Explorations- the Lost

by Raymond L. Weil

  -

  Admiral Trope sat in his command chair feeling stunned. On the viewscreens of his Command Center, the new enemy fleet was visible and it was already bearing down on his fleet.

  “We still have the numbers,” pointed out Novast.

  Trope shook his head. “They have twenty-two undamaged battlestations and nearly one hundred and fifty thousand more warships, also undamaged. Even if we win we won’t have the forces left to conquer the Shrieels.” Trope saw all of his dreams of becoming the greatest war leader in Eternal history starting to crumble.

  “They’ve reactivated the hyperspace interdiction fields,” reported the sensor officer. “We’re trapped.”

  Trope took in a deep breath. His fleet was trapped between the Shrieel and the large fleet defending it and the new one that had just appeared in his rear. He wondered if this had been the Originators’ plan all along. “Reverse course,” he ordered. “We will take on the new fleet and try to fight our way through it. Once past we’ll try to make it to the edge of the interdiction field.” Trope knew he only had a slim chance of a victory now. His best option was to fight his was past the interdiction field and escape with a major part of his fleet. He could always return later to capture or destroy this no longer secret base of the Originators.

  -

  In space, the Eternal fleet spun about on its axis and headed toward the new Originator fleet to engage it. As soon as they did the Originator fleet defending the Shrieel immediately followed in close pursuit.

  -

  “Close the range and engage,” ordered Race. Just maybe with a little luck he could now destroy this Eternal fleet and bring this war to an end.

  -

  All three fleets rapidly closed and soon intense weapons fire broke out between them. The twenty-two battlestations in Massie’s fleet were in a close V formation. In front of them a literal wall of energy appeared destroying any Eternal warships that encountered it. The Federation and Alton ships were operating in five ship squadrons as they were not as powerful as the Originator ships. Space was full of exploding ships as the weapons fire intensified. Miniature novas seemed to march across space as ships died under dark matter or antimatter missiles.

  Eternal battlecruisers were being blown apart and others being turned into black space dust by the blue energy spheres the surviving juggernauts were launching. The battlestations in Massie’s fleet were firing dark matter missiles in waves creating an impassable wall of fire in front of them. Any Eternal ship that managed to penetrate the wall was quickly eliminated by heavy energy beam fire.

  Federation and Alton ships were dying by the hundreds. Their energy shields penetrated more easily by Eternal weapons. Fortunately, there were over fifty thousand Originator warships to support them.

  -

  Admiral Trope watched as his fleet was decimated from the two-pronged attack. True he was destroying many Originator ships but the advantage they had with their mobile battlestations and the new battlestations which had just arrived was becoming decisive. Too many of his ships had been damaged in the earlier fighting.

  On the viewscreens, he watched as several of his battlecruisers were blown apart by one of the newly arrived battlestations. So far he had only managed to ram two of them. The defensive fire around them was too intense to get through.

  “Contact all of our warriors on the Originator facilities we’ve captured and tell them to initiate Operation Firestorm.”

  Novast looked surprised. “Are you certain? We will lose all of our warriors and warrior robots on those structures.”

  “We’re going to lose them anyway,” replied Trope. “By initiating operation Firestorm it might just give us an opportunity to disengage and get away.”

  Novast didn’t look pleased but he headed to communications to transmit the order.

  Trope felt his flagship shake violently. Several red lights appeared on the damage control console. His world and plans were coming to an end in more ways than one.

  -

  Race watched in the Command Center as his fleet smashed the Eternals. Massie’s fleet had made all the difference. Its twenty-two forty-kilometer battlestations had squashed any hope the Eternals had for a victory. Now Race was determined to destroy as much of their fleet as possible.

  “Admiral, something’s happening on the facilities the Eternals have captured,” reported Colonel Williams.

  Race turned his attention to the viewscreens just in time to see one of the titanic structures blow apart in a series of explosions. “What’s going on?” he asked in alarm. He had hoped not to lose anymore of the valuable structures.

