"Knog! Joni yelled, "You have my coordinates! Just sweep my location and the fifteen meters surrounding me. Dump us into the docking bay of the Ares!"
I nodded. "One moment."
Ten seconds later a sweep of the sentinel ship activated. A small section of the med lab area was swept away and into the bay of the Ares.
Joni said. "Go is safe! He's inside a pod in the bay on the Ares! I think he may be knocked out. I'm heading back to see if I can help Jack!"
I sprinted from the control room of the Ares. The two-minute run to the docking bay seemed like an eternity. When I arrived I was confronted with a section of the sentinel med lab. The occasional spark popped. Wisps of smoke swirled up and away from the damaged and severed structure. After a short climb I stood face to face with the lifepod that held Go. With no power available the pod door had to be pried open manually. I pulled an unconscious Go out and carried him down to the deck. I then sprinted to the med bay, with Go in my arms.
Garrett yelled, "These clamps are not breaking free. Knog, just sweep Jack out of there! The ship is covered with bots!"
I replied, "I need a few minutes! Putting Go in the med bay!"
Garrett yelled back, "I don't think we have a few minutes!"
Quan said, "The bots are at the outer reaches of my complex. I do not have long."
I said, "Just do what you can to delay them! We still need your help out here!"
Quan replied, "I will continue my efforts until the end. However, at some point I must destroy my circuits, as they are a potential danger to everyone if captured."
Garrett yelled, "We all gotta go sometime, Quan! Just keep doing what you can!"
Go was strapped to a gurney. I sprinted back to the control deck. The Garmon was quickly being stripped of its armor.
Jack said, "Garrett! Keep hitting those clamps! I think one is coming free!"
Joni replied, "That would be me! I'm blinking in and out. Give me three minutes and you'll be free!"
Jack yelled, "I don't know if I have three minutes! But don't stop!"
I said, "Jack, I have your coordinates locked in. I can sweep you out of there with a portal whenever you're ready!"
Jack shook his head. "Give Joni a chance! I want to save this ship! We need this ship!"
I replied, "We need you! Don't push it too far!"
Joni yelled, "Clamp one is released! Moving on to the next one!"
Garrett said, "That repair facility is beginning to de-orbit! Things are about to get hot! I'm seeing temperature spikes on all the sensors!"
Jack replied, "Just give her a chance!"
Joni yelled, "Clamp number two is loose! Two more to go!"
Garrett said, "Temps are climbing! Come on, Jack! We can't save her! We need you!"
Joni yelled, "Clamp three is down! Jack? If you can move her, give her all you've got!"
Jack replied, "Still not breaking loose!"
Quan said, "I will be offline in approximately thirty-eight seconds."
Joni yelled, "Having trouble keeping up! Crap! Suit won't let me blink in with the outside temps! Knog! Sweep him out of there!"
Jack pounded his fist as he yelled back, "No! Just a few more seconds! The structure around that clamp is coming apart!"
I said, "Joni! Move out of there. Jack! I'm sweeping you up!"
As I watched over the video feeds, violent explosions rocked the Garmon. Our flagship was a loss. Then a short rumble was followed by a sweep. A section of the Garmon's bridge was swept from the fiery repair dock into the docking bay of the Ares.
I again sprinted from the control room toward the bay. When I arrived, the environmental system of the bay was working at full capacity to clear the air of the smoke from the smoldering mass of white hot metal occupying the bay.
I ran around the forty square meter hunk of destruction looking for my friend. The remains of the captain's chair were cut in half. There was no evidence of Jack Carson.
I stepped back in disbelief.
Joni yelled, "How is he?"
I hesitated, then replied, "He didn't make it."
Silence came over the comm for several seconds.
Quan said, "The bots have reached the outer door of my archives. Is there any other assistance I can offer before I shut down?"
I turned and ran for the control room. "Don't off yourself yet, Quan! Hang on!"
