The Captor warrior jumped into a system with a planet that obviously had advanced intelligent life. He was looking for the strange white ship that had attacked the home planet and had found nothing. He scanned the planet and noticed a white ship keeping station above it. He matched it to the ship he was looking for and it did not match. He started to jump away but then matched the ship to the other smaller ships involved in the last attack and discovered that the shape was very similar. The energy reading was completely different but it did physically look like those other ships. He thought about what he should do for a moment then contacted the First Male and sent him a recording of the scan he had just completed. The First Male received the scan and said, “Just a moment. I’m setting up the First Mother’s defense. I’ll contact you momentarily.”
The Warrior held his position and waited for the First Male.
Admiral Mikado contacted Tommy on his emergency frequency, “Duke Gardner, a Captor ship had entered the Crengren system and is sitting stationary at the moment. One of our Megaships is holding station above the planet.”
Tommy punched the control panel on his chair and the ship’s internal alarms went full blast, “Battle stations, all hands to battle stations.”
Tommy linked Cassandra to his com and said, “Admiral, give me the megaships frequency now.” Mikado punched it in and sent it to Tommy’s com. Tommy cut the connection and commed the SR Megaship Phelagend. Captain Gidhu appeared on his com. “Captain, what is your status?”
“Your Highness, the Captor ship is holding its position in the outer system and is not moving. The ship is approximately eighteen hundred miles in diameter and is glowing bright red.”
“Captain, there’s not much time; you are going to have to draw that ship away from the planet. You stand no chance against it in combat and I think it is your ship that has caused the Captor to stop. Order your jump officer to program in five hundred random jumps immediately and if that ships moves, jump out of the system and don’t stop jumping. I am giving you a coordinate for the final jump. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Tommy then thought to Sprig, “Where are you right now?”
“I’m in the library at Castle Gardner.”
“I need you and Twig on the Kosiev immediately.”
Sprig and Twig appeared one second later on the Kosievs’ bridge.”
“Duchess Gardner, update them on what’s happening.” Cassandra linked with the two adolescents and gave them the situation.
Tommy then pressed his com and said, “Wes, what is the status of your ship?”
Wes appeared on the display and said, “We are currently holding station above Sten’s Planet with four of the converted pulse ships. The Rossville is at one hundred percent efficiency.” Wes was given the command of the Rossville which was Admiral Dorg’s flag ship during the Algean War. It was another Megaship that bore a strong history.
“Go to battle stations and take the four ships to the coordinates I’m sending you and expect a megaship to arrive being chased by the Captors. Do not allow your ships to be caught in energy blasts; I expect multiple Captors to take up the chase. Have one of your ships place a teleport screen in front of the coordinates set to one transfer and send the megaship to a safe location. Kill as many Captors as possible then have your squadron escape in different directions away from the Realm; teleport to safety when you must.”
Wes looked at his screen and said, “We’re on our way.”
Tommy commed Captain Gidhu and said, “Captain, if you make it to the final coordinates there will be a silver field in space directly in front of your ship. Take your ship through that field immediately on entering normal space; do not delay.”
“The Captors screen has just turned a brighter red, Your Highness. We are jumping now.”
The First Male finished setting up the layers of ships and turned his attention to the transmission from one of the searching warriors. He looked at the ship in the transmission and then compared it to the ships that had attacked the First Mother. From the angle of the picture he could see similarities between the two but he needed a full side view to make sure. “Move in and take a full scan of that ship; I’ll monitor as you scan.”
The Warrior replied, “As soon as I moved toward the planet the ship jumped.”
“Follow that ship, I want a full scan. The planet isn’t going anywhere; we’ll look at it later.”
“Yes, First male. The ship jumped using a standard drive system and I have recorded that its energy signature does not match the ships that attacked.”
“I don’t care if it matches or not. It may not be the ones who attacked but it may have a relationship to them if their ships are similar. Don’t let it escape.”
The Captor warrior disappeared from the system chasing the Megaship.
Tommy was watching a feed from the planet and saw the Captor disappear. He said a quick prayer for the Phelagend and said, “Jump to the Crengren system, now.”
