by Saxon Andrew
Stem went to the teleportation panel and checked the modulator and power readings. These screens must be timed perfectly and only cover the object being moved. It wouldn’t be good if Eight Leg Warriors were brought on Life’s and Grena’s ships. He checked their calibration again.
Destiny was with Edison looking at the jump and teleport boards. “Now you understand that we are jumping in more than half a universe away from the Nest Mother’s ship.”
“I know father, and as soon as our red screen is activated I am teleporting to a distance of fifty diameters from her. We’ll scan the area around her vessel and then teleport away to plan our approach.”
“What happens after the Searchers enter her ship?”
“I will teleport to the opposite side of her ship where the second penetrator has exited and wait for the Searchers to emerge. I’ll teleport them in to the landing bay and then jump back to our universe.”
Destiny looked at his child and knew he was ready. He just worried like any anxious parent. “We may have to fight off attackers, but you keep your eyes on your screen for those Searchers.”
“I will, father.”
“I’m going to the bridge; call me if you need me.”
Destiny arrived on the Bridge and Sen-Gen rose and saluted him, “Your ship is ready to jump when you are, Sir.”
Destiny knew Naval protocols but still felt it unfair that one of the Realm’s highest ranking officers was junior to him. “Admiral, I realize that I have the overall command of this mission; however, I do not know this ship and its capabilities as well as you. You will remain in the command chair and direct the ship. I will give instructions about what we want to see happen and you will use your knowledge of this vessel to carry them out.”
Sen-Gen’s opinion of the spider went up considerably. She recognized a good leader making the best decisions based on available resources and putting self second, “Yes Sir, I will do my best.”
“Then launch when you are ready, Admiral.”
Sen-gen hit her intercom button, “Attention all crew members, report your ready status to the bridge.”
Captain Mendel looked at his board and said, “All sections report ready, Admiral.”
Sen-Gen looked at Captain Mendel, “Go to battle stations, Captain.”
Mendel hit the button and the klaxon began wailing, “Battle stations; all hands to battle stations. Arm your weapons.” The lighting on the bridge went to combat luminosity so the board’s lights would be clearer. Sen-Gen nodded and the klaxon silenced. “All hands report ready, Admiral.”
Sen-Gen looked at Destiny and nodded; he said, “Edison, take us into the other universe.” The huge three hundred mile wide ship disappeared.
“Nest Mother, I have detected a universal drive entering our universe.”
The Nest Mother looked quickly at her communication panel, “Where is it?”
“It’s about halfway across our universe from this location.”
“Is it one of our vessels?”
“I do not see a vessel, Nest Mother. We just sensed a drive but nothing where we scanned it.”
Could this be a hidden vessel? She had to know, “Send a family to investigate. Get them there immediately to scan for jump tracks.”
The communications male issued the orders and watched as millions of ships left for the site of the disturbance. After ten minutes he reported, “Nest Mother, there were no jump tracks and no ships in the area we scanned.”
The Nest Mother was confused. “Are you sure a universal drive was used?” The ships had arrived in plenty of time to read jump tracks if a ship had entered there and jumped away. Could it be that it was not visible?
“Nest Mother I have no doubt about a drive being used in that area.”
“Have another family report to the site and then order both families to fly through the area covering every inch of that space.”
Thirty million ships began crisscrossing the area of the emergence. The Nest Mother watched her display as her children looked for a ship.
Edison teleported away from the entry point to a point where he could barely see the Nest Mother’s ship; there were millions of ships around her vessel. He scanned their locations and downloaded it into his board and then teleported away. He sent his download to the bridge’s main display and waited for Destiny to decide about how to approach. The bridge crew took one look at the screen and was dumbfounded. The Nest Mother’s ship was totally surrounded by main ships out to ninety thousand miles.
Life looked at Grena on his display, “Are you sorry we accepted this mission?”
“No, love; I would have been sorry if you were here without me. Even if we die today, at least we do it together. That is all I really want; to be with you.”
“I think we can do this, and if we do make it out of here I want you to become my mate.”
“You could have asked me before now. How am I going to show you how happy you just made me?”
“I thought about that but I want you to know going in that I love you and always will. I just couldn’t wait if things don’t work out.”
“I accept, Life. No matter what happens today, I will always be your mate.’
Life smiled and felt his resolve grow to survive this mission. Grena just sat, waited, and felt her heart sing.”
Stem looked at the screen and said, “How are we going to get through those?”
Destiny looked at the display, “I am open to suggestions.”
Sen-Gen shook her head, “I don’t see any way we can get a clear shot at that vessel. The penetrators must have four hundred miles to get up to speed before they hit.”
