The doc was right. I had nowhere to go. Everything I was in need of could be brought to me. I was soon discussing our options with Frig, the Gonta captain, York, and Frost.
I spoke. “Captain, if you would be willing to give Frig the coordinates of your home planet, we could establish communications with your people. If we can coordinate strategies, I think we both stand a better chance against the Duke.”
The captain replied, “I am in agreement with you, Mr. Grange, but our protocols direct us to not give out information such as this without having approval from an officer that ranks well above me. A fleet admiral’s approval is required.”
I shook my head. “Why is it that some people don’t know when to say when? Look, you are trapped on an alien ship, light-years from your own world, and another alien species that you are at war with is attacking your systems. Are you going to tell me that protocol dictates that you sit on your hands and wait? If you give us the coordinates, we can contact your people and get you all the permission you need!”
I took a deep breath and continued, “Captain, you are a smart guy. Your people are in need. Are you going to just sit around when you can take action to assist them?”
The captain had a frustrated look on his face. “I don’t make the rules, Mr. Grange, but I am expected to follow them. They were put in place for a reason, a reason that is not always apparent to the man in the field, or in space, for our situation. It is not the Gonta way to question orders.”
I threw my hands in the air. “It’s like talking to a wall! Captain, you have a family, a wife, little Gontas running around. In your heart, don’t you feel that you are putting them at greater risk by not acting? We can warn your people about the Colossuns, tell them that they are on the move.”
The captain replied, “I have three wives and sixteen little Gontas running around, as you call it. Perhaps Captain Dek escaped and has warned our defense force.”
I grumbled and spoke. “Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. I will say this, Captain: you Gontas are stubborn.”
I looked at Frig. “We have a scan of a Gonta system. See if you can identify a military outpost and establish communications with them.”
The captain hesitated and replied, “How did you obtain that scan, Mr. Grange? Were you being untruthful about your exploratory visit to Targ? And what of the portal that we came through? How is that possible?”
I sighed. “OK. Here is the whole of it, Captain. We need iron; Targ has iron. We sent our mining craft down to the surface to obtain the iron that we needed. Once those harvesters were operational, we were going to go looking for your worlds. Not as a hostile gesture, just for the purposes of discovery, and for our own defense.”
I continued, “The portal itself is technology that we came across in our travels. We don’t yet fully understand it, and therefore we only have limited use. With the distance we are from Targ, Frig was only able to open that small portal for a few seconds. As we grow closer, the portal can grow in size to a full meter in diameter and we can hold it in an open state. You already know of our best and most prized secret, Captain. Let me ask you, is this a technology that your people would want? Because cooperation and trust are the foundations for the free exchange of ideas. Give us those coordinates, Captain. Take the risk and help protect your people!”
The captain raised his hand and began to scratch the side of his short snout. “The coordinates you seek are 12.208.334.8.14 from this position. Will I be allowed to speak with the officer in charge?”
I replied, “I would be OK with you doing all of the speaking, Meecha. I only ask that the conversation be open so that we all may hear.”
Frig returned to his lab and opened a microportal to the coordinates that had been given. Several seconds passed before the officer in charge could be heard over the comm.
Meecha spoke. “This is Captain Harrel Meecha of the Federation cruiser Jaarke. With whom am I speaking?”
The officer replied, “Captain Meecha, this is a highly unusual comm signal. Where is your ship? Our scans are not detecting the Jaarke.”
Meecha repeated his request with a stern voice. “My identification and voice print check out, or you would not have opened the channel for this comm session. With whom am I speaking? What is your name and rank?”
The officer hesitated before replying, “This is Major Rothe Higga, Captain. I apologize, as no disrespect was intended. Your comm is not over the Gonta defense network, and yet you have a link to this outpost. Please explain these abnormalities, Captain.”
Meecha spoke. “I do not have time to explain, Major. I need you to broadcast a warning to Federation Command that the Colossuns have attacked Captain Dek of the Malbus at Targ. We do not know if he was able to escape. And Major, the Jaarke and the Friza have been destroyed. All but myself and seven crewmen are dead.”
The major replied, “Are you certain it was the Colossuns, Captain? They have not ventured that deep into Gonta space before.”
Meecha glanced my way as he spoke. “I am certain, Major. Pass on this alert. And Major, what is the normal response time of a return command to your position from Central?”
The major pressed the button on his mic. “We are eight hours twelve minutes out, Captain. Can we offer you any assistance?”
Meecha replied, “In addition to the warning, I would request that Central allow me to contact them directly. I have the means to do so; I only require their permission.”
The major relayed the message. We had eight hours to kill. I suggested that York and Frost take Meecha and his men on a tour of the Suppressor. The security officer for the watch was standing in the corner shaking his head.
I looked directly at him. “What is it, Major?”
Major Devin spoke. “Sir, I have not had a chance to vet the Gonta. I believe it to be ill advised on our part to show them the ship before that process takes place.”
