by Saxon Andrew
“We need to see if it can detect us.”
“Essay, that ship will be undergoing the change if it came through two black holes. Its hull will change to a neutral charge shortly.”
“I know, Erica but…” Essay paused and smiled.
Erica saw his expression and said, “WHAT?”
“That ship is going to have to run back to its civilization shortly. Not only will the hull be changed but its atmosphere containers will also undergo the change. They won’t be able to breathe the atmosphere they brought with them when it starts changing to a neutral charge.”
Kamela looked up, “They’re turning around.”
Essay looked up, “Poul, drop into other space and see if that ship gives any indication that it detects us as it passes! Be ready to run!”
Kamela was shaking her head as she closed her eyes tight and Essay watched her closely as he put his hand on the ship’s thrusters. If she closed her eyes tighter, he was going to get out of there. He watched her and saw her eyes start to relax and open. He took his hand off the thruster handle and heard her thought, “It’s like you said. They’re running out of atmosphere and are fleeing back to their civilization.”
“Now would be the time to get the fleets back to the colonies.”
“I agree, Essay. Poul, get us to the fleets now!” The Prophet’s Eyes activated its stardrive and roared across the galaxy at a speed only it could muster. Kamela looked at Essay, “It didn’t detect our presence.”
“I suspect when it completes the change and is in other space instead of subspace that might change.”
“I doubt it.”
Essay looked up, “Why do you say that, Poul?”
“Because dark energy can’t be seen in either of the two spaces and we know it exists in both; our force field is created by dark energy.”
Essay started nodding and turned to Erica, “We have to convert our warship’s force fields to dark energy reactors.”
Erica shrugged, “They won’t be powerful enough to withstand the Azura or Builder blasters if we use dark energy to power them.”
“I’ll let the engineers figure it out. However, at least we know how to hide. We lost the ability to remain an unknown enemy to them but maybe we can get it back.”
Kamela smiled, “I’ve contacted the Bosrean on the Fleet’s Vessels and they are headed toward the Ghost Colony now. We can go there as well.”
“You don’t want to follow that ship?”
“No, we need to plan what we’re going to do about them. That’s going to happen at the Admiralty Building.”
Essay nodded and pushed the thruster handle forward as he turned the Prophet’s Eyes toward the distant Coma Cluster. He looked at Erica smiling, “Are you ready to tell me why you chose to come on this mission?”
Erica’s face turned red, “I thought you had forgotten about that.”
“Nope.”
“No, not yet.”
Essay smiled, “Let me know if you change your mind.”
“You’ll be the second to know.”
“Second?”
“Kamela will hear my thoughts first.”
Essay turned to Kamela, “You already know, don’t you?” Kamela put an imaginary key to her lips, turned it, and threw it over her shoulder. Essay laughed out loud and Erica turned a deeper shade of red.
• • •
The conference room was full. The scientists and engineers were on one side and every officer in the fleet with a rank of Commodore and higher on the other. Steve, Gabe, and Kamela, along with the Bosrean Leader in his space armor were at the front table.
The recording of the giant warship was shown and everyone in the room was shocked silent. Steve looked out at the gathering and smiled, “It never gets easier.” He looked at Kamela, “Stop me if I saw something wrong, please.” Kamela smiled and nodded. “It appears the civilization that sent that ship into our universe was setting us up when they allowed us to scan one of their older warships. Our Kindred friend heard their thoughts and they intend to allow the four major advanced civilizations to fight it out and then remove the winner. We are currently not an Unknown Enemy to them; I’m sure they’ve scanned our warships in the Builder’s Universe and they scanned the Prophet’s Eyes when it originally entered their galaxy. They know us and our capabilities. However, they do not know about our colonies and I’m sure they’re going to become suspicious if they go and take a look at Earth. We can’t prevent that and I’m positive they will know that our fleets weren’t built there.”
Steve paused and shrugged, “To find us, they will have to go out and explore every galaxy between the colonies and the Milky Way. They also won’t know which direction to start their search. George Luge, Sr. has informed me that there are more than a billion galaxies they would have to search before finding us if they start looking in all directions. I suspect they won’t succeed in finding us before this current tableau resolves itself. The only way they will be able to find our colonies is for them to hear our communications and get a line on them. That’s why we’ve asked the Bosrean to assist us in communicating.” Steve turned to Neilar, “We greatly appreciate your willingness to assist us.”
“Our destinies are entangled, Admiral.”
Steve smiled and looked back out at the gathering, “We are going to need to modify our warships due to this new known enemy. Our scientists and engineers are working to that end and I trust they will develop the tools we need to defend ourselves. We do know that this new enemy fears us for some unknown reason and deliberately erased the recordings we made when the Prophet’s Eyes entered their domain. They are unaware that copies of that recording still exist here in the Admiralty’s database. We’ll be studying that recording diligently to see what they’re worried about. In the meantime, we will not be interfering with the Azura invasion of the Carand Galaxy or the Builder’s passage through the Milky Way’s black hole, which we believe will happen tomorrow. We’ve learned a lesson in this. If not for Kamela coming to us when she did, we would have been completely unaware of this new threat. It would be an Unknown Enemy to us and we all know that the Unknown enemy will kill you. We were going to take on the Azura and the Builders in order to defend Earth from them and that violates the first Death Prophecy. By going to their galaxy and allowing them to see our ship, we lost the advantage of being unknown and as a result, we made an aggressive civilization stronger.”
