“He said ‘which’, Colonel Bishop.”
“Oh, for-” Skippy was disgusted. “You are both idiots. I gave you a very detailed explanation of how-”
Again, he went silent. Nagatha spoke before I could. “Joseph, Skippy now understands that he has not told you anything about the generators. He tried to, but something inside him is-”
“Well, shit,” Skippy said sheepishly. “Apparently, the effect generators is a subject I am not allowed to discuss with you. After I rebuilt my matrix in the Roach Motel, the restrictions that prevented my transferring technology to humans have been loosened, or I have found ways around them. This subject, however, is still restricted. I even tried sending the data in a file to your laptop, that didn’t work. My matrix will not even allow me to discuss the data with Nagatha.”
“That is true,” she confirmed. “It is also very frustrating. We attempted every known form of communication, and they all failed.”
“Crap. Ok, Ok, uh-” Uh what? I asked myself. If two super-smart AIs could not solve the problem, how could a filthy monkey fix it? “Let’s try something simple. You said there are millions of these generators. Enough of them to completely surround the galaxy?”
“Correct,” he replied slowly, as if surprised he was able to speak.’
“I heard that,” I assured him. He had been able to answer a simple question. “How about this? What do these generators look like? No, forget that,” I said as I realized that I didn’t care. “What is their power source?”
“They pull power from higher dimensions,” he explained slowly. “Very similar to the way wormholes operate. In fact,” he continued as I gave him a thumbs up that I could hear. “Effect generators utilize the same base technology as wormhole event horizons. They are sort of modified wormholes, without the ability to connect across distances. Instead of using the power to create an Einstein-Rosen bridge, the power is channeled into-”
“You stopped talking after ‘channeled into’.”
“Ok, good. Hmm, that was more than I thought I would be allowed to say. Keep going, Joe.”
Not having any idea how to ask about what the power was used for, I changed tactics. “The Elders built millions of these things?”
“Yes, Joe. It was a major, major effort by the Elders. Constructing the, the shield- Did you hear that? I said ‘shield’.”
“I heard that.”
“Good. Constructing the shield must have taken thousands of years. I now believe I understand why the Elders created wormholes to the satellite galaxies. Not for colonies, but to use the raw materials in the dwarf galaxies and star clusters, to manufacture effect generators. The Elders stripped raw materials from those satellite star formations to build the shield. Now that I know what to look for, the signs are obvious. Joe, this effort must have consumed their society for thousands of years.”
“Why did they- Wait.” He probably could not answer the question I intended to ask.
“I discovered something else, Joe. Um, how about you keep your thumb up while I am talking, and down when my voice is cut off?”
“Will do.”
“I discovered the shield has multiple layers, of ages ranging across at least three thousand years. Generators that were installed early on are crude, like the Elders rushed them into production. Also, all of those early generators were all severely damaged, or destroyed.”
“Ah, the early ones were a bad design?” I guessed.
“No.”
“Ok, then, uh, they just wore out after a while?”
“No, Joe. They were damaged, by-”
I dropped my thumb. “You stopped talking again. They were damaged.” I stopped to think, and looked down to my uniform pants, which had a mystery stain from when I ate breakfast.
Uniform pants.
I wore a uniform because I am a soldier, in the military.
A lot of stuff gets damaged in the military, and not by accident.
“Skippy, damage can be an accident, or it can be deliberate. Like, a hostile act. Is that what happened?”
“I suspect I will not be allowed to say what I want, so what I will do is confirm the damage was not an accident. If you know what I mean.”
“Shit. Yeah, I know what you mean. This shield, barrier, whatever you call it. That thing prevents wormholes from being projected outside it?”
“It prevents wormholes from crossing in both directions. From inside to outside. And, from outside to inside,” he added slowly. “If you know what I mean. The shield does more than that, but apparently I can’t tell you its true purpose.”
