“Captain,” Arwen said. “They’re leaving and heading toward the Beta Wormhole they arrived in.”
Captain Cook let out a long sigh of relief. “Good, that was close.”
“Would you have destroyed their ship?” Arwen asked.
“Yes, I would have.” She replied without hesitation. “Keep me informed on-“
From the Beta wormhole a blast of intense heat and radiation slammed into the Cabal ship. A flame, unlike anything the Captain has ever seen, jetted out from the hole as if originated in hell.
The Cabal ship was vaporized in a wave of plasma leaving nothing behind except the flair which had destroyed it.
The Beta wormhole behind the Handler slab blew out a ball of intense flame and plasma a few second later, also engulfing the ship. It moved away from the blast but not before suffering damage. The back end was melted away crippling the craft. It drifted, nearly dead in space.
Captain Cook looked in horror at what she had witnessed. It all took place so fast she hadn’t time to think or react. “What just happened?” She finally asked.
“There is some intense flairs coming from the wormholes,” Arwen said. “I have no explanation for it.”
“A new weapon?” Captain Cook asked.
“Unknown,” Arwen replied. “Captain, the Handlers are asking for our help. They say their ship is damaged beyond repair.”
“Send a crew over to get them out of there. Are there any survivors from the Cabal ship?”
“None,” Arwen replied. “Seems we have the last remaining members of the Cabal on board.”
Chapter fifty-four
The ice planet broke up and fed the Alpha Wormhole. The outer edges of the wormholes glowed bright white as more of the planet touched it. It grew large, but not large enough to encompass the entire planet. Melting ice and large pools of water evaporated instantly as they were turned into Strangelets. It wasn’t long before the only thing that remained was the Earth size sphere which was the core of the planet.
The exposed Beta wormhole then passed through the Alpha wormhole and, for a moment, Professor Ricter wondered what might happen. Two wormholes, each one opening to different dimensions or universes, it was never really clear exactly what, crossed paths so rarely he wondered if perhaps this was the first time it had ever happened.
The journey from orbit to the sun was a quick one. So quick, in fact, it seemed that the wormhole beta opening entered real space almost as soon as left it. Material blasted off from the sun would keep the Alpha Wormhole open for years. The wormhole that the core entered was now fading from existence; it had no more material to feed its hunger.
As the Beta Wormhole entered real space its gravity affected the sun. The core was small, a simply grey dot barely visible past the glare of the sun. Small but not insubstantial it still had enough gravity to effect local areas of the sun.
A long plume of nuclear fire flew into the opening and disappeared. The wormhole continued to suck the energy from the sun as it approached. This caused Professor Ricter to sit up and observe very carefully.
He thought the Beta Wormhole would simply fade away but that wasn’t the case. It was small but the effects were dramatic. It pulled in more material as it approached the sun’s surface. Huge flares, each one larger than the wormholes itself, were absorbed.
The Beta wormhole touched the surface of the sun and sent a ripple across the surface like someone dropping a stone into an ocean. The sun took the collision in stride and slowly ate the wormhole until it was gone. Nothing more than a memory to a universe the easily forgot.
What was going to happen now? Professor Ricter thought. Would it continue to draw in all the sun’s energy until there was nothing left? A drain connected to the ocean would eventually empty the ocean if the basin was infinite.
******
Thousands of light years away the effects of Professor Ricter’s experiment were devastating. Every Beta Wormhole opening seemed as if it was affected at the exact same time. Dyson Spheres all over the universe had to deal with the sudden onslaught of hard radiation, heat, fire and sun material as it poured out between the universes. Within the first few minutes trillions of Handlers died. It was a catastrophe unlike anything they had experienced and none of them knew what had happened or how to stop it.
In center of all the chaos sat the Arwen. She had docked with the badly damaged slab and was working to unload the Handlers. The slab was larger than most she had encountered and held more Handlers than she would have guessed. The brig was going to be crowded but Marjorie was sure they were used to crowded conditions.
Karla and Hans walked in front of Captain Cook as she explored the interior of the ship. It was featureless to her but from what Karla had told her the Handlers could sense things humans couldn’t and to them this place was work of art.
“What now?” Captain Cook asked.
“We don’t know,” Karla translated while Hans continued to tap on the ground. “The reports from the home world are not good. They had hundreds of thousands of Wormholes opened all around the planet to help transfer Handlers from home back to their ships or back to their spheres. Whatever is happening to the Wormholes has trapped them on the planet.”
“We have our teams working on it,” Captain Cook replied stepping aside to let a group of Handlers skitter by her. “Their best guess is some sort or natural phenomenon with the Wormholes.”
“If you could share that information with our scientist we would be grateful.” Karla looked at the Captain and said. “You don’t think this is some sort of new weapon you have deployed on us?”
“I don’t know,” She replied. “If it is I wasn’t aware of it.”
“Surely you can see how this works to your advantage. If we can’t use Wormhole space we’re stranded.”
“Until you figure out how to open an Alpha Wormhole, which I’m sure you’ll figure out soon enough.”
