“Did I lose the feed?” Eris asked.
“No! The Jellie ship just left. I cannot see it anywhere,” Monika said as she looked nervously from screen to monitor to display. “Nothing showing anywhere for that Jellie ship.”
“Did you fire some weapon?” Eris asked.
“No. I did not. I am not sure what we just saw,” Monika replied.
“I think we just observed the Jellies use their own form of faster-than-light propulsion,” AI Seljak reported. “That is my best assessment.”
“Bridge systems functionality is returning in reality,” AI Batibat reported.
“Engineering? Engine room? Roustabouts?” Eris barked out. “Get the main drive on now! Get us to that Cosmic Crinkle as fast as you can. We run while the Jellies are gone. Move us out of here.”
Siva’s apparition was standing next to that of Peter’. While physically they were in the engineering room by the main drive, they looked to be just standing in a pleasant meadow. Siva answered first, “Yes, Captain.”
“Venting of heat started,” Peter announced. “Main drive begins in two minutes.”
“Inertia suppression systems at maximum,” Siva reported, but now his apparition was blurring. “All alignments and ejectors are as good as we can make them. Concentrator is reading steady. We should be able to build to at least sixty-five percent of maximum acceleration when the main drive is hot.”
“Are connections and bridge command functions back?” Eris asked. “Can I work from there now?”
“Yes, the bridge stations are at eighty-nine percent of functionality, and it is steadily improving,” AI Seljak replied.
Eris looked around, but the simulation of Sandie was missing. She abruptly dismissed the shadowlands. She jerked a bit as her consciousness was flung back into her body in the real world. As she looked at the bridge controls, the main large screen now showed the blackness of space, but a trajectory was superimposed on it. There were dotted lines leading to a circular symbol which was labeled Cosmic Crinkle.
SB Pinaka’s mechanical voice said, “Course plotted and trajectory computed.”
“Captain, the main drive is activating! This carousel is about to really spin,” Peter stated through a monitor. His face was lit by a huge smile. “Ejectors will fire momentarily. Everything looks good! Away we go! This lark will be great!”
Eris grinned and tried to hide from the outside the inner struggle she was enduring. Her prayers were fervent that they would make it to the Cosmic Crinkle before the Jellies came back.
***
The scout ship moved into its faster-than-light mode, blinking out of normal physical space. Monika triggered the remote control, and the system that Sandie design engaged. A crude and roughly resealed hatch withstood the pressures and changes, but even if it had not, there was no one aboard to protect. No humans, and no artificial intelligences. Two empty pilot seats, with a chopped open console between them. Had a pilot been seated, he or she would have thought they were looking out the front of the scout. However, in the emptiness of the void outside of regular space, where the FTL system had placed the scout ship, orientation was very subjective. The scout appeared, from the perspective of looking out the clear permalloy, to be surrounded by a gray mass of nothingness. When the FTL was engaged, the whole universe shifted. This journey differed from the sling launch and first engagement of the FTL. Here, no intelligences were present, and the systems followed a preset algorithm. Swirls of black and white mixed around the ship. The darkest grey was straight ahead, the grey color lightened to the sides of the FTL scout, and was most light, almost an off-white, behind the scout. It was moving from one location in space, to another, without traversing every part in between.
The scout was a tiny speck compared to that vast void of gray, and yet, even the gray was moving, in a manner of speaking. For the grayness was altering, evolving, and mutating, swirling as the scout ship made its journey. Time passed inside the empty cabin of the scout, but no human pilots were there to perceive it. Nor was the artificial intelligence system there to chronicle the passage of time, relative to the movement from one part of space to another.
Sandie had programmed the remote control to send the scout to a location discovered by the great and innovative astronomer Gretchen Westerhuis. While Sandie had programmed the remote controlled FTL, the artificial intelligence system had thought briefly of the adventurer Gretchen, from Dome 17, who had been named after that pioneering astronomer Gretchen Westerhuis. Astronomer Westerhuis had invented a new method of planetary detection. During that search of the heavens, which had taken place a few years prior to the Great Event, Astronomer Westerhuis had found the largest example of what scientists of her era had initially called a white-hole. It was also the location of extremely unstable radiation, fluctuating gravimetrics, traces of antimatter, and intense fields of circulating gamma particles. Gretchen Westerhuis called it the White Rabbit, because she had no idea what would happen if something were to fall into that region of space.
The Master Engineer Brink who had designed and built Sandie also had investigated the Westerhuis White Rabbit. Brink had specifically programmed in safeguards into Sandie to avoid any travel close to it. Brink’s reasoning was that it was an area of space where physical laws were unstable, even down to the subatomic levels. Brink, like Astronomer Westerhuis, had been unable to discern what would happen to a spacecraft that ventured into that White Rabbit. Sandie was intrigued by the Westerhuis White Rabbit.
