“I’ve already set the secondary matrix to search for the Varon’s warp threads… Susanna, can you and Gerry get Searcher’s hyperlink encryption unit working, and send Earth a request for assistance,” Anton asked.
“We’re already on it,” Gerry excitedly replied. “Come on, babe, let’s get the show on the road,” he said to Susanna, putting an arm around her.
“My, my, I didn’t know you cared, Gerry,” Susanna cheekily replied.
Twenty minutes later, both of the Varon’s warp threads had been located and entered in the AI’s Astral navigation system.
Gerry had also succeeded in getting the Searcher’s hyperlink encryption unit working, then entered an embellished request for assistance, which had been generated by himself and Susanna.
“We’ve got all the recipients' address codes we need, so we’re ready to send the hyperlink messages to Galactic intelligence, plus a copy to Earth’s Intelligence Center. And to the Searcher’s handler unit,” Gerry informed.
“Excellent. Play it to us before you transmit it,” Frank insisted.
“Okay. Oh, and Anton’s given us the Varon’s thread direction, so we’ve added an extra bit,” Susanna told them as the message started to play.
‘Galactic Empire exploration vessel Searcher. GE190S.
Captain Barret, commanding. Code A800S20
We’ve been tricked and attacked by a Varon vessel… Vessel destroyed, but we have sustained substantial damage…
Have evaded three more ships but fear there are many more out there, and they pose a high risk to Earth...
Urgent. send attack squadron. We will update you and will try to be more precise concerning the position of the target… Our present location is hidden within this encrypted message.
Captain Barret.
Message ends.’
“Sounds good to me,” Frank commented.
“I’ll send them now, then we can start following the Varon thread,” Anton stated, as he initiated the hyper-link, and sent the messages to Galactic Intelligence, Earth’s Intelligence center, and Searcher’s Handler unit.
“That’s done,” Anton confirmed.
“Inertia seats everyone.” Anton then ordered.
“We are locked onto the Varon’s warp thread now, and will jump for its end, then exit in partially phased mode,” he added.
“Can I assume we won’t know when their thread ends, but just suddenly drop out of warp without warning?” Cindy asked.
“Afraid so, Cindy. We’ll just have to be on our toes. But I’ve taken the precaution to make sure that, on exit, we automatically shift straight into Sub-space. Then we can do what we did with Searcher and send the phasing drone to scan the area before we return to normal space.”
Then, Anton looked at the warp countdown.
“Six seconds to jump,” he warned.
Anton knew that the jump could be shorter than they expected. After all, they didn’t know how far the Varons had come, to intercept the Searcher.
Then, the Time ship suddenly warped space, created its wormhole, and the ship surged forward into it.
Everyone felt the familiar elongation of their surroundings, followed by the usual jerking sensation. Then, it was over, and the Time ship traveled on through her wormhole towards the Varon ship’s destination point.
Chapter 24
The Hidden Varons
“I’m still hungry,” Charlotte complained as she got up and headed for the food replicators. “We haven’t had a good meal for ages,” she grumbled.
“You’re always hungry, Charlotte,” Anton joked as he followed her.
Charlotte ignored him and dialed up a synthesized meal then sat down at the high-density holographic dining table. “Smells delicious,” she uttered, sniffing her food in anticipation.
A couple of minutes later, the rest followed suit and dialed up their meals then joined her. It didn’t take long for everyone to clear their plates, then dial-up drinks.
“So far, so good,” Frank commented as he finished his drink.
“Agreed, then at least we’ll have made the Varon threat known if we locate the Varon ships and manage to send their location back to Galactic intelligence,” Susanna added.
“That’s true. But the Timeline may react differently than we expect,” Anton pointed out.
“Yes, but hopefully in the right way, Anton,” Gerry argued.
“I hope so,” Anton replied, sounding a bit gloomy.
No one spoke for a while.
“Okay,” Susanna suddenly said. “So, looking on the bright side. We’re all agreed that we don’t need to try and alter things starting from the time of the Judith Morante episode in 2092, right up to 2313, when Charlotte took advantage of Frank.”
“He enjoyed me,” Charlotte couldn’t resist snapping.
“Will you two girls damn well give it a rest,” Gerry snapped. “We haven’t got time to waste bickering between ourselves.”
“Yes. Come on, Sues. Charlotte did it for reasons that she thought were best for her at the time.”
“Huh, you’re a man. Trust you to stick up for her.”
“Susanna. Frank is the father of both our children, whether you like it or not,” Charlotte pointed out.
“Look at him, red-faced and all,” Cindy put in, gleefully sticking up for Charlotte.
Frank hadn’t realized how embarrassing this was, no wonder his face had turned red.
“I’m fed up with you two bashing me all the time,” he coldly stated.
“Frank is right, stop arguing. Anyway, tell me truthfully Charlotte, how many brain enhancing cell injections did you give Garth and Tarra?” Anton asked.
“Only two, that was before I saved Frank when he was on the Garoden’s homeworld. The brain cell injectors had been replicated by Andromeda.”
