Pray for the Prey Read online

  Meisa shouted, “We have hundreds of ships entering normal space.” She hit the general quarters alarm and reached for the force field control.

  Chris shouted, “Don’t go to full power on the force field.” Meisa pulled her hand back and showed her confusion. “George tells me that the field is always active and it will automatically adjust to anything fired at it. Is that true?”

  Meisa nodded.

  “Well, if they are scanning our ship, they now believe that we have a very weak force field. They didn’t come in firing at us, so I would rather see how they act if they perceive us as weaker than themselves. What is the strength of their force fields, Jillian?”

  Jillian looked at her console and said, “About the strength of an Alliance Battleship. They pose not real threat if their beams are on the same technological level.”

  Chris reached in his console, turned off the general quarters alarm, pulled out the Jenze translator device, and put it on his head. He turned to Meisa, “See if you can get the frequency they’re using to communicate.”

  Meisa scanned the electromagnetic spectrum and finally found the one being used by the ships that had appeared. Chris listened as they discussed what to do among their officers.

  After thirty minutes Chris opened his eyes and said, “Jillian, are the scanners still active in Sierra Space?”

  “Yes.”

  “I believe those ships are waiting for someone in a position of power to come here to decide what to do about us. See if you can track where they come from to get here.”

  “Why do you want to know, Chris?”

  “I’m starting to understand more and more of what they’re saying, but what I think they’re planning to do is kill everyone onboard and take our ship to use as a transport for taxes they’ve forced on other planets. Give me a little more time.”

  Jillian looked at Meisa and saw her expression turn hard. Jillian smiled, “Relax, we knew there were probably intelligent civilizations here. We just hoped they weren’t so advanced that we would have to run.”

  Meisa looked at her scanner’s display, “Do you honestly think those ships are the most advanced in this galaxy?”

  Jillian shrugged, “I have no idea, but they must be stronger than most to force taxes on other planets.”

  “Humph, we’ll see.”

  Chris opened his eyes and said, “Turn the bow of the ship toward the edge of the galaxy.” Jillian maneuvered the Jukebox around and one of the grey ships fired a beam across the bow. “Did you get a reading on that?”

  “Yes. It wasn’t much of a beam.”

  “According to those discussing our fate it’s the strongest beam they have.”

  “What else have you learned?”

  “I don’t think this galaxy has ever been invaded by a force from outside it. If what they’re bragging about is true, most of the civilizations they’ve conquered are basically peaceful. There were about a hundred aggressive civilizations long ago, but it appears this one is the one that won out and now controls this galaxy.”

  “Is that all?”

  “No, they go to each planet every year and sacrifice a hundred of their citizens to their god. They really don’t do it for that reason but use the ceremony to determine which planets are becoming rebellious. If they resist the killings, then that planet will be invaded again and brought back in line.”

  Meisa said, “Just how did you learn that?”

  “That’s what these ships were doing out in this part of the galaxy. They were conducting the sacrifices when one of them detected our arrival. They were bragging about how they outdid each other in the cruel way they killed the ones selected for them.”

  Jillian looked at her display as it beeped, “A ship is moving our way through Sierra Space. I have its point of origin locked in.”

  Chris sat down and listened to the grey ships.

  • • •

  “Oh no! They sent the pig.”

  “Well there goes our portion of this find. We’ll be lucky to get anything.”

  “I hope you didn’t send a recording of this ship when you notified headquarters about it.”

  “Are you crazy? Didn’t you get the last message requiring a video of anything discovered out of the ordinary?”

  “What message?”

  “I’m sending a copy to you.”

  “He may not have received it but I did.”

  “I think all of us did and I suspect it was the pig that sent it. I’ve never seen anyone as greedy.”

  “That’s why the Crown chose him.”

  “Hey, I didn’t get this message. But I see you had no choice. Better hold it down; he’s almost here.”

  The channel grew silent as a large ship emerged into normal space. “What have you found here?”

  “We’re not sure, Excellency. We detected its arrival and decided to come and confront it. The force field around it is rather weak. We thought about destroying it, but decided that it would make a good transport for our spoils.”

  “You made a good decision. Just how do you intend to take control of it?”

  The channel remained silent.

  “I see you need some help. Send several shuttles toward it and fire a beam across its bow. They’ll understand to drop their force field. Then board the ship and take control.”

  “What do we do with the crew?”

  “Put them in the shuttles and open the airlocks on the way back. That should remove any problems with them.”

  “That’s a great idea. Get the shuttles ready.”

  Chris pushed his transmitter, “I really don’t think that will be necessary.” Silence slammed down on the frequency. “I’ve been listening to your conversations and it appears that none of you possess any redeeming qualities. So let me tell you what is about to happen, so you have a moment to prepare. There are three hundred and fifty six of your ships here and most of you have bragged about how the ones you murdered on the planets you controlled begged for mercy that none of you were willing to give. You are all going to die in just a moment and I want you to see what the ones you killed felt before you took their life.”

