The Originator Wars: Search for the Lost: A Lost Fleet Novel

by Raymond L. Weil

  On the screen, all that remained of the Eternal battlecruisers were small drifting fields of dark space dust. For the first time Kathryn understood why the Originators were so adamant about not putting these weapons on their warships. They simply could not risk them falling into enemy hands. With a deep sigh, she knew a fleet of Dominators was out of the question, at least for now.

  “One of the Eternal vessels escaped,” Commander Zafron said. “That ship will take word back to the Eternals of what happened here. In time, we can expect a larger Eternal fleet to come investigate. It could be a few weeks or a few months, but they will come.”

  Commander Belson looked over at Councilor Bartoll. “I think you need to summon your transport ships. We must get as many of our people as possible to the Communications and Transport Hub before the Eternals return.”

  “I will summon them as well as another warfleet. We have a rather large one now assembling at the hub, and I will request for it to be sent here. If the Eternals come we will hold them off until the last of our people is taken out of stasis. None will be left behind.”

  Kathryn took a deep breath. “I would recommend we begin constructing the Accelerator Ring we brought with us. It will greatly speed everything up. It may also allow our ships to pass through the hyperspace interference field without hindrance.”

  “What is this Accelerator Ring?” asked Commander Belson, looking confused.

  “A development of our AIs,” replied Councilor Bartoll. “It acts similarly to our intergalactic vortexes on the Shrieels but is capable of sending a ship through intergalactic space at a much higher hyperspace speed.”

  Belson stared at the viewscreens for another moment and then spoke. “I believe it would be wise if we begin awakening our people in the main stasis facility. If Cynthia is willing to go down to the surface with a small group of our medical staff, we can administer the cure to our medical people who are in stasis in the main facility. Once they’ve recovered we can begin to awaken everyone rapidly. We only have accommodations for one hundred thousand so we will need to shuttle them up to waiting transports and send them on to the hub as rapidly as possible.”

  Kathryn nodded her agreement. “We’ll make certain sufficient shuttles are sent to speed up the process. When the Eternals return there is no way of knowing how large a fleet they will bring but we need to be prepared for the worst.” Kathryn knew Jeremy would shortly be here and take over the defense of the system. Knowing Jeremy when the Eternals attacked he would be ready for them with a surprise or two.

  -

  The Avenger and her escort fleet exited hyperspace just short of the star cluster containing the lost Originators. The hyperspace interference field had been deactivated since the fleet was expected.

  “There’s been a battle here against the Eternals,” Aaliss said, her eyes widening in shock. “The ship’s sensors are picking up the dust residue from the use of the Originators’ blue energy spheres.”

  “The Dominator,” said Commander Malen knowingly. “It’s the only warship that has them.”

  “Can you tell how many Eternal ships were involved?” This was a disaster. Somehow, the Eternals had discovered the star cluster.

  “Nineteen,” reported Kevin as he studied the sensor readings. “It looks as if nineteen Eternal battlecruisers were destroyed.”

  “A survey squadron of some kind,” suggested Ariel. “Since our recent battles with them, they may be attempting to survey Originator space to determine exactly what they’re up against.”

  “I have Rear Admiral Barnes on the comm,” reported Lieutenant Lantz.

  “Put her over on my console,” ordered Jeremy. He was anxious to hear what had happened with the Eternals.

  -

  A few minutes later, Jeremy turned to look at Aaliss, Ariel, and Commander Malen. “Twelve million Originators in stasis,” he said in a stunned voice. “That’s far more than we dared hope.”

  “If the Eternals figure out what’s here, they may attack with every ship they possess,” said Kyla. “They can’t afford to allow those Originators to return to the Dyson Spheres.”

  “I’m concerned how they were able to follow Councilor Bartoll’s fleet and remain undetected. I want to know how they achieved that. We don’t dare lead them back to the Communications and Transport Hub. That needs to remain a secret for as long as possible.”

  “They won’t be able to if we use two Accelerator Rings,” said Aaliss. “One here and the other at the hub.”

