All felt the tingling sensation as the Timeship’s massive field generators started, and Anton guided the ship’s flux to intercept the Time shaft. Although the ship didn’t physically move until the flux joined with the Time shaft, it felt like it was.
“We are in and traveling Up-time… One hour ten minutes ship time, before we reach Delta’s Temporal Anchor,” Anton informed them.
Frank knew they had a job to do, and though he would have liked to have stayed around and seen what humanity had achieved by 2725. He knew Charlotte was right. Based on the information given by the Varons, it was true. They needed to act now, as everything pointed to the Human’s Timeline ending by 2773.
He looked at Gerry and thought about his outburst at Tamar, then realized that Gerry was looking back at him.
We’re taking a dangerous leap in the dark, Frank, came Gerry’s mental-thought.
Chapter 36
The Coming
T – 2 hours
The arrival of Commodore Earhart’s three ships gave some hope to Captain Grant, who had just witnessed the loss of Captain Sykes’s Marines.
However, Lexington was now seriously at risk of falling to Lord Garth unless Jack Earhart remained in full control, Grant thought to himself.
“Captain, I’ve been unable to establish communication links with Earhart’s ships, Invincible, Victor, and Excalibur,” Lexington’s Security AI said, interrupting Grant’s thoughts.
“Keep trying. Anything else?”
“It appears that the Galactic Navy’s battle group, Cobra, has been delayed.”
“Damn!” Grant exclaimed out loud.
If all of that wasn’t bad enough, Grant fearing the worst, wondered if Alex had failed? Or maybe, it was Earhart playing for time. Then Grant thought about Helen. Had Garth found Helen Richardson and neutralized her? Should he risk a mental contact?
No, too dangerous for her if she’s still operating, he convinced himself, then noticed Commodore Bryant’s blank face.
“Hand your ship over to me now, Captain Grant. Now!” Garth ordered. With his order rattling over the ship’s comms as his image appeared on the primary display once more.
On seeing and hearing this, Commodore Bryant came alive.
“You must talk to me, Lord Garth, no one else. Whatever you think you are, you’re nothing to me,” Bryant coldly stated.
Lord Garth’s face showed frustration.
Although Bryant hadn’t sensed anything, he was sure that Alex had just intervened.
Hearing Commodore Bryant intervene had shocked Garth, as he realized that Lord Tara was no longer in control of Earhart’s three ships. And, he had just sensed that two more equally high-minds had covertly boarded the Lexington.
Lieutenant Harper, Lexington’s science officer, looked up from his tactical screen.
“Intrepid and a Solveron battle sphere have just exited warp, one hundred kilometers out, Captain,” he advised.
“Still not enough to stop me,” Lord Garth interjected, his voice sounding thunderous.
“More than enough, Garth. And, more ships on the way,” Captain Grant chipped in.
“You mean your Cobra group. My sources tell me that this Galactic Navy reinforcement of yours is delayed after having been ambushed by unknown ships. In fact, they’re dead in the water,” Garth coldly stated.
“Not, them,” Grant said while trying to mentally picture a group of Solveron Battle spheres he’d seen during a recent war-games exercise.
“Send my sister over here, now. So, I can leave to secure another acquisition,” Garth ordered. “If not, I will destroy you all.”
“No Garth. We will only send your sister to whichever of your Crillon ships you designate,” Commodore Bryant forcefully stated.
Garth seemed to ponder Bryant’s statement.
“Very well, I’ll send you the ship’s code.… There, you have it. Make the transfer now, Bryant.”
Lord Garth irritably waited while a Force-craft from Invincible transferred Tara to a Crillon ship. Then, after confirmation that she was aboard, Lord Garth and his Crillon force returned to their damaged Crillon shuttle.
A few ‘force-jack’ applications later, they managed to back the shuttle out of number two dock. The shuttle then rotated and headed back towards the Crillon battlecruiser, and Tara.
Well done Commodore came Alex’s mental voice in Bryant’s mind. Prepare for battle. I’m sure Garth will be able to remove my adjustment on Tara’s mind. So, if they can’t take the Lexington, they will have to try to destroy her.
“All ships. Max shields now! Weapons. Oscar, Bravo, Zulu, activate drone attack protocols, now,” Commodore Bryant immediately ordered.
“Shields to max, Commodore,” Lexington’s tactical AI confirmed.
Straight away, twelve of the Lexington’s deployed stealth drones spotted antimatter weapon’s buildup at the rear of the Crillon vessels and opened fire with a barrage of particle beams and nuclear missiles as they tried to detonate the antimatter bolts before they hit Lexington.
“Incoming,” the Lexington’s tactical AI warned.
Then Lexington shuddered as two of the anti-matter bolts hit her protective shield, forcing it to collapse inward as the shield tried to absorb and deflect the salvo.
Through the hull, Captain Grant could hear the familiar sound of forcefield emitters overloading and popping like fireworks.
“Emitters have blown across section eleven.” Lieutenant Stanton from Damage control,” cautioned. “Auto-repairs underway.”
