He stopped, took the headset off, and turned back to the rest of us. “Yes, Kitty, that was them just now. They’ve determined that the trajectories are clear and they feel that these ships are absolutely heading for Earth.”
“Lucky us. John, you seem to know the ships.”
“Yes. They’re from different systems.” He pointed to the rightmost screen with a ship that looked like a large manta ray, complete with its wings or flaps or whatever moving slowly up and down as if it really was a ray swimming through space. “This one belongs to the Vrierst. They’re farthest from home here.”
“Per what everyone’s said and our knowledge of where we sit in the galaxy, they’re all far from home if they’re in our neck of the woods, even though they’re in our neighborhood, so to speak. I’m going to refrain from asking if Earth has somehow gotten onto the Galactic Hot Spots list and instead ask if everyone else thinks the ship that’s fairly close to the Vrierst ship looks like a hand trowel with a wide handle or if it’s just me.”
Wruck managed a chuckle. “I suppose it does. That belongs to the Yggethnia System. There are several inhabited planets in that system and they tend to work together. They’re one of the two closest to Earth, after Alpha Centauri, that is.”
Another screen had a ship that was ball-shaped, with what looked like a variety of neon-blue rings encircling it in various directions—all spinning so fast that I could only see them moving because I was enhanced with A-C abilities thanks to the mother and child feedback I’d had when Jamie was born—so that it resembled our depictions of atoms. “Who’s in the funky Death Star Atomizer?”
“That would be a ship of the Themnir. They’re from Sirius, so the next closest after Yggethnia. And they’re extremely pacifistic. That’s not a Death Star, it’s what they call a Roving Planet.”
“What about the one that looks like a tree?” Buchanan asked, before I could make another Star Wars comment, pointing to the next screen. He wasn’t wrong, but it was a tree that was definitely a spaceship. A giant treeship.
“That’s a Faradawn ship,” Wruck said. “And it’s the type of ship they use to collect survivors of battles, disasters, and so forth.”
“So, are they like the Shantanu?” The Shantanu were the colorful penguin people from Alpha Seven. They essentially functioned as the Alpha Centaurion System’s version of the Red Cross.
“Not in looks, but if you’re asking if they’re the people who go out and help others, yes, they are.” He looked worried.
“So, why are they, and all these others, coming here?” Bingo, Wruck looked more worried by this question of mine.
“I can only assume something bad is happening in the galaxy,” he said finally.
“You mean more bad than normal?” I asked.
Wruck shook his head. “I honestly have no guess.”
“I’m fond of the Borg ship myself,” Siler said, indicating our fifth entry, which was a cube.
“That belongs to the Lyssara, and they’d call it a comb, not a cube.” We all stared at Wruck.
“Um, John? I don’t see anything that would indicate that said ship was like something any of us would use on our hair.”
“Oh. No. Not a comb like that. A comb like bees create. They’re like giant honeybees. As you’d understand them.”
Was about to come up with a really snarky retort when Walter shifted a bit in his chair and I finally caught sight of the last screen showing in outer space. That ship in this section of our neighborhood really caught my eye. “Is that a Z’porrah ship?”
CHAPTER 7
MY QUESTION WAS RHETORICAL, since there wasn’t a one of us that wouldn’t recognize what I was looking at. On the screen was a lone ship that looked like what we humans typically called a flying saucer—with lights along the circumference, and a dome on top. That was where the power cube sat, inside the dome.
“Yes,” Walter confirmed, voice tight. “I haven’t found any other Z’porrah ships, though.”
“So, does this mean that we’re under attack?” Buchanan asked, sounding far less interested in talking and a whole lot more ready to lead a battalion against our enemies.
“The Z’porrah never attack singly,” Wruck said, sounding confused. “Ever.”
“That’s it. Walt, need to go live to the LSR, please and thank you.”
He shot me a worried look. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. I’ll be discreet.”
All of the men shot me looks that indicated they didn’t believe discretion was in my wheelhouse. Chose to ignore them and gave Walter the “do it” look. He did. “Excuse me, the First Lady would like a word.”
“What’s up, Kitty?” Jeff asked.
“Jeff, I’d like you, Christopher, Richard, Alexander, and Chuckie only to come to Walter’s security center. No Secret Service need apply, and no one else needs to come along for the ride at this precise time. Just something I want to show you select few. Everyone else can carry on with the business of the Centaurion War Division.”
Jeff grunted. “We’ll be right there.”
They were right there by the time I’d turned around to look at the door. Hyperspeed was the best, and Christopher was essentially the Flash. “What’s going on, and why didn’t you want James or Tim?” Christopher asked as they reached us and he and the rest of them disengaged from their hyperspeed daisy chain.
“Because, as so often is the case, I want no one reacting or doing anything until we’re done and you all do what I want you to do.” Brought them up to speed, fast, on what was on Walter’s screens, and Walter shared that Alpha Four had also alerted us.
“I’m relieved these are not heading for my system,” Alexander said, “but we now consider any attack on Earth to be an attack on us. Do I need to ready our fleet?”
“Not yet. I think we want to be as sure as we can be of what’s coming. That’s why I only wanted you guys here and we haven’t shared this with the full team in the LSR.”
“So, why are we here?” Christopher asked, shooting me Patented Glare #2. He was a glaring champion, after all, and this was a prime opportunity to brush up the skills.
“I want you and Jeff to do a Go Team move on these ships before we do anything else. I want the others here to do some of the heavy thinking and additional panicking as necessary.”
“Always nice to be needed,” Chuckie said.
Jeff grunted again. “Fine, we still have time to get all of Earth in a state of readiness for attack. I hope, at any rate. What ship do you want us testing first?”
“The Z’porrah’s. Duh.”
He managed a quick grin. “Good point.”