Cassandra said, “Jump in 3,2,1, execute. The Kosiev broke into normal space next to the planet and Tommy commed President Dgzh. The former Headman of the Alliance looked worried. Tommy said, “We don’t have much time. I am going to hide your planet behind an invisibility screen but I’m uncertain if it will work if the Captors really decide to fly a huge number of ships through the space they expect you to be. Our last resort is to move your planet to the system that Earth is currently hiding. I want to avoid that if possible because they will deduct that Earth was probably not destroyed as they thought.”
President Dgzh looked off the monitor and said, “Are you sure you can do it safely?”
Sprig answered, “We’re actually further along now. We will send your planet to the opposite side of the star from the Earth’s current location so that gravity won’t affect you. Your orbit will be slightly outside that of Earth but we will find a better system for you before Earth catches up with your orbit.”
Dgzh smiled and said, “We are in your hands.”
Tommy said, “Ground all of your space ships and have as many of the personnel on the settlements in your system make emergency jumps to the planet. If they are not on the planet they will be killed.” Dgzh disappeared from his com.
“Duchess Gardner, please plan to hide the planet, however, you have to wait until the last possible moment so that the ones coming from the system’s settlements can find the planet. I suspect that once the chase of the megaship is over, the Captors will be coming here. Communications, make contact with that ship and let us know what happens.”
“Aye, Aye, Your Highness.”
Captain Gidhu and the bridge crew kept their eyes on the sensor monitors watching for what they knew was coming. They had just flashed through the 233rd jump and jumped again just as the Captor ship entered normal space. After every jump the Captor was incrementally closer. The ship was fighting the fear that they were losing the battle. Jump 300 passed with the Captor coming out of normal space and firing some kind of energy matrix that passed through the space the megaship occupied just before it disappeared. “Your highness, we will never make it to the 500 ^ th jump. They almost caught us on the last jump.”
Tommy hit his com, “Wes, are you ready?”
“Yes, we’re on station.”
Tommy looked at Cassandra and said, “Times up; hide the planet.” Then he pushed his transmission key and said, “Jump to the last coordinates now.”
Captain Gidhu nodded to his jump officer and the Megaship jumped as a piece of the energy matrix hit the tail of the ship.
Wes watched as the Megaship flashed into normal space and moved slowly toward the teleport screen. The engines of the Megaship was enclosed in some form of energy that prevented them operating. Just before the ship hit the field the Captor emerged into normal space and hit it with a beam destroying it. Wes ordered, “Fire.”
Two black negative energy balls hit the Captor and it imploded so fast it didn’t even flash as it disappeared. “Be ready, they’ll be here shortly.”
Captor ships began appearing around the four pulse ships and started firing energy balls at them. Each of the SR ships fired at the Captors as they emerged into normal space and watched as they were imploding by the hundreds. Wes watched two energy balls flashing toward his ship and he pressed the jump button on his console and came out into normal space directly behind the Captors that had fired on him. He hit them with negative matter shots and then jumped again. The jump button was a new development where the sensors automatically tracked incoming missiles or ships and determined the closest point behind them and entered the coordinates into the Captains console. The four pulse ships were killing giant red ships by the hundreds. Finally Wes saw thousands of red ships jump in around him and he ordered, “All ships escape.”
The four pulse ships jumped away in four different directions. Wes watched as the Rossville entered normal space and said, “Ready weapons, fire.”
Forty Captor ships appeared at the jump point and were immediately hit by negative energy balls; all forty imploded. “Jump now,” he ordered. The Rossville disappeared as five thousand ships appeared. This process repeated itself ten more times before the Rossville teleported to safety. The Vgrig pulse ship Vendriqul was hit by ten energy balls as it attacked the incoming Captor ships. The pulse ship was broken in the tail and the Captain knew there was no escape. He hit the detonate button on his console to prevent the Captors from getting one of the SR ships and learning its technology. The skin of the ship blew outward from the ship with all of the negative energy being released. All ten thousand Captor ships in the system were disintegrated along with every planet, moon, and asteroid. The star’s gravity slowly pulled what negative matter remained and when the two combined, the star went supernova and exploded.
