by Saxon Andrew
Ian was angry at the interruption and said, “What do you mean!?!”
“The pattern is wrong, Ian. I just know we shouldn’t jump.”
“What do you mean!?”
“I’m not sure but jumping would be the wrong thing to do right now.”
Doc said, “Listen to her, Ian.” Ian struggled with what to do and he heard Doc say, “Trust her, Ian.”
“Why?”
“Just do it!”
Ian looked at Violet and she was as confused as he was but she said, “Drey was never wrong.”
Ian struggled for a moment and said, “Hold your positions.”
The fleet watched the giant Black Ships gather and then disappear. They waited and nothing appeared on their scanners. After a long minute, E said, “The other space scanners have determined that those ships have jumped toward M87.”
Ian fell back in his command chair and said, “Cancel Battle Stations. Dee how did you know they weren’t coming here?”
“I don’t really know, Ian. I just sensed their location and pattern was wrong if they were coming here.”
Doc said, “She doesn’t know how she does it but her observations are accurate every time.”
Ian felt his nerves and started shaking. After he composed himself he said, “Well I am thankful you appeared in time before we made a huge mistake.”
Doc looked at Dee and knew that she had insisted that they leave as quickly as possible. How could she have known this was going to happen? Dee saw him staring at her and sighed, “I don’t know, Doc.”
Doc smiled, “However you do it; I’m glad you do.”
Dee smiled and said, “Ian, did one of our advanced scanners manage to get inside the jump field on one of those ships?”
Ian looked at Violet and she said, “Hang on and let me check.” Violet looked at her panel and adjusted a dial. She looked up and nodded, “One of them did get inside the jump field.”
Ian looked at his display, “Are we able to see it?”
Violet looked at her display, “The Black Ships have emerged into normal space and it is locked on their jump frequency. It should be able to follow them.”
“Do not have it transmit. Set it to only record and have it jump away after it determines what those ships are doing.”
Violet nodded and sent the commands.
• • •
Cole sat with one of the Kilper scientists and examined the diagrams of their needle beams. Cole was somewhat fascinated with the scientist’s appearance. She was about six feet tall and was basically shaped like a human. Her skin had a light rust color and her hair was black with yellow streaks that ran through it. Cole had determined that the yellow streaks were unique to each Kilper, with all of them differing from individual to individual. Her face was slightly narrower than a human’s face but didn’t seem out of proportion with the rest of her body. Her two eyes were solid blue with no white and the iris was oval. She had eyelids but she never blinked. The iris would close and then open, which was somewhat disconcerting until you became accustomed to it. The computer had transferred the Kilper language to Cole and he found their language somewhat musical. After the initial shock of seeing the Kilper, he decided that she was nice to look at in a different sort of way.
“I’m not sure what you’re asking.”
Cole smiled, “The needle is not actually focused by the lens of this beam or am I missing something.”
“No, the lens is only used to focus it on a target. The intensity is created by the steering fields inside the beam’s barrel.”
Cole stared at the network of electronics surrounding the weapon and said, “Have you tried any other forms of energy through it?”
The Kilper stared at Cole and said, “What other forms of energy are you talking about?”
Cole continued to stare at the diagram and said, “Argel, we have a beam that we’re building on orbiting platforms that fire Boson particles. We can’t use the weapon on our ships because of the necessity of using extremely large structures to insulate and contain it. This blaster you have here looks like it might be able to keep the Boson particles away from the walls of the barrel.”
Argel stared at Cole and said, “You’ve isolated Boson Particles?”
Cole smiled slightly and said, “We have.”
Argel thought a moment and then slowly started shaking her head, “Those particles will cause a nuclear explosion very close to what antimatter/matter do in self-annihilation.”
“Actually, it’s somewhat stronger.”
Argel’s irises rapidly closed three times and Cole decided that the iris gave away when a Kilper was shocked. She said, “Do you have the diagram of the beam and its controls.”
Cole hesitated but decided that the time for distrust was past. He pulled the diagrams up on his desk display and Argel came around and looked over his shoulder. She leaned forward and Cole decided that he liked the way she smelled. She stared at the diagrams as Cole paged through them and said, “I think you’re right. The needle blaster should contain the particles. However, I don’t see an effective way of reducing the collection module or the insulating materials around it.”
Cole’s eyes narrowed, “I’m not seeing what you’re talking about.”
“Go back to the first page.” Cole moved the display back to the first diagram and Argel pointed at the collector, “That collection module is where the particles are sent from the collector, right?” Cole nodded. “I see that it is a curved pathway. If you move the collector off the floor and bolt it to the wall directly behind the blaster, you could just attach the blaster barrel directly to the top of the collector and fire it without the conduit.”
Cole stared at the diagram and said, “You saw that immediately?”
Argel raised her shoulders, “It’s somewhat obvious.”