I pulled up a diagram of Quan's underground complex. Four tries at repositioning a sweep box told me that the complex would not fit into the hold of Ares.
Joni blinked in beside me. "What are we looking at?"
I replied, "I want to sweep Quan's complex into our hold. It's too big."
Joni looked at the holo-display in front of me, then pushed me aside.
I asked, "What are you doing?"
Joni replied, "Quan won't fit in our hold. But he'll fit on the surface of Maxell!"
The rumble of portal generators told of another sweep.
I yelled into the comm: "Quan? You still there? Quan?"
The comm was silent.
Garrett landed the Jess in the Ares docking bay. "I'm on! Can we get out of here? Those ships are still being swept in!"
Joni replied, "Hang on! I'm going to scan through those portals! Let's see if we can get lucky!"
I prepped the Ares for a jump to Maxell.
Joni said, "I have a location! They are jumping from the Theta sector!"
Again Joni pushed me aside as she worked over the coordinates of the portal origination points. A rumble saw us swept out to Theta. Thirty thousand warships, five cesium ore carriers, and two portal ships sat plainly in our view.
Joni yelled, "Garrett! Get back out there and take those portal ships out!"
Garrett replied, "Yes, ma'am!"
I pushed Joni aside.
"What are you doing?" she said.
I typed in the coordinates of the first ship. "I'm taking those ships down before they jump! Garrett! Target the one closest to our location!"
Garrett replied, "Got it. Ten seconds!"
I looked over at Joni as I pushed the button for a sweep. Three seconds after, the telltale rumble was felt and the forward quarter of the far portal ship vanished. Garrett fired on its twin. The powerful ion generators on the far ship went critical, causing a violent explosion just as Garrett's ion cannon ripped into its sister. Two bolts later, the near portal ship shut down. Again, the reactors aboard went critical and the ship exploded in a bright white death. Two ships being swept through a portal were cut in half. The remaining ships stayed in the ready position.
Joni stood back from the control console. "I can't believe we found them."
I replied, "He'll build more. And we now have a new problem."
Joni asked, "What's that?"
I pointed as a fierce battle erupting before us. "We have sixty thousand alien warships here in the alpha sector that are not going to just sit idle."
Garrett said, "They are targeting the Alliance ships! Should we offer a hand? Looks like they have a five to one advantage right now."
I asked, "Are the Alliance ships manned?"
Garrett replied, "I show only about a dozen that are."
I said, "Contact those captains and tell them to move our way. We'll try to give them a head-start out of here."
Garrett opened a general comm: "Captains of the Alliance ships, I am sending coordinates for an escape route. Follow those coordinates and we will provide cover!"
Joni grabbed my arm. "I'm heading to the med bay to check on Go."
One of the Alliance captains answered Garrett's hail with an angry tone. "Who is this?"
Garrett replied, "Look, Captain, if you want to keep yourself and your crew alive, head for the coordinates I gave. No sense in dying here today for nothing. Who I am doesn't really matter."
The captain refused. "We are at war! You either join us or get off this comm!"
Garrett looked at the video feed coming back to us. "Idiots. Let's move on. They can't be saved."
I replied, "Come back. I'll see if I can even the odds."
Joni said, "Go is alive but still unconscious. Looks like he didn't get his other arm either. We should probably get him to a facility with real medical care."
I took aim at the swarm of ships currently battling one another, taking care to avoid manned Alliance ships. Sweeps were performed with the resultant destination being the center of the nearest star. Seven sweeps saw the odds evened. Two additional sweeps gave the manned New Alliance ships a distinct advantage. I set jump coordinates for Effica. Garrett landed the Jess in the bay of the Ares, followed by our jump away.
Kerba Skol sat in a chair on the Ares' bridge, still and terrified.
A second jump placed us in orbit around Effica. I was eager to speak with Layda and Jallis. Upon getting our first visual of Effica, my expression turned from one of anticipation to one of sadness. The cities of Effica had been attacked and burned. The compound set up by my Talisans was little more than scorched ground. General hails returned no responses.
