Jason felt his heart begin to race, he could barely speak. “Thank you, sir. We’ll be leaving immediately.”
“Jason,” said Senator Brown. “I hope you find your parents; we all do.”
-
Jason and Clarissa hurried back to the Liberator. Commander King was going to stay a little longer to answer a few more questions about the battle with the Hocklyns. Jason couldn’t believe the intradimensional space drive was finally finished. Even more thrilling was the fact the probe had spotted the large battlestation which had gone through with the Avenger and the New Horizon.
Reaching the Liberator, he quickly made his way to the Command Center.
-
“What’s going on?” asked Clair, seeing the excited look on Jason’s face. She knew something must have happened during the meeting with Fleet Admiral Crown.
Jason smiled. “I need to make an announcement to the entire ship. Jason pressed a button on the command console in front of him, allowing him to address everyone.
Clair watched, curious as to what was going on. Were they going to return to the sector of space where they had stumbled across the Hocklyns? The Liberator was a very highly advanced stealth vessel. It would make sense to use the ship in that capacity. However, she knew her mother would never agree to that.
“Attention crew of the Liberator,” began Jason. “I have an important announcement to make. We’re being recalled and have been ordered to return to the hub. It seems the research scientists working on the intradimensional space drive have finally met with success in building a working model. A probe was recently sent through to the Creevaks’ universe. It took some quick scans before returning. On one of its scans, the probe spotted the large battlestation that went through with Fleet Admiral Strong. It is still intact. A rescue mission is currently being organized.”
Clair felt faint. All the others in the Command Center looked stunned. Finally they were going to go and rescue Jeremy, Kelsey, Katie, Kevin, Ariel, and all the others. After fourteen long years they were finally going to be reunited.
“We’re actually going to rescue Mom and Dad?” said Mathew, his eyes wide with excitement.
Jason nodded. “Yes, it appears that way. I’m sure it’s going to take some time to install the new drive system on Grayseth’s ships and on the Liberator but in a few months we’ll be reunited with our parents.”
Elizabeth started crying and Clair walked over putting her arms around her. “It’s almost over,” she said. “Only a few more months.”
Elizabeth nodded. “I didn’t know if this day would ever come.”
“Well it did. We’ll take the Liberator home and get the ship ready. I imagine your mother will be very excited to see you and Mathew.”
Elizabeth smiled and wiped the tears from her eyes. “I hope she still remembers us.”
“Don’t worry,” replied Clair. “I can guarantee you that none of your parents have forgotten. I’m sure they can’t wait to see all of you.”
-
“Let’s get the ship ready to depart,” ordered Jason. He had been watching Clair. She was the oldest of all of them and sometimes she was very good at demonstrating her maturity. “As soon as Commander King gets back to the Freemont we will be returning to the hub.”
Jason leaned back in his Command Chair. For years they had trained to be ready to rescue his parents and the others. Very soon they were going to get to put that training to use.
“Ship is ready to depart,” reported Lieutenant Commander Bell.
Jason nodded. Now all they had to do was wait for Commander King. Jason was highly curious as to what Angela would have to say about all of this. He also needed to see about getting two blue energy sphere projectors installed on the Liberator. When they went to the Creevak universe, he wanted a weapon that could defend the ship.
-
In Eternal space, Commander Zafron was watching the tactical display intently. He had two thousand battlecruisers, four hundred dreadnaughts, and three juggernauts in his fleet. In front of him was arrayed an Eternal force of sixteen hundred of their large battlecruisers.
“Eternals are advancing,” reported Kazak. They are in a triple staggered line formation three deep.”
Commander Zafron nodded. This was the fourth galaxy he had attacked in the last few weeks. With the neutralization of the Eternals’ home galaxy, the Eternals seemed more hesitant to risk large fleet losses.
“We’ll stay in our cone formation,” replied Zafron. “As soon as the Eternals are in range hit them with our blue energy spheres. We will follow up with our dark matter weapons. I want this battle over with as soon as possible.”
-
The two fleets rapidly neared each other. As ordered as soon as the Eternal battlecruisers were in range, the Dominator and the three juggernauts opened fire with their blue energy spheres. The spheres struck numerous Eternal energy shields and began draining their power. Then a few moments later they latched onto the hulls of the targeted Eternal vessels and began destroying the molecular bonding which held the atoms of the hulls together. The Eternals continued to close and began launching their own dark matter and antimatter missiles, leaving the stricken ships behind.
The Originators retaliated and soon space was full of massive explosions as the two fleets pummeled each other. Around the three juggernauts one hundred dreadnaughts were on guard against possible ramming attempts by the Eternals.
-
Commander Zafron felt the Dominator shake violently as its energy shield was struck by several Eternal dark matter missiles. The energy washed across the shield but the shield stayed up.
“Intensify our rate of fire,” ordered Zafron. The Eternals had a habit of targeting the Dominator since they wanted to see the warship with the blue energy spheres destroyed.
