by Saxon Andrew
“That would be wise. If nothing happens to the planet, we’ll have to continue to not communication openly. If something does, that would indicate our planets are being watched and they didn’t intercept our communication.”
“I’ll have to send a ship that’s docked here. I can’t send a communication to the ships not here. It will also take the ship some time to move outside the disrupted area to jump to Munnik.” The Admiral thought for a moment, “How long is the disruption going to last?”
“Another four days.”
“What happens then?”
The Hub Computer said, “I’ll disrupt it again. That will prevent an enemy ship from jumping in to this system.”
The Admiral tilted his head and said, “I didn’t think of that.”
“That’s why I’m here.”
“Select a ship and send the Captain to my office.”
• • •
Doc watched the huge ship facility as it moved around the planet. D said, “A ship is powering up and looks like it’s leaving the Hub.”
Doc sat up straight and said, “How much longer is it going to be before that Hub moves around the curve of the planet?”
“About thirty minutes.”
“How far away is the other space that will allow a jump?”
“It’s twenty thousand miles away and moving closer. It will pass us in two hours.”
Doc hit the communicator, “I need the two of you on the bridge. D, are there any Slaver ships beyond this moon?”
“There’s one ship but it is moving around the planet with the Hub.”
Dee and Dom ran in and Doc said, “A ship is leaving the Hub and I believe it’s going to the planet that is going to release its warships.”
Dom looked puzzled and Dee said, “They aren’t going to communicate orders from here if they have any suspicions about us intercepting them. Remember they sent a ship the first time as well.”
Dom nodded and said, “How are we going to follow it?”
“Undisrupted other space is twenty thousand miles out. The Hub is going to move around the planet in twenty eight minutes and there is no scanner in creation that can scan through a planet. We’re going FTL and enter other space while we stay in this moons shadow. We’ll keep it between us and any Slaver ship that might see us.”
Dee thought a moment, “It will take us one tenth of a second to cover that distance.”
Doc said, “D, can you start using your FTL field and turn it off immediately after we accelerate.”
“I’m not sure what you’re asking?”
“Can you accelerate us off this moon and turn off the field one hundred yards above the surface?”
“We’ll only be moving at ten thousand miles a second. It will take two seconds to arrive in an area where we can jump.”
“I also want you to turn off all power as soon as you turn off the FTL Field.”
There was a long pause and they heard, “I’ve just run a trial and I can do it. We just better hope there’s no space junk in our path.”
Dee looked at Doc, “Do you think we won’t be seen by one of their ships?”
“You’re going to enter a path into D with your eyes closed.”
“I’M GOING TO DO WHAT!”
“I want you to watch the display showing the location of all their ships and then close your eyes and enter the ten digit code.”
Dee stared at Doc and shook her head, “This is ludicrous.”
“Why did you wake up?”
“What?”
“How did you choose just the right moon to land on?”
“I don’t know?”
Doc stared at Dee and said, “Your mind collects everything you see and organizes it without your consciousness. It will see the path we need to take and you need to not think but just enter numbers.”
Dee stared at Doc and shook her head, “This is crazy.”
Doc moved forward and took a knee in front of Dee, “We are going to make a run for it anyway. Do you know of any way for us to leave without being seen?” Dee shook her head. “I believe you have a talent and that you are not yet fully aware of what it can do. This is worth doing. If I’m wrong, we’ll be seen but we will be seen anyway. If I’m right we’ll get away and our presence in this system will remain a secret. It’s worth the risk. We have nothing to lose.”
Dee looked in Doc’s eyes and saw he was serious. Dom said, “You need to do something now. That ship is going to jump shortly.”
Doc said, “You can do this!”
Dee stared at Doc for a moment and then turned her chair around and stared at her display. She closed her eyes and put her hand on the jump board. Doc watched and saw her fingers start entering numbers. The first nine went in and then she stopped. Doc looked up at the display and saw one of the Slaver Ships move behind the moon as Dee entered the last number and pushed the enable button.
Doc shouted, “D, tell me if we’re scanned.” Doc counted in his mind, “One thousand, two thousand…” And normal space disappeared. “D?”
“We were not scanned.”
Dee opened her eyes and stared at Doc. Doc patted her on the shoulder and said, “Way to go, Frick.”
“Hey!”
Doc said, “D, are you holding station?”
“I am and I’m locked on that ship.”
Doc said, “Go to battle stations. D, arm all weapons. Stay out of normal space and let’s see if the warships leave.”
Dee began taking scans as the Slaver Ship entered normal space and moved toward the ships around the planet. She thought, “It’s going to the small ship next to the FTL Destroyer.” There was no way to make that determination from the course the ship was taking but she waited and smiled as it changed course and moved toward the small ship. She slowly shook her head and watched the thousands of ships surrounding the planet. She glanced at Doc and saw him staring at her.
“Admit it; you’re glad I’m here and I convinced you to fly with me.”