Gabe lowered his head and shook it. Janell put her hand on his arm and whispered, “You didn’t know.”
Gabe looked at her, “I should have. I was wrong to do it.” Janell sighed and they turned back to Steve.
Steve lowered his head and turned to the Naval Officers seated to his right, “Starting now, all communications will be done through the Bosreans on your ships and that includes ship-to-ship communications. This new enemy isn’t telepathic and they will not be able to detect the Bosreans. If you find it necessary to make a long range communication, and I do hope you know it had better be for a pressing reason, you will use the old other space communicators and your ship’s computer will be encrypting them using different formats as they’re being sent.” Steve turned and looked at Kamela before turning back to the officers, “Kamela is of the opinion that they can’t detect that system but I’m not going to take the risk until that is absolutely confirmed beyond any doubt. We will not use that system to send a message out from the colonies. Since the message travels the known universe, we will receive them being sent from our fleets but will not respond to them. If action is required, we will send a ship.”
Steve stared at the officers and looked at Essay and Erica sitting in the front row of the assembly, “For the foreseeable future, we are going to depend on the crew of the Prophet’s Eyes to keep track of what’s going on and keep us informed. They have determined that the new enemy ship can’t detect them behind a dark energy force field. Until we can modify our ships to use that technology, they will remain here in the colonies.”
&nb
sp; Steve saw the frown appear on Amy’s face and he said, “Is something wrong, Admiral Hart?”
“What if Earth is threatened by one of these aggressive civilizations?”
Steve stared and her and then looked around the room, “All of us need to remember why the colonists left Earth to build new worlds. They left because all of our species was on one planet and represented a real threat to the eradication of all humans in one attack. We will not risk the thirteen colonies to save Earth if we aren’t able to confront this new enemy and expect to win. That would defeat the purpose of having established them in the first place.” Steve looked back at Amy as he said, “Do all of you understand!?”
The room reverberated with, “YES, SIR!!”
Amy nodded and lowered her head. She feared that the home world of humanity and the manatees her family loved were in danger of being destroyed.
“The Bosrean have sent us twenty thousand of their citizens and we are modifying our Hawk Fighters to their needs and they will go out and form a line of scouts four hundred light years between them. That line will form up between the Milky Way and our colonies. We will have the Carriers spaced behind them to support their ships and be the first line of defense. We will have eight more Carriers completed in nine months and they will join the five we currently have in the fleet when they come on line. For the moment, we will hide and wait to see what happens.” Steve turned to the scientists and engineers, “I have impressed on you that we need something to give our warships an edge. We will not continue building the Essay Warships until you develop the tools they will need to confront the four enemies facing us. I realize that they can take on the Darkness and Azura Warships but the Builders and this new enemy have too large of an edge.” Steve looked at the front row directly in front of the stage, “You need to get working.” George Luge, the Lead Scientist, sitting in the front row nodded.
Steve looked up at the gathering and said, “We are changing the name of one of our class of warships. The Essay Class Battleships and all future main battleships will be named after the officer that gave his life to prove them in combat. From this day forward, the Essay Battleships will be called the John Hart Class of Warships. They deserve the name of the Officer that loved them more than his own life.”
The Battleship Commanders stood up and cheered the announcement. Amy and Tim felt their emotions and fought their tears back. Those around them patted them on their backs as they cheered the announcement. Amy looked up at Steve with tears in her eyes and saw him nod. Steve leaned down and spoke loudly into the microphone, “This meeting is adjourned!”
The cheers grew louder and Steve turned to Kamela, “I will be going with you to observe the Builders entry into our universe.”
Kamela stared at him and then shook her head, “What you’re planning is not a good idea.”
“I am still going to do it.”
Kamela started slowly shaking her head, “Admiral, please reconsider.”
“No.”
Steve walked away and Essay saw the exchange and thought, “Kamela, what was that about?”
“It appears the Admiral is insisting on going to see an old friend.”
Essay’s eyes narrowed and then he understood, “You have to stop him!”
“I’ve told him it would not be a good idea and he refuses to listen.”
“We could leave without him, you control the Prophet’s Eyes.”
“I’ve considered that but something inside me is preventing me from exercising that option. There’s more here than I’m able to see. Besides, we depend on the Admiral to keep the Eyes running. Without the support of fuel and stores, we’d be grounded in less than a year.”
He started shaking his head and Erica leaned over and asked what was going on. Essay turned to her, “Getting the last word is more important than I thought.”
“What?”
Essay watched his father leave the room and knew there was no stopping him. “I’ll tell you later.”