Therefore, Sandie had set the scout’s navigation system along with its remote-controlled activation, to send the FTL scout on a two-stop mission. The first stop would be near a solar system which Sandie had discovered while searching for the teleportation signal from Earth. The solar system consisted of three stars. The primary star was a blue giant. The other two stars formed a tightly bound pair, one a yellow semi-dwarf, and the other a star similar to Earth’s star with a warm yellow-white glow. The three-star system was a rare type, and boasted twenty-one planets, most of which were circumbinary. Sandie hoped the rare solar system would pique the interest of the Jellies. At best, it was a rough guess, as Sandie had very limited knowledge of what the Jellie’s found desirable in a planet or solar system. The Zalian records showed water was a common factor in the history of where Jellie activity had been observed, but that was only a rudimentary estimate. Nonetheless, Sandie picked that trinary solar system because four of those planets were located in a terrestrial-beltway zone and two had distinct readings of oceans. They were not quite earth equivalent planets, but they were close. The scout was scheduled to drop from FTL near that solar system and then hesitate for a predetermined, but short, period of time, then retarget and restart the FTL, heading directly for the Westerhuis White Rabbit.
It was a giant guess based on a few scraps of information.
Sandie hoped that that two-step maneuver might give the impression the scout was under biological control. The two-steps might, if the Jellies thought in any way similar to how humans thought, that the scout was fleeing toward a base or home. The two-step was intended to mimic some organically inspired commands, or at least Sandie guessed that might be how it was perceived.
That first step, heading toward what looked like a solar system with a high-probability for indigenous life, was the best lure. Sandie had discarded taking the FTL right for the White Rabbit region, guessing that the Jellies might not understand the White Rabbit either. But if luck or fate or the gods smiled on the FTL scout ship’s journey, the Jellies would take the bait, be in pursuit, and when that second FTL maneuver happened, they might follow. It was the best deception that Sandie could invent.
Sandie, the artificial intelligence system, was not supposed to guess, hope, or rely upon luck or fate or divine activity. Sandie did all of that in this attempt at trickery and diversion. Sandie even followed Eris’ example and offered a brief prayer, to whoever might be listening, that the delusion would fool the Jellies into thinking the scout was piloted.
Sandie did all that, just prior to when the AI was shut down for the transfer of her Atomic Level Processor. The FTL scout’s programs were set, awaiting commencement orders. Once activated, the remote control would follow the program Sandie had laid out.
Cruising along through the gray void outside of normal space, the FTL scout was nearing the place where it would insert itself back into ordinary space and then proceed to step two.
The Jellie ship intercepted it, just as the scout’s FTL system was backing down. The gray all around the scout took on a frightful purplish glow. Space, energy, time, and gravity all warped around, and a whirlpool-like motion sucked the scout from non-normal space, and into typical space. The scout emerged from FTL travel, not precisely at the intended location. It was within visual range of the giant blue star, the bright yellow star, and the warm yellow star, with their family of planetary bodies, myriad of moons, comets, and asteroids. They had just become perceivable from the scout, had there been anyone on it to see them. They were actually quite aesthetically pleasing, should a human eye ever happen to travel there in some future quest or adventure.
The Jellie ship materialized exactly at the same instant, and only milliseconds later, did the pink beam weapon flare out. It ensconced the scout, rather than destroying it. The pink beam enveloped the scout and it was held stationary. The pink field of light was steady in its color and engulfment of the scout, although a long tentacle of pink extended back to the Jellie ship.
A series of purplish blue orbs emanated from the Jellie ship. They glowed and were sort of fuzzy or blurry in appearance, had there been human eyes to see them. The scout, having been stripped of so much of its abilities when Sandie’s ALP had been removed, was oblivious to the operation of the alien orbs. The blurry orbs moved from being in proximity to the Jellie ship until they surrounded the FTL scout on all side. The purplish-blue orbs passed right through the pink field which surrounded the scout. The purple light was stronger than the pink field.
The glowing orbs, or spheres, then sprouted six appendages. Those appendages reached out and grasped parts of the scout’s hull. For a while, the glowing spheres examined the scout’s exterior, holding on with four appendages, and using two others to tediously examine the FTL scout ship. They pulled things open, they pushed things apart, and they moved things around. They were not destructive, as much as they were persistent and relentless in their enigmatic tasks.
All the while, the program on the scout was counting down.
Without warning, the second stage of Sandie’s programmed two-stage FTL mission kicked in. The scout’s FTL drive engaged.
The human made FTL drive wrested against the Jellie made pink beam, and the Jellie made purple orbs. With a huge snap of light, something happened. Expelled were gravity particles, neutrinos, muons, sleptons, and a few ruptured subatomic particles, as the implosion of the FTL scout’s drive happened. Part of the capsule of the scout hurled off toward the White Rabbit region of space, but a greater part just imploded, disintegrated, and collapsed on a molecular level.
The appendages on the purple spheres retracted, but not fast enough. The spheres ruptured under the immense forces that were released. Hastily, a pink and purple buffer snapped into existence between the exploding scout and the Jellie’s ship. None of the spheres were able to be reabsorbed by the Jellie ship. The ship itself, fled away, that barrier of pink and purple remained between the demise of the scout and the Jellie craft itself.
