Nowhere to Run Read online

  Star Chase

  Nowhere to Run

  Contents

  Introduction

  Chapter One • Chapter Two • Chapter Three • Chapter Four • Chapter Five • Chapter Six • Chapter Seven • Chapter Eight • Chapter Nine • Chapter Ten • Chapter Eleven • Chapter Twelve • Chapter Thirteen • Chapter Fourteen • Chapter Fifteen • Chapter Sixteen • Chapter Seventeen • Chapter Eighteen • Chapter Nineteen • Chapter Twenty • Chapter Twenty-One • Chapter Twenty-Two • Chapter Twenty-Three • Chapter Twenty-Four

  Excerpt From Star Chase Book Three Nowhere to Hide

  Books by Saxon Andrew

  About Saxon Andrew

  Introduction

  The Admiral stood at attention in front of the High Council and knew a death sentence was not far away. His ship was the only survivor of the hundred thousand plus ships sent to Andromeda to search for the ones that had been attacking their ships. He had discussed what to do with the Hub Computer but it was of the opinion that he was as good as dead. It did say something that got him thinking.

  “If you’re going to die anyway, you should at least make a grand exit.”

  The Admiral knew that being defensive was the best way to get him killed. He thought about it and decided that if nothing else, this group of leaders understood arrogance better than any other trait. He stood in the center of the room in his spotless uniform and remained at attention while the Councilors waited for the First to arrive. His black and blonde braid hung at his shoulder and his red uniform was immaculate. He forced all expression from his face and stared straight ahead. He looked up at the Second Councilor and knew he would be the one to conduct the questioning. He saw the Councilor staring at him and he stared back at him and didn’t blink. He quickly saw the Councilor’s expression and his excitement at possibly seeing him die. He forgot his fear and decided to say what he thought and damn the consequences. He sensed that to do anything else was going to get him killed. The First Councilor walked in and everyone rose until he took his seat. He looked at the Admiral for a long moment and then nodded to the Second.

  • • •

  The Second Councilor leaned forward and said, “Admiral, we have all gone over the recordings you made in the other galaxy and it appears that there is a very dangerous civilization there. You were right in that initial assessment.”

  The Admiral nodded and said, “But I was wrong about who it was.”

  The Second was surprised by the Admiral’s statement, “What do you mean?”

  “We went there looking for the home planets of the ships that were attacking our ships here. Some of their ships were there but it wasn’t them that destroyed our fleet. It was another civilization that was far more dangerous than the ones that have been attacking us.”

  The Second leaned back and said, “And just how do you know that?”

  “If you look at the final attack when a giant black ship was moving in on the Councilor’s Ship, you’ll find that those three ships attacked our ship and were in turn attacked by the giant ship that disabled the Councilor’s vessel. That ship fired on the three white ships, heavily damaging one of them. It was that damaged ship that rammed the black ship, destroying it along with the Councilor’s ship.”

  The Second stared at the Admiral, “And just why weren’t you on board the Councilor’s Vessel. That is where you were assigned.”

  The Admiral knew the moment had come. He stared at the Second and said, “I had to make a critical decision and I chose to leave his ship for the good of our civilization.”

  The Second sneered and said, “What was so critical that you would abandon a High Councilor?”

  “Making sure the information on what was happening made it back to the rest of you.”

  The Second was shocked by the answer. The Admiral continued, “I know most of you are wise and know how to conduct fleet maneuvers but the new Councilor was determined to get all of our ships destroyed. I could not change his mind on tactics and I knew if I didn’t make plans to get information back to the rest of you, it was possible you would come back without any warning of what to expect. I left to set up a ship to record everything that happened and also placed a probe on the Councilor’s ship to record what happened to us. Before I could return, the Councilor ordered all our ships into a star cluster. He didn’t send a probe in first, he didn’t send a small task force, he just ordered them all in and they were destroyed in less than thirty minutes. Then one of the ships from that cluster jumped in on his ship. I determined that I had to get this information back to you. I stayed to record what happened.”

  The First said, “Are you telling us that the Councilor would not listen to your suggestions?”

  The Admiral looked straight at the First and said, “The Councilor asked what I thought but decided what he wanted to do and made it clear his orders were to be followed. I determined rather quickly that he was ignoring my concerns and it was not acceptable to question his decisions; but I knew my primary responsibility was to make sure what ever happened would be recorded and brought back for the High Council’s consideration. I pulled a ship out of the fleet and set it up just outside the edge of the galaxy to record everything that took place. That is the only ship that made it back.”

  The First lowered his eyebrows, “And you just happened to be on that ship?.”

  “No, I was there to make sure the Captain of that ship was set up to record everything. When I moved the ship there, we had not found any civilizations in our search. I thought I would have enough time to get it done and get back. I was wrong. Everything fell apart faster than I thought possible. The Councilor ordered the fleets into a star cluster with abnormal readings and things got out of hand before I could do anything else but collect recordings.”

