The Arwen Book two: Manifest Destiny

by Timothy P. Callahan

  “No, ma’am.” They all said practically in unison.

  “Good. On the count of three we charge into that room. Take out as many gun emplacements as you can. Okay, let’s go. One. . .two. . .three!”

  They turned the corner and gave out a primal yell. Gun placements in the walls popped out and fired at them, the sound of a hundred burst a minute energy round found targets quickly and easily before being destroyed by the security force. Men fell to the ground after their force fields failed and tried to avoid being sliced to pieces. Several guards lay on the ground in pools of blood as they were killed or injured. The first hallway was cleared. Bodies left behind moaned in pain while other lay motionless.

  Medical teams rushed to those who were injured while the group continued down the next hallway to try the mad dash again. The resistance was greater than before as more guns fell out and fired.

  Juliet fell behind a corner and told Adams and his team to halt. She was panting, out of breath. Sweat fell from her face in large droplets and she felt her shirts soaked in it. “Okay, this is the last hallway,” she said between breaths. “How many do we have left?”

  “Five,” Adams replied. Even he sounded concerned with the causalities they suffered. She looked at him, his force field had faded, another hit and it would be gone. “This is going to be the worst. I suggest we just sprint to the door and not worry about destroying the guns. Don’t think it’ll make much of a difference anyway.”

  “No,” Juliet replied. She peaked around the corner and saw several guns scanning, waiting for her to make a move. “Here is what we’re going to do. I’m going to make a sprint for the door, you guys cover me. Destroy as many guns as you can. If I don’t make it you go next. One of us should be able to make it.”

  Adams nodded. “Okay, we don’t have much time. Are you ready?”

  Juliet took a deep breath and nodded. “No time like the present, right?”

  She turned the corner and ran as fast as her legs could take her. She heard the guns whirl around to aim at her, then heard those guns explode as the guards took them out. She felt a beam strike her force field, it nearly slowed her down but she continued to run. Guns burst into flames and debris fell around her as she ran. The door grew closer. She pulled out her own hand gun and fired. The laser sliced through the door, she made a small circle while she ran and dove through it once she was close enough.

  She stood from the ground and gave the guards a quick thumbs up, then ran the Arwen’s main computer.

  *****

  The fleet of black slabs formed a giant mass around the fleet, blocking out most of the stars. Grand Admiral Park watched this happen as his fleet loaded up their wormhole bullets to leave. The speed at which the slabs formed surprised him and left him very little time to decide what to do next.

  “What are they doing?” He asked to himself. “What are their next move?”

  The way the slabs talked to each other was still a mystery to the corps. They didn’t have anyone inside them and when the few they captured were taken apart they found they were mostly empty except for some gear which caused them to shake the way they did. They found no other computers or wiring. There was some speculation that they were remote controlled by ships outside of the battlesphere or they had some form of artificial intelligence. The most commonly excepted theory was that they were preprogrammed before attacking and they were using some sort of intelligence to communicate with each other.

  The way they were performing now as totally new and unprecedented. From the wormholes other slabs poured out dividing the fleet’s attention. The powerful cannons from the battlecruisers concentrated their firepower on the slabs surrounding the fleet while the other ships, the cruisers, destroyers and other support craft fired at the slabs leaving the wormholes. Black debris littered the area making it hard for the computers to track the smallish slabs.

  The Gyssyc spheres were the first to open their wormholes and moved forward to escape. Both of them moved toward the bright lights and were just about ready to enter when the second wave of the attack started.

  They moved at a speed never seen before. Thousands of them broke loose and moved across space toward the Gyssyc ships. Missiles were unable to catch up to them, the computers for the energy beams were unable to track such fast moving objects.

  The slabs smashed onto the surface of the Gyssyc ships sending large chucks of debris into space. Others broke off and moved toward the fleet. They’re attack was savage and simple, smash the ships instead of vibrating them apart.

