by Saxon Andrew
Dolly stared at Jeff, then put her head on his shoulder and cried. George watched her on the display and said, “We are going to keep a channel open, beaming everything that happens. Use this information to guide your next plans.”
Dolly looked at the display and nodded, “I love you, George. I’m so proud to be your sister.”
George smiled, “You are what made me whole again, Dolly. I wouldn’t be here without your love bringing me back. Pray for us.” George looked at Chris and nodded.
Jillian looked at the display, “Weapons status?”
Meisa said, “We’re putting both reactors into the force field. We’re also pulling it in to within four hundred yards. It will quadruple in strength with the smaller area to protect.”
Chris looked at George, “How good are the fusion missiles?”
“If we can get one through their force field, they should have a major impact on them. I don’t care how big they are. We won’t know the strength of their force field until we scan them.”
Chris looked at Jillian and said, “I’m flying the ship. My first plan is escape after we scan their fleet. I will not be able to make decisions while I’m running, so use George and Meisa to help you.”
Jillian came over and kissed Chris. “No matter what happens, I love being here with you.”
George looked at Meisa and smiled, “Would it be inappropriate for me to suggest a wedding when we go home?”
Meisa jumped up, and ran over and jumped into George’s lap, “Absolutely not, and I accept your proposal. Just don’t forget it.”
George looked at her and said, “I could never forget you. Never.”
Meisa kissed him and said, “Well, that settles it. Now we have to get home safe; I have a wedding to attend.” She looked at Jillian, “I’ll control the reactors. You focus on the weapons. I’ll move the energy where we need it. George, you help Chris with the scanners.”
Chris took a deep breath, “All right, things are going to start happening quickly. We will jump in five, four, three, two, one, and now!”
The Jukebox broke into normal space and scanned the huge fleet in front of it. The bright white ship then jumped back into Sierra Space and jumped away, but not before the closest blue ship detected it, fired a huge laser, and followed it into its jump. Three other blue ships detected the strange ship, but didn’t get to the place of the jump in time to join the chase.
Meisa yelled, “That single beam reduced the force field to forty percent. It is now climbing in strength. We should be at full strength in fifteen seconds. If they had hit us with two beams our force field would have collapsed.”
Chris watched his rear sensors and saw the giant ship closing the gap, “I’m going to jump out and hit the thrusters. I want to see if I can open some distance.”
The Jukebox flashed into normal space and flew away at three quarters the speed of light. The Blue ship emerged in time to fire a beam at it just before it disappeared. The alarm went off and George silenced it, “The force field is holding against one of their beams, but it may be quite different if they bring their full inventory to bear. It was reduced to seventy percent by that last shot of their beams.”
The huge ship closed on the Jukebox in Sierra Space and its stardrive field touched the field around the Jukebox and the white ship immediately entered normal space. Chris immediately hit the drive board and reentered Sierra Space just as the blue ship emerged.
George watched his board and shrugged, “That answers one of my unanswered questions.”
Jillian looked over, “What?”
“I tried to figure out how a ship that refused to leave Sierra Space could ever be attacked. You can’t fire an energy weapon without disrupting the green space so there had to be some way to force the ship into normal space. It appears that if two fields touch, they cancel each other and send the ships into normal space.”
Chris jumped back into normal space and hit the thrusters, “I gained a little room on that technique. I don’t think they thought we could get back into Sierra Space that fast.” He looked at his rear scanner and shook his head, “They are closing the gap again.”
Chris was flying the Jukebox like it was a dragonfly, changing directions radically and popping in and out of normal space to Sierra Space. Each time the blue ship was incrementally closer. The chase seemed to go on forever. George watched the display and saw Meisa arm a fusion missile, “What are you doing?”
Meisa yelled, “Chris, four jumps from now I want you to jump into normal space and stop the ship.”
“What?!?”
“Just do it.”
Meisa looked at George and said, “I’m going to turn the force fields off and redirect all of the reactor’s energy into the main beam. Jillian, fire it before that ship appears and keep it firing until that ship emerges. Do you understand?”
“I do. What do you see?”
“There’s no time; just do it.”
The chase had been going on longer than an hour, and Chris was worried about stopping the ship. However, he was going to do what Meisa ordered because he was unable to shake the giant blue ship, knew it was right on top of them, and fatigue was setting in. He was tired and running out of options. “All right, we’re emerging in three, two, one, now!” Chris saw the giant ship was directly behind them in Sierra Space and then the green space disappeared.
