by Saxon Andrew
“The longest distance for us will be how far you are from me. I’m not worried about the other. If we don’t make it back, at least the planet is now on task getting ready.”
Jillian looked seriously at Chris, “Do you think we won’t find our way back?”
Chris put his finger on Jillian’s lips and said, “That’s for tomorrow. Tonight we celebrate”. Jillian nodded and Chris said, “We do have a reason to make sure we do come home.”
Jillian tilted her head, “What is that?”
“I am going to marry you as soon as we land.”
Jillian’s eyes grew wide, and she hugged him tightly. After a moment she leaned back with a mischievous smile and said, “How do you know I will accept?”
Chris looked out over the crowd and said, “Because I won’t dance with you anymore if you don’t. Let me see…who could take your spot on my dance card.”
Jillian punched him in the ribs, “Then I accept. I would never want to lose my dance partner.”
Chris leaned in and kissed her hard. When they separated, he said, “Tell Dolly about our plans for a wedding, and allow her to handle the details.”
Jillian looked over at Dolly dancing with Jeff, “I guess you’re right. We don’t have time to do it since we’re leaving tomorrow. Do you think she’ll have time to prepare?”
Chris restrained his smile and said, “Oh, I think so.”
“We’ll, I’ve always wanted a big wedding. A small one will do.”
Chris looked away and bit his lip to keep from laughing, then danced with her. Dolly never did anything small.
Chapter Eleven
Chris and Jillian looked down on Earth and stared at the beautiful planet. The response to President Suh’s announcement had brought the different populations of the world together like nothing else could. Every group that was involved in insurrection sent announcements that they were joining the effort to defend their planet. Every government began construction of shipbuilding facilities. The movement was massive and growing. The news agencies couldn’t keep up with the support being promised to the new World Government.
Chris keyed the communication panel and said, “Any last words before we leave?”
Dolly said, “Just make sure you come back. Life won’t be the same without you.”
“Did you ever go by and see your Mum like you promised?”
“Yes, I did; and I took Jeff with me.”
Chris tilted his head and Jillian wondered what was going on, “How did that go?”
“Welllll, he’s not in a hurry to go back.”
“Poor boy. How about you?”
“We’re going to visit George next week and see if we can get to him.”
“Is that a good idea?”
“Mum seems to think that the reason he left is because there was nothing to distract his intellect. She insists that this new situation might be enough to get him to focus on the real world.”
“What do you think?”
“I think the idea has merit. If we can get him back into reality he could be a huge help in developing tools for our survival effort. We’ll see how it goes.”
“We’ll miss you and we’ll be careful, as much as we can.”
“See that you do.”
Chris turned off the board and Jillian raised her eyebrows. Chris smiled, “Her mother is just like her children, absolutely brilliant. She’s a handful to deal with.”
“I thought George was a danger to Dolly.”
“He is, but I think her love for Jeff keeps her anchored in reality. Dolly didn’t have much of a challenge when she nearly lost herself with George. She may be right about bringing him back. I hope so.” Chris looked at his navigation board and looked at Jillian, “Are you ready?”
“Where are we going?”
“The Nobel Committee plotted a course for us. You know that the Milky Way is basically a flat galaxy with two major spiral arms?”
“Yes.”
“Well, we are going above the galaxy to the place where Earth was located 65 million years ago. They’ve given me a star chart to guide me there. I’ll be using three of the largest stars in our galaxy to find the right place to leave.”
“Which ones?”
“Herschel’s Garnet, which until recent discoveries was considered the largest star, Betelgeuse, which is the heaviest star in our galaxy, and Ky Cigni, which is now the largest star. I’m going to triangulate on them as the point of our departure. I’ll also use them to get us back to where we started this voyage.”
“You’re the driver. Lead the way!”
Chris began pushing controls on his flight console. He looked over at Jillian and took her hand as he pressed the jump button. The Cheops disappeared.
Dolly sighed and replayed the video of the destruction of the Moet scanner just four hours earlier. She shook her head at the magnitude of the explosion, then she hit her board, “Jeff, it’s time.”
Jeff keyed his board and said, “I’ll be back shortly.”
The UE ship Jukebox disappeared. Dolly knew that now the Moet would have to come in from outside Neptune’s orbit to investigate the destruction of their probe. Sierra Space would now be blocked into the solar system. She looked at her display and prayed that Chris and Jillian would survive their voyage. She also prayed that they wouldn’t destroy Earth’s existence by making a mistake with Jillian’s device. She smiled. Only time would tell. She giggled. Time would tell. Now that’s a good one!
The Cheops broke back into normal space in less than two minutes. Jillian looked at Chris and he saw her confusion, “Did something go wrong?”
“No, I set the drive to take us the necessary distance. If you do that, it’s much faster than finding your way.”
“Wow! What now?”
“I have to take some readings from here to try and make sure we can get back. It shouldn’t take longer than an hour. I’m extending our sensors now.”
