Planet Predators (14 page)

“Can you get a scan of that system’s frequency?”

“I can but I’m concerned that if I do I may attract a crowd. Let me recommend this just to be on the safe side. You leave the time field where it is but move the Jukebox back a thousand miles from our breakout point and we’ll run to your location when we exit the field.”

“What are you thinking, Captain?”

“If you’re right on top of our emergence and we’re being chased, you could get a Jenze Battleship coming through the screen with us. The scan will take ten seconds which will give them time to investigate if they detect it. I don’t want to fight a battleship to acquire its reactor. I’d also feel better if we don’t remove that large a ship from this time in the past.”

“We’ll discuss that concern when you get back. We are backing out and will await your return.”

“Izzy, I’m sending the drive control to your board. If one of the Jenze comes at us, don’t wait until it’s too late. Get us out of here.”

“I have the drive.”

“I’m powering the emitters and extending the field. The scan will take ten seconds, I’ve locked in that system, and will start the scan in 3, 2, 1, and now.”

Izzy focused on her board and didn’t see anything happening for the first five seconds but then she saw ten huge blips start coming at the Ninja at an incredible velocity. She wished RV had the board because their arrival was going to be incredibly close with the completion of the scan. “RV, tell me when you have it!”

Izzy had her hand on the activate button and watched the incoming ships. “Got it!” Izzy hit the button just as the ships came roaring up and the Ninja emerged into normal space as RV hit the weightless control and accelerated at the Jukebox’s field. Right behind them ten huge ships emerged into normal space and gave chase but were too late. The Ninja screamed through the time field and Chris shut it down just before the ten giant ships arrived.

“Chris, those weren’t Jenze ships!”

“I know. Captain, dock the Ninja and send the frequency of that solar system to my board.”

“You have it now.”

Chris saw the frequency and set the drive to move into Sierra Space. The Ninja settled into the landing bay and Arvolo locked it down to the deck. Chris hit the drive and set his emitters to search for the frequency of the solar system Arvolo had scanned. “I’ve found it. I’m moving the ship around the outer edge of the Galaxy to get a line on that frequency. We are far enough out so we should be able to see what’s happening at that system when we emerge in normal space. Jillian, are you still getting that frequency?”

“Yes I am and it’s growing stronger.”

“See if you can put it in the star map and lock it in on the display.”

“Done; it’s a Class G star in the Omega Centauri Super Cluster. We should be able to focus in on it once we get a return on Earth’s light.” Chris looked up and saw Arvolo and Isadore enter the bridge. He nodded toward their chairs and continued to triangulate the location. He moved a light week further out and emerged into normal space. “Search for the Milky Way’s frequency.”

“Got it.”

“Overlap the star map and move it back to,” Chris looked at his board, “Sixty four million years, eight months, ten days.” The display rotated the star map and then chimed. “I’m extending the emitters and powering the fields.” The fields expanded at the speed of light and after an hour an alarm sounded.

“Chris, I’m orienting the star map to the reflection.”

Arvolo watched in wonder as the huge galaxy on the display moved and the star map on top of it lined up. “Jillian, you can remove the map.” The map disappeared and they were looking at an image of the Milky Way as it was sixty four million years ago on the display. “Mark the target.”

A red dot appeared on the display and Chris began focusing the image. The red dot zoomed closer as millions of stars flashed by. Then the dot became a planetary system and the fourth planet out from the sun came into view and was in the middle of a gigantic space battle. Chris took the view in closer and saw a force field surrounded the planet and thousands of silver ships were firing on it. Thousands of Jenze ships were attacking the invading fleet and were giving as much as they received but they were heavily outnumbered. Ships were burning all the way out to the next planet and the destruction was far from over.

Arvolo watched the destruction and wished he were there fighting a ship. That battle was glorious and he smiled as he watched. Izzy looked at his expression and saw the face of a warrior. She could feel his emotions.

“It looks like the silver ships are going to win.”

“How do you know that, Chris?”

