“Welcome, Gazelle. How was the jump?”
“Like it never happened, Hawk. Counting Gazelle, ten of the twelve Stingers are here.”
“That’s right. Mariella and Moonshot are still escorting Cruiser One to Tolimar. We won’t need them this time. When are they due to arrive?”
“They should be arriving today or tomorrow.”
“Igaklay, see if you can raise anyone.”
“Hello, can anyone hear me?”
“Mariella, here. Is that you, Preceptor?”
“Yes, Captain Hughes.”
“Ahoy, Captain. Have you reached Tolimar?”
“We just exited the grey, Commander.”
“Have you, Moonshot and Cruiser One hang out at the fringe until we can get there to smooth things over.”
“Will do, Hawk.”
“Hornet, after we’re finished here, we need to get to Tolimar and work out what we are to do with our Mortek guest.”
“Copy that, Hawk.”
Cencore-Mortek Shipyards
First Sensor burst into First Administrator’s office.
“My Leader, My Leader,” the subordinate stammered as his four feet clomped and clattered on the deck.
“What? Why are you interrupting me?”
“The soft skins are back!”
“Back? First Communicator, get me First Commander!”
“First Commander has already contacted me, My Leader. He will arrive shortly.”
As if First Communicator were prophetic, First Commander entered the outer administration room and then First Administrator’s office.
“The soft skin small jump ships have returned, My Leader. This time they are accompanied by a soft skin ship larger than our super dreadnaughts.”
“What is it doing? Is it attacking?”
“No, My Leader. In fact, from our scans, there appear to be no power signatures which indicate that the soft skin dreadnaught is armed. And, it’s armor is almost non-existent. If it did attack, it would be easily destroyed.”
“Then, what is it doing?”
“First Sensor?”
First Sensor stared at the tablet he held in one of his clawed hands. Tapping an icon, he stared a moment then responded.
“The dreadnaught and all the soft skin jump-ships appear to be holding their positions. What is strange, though, is that the dreadnaught seems to be launching all its survival craft.”
“What are the survival craft doing?”
“They appear to be constructing a square formation.”
“Those annoying soft skins are up to something. First Commander, get your defensive grid activated. Keep me apprised of any changes.”
“I already have, My Leader. If the soft skins attack, we will destroy them.”
Aboard Griffin – Cencore
“Captain Overman, are you with us?”
“Yes, Commander.”
“Let’s all stick to the plan. Captain Overman, go ahead and release the escape pods. Remember to keep them in formation. Let us know when they are ready.”
“Roger, Commander.”
“Keiko, please put Jewel on the main viewer.”
The image of Jewel of the Stars leaped onto the screen. At first, it just sat. Then, the first of many exceedingly small sparkles began to radiate from the massive cruise liner. As everyone watched, a thousand sparkles floated from all levels of the huge ship. Everyone knew that each of those sparkles was an escape pod. And everyone knew that each escape pod held fifty of Igaklay’s repair robots.
Under Igaklay’s control, each of the lifeboats took its position in a hundred-by-hundred grid, pointed at the mortek sphere hovering in Cencore’s inner space. After just over two hours, all escaped pods were in place.
“Igaklay, status?”
“All escape pods and repair robots are functioning normally, Captain.”
“Thank you, Igaklay. Gopai, any threats?”
“Space is clear, Captain.”
“Are you still on the shield, Igaklay?”
“Of course, Commander. I will always keep Den Griffin safe.”
“Stay on the gatlings, Gopai. We don’t know if those Mortek sensor drones are armed. If any move towards us, I want them gone.”
“Aye, aye, Captain. Eyes focused, ears, forward,” the Elonian responded.
“Buster, you have the gravity rockets. If any Mortek ships move this way, they are yours.”
“Copy that, Captain.”
Keiko, emergency jump. Sue, full sensors.”
“I got Griffin, Cap. I’ll keep her purring.”
“You do that, Mack. It seems, we’re ready. Igaklay, please begin phase two.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.”
Under Igaklay’s control, four robots in each of the one thousand escape pods activated their cutters. Top, bottom and each side, the robots cut almost completely through the hulls of the escape pods. Once finished, paper-thin strips of metal were all that held the tiny ships together.
“Phase two completed, Captain.”
“Thank you, Igaklay. Hornet, you’re up. Give us a good light show.”
“Will do, Hawk.”
Ten fast movers winked out. For less than a quarter of a second, each materialized above the Mortek Sphere, launched a gravity rocket and blinked out. The Mortek defensive grid succeeded in destroying all the gravity rockets which the Stingers had fired.
Again, the ten Stingers materialized, fired and disappeared. Again, the Mortek defensive grid destroyed all of the gravity rockets. This punch, counterpunch kept repeating.
Cencore-Mortek Shipyards
First Commander stood over First Sensor. Both watched the viewing screen. At first, everything, Mortek and soft skin ships, held steady. The small survival ships kept pouring from the soft skin nautilus. Finally, the two Morteks saw the completed formation. They saw a thousand tiny ships positioned to create a square, one hundred ships to a side.