Jillian watched the display on her console as Chris began taking frequency readings of surrounding stars. She casually glanced at the secondary board and was shocked, “Chris, there’s an Alliance Battleship ten million miles away!”
Chris looked at the readings from the opposite direction of the galaxy and saw the blip. He focused the light and saw the giant Alliance ship, “What are they doing out here?”
“How should I know? What do we do?”
“I can’t leave until I complete my readings. Keep an eye on them and let me know what they’re doing.”
Jillian focused in on the giant silver ship, then saw it turn and start their way, “They’re coming this way.” Jillian watched the ship closely and said, “They don’t have their force fields on. They are also moving in at half their normal speed.”
“Do you think they want to talk?”
“I don’t know, but it will take them about an hour to arrive. You should complete your readings so we can leave.”
Chris nodded and continued to work on his board.
L’grae heard his Navigator yell, “Ship breaking into normal space!” He jumped up from his chair and went to look at the Navigator’s display.
“Bring all engines on line, ready the jump drive, power up the weapons.”
“Sir, that is not a Moet ship.”
L’grae stared at the image and said, “What kind of ship is that?”
“I’ve never seen anything like it.”
L’grae thought a moment, “Do not bring weapons on line.”
The Navigator looked at him and he said, “If they aren’t a Moet ship, then they may not be aggressive. Take us toward them at half speed.”
L’grae studied the ship and saw that it was smaller than a destroyer class vessel. I wonder if it’s armed. They moved to within five hundred thousand miles and he ordered, “Bring the ship to a stop.”
Jillian watched her monitor and leaned back, “They’re stopping.”
Chris said over his shoulder, “It appears they want to talk. Do you have the frequency used
by the ship we captured?”
Jillian looked in her database and said, “Yes.”
“See if they’ll tell you what they’re doing.”
Jillian shrugged and set the communicator to the frequency. She spoke in the language of the Sheera, “I see that you have stopped moving toward us. What is your intention?”
L’grae straightened up and saw his communications officer looking at him with wide eyes. He waved at the officer and said, “I was wondering the same thing about you. I have never seen a ship like yours, so I’m assuming you are not a Moet ship.”
Jillian was surprised, “No, we are not a Moet. However, we are not friends of the Alliance either.”
L’grae looked at his bridge crew and said, “Why not?”
“One of your ships showed up at our planet long ago to build a device to screen us from Moet attacks. We have learned that when the Alliance screens a planet, then the people of that world become little more than slaves to your leaders. We don’t choose to follow that path.”
“How could you know that?”
“We found one of your history books.”
L’grae slowly shook his head, “I can’t say I blame you. However, working for the Alliance might be better than destruction by the Moet.”
“They have already sent an asteroid to destroy my world. We are going to confront them soon and see if we can survive their attack.”
“Do you think you stand a chance against them?”
“Won’t know until we try, but I’d rather die free than a slave to the Alliance.”
L’grae thought about what he was hearing, then looked at his Communications Officer, “Pull up the video of the battle with the giant Moet ship.” He then said, “I’m going to send you a video of a battle we just had with one of their ships. We have never seen this class of ship before, and I think you need to know what you’re facing.” He looked at Communications and he nodded, “I’m sending it now.”
Jillian keyed the record button on her panel as the video started. Chris stopped what he was doing and came over and watched with Jillian, “Oh, my God. Is it that big?”
Chris saw the Alliance ships looked like small insects around the giant grey ship. They watched as the Alliance ships were blown out of existence. “It appears the Moet are stronger than we thought.”
L’grae heard the different voice and keyed his communicator, “We have managed to kill more than two hundred of their ships until this class of vessel showed up. We have nothing that will stand up against it. I lost my fleet to that one ship.”
“Why are you showing us this?”
“To try and get you to understand that none of us like the tyrants of the Alliance, but we endure it to survive. There isn’t much of a choice; slaves or dead.”
Jillian said, “There is always a choice. Why do the Moet attack you?”
L’grae was surprised by the question and he looked around his bridge for a response. Everyone just shrugged, “I really don’t know. They just always have as far back as we’ve recorded history.”
“I think I would ask them. There must be some reason. However, we will not just submit to either of you. Which brings me back to my original question; what are you doing out here?”
“The Alliance has a policy that any Fleet Commander that loses more than twenty ships will be executed along with the crew of his ship.”
Jillian and Chris were stunned, “And you were the Commander of that fleet that was destroyed?”
“Yes, I was. We can’t go home and we can’t go near Moet territory. We’re struggling with what to do. We’re going to have to find a habitable planet so we can replenish our stores or we’re going to die of starvation.”
Jillian looked at Chris and he said to the Alliance ship, “That is a difficult situation.”
“It’s an impossible situation.”
Chris thought a moment and then said, “I will give you the location of three habitable planets. Perhaps one of them will save you.”
“You know where three planets are located?!”
“No, but I’ll take some readings before we leave and I’ll give them to you.”
