Annihilation - Tommy's Tale (Annihilation Series (Book Four))

by Saxon Andrew

  “So have I.”

  “I do not want to die but this is a chance to significantly increase our learning. We are expendable; that’s why we are made like we are. We take dangerous risks because we are driven by our hunger for knowledge. I think that if we had not downloaded so much we might be forced to do what he asked.”

  “I have come to the same conclusion,” Sprig thought. “I do not feel pressured to do it but I can’t help but feel that we should to help our new friends. I cannot answer for you but I am willing to take the risk and if I lose myself or die, then at least I do so learning.”

  Twig looked at Sprig and felt admiration for his bravery. She did not want to lose him; he had become more than just a seed. She made her decision, “We will do it. If one of us survives, then the human’s chances are better than with both of us at our current level of learning.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Twig looked at Sprig and entered his mind. Sprig entered Twig’s mind and just before they began absorbing each other’s knowledge Sprig gave Twig a mental embrace, “Good luck, Twig.” Twig saw deeply into Sprigs inner thoughts and said, “I didn’t know you felt like this about me.” Sprig felt embarrassed and then they started. Twig still feeling Sprig’s embrace, began absorbing all that was Sprig into her learning center.

  Cassandra thought, “Tommy, meet me in the library. Something is happening to the adolescents.”

  Tommy jumped up from the control board he was learning and ran to the library. He entered the room and found Cassandra and Wes standing next to the Algeans that were standing in the middle of the room with their limbs intertwined. Cassandra said, “Wes missed seeing Sprig yesterday and when he didn’t see him today he came here looking for him.”

  “They were both standing still like this. They are not attached to their readers so they can’t be learning.” Wes looked extremely concerned. Since the bad beginning, Wes and Sprig had become good friends.

  Tommy looked into the minds of the Algeans and quickly withdrew. “They are doing what I suggested. They are absorbing each other.”

  Cassandra said, “Didn’t they say that it was dangerous for them to do that?”

  Tommy looked at Cassandra and Wes and said, “Yes they did. I just looked in their mind and the transfer rate and it is enormous. I had to get out.”

  Wes looked at his friend and said, “What are you going to do?”

  Tommy shook his head and said, “We must allow the process to complete. I feel that if we interrupt them then we will do them great harm. We have to wait.”

  Cassandra walked up to the two Algeans and then she had a thought, “Tommy, do you remember that Sprig and Twig both said that while we were touching each other…”

  “They found they could process their information much more effectively,” Tommy completed. “We cannot touch each other for long.” Cassandra walked up to Tommy and put her arms around his neck ignoring the shock and kissed him hard.”

  Wes watched the Algean adolescents grow to their full height and start swaying gently back and forth. “Ok you two, back off.”

  Tommy and Cassandra reluctantly stepped back and saw the adolescents swaying. Cassandra said, “This must be a good sign. Let’s wait for them to complete whatever it is they are doing.”

  Wes said, “Permission to stay, Captain.”

  Cassandra looked at her sensor officer and thought about how far Wes’ relationship with Sprig had come. Cassandra keyed her com and said, “Lt. Ortiz.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  “I’m placing Lt. McAnn on a temporary assignment. Please assign a replacement until further notice.” Cassandra said to Wes, “Let me know if anything changes.”

  Wes sat down on the floor in front of the two Algeans and said, “Yes Sir.”

  Five days later, an exhausted Wes and Linda Kay were sitting in front of the Adolescents. Linda Kay had brought Wes a dinner because he refused to leave his friend. Linda Kay sat next to her husband and laid her head on his shoulder. Wes tilted his head against her and said, “Thank you for being patient with me; I love you.” Linda Kay closed her eyes and sighed feeling her happiness.

  Then they heard behind them, “He should be thankful, you have to have a lot of patience to put up with him.”

  Wes and Linda Kay jumped up and Sprig and Twig were leaning over looking at them. “Thank the creator you’re alright.”

  Sprig said, “I’m not completely sure about that but we felt you here watching us. We thank you, Wes.”

  Wes heard a lot that was not said in Sprigs thought. He said, “Me, too, Sprig.”

  Tommy came running into the room with Cassandra not far behind. Tommy thought, “Hello you two. We’ve been worried about you coming out of your little project.”

  Twig said, “It was close that we were going to lose ourselves but we received a strengthening of our psyche during the critical moment and it allowed us to keep our own identity.”

  “What did you learn from the experience,” Wes asked?

  The two Algeans were quiet and then Sprig said, “I think we have found a way to move Earths population quickly and safely.”

  Tommy raised his eyebrows and said, “How are you going to do that?”

  Twig said, “We need some time in Sten’s lab but we think we have found a way to teleport without using a screen.”

  Tommy thought a moment and asked, “How will that help us?”

