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

by Raymond L. Weil

  “Eight to ten weeks is still a lot of time,” Commander Malen said worriedly. “We may have to fight several major fleet engagements against the Eternals during that period.”

  Jeremy nodded. “I expect we will. This isn’t going to be easy. It’s going to depend on how many ships the Eternals are willing to lose to reach the planet. I’ve already dispatched Admiral Jackson back to the hub to organize a second support fleet. All of our new warship construction for the next four weeks will be going toward his new command. With a little luck he will arrive before the Eternals do.”

  Kevin looked at Jeremy, his face showing extreme worry. “This is going to make the battle at the galactic core against the AIs look like a skirmish.” Thousands of ships had been lost in that battle, both Federation vessels and AI battle spheres. The result of that battle had caused Jeremy and his fleet to become trapped in the Triangulum Galaxy.

  “We have no choice,” replied Jeremy. “I’ve talked to Bartoll and the ship building capacity of the Dyson Spheres is almost beyond belief. We’re just now beginning to get all of the shipyards functioning. Most of them have been shut down since the Originators’ war with the Anti-Life. We’re also going to build more shipyards at the hub.”

  “That’s well and good for the future,” replied Kevin, gazing at the main viewscreen. The large Accelerator Ring had shut down and one of the Originator construction ships was moving in close to do an inspection. This was done after every use of the ring. “But we’re talking about now. We still have to get all of these Originators to safety, returned to the hub, then send a mission to contact the Federation and hope they agree to help in this war. What if they don’t?”

  Jeremy took a deep breath. The viewscreen had switched to show the Dominator. It was docked to the space station and work was being done to its systems. Commander Zafron had talked Commander Belson into installing several dark energy cannons on the massive warship. At the moment only the Dominator had the power systems to handle such a weapon.

  There were several construction craft working on the bow of the five-thousand-meter warship. Two large cannons were taking shape and construction should be finished sometime in the next two or three days. It had been a risk doing this work now. If the Eternals showed up with a large warfleet, the Dominator would be sorely needed in the battle.

  “Kazak gets all the new toys,” muttered Major Preston, staring enviously at the viewscreen. “I hear those new cannons will be able to go right through an Eternal warship’s energy screens.”

  “It’s dark energy,” explained Aaliss. “There’s nothing known which can stop it. I’ve spoken to Saber and several other AIs about the dark energy weapons. They were developed originally in case the Defenders of Zorn found where the lost Originators had gone. They believed the weapons would be a sufficient deterrent to keep them away.”

  “These Defenders of Zorn,” said Kevin with a deep frown. “I guess we’re fortunate in one respect that they all died when Rear Admiral Barnes destroyed the dark matter Shrieel.”

  “They were nearly as bad as the Anti-Life,” said Aaliss, her eyes darkening. “They would have taken Originator culture down a very dark path.”

  Ariel stepped over closer to Jeremy. “I spoke to Commander Belson. If we add another antimatter chamber to the Avenger, we could install a pair of dark energy cannons as well. We have several cargo holds which could be modified to hold another chamber.”

  Jeremy was tempted to do it but the Eternals could make an appearance at any time and several more dark energy cannons weren’t going to make that big of a difference. Jeremy leaned back in his command chair, trying to relax. The Eternals were coming and he had a few tricks up his sleeves but he wasn’t sure they were going to be enough. It all depended on how large of a fleet they showed up with and how determined they were to reach the planet. Jeremy felt a prickling sensation run along his neck. He was deeply concerned that no matter what he did it wasn’t going to be enough.

  -

  Rear Admiral Kathryn Barnes was in the underground stasis facility speaking to Nomar and Cynthia. “Is there anything we can do to speed up the awakening process?” She knew Jeremy had some plans for dealing with the Eternals but no matter what he came up with, they were probably going to lose a lot of ships. Even if he could get the new ships here to move the stasis chambers that was still a good eight weeks away.