Meisa flipped the reactors to weapons and Jillian fired the main beam. Meisa launched the fusion missile and it shot out at incredible speed as the giant blue ship suddenly appeared directly in front of their ship. The main beam hit the giant ship dead center and blew through the force field all the way to the giant ship’s hull. Meisa flipped the reactors back to the force field just as six beams hit the Jukebox. Then an explosion rocked the Jukebox, shoving it violently away. Chris fought the controls and stabilized the ship. The display cleared and they saw a giant rip through the center of the blue ship. It went from one end of the ship to the other and open space could be seen through it before huge fires broke out between the two pieces. George saw that the entire middle was blown away, and there was a gaping hole more than four hundred and fifty miles wide all the way through the giant vessel. They watched as the ship started exploding in ten places, then the two halves fell in on each other and the entire ship blew apart in a giant explosion.
Jillian yelled, “Get us out of here!”
Chris entered Sierra Space and jumped away. He watched the rear sensors for three minutes and didn’t see a blue ship or a trail behind him. He entered normal space and waited.
Jillian looked at Meisa, “What made you decide to try that?”
“I noticed that their force field and beams was weaker whenever they entered normal space and would then grow stronger. Remember that the second time one of their beams hit us it only reduced our force field thirty percent. The six beams that hit us were actually weaker than the one beam that struck us initially. Evidently, they have to use tremendous power to move that large a ship that fast through Sierra Space. Their drive systems had to be drawing power from their force field and weapons.” She looked at her panel and said, “Our force field was reduced to ten percent by those six beams. We will not survive a shoot out with one of those ships if it’s in normal space at full power. Seven beams would have destroyed us.”
“That’s my girl.”
“Yes, I am.”
George started nervously laughing, and Jillian joined in.
George hit the communicator and saw Dolly, “We managed to escape, Sis.”
“Thank, God!”
“We also destroyed one of their ships. We’ll bring the video home, but I need you to invite Mum to come visit.”
“WHY??”
“She’s going to attend a wedding.”
“Whose?”
“Why, yours and mine.”
Dolly stared at the screen and started smiling, “I’ll call her now. Is three days after you arrive too soon?”
Meisa yelled from off screen
, “Make it two days!”
George smiled, “I will but Mum can stay home. We’ll do it in Australia.”
Dolly started laughing hard and looked off the screen, “You heard me right. Are you up to it?” They watched as they saw an arm come into the picture and pull Dolly away.
George smiled, “Looks like he is.”
Chris and Jillian smiled.
Three giant blue ships followed the trail through no space that the giant blue ship had left pursuing the small white ship and finally arrived where it ended. They emerged into normal space and saw the remains of one of their main battleships. There wasn’t much left, and no one survived the giant ship’s destruction. They saw explosions still igniting in larger pieces of the debris and wondered what could have done this to one of their newest ships. The destruction of the giant ship prevented them from learning the weakness of their weapon’s system. The ship’s commander started sending a message.
The Messenger entered the room and waited, wishing there was someone else that could deliver his news. One of the six saw him and motioned him forward, “Why are you here?”
“One of our ships has been destroyed.”
The tall yellow creature stared at the Messenger; its anger was clear. “Show me.”
“We were unable to see the actual destruction, but this is what the wreckage looked like.” The Messenger sent the mental image of the derelict.
The leader turned to the other five at the table and the Messenger watched as they stopped what they were doing and looked at him. “Why were you unable to see this event?”
“Only one ship was close enough to chase the ship that scanned our fleet. The three that followed could not keep up with the chase. They were older models and their speed was not sufficient.”
The Yellow being thought about the image, “The ship that was destroyed was one of our newer models, and the ship it was chasing was faster?!?”
The Messenger felt his nervousness but continued, “It was one of our newest models. It was recently completed and had all the new systems on board.”
The messenger saw the anger of the Leader, “Last time you were here you asked about continuing the invasion.”
“I was asked to do so by our fleet leaders.”
The tall being stared at the Messenger and then examined his thoughts, “So it appears you are right. It was wise of you to decide not to ask that question again. Have the fleet leaders report to us here. Recall the fleet and send the scouts out to find the ones that did this. Do not survey, look for this enemy.”
The Messenger leaned back, and slowly backed away from the leaders. The six of them stared at him until he disappeared. “This could be a problem.”
The one that spoke to the Messenger turned, “It was bound to happen eventually. We’ll have to overwhelm this new enemy no matter the price.”
“First we have to find them.”
The Yellow being leaned forward, showing agreement.
The Messenger hurried away, knowing that soon there would be new leaders of the Fleet. It was never wise to ask questions or make suggestions to the Rulers.
Chapter Sixteen
The Moet Watcher heard the alarm reminder go off. He glanced at his board and saw a reminder that a system designated for destruction had lost its probe. He looked at the board, saw a ship that was not on assignment, and ordered it to deliver a new probe. The ship received the location, the crew was recalled, and it left orbit. Ten minutes later it arrived at the system in question and saw that there was a huge disruption in no space immediately around it. The ship’s Master sent a message to the Watcher and waited for a response.