  “It’s the Eternals. Their assault shuttles are self-destructing. Each one must have an anti-matter device on board and there are hundreds of them on the hulls of each facility.”

  For a full minute Race watched in shock as science facilities, manufacturing facilities, and some of the hubs valuable shipyards were torn apart by violent antimatter explosions.

  Finally the explosions stopped and Race stared at all the glowing wreckage. “What did we lose?” He knew with a sinking feeling it was going to be a lot.

  “Twelve science facilities, eight manufacturing facilities, and six shipyards,” replied Colonel Williams. “A lot of others suffered heavy damage.”

  Race drew in a deep breath. “Continue to pound the Eternals. I want to make sure they don’t have a fleet large enough left to ever threaten us again.”

  He felt shaken by the sheer magnitude of the destruction. How would he ever explain this to the Originator Council? Much of the work of thousands of years or even longer had just been lost. Who knew how much science research had just been destroyed?

  -

  Admiral Trope watched as the Originator facilities exploded. Along with them went his dream of using this secret base of the Originators as the seat of his future empire.

  “The Originators are not breaking off,” reported Novast. “We’re losing too many ships. We may not be able to make it to the edge of the interdiction field.”

  “Set a course for the nearest Shrieel,” ordered Admiral Trope. If he could not escape, there was one more thing he wanted to accomplish. Something that had never succeeded in the past. He had now lost so many vessels any hope of escape was minimal. He was going to take out his revenge on the Originators for wrecking his plans in a way they would never forget.

  Novast didn’t ask any questions only turned away to pass on the order.

  -

  The Eternals had managed to fight their way through Massie’s fleet but only after suffering heavy losses. The fleet then turned in mass and headed toward the nearest Shrieel.

  -

  “What are they up to?” asked Commander Garratt with a confused look on his face.

  Race shook his head. “I don’t know but we need to continue to attack that fleet. Contact my sister and have her turn her fleet around and pursue. We’ll join her.”

  -

  The battle continued on for nearly two hours as the Eternals raced toward the nearest Shrieel. Shattered and destroyed ships from both fleets littered space as the fighting was still quite intense.

  The Eternals arrived at the Shrieel and faced a new threat as the large megastructure began firing at them destroying hundreds of ships in just a few seconds. Then the entire Eternal fleet threw itself at the Shrieel never slowing down until they began to slam into the surface. As each four-kilometer battlecruiser struck the hull of the Shrieel, its entire stockpile of dark matter and antimatter weapons detonated.

  -

  Race stared in shock as titanic explosions rattled the massive megastructure. He thought on the viewscreen he could actually see the Dyson sphere shaking. “Can they destroy it?”

  “Unknown,” replied Colonel Williams. “The military AIs say nothing like this has ever occurred before. They feel certain the hull will be penetrated but it’s hard to predict the effects.”

  -

  For long minutes the Eternal fleet committed
suicide as they rammed the hull of the Shrieel. Suddenly a huge crack appeared and the inside of the Shrieel was revealed. The Eternal fleet continued to ram the hull in the area of the now steadily growing crack. Atmosphere and debris began to spill from the fracture.

  -

  Admiral Trope sat silently in his command chair as his flagship made its suicide run. He was making certain the Originators would never forget the Eternals. On the main viewscreen, the cracked hull of the Shrieel suddenly began to grow larger and larger and then the flagship struck. All of its dark matter and antimatter warheads detonated in a huge fireball of released energy.

  -

  The crack on the Shrieel grew larger and larger until the entire megastructure began to wobble. The crack grew until it stretched for several million kilometers. Smaller cracks began to radiate out from it. The entire Shrieel was in danger of breaking apart.

  -

  Race watched in shock at the damage the Eternals had caused. “What are the Control Centers in the Dyson sphere reporting?”

  “They’re trying to stabilize the Dyson sphere,” replied Commander Garratt. “They have a series of gravity drives mounted on the hull to keep the Dyson sphere in a stable orbit. They’re using those to try to stabilize the structure.”