  “Move, take evasive action!” Grand Admiral Park yelled. He knew his space station couldn’t move on its own and he would sacrifice it if need be to save the rest of the fleet. “Hal, can you-“

  The wave of slabs hit his station. The crunch of the slabs hitting the shield shook the station to its core. The Park nearly fell over and had to hold onto a computer to prevent himself from falling.

  “Admiral,” Hal said, “they’re attacking the Frodo, the battle cruiser we docked with before the battle had started.”

  “Why wasn’t that ship let go?” He yelled.

  “Unknown,” Hal replied. “I contacted the computer and it told me it was given orders by you to not leave.”

  “I did no such thing. Damn, the virus!” He yelled.

  “Captain, the ship is reporting its being boarded and has started it’s countdown to strangelet destruction.”

  “Tell him to belay that order! If they ship goes up it’ll take us with them. Explain that to them.”

  “It’s too late,” Hal said in a maddeningly calm voice. “The chain reaction has begun.”

  *****

  Juliet stood in the computer room holding an ax in her hand. By her feet were the technicians who were assigned to help keep the computer active. They were dead. Juliet was unable to determine how the Arwen had managed it since she saw no guns and no wounds on the crew. Perhaps they were killed with gas which had dissipated before she arrived. Whatever the method it was effective.

  “Hello Juliet,” Arwen said breaking the strange silence.

  “Hello Arwen,” Juliet replied lowering the ax just a bit.

  “What are you doing?” Arwen asked.

  “I think you know,” Juliet replied. “Figured my gun won’t cut your lines fast enough even on torch mode. A good old fashioned ax ought to do it.”

  “You’d be right,” Arwen said. “And I couldn’t stop you. I used all my gas to kill my friends here. It made me sad to do it but they were trying to shut me down.”

  “And you thought the guns would stop me, even kill me right?”

  “I wouldn’t have liked to do it, but I would have. I’m loyal to the corps and if they give me an order I need to follow it.”

  “Your dedication is noted,” Juliet walked to one of the computers and swung her ax down on it. The resulting sparks and debris caused her to flinch and pull back. She yanked the ax out and did it again sending more pieces of computer and wires flying across the room.

  “Please, stop.” Arwen asked, her voice frightened. “I don’t understand how you can be doing this. I don’t understand how you’re doubting me.”

  “You’ve killed more of my crew than the Handlers ever did. You can no longer be trusted.” She walked over to another computer and smashed it has hard as she could. Anger and frustration gave her the strength and endurance she needed to swing. “You’d rather listen to a program than listen to me. Me! The person you’ve talked to more than anyone else!”

  She swung again destroying a smaller computer consol. The lights in the room dimmed. She swung again destroying the computer and the lights blinked out. Red, emergency lights turned on giving the room a strange tinge.

  “I know,” Arwen replied, her voice slow and weak. “But I need to follow my orders.”

  “I understand,” Juliet replied. She stood on a chair and took aim at a large group of wires bundled and tacked to the wall. It was a tough swing but she managed to hit them dead on. All
the computers in the room fell silent and even the emergency lights went out. She had hit the main power supply. “Arwen, are you still there?”

  She got nothing as a reply. A few seconds later Adam’s and his team ran into the room. Flashlights moved back and forth in the darkness. “Are you okay?”

  Juliet nodded in the negative. “No, I’m not. I just killed my best friend, I won’t be okay for a very long time.”

  Her communicator chirped and the voice of her navigation office came on. “Commander, we’ve entered the wormhole.”

  “Can you turn us around to get us out?”

  “No, when you took out the Arwen’s computer I lost control of the engines. It’s going to take some time for me and the Chief’s team to reroute everything to the secondary computers.”

  “Okay, you guys get right on that. I’m heading to the bridge. Commander Monrow out.” She turned the communicator off and slowly walked away from the wreckage of the computer room.