The Watcher was working on another attack and designated its secondary brain to the task of receiving the message. The secondary brain took one look at the disrupted space surrounding the surface of the small black ball in no space and jerked the primary brain away from its task. The Watcher saw the boiling no space and knew that only an extremely high energy discharge could have caused that massive disruption. It assigned the secondary brain to handle the attack and turned its attention to the Moet ship hanging in no-space. “Go into normal space and investigate. Keep your monitors activated.”
The Moet ship broke into normal space and looked into the system. As it made a scan, a small white ship came in at high speed and stopped two miles from the giant grey ship. The Moet looked at the tiny vessel, and the ship’s Master waved a stalk at his weapons master. The Moet hit the small ship with a beam that was fifty times wider than the target. The beam stopped and the small ship was still hanging in space in front of it. The ship’s Master turned his full attention to the ship and waved again. All seventy beams fired on the small ship. The ship master nodded and the beams stopped. The small ship was still hanging there in space. Its communication console activated and a voice said in Alliance, “You will leave our system immediately, or you will be destroyed.”
The Watcher observed the small ship and was amazed. “Fire again.”
The Master looked at his weapons board and said, “Fire again.”
The giant grey ship appeared to explode as it fired all weapons at the small white ship. Suddenly a bright white beam shot out from the small ship and hit the Moet Battleship just behind the bridge, blowing a huge hole through it. Then the white beam started hitting the giant ship so fast that it looked like white tracers were leaving at an incredible rate. Ten seconds later, the giant ship exploded.
The Watcher hit his emergency switch and a Royal Master appeared on his display. “Why are you bothering me?”
“Please observe this recording.” The Watcher sent the recording to the Master and saw the immediate concern on its surface.
“I’ll dispatch a dreadnaught.”
“Thank you, Lord.”
Dolly saw the battle taking place on her monitor and looked at Jeff, “We can destroy the asteroid now. It appears the cat is out of the bag and we can expect a response in force from the Moet.”
President Suh, Arnold Gordon, and Ben Keenan were on the main display at fleet headquarters in Sydney. Dolly looked at the screen and said, “You should order the remaining colony ship launched, Mr. President. We expect a Moet attack in force momentarily, and we don’t know what the outcome will be. We would also recommend that you take the main government leaders on a ship and lift from the planet.”
Suh smiled, “A captain does not abandon his ship. I will not leave those I’m charged with protecting.”
Chris said, “I can understand that, but you might want to save your crew.”
Suh smiled and said, “Yes, I suppose you’re right.” Suh looked at Arnold, “You will go with the others. If something happens to me, you will take my place.”
“But, Sir.”
“No buts. You are the best qualified to do it. You’ve been in on the project from the beginning and I trust you. Protect my people.” Arnold took a deep breath and then nodded.
Suh turned back to the monitor, “Do we have no chance of success?”
Dolly sent a chart to their display and said, “We now have thirty fusion ships. We believe that they can handle more than they take from the Moet and the Alliance, but the numbers could be overwhelming.”
Ben looked at the chart, “How long will it take to build the fleet to numbers that can defend us?”
“Not as long as you think. Now that the factories have the reactors, we can have more than a hundred in two months. The problem is that we keep finding new ways to improve them. The Jukebox has just had three additional reactors added to support the force field and beams, and it will be the model for those that follow. It has also been loaded with the new model of fusion missiles that will blow its own hole in a force field. The ship that destroyed the Moet battleship was an old design with the small beam. We know we can defeat their ships, but if they send a million at us….”
Suh took a deep breath and said, “Is there any possibility of getting them to communicate about our common enemy?”
“Not wi
thout a fight.”
Arnold looked at the eight young men and women on the screen and asked, “What are you going to be doing during this fight?”
Jillian smiled, “We each have a ship like the Jukebox, and will be leading the fight.” Arnold stood up and started to object, but Jillian quickly said, “We know these ships better than anyone else. Our best chance of success is with us in our ships.”
Arnold sat back down.
Jillian said, “Dad, know you miss Mom and don’t want to lose me, too, but if we lose this fight, no one on the planet will survive.”
Arnold lowered his head and nodded. Suh looked at the group and said, “We’ll load up the colony ships and send them out to the edge of our solar system. They’ll leave if things go bad.”
Dolly said, “That’s a good idea, Sir. However, they should leave anyway. I suspect we’ll be successful against their first attack but the follow up will be huge. I don’t want to risk our leaders against the chance that the Moet will enter our Solar System where their ship is waiting. The Magellan has found three planets in M87 for colonization and we should get the ships on the way. Even if this turns out well for us, we must send those ships out. We might not be so lucky if the Blue Ships find us.”
Suh looked out of the screen with determination on his face and said, “Win or lose, make them wish they had never come here.”
Chris smiled, “Oh, I think we can do that. They might drop the idea of attacking us faster than a bad habit.”
Suh smiled and said, “Godspeed.”
The display went dark and Dolly looked at the other seven sitting at the table, “Well, go to your ships and let’s go greet our visitors. Remember to be polite and not leave any mess to clean up.”