Dee smiled and slowly shook her head, “I’m trying not to think that whatever it is I have in my head made you do it.” Doc’s expression showed his surprise at her remark. Her smile grew larger, “Got you on that one.”
Doc stared at her for a moment and then nodded. After a moment he said, “If that’s true, then it’s you that wanted it.” Dee did a double take and Doc smiled as he said, “Touché.” Doc watched her expression and he said, “What’s wrong?”
“You’re still too dangerous for my taste. Why would I ever want to be with you?”
“Maybe you should focus on that and let me know what you come up with. I must confess that I’m extremely curious about that as well.”
“Maybe what I have in my head didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Then why did you mention in front of me that you and Dom were separating?”
Dee looked at Dom and then turned back to Doc, “I have no idea.”
“Just like you had no idea what numbers you entered in the jump drive; you did it from that thing in your head. No, there’s a reason why we’re together but I have no idea what it could possibly be. However, there is one thing you can be sure of.”
“What is that?”
“You are absolutely going to have my full protection. You are more valuable than you could ever know. I’m safer with you around and perhaps that’s why you wanted to be with me.”
Dee frowned, “You’ve lost me.”
Doc smiled and the meaning wasn’t lost on either of them, “When I decide to protect someone, they will be protected no matter what happens.”
Dee stared at Doc and smiled, “Then I have no reason to worry about you harming me.” Doc nodded. She turned around to her scanner console and said, “That changes things.”
“How so?”
“I don’t have to worry about what I say.”
Dom looked up at the ceiling and rolled his eyes. Doc sighed and shook his head, “Oh boy.”
Dee giggled, “You better believe
it.”
• • •
“Doc, the ships are starting to form up to move away from the planet.”
Doc stood up and went to Dee’s chair and looked over her shoulder, “D, how long will it take you to hit the planet to ensure its destruction.”
“I’ve targeted a hundred and fifty reactors on each side of the planet. It will take about twenty seconds to hit each side.”
Doc looked up and said, “Forty seconds to complete the firing?”
“Yes.”
“Something’s not right.”
Doc and Dom looked at Dee and she said, “D, do you have a recording of the fleet that left the first planet Abbey and Gary destroyed?”
“I do.”
“Play it on the main display.” The three turned to the main display and watched as thousands of ships began jumping out of the system. Dee said, “If these ships were going to start a search for the union, they would be given a destination to start their search. That’s why the ships at the first planet all jumped in different directions. The warships here are all jumping together.”
Doc looked at Dee and said, “They’re setting a trap.”
“It appears they are.”
“I would also guess that the hub sent more ships here to help spring it.”
Dee closed her eyes and nodded.
Doc thought a moment and said, “D, how many FTL missiles do you have on board?”
“Four hundred.”
“How many can you target and launch in one barrage.”
“I can launch eighty in one second.”
“Would eighty destroy this planet?”
“They wouldn’t do as much physical damage but the radiation would pretty much kill everything if I target only the largest reactors.”
“Then if you fired on this continent first and jumped to the other side of the planet and fired on the eighty on that continent, how long would it take?”
“The missiles would have individual targets; they’re fire and forget weapons. They lock on a target and need no further instructions. Total time would be about three seconds give or take a half second.”
“Would hitting the reactors with a FTL Missile make a smaller or larger explosion?”
There was a long moment of silence and D said, “I only need to fire forty on each continent.”
“Are you saying the explosions would be larger?”
“Much larger; the physical damage would exceed what happened on the first planet.”
“Dee, how long does it take for you to see a ship on your scanner and jump to its location?”
“About a second.”
“So we jump in and fire on the first continent in less than a second. Thousands of ships will arrive just after we have jumped to the other continent. We fire and once again thousands of ships will arrive just after we fly away.”
“Don’t you mean jump away.”
“No, Dom, I don’t. I suspect there are thousands of Slaver Ships in other space waiting for us to make an appearance to follow us. We will jump to the second continent and activate our Skinner field and make our escape at light speed.”
“What if they have a FTL Destroyer jump in on us?”
“D, cut the Skinner field two seconds out and jump away at a tangent.”
Dom said, “Why two seconds?”
“No one is going to scan our path and order a chase in less than two seconds.”
Dee said, “It’s done automatically. No one has to order anything.”
“Yes, but they must enter normal space and fire their beam arrays. How long will that take?”
D said, “Two point three seconds, if nothing goes wrong.”
Doc looked at Dee and she nodded, “I’ll plot an escape path that passes close to the inner moon’s location.”
Dom said, “The ships are jumping out!”
“Are you ready, D?”
“I am.”
Doc looked at Dom and nodded. Dom pressed the enable button on his console and the planet was visited by hell on earth. The forty FTL Missiles hit the reactors at light speed and the six thousand pound missiles vaporized into energy as the radioactive fuel in the reactor went critical and blasted the missile’s explosion into a blast larger than a thousand million megatons of high explosives. The forty shock waves shot out at the speed of sound and burned everything on the surface in nuclear fire as it rushed out on winds blowing more than seven hundred miles an hour. Mushroom clouds blew into the upper atmosphere and began expanding into the high winds spreading the radioactive debris over the planet’s surface.