  They were standing in a large observation room overlooking one of the large medical facilities where the Originator stasis chambers were being brought for their occupants to be treated. The Originators were brought out of stasis and given the cure as well as an injection of biological medical nanites to aid in the healing process. They were kept at a state just barely out of stasis until the deadly disease began to fade away and their bodies reached the point where they could survive without artificial means. Even so a few Originators had been lost due to the advanced stage of the disease. Their bodies had been so ravaged they could not survive long enough for the cure to take effect.

  In the room below, the stasis chambers were hooked up to special medical monitors and opened. The Originators were brought back to the point where their hearts beat at a low rate and their breathing was barely detectable. The room had a number of Altons, a few Humans, and a large number of Originator medical personnel moving from chamber to chamber. In this room alone over two hundred stasis chambers were hooked up to the equipment. There were twenty other rooms such as this one. Once an Originator was given the cure, he or she was carefully monitored for several hours. After the medical staff were satisfied the occupant of the chamber was responding positively, the chamber was taken to another larger room where it was monitored until the occupant was ready to be completely awakened.

  Once an Originator was awake he or she was sent to another observation facility where they were monitored for several more days. At that time they were sufficiently awake so they could be told about the current situation. As soon as they were strong enough they were sent to one of the living quarters in the facility. There were three levels dedicated to living quarters and there was a constant flow of Originators to and from the facility. Every hour shuttles were departing for the orbiting transport ships.

  “I wish there was a faster way,” replied Cynthia, her eyes showing how tired she was. She was putting in extra long shifts every day as was everyone else. “Unfortunately we are limited by the number of medical facilities we have available for us to use to administer the cure and monitor the stasis chambers. The Originators who built the space station and this facility never expected to have to awaken so many so quickly. They assumed they would have several years to revive everyone and get them back to the Shrieels.”

  Kathryn watched as several Originators were injected with the cure. She knew they were rapidly running out of time. They had found the lost Originators but by finding them had they doomed them as well?

  The door to the observation room opened and Andram stepped inside. “I’ve looked at every possible option and there is no way to speed up the awakenings. Our only hope is to take the stasis chambers to the hub where we have the facilities to awaken the Originators still in stasis.”

  It had been a long shot but Kathryn had hoped Andram might see something the Originators had overlooked.

  “We have six hundred thousand of our people on the way to the hub,” said Nomar. “I hope we can get several hundred thousand more on the way before the Eternals arrive.”

  Kathryn thought that was possible. However, when the Eternals arrived there were still going to be millions of Originators in stasis, ones who might die never knowing a cure had been found.

  “Let’s get back to the Distant Horizon,” she said. “I want to run some battle maneuvers with the other exploration dreadnaughts.” The exploration dreadnoughts had as much firepower as the regular heavy dreadnoughts. At the moment they were tasked with defending the planet and had taken a defensive posture in space directly above the stasis facility.

  “I’ll stay
,” Cynthia said. “I’ll keep you informed if there are any new developments.”

  “All we can do is hope for the best,” replied Kathryn.

  -

  First Leader Clondax stared at the main tactical display in the Originator battlecruiser Conqueror. The display was covered with green icons representing the largest fleet the Eternals had ever put together in one formation. He had 112,000 four-kilometer-long battlecruisers under his command; enough to crush any enemy. His plan was very simple. His fleet would stop just outside of the effective range of the hyperspace interference field around the star cluster and attempt to bring it down. Once it was down he would jump into the target system and destroy whatever forces the Originator AIs had there.

  “Twelve more days and we will arrive at the star cluster,” Fleet Commander Tarsal said. “Our scientists believe they have found a way through the Originator AIs’ hyperspace interference field. The equipment will be ready by the time we get there.”