  Chapter forty-seven

  Professor Ricter has seen devastation before. He was on the Arwen when they arrived in the Ulliam system years earlier to find the fleet that should have been waiting for them destroyed. He was on Ulliam when the Gyssyc war started and saw the debris from the Gyssyc ships drift out into space. He wasn’t immune to the death he’s seen and he felt he had some tolerance built up over the years. Seeing the left over debris from Captain Cook’s fleet left him speechless.

  He had no idea how many ships had been lost, no idea how many people had been killed. The numbers were more than he cared to know, more than he could bare. This war needed to end and he was the only one who could end it.

  His research ship had enough shuttles and personnel to help with the cleanup. Scanners built for science were now scanning the debris field for any survivors. It wasn’t unheard of for people to find pockets of air inside the ships and with this many ships it seemed most likely they could find someone. Another set of scanners was trying to find dead bodies, the poor people who had that assignment would then have to go out and gather them to bring them back. It was a job he would never do and he respected those that did.

  He dared not ask the Captain if the Arwen was somewhere in the field. Each ship had a transponder, small, nearly indestructible, to help identify which ships had been destroyed. The names of the ships started to populate on his screen and he refused to look at them. The thought that not only was Marjorie dead, that the Arwen was destroyed, but that Juliet might also be dead, had to be left for another time.

  He continued to watch the operation from the observation deck. Around him were his team, scientist who were there to usher in a new era of research, to help control a new weapon in this war and to answer to him when he called. They were just as silent as he was. He wondered how his life, how his career would have been like if not for this war. If not for all the wars he had been through. Wasn’t he one of the leading scientists in many fields? Didn’t he deserve to be on some remote planet, perhaps the one that Captain Cook named after him, discovering the secrets of the universe? He used to think war made science move forward. Wasn’t it war that brought them the Atomic Bomb which lead to the building of the first particle accelerators which eventually lead to the ability to make stranglets?

  He was sick of war. He was sick of this war. It was costing him too much and even if he lived for the three hundred years predicted he would never get over the waste that war produced.

  “Professor Ricter, Captain Fubula would like to see you on the bridge.” The computer said.

  What could that windbag want? Professor Ricter thought walking off the observation deck and onto the elevator.

  When he arrived at the bridge he found it abuzz with activity. Hundreds of people fit inside the large room. Science ships were spacious beyond belief. They didn’t need as much in the way of wiring or systems since they had no weapons. That extra space was taken up with extra stations and personnel. He liked living on a science ship much more than living on a battle cruiser.

  Captain Fubula looked at a report on a screen and when he saw Professor Ricter he did something that took the Professor by surprise, he smiled. “Professor, I thought you’d like to know that the Arwen survived the attack. Her name is not among the listed ships and all transponders have been accounted for.”

  “That’s good news,” he replied as dryly as possible. He didn’t want this man to see any emotion other than annoyance and anger, it was the best way to control him. “Do we know where she’s at?”

  “She might have gone into wormhole space, that’s what we’re looking into right now.”

  “If the battle was hopeless Captain Cook would have retreated, she’s brave but not stupid. Thank you, Captain. Now, I have work to do.” He turned to walk away.

  “Professor,” Captain Fubula said. “I’m not done.”

  Professor Ricter stopped, turned back and looked at the Captain annoyed. “What?”

  “We’re sending you all the sensor readings from the battle. I know you’ve provided important tactical observations over the years and I’m sure the Corp will want you to look over this battle as well. Figured I’d give you a head start.”

  “Don’t fool me, Captain Fubula, I know you’re just giving me busy work to stay out of your hair while you do the important stuff.”

  “That’s true,” he replied, it was refreshing to see him actually be honest with the Professor.

  “Well, then, I’ll look at the sensor readings when I’m ready. In the meantime I’ll be in my lab looking over my own data from the failed attempted to move a planet into a Wormhole. Perhaps I’ll look over the readings while I’m heading to bed, could be good to get me all nice and tired. Now, good day Captain, I don’t want to be disturbed again.” When he turned around this time he did it swiftly with the plan to ignore the Captain should talk to him again.