“I remember most of that incident quite well,” Frank muttered.
“So, Charlotte, as far as you’re concerned, do you agree that it would be fairly easy to stop Andromeda’s injector production?” Gerry asked.
Charlotte just nodded agreement.
“Where’s the critical point for you and Susanna, Frank?” Anton asked as he turned to look at him, then saw that Frank was utterly motionless.
“What is it, Frank?”
“Future… We’re coming out in about a minute,” Frank said with urgency sounding in his voice, though he was surprised that he’d been able to see into the future while traveling in the wormhole.
“Seats everyone,” Anton ordered as he and Gerry got up and headed for the pilot's section.
A minute later and the Varon warp thread ended, causing the Timeship to immediately exit warp.
Chapter 25
Searcher’s Five
Searcher’s Handler and Development center,
Florida, USA.
Senior operation’s officer, Colin Whitley, put his half-empty cup of coffee down and hurried back to his console, as an urgent message from Galactic Intelligence center flashed up on the room’s central screen, and a chime sounded.
The room had seven operatives, all covering different aspects of the Searcher mission.
Whitley hit the view tab on his console, and a few seconds after his retinal scan had been verified, a stern-faced looking man with graying hair and cold bluish eyes peered out from one of his console’s three screens.
“Admiral Fletcher,” Whitley said, acknowledging the Galactic Intelligence’s high-ranking officer.
“Whitley. We’ve just received a disturbing Hyper-link message from your exploration vessel, Searcher. Apparently, she’s somewhere in Beta quadrant and in trouble.”
“That’ll be Captain Barret’s ship… Ah…, we have the transmission as well,” Whitley said as the full message was displayed on his second screen. He quickly read the message while Admiral Fletcher waited patiently.
‘Galactic Empire exploration vessel Searcher. GE190S.
Captain Barret, commanding. Code A800S20.
We’ve been tricked
and attacked by a Varon vessel… Vessel destroyed, but we have sustained substantial damage…
Have evaded three more ships but fear there are many more out there, and they pose a high risk to Earth...
Urgent. send attack squadron. We will update you and will try to be more precise about the position of the target… Our present location is hidden within this encrypted message.
Captain Barret.
Message ends.
“Ginny,” Whitley called out to a young blond-haired woman in her thirties, who was a specialist in decryption.
“I’m sending you Searcher’s message. Apparently, her present location is buried within this encrypted message.”
“Okay… Got it…Two minutes Colin,” she confirmed, and Whitley turned his attention back to Admiral Fletcher.
“The last hyper-link communication data burst from them put their distance at 1660 light-years out from Sol… So my guess is she’s now, 1,960 light-years out.”
The Admiral hesitated for a moment then.said,
“It seems that neither Earth, the Solverons, or the Crillons, have anything in the Beta quadrant… So, what about your five attack ships, Whitley?”
“You mean the spin-off ships from Searcher’s design, Admiral?” Whitley asked while bringing up their current location.
“Yes. I’ve looked at the attack ships specs, and I’m surprised that they’re capable of jumping up to 560 light-years at a time.”
“That’s the maximum, Admiral… But if you’re thinking of us sending a load of marines out with them, that’s not possible. Three-quarters of the ship’s internal space is taken up by three massive warp drives, plus the latest in heavy weaponry and protective shield technology.
“Colin, these ships might well be the only chance we have to reach the Searcher in time.”
Whitley noted that the Admiral had unusually used his first name, which meant he was trying to get him to commit his experimental ships to the Searcher’s rescue. That wasn’t a problem for Whitley as he knew Captain Barret and his crew well, and trusted them.
Just then, Ginny interrupted him.
“Colin, we’ve decrypted the embedded co-ordinates.”
“Send them to me and copy to the other intelligence agencies.
“Okay.”
There was a beep from his console, as the data arrived.
Whitley checked the data, did some calculations, then committed Group Captain Hendrix, and their five essentially prototype ships, to the rescue.
“Okay, Admiral Fletcher, our ships will need three jumps. So, they should be there, in fourteen days… No, make that twelve days, because they’re already on operational trials along the route to the Beta quadrant,” Whitley explained. “You’ll also be pleased that each ship has a maximum complement of seven marines, to comply with test parameters,” Whitley finished.
“Well, Colin, get them there as fast as you can, and keep me informed.”
“Of course, Admiral.” With that, Admiral Fletcher was gone.
Senior operation’s officer Colin Whitley knew that he was supposed to get permission from the Searcher Program’s higher-ups, but time was critical, so he decided to take it upon himself to send new operational orders to the group’s Captain Hendrix, and copy them to Captain Barret on the Searcher.
He put the orders together and added a few of his own suggestions then sent them across to Mark at the comms desk.
Mark turned and looked at him in puzzlement. “Colin, are you sure about this?” He queried, via Whitley’s ear transceiver.
“Yes. Do it now, Mark.”
“Okay. On it.”
Attack group 5.
500 light-years out from Earth.