Captain Grant watched the rapid buildup to a ferocious battle, on his sizeable tactical display.
Space boiled, as a vicious crisscross of particle beams detonated anti-ship mines. Then vaporized several of Lexington’s stealth drones and WEPs, as they tried to return to Lexington for re-arming.
Lieutenant Harper, Lexington’s science officer, studied his tactical AI’s wire-mesh overlay representation of the status of the protective screens, of all ships engaged in the battle.
Although the mesh’s resolution was falling rapidly due to the area’s massive saturation by particle beams, as soon as a depression appeared in a ship’s wire-mesh overlay, then the weapon systems automatically focused on that weakness.
A flash seen through the bridge’s forward Atom-glass window caught Harper’s eye. Then, a massive flash and the hull of one of his ships rapidly expanded, cracking apart as it went. Ending in a violent warp core explosion that lit-up Lexington’s bridge, and sent fragments and sections of the ship hurtling outward like missiles
“Shock-wave,” Lieutenant Harper warned.
All the ships rocked violently as the shock-wave hit. However, their AI’s soon managed to stabilize their vessels.
Lieutenant Harper could now see that the ship had been the Excalibur and, from the devastation, could see that there was no hope of any survivors.
The wreckage of the ship still carried on spewing life forms and debris out into space as it started to slowly roll, venting smoke as it went, with frost already forming where the ship’s atmosphere had vented.
Further out, Lieutenant Harper could see that two of Lord Garth’s Crillon Battlecruisers were struggling to ward off Invincible and Intrepid’s fire-power.
Commodore Bryant sensed that both Lord Garth and Lord Tara were, unfortunately, starting to make inroads against the Richardson’s siblings, now.
“Incoming,” Lexington’s Tactical AI warned.
Chapter 37
Sacrifice
T – fifty Minutes
All of them felt a tingling sensation as the Time Ship’s large field generators shut down and the ship silently settled on one of the five large berths.
They were now in 2725 and in the heart of Delta’s Temporal Anchor.
Frank found it strange at first, as his mind seemed to be seeing multiple images of itself. So, he asked Anton what was going on.
“That’s a normal reaction Frank, the ship’s flux is still linked to the Time-shaft
,” Anton explained.
Once everyone’s minds had adjusted, Charlotte took temporary control of the group.
“Just remember to follow me. If we’re stopped, leave it to me to sort. Not even a whisper until we’re inside the time crystals control center,” Charlotte reminded them.
“Don’t forget that there are security droids and guards through the passageways who will kill you on sight,” Anton added.
“Once we step outside the ship, we’ll have a maximum of forty minutes to shut down the Time-crystal, before the guards change over,” he warned.
Gerry took a small pencil-like object from his pocket. “This might be useful against a droid,” he suggested.
“What good do you think that’ll do,” Cindy asked.
“I found it on Ronin. It’s a needle gun,” Gerry informed them.
“Okay, but if it does work, don’t hit a wall whatever you do. That’ll set off every alarm in this part of Delta,” Anton pointed out.
“Just be careful with it, Gerry,” Charlotte said, reinforcing Anton’s statement.
“Understood. So that’s out, then,” Gerry agreed, sighing.
Charlotte then checked her own chronometer against the ship’s chronometer. Then, after an agonizing two minutes of waiting, she jumped into action.
“Time to go, Anton.”
Anton opened the ship’s airlock and stepped outside, then seeing there was no opposition beckoned the others out.
Charlotte headed for a dimly lit opening and signaled the others to follow her through the opening into a short corridor leading to the control chamber.
Within a few minutes, all of them had reached the access door into the control chamber without incident.
Charlotte tapped a code into the access panel, and the door slid open. Once inside, and the door had closed, they studied the large chamber.
“Disable the external entry pad,” Gerry prompted Charlotte.
“Okay.”
A light had automatically lit as they all trooped in, and they could see that the chamber was sparsely furnished.
The chamber’s walls, floor, and ceiling were all medium grey in color, and it was hard to decide what material they were made of.
Directly in front of them, they could see the Time-Crystal, which stood on a one-meter dough-nut shaped control unit and was protected by a globe-shaped piece of transparent material. The height of the crystal was about one and a half times its diameter. It was faceted and showed signs where material had been removed to obtain resonance.
The Time-Crystal appeared to emit a yellow-orange radiance, while a faint mist could be seen above and below the crystal, denoting the center of the Up-Down time shaft.
Anton quickly checked the interface between the crystal’s control unit, and the control console and matrix.
“The same interface as on the Time-ship,” Anton pointed out.
“Good,” Gerry said as he sat down in the console controller’s seat.
“That was too easy,” Cindy ventured.
“It’s fine Cindy,” Charlotte answered as she checked the time remaining.
“Thirty-nine minutes Gerry.”
“Okay.”
The control console was basically a thick flat plate with all the operating functions displayed above it, in virtual mode. Gerry studied the virtual screen’s content, menus, and input method for several minutes before he felt confident enough to access the system.
