by Saxon Andrew
“WHAT?”
“It doesn’t appear to have any lessening of its structure. It is not degrading in any measurable way.”
“What do you think that means?”
“Whatever power created it is beyond anything we know. I suspect the ship that put it there would move through the void at a speed that is unbelievable.”
“Fast enough to make the trip from another galaxy feasible?”
There was momentary silence and Willow said, “That trace does not appear to be toward M-31.”
“No it doesn’t. That galaxy is on the other side of the Milky Way.”
Salud looked at Lukas, “What’s M-31?”
“Humans call it Andromeda. It’s the closest large Galaxy to ours but that thing isn’t pointed in its direction. Whoever made that skip trace came from a much further galaxy.”
“What are you saying, Lukas?”
“Whoever made it is far ahead of us technologically.”
Willow added, “And they’re watching us.”
Salud shook her head, “Why do you say that, Willow?”
“It’s not just a coincidence that it comes straight at the Myot Empire. However, that trace makes me think that it’s not really a trace.”
Lukas’ eyes narrowed, “Why do you say that?”
“Because it stops ten thousand light years before it reaches the edge of our galaxy and there are no skip traces moving away from it.”
Salud stared at the orange line, “If it’s not a skip trace, what could it be?”
“Since it appears to be permanent, it might be a conduit that is used to get here from another galaxy.”
Lukas’ eyes went wide, “That must be what it is. I wonder if someone could skip on it or inside it.”
Willow was silent for a moment and then said, “I can’t get an accurate reading on how big it is without a full scan. We’ll have to go to the end and see if it’s hollow. If it is, then you’d have to move inside it to use it.”
Salud looked at Lukas, “I really hope you’re not intending to find out.”
Lukas stared at the large orange trace in the distance, “We need to know who made this. We also need to confirm what it is.”
Salud nodded, “And what happens if we pass someone coming this way while we’re going the other way?”
Willow said, “That could prove to be problematic.”
Lukas continued staring at the huge orange line and said, “Willow, how long would it take to skip through the void to Andromeda?”
“It takes about twenty four hours to travel the length of the Milky Way from edge to edge and it’s about a hundred thousand light years across. Andromeda is about two and a half million light years away.”
Lukas nodded, “So twenty four days to arrive.”
“That’s about right.”
“If you follow that line out into space, how far out would the closest galaxy be?”
Willow paused and they saw star charts appear on the display, “That thing is pointed straight out toward the heart of the Virgo Cluster and it’s 50 million light years away.”
Lukas looked out at the line and shook his head. Salud said, “How long would it take us at our top speed to get there?”
“About five hundred days at top speed or about a year and three months.”
“Why do you want to know where that line is pointed, Lukas?”
Lukas looked at Salud, “Because if that thing is a conduit, and we decide to take it, there is a possibility we might have to get off it, if we encounter someone else moving on it.”
Willow said, “And it would take longer than a year to get back if that happened?”
“Yes, Willow.”
“Now I know why I’m here.”
Lukas’ head went back and Willow said, “What do you mean?”
Salud looked from the line to Lukas, “If I wasn’t here, what would you decide to do at this moment?” Lukas stared at her in silence and Salud said, “You’d hop right in that orange line and see where it takes you; am I right?”
“You are. Why shouldn’t I do that?”
“Because there’s a good chance you would be seen on the other end or on the way to wherever it goes. We’re not ready to confront whatever made that line.”
“What are you saying?”
“If that line is here permanently, then there’s a reason.”
Willow said, “There must be a ship here in our galaxy that is watching the Myot.”
Salud nodded. “If we have three weeks to waste, I propose waiting here for the ship to come back here.”
Lukas’ eyes narrowed, “How do you know it’ll come back?”
“How long do we leave our ships on station before we relieve them?”
“Shorter than three weeks.”
“That’s right, Willow. I suggest we power down our engines and stay here with the optics recording anything that happens. We have some time before the Sentinels make a decision and I don’t think it would be wise to reveal we’re on to whoever made this.” Lukas stared at her and she crossed her arms, “That includes getting close to it and leaving a skip trace.”
Lukas stared at her and shook his head. “I don’t want to agree but logic says you’re right. Willow, do as she says.” Lukas looked at Salud, “If nothing happens in three weeks…”
“I propose we go back and check on things and send another ship out here to keep an eye on this.”
“We’ll see.”
• • •
It didn’t take three weeks. It only took five days.
“Lukas, something’s moving toward the conduit.”
Lukas woke from a nap and shook his head as he straightened in his chair to look at the monitor, “Show me what you see.”
Salud came out of the sleeping box behind them and looked over Lukas’ shoulder. They saw a black…cloud? It was moving toward the conduit at an extraordinary speed through the void. It slowed as it approached the conduit and the black vaporous material around it faded away.