  All the Grey Ships opened fire on the Jukebox just before the Jukebox’s hundred secondary beams fired into them. The Jukebox’s beams fired so fast that they looked like a strobe light. In less than ten seconds, every Grey Ship was blown apart. More than half of them tried to jump away, but were hit before their jump screens could activate.

  Jillian looked out at the wreckage of the grey colored ships and said, “I didn’t know you had it in you to kill that many.”

  Chris looked at her with an expression that was hard to fathom, “Contact the fleet and have them meet us here.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I’ve just seen what these beings are like. No one should be under their control and I intend to remove them from their current lofty status.”

  Jillian looked at Meisa and then started speaking into her communicator.

  • • •

  The Havana arrived ahead of the fleet and George took a shuttle to the Jukebox with Arvolo and Cyanna. Chris told them everything he had learned from the crews of the Grey Ships and then told them what he intended.

  Arvolo listened and saw something different in the Professor. He was not the naïve person that had attacked the Alliance at the Moet Capital. Everyone was silent until he said, “Dr. Connor, are you sure you want to carry out that plan?”

  Chris looked at Arvolo and said, “I do unless you have another.” Arvolo didn’t say anything and Chris said, “Do you?”

  Arvolo tiled his head and then looked at Chris, “We’ve not been in the business of killing planets.”

  “Can you think of a better candidate than this one?”

  Arvolo just sighed.

  George said, “I thought you were the one that said we had to save the Alliance and Moet?”

  “I was.”

  “How is this one different?”

  “They have sys
tematically killed a hundred innocent beings on every planet every year and they enjoy doing it; neither the Alliance nor Moet were that sadistic. This civilization is not fighting to save itself. It exists solely to torment the ones they’ve conquered. They cannot be redeemed.” Chris paused and said, “Do you have another plan, George?”

  George looked Chris in the eyes and took a deep breath, “No.”

  Chris looked at Arvolo and said, “How do we make this happen?”

  Arvolo shook his head and said, “There must be another way to do this?”

  Jillian said, “RV, can you leave a small amount of cancer behind because you don’t want to kill all of it.”

  “That’s different?”

  “How?” RV struggled with a reply and Jillian said, “It would eventually grow and endanger the body again. We didn’t hear the sadistic joy of those ships at slowly killing helpless beings. Chris did. If your family was killed by them, what would you want done?”

  RV lowered his head and said, “Revenge is not a meal one should taste. It changes you in ways that can never be repaired.”

  George said, “This is not revenge.” RV looked up. “What do you think will happen to this planet if we destroy their ability to wage war?”

  RV stood and said, “Every planet they’ve been terrorizing will come and burn every one of them in a fire.”

  “Then they will have tasted the meal and they would be less for having done it. Sometimes one must be willing to make hard decisions.”

  “I will be the one to do it.”

  Jillian looked sharply at Chris and said, “Chris, I don’t want to lose the man I love to this.”

  “I’ll be fine, Jilly. I have no doubt about this choice. I won’t find pleasure in it, but I won’t be scared by the experience.”

  “You’re not telling us something.”

  Chris just stared at her.

  “What are you hiding?”

  Chris sighed and said, “Every tenth year those beings collect a million hostages from the worlds they rule and transport them to their home world. Once they arrive, the hostages are divided up and sent to the cities for a festival where the populations are allowed to fire small capsules into them. The Capsule contains a local insect that begins eating the one it enters. The hostages are eaten alive by these pests that reproduce at a huge rate once they enter the hostage’s body. Those ships were excited about how the hostages took days to die in excruciating pain. Even the children fought among themselves to have the opportunity to shoot them. That festival ended a week ago when the last hostage died and was burned.”

  Arvolo said, “I believe three of the heavy strikers should do the job nicely. I would like to assist you in this surgery.”

  George said, “I will also take part.”

  Chris nodded and said, “First we have to remove that civilization’s fleets from the captive planets, so they won’t be held hostage against us.”

  The first elements of the Fleet began arriving and Arvolo got on the Jukebox’s communication circuits. He looked over at Chris, “Did you get a frequency on the ships you killed.”

  Chris flinched at the verb but nodded. Jillian sent the information to Arvolo’s console and he continued giving orders. Jillian came over and hugged Chris, “Are you sure about this?”

  “Please tell me another way. I don’t want to do this but I just see no way around it.”

  “Perhaps they will provide an answer.”

  “You think we should talk before we take action?”

  “I believe it can’t hurt anything.”

  Chris looked at Arvolo and he shrugged, “I was reluctant before, but this festival has convinced me. I’m one of those that are glad the Spanish Conquistadores wiped out the Aztecs and their human sacrifices. Once a society gets a blood lust, there’s no way to remove it.” Arvolo turned back to the communication console.

  Chris said, “Thank you. I need that reassurance.”

  Arvolo said over his shoulder, “No problem. I’ll be glad to take the burden on and leave you out of it.”

