Lens of Time: Book 06 - Star Rover-Running Out of Time Read online

  Belwen was looking at a read out on his computer and saw the seven Madators lying on the floor, “Hey, it wasn’t that bad, was it?”

  Blacky’s head rolled off the floor and stopped on top of his chest. Belwen was amazed at the physiology of a species that could accomplish that. It was incredible. “If you stick one more thing in my hide, I think I’ll explode.”

  “No you won’t?”

  “I won’t?”

  “No, there’s nothing hollow in you to cause a blast. How do you keep things inside your body?”

  Blacky’s head started rolling off his chest and hit the floor, “I don’t know; I just wrap it up.”

  “I need you to demonstrate a few things before I can get started developing some things for you to use.”

  “Such as?”

  “Are you able to change the basic shape of your body?”

  “Yes, I suppose so; what shape do you have in mind?”

  Belwen turned his computer display around and showed a picture of an air foil, “Could you assume this shape?”

  “That looks like a wing on a warship.”

  “It is shaped like a wing; can you do it?”

  “Why would you want us to assume that shape?”

  Belwen smiled, “Have you thought about how we would get you on a planet that’s got defenses on it?”

  “I just assumed we would be transported in a ship and dropped off.”

  “That’s far too dangerous. We need to get you to the surface without you being seen.”

  All seven Madators sat straight up. Now this was something that interested them. “How would you do that?”

  “First, I need to know how small you can make yourself.”

  Blacky looked around and shrugged. Suddenly, he shrunk into a black ball not much larger than a baseball. Belwen was astounded. Blacky expanded and looked at him, “That’s about as small as I can do.”

  “How in the Creator’s name can you do that?”

  “I don’t know; like you said, my body isn’t hollow but the molecules that make it have a lot of space between them. I guess it’s sort of like a star after it goes nova and its gravity pulls it into a tiny space. I just pull all the molecules close together.”

  Belwen made some notes and said, “Come with me.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “To see if you can fly.”

  Blacky hooted, “Now that’s funny. We can do a lot of things but flight is not one of them.” Belwen shrugged and continued walking toward the exit. Blacky said, “You’re serious?”

  “I am, now come on.”

  The seven Madators along with Belwen and two engineers arrived at a lab that was situated on the coast overlooking one of the oceans on Belwen’s planet. They entered the lab and Belwen yelled, “DO YOU HAVE IT READY?”

  An engineer came out of the adjoining room with a light weight plastic form. The two other engineers went into the room and carried out four more. Finally, there were seven of the forms scattered around the room. Blacky looked at the forms, “What are these?”

  “You’ve told me you can move into various shaped containers. I want all of you to move into one of these and shape your body to it. Try to fill as much of it as you can.” Blacky stared at Belwen and moved over to the closest form. He inserted his arms and flowed into the container. He expanded his body and filled it. “What am I doing in here?”

  “Can you remember the shape you’re in?”

  “I guess so.”

  “Then get out.”

  Blacky flowed out of the container and Belwen said, “Go back in as fast as you can.” Blacky stared at Belwen and flowed back in in less than ten seconds. “Do it again but do it faster.” He looked at the other six Madators and said, “You can start doing the same thing.” They moved to the containers and started the process. Belwen watched them and made comments, as they moved in and out. “That’s better, but I know you can do it faster.” “Good, good, that’s your best time so far.” The Madators continued to move in and out and, after two hours, Belwen said, “That’s enough.” He turned to Blacky and said, “Assume the shape of the container…now!”

  Blacky immediately changed his shape to a long, slightly curved, flat surface and fell to the floor. “Now change your shape to the smallest size you can manage.” Blacky immediately formed a small black ball on the floor. “Now back to the shape of the form.”

  Belwen kept all seven of them changing shapes for another hour. At that point Blacky stopped and said, “What are you doing? This makes no sense.”

  Belwen smiled and said, “Come with me.” The seven followed him out of the lab to the cliff overlooking the ocean far below. They arrived at the edge and felt the strong updraft rising from the ocean beneath them. Belwen looked at Blacky and said, “Stand here on the edge and assume the shape of the form.” Blacky looked at Belwen and changed his shape…and was immediately lifted high in air. Blacky started yelling and Belwen shouted, “Move your body and move with the wind!”

  Blacky was terrified as he was blown more than three hundred feet off the ground and he started moving his body to avoid being caught in the strong updraft. He lowered his front edge and he started zooming toward the ground. Before he crashed he lifted his front edge and glided level with the ground and gained altitude again. Belwen shouted, “Next time you get close to the ground, change to your smallest size!”

  Blacky was climbing and he was starting to get a feel of how to use the wind to change direction. He turned with the wind and flew away from the cliff, then turned and started a shallow glide back to the group standing at the edge. Just before he moved into the violent updraft he changed shape to a small ball and fell three feet to the ground. He immediately stood up in his normal shape with a huge smile, “That was both terrifying and fun at the same time!”