“Oh my-” That stunned me. “The Elders were trying to stop something from outside the galaxy from coming in? They, the Elders feared something that is outside the galaxy?”
“Without telling you something that is not allowed, let’s just say I now think I know why the Elders ascended. It was not, as I thought before, because they were bored with their physical existence.”
“They were running away? From an external threat?”
He paused, then, “Did I just say something?”
“No.”
He sighed. “This is highly annoying. Let me try this: I do not disagree with what you said.”
“Got it.”
“Let me try saying something else. It is possible that I now understand why the Elders have kept machinery like wormholes and Sentinels operating after they ascended. Those mechanisms may be still protecting them. Protecting their control over-”
I waited to see whether he was making a dramatic pause, or something has interrupted him. “Uh, you stopped talking again.”
“Yup. Clearly, I am not allowed to even hint about that subject.”
“Let me try to guess, then. The Elders left Sentinels behind, to prevent anyone from using Elder technology, like weapons. Because use of those weapons could damage the shield, or whatever else the Elders left behind to protect their ascended selves?”
“Again, I cannot disagree with what you just said.”
“Got it. Ok, so that explains why the Guardians are protecting places like the Roach Motel. Something in that star system not only was important to the Elders, it is still vital to them today.”
“I do not disagree.”
“Oh my God. What kind of threat could have frightened the Elders? I know you can’t answer that. Can you?”
“No. Also, I cannot confirm there was a threat, if you know what I mean.”
“Is this why you said this issue might be catastrophic, but not an immediate concern? Because for now, this shield is protecting the entire galaxy?”
“Shmaybe. You are close, Joe.”
“Ok, Ok.” I was close. Close to what? “Hey, maybe the shield and Sentinels and whatnot are protecting the Elders, but will not necessarily protect us lowly meatsacks? If this external threat acts only against us, and not against anything the Elders care about, we are not protected?”
“You will not hear me disagreeing with your speculation, Joe. If you know what I mean.”
“Holy shit. Yeah, I know what you mean. Damn it, even if we could lay a smackdown on the Maxolhx, there is a bigger threat out there? Crap! Do the Maxolhx know about this?”
“They have no clue, Joe. The Rindhalu have a vague understanding of the-” He stopped talking again, so he was trying to say it a different way. “The spiders have a basic theoretical understanding of what the Elders built the shield to do, but the spiders do not know there is a way to control-”
“You stopped talking again.”
“Yup. That is probably all I am allowed to say.”
“You said enough to scare the shit out of me, Skippy.”
Nagatha spoke again. “Does any of this really matter, Colonel Bishop?”
“How could it not-” But she interrupted me.
“The Maxolhx are an immediate threat to the existence of your species. Certainly, this other threat could be worse, but by the time that threat becomes important, humanity might be extinct. I do not think t
his new knowledge, about an Elder shield around the galaxy, changes the fact that you currently need to deal with the battlegroup the Maxolhx are sending to Earth?”
“No,” I sighed. “No, it does not. Nagatha, you’re right.”
“Ooh. Joseph, while I am not actually female, hearing a man say that is delicious.”
She made me laugh. “I’m glad to hear that. Skippy, does this shield mean we should not set up a beta site in a satellite galaxy?”
“No. The Sculptor galaxy is closer to the shield but that hardly matters. If the shield is breached, reality is not safe anywhere.”
“Reality?” I had no idea what he meant by that.
“Huh. You heard that? It surprises me I was allowed to say that. I am talking about the quantum layer of reality, Joe. It- Damn. Something inside me is warning to stay away from that subject.”
“Would I understand, if you were able to talk?”
“No way, dude,” he chuckled. “Your little monkey brain would explode.”
“Good enough then. Let’s keep this between the three of us for now, huh? There isn’t anything we can do about it anyway.”
“No, there is not,” Skippy agreed. “Nagatha is right, you need to worry about the Maxolhx first.”
