by Saxon Andrew
Amy tilted looked into her son’s eyes, “I guess.”
“What does that mean?”
“I really had my doubts about making a difference and it looked like she was wrong about me at first.”
“But?” John said when she grew silent.
“It appears I made a larger impact than I thought I would. I’ve brought something for you.” The boys sat back and Amy reached in her front pocket and pulled out two patches. She handed one to each of them and they stared at them. Around the top of the circular patch Command was embroidered in bright red letters. Across the bottom, Hart’s Breakers was embroidered in black.
John looked at it and then looked at Amy, “What is this?”
“All the members of my fleet wear them on their uniforms. They came up with the idea after our first successful training maneuver.”
Timmy looked away from the patch at up at her, “I didn’t see one on your uniforms when you came home.”
“I didn’t put one on because I really didn’t feel worthy of it.”
“And now?”
“If I don’t go back, I don’t deserve to wear it.”
John smiled, “You appear to be liked by your sailors.”
“I think I am but I also believe I have their respect, which is more important to me.”
John leaned forward and looked at Timmy, “It would be a shame to make all of them remove their patches and have to put a new one on.”
Timmy nodded and shook his head, “If Mom doesn’t go back they probably won’t put another one on.”
Amy was astounded by her young son’s statement. She sighed, “You’re probably right. They will feel betrayed and be reluctant to trust again.”
“Oh, I was thinking no one else could be as good as you are.” Amy laughed and hugged Timmy tightly. Timmy squirmed in her embrace and said, “I just want to know that I will feel you hug me if you choose to do it.”
“You will feel me just like you always have.”
John leaned close to her and snuggled under her other arm, “Mom, you know going back is the right thing to do.”
“Sometimes, the right thing to do isn’t really clear. I love both of you more than anything in my life, and that includes serving in the Navy.”
Timmy smiled, “Mom, it’s ok to love both.”
Amy looked at John and saw him nodding. She held them under her arms and knew that out of the mouths of babes would come great wisdom. She didn’t have to tell them she was going back. The patch was sewn on her uniform when she took them back to Fleet Operations three days later. When the boys went back to class, they found the patches sewn on their academy uniforms.
• • •
Janell stood naked in front of a mirror in her personal quarters. She lifted her left arm and unbuckled the wrist unit. She put it down on the counter and looked in the mirror. Her entire chest and half of her arms were missing. She looked at the floor and only saw her feet. She shook her head and sighed. The process was nearly complete. She sat down on the small stool in the bathroom and closed her eyes. Amy had requested leave to be with her children while the new recruits were being trained and she worried that Amy would not be coming back. She had so much stress in her system from the coming mission and she knew that she depended on Amy so much to help her see things. She started crying and then heard her wrist unit vibrate on the counter. She picked it up and her body reappeared in the mirror. “Sir, I’m back from leave.”
Janell’s heart almost stopped and she forced herself to calmly say, “How are the boys?”
“They’re fine. Do you need to meet with me on anything I’ve missed?”
“No, Admiral. Captain Sole can bring you up to date. Welcome back.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
The call ended and Janell looked at the mirror and saw her entire body. Her stress evaporated and she knew things would all work out. She dressed and went to the bridge of the Dream Catcher. Gabe looked at her and smiled, “Admiral Hart must be back.”
Janell shook her head, “Am I that transparent?”
“You’re not alone, Sir. Her entire fleet was worried about her coming back. All of us are relieved, we need her.”
Janell nodded and was once again amazed at how Gabe always said the perfect thing at the perfect time.
• • •
Kuhn was gripping the arms of his command chair in a death grip when his ship emerged beyond the black hole’s event horizon in the other universe. He suddenly felt the ship turn violently right and he quickly looked up at the main monitor. The ship’s computer had whipped the ship right to avoid ramming a gigantic structure hanging in space just outside the event horizon. He saw that all of the other ships in his squadron were also taking drastic avoidance maneuvers to miss hitting the giant construction. “All ships run two light years and hold position.” He continued issuing the order until all of the squadron made it through the black hole. How they all missed the giant structure sitting in space just outside the black hole was a miracle. Well, nearly a miracle. His pilots were the best. He looked at Gibbs, “Status?”
“Five ships didn’t make it through, Sir.” Pondern looked at Gibbs with horror on his face. Gibbs shrugged, “The process involves incredible timing and there are losses.”
“Now you tell me!”
Kuhn shook his head, “Have to pay the Ferry Man.”
Pondern looked at him, “What does that mean?”
“It’s an ancient Greek myth about those that die and go to the underworld. The dead souls have to pay the Ferry Man to take them across the River Stix. So far, we’ve had to pay a price to travel through a singularity.”
“So this process isn’t safe!?”
“We lost a half a percent of our ships. You can lose that many through collisions during a fleet space battle. Nothing is really safe.”
“That sounds like a fatalistic point of view.” Pondern looked at Gibbs, “I’m back to liking you more and just what is that thing we almost hit?!”