  Jeremy leaned back in his command chair deep in thought. He wasn’t prepared yet to fight a huge Eternal fleet. While he could get his hands on enough Originator ships, the losses would be staggering. He sat for several minutes reviewing previous battles until a possible solution came to him.

  “Lieutenant Lantz, I want to send a message to Admiral Kalen back at the hub. This is what I want.” Jeremy then went on to describe what he required and how soon.

  “Do you think that will work?” asked Commander Malen.

  “We have to try,” Jeremy responded. “It’s going to take a while to awaken twelve million Originators and give all of them the cure. Lieutenant Stryker, take us on into the target system. I want to see these facilities as well as meet whoever is in charge. We have a battle to plan. We also need to figure out a way to awaken all of the Originators and get them to safety.”

  -

  Several hours later Jeremy stared at the massive space station on the ship’s main viewscreen. “How big is that thing?”

  “It’s twenty kilometers in length and four in width,” answered Ariel. “It’s also very heavily armed. I’m detecting numerous energy beam turrets, missile hatches, and what appears to be launchers for the blue energy spheres.”

  “There are also over eleven hundred Originator battlecruisers in orbit above the planet,” added Kevin. “That does not include our own fleets.”

  “Rear Admiral Barnes, Admiral Pence, Commander Zafron, Commander Belson, and Councilor Bartoll are waiting to meet with you on the station,” reported Lieutenant Lantz.

  Jeremy nodded. “I’ll take a shuttle. Ariel and Aaliss, you’re with me. Commander Malen, the fleet is yours. Get us organized into some type of defensive formation around that space station until I know more about what’s going on.”

  “I’ll take care of it,” Commander Malen said as she came over and sat down in Jeremy’s command chair.

  As Jeremy headed toward the flight bay with Ariel and Aaliss, he couldn’t help but believe it would be far longer than a few more weeks before he saw Kelsey again. His first priority now had to be to get all twelve million of these Originators safely back to the Communications and Transport Hub, and then he would have time to spend with Kelsey. He also suspected he’d better send her a message explaining in part what was going on and why his return was going to be delayed. With a sinking feeling he knew it could be months before he returned to the hub.

  -

  A few days later Jeremy and Councilor Bartoll were down on the planet in the secret facility where the twelve million Originators were in stasis. Jeremy was standing on a large platform overlooking the catwalks in one of the huge tunnels, which contained one million stasis chambers.

  “I never expected something like this,” Jeremy said as he turned toward Councilor Bartoll. “If we can find more of your people in stasis on the Dyson Spheres your people will be well on their way to recovery.”

  Bartoll smiled. “I was stunned as well when Commander Belson told me how many Originators were in stasis here. I’ve looked over the lists of some of the scientists and technicians. There are some very esteemed scientists from a number of scientific fields. I am anxious to get them safely back to the Communication and Transport Hub, so we can begin working to finish some of the research our AIs have been doing for the last two million years.”

  Jeremy watched as several stasis chambers were removed by the repair robots and carefully lowered to the floor where an antigravity sled would take the Originato
rs to the medical center to be awakened and given the cure for the pathogen. “I understand the other two councilors have been given the antidote and should be awake shortly?”

  “Yes, Councilor Trallis and Councilor Castille. I have met both in the past. They are very good research scientists. Trallis is well versed in the field of hyperspace mathematics and Castille is a biologist.”

  Jeremy hesitated briefly. Over time he had come to know Councilor Bartoll and trusted him implicitly. “What will the status be of the three Federation races in the Dyson Sphere once all of your people are awake and have been safely taken to the hub?”

  “I thought you would be asking about that,” Bartoll said, his face turning more somber. “I don’t see any change, however, I am aware Governor Barnes would like to bring more of your people from the Federation to the Communications and Transport Hub to aid in the war.”

  Jeremy wondered how Bartoll had found that out. However, Bartoll was an Originator and much more intelligent than a Human. Sometimes Jeremy forgot that and had to be reminded.