• • •
Ten thousand Slaver Warships appeared at the location of the first attack two tenths of a second after the small ship disappeared. Thousands of ships appeared in normal space around the planet as ten thousand more ships appeared at the second attack site. None of them arrived in time to fire on the White Ship before it disappeared faster than light from the planet. Six FTL Destroyers read the path and immediately jumped away and arrived in time to see the White Ship disappear out of normal space a hundred thousand miles from their location.
A FTL Commander yelled, “Get to that jump location and find the jump track.” The huge ship jumped to the location and found a jump track that was too dissipated to follow. The enemy ship had escaped.
The Sub-Admiral watched the planet die below his fleet and pounded his arm on his chair. Sixty billion died in the blasts. Only fifteen billion survived long enough to die from radiation poisoning a week later. The Sub-Admiral sent a communication to the Hub and said, “Munnik is dead. I’m sending you the recording.”
• • •
Dom looked at Doc, “Where do we go now?”
Doc looked at the display and said, “Make a number of random jumps and get us back to the Union as quickly as possible.”
Dee looked up, “Why?”
“They’re going to send a relief ship and I don’t want it arriving in that disrupted space.”
Dee’s eyes widened and she nodded. She forgot about Doc requesting a quick relief. She was amazed at how he was somehow able to keep track of the smallest details. She jumped the ship nine times and then went at an angle at FTL speeds for two minutes. She then jumped to Euclid.
Chapter Five
D broke into normal space and Doc said over the communicator, “This is Doc Montgomery; I need to speak with Prince Ian Montgomery.”
“Send your transponder code or you will be fired on.”
Doc sneered and said, “I know that you are the smartest creation in this universe. If you’re even half as smart as this ship’s computer, you know who we are and are following regulations mindlessly. Come on; act like you’re half bright.”
Dee and Dom stared at Doc with real fear on their faces. No one challenged the main Obelisk. Suddenly Ian appeared on the display, “What’s wrong!?”
“Have you sent a relief ship?”
“Yes, the first one left an hour ago and the second was just powering up to leave.”
“Don’t send it. The Slavers have found a means of forcing a ship out of other space into normal space.”
Ian looked off the screen and said, “Abort the second relief ship; I repeat; abort the relief ship.”
Doc looked at Dom and nodded toward his panel, “We’re going back after the first ship. Who’s in command?”
“Yao Grender.”
“Ian, I hope we’re in time but don’t send any more ships. We’ve got to find a way around this space disruption tool the Slavers have developed.”
“You shouldn’t go alone. We can power up and go with you.”
“By the time you do that, this will be long over.”
Doc nodded to Dee and she programmed in the jump code. Dom hit his board and the ship disappeared from normal space. Dee looked at Doc and said, “What do you think’s going on?”
“I’m hoping that Yao didn’t jump directly to that system. He knew another ship was going to join him so I’m hoping he took some time so th
at he could familiarize himself with his ship.” Dee shook her head and Doc said, “What are you thinking?”
Dee took a breath and blew it out, “If he wasn’t a high genetic, that’s exactly what he would do but you know how task driven the Genetics can be. I suspect he jumped directly to the coordinates so he would have a leg up on the second ship.”
Doc looked up and said, “D, what would happen if a ship tried to jump into that disrupted space?”
“I suspect it would be shoved out into normal space.”
Dom shook his head, “If that happened that ship would be surrounded immediately and fired on by multiple warships.”
“Dee, you know what the outer edge of the disruption was. Set a course to just outside that area and scan to see what’s happening. D, stay in other space and only have a scanner antenna in normal space.”
“It’s on your board, Dom.”
“Jumping now.”
• • •
Yao and Joanie arrived at the assigned coordinates and suddenly found themselves in normal space, with twenty slaver warships bearing down on them. Yao activated his weapons panel and Joanie turned the ship and hit their thrusters but not before six beams hit the left side of the ship. The force field held against the first five but the sixth beam punched a hole through the wing. “Get us out of here, Y.”
“I can’t jump out of normal space. There is some kind of disruption that is preventing it.”
“Then use the Skinner Field and run.”
“That field is also out. The hit in the left wing damaged the field converter.”
The White Ship ran and turned sharp left and fired its wing cannons at two Slaver ships coming in from above them and blew holes through their hulls. One exploded and the other stopped dead, but not before firing a beam at the White Ship causing its force field to flare.
Yao watched as hundreds of Slaver Warships bore down on them and knew he couldn’t out run them. He began firing his beams and Slaver Ships began exploding around him but now Joanie saw thousands more coming in from all directions. Yao twisted and turned the ship as Joanie fired their missiles and beams but there was no escape. Finally a beam hit the ship just ahead of the thrusters and it came to a stop. Thousands of Slaver Ships surrounded them just out of their beam range. Yao looked at Joanie and she said, “We can’t let them take this ship.”