Kuhn looked up, “Thanks for saving us, Ron. Did you get a good look at that thing?”
“I recorded passive scans as we moved away. I’m not completely certain but that structure has a huge hollow tube running through the middle of it. I only saw a small portion of the interior but if I had to guess I’d say it’s some kind of accelerator.”
Pondern looked up, “What did that voice just say?”
Ron translated for him and Kuhn sat back in his chair, “Well, if you’re right, that answers several questions. It appears their ships aren’t fast enough to make it through without being accelerated by that structure.”
Gibbs heard the computer translating for the Darkness Being and he said, “That thing looks like it’s complete. I don’t see any construction taking place in the scans Ron was able to make.”
Kuhn nodded, “All ships, move out and scan the black hole for other structures like this one. Report in once you’ve completed your area of coverage.”
Kuhn opened a drawer and took out three ear modules. He handed one to Gibbs and another to Pondern. He put the third in his ear and said, “It’s unwieldy to have the computer constantly translating. You’ll hear what’s being said immediately and we’ll also hear you.”
Pondern’s head went back as soon as he put the small device in his ear, “This is amazing.”
Kuhn looked at him, “You don’t have a device like this?”
Pondern shrugged, “Why would we? We never communicate with anyone but ourselves.”
Gibbs shrugged, “That makes sense.”
“Do you mind if I keep this?”
Kuhn shook his head, “It needs our computers to make it work.”
“We might be able to adapt it to ours.” Kuhn stared at him and Pondern smiled, “It would make it easier for us to communicate in the future.”
“I didn’t think your Leader has agreed to open a relationship with us.”
“He hasn’t and I don’t want to speak for him but I could use this to li
sten in to the Halo’s civilizations.”
Kuhn shrugged, “Ok.”
“Great. What are you going to do next?”
“Find out if this is the only structure around the black hole.”
“And then what?”
Kuhn knew that before long his patience was going to wear thin. “Ron, did you see any warships around that structure?”
“No, I did not.”
Kuhn looked at Pondern, “After we take a look around the black hole, we’re going to go and see if we can find the civilization that built it along with any warships they might be sending through it.”
Pondern smiled, “Sounds like a good plan. I’ll sit back and shut up.”
Gibbs smiled, “I think that would be a good idea.”
Pondern looked at Gibbs and said, “Now I’m back to liking him better.”
Gibbs, glanced at his panel, “Sir, I’m detecting multiple stardrives approaching the structure.”
Kuhn looked quickly at the main monitor, “I’m going to full stealth and move in close enough for passive scans.”
The ship moved two hundred thousand miles out from the event horizon as the three stared at the tactical monitor on the wall and then turned his attention to the display on his console, “It appears we were detected.” Kuhn nodded.
Pondern waited in silence and finally said, “How do you know you were detected?”
Kuhn shrugged as he stared at the main monitor, “There were no warships present and now there are.”
Pondern nodded and then said, “There’s not enough to start an invasion, is it.” Kuhn shrugged and waited for the strange ships to arrive.
Chapter Seventeen
“Guide Leader, the facility no longer reports anything.”
“What did it see?”
“It felt some sort of strange energy inside the black hole.”
“What about outside it?”
“It does not report anything but reported that things didn’t feel normal.”
“Didn’t feel normal?”
“You know how the facility likes to use terms we understand.” The Guide lowered his large head and shook it. The Scout Viewer saw him and shook his head as well, “The Builders think we are very simple beings and use terminology that would be easily understood.”
The Guide looked up, “But their messages are more confusing than if they would simply state the truth.”
“I know but trying to explain that to the Builders is a huge waste of time and energy. We’re lost as soon as we speak.”
“That’s because they can’t communicate in simple terms.” The Guide saw the Launcher growing larger on his screen and he ordered the large warship to slow and assume an orbit around it. He pressed his panel and saw a button turn blue. He pressed it and said, “You called us here. What is your issue?”
“My systems detected an alien form of energy moving in the black hole.”
“Alien energy?”
“It’s one that doesn’t normally occur.”
• • •
Kuhn looked up, “Ron are you getting this?”
“Yes, but I don’t have near enough to start translating.”
“Let me know when you do.”
• • •
The Guide lowered its head and asked, “In your opinion, what do you think caused it?”
“I am uncertain about it. However, it appeared to be moving out of the singularity toward the event horizon.”
“I thought that wasn’t possible.”
“It’s not. However, it was there.”
The Scout pressed his communicator, “Haven’t objects been ejected from the black hole in the past?”
“Yes.”
“Could this not have been one of those occurrences?”
“If it were, I should have seen the object when it was ejected. Nothing was detected leaving the event horizon.”
The Guide looked at the Scout and said, “Perhaps it didn’t have enough momentum to escape.”
“I’ve considered that but it didn’t…seem right.”
The Guide looked at the Scout Viewer and didn’t want to ask but knew he had no choice, “Do you have any thoughts on what it could have been?”