“Those silver ships are the ones that chased the Ninja. If they lost, it would have been the Jenze that emerged. Can you rewind the view and move it out close to the fifth planet?” Chris looked at Arvolo and wondered what he saw. He backed the focus up and moved it to the fifth planet that was aligned with the fourth planet in the system. “Now move it over to the closest moon and rewind it about three minutes.”

The view changed and they watched a Jenze Battleship attack one of the huge silver ships and blow through its force field. Just as it killed the silver ship it was hit with beams from two silver ships and had its bridge destroyed. The ship turned and slowly crashed on the moon as the silver ship it had destroyed hit the surface a mile away. The two silver ships that killed the Jenze Battleship turned and moved back into the fight.

Arvolo said, “The lights are still on in the Jenze ship. Keep an eye on it.” They watched and after an hour the lights started to go out. “They’re turning the reactors off to avoid an explosion.”

Chris looked at Jillian and she smiled, “If the silver ships win this battle that ship will be left behind.”

“As well as that silver ship.”

“You’re right, Izzy.”

“I’m moving forward a week to see what’s happening then.” Chris hit the drive and emerged back into normal space. The battle was still happening at the planet but the Jenze Fleet had been destroyed. The huge silver ships were firing on the force field around the planet and it was starting to grow dimmer. “I’m jumping another week.” This time the view was radically different. The planet was in ruins and the attackers were no longer present. Chris moved the focus to the moon and the two ships were still on the surface.

Arvolo said, “You need to back up and watch the Jenze Battleship.”

“Why?”

“Because it there aren’t more than a billion of those silver ships, the Jenze will be coming here soon to check out the damage and they may destroy that ship to prevent any of its technology being taken by those invaders. The silver ship won’t give us anything useful so we can ignore it.”

Jillian shook her head, “Why do you say that?”

“The Alliance uses that Jenze Force Field to protect their planets. I’ve looked at the feed from the Fleet that went to the Alliance Capital and one of our Jukebox Class ships would be able to penetrate it with a fusion missile. It took thousands of those silver ships to wear it down and it took more than a week. They’re huge but their energy is not that powerful. They won because of numbers at this planet. I suspect the Jenze will survive this invasion if they have more than a hundred worlds. This was probably the main attack force of the Invaders and they weren’t as successful at the other Jenze Planets.”

“Why do you want to go back?”

“I want to see if any lifeboats leave the crashed Jenze Ship taking the survivors away. I don’t want to go into a Jenze Battleship with the crew still present. Someone had to turn the reactors off and that tells me that there were survivors. That could prove fatal.”

“Captain, you are now in charge of this mission. What would you do if you were me?”

“I would first go back and see if the crew leaves.”

Chris nodded and jumped back to the crash of the ship. He accelerated into the light and saw things happening at high speed. They saw the destruction of the Jenze Planet and the silver ships jumping away. After a day passed Chris slowed the Jukebox and they watched ten small white ships come out of the crashed battleship and jump away. He accelerated again and after two days twenty Jenze Battleships arrived and landed on the moon. They went in the silver ship and examined it for three days. Then they lifted and fired their main beams into both ships destroying them.

Arvolo smiled and said, “Good.” Jillian looked at him. “Notice that they didn’t send anyone over to their damaged ship. That means all the survivors left. We have a two day window to get our reactor. The silver ships won this battle but I’m reasonably certain that the Jenze kicked them out of the Milky Way.”

“So you think they invaded from another galaxy?”

“Yes, they did. This was a surprise attack and any force with that many ships in our galaxy would have been confronted by the Jenze long before this attack. The Jenze won or there wouldn’t have been twenty ships available to send here. Notice they explored the silver ship to see if it represented a danger to them and left without taking anything major out of it. The invaders won this battle but lost the war to the Jenze. We are going to possibly change what happened here though.”

“How?”

“The landing bay on that crashed battleship is under it. We’re going to have to cut through the hull to get at the reactors. The Jenze will see that and will not react the same way next time they appear. This universe will have a Jenze that goes to work developing a stronger power source if they suspect an enemy has one of their reactors.”

