I radioed, "Commence action Flush Out."
Ted Markus had assured me that if an enemy ship escaped our combined scanning capability, it and the pilot, had been dead for a century.
An hour and a half later, an enemy fighter rose at North 20 degrees. A Ranger fighter shot it down. There was no ANNU KI mental attack which made me certain they had left snake pilots and gone elsewhere. Three more were shot down to the South by Saucers with the long range disintegrator weapon. According to cockpit Vids the beam wasn't stopped by the energy shield or the craft body.
The sweep completed I ordered, "Drop back ten, do it again, alternate positions as planned."
Five and a half months and four hundred million years further back in time, our observation drones brought us the scenes of the Terra Forming Space Station's Phasing Out. We then held our positions, everyone under Invis shielding, and undertook to add up what we'd accomplished.
We'd killed 4,763 Saucer craft. None of them had ANNU KI pilots. We'd lost seventeen craft of ours, all because of pilot over confidence. The losses were evenly split between our three groups. We'd tried any number of time deviations to confront the real enemy. Either the three embedded ANNU KI ships were sending out the fighters, or they were being placed from Negative Space. The majority opinion centered on Negative Space.
I personally had changed. Paula relayed shortly after the mission started the news I was a father. I and Rafe were fathers, actually. That fact threw me into a spin, until I quit hiding from the obvious and faced the fact that I wasn't going back. None of us new born were going back. I tried to look at the fact that Thelma was not going to join me as a new-born, but my mind refused to go there. Lillian and her Dragon Riders definitely weren't going anywhere. They didn't have anywhere to go to when the ANNU KI had initially attacked them, but back into space. Margaret and her Rangers had changed so much, I gathered from hints dropped, that Ranger HQ didn't want them anywhere but here.
I slowly found myself and got back on my juice, a few days after my revelation. After that I made the most of my task force's ten days leisure rotation to the passenger Ball. I made myself available to the troops whom I knew were hurting also. During that time the entire armada slowly became a seamless unit. As seamless as the individual minds of the new-born and, eventually the Rangers. Jesse and Jane, along with their brothers and sisters became the glue. Their knowingness taught us directly, and indirectly. I hadn't put them in the four way rotation. Instead I'd held them in reserve against a surprise attack. They did maneuvers with the saucer craft which nobody else could do. That resulted from their eon's long use of bulbs. They didn't have to think. They just used.
Trist and I asked for suggestions in writing, prior to scheduling a conference. I went to his ship to hash out some rough plan. When I walked into his dining room he rose and said to his three staff members present, "That's all for now. Don't go far. We'll have orders to be forwarded soon. Have a seat Tild. Bring the man some juice."
I sat. Juice arrived, lots of it, along with snacks and beverages for Trist. Someone thought we were going to be here a long time.
Out of a pocket I took a sheaf of papers. He shifted a stack from his left to be in front of him.
He began, "There's a decision to be made by us Tild. The recommendations I have are well thought out. I expect yours are too. We should have held this meeting before asking for comments. But we didn't. So now we have to decide. Do we root out the embedded ANNU KI ships second by second? Or do we shift our focus to Phaeton? Or do we do both? What say you?"
"The embedded ships aren't going away, won't go away, so we can attack them anytime, in any manner we see fit. The choice would be simpler had the Ranger recruitment team found Captain T. They weren't told to interfere with his life. Maybe we should. He went somewhere to die. Regardless, the question is, can we affect Phaeton's decline. Joshua hasn't reported as to the initiating event so he's probably not far enough back, or he's dead. As far as we know Phaeton didn't have anything to do with Earth from this point on. I suggest we use our Frigates to collect, perhaps fifty, of the people who were at the conference you and I attended. We can collect them slightly after their natural deaths. I can ask Marvin to locate them. Twelve per Frigate shouldn't be an impossible task. Our Invis should hold up. If that's a bust then we'll break the time line of the embedded ships and strip them from Earth time."