  Belwen smiled, “You have to practice gliding in this wind.”

  “Why?”

  “We’re going to drop you on a planet from space. You’re going to have to learn how to use the winds to glide to the surface.”

  Blacky stared at Belwen and his head fell to his midsection, “You can’t be serious?”

  “I’m deadly serious. You’ll fall in the shape of the small ball until you reach an altitude where you can expand and start flying.”

  “I’ll burn up long before that happens.”

  “No you won’t. You’re dropping in with a flame proof covering. You’ll eject out of it and catch the wind.”

  “Why would we do it this way?”

  “Blacky, no scanner is set to detect biological creatures. They’re set to detect energy and metals and you won’t have any of that exposed to them. You’ll be able to drop in on a planet undetected and do whatever your mission might be.”

  “What if there isn’t any wind?”

  “You’re going to learn that you can use the speed you drop in with to glide wherever you choose. Your forward speed will provide all the wind you’ll need. I would recommend that when you choose to land, you should turn your body perpendicular to the ground and flap your surface to slow you down. At that point, you just change to a ball and fall to the ground. You can melt into the soil and move away from your landing point if you need to.”

  Blacky thought about what Belwen said and looked at the other six, “He makes sense. We need to work on gliding here at the cliff until we master it.”

  Belwen said, “You should also practice changing into a ball shape to drop quickly if needed and back to the wing shape at a lower altitude.”

  Blacky smiled and ran forward and threw himself over the cliff wall in the shape of a small ball. The group ran to the edge and didn’t see him but suddenly he blew by them as he flew at high speed in the updraft, moving up the cliff wall. He was hooting and tweeting at the top of his voice as he rose quickly into the sky. Belwen smiled and shook his head. Two more Madators changed to the shape of a wing and lifted into the sky. The other four lifted right behind them and they flew erratically until they got
a feel for how to ride the wind. By the end of the day they were flying in formation and dropping quickly toward the ground only to change back into a wing and rise quickly back into the sky.

  Finally Blacky glided toward the ground, furled his shape into the wind and landed on his feet without having to change into the ball shape. He looked at Belwen, “I was wrong.”

  “About what?”

  “Flying is one of the things I can do.”

  “You appear to have a natural talent for it.”

  “My species has often suggested that we were once birds in our early development and evolved into what we are today. I think this adds support to that theory.”

  “If nothing else, you do share a common characteristic with them.”

  “What is that?”

  “You both have beaks.”

  Blacky stared at Belwen and his expression was serious. After a long moment he smiled, “I suspect we were a bird of prey.”

  Belwen laughed, “Of that, there is no doubt.”

  “Belwen.”

  “Yes.”

  “I need to send four of us back to our planet to start teaching my species how to fly.”

  “That’s a good idea but only send three.”

  “Why three?”

  “I suspect that the minimum number to use on a raid is four. You should prepare the first wing as quickly as possible. The others can be brought up to speed at a slower pace.”

  “Do you see something that we might need to do?”

  “I do. I’ve been looking at the scouting reports from the invaded planets, and something is going on that we need to take a look at.”

  “Three it is.”

  “I also have a few developments I want you to start working on using.”

  “Are these the toys Dat mentioned?”

  Belwen smiled, “I guess you could call them that; I think you’ll enjoy playing with them.”

  Blacky put an arm around Belwen’s shoulders, “You know that your species is now on our protected list.”

  “Why is that?”

  “No one has ever given us this much fun. Well, maybe Dat did during our little runs, but I see that you have accepted us and don’t fear having us around.”

  “Thanks, Blacky. We are unable to fight and depend on others to protect us. Your willingness to defend us means a lot.”

  “Let me know when you need us.” Belwen nodded and Blacky changed his shape to a wider wing, turned into the strong wind, and lifted straight up into the air. He moved slowly higher and then extended his shape and flew away at high speed. Belwen shook his head and wondered what he had done and what effect it was going to have.

  Chapter Two

  “Gibbs, I need you to make a scouting run.”

  “Where?”

  Dat pulled up a star chart on the wall display and a cursor appeared next to a type G star in M87’s Red Zone. “This planet was invaded by the Grillen and they are building some kind of installation on the surface. We don’t have a probe there and I need you to send one of your ships to deploy one.”

  “I’ll get on it and send a ship by the end of the day.”

  “Make sure the drop is done quickly and the ship gets out of there as fast as possible.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “The Grillen wouldn’t have invaded without some belief that they can stand up to our ships. They’ve had enough time while we were busy fighting the Masters to build up their forces. I believe that installation is important in seeing what we’re going to have to face.”

  Admiral Gibbs sighed, “Is it back to war?”

  “I’m afraid so; I don’t think we have much time before it kicks off.”

  “I’ll have the ship make a high speed pass in the barrier and drop several probes as it approaches the planet.”

