The Lost Prince (30 page)

Abby could only nod.

Gary said, “G, are you hearing anything on any frequency that is not coming from the aliens that came here from our galaxy.”

“Give me a moment and let me scan the entire spectrum.”

E said, “There’s a massive amount of communication taking place in a band that is above anything we’ve ever seen.”

“You’re right, I can hear it now.”

Ian said, “I want all three ships to start working on understanding what is being said. Combine you findings and try to reduce this learning curve. We need to learn what they’re saying.”

“Ian, this language is going to be difficult. There is a huge amount of information in very small bursts.”

“Do the best you can, E.”

Ian looked at Drey, “What do we do now?”

“Well, we know that this planet was attacked.”

Gary said, “There were four others on this path that also suddenly stopped communicating.”

Drey nodded, “That means that whoever did this is ahead of us. We should start jumping forward in fifteen thousand light year increments. I’ll start at five thousand, Ian, you start at ten, and Gary, you start at twenty. We should overlap our searches and continue all the way to the core of the galaxy. If you run in to anything, notify the others.”

Ian looked at the display and said, “Let’s go find the monster. We know it’s out there.” The three ships disappeared.

T
he Admiral sat on the High Councilor’s ship and listened to the reports coming in. That freaking computer had been right again. The last thing it told him was that the probability was high that he would encounter an advanced civilization and that keeping a good distance between it and himself was a very good idea. It took all the diplomacy he possessed to convince the gung ho Councilor to remain at the edge of the galaxy and wait for a discovery. The Councilor finally relented when the Admiral told him that they could arrive at any discovery faster if they jumped in from the edge.

He had started receiving reports that started him worrying. Planets were being found that had been blasted into rubble from space. The data suggested it had happened long ago and the blasters used to do it were more advanced than the ones used by his fleet. This was starting to look ominous. The blaster burns were actually more powerful that the three ships that had attacked his ships. But the Councilor was as happy as a bug in dung at the prospect for returning a hero to a promotion in rank. The computer was right; he was too dumb to realize the danger he was in.

The Admiral decided he was not going to be stupid. “Sire, I need to make a short trip to one of the planets that was destroyed.”

“We can just take my ship there.”

“I need a vessel that has the necessary technology to analyze the blast patterns. This ship is too big to land on the planet. And if we do land and discover the alien’s location, we’ll be delayed arriving. I’ll leave my second in command and it should only take a short time. I’m sure the council will have questions about the alien’s capabilities and I don’t want to be unable to have the answers.”

The Councilor smiled, “I guess you saw what happened to your predecessor.”

“I did and that is what motivates me to do this.”

“It’s not good to not have answers. How long will you be gone?”

“It shouldn’t take long. I’ll be right back.”

“Ok, let me know what you find.”

The Admiral left the bridge and had the Ship Destroyer dock with the giant ship. The Admiral boarded and looked at the Commander waiting on him, “Did you do it?”

“It’s in place, Sir.”

“Take us away from this ship and jump us ten light years away from the galaxy’s edge. Send me all the incoming communications.” The Commander nodded and left. The number of destroyed planets had been growing and the Admiral knew the cause of that destruction was not long from being found.

• • •

“Ian.”

“Yes, E.”

“The numbers of destroyed planets are increasing. The aliens are starting to find them on a wide pattern.”

“Where are they?”

“They’re moving around the core and are about to enter a massive globular cluster of stars.”

“Where is that giant ship?”

“It’s out at the edge of the galaxy. The leader is waiting to discover the locals before he jumps in.”

“E, assume the aliens they find are more advanced than we are. Could they be monitoring their communications and know the location of that ship?”

“I can tell from listening to their communications that their computers are advanced enough to do it.”

“I’m not going in to that area. Contact G and Doc and tell them to meet me at that giant ship. We’ll follow it wherever we need to go.”

Violet looked at Ian, “What has you worried?”

“Violet, if what I fear the most becomes a reality, we are going to have to destroy that ship.”

Violet was surprised, “Why?”

