Nowhere to Hide by Saxon Andrew

hours.
    ***
    Drey finally caught his breath and said, “I’m glad you thought this through,” just as his wrist unit emitted a high pitched signal. Drey and Ian looked at their wrist unit along with every other sailor in the bar. Drey jumped up and barely beat Ian out of the front door. Shuttles were roaring in from overhead to pick them up as the millions of pilots began leaving for their ships. The wait was over; the Invaders were coming.”
    Ian arrived on his ship, “Ian, your task force has been notified to jump to the assembly coordinates.”
    “Thanks, E. Do you have an idea on when they’re coming?”
    “Forty nine hours from now they’ll be jumping.”
    Ian furrowed his brow, “Just how did we learn that?”
    “We now know their language; a probe intercepted a message from the leader of the invasion.”
    “Did it get their jump coordinates?”
    “Remarkably enough, it did.”
    Ian stopped looking at his control panel and looked up, “That was incredibly stupid to broadcast that information.”
    “It appears they don’t encrypt their transmissions.”
    “What?”
    “Their language is so complicated that it’s taken all of our computing resources to learn it. It took Moe and the Hub working together to finally get it completed.”
    “Do you have it?”
    “All of our ships now have it downloaded into their communication devices.”
    “What about Drey’s taskforce?”
    “He has them scattered around the black hole waiting for reports of any Invaders arriving in the galaxy proper. He should be able to respond quickly if they send in scouts. The Negotiator has his system tied in with Moe and he’ll take the scans and assign ships as soon as they’re detected.”
    ***
    Ian saw Violet appear on his display, “Be careful, Ian.”
    “Careful is my middle name.”
    “Make it your first name; I want our baby to know his father.”
    Ian smiled at her, “I love you, Violet.”
    “I love you, too.”
    Ian punched his communication panel and began receiving reports. “Get us to the assembly coordinates, E.” The Green Ship disappeared and Ian listened to the civilizations in M87 respond to the War Warning that was being issued. The magnitude of the coming fight was beyond anything ever witnessed. More than a billion ships moved to their assigned positions and waited for what they knew was coming.
    ***
    Violet looked at Dee, “WHAT DO YOU SEE!”
    Dee’s eyes were closed but Violet heard her say, “The odds in this attack favor us. It will be the main invasion force that will be overwhelming.”
    “Can we win?” Violet only heard silence. It was the first time that the voice that spoke while Dee focused on events had not answered. That, more than anything else, frightened her. She continued to wait and finally Dee opened he eyes, “What do you see?”
    Dee looked at Violet and slowly shook her head, “We need to leave to the galaxy they’re currently attacking when their ships leave.” Violets eyes grew wide. “If we prevail against the first invading force, two others will join them and we will be attacked in our own galaxy as well. There’s not much time.”
    Violet hit her communicator and the King appeared on her display, “Your Majesty, I have bad news.” The King’s face grew serious and Violet told him what was coming. The King contacted the First Councilor and although he was skeptical he knew the King was not one given to being deceived about things.
    “What do we do?”
    The King had a tight grimace and said, “We have to start moving our populations to the galaxy they’re leaving.”
    “How will our people survive?”
    “Our probes have scanned millions of planets the Invaders attacked and most of them still have their entire infrastructure intact. There is some damage on some of them from nuclear blasts set off by the defenders but most were basically unharmed. The Invaders didn’t use weapons that would kill the native populations; they defeated their defenses and then