  The First sneered at the Admiral and nodded to the Second. The Second said, “This appears to be an act of cowardice, Admiral.”

  The Admiral stared at the Second and said, “If you were there instead of that councilor and I saw you were issuing orders that could get us all killed with no survivors, what do you think I should do?”

  “You should tell me what you’re seeing.”

  “And if I did and you chose to ignore me. What would my duty be? Should I stay on board and just issue your orders or should I take measures to make sure whatever happened was recorded and brought back?”

  “You left the Councilor.”

  “I left my second-in-command to carry out his instructions while I set up the ship to record. He wasn’t listening to anything I suggested. My being there would have made no difference in the outcome.”

  “What was so important that it required you to leave the councilor?”

  “Information about the ships that have been attacking us.”

  “What information?”

  “They are not located in another galaxy. They are located here in our galaxy.”

  The Councilors started talking among themselves and the Admiral looked up at the First, who wore a slight smile and was nodding his head. The Second saw it as well and the Admiral knew there would at least be another day.

  Chapter One

  Ian and Violet sat in Cole’s office and listened as he issued instructions to an engineer; they could see Cole was not happy, “I don’t care what it takes to make it work. I want those installations in orbit now. I won’t tolerate another delay. Now make it happen.” Cole slammed his board and said, “I’m tired of hearing what they can’t do.”

  Violet shrugged, “Is it possible they might not be able to do what you’re asking.”

  Cole looked at her, “They can do it. They just want everything to operate perfectly and that never happens. They should get them up and then make corrections.”

  Ian lowered his eyebrows
, “Exactly what is it you want done?”

  “The Obelisk needs weapons above the planet to adequately defend it. The ground lasers won’t be powerful enough against the slavers if they come here. The ground lasers won’t hit them before they can hit the installations from orbit. The missile launchers should also be in orbit to take full advantage of their FTL fields.”

  Ian sighed, “Then what good are the ground defenses against them?”

  Cole smiled, “They won’t want to land an invading force on any of our planets. They’ll get chewed up by the Obelisks. However, the Obelisks can be knocked out from space if we don’t have defenses in orbit to use against invading ships.”

  Ian leaned back, “Do we have anything in our inventory that can keep them far enough away from the planet?”

  “Thanks to Andi and Abbey’s Higgs beam, we do.”

  Ian shook his head, “I don’t understand how a Higgs beam functions, Cole. Is it really that dangerous?”

  Cole stared at Ian and said, “I’m going to explain this once and you probably still won’t understand it. Most people just don’t understand the Standard Unified Theory so that they can grasp how subatomic particles operate. The Higgs-Boson particle is the final piece of what makes matter stable.” Cole saw Ian’s expression and held up his hand, “ I’ll try to keep this as simple as possible.” Cole looked up and then said, “The Higgs field is a part of all matter in the universe. It is what allows matter to have weight. It is what pulls particles together. Without that field, all matter would simply move at the speed of light as particles. The Higgs field allows particles to combine and form elements by giving them weight. Remove the weight and the elements would fly apart.”

  Cole paused, “Humans discovered in the early twenty first century during experiments with a collider that when a proton was hit by another proton, it shattered into its parts and two new particles came into existence for a brief moment. Those particles didn’t exist physically before the collision but were part of the proton in the form of an energy field. Those two new particles were produced by the Higgs field collapsing into a particle called a Boson. That particle is a physical manifestation of the Higgs field. The Boson would only exist for a few moments and would then return to an energy field and become part of another particle.”

  Ian thought a moment and said, “So if you remove the Higgs field from any matter, it would fly apart?”

  Cole nodded and said, “It would fly apart at the speed of light. Do you know what they call matter that flies apart at the speed of light?”

  Ian stared at Cole and said, “A nuclear explosion.”

  Cole laughed, “Give the man a Kewpie Doll.”

  Violet shook her head, “But Cole, those ships we hit with a Higgs Beam didn’t explode. A hole was just burned through them. I didn’t see nuclear explosions when we used them in the last battle.”

  “That’s because we fired the Higgs field in the beams. They added so much weight to what they hit that the particles collapsed in on themselves. It’s the Boson Particles that strip the Higgs Field from matter. The beams we’re designing for planetary defense will fire Boson particles that strip the Higgs field from whatever they hit and cause the atoms to fly apart.”

  Ian shook his head, “Is that possible?”

  “It is.”

  “What’s the range of the new beam?”

  “We won’t know until we get one of the orbiting platforms up and give it a shot.”

  “How are you going to collect the needed Bosons?”

  “We’ll fly the platform faster than the speed of light in a Dark Matter field and collect enough to fuel the beams. Ninety percent of the space on the platforms will be taken up by the collectors that keep the Boson particles from decaying into a Higgs Field. The Platforms will be controlled by the Obelisk, so that they are optimally placed and targeted during combat operations.

  Violet looked at Cole, “How many platforms will be needed to defend a planet?”

  “Three.”

  “They’ll be the targets of any attacking fleet, Cole.”

