“Let’s go to one of the conference rooms and discuss your suggestions,” said Rear Admiral Marks. “We may find a solution that reduces the danger.”
“I don’t think this is going to be as easy as we had hoped,” sent Clair worriedly.
“We’ve got a good crew,” replied Jason. “We’ll get it figured out.”
-
In the Creevak universe, Jeremy was in the Command Center of the battlestation. He was talking to Rear Admiral Barnes and Rear Admiral Jones about preparations for evacuating.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” said Jones. “We don’t know how large the juggernaut is that’s going to dock with us but we have to assume its much larger than the New Horizon. That means we’ll have to extend our energy shields to cover it. That’s going to put a tremendous strain on our power systems.”
“Depending on the size of this juggernaut, we may only be able to maintain coverage for a few hours,” added Andram who had joined them. “At some point the shields are going to fail. When that happens we’ll be exposed to the full gravity from the black hole and pulled down to the event horizon.”
Jeremy didn’t like hearing that. “Can we get everyone off the station in two hours?”
“I don’t see how,” replied Kathryn. “We’re talking about over sixty thousand people as well as over forty thousand AIs. There’s just not enough time.”
“How many people can you put on the New Horizon?”
“We’re modifying life support to allow us to handle more people. If we use the corridors and every available space, we can crowd about twenty thousand people on board the ship. Even so if we have to do any sudden maneuvering, some of them are going to get hurt.”
Jeremy let out a deep sigh. “I wish we knew for certain when the rescue mission will be launched.”
“We have an approximate date,” said Kathryn. “I would suggest we move those twenty thousand people to the outer section of the station nearest the New Horizon so we can load them quickly.”
Jeremy nodded. “We can wait a several more days. When we get within a few days of the expected rescue, we need to begin moving everyone we can to the outer section. At that time we should probably begin putting some of the people on board the New Horizon.”
“This is going to be a bitch to do,” said Rear Admiral Jones. “I still don’t see how we can load everyone in two hours.”
“The AIs will be last,” stated Camlin. “All of us will download our latest engrams to the master computer file. If the loading is taking too long we will remain. All you will need to do is take the file and the Originators will create new bodies for us when you return to the hub.”
Jeremy knew what Camlin was suggesting might have to be done. He didn’t like it, but he didn’t see how they could load everyone in so short of a time period. “That will be a last resort. There must be a way for us to get everyone on board this juggernaut in the time we have. We need to keep looking for solutions.”
Alarms suddenly sounded and everyone looked toward the tactical display. The Creevak were launching missiles again.
“You would think they would give up instead of wasting so many missiles,” said Kathryn, folding her arms across her chest as the gazed at the large tactical display.
“Where’s Ariel?” asked Jeremy. She had been missing for a full day.
“On the New Horizon,” replied Kathryn. “She’s helping with the modifications.
“Seven hundred missiles inbound,” reported the sensor officer who was currently on duty. “From our sensor readings, these missiles have a slightly different shielding.”
“Why are they so persistent?”
Jeremy looked over at Kathryn. “I would guess they want to begin rebuilding their anomaly power stations and we’re in the way.”
“Take the station to Condition Two,” ordered Rear Admiral Jones. He wasn’t too concerned as he was certain the gravity from the black hole would tear the missiles apart before they became a danger.
-
For the next hour everyone in the Command Center watched as the missiles drew nearer and nearer.
“They’ve just passed the point where the last bunch was destroyed,” reported the sensor officer showing a little concern. “They seem to be resisting the gravity from the black hole.”
“Take us to Condition One,” ordered Jones, leaning forward his eyes focused intently on the tactical display. “Stand by with our weapon systems.”
A few more minutes passed and the missiles started to vanish from the tactical display as the gravity from the black hole began to tear them apart. It took fully twenty seconds before the last missile vanished from the tactical display.
“They’re getting closer,” commented Kathryn, her eyes narrowing slightly. “They are continuing to modify their missiles.”
“They still have a ways to go,” replied Jones. “Take the station back to Condition Four.”
The all clear was quickly announced.
“Eventually they’re going to reach us,” said Jeremy with a deep sigh. “Let’s hope we’re gone by then.”
-
Jeremy returned home to find Kelsey sitting at the kitchen table looking at Jason’s baby album. She had tears in her eyes and it was evident she had been crying.
“What’s wrong?”
Kelsey wiped the tears from her eyes and turned around to face Jeremy. “It’s just realizing what all we’ve missed. Jason’s eighteen years old and legally an adult. What’s it going to be like when we return to the Dyson sphere. He probably won’t even live with us.”
Jeremy sat down at the kitchen table and looked at a picture of Jason when he was only six weeks old. “When we get back we’ll have plenty of time to sort all of this out. I wish we could turn back the clock but we have to accept the fact our children are no longer kids. I’m sure we’ll see them a lot. Kevin is already talking about taking Mathew out on camping and fishing trips.”
Kelsey let out a deep breath. “Katie is upset as well. It’s just so hard to accept the fact that in their world over fourteen years have passed while for us it’s been a lot less. It seems like only yesterday when we became trapped here.”
