Lens of Time: Book 05 - Star Rover-The Worst of Time Read Online Free Page A

scouts.”
    “How do you know?”
    “There are more scanners on them than weapons. They also have a rather large communications module on top of them above their bridges. They’re scouts, Dat.”
    “Tim, did you get a number on that fleet?”
    “Ten million plus.”
    Dat smirked at the answer, “Well, now we know what we’re up against. They are going to expand into other galaxies.” Dat stared at the ships and said, “I want all of us to take thirty minutes and examine what you’ve collected. We’ll get back together and share our findings once that’s done. We should also have the initial review in from fleet by then.”
    • • •
    “I’m not sure what you’re talking about?”
    “We have detected multiple waves of energy passing through our galaxy.”
    “What kind of energy?”
    “We don’t know. The only thing we were able to see was dust and charged particles appeared to be moving off their normal positions. We have been unable to determine why that happened. The plates show changes in course for multiple objects.”
    “Severe course changes?”
    “No, they were slight but they were consistent along a single track.”
    “Were you able to get a reading on how fast the wave moved?”
    “We did but we think there’s an error in our scans.”
    “Why?”
    “The scanners determined that the wave was moving more than fifty thousand times the speed of light.”
    “That’s jump speed.”
    “We know. Objects in normal space are incapable of moving faster than light. We are recalibrating our scanners and watching to see if it happens again.”
    The Master stared at the data and it made absolutely no sense. He didn’t know that an advanced ship had been discovered. Scientists were not in the military communication channel so he had nothing to relate the strange readings to but normal phenomena. “Keep me informed.”
    “We will.”
    • • •
    Fleet Admiral Hull entered President Connor’s office and came to attention. Leigh Ann Conner looked up, “At ease, Admiral. What’s going on?”
    “We’ve received the scans from the Rovers at the Apex Galaxy and we found some disturbing information.”
    Leigh Ann’s eyes narrowed and she indicated a chair, “What have you found?”
    “It appears that one species has conquered all the other civilizations in that giant galaxy. There are millions of civilized planets but they are all at a primitive level of technology. It appears the dominant species does not allow high technology on any of the conquered planets.”
    “That would prevent any planet from becoming a threat to them.”
    Katherine sighed, “It also gives the dominant species a stable food supply.”
    “What!”
    “It appears the dominant species doesn’t carry any food stores on their ships. They go to the surface of a conquered planet and feed on the inhabitants when necessary. That causes two things to occur; first, populations are stable and growth is extremely slow and two; ships don’t have to assemble to replenish their stores. They can remain on station throughout the galaxy. It does appear that some sort of equilibrium has been established and the conquered planets are barely eking out an existence.”
    “We need to know how that system functions.”
    “I’m going to ask the Rovers there to investigate. There’s more, Sir.” Leigh looked at Kat and nodded for her to continue. “We found a fleet of more than ten million ships that are scouts. It appears the dominant species is planning an expansion outside their galaxy.”
    “What about their technology?”
    “They are more advanced than any of the planets in the Alliance except for us. We haven’t been able to determine where our ships stand against theirs, yet. We are of the opinion that their weapons could take out a Rover Warship.”
    “What about numbers?”
    “They outnumber us five to one, Madam President. At least they do in the numbers we scanned. We probably missed a good percentage of their ship