L’grae shook his head, “You can find them?”
“Yes. Give me another thirty minutes and I’ll send them to you.”
“What are you doing out here?”
Chris looked at Jillian and she nodded, “We intend to find a Jenze weapon to use in our defense.”
L’grae was stunned. Chris waited for a response and after two minutes he heard, “If you can do that, you might actually save yourself. Can we assist you?”
“No. I just can’t bring myself to trust anyone associated with the Alliance. We’ll do this alone.”
“What do you plan to do if you find this weapon?”
“Make sure we’re safe and perhaps go and see if some slaves wish to be freed.”
“You’ll take on the Alliance Leadership?”
“I don’t see it happening any other way. Neither the Moet nor the Alliance will tolerate an independent force. We probably won’t have a choice.”
“Then you must include us in your plans. We will help you anyway we can. I want to see my family again, and I’m sure the rest of my crew feels the same.”
Chris thought a moment and Jillian pressed the button, “Here’s what we’ll do. We’ll give you the location of those three planets and you go and provision your ship. Come back here and wait for us to return and we’ll take you with us.”
“How long will you be gone?”
“If we’re not back in thirty days, then we failed and we’re probably not coming back. Then you’re on your own.”
L’grae looked around and saw hope in his crew’s eyes, “We will wait until we run low on provisions again. You have given us the first ray of hope we’ve seen.”
“Fair enough, we’ll have the locations for you shortly.”
Chris went back to work and Jillian thought about what had just happened. After thirty minutes she turned to Chris, “What are the chances of us running into that ship?”
Chris looked for the frequency of oxygen/nitrogen planets and said, “I’ve thought about that. They’re astronomical. The chance of this happening is so far out of the range of possibility as to be more than a trillion to one. It makes me wonder.”
“Me, too.”
Chris shrugged, “What was the chance of you falling in love with someone who represented everything you detest in the male species?”
Jillian looked at him and started to smile, “Two trillion to one.”
Chris put the locations on his board and said, “Well, there you go. Just goes to show that stranger things have happened.” He hit his communicator and said, “I’ve actually pulled five locations for you to visit. I’m sending them now, and I wish you success in surviving. Thank you for sharing what you know about the Moet.”
L’grae said, “Travel safely and come back. We’ll be waiting.”
Chris oriented the Cheops and pushed the jump button. L’grae watched the ship disappear and hoped that it would come back. If they found a Jenze weapon, that could have huge ramifications on the balance of power. The Alliance would even forgive him if he brought it back with him. He turned to his navigator and said, “Take us to the first planet.”
The Navigator turned to his board, wondering how he could steal the Jenze weapon. Everyone on the bridge thought about the hero’s welcome if they could return home with it. L’grae was not alone in his thoughts.
The Cheops returned to normal space and Jillian saw the Milky Way spread across space in front of them. Chris looked at Jillian and said, “This is the last reading before we make the long jump.”
“How far are we from it?”
“Seventy five light years.”
“It’s so beautiful. The colors are pure and it looks like it’s alive. I’ve never seen the sky more beautiful than now. It’s stunning.”
Chris nodded, “And it holds so much danger.” Chris finished his reading and
oriented the Cheops to the line they had to follow. He pressed the jump button and the Cheops dropped into Sierra space. Chris set the controls and looked out of the viewport. He froze. “Jillian, come look at this.”
“What?” Jillian came over and looked out the starboard side viewport and gasped, “What are those?”
“You know what they are and they are being used a lot.” Hundreds of thick trails disappeared into the distance. They went to the port side and saw the trails extending toward the Milky Way. “Someone from another galaxy is going to the Milky Way. It looks like a huge number of ships made those trails.”
“What do you think this means?”
Chris looked at her with an expression of dread, “Invasion.”
Jillian looked out at the trails and said, “We need to get back. Let’s get this done.”
Chris turned on the gravity emitter to erase their trail and jumped away.
Five days later a giant blue ship stopped where they had jumped away. It stayed there for ten hours and then left. The blue ship made the Moet Dreadnaught look tiny.
Jillian watched as the green space around them appeared to be unchanging. Chris joined her at the port, “There’s nothing out here in the space between galaxies to give any indication we’re moving. We are actually going beyond several of the closer galaxies to ours.”
“How long before we get there?”
“Another twenty minutes. I’m taking us out seventy million light years, then we’ll work our way back.”
“How will you know when you’ve reached the right time?”
“There won’t be any more dinosaurs walking around.” Chris took Jillian’s hand and led her to her chair. He sat down in his and looked at her, “Tell me about what Dolly was saying about you going back in time.”
“I need your device to make my invention work. If you can focus on an event, I can charge the Ninja’s fields with a time distortion screen that will send it through your screen back to the time you’re viewing.”
“How do you get back?”
“I fly back through your screen. It’s going to be very important that you keep that event in clear focus until I can get back.”
“Do you really think this will work?”