The Star Cross: The Dark Invaders (11 page)

Kurt shifted
his eyes to the main viewscreen, showing six Dacroni battleships in the
distance. Two more had arrived the day before. He sure hoped this hyperspace
cloaking system worked that Lomatz’s engineers had installed. Lomatz had seemed
confident it would. Kurt had no desire to face the Dacroni battleships in
battle. After what had happened on Kubitz, Kurt was certain the Dacroni battleships
were waiting for the
Star Cross
and the other Newton ships to leave their
protected orbit. With a deep sigh, Kurt knew High Profiteer Creed needed to be
dealt with.

“Take us out,”
Kurt ordered, curious to see if the Dacroni ships followed them. They had to
cross the orbit of the sixth planet, where the Controller station was located,
before they could activate their hyperspace drives. If they activated them any
sooner, they could face stiff fines and possible banishment from trading on
Kubitz.

They already
had permission from Kubitz Orbital Control to leave the planet. Inside the safe
in his office was the new contract he had submitted to the Controllers. It
specified a few small areas of space Newton claimed an interest in. Several of
the areas mystified Kurt as Nirron had included them at Lomatz’s insistence.
Overall the new contract had cost Newton twenty million credits. They had also
worked out an agreement on the automated factories and the building equipment
Governor Spalding wanted. Now all they had to do was make it back home to Newton.

-

The
Star Cross
and the other four ships of her small force rapidly pulled away from the
crowded orbital space above Kubitz. A few minutes after their departure, all
six Dacroni battleships set out in pursuit. Everyone else watching in other
ships and upon the planet knew, if the Dacroni were successful in catching the
Newton vessels at their first hyperspace dropout, there would be a battle, and
no one defeated six massive Dacroni battleships.

For several
hours the two fleets kept their distance. The Newton fleet was satisfied to
stay a few minutes ahead of the pursuing Dacroni warships, and the Dacroni were
confident they would net their reward when Fleet Admiral Vickers dropped from
hyperspace. It would be sweet revenge for the fleet losses the Human admiral
had inflicted on Clan Leader Jarls in previous engagements, as well as evening
the score for the hundreds of millions of credits he had lost when they were
driven from Earth.

-

“We’re
crossing the orbit of the sixth planet,” Salas reported as he watched the ship’s
sensors closely. “Human ships are activating their hyperdrives.”

“Track them on
the hyperspace sensors,” ordered Jarls, growing impatient to kill the Human admiral
and his paltry grouping of ships.

“Ships are
jumping,” Salas said as the ships vanished from the regular sensors only to
appear moments later on the hyperspace one. “We have them on the long-range
sensors.”

“Prepare to
enter hyperspace,” ordered Jarls, feeling victory within his grasp. Even as he
watched the long-range sensor screen, the five red threat icons slowly faded
away and vanished.

“What happened?”
demanded Jarls, standing up and striding to the long-range sensor screen in
disbelief. “What’s wrong with the sensors?”

“I don’t
know,” stammered Salas as he ordered the sensor operator to run a diagnostic.
“They’ve never done that before.”

A few minutes
passed, and the sensor operator shook his head. “There’s nothing wrong with the
sensors. We just can’t seem to detect the Newton ships.”

Jarls returned
to his command chair, slamming his fist on the armrest, shattering it.
“Lomatz!” he roared. “The weapons dealer has to be behind this. No one else
would have access to such technology.”

“We can file a
complaint at Kubitz,” suggested Salas. “If he’s sold forbidden technology to
Vickers, Lomatz will suffer the consequences for his actions. The Controllers
will ban him from ever selling anything on Kubitz again.”

Jarls gazed
angrily at the now empty long-range sensor screen. “No, we can’t do anything as
we have no proof. Set a course for Dacron Four. We’ve been away from home far
too long. Fleet Admiral Vickers and the
Star Cross
will have to wait for
now. I’ll contact High Profiteer Creed once we get back home. Perhaps between
the two of us, we can set a trap for Vickers. Our day will come, and Vickers
will learn of the wrath of the Dacroni.”

