by Saxon Andrew
“I guess I’d demand you call off the whole thing.”
“I’m tempted to do that because you are going with me.”
“Tag, it’s because of all the unknowns that make this so, so…”
“Crazy?”
“Yes, Tag; crazy. We don’t know if the guns will operate as advertised. We don’t know if you can get a large enough lead on the OAs chasing you to risk going into a dimension, much less escaping them, and we really don’t know anything about our escape route. If everything works, then this doesn’t sound nearly as frightening.”
“That’s one of the biggest if’s I’ve ever heard, Danielle.”
Danielle shrugged, “At least we’ll be doing this together.”
Tag sat down on the bed and looked up at her, “With this plan, I don’t really have an option of doing this alone like I originally planned; someone will have to be along for the ride to fire the missiles.”
“I’m not even suggesting you do this alone, but why are the missiles so important?”
“Those missiles will be what convince the OAs our ship is one of those constructed by the advance civilization that gave them so much trouble.”
“Once you use your acceleration field, they’ll see our ship is faster than any ship that civilization used.” Tag’s eyes narrowed, and he looked away from Danielle. Danielle’s eyebrows snapped together, “I KNOW THAT LOOK THOMAS ANGLO GARDNER!! YOU’RE HIDING SOMETHING!!”
Tag released a heavy sigh, “Your coming with me made me change my initial plans.”
Danielle put her hands on her hips, “How?!”
“I wasn’t going to use my acceleration talent unless it was absolutely necessary. I was going to depend on my talent to avoid being hit by their weapons, but not use my top-speed.”
Danielle sat down beside him on the bed and took a deep breath, before turning to him, “You still need to do it that way, Tag.”
“But, you’re going to be with me.”
“I know. But if you go to your maximum speed, they might not buy our ship comes from that advanced civilization they attacked. If you have to do it, then, so be it. At least I’ll be there with the missiles and can hold off the OAs closest warships.”
“We still haven’t seen their blasters, Danielle.”
“I suspect we will now; but…your talent will allow you to avoid being hit by them, won’t it?”
“It should, if there aren’t too many of them.”
“We’ll know as soon as we scan one of their blaster beams whether or not our ship can handle them, right?” Danielle asked.
“I suppose.”
“That’s another reason we must do this, Tag. There are too many unanswered questions.”
Tag turned and took her hands, “I will try and avoid using my speed talent, unless we’re placed in a position where our survival is at stake.”
Danielle released his hands and hugged him, “I’m really frightened by this but at one level I’m…well…looking forward to it.”
Tag stared into her eyes and his smile didn’t come immediately, but it did come, “I am, too, Danielle. This will be the most exciting game of tag I’ve ever played.”
“Let’s agree to look at this as fun, shall we? I’ve never really enjoyed always having the upper-hand against our opponents.”
Tag chuckled, “Speak for yourself. However, we’re committed and second-guessing ourselves serves no purpose. Let’s go over everything and see if we can maybe find ways to make the plan work.”
Danielle nodded, released him, and went to the small console in their quarters. She activated the computer and began entering questions.
• • •
Tag looked at Eddie and smiled, “What do you think about this change in the plan?”
“I’m concerned the probe might detect you.”
Tag smirked, “We won’t activate our armor until we’re ready to use the Mag-Guns. Besides, we won’t be using our force fields and our armor’s energy is heavily shielded. If we are detected, I suspect that several OAs on the surface will be sent to investigate before they call in a ship.”
“I don’t think you’ll have an issue with OAs showing up,” Janie added.
“Why do you say that?” Danielle asked.
“We don’t understand their sensory organs, but they appear to be able to detect most lifeforms near them. If you teleport in close to them, they will sense your presence.”
“All the more reason to do it this way,” Tag responded. Eddie stared at the Gardners and Tag continued, “The part of the plan that’s most dangerous is using the Mag-Guns and getting away on our ship after we use them.”