Inside it was an orange colored ship that was about four hundred yards long. The hull appeared to be glowing orange and then blue. They remained still in the void as Salud climbed out of the sleeping box and sat down in her chair. Lukas felt the air starting to get cold. He took his helmet off the back of his chair and pressurized his suit. Salud saw him do it and lifted her helmet. Willow had turned off all power including the environmental systems. The Orange Ship flew toward the conduit and waited. Lukas shook his head, “That thing is much larger than I thought. It dwarfs the ship in front of it.” Ten minutes later, another Orange Ship exited the conduit and the one waiting suddenly turned bright white and moved into the orange line; it disappeared. The ship replacing it suddenly started releasing a black substance that surrounded it. The large ship disappeared and it then flew away at a tremendous speed. A bright flash erupted and then it was gone.
“Get us out of here, Willow.” The lights came on and the Pod turned and skipped away toward the Welken Confederacy. After an hour, Willow turned and skipped into the galaxy.
“Lukas, what was that black cloud that ship emitted?”
“Willow, did you run the light through a spectral analysis?”
“I did. That black cloud appeared at the extreme edge of the prism and in a very tiny band.”
Lukas shook his head, “They’re using dark energy.”
“My analysis indicates its spectral reading is where dark energy is expected to be if anyone could ever collect any.”
Salud was silent for a moment and said, “What does that mean?”
Lukas shook his head, “You know how our ships are invisible to the Fellowship scanners.” Salud nodded.
Willow interrupted, “Our ships are only invisible to their electronic scanners. They can still be seen visually.”
Lukas nodded, “That ship will be invisible to both. That black cloud will make it virtually impossible to detect visually or electronically. We don’t have a way to see dark matter.”
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br /> “We can see it in the void,”
Lukas shook his head, “I stand corrected, Willow. In normal space, it’s invisible and I suspect that even in the void, if the ship is not moving, it will not be visible.”
“Touché; it is I that stands corrected.”
Salud was quiet for a moment and said, “Let me see if I have this straight? They are watching the Myot.”
“They could also be watching the Welken.”
“I don’t think so, Willow”
“Why not?”
“Because the conduit runs straight at the Myot Empire. If they were watching both, it would be located between the two. I also think that if there was more than one ship watching, they would have been replaced at the same time.” Salud looked at Lukas, “It had to take more than a year to put that conduit in place and that’s assuming that a ship could move at their fastest speed and construct it. It might have taken them longer.”
Lukas stared out of the viewport as they rushed through the void and after a few minutes he looked at the display showing the orange structure. “Willow, did you manage to see if that conduit is made of energy or matter?”
“It’s made of some form of energy. The spectrograph didn’t show any matter readings.”
Salud looked at him, “Why would that make a difference?”
“I’m wondering if it’s cohesive, like a bubble. If you puncture a bubble the entire structure collapses. If we puncture that conduit, would the entire thing collapse in on itself?”
“It’s glowing like the force field that ship had around it inside the dark energy cloud. It might not be too easy to penetrate.” Willow paused, “From the outside.”
Lukas nodded, “It would have to be weaker inside.”
Salud shook her head, “Oh no you’re not!”
Lukas nodded, “I don’t intend to do anything to it, yet. We need some time to look at what’s going on. They don’t appear to be moving an invasion force at the moment. We need to make use of the time we have.”
“Invasion Force!? What made you go look out there, Lukas?”
“Just a hunch, Willow.”
“Well, it was a good one. What does this do to our preparations?”
“I’m not sure. I need you to see if there’s any way we could track that ship.”
“I can track them.”
“What?”
“Once I got a sample of the energy in that black cloud, I can modify my scanners to look for it in the void. That black cloud is energized and it leaves a small trace of that energy behind it. The trouble with seeing dark energy is no one has been able to see what part of the spectral band it occupied; now we know.”
“You are a genius, my friend.”
“You’re making my hull swell. Thanks.”
“While the two of you are patting each other on the backs, do you have any idea how long it takes them to come here through that conduit?”
Her question was greeted with silence and finally Willow said, “I think the only way to find out is to send a probe into it and have it turn around at the end and come back.”
“That would reveal we know about it.”
“There is that. However, I believe you can count on the fact that it doesn’t take long at all. They wouldn’t have built it if it did.”
Lukas stared out of the viewport and Salud said, “What are you thinking?”
“If that conduit is made of energy, I believe that normal physical laws don’t apply inside it, just like the void. That makes me think that travel inside it must be much faster than normal travel in the void. I think it’s a real possibility that it literally could be instantaneous from one end to the other.”
“Come on, Lukas; fifty million light years in an instant?”
Lukas turned to her, “Salud, it’s just another step in technology. We travel a hundred thousand light years a day through the void. Your scientists didn’t believe traveling faster than light was possible until I showed up. This is just evidence they are more advanced than any civilization in our galaxy. They probably used one ship to build that thing and it took a year or longer to construct. Now they can send as many ships as they want instantaneously. No civilization in the Milky Way can match them.”