Then they saw the small jump-ships attack. Ten soft skin ships popped into existence, fired their strange, highly destructive rockets then blinked out. First Commander puffed with pride as all ten of the strange rockets were destroyed by the defensive energy grid.
The annoying and dangerous soft skin jump-ships appeared again, fired and disappeared. With satisfaction, First Commander watched his defensive grid again destroy every strange, deadly rocket fired from those enemy ships. Repeatedly, the soft skin jump-ships attacked, launched and failed. The Mortek grid proved its worth.
He turned and clattered into First Administrator’s office.
“My Leader. The small soft skin jump-ships have attacked.”
“What is the damage?”
“None, My Leader. Your wisdom has proven successful. We destroyed all those strange rockets. None of our ships have been damaged.”
“The defense grid. Is it still intact?”
“Yes, My Leader. The energy consumption to destroy those soft skin rockets was minimal.”
“My Leader,” the two heard through the hatch.
“Yes, First Sensor?”
“The soft skin ships are still attacking. Again, we destroyed all of their rockets.”
“Excellent!”
“We have the advantage, My Leader. There is no limit to how long we can repel this weak attack.”
Aboard Griffin – Cencore
“Hornet, status?”
“multiple jumps complete, Hawk. No casualties. Beginning another run.”
“Stay safe, Hornet.”
“We plan too, Hawk.”
“Good hunting, Hornet. Out.”
By this time, Tribune Ambakai, Guardsman Suraya and Lance Corporal Faheem had joined the rest of Griffin’s crewmates on the bridge.
“Welcome, Gentle beings. Have you come to watch the show?”
“With your permission, Commander.”
“Of course, Tribune. I might recommend that you stand next to handholds. If the Mortek attack, we may need to take evasive action.”
The b
ridge crew watched as the three guests did as told.
“Igaklay, phase three,” Krag ordered.
Simultaneously, one thousand escape pods jumped. All reappeared amongst the Mortek fleet. From sledgehammer blows by the robots, one thousand escape pods shed their hull plates. Almost fifty thousand repair robots rocketed from the destroyed lifeboats and swarmed over the fifty-nine Mortek ships comprising the almost-complete Sixth fleet.
“Phase three complete, Captain.”
“Begin phase four, Preceptor.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” Igaklay responded.
One thousand skeletal lifeboats jumped back to their original grid locations.
Like flies swarming over carcasses, the repair robots arrowed towards the sterns of the Mortek ships and began removing hull plating. Six groups of two thousand Igaklay-controlled repair robots targeted each of the six cruisers. A thousand more landed on each of the twelve destroyers. Igaklay distributed the remaining twenty thousand repair robots among the forty-one frigates.
The heavy blanketing of robots made the sterns of the Mortek ships seem to writhe with life as the Ballisonian creations disassembled the plating and entered the innards of the ships.
“I am removing the hull plating in preparation for the disassembling of the Mortek fusion engines, Captain.”
“Excellent work, Igaklay. Have you begun manufacturing the new jump drives for replacement?”
“No, Captain. You have not yet issued the order.”
“Krag, I think that you need to issue an order so that Igaklay’s logic path will continue as an upgrade effort and not a destructive one.”
“Do I need to order drives for the entire fleet, Sue?”
“I don’t think so. Just something so that Igaklay’s logic path moves towards improvement.”
“I have an idea, Krag.”
“Go for it, Keiko.”
“Igaklay, currently, you are preparing the Mortek fleet for upgrading to Ballisonian jump drives.”
“That is correct, Ambassador. Suzume.”
“Please include Cruiser One in those upgrades.”
“I do not have any repair robots allocated for that upgrade, Ambassador.”
“Please allocate ten robots for that upgrade and prepare them for transport to Tolimar.”
“It is done, Ambassador.”
“Now, begin the manufacturing of one jump drive to be installed in Cruiser One.”
“I have contacted the manufacturing plant. The manufacturing has begun.”
“You will use Cruiser One as your test case. You will perform all upgrades and improvements on Cruiser One before you begin the installation of jump drives in the rest of the Mortek fleet.”
“Understood, Ambassador.”
“Sue, does that work?”
“That works just fine, Keiko. I will check with Igaklay after this mess is cleaned up and see if any new algorithms have popped up.”
“Thank you.”
Everyone turned back to watching Igaklay control fifty thousand robots as they worked to get the Mortek fleet prepared to receive the Ballisonian jump drives which would never arrive.
Cencore-Mortek Shipyards
“What is happening?”
First Administrator heard the shrieked question from First Commander. Rising from his stool, he rushed into the administration room.
“What’s going on?”
“I do not know, My Leader. The soft skin jump-ships executed multiple attacks. Each time, we destroyed all of the rockets. Then the tiny survival pods jumped in among our ships. Their hulls fell away and tens of thousands of robots dispersed.”
“What are they doing now?”
“First Sensor?”
“The soft skin robots are forming into groups. Then they are flying towards our ships. It seems as though they are targeting the sterns, First Commander.”