“We can’t allow it to escape and lead another alien species to our galaxy.”

Violet thought about it and nodded, “You’re right.”

“E, do you sense any kind of scan being done outside normal space?”

“It’s hard to recognize something when you don’t have any idea what it would look like, but the only thing I sense on every frequency I can scan is communications. I’ll let you know when our aliens run into the new ones.”

“How will you know?”

“Their communications will go off the scale. Right now there has been no change.”

“Are you able to understand them yet?”

“Only a few basic words but I’m getting closer.”

“I’m bothered by how long ago those planets were destroyed.”

“I understand why.”

“Do you?”

“You need look no further than how far we’ve come in just the time since we discovered that dead planet. It’s been less than a year and our advancements are huge. The civilization that killed those planets did it twenty thousand years ago.”

“Competition brings out the best in us. If they eliminated all their enemies back then, their military advancements might not have changed dramatically.”

E paused and said, “Ian, I’d find it hard to wager on that happening. However, it appears there is a gradual learning slope once the FTL and Jump drives are discovered. The next discoveries don’t come quite as fast.”

“What do you think the next discovery will be?”

“I suspect we’ll see as soon as that civilization is found.”

Ian shook his head, “You could have gone all day without saying that.”

“What would be the fun in that? By the way, Gary is here.”

“Why is Drey always late?”

“Doc hasn’t been upgraded.”

Ian shook his head, “That worries me.”

“Me, too.”

“He carries too much blame and I guess I would as well if I were in his shoes.”

“Andi balances him. They’re good together.”

“Keep me updated on the language.”

“I will.”

• • •

The Councilor listened and heard, “I’ve detected some anomalies inside the star cluster we’re approaching.”

“What are they?”

“I’m not sure, but they appear to be widespread throughout the cluster.” The Junior Admiral looked at the Councilor, “What do you want to do?”

“You’re in command here. Where is that Admiral?”

“I’m not sure, Sire.”

“What would you do?”

“I’d gather all our ships and enter the cluster in force.”

The ship at the cluster said, “I don’t know what’s causing it, but our jump drives take a few minutes to activate. The search here could take some time.”

The Councilor said, “Gather the fleets and have them jump in together.”

• • •

“Ian, something’s going on. The aliens are massing their ships to jump into a giant star cluster. Their jump drives are not operating at normal speed.”

“What could cause that?”

“I have no idea.”

“Alright, everyone; we’re going to jump outside that star cluster and try to see what happens.”

Abby looked at Gary, “I don’t like the delay on jump drive activation.”

“Don’t get close enough to be affected by it.”

Gary jumped in and read the anomaly and backed out until it disappeared. “Drey, you might want to move out half a light year.”

“I’m on it.”

E said, “They have found the aliens that destroyed those planets. Their communications just went off the scale and the new aliens know those ships are here.”

The aliens from the Milky Way began jumping into the star cluster in ripples that moved through their ranks. After a moment all of the ships had disappeared. That’s when the screaming started.

Ian looked at Violet and saw her shock and said, “E, what’s going on?”

They heard, “…that ship is coming at me. I can’t jump, I can’t jump!” followed by a scream.”

Doc said, “The number of ships that went into that cluster have been reduced by twenty thousand…make that fifty thousand…now there’s only a hundred left communicating.” There was a pause and Doc said, “There are no ships communicating on the frequency used by the aliens from our galaxy.”

E shouted, “Ian, they know about the giant ship out at the edge of the galaxy. They’re planning to follow it back from where it came.”

Drey stood and shouted, “We can’t allow that to happen. We’ve got to destroy it before it leads this species to our galaxy.”

Gary said, “He’s right, Ian.”

Ian said, “Jump back to the ship. Drey, you’ll standoff sixty miles and launch missiles while Gary and I go after it with blasters. Jump in five seconds.”

Gary shouted, “Drey, aim for the jump drive emitters.”

“I’m on it.”

The Councilor listened to the communications and listened as they became fewer and fewer until there were none. He looked at the junior Admiral and said, “What happened?”