“Other than the Sentinels.” Lukas remained silent and Salud said, “Lukas?”
“You’re probably right about that. Willow, how much longer until we arrive at Earth?”
“Another three hours.”
“Set up your scanner to see if there are any traces of that black cloud around our Solar System.”
“Modifying the view.”
Lukas stared out of the viewport in silence for the remainder of the trip and Salud knew something was troubling him. She saw his anxiety appear when she mentioned the Sentinels. Was that a mistake? She put her hand on his and stared at the viewport with him. What about the Sentinels was making him nervous?
Chapter Eleven
“Jinks.”
“Yeah, Chad.”
“Lukas is back.”
“Thank God. Where is he?”
“He just entered normal space and is moving toward his launch shaft. Wait a moment, he just moved away and is headed toward Earth.”
Jink’s second display activated and Lukas appeared on it, “Jinks, I want you and all the Senior Staff to meet me on the island. We’ll see you on the beach.”
“Is everything ok?”
“We’ll discuss it on the beach.”
“Do we have time to do that; we’re under a war watch.”
“We have time. I’ll see you there.”
The display went dark and Jinks said, “Chad, notify all the Admirals to meet at the island on the beach.”
“Sir?”
“Just do it! Make sure your Second-in-Command is ready if anything happens.”
“Yes Sir.”
Chad sent the message and Julie instantly appeared on his panel, “What’s going on?”
“I really don’t know but Lukas has called a meeting on the beach.”
“We expect an attack any moment!”
“Just leave Bart in charge and get moving. It must be something very important to cause this, love.”
“I’ll see you there.”
Chad took a deep breath and Trio said, “Changing course.”
“Thanks.”
“Hey, cheer up; I have the surfboard.”
Chad smiled. And Julie would be there. He leaned back and wondered what was going on.
• • •
“What is taking them so long?”
The Welken Royal smiled, “We’re asking them to allow us to break an unbreakable agreement. They are going to have to determine whether or not that can be done without changing all of the covenants that have been previously made. I expect them to discuss this at length.”
“But we’re frozen until they decide.”
“And the longer it takes, the more warships we can build. You know there isn’t another Fellowship Civilization that can match our productivity. It also allows me to put thousands of optical probes in orbit around my planets. I can use the time.”
“Optical probes?”
“We can’t detect the Johan’s ships electronically but they will block out distant stars if they move in toward my planets. That will cause an alarm and I’ll have ships skip in on that spot in less than five seconds. That’s close enough to see them on the ship’s optical scanners.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about this?”
“I would assume you would have thought of it yourself.”
“Will you send me one of those probes?”
The Welken smiled, “What is an ally for if not to help. I’ll deliver it to you in an hour.”
The Myot screamed when the monitor went dark. Now the Welken had a jump in defense. He hoped the Sentinels wouldn’t make a quick decision. He contacted his industrial worlds and ordered two planets to be prepared to start building the probes.
• • •
The orange
colored creature flowed forward in its tub and looked at the readout. It pushed an appendage out of the tub and pressed a button on the panel above it, “There has still been no reading?”
“No, Supal.”
“Are we certain this is where it originated?”
“There is no doubt.”
“Well, it hasn’t appeared since we’ve been monitoring this space.”
“There is a small possibility that it knows we are here.”
“How small?”
“According to the legends, one in a thousand.”
“How did they arrive at that conclusion?”
“Would you care to ask them?”
“Don’t get smart!”
“I ask forgiveness, Supal. However, we will stay here until it appears again.”
“I fail to see why it would be here among this insane civilization.”
“It’s beyond my feeble mental capabilities to understand that as well.”
“Have the Great Ones been asked by the ships being sent here about looking elsewhere for it?”
“They have. But they say that to expand the search increases the possibility of discovery. They will not deviate from the Legends’ directives.”
“Keep me informed if anything appears.”
“I will, Supal.”
The Progen pulled its arm back into its body and flattened out in the tub. This was a waste of a good warship. The contact had been fleeting and yet the Legends insisted that it be found. He looked at the frequency of the reading and wondered if his ship was equipped to handle it. It didn’t matter. If it appeared again, a major invasion would commence to hunt it down and kill it. It wondered if there was more than one.
• • •
Lukas looked at the gathering and allowed everyone time to say hello and update longtime friends on what had happened since they last met. He smiled at Chad and Julie who wouldn’t take their arms off each other. Stoney and Kathy weren’t much better.
Salud was holding four year old Christopher and he was smiling a huge smile as she picked him up and twirled him around. Lukas shook his head. The baby was almost five and was growing up quickly. He spoke as well as a ten year old and he didn’t miss much of what was said around him. Lukas knew that his Welken brain was modified into a human brain by Willow’s DNA system. Christopher’s brain was a pure product of his DNA and Kathy’s. The child was smart, almost too smart, if such a thing was possible. He loved reading and his appetite was voracious. This child would be a difference maker, if they could survive long enough for him to grow up.