  “The platforms will be in other space and only the beam projectors will be in normal space. They’ll be almost impossible to hit. They will change location each time they fire.”

  Ian said, “I understand why they can’t be located on the planet.” Violet looked at Ian. Ian saw her expression and said, “If they were fired through our atmosphere, it would cause it to explode.”

  Cole nodded, “Exactly. They have to be fired in the vacuum of space.”

  Ian looked at Cole, “How long is it going to take to bring these online?”

  “That’s why I’m rushing this. It will take at least a year to get all of the Union’s planets defended. Why do you ask?”

  “Gary and Abbey are keeping an eye on the Slavers and their reports say they have started a massive ship building program. They have learned that they know we’re in the Milky Way and I suspect they will come searching for the Union shortly.”

  Cole shook his head, “The rest of the Union is building warships, Ian. We have developed some new tools for them and I suspect we will be able to match anything they’re building. However, the Boson planetary beams can’t be used on our ships.”

  Ian eyes narrowed, “Why not?”

  “The storage containers and technology to prevent the decay of the Boson particles are massive. Most of the power is directed to operating the Boson Beams and channels for the Boson’s to the beam projectors. A warship would have to be too large to use this particular weapon. We’ve also seen that the Higgs Beam is a close in weapon. You have to be no more than five miles from the one you’re attacking for it to operate effectively.”

  “That means our ships will be inside the range of the Slaver’s weapons.”

  Cole sighed, “It does. It is a last resort defense.”

  Violet said, “They’ve got hundreds of thousands more planets in their civilization than we do. They can overwhelm our fleets with sheer numbers if given time. If they really crank up their ship construction, we are not going to be able to match their numbers.”

  “I suspect the ships they’re going to build will be stronger than the ones we’ve faced, Ian. We’re working to develop a more powerful ship to face them.”

  Ian shook his head, “Well, we’re not going to go back and attack them until we’re further along in building our defenses. Our current strategy is to delay their search for the Union as long as possible.”

  Cole could only shrug, “Defeating the Slavers is the immediate issue but those Black Ships in Andromeda will eventually show up.”

  “Were you able to determine anything about them from our recordings?”

  “The only weapons we have that will get through their defenses are the Higgs and Boson beams.”

  Ian shook his head, “And we’ll have to get close to use them. I’ve seen the power of just one of their beams; we’re no match for those ships.”

  Cole took a deep breath, “Let’s handle one problem at a time.”

  Violet stared at the image of a platform on Cole’s display, “If these platforms are mobile, you might want to build a reserve of them that could be moved to any planet the Slavers find until we have enough to defend all of them.”

  Ian and Cole looked at Violet and Cole said, “Now that is a great idea. I should have thought of that.”

  Violet shrugged, “I do sometimes have a good idea.”

  Ian hugged her and said, “Don’t sell yourself short, Love. This one is a doozy.”

  • • •

  The First Councilor looked at the Admiral in his private quarters and said, “You should know that by abandoning the Councilor during the last battle you would ordinarily be executed for your behavior.” The Admiral nodded and said nothing. “Why aren’t you worried?”

  “Because you knew when you sent that idiot to lead my Fleets that he was woefully inadequate for the task. If I had not taken the steps I did, the Council would be facing those Black Ships her
e.”

  The First looked at him and said, “Why is that?”

  “Because one of the Black Ships was scanning the Councilor’s ship for data on where he had originated; it was stopped when it was rammed by one of the White Ships. I ordered my ship to flee to the largest galaxy in our cluster and I was chased by another Black Ship. I barely escaped it.”

  “I’d think that it would have caught you.”

  “It would have if my ship was the only one fleeing to that giant galaxy. Two of the White Ships also fled in that direction and it chose to chase one of them. I suspect it selected one of them because it was one of their ships that destroyed the Black Ship.”

  The Second Councilor said, “I thought you said those ships came from this galaxy.”

  “They suggested I flee toward that galaxy to prevent the Black Ships from seeing our home galaxy. They would not have fled toward their own galaxy. I’m certain that they were just as surprised as we were by that advanced civilization.”

  The First stared at the Admiral for a moment and then said, “You appear to be brighter than most of your predecessors. I’m reluctant to execute you because of that.” The First continued to stared at the Admiral who remained silent and said, “You were right. The Councilor was an idiot.”

  The First looked at the Second and the Second said to the Admiral, “So what would you do now?”

  “We are going be forced to prioritize our problems. I think the Black Ships will scout that other galaxy before they come here. That gives us some time before we’ll have to take them on. The immediate problem is the White Ships.”

  The Second glanced at the First, who remained silent and said, “So you’re suggesting we go searching for the home worlds of the White Ships?”

  “We can’t do that now.”

  “Why not?”

  “We’ve lost our surplus of ships when we were attacked in that other galaxy; if we take those we have remaining to search for them, who will defend our home worlds? We must rebuild our lost ships and once we have enough to defend our planets, we’ll start the search.”