Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
.
A Sample of my next book.
Death of Time.
About the Author
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Prologue
Frank’s hands began to feel sweaty, as the two-minute exit warning sounded, and the adrenalin kicked in. This was unusual for him, but he knew that during the first few seconds of the jump exit, all their lives were entirely dependent on Andromeda’s ability.
The two-second warning came next.
Everything around him foreshorten as Andromeda exited its Hyperspace wormhole, plunging straight into normal space.
His stomach suddenly felt as if it had shot out through the front of Andromeda. Then suddenly, now in normal space, his stomach quickly re-joined him.
It seemed to take ages, but in fact, it was only two seconds before his tactical display had finished updating.
Glancing at his main view screen, Frank could see that his ships had all arrived safely, just three seconds after the Andromeda7.
Suddenly, contact alarms sounded as the ship’s detectors found something to shoot at. On hearing them, Frank propelled himself into action.
Then he looked at his screen again, and saw about fifty small blue globes trying to get through Andromeda’s force-field. While Andromeda’s particle beams crisscrossed the blue globes, searching for and finding the odd target. With the target only vapourising when two of the particle beams simultaneously made contact with it.
He watched the escalating battle as his other ships joined the fight. He could see that the small globes would undoubtedly have been devastating if they had been able to make contact with his ships. But they hadn’t enough power to survive a double high-density particle-beam hit.
The ships continued firing the particle beams at the small globes, with the beams flashes appearing more like a giant firework display. Within a minute or so they were all destroyed.
Then Frank saw three large blue ships, moving slowly and relentlessly towards the Earth ships. The blue globe ships were swirling and crackling as they swelled before his eyes.
He watched the scene evolving before him, with trepidation. The three blue ships were nearly on top of his ships.
Frank held his breath. He was waiting for the end…Not daring to hope.
Chapter 1
Crilla.
Commander Tripicac’s CS13 Battlecruiser finally emerged at the planet Crilla, which orbited the star Kepler more than six hundred light years from Zeta Reticuli. It had taken him and his crew almost three months, but they were home now, and safe.
He was pleased to see both Arans and Commander Tarcan's ships attached to one of the many docking arms of an enormous, spider-like, space station ahead of him.
I must talk to them, and fast,’ he thought.
He hadn't noticed the lack of service droids, who would normally be accessing any repair work his vessel needed long before he reached the space dock.
Then it suddenly dawned on him that he had to bring his ship to the spaceport on his own. There were no pilot droids and come to that, no service droids either.
‘How was he going to anchor his ship to the disembarkation tube at the station?’ He wondered.
He discussed this with Vendron, his onboard pilot. As the approach was going to be hairy, to say the least. Vendron wasn’t worried however and expertly manoeuvred the Crillon Battlecruiser until the docking clamps were firmly anchored firmly.
Tripicac looked out of his control room window. His ship was the only one on this docking arm, and he could see that several of the docking arms close by were empty.
Arans and Tarcan's ships were anchored to a docking arm further around the station, but there were only five vessels in that group.
Then he noticed that the docking arm next to Arans held another eight ships, three of which were Imperial battleships.
‘That was also strange,’ he thought. ‘Generally, a battleship would only accompany a fleet of between 12 to 20 Battlecruisers.’
He now realised that none of the ships was powered up. Even the space station was on minimal power.
The hiss of the airlock opening startled him briefly from his observations. He ignored it and tried to count how many Crillon ships were here.
'There are only thirty-three ships,' he thought. ‘Commander Bovonivo’s ship, CS14, isn’t here. This is going from bad to worse. What's going on?’
“Tripicac,” someone close to him called. He turned, and saw Arans walking into the control room towards him.
“Hello Commander,” Arans said, putting his arms around him in the usual Crillon greeting.
“I’m very glad to see you Arans. What's going on?”
“I'll tell you when we’re in my shuttle.”
“No planet shuttles then?”
“No. You must power down your ship, now Tripicac,” he ordered.
“But,” Tripicac started to say.
“Do it now. For your own safety.”
Tripicac hurriedly sent the power down instructions to his second in command, Trenma. Quietly adding, “Vos. Mec. Nev. Da. Oh, and tell the crew to get some rest, while I find out what is going on. I'll let you know as soon as possible.”
“I understand sir,” Trenma confirmed.
Tripicac followed Arans out to the disembarkation tube. Both saying nothing as they walked along it and out into the space station’s reception area.
They stepped into the gravity lift and went down. Moments later, entering Arans shuttle through its embarkation tube. The shuttle’s airlock door closed with a hiss, and they were alone.
Still, neither spoke as the disembarkation tube was released, and the shuttle moved away from the space station and towards their home planet Crilla.
“Do you know about a race called Solverons?” Arans eventually asked.
“Yes, and hopefully, so do the Humans now.”
“Oh, good!” Arans said in surprise. “That could be useful. What do you know about them?”