I sat back in a chair, dejected.
Joni blinked in just in front of me. "Hard day."
I nodded, "Yes. I should have pulled Jack out of there sooner."
Joni sat beside me. "He made the decision to stay, not you. We were lucky to get Go out."
Joni leaned back in her chair. "I don't get it. How did my uncle know about that place?"
I sighed. "It was Anterra. Once she had comm access, I'm sure she accessed all of our logs. They would have shown where we had been. And Go used her to crack the passcode for the sentinels. All they had to do was to jump in there with that passcode and they had free rein to do as they wanted to those ships."
Joni shook her head. "What a huge loss of resources today. We may have just lost our edge in this fight."
I replied, "It has certainly become more difficult. We don't know what knowledge your uncle, or those others, just gained from that raid."
Garrett walked into the control room. "What are we doing about Go?"
I sat forward. "We have to let the med bay automation handle him. We have nowhere to go. I wouldn't trust any of the governors we know out here to not alert the Saltons."
A still-shaking Kerba Skol stepped up behind Garrett. "We could take him to Ankor. There are people there I trust. I would give him cover as just being a business associate."
I stood and walked to the jump console. "Garrett, take Kerba, collect Go and head down to wherever he takes you. Once he's under care we can take any precautions needed if we want to sweep him back out."
Garrett nodded. "Joni? Want to come with?"
Joni stood. "Absolutely."
The Jess jumped directly from the bay of the Ares down to the surface of Ankor. Minutes later, word came of Go's admittance to a medical facility. Half an hour after, a diagnosis was returned. Go had suffered a severe concussion. His outlook was good, but required a week of rest with minimal activity.
He regained consciousness before being brought back aboard the Ares.
I welcomed him back into the medical bay. "Doc says you stay here for a week."
Go held up his hand as he sat back on a bed. "Don't worry, I don't plan on doing much of anything. I'm wiped out."
Go looked around the room. "Jack make it out OK?"
Joni slowly shook her head. "He tried to save the Garmon. It blew before we could get him out of there. Knog swept the entire bridge into the docking bay. Jack and his crew weren't there."
Go replied, "Maybe they got out. If you didn't find them, maybe they escaped."
I frowned. "We have no evidence they got out. Jack's QE comm, and those of his crew, went silent when the explosion occurred."
Go looked down and away. "I think I need some rest. Please let me be alone for a bit."
Garrett placed his hand on Go's shoulder. "I think we could all use a bit of alone time."
The day was spent in orbit around Ankor. Kerba Skol visited with friends and relatives while the rest of us took time to rest, recover, and reflect. It was the first loss of a close member of our crew. Jack Carson was a huge part of our team, a part that would be sorely missed.
Chapter 20
* * *
The following morning we sat and discussed our options.
Garrett said, "I say we check on the Gruntas and Talisan. If they're OK, we go back to Gratis and take out as many of those ships as we can. We can't just leave them there."
I replied, "And Quan. He's too valuable a resource to just let go."
Joni agreed. "Those ships have enough firepower to take over this whole galaxy."
Garrett nodded. "Not only that, but those are all AIs running those ships. We can't let them take control or we'll all be dead."
Go said, "I would check on those ships first. They are a danger to everyone. If the Gruntas or Talisan have been moved, well, we just go get them. What I want to know is when do we go after Harden?"
Joni sighed. "When the time comes. I want him removed from power, I don't want him killed."
Garrett scowled, "After all the people he is responsible for killing, millions of innocent people, you want him alive?"
Joni returned an uneasy look. "He is still my family. And now your family."
I said, "I think we go back to Gratis. The other tasks can wait."
Coordinates were entered, the jump was made. The Gratis system was empty.
Garrett said, "Now we have a problem. They have a day head-start and could have gone in any direction."