Hans tapped on the ground loudly. “Sorry,” Karla said then tapped a reply. “He was upset we were talking without him. I told him what we were talking about.”
“And, what does he think?”
“He agrees, they’ll find a way to create Strangelets and they will continue to grow through your wormholes instead. It’s only a matter of time.”
“Captain,” The Arwen said over the communicator. “We’ve picked up the last of the Handlers, we’re ready to go.”
“Okay, I’ll be over in a bit.” She turned to Karla, “Are you going to take us to the Home World now?”
“Yes, we will do as we promised.”
“Should I drop you off there or will you be coming back with me?”
Karla asked the question and Hans quickly replied. “We’ll stay here. Without access to the Beta Wormholes he sees no point in leaving.”
******
Captain Cook sat on the bridge and looked around. Everyone was ready for the next phase, heading toward the Handler’s Home world to get some data. “How are we going to do this?” She asked Hans, who was standing on his back legs making him tall enough where they could look at each other eye to stalk.
“They’ll detect any Wormholes you use,” Karla said as Hans tapped. “We need to get there though normal power.”
“Helm, how long will it take a full power?”
“About six weeks,” her helmsmen replied.
“We can cut that time down. Tell him we’re going to use our wormhole to get within five light minutes of the planet. They won’t know we’re there for at least five minutes and by then we’ll be moving toward the planet.”
Karla translated and Hans’ stalk twitched, he let out some sort of scent with smelled like peppermint. “He said that will work. He suspects they might not even notice since they’re so busy dealing with the Wormhole issue.”
“That’s really what I’m hoping for,” Captain Cook replied. “Okay, Chief. . .”She paused and remembered the Chief McFerren’s body was on the morgue right now and she would never hear his voice again. He’
d been with her since their first visit to Regal ten years ago. Not having him on the Arwen would take a lot of getting used to. “Engineering, do we have any bullet’s ready?”
“Yes, Captain. One is in the chamber.”
“Good, get another one ready, this is going to be a short trip.”
Chapter fifty-five
Even at five light minutes from the planet it took the Arwen a good week to arrive in orbit around the Home world. The reports from the Home world told of mass devastation from the malfunctioning wormholes. Trillions of Handler’s were dead and trillions more stranded in route to the planet. It would take the Handler’s hundreds of Earth years to recover. Whatever the cause it gave the Earth the time it needed.
As promised the Handlers showed The Arwen’s engineers how to cloak themselves from the ships which orbiting the planet. It was a simple shield modification which bounced any of the Handlers sensors away. It wouldn’t last too long; eventually someone would discover the anomaly, so once they were in orbit around the planet Captain Cook ordered full and quick scans of the surface.
Captain Cook looked at her screens as the scans came in. The devastation on the surface affected her in a way she never thought she could feel for an enemy. Buildings which had once been thousands of feet tall had crumbled to the ground as the heated blast from the Wormholes melted whatever they used to hold them up.
Blackened ground scared the surface in thousands of locations and covered thousands of miles of land. The Handlers on the ground struggled to contain the fires that ragged out of control on every corner of the planet. Cities which housed hundreds of millions of Handlers burned bright enough to be seen easily from where the Arwen orbited.
The ships which had been in orbit continued to fall into the atmosphere as their engines failed. Most of the crews had been killed, burned to death inside, with no one around to man the stations to keep them in orbit. Once every few minutes another bright flash marked the death of another ship as it burned up in the atmosphere. A few of the larger ships crashed onto the surface leaving craters and more devastation.
The hardest area hit was a canyon that seemed to bisect the planet down the middle. Hans had explained to her this was where the grubs grew and this was where the Handlers went too to eat, mate, and have their children. There were thousands of Wormholes located all around the valley to accommodate the influx of Handlers. Now, those wormholes were glowing white hot and blasting the valley with heat and radiation.
There was an odd pink mist which was hazing the readings. When she asked Hans about it he replied, “It’s the grieving mist. The planet will be covered in it and it will soak into the soil. We’ll remember this devastation for millions of years and the mist will become a permanent record of our pain.”
The devastation played on Captain Cook’s emotion as she paced the hallways. She remembered what Ann had told her about the Handler’s and how they could be reasoned with. How they needed to see the similarities between the races.
She had these thoughts in her head as she walked into the room where Juliet lay. Juliet looked up at the Captain, smiled and gave a quick salute. “Captain Cook, good to see you.”
“How are you feeling?”
“They still won’t give me my leg back. I thought you talked to them about that?”
“I did and they told me once the leg is in hibernation it’s there until they’re ready to reattach. Something about being unable to hibernate it again. Don’t worry about it. I’m sure they know what they’re doing.”
“I guess. I still think they should have at least tried.”
“Nanobots seem like magic sometimes and if they had asked me I would have told them to wait till we got back to Earth to try it. Sorry, Commander, you’re not going to get your way this time.”
“Fine, whatever.” She replied with a small laugh
She looked down at the floor and collected her thoughts. She looked up when she was ready. “We need to make a decision.”
“We? Captain, this is your ship, you make the choices.”