Trist pushed the pile of suggestions away from him and said, "You've given this some thought. Thank you. Does this suggestion come from your growing impatience, or your analytical mind?"
"From one, spurred along by the other."
"I was going to suggest something with more finesse. However my way wouldn't have been as conclusive. Maybe finesse is passé'. What do you need to start?"
"Your agreement."
"You've got it. Let's talk again in two weeks. I'm going to dispatch Invis observation drones to Phaeton. I'll see what I can collect from the airwaves. I remember a lot of military frequencies."
I started to rise.
He said, "Not so quick. You'll destroy our image as wise Admirals. Complicated plan to easily reached, shows we endured no sweat, no tears, no glory reaching."
He had a point. I relaxed and said 'Marvin, do it.'
Trist continued, "That chairman, what was his name, Tellurian, He's the first on our list. I never did like him. Now you pick one."
We picked back and forth. When we decided on twenty individuals I said, "Let's bring in this group as a test. We'll run them through Med Deck for recording and checking their Genetic track. Then we'll run them up time slow enough to see Phaeton becoming dust. After that we'll let them loose on the passenger station, with escorts, to get a feel of who we now are. You and your people can handle that. Be nice to them. Then I'll come in and lower the boom. That son of a bitch Psych Doctor who split Tildore's, my, mind is among this group. I know, I know, it was all necessary. But was it? Maybe there is another way to do the weeding out of the corrupted other than kill them?"
Trist answered with a far away look in his eyes, "I don't know, personally. I'd like to think so. But I do know we, you and I, don't have the centuries to sort it out. We have to shift the problem off to someone else and give them the necessary time."
I said, "Alright, let's settle this now. Paula."
SHOOT
"Trist and I are trying to sort out a plan. I'd like to have some answers. Give them to Trist also. First, do our Carriers show in the data base in ARK I?"
NO
"So we have two groups of Elders involved."
SEEMS LIKE THAT'S CORRECT
"Can you get a traveling Med Deck down here?"
YES.
"Can you ask Jesse and Jane if we can order two planetary defense shields like the one on Tosolinko?"
THEY SAY YES, HOW SOON?
"Depends on the next question. Can we have ARK V to set up civilizations on Earth and Phaeton long before the time of any present ones?"
THELMA SAYS IF YOU CAN GET THE TERRA FORMING SPACE STATIONS IN PLACE TO STABILIZE EARLY EARTH, YES.
I asked Trist, "Are you sure you can get the remaining four stations into place?"
"I have the codes. They'll need Time Slip modules, and crews."
"Marcus can do the modules. We'll get the crews, but they'll have to be Genetic Track clear. Paula, can you do that, with any recruits we might receive?"
YES
"Do it. Make sure we have no surprises like the Phaetons did"
AYE, AYE, SIR. I'LL GET BACK TO YOU ON SCHEDULES. ALSO I'LL TELL JESSE AND JANE TO ORDER THE PLANETARY SHIELDS.
I leaned back in my chair and said to Trist, "You able to take part responsibility for this?"
"Hell yes, 50-50, we'll go down in infamy, side by side. I'll have a drink to that, for both of us."
OPERATIONAL AREA - EARLY (ONE CONTINENT) EARTH
TILDORE SECALLO
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Two months into our plan Ted and Lillian asked for a conference wit
h Trist, Paula and me. They wouldn't say what it was for. I had no choice but to arrange it.
We met in my Ball Flagship, in my quarters, that being the most secure point, I thought. Paula and Trist had some of our on board developed fruit wine. Ted and I were still on juice. Lillian had developed a taste for it. Said it kept her slim. I couldn't wrap my mind around a shape changer worrying about slim. She had resolved the stuck gene shift and now her kind had hands, or talons, as they wished.