Cole looked at the idea and said, “I see what you’re saying. The collector would have to be enclosed inside a thick wall with only the barrel coming out of it.”
Argel went back to her chair, “That’s how I see it.”
Cole stared at the diagram and said under his breath, “That would be the only weapon on the ship.”
Argel said, “Not really.” Cole jerked his attention to her and saw that the Kilper had excellent hearing. “You still have your missiles and you can route five barrels out of the collector and divert the particles into one of five barrels you choose to fire; one to each side of the ship, one on the top and bottom, and the last one to the bow. We’ve developed the targeting systems so your computers can aim them.”
Cole stared at the diagrams and slowly nodded, “This would be limited to use in space battles.”
Argel tilted her head, “Unless you want to destroy a planet.” Cole jerked his head toward her. Argel looked him in the eyes and said, “This beam would devastate a planet’s atmosphere and surface. This is truly a planet buster. I’m really thankful that we are now working together.”
Cole smiled and looked back at the computer display, “We need to make the beam tighter.”
Argel nodded, “Reduce the diameter of the barrel.”
Cole stared at Argel and said, “Do you have time to work on this with me?”
Argel said, “I’ll contact my Commander. I’m inclined to believe they’ll remove my assignments and allow me to work with you. I was sent here because I’m just a junior grade scientist.”
Cole smiled, “I’ll start getting the trial set up to test this.” Argel nodded and pressed a button on her hand computer.
• • •
The advanced scanner dropped off the Black Ship that had arrived with it in M87 and remained outside of normal space. Only the small tip of its antenna was in normal space and its passive sensors were at optimum. The squadron of a hundred ships designated nine ships to enter the galaxy while the others waited at the edge. The nine ships oriented toward the center of the massive galaxy and jumped away. The scanner moved into the wave they left in other space and surfed the wave to thei
r new location where it immediately raised its antenna again. One of the Black Ships remained at that location as the other eight jumped away. The scanner followed the eight ships but locked in the coordinates of the ship that remained behind.
This process was repeated three more times and the scanner arrived close to the center of the galaxy with four of the Giant Black Ships. It recorded the conversation between two of them.
“Why have we followed this path?”
“We were unable to determine the first ship’s route when it pursued the ships from our territory. The next two ships we sent followed this path. We should be able to determine what happened to them.”
“And if we don’t?”
“We’ll go back out, collect the other ships, and come in on a new trajectory.”
A third ship said, “I’m detecting energy fields ahead of us.”
“What?”
“There appears to be multiple energy beams that are being relayed from what looks like space buoys that disappear in the distance. My readings indicate they surround this section of the galaxy.”
“What do you think they are?”
“My computer says they resemble some kind of border markings.”
There was a long moment of silence and then, “I’ve been able to detect four different beam frequencies around this section of the galaxy.”
“Are there any on the path we followed here?”
“Yes, we jumped inside one on our last jump.”
“Power all weapon systems, extend your scans, look into the travel medium for any movement coming toward us, and spread out. Align your communications to the ships we’ve left as sentries and make sure all active scans are sent to them in real time.”
“Should we jump inside that field in front of us?”
“Why do you suggest that?”
“If we are inside someone’s border, they have had more time to move in on us than the next section.”
“Jump across the next energy waves.”
The four Black Ships just managed to jump across the energy barrier as the scanner began detecting approaching waves in other space. It pulled its antenna out of normal space, and released all its power into other space as it emerged into normal space, just as six large grey ships appeared where the Black Ships had just been. They emerged into normal space and took position directly opposite the new position of the Black Ships. The scanner had its optical lens recording visible light onto a plate, which required no energy.
“Those ships are not crossing the beams to pursue us.”
“It appears they are unwilling to violate this border even by firing across it. What can you determine about them?”
“Their force fields are stronger than ours.”
“Does that mean they are unwilling to anger whoever controls this space?”
The leader of the Black Ships thought about that question but then his second in command yelled, “Massive waves approaching at incredible speed!”
The Black Ship Leader only had time to say, “Jump…” as two giant green ships emerged into normal space and fired a single beam into each of them. They exploded into massive fireballs. Two of the Black Ships managed to fire a beam at the two Green Ships but they were shrugged off by the force field surrounding the Green Ships. The two Green Ships remained hanging in space confronting the six Grey Ships on the other side of the border. The six Grey Ships remained for a minute and then jumped away. The two Green Ships remained for an hour and then disappeared.
The scanner remained in normal space collecting power from the border energy fields until it had enough to function. It left normal space, jumped back to the last Black Ship Sentry’s position, and extended its antenna. There was a debris field and the scanner immediately jumped away as an Orange Ship appeared. The next two Black Ships were also destroyed and only the first Black Ship left as a sentry appeared to have escaped. The scanner jumped out into the void between the galaxies and dumped its power and emerged into normal space in an area of space junk that floated between galaxies. It turned on its optical system and watched as eight different ships arrived and searched for it. None of them found it and after hours of searching, all of them had jumped away. The computer on the scanner processed the information and looked at all the possibilities of its next course of action. It was programmed to be extremely cautious and it decided that jumping away was too dangerous. It put all of its data into an encrypted microburst and sent it in all directions. It then self-destructed as the eight ships reappeared at its location.