“Do you ever think I made the wrong decision?” This had bothered Jeremy for years though he still felt he had done the right thing.
Kelsey nodded her head. “Yes, I know it was hard but we couldn’t let those Creevak fleets into our universe.”
Leaning back in his chair Jeremy took Kelsey’s hand. “When we finally do leave there’s no doubt the Creevak will start rebuilding their power stations.”
“That will take years,” replied Kelsey. “Particularly with the difference in the flow of time. That will give us all the time we need to put in place sufficient battlestations to blow any incoming Creevak fleet into a million pieces.”
“It should,” agreed Jeremy.
Kelsey looked at Jeremy and then asked a question that had been worrying her. “Are you nervous about seeing Jason?”
Jeremy took a deep breath. “It’s my fault we’ve missed our children’s childhood. What if they hold that against me?”
“We’ll deal with that when the time comes,” replied Kelsey. She squeezed Jeremy’s hand. “Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. Call it a mother’s intuition.”
“We’ll know in less than two weeks. I’ve ordered around the clock monitoring of the region where the last two probes appeared. I’m hoping Grayseth sends us a warning before he transits with his fleet. We need that warning so we’ll be ready.”
“I’m sure he’s already thought of that,” answered Kelsey. “We just have to keep in mind our isolation is about to come to an end.”
Jeremy nodded. “I still want to know just what the hell a juggernaut is. There was nothing on the drawing boards for such a ship when we left.”
“Knowing Grayseth, it’s probably very large.”
Jeremy agreed. Grayseth would want the biggest and most powerful ship possible for the
rescue. He was curious to see it when the rescue fleet arrived.
Chapter Six
In between the galaxies several thousand Eternal stealthed battlecruisers were searching for any signs of a secret Originator base. Using the times of certain attacks against Eternal space, they had narrowed down the regions to be searched considerably. It was considered to be only a matter of time before they found their target.
-
Admiral Trope was busy studying the latest reports. More Originator fleets were attacking Eternal controlled galaxies every day. In each galaxy they attacked, the defending Eternal fleets were putting up only token resistance and then pulling back. Everything was going according to plan. The more ships he pulled away from the Originators’ secret base the easier it was going to be to destroy.
“We now have confirmed reports of ten Originator fleets attacking our galaxies,” reported First Officer Novast. “Each fleet has at least two of their mobile battlestations.”
Warning alarms sounded on the sensor console as more green icons appeared on the tactical display. “Fleet from Galaxy X-9274 has arrived. Scans indicate three thousand two hundred and seven battlecruisers.”
Every day more fleets were arriving. When they were all present Admiral Trope would have the largest gathering of Eternal warships ever. He had already put plans in place to eliminate First Leader Zabian as soon as the Originators’ secret base was annihilated. Using his nanites to enhance his mind he had determined the Empire was better served having one of the fleet admirals in charge. He was determined he would be that admiral.
“What’s the current progress on the search?” He wanted to find the hidden Originator base as soon as possible.
“I’m sending another six hundred stealthed battlecruisers into the region we believe the base may be located,” replied Novast. “If it’s there, we’ll find it shortly.”
“Make it so,” replied Admiral Trope. “Very shortly the threat of the Originators against our people will come to an end.”
Trope leaned back in his command chair, flexing his powerful muscles.
Another benefit of the nanites was maintaining the above average muscles in his body. If necessary he could crush an Originator with a single blow. Looking up at the largest viewscreens, he could see thousands of warships lined up waiting for the signal to attack. Soon he would destroy the Originators and establish himself as emperor of the Eternal Empire.
-
Jason was sound asleep in his quarters at the academy. Every other day the crew assembled in the simulator room and attempted to make it to the battlestation. In every scenario so far they had either been forced to turn back or the liberator had been destroyed.
“Jason, are you awake?” sent Clair.
Opening his eyes Jason reached over and turned on a light next to his bed. “I am now.”
“Sorry,” replied Clair a little meekly. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
Sitting up, Jason yawned and stretched. “What do you want?”
“I have a suggestion. What if we use the new space drive to jump into the safe zone where the Creevak missiles can’t reach us?”
“We’d blow up,” replied Jason. “The last time we tried to jump out of the gravity well of the black hole it nearly tore the Liberator apart.”
“What if we strengthen the drive? Surely there’s someway we can make the transition closer to the station.”
Jason was quiet as he thought over Clair’s suggestion. “We need to talk to some of the scientists who built the Liberator and the drive. If we do as you suggest we’ll need to make some changes to ensure the ship survives. It could be a one-way trip. The ship might be damaged so badly we won’t be able to get away in it.”
“We don’t need to,” replied Clair. “That’s where we’ve been screwing up. We don’t need to come back in the Liberator. We can come back in Grayseth’s juggernaut when he comes with the rescue mission.”
Jason felt as if he had been punched in the gut. Why hadn’t he seen that? “I could kiss you,” he sent. “You may have found a way for us to get to the battlestation.”
Clair giggled. “I’ll keep you to that promise. When we succeed I will be expecting my kiss and it had better be a good one.” With that Clair became silent.