“He’s right, Sir.” Eddie turned to Bobby, and he continued, “If we do it like he’s suggesting, they may not make the connection between their ship and the attack on the planet’s surface with the Mag-Guns.”
Eddie turned to Janie, “What do you think about this?”
“I’ve been worried about taking the probe out and then using the Mag-Guns. We don’t know how quickly the OAs are going to respond to the loss of that probe and that piece of information is critical to the plan’s success.”
Eddie focused on Tag’s suggestions and then said, “Ok, we’ll do it your way. However, there will be one change in your plan.”
“What is that?” Tag asked.
“Bong will go down with you and the moment you fire your Mag-Guns, we’re going to destroy the probe, teleport your ship to the moon where the weapon depot is located. I’ll also be teleporting the two of you to your ship at the same moment.”
“How will we know if the Mag-Guns worked?”
Eddie turned to Danielle, “Bong will remain behind and make that determination. You’ll use your universal drive to start your run the moment you arrive on your ship.” Danielle looked at Tag and he raised his shoulders and nodded. “We’ll remain there until the plan is completed,” Eddie added.
“How will you know when we take our shots?” Danielle asked.
“Bong and I are connected; I’ll see you do it.”
Tag stood up, “Alrighty then, let’s do this.”
• • •
The two-OAs were moving down the center of a street in a deserted city. Most of the OAs dropped on the planet had been removed and taken to another attack site. The few that remained were involved in cleanup operations and there wasn’t much left to do. “I think we’re wasting our time staying here,” the larger OA flashed to the second OA.
“I guess. But I require time to process all the lifeforms I consumed, and this gives me time to do that.”
“You make a good point.” The two-large-green-creatures continued moving up the street and the larger OA stopped and extended an eyestalk out of his body.
The second OA quickly flashed, “I sense two-lifeforms.”
“They aren’t like the others here.”
“They could be pets that they kept,” the smaller OA suggested.
“They’re rather large to be pets.”
“We should go and investigate.”
The two-OAs turned and headed toward a towering building. They arrived at the front entrance and the larger OA flashed, “Whatever they are, they’re moving away from the entrance. Ready?”
“I am.” The two-OAs rushed forward and burst through the reinforced glass entrance.
• • •
“HERE THEY COME!” Tag shouted. Danielle and Tag instantly activated their armor and the Mag-Guns appeared in their hands. Tag fired at the larger of the two-OAs and Danielle fired at the smaller one rushing in on them ahead of the larger, slower, moving OA. They didn’t see what happened, as Eddie, watching the OAs charge, pressed the teleport button on his console along with the red button next to it. Tag and Danielle disappeared and reappeared on the bridge of their ship.”
Bobby and Dottie saw the illuminated button on their Mag-Cannons illuminate and they pulled the triggers. Two-heavy, dark matter projectiles shot out of the rear of the Nightmare and hit the OA pro
be holding station above the planet; it went up in a huge explosion. Eddie teleported the Nightmare to the weapons depot and released the Gardner’s vessel from the landing bay. Tag flew out of the Nightmare at high-speed and activated the universal drive just above the moon’s surface.
Eddie moved the Nightmare away from the moon and heard Janie yell, “AN OA WARSHIP HAS JUST ARRIVED AT THE PLANET!”
“What is it doing?!”
“It was scanning the destroyed probe, but it must have detected the universal drive residue. It’s moving at high-speed toward the weapons depot to scan the residue. It’s transmitting!”
The OA warship disappeared, and Eddie sighed; the chase was on. Eddie focused his attention on Bong and saw the two-OAs that were hit by the Gardner’s Mag-Guns were not moving. “Ed, they are barely alive and appear to be fading fast,” Bong thought.
“Did the rounds stop their charge, Bong.”
“Yes. Both of them have deep indentations in their outer layers. The larger OA has now stopped moving and the other one is barely changing color now.”
“Sir, I have numerous OAs moving toward the building.”
Eddie turned to Janie, “How many?”
“Fifty-plus, Sir.”
