Pray for the Prey Read online

Arvolo said, “Yes.”

  Hemon said, “And you were willing to take those losses?”

  “Yes, I was.”

  “Why?”

  Arvolo leaned back in his chair and said, “If we had delayed then the Blue Giants would have lost most of their fleet against the advancing fleet. That Fleet would have also split up and gone to attack planets with large populations. We had a limited window of opportunity and we had to use it or lose it.” Arvolo paused and said, “I suspect some of you were of the opinion that we should have called off the attack because of the possible losses we would suffer.”

  George said, “And you think that would have been a mistake?”

  Arvolo noticed that George had remained silent and that this was his first question. He smiled and said, “You are not one of the faint of heart, Sir. You knew that we had to have an idea of how effective our ships would be against their technology. That was the main reason for the attack. Saving the Blue Giants was just a byproduct of what happened.”

  Jeff said, “We are considering giving the Blue Giants our technology.”

  Arvolo looked at Jeff and shrugged, “The Violet Civilization will be coming for them. It would help us in the long run if they could take out as many as possible before we have to face them.”

  Hemon said, “So, you’re in favor of giving it to them.”

  “Only if they agree not to use it against us.”

  “How could you trust they wouldn’t?”

  “If they say they won’t; they won’t.”

  The statement brought the room to silence. George smiled, “How can you make that assertion, Admiral.”

  Arvolo said, “I spent days listening to their transmissions while I learned their language. I don’t know if you realize this but they’re telepathic. It’s difficult, if not downright impossible, to lie when the one you’re communicating with can hear your thoughts. Their entire culture is built around direct and brutal honesty. If they agree to use our technology only for defense, that’s exactly what they’ll do. If they can’t, they’ll refuse to take it.”

  George looked around the room before he asked, “What do you think the Violet Civilization will do next?”

  “They’ll be coming back looking for trouble.”

  “Do you think their war with the Yellow Ships might delay them?”

  “Would it delay you if the same thing happened to us?”

  George shrugged.

  Jillian said, “The only way they were able to attack was by winning a major battle and having additional ships available. Now those ships are gone. They are in a much weaker position than before they came here.”

  Arvolo shrugged as well.

  Chris said, “You still think they’ll come?”

  “Who’s the bigger threat?”

  George laughed out loud and said, “Bravo, Admiral.”

  Chris looked at George and then RV, “Please explain what I’m missing.”

  “If four of us are fighting three of you with big sticks and we’re pretty much holding our own, I might send the extra stick to take care of someone that might join the attack against us. However, I learn that the one I sent to eliminate the possible attacker was killed instantly by something that sent a metal projectile through him; I might view the one holding that weapon as a bigger threat than the ones with the sticks. I suspect my fear might drive me to take chances I wouldn’t normally take.”

  Dolly said, “We killed their entire fleet in less than two minutes. Do you think they might know it happened that fast?”

  George said, “Dolly, if the Admiral’s ship suddenly stopped communicating during a battle, what would you do?”

  “I would contact another ship.”

  “And if that ship didn’t answer as well?”

  “I’d have our communications section attempt to contact any ship that was with him.”

  “And if after two minutes you discover that none of your ships are answering?”

  Dolly sighed and said, “They’re coming back. They have no choice.”

  Arnold said, “Why don’t they have a choice?”

  “What if this unknown enemy decides to attack while they’re in the middle of a huge battle with the Yellow Ships and blows a hold in their line.” George looked at Arvolo and said, “If the Blue Giants aren’t in their galaxy, where do you think they’ll look first?”

  Arvolo said, “That’s how I see it. They’ll be coming here and we are going to be rushed to change our ships before they arrive.”

  George furrowed his brow, “What do you mean change our ships?”

  “They are going to have to be modified to fight differently. We need to remove the Needles from them and change the Needle launch tubes to striker tubes. We also need to change our attack craft to a larger model that can carry a much larger payload than the Needles.”

  Jeff said, “What role will the Needles play in the future?”

  “They will be strictly used for ship defense.”

  George said, “Tell me what you see, Admiral?”

  Arvolo restarted the video of the attack on the Violet Fleet and stopped it at the moment the main guns and strikers hit the force field. “I want you to look at this impact by one of our main gun’s pulses on the force field right here.” The group watched as the beam hit and the force field flashed, but didn’t fail. Arvolo moved the pointer to the left and backed the video up slightly, “Now watch what happens here when a striker hits the force field.” The group watched the slow motion view of the striker hitting the force field and saw a massive blast punch a huge hole through it.

  Dolly said, “Our beams won’t penetrate.”

  Arvolo nodded, “They come close, but when those Violet Ships have their force fields overlapping, only the striker will penetrate.”

  George said, “The beams still killed a lot of their ships.”

  “Yes they did but only after a striker cleared the way for them to get through.”

  George leaned back and said, “Tell us what you want done to our ships.”

  “First, I want the Needle Tubes set up to fire a striker as big as a Needle.”