“I know, in the end I’ll make the final choice, but only after talking to you about it because this will affect you just as much as it’ll affect me. Over the past few days we’ve gathered a lot of information about the Handlers and it needs to get back to Earth. I need you to take the Arwen back to Earth because I’m going to stay here and help.”
Juliet did nothing to hide the emotions on her face. The shock was evident in her open jaw and in her eyes which seemed to grow larger by the second. “Captain, are you sure you want to do that?”
“Yes and no. There is no promise I’ll be accepted by them, I haven’t even talked to Hans about it yet but I feel there needs to be someone from Earth here to set an example. I’ve been watching the way Hans and Karla have interacted, he seems to love her as much as she loves him and if they have the ability to bond like that we have a chance to reach an understanding.”
“That’s a huge risk your taking.”
“I know, it might be for nothing but it might be for everything. I no longer have Nanobots in my body so I won’t live more than a normal human. To them it’ll be an eye blink but maybe in that time I can make an impression so when they do meet us again they’ll have a better understanding of whom we are.”
“What about Earth? What about the people who rely on you there?”
Captain Cook shook her head. “No, there’s no one back on Earth for me. I’ve done all I could for Earth, sacrificed so much for that little blue ball. If I were to go back what would they make me do? Tour the planet giving speeches? Send me off somewhere to retire? Send me back on duty with the Arwen were we’ll fight another war?”
“So, your mind is already made up then? “
“It is,” Captain Cook replied standing from her chair. “Commander, I am officially giving you a field promotion to Captain. Arwen, make note of the time and date and also make note that I would like this to be a permanent promotion for Juliet. Captain Monrow, congratulations.”
“I don’t feel much like celebrating but thank you, Captain.”
“It’s Marjorie from here on out. Arwen, get Hans and Karla ready, I’m going to need to talk with them as well.”
********
Karla looked to be about twenty five years old by now. The rapid aging which had devastated Ann didn’t seem to be affecting her in the same way. Marjorie wondered about that when she sat down across from her and Hans at the table. She no longer wore her Captain’s uniform and instead was dressed in a pair of comfortable pants and a white tee shirt. Normally she’d wear this outfit when she worked out or when she went onto a hotter planet. Now it was the only thing she had that seemed appropriate for the occasion. “So, what did you decide?”
“It’s difficult for us to understand why you are doing this,” Karla replied. “We suspect it’s some sort of trick.”
“It’s not. Your planet has been devastated, I could easily attack it from orbit and finish the job but I don’t believe that’s what I should do. My view of how things are and my place amongst them has changed since this war started. It probably started to change before that, before we even encountered each other.” She sat back in her chair, the memories of the past ten years flooded back to her. “When I joined the Corps we were out there finding new wonders and exploring. I’m not sure I wanted to be a part of that, science has always bored me. But I did want to be a part, a small cog, in allowing mankind the option to go out and explore. I wanted to protect us from hostel aliens, not because I wanted to kill the aliens but because I wanted to give us a chance to. . .I don’t know, make peace with them.”
“Peace by war?” Karla asked. “That seems odd.”
“You have my memories; you tell me how odd it is. Some of Earth’s longest stretches of peace happened after our most devastating wars. But, no, that’s not really what I’m talking about. When I joined we were all about protecting and exploring, that’s what I signed up for. Then you guys came along and all we were a
bout was war, building up the fleet, attacking when we could, defending when we needed too. It became more about preserving ourselves and not about expanding. That’s not the corps I signed up for. Don’t get me wrong, I’d do everything I was asked to do, everything I was ordered to do but it started to feel empty, I started to feel bad about all the killing I’ve done.”
“The number of Handlers you’ve killed is a very small part of our population,” Karla said. She had somehow managed to keep up with Marjorie’s rambling, translating it quickly for Hans.
“I have a lot of blood on my hands. I’ve ordered the death of hundreds, maybe even thousands of beings. I could very well be the biggest mass murder of all times and all so I could save Earth and the Corps. It was a noble cause and I would do it again if I needed too. But, I can’t help but think if it could have been avoided. If we had talked to our enemies, tried to find an understanding before attacking. I’m not saying it would have worked, we have a lot of enemies and not enough friends, but what if there was a chance to avoid the bloodshed? Shouldn’t we have taken it?”
“The Handlers have never negotiated,” Karla replied. “But maybe they could start.”
“Exactly what I was thinking,” Marjorie replied. “This seems to be the best place to start. You’re planet needs help, I can only really provide my hands and my brain but I’m hoping that the kindness of an Earthling will create some sort of impression, something that you can recall the next time we meet.”
“That could be in a thousand years,” Karla translated. “It will take a long time to undo the damage that has been done.”
“I’ll be long dead by then, that’s true, but you have a long memory. A Handler I impress tomorrow might be the same Handler who meets us again. That’s powerful if you think about it. Our lives are short, we remember people from the past but that always gets distorted by time. You are unique in that if you have a question about someone who lived a thousand years ago you can probably find that Handler and ask them questions, right?”
The Arwen Book two: Manifest Destiny Page 42