I replied, “Your concern is noted, Major. I, however, am overriding your authority. I believe these Gonta to be trustworthy. But, given your level of concern, I would ask that you follow along as an additional escort to them. That will allow you to keep a suspicious eye on them as they are being shown around.”
The major shook his head and spoke. “I am not concerned about any immediate action being taken, Sir. What troubles me is the fact that what they learn cannot be unlearned. They will take that knowledge with them when they leave. I believe that to be our biggest threat, Sir.”
I glanced around at the captain and his men. “Ordinarily I would fully agree with you, Major. In this instance, however, we need the assistance of the captain and his people. See to it that they have full access to whatever we have. And Major, you may use your discretion on items such as how to disable our weapons or access our computer systems. Use your common sense. Just see to it that they have a good understanding of what we are about.”
With that the major escorted York, Frost, and Meecha and his crewmen out of my room. Gy and Rita entered as the others left.
Gy spoke. “Mr. Grange! Good to have you back aboard!”
I replied as I looked down at my leg, “Well, at least part of me made it back.”
Gy chuckled as Rita began to speak. “If it makes you feel any better, Sir, we had to replace Gy from the waist down. We had a gravity jack fail while he was working a replating issue on the bottom side of one of the Wrens. Crushed his lower half. The good doctor was able to patch him up.”
Gy cut in. “You are going to love that leg, Sir. Once you have it trained, that is. No more aches and pains, no soreness from overexertion, and forget about gravity assist from your battle suit, Sir. These legs are powerful enough on their own.”
I replied, “Yeah, I’ve seen what they can do. I would still prefer my own, though, if it’s all the same. But, if my wife can be a cyborg, I guess I can be one as well. How long was it before you forgot it was there?”
Gy smirked. “Oh, you don’t forget it is there, Sir, but you get used to it.”
Gy continued to talk about his leg as he and Rita filled me in on the time away from the Grid from their perspective. Neither one thought they would evade the Durian fleet, but somehow they had managed. As we continued to discuss the size of the Durian fleet, Frig entered the room.
Frig spoke. “Sir, I have received a message from the Wren that was sent to gather information on the Human broadcast that we picked up. The message is a simple repeat of ‘Are you out there?’ However, the Wren returned a full scan of the surrounding system. There appear to be thousands of destroyed ships in the space surrounding this small planet.”
I replied, “Have you pinpointed the signal’s origination point?”
Frig held up a display pad. “The signal originates from the surface, Sir.”
I took the display and, with a flip of my fingers, zoomed in on the debris from the various ships.
Frig spoke. “What is it that you are looking for, Sir?”
I replied, “If this is a Human message, I am looking for evidence of the other Grid. What if these are survivors from Grid-1? What if this is from our missing people from the archives? Can you order the Wren to send a response using the same comm channel?”
Frig reclaimed the display. “I have a message already prepared, Sir. Shall I send it?”
I again grabbed the display. “Well, yes! See if we can open up a comm with whatever this is!”
Frig gazed upon me angrily and then changed his expression as he looked towards my side table. “Does that belong to you, Sir?”
I turned my head to see what it was that he was referring to, only to have the display again snatched away from my hands.
Frig spoke. “Really, Sir. I don’t understand how Humans can regard you as a leader when you fall for the simplest of dupery.”
I scowled as Frig poked away at the display. A message was sent with a distinctly Human reply.
We are here, ’sup?
I spoke. “’Sup? Really? Where did you even get that?”
Frig replied, “I have had full access to a copy of the archives, Sir. It has been a long journey with many hours of time to spare. I will have to admit, Sir, I find much of your recorded culture and history fascinating. One aspect of your history that I find interesting is the presence of music in your culture. As a young Gambit, I remember music as being pervasive in our culture as well. Perhaps it is a sign of an advanced species.”
I replied, “It’s a sign of something, but who really cares right now. Tell me why that display is flashing. Did we get a response?”
Frig punched away at the display with his long, thin, nimble fingers. “It appears that the broadcast has terminated, Sir. However, that may be because of the presence of five large vessels that just dropped from light speed. Three of the vessels appear to be probing for the Wren while the other two are heading for the planet.”
I spoke. “Tell me that you at least have the image projectors running on the Wren. And tell me that you have an autodestruct running in case it gets found out.”
Frig replied, “Both scenarios have been accommodated, Sir.”
I waved my hand. “Well, either bring that display over here where I can see what’s going on or else have the common courtesy to turn on the wall projector!”
As the lights in the room dimmed, the wall in front of my bed sprang to life with three images: the Wren, which appeared as a dashed line on the otherwise black screen, the three ships that searched for her, and the two ships that moved into orbit over the planet.
I spoke. “Those look like some mighty big ion cannons on those ships. If those are power scaled to what a standard cannon will do, that Wren would be vaporized with one shot.”
The invading ships were long and sleek with rounded gun rails that ran the length of each side, holding in place the massive ion cannons. Twin tails rose up from the backs like that of a scorpion from the archives. The shining chrome exteriors gave the impression that the huge ships would slide through an atmosphere and perform well in a near-surface fight.
