by Saxon Andrew
“No, Kogo. Its reactors were hit and stopped operating.”
“Why didn’t the ship explode?” Dela asked.
“It appears the reactors aren’t nuclear.”
Kogo leaned back in his chair and thought about the situation. “Grang, how can we do an active scan of that ship and not be detected.”
“I have no idea, Kogo. We still don’t know the range of the Yellow Warship’s scanners.”
“Is there any life on the ship?”
“I’m not detecting any.”
“Will that ship fit in your landing bay?” Dela asked.
“Yes.”
“Open your bay doors and move it inside. Once you have it, jump out to the dimension we’re using.”
“What if that ship has a self-destruct mechanism that’s still operational.”
Kogo lifted his shoulders, “If the ship didn’t blow up when its reactors were hit, I suspect they don’t have a device that could explode it.”
“I really hope you’re right.”
“We knew we would have to take some risks doing this. Move it on board and jump out.”
The Grang opened its huge landing bay doors and used the starboard thrusters to move toward the small warship. Kogo stood up and walked to the starboard viewport. The small ship slowly moved toward them and then disappeared as it moved into the landing bay.
The Grang immediately disappeared just before ten-Yellow Warships teleported in. The probe detected their arrival just before it followed the Grang into the dimension.
• • •
“I thought you said you detected energy here?” the Yellow Commander sneered. “There’s nothing here.”
“I can send you the recording, Sire.”
“Is it possible a star moved between you and this location?”
The Ship Commander looked at the recording and said, “The energy was low. I suppose I could have detected a star beyond this location. I was a long distance from here.”
The Group Commander swiveled his head around, “Scan everything near here.” Fifteen-minutes later he heard, “I detect nothing, Sire.”
The Group Commander swiveled his head back around and looked at the recording his junior ship leader made. “You will remain here. If nothing appears, rejoin us in a week.”
“Yes, Sire.”
Nine of the Yellow Warships disappeared and the Ship Commander that made the recording was thankful. Too many of the Commander’s ships were being destroyed in the current galaxy his fleets were attacking. He should be safe here in this conquered galaxy, at least for a week. The Group Commander probably looked at this as a punishment…he was wrong.
• • •
The Grang arrived in the dimension and Kogo started to issue orders. He didn’t have the opportunity before the Grang announced, “KOGO, WE WERE DETECTED!!”
“What?”
“The Probe recorded ten-Yellow Warships teleporting in less than a second after we left!”
“I thought you said there weren’t any Yellow Ships in that galaxy?”
“There weren’t.”
Kogo paused and looked at Dela. She was studying her console and turned back to him, “Our Masking field was at full power.”
“How did they detect us?”
“I have no idea, Kogo.”
Kogo looked up, “Grang, do you have any thoughts on this development?”
“I can say they did not detect us behind our masking field when we jumped in on our dimensional drive. If they did, we would have seen them jumping in as soon as we arrived. They jumped in after we moved to bring the small warship on board. They must have detected something we did at that time.”
“The only things we did was open the bay doors and use the thrusters to move toward it.”
“Both of those things required energy, Kogo.”
“Grang, that’s absurd! Are you suggesting they were able to detect that energy from another galaxy?”
“There’s an easy way to find out.”
“How.”
“I have the location of another galaxy they’ve conquered. We’ll jump in to it and leave a mite behind set to self-destruct two-minutes after we leave. We’ll leave the probe out in deep space and have it record what happens afterwards, including any communications. If it detects Yellow Ships teleporting in, it will immediately jump to this dimension if any of them teleport in its direction.”
“Are you able to translate their language?”
“The scientists on Bristone developed a program to do that from the recordings Atlas made during his scouting trips.”
Kogo looked at Dela and saw her nod. “Set it up, Grang.”
• • •
The Grang jumped into a conquered galaxy a billion-light-years from the one where they acquired the orange warship. A mite was ejected from a launch tube and the Grang jumped out to the closest dimension.
“How long is this going to take?” Dela asked.
“If the probe is detected, we’ll know immediately. However, if it escapes their detection, it’s been programmed to record for two-hours.”
Dela and Kogo turned to the wall tactical monitor looking for the Probe to appear. After ten-minutes, Dela shrugged, “I guess they can’t detect the probe.”
“It does appear you’re right,” Grang replied. “However, at this point, we don’t know if any Yellow Warships showed up or not.”
“I guess we’ll find out in about two-hours,” Kogo muttered.
• • •
Right on schedule, the probe appeared next to their ship. It began downloading what it recorded and Grang fed it to the main wall monitor. Kogo’s eyes closed slightly as the mite exploded in a bright flash. They flew wide open when more than a hundred-Yellow-Warships appeared ten-seconds later. Kogo looked up, “GRANG, HOW IS IT POSSIBLE FOR THEM TO DETECT THAT EXPLOSION MILLIONS OF LIGHT YEARS AWAY!?!”
“They must have a scanner that operates like the one Sprigly built; it operates below the threshold of normal space. It also suggests that every place in this universe is constantly being scanned by their scanners.”
“Get this information downloaded to a sliver and launch it.”
