by Saxon Andrew
They arrived at the conduit in less than fifteen seconds and they lined up over the top of it as they accelerated even faster. The blackness of the void, combined with traveling through the empty regions between galaxies, made it difficult to sense any motion. The conduit looked the same as it flew by under them and offered no sense of how fast they were traveling. Loree looked at the tactical monitor and shook her head. If it was correct, their speed was higher than what was expected. The absence of large concentrations of particles in the void this far out from a galaxy made their speed go up higher than any spaceship had ever gone before.
Loree looked at Cameron, “What’s the expected time to arrival?”
“Ten days, Admiral.”
Loree shook her head, “Edwards, notify fleet of the additional speed and our earlier arrival.”
“Yes Sir.”
Loree shook her head and said, “Captain Clarke, the bridge is yours.”
“Yes Sir.”
Loree stood up and went to her cabin. She pulled up a star map of the Virgo Cluster. “Barbie, have you determined which galaxy the conduit came from?”
“Not yet, Loree. I should have a better answer in forty eight hours.”
“Thanks.” Loree stared at the map and hoped it wasn’t M-87. That galaxy was a monster more than six times larger than the Milky Way. She sighed and pulled up data on the various galaxies in the local group. Please don’t be M-87.
“Admiral.”
“Yes.”
“The conduit just got larger.”
Loree’s eyes narrowed, “Put what you have on my panel.” Loree stared at her display and saw the conduit suddenly swell to more than twenty times its previous diameter. She froze the image and watched it in slow motion. The increase in size was moving toward the Milky Way. She sat back and thought. Something inside it was making it larger. That must be why they had not attacked earlier. The Invaders were waiting for the conduit’s enlargement to be completed. Loree wondered what was waiting at the end of the conduit she was headed toward. She began typing on her panel and said, “Send this to the other ships, Laura.”
“Yes Sir.”
If any of her ships managed to escape, they were ordered to come back to the place in the conduit where it was growing larger and fire their rotary cannons at it. She had no idea if the Dark Matter rounds would penetrate the conduit’s walls but the effort had to be made. She typed another message and pressed a button sending the recording back to Fleet Operations. They needed to know what was coming. Maybe they could also do something about it.
Chapter Eighteen
“Sir, Fleet just sent an acknowledgement concerning the conduit and say they will handle it. They further state that escaping is what you and your ships should focus on.”
Loree nodded, “Send a copy of the message to all ships and tell them their main focus will be on getting their ship home safely. My previous order to attack the conduit is rescinded.”
“Yes Sir.”
Loree thought about Fleet taking on the thing inside the conduit and decided they were much better equipped to handle it. She looked out of the viewport and saw the conduit flashing by below the ship. She leaned back and began running a system diagnostics report on the reactors. They were operating at their maximum power and they were essential to the survival of the LaGrange. She watched the program run and every reactor checked out perfectly. She shook her head. She could understand the Invaders using a conduit. This long voyage was mind numbingly boring. She stared out of the viewport and listened to the small noises the various electronic systems made. She wasn’t sleepy but she was going down fast. She thought for a moment and reached over to her panel and pressed a button. She scrolled down a list and finally saw what she was looking for. She pressed the activate button and Born Free by Kid Rock blared out of the wall speakers. The bridge crew was startled and after a moment, they began head bobbing to the beat. Loree looked out of the viewport again and smiled. The music helped fight the monotony.
• • •
Windy shook her head, “No, Admiral. The problem is that whatever energy the conduit wall is made of is extremely resistant to anything we’ve fired at it. The disruptors have no effect on it and the black matter rounds from the rotary cannons just don’t have enough mass to affect it. Our scanners show they penetrate several feet but then the conduit wall seems to heal itself.”
“What about the DM missile?”
“Unfortunately, it won’t function in the void. It doesn’t have a drive field around it and the thruster attached to the warhead kicks it out of the void.”
“How close is it to our galaxy?”
“It will complete the enlargement in six weeks at the current speed it’s moving.”
Jinks nodded and said, “I’ll get back to you.” He pushed a button on his panel, “Amanda.”
“Yes, Jinks.”
“Didn’t you trial a cannon that fired a large solid Dark Matter Projectile?”
“We did but it was too much to use against a ship in the void.”
“Where is that cannon?”
“Last I saw, it was still attached to Willow.”
Jinks said, “Stand by.” He pressed a button on his panel and heard, “Yes Admiral?”
“Willow, do you still have that large void cannon attached to your hull?”
“I do.”
“I would have thought you would have taken it off by now.”
“Admiral, that cannon is the most powerful weapon we’ve developed for void combat. I just think you never know when a good cannon might be needed.”
“Well, you’re right; we need it now.”
“The rotary rounds aren’t penetrating the conduit?”