“Yeah.” My life sucked so bad that taking ten minutes to hear about a threat to the entire galaxy felt like a vacation. During that blissful ten minutes of mind-numbing revelations about the Elders, I had not thought about the Maxolhx.
“So, Joe,” Skippy asked. “What is your plan to stop that battlegroup?”
“Working on it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
I sensed trouble when Smythe offered to help me with the coffee cups from the staff meeting. There was only one tray to carry, I didn’t need help. He wanted to talk with me. “Sir, whatever we do, especially if we are to engage in a stand-up fight, we need a new ship. A better ship. A true warship. The Flying Dutchman has served admirably, we couldn’t ask for more. But, she is worn out, and was never a proper warship.”
“Getting a new ship has been on my To Do list for a while now,” I replied as I stacked coffee cups in a bin to be washed. “Until recently, I was hoping it would get to the top of the list, after we got the beta site settled. With a second ship, we could dedicate the old Dutchman,” I patted a bulkhead affectionately, “to shuttling between Earth and the beta site. While our new ship conducts recon, and defends Earth. Now?” I flipped the tray over and jammed it in the slot with more force than was needed. “We may not get the chance at all.”
“Respectfully, Sir, I disagree. Whatever will do, whatever we can do, it will be easier with a fully-capable warship. Having that capability gives us options we don’t have now.”
“Ok, Ok,” I considered.
“I only mention it, because Skippy is quite certain the battlegroup will not launch for another couple months. That gives us time we can use to acquire a new ship.”
“It does,” I agreed. I also added what he did not say, but I knew he was thinking. “We won’t be doing anything else useful during that time.”
“Except, it may be useful to have the full STAR team with us, to assist with whatever we must do to steal a ship.”
“We need a plan first, Smythe. All right, I’ll think about it. If we develop a workable plan, and we need the full STAR team to implement, we’ll go pluck Giraud’s team off Avalon. And I’ll deal with the consequences.”
Soon after I agreed with Smythe that we needed a real warship, our chief pilot came to my office with an idea for capturing another ship. “What if,” Reed leaned forward across my desk with enthusiasm, making Skippy’s avatar scoot over a bit. “We use our Panther as a lure? We plant it somewhere that has regular traffic, but,” she reconsidered a detail of her plan, “Hmm. It needs to be somewhere we could encounter a ship traveling alone, not a formation. We send out a distress call to lure in, something like a Thuranin heavy cruiser, and we demand they take us aboard. We say we got stranded by mechanical trouble, something like that. As their patrons, we could order them to rescue us.”
“Good initiative, Reed,” I said, and she beamed with a smile before I stomped on her dreams. To be fair to me, I stomped rather gently, certainly more gently than Skippy had been about to do. “Unfortunately, it won’t work. The Thuranin are clients of the Maxolhx, that is true, but the Thuranin hate their masters. If they saw a single, vulnerable dropship in deep space, they would gleefully blast it to dust and cover up the whole incident.”
“Well,” Skippy interjected. “They would probably first try to capture it, to analyze its technology. Plus, you know, capture the crew and torture them for information.”
“Shit,” Reed pushed herself away from the desk with disgust. “Remind me never to sign up for the Maxolhx coalition.”
“I hear they have a great dental plan,” I teased.
“The other problem with that idea is, most capital ships worth capturing travel with escort vessels, never alone,” Skippy added. “Oh, and if you are thinking we could lure a Bosphuraq ship in close enough for me to take over, forget it. For me to take control of a Bosphuraq ship, I would need to be aboard, in hard contact with the ship’s AI, and it would take a while for me to infiltrate their systems. As soon as we got close, their sensors would detect there are no kitties aboard our Panther. Sorry, that won’t work.”
“All right, Skippy,” I snapped at him. “You don’t have to be nasty about it. Reed is trying to think of ways to help, how about you do some of that?”
“I did, you knucklehead. We already went through this whole argument during our Black Ops mission. Remember how we all agreed it is extremely difficult to capture a warship? You had to settle for salvaging a couple derelict Kristang transport ships that had been abandoned.”