“Do you want to delay until we do a thorough scan of the warship we brought on board.”
“No! We’ll send the information as we collect it. I’m not risking the possibility they might have a dimensional drive.”
“I’m setting up our slivers to automatically launch if a Yellow Warship appears.”
“That’s fine but I’m still want slivers launched when we collect important information. We still don’t know anything about that blue and green flickering field and it might prevent our slivers from being able to teleport out.”
Grang immediately announced, “I didn’t consider that, Kogo. I’m programing the slivers to use their engines to go to full speed. They’ll teleport out when they move outside the blue and green field, if it’s stopping their drives.”
“That’s a good idea. I want you to start scanning that small warship down to its molecular level. I want everything on it mapped out and plotted. Send a sliver when you complete each system on that ship.”
“This could take some time.”
“I don’t care, Grang. This small ship can make a huge difference in our chances of survival.” Kogo leaned back and thought for a few minutes. Finally, he looked at over Dela as he said, “Grang?”
“Yes.”
Kogo exhaled a slow breath, “I want you to program the probe to keep a scan of you when we’re in a universe where Yellow Warships are attacking. Have it constantly record our conversations and what’s happening around us. If, and I do pray this doesn’t happen, we’re destroyed by the Yellow Ships, program it to wait until it receives any slivers we’ve launched and then jump back to the Dark Dimension.”
“Do you sense something, Kogo?” Dela asked with a worried expression.
“No, but we’re going to have to get close enough to do an analysis of the blue and green fi
eld. Without that information, this trip is a waste of time.”
“Are you sure about that, Kogo?”
“I am, Grang. That will be the last thing we attempt. I want to start jumping to other universes near this one and see what’s going on. But first, scan that warship and get slivers out on what we discover.”
“Kogo.”
“Yes, Grang.”
“If we get close enough to one of those Yellow Warship to analyze the blue and green field, we’ll probably be close enough to do a full active scan of the Yellow Ship.”
“We’ll only do that if we’re detected.”
“I don’t see how that can be avoided if we’re that close to one of their suppression fields.”
“We’ll see. Let’s hope for the best and plan for the worst, Grang.”
“I’ll set it up to happen automatically. You may not have enough time to order it.”
“Good idea, Grang.” Dela’s eyes were fixed on Kogo and he took her hand as he stared at the monitor. watching and listening to the hundred-Yellow-Warships that jumped in on the mite’s explosion.
• • •
“I DON’T CARE!! SOMETHING RELEASED A LARGE ENERGY BURST HERE!! FIND IT!!”
“Great Leader, whatever it was, there is no trace of what caused it.”
“THINGS DON’T EXPLODE AND LEAVE NOTHNG BEHIND!! LOOK AGAIN.”
• • •
Kogo smiled, “The mite’s self-destruct circuit vaporizes everything into small atoms and then scatters them across a huge space. I doubt they’ll see anything.”
• • •
“Great Leader, all we’ve been able to find are small atoms of carbon compounds scattered over a large area.”
“What kind of compounds?”
“They appear to be something ancient called plastic.”
“Send me what you have.”
• • •
Kogo shook his head hard, “Their scanners are far beyond ours.” Dela nodded and shushed him.
• • •
“It appears to be some kind of weapon that exploded,” the Great Leader announced.
“I’ve determined the same thing. The blast was small and wouldn’t have any effect on our ships.”
“What do you think caused it to explode?”
“I’m uncertain but it could be a small explosive device that was floating in space and was hit by a small meteor. That would have caused it to explode. There is a lot of meteor dust in the area.”
The Great Leader raised two-upper-arms, “This is a huge waste of time. Return to your former positions!”
• • •
Kogo released a huge breath he was holding, as the hundred-Yellow-Warships disappeared, “Send this recording, along with the conversation we had setting up this event, to the Communication Center.”
“Launching sliver now,” Grang responded.
Chapter Nineteen
Three-weeks later, Tag, Danielle, James, JP, Admiral Solomon, General Turner, Tgon-Cee, Jimmy, Lola and Sprigly were in the Control Room watching the data Kogo and Dela sent. BC, Alex, and Grace were analyzing the data as well.
The room was silent, when the communication ended; James finally broke the silence, “I’m forced to change my feelings about Kogo’s trip. This information is something we needed before we made a huge mistake.”
“What do you mean?” Tag asked.
“Didn’t Danielle tell the Black Warships that we would send millions of our ships into their universe and join the Yellow Warships attacking one of their planets?” James pointed to the wall monitor, “If we did, our ships would have been detected and the Yellow Ships would start an immediate search to find us.”
Danielle looked around and agreed, “You’re right; it would have been a massacre. Our masking fields would have been useless. The Yellow Ships would have sent millions of warships to find where our ships came from.”
Rose was connected with JP telepathically and listened to the conversation, along with JP. She made a suggestion and JP raised his hand. Tag chuckled, “You don’t need to raise your hand Prince Robbins, just speak up.”
“I understand that Sir Kogo is directly connected to Creation. Is it possible he was directed to do this?”