As we watched, the two ships in orbit began to descend towards the origin point of the Human signal. The great ships settled at one kilometer above the surface, where they began to scan with any number of sensors. The Wren detected sweeps of all of the known signal spectrums. Whatever had broadcast the message remained both silent and hidden.
The three ships in search of the Wren were probing dangerously close to her location. I took note of Frig working the controls on his display.
Frig spoke. “I believe I can draw them away with a small signal through the portal, Sir. I can emit it, shut it down, and reestablish it in a new location. That should keep them guessing for a while.”
Several seconds later, the three ships turned in a new direction. Frig worked his magic, and the Wren was quickly out of danger. On the surface, five shuttlecraft had landed and a multitude of crewmen had embarked on a hunt of their own.
I pointed to the surface image. “Zoom in on those shuttles. I want to see who is flying them.”
The image grew, and in a few short seconds I was looking at the species that had undoubtedly been camped out nearby, waiting on a sign to make a move on the planet.
I spoke. “Battle suits look a lot like our old ones. At least that gives us something. Do we have a perspective for scale?”
Frig replied, “Applying scale now, Sir.”
I sat up in my bed. “Five meters! We look like Bellus pups compared to them. I don’t know about you, but I am not looking forward to an encounter with one of those!”
The crewman we had in our view then came to a halt as the others continued to search. His great arms reached up to his head. With a small jerk, the head of the invader came loose and was hoisted into the air and then over in front before being set gently on the ground.
I spoke. “Great, just what we needed. Five-meter-tall androids!”
As we watched, the head split open and a small creature in a thin suit stepped out. The creature held a scanning device in his hand. He moved from side to side as he carefully scanned the ground in front of him. It appeared as though nothing had been found.
An hour had passed before one of the ground crew waved for the others to return to their shuttles. Several minutes later, the shuttles departed and slipped into docking bays on the two great ships, and the ships began their climb out of orbit.
I nodded my head as I spoke. “I don’t think we learned much of anything there, Frig. I would like to search that planet myself, but it looks like there is nothing to find.”
Frig replied, “Sir, we just gained a wealth of knowledge about that new species. I captured the scan waves they are emitting. They are nearly identical to our own. We also learned that they travel in rather large mechanical battle suits, while they themselves are small in stature. And it would appear that they have no cloaking mechanisms for their ships. Perhaps they are powerful in their own right and do not feel the need for such.”
The two chrome-covered ships slipped effortlessly out of orbit and were soon joined by the other three. The Human signal no longer emanated from the planet, nor were there any signs that something had previously been there.
As the five great ships sat rendezvoused with each other, something spectacular happened. One of the ships imploded, beginning at one end, shrank through its center to the other end, and then exploded in the same manner.
I sat up on the edge of my bed. “What was that? What just happened to that ship?”
Seconds later, the remaining ships turned away and were soon traveling beyond light speed.
I repeated my question. “What did we just see? Tell me you have something on the sensors!”
Frig worked feverishly away at the display in his hand. “I am sorry, Sir. It appears that the ship in question was untouched by any beams or other signals. It just collapsed and burst apart on its own.”
I replied, “Ships don’t just blow up on their own. Someone or something caused that. Maybe they were being punished for not finding anything, al
though that sounds rather asinine. No, something did that to them. What are we missing?”
Two minutes later the Wren went silent. It was as if it had vaporized. A trail of residual ions stretched out for fifty kilometers in a line. In the hour that elapsed after the Wren’s destruction, the Human signal returned.
Are you out there?
Frig had gone over our sensor data several times without so much as a single clue. Something was there; we, however, were unable to see or find it.
Frig spoke. “Sir, we are at a distance where I can open a full wormhole. As our distance grows, that becomes ever more difficult. I could place a scout on the planet where the signal appears to be originating from.”
I replied, “We aren’t going to risk anyone after seeing what we just saw. Drop one of those probes we have next to it and see what happens.”
Frig sent a comm to one of his lab techs. Several minutes passed before he received word that a probe was ready to be sent through. A wormhole was opened at a kilometer’s distance from the origination point, and the sensor probe was tossed through. There was a flash on the wall screen, and the sensor went silent. Frig rushed out of the room on his way to the lab.
Something had sensed the probe’s presence and had then immediately destroyed it. Part of the weapon used had found its way into Frig’s lab through the open portal, killing three of his technicians and damaging much of his equipment. The wormhole generation mechanism had been taken offline, at least temporarily. A rescue attempt of the Grid now seemed even further away.
Chapter 14
I was getting used to my new leg. Gy was right: its presence was ever in your mind. George had said something about how the nerve endings were continuously being stimulated by the prosthesis. I just remember my eyes glazing over during his explanation, as much of the terminology used was beyond my small field of expertise, package delivery.
A side effect of the constant stimulation was a constant comfortable feeling. I felt like I was wrapped in a warm blanket while the interior of the Swift was going through a cryo-cleaning. The oddness of the sensation was soon removed from my mind and replaced with a sense of familiarity.
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