“Ah, the standard impatience of humans,” Benny said, shaking his head.
Star Rain went on. “The information and experiment was discovered again six-hundred-and-ten-thousand years later and the experiment was tried again.”
“Let me guess,” Benny said, “they did not stick around to see the results and it was forgotten again.”
“That appears to be the case,” Star Rain said. “The third experiment was attempted two-hundred-and-eighty-thousand years ago, leading to this outbreak. The human fleets did not move on this time and realized their mistake and attempted to stop the spread.”
“But the first two attempts were never stopped,” Gina said.
She just wanted to walk away from all of it. How was this even possible?
“I have no evidence to prove otherwise,” Star Rain said.
Gina just shook her head. No wonder Benny’s question always had the same answer. With two other outbreaks going for far, far longer. Star Rain was correct.
They really did have no hope.
Zero percent chance that humanity and Seeders and Grays could be saved.
TWENTY-SEVEN
BENNY TOOK A few deep breaths and then glanced at Gina. “We need to show this to the others.”
Gina nodded. “And Ray and Tacita.”
Benny nodded. “Star Rain, would you please ask the chairmen of Star Mist and Star Fall to join us here in the command center? Also invite Chairmen Ray and Tacita. Tell them it is an emergency.”
“They have all agreed,” Star Fall said after a moment.
Benny glanced back at their command crew, many who were looking very worried. “Everyone listen closely, but do not interrupt.”
All the crew nodded as if their heads were pulled by the same cord.
A moment later Carrie and Matt appeared, looking worried. Right behind them Angie and Gage, also looking concerned.
“Been a while since an emergency meeting,” Gage said.
“About ten years,” Benny said, realizing he hadn’t missed emergency meetings in the slightest.
“I’d have been happy with another ten,” Matt said.
Benny could only agree to that.
“Bad?” Angie asked.
“Very bad,” Gina said.
At that moment, Ray and Tacita showed up.
All of them were standing, facing each other in front of the command chair.
Without a word, Benny asked Star Rain his standard question that he had been asking for years.
“Zero percent chance,” Star Rain said.
He noticed that around him everyone but Gina nodded. Clearly they all had been asking the same question of their ships.
“Now,” Gina said, “let me ask that same question in a different way.”
She asked about containment of their area and the entire area of the three command ships and Star Rain said six hundred plus years if there were no more advances in fighting technology. Less if more ships joined the battle or there were advances.
Benny could have heard a pin drop in the back of the massive command center.
Gage shook his head and spoke first. “The two responses do not make sense.”
“They do if there are other alien incursions,” Benny said. “Star Rain, please explain about the Creators’ ships as you explained it to us.”
After Star Rain finished, again intense silence filled the command center.
Ray and Tacita both looked washed out, as if they suddenly had no blood in their faces.
Carrie and Matt just stared at each other.
Angie and Gage looked angry.
Benny knew they needed more information to even get moving at all, so he said, “Star Rain, please show the path of the Creators’ ships after their awakening to this area of space. Illustrate that path with a green line.”
All of the chairmen turned toward the big screen as Star Rain first put up what looked like a mist-like three-dimensional cloud. Benny knew that each tiny dot of light represented a galaxy or group of galaxies. The scale was impossible to grasp in any real way.
A green line zigzagged through the mist. He knew it had taken The Creators almost three million years to follow that line.
Benny then said, “Please show with a red dot the first alien experiment location.”
A red dot appeared back near the point of the start of the green line.
“At normal alien expansion,” Benny said, “please show in red all affected galaxies from that experiment.”
“This would assume the aliens of the first experiment were identical to the third,” Star Rain said. “There is evidence in the records of the Creators that they were, but it is not definitive.”
“We understand,” Benny said. What he didn’t want to say was that maybe the first aliens were even more efficient.
A vast part of the cloud turned red.
“Star Rain,” Ray said, “would it be possible to adjust the scale of this to also show in green the original human galaxy and the human-settled area of space?”
“Certainly,” Star Rain said. The scale shifted to take in billions more galaxies and the original human galaxy blinked in green and all human galaxies were in green.
The red line and the green line looked impossibly close together. And the number of red galaxies far, far outnumbered the human ones.
“Oh, no,” Tacita said softly.
“Star Rain, please estimate how close the aliens are to the human galaxies at standard trans-tunnel speed?” Benny asked, his stomach now twisted down into a tight lump.
“At closest possible incursion with these assumptions,” Star Rain said, “Approximately eighty thousand years.”
Silence.
Finally Benny said, “Star Rain, on this same illustration, pinpoint the second Creator experiment and the projected expansion of the aliens.”
A second red cloud of galaxies filled the mist and actually overlapped the first. Thankfully that cloud went away from human space, but more than likely toward Gray space. Benny had a hunch they were not going to be happy to hear that.