Only after all remains of the Earth-made, faster-than-light scout ship was gone, did the buffer disappear. Jetting away with a wobbling flightpath, the Jellie ship began blinking in blues, and purples. It then retreated away using its own mysterious method of crossing the light-speed barrier.
Many light-years away, the Colony Ship Conestoga’s main drive ejectors began firing perfectly. The needle ship, with Alpha attached to it, the sole remaining habitat of the eight which had originally been saddled to the needle ship, accelerated toward the Cosmic Crinkle under its own power. Huge spans of heat were released from the place Khin called the Burning Netherworld, and that improved the efficiency of the Shah of Persia Energy Concentrator. The front scoop collected and harvested more atoms to be converted and concentrated into fuel. In its own way, the needle ship was feeding. Captain Eris yelled out a hurrah as did Monika, Siva, Peter, and Jerome. Jerome had just made it back to the Defense and Counter Assault Control controls where Monika was standing and cheering. Little did they know, the last flight of the Conestoga still had immense obstacles to overcome.
11 And they will stand by you
even unto death
Baby Kalur looked up at his mother’s eyes, and blinked. He was nursing, and gently tapped his one hand against Monika’s breast. She gently stroked his hair, and watched him as love poured from her. Baby Brink was sleeping in the bassinette not far from where mother and child sat rocking and sharing a tender moment. Everything else in the world faded away as if it were all meaningless, just a chasing after the wind, or as substantial as a mist over Beta’s sea.
Monika gently lifted Kalur’s fingers and kissed them.
Next door, Jerome was monitoring the defenses. The display screens slowly, but steadily accumulated the numbers on weapon systems which were becoming available, if or when they were needed. He smiled as looked at the small arsenal which was building up, as indicated on his displays.
The first ten Vindicator Missiles were deployed to their hanger bays, and were ready to launch, but only one had a working nuclear warhead. The other warheads were in various stages of completion and installation, but none would be ready for another seven hours. Three of the FTL Punchers were sitting unfinished and unattended as the risk of detection for those had been too high, and their completion had not been restarted. Jerome wondered about that, now that the Conestoga was moving. He did still have the five probes to use as ballistic weapons, but they too did not have explosives.
“Captain Eris?” Jerome asked through the com-link. “May we continue with production of the FTL Punchers? The scout’s success indicates those might be effective, and since we are moving, is there any reason not to continue?”
Eris responded, “Reproduction and Fabrication as well as the automacubes are busy finishing the other weapons systems. I want to get more things finished, and the cannons are coming along very well. I agree we may need the punchers. I have them scheduled for completion when the other weapons are done.”
“Understood.” Jerome keyed in some commands. “Our invincibility lies in our defenses. Our possibility of victory is in our ability to devastate in the attack. Our future is in our hands and what we make with them, be they slingshots, or machine guns.”
Eris was unsure exactly what Jerome meant, but that was not unusual when he recited his remembered quotes. As she ended the contact, she smiled at the range of his erudite recollections.
Jerome returned to observing the displays which were indicating what weapons were available. One display showed a change and indicated that all the Willie Cannons were operational. However, they only had a field of fire which covered 38% of the Conestoga. That was a slight improvement over the coverage Jerome had expected, but still left large sections of the Conestoga without their protection. Those fields of fire were shown on a separate display. The fields appeared as red images which looked like triangles poking into the parts of the Conestoga. Jerome considered again contacting Eris and asking about transferring navigational control to his instruments. That way Jerome or Monika could direct the Conestoga to make a barrel roll, pivot, or turn, at least somewhat, to bring some of those cannons into action. However, upon further reflection, Jerome hesitated. Altering their course could adversely affect the trajectory of the flightpath into the Cosmic Crinkle. Jerome really did not want to do that, because, from what he understood, the Zalians had plotted that pathway in some manner so that the Conestoga would travel toward that earth-like destination planet. He really wanted Sandie to talk to and brainstorm id
eas.
“Sandie? Are you available?” He tapped his com-link.
There was no response.
Instead, Jerome looked at the other options he had for defending the ship. The teleportation bombs were just starting to register as available. A glowing numeral 1 was showing. Just one single teleportation bomb was ready. Those weapons were built with twin stages; a sending pad, and a receiving pad. The sending pad component was a meter-wide grid powered by a jumbo fusion box. That was to be ejected from a drop shaft, with tiny thruster motors for propulsion. That sending pad was a short-range weapon which was designed to land and adhere on the sides of the Jellie ship. The other component was the meter-square receiving pad, powered by a fusion pack and which was jettisoned out into space in the opposite direction. Both components were launched at the same time. When contact was made with the Jellie ship, by the sending unit component, it would activate. Teleportation would occur. A section of the Jellie craft would be severed and teleported to the corresponding receiving pad.
The Colony Ship Conestoga : The Complete Series: All Eight Books Page 239