“No, they make it two or three feet and then the wall heals itself. I’m going to ask Amanda and Trevor to go with you to see if your cannon can make it through.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
Jinks touched his display where Amanda was shown patiently waiting for him to get back to her, “Amanda, I want you and Trevor to take Willow out to the conduit and see if that cannon will penetrate it.”
“Willow still has it?”
“He does. He likes carrying a big stick around.”
“Can’t say that I blame him. I’ll round up Trevor and we’ll go see what we can do.”
Jinks nodded and touched Windy’s image, “I’m sending Amanda and Trevor out to take a shot at the conduit. Stay there and see if they need any assistance.”
“Yes Sir. What are they going to use?”
“The original cannon developed to use in the void.”
“Why didn’t we use it?”
“It was too powerful. The disruption it caused was huge.”
The display went dark and Windy stared at the dark screen, “How can anything be too powerful?”
• • •
Lukas looked at Amanda and said, “I don’t want you to get anywhere near that conduit.”
Trevor started shaking his head, “We have to get close enough to take a shot. What are you worried about?”
“How much energy do you think is in that conduit?” Trevor looked at Amanda and saw her eyes widen. Lukas saw her and said, “If you cause a disruption, I can only imagine how large it would be. I don’t want to lose my best scientists.”
Trevor shook his head, “Lukas, that conduit doesn’t give off a magnetic field. We’re going to have to sight focus the rounds. We will have to be close enough to do that.”
“Then get the flock out of Dodge the moment you fire.”
Amanda smiled, “We will Marshall Earp.”
“It’s funny. I use that saying with the members of the Fellowship and none of them come close to understanding it but every human does.”
“That’s because it’s not their history. We’ll make the shot and get out.” Lukas nodded and the panel went dark. Amanda looked at Trevor, “How close do we have to be to take a shot at it?”
“Pretty close.”
“How
close?”
“At a hundred miles, that conduit looks like it has the thickness of a hair.”
“Willow, help us here.”
“I don’t want to get too close but twenty miles is about as far out as you can get and still hope to hit it using optical sights.”
Trevor shook his head, “I don’t like that. We won’t be capable of outrunning a major disruption if it goes up.”
Amanda shook her head and pressed the communicator panel. Windy Davis appeared and Amanda smiled, “Admiral, how close have you come to the conduit to fire on it?”
“About thirty miles.”
“How have you been able to target it from that far out?”
“I’d have my ships take magnets and put them right outside the conduit’s walls. The first rounds would destroy the magnet but the others following would have been pulled on the correct trajectory to hit it.”
Amanda smiled, “We’re going to fire a rather powerful Dark Matter warhead at the conduit and we have some concern that it might go up in a giant disruption. You should move your ships away from it. Would you go ahead of the thing inside the conduit causing it to enlarge and place magnets we can fire our cannon at?”
“That thing is moving fast. You’ll have to time it perfectly to hit it.”
“Go far enough in front of it and spread out the magnets. Tell us when it’s approaching them and we’ll fire a spread of projectiles at the magnets.”
Windy nodded and said, “We’re going to skip a week ahead of it to make sure. You should meet us and be ready to fire.”
“Give us your coordinates and we’ll head there now.” Windy nodded.
Amanda looked at her panel, “How many of the warheads do you have, Willow?”
“About four hundred.”
“ARE YOU SERIOUS?!”
“You just never know when you might need a big hitter.”
Trevor laughed, “Well, your theory has just been verified. I didn’t think we made that many hollow warheads.”
“They aren’t hollow.”
Trevor looked at Amanda and her mouth fell open. Trevor said, “Uhh, perhaps we should move a long way out when we fire them.”
“That would be my suggestion as well.”
“How fast can you fire them?”
“I’ve had a belt built for the cannon and they feed at a rate of a hundred a second.”
Amanda shook her head, “Willow, what were you thinking would need that kind of firepower?”
“I don’t know. I did it because I could.”
“Well, let’s do it this way. We’ll fire two shells at each magnet. The first shell will hit the magnet and the closely following second should hit the conduit.”
Willow paused and said, “If the magnet is next to the conduit wall, I don’t believe the magnet will slow the first one down at all.”
“Even so, we’ll make sure.”
“Ok Trevor, the two of you should come to the Silo. It will take us about a day to get out to the coordinates that Windy sent.”
• • •
Willow was moving at maximum speed toward the conduit. Amanda thought for a moment and looked at Trevor, “Do you honestly think it might go up into a major disruption?”
“I have no idea. We may find that it’s not harmed at all. The rotary rounds didn’t do any damage.”
“But they did penetrate.”
“A few feet. We have no idea how thick the walls are. We might be worrying for no reason.”
Amanda nodded and looked out of the viewport as Willow moved quickly thorough the void in the Milky Way. “If that’s true, why am I so worried?”
“I’ve thought of a way to avoid a disruption.”
