Fighting for Melbourne Read online

  Taffy stared at Grady with her mouth open before asking, “Just how fast is this ship at full speed?”

  “We can make it to the Sagittarius Corina Spiral Arm from New Britannia in twelve hours. We can make to the Britannia Alien’s space in a day.”

  “Grady, we can’t control a ship moving that fast. Our weapons aren’t capable of dealing with that speed.”

  “We’ve made progress with programming missile launches but you’re right that the blasters can’t be targeted moving at that speed. Top speed is primarily used to travel long distances in a short time.”

  “What about the first stage thrusters?”

  Grady shrugged, “The ship moves more than twice as fast as the Super Rabbits. If we need to fly slower, I’ll not push the thrusters to the first stage lock.”

  “What is this class of ship named, Grady?”

  “Melbourne has stopped using Rabbit in their ship’s names. Their attack class ships are now called the Garrion Class. We’ve decided to name these warships the Rex Rabbit Battleships.”

  “Does that mean we can’t name our ship Rex Rabbit, Grady?”

  “It does. Do you have another suggestion?”

  Taffy smiled, “We’ll name it King Hare.”

  Grady’s eyes narrowed, “Hare?”

  Taffy smiled, “I looked it up in the computer last night and the Hare is a fast-running, long-eared mammal that resembles a large Rabbit, having long hind legs and occurring typically in grassland or open woodland.” Taffy looked down at her display, “Synonyms are; be quick, hurry up, move quickly, go fast, hasten, make haste, speed, speed up, lose no time, press on, push on, run, dash, rush, hurtle, dart, race, fly, flash, shoot, streak, bolt, bound, blast, charge, chase, career, scurry, scramble, scamper, scuttle, sprint, gallop, go hell for leather, go like lightning, scutter, whiz, whoosh, vroom, tear, scoot, hare, pelt, zip, whip, zoom, belt, beetle, buzz, get a move on, step on it, get cracking, get moving, shake a leg, go like a bat out of hell, hotfoot it, leg it, burn rubber, bomb, bucket, shift, put one's foot down, get one's skates on, go like the clappers, stir one's stumps, wheech, hightail, barrel, boogie, clip, lay rubber, get the lead out, get a wiggle on, put foot, cut along, post, hie, fleetquick, hurry up, move quickly, go fast, hasten, make haste, speed, speed up, lose no time, press on, push on, run, dash, rush, hurtle, dart, race, fly, flash, shoot, streak, bolt, bound, blast, charge, chase, career, scurry, scramble, scamper, scuttle, sprint, gallop, go hell for leather, go like lightning, scutter, whiz, whoosh, vroom, tear, scoot, hare, pelt, zip, whip, zoom, belt, beetle, buzz, get a move on, step on it, get cracking, get moving, shake a leg, go like a bat out of hell, hotfoot it, leg it, burn rubber, bomb, bucket, shift, put one's foot down, get one's skates on, go like the clappers, stir one's stumps, hightail, barrel, boogie, clip, lay rubber, get the lead out, get a wiggle on, put foot, cut along, post, hie, fleet.” Taffy looked up, “Notice that every term denotes high speed and this Hare Warship has speed to burn.”

  Grady laughed and added, “It also has long legs. This ship can stay out for years before needing refueling. King Hare it is.” Grady paused and then pressed his communicator, “Joshua?”

  “After a moment, Joshua appeared on the main wall monitor, “Yes, Grady.”

  “I know we discussed the new name for our warships but I’m suggesting a change.”

  “To what?! We argued about this new name for hours.”

  “We should have contacted Taffy, Joshua. This new class of warships should be name King Hares.”

  “For heaven’s sake why?”

  “Look up hare in your database, Joshua.”

  Joshua looked away for a few moments and then turned back to Grady, “You’re right. We should have contacted Taffy. That name is perfect.”

  “The ship I’m flying will be named the Rex Hare.”

  “It means the same thing, Grady.”

  “I know. But it’s not the same.”