Everyone turned to stare at JP and Danielle smiled, “Out of the mouths of babes.” She turned to James, “I believe your son is right, Kogo did what he was directed to do and any attempt to stop him would have never worked. That would constitute interference in a creational event and more harm would come from it. I suspect Kogo and Dela are in immense danger due to our interference.”
“What do you mean!?” James asked.
“If we had assisted him in making this scouting mission, more than just the Grang would have gone with him,” Danielle answered. “We forced him to go alone.” Danielle saw James’s expression and she quickly added, “You don’t own all the blame here; we didn’t see it, either. We’re just as guilty and we supported you not allowing him to go.”
James agreed and wondered aloud, “I don’t see how sending more ships would have helped. They would have increased the danger of detection. Kogo discovered the range of their scanners by accident.”
Danielle smiled, “There are very few accidents when you’re in the middle of a creational crisis, James. However, there is one thing we can do.”
“What is that?”
“Scans are a great tool but they are nowhere close to having a physical object to examine. The Grang included the coordinates of numerous small orange warships in that conquered Galaxy. Most of them are in remarkably good shape and I’m going with the Kosiev to pick one of them up to bring back.”
“Your Majesty, Lola and I will go with the Kosiev.” Tag jerked his head around to Jimmy. Jimmy looked at him, “We’ve been on numerous scouting missions with Kogo and Dela. We are experienced and can make this happen.”
Danielle quickly asked, “How would you do this?”
Lola shrugged, “We’ll jump in next to one with our dimensional drive and, if we’re not close enough, we’ll jump out and jump back in closer. We’ll continue the process until we’re less than ten-yards from the orange ship. The Kosiev’s landing bay doors will be opened before we make the jumps and Jimmy will fire a cable from an air-gun into the orange ship’s hull. He’ll then pull the ship into the landing bay.”
“You’ll have to use the wench to do that and the Yellow Ships might detect that energy,” Tag observed.
“No, Jimmy will activate his Red Armor and use it to pull the ship in?”
“Red Armor?” Danielle asked.
“We went to BC and he fitted Jimmy and I more than six-months ago.”
Danielle glanced at Tag and then raised her eyes, “Alex, do you think you can jump into that universe without being detected?”
“Danielle, the Grang jumped in behind its masking field and was not detected. It was the energy from the thrusters that extended beyond the masking field that was detected.”
“Are you certain about that?”
“Yes. Kogo was wrong about them detecting the energy being used inside the Grang. I’ve extended my masking field and ignited my thrusters. The thruster blasts extended beyond the Masking filed.”
“Are you saying our masking fields do work?” Solomon asked.
“If the ship remains still and doesn’t use any thrust, they will. However, the moment the ship moves, it will be detected. For all intents and purposes, the masking field is limited in the protection it offers,” Grace answered.
Jimmy listened to the exchange and then interrupted, “I’ll be inside the masking field with my Red Armor and I won’t be detected.”
“What if that orange ship’s hull is too hard for the cable’s prong to penetrate?”
Jimmy looked at General Turner, “There is a hole in most of those ships that I will fire the prong through. I’ll pull it back and keep firing it until it catches on the inside of the hull.”
Tag lowered his eyes, “You’ve already thoug
ht about this.” Jimmy shrugged.
Danielle glanced toward Tag again and then turned to Jimmy, “You and Lola will leave with the Kosiev immediately and bring one of those orange ships back.”
Jimmy and Lola instantly disappeared from the Control Center and BC announced, “The Kosiev had jumped out.”
Danielle snickered, “I guess I did say ‘immediately’.”
“What happens now?” Jack asked.
Danielle turned to General Turner, “We take what Kogo sent us and start working on advanced technology that we’ll need to confront them.”
“Who will be in command of our Fleets in Kogo’s absence?” JP asked.
Danielle looked at JP with her eyes slightly narrowed as she thought about his question. Turning to Solomon, Danielle ordered, “Until Sir. Kogo returns, Fleet Admiral Solomon will command our combined naval forces. Recently Promoted Mongovie will be temporarily Promoted to Fleet Admiral replacing Supreme Commander Solomon.” Danielle looked at James, “If that meets with your approval?”
James smiled, “Your Majesty, I wasn’t kidding when I told you two-leaders were one too many. You will issue orders and the Bristone Empire will follow them without question.”
Danielle lowered her head, “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
• • •
Twelve hours later, the Kosiev arrived back with two small orange warships in its landing bay. Jimmy smiled on the control room’s monitor, “We thought two was better than one.”
Danielle shook her head and chuckled, “You big over-achiever!”
“Where do you want them delivered?” Lola asked.
Danielle thought a moment and looked at Tag. He was connected to her telepathically and nodded at what she was thinking. Danielle looked up, “Elders, have you been watching this meeting.”
“We have. We hope you don’t mind.”
“We don’t. However, I want to ask if you’ll help us.”
“How may we be of assistance?”
“The best scientific minds in our universe are Algean. May I deliver one of these orange warships to one of your planets and have your scientists start working on developing technology from what they discover?”
“We would be honored to do whatever we can, Your Majesty. I’ll immediately order the construction of facilities to examine them constructed. We should be able to start the process in less than three-weeks.”