Benny just stared at the vast wall of red. The area they were fighting right now, that would take them six hundred years to control, was just a small blemish on the larger area.
The scale was impossible.
“Star Rain,” Ray said, “what is the likelihood that this scenario is a reality?”
“Sixty-one-point-two-three percent,” Star Rain said.
Benny just shook his head. Way too high, but the only way to be sure was to go look.
And those alien areas were a long ways from where they were now.
A long ways from any Seeder ship, actually.
TWENTY-EIGHT
GINA STOOD THERE staring at the huge cloud of red and the small cloud of green. And the Gray controlled area wasn’t even marked because no one knew exactly what the Gray area of space was.
But Gina did know the Grays were in this fight completely as well. They had hives on almost every human planet in every galaxy. If the humans were overrun, the Grays would be as well.
Silence around the eight of them filled the command center. It wasn’t a good silence. And if the feeling of hopelessness she was feeling became the way of life, they would all be in trouble. Something had to be done and done soon.
“Star Rain,” Gina said. “How long would it take this ship to get to the edge of that second expansion from here at full speed?”
“Ninety-one years,” Star Rain said.
“And to the first expansion area?” Benny asked, following her lead.
“Two hundred and ten years, approximately,” Star Rain said. “Again, using these assumptions.”
“We need faster ships,” Benny said.
Slight nods.
Benny turned to Ray and Tacita and waited until they both looked away from the image of red and were looking at him. Gina liked it when he did that. It got people, sometimes including her, to pay attention.
“The new drive we have, if my understanding is correct, is a
standard trans-tunnel drive with seven other trans-tunnel corridors opened inside it.”
“That is correct,” Ray said.
“And each tunnel gives us another factor in speed, correct?” Benny asked.
Gina wasn’t sure what Benny was asking, but he was pushing for something.
“Yes,” Ray said. “It doubles with each new tunnel. Two, four, eight, sixteen, and so on.”
“So we need faster ships,” Benny said. “We have to go look at that area and find out exactly what is going on and we can’t spend hundreds of years doing that before we act in response.”
Benny waved at the big map of red and Ray and Tacita both nodded.
“So get those two who invented the new trans-tunnel drive working on more speed,” Benny said. “We need to get there in twenty years, not two hundred. Faster if possible.”
Again Ray and Tacita nodded.
“The six of us and our crews will spend the next three days running over every bit of data we can dig up from the ancient Creator records and every possible scenario,” Gina said.
The other four chairmen were nodding, letting her and Benny take the lead.
“We need you to find out if even more speed is possible and if so, how long would it take to retrofit all three of our ships,” Benny said.
“All three?” Tacita asked.
“You put us in charge of this fight here to win it,” Benny said. “We are the young ones, remember, the ones who can face unknown situations and deal with them, as we have done here.”
“This fight is now in control,” Gina said. “You need our crews and our three ships fighting that situation.”
She pointed to the big red mass of galaxies.
The other four chairmen were nodding, clearly in agreement.
“Meeting on Star Mist in three days?” Benny asked, looking directly at Ray. “Can you have the information about increasing speed by then? We’re going to need it and a lot more if we’re going to save not only humanity, but Seeders and the Grays.”
“We’ll have it,” Ray said, nodding.
Tacita nodded as well.
Around them, Gina could feel the hopelessness slide away and the new focus starting to grow in their bridge crew and among the other chairmen.
“Star Rain,” Benny said, “please remove that image. We all have work to do.”
A moment later the cloud of red and green vanished and Ray and Tacita vanished with it.
“Meeting this time tomorrow?” Angie asked, glancing at the other chairmen.
Gina nodded, as did the rest of them.
And a moment later the other four were gone.
Benny reached over and took Gina’s hand and smiled.
Then the two of them sat down in their command chair and went to work.
SECTION SEVEN
Finally, Some Good News
TWENTY-NINE
BENNY AND GINA hadn’t slept that much over the last three days. They had spent a vast amount of time in their command chair, digging detail-by-detail through the records that Star Rain had retrieved from lost information in the Creators’ ships. They had only moved for meals, showers, and a few hours of sleep.
It seems that Star Rain had been correct, the Creators had basically tried the same experiment three times in the almost three million years they had been in space. And they had tried no others, of any kind, thankfully.
But the more Benny and Gina dug, the more Benny was convinced that the aliens they had been fighting here were exactly the same as the ones created in the first two experiments. They were rats bred to build a basic space ship and expand into space. Nothing more.
And what Benny found headshaking was all the reasons for the three experiments. It seemed to always start when one some young scientist or historian dug up the reason they were in space. And that led to the discovery of the “experiment” as it was called.
All three times the pattern had been exactly the same.
And all three times the reasons had been forgotten when the ships moved on and the scientists doing the experiment died off.