The next eight hundred Captor ships jumping into the system burned in the Atomic fire before the watcher could warn the others to stay away. The First Male asked the watcher, “What happened?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure if we caused the explosion, the strangers caused the explosion, or the star was just ready to explode naturally. We lost many warriors in that system.”
The First Male asked for and got a ship count from his ship leaders and learned that more than thirty five thousand warriors were killed chasing those ships. Then he thought, “Groups orange, blue, red, and black. Jump to the planet where this chase began.”
“Cassandra, the chase is over; now is the time. But Tommy, there are eight hundred ships still moving toward the planet.”
“It’s them or the planet, Cassandra. Do it now!”
Sprig said, “We’ll teleport the ships to Ross. Hide the planet.”
A huge silver field appeared in front of the ships moving toward the planet and moved toward them. As it passed, no ships remained. “Now, Cassandra, now!”
Cassandra closed her eyes and thought, “You cannot see it, you cannot see it, you cannot see it.” The Planet disappeared along with the Kosiev that was orbiting just above the planet’s atmosphere. Cassandra extended a tube from the skin to the surface of the field hiding the planet and used the passive sensors to watch what happened in the outer system.
“Twig, if we have to move the planet, how much room do you need to do it?”
“Actually, we can do it from right here.”
Sprig said, “She has become quite the maestro at manipulating the fields.”
Tommy looked at the sensor display and said, “Be ready to move.”
The bridge crew watched the bridge display watching for what they knew was coming. “Here they come.” Lt. Ortiz said.
More than a million Captor ships appeared in the outer system swarming in all directions. “What is that,” Tommy asked. A Captor ship more than four thousand miles in diameter was sitting still while the other Captor ships swarmed around it.”
Cassandra said, “I think that must be one of the Captor leaders. The only ship I’ve seen larger than that one was the Queen.”
Tommy thought about what was happening. “If that huge ship starts this way, Twig, send the planet. Duchess Gardner, keep us inside the invisibility field and charge our weapons. Stand by.”
The First Male compared the picture of the system when the warrior had jumped in and started the chase to what he saw in the system now. The planet was gone. This just can’t be happening. Pictures don’t lie. The Planet has to be there; but where. He remembered the strange ship that was in the home system that no one could see. Can they hide the planet? He looked at the picture of the planet again and estimated where it would have to be if it were still in the system. His curiosity made him move toward the spot. The warriors took up posts around him making sure of no danger. One of them notified the First Mother and she contacted him immediately. “Stop and go no further.”
The First Male slowed and said, “I need to see what happened to the planet. I suspect that it’s being hidden.”
“And if that ship is there.”
The First Male stopped. “You can’t protect me every time I go out from the home planet.”
“That might be true when we were always able to destroy any race we found. We just lost more than ten thousand warriors. Would you allow me to approach that suspected location. If your answer is no, then it should be no for you as well.”
The First Male struggled but could not argue with her. He turned and began moving back to the outer system.”
Tommy saw the huge ship stop and then turn and start moving away. “Twig, send the planet now.” Twig punched her device and the planet was gone. Tommy looked at his display and looked at Cassandra and said, “Can we get close enough to take a shot at that ship?”
Cassandra thought a moment and said, “We could teleport out to its location and launch. There are so many ships around it that it might not work. We can’t occupy the same space as another object. The other option is to just hit plus light speed and make a run at it. We should get there is less than two seconds and just continue running as we pass.”
Tommy thought and weighed the options. “Sprig, what do you think?”
“It’s too big a risk to teleport close to him. More than half a million ships are swarming around it. I don’t believe that they can fire those energy balls fast enough to hit us. I also suspect that they won’t fire them near that giant ship.”
“Then prepare to go, we will be running is ten seconds. Are you ready, Lady Gardner?”
Cassandra closed her eyes and everyone could feel the Kosiev start vibrating. Tommy said, “Try to hit as clear a path as possible through those ships coming to look for the planet.”
“Get ready, running…now!”
The Kosiev flew out of the invisibility screen so fast that the Captor ships moving in couldn’t react before it was past them. The huge Captor ships were getting larger faster than the display could see.