  Joshua smiled, “Rex Hare it is, Grady.”

  Grady turned to Taffy, “I just don’t like giving up our former name. It brought us good luck.” Taffy’s eyes were moist, and she came over and hugged Grady. She kissed him on the cheek and then went back to her chair.

  Desmond and Louisa appeared on the monitor, “We were listening in on your conversation with Joshua and Louisa has decided to name our ship the American Hare, Grady.”

  “That is a good choice, Desmond. Contact Joshua and have him list it in the registry.”

  “Louisa has already contacted him,” Desmond replied.

  Taffy laughed, “Be thankful you got that in early, Louisa. I’m sure one of the survivors from America commanding one of the warships would have taken it if you didn’t.”

  “You snooze, you lose,” Louisa replied.

  “Clarissa contacted me and said that Kendal and Candy are getting along fabulously, Louisa.”

  Louisa laughed, “Yes, they are. Candy is Kendal’s little shadow.”

  “When do we leave, Grady?” Desmond interrupted.

  “We’re lifting in an hour. Run a diagnostics check on your systems and robots and we’ll depart after that’s done,” Grady answered. They disappeared from the wall monitor and Grady turned to Taffy, “We need to do the same.”

  “I’m on it.” Grady turned to his console and began checking out his control systems. Taffy looked up, “Have you decided where we’re going, Grady?”

  “We’re going to take a look at alien territory, Taffy. We’ve never gone behind their lines of defense to see what we’re up against; now would be a good time.” Taffy felt a touch of fear but then shook it off. If they were seen, they could always run away.

  • • •

  The two three-hundred-yard-long warships moved away from New Britannia and moved out into the Outer Arm of the Milky Way. They went to the second-stage of their gravity drives and accelerated into the void between the Outer and Perseus Spiral Arms. Void was not what really existed between the spiral arms in the Milky Way. There were stars scattered between the spiral arms, but they were almost invisible from a long distance above or below the galaxy. It was the spiral arms where the vast majority of stars resided. Grady moved the ship above the plane of the Milky Way and contacted Desmond, “Lock your gravity drive to mine. We’ll be going to maximum speed momentarily.”

  “Grady, will we be overrunning the range of our scanners?”

  “No, Desmond. The scanners have a reactor dedicated to them and their range has been increased tremendously. The passive scanners will allow us to see much further ahead of us, however, the active scans will be detected from a very long way out. We shouldn’t use our active scanners except in emergency situations.”

  “We can just run away from where we use them, Grady. By the time they’re investigated we will be long gone.”

  “Des, I don’t want the aliens to know we’re scouting their space. Active scanners only if I order it.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  Grady continued to move above the plane of the Milky Way and fifteen minutes later announced, “Going to third stage…now!” Taffy’s eyes flew wide open as she was forced back into her chair and she grabbed her chest as the stars below the two ships flashed by under them at a speed that was shocking. She looked at the monitor and saw the Perseus Spiral Arm blow by under them almost too fast to see. The Sagittarius Spiral Arm was passed two hours later, and the Coma Spiral Arm was getting larger by the minute. This Hare was even faster than she imagined. She struggled hard to get accustomed to the speed the ship was moving.

  Louisa appeared on the main monitor and said, “When we passed over Fagan space, my scanners detected some of their scouts holding position above the plane of the Milky Way. We passed them inside the range of their scanners, Grady.”

  “Did any of them change positions?!”

  “No, they did not.”

  Grady sighed and fell back in his chair, “It appears the new gravity drives don’t leave anomalies. Joshua was right about them being super
ior to the old drives.”

  “Do you think the aliens have scouts high above and below their territory?” Taffy asked.

  Grady shrugged, “I have to assume they do, Taffy. We will be forced to slow down to enter their space. That’s where we’ll determine if the Hares are detectable.” Taffy nodded and looked down at her console. Why did Louisa see the scouts and she missed them? She rewound the tape and saw the scouts. She wasn’t watching the scanner returns at the time they passed; she was trying to get her heart back in her chest at that moment.