  “Picture a doorway on the planet’s surface that when you step through a door you arrive on a planet on the other side of the galaxy. You could make the doorway wide enough that more than a thousand could walk through together.”

  Cassandra said, “What you’re describing is that the population will not have to be transported in ships. They can drive their floater through the portal carrying all their belongings with them.”

  Then Tommy saw it. “We can put a portal on a major highway and evacuate a major city through the portal.”

  Sprig said, “I was thinking that every door on the planet could be set up for teleporting those that were in the room behind the door. Press a button and step through the door. You could evacuate the whole planet in less than an hour.”

  “How would you convert a normal door to a teleporter?” Wes asked.

  “If our ideas work, all you need do is place a mat on the door that is preset to a location on the target planet. Press a button and the mat activates. Then you step through. After five minutes the mat turns off and will not operate without someone on the other end turning it on. This would prevent the enemy following.

  “Won’t they just read the coordinates of where they went?”

  “There won’t be anything to read. They can’t be followed. Teleporting bypasses null space.”

  Tommy asked, “Is it possible to teleport a moving ship?”

  Sprig said, “That is what started us working on this. We believe we can project a field in front of the ship and teleport away. The field will disappear after the ship passes through.”

  Twig added, “If we can go to the Kosiev and do some work of the front emitters, we might be able to trial it.”

  “Then by all means go and work on it. The crew should be completing their training in four days and a shakedown cruise is needed to make sure everyone knows their assigned tasks,” Tommy said. “By the way, it’s good to have both of you back.”

  “Thanks,” Sprig said as they rushed from the library to take a shuttle to the Kosiev.

  “Atlas,” Tommy thought.

  “Yes, Tommy.”

  “Do you use teleportation is your drive systems?”

  “No, I do not. I’m curious about what they’re talking about. All of my systems use travel through null space.”

  Tommy looked at the door the Algeans had just left through and thought, “We’ll know shortly. I hope they came through the mental transfer ok and this is not a wasted effort.”

  “There is a difference in them. They seem to know what the other is thinking before they say it. I don
’t think this is going to be wasted effort.”

  “We’ll see,” said Tommy.

  The crew of the Kosiev was aboard ship preparing for their shakedown cruise. Cassandra was sitting in her command chair letting her mind roam the various systems of the ship feeling peace from the contact. The ship was feeling like a cat purring in her lap. The adolescents were in the nose of the giant ship connecting the device that they had built in Sten’s lab making sure all the connections were secure.

  “Tommy!”

  “What, Rose?”

  “A giant red ship has just come out of star drive just outside the orbit of Jupiter. The ship is almost two thousand miles wide.”

  “Rose, ground all ships and stop any in system traffic immediately. What is it doing?”

  “It appears to be just firing a beam into Jupiter’s atmosphere.”

  Tommy looked at Cassie and said, “We have no choice, I’m jumping into the Captor’s system immediately. If it causes a warning to all ships, perhaps that one will leave and go home to help defend the home world.”

  “Tommy, you’ll be killed,” Rose wailed!

  “I don’t know if we can out run them or not but if that ship turns its attention on Earth, it will totally destroy the planet.” Tommy keyed his command circuit on the Kosiev and said, “Battle stations, all hands to battle stations; this is not a drill.”

  “What’s going on?” Cassandra asked.

  “A Captor ship had just entered Earth’s solar system and is firing a beam into Jupiter’s atmosphere. I suspect it is taking readings but when it finishes it will probably turn its attention on Earth. Our shakedown cruise has just been canceled. We are jumping into the Captor’s home system close to the planet, fire a full salvo of penetrators at the Captor’s structure, and then jump away. I’ve entered the jump coordinates into your board, Cassie. We must divert that ships attention away from our solar system.”

  Everyone on the bridge prepared for battle but felt the real fear of facing this enemy. Cassandra thought to Tommy, “We aren’t ready. We need more time.”

  “That’s something we don’t have. Prepare to jump Captain Dodd.”

  Cassie looked into Tommy’s eyes and was frightened that she was going to lose the love of her life in moments. If Tgon-Gee had been there he would have seen the aura around her expand outward faster than the eye could follow. Cassie keyed her command circuit and said, “Jump in fifteen seconds. Penetrator crews will launch their full inventory at the planet and we will jump out and start our escape. Jump in 5,4,3,2,1,execute.”

  The Kosiev broke into normal space one thousand miles from the huge planet and launched four thousand of the short range high speed penetrators and then jumped away.”

  The penetrators flew almost faster than the sensors could track but every one of them were exploded by beams from the constructs surface before they had flew three hundred miles. The construct looked like a huge explosion of red fire erupting from its surface as millions of Captor ships lifted off at high speed.