The Dacroni clan
leader slowly brought his anger into check. Once again Fleet Admiral Vickers
had demonstrated his resourcefulness. However, Jarls knew, at some point in
time, not even that would save the crafty Human admiral.

The black ship
dropped from hyperspace into the unsuspecting system of Golithia. The ship was
dumbbell-shaped, with two enormous globes at each end connected to one another
by a short cylinder. The ship was painted a matte black, and no starlight
reflected from its hull. A powerful energy screen protected it, and a sensor-dampening
field ensured it could not be detected.

This was a
Vorn mothership with only one priority: food procurement for the Vorn race,
particularly the Royal Caste. Around it other black warships exited hyperspace
in a defensive formation around the behemoth-size vessel. The spindle-shaped
ships were five hundred meters in length and extremely deadly. They were armed
with the most powerful weapons known to the ancient race.

The Vorn race
was divided up into three castes: The Royal Caste, which consisted of the
Queens, their consorts, the Queens’ extended families, scientists, and top
military leaders. The Military Caste was made up of warriors who were specially
bred to fight for the Royal Caste. They were intelligent, loyal, and quite
deadly. Last of all was the Working Caste. This caste consisted of nearly
mindless drones bred for specific functions.

Over the eons,
the Vorn race had become known as the Destroyers of Worlds. They lived in huge
artificial constructs in intergalactic space. However, the Vorn had not
originated in this universe. They were from a bubble universe where they had
fled a great enemy. In a desperate battle, the Vorn Queens had fled with their
surviving ships into the heart of a black hole. They had traveled through the
singularity and arrived in a new universe, one where their weapons were supreme
and where the inhabitants of the multitude of galaxies were a prime food source
for the Vorn.

The Vorn stood
upright, having a basic humanoid form with two legs and two arms. That was
where the Human resemblance ended. The average Vorn looked like a cross between
a humanoid and a wasp. The head was covered in very short hair and triangular-shaped
with two antennae. Its eyes were multifaceted and could see in a number of
different light wavelengths. They had small wasplike wings normally folded on
their backs. Their hands consisted of seven thin digits with which to
manipulate equipment. However, the most shocking aspect of the Vorn race was
that they were telepathic. They could sense each other’s thoughts over short
distances.

The military commander
of the mothership waited patiently for the other ships to arrive. Once the
fleet was assembled, it would move toward the single inhabited world in this
system. Time for another world to die and to procure more food for the always-hungry
Vorn race.

-

Commander Halk
Lakor stared with deep concern at one of the viewscreens of his flagship.
Commander Lakor was of the Andock race, and his fleet was responsible for
protecting the Enlightened World of Blisth. Computer simulations run on Andock
had predicted Blisth was the next most likely target for the Destroyers of
Worlds.

“We got
lucky,” Second Commander Torrel commented as he gazed at the viewscreen. “The
enemy dropped from hyperspace near a research satellite and was captured on its
video input. We’re getting a live feed of what’s happening in the outer
system.”

“Send a drone
to Andock with the data,” Lakor ordered as he watched more of the black ships
exit hyperspace. He wanted to ensure the home system knew exactly what they faced.
“Send a message to Blisth to evacuate. I want every cargo and passenger ship
crammed full of civilians and exiting this system within the next hour.”

“You don’t
think we can hold the system?”

“No one’s
stopped the black ships yet,” Lakor said evenly. “We’ll do our best, but I fear
all we can do is give the evacuating ships time to get away. I also want an FTL
drone launched every ten minutes with the latest tactical data. Perhaps the information
we send back to Andock will give our military leaders and scientists a clue as
to how to stop the black ships in the future.”

Second
Commander Torrel nodded and passed on the orders.

Lakor
thoughtfully studied the viewscreen. It was doubtful the black ships knew they
had been detected. Perhaps this time it would give the Andock fleet an
advantage. In the last six weeks, three Enlightened World colonies under Andock
protection had been destroyed by the deadly enemy. Not a single inhabitant
survived on any of the three worlds. Nearly one billion Enlightened World inhabitants
had been killed.