  • • •

  They arrived at the core of the Milky Way twenty hours later and Grady slowed the ship to first-stage gravity drive. Taffy looked up, “Grady, I’m detecting a huge field of active scanners high above the aliens’ lines of defense. They overlap and move out over the core of the galaxy.”

  “Put them on the main monitor, Taffy.” The huge wall monitor activated and thousands of blue dots appeared surrounded by a bright red field.

  Taffy stared at the giant red field covering the core of the galaxy and she shook her head, “Something’s odd about this, Grady.”

  “What are you saying, Taffy?”

  “It doesn’t make sense that they are stationed to cover the core of the galaxy instead of scanning the space outside the core. They should be scanning space far above the core, not a small distance over it.”

  Grady stared at the monitor and asked, “Computer, is it possible to see through that red field?”

  “No, it is not. It’s blocking any electronic emissions from getting out of the core.”

  “Will it detect anything moving through it?”

  “Yes, Commander, it will.”

  Grady turned to Taffy and she pointed at the monitor, “Grady, they’re so close to the core that anything getting through that field will be inside alien territory before they could respond.”

  “Not really, Taffy.” Taffy’s head went back. “Their lines of defense are close enough to send warships to investigate anything that goes through that field.”

  “But they’d arrive too late to stop a ship that breaks through and runs away from their defense lines,” Taffy replied.

  Grady looked back up at the monitor and said, “They’re trying to hide something.”

  Taffy nodded, “That’s the only thing that makes sense, Grady.”

  Grady stared at the monitor and Desmond appeared on his console, “What’s going on here, Grady?”

  Grady shook his head and asked, “Computer, is that red field being made by scanning beams?”

  “It could be,” the computer answered.

  “What else could it be?”

  “It appears that all of the small ships creating the field are connected to each other. That red field could be a homogeneous electronic field that is made to detect anything that passes through it.”

  “Explain the difference, Computer.”

  “A scanner sends out a beam that is reflected back to the receiver. A homogeneous field would detect anything that touches the field at the exact place the field is broken.”

  Desmond listened to the exchange and said, “Our hulls do not reflect scanning beams. Would our hulls be detected passing through a field like the computer is describing?”

  “I don’t know, Des.”

  “Sir, I’m detecting a small space rock approaching that field. It should hit it in about twenty minutes.” Taffy looked at her monitor and thought, Damn, she beat me again!

  Taffy put the image of the small rock on Grady’s display and he looked up at Desmond, “We’ll hold our position here and see what happens when that rock hits. Something is going on under that field.”

  “Grady, they should be detecting the approach of that rock,” Louisa added.

  Grady nodded, “I know. Let’s wait and see what’s going to happen.”

  • • •

  Nineteen minutes later, the two crews were staring at their monitors. The rock moved in at high-speed toward the field and suddenly a huge-brilliant-white blaster beam shot through the field and vaporized it ten miles out from the field. The field flickered for an instant and then returned to its normal color. “HOLY MOTHER OF PEARL!” Taffy shouted.

  “COMPUTER, SHOW ME THE INSTANT THAT BEAM HIT THE ROCK!” Grady ordered. The monitor froze on the giant blaster beam and Grady ordered, “What is that behind the field?” The view zoomed in and they saw huge Planet Killers lined up under the field in all directions as the field flickered. Grady stared at the image and said softly, “It appears the aliens have far more warships than we thought.”

  “Grady, I’ve wondered about what the aliens have been doing during the time we were harassing them.” Grady turned to Taffy and she continued, “This field is a new development, Grady. It hasn’t always been here.”

  “How do you come to that conclusion?” Louisa asked.

  “The aliens know Earth has undetectable scouts, Louisa. This field technology was developed to prevent them from being able to scout the alien civilization. They developed this for some reason that’s important. Grady, I suspect we would be detected if we tried to make it through that field. Our ships wouldn’t be seen but breaking that field would instantly tell them of our presence. I also believe those planet killers are computer controlled and will fire at anything detected breaking the field.”

