Lens of Time by Saxon Andrew Read Free Book Online

three ships exploded and started burning.
    RV hit the general frequency and said, “All hands on board the three ships that are hit will evacuate immediately. You have two minutes and then your ships will be destroyed.”
    Captain Juan Mendoza on the Acapulco appeared on RV’s display, “Sir, I have some of my crew trapped in the burning sections.”
    “Captain, you now have one minute fifty seconds. Get out and get out now! That is an order!”
    Escape pods and shuttles flew out of the three stricken battleships in huge swarms. They rushed towards the closest battleships and boarded through the landing bays. RV watched the countdown and ten seconds before it hit zero he ordered, “All ships will immediately jump to the assembly coordinates.”
    Fifty thousand ships disappeared and RV said, “Launch a fusion missile at each of those ships and get us out of here.”
    Cyanna felt grief for the trapped sailors on the three ships but hit the jump button after Dolly launched three fusion missiles. Just before the Tampa jumped out, RV hit his console, releasing a sensor buoy.
    • • •
    The three missiles struck the three battleships, releasing three massive explosions that merged into a gigantic shock wave just as three thousand orange battleships emerged into normal space. A hundred ships were slightly damaged when the combined shock wave from the fusion explosions washed over them. The damage was not severe but there were injuries to the crews on the ships when they were violently pushed by the expanding wave.
    The Fleet Commander watched the expanding wave from a distance as it moved toward him and then passed his ship. He looked at his Sensor officer who said, “I have no idea what was just destroyed.”
    “Do you think it was our ships?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Shouldn’t there be enough material to make a determination?”
    “Ordinarily there would be but the three explosions burned everything into energy. My readings indicate these explosions were fusion generated.”
    “Would those explosions have penetrated our force fields?”
    The Sensor Officer looked at his readings for a long moment and said, “I’m not really sure. I know the shock wave wasn’t strong enough but I don’t have enough information to make a determination how strong the initial blast centers were.”
    “Do we have any trails to follow?”
    “No, there are none.”
    The Commander knew that a very advanced civilization had to be involved in what happened. He thought a moment and contacted the Operator and told him what he had been able to determine. The Operator examined the information and said, “Return to your assigned stations.” The three thousand orange ships disappeared.
    • • •
    The Commonwealth Fleet waited at the assembly coordinates until the Tampa appeared. RV shouted over the general frequency, “Initiate escape plan Alpha, Alpha, Alpha.” The Huge fleet disappeared with every ship starting their jump protocols. They each jumped more than a hundred times in different directions and waited after the last jump to see if they were followed. After six hours the ships jumped to a coordinate. RV watched as the ships began arriving and said, “Dolly, let me know if any don’t arrive.”
    “They are all here, Sir.”
    RV hit the general frequency and said “I know that the survivors from the ships that were hit are disturbed that we destroyed your ships with some of your crew trapped on board. I’m going to play a recording from a sensor buoy I left behind.”
    The fleet watched as the three thousand orange ships emerged into the blast of the fusion missiles. They all knew that the ships arrived immediately after the fleet had jumped away.
    RV said, “One of their ships killed three of our ships even after it was hit with thousands of our beams. Think about how many ships we would have lost if we had delayed our exit and were forced to fight those ships.” RV waited a moment and said, “Return to your port.