  “We need crews for the heavy dreadnoughts,” Jeremy replied carefully. “The military AIs are a great addition to the fleet but sometimes, in the battle simulations I’ve studied, their losses are far greater than they need to be. In this war with the Eternals every ship may count.”

  “This is something I’m going to need to study for a while,” Bartoll responded. “Has there been any progress on breaking the encryption in the computer files Ariel and Aaliss recovered from the Eternal battlecruiser?”

  “Yes,” Jeremy answered. “One of your computer scientists designed a program to break through the encryption. It happened two days ago. There’s a lot of data to go through. I’ve asked Ariel and Aaliss to prepare a report for us of the most pertinent data. It should be ready tomorrow for us to review.”

  Councilor Bartoll turned his attention back to the repair robots which were taking down even more stasis chambers. “I believe it would be wise if we include Commander Belson in that briefing. I would like to hear his opinion on the Eternals before I speak to my fellow council members.”

  “I will make the arrangements,” replied Jeremy. He too was highly curious about what would be in that briefing. Ariel and Aaliss were being tightlipped about it as they claimed it would be best if everyone heard the information together.

  -

  Jeremy returned to the Avenger to inspect the deployment of the fleet units. He had two hundred Originator battlecruisers under the command of Admiral Pence. Jeremy decided to give Pence the seventy heavy dreadnoughts that had served as Councilor Bartoll’s escort. It would leave Jeremy with a solid core of four hundred heavy dreadnoughts. That still left the Dominator and Kathryn’s exploration dreadnoughts. For the time being he decided to leave them between the planet and the orbiting space station.

  -

  “This is going to be bad, isn’t it?” said Kevin, coming over to stand next to Jeremy. “We can’t leave until the all the Originators are evacuated. We may be here for months.” Kevin was concerned they might be here so long he and Jeremy might miss the birth of their children. He didn’t even want to think about how upset Katie and Kelsey would be if that happened.

  -

  Jeremy nodded. “We have to hold back the Eternals until the last transport ship has left. When it does we’ll pull back and destroy everything of Originator construction in the system. I don’t want the Eternals to learn what was here.”

  “We did receive a communication from the hub,” reported Commander Malen. “Rear Admiral Mann will be leaving tomorrow with her new fleet. She’s also bringing a few extra Originator battlecruisers as well.”

  “That’s fine; however I want the hub reinforced with additional updated Originator battlecruisers from some of the other Dyson Spheres. Send a message to Admiral Kalen we must have a minimum of ten thousand Originator battlecruisers at the hub at all times.”

  Jeremy knew that could be done without significantly reducing the number of battlecruisers those Dyson Spheres would still have available for their own defense if needed. Also, by traveling in hyperspace using the intergalactic vortexes in the Dyson Spheres it made detection nearly impossible. Jeremy wasn’t too concerned about the Eternals finding the hub but he wasn’t going to risk their biggest asset being found, at least not yet.

  -

  The next day Jeremy was back over on the space station preparing to listen to what Ariel and Aaliss had discovered in the files they had downloaded from the Originator battlecruiser. Councilor Bartoll, Commander Belson, Rear Admiral Barnes, Commander Zafron, Camlin, Kazak, Tanoak, and Anthon were all present. Jeremy had decided to expand the number in the meeting wanting to include the military AIs with Camlin representing the nonmilitary AIs.

  “We’re here because a few weeks ago Ariel and Aaliss went aboard a damaged Eternal battlecruiser and managed to access some of the files in the ship’s computer core. A failsafe program in the core detected the intrusion and attempted to delete all the files. While Ariel and Aaliss were unable to stop the deletion, they did manage to download a considerable amount of information before the core finished running its removal program. What they recovered was heavily encrypted, and it was only a few days ago the encryption was broken thanks to a special computer program created by one of the Originators currently back at the Communication and Transport Hub. Ariel, Aaliss; tell us what the two of you have discovered.” Jeremy was intensely curious as it would have great bearing on what occurred in this star cluster.