On the viewscreens, he could see several Eternal battlecruisers being turned into black space dust and others were being blown apart by intense weapons fire. Antimatter and dark matter explosions were lighting up space as they sought to weaken the shields of the Eternal fleet.
“The Eternals are losing ships at a far faster rate than we are,” reported Kazak with a note of satisfaction in his voice. “This battle won’t last much longer.”
Zafron was not surprised. With the addition of the juggernauts to his fleet, the Eternals now stood literally no chance of a victory.
-
The three juggernauts and the dreadnaughts that were tasked with defending them were laying down a devastating rain of fire on the Eternal vessels nearest them. Very few weapons were even reaching the juggernauts’ energy screens. In front of the juggernauts space seemed to be burning. This was caused by the detonation of hundreds of dark matter and antimatter missiles every few seconds. Any Eternal vessels caught in that hellfire were almost instantly obliterated.
-
“Eternals are falling back,” reported Captain Grayson from his sensor console.
“We’ve destroyed a large part of their fleet,” confirmed Kazak. “They are no longer an effective fighting force.”
“They’re beginning to enter hyperspace.” Captain Grayson watched on his sensors as the red threat icons representing the Eternals began to vanish.
Commander Zafron nodded in satisfaction. “We’ve won. We have a few other Eternal fleet bases in this galaxy we need to destroy and then we can move on to the next one.”
Zafron knew there were four other fleets similar to his sweeping through this section of the universe. In a few more weeks there would be six others. The Originator Council wanted to take advantage of the Eternals’ sudden weakness caused by their home galaxy being locked out of hyperspace. This was the beginning of the end of the Eternals’ Empire.
-
In the Makuul Galaxy at the former anomaly site another probe was ready to go through to the Creevak universe. This was a much larger probe and would spend more time taking scans. There was also a message for Fleet Admiral Strong which was going to be transmitted.
Around the super battlestation were four of the forty-kilometer battlestations as well as forty updated Indomitable class battlestations. There was also an Originator fleet of one hundred dreadnaughts and five hundred battlecruisers nearby as well. The Galactic Union even had a fleet in the area. It was comprised of three hundred battlecruisers. Overall Rear Admiral Lance felt certain she could stop any Creevak incursion that might come through a new anomaly.
“Activating probe,” reported Allarr Grall. He was an Alton who had been working on the probe.
On the main viewscreen, the one hundred-meter probe turned and orientated itself toward the former anomaly site. Then, activating its gravity drive, it hurtled away from the battlestation and toward its target.
“Activating intradimensional drive,” reported Grall as he pressed several icons on the control console in front of him.
Instantly on the screen, a white radiance covered the probe and then it vanished.
“Successful transition indicated,” reported Grall with satisfaction in his voice.
“Now we just have to wait for the probe to return.”
Rear Admiral Lance nodded. They had no idea how long the probe would be gone. This particular probe actually had an Originator AI on board. The AI had volunteered to take the probe through. If the AI felt the probe was in danger he had orders to return immediately.
“All transmissions from the probe have ceased,” reported one of the communication officers.
This didn’t surprise Lance. He had been expecting it.
-
Moments later the probe reappeared in the Creevak universe. Valdorn, the AI on board, sat in the small Command Center. He could control all the systems on the probe using his neural link. The first thing he did was activate the probe’s stealth systems and then have it move away from where it had appeared. Valdorn wanted to make certain any Creevak ship sent to investigate would not be able to spot the probe.
For several long minutes Valdorn used the probe’s sensors to scan everything within sensor range. He spent some time scanning the two black holes and the large Creevak fleet holding its position above one of them. Periodically the fleet would fire a barrage of missiles toward the black hole.
Increasing the magnification on the probe’s one viewscreen, Valdorn saw the one hundred and seventy-kilometer battlestation in orbit above the event horizon. He spent some time tracking the inbound missiles and then saw them self-destruct as they were torn apart by the intense gravity of the black hole. They never even came close to the battlestation.
Valdorn then turned all of his recording instruments on the station. It was obvious the station’s energy shield was still functioning. For nearly twenty minutes he recorded everything he could. Finally satisfied he had all the data that was needed he began using a special hyperspace transmitter in an attempt to contact the battlestation.
-
Rear Admiral Barnes was in the station’s Command Center talking to Rear Admiral Jones about the modifications being made to the New Horizon.
“We’ve emptied out the two main cargo holds and the Engineers are in the process of installing two more antimatter power plants,” Kathryn said. “That should give us enough power to pull away from the black hole.”
“It will take two weeks to get all the work done,” replied Jones with concern in his eyes. “That’s working around the clock every single day. I just don’t see how we can get the Avenger ready as well.”
Kathryn let out a deep sigh. “I know. We have over sixty thousand people to get off the station and that doesn’t include the AIs.”
“That’s not a problem,” said Camlin who was in the Command Center. Either Camlin or Ariel were in the Command Center to ensure they could receive any messages that might be sent by the next probe. “As long as all of our engrams have been recorded we can be reborn back at the hub. Each AI is currently downloading a copy of their engrams every day. All you will need to do is take the master hard drive which contains them.”