“The only thing that meets all the criteria is an undetectable starship.”
The Guide’s eyes went wide and he jerked his head back to the Scout who could only shake his head. “I thought nothing in existence could escape your scanners.”
“I detected the energy. Something had to cause it.”
“The black hole will sometimes flare up and shoot a high energy wave out of it. That’s part of the reason why we don’t keep our ships here.”
“It did not look like any wave ever recorded.”
“I will send my ships out to search for anything out of the ordinary.”
“I would recommend you use more ships than you have present.”
“Why?”
“If it were an undetectable ship, you could not cover the space needed to find it.”
“How do you recommend we search for it?”
“Bring in enough ships to sweep space with the Great Beams.”
“That would take thousands.”
“Actually, you’ll need more than four hundred thousand.”
“This is ludicrous.”
“I’ll contact the Builders with my request.”
The Guide shook his head, “That won’t be necessary. I’ll call in enough ships to make the sweep.”
“That would be good.” The Guide swore the computer on the launcher sounded smug.
• • •
“I have enough to translate.”
“Replay what was just said.”
“There will be some missing terms but you should be able to understand the majority of the communication.”
They listened to the conversation and Kuhn shook his head. He lifted his communicator, “Able Wing, move out on the line that these ships used to arrive here and see if you can determine where they came from.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Bravo Wing, move out from the facility you found on the other side of the black hole and do the same thing. Delta, you will also move out from the facility you found across the black hole.” Kuhn paused and hit the general frequency, “All scouts will move away from the black hole and out into the galaxy proper and start mapping. I want to know what’s here. Be prepared to move above the galaxy on my command.”
Gibbs looked at Kuhn, “What are you thinking?”
“This facility is sounding almost intelligent and I’m certain it knows more about the structure of black holes than we do. This Great Beam it mentioned has me worried. I don’t want any of our ships anywhere near these huge warships when they start their sweep.” Gibbs agreed and noticed Pondern looked…different. Kuhn saw it as well and said, “What’s wrong?”
Pondern stared at the large warships on the monitor and shook his head, “These ships look very much like the vessel that came through the black hole years ago and wiped out most of our fleets. This has to be the civilization that sent them.”
Kuhn looked back at his display, “Those ships are being used as a tool by some species they call the Builders.”
From the wall speaker Ron said, “I’m detecting a wave of energy being absorbed by that structure. It’s taking it from inside the event horizon.” The three looked at each other and Ron said, “That energy is surrounding the facility. I’m not sure our weapons will penetrate it. The only way to find out is to take an active scan.”
Kuhn shook his head, “Well, we’re not going to do that. Let me know if you have any more good news.”
Pondern eye’s narrowed and Gibbs said, “Commodore Kuhn was using sarcasm.” Pondern looked at him and then nodded. His fear was obvious.
• • •
Gibbs watched the long-range passive scanners as hundreds of thousands of grey warship started arriving. He focused his passive scanner on one of them as it passed far below them. He shook his
head and looked at Kuhn, “Sir, these ships have a weird construction.”
“What do you mean?’
“There is a deep slot that runs completely around it. In the middle of the slot on top of the ship is a huge globe. That globe must roll through that slot. I don’t see any other weapon on the hull except for that single globe. The ship’s hull is rounded on both ends of the ship so the globe would move through that slot with little resistance around it.” Gibbs paused and shrugged, “They should have built their ships shaped like a globe instead of a thousand yards long and four hundred yards wide.” Kuhn stared at the image and nodded.
Pondern was still shaking his head, “The warship that attacked us had the same shape and construction. It fired a beam that was incredibly wide and powerful. It destroyed everything it hit.”
“How were you able to defeat it?”
“One of our warships managed to make it past the beam and ram it. The resulting explosion destroyed the star in the system where it happened when it went supernova.”
Kuhn stared at Pondern and then looked up, “Ron, can you determine anything about that globe on top of the ship?”
There was a pause and then the computer said, “It appears to be uniform in its construction. I don’t see anything outside it to focus an energy beam.”
Gibbs looked at Pondern, “How big was the beam that invader used?”
“It was massive. It fired to each side of the ship and directly above it. It had a fan shape that moved around the ship.”
Gibbs nodded, “Sir, if that beam fires at ninety degrees on each side of the ship and directly above it, it would be impossible to avoid it if that globe rolled around that ship at high speed.”
Kuhn looked back at the image on the monitor, “That facility told them to sweep the area. I suspect that means that those ships are going to link up and fire their beams in unison.” He looked at Pondern with his eyes narrow, “What was the range of that beam?”
“More than ten thousand miles.”
Kuhn did a rough calculation and lifted his communicator, “All ships, move your vessels toward the center of the galaxy. I don’t want any of you closer than a light year from this facility.” Kuhn hit the air thrusters and the small ship accelerated away vertically from the black hole and flew above the plane of the galaxy. “Ron, lock on the long range visuals. I want a recording of what happens.”