  Ariel stood and looked at the assembled group. “We know the Eternals’ home planet is called Gardell and it has a population of nearly ten billion. They are ruled by the Council of Eternals which has twenty members. Each member is responsible for some aspect of their empire from warship construction to military research. Their current First Leader is an Eternal called Clondax. He has been First Leader since before their escape from the hyperspace interference field which kept them confined in their galaxy.”

  “That’s over a thousand years,” said Councilor Bartoll. He was the one, upon returning to the Communication and Transport Hub, who had discovered the failure of the hyperspace interference field around the Eternals’ galaxy.

  “A thousand years they’ve been spreading across the universe,” said Kazak in a level voice. “They must have conquered hundreds, possibly thousands of galaxies by now.”

  Jeremy looked at Ariel, indicating for her to continue.

  “It’s worse than that,” Ariel said. “The entire Eternal civilization is committed to expanding their empire as rapidly as possible.”

  “Their technology is superior to all civilizations they encounter,” added Aaliss. “When they do encounter a high tech culture they simply overwhelm it with superior weapons and numbers.”

  “It took a lot of research but we know how many galaxies they control,” said Ariel, looking deeply concerned, her dark eyes showing signs of anxiety.

  “How many?” asked Jeremy, knowing he wasn’t going to like the answer.

  “Over ten thousand,” replied Ariel, her eyes meeting Jeremy’s. “Ten thousand two hundred and seventeen to be exact.”

  “How many ships does it take to control ten thousand galaxies?” asked Commander Belson.

  “We could not find a specific number,” answered Aaliss. “As near as we can tell from what we could find of fleet deployments, there are at least one thousand Eternal battlecruisers in every galaxy they control with new ships being constantly built to expand their fleets and attack more galaxies.”

  “That’s over ten million ships,” said Tanoak, looking meaningfully at Commander Belson. “I don’t believe even all the Shrieels combined have that many.”

  “No,” replied Councilor Bartoll, shaking his head. “They don’t.”

  Commander Zafron addressed Councilor Bartoll. “What is the ship building capacity of the Shrieels?”

  “We could build over one million ships per year if necessary,” Bartoll answered. “Ho
wever, it has been brought to my attention that fleets commanded by our military AIs suffer far higher losses than fleets commanded by the Federation races.”

  “That does not surprise me,” said Commander Zafron, glancing over at Kazak. “Our military AIs fight too rationally, making some of their actions predictable. It was always their greatest failing.”

  “We do what it takes to ensure victory or the heaviest cost to the enemy,” explained Kazak. “However, I have to admit I have noticed the Humans at times use tactics I would never consider and sometimes those tactics do succeed.”

  “I have observed Rear Admiral Barnes in military situations several times,” added Camlin. “Her actions have confused me though the results have always come out as she predicted. I believe we are making a serious mistake if we don’t allow the Federation races to continue to assist us in the war against the Eternals.”

  “I agree,” said Kazak. “I would not want to go up in battle against Fleet Admiral Strong or Rear Admiral Barnes. Their tactics at times can be confusing.”

  “I do not have sufficient information to make such a judgment,” said Tanoak. “I will defer to Kazak.”

  “What happens to the civilizations in the galaxies the Eternals conquer?” asked Commander Belson, seeking more information.

  “Those that are still relatively primitive and have not developed hyperspace technology are left alone,” answered Aaliss. “All others are enslaved and are expected to work for the Eternals. It should be noted from what we observed in the Median Galaxy and discovered in the computer files, the Eternals only allow their conquered civilizations a certain level of technology.”

  “How many have the Eternals killed?” asked Belson in a strained voice.

  “Several trillion at least,” answered Aaliss. “Many in battle but also due to a reduction in some civilizations’ technological level. We saw that in the star cluster in the Median Galaxy.”

  “Several trillion,” repeated Commander Belson, his face turning pale. “The Anti-Life were once Originators. Those deaths fall upon us.”