The Arwen Book two: Manifest Destiny

by Timothy P. Callahan

  “Arwen, put me in touch with the fleet.”

  After a few second Arwen said, “Go ahead.”

  “We all know the plan, we all know how important this is. I want to inflict as much damage was we can. This attack should be a complete surprise but the Handlers will recover fast. Our objective is to get that sphere piece, everything else is just gravy. Get yourselves into position and be ready for my command.”

  The Two Gyssyc sphere’s moved away from the fleet in opposite directions. They stopped and waited. The rest of the fleet gathered behind the Arwen. The Gyssyc battle spheres would take the brunt of the attack, they would draw off the Handler’s main forces and then the Arwen and her fleet would attack.

  The Arwen said, “Gyssyc ships are ready to enter real space.”

  “Go!” Captain Cook said, the excitement of the battle filling her to her core.

  This was a new way to conduct a battle, inside the hologram room. With the Arwen being intelligent, or at least able to run all the systems and feed her information, they no longer needed a second running around from screen to screen. They didn’t need a bridge crew monitoring everything, filtering out garbage and only giving the Second what they felt was useful.

  The wormhole opened and the Gyssyc ships moved through easily. The Arwen showed the images from the real space. It was an awesome sight seeing the huge moon sized ships appear out of nowhere and start blasting away with their powerful gamma guns. The first Gyssyc ship attacked the third planet, destroying the planet sweeping ships. The planet skimmers fell into the gas giant’s colored clouds parting them like the sun evaporates a fog bank. As it continued falling the Gyssyc ship concentrated all its firepower on it, melting the skin, exposing the insides. Thousands of small black dots tumbled out. “Zoom in on that debris.”

  The image moved in quickly and Captain Cook saw that the black dots were actually Handlers’. They’re bug like bodies trailed behind the ship and eventually disappeared into the thicker clouds. There was a flash which reminded her of viewing a lightning storm from orbit.

  “The first sweeper has been destroyed, the Gyssyc is now trying to destroy the other five.”

  “Show me how the second ship is doing.”

  The second Gyssyc ship was pounding away at something on the surface. The Arwen zoomed in and it looked like some sort of floating platform. The Gamma guns devastated it, causing explosions, weakening the structure, breaking it apart piece by piece. The black dots, more Handlers, fell to the surface thousands of feet below. Another platform moved into view and the Gyssyc ship fired a second beam of gamma energy at it causing similar results.

  “Are they retaliating?”

  “No,” Arwen said. “I’m picking up a lot of communication, I can’t make out what they’re saying but they are communicating.”

  “Okay, be ready to leave Wormhole space. Once they start attacking the Gyssyc it’s our turn.”

  She waited. The Gyssyc continued to destroy all targets of opportunity. It seemed too easy and after fifteen minutes of the relentless destruction Captain Cook asked again if the Handlers were doing anything.

  “No, Captain. The chatter has slowed down as there seems to be less ships around to communicate.”

  Could they really be that arrogant that they didn’t expect this attack? That they didn’t think we would fight back? Or are they up to something else, something we can’t see.

  “Tell the other ships to get ready to leave Wormholes space, we’re going to make our appearance in fifteen minutes.”

  She waited, watching, waiting for something to happen. After ten minutes Arwen said, “Captain, the sphere piece is starting to move and I’m detecting a beta wormhole.”

  “We can’t lose this chance, we need that piece. Order the fleet through the wormhole now! Get the Arwen between the piece and the Beta wormhole. We’ll try to hold off anything that gets through. Tell the fleet to concentrate on getting that piece back to Earth.”

  Captain Cook heard a loud bang followed by vibrations. The bullet fired into Wormhole space and exploded into a large circle of light the center of which showed another wormhole, the insides of which were a river of mercury like silver. Wormhole beta space.

  The Arwen came out directly in front of the sphere piece. In the room it filled the entire back of the hologram. In front of her was the beta wormhole. It hovered there and she saw the silver flowing like a whirlpool. Something was about to burst through.

  “Shields coming up,” Arwen said. “Weapons charged.”

  “The fleet?”

  “Coming through now.”

  She saw the glowing lights from the fleet appear behind the sphere piece. The ships moved toward it quickly trying to catch up.

  Captain Cook looked at the Beta wormhole and saw hundreds of slates, the same kind that had destroyed Ulliam. She felt her heart quicken, they hadn’t come up with a good defense against those yet, they had no plans to fight them, they had nothing she could use. She had to think fast. “Arwen, fire a Wormhole bullet into the Beta wormhole.”

  “Preparing the bullet now.”

  “Fire all weapons at the slates. Destroy as many as you can.”

  Like a wave of locust the slates poured out of Wormhole beta space. They were met by the awesome firepower of a Corps battlecruiser. Energy weapons blasted away, destroying them. Thousands of tiny explosions crowded the Wormhole beta entrance, clogging it up with debris. The onslaught continued unabated for several minutes before Arwen announced, “Strangelet bullet ready to fire.”

  “Do it, fire!”