  George got out his calculator and ran some quick calculations. “Is the nose of the new striker going to be hardened?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you want the same attack speed?”

  “If it’s possible, I do.”

  “May I assume you ran these calculations?”

  “I didn’t but Cyanna did.”

  Dolly looked at George and said, “What?”

  “According to the data, just one striker the size of a Needle traveling at two thirds light speed will generate an explosion larger than four hundred of the previous strikers. It still boils down to mass times velocity and that twenty ton striker should knock a huge hole in any force field big enough to fly a ship through.” George looked at Arvolo, “How many of these strikers will the main battleship carry?”

  “The same number as Needles.”

  “That’s a hundred and sixty of those monsters.”

  Arvolo said, “I was really limited in how to attack that Violet Fleet. There were close to three hundred thousand ships and we didn’t have but fifty thousand strikers. I was forced to find a way to use our fusion missiles to carry out the destruction. Now if we will just modify our ships, we should be able to knock out a fleet that size rather quickly, especially if you’ll get the new attack craft into production.”

  George said, “How do you know about that?”

  “We flew one here. Admiral Anders was able to take one for analysis.”

  “What do you think about it?”

  “They will become our attack fighters.”

  George leaned back and said, “Go on.”

  Arvolo said, “Our main battleships are becoming like the Violet Ships. We had to line them up and fire a barrage at the center of their lines to break through their force fields. We give away all the advantages our battleships have over the enemy by forcing them to fly in fleet format
ions instead of being able to attack targets of opportunity. Our ships are faster, more maneuverable, and possess more firepower but we use them like old fleet formations restricting their movements. They also are an easy target to attack. The Battleships will be used to attack groups of ships and then escape. The Needles will keep any ships pursuing our battleships away.”

  “How will the Needles be armed?”

  “They will carry mini-strikers that weigh about a thousand pounds each as well as a main beam strong enough to punch a hole through any ship they hit. The striker will knock down the force field and the Needle can use a beam or another striker to knock out an enemy ship.”

  Jeff said, “Just how are you going to transport the Needles and attack craft to the battle site. Will the pilots be forced to stay in their ships throughout the exercise?”

  Arvolo looked at Cyanna and she inserted a disc into her console. She stood and walked over to the wall display as a huge, round ship appeared. George said, “Isn’t that a colony ship?”

  “It is, but we’ve added some changes to its structure.” Cyanna looked at the attendees and asked, “How many launch tubes can be installed on this ship?” She waited as the room remained silent. She looked over and saw George punching his calculator and then he looked up and smiled, “More than three thousand Needle tubes with twenty in each.”

  Cyanna smiled, “You’re dead on the number but we cut back to two thousand Needle tubes to add more attack craft.”

  George whistled, “You’re planning to carry twenty thousand on that ship?”

  Cyanna tilted her head and smiled, “Yes we are. The total number of pilots and crew manning the ship will be ninety five thousand.”

  Dolly said, “There won’t be much space in the ship for living quarters.”

  Arvolo said, “Actually there will. The attack craft will be anchored to the outer hull with the pilot’s room directly under their ship. “They’ll enter their attack craft by going up through the ceiling. The launch tubes for the needles will be scattered around the ship among the attack craft.”

  “Won’t that ship make a huge target before we could launch?”

  Cyanna said, “We’ve run some trials and if the ship is jumping into a situation where all hands are at battle stations, every ship and Needle could be launched in less than twenty seconds with all of the attack craft launching in less than five seconds. The main ship would then jump away and return to pick up their pilots later or have a coordinate where the ships could jump to them for retrieval. These transports will have force fields powered by ten of our new reactors. I suspect there won’t be many weapons that will be able to penetrate it.”

  George looked at the display and said, “What will be the ratio of battleships to those transports?”

  “Three thousand battleships for each transport.”

  “That means you will have forty needles protecting each battle ship.”

  Cyanna said, “Thirty will defend against all incoming enemy ships and ten will engage ships that are close but not attacking.”

  Hemon said, “What happens if the Battleship has to jump away?”

  “The Needles will have a warning light on their panels notifying them of the impending jump and they will move inside the ship’s force field prior to the jump. Their panel will also give them the coordinates of the jump so that if they aren’t taken with the battleships, they can immediately jump to follow it.”

  Jeff said, “You know how spread out a space battle can get. How can those Needles possibly get back inside the force field quickly enough?”

  “They’ll go weightless and fly directly into the hull of the ship. With no mass they will simply stop at the hull, causing no damage. We’re also incorporating an emergency control that will automatically send their ship back, no matter what they are doing.”

  George smiled, “You think you can create that kind of circuit?”

  Cyanna smiled, “No Sir, I can’t, but Kenny Anders already has a working model we are using with our Needles to speed up retrieval.”

  Dolly looked at George, “This would require a massive building campaign. Are we able to make these changes quickly?”