• • •
Amy went to Timmy and hugged him, “I’m so proud of what Admiral Connor has done.”
“Me, too, Mom.”
Amy hugged him tightly and saw Jenny leaving the room with a Commodore. She leaned back and looked at Tim, “Is everything ok between you and Jenny?” Timmy stared at her in silence and Amy could see something was wrong in his expression. “What’s going on, Son?”
Timmy looked over Amy’s shoulder and saw Jenny exiting the room with another officer, “We’ve never had enough time together with all the missions John and I were sent on and serving on the Essays. She’s had more time with the Commander of her Carrier than we had over the last five years. She’s decided he’s the one for her.”
“I’m so sorry, Timmy. I know how much you love her.”
Timmy shrugged, “John used to tell me that love one way is worse than no love at all. I wondered what he was talking about but I think I understand now.”
“Are you going to be ok?”
“Admiral Eagle contacted me when the word got out and he said I need to stay busy. The saving grace of this is that we aren’t in the same Carrier Group.”
“Why didn’t you contact me?”
“Mom, the loss of John is enough for you to deal with. This is something I’m going to have to come to terms with. I’ll be fine.”
“Come and see me; we’ll have dinner by the bay.”
“I will. It appears we won’t be going anywhere for a while.” Amy hugged him again as the former Essay Commanders that served under John came over and gave their condolences. She wished that love didn’t have to be so hard. It reminded her that she needed to make sure she spent enough time with her husband. Nothing should be taken for granted.
Chapter Sixteen
The Builders came flooding through the black hole and the lead Defense Globes spread out and went after the giant gravity towers the Darkness had placed around the black hole. Hundreds of them exploded and the survivors activated their stardrives and fled from the horde of Builder Warships flooding out of the black hole. The Darkness Warships stood no chance against the giant Blue Defense Globes and they ran before the towers joined in the retreat. Steve watched the Builders destroying the gravity towers and shrugged, “Well, so much for them being able to destroy the Builder’s Warships.”
Erica looked up from her panel, “They could destroy the warships but the Globes and Worlds are beyond their ability to do harm.”
Steve looked at Kamela, “Show me what the Leader of the Builders orders when his World comes through the black hole.” Kamela nodded and stared at the wall monitor. The Defense Globes spread out around the event horizon and as they assumed formation, the giant Builder Worlds began coming out of the event horizon. Steve looked at Kamela and she shook her head. He turned back to the monitor and thirty minutes later he heard the thoughts Kamela was hearing. “Leader, the large vessels that were pushing dust into the black hole have fled toward the spiral galaxy closest to this one.”
“Were they the same towers that were pushing dust into the other side of our black hole?”
“Yes, Leader, they were.”
“And they are fleeing toward that spiral galaxy in the distance.”
“It’s about two and a half million light years away.”
“So we’ll meet at last. Once all the Worlds are through the black hole, assume attack formation and we’ll follow them toward that galaxy.”
“You don’t wish to settle here, Leader?”
The Builder Leader saw the Elders on his panel and quickly said, “It is in that spiral galaxy where our enemy lives. They sent those towers here to prevent us from entering this universe and that is where we must go to remove them. I will not allow them to continue being a threat to us.” The Elders disappeared from his panel and he stared at a hologram of the Andromeda Galaxy. Now it was time to pay them back for their attack.
Steve listened to the exchange and looked at Essay, “Take me to the center of Andromeda and open this
frequency when we arrive.” Erica saw the frequency appear on her console and looked up at Steve. She nodded and Steve turned back to watching the wall monitor. The monitor showed the black hole disappear behind them and the Milky Way suddenly disappeared behind them. The Andromeda Galaxy was getting larger by the second and Essay saw his father smile. It was a smile like none he had ever seen on his father’s face. His eyebrows came down as he wondered what demon had possessed him.
• • •
Levi sat at his control board and listened to the reports coming in from the towers and warships fleeing the arrival of the Builders. All of his plans were for nothing. Suddenly he heard in his mind, “It looks like your demons are coming to claim you.”
Levi looked around at all the mayhem happening in the huge conference room and thought, “Who are you?”
“What’s wrong Old Friend, you don’t recognize me?”
“Connor?”
“I’ve come to tell you that you should expect uninvited guests shortly. Just like I did twenty years ago when you betrayed my species.”
“I’ve wished a thousand times that I had not done that. I acted rashly and foolishly. I can’t tell you how many times I wished I had contacted you to tell you.”
“That’s too bad. But there are consequences to the decisions we make and yours are coming to you.”
“Could you prevent them from destroying us?”
“That’s no longer important. I’m here to watch you pay the price of your treachery.”
“We stand no chance against them.”
“I’ve noticed that. I would highly recommend that you get some ships away with some of your population. I believe the Builders are somewhat angry with you.”
“I’ve issued those instructions. I don’t think I’ll be able to save very many of my people in the time that remains.”
“Oh well.”
“You hate me, don’t you?”
Steve snarled, “More than you know.”
“I did what I thought was right.”