Kathryn sighed. “I know, but I would like to take all of you with us.”
“Admiral!” a communications officer suddenly shouted. “I’m getting a message from an Originator probe. There’s a lot of static and it keeps fading in and out.”
Kathryn’s eyes widened. “Where is it?”
“I’m not sure,” replied one of the sensor officers. “I think it’s stealthed.”
“There’s an AI on the probe called Valdorn,” continued the communications officer. “He’s been here for several hours taking readings. As soon as he returns, they will start putting the new space drives in a fleet of dreadnaughts. Councilor Grayseth will be leading the mission. He says one of their ships, called a juggernaut will dock with the station to take aboard all the crew including the AIs.”
“Inbound Creevak ships!” called out one of the other sensor officers. “They must have picked up the comm signal from the probe.”
“Probe is leaving,” reported the comm officer. “Valdorn says it will only take a few months to have all the ships ready for the rescue.”
“Probe is gone,” reported one of the sensor officers. “I detected its departure when it opened up a small anomaly. The probe and the anomaly have both vanished.”
Kathryn took a deep breath; she didn’t realize until now that her pulse was racing. “Get me Fleet Admiral Strong. He needs to be informed another probe has come through and this one sent a message.”
“I’ll tell Ariel,” volunteered Camlin. “She’s with Jeremy and Kelsey.”
“That sounds great,” replied Kathryn. Kathryn could hardly believe this was happening. Very shortly they would all be home again. She could hardly wait to see her father.
-
In the Makuul Galaxy, a small anomaly opened up and the probe reappeared. It had been gone for nearly six hours.
“Damn time difference,” said Rear Admiral Lance.
“The probe reports success,” said Allar. “It completed all of its scans and sent the message to the battlestation.”
“Then are we ready to begin installing the drives in Grayseth’s dreadnaughts?”
“Shortly; we’ll need to check the probe’s data and space drive. If everything checks out we should be able to begin installing the drives by the end of the week.”
Rear Admiral Lance nodded. “That’s great news. I need to get a message off to Fleet Admiral Tolsen. He will want to know the probe made it back safely.”
Admiral Lance gazed at the viewscreens. She could see several of the forty-kilometer battlestations as well as some of the protecting warships. She knew once her message went out this part of the Makuul Galaxy was going to get a lot busier.
-
Jeremy was at home with Kelsey and Ariel discussing the modifications being made to the New Horizon. The same modifications would eventually have to be made to the Avenger.
Ariel suddenly seemed to freeze as if she was listening to someone.
“What is it?” asked Jeremy. He knew that either Camlin or Ariel were staying in the Command Center in case another probe came through. Camlin was there now. Jeremy was certain Ariel was listening to a message from Camlin.
“Another probe,” replied Ariel, her face breaking out into a joyous smile. “There was an Originator AI on board. The probe was stealthed and stayed for nearly two hours. The AI was taking readings of the immediate area. He also sent a message aimed at the battlestation. Valdorn said they would have to study the data he collected but he felt the rescue fleet would get the go ahead to begin installing the new space drive. Grayseth is in charge of the fleet and it is comprised of over one hundred dreadnaughts and something called a juggernaut. Before Rear Admiral Jones could ask for more details, the Creevak began moving in on the probe and Valdorn had to go back. He
did say we were looking at around eight weeks before the rescue attempt could be made. The juggernaut will come into the gravity well of the black hole and dock with the station.”
“Eight weeks,” said Kelsey, looking concerned. “That’s only a little over a week here.”
Jeremy looked grim faced. “We’re not going to be able to save the Avenger. I’m going to order all the work crews to concentrate on the New Horizon.”
“Are you sure?” asked Kelsey. She knew how much the Avenger meant to Jeremy.
“I don’t think we have a choice. Besides, it was questionable if we could get the Avenger ready in time anyway. It has more work that needs to be done. The New Horizon already has the larger power relays and feed lines.”
Kelsey nodded. “So, what do we do?”
“I’ll make an announcement in the morning informing everyone of the second probe. This is going to be tough to get done. We need to evacuate everyone to whichever docking port this juggernaut is going to dock to. I would also recommend in about a week we start loading people on board the New Horizon so there won’t be a massive rush when this juggernaut arrives.”
Kelsey’s eyes suddenly widened as she realized what all of this meant. “Jeremy, just think; two weeks from now we’ll all be home! We’ll be back with the kids!”
Jeremy nodded. “Let’s just hope everything goes as planned. I suspect when Grayseth arrives he’s going to have to fight through the large Creevak fleet that’s been stationed above us. This rescue is not going to be a sure thing.”
Kelsey nodded. If the rescue was to fail she didn’t know what she would do. It would devastate Katie as well. “They’ll do it. Grayseth will not allow himself to fail.” There was one thing Kelsey was certain of. Grayseth would either rescue them or die trying. Grayseth was Jeremy’s clan brother and either both of them would return home or neither would. To Grayseth there would be no other options.
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