Everyone remained silent and began fearing that all of their plans were wasted effort. “Father, I have an idea.”
Destiny started and then said, “Go ahead, Edison.”
“We have more than ten thousand screened probes on this ship. Why don’t we teleport them outside this system and then have them use their jump drives to jump back in on the other side of the Nest Mother’s ship. They will detect the probes breaking back into normal space and it should cause some kind of reaction from those surrounding the ship. We’ll turn the probe’s red screens off before they jump back and it might make them think an attack is in progress. I suspect some of the ships on our side will move around to defend against the incoming probes. Just before the probes jump I’ll teleport just outside the outer edge of her defenders and scan for a clear approach to fire the penetrators. All we need is one of the ships in the inner group next to the hull to move. Once we fire, I suspect all of the ships will move to our side just as we teleport to the other side. It’s the only thing I can think of that might give us a chance.”
Destiny looked at Stem and Sen-Gen and they were nodding. Sen-Gen looked at the display and said, “Let’s do it. I am going to have the probes programmed to detonate their power cells just after they enter normal space.”
Stem thought, “Then have them jump in among the outer edge of ships and spread them out.”
Sen-Gen pressed her com, “Attention probe storage; we are programming the stored probes for auto teleport and jump coordinates followed by self-destruct. Check your status boards and insure that all of them respond receipt of the download. Notify me as soon as they are ready.”
Destiny sent a thought to Edison, “Thank you child. That was good use of your brain.”
“Let us hope it works.”
“We’ll know shortly.”
Stem pressed his com, “Admiral, the probes are programmed. They will jump back in groups of four hundred every four seconds.”
Sen-Gen looked around the bridge, “Teleport the probes in ten seconds from my mark; Edison, you have control of the ships navigation. Weapons, standby for firing the first three penetrators.” Sen-Gen looked around and announced over the intercom, “Mark.”
The Nest Mother was watching her display of the ships searching for the possible hidden vessel when the communications male shouted, “We have explosions c
lose to the ship.”
The Nest Mother jerked around and saw giant explosions among her defenders. Her fear rose dramatically, “Get your ships between me and those attackers. Now!”
Every Supreme Male thought she was ordering them to engage so they all ordered their families to the other side of the huge ship.”
Destiny watched his screen closely and then saw one of the innermost main ships move away from the vessel it was guarding. There was a thirty thousand mile wide opening and Edison teleported the Stars End into it. “We have a clear shot, Admiral.”
Sen-Gen saw the giant ship below and ordered, “Fire the first penetrator package.”
The first three penetrators ignited and disappeared too fast to follow. The first struck the ship and disappeared followed by a huge explosion from the second. Sen-Gens computer notified him that the first penetrator had breached the hull into the interior. The second penetrator had ignited and burned a path to the outer hull. The third penetrator was a full second behind the first two penetrators and entered the hole in the hull with the two Searchers following immediately behind it. All four disappeared into the giant green ship.
The Nest Mother felt her ship shake violently. Just as she recovered she was thrown off her bed to the floor as a second violent shaking hit. “What’s happening?” She turned to go back to her command structure when a silver field formed above her and dropped down on her. Right after that another silver field appeared and the command chamber disappeared.
The communications Male saw the two lights appear and strike the ship from the opposite side of the explosions. “We have been hit on the side away from the explosions. Move to defend us.”
The Supreme Males felt fear for the Nest Mother and millions of their ships rushed around to the site of the strike. Edison had teleported to just above the green ship’s surface and waited. He knew the Searchers were going to have to travel 18,000 miles through the center of the huge vessel and it would take time. Ships began moving toward the site where the second penetrator had exited the ship and Edison notified the bridge. “We have thousands of Main Ships approaching the exit point.”
Sen-Gen ordered, “Extend the repulsion screen to eight thousand miles. Penetrator crews, prepare to commence firing on my order.”
Life and Grena followed the third penetrator into the giant ship until their computers told them they had arrived at the center of the ship, “Wild Man, grab the Mother and let’s get out of here.”
The computer searched for the chamber but couldn’t find it. Then, Grena’s ship located it and teleported the Nest Mother out.
Grena sent a thought, “I’ve got the Mother. Life, take the chamber.”
Life’s computer said, “I think I’ve found the chamber.”
“Take whatever you want; just get us moving.”
“Got it; on our way behind Grena.”
There weren’t any ships in the Nest Mother’s vessel but there were millions of warriors moving to block the exit of the two ships. They chewed their way into the channel and gathered to block the two escaping ships. “Grena, I hope that repulsion screen is all they cracked it up to be.”