The Searcher based prototype group of five attack ships hung in space after completing their war game scenarios, and final familiarization session with the new honey-cone weapon’s. Now, everyone, including the seven marines on board each vessel, was looking forward to returning to Earth for some well-earned R & R.
Meanwhile, Group Captain Hendrix studied the hyperlink message he’d just received, from Colin Whitley in Searcher’s handler section.
“Tom, feed the data from this order into the navigation AI, and prepare for a group jump to the co-ordinates.”
Science officer Brennon selected the data from the message and ran it through his own science station before entering it into the system.
“Captain, according to the Solveron, Savron, the Varons are extinct. They’d been totally against war, anyway,” Brennon remarked.
“That’s exactly what I understood. So, I guess the Varons must have survived after all, and have decided to play rough,” Captain Hendrix replied.
“Looks that way… Okay. All ships are synced, Captain.”
“Good. Jump in five minutes,” Hendrix ordered, then selected the all-ships comms link, and the four faces of his Captains appeared on the link’s monitor.
“Sorry to disappoint you, but our return to Earth for some R & R has been delayed,” Hendrix explained. He could sense the disappointment from his crews, but he had no choice except to carry out Whitley’s orders to go to the aid of Searcher as quickly as possible.
“Our new destination is the Beta Quadrant, specifically sector 21. Where, Searcher, our predecessor, has been attacked. We will be making three jumps. At every exit point, we’ll receive updates on the situation and any consequent action requested of us. Transit time is expected to be twelve days. Although this might be less if we can squeeze more out of the Jump engines,” Captain Hendrix finished.
Then he turned to speak to officer Brennon. “Are we set to go?”
“All greens, Captain, and the dark-matter scoop is closed.”
Hendrix acknowledged Brennon, then sent the updates to his other ships.
“Manta. Make sure we all come out battle-ready, at every exit,” he ordered.
“Naturally, Captain,” the 30cm octagonal-shaped Tactical AI acknowledged.
Hendrix didn’t mind his bluish-colored and glowing Tactical AI. Even though it was always floating close-by, its presence somehow seemed to comfort him.
“Inertia seats now, everyone, we’re about to jump,” Hendrix ordered. Then flicked the comms tab to Off, and sat back waiting for that gut-wrenching feeling as his ships simultaneously warped space. All of them en route to sector 21 in the Beta quadrant, and into whatever danger was waiting for them.
Hendrix had already got used to the sickness and yanking feelings that multi-drive warp entry and exits provoked. And, thankfully, he’d almost gotten used to a triple warp-drive Jump. Well, that’s what he tried to tell himself every time they jumped.
The operational AI’s ten-second warning sounded.
Then all five ships warped space, and their wormholes formed.
Hendrix gritted his teeth as everything around him stretched. He was queasy, and his stomach felt almost as if it had been ripped from his body. Then stillness came once again, and they were in their wormholes and traveling towards the Beta quadrant.
Chapter 26
The Varon Base
The Timeship hung in Subspace, held there by one of her warp drives running in reverse flux.
Everyone remained silent while Anton checked the power drain. “We’re fine,” he assured the others. Then activated the Phasing drone, which became semitransparent for a few seconds before vanishing into normal space.
“Do you see anything ahead, Frank?” Gerry asked.
“Sorry… My preview of the future doesn’t seem to work while we’re held in Subspace.”
Moments later, the drone phased back into subspace, and its 3D area scans displayed on Anton’s main screen.
“That’s strange,” Anton remarked as he saw there wasn’t anything visible on the drone’s scans. Then shrugged. “Okay, there’s nothing there, so I reckon it’s safe to come out of subspace.”
“Maybe we’ve passed them, Anton,” Charlotte ventured.
“That’s quite possible… Frank, when we’re b
ack in normal space, see if your precognitive powers can see anything useful.”
“Okay.”
“I’m bringing us out now,” Anton warned as he reversed the ship’s holding power, and the Timeship reverted to normal space. Then the cockpit windows shields dropped, and the light from the stars shone through.
Anton immediately carried out a full global scan.
“We seem to be alone,” Anton stated after checking the scans for any Varon ships.
Then Frank forced his mind to look two minutes ahead and understood exactly what they were going to do next.
“I’m picturing us sending and receiving a hyper-link transmission,” Frank told them.
With that, the Searcher’s hyperlink encryption unit came to life. And the other four, who’d been sitting in their Inertia damping seats, joined Anton.
“Two incoming messages,” Anton told everyone as the messages formed on his second monitor.
“Not exactly reliable, Frank, considering we’re receiving messages before we’ve sent ours,” Gerry grumpily remarked.
Frank ignored Gerry’s comment. At least he had seen that they were about to receive the messages.
Anton studied the messages in depth before reading the first one out.
“This one’s from Senior operation’s officer, Colin Whitley at Searcher’s handler center…
“Help is on the way… Send anything you have on the attacking ships to Admiral Fletcher… Link is included.”
“We need to be careful what we send,” Susanna cautioned.
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