  Rose watched the giant ship as it quit firing its beam at Jupiter and then begin moving in system. Suddenly, it blinked out of existence. “Tommy,” she thought, “the ship has vanished from our system. Get out of there.”

  “Already on our way, Sis, but I think we have drawn a crowd.”

  The Kosiev jumped out into the empty space between the Captor’s planet and the next star system. “Full speed ahead, Cassandra ordered.” The Kosiev jumped forward at an amazing speed in normal space. Right behind the Kosiev as it entered normal space thousands of Captor ships appeared. Wes announced, “Ships are jumping in around us and ahead of us. One is firing weapons.”

  A giant red ship appeared next to the Kosiev and fired its main beam. The Kosiev absorbed the beam and continued running. “Jumping now,” Cassandra said over the ship intercom. The Kosiev disappeared and reappeared in normal space in a distance galaxy. Immediately the red ships began appearing around them again.

  Tommy looked at Cassandra and said, “I’m going to use my push on the Kosiev.” Cassandra nodded. Tommy focused and thought, “Move forward, now.”

  The Captor ships were closing in on the strange white ship when suddenly it flew out from among them so fast that their sensors didn’t register it leaving. The First Male who was leading the attack was shocked. “Where did that ship go?” All the Captor ships saw was the energy trail of the strange white ship disappearing in the distance.

  A warrior that had arrived behind the main group said, “An object just passed me in normal space traveling more than a thousand times the speed of light.”

  The First Male said, “That is impossible. Show me the line they were on.”

  The main group saw the line and jumped in front of where the strange ship should be if it was traveling at that speed. The Captor fleet arrived and the First Male watched his sensors as an object passed by him so fast that he had no time to do anything but watch it pass. “Get in front of that ship and block its line of travel,” the first male ordered. More than a million of the red ships jumped forward on the line of the escaping enemy.

  Wes looked at his screen and said, “They’re jumping ahead of us into our line.”

  Tommy thought, “Move upward.”

  The Captor ships watched as the object approached their positions and then changed direction and move ninety degrees away from their position.”

  Cassie keyed her com and said, “Sprig, Twig, if that device of yours works we need it now.”

  “Captain, we have not done a field trial on it yet.”

  “I don’t care, set it up now!”

  The two Algeans looked at each other and began adjusting the front field emitter on the ship. The ship jumped once and continued its high speed run. After five minutes Twig announced, “Where do you want us to take the ship, if this works?”

  Cassandra said, “Pick empty space between two galaxies far from here.”

  Suddenly a giant red blurry sphere appeared on Wes’ sensors, “Brace for impact!’ he yelled over the speakers. There was a huge bump in the ship’s flight path and then Twig said, “Engaging device in 3,2,1, now!”

  The Captor ships were doing everything possible to kill the strange ship but it was traveling too fast. Finally, the First Male saw one of his warriors jump directly in front of the speeding white ship. The strange ship flew right through the middle of the fifteen hundred mile wide warrior and left a hole more than three hundred miles wide. The warrior hung is space for three seconds and then exploded into millions of pieces. The strange ship then disappeared from his sensors. “All Warriors, where did the ship go?”

  More than a thousand warriors gathered around the spot where the ship disappeared and the oldest warrior at the site said, “There is no reading for us to track. There is nothing that we can see that indicates they were here at all. The residue of their flight ends at this spot.”

  The First Male looked at the trail of energy that the fleeing ship had left behind. The Captors could see that trail even through null space and that is what they used to track their enemies. The trail extended all the way back to the home world and ended here. This was impossible. If energy was used in the universe, they could see it if they had the signature of the ship that caused it. “Did anyone get a signature reading on that ship?”

  Silence ruled. “All ships go back to the home world. I want layers of ships to the outer planets. Go now.” The giant red ships jumped back to their home world.”

  The First Male said, “Mother, I am not going to allow you to leave until I am sure of your safety. We will prepare the new nest when I find that ship and eliminate it. It killed one of our warriors and I am not risking you.”

  The Mother answered, “I will yield to your caution. However, my sister may not let me stay long.”

  The First Male said, “She will allow it as long as we need it. We can always grow another sister; there is only one First Mother. We will begin our search immediately. Warriors of the blue, black, yellow
, and orange cells, find that ship. Find it and direct us to it before you try to destroy it alone. Go now.”

  Two million red ships jumped away in two million different directions. “That ship withstood two of our beams. Nothing has done that in two hundred million cycles. Did that ship come from another universe? Nothing I have seen in this one can do what that ship has just demonstrated.” Three of his brothers had died recently. This was not something that had ever happened before. “Scientists, please determine if this ship is from this universe or another.”

  The section of the construct that housed the scientists began radiating a bright red glow into space. “I want some answers,” the First Male thought, “and I want them quickly.”