“We’ll see in less than five seconds. There is a huge mass of Eight Legs trying to block the way.” Grena was accelerating and the mass of warriors in front of her braced for impact. She flew at them and grabbed the arms of her command chair just before she struck them. They still had nine thousand miles to the exit.
Outside the ship, Destiny watched for the two Searchers to emerge but saw nothing on his sensors. Suddenly he saw thousands of green warriors fly out of the exit point at tremendous velocity. He smiled and thought, “They’re on their way.”
The mass of warriors blocking the tube flew away so fast from the approaching ships that they didn’t have time to realize that their next stop was open space. Thousands of them were rushing away in front of the escaping ships like leaves in a hurricane.
Sen-Gen didn’t want to fire penetrators at the approaching ships and give away the technology used to kill their ships, but the mass attempting to push through the repulsion screen was growing by the second. He ordered, “Pick a target, prepare to fire.”
Edison watched the hole in the giant ship as hundreds of thousands of green armored warriors flew out of it into open space. Stem monitored the teleportation system and made sure it stayed within optimum parameters. Then the two Searchers emerged and Edison immediately teleported them inside. He then hit the main teleport key and the Stars End disappeared from the giant mass of green ships. Sen-gen nearly ordered her ship to fire on the mass of ships when she saw open space on the display screen. “Get us home, Edison.”
“Jumping now to the planet site.”
The Stars End jumped into the Stars Realm’s universe close to a planet that had abundant life. The Nest Mother was teleported to the planet’s surface and left there to try and figure out what had happened. The huge red ship then teleported to the Algeans laboratory and dropped off the command chamber for them to study. Einstein, Newton, Freud, and Edison began working on it immediately along with Stem, Petal, Sprig, and Twig. Destiny teleported back to his ship and wondered what the Nest Mother was thinking.
The Nest Mother had almost gone mad with fear when she suddenly appeared inside the small room. She stormed around the room sinking her fangs into anything she could bite and could not think coherently. After five minutes, she forced herself to calm down and think about what was happening. Fifteen minutes later she found herself out in the open on a strange world. The Nest Mother looked around and replayed the preceding twenty minutes. She felt her fear but marveled at how the being that had threatened her had actually made good on their threat. She looked around and thought, “Well, at least I won’t be sending my families anywhere from here.” She felt her hunger as she looked around and decided to eat a rather large four legged creature. She worried about her survival but reasoned that she could have been killed instead of captured so maybe she had some time before they decided what to do with her. “I might as well enjoy it.”
Chapter 5
The Red being looked at his console and felt his anger rise. Then he heard, “Your project must be causing you problems to be this angry.”
“I wanted this particular tool because they are more vicious than our current tool. The current tool must be forced to kill even though they are gifted with a form that makes it easy. I also want this new tool to pass the compulsions genetically so they’re not dependent on machines. Unfortunately, they turn on each other when another life form is not available. These creatures were naturally territorial in their original environment and now I’m forcing them into close quarters. I gain one thing but another problem arises. This tool loves to kill and I have to build in restraints.”
“That may not be a bad thing.”
“I thought about that but there is time spent traveling to different universes and they cannot restrain themselves from attacking each other that long.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m not sure; I like their viciousness and don’t want to restrain it but it appears I might not have a choice. Do you have any suggestions?”
“Why not make them suffer severe pain whenever they touch; that should cut down on their attacks. If the pain is severe enough they will avoid contact unless the final compulsion is activated. You’ll also have to make them immune to that beam weapon you’ve given them.”
The being thought a moment, “That idea has merit. I think I’ll build the final compulsion to make them the tastiest meal they can eat but possibly cause them to burn if they touch each other without the compulsion. I’ll also enhance their territorial instinct so that when the time comes to remove them it will happen very quickly.”
“That’s almost funny. The last survivor will end up eating himself.”
The red being smiled, “You’re right; I really want to actually see that happen. I might make a sample and see if it works.” He thought a moment, “It will requ
ire them to wear armor most of the time to prevent damage to each other.”
“Just make sure they have the capability to rip through the armor when the time comes to remove this tool.”
“I’ll do it just as you’ve suggested.”
“Another benefit of this tool over the current is there is no time needed to digest what they’ve killed. They can leave one universe and go directly to another. Once they start killing it will be continuous.”
“Have you looked in on your current tool?”
“They are so boring; no, not recently. I’ve been too busy working on the new one. Besides, they won’t be around much longer. I might even let them be the first meal for my new creation and that problematic universe the second. However, these new tools will resolve those issues quickly. As soon as I rework the new structure into them, I’ll look in on the old ones.”