  Cyanna looked at RV with a frown. He saw her and said, “I’ve seen up close what a repressive government can do to innocent civilians. I have no problem dealing with this one.”

  Cyanna turned back to the display and remembered how his wife and brother were executed by the Communists. He did have a different perspective than hers. She didn’t doubt his strength and knew he meant what he said.

  After three hours RV received a message from Admiral Owens. He listened and said, “There are about a hundred thousand plus planets where two or more of those ships are located. I’m ordering the transport here with fifty thousand Needles and ten thousand attack craft. We now have three thousand battleships in the fleet along with twenty four thousand attack craft assigned to them. The Needles will be assigned one planet each and the battleships will go to two. The attack craft will be assigned the others. Our intent in making this happen without loss of life is to go in shooting and hopefully prevent a message from getting out about what we’re doing. So don’t take long to complete your assignment.”

  George said, “How are you going to assign the planets?”

  “The battleships will be given planets with twenty or more ships in orbit. Attack Craft will take those with between eight and nineteen. The Needles will take the others. Does that meet with your approval?”

  George nodded and said, “You’re saving the home world for last.”

  Arvolo smiled, “That’s what you do with desert.”

  Chris chuckled and said, “Make the assignments and let’s get this over with.”

  Arvolo stood and motioned to Cyanna to follow him, “You’ll have them shortly. The Computer on the Melbourne is working on the task.”

  An hour later Arvolo appeared on the Jukebox’s display, “You have your assignments. If you encounter any difficulty, notify your assigned partner and they will come to your aid. Otherwise, stay at your last assignment and await further instructions. We will jump to our targets in five minutes.”

  Chris watched the chronometer start the countdown and looked at his board. Every ready light was illuminated and he knew the crew was ready. He looked at Jillian and she smiled, “This is worth doing, my love.”

  He smiled and watched until the countdown hit zero and then jumped the Jukebox.

  • • •

  The forty ships in orbit above a highly industrialized world were bored. Most of them had attended the Festival and now the high of watching so many die had worn off. One ship’s Commander asked over the general frequency, “Do any of you ever get the urge to hit one of those cities on the planet with a good laser shot?”

  “I get the urge all the time. I’ve been told that one Commander did exactly that in the Posev Quadrant.”

  “What happened?”

  “They fired fifteen capsules in him and let him die chained to a pole.”

  “Well, there’s a good reason not to do it.”

  There was a long moment of silence until it was broken by one of the Commanders saying, “It might be worth it just to watch them burn.”

  They all laughed and wished they could fire on the planet.

  Twenty seconds later, all forty ships were expanding clouds of vapor as the ship that killed them jumped away.

  All over M-49 grey colored ships were being destroyed without warning. In less than an hour more than three quarters of a million ships had been blown apart. More than a hundred thousand planets saw the explosions taking place in high orbit above them and wondered what was happening. The Governors on the planet attempted to contact the ships that were there to impose their will on the population, but received no answer. After many attempts they contacted the Fleet Agency on the Home World to find out what was going on.

  The Fleet Agency began receiving calls which started as a trickle and rapidly turned into a flood of inquires about what was happening to the ships that were scattered around the King’s Empire. The Agency began sending messages out t
o their far flung subject worlds and many of the ones they contacted were cut off in mid-sentence. The Head of the Agency sent an emergency communication to the Fleet Commander who was also unable to contact any of the Empire’s Ships. Something was happening and it didn’t appear to be good. He rushed to the King’s Quarters and told him that something was happening to the Ships of the Fleet. The King stood and yelled for the Head of the Agency to report to him immediately. They were still arguing about what was taking place when the communication system illuminated and they heard a voice.

  “If you’re trying to reach your ships you’re wasting your time. We’ve just destroyed every one of them.”

  The King looked at the Fleet Commander who went to the panel and pushed the talk button, “And just who are you?”

  “That’s really not important. You should know that we are sending this conversation to every electronic device on your planet. We think your population should be aware of what’s about to happen to them. We are also sending it to all of the worlds you’ve be terrorizing over the centuries, so they will also know what is taking place.”

  “I’m afraid you have me at a loss. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “I have sent my fleet to every planet you control and have destroyed every ship you had stationed there. None of them survived and those worlds are now free of your control. As far as the ones you have on the planet’s surfaces, we’ll allow the local populations to determine how they want to handle them. However, we are here to complete the task of removing you from this galaxy. In exactly ten minutes, we are going to destroy your planet. We feel it’s appropriate to give you that much time to say whatever you choose to whatever deity you might worship.”

  The King shouted at the Commander, “Attack them with our ships!”

  “I hope you don’t mean the six thousand you had in this system. They are no longer available for you to use. We removed them on our way in to your world.”

  “You can’t do this!”

  “We really don’t want to, but we have seen what you are and the universe will be a better place without your world in it.”

  An officer ran in to the room yelling, “Our fleet has been destroyed by three ships. They are now taking station around our planet.”