“Not very much,” Tripicac replied. Then he took a small tactical pad from inside his uniform and turned it on. “This is what the human, Captain Richardson, uploaded to us.”
“Ah, yes. Captain Richardson. An extraordinary person. They are indeed a very surprising species Tripicac, are they not?”
“Very.”
Both watched Tripicac’s tactical pad’s screen intently, as it showed an electric blue, globe-shaped space ship. The ship was hovering only a few metres off the ground, with nothing in the area to determine its size, but they could see it was huge. Then they saw some platform-type objects, each with a human form laid on it, and all of them slowly ‘floating’ into the ship.
The scene suddenly switched to show an orange ‘thing’ in a metal cave or corridor.
Both Arans and Tripicac swallowed nervously, at the site of the familiar image. “I’ve seen that a few times before,” Arans remarked. “Always with a wormhole, above it.”
Tripicac had seen the blue globe-shaped ship before this upload. But, the images of this orange ‘thing’ made fear flood through both of them.
“It’s definitely the Solverons,” Arans said. “Agreed?”
“Yes, agreed.”
They both watched in horror, as the last scenes sent back by the Earth drone were shown on the screen.
Seeming to come from nowhere. The large electric blue globe began to crackle as it slowly drifted through the Crillon vessel. The blue globe continuing to pass on through the ship until there was nothing left, but empty space.
“Well. Now I know what happened to Commander Bovonivo and his ship,” a severely shaken Tripicac said.
“Solverons ha
ve never been known to attack any ships while they are travelling through a wormhole. And, providing you don't have to stop more than three minutes in normal space, we know you should always be safe,” Arans said.
“Perhaps so, but things change. When you think about it, there's no known way to stop a Solveron ship anyway.”
“You’re absolutely right.”
“The Humans also included a short audio message. I’m not sure how they sent it, but I think they must have used a burst of energy, and hyperlinked the message to sync with my second change of crystal. Very ingenious. Now, listen to this Arans,” Tripicac said, switching to ‘audio’ on his pad.
“I hope you get this Commander Tripicac. We haven’t tried to send like this before, but here goes.
From the information shown on the images, we believe that the blue globe disrupts the molecular co-adhesion of a ship, or of weapons fired at it.
To explain. When our buoy first registered the globe vessel, we noticed it wasn't crackling and nothing seemed to happen.
So, it appears that when the outside skin of this blue globe is crackling, this is when the ship is operating its molecular disruption weapon. As can be seen from the last pictures that we sent.
Therefore, whatever weapon we fire at it, the weapon’s molecular-co-adhesion will be disrupted, causing it to fall apart and disappear. Equally, if any of our ships should be unlucky enough to touch the globe vessel ‘whoosh’ a cloud of molecules will signify its end.
We already have our boffins looking at a way to neutralize their weapon and their ship. By the way, we call this species, ‘The Third Player,’ as we have no name for them.
Well, good luck, and if you happen to see Arans and Tarcan remember what we agreed. We all need to work together.”
“That's all there is Arans. Now, tell me what's going on here.”
“Well, when all five of our ships got back, thanks entirely to the Humans,” Arans said picking his words carefully.
“We found that a Solveron ship had destroyed one of our battleships and three battlecruisers, just eight light years away. Plus another battleship, and eight battlecruisers, six light years in the opposite direction. And, all of them at the same time.”
“So, there must be at least two of their ships then?”
“Yes. It also looks like they are becoming increasingly aggressive. Both Tarcan and myself believe this is because of our planet’s sterilization programme,” he said and pausing, took a quick look at Tripicac to see his reaction. Re-assured he continued.
“Both of us have argued with the Senate. Asking them to change their attitude and to stop this senseless planet sterilization programme,” he paused again.
“We need help. But the Senators don't agree. We must continue as usual is their only reply. At least, it was until now.”
“I totally agree with you, things are really dangerous now Arans. We’ve lost 13 ships, out of the 19 we had in the human sector, and I need replacements urgently.”
“I understand. The trouble is we’ve rested on our laurels for far too long and have become complacent. With no new ships being built and no new developments. A recipe for disaster if ever there was one,” he finished, then thought for a while.
“You had better come with me, Tripicac.”
“Where are, we going?”
“To a full Senate meeting. It’s set for 3 o’clock this afternoon, in City Prime. We’re going to make them see the human’s video message and listen to our reports. With your experiences coupled with ours, we should be able to make them change their mindset.”
“I hope we can Arans, I fear the worst if it doesn't.”
“Same here,” Arans said, as he looked at the shuttle’s panel. “We should be down on Crilla in fifteen minutes.”
Their home planet was now only two kilometres below, as the shuttle began its final approach skimming over lush green vegetation and the edge of a vast blue ocean.
Crilla was almost the opposite of Brendereen and Acarea's planet, in that the water was twice the land mass.