  “Contact me when they’re active.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  • • •

  Katherine stared at her monitor and watched as the forty Grey Ships flashed in on the squadron of Rovers and opened fire. The hundred Rovers scattered but twenty six of them exploded in huge red explosions. The survivors turned on their attackers and started firing at them but their beams were shrugged off by the Grey Ships. “Where did those ships come from?”

  Her Executive Officer nodded at the display, “They lifted off the planet they invaded six months ago. The squadron of Rovers were sent there to hit their ship building facilities on the planet. That planet was one of the first invaded by the Grillen and is ahead of the others in building ships.”

  “Those ships are light years ahead of their other ships.”

  “Yes Sir, they are. We’ve started taking a close look at the planets invaded in the Red Zone in M87 and we’ve discovered they were chosen for a reason.”

  “What is that?”

  “It appears all of them have an abundance of an ore that is used to build those ships. They’re starting to build them in huge numbers and it appears we can’t match them with our current technology.”

  “How would they know about that ore? Or the technology to use it?”

  “We don’t know, Admiral. However, if we don’t slow them down, we’re in big trouble.”

  Katherine stared at the display as the other Rovers were being killed. Only ten ships managed to escape. “Brad, get Dat Arvolo here now!”

  Katherine stared at a still of a small Grey Ship that spelled doom for the civilized planets in the Milky Way if an answer to them wasn’t found quickly…Katherine shook her head. Where did they learn how to build that ship?

  • • •

  Dat and Gresha watched the recording and Admiral Hull pointed at the display, “I’ve done some checking and more than a hundred of the planets the Grillen invaded have started producing those ships. They’re currently residing at the planet they were built to defend it against attacks. We could possibly overwhelm them with numbers and hit the installations from space but we’d kill a huge number of the local inhabitants if we did.”

  “We may not have a choice; we have to slow down their production of that ship until we develop a means of countering them.”

  “That probably won’t happen unless we capture one and examine it. So far they’ve proven to be immune to our most powerful beams.”

  “What about a small penetrator?”

  “Dat, they’re too small and can avoid it. We’ve fired at them and they just move out of its path and hit it with one of their beams.”

  Dat blew out a breath, “We don’t have any other option but to hit them now and slow them down. I hate that the locals are going to pay a price for this but we won’t survive unless we stop them.”

  “The Grillen will send in their fleets to assist those Grey Ships if we hit the planets. We may knock out the ones that are launching ships but we’ll face huge numbers afterwards.”

  “Do we know what the Grillen have in their inventory?”

  “They outnumber us three to one. They’ve been building ships at an incredible rate while we were dealing with the Masters.”

  “What about the ships in M87? Can they join us in doing this?”

  “Their ships don’t match up with the Grillen. They’ll lose a huge number if they enter the fight.”

  Gresha shook her head, “I’m sure the Grillen know that and will concentrate all their efforts on us and handle them afterwards.” Katherine nodded.

  Gresha saw Dat’s expression, “What are you thinking?”

  “I don’t want to do it this quick but we need information. I’m thinking about dropping Blacky and his team on one of the planets building those ships to see if they can gather information. We also need to see if they can take out those ship building installations.”

  Katherine shook her head, “Dat, that is a suicide mission.”

  “I know; but it’s suicide if we don’t do something to meet this threat. I’m going to see Belwen and determine if he has anything that might raise their chances of survival. They’ve been working with him for four wee
ks and my information officer tells me they’re making great progress.”

  Katherine and Gresha stared at Dat and Gresha said, “I don’t like sending in any of our forces if there’s no hope of surviving.”

  “If we don’t, then we have no hope of surviving. I’ll let you know what’s going on, Admiral.”

  Katherine shook her head, “I know this shouldn’t bother me but I like that big black boob.”

  Dat started laughing and said, “He does have that effect on people.”

  “I’m going with you.”

  “I’d love to have you, Gresha. Let’s go see what Belwen has been able to do with them.”

  “You should know before you leave that the Grillen Negotiator has screamed to high heaven about our attack on that planet and is threatening to declare the ceasefire over.”

  Dat shook his head, “Admiral, I suspect the talks have been nothing more than a delaying tactic. I’m sure they’re trying to build these ships so they can invade our galaxy. He won’t end the ceasefire as long as they can build up their numbers. You need to keep him talking and try to prevent the Grillen from bringing in their main fleets to defend those planets. We may be forced to hit all of the invaded planets simultaneously to protect ourselves.”

  “Let us pray it doesn’t come to that. The loss of life would be enormous.”

  “Just keep him talking; I’ll see what we can do.”

  Katherine nodded and Dat left with Gresha.

  • • •

  “Belwen, I need to send in a scouting team to one of the planets the Grillen invaded.”

  “I have four teams that are training on the new technology. The first one is close to being ready for you to use.”

  “Really?”

  “I think you’ll be surprised by what they can do.”

  “Show me.”

  Dat followed Belwen out to his ship and Belwen talked on his communicator the entire time as they left the building and moved to the landing pad outside Belwen’s lab. They arrived and Belwen said, “Tell your ship to start scanning for a possible attack.”