Chris smiled, “Or they will go and attack this invader at their home to make sure they don’t have time to use it. I suspect they would do that anyway so it might not be so different.”

Arvolo nodded, “That’s something I’d rather not find out. However, I would really like to know what happened to the Jenze. They’re no longer here so either they were destroyed or moved.”

“If they moved they could be a real danger in our present time.”

“We should make the effort to find out, Admiral. But that can be done after we get a reactor and take it home.”

Chris nodded, “That will be a task you’ll handle. You can use the Ninja to find out.”

Arvolo looked at Izzy, “Are you up to the trip?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, but first the reactor.”

Chapter Ten

C
hris was onboard the Ninja and had the moon with the two damaged ships on his display. “I’m extending the time field to when the Lifeboats jump away; they should be leaving within ten minutes. Are you ready to go scavenger hunting?”

Jillian said, “We have our armor on and the tools we think we’ll need. We’ll leave our passive scanners on just to make sure nothing shows up but I don’t expect anyone to come.”

“They didn’t before. Just get this done and get out of there.”

“Yes Sir, Admiral.”

“I’m serious, Jillian. Don’t get injured taking it out.”

“I know, Love. We’ll work as safely and quickly as possible.”

“Alright, here they come. There should be ten.” Chris counted as ten ships emerged and jumped away. “I’m extending the time field. It’s now powered and ready for you to pass through.”

Arvolo looked at the shimmering field and took the Jukebox through. He accelerated to the moon’s surface and scanned the crashed Jenze Ship. “The reactors are in the rear behind the cargo bay. I’m landing next to the ship and powering a shuttle to go over to the Jenze. Please board now and I’ll meet you as soon as the ship is landed.”

Jillian looked at Izzy and nodded toward the bridge exit. They exited the bridge, ran to the elevator, and went down to the landing bay and undocked a shuttle. Arvolo arrived just as Jillian completed the shuttle’s systems check. “Make sure your armor is powered and intact. We’re lifting now.”

The small shuttle lifted off the floor and moved smoothly out the open landing bay door. Arvolo took it over to the side of the Jenze ship and landed. He added weight and the shuttle settled in on its landing legs. He reached over in the tool bag and took out a gravity gun, “What are you going to do with that?”

“Commodore, I’m going to attempt to hide our taking a reactor. I want you to take the shuttle and place its nose against the side of the battleship. I’m going to hit the Jenze Ship with a gravity beam and make it almost weightless. Once that’s done I want you to use the shuttle to nudge the ship over so the landing bay is out from under it.”

Jillian watched Arvolo go out to the moon’s surface and fire the gravity gun from one end of the huge ship to the other. “Give it a try.” Jillian put the nose of the shuttle on the side of the giant ship and started applying force to the rear thrusters. The huge ship hesitated for a moment and then rolled over. “Now back the shuttle up and aim the forward beam at the center of the landing bay door. Set it to fire a twenty foot beam at maximum power for a half second.”

“You don’t think it will blow through the ship?”

“I don’t think so but I’m not sure. We’ll make an adjustment if it doesn’t go through.”

“What about fires?”

“If it blows through, the vacuum of space will put them out.” Jillian set the beam manually and announced, “I’m firing in five seconds; stand clear.”

Izzy watched from her chair and saw the beam hit and burn through the hull.”

“Alright, Jillian, the inner insulated wall is still intact. Reduce the power to one hundredth and fire again for a hundredth of a second.” Jillian fired again and watched as the atmosphere that was in the landing bay rushed out in explosive decompression. Arvolo said, “We’re through. Bring the lasers and let’s get to work.”

The three of them entered the huge landing bay and turned on the laminated surface of their armor. The entire surface glowed and lit up the interior of the landing bay. Arvolo turned to the right and moved toward a huge door in the middle of the wall. Jillian watched him and looked at the armored door, “Are we going to have to cut through?”

Arvolo looked at a panel next to the door and used his laser to cut off the front of the panel. Inside there were three buttons colored red, yellow, and blue. He pushed the blue button and the door slid up.