“Danger, danger, danger, danger,” the Captor ships moving toward the planet screamed at the First Male.
The First Male’s sensors showed the white ship bearing down on him at an incredible speed. He hit his jump circuit but saw those black energy balls coming in on him and knew he was not going to make it.
Five thousand of the ships near the planet jumped in front of the First Male. The ships surrounding the First Male didn’t have time to react. The ships at the planet had two seconds which was barely enough. The First Male watched as four hundred of his warriors were destroyed just before he disappeared from the system. He appeared in the home system and was stunned at the close call with death. He could still see the black balls coming at him and knew he was lucky to survive. He was unable to communicate for several minutes and then he ordered two more squadrons to jump to the place he was just attacked. They would not arrive in time to help.
Cassandra said, “Crap, they blocked the negative matter.”
“Are they chasing us?” Tommy asked.
“No, they’re staying in the system looking for the planet.”
Twig said. “I think they expect us to come back and try to save the planet.”
Tommy thought for a moment and said, “Stop us now.” Cassandra focused and brought the Kosiev to a stop. “Twig, teleport the ship back inside the invisibility screen,” Tommy ordered. Cassandra furrowed her brow and looked at Tommy. “The more ships we can destroy here, the fewer there will be to face at their home world.” Tommy then keyed his com and said, “Wes, Twig is going to send you a coordinate, jump your four ships here immediately.”
Wes saw the coordinates and ordered his jump officer to teleport the ship immediately. He sent the coordinates to the other three ships and they arrived four seconds after the Rossville broke into normal space inside the screen.
Tommy said to the four ships, “We are going to wait for the Captor fleet to gather around our location and we are going to fire a full salvo of negative matter through the middle of their fleet; we will then follow it out and fire on those ships to the side of the salvo; any questions?”
The four ships lined up on the Kosiev with two on each side. One was stationed above the other each of them higher and lower than the Kosiev. The ship on top would fire at ships above the formation and the one below would fire on those below. The Kosiev would handle those ships coming from the sides firing between the ships on each side. Tommy looked at Cassandra and said, “Can you include them in your aura and run with them.”
Cassandra closed her eyes and thought then said, “I think so but I don’t think I can go further than the outer planets.”
I just want to get them outside the Captor fleet. Once we’re clear then everyone can teleport away if it comes to that. I’m hoping the negative matter will clear a way through the energy balls that I know they’ll be firing into our path. I’m hoping that they won’t be able to hit us from the sides because of our speed.” Tommy then hit his fleet com and said, “As we run from the screen, I want full salvos fired above and below our escape path. When we hit the outer planets, we will teleport away; signal if you understand.
Lt. Ortiz said, “All ships have confirmed instructions.”
Wes looked at Linda Kay who was now his sensor office on the Rossville. She had requested, actually demanded, to be stationed on Wes’ ship. There was no way she was not going to be with him after what had happened before. Wes had protested but she said, “I will not, cannot, live without you. We will live together or die together.”
Rose had written an order giving her an exclusion from the fleet rule concerning commanding officers having members of their family serving on their ship. The crew of the ship was skeptical at first but saw that Wes showed absolutely no favoritism and actually made things harder on her than normal. For her part, Linda Kay was glad he did. After a short time the crew came to like Linda Kay a great deal. She had a way of brightening everyone’s day.
Lt. McAnn, we will be firing over the top of the formation. Please feed to weapons the targets in best position to be hit.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” she said.
All five ships watched the feed from the Kosiev and saw hundreds of thousands of the Captor ships moving back and forth looking for the planet. They were moving closer and were less than a hundred thousand miles out from the SR ships. Tommy looked at Cassandra and said, “I will collapse the invisibility screen; you control the flight of the ships. We’ll make our run at them when the leading edge is ten thousand miles out.”
Cassandra nodded and kept her eyes on the sensor monitor. “Attention all ships,” She announced over the fleet frequency, “the negative matter will only travel at eighty percent light speed. We will stay behind the initial launch until the mass has either cleared the Captors formations of until it runs out. I am extending the Kosievs’ teleport screen to cover the front of our formation. I will implement the screen when I determine we are no longer protected from the front. Stay in formation, if you fall out you will have to use your own teleport screen so have it ready on standby. Our run will begin in a projected one minute. Prepare to fire a full salvo in front and we will follow three seconds later. You don’t have long to reload your magazines so make the time count.”