  Once again the Arwen shuttered as another projectile was fired. It exploded inside Wormhole beta space. The Strangelets touched the debris causing it to evaporate in small flashes, adding to the energy of the wormhole. The enemy slates fell harmlessly into Wormhole alpha space.

  “Our Wormhole will only be around for another five minutes.”

  “I don’t think that will matter,” Captain Cook said. “They’ll abandon this one and come out in another one. Get another bullet ready.”

  She turned and saw her that the fleet had their tow lines connected to the piece. The large battle cruisers’ engines were glowing brightly as they tried to pull the piece toward an awaiting wormhole being kept open by fighters and bombers which were feeding it material.

  “What’s going on?” She asked.

  “The tow cables are holding strong. The Ulliam cruisers are about ready to add to the trust.”

  “What about the Gyssyc ships?”

  “They’re still causing major damage to the Handlers.” Arwen paused. “Captain, you were right, another Beta wormhole is forming.”

  “Fire our strangelet missile, I don’t want anything to get through!”

  She felt the Arwen turn and fire another one its bullets. The wormhole exploded into life just as the Beta wormhole opened. Anything trying to come through was absorbed and flung into Alpha Wormhole space.

  Now all the cruisers had a hold of the piece positioning it toward the opening. It was moving, it would be theirs, and this will not be a mission that was going to fail.

  The alpha wormhole which she first created fell and a wave of slates moved forward and into real space. The Arwen once again fired everything it had into the invading wave, slowing it down, delaying it, but they never had a chance to stop it.

  The slates attached themselves to the Arwen’s shield and vibrated. “The harmonics are disrupting the shield,” Arwen said. “I won’t be able to hold out much longer.”

  “When will we have the piece inside the wormhole?”

  “Two minutes.”

  The wave of slates moved past the Arwen and toward the piece. The destroyers and cruiser bravely moved forward to intercept them. The battle cruisers fired everything they had at the endless wave. Fighters and bombers broke off from holding he wormhole open, the job was done, the hole would stay open long enough for the piece to move through.

  “Shields are collapsing!” Arwen yelled. Could Cap
tain Cook detect fear in her voice? Was the possible? “I’m getting a bullet ready, I have an idea.”

  “No, Arwen, we need to stay here!”

  “Captain, we’ve done all we could. I-I can’t die! I can’t!”

  The lights in the Hologram room went out leaving Captain Cook blind. “I order you not to leave! We don’t have time for this!”

  The floor started to vibrate, it was barely noticeable at first but it grew, oscillating slowly, building with each wave. There was another clang, then the sound of the Strangelet bullet firing. The Arwen moved and the Captain knew they were leaving real space and heading into Wormhole space.

  “Arwen, let me in, let me see what you’re doing.” She did her best to be calm even though she was hot with rage.

  There was another shutter and more movement. Could they be leaving Wormhole space so soon? The lights in the hologram room came on. In front of the Captain was the Ulliam sun, it’s blinding orange glow filled the room. The Captain could have sworn she felt the heat from the hologram.

  “We’re entering the Chomosphere now.”

  “The what? We won’t last long there! Are you trying to kill us?”

  “No, no, no. We have a reflective surface, we can deflect most of the radiation away and we can survive the heat for a few minutes. They can’t, they are black and will absorb everything, nothing will get bounced into space. It has to destroy them, it just has too.”

  The floor continued to vibrate and the bulkheads started to rattle. Anything which was loose shook. Bolts that weren’t on tight enough fell off. Even the projectors in the hologram room moved causing the sun to flicker and wobble.

  “We’re losing plating,” Arwen said. “Captain, I’d recommend you sit on the floor before you fall. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

  Captain Cook did as she was told and sat. Now she felt the vibrations all through her body causing her teeth to chatter. There was loud bang from outside the room. Arwen, anticipating her question, said, “We’re losing some doors and some walls.”

  “Is it working?” Captain Cook asked.

  “No,” Arwen replied. “But I will not go down without a fight.”

  The vibration continued to grow. Captain Cook tried to stand but was knocked down by a violent shutter. The sun started to grow larger, they were getting closer. “Arwen, what are you doing?”

  “The closer we get the more heat they need to deal with. We can survive, I’m getting the shields ready to raise once the last of the slates fall.”

  “Are they falling?”

  It was then that she got her answer. One by one slates fell into view and plummeted toward the sun where they flashed fried. Soon she saw an entire string of them, the vibrations in the floor slowed to nothing as the last of the enemy fell off. “Shields up.” Arwen said.

  “Take us back to piece,” Captain Cook ordered.

  “We have no more bullets. I’m heading toward them at full power.”

  “What’s going on?” Captain Cook asked.

  The image zoomed into quickly and showed the battlecruiser, fighters and support craft in a heated battle with the slates. The piece was now being pulled into the wormhole. “We’re going to win,” she said. “We’ve got it.”

  The last of the piece disappeared and, just as it did, the wormhole closed. The other ships, now no longer needed in combat, activated their strangelet bullets and went through, fighting off the slate ships even as the hole closed.

  “Contact the Gyssyc ship around Ulliam, tell them we need some help getting home. We have a lot of work to do and I can’t wait to get home.”