The optical section of the scanner was ejected from it before it self-destructed and recorded the arrival of the eight ships. Two weeks later it sent the data through other space and melted. No ships appeared when it destroyed itself.
• • •
Moe received the data from the scanner and relayed it to the King, Cole, Ian, and Doc. Ian went over the data and two weeks later when the second burst arrived Ian contacted Doc, “It looks like we’ve done it again.”
Doc shook his head, “We were extremely lucky when we jumped through that galaxy to escape that Black Ship.”
Ian nodded, “I think the only thing that saved us was we continuously jumped without pausing at any one location. This is disturbing.”
Doc slowly shook his head, “It’s the Black Civilization that may have opened another big can of wam pam by going back repeatedly. Those various civilizations appear to be able to work together against outside threats.”
“They did all send ships to the scanner’s location. We were also lucky it didn’t jump back here.”
Violet said, “The scanner’s computers are really a technological marvel. It knew that those ships could track through other space and it did exactly the right thing to protect us from discovery.”
Doc stared at his display and said, “Ian, what do you think is going to happen?”
“I’m really not sure. The Black Civilization may have more of an issue with M87 than us. I suspect they must realize that they have erred in going there.” Ian paused, “What does Dee think about this?”
“She’s in that place where she goes to focus and will tell me what she thinks after she processes all that she’s seen in the data.”
“Let me know what she comes up with.”
Doc nodded and looked at Dee lying back in her chair with her eyes closed. The fact that she was taking this much time couldn’t be good.
Chapter Thirteen
Doc sat and waited on Dee to come to consciousness and he pressed Ian’s frequency, “Has she come out of it?”
“Not yet. However, I have some time on my hands and I was wondering about relativity.”
“What?”
“You know the Skinner Field allows us to move faster than light.”
Yeah, so?”
“Why doesn’t relativity affect the ships flying at that speed?”
“I’m not clear on what you’re asking.”
“Let’s say I go FTL and fly a light year away. On board my ship I arrive a light year away from my starting point in about two minutes. According to relativity, a year should have passed in the universe outside my ship. I’ve not seen that happen.”
Ian nodded and said, “I asked Cole about that and the original scientists that measured the field discovered that the Skinner Field basically separates anything inside the field from our universe and all of its laws.”
“How does that happen?”
“You realize that the universe is infinite in size.”
“Yeah, so?”
“The Big Bang that created all the galaxies in our section of the universe emerged with its own set of laws that govern it. Those laws only apply in the area created by the Big Bang. Outside that area, the laws don’t exist. Scientists have postulated that outside of our section, completely different laws may govern events that are entirely different from those we are bound by. The Skinner Field just removes anything inside it from contact with our section of infinity.”
“So the
limit of light speed and relativity don’t apply.”
“That is the only thing that would explain what happens. Our universal constants certainly don’t apply to a ship inside the field. Why do you ask?”
“The civilizations in M87 can track movement through other space.”
“The evidence certainly supports that assumption.”
“They followed our scanner and the Black Ships.”
“I’m not disagreeing; I’m just saying the evidence supports that position. It might be something else that allows them to do it but whatever it might be, it ends up allowing them to track anything that enters their domain. They could possibly have fields set up in other space that allows them to do it.”
Doc thought a moment, “That would explain tracking inside their galaxy but they jumped to the scanner’s position in the void between galaxies.”
“That lends more weight to your point of view.” Ian paused, “What’s bothering you?”
“I feel that the Black Civilization is going to have the ever loving crap kicked out of it by those civilizations in M87 and we need to distance ourselves from any chance of discovery by them if they do.”
Ian stared at Doc on the display and said, “You want to remove the scanners.”
“I want them destroyed the instant any of those civilizations show up. Is it possible to make that happen?”
Ian stood up, “Let me go wake up Violet and ask her. I’ll be right back.”
Doc waited and after five minutes Violet appeared on the display wearing her pajamas. Doc was amazed at just how beautiful Violet was and said, “Hey, you might want to put something on.”
“Oh grow up; you’ve seen a woman’s body before.” Doc shook his head and Ian took off his jacket and put it over her shoulders. She looked at him and sighed, “I guess I’ve lost some of my modesty.” Ian smiled and she said, “Doc, it would take us at least three days to destroy all the scanners.”
“Then you need to start making that happen now and shorten the time to less than a minute.”
Violet looked up at Ian with a frown and then looked back at Doc, “We would lose most of our ability to track their movements. Why do you want us to do this?”