  Everyone watched for several long hours as the Originators and their AIs in the Control Centers fought to keep the Shrieel from breaking apart. Despite their best efforts the crack continued to grow until it was nearly six million kilometers in length with smaller cracks radiating out in all directions.

  “Admiral, they want the juggernauts to approach the Dyson sphere and use their energy beams to help fuse the surface around the smaller cracks,” reported the communications officer. “They believe if we can do that they can stabilize the structure.”

  Race nodded and quickly gave the order.

  -

  For the next six hours they all watched as the juggernauts moved to just above the surface and used their energy beams to help seal the multitude of cracks. It was tedious work but the juggernauts were up to it as they slowly moved across the hull of the megastructure.

  -

  “It’s stable,” reported Colonel Williams with relief in his eyes. “We can pull our juggernauts back.”

  Race gave the order gazing at the viewscreen showing the damaged Dyson sphere. He slowly shook his head. The entire area of the Communications and Transport Hub was a wreck. He didn’t know how long it would take to repair everything but it was going to be a titanic and time consuming job.

  “We won,” said Commander Garratt with a sudden look of realization on his face. “We won the battle. The war is over!”

  Everyone in the Command Center grew quiet as they realized what Garratt had just said. The battle had been costly but in the end it had been a victory.

  Race slowly nodded his head. “It’s over except for the mopping up and that might take awhile.”

  Leaning back in his command chair Race wondered where they would go from here. The first thing he wanted to do was talk to his sister. His pregnant sister had no business leading a war fleet into battle. Even though she had saved them, she was still going to get a piece of his mind. After all, that’s what brothers did.

  Epilogue

  The Liberator exited the forty-kilometer Accelerator Ring finally returning to the hub. In the Command Center, Fleet Admiral Jeremy Strong looked in disbelief at the destruction the Eternals had caused. On the main viewscreen, the damaged Dyson sphere suddenly appeared. There were ten juggernauts and the one hundred and seventy-kilometer battlestation hovering high above the massive crack in the hull. Dozens of large Originator construction vessels were visible working to repair the damage.

  “How long is it going to take to fix that?” asked Kevin, staring at the damage in disbelief.

  Jeremy shook his head. “Years, probably several decades. What they’re trying to do right now is fully stabilize the hull so the cracks won’t grow any larger.”

  “I estimate that 42 percent of the structures of the hub have either been damaged or destroyed,” reported Ariel. “Even two of the juggernaut shipyards have been destroyed.”

  Jeremy looked at several other viewscreens. Several of the larger Accelerator Rings were in the process of being put back together. Rescue operations were still ongoing on many of the hub’s facilities. Jeremy knew Race had been fortunate to salvage a victory out of this mess. Jeremy shuddered to think what might have happened if Massie hadn’t brought the battlestations and the other fleets to assist in the battle. He still had some questions as to how Massie had managed to coordinate all of this. It was a miracle she had arrived when she did.

  “Are we going home?” asked Kelsey, stepping forward and putting her hand on Jeremy’s arm. She was gazing at the Dyson sphere where the Tower was located.

  “Yes,” replied Jeremy. “We’ll take a shuttle to the Tower first. I’m supposed to meet Race and the Originator Council so we can plan our next steps in the war with the Eternals.”

  “Isn’t the war over?” asked Angela. She was anxious to get back home and see Brace. She didn’t realize the danger he had been in until she saw the damage on the viewscreens. It was terrible.

  “For the most part, yes,” replied Jeremy. “The Eternals still have a large war fleet but it’s scattered over thousands of galaxies. Their command structure is shot and the reports we have coming in indicate a general withdrawal from all galaxies within our reach. We just need to make sure we don’t allow them to reestablish their Empire in the future. There’s still more fighting ahead, but nothing like the battles of the past.”