  Chapter thirty-seven

  Captain Cook walked into the hologram room and found herself surrounded by hundreds of other ship captains. Each person she saw was also sitting in the hologram room of their ships waiting for the meeting to start. She passed through them until she found the only solid object in the room, a chair for which she could sit.

  In the center of the hologram sat Grand Admiral Park. He appeared to be behind a desk and Marjorie wondered if the desk was real or also a hologram image. He was looking down reading something as other Captain’s faded into seats. It was as if this was a meeting of ghost spirits instead of ship captains.

  It’s been six months since she lead the assault to capture the Sphere section. They had taken it to a location she wasn’t aware of and, even with all her contacts, was unable to find out. That was probably for the best in case she was captured in a battle.

  There was a chirp in her ear piece, Arwen wanted to talk to her. “Go ahead.”

  “Everyone seems to be here, I was just given word from the other ships that the Grand Admiral is about ready to start. There’s great excitement amongst the ships of what he’ll be talking about. The Lazarus Long is keeping things quiet, he won’t tell anyone anything.”

  “Okay, thank you. Keep me informed if you find out anything other than gossip.”

  “I will.” She turned herself off.

  The Grand Admiral stood from behind his desk and the desk faded away. It was a prop, the Grand Admiral was showing himself to be some sort of showman. In its place a pedestal appeared and he stood behind it looking out into the expanse of his hologram room. “Thank you all for coming. This is kind of odd to see everyone this way, you all look like ghosts.”

  Everyone gave a nervous chuckle including Captain Cook, it was comforting to her that he saw the group the same way she did.

  He continued. “I have some good news. Thanks to the raid on Ulliam six months ago and the acquisition of a large piece from the Handler’s sphere we were able to gather a lot of information about them. I feel we now know more about them than they know about us. The piece itself is about the same size as the state of Rhode Island. It took a while but we were able to capture over two thousand Handler’s. Many were killed defending the piece and we lost a lot of good soldiers’. We are still trying to break into their computers and we’re trying to understand their language, both are proving to be challenging.” He paused to let the information sink in.

  Captain Cook wondered about the language. While she was on the sphere they could talk to her in her dreams. In fact they understood her and she understood them perfectly. She remembered reading the Professors report, as well as talking to him about his experience. They had a complex language of foot stomping and scent projection. It would be difficult for anyone to figure that out and impossible for humans to reproduce without some help.

  “So, I bet you’re asking what we can do with the information we have found. Well, a few weeks ago while sniffing around the computers we found what we think is a map of their territory. It wasn’t a visual map and took us a few weeks to figure it out but we’re pretty sure we’ve just found the location of some of their spheres and, let me tell you, there are a lot of them. So, I guess that’s the bad news.”

  One of the Captains’ raised his hand. “How many is a lot?”

  “We figure about 424. The one the Arwen discovered in the Pleiades is the one closest to us, the rest seem to spread out between there and the Small Magellan cloud.”

  The planet they discovered, the one that caused the first contact, was 2,000 light years from Earth and in the opposite direction from the Pleiades which means the Handler’s had no idea about Earth until she went into its wormhole core. Captain Cook still struggled with herself as to whether it was a good thing she found it or a bad thing.

  “So, with all this information we have to decide what to do with it. Right now we can’t mount any kind of offensive attack on any of the sphere except for the one they’re building around Ulliam, that one we plan on attacking as often as we can. The fact they haven’t attack Earth yet leads us to believe they still don’t know where we are. I guess, in a strange way, it’s a good thing they destroyed Ulliam and all the ships that were protecting it. Without the information from the planet or those ships they don’t stand a chance of finding us and we want to keep it that way.”

 
Captain Cook’s ear chirped again, “Captain, I’ve been instructed to let you know of a new program that was installed before the meeting started. It’s a memory wipe program in case my computer has been compromised.”

  “Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

  The Grand Admiral continued. “I can see that your ships have told you about the new program. That program will need to run before you set your ship to self-destruct by Strangelet release. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is that no computer information is released to the Handlers. The biggest advantage we have right now is the secrecy of our location. Space is huge and we are a very small planet orbiting a very small star in an expanse of thousands of other stars. Our radio wave have only reached out about 200 light years from Earth so it will take them another 200 years to reach the only Dyson Sphere we know about. Even then there’s a good chance the Handler’s won’t even know to look for them. We’re pretty sure they have probes out there looking for us but right now we feel safe. They will find us, mark my words, it might take a while but they will find us. Until we can get to other locations where we can attack the frontline will be at Ulliam. They’re going to pay for everything they construct or take from that system. We have several hundred missions planned, from simple observations to full out raids like the one that gave us the sphere piece. Captain Cook and the Arwen will be in charge of most of those missions so any questions you have will need to be addressed to her and her ship.”

  Captain Cook nodded and waved her hand so the other would know where she was sitting. The virtual eyes looked over at her and returned her nod. She knew she’d be busy the next few weeks sorting out the requests and answering their questions. That was fine, she was going to use all their skills to help her compete the mission.