  Clondax nodded. The scientists had been told to find a solution or face the consequences. It hadn’t taken them long to come up with the answer. Clondax felt certain the AIs felt safe behind the field. When they discovered it wasn’t effective against the Eternal fleet they would have no choice but to capitulate. Of course he would try to reason with them first. If they would turn over control of all the Shrieels to the Eternals he would allow them to continue to exist. They could work for the Eternals building warships in the shipyards, at least for a while. The big unknown in all of this was the proxy race. He now felt there was a reasonable possibility this race had already conquered the Shrieels after destroying the one in the galaxy the star cluster orbited. If that were the case then he wasn’t sure how the AIs would react. The proxy race was a big unknown and he was determined to get to the bottom of that mystery.

  Clondax stood up and walked across the Command Center inspecting each station. It was quiet as the Eternals seldom spoke to one another. Each did their job and did so as efficiently as possible.

  Fleet Commander Tarsal was sitting at his command console in front of a bank of small viewscreens. The viewscreens showed views of different areas of the ship. He looked up as Clondax stopped at his station.

  “Will we need our warrior robots in this operation?” asked Tarsal. They had brought double what the ship normally carried. There were also extra Eternal shock troops.

  “Perhaps,” replied Clondax, coming to a stop at Tarsal’s station. “The star cluster is an enigma. We know someone destroyed the Shrieel in the galaxy it orbits. Squadron Commander Mallon detected Originator ships possibly crewed by their supposed proxy race traveling to the cluster. There’s a hyperspace interference field around it and everything points to there being something of significance inside. I want to find out what it is and gather more information on this race that’s working with the AIs.”

  Tarsal glanced over at the tactical display. “We have the fleet. We’ll find out what’s in that star cluster. We are the Eternals and it is time for the Originator AIs and the Shrieels to become a part of our empire.”

  Clondax remained silent. He expected no less than for Fleet Commander Tarsal to do his duty. Twelve more days and he would know what the AIs and their proxy race were hiding in that cluster. When he did, he planned on taking control of it.

  -

  Rear Admiral Hailey Mann dropped her fleet out of hyperspace just short of the hyperspace interference field surrounding the star cluster. Since Fleet Admiral Strong was expecting an attack by the Eternals any day they wanted to confirm the identity of her fleet before dropping the field.

  Around the Victory thousands of spatial vortexes opened as the rest of the fleet exited hyperspace.

  “All ships present,” reported Captain Adams from his sensor console.

  “We’re being scanned by the stations which produce the interference field,” added Commander Sutherland. “I’m sending our ship IDs.”

  “We’ve been given permission to enter the star cluster,” reported Lieutenant Sparks. “We’re to exit hyperspace two hundred thousand kilometers from the planet.”

  “Helm, take the fleet to those coordinates,” ordered Hailey. She was anxious to see what was there.

  “Coordinates set,” replied Caria. The beautiful Originator AI quickly transmitted the necessary coordinates to the other ships of the fleet. “Fleet is ready for hyperspace entry.” Caria activated the ship’s powerful gravity drive and the ship of war quickly accelerated and entered the swirling vortex which formed in front of it.

  -

  Fleet Admiral Strong breathed out a long sigh of relief as Rear Admiral Mann’s fleet exited hyperspace near the planet. With the arrival of her fleet he felt certain he could hold the system against any Eternal attack, at least for a while. Once Admiral Jackson arrived with the second relief fleet Jeremy could put his plan into operation to evacuate all the Originators from the planet.

  “We’re taking a risk assembling so many ships in one system,” said Commander Malen, her eyes showing concern. “The Eternals will know we’re protecting something. We have no idea what they might be bringing. It could be a fleet of a few hundred ships or it could number in the tens of thousands.”

  Jeremy blinked his eyes. “It’s a risk we have to take. If we can evacuate all of these Originators safely, it will help to ensure our status at the hub. We’re also going to need them in the war. If we can get them all back to the hub and establish some type of agreement with the Federation on furnishing crews for our ships, we can at least be confident of defending Originator space. That’s six hundred galaxies we’ll have access to. We’re going to need a lot of natural resources and possibly new alliances in those galaxies if we’re to succeed in our war against the Eternals.”