The Captors were scanning space along the projected orbital path of the planet and their scans were not showing anything. The Captor Fleet leader watched the scans and thought, “It has got to be near this point. How are they hiding it?” He looked closer at his sensors and that’s when trouble beyond his wildest estimation broke out. He only had one second before he was hit by one of the black balls and imploded. He was not alone.
A huge moving black mass exploded out of empty space and raced toward the middle of the incoming fleet. Thousands of red ships were hit and disintegrated and right behind the moving black mass five of the strange white ships erupted out of nowhere and began following the black mass into the ranks of the Captor fleet. The Captors responded immediately and fired their beams and energy balls at the ships but missed as the ships flew by them. As the white ships passed, hundreds of red ships were hit and destroyed. The ones in front of the enemy could not fire their weapons through the moving black mass which destroyed everything in its path and the ones to the sides of the formation fired and missed as the white ships flew past them. There were more than a million energy balls chasing the white ships but were not making up enough ground to impact. Several Captor ships tried to run through the black mass and ram the escaping ships but only disintegrated as they struck the moving black wall.”
“Lt. Ortiz, how are the other ships doing?”
“The Captors in front of us are trying to run around the edge and ram us.”
Tommy looked at Cassandra and she said through gritted teeth, “Let them; our hulls will cut them apart. The only way they can hurt us is with an explosion.”
Captain Zeng commanding the Cainth Pulse Ship Clan Warrior watched as a Captor ship flew in at high speed cutting the corner of the black mass and hit his ship head on. The Captor ship was cut right through the middle falling away in two pieces and exploding into fragments. A second Captor ship came right behind the first and just before impacting fired an energy ball and hit it with its beam. The resulting explosion blew the Clan Warrior out of formation and rocked the four other ships throwing them out of formation. The Clan Warrior was blown back and into the path of the energy balls chasing the fleeing SR ships. A huge red ship hit the energy balls as they neared the tumbling Cainth Pulse Ship and the resulting explosions ripped the ship apart and then shredded the pieces.
Tommy felt the Kosiev as it was thrown left and watched as Cassandra struggled to regain stability. “Get us out of here,” he yelled. “That blast wave will be on us in five seconds.” The blast wave was moving at the speed of light and was closing in on the remaining ships. Cassandra hit the teleport button and the four ships disappeared. Just before the ships disappeared Cassandra sent a thought into the black mass and exploded what remained. All of the remaining Captor ships in the system were blown out of existence as the blast wave engulfed everything within a twenty light minute radius and imploded it.
The reinforcing Captor ships arrived in the outer system just in time to see their fellow warriors totally obliterated by the blast. They jumped away before the blast arrived. The First Male and the warriors at the planet saw hundreds of thousands of empty berths on the construct. In their long hundreds of millions of year’s history, no Captor had ever died. Now they had lost a third of their population to a tiny number of tiny ships in a tiny measure of time. They were ruled by instinct but they were also intelligent beings that were starting to realize that there was a real possibility of defeat. They also were feeling the drive to swarm diminish. It would take hundreds of thousands of years to begin to replace the warriors that had been lost.
The First Male and First Mother were stunned at the loss of life in the attack. The First Male said, “Should we have tried to negotiate with those strangers?”
“What good would it do? If they come into our system we would attack; we have no choice. If they discover where we live, we would attack. Our instincts rule us and even though we know mentally that we’re placing ourselves in danger, we would still attack.”
“First Mother, is this new race superior to us? Every time we encounter them, warriors die.”
“The thing that gives us a fighting chance is that they are few in number. We still have four million warriors. However, we must find a way to protect ourselves from that black energy.”
The First Male said nothing but thought about all of the long time relationships that had ended in the blast of that black matter.
Tommy and Cassandra were sitting on the bridge of the Kosiev thinking about the blast wave they had just escaped. Tommy looked at Lt. Ortiz and asked, “Did you get a reading on the energy in that incoming blast wave?”