“Bong, hang around and see what happens.” Eddie saw the view of the OAs change as Bong rose closer to the ceiling above the two-OAs. If nothing else, the Mag-Guns and Cannons had proven to be effective.
Janie was staring at her console and said, “Sir, fifty OA warships are jumping in close to the planet.”
Eddie nodded; they must be able to tell if one of them dies or is injured. How were they able to do that? The OAs rushing toward the building could not have possibly seen the injured OAs changing color. They must have some means of communicating inside their outer layers. Eddie made sure the recorder was operating and adjusted his helmet. What he was seeing in Bong’s mind was being fed directly to the recorder. He wondered how Tag and Danielle were doing but forced it out of his mind. The OAs had arrived at the two dead OAs and it was clear they were quite agitated.
• • •
“Danielle, set up the shot!”
“Waiting for the first-OA ship to arrive, Tag. Be ready to get out of here.”
“Not before we record what happens,” Danielle.
Suddenly, a large OA warship entered normal space from its universal drive directly in front of them and Danielle fired the psychic blaster. The brilliant blue beam lanced out and blew through the OAs force field and hit the vessel just behind the bow. The front third of the warship disappeared and the remaining two-thirds drifted off course. Tag scanned the stricken vessel with a powerful scan, just as four-more OA warships jumped in. Danielle quick-fired three-missiles, as Tag jumped away. A moment later, fifty-three OA warships appeared.
Three of the first four-warships to arrive were hit by the missiles Danielle fired and were damaged to varying degrees. Only one of them blew up, but the other two were too damaged to continue a pursuit.
The Commander of the OA warships quickly ordered, “FOLLOW THAT SHIP AND DON’T LOSE IT!! UNIT ONE STAY HERE AND SCAN EVERYTHING AND SEND ME A REPORT IMMEDIATELY!” The Commander looked at his pilot, “Read the coordinates of that residue and join the rest of our vessels following that ship!”
The pilot set the residue-reader on his panel and the giant warship jumped away.
• • •
Tag quick jumped three-times and saw more and more OA warships appearing just before he managed to leave the universe they were in. “Tag, they must have a way to read our universal drive residue and immediately jump. There’s no way they could enter coordinates and jump that fast.”
Tag nodded as he focused on moving the ship toward shadows he saw around them. “It has to be controlled by their computers. Opening a break is not going to be as easy as I thought.”
Danielle fired six-missiles at OA ships that entered normal space near them before Tag jumped away, “They’re starting to jump ahead of us, Tag!”
Tag whipped the ship hard left, as twenty-warships appeared directly ahead of them. He set the universal drive to verbal commands and shouted, “FOUR!” The ship jumped four-times without pausing and Tag shouted, Six!”
Each time the ship entered normal space, Tag would make a hard turn to the left or right at random. Then he began seeing shadows and turned the ship toward them before jumping again.
• • •
The OA Commander was dumbfounded by what he was seeing, “How can that ship turn away from my formations before they appear?”
The Pilot changed color as he flashed, “What that ship is doing is impossible!”
The Commander turned to his Ship’s Monitor, “What can you tell me about that vessel?”
“It appears to be a smaller version of the warship used by that advanced civilization we invaded in the first universe. It is firing identical missiles to the ones that were used by them and the vessel has the same basic shape and color. This must be a survivor of our invasion that we missed.”
“Send your data to the Senior Monitor and let me know what he comes up with.” The Monitor linked his console with the Senior Monitor, as the huge flagship continued chasing the smaller silver ship.
“The Senior Monitor is vectoring several fleets into the universes ahead of that vessel. They’ll be waiting for it to appear.”
• • •
“TAG, THERE ARE OA WARSHIPS ALREADY IN THE UNIVERSES YOU’RE JUMPING INTO!!”
Tag whipped the ship into a vertical climb and shouted, “JUMP THREE-HUNDRED AHEAD!!” Their ship immediately jumped three-hundred universes ahead of their course and no OA warships were present. “FOUR-HUNDRED AHEAD!!”