  “Remember I asked you about how our new battleships should be configured. We have two thousand waiting for their weapon installation. We can have them ready to go in six months. The new attack craft can be built here on Earth along with the modification of the Colony Ship. We have four more colony ships that have had their hulls completed so we should be able to modify three of them to make them transports within nine months.”

  Arnold said, “What about the new Strikers and Mini-Strikers?”

  “Actually, that’s the easy part. We have a factory already building them on Dundee. We’ve decided to add something to their guidance systems. We’re taking a page from the Violet Ships and they will lock on whatever target the pilot designates and will chase it wherever it goes. It will go to full speed in the last twenty miles. If it went too fast it could fail to make turns fast enough to home in on its target.”

  Arvolo said, “Will both Strikers have that capability?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Jeff said, “You have something in mind?”

  “If we happen to be severely outnumbered, we’ll jump in and fire a spread of strikers and jump away.”

  Chris asked, “Do you think the large strikers will be able to damage ships inside their force fields?”

  Arvolo looked at George and said, “You did your calculations earlier with the striker traveling at two thirds the speed of light. What if they were traveling at ninety percent?”

  George ran the numbers on his calculator and fell back in his chair.

  Dolly said, “What?”

  “I used the readings the fleet took on the Violet Ship’s force fields during the battle. If the Striker is moving at that speed the resulting explosion after the strike should blow completely through the force field and out the other side. The blast would cover a fifty mile area. It wouldn’t be a good idea to use it at that speed if we have ships in the vicinity.”

  Arvolo nodded, “It would only be used as a hit and run strategy. Obviously, we’ll need a control that sets the attack speed.”

  George stared at Arvolo and said, “You’re anticipating an attack of more than a million ships.”

  Arvolo slowly shook his head, “Boy, you are just as smart as you’ve been advertised.”

  “So you think we will be the primary target?”

  “No, the Blue Giants will be the target; however, we may get caught up in the process of their search.”

  “You don’t think they will be forced to stay home by the Yellow Ships?”

  “Would the Alliance force us to stay home if we were going to attack the Moet?”

  “No, they would watch and see what the outcome was going to be.”

  Arvolo said, “Or they might join the attack.”

  The people in the room felt a chill at that statement and after a moment George started nodding his head.

  Chapter Four

  The prince waited in the Royal Chamber for the First Master to enter. He had sent the communication to her before he arrived and he knew she was not going to be happy. Something was happening at the home worlds and he had no idea about what should be done. He lowered his eye stalks as the First Master entered. “What is this ridiculous communication!?!”

  “It appears that the populations we left behind have declared their independence from your Rule, Mother.”

  “They haven’t been destroyed yet?”

  The prince hesitated but said, “It appears the beings that were in the White Ships that attacked my ships have brokered a peace with them. The Blue Ships have agreed not to attack our galaxy.” The First Master sat down and her middle two eye stalks moved behind her head showing her shock. The prince continued, “It also appears that the populations we left behind have entered a trade and mutual defense agreement with the Alliance as well. They report that our home worlds’ standard
of living have grown tremendously.”

  The First Master stared at the Prince and said, “Is there anything else?”

  The Prince hesitated but finally said, “They have also been given protection by the White Ships should we attempt to attack.”

  “I knew I should have destroyed them before I left.” She paused and said, “Let this be a lesson to you; never leave anyone behind that is not under your control, especially if they might survive.”

  “I will remember that, Mother. What are we going to do?”

  “We’ll let them see the business end of our dreadnaughts. How many do we have in our fleet?”

  “More than two hundred thousand.”

  “Send fifty thousand and go teach those treasonous worlds what it means to be disloyal.”

  The prince hesitated and the High Master said, “Why are you still here?”

  “Mother, what would have forced the Blue Ships to agree not to attack?”

  She thought about the question and said, “Take half our ships.”

  The prince backed out of the room remembering his first encounter with the White Ships and he suspected that the only thing that would have stopped the Blue Giants was fear. He worried that a hundred thousand dreadnaughts wouldn’t be enough. This time he would not be so stupid as to move into harm’s way.

  • • •

  Tenah and the Moet Baron looked at each other on their display. Tenah said, “You really sent a communication to the High Ruler?”

  “Yes, we might as well go ahead and find out if we’ll survive her attention. I’m surprised our fleet hasn’t made an appearance yet.”

  “I understand you moved all your ships from every planet to your Capital.”

  The Moet dropped his eye stalks and said, “I guess this is where I see if you really are going to keep your word about attacking us.”

  Tenah smiled, “Oh I’m sending the fleet out as we speak.” The Moet and Watcher turned light Grey in shock. “I’m sending them to join your ships at your planet. I don’t know if the White Ships will show up, but our destiny is now tied to yours. All of the Leaders of our Member Planets insisted that we help you.”

  The Moet Baron stared at the display and said, “You have earned our loyalty and trust this day. We will also come to your defense if you ever need us.” He paused, “If we survive the fleet that I know is coming.”