Lt. Ortiz looked at his screen and said, “The reading was off the scale. Quite frankly, the scale was made so high that it was never anticipated that any kind of energy reading would get half way up that scale.” Lt. Ortiz looked up and said, “Our hulls would not be penetrated but the severe pressure of the wave would have probably broken the structure of the ship just like the Clan Warrior.”
Tommy gave a heavy sigh and said, “There was no way to avoid the blast when that ship fired the energy ball and detonated it at such close range.”
“Tommy.”
“Yes, Rose.”
“Were you able to save the planet?”
“Yes, we did. We moved it to the system that Earth is in right now.”
“Have you thought about whether or not the Captors can track jump tracks from that system to the rest of the Stars Realm?”
Tommy looked at Cassandra and immediately ordered, “Attention all ships; we will be jumping back into the Crengren system in one minute. Be prepared to teleport out if there are Captor fleets present.”
Cassandra looked at him and nodded, “Weapons, load all magazines; be prepared to launch immediately upon entering normal space; jump in thirty seconds.”
“Rose, I don’t know if the tracks can be traced. We are jumping back in now and see if they are there. What prompted you to ask that question?”
“I have a sense of danger to the Realm and I’m not sure where it’s coming from.”
“Contact Dad and see if he can tell where it’s originating; he had a much better sense for that than we do.”
“He contacted me, Tommy. Something is going on but we can’t tell what it is.”
“I’ll contact you as soon as we arrive back in the Crengren system.”
Cassandra said, “Jumping in 3,2,1, execute.”
The four ships entered normal space in the outer system and saw that there were no Captor ships in the system. They also immediately saw that the system was dramatically changed. All of the inner planets were gone and the three planets in the outer system were in ruins. The closest was shattered into twelve huge pieces with millions of small asteroids fanning out from its former orbit. The crew of the Kosiev looked out on the ruined system and were awed by the magnitude of the blast that must have caused such catastrophic damage.
Cassandra gazed at the ruined system and knew that she had caused the event by exploding the dark matter. “It’s my fault; I caused this.”
Tommy saw her distress and said, “You had no choice; we could not leave any negative matter behind for them to study. One thing we now know though; the tactics of following such a huge amount of negative matter is not something we would do in a system that has value to us.”
Twig looked at them and said, “I suspect that if there were any tracks in this system they were wiped out by the blast.”
Tommy thought a moment and said, “Sprig, you need to find a system for the planet.”
“I already have fifteen selected.”
Tommy looked at the monitor with the destroyed system and then thought, “Rose, I just don’t see any way that the Captors could track anything from this system.”
Sprig stopped as he was about to leave the bridge and stopped. “I just heard what you said to Rose. What is the problem?”
“Rose and my father sense a danger to the Realm. We thought that the Captors might be able to follow jump tracks from here to the rest of the Realm.”
Sprig started shaking and said, “Captain Dodd, find us a nerve center, quickly.”
Cassandra looked puzzled and then comprehension showed, “Lt., jump us to a nerve center, now”
Ortiz looked at his board and entered a coordinate, “Jump in three seconds, 3,2,1, execute.”
The Koseiv broke into normal space and Sprig focused his device on the center. “The temperature is down. The Captors can read all they want. Cassandra, you’ve got to raise the temperature.”
Cassandra focused on the nerve center and saw the particle was no longer white hot but had cooled to red. She mentally entered the particle and felt it respond to her presence. The heat shot up instantly and roared past white to violet. She pulled out instantly and barely got out before the particle exploded. She held her head in her hands and said, “It’s getting close to time for the explosion. The particle is ready.”
Cassandra sat down in her command chair and held her head. Tommy came over and took her hands and shared her thoughts. “Just take it easy, darling. Deep breaths, just relax.”
“Tommy, whatever you did, that sense of danger ended abruptly,” Rose thought to him.
“We found what it was, Rose. However, we have about four months and then we will have to attack the Captors home world. We cannot close this avenue again without a dramatic energy event and I’m not certain what the end result would be. If we wait longer than that, the Captors will be able to see all the planets in the Realm.”
“Tommy, that means only half our ships will be converted,” Rose thought.