Another five minutes passed with Gerry bringing-up various applications, and by-passing passwords when asked for them.
“Twenty-six minutes Gerry,” Charlotte prompted.
“I’m ready to start, Charlotte,” Gerry said as he took the small object from his pocket that Tamar had given him and had insisted that he must use the algorithms it contained.
Gerry held the object close to the virtual scanner.
“Scan… Decode… Display…,” he ordered.
Immediately, a set of equations were displayed on the virtual screen.
Gerry sat staring at the equations while carrying on a conversation with himself.
After several minutes of editing, he copied a section then ordered, “Delete source material.”
Instantly, the virtual display returned to the menu option.
“Quickly, give me all the discs that Tamar gave us,” Gerry urged them.
They did so.
“What’s wrong with Tamar’s info?” Frank asked as Gerry held each of them up to the scan area, one at a time, then installed his revised algorithm into the discs.
“It seems that our chum Tamar’s addition would not only have made our discs plonk us all in different time periods but would have erased the regression as well. So, basically wiping out the human race, including us,” Gerry finally told them.
“Then you were right Gerry. Tamar has a different agenda,” Susanna said.
“Looks that way… But, he was right about one thing. Humanity will end if we don’t destroy the crystal,” Gerry stated.
“Eighteen minutes Gerry,” Charlotte told him.
Gerry held Tamar’s object up to the interface again.
“Copy new algorithm and create open access,” he ordered.
That done, he handed Tamar’s object to Anton.
“Anton, you must go back to the Time-Ship now and enter my algorithm into the ship’s matrix,” Gerry insisted.
“You mean, I’ve got… What, just fifteen minutes to get back and install it,” Anton said as he took the object from Gerry.
“It may be less.”
“I’m coming with you Anton,” Charlotte stated. “There’s nothing more I can do here.”
“Go now then, both of you,” Frank urged.
“Hurry up, and good luck if we don’t meet again,” Cindy added.
Gerry continued to modify the shut-down sequence, then entered his modified algorithm into both the Matrix and Crystal’s control units.
Frank, Susanna, and Cindy’s faces were beginning to show concern as they waited for Gerry to complete the task.
It took another eleven minutes for Gerry to complete his attempt to shut the crystal down in the way he wanted.
“Done,” Gerry exclaimed as he sat back, mentally exhausted.
“Two minutes,” Susanna said noting the countdown time now appearing on the virtual display.
Suddenly, loud banging on the door startled them.
“Guards,” Frank confirmed after sensing their mental make-up.
“It’ll take them more than two minutes to gain entry,” Cindy reassured Frank.
“Shock-wave,” Lexington’s Lieutenant Harper warned as one of Garth’s Crillon ship’s warp-core exploded.
Ships rocked violently as the shock-wave passed through them, haphazardly sending wrecked ships, escape pods and debris across the battle zone.
Commodore Bryant sensed that Lord Garth and Lord Tara had gained the upper hand right now and were affecting the way Lexington and the other Navy ships functioned.
“Incoming,” Lexington’s tactical AI warned.
Lexington shuddered as another anti-matter bolt penetrated her already weakened protective shield and slammed into her hull.
The bridge heaved and twisted as walls split apart and molten metal surged through the cracks in her hull. Boiling vortexes of energy swirled through the Bridge, tearing the Lexington in two.
T - Zero
Then, there was nothing. Just empty space. It was as if the battle had never happened.
The first significant Time Quake had passed, and both Ronin and a part of Delta had already vanished.
It was expected that another two or three smaller quakes would happen at some point to complete the final reset.
Frank put his arms around Susanna and Cindy, hugging them both tight. Then looked around, but couldn’t see, Gerry, Charlotte or Anton.
The Alien’s red, fiery head floated closer.
Although Frank knew the fiery head wasn’t really an Alien, just the manifestation of wha
t they all recognized as the third Temporal Layer. Nevertheless, it did vaguely resemble a human skull in shape but lacked the typical human features. It had two black dots which could be mistaken for eyes and seemed to be locked onto the three humans.
Frank felt the Temporal Secondary Quake passing through them.
Both Susanna and Cindy had a look of horror on their faces as they started to dissolve in Frank’s arms. Soon, there was nothing substantial enough for Frank to hold.
Then, both Susanna and Cindy flickered a moment and were gone.
The fiery Alien head drew even closer to Frank as Frank’s mind started to fragment.
In his death throes, Frank was sure that the Alien winked at him. But, that didn’t matter, as the last thoughts Frank had, as his body slowly disintegrated, was that the Axis worlds would never be the same again.
He hoped that they hadn’t all been played like puppets and that his, Susanna, and Charlotte’s lives had been worth something in the scheme of things.
Then Space was empty, apart from the fiery red Alien head. Even that eventually dispersed, and space was entirely empty.
It was, as if Delta, and the Human’s venture into space, had never happened.
Supervisor Javon’s section had some Time-Quake buffering. And Javon knew that most of Delta had already gone and that the buffer around the predictor's stations would not protect them for much longer.
Galactic War Page 16