Ted began, "Lillian and I have been spending a lot of time, years, together. We're trying to establish correlation between her tech, our tech, Elder tech, and Phaeton tech. Both Elder groups, Thelma's, and the Phaeton ones, are under our scrutiny. We've spent about two years together in different time drops. We have met maybe five per-cent of our goal, in relation to what we think knowable."
Lillian continued, "Maybe three percent, but no matter. What we'll now present, will do a job badly needing done. I saw the theory. Ted put the machines together. They're locked in a time drop, so they're secure. We've also looked at what we call, 'overall space', and concluded it might predate the Elders. In any case the Elders used it. We don't know if the IL ANNU KI accessed it, or not. There's mention of them, and their technology therein, but I don't recommend tarrying."
I asked, "What will your machines do, and how?"
Ted answered, "How is in the asking questions of 'over-all space', and getting a response, in code, deciphering it, and slowing it down to enable machines to be manufactured. In short, our machines erase matter. Not like a disintegrator does, by cycling rapidly between negative and positive space. Rather by dissolving the two rings which bind each three fold matrix contact point. Right angle space, or multi angle space, neutralizes one binding ring temporarily, allowing one to move solid objects, which are momentarily not solid, actually two dimensional, to a new location, or back from such. Our machine, using harmonics, completely erases the matrix binders."
Paula beamed, but held her voice.
Trist asked, "And what are we going to do with this machine?"
Lillian answered, "Erase the ANNU KI ships and contents. We've mounted all four of them on platforms which will move backward or forward in time. I know Thelma has her own plan for the South Pole ship. But we can remove the other two. We've already broken the time line of the Canadian one. We break the time line of the Australian one the same way. Then we send our machines back to the past, and to the future. In the past, the machines can be destroyed when their targets no longer exist. In the future they have to be contained."
Ted broke in, "The Canadian one, in my end time, was in a wilderness setting, so we can use airborne containment fields. Not so the Australian one. That will have to be done on land, using many field generators. Mind you, if the harmonic emitters aren't contained they will eat the planet eventually. We'll put means to blow them up in the future as a safety factor, but there will be a lot of damage."
Paula said, "The planet will come to no good end anyway, in many realities. I say, risk it. I know that's from Essence perspective, so the choices are up to you two, Tild, Trist, what say you?"
I said, "Send it to Thelma for the decision. We don't know what she may have in the works already. However, my recommendation is we do it. What about you, Trist?"
"I think, in the end, no matter what the outcome, it would make our Phaeton plan less likely to be interfered with. I vote yes."
Paula said, "I'll get this to Thelma through Essence channels. Meanwhile I suggest we spare no effort to get the Phaeton space stations into place around Earth, and crewed. Maybe we can call on our Ranger friends to supply some manpower?"
Lillian offered, "I can talk to Ranger Margaret, unofficially, and find out if we can expect any additional help from them."
I said, "Let's get to it everyone! We want to be able to provide Thelma specifics if she decides to give this plan the 'green light.' "
OPERATIONAL AREA - PLANET OF MONESLAKIA - DISTANT SOLAR SYSTEM IN A RIM GALAXY
COMMANDER BETTY TRILL
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
I looked once again at the mission authorization. It read ' Permission granted to go where ever with one Battleship and one Rail Gun Dock and take along whomever.' It was signed by Captain Rafe Berger. He'd added, ' Happy Hunting.' If he only knew, but what choice did he have? If his Chief Essence wanted to go off on a secret mission he had no choice to do other than sign off. I put the order in a filing cabinet which could only be opened by other Essences. Hopefully I would be the one to retrieve it and burn it.
Then I started giving orders: Battleship with full crew and a platoon of Essences ready to depart in one day, Rail Gun Dock, aside from Carriers and their Fighters, equipped with a dozen Grouper Wagons, Grouper Wagons holding a platoon of Regs in battle suits with high altitude jumping gear, same one day departure. Mental notice to my second; he was now in charge.
Then I said to Melin, who had been sitting on the couch in my office calmly observing me, "We go to invite Torken on our journey."