The Admiral was shaking, “All of our ships have been destroyed.”

“That’s not possible. We had a hundred thousand ships.”

“They’re all dead, Sire. Something did it faster than we could track.”

The Councilor stared at the Admiral and was too stunned to speak. The Admiral said, “We need…” just as the giant ship was rocked by several explosions.

The Drive Commander said, “Our jump drive has just been disabled. Three ships are attacking us.”

Gary and Ian flew in toward the giant vessel firing Higgs blasters and then turned away as the giant ship’s blasters opened fire. G and E shrugged off the hits and continued firing. Drey watched the fight and felt frustrated. “Doc, can we withstand those blasters?”

“No, E and G’s fields are ten times stronger than mine.”

“Hit it with a full spread of missiles.” Doc launched the missiles and moved to fifty miles out from the burning ship.

• • •

Ian heard, “THEY’RE COMING TO STOP US!!!”

Gary heard the computer just as a black ship emerged into normal space that made the alien’s huge ship look small in comparison. It instantly fired three beams at the Union ships, hitting all three as the beams swept across them.

Ian and Gary felt their ships rock with the hits as Ian shouted, “Dive!” The two ships disappeared as two more beams swept toward them. G shouted, “Doc’s been hit.”

Ian looked at his display and saw Drey’s ship on fire and listing. All the exterior lights were out and the fire was moving up the left wing toward the bridge. There was a giant hole completely through the left wing. “Drey…answer me, Drey!”

Gary shook his head, “G, status?”

“We’re lucky that beam swept across us or we would be dead as well. My force field is going to take ten minutes to restore full power but even if it does, I can’t withstand a direct hit from that ship.”

“Ian, that ship is planning to scan the alien’s ship for star maps in its database. When it finishes with that ship, it’s planning to scan Drey’s ship.”

Gary looked at Ian on the display, “They’ll find the Union. We must stop them.”

Ian shook his head, “We couldn’t emerge fast enough to take a shot before that ship killed us.”

Suddenly Abby said, “Look!”

• • •

The huge blaster beam hit and Drey was slammed out of his chair and against the back wall. He was stunned and saw a white haze with black spots for a moment and then his vision started clearing. “Andi, Andi, where are you?” Drey pushed himself up and sat against the back wall of the bridge. He felt something warm on his face and he ignored it. He looked to his right and saw the wall crumpled. He looked left and saw Andi. He closed his eyes and cried. Her chair had been closer to the blast and it had been ripped out of the floor and slammed into the back wall with her in it. The impact killed her instantly. Drey crawled over and wrapped his arms around her and wept. After a minute he released her and struggled forward, toward the control boards. “Doc, Doc, are you there?” All he could hear was the flames burning outside the bridge. He pulled himself to the control board and looked up at the panels. He heard a beeping sound and pulled himself up and looked out the forward port and saw the giant black ship moving closer to the alien ship. He saw something out of the corner of his eye and he started pushing controls.

• • •

Ian saw Drey on his secondary display. The signal was grainy but he could see that Drey had a gash on his forehead and burns on his left ear. “Drey, we need to get you out of there!”

Drey stared at them and said, “Andi’s dead. I’m not leaving her.”

“Drey, we need you in this fight.”

Drey shook his head, “I should have gone back for the upgrade. Andi would still be alive.”

Abby saw Violet crying as she said, “Drey, she would want you to live.”

Drey shook his head, “You know what that ship is doing. Andi would want me to stop it.”

“You can’t. You’ve got to take the small ship and escape.”

“The landing bay is in flames. There is no small ship.” Drey took a deep breath and said, “Doc is off visual, but he tells me on the computer terminal that the only system that’s still working is the dark matter drive. I am going to activate it and use what power remains in the thrusters to hit that ship.”

Ian saw the agony Drey was feeling and he sighed. Drey looked at him and Ian nodded. Drey reached forward and paused, he looked at Ian and said, “This one is for Natalie.”