  “Computer, when that field flickered, was it down?” Grady asked.

  “Are you asking if it was operational during the time it flickered?”

  “Yes.”

  “I suspect it wasn’t operational.”

  “How long was it…not operational?”

  “Four-tenths of a second, Commander.”

  “Grady, you are not going to risk going through that field!”

  “Taffy, we’re out here to find out what we’re up against. I promised not to take a foolish risk and I intend to keep my promise. However, I will investigate if there is a way for us to get through undetected.”

  “GRADY!”

  “Desmond, you will move your ship out from us and we are going to fly over this field to see just how large it is. I want you to scan for another rock that is going to hit that field and immediately let me know if you find one.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  “Computer, did the entire field cease operation when the blaster beam went through it?”

  “No, Commander.”

  “How much of it went down, I mean ceased operating?”

  “Eight-thousand miles around the blaster beam, Commander.”

  “What are you planning, Grady?”

  “Taffy, it went down for about half-a-second. We can make it through that field if we’re close enough when it flickers.”

  “Grady!”

  “Taffy, they’re hiding something, and we must find out what it is. We can accelerate more than twenty miles in less than a tenth of a second. I can give the computer control of the ship and it can accelerate the ship through; its reaction time is far beyond mine. We just have to find the right circumstances to make it happen.” Grady paused and then continued, “If I can’t make it happen safely, we won’t do it.”

  “Are you going to try and get both ships through?”

  “No, just one.” Taffy started shaking her head and Grady turned back to his console. “Find me another rock, Taffy.”

  • • •

  Two days passed without success in finding another space rock and Taffy was amazed at how large of an area the red field covered. It appeared the entire area around the core of the Milky Way was covered by the giant field. “Grady, we’ve decided to take matters into our own hands.”

  Grady looked at Desmond on his console’s display, “What?”

  “We found a small space rock and have used the bow of our ship to change its trajectory.”

  “Are you crazy?”

  “Grady, our hulls are hard enough to handle moving a rock. We matched speed with it and bumped it toward the field. It should hit in about four days from now.”

 
; Grady said, “Bob, put Desmond’s location on the monitor.” A blip appeared forty light years away and Grady turned the Rex toward it. Taffy saw the rock as they approached and tilted her head, “That rock is a lot larger than the first one.”

  “Good!” Grady replied.

  “Why?”

  “Taffy, we need to know if those blasters are programmed to hit an approaching object the same distance from the field; this should answer that question.”

  • • •

  They watched the rock approaching the red field and as it flashed in, two giant blaster beams flashed out of the field vaporizing the rock. “Computer, how far out was the rock when it was destroyed?”

  “Ten miles, Commander.”

  “The same distance as the first rock?”

  “Exactly the same distance,” the computer answered.

  • • •

  The argument began immediately. Desmond insisted that Grady should not attempt to make it through the field; he was too important to risk. Grady finally was forced to issue direct orders that he would be the one to make the attempt. Taffy listened to them and finally shouted, “ENOUGH!” Desmond and Grady turned and looked at Taffy. “What happens if we’re detected?”

  Grady shrugged, “We’ll run!”

  “And since you won’t be detected before you go through the field, even a computer will require some time to target our ships, right?” Grady and Desmond nodded. “If we’re right outside the field when the blaster hits another rock, we should make it through, right?”

  “That’s the plan,” Grady replied.

  “And if we have to escape, we’ll go to stage-two gravity thrusters and be out of there before we can be targeted, right?”

  “I guess, Taffy. Why the interrogation?”

  “Joshua says our hulls can handle the blasters on a Planet Killer. If we’re hit, the computer will get us out before we can be hit again,” Taffy said softly. “I’d feel safer with both our ships in alien territory than just one. I was against this originally, but I think we can pull this off. If we do this, both of us will go through. It will provide a distraction that might confuse the alien computers if we’re detected.”

  Louisa said quietly, “Both of our children could lose their parents if this doesn’t work, Taffy.”