Amanda looked at Trevor, “How?”
“We get out of the void as soon as we fire and enter normal space.”
“I don’t know if that would work if that thing goes up.”
“Why not, Willow?”
“I don’t think a disruption of the magnitude this thing might cause has ever happened. It might affect normal space it travels through.”
“The effect would be less than in the void.”
“If that thing expands faster than we can fly, perhaps we should run until it gets close and then leave the void. However, that also could lead to a real problem.”
“What is that?”
“If that disruption forces us out of the void and continues for a hundred more light years, how will we manage to enter the void if it’s disrupted?”
“Are you saying we’d be trapped in normal space?”
“Yes Trevor, and do you know how long it would take to travel just one light year in normal space?”
“How long, Willow?”
“Two years. And if you accelerate close to light speed, you’d live long enough to see the end but all of the people you know would long be dead. This is the most radical way to use time travel.”
Amanda nodded, “A hundred years would pass before we cleared the disruption.”
“That’s if it only moved a hundred light years past the point you left the void.”
Amanda shook her head, “Perhaps we should move out to about a thousand light years from it.”
Trevor nodded, “I think that might be a good idea.”
“Willow said, “Since the DM rounds are going to be attracted by the magnets, I’d recommend ten thousand light years.”
Amanda looked at Chad and said, “Why that far Willow?”
“Lukas posed a question when we discovered the conduit. He wondered that since the conduit was made of energy if it would all go up if it was punctured. Sort of like a bubble pops when it’s punctured. If that happened, the energy release would be something unimaginable.”
Amanda shook her head, “Contact Windy and Chad and tell them to move their ships away from the conduit before we fire. Impress on them the importance of not being close.”
Willow chuckled, “I’ll tell them more than a couple of light years might not be appropriate.”
“That would be good.”
Trevor looked at Amanda, “What about the battleship scouts headed toward the other end of the conduit? They’re flying directly over it.”
Willow said, “They’re due to arrive at the time we fire on it. I suspect they’ll be away from whatever happens. Besides, it will take some time for any disruption to arrive there.”
Trevor said, “Are you sure about that?”
There was silence and Amanda said, “Ships coming through that thing travel the distance in a couple of seconds according to what we’ve been able to determine.”
“I’ll contact them.”
“That would be good, Willow.”
• • •
Loree ended up talking with Amanda and Trevor before she accepted that this was an unknown situation and caution was called for. She just couldn’t believe that any disruption could arrive that fast. She looked at Blake, “What do you think about this?”
“I’m of the opinion that we should perhaps speed up our arrival slightly.”
“Why?”
“Well, let’s assume the conduit is not destroyed but is damaged. That will cause some kind of response from the Invaders on their end of it.” Loree nodded. “That means they would have a large number of ships where we’re headed.”
“Go on.”
“And what if this science fiction scenario happens and the conduit does disrupt instantly along its entire length; I don’t know that I would want to be anywhere near it if it did.”
Loree looked out the forward viewport and saw the small glow of stars far ahead of them. Her fear was realized; they were headed directly toward M-87. She shook her head. This just couldn’t be possible. But…Loree looked at Laura, “Send out a message to our ships. Two days before we arrive, I want them to move out away from the conduit and head toward their assigned areas. I want a minimum of a five thousand light years between them and I want all of them at least ten thousand light years away from the conduit.”
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br /> “Yes Sir.”
Loree looked at Blake, “I have a lot of difficulty really buying into what they’re saying but it won’t hurt to be cautious.”
Blake nodded, “If the Ambrose say there is a possible danger, that’s reason enough.” Loree nodded. They were three days away from the monster galaxy.
• • •
“Chad.”
“Yes love?”
“Did you receive the warning to move away from the conduit’s opening?”
“I did.”
“How far have you moved?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Chad, I know you. You won’t move further than you feel would put you so far away as to not be able to respond quickly to an attack.”
“I’ve moved my fleet three light years.”
“Move them a hundred light years.”
“What?!”
“Chad, I’ve been talking with some of our scientists and if that conduit goes up, a hundred will still be too close.”
“You can’t be serious?”
“Chad, this is not your area of expertise. You’re a warrior and think only like a warrior. If it goes up, the disruption will blow out faster than your ships can fly. You better have a good head start on it.”
Chad stared at Julie on his display. He took a deep breath and said, “I’ll move the fleet five hundred light years.”
“Make it a thousand and I’ll leave you alone.”
“You’re really worried about this?”
“I am. That conduit has energy in it that runs all the way out to the Virgo Cluster. Think about that.”
The display went dark and Chad looked at the Conduit in his tactical display. The orange glow extended out more than a light year. He shook his head and then said, “Trio, do you think an attack will come through the conduit soon?”
“I think I’d listen to her, Chad. Whatever is inside the conduit will block an attack or they would have been here already.”