The three Morteks braced in concern and watched. They saw tens of thousands of the soft skin robots land on the sterns of all the ships comprising the Sixth Fleet. Then they saw the tens of thousands of robots utilize their multiple utilitarian appendages to remove the hull plates covering the engine housings.
“Stop those machines! They are disassembling our fleet!”
“I do not know what can be done, My Leader. we have no troops to combat or remove those robots.”
“Well, do something!”
First Commander thought for a moment.
“Maybe we can damage those robots with heat. First Communicator, instigate a fleetwide channel.”
First Communicator tapped some icons on his console.
“The channel is open, First Commander.”
“All Captains, immediately accelerate to maximum speed. Head towards the Bridgelen Gate. This is an emergency order!”
Aboard Griffin – Cencore
“Sue, what are the Mortek doing now?”
“I’m picking up a lot of spikes in energy output, Captain. In fact, all of the fleet is firing up.”
“Ya seemed to have got their attention, Cap.”
“Look! They’re breaking formation. Looks like they’re heading to Bridgelen.”
“Igaklay, will that interfere with our plans?”
“I don’t think so, Captain. The only thing that would is if there are troops on those ships.”
“From the energy readings, I don’t think there are.”
“Hawk?” everyone heard over the com system.
“Yes, Hornet?”
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
‘Yeah. It looks like we’ve rattled their cage.”
“Now that they’re breaking their defensive formation, I think we can bring down a few.”
“No. Let’s hold off. Let Igaklay get those ships ready for their new jump drives.”
“You are not a nice man, Hawk.”
“Ambassador Suzume tells me that all the time, Hornet. Pull your Stingers back. Let’s see where things go from here.”
“Will do, Hawk.”
“Captain?”
“Yes, Igaklay?”
“The first repair robots have succeeded in creating enough openings to begin entering the ships.”
“Oy, Iggy. With those engines running, we will nae be able to continue the preparation. Right?”
“That is correct, Mack.”
“Then, shouldn’t ye take the fusion generators offline?”
“That would be the recommended course of action, Mack.”
“Cap?”
“Nice, Mack. Igaklay, take the fusion generators offline and ensure, for safety’s sake, that they cannot be brought back online without your intervention.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.”
Cencore-Mortek Shipyards
“First Commander!”
The Mortek Sixth fleet Commander heard the bellow from his superior and hustled into the First Administrator’s office.
“Yes, My Leader?”
“Status?”
“The only personnel on our ships, other than the fourth Fleet ships, are the bridge crews. We have ordered them to arm themselves and position themselves at the sterns.”
“What about those soft skin robots?”
“Some have succeeded in removing enough armor plates to allow access into the ship interiors.”
“How many?”
“All six cruisers, seven destroyers and the majority of the frigates, My Leader.”
“Are these robots combat robots?”
“From our video feeds, they do not appear to be.”
“Then, what are they doing?”
“That is unknown, My Leader.”
“Whatever it is, get them off our ships!”
First Administrator emphasized his command by striking his claw on the desk.”
“We are doing what we can, My Leader. but each ship is covered with at least a thousand of those robots. I do not think that our bridge crews will be able to destroy them.”
“They must. They must.”
Firs
t Commander saw the droop of First Administrator’s vestigial wings and the withdrawal of his head comb.
“We will do all that we can, My Leader.”
Knowing the futility, First Commander returned to the administration room and continued to keep everyone busy as he watched his prized fleet succumb to the soft skin robot attack.
Aboard Griffin – Cencore
“The first robots have gained access to the interiors of the Mortek Cruisers, Captain.”
“Well done, Igaklay.”
“A small group of Morteks have arrived in each of the cruisers and are destroying some of them.”
“Well they stop our repairs?”
Keiko nodded her approval at Krag as Griffin’s Captain maintained the illusion of upgrading the Mortek ships, not destroying them.
“The first few robots have been destroyed, Captain.”
“Is that causing you any problematic issues, Igaklay? Does your emotional matrix experience any negative logic loops?”
“No, Sue. The repair robots are just complex tools, much like Mack using a wrench. We planned for the Mortek resisting these upgrades. That is why I am using so many robots.”
“Then you approve of this approach? You accept that upgrading the Mortek ships with jump drives would improve the quality of their lives?”
“Yes, Sue. My causality projects deduce that the Mortek having jump drive technology will cause extreme difficulty for Humanity. However, since my Overseers have commanded that I upgrade the Mortek ships, I am continuing the task.”
“Excellent, Sue. You handled that very well.”
“Thank you, Keiko.”
“Igaklay, rush as many robots as you can into the ships. Overwhelm the Mortek crews. But, do not harm them.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.”
“Also, can you select one robot for observation on each ship? Allow us to monitor the progress?”
“Yes, Captain. Do you wish me to display the video on the main screen?”
“If you would, Igaklay. At first, let’s start with the six cruisers.”
Victory in the Stars (Marston Chronicles Book 6) Page 17