“Set our
viewscreens to display any aberrations that might appear. Have our ship
computer correlate the aberrations and project them into the tactical display.
We’ll then use the information from the display to determine targets.”

Taking a deep
breath, Commander Lakor addressed the ships of his fleet. “All ships, set Alert
One. Enemy ships have been spotted in the outer system. As discussed in earlier
strategy sessions, we will use the images from our viewscreens, which our ship
computers can interpolate and plot in the tactical displays, to determine
targets. Hold your fire until I give the order. Perhaps we can draw the enemy
in close enough for our weapons to be effective.”

Commander
Lakor had 120 ships under his command. Of that total 110 were 1,200-meter-long
battlecruisers and the remaining 10 were 1,500-meter-long battleships. As he watched
the viewscreen, more of the deadly black ships dropped from hyperspace. Already
he was outnumbered two to one.

“The Lakiams
lost a fleet a few weeks ago,” Second Commander Torrel said as he gazed at the
viewscreen. “Not a single ship survived.”

Commander
Lakor nodded. “It’s been the same everywhere the black ships have struck. From
the latest reports fourteen Enlightened World colonies have been hit.”

Torrel turned
toward Commander Lakor. “What happens when the black ships strike one of the
actual Enlightened Worlds and not just a colony?”

“The
Enlightened Worlds and various Protector Worlds have communicated a lot over
the last few weeks. We know more about the black ships than we did. One of the
older Enlightened Worlds escaped the black ships the last time they came to our
galaxy. They were a Protector World back then. Even so, they didn’t have a lot
of information. However, when the black ships previously attacked the worlds of
our galaxy, they started out small and random, just like these raids.”

“Like they
were searching for the best targets?”

“Possibly,”
Commander Lakor replied. “Then, after a while, the black ships appeared
everywhere. World after world succumbed and were stripped of their higher life-forms.
The only living things that remained, once the black ships left a planet, were
the plant life, insects, and microorganisms. Every other life-form was gone.
Only a few civilized worlds escaped the death and destruction spread by the
black ships. Even those worlds suffered a collapse of their civilizations as
the rest of the worlds around them were gone.”

Torrel slowly
shook his head. “They take so much. I wonder if they leave the lower life-forms
so new civilized species will someday evolve to become new victims.”

“That’s the
theory.” On the viewscreen, Commander Lakor saw no more black ships dropping from
hyperspace. “Move the fleet closer to the planet. Perhaps we can give the
evacuation fleet sufficient cover fire to allow them to escape.”

-

In space, the
Andock fleet moved to within one hundred thousand kilometers of Blisth. Already
cargo ships and a few passenger vessels had lifted off the planet and fled into
hyperspace. Other ships were still being loaded and would be launching as soon
as they were full of evacuees.

The fleet put
the planet to their back, and then the ships turned to face outward, waiting
for the appearance of the black ships, ready to fulfill their sworn duty to
defend the Enlightened Worlds under their protection. A defense that in every recent
case so far had failed.

Minutes passed
as the fleet waited with all sensors scanning the space around them and the
planet. However, the Andocks knew from previous reports their sensors would be
useless against the enemy ships. Instead they would depend on their ships’ computers
and viewscreens to spot and plot the location of the black ships when they
arrived.

On the surface
of the planet, dozens of small and large cargo ships were hurriedly loaded with
panicked citizens. Blisth had been colonized for over six hundred years and, in
all that time, had never faced any threats. As a peaceful world, Blisth was
dedicated to the advancement of knowledge, living in harmony with nature, the
environment, and all other species. Now that peace was about to be shattered by
a deadly enemy who knew no mercy.

Large
passenger liners dropped to the surface to take on evacuees. Normally the large
ships didn’t land but were loaded at one of the three orbital stations above
the planet. However, in this instance, there wasn’t time to load passengers in
shuttles, take them to a station, and then board one of the liners. Therefore,
the large ships came to the planet’s spaceports. It was the first time many of
the ships had ever entered a planet’s atmosphere, but they had been designed to
do this in case of an emergency. Even so only about 2 percent of the population
could be evacuated; the rest were doomed to wait and hope the defending fleet
was successful in stopping the incoming black ships.