“You didn't say why all the ships are powered down.”
“No, I didn't.”
Arans thought a moment. “The Solverons seem to be drawn to power and they're really active now. So, no point in enticing them here.”
“They wouldn’t attack our home planet, surely?”
“Our Senate won't take the risk.”
The shuttle landed, settling on the ground as its landing legs retracted into the fuselage.
They disembarked and took a hover car over to the Crillon navy's own hotel near the Senate offices in City Prime.
Tripicac’s room was very basic, just a table, bed and bathroom.
No food could be consumed in the room, so he freshened up and met with Arans and Tarcan in the hotel's restaurant, at one o'clock. Tripicac, like Arans and Tarcan, had been in space for almost four years. So they had a lot to talk about, before the Senate meeting at 3 o'clock.
They sat at a table and ordered their meal. While they waited, Tripicac showed Tarcan the recording the Humans had given him.
When the screen finally went blank on the pad, Tarcan said, “Horrible. But just what we need to make them change their minds. So, what are our tactics?”
Arans thought a moment, then said. “Tarcan and I are already on their case. So, you can start Tripicac by showing them the human's recording. Then we wade in again with statistics and some home truths.”
They ate their meal, with all three thinking quietly. After the meal, Arans got up, walked over to the pay desk, and put his right eye in front of the scanner. A couple of clicks later, a voice said, “Thanks, sir, your tab has been debited.”
It was now well past two. “Time to go,” Arans said. “We don’t want to be late.”
The seven Senate members were sat on one side of a large oval shaped table. With, Arans, Tarcan and Tripicac, sitting facing them. A large blank screen hung on a wall beside the table.
The Senate members were well all in their eighties. Although this was not a great age, as they would expect to live till they were, at least, a hundred and sixteen. They were all dressed in scarlet robes and soft hats. On each shoulder, a crest denoted the house or clan to which they belonged.
These Crillons were of the old school. Fixed in the resist change mode no-matter-what. They were all male and had that challenge me if you dare look. Bronico, the senator in the middle, was the chairman.
“Well!” Bronico thundered. “This had better not be another waste of our time, Arans.”
Arans felt like exploding. 'What an arrogant load of sods they are,' he thought.
Then, to his surprise, Tripicac stood up and waded in. “I thought you were all men of wisdom. You don’t seem to be fit to rule our race.”
All of the senators stood up in unison and shouted for Tripicac to go.
He just stood quietly smiling, until they had vented their anger and sat down again.
“See what I mean, you’re a disgrace to us all,” Tripicac said.
Bronico spoke again, barely able to keep his temper in check. “Tame your pet, Arans.”
“No. He's right,” Tarcan forcefully interrupted. “You can’t see what's staring you in the face. Not one of you!”
“How dare you Tarcan,” another senator said, with a sneer.
“Arans, the meeting is over.” Bronico roared.
“I don't think so,” Tripicac interrupted, quietly, but firmly.
“What?”
The senators began to stand, then decided to remain seated.
“You see chairman Bronico. Even your fellow politicians realize something is not quite right. Can't you ‘feel’ it?”
“Feel what?”
“Ask them, Bronico,” Tripicac replied, pointing at the other Senate members.
Both Arans and Tarcan looked at each other. Wondering where Tripicac was leading them.
“What the devil are you talking about Tripicac? Arans speak up.”
“I'll l
et Tripicac continue,” Arans coldly said.
“You still don't get it Bronico,” Tripicac added, his voice sounding hard and bitter.
Chairman Bronico slowly sat down. His hands were shaking, and beads of sweat trickled down his forehead. He finally understood.
Arans and Tarcan felt a bit nervous of Tripicac's actions. But they knew it must continue if they were to get their senators to act.
“Senators. Look at your screen,” Tripicac continued. “What do you see?”
They all gasped.
“But, all the ships were powered down,” cried one.
“What are you doing Tripicac?” Bronico asked his voice calmer now. “Why are they powering up?”
“The Crillon Navy has had enough of your disregard for their loss of life and ships.”
“But.”
“No buts Bronico. The Senate will work with us. Or go.”
“But, we are the leaders. Not your pathetic bunch.”
“Oh! I see. You’re hoping your guards will come to your rescue,” Tripicac paused and smiled at them all.
“No, Bronico. All 276 ships are with me now.”
Arans and Tarcan tried to remain calm while hoping Tripicac hadn't somehow taken over their ships.
Tripicac's second in command, Trenma, appeared on the senator’s screen. His face superimposed over the mass of Crillon ships which could be seen moving and taking up new positions.
“All ships are ready sir,” he quietly said to Tripicac.
The Definitive SpaceFed Trilogy (SpaceFed StarShips Trilogy).: A thrilling, action-packed Sci-fi space adventure. (SpaceFed StarShips Series Book 8) Page 43