  ******

  The data was organized and loaded into the ship’s mainframe within hours allowing Professor Ricter the opportunity to look through it quickly. As he read the reports and saw the data a strange pattern reviled itself. It almost seemed as if the Arwen, and the Captain, where being protected by another source.

  The first piece of data came from the Arwen herself. The other ships, in an attempt to contact her, received nothing back and reported she was heading for a wormhole which had none of the deadly black slabs. Some had even reported, and the sensors reading confirmed, whenever a black slab headed for the Arwen it was deflected away by another slab. This suggested not all of the slabs belonged to the same group.

  The strangest reading came after Captain Cook left the Hal. He looked at some blurry images of some sort of shell surrounding her shuttle, moving it toward a newly opened wormhole. He watched as it disappeared into the opening. The Professor closed his eyes trying not to imagine what he suspected. The Handler’s now had a Corps ship and if Juliet followed the protocol she would have destroyed the Arwen within seconds of entering Wormhole Beta space. Unless they weren’t associated with the Handler’s. The uncertainty was maddening.

  He recalled one report of a Water Planet nearby that showed signs of a Beta Wormhole at its core. Was this the wormhole he was looking for? They had searched the systems for water planet that was closer to Earth, one they could use in his experiments. This one was only a few light-years away, close enough for him to check out. He looked over some more scans and found the sun to be a class G sun, the same as Earth’s stars. They were hot and could produce energy for billions of years. He felt his excitement grow, this was the prefect system to try his experiment on. The perfect wormhole to plunge into a sun and to see if it would indeed prevent the Handler’s from using Wormhole Beta space for travel.

  “Captain, I need to see you right away.” He said.

  “What is this about?”

  “There is a Water planet nearby, I need to get to that.”

  “It’ll have to wait. We are way too busy to succumb to one of your whims.”

  “All need to do is
get me to the Water Planet that’s nearby, I’ll take care of the rest.”

  “No,” the Captain replied. “I have to go, Professor, good day.”

  Does he really think a no is going to stop me? Professor Ricter thought.

  ******

  She wasn’t sure how long she had been traveling but Captain Cook did know she was running out of food. The shuttle always had a cache of emergency rations just in case something happened. Under normal conditions it could last about a week, which is normally plenty of time for a search party to find them. This situation was hardly normal so she had rationed the food as much as she could. Even with that her supply was running low.

  The shell was still around her shuttle and had made no attempted to communicate since she first entered. She had tried talking to it hoping for some response but she was pretty sure there was a vacuum between her shuttle and the shell and sound wouldn’t travel at all in a vacuum. She had blinked the shuttle’s lights and got nothing in response. She tried revving the engines up to full power but the shell simply moved along with her. She tried stopping only to have the shell bang into the back of her ship to push it forward. They didn’t want to hurt her but they did want her to move with them.

  She tried to beat back the desperation which has slowly crept into her gut.

  She felt her stomach flip and it reminded her the feeling she would sometimes get when they would leave Wormhole space. For the first time in who knows how long something was different, something was about to happen. She felt the anticipation flow through her body and suddenly she was restless. She sat up in her seat and looked out the window. The black slabs were still stacked there like bricks on the side of a building. Then, one by one they started to move away. It was slow at first, as if the Handler’s wanted to make this as dramatic as possible. Then, all at once, they moved away. Marjorie was able to look out her window and what she saw amazed her.

  Her shuttle was moving away from a giant Beta Wormhole. The silver substance that was that universe seemed to pour out into space where it formed large spheres. Smaller spheres, drawn by gravity to the larger ones, merged together making them larger. She saw that the spheres were moving in a very uniformed fashioned toward a fleet of ships. Scale was hard to tell in space but she knew those ships were large, maybe even larger than the Earth. They were tube shaped with an open bow and a closed aft. The sphere drifted toward those ships where they were captured. She witnessed several of them entering the large holds where doors slowly closed around them.