“What are the contacts?”
“Those same two Crystal City ships.”
“And who is it I’ll be talking to, Ensign?”
“It’s Granger, sir. I don’t understand what he’s—”
“Just hang tight, I’m en route to the bridge.”
The admiral stood up. “We’ll need to move this meeting to the bridge. You too, Gaddy.”
As the admiral entered The Lilly’s bridge, he was greeted with the image of Granger’s smiling face on the forward two sections of the wrap-around display.
The admiral nodded for McBride to enable the audio link.
“Hello, Admiral. You’re looking a bit distressed. I hope I haven’t caught you at a bad time.”
“Drop the small talk, Granger. I need to know what’s going on. Why are you contacting us from a Crystal City ship? Originals and progressives, from what I understand, don’t play well together. Truth is, we thought you’d been taken with the rest of the Minian’s crew.”
“Let me do my best to explain things, Admiral. It’s far simpler than you may think. First of all, I like this particular thread of existence I’m on within the multiverse. This is my home. But my brethren progressive Caldurians? Not so much. Truth is, they haven’t set foot here for hundreds of years.”
“How can you say that? The Minian showed up in Allied space, fired on an Allied vessel, and is now sitting in Earth space.”
“First of all, as far as the progressives are concerned, the Minian no longer exists. She was destroyed by a phase-shift anomaly, in a time and dimension far removed from this one.”
“In other words, you’ve pirated the damn vessel to take as your own.”
Granger simply stared back at the admiral.
“What the hell happened to her crew?”
“That’s a bit more tricky to explain. To be honest, I’m not really sure. Many of the crew were accomplices, eager to start a new life here. The others, the progressives, who still prided themselves on being adverse to violence, well, obviously, they needed to be dealt with.”
“You killed them? Killed your own damn crew!”
“No, not killed. Let’s just say a few crewmembers will live out the balance of their lives on another plane of existence.”
“And the others, your fellow pirates? Tell me what you’ve done with the Minian’s crew.”
“There was a spatial time phase-shift anomaly. I know that’s a mouthful. Basically, someone, or something, phase-shifted into the Minian at an inopportune time. Perhaps while the vessel was entering a wormhole, or when the ship was phase-shifting itself. There are redundant safeguards built into Caldurian technology, so I’m more than mystified.”
The admiral knew in an instant. It was Bristol. Somehow, when he phase-shifted off that passenger liner ship of his brother’s, he had adversely crossed paths with the Minian.
“So why are you still here? Why didn’t you disappear with the rest of the Minian’s crew?”
“I wasn’t on the Minian. Truth is, I was right there, on The Lilly. Doing a little reconnaissance work.”
“You were spying?”
Again no answer came from Granger.
“What is it you want?”
“I want the Minian back, isn’t that obvious?”
“That’s not going to happen. It’s the consequence you pay for firing on an Allied vessel. Why don’t you tell me about the agreement you’ve made with the Craing empire?”
“So you know about that? I’m impressed. Then you know you don’t want me for an enemy.”
“Seems that decision was already made when you fired on the Independence and befriended the Craing. You are an enemy, Granger.”
The smile was gone and Granger sat up taller in his seat. “Think about the repercussions, Admiral. Where before the Craing needed days, often weeks or months to travel the universe, with Caldurian wormhole technology any number of their fleet, which I assure you are many, can now show up on Earth’s doorstep in a matter of minutes. By this time tomorrow, Earth could be nothing more than space dust.”
The admiral glanced around at Ricket and Gaddy, standing at the back of the bridge.
“I’m wondering, Granger. What would interest the Craing enough to make such a unilateral deal with someone like you? Perhaps turning over the Minian? All her advanced technology? The problem is … You don’t have possession of that ship—I do.”
Granger’s expression now turned to a blatant glare.
The admiral continued, “Now it’s clear why you used minimal force when firing on the Minian. She wouldn’t be much of a bargaining tool if she was shot to hell, would she?”
Granger’s smile returned. “I’ve already passed on enough technical information for the Craing to be in my debt for years to come. Sure, the Minian is a marvel of technology, but she can’t go up against five or ten thousand Craing warships. If you want Earth space to become that battlefield, then so be it. You need to ask yourself: is keeping the Minian more important to you than the welfare of Earth itself? We’ll leave … for the time being. You have twenty-four hours to decide.”
Chapter 28
Chapter 28
Mollie arrived in the gym wearing her new martial arts outfit. Orion had given detailed instructions, including Mollie’s small-size specifics, to a garment replicator for processing. She was excited to see whom her grandfather had chosen to fill in for Orion. Excited and nervous.