  “What about us?” asked Kelsey, her eyes moving to Jeremy’s. “What are we going to do?” Kelsey really wanted to just retire and live on the Dyson sphere. Her days of exploring were over. She hoped Jeremy felt the same way.

  Jeremy smiled. “I think all of us are ready to turn the safety of the universe over to others. We’ve done our share.” Jeremy looked over at Jason, who was standing close by. “Perhaps it’s time for our children to take over.”

  Jason’s eyes widened. “But we’re not ready.”

  “Not yet, but someday you will be. We’ll still be available to offer help and guidance when necessary. We’re not going to disappear completely.”

  “Well they don’t need to take off across the universe just yet,” said Katie firmly. “We still have a lot of catching up to do and it would be nice to do a few things together as a family. I’m thinking about a nice long vacation at the beach.”

  Kelsey nodded. “Sounds great to me.” The beach was one of her favorite places to go.

  -

  Jason was about to reply when an image of Clair standing topless on the beach entered his head.

  “I think I would like that,” she sent, trying to sound innocent.

  Jason hoped his face wasn’t turning too red. “If you go out on the beach like that your mother will kill both of us.” What he didn’t add was that he was enjoying the image Clair had projected into his mind.

  Clair nodded. “I know, but maybe later when we’re alone I can show you even more.”

  Jason didn’t reply. He was pretty sure he understood what Clair meant. He had to admit the idea was starting to appeal to him.

  -

  Grayseth was at the Tower impatiently waiting for his clan brother. Rescue had finally come and he had been astonished at the damage done to the hub. Many Humans, Originators, Altons, Carethians, and AIs had made the final journey to the Great Hunt. Grayseth, once this meeting was over, wanted to talk to Jeremy about his future plans. Marille wanted him to resign as an admiral and take a less dangerous job, perhaps working in the Tower itself.

  Grayseth allowed himself to smile. Braleseth and Carly had performed admirably on board the Liberator. Braleseth still needed a few more years of training but someday he would be a great warrior. One all Carethians could be proud of.

  The door to the office opened and Admiral Zafron came in. The Admiral had
been rescued from the wreckage of the Dominator. Grayseth was sad to know that Kazak was gone. The military AI had been a great warrior. Grayseth had spoken briefly with Zafron and knew the Originator admiral had no plans to rebuild the Dominator. It was a symbol of the past and the past was over.

  -

  Fleet Admiral Race Tolsen was sitting behind his desk watching as the others filed in. They had lost a lot of good people in the Eternals’ attack on the hub. More than he wanted to think about. The Originator Council was meeting daily working on plans to rebuild everything. From the plans Race had seen, the new hub would be bigger and far more capable than the old one. The Originators never did anything in a small manner.

  “There are going to be a lot of changes,” commented Massie from her seat in front of Race.

  Race nodded. “Yes, the Originators won’t be hiding like they did in the past. They’re talking about forming a massive alliance of civilized worlds spread out across all of the known galaxies.”

  “What about the Eternals?”

  Race leaned back and gazed at his sister. “From what our long-range scouts are telling us they seem to be withdrawing to a distant part of their Empire. It will be our job in the future to see that they stay there.”

  “I’m going to invite our parents to come out to the hub. I want them here when I have my baby.”

  Mother would enjoy that,” replied Race as he saw the door open and Fleet Admiral Strong and Angela entered. Race stood with a smile. He had waited a long time to see Jeremy again. It felt good to know they were all back at the hub once more.

  -

  Later Commander Zafron was standing in front of a stasis chamber. Inside was a young Originator woman. She was very beautiful and almost resembled a Human.

  We’re ready to awaken her,” reported one of the medical AIs in attendance. “She’s been given the injection for the virus and is fully recovered.”

  “Do so,” ordered Zafron.

  He had resigned his commission as an admiral explaining to the council he far preferred the rank of commander. When asked what he intended to do now that the Dominator had been destroyed, Zafron merely smiled and replied for the time being he planned on spending time with his daughter.