"Delicious, no wrong word, I mean I will be happy to see him. Every time I go to see him that Dragon girl is there. Tano is her name. I know you say 'only eat in cold room' but maybe she would make a meal."
I reflected, then realized, genetics are genetics, and said, "She would be too dense. Torken likes to fly. He has had so little freedom. Try to be gracious."
"I don't know gracious, you explain."
"Very well, I will, later. Grab your new pack. We won't be here for a while. I'll explain on the way."
We approached Torken's camp slowly, after skimming over the prairie at breakneck speed for thirty miles. Melin liked to go fast. She loosened her long silky black hair and it streamed out behind her. Who knew? Of course he knew we were there, but he pretended that he didn't. The more practiced he became from Tano's lessons the more he hid his capability. Good thing I was what I was.
He arose from his bedroll with only shorts on, and said aloud, "Good to see you both." In my mind he asked, 'Did you have to bring her along?'
YES
'Oh well.'
He helped Melin exit the runabout and swept his thickly muscled arm in a semi circle.
"Here I'm king, me and the Beast. But he's too dumb to care, only eats."
Melin ignored his claims and said, "Betty says we're going on a hunt."
"Good. I grow lazy, no one to kill here. I better hunter now. Learn from Tano and her friends. Betty, we take along Dragon?"
"No. I have my own Dragon that you can learn to ride. Collect what you need. Beast will be cared for."
"I know. Tano look at him too."
I didn't try to explain he was making Tano a meal in Melin's mind. Maybe she'd mature. Sure, in a million years or so.
With Torken's kit on the back shelf of the runabout and goodbyes said to Beast, we were ready to leave the area. Before we did, I cautioned both of them.
"Don't say anything to anybody we meet about where we might be going. I know you don't yet know, but even when you know, don't discuss anything. Understand?"
Melin said, "Yes."
Torken's voice in my mind cautioned me I should cover my own thoughts.
'Know we're going back to Moneslak, but not say loud.'
THANK YOU BOTH.
I drove directly to the Battleship, alighted, and found the Captains quarters.
Melin said, "My, this is large. I remember large ship rooms."
I didn't comment, just pointed to bed rooms, and said, "Make your selves at home, both of you."
I already knew her memories back to her point of creation. Where she'd been created was a large ship also. We were going to visit that ship.
A knock on my quarter's door came as a surprise. I didn't expect any person to person involvement in getting the ship ready.
I opened the door and a Lieutenant asked, "I'm Curtis Tilzer. May I come in? The EXO had a few questions."
"By all means, let's sit here." I motioned to a table and two chairs. "What does
he need to know out of normal protocol?"
"Just how long we'll be gone, and what resistance we can expect."
"Valid questions, tell him, up to a year. As to resistance, we may be fighting for our lives against an overwhelming foe. He should pack weapons in every cranny. That goes for the Rail Gun Dock too. There won't be any Calvary to call where we're going."
He regarded me grimly and said, "We're our own Calvary, Maam. Thank you. I'll be going, if there's nothing special you require."
I stood and walked to the door with him.
"There isn't, right now. But you're to consider yourself my liaison. We'll be walking about when we arrive. You'll need a Battle Suit and lots of communication gear. Commandeer one of the suites down the hall and get your gear together. Make sure we have personal shields for my people."
Stepping through the door to the hallway saying, "Very well, Maam." He saluted and walked off down the corridor. I liked his looks and manner. We might be spending a lot of close time together, beyond duty time. Back in the living room, Torken had put a soft chair in a corner and was sitting on it. He had a slight smile on his face. What had Tano turned him into? I was shielding my thoughts. I must take a moment and study what his head ring did, other than magnify thought.
Twelve hours later I pressed the button on the communicator Lieutenant Tilzer had brought. He acknowledged. I said, "There are a couple of large suitcases in my office that need to be brought aboard and to my quarters. Would you see to that?"
Greener Green II: The Balls Brigade Page 28