Woodrow sat on the large, wall-to-wall padded mat and snickered as Mollie approached.
“It’s not polite to do that. It’s rude.”
“Who’s that?” Woodrow asked, looking at the drone.
“That’s Teardrop. He goes everywhere with me.”
“Why do you want this training so bad, little girl?”
“My name is Mollie.”
“Tell me why, Mollie.”
“I just do.”
“That’s not nearly good enough.”
Woodrow got up and headed for the exit.
“Wait. Just wait. Okay!”
“Well?” he asked, slowly walking back to the mat and sitting down again.
“I don’t want to feel helpless like that ever again.”
“This because of what happened to your mom?”
Mollie didn’t say anything, then tears welled up in her eyes. She quickly brushed them away and put on a fake smile.
“There’s a price. There’s something you’d be giving up; you know that, don’t you?”
“Give up? What do you mean? Why do I have to give something up?”
“You go down this road, there won’t be room for two of you. Not with what I’ll be teaching you.”
“Two of me? Okay, now I’m totally lost.”
“I teach people to kill, Mollie. Not defend themselves. Not just fight. I teach people to kill before they themselves are killed. Look at you! You’re too small, too young to defend yourself against an adult. So you’ll have to be sly, have to be cunning, have to be totally ruthless and, most important, be unpredictable.”
“I can do all that.”
“You do that and you’ll be giving up something in return.”
Mollie thought about that for a while, met the big SEAL’s eyes. “What?”
“Being a kid.”
“Being a kid?” she repeated.
“Yep. Listen … why don’t you take some time to think about it? Maybe this isn’t such a good idea. You should talk to your dad—”
“No! I don’t need to think about it. And I don’t want to talk to my dad, so why don’t you get up on your feet and start teaching me?”
“All right. First, go back to your cabin and put on your street clothes. In the real world you won’t have time to put on a special costume like that one. And you can leave your robot out in the corridor.”
Mollie nodded and gestured for Teardrop to come along.
Before she got to the door Woodrow said, “When you enter the door again, you’ll have eight seconds to try to kill me. Try to remember what is
in this compartment that could be of use to you.”
Without turning around, Mollie left the gym.
* * *
The admiral watched Earth from a large porthole in the captain’s suite. He’d been staying there, watching over Mollie while Jason was on mission. His eyes moved to the Minian, a mere five miles away. He’d moved The Lilly closer to her after his conversation with Granger. Anything happens to that ship and Earth wouldn’t return to the twenty-first century, he thought. There was no way Granger or the Craing could be allowed to get the Minian in their clutches. But sitting here, doing nothing, was only prolonging the inevitable. Bold action was required.
The admiral got to his feet. He walked down the hall and made himself a cup of coffee in the kitchenette. His mind was racing. An idea was brewing: Could it be done?
When the admiral entered the captain’s ready/conference room area, he sat at the head of the table. Perkins, Ricket, and Gaddy were already seated.
“Let’s start with the cube. Break down for me what you’ve discovered, what we can use.”
Ricket glanced quickly at Gaddy and said, “The Craing do, in fact, have new technological information. Caldurian inspired, without a doubt. Everything from spooling wormholes, to nano-device technology, to more powerful weaponry, to broader MediPod specifications.”
The admiral was about to say something when Ricket continued: “Upon closer examination, I’ve discovered that each technology offering was deficient in some way or form. Key information, information necessary to make the technologies viable, was missing.”
“Smart, on Granger’s part. Tease them with just enough data to hook their interest, but not sufficient to implement actual employment of the technology,” the admiral said.
“There’s something else,” Gaddy interjected. “There seems to be a layer of hidden code associated with the Caldurian’s technical information. But with the proper software key, the missing information could become accessible.”
“So both sides need to uphold some kind of agreement. The Craing want the rest of the missing technology, as well as the Minian, but what is it the Caldurians want?” the admiral asked.
“That’s easy,” Gaddy said. “They don’t need riches, and they already have the highest level of technology. What they don’t have is the one thing the Craing has more of than anyone else.”
The admiral nodded. “Power.”
“They’re angling to take a big portion of the Craing Empire for themselves, would be my bet,” Gaddy said.
“And what section of the vast Craing Empire has shown to be the most problematic for them in recent months?” Ricket asked.
“You’re thinking of Allied space,” the admiral answered. “But that’s not part of the Craing Empire.”
“The way the Craing view the universe, it is. There’s undiscovered space and there’s Craing Empire space. That’s it; nothing in between,” Ricket replied.
“Their never-ending grasp for complete control of space and power over the universe are what we and other dissidents want to change,” Gaddy said. “They mustn’t be allowed to continue.”