Go suggested, "Open a small portal for a sweep in the direction of every star system within two weeks of here. It can't take long. This place is fairly isolated."
I nodded. "Garrett, take the Jess out and do the same for half of the target list. No sense wasting that resource."
Joni added, "I'll go with him."
Go split the list and programmed the ship's computer to begin an automated search. We settled back into two chairs as we watched.
Go said, "How can we ever replace Jack? He was like an anchor or a foundation stone, always there, and you could always count on him."
I replied, "He and his crew died doing what they wanted. They could have left us at any time, but instead chose to stay and fight."
Go frowned. "I still can't believe the things I've done since meeting you. Being a ship maintainer back on SS241 seems so long ago. It doesn't even seem real anymore."
Go let out a chuckle.
I asked, "What was that for?"
Go replied, "Was just thinking about Malcom Barber. What an ass. I was terrified of him up until you arrived. Turned out he was all hot air. If I was to run into him now, I wouldn't hesitate to tell him what I thought."
I said, "People like Malcom can often be a product of their environment."
"How do you mean?"
"People of weak conviction are driven by the people and events around them. Malcom just bounced along in his life without direction. He had no ambition, and no foundation to stand on. People like that are never happy, because nothing seems to go their way. True happiness only comes to very few. The rest of us have to go out and make our own. Gerald was similar, only he took steps to change his circumstances. Mostly bad decisions, but action nonetheless."
Go nodded. "I fell in that same category... the letting others steer your life. You pulled me out of that."
I shook my head. "You would have left there on your own. You had dreams and aspirations. You may not have known what they were, but they weren't to be a maintainer for the rest of your life."
Go looked down at his missing arm. "What are we going to do about this?"
I gestured toward his other arm. "You have a pattern, replicate it."
Go laughed. "You know how long it will take me to do that without those bots?"
I replied, "You have the time. Look at it as a new challenge. This fight of ours doesn't look to be going away anytime soon."
Go scowled. "Man... if we could have caught those portal ships before they left
Adicus, this whole deal would have almost been over. We could have gone back to that galaxy and taken out the Grotus. That would have set your people up nice on Jorus. After that, we'd have come back and put the AMP back in place."
Garrett said, "Nothing on the scans yet. You?"
Go replied, "All empty."
Go turned to face me. "What if we don't find them?"
I typed commands into the console, performing a calculation. We should be able to scan every direction out to two days travel from here in about four hours. We'll find them. They couldn't have gone any farther."
Go frowned. "What if we don't find them?"
I shook my head. "If they don't show, it means Harden Salton has been busy with his portal ship building. If that's the case, our problems have gotten much worse."
Our initial list of possible directions for the fleet yielded no results. Three hours later, our worst fears were realized. The fleet had been moved elsewhere through the use of a portal.
Joni said, "We just did a scan of Balimus. The Gruntas are still parked there in the transports. I think they're waiting to be sent back to Jorus."
I replied, "With all the automated warships out there, I believe that galaxy to be too hostile for living beings."
Garrett said, "Scan from Dallex shows the Talisan are on the ground there. I don't see any other ships in that system. Maybe Harden will leave them alone."
Go gestured toward the nav screen. "I think we should go in there and survey the damage. Maybe we'll get lucky and something of use will be left."
I glanced at the screen. "Let's take a trip to Maxell. Maybe there's something to salvage from Quan."
Go nodded. "Even if we only get the pieces of his core, it might give us a few computer advances. Hard to believe that stuff was first developed a million years ago. I would have liked to have continued through his memory logs from back then for a while. It was all fascinating stuff."
Kerba said, "A horrific loss. All that history, gone for eternity."
Garrett flew the Jess into the docking bay of the Ares. A short rumble had us parked in orbit above Maxell.
Go said, "I'm getting an ion signature down there."
I replied, "I'm taking us down."
Another rumble had us hovering half a kilometer above the area of the surface where Quan's physical hardware had been transferred.
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