Nowhere to Run (22 page)

Doc started shaking his head and started grumbling. After a moment he said, “Drey, do you have the coordinates where the Black Ships stopped just outside the Green Ship’s border.”

Doc waited and after a few seconds Drey said, “I do.”

Doc looked at Dee and said, “Load them in my board.”

Drey said, “Is this a good idea?”

“What do you think?”

“If I thought it was a good idea I wouldn’t be asking you if it was.”

Doc said, “We are too much alike big guy.”

Doc reached for the weapons controls and Dee said, “Leave the force field off.” Doc stared at her and knew they were going to die. Dee said, “Drey, do you have the language used by the Invaders?”

Doc actually thought he heard the ship sigh, “Yesss.”

Dee looked at Doc and said, “Let’s go.”

Doc had to force himself to push the jump control. Drey disappeared from normal space.

T
he Green Ship’s Controller wasn’t comfortable sending the ambassadors to the Grey Ships. The head ambassador was the Sovereign’s son. No royalty of that rank should be placed in danger. But orders were orders. He nodded to his Subcontroller and he communicated, “We are launching the shuttle.”

“We’ll be waiting for their arrival.”

The Controller was surprised when he learned that the Grey Ambassadors were also very high ranking dignitaries in their civilization. These talks must be more important than he thought. He watched the shuttle exit the landing bay and move slowly toward the border. It went through it and suddenly a ship appeared right next to it. The pilot panicked and stopped the shuttle. The Commander knew he couldn’t fire on the intruder without hitting the shuttle.

The Grey Ship Commander was leaning back in his chair when the intruder appeared next to the shuttle and he leaped up and yelled, “DON’T FIRE!!” He also realized that the shuttle would be destroyed if he fired on the intruder. The level of tension on the two warships was at breaking point.

• • •

Dee looked and saw that Drey had emerged into normal space right next to an unarmed ship. She saw the Green and Grey ships activating their weapons and she jumped forward and pushed her communicator, “Put me on their frequency , Nise, and translate what I’m saying!” Dee saw the frequency appear on her board and she pressed the button, “Oh, have we come at a bad time? I can see you’re very busy and we don’t want to interrupt what you’re doing. Should we come back later?”

The Green Ship Controller said, “You are violating our space.”

The Ambassador’s heard the communications and looked at each other. What was going on?

The Grey Commander shouted, “What are you doing here!?!”

Dee took a deep breath and said, “We came here to have a short conversation with you and that’s all. We can come back later if now is a bad time.”

The Lead Ambassador heard the pilot’s speaker say, “Get out of there. That is one of the ships that destroyed the fleet that invaded the other galaxy.”

“Sir, I can’t fire my thrusters without that ship seeing it. We would never escape.”

The Lead Ambassador stood and walked to the pilot’s chair, “Patch me in to that ship.” The pilot stared at him and the Ambassador said, “Do you want to be alive tomorrow? Patch me in.” The pilot Shrugged and handed the Ambassador the communicator. He said, “I understand that you attacked our ships in another galaxy.”

The Green Controller said, “Excellency, you need to get away from that ship.”

“You know as well as I do that we couldn’t move before it could fire on us. It hasn’t been aggressive so far and I’m curious about what they want to talk about.”

Dee said, “Actually, we didn’t attack any of your ships.”

The Ambassador was surprised by the answer, “Why do you say that?”

“Because none of your ships were in that other galaxy.”

“How do you know that?”

“We took a real close look and didn’t see any them.”

The Ambassador was impressed that the being talking was able to scan millions of ships and determine their ships weren’t present. “Why did you come here?”

“We attacked those ships because they were organizing to invade our galaxy. We did it to stop them from attacking us.”

• • •

The Green Controller screamed at the display in frustration. He pounded his arms on his command chair, turned, fell into it, and blew out a huge breath, “Politicians just never shut up and get out of the way. This is crazy.”

• • •

The Ambassador said, “You did a rather efficient job.”