The admiral nodded and thought about what his next move should be.
“Ricket, Granger seems able to come and go with relative ease. I need to ensure that he can no longer access The Lilly. Can you make that happen?”
“It’s already been done. The Lilly’s AI monitors all port accesses—doesn’t control it, but monitors it. I’ve set up a sub-routine that watches for any non-typical phase-shift activity, as well as duplicate, or questionable, DNA attributes. As done on the Minian, we’ll also need to instigate mini-hover drones at each portal access.”
“Do it, at least until Granger is no longer a factor.”
Ricket entered several keystrokes onto his virtual notepad. “Done.”
“How secure is this room? Could Granger or some snooping-type devices be present?”
“No. This room is secure, Admiral.”
“So then here’s our situation as I see it.” The admiral paused as if to collect his thoughts. “One, it is essential that the Minian stays in our control. Captain Reynolds’ mission and the very survival of our planet depend on that. Two, Allied space is about to become the ward of a band of rogue Caldurian progressives. We need to stop that from happening. Three, the Craing Empire is very close to possessing additional technological capabilities that would make them virtually unbeatable. Advances the Allied forces gained over the last few months would quickly be stripped away.”
Perkins squirmed in his seat and then held up a hand.
“No need to raise your hand, Perkins, what is it you want to say?”
“Won’t the Craing hedge their bets? I mean, once they have all that tech, won’t they take back Allied space anyway?”
“Of course they will,” the admiral affirmed. “But Granger isn’t dumb. I’m sure he’s stacked the deck somehow. We’ll just have to figure that one out as we go along.”
Perkins, Ricket and Gaddy looked to the admiral.
“What’s the best defense?” the admiral asked.
They all answered at the same time, “A good offense.”
“We need to attack,” the admiral said with conviction. “We need to attack the Craing worlds.”
Gaddy sat up straighter in her seat, her expression showing concern.
The admiral shook his head, “We’re not looking for conquests, Gaddy, we’re looking to defend billions of lives.”
Chapter 29
Chapter 29
Jason tried twice to reach Ricket but couldn’t make a connection either time. He turned his attention to the view outside the Magnum’s side window and studied the lush, tropical world below. The abundance of life was incredible. Grimes was flying low and waiting for directions from Bristol seated in the rear passenger compartment.
“Anything, Bristol?”
“I thought I saw something but it was gone too fast. I’m not sure if it’s the equipment or the location, but everything’s whanky.”
“Would it help if we landed?” Grimes asked.
“Maybe. I don’t know—this works a lot better on the ground. Wait! There it is! Found the drone. Change course to a northeast heading; continue on for one point four miles.”
Jason turned toward Grimes. “You know the real trick will be finding a safe LZ. One misstep with a Brontosaurus and this shuttle is toe jam.”
“No such thing, Cap,” Rizzo said from behind him.
Jason turned around. “Why?”
“Turns out the dinosaur Brontosaurus was a case of mistaken identity in the early nineteen hundreds. The dinosaur you’re referring to is actually called Apatosaurus. And that species died out millions of years before this time period,” Rizzo added.
Jason glanced at his HUD’s time-reference date: it showed September 28, 69.3 million years B.C.
“So what predators will we be dealing with?”
“T-Rex. Definitely T-Rex. Maybe velociraptors, but they lived in a somewhat earlier period, the Cretaceous period.”
“What period is this?”
“The Maastrichtian age of the Upper Cretaceous period.”
Billy turned around and looked at Rizzo. “You didn’t get out much as a kid, did you? I bet you had a killer rock collection, too, huh?”
“Actually, I did,” Rizzo replied with a grin.
Bristol interrupted, “This is just about where the drone should be. We need to be on foot to get more precise readings.”
Grimes said, “Well, there’s no clear place to set down. But a mile to the north there’s a rock formation. Maybe there.” Grimes brought the shuttle lower, positioning it between several monstrous-sized sequoia trees. Hovering thirty feet above the ground, they slowly edged forward.
Jason, along with everyone else, was transfixed by what he saw outside. Colors seemed unusually bright, although a mist hung in the air. Condensation quickly formed on the large side porthole windows and front windshield. Grimes tapped a virtual key
and the condensation evaporated.
Jason noticed Dira was smiling, her face pressed to the glass. Looking over to Jason, she said, “This is what my home, Jhardon, looks like.”
As if on cue, a large bird struck the shuttle’s side, causing the Magnum to drop several feet in elevation.
“But without the dinosaur birds; no dinosaurs on Jhardon,” she added, and laughed nervously.
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