“Yes, I do; the planet will be moved to the first galaxy the invaders visited in twenty minutes. The population is being informed of the move as we speak. Should we move one of the barren planets here that’s about the same size and blow it up? That would explain why they did not see any life in this system”
“I don’t think so; they would see that the remains of the planet would still be hot from the beam.”
“True, but they won’t know if the heat was generated recently or if the planet is just now cooling to that temperature.”
Matt cocked his head and thought, “Melanie, what do you think about that idea?”
“I would do it. Even if they discover that the blast was recent, how are they going to explain it? Either way, it may keep them here longer and allow other civilizations to live.”
“You’re right; Stem, bring in a barren planet and we’ll hit it with our beam.”
“It will arrive in an hour.”
“I have another suggestion,” Melanie thought. “All of our ships still have their power cells. Why not just line the defenders up and over lap their screens and move through the area of the attack. Anything that hits their screeds would be burned out of existence.”
Matt looked at her on his display and shook his head, “Melanie, please issue the orders.
Fifty defender class vessels arrived and began running through the system burning the marble projectiles and the shattered stone tree missiles. The thousands of marbles were going to be a problem; more than five thousand had been fired that had gone straight through the Eight Legs and were scattered in all directions and there wasn’t much time left to clean up. Hopefully they would all be destroyed.
The Sensor Male watched his display as the new planet grew as they came closer. The Ship’s Male looked at him, “It’s time to launch our transports.”
The Sensor Male didn’t respond. The Ship’s Male looked at him and said, “Did you hear the order?”
The Sensor Male looked at his board and said, “First Fang, the two vessels have been gone thirty dihls. They should have reported by now.”
The Ship’s Male looked at his display and saw the planet they were approaching. The ships sent out to defend it had already been killed and there was nothing between them and the planet. He thought for a moment and then ordered, “Recall all ships. Start moving out immediately.”
The Eight Legs that had left the small attack craft that had already landed turned and moved quickly back to their ships and lifted from the planet. The planet’s inhabitants that were being eaten alive wondered what had happened to save them from this nightmare. They watched as the giant planet sized ship turned and moved away.
The red screened probe relayed the feed to Fleet Command and the Searcher commed Aladdin. “They’re on their way,” Al said.
Matt punched his com, “Alright, wrap it up. All defender class vessels will depart in three hours and the Searcher Class ships will leave as soon as the mother ship arrives at the jump limit. There will be millions of their ships flying high speed through this system and I’ll not risk a possible collision.”
The Ship’s Male pressed his communicator, “Yes.”
“Supreme Male, I sent two attack craft to investigate a system and they are overdue. I am moving to that system to investigate; it may be nothing but I feel I should keep you informed.”
“Do not go into that system with the main ship. Contact me as soon as you arrive and be sure to inform me as to what you find.”
“It will be done as you order.”
The Ship’s Male looked at the Sensor Male, “Inform me immediately if the two arrive before we can leave this system.”
“I have already planned to do so and I am keeping my sensors focused on the jump point.”
The Ship’s Male was worried. This didn’t feel right and he watched his display all the way to the jump point.
Matt and Melanie sat on board Aladdin as Matt watched in his mind as the huge mother ship arrive at the Hugon system. It stayed at the jump limit while all of its ships left and began moving in system. Melanie watched with him as she entered his mind. “Why are you worried?”
Matt sighed and shrugged, “They will know this time that the two ships were destroyed.”
Melanie thought a moment said, “They didn’t find all of the marbles.”
“I don’t know but that’s not what will give us away.” Melanie thought for a moment and then looked up at him with furrowed brows. “Melanie, we had to hit those ships multiple times to break through their hulls. I’m certain that small pieces cracked off before we broke through; our sensors wouldn’t be able to track them and our screens would not destroy them; that is what will tell them that we killed those ships.”
Melanie nodded slowly, “One never knows Matt. If they go find one of those balls I’m sure that it will have residue from the Eight Leg it went through. The tiny remnants of their ships, however, are in a very small area of space. Our chances are not as bad as you might think.”
“I would normally agree with you but I sense the full invasion beginning in three months. We are going to have to kill that mother ship before it begins; once there are millions of them in our universe it will be too dangerous to experiment on one. We have a very small window of opportunity here and we have to move quickly to use it.”
“Well, at least we know the Red Warrior’s guns fired too fast and the ship’s guns fired too slowly. We have at least a point to move forward in our weapon development.”
“Perhaps, let’s teleport to see what the Algeans have learned about those ships we captured. The probe will let us know if they find anything.”
“Fly Girl, will you follow us; I’m going to stay on Aladdin for a while.’
“I’m right behind you.”
The second Reg looked at the first and thought, “They are making amazing progress, brother.”
“It’s still not fast enough. I worry about the numbers coming.”
“Let’s see if they get the help they need.”
“Do you think they will remember?”
“I can only hope they do.”
The Ship’s Male watched as his millions of ships combed the solar system for a clue as to what happened to the two missing ships. Three missing children was one thing but missing ships was an order of magnitude greater. The planet that was being investigated was burning brightly. He looked at the Sensor Male and asked, “Does this match up with your data?”
The Sensor Male raised two legs and a picture of the system appeared on the Ship’s Male’s display. “That is the picture taken by the transport the first investigation. Notice there is no planet at that distance from the star in that picture. Now we find a planet that was not here before burning.”
“Do you have an answer as to how this could happen?”
“First Fang, I have looked at all the data we’ve collected for anything similar and nothing matches. I have no answer to this situation.”
The Sensor Male looked at his display and said, “You should tell the children to slow down. We have had four collisions between attack craft and one of them was damaged.”
“Issue the order please. I understand their concern.”
Six hours later one of the huge transports heard a loud ping. The pilot looked at his instruments and looked around his ship to see what could have possibly hit them and make that noise. The small brown marble was moving at fifty miles per second but upon hitting the transport it accelerated to more than five hundred miles per second and was outside the scan being used by the pilot. By the time the pilot extended the scan, the ball was lost among the other ships moving around the system. Seven ships briefly saw it but decided that it was just a small meteorite moving through the system. After tracking it’s trajectory they could see it was moving in system and at its current speed there was no way it could have been in the system when the ships went missing. They did not consider that when the marble hit the transport it had reversed direction. It was reported to the Sensor Male but after tracking it, he ignored it.
The Ship’s Male watched his display and said, “Those children, we’ve had another collision!”
The Sensor Male listened to his board and said, “They both thought they detected something and they both rushed without looking.”