“Actually less than that; we can’t wait until the last moment to attack.”
“Have you developed a plan to win this war?”
“We had one but every contact with the Captors forces us to reevaluate. We should meet and discuss our best options, but first we have to find a new home system for Crengren. We’ve pretty much destroyed their home system.”
Rose closed her eyes and saw the system. “What did you do?”
“Well, we came here to party and had a blast. Rose, we had no idea we would cause this much damage. Like I said, we have to reevaluate our plan.”
“Contact me when you’re ready to meet. I’ll let everyone else know to be on standby.”
“Give me about seven days; we lost one of our ships in the last battle and we need to contact the next of kin.”
Rose thought to him, “Let me know when you’re ready,” and she broke the connection.
Sprig and Twig were standing in the main library on Ross looking at the history books. They had just finished consuming the “History of The Human and Alliance of Worlds Conflict” that was written by Sten. Sprig said, “That was an interesting time, Twig. I wish we had been able to see it.”
Twig thought a moment and said, “Me, too. I was greatly impressed with the human military leader Admiral Kosiev. He was a remarkable individual.”
“Yes, he was; it’s a shame he lost his life saving that Stars Realm Fleet from our attack.”
Twig was silent for a moment and then said, “I know you have the same thoughts I have about a possibility of what happened when his ship was destroyed.”
Sprig shook for a moment showing his surprise. “I didn’t know you had seen that thought. I just have these fantasies occasionally and I was wondering what the great Admiral was like. I just wondered if there was a chance he could still be alive.”
Twig leaned in close to Sprig and said, “I have run several simulations on my console and guess what they showed?”
Sprig looked at her for a long time and then said, “You can’t be serious. That was just a wild thought I had.”
“Well, my simulations show that there is a real possibility that what you thought might happen; could have actually happened.”
Sprig turned slightly yellow showing his stress and then said, “Ok, what do I do with this information?”
Twig raised her branches to the sides and said, “I really don’t know. Perhaps you should contact Tommy’s father.”
“Will you have your simulations available for him to see?”
“Certainly.”
Sprig thought a moment and then sent a thought, “Prince Gardner, do you have a moment to discuss an issue with me?”
Tag started and thought, “Hello Sprig. I’ll be glad to discuss anything you choose. Is it important?”
Sprig thought a moment and then thought, “Prince Gardner, Twig and I believe that a friend of yours might still be alive.”
Tag said nothing.
Twig then thought to him, “There is a real possibility that Admiral Alexander Kosiev might still be alive and we would like to discuss it with you.”
“Where are you right this moment,” Tag thought?
“We’re in the Ross main library,” Sprig thought, “However, we can come to you if that meets with your approval.”
“I’m in the map room in Castle Gardner. Please come as quickly as possible.”
Danielle ran into the map room looking for Tag, “What’s wrong, Tag? I sense your tension.”
Tag looked at Danielle and she immediately knew something major had just happened. He walked forward and took Danielle in his arms and held her close. “The adolescents have just told me that there is a real possibility that Alexander Kosiev may still be alive.”
Danielle was stunned speechless; all she could do was stare at Tag.
“I know, darling. I have no idea how it could possibly happen. If anyone else had told me I would dismiss it out of hand; but these adolescents know so much. Could it possibly be true?”
Danielle thought, “I don’t know, Dear. I don’t know.”
Tag, Danielle, Sprig, and Twig were sitting in the universal map room in Castle Gardner. They were gathered around the main display while Twig set up her simulations. Twig finally said, “I saw a thought in Sprig’s mind as we were melding about the possibility of Admiral Kosiev surviving the destruction of the Moscow. I thought it was an interesting concept so I studied the tapes of Moscow’s destruction and made a couple of assumptions and ran a simulation using those premises. Watch what would have happened on the bridge of the Moscow as the first anti-matter missiles hit.”
The video had a transparent hull around the bridge and as the first missile hit Twig froze the image. “I’m assuming that the skin of the Kosiev above the bridge has already absorbed the black holes and had been converted. I’m also assuming that the force of the blast exceeds that of a normal nuclear event.”