“We had the element of surprise working for us. However, it appears that there is going to be another invasion from your galaxy. We were wondering if you might ask them not to do it.”

The Ambassador looked at the other Ambassadors that had gathered around him and saw their amusement. They were focused on what was being said and were not fearful. “We told them they were stupid before the first invasion. They won’t listen to us.”

“That’s really a shame.”

“Why?”

“I hope you realize that if they come to conquer us and we’re lucky enough to survive their attack that we will be coming to this galaxy to try and prevent any future attacks. We are not an aggressive civilization but it’s hard to just stand by and have someone try to kill you without doing something to protect yourself.”

“That might pose a problem for us.”

“We also came to tell you that we will not be violating your borders if we’re forced to come here. We arrived here with our force field down and all our weapons inactive. We know that you are not the ones trying to kill us.”

“We will not abide a conqueror coming here.”

“We are not coming to conquer. We will leave and not allow any of our ships here after the issue is resolved. We have no desire for conquest.”

“Why should we believe you?”

“You may move your ship to the Grey Ships. We will not fire on you and we will not raise our force fields. We will place our ship at your mercy and then we can continue this conversation if you choose.”

The Ambassador nodded to the pilot and he moved the shuttle away and entered the closest Grey Ship’s landing bay. The Grey Ship’s force field immediately activated.

• • •

The Subcontroller looked at the Controller, “We can hit them now!”

The Controller was starting to relax. The ambassadors were safe, “The Sovereign’s Son is talking with them. Are you going to interrupt that conversation?”

The Subcontroller wilted and shook his shoulders.

• • •

The Ambassadors moved to the bridge of the Grey Ship and the Lead Grey Ambassador said, “You started this conversation. Perhaps you should continue it.”

“What do you think about this?”

“Those ships are part of the reason we approached you about ending our war. I believe this is important. I’ve seen what those ships can do and we are worried about them coming here in retaliation.”

The Royal took the communicator and said, “How were you able to appear when you did? Are you watching us?”

“Not at the moment. Quite frankly, it was pure coincidence that we emerged at just this moment. We did follow the Black Ships this far with one of our scanning devices but it was destroyed. We felt it was important to come and convince you that we are not your enemy.”

Doc was linked to Drey and thought, “What do you see?”

“Not much; there’s only about a hundred main blasters focused on us at the moment.”

“That’s all?”

“Sorry, fifteen more just targeted us.”

Doc shrugged; after one, the others were just overkill.

• • •

“Shouldn’t you be talking with the ones that are attacking you?”

“We initially thought about that but we listened to them divide up the other galaxy and they were quite brutal to the civilizations that were still there. They wouldn’t negotiate with any of them, so we don’t see why they would treat us any differently.”

“What makes you think we’ll negotiate with you?”

“You didn’t participate in the invasion. We feel you’re different from the Invaders. We had to find out.”

The Royal looked at those on the bridge and all of them just didn’t know what to think about the situation. He looked at the Grey Ship Commander and said, “Commander, what do you think?”

“I would have never come in with my force field and weapons inactive. Whoever they are; I do admire their bravery.”

“So you think they’re willing to die to save lives.”

The Commander replayed the conversation in his mind and smiled, “They did say they would come back at a less busy time. If nothing else, they are polite. There aren’t many species I’ve encountered that are.”

• • •

“Ian.”

“Yes, Moe.”

“I don’t want to interrupt you but I think there’s something you should know.”

“What is that?”

“Doc and Dee are currently having a conversation with the Green and Grey Ship Civilizations.”

“WHAT!”

“They arrived at the most fortuitous moment and they haven’t been destroyed yet.”

“Get the fleet ready!”

“Ian, they have their force field down and their weapons are not on line. They will die at the first appearance of any of our ships.”

Ian began cursing and Violet said, “Moe, can you play what is being said?”

“I’ll replay what has been said so far and I’ll interrupt if anything dramatic happens.”

Violet smiled, “That would be good, Moe.”