Jason could no longer sense Clair. He sat there for a considerable length of time thinking over what Clair had just said. “Clarissa, were you listening?”
“I’m always listening,” answered Clarissa.
“Will what Clair suggested work?”
“I’m already talking to several other AIs. Once we have some of the details worked out we’ll begin contacting the necessary Originator and Alton scientists. I suggest you get some sleep. We’re going to have to talk to Angela and Rear Admiral Marks tomorrow about Clair’s suggestion. It may be a long day.”
Jason nodded. Turning the light out he lay back down. As he drifted off to sleep, he wondered what Clair had meant by him owing her a kiss.
-
Early the next morning Jason, Clair, Clarissa, and several others were in Rear Admiral Mark’s office. Clarissa had already explained what they wanted to do.
Susan let out an exasperated sigh. “I can’t believe you already want to redesign the new space drive. It took us years to figure it out.”
“Not necessarily rebuild it,” replied Clair. “We just want to make it structurally stronger. If we jump close to the event horizon, it’s going to put considerable stress on the drive. We just don’t want it to blow up and destroy the ship.”
“We’ll also have to reinforce the hull of the Liberator,” added Lyla Kadda.
Angela looked at those gathered. “We’re talking about jumping the ship right next to the event horizon of a black hole. Is that even possible?”
“Theoretically, it is,” replied Councilor Lamar Rosen who had made a special trip just to attend this meeting. “But it won’t be easy to accomplish. The transition to a higher gravity well will be similar to what used to happen with Federation ships in the early days when they tried to enter hyperspace in the gravity well of a planet. This often resulted in severe damage to the drive system.”
“But we eventually corrected that,” said Angela.
“Yes, but not until you met the Altons who had already solved that problem.”
Rear Admiral Marks looked over at Councilor Rosen. “Can we modify our new space drive to handle the stress of the gravity near the black hole without blowing up?
“I believe so,” replied Rosen. “It will take an energy dump. As soon as the Liberator makes the transition, the drive will need to dump all of its stored energy. Dumping the energy will probably fuse some of the drive’s components, making it unusable.”
“Can we take spares for those components?” asked Jason. “We’ll be at the battlestation for several days. We could possibly replace them.”
Rosen looked doubtful. “It will be a long shot. Some of those components are deep within the drive.”
“What if we take some extra AI engineers who are familiar with the drive?” suggested Clarissa. “AIs can work around the clock. We might be able to repair the drive in that time period.”
“Maybe,” replied Rosen. “It would be easy enough to download all the technical information they would need.”
Rear Admiral Marks nodded. “Sounds like we have the beginning of a plan. Lyla, I suggest you get busy making whatever modification the Liberator needs. We need to get this done as quickly as possible so we have time to run some tests.”
“I’ll start on it immediately.”
“Councilor Rosen, can you take care of assigning people to rework the space drive?”
Rosen nodded. “I’ll help myself. It’s been a while since I last did some hands-on work. I know of a few others who will be useful as well.”
“Very well. We’ll reload the simulator AI with our new plan and what we expect. Day after tomorrow we’ll run the new simulation and see what happens.”
“It will probab
ly blow us up the first time,” muttered Mathew.
Angela nodded. “It’s good for you to die a few times in the simulator. That way you won’t make the same mistakes in a real life situation.”
They talked for a few more minutes and then the meeting ended. Jason and the others decided to take an early lunch and discuss the changes they had made. They also needed to meet with the rest of the crew later and explain to them what was going on.
-
They were in one of the large cafeterias at the academy. Jason was enjoying a piece of apple pie with vanilla ice cream and Clair, who was sitting across from him, had a large bowl of strawberries covered in whipped cream. The others all had some type of desert they favored. However, when Braleseth and Carly showed up, their plates were loaded down.
“I don’t see how all of you can get by on eating so little,” rumbled Braleseth. His plate was piled high with bacon and sausage.
“We’re not as big as you are and our metabolism is slower,” explained Elizabeth. “Besides, you eat twice as much as Carly.”
Carly was eating a medium sized plate of pancakes covered in syrup. “Female Carethians always eat less than our males,” explained Carly as she sliced off a section of pancakes. Carly had a sweet tooth and loved the taste of the syrup. “Braleseth has always had a huge appetite. If I ate like he does I wouldn’t fit through the doors of the academy.”
Braleseth laughed and shoved several sausage links into his mouth.
“Have to keep up my energy and stay healthy. You never know when we’ll need my strength.” With that he put his fork down and flexed his muscles.
“Quit showing off,” admonished Carly, feeling embarrassed. “There are enough people watching us already. Eat another sausage.”
“We’ll be adding some more AI engineers to the Liberator,” said Jason as he took a bite of his pie. “Clair may have come up with a solution to allow us to reach the battlestation.”
Everyone looked at Clair, waiting for an explanation.
“We’re going to make our transition into the Creevak universe closer to the battlestation. As a matter of fact, if we can work it out we’re going to drop out in the safe zone where the Creevak missiles can’t reach us.”
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