The video started again in slow motion and as the blast hit the hull of the Moscow it drove the floor of the bridge up into the ceiling of the bridge. Sprig said, “If the floor was driven up fast enough, then all of the bridge’s contents were sent into the new wall of the Kosiev. That wall was then blown away from the ship by the ensuing anti-matter explosions.”
Tag watched the simulation and said, “Are you saying that Kosiev is locked up in the wall of the Alexander Kosiev?”
“There is a good chance that it happened that way if our initial assumptions are accurate.”
Danielle looked at the Algeans and said, “How do we find out?”
The two Algeans looked at each other and Twig said, “Someone will have to go and see.”
Danielle looked at Tag and said, “Oh, no. You’re not going to do that.”
Tag looked at Danielle and then said to the adolescents, “Danielle and I were pushed into the wall of the Kosiev to remove Atlas’ links after the Eldest agreed to end the war. We were only there for a moment but it was an experience that neither of us would ever want to have again. It was like a universe that was totally grey and timeless. Rose says we were only in there for a minute but it felt like a week.”
Twig said, “The reason it felt so long was that there was actually no time passing inside the wall. It is a place outside the normal universe where the structures and rules don’t exist.”
Tag looked at Twig and asked, “Then if Alex is in there, how much time will have passed for him?”
Twig looked at Sprig and Sprig said, “None. It would seem like a long time but he would not have aged at all. No one that was on that bridge would have aged.”
Danielle looked startled and said, “What do you mean, “no one?”
“Well, if Admiral Kosiev was blown into the skin; then whoever else was on the bridge was also blown in.”
Danielle looked at Tag and said, “Tag, you know what it’s like in there. I don’t want to run the risk of losing you.”
Tag looked at Danielle and said, “Would he do it for me?”
Danielle lowered her head and said, “You know the answer to that. If you go, then I go.”
Twig said, “I’m not sure that is the best approach to solving this problem.”
Tag and Danielle both looked at him and said together, “Why?”
“Because who ever goes in will have to search for the possible survivors and we need someone that can reach the searcher and bring them back to the wall. Although the skin is only a few feet thick, it can contain entire galaxies inside it. Dimensions have no effect in that skin. Quite honestly, he may not be in there, and even if he is, you may not be able to find him.”
Tag was silent for five minutes; then he looked at Danielle and thought, “Tommy.”
“Yes, Dad.”
“I want you to bring the Kosiev to Ross immediately.”
Danielle looked at Tag and he could see her anguish. She remained quiet and decided that she didn’t care what everyone said; if he went into that wall, she was going with him. Tag didn’t need to hear her thoughts; he could see her determination.
Tommy could feel overtones in his father’s thoughts and said, “Do you mind if I inquire why you need us there?”
“Yes, I do mind. I’ll discuss it with you when you arrive.”
Tommy looked at Cassandra and noticed that she was listening in to his conversation. “We will be on our way in thirty minutes.”
Tommy looked at Cassandra and thought, “Something is up. Dad is bothered by something and it’s not something minor.”
“I sense you’re right. What are you going to do?”
“Why ask Rose what’s going on.”
Cassandra smiled and said, “Great idea. This should prove interesting.”
“Rose,” Tommy thought.
“Yes, Tommy. I thought you needed some time before we meet.”
“I do, Rose, however, Dad has just ordered me to come to Ross immediately.”
Tommy was silent waiting for Rose’s reply. After ten minutes Tommy thought, “Rose, are you still there?”
“Yes, I am Tommy. Tommy, I’m scared.”
Tommy had never felt his sister feel as she did at that moment. “Rose, what’s going on?”
“I think our father is going to risk his life to find a ghost. I can’t stop what he’s planning and I can’t order you not to come. He’ll come to you if you don’t come here. Get here as soon as you can.”
Cassandra turned and hit the ships com, “Attention all hands, jump in thirty seconds, jump in thirty seconds. Prepare all sections for jump.” She then looked at Lt. Ortiz and said, “Jump to Ross now.”
Tommy keyed his com and said, “Captain McAnn, please take command of the fleet. I’ll return as soon as possible.”
Wes said, “Yes, Your Highness; safe travel.”