-

“Contacts!”
called out the sensor operator as the ship’s computer began putting red threat
icons into the tactical display. “Enemy ships detected on a number of
viewscreens throughout the fleet. They’ll be in weapons range in fourteen
minutes.”

“What’s the
status of the evacuation?” demanded Commander Lakor. The black ships had arrived
much sooner than he had expected.

“Not enough
time for some of the ships,” Second Commander Torrel responded as he checked
with the planet’s Space Control. “They need another forty minutes to get every
available ship fully loaded, off the planet, and into hyperspace.”

Commander
Lakor took in a deep breath and then slowly let it out. “We need to find a way
to buy them the extra time.”

He studied the
tactical display for a long moment. The enemy’s mothership was in the center of
the approaching formation of 311 small and deadly cruisers.

“We need to
stop the enemy’s advance,” Lakor said. “I want all ten of our battleships to do
a short hyperspace jump to just behind the black fleet. Once we emerge from hyperspace,
I want every weapon we have focused on that large ship in the middle of their
formation. Our battlecruisers will advance and attack the front of the enemy
formation at the same time. They’ll fire an initial barrage and then transit
into hyperspace, coming back out in an englobement formation around the black
fleet.”

“Englobement?”
stuttered Second Commander Torrel, his eyes growing wide. “We don’t have enough
ships.”

Commander
Lakor shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. We’re just buying some time.” He
didn’t go on to say he expected to lose his entire fleet. All he could do was delay
the black ships, before they destroyed his task force. In the end, he knew they
were all most likely going to die.

-

The black
ships continued their steady approach. On board the mothership, the Vorn
watched as cargo ships and passenger liners lifted from the surface of the
planet and vanished into hyperspace. Somehow the defending fleet had detected
them. The Vorn’s telepathic abilities allowed them to communicate across their
fleet without the need for primitive comm systems. It gave them a decisive edge
in all battles as the fleet could move in unison with just a single command
from the fleet military commander. The fleet moved closer to the defenders and
prepared to attack.

The Andocks
waited until the last possible moment, and then ten battleships vanished into hyperspace
only to reappear directly behind the Vorn fleet. As soon as the Andock ships’
weapons and shields came online, force beams flashed into being, slamming into
the massive mothership at the center of the Vorn formation. Its powerful shield
flashed to life as it glowed brightly. However, the deadly energy transmitted
in the force beams was only absorbed. The mothership had been designed to
resist such an attack in force. Since coming to this universe, not a single
Vorn mothership had been lost in battle.

-

“No effect!”
yelled Second Commander Torrel in disbelief. “Ten battleships and that thing is
untouched. How’s that possible?”

“The enemy
ship is absorbing the power of the force beams,” announced the Andock officer
at the sensor console. “Our weapons are only making the screen grow stronger.”

On the
tactical display, the other Andock ships now fired their own force beams and
energy projectors at the leading enemy ships. Their beams also were absorbed by
the black ship’s energy screens, and no damage was caused. What a disheartening
development as Commander Lakor had expected to at least damage a few of the
enemy vessels.

“Fire
missiles!” he ordered, finding it difficult to believe his attack was having no
effect. The only chance they had was to overload the energy screens. Surely
there had to be a limit to how much energy they could absorb! If he couldn’t
destroy at least a few of the black ships, how would he stop them from
advancing on the planet?

On all the
Andock ships, missile hatches slid open, and powerful antimatter hypermissiles
jumped into hyperspace to instantly slam into the shields of the black ships.
Each missile contained a two-hundred-megaton warhead. Space lit up in a fury of
brightness as antimatter energy washed across the screens of the enemy ships.
But even these powerful weapons were ineffective. After a few moments, the
antimatter energy faded away as its power was absorbed by the enemy ships.