The last day before the meeting with Ray and Tacita and the others, Benny and Gina had worked out how the front lines of the first two experiments might be expanding. It was a vast front, but they also had almost eighty thousand years before that front hit human-occupied galaxies. So they had time.
But on the scale that Seeders worked, that was almost no time at all.
Finally, they had Star Rain feed their conclusions to the other two ships and stood.
They were both very worried about the coming meeting. But they had a plan, one worked out with the other chairmen. But that plan assumed that Ray and Tacita would report with a possible chance of more speed.
Benny took Gina’s hand. “Ready?”
She nodded and a moment later they had jumped to the familiar meeting room of Star Mist.
Angie and Gage were already there and seated, as were Carrie and Matt.
Benny considered the four chairmen he and Gina’s best friends. The years had done that for them, and if the plan was implemented that they had worked out to fight this new battle, the six of them would be together for a very long time.
And that didn’t bother Benny in the slightest.
Before anyone could say anything, Ray and Tacita appeared and took their chairs at the end of the large wooden table. Both were dressed as they always dressed, in black silk pants and shirt for Ray, and black silk pantsuit for Tacita.
Benny just watched as they got settled and then Ray looked at each of them for a moment, then said, “The inventors of the faster trans-tunnel drive believe they can increase the speed by three factors safely.”
“Wow,” Angie said.
Benny sat back, surprised because that was not the answer he had expected.
“For us math challenged,” Matt said, “what does that actually mean for the two hundred year travel time to the first possible experiment location?”
Ray nodded. “The ten-year travel time from the local cluster which contains the Milky Way Galaxy to here would take seven months now. The two-hundred-year travel time would take just over two years.”
“Wow, just wow,” Angie said.
“That sounds great,” Benny said, “But why am I expecting a large qualifier.”
“Not a large one,” Ray said. “They believe they can have the new drive developed and tested safely within ten years. They understand the theory, just never went beyond eight in the first building expansion because that was so much faster than before.”
Benny nodded. He had expected that if the answer was positive on the speed issue, it would take time.
“We have already started the work,” Ray said. “Scientists from all over known space are moving to help on the project.”
“Star Mist,” Angie said, “with the increased speed suggested by Chairman Ray, how much would that shorten the projected time of containment and victory in this area of this battle?”
“Containment would come within two hundred years if all ships were fitted with the new drive,” Star Mist said. “Full victory would be within another two hundred years.”
“Wow, good news for a change,” Gage said, shaking his head.
Benny looked at Ray. “Honest assessment, please. Can the scientists do this?”
“Yes,” Ray said without hesitation. “Possibly faster than ten years, but they asked for ten years to make sure the drives were completely safe.”
Benny nodded, as did everyone around the table.
Safe was better. They were going to take enough chances as it was without having drive issues.
“Any idea if the conversion would be large?”
“The scientists don’t think so,” Ray said. “Adjustments mostly, from what they told me.”
Benny was happy to hear that as well. That meant that all the small ships, the Sharks, could have the faster speeds quickly as well.
“So until then, we prepare and keep fighting here,” Benny said.
“Push on getting this done,” Gage said to Ray.
Ray and Tacita nodded.
“It might mean the difference between surviving and not surviving,” Tacita said. “We understand that.”
She and Ray stood and nodded, then vanished.
“Good news feels so damn strange,” Angie said, laughing.
“Don’t really know how to react,” Carrie said, shaking her head.
Benny just nodded. It did feel strange.
But it wasn’t for sure yet. And until they actually had ships moving at that promised speed, he would just wait and see.
THIRTY
FOR THE NEXT three years, Ray and Tacita reported monthly on the progress on the new drive. And each time to Gina it seemed promising. In fact, on the last report, the new drive had been tested and it had passed completely without problems.
So that was getting closer and seemingly ahead of schedule.
She and Benny had dropped back into regular routines and the dinners with the other chairmen had become planning sessions for the possible upcoming mission.
Part of the routine was for both of them to spend an hour every morning in the command chair, linked in with Star Rain, going over all the updates of the battle. It was during that routine that Star Rain informed them that Angie and Gage were asking for them in a meeting on Star Mist with Chairman West.
“Tell them we will be right there,” Gina said.
They both stood, still holding hands.
“Is it possible after almost twenty years that West has some news for us?” Benny asked.
Gina laughed and shook her head. “Don’t get your hopes up.”
“Killjoy,” Benny said.
“That’s not what you said last night,” she said, winking at him.
Benny almost blushed and a couple of the command crew behind them chuckled.
A moment later they were standing in the meeting room on Star Mist. Angie and Gage were already seated, as were Carrie and Matt. Ray and Tacita had just arrived and were taking their chairs and Chairman West sat next to them, smiling.
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