses to force them back. He’s loaded the orbital defensive platforms with the two-hundred-megaton missiles. He’s hoping his fleet can inflict sufficient damage so the defense grid can keep them away from the planet.”

  “Acknowledge the communication and inform Fleet Leader Moor we will do everything in our power to combat the black ships.” Commodore Dreen considered the best way to use his fleet. It was doubtful the Destroyers of Worlds expected a Lakiam fleet to be in the system. They would not be expecting a dark matter missiles attack. Commodore Dreen wondered how he could use that to their advantage. “Alborg, any suggestions?” This was going to be a pivotal battle in the war against the Destroyers of Worlds.

  Alborg spent a moment studying the tactical display. “Commodore, if we were to enter hyperspace and come out directly behind the rear echelon, we might disrupt this attack. I doubt if they expected to find any of our ships here. They know we have weapons which can destroy them. We can use that to our advantage. If they fear damage to their motherships, they may withdraw.”

  “We’ll have the element of surprise,” Dreen said as he considered Alborg’s suggestion. “If we can disrupt this attack or slow it down, it will give time for other Andock fleets from nearby worlds to arrive.”

  Sensor Operator Laylem turned toward the commodore. “Several Andock warships have jumped into hyperspace in the last few minutes.”

  Keenol examined her communications console and then nodded as if she had found an answer. “It is as I expected. All hyperspace communication frequencies are jammed. The ships are jumping to escape the jamming so they can summon reinforcements.”

  “What of the Andock fleet?”

  Laylem pressed several icons on his console as he scanned the Andock fleet, rapidly assembling as it moved out and away from Andock Prime. “I’m detecting 413 battleships and 1,267 battlecruisers.”