• • •
The Senior Monitor saw the small silver ship was now jumping hundreds-of-universes and he knew there weren’t enough warships to cover that many. The ship was also changing course and entering universes out of line with the previous course it was moving. Whoever was flying that ship was a smart pilot. He tried to find a pattern but was unable to see it. He watched the link from the Commander’s Flagship and waited for the silver ship to make a mistake.
• • •
Tag focused on the space around the ship and flew at maximum speed. This was going to take some time. He felt the ship vibrate and knew Danielle had fired missiles at OA warships that managed to jump in close to them. He focused on the shadows and managed to avoid being hit by more than a hundred-high-intensity-blaster beams. “FIVE-HUNDRED-AHEAD!!” He yelled. After eight hours, the chase took on a life of its own and Tag was starting to feel fatigue set in. How much longer would he be able to keep this up?
Chapter Nineteen
The chase was entering the twentieth-hour and Danielle announced, “Tag, they didn’t show up before we jumped out of the last universe.”
“Two-hundred ahead,” Tag said and glanced at Danielle and saw her concerned expression, “I can’t keep this up much longer. I’m going to jump three-more times and then go to the target universe; six-hundred-five ahead; and jump to the dimension.”
Danielle knew he was starting to lose it, “Do it, Tag!”
“Twenty-six ahead…one-thousand ahead…two-thousand-fifty ahead…and then Danielle heard, “TARGET ONE!! Dimensional drive!!”
The silver ship appeared in a universe and then instantly disappeared. Tag saw the dimension around him and swung his head around; he sighed, as he saw shadows off to the left of the ship. He flew the ship toward them and knew that the OAs must have dimensional capability; the shadows wouldn’t be present if they didn’t. He didn’t need to wait for them to arrive, but he shook his head and decided to make sure, “Dimensional Drive to Coordinate Alpha on my command.”
Danielle looked at him, “What are you doing?”
“There are shadows here, Danielle. That means the OAs do have a dimensional drive. I’m going to wait and see if one appears but I’m reasonably certain they will.”
“Then wait and rest, Tag. You’re close t
o falling out!” Tag nodded and fell back in his chair.
• • •
The Commander’s huge fleet arrived two-seconds after Tag jumped into the dimension and his pilot said, “I do not detect any universal drive residue.”
The Commander was beyond frustrated and he ordered, “Spread out and start scanning for that ship!”
The Senior Monitor appeared on his monitor and said, “You may want to check the closest dark place.”
“Are you suggesting that ship has a drive that would allow it to move there?”
“I doubt it does, but no place must go unsearched. That’s the protocol.”
“Don’t you think that advanced civilization would have used it when we attacked, if they had it.”
“I said I doubted they have it but the rules for this are clear!”
The Commander stared at the Senior Monitor on his consoles display and turned to his Second, “Send a ship into the dark place.”
Tag saw the shadows change and moved with them. He looked where there weren’t any shadows and saw an OA warship appear. “Execute, command.”
Tag’s ship activated the dimensional drive and reentered the universe they just exited.
• • •
The OA warship arrived in the dimension and activated its forward long-range scanners and saw nothing. It activated the complete array of scanners on the huge vessel and nothing appeared, Tag had already jumped out. It jumped through the closest dark places and then returned to the OA fleet.
• • •
The Commander received the ship’s report and turned to the Senior Monitor, “Nothing was there.”
“I didn’t expect there to be anything. But I will not be censored by the Council for not doing a thorough job!” the Senior Monitor replied.
“That drive is a waste of technology!” the Commander replied. “There’s nothing in those dark places worth visiting.”
“Well, if it’s not there, it has to be hiding in this universe. Expand the search.”
• • •
Tag’s ship arrived close to a giant Type-O star on the side away from the location of the OA fleet’s arrival. Tag saw he was in a shadow behind the giant star and he looked at Danielle as he said, “TARGET TWO!” The silver ship disappeared and made ten-fast jumps.
