“We must survive this massacre!” AlvaResh projected to the minds of his pod mates on the scout ship Harbinger.
Every one of his Nu companions re-focused their attention away from the destruction of their last colony planet and toward their natural leader. He was young for his role, but that could not be helped. All of the seasoned leaders had long since perished in the defense of their ancient race. The overwhelming and never-ending hoard of Esss battleships had conquered their home world and all of their colonies in the galactic interior. Now they were about to wipe out the last remaining Nu colony at the edge of this outermost galactic arm.
“While the Esss are focused on breaking through our orbital defenses, we must escape. We cannot afford to be followed and hunted down.”
“Where will you take us?” JoZarieh, their seasoned navigator demanded. “How will we be able to survive without the resources of even one world? It would be better to fight and to die with the rest of our race!” He showered their minds with images of them ramming and destroying one of the myriad Esss battleships.
“Remember your place, JoZarieh! I am responsible for you and all the others on this ship,” AlvaResh retorted. “I choose to live and to fight another day, and you will follow my lead! We will find a star system with no habitable planets that is of no interest to the Esss. From there, we can build our own living environment to give us time to regenerate our numbers into a viable colony.”
“And then what will we do against these intractable creatures?” JoZarieh asked. “They are like a wildfire spreading before a gale force wind. They consume everything in their path.”
“We must formulate plans to escape this galaxy, but we cannot do that waiting here and arguing. You will calculate a safe route out of this system and pass the coordinates to MilGravden. She will get Harbinger moving in that direction without drawing attention to us.”
“Too late!” MilGravden projected with alarm. “Three Esss battleships have just broken rank and are accelerating in our direction. If we are going to escape, we must leave now, and at our top speed!”
“Head for the Void,” AlvaResh ordered. “They will not be able to follow us for long. With their short lifespan, they will die if they try.”
“But that will commit us to your intergalactic trip without preparations! We may never reach the next galaxy before we all die,” JoZarieh complained.
“That is true,” AlvaResh replied with humility. “But at least we have a chance of making the crossing and saving our race. A small chance is better than none at all.”
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