Read Online Planet Predators by Saxon Andrew - Free Book Online Page B

looked at him, “Tell me what you know.”
    “The Battleship went to defend a Scout Ship and was destroyed before it could send a message. The Scouts that followed up on the site of the attack found it destroyed exactly like the first ship that was demolished.”
    “Tell me Messenger, what do you think I’m going to do now?”
    “You will take my life for all the bad news I’ve been bringing.”
    “Normally that is exactly what I would do but you have not withheld any information no matter how bad. Your four predecessors did. They feared death more than honesty. If you were in my place, what would you do?”
    “I would recall all of our ships from that Galaxy and not go back until I designed a much better ship.”
    “That’s surprising. Why would you do that?”
    “It has become clear that whoever is in that Galaxy killing our ships can do it at a speed that is astounding. Neither of those ships had an opportunity to tell us what was happening before they were destroyed. They also have a communications system that is more advanced than our own. It is not a huge leap to consider that they have ships we cannot defeat. There is a real possibility that if we sent our fleet we could lose a huge number of ships. If I were going to make a mistake I would make it on the side of caution. If they possibly know we are here, then they will be coming to our home and we must be ready. I would not do anything to weaken the defense of our home.”
    “You don’t think we should overwhelm them with numbers now?”
    “We’ve made the assumption that whoever it is killing our ships was in that Galaxy when we originally surveyed it. What if they are a new arrival from another Galaxy and have huge numbers of ships at their disposal? I just worry that we are diving into the unknown and it’s clear that we don’t know how deep it is or the price we’ll have to pay to find out.”
    The First Leader stared at the Messenger and then looked at the other five Leaders who leaned forward. “You are no longer a Messenger. You will join us here at the table and be one of the Leaders. Your last duty will be to recall the Fleets.”
    * * *
    Aman Forester began eating his dinner and wondered what the Blue Giants were going to do after the destruction of the huge battleship. He poured a glass of grape juice and heard his alarm go off at full blast. He jumped up from the small table in the storage room and ran to the bridge and looked at his monitors. “On my God!” He saw more than a hundred thousand of the Blue Giant Scouts hanging in space with thousands more appearing every second. “Fleet, we have something major happening out here!”
    “What do you see?”
    Aman sent the video and waited. “We’ve notified the President and his advisors; please keep us informed on what happens.”
    “Will do.” Aman looked at his display and saw more than one and a half million of the large ships had come out of Sierra Space and began organizing into formations. They continued to appear over the next two hours.
    Dolly and Jeff watched the feed from the small attack craft and looked up as Chris and Jillian ran into the room, “What’s going on?”
    “We don’t know. Take a look at this.”
    They looked at Dolly’s display and Jillian said, “They’re leaving our galaxy and giving up the search for us.”
    Chris, Jeff, and Dolly looked at her with doubt on their faces. “It’s obvious; where is the bow of those ships oriented?” Everyone looked and saw the ships were pointed towards the distant Andromeda Galaxy. “They’re going home and I’m sure the ships are organizing into fleets so that an orderly withdrawal can be done.”
    Dolly hit her board and Gretchen Logan appeared on her display, “Gretch, are the Moet still evacuating?”
    “Yes Sir, they are.”
    Dolly looked at the three and said, “They’re frightened of us and the Moet are scared silly of them. We may be given more time to prepare than we ever thought