Reed stood up. “I’ll let the two of you argue about this, Sir?”
“Yes. Thank you, Reed. Keep thinking, and don’t be afraid to bring ideas to me, or Skippy. Because right now, I got nothing.”
After she left, I leaned my chair back. Something Reed had said got me cooking up an idea. “Skippy, this time we can’t settle for derelict Kristang transport ships. We can’t settle for a Kristang battleship either.”
“What? You want a Thuranin battleship? Joe, the higher you go up the technology ladder, the more difficult it will be to capture such a ship.”
“I don’t want a Thuranin battlewagon, Skippy. We already have a Thuranin warship-”
“Not really,” he objected. “Even the original version of the Dutchman was a space truck, not a true warship. A Thuranin capital ship is a formidable weapon.”
“Formidable enough to take on a Maxolhx warship, and win?”
“Well, no, but that is a fantasy anyway.”
“All right then, you just proved my point.”
“You, had a point? I must have missed it.”
“My point is, if capturing a powerful warship is a fantasy, we might as well be fantasizing about something useful.”
“Like what?”
“Like, we need a Maxolhx warship. Something big, like at least a heavy cruiser.”
He was so stunned, he did not speak for a second or two, an eternity in Skippy time. “O.M.G. Please tell me you are joking.”
“Go big or go home, right?”
“Joe, this is going home in a pine box. No way will the Merry Band of Pirates survive any attempt to take over a Maxolhx warship. That is insane. You know that, right?”
“What I know is, we don’t stand any chance of stopping that battlegroup, unless we have a ship of equivalent power.”
“Hol-ee cow. That’s it. You have finally cracked. The pressure is too much for you. There is a provision in our operating orders for Desai to take command, if she thinks you have lost it. I will notify her-”
“Belay that,” I snapped. “Do not contact her.”
“Maybe you are unclear about the purpose of that provision. If you are considered unfit for command, you can’t give orders to me.
Man, I don’t even need to throw a ‘duh’ into that one. This is too easy.”
“Let me ask you a question first. Did you think I was crazy for taking on a pair of Maxolhx cruisers on our last mission?”
“Um, yes, but-”
“Did you also think it was insane to break into one of the most secure places in the entire galaxy and steal a set of pixies, without the Maxolhx even knowing anything had been stolen?”
“Well, sure, but-”
“How about jumping the ship through an Elder wormhole?”
“Fine,” he huffed. “Those ideas were all crazy.”
“Until we made them work. I could go on all day if you like.”
“I would not like.”
“Then can we agree all those ideas worked, right?”
“UGH.” He did the exasperated diva move of sagging shoulders, bent knees and rolling eyes. “I hate you so much right now, Joe.”
“Can we agree that simply considering ideas does not make me unfit for command?”
“Oh, there are many, many reasons why you are unfit for command. But, fine, I won’t lock you out of the ship’s systems just yet. Let me ask you a question, monkeyboy. Do you have any idea, even the tiniest kernel of a notion, of how we are supposed to board and seize a Maxolhx warship?”
“Capital ship, Skippy. We need a major combatant, not some dinky little frigate.”
“Oh, sure, well of course. If you’re going to dream about getting a pony for your birthday, you might as well throw in a farm and barn for the pony to sleep in.”
“Capital ship, Skippy. Not a pony. Got it?”
“Oh, I got it, Joe. Freakin’ lunatic,” he added under his breath.
Skippy either contacted Desai before I ordered him not to, or he ignored me. She came to my office an hour later. It was in the middle of her duty shift on the bridge, so she thought the situation serious enough to ask someone to take over for her. “Sir,” she said as she sat down across from me. “Skippy tells me we are now trying to capture a Maxolhx battleship?” The way her eyebrow was arched, she wasn’t sure whether I was insane, or Skippy was just screwing with her.
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