Pray for the Prey (8 page)

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 to 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.”

“Is there nothing we can do to save ourselves?”

“I think the hostages you tied to poles and shot capsules into asked you the same question. What was your response?”

The Earth ships that had destroyed the Grey Ships remained at the planets they had freed and relayed the conversation into every electronic device on every planet. Since most of the planets had been forced to use the language of the King, they understood what Chris was saying. Soon large crowds began moving toward the buildings where the Governor and the governor’s lackeys were located on each planet.

“What have we done to you? You have no right to do this.”

“I could ask you the same thing about all those you murdered during your festival, but that really isn’t the issue. Incidentally, you have three minutes remaining. The issue is that your soul is black and you are past redemption. Make the best of what time you have remaining. You have murdered your last hostage.”

Chris watched the clock and then it reached all zeros, he pushed the button on the weapons panel and felt the vibration of the launch. A Heavy Striker shot out of its launch tube and it blew into the atmosphere at nine tenths light speed. The gravity device returned its full twenty thousand pound of mass just before it entered the planet’s atmosphere and it blew the atmosphere away from it at twenty thousand miles per hour. The Striker hit the surface and blew a ten thousand mile wide crater more than two hundred miles deep into the planets crust. Two other strikers hit the planet simultaneously on two other sides of the doomed world. The planet blew outward and broke apart into giant chunks of land that flew away from the surface faster than the speed of sound. The video of the planets destruction was sent to all the captive worlds and the celebrations immediately began and continued for weeks.

Arvolo said, “I think just one heavy striker would have done the trick. Three was massive overkill.”

Chris watched the planet’s destruction and said, “Are you sure just one would be enough?”

George said, “Chris, the wind blowing away from the impact would have scoured the planet’s surface clean. My analysis shows that the winds would have gone completely to the other side of the planet at eight hundred miles an hour. The following earthquakes would have finished everything else. Arvolo’s right, one would do it.”

“Perhaps the two of you could assist me in completing a task I am behind on.”

“What is that?”

“I need you and Admiral Arvolo to scan for uninhabited planets for our colonists. I’ve found one planet but I need five more rather quickly.”

“We’ll be glad to help; just give me a few minutes to send the fleet back to the Space Docks.”

“You’re not sending them to Earth?”

“No, we’re going to continue to operate outside our galaxy as a precaution. We’re pretty much accustomed to it now.”

“I’ll go ahead and start searching for viable planets.”

“Thanks Admiral. I’ll have Jillian send you the coordinates of the planets we’ve determined are close to Earth in frequency.”

George said, “I’ll notify the first colony ship to come to the first planet you found and Meisa and I will assist them in getting established. Admiral, please contact me if anything happens while I’m here.”

“Yes Sir, you’ll be the first to know.”

Jillian sent the information and came over and hugged Chris, “Are you alright?”

“Yes, I can still see the posts in the center of every major city. I’m glad I looked; now my conscience doesn’t bother me.”

“Good.”

“Let’s go find another planet.”

“Are we going to wait on Meisa?”

“No, I think she’ll be staying with George at the first planet. If she wants to come back she can catch up to us later in a shuttle.”

Jillian went and selected a planet from the list and announced, “Jump in thirty seconds. Stand down from General Quarters. Jump in twenty five seconds.”

The Jukebox hung in orbit above a shattered, burning world for a few moments and then it disappeared.

Chapter Six

T
he First Master was waiting for the prince and Fleet Master when they arrived at her quarters. They both saw her dark grey color and raised eye stalks and knew she was past anger and approaching rage, “What happened to our ships!?!”

The Fleet Master kept his eye stalks down and said, “The White Ships blew through our ships like they were trees in a hurricane. We were defenseless against even their smallest ship. Twenty of their ships destroyed more than twenty five percent of our fleet in less than four small measures.”

The High Master already knew about the attack; she had seen the recording of what happened. “What are we going to do about it!?!”

The prince also kept his eye stalks pointed toward the floor and said, “I see nothing we can do. We are no match for their ships. Even if we sent every ship we possess, they would all be destroyed faster than can be imagined.”

The Fleet Master saw her getting angrier and said, “One of my Ship Masters contacted one of his relatives on the Capital and was told that the White Ships destroyed a Violet Ship fleet that was attacking the Blue Ships and that’s why they have agreed to no longer invade our galaxy.”

The First Master’s color started growing lighter in color, “Do you know if the Violet Ships know they did it?”

“According to what my Ship Master was told, they think it was the Blue Ships that did it.”

The First Master’s eye stalks went straight up and she said, “We might be able to use this information to help us.”

The prince glanced at the Fleet Master and saw he was also wondering what she was suggesting. The prince said, “I’m sorry, Mother, how can we use this?”

“Do we have a Watcher that knows the Violet Creature’s language?”

“We have more than a hundred that have learned it over the cycles we’ve been coming here.”