  Commander Malen gazed at the primary viewscreen showing Rear Admiral Mann’s flagship. All the fleet flagships were extra large heavy dreadnoughts similar to the Avenger. “What will the Originators think about involving other races? To me they seem hesitant at getting the Federation involved.”

  “We only have three councilors to convince,” replied Jeremy. He had given this matter a great deal of thought. “The Eternals control over ten thousand galaxies and have millions of warships under their command. We can pick out the more advanced races in each of the galaxies in Originator space, turn over some Originator technology to them and have them aid in defending their home galaxies. If we choose races similar to the Altons, we can feel fairly confident the technology won’t be abused. We can also take certain safeguards to ensure that doesn’t happen as well.”

  “I think we just found a use for Kelsey and Katie’s new super exploration dreadnought,” said Kevin, looking thoughtful. “It would be ideal for making contact with the more highly advanced races in those galaxies.”

  Ariel nodded her head in agreement. “It will have members from all four races on it including Originators and Originator AIs.”

  Jeremy thought it would be a great idea to use the ship in such a manner. He knew the girls would be thrilled to learn they would have an official mission once their new exploration ship was finished. Of course Jeremy wasn’t sure how he was going to feel about Angela, Katie, and Kelsey gallivanting around Originator Space with the kids.

  “Rear Admiral Mann would like to come over for a briefing,” said Lieutenant Lantz. “I think she would like to see the space station as well as the status facility on the planet.”

  Jeremy had planned to do this anyway. “Contact Commander Belson and let’s see if we can arrange a couple of tours. I want Rear Admiral Mann to see what she will be defending.” Once Rear Admiral Mann had finished her tours Jeremy intended for all of them to sit down and work out a battle plan to defend the space station as well as the stasis facility on the planet.

  -

  It took a lot of work but after hours of discussing various options to defend the space station and the planet they did come up with a plan. It was a plan some liked and others didn’t.

  “The Ant
i-Life have to get through the hyperspace interference field,” said Commander Belson. “If they can’t get through the field there’s no way they can reach the planet. We already know the Accelerator Ring allows ships using it to bypass the field. We can still come and go, and the Anti-Life will be stuck. At normal subspace speeds it would take the Anti-Life several years to get past the field. We’ll be long gone before that happens.”

  “They got around the field surrounding their galaxy,” said Commander Zafron, his eyes narrowing. “What makes you think they won’t do it here as well?”

  Commander Belson had no real response. “This field is different. I don’t believe they can succeed.”

  Nomar didn’t look convinced. “I’m not a specialist in that science but I don’t believe the interference field will stop them. They will know about it from the ship which escaped and if they show up here they will have a plan to deal with it.”

  Jeremy looked over at Commander Belson. “Where are your people who designed the field?”

  “In stasis,” replied Belson. “Why do you ask?”

  “Cynthia, I want them awakened,” ordered Jeremy. “Perhaps they can tell us if the field will withstand the Eternals. Commander Belson, are there any other Originators who might be useful in this coming battle with the Eternals?”

  “Most are already awake on the station.”

  “How many of your people do you need to operate the station if it’s attacked?”

  Belson thought for a long moment. “The station commander, Jontel, and several technicians. Probably ten or twelve. Everything else can be handled by our military AIs, our regular AIs, and the repair robots.”

  “As soon as we detect the Eternals I want all nonessential personnel off the station,” said Jeremy. “Our first line of defense will be the hyperspace interference field. There are six stations that generate the field. Doubtlessly the Eternals will destroy them so the field cannot be reestablished if they succeed in bringing it down. Commander Belson, I want one hundred Originator battlecruisers assigned to each station. I want to make this as costly as possible for the Eternals. I also want six dark matter warheads placed in strategic locations on each station. When it becomes obvious we’re going to lose the stations we will detonate them.”