• • •

The Royal said, “Honestly, you did arrive at a bad time. We are in the middle of ending our hostilities and we need to focus on making that happen. However, if you will return to this place in ten days, I will be here to discuss this further with you.”

“We apologize for interrupting such an important event. Please forgive us for our bad manners and we will come back this time ten days from now.”

“That would be good.”

“Before we go; would it be acceptable to bring one of our leaders that can speak for my civilization at that time and will you ensure his safety?”

The Ambassador smiled, “That would be good as well. I’ll see you then.” The Ambassador watched the small green ship disappear. He turned to the Grey Ambassador, “Do you still want to find peace?”

“Yes, I do.”

“What about with them?”

“Even more so.”

“Then be here when we meet again.”

“I won’t miss it.”

“Our Sovereign may wish to attend this.”

“Our Assembly will probably send the Gedna.”

The Commander said, “I trust you will be sending an appropriate escort for them.”

The Ambassadors looked at each other and the Royal said, “The military is sooo protective.”

The Grey Ambassador smiled, “Aren’t they.”

The Green Controller didn’t like what he was hearing. “Politicians, you can’t live with them…”

• • •

“How is the ship gathering progressing?”

“We are still some time from getting enough here.”

“Tell the participants to get moving. We shouldn’t give that galaxy time to prepare.”

“Some things just can’t be rushed.”

“Are any of those that stayed out of the first invasion taking part in this one?”

“Fifty more have joined but none of the really important ones.”

“Keep me informed. I’ll see if I can’t persuade some of them.”

• • •

Doc and Dee emerged into orbit above Euclid and Ian immediately appeared on their display, “What did you think you were doing? You don’t jump into that situation without letting us know what’s going on.”

Doc looked at Dee and said, “How did you know what we were doing?”

“Moe told us.”

Doc shook his head, “I guess privacy is gone now.” Ian started yelling and Doc said, “I know, I know, but Dee sensed we had to go at that exact moment and I’m glad we did. If we had come one minute sooner or later we would have been destroyed. She was right again about the timing.”

Ian calmed down and said, “I assume the one you’re taking back with you is me.”

Doc was startled, “I guess you did hear everything.”

“I did.”

“Yes, you’re the one.”

“I don’t know about this. The Green Ships are very aggressive.” Ian looked at Dee on his display, “What possessed you to take that risk?”

“I really don’t know.”

Ian rolled his eyes and looked at Doc. Doc said, “Hey, get in line. I don’t know how she does it but I don’t question her anymore. There is no way she could have seen that shuttle across millions of light years. Something is going on but until she makes a mistake, I’m going with her hunches.”

Ian looked at Dee and said, “You have to help me understand how you do this. I don’t want to restrict your movements but this could have ended badly.”

Dee slowly shook her head, “Ian, I just don’t know how this place in my mind operates. I am now forced to believe that I am somehow able to see things in my subconscious immense distances from here. That place processes data and I’m given a push to do something. It’s almost like a physical shove. I know that I have to do it or something bad will happen.” She stared at him and then just shook her head, “I just don’t know.”

Violet said, “Are you sensing anything else?”

“The Invaders will be coming with a giant armada. They won’t make another mistake of not having enough ships to handle us.”

“We only used twenty percent of our ships.”

“I expect them to heavily outnumber us when they come, Ian.”

“More than ten million ships?”

Dee nodded and sighed, “Many more than that.”

“Maybe we should launch a preemptive attack?”

Dee sighed, “I sense that only half of the civilizations there are participating in the Invasion. If we go there first, their numbers will swell when they tell those staying out of the fight that we’re a danger to them. We are going to have to confront their fleets here.”

Ian sat down in his command chair, “Is there anything we need to be doing?”

Dee closed her eyes and said, “Moe, are you listening in?”

“I am.”

“Do you have a database with a list of all the different ships that were in Andromeda?”

“I do.”

“I want you to send that to every ship we have and if any new ship types come in the next invasion, I want you to upload them to our ships even during combat operations.”