The Lost Fleet: Search for the Originators: A Slaver Wars Novel

by Raymond L. Weil

  “Yes,” agreed Grayseth, showing his teeth. “We will stay in this system long enough to repair the damage done to our vessels and then proceed to the second target. If all goes well, we will be back at Gaia in a few more days.” Grayseth was pleased with the victory. He had shown Jeremy had been correct in placing his trust in him to carry out this mission.

  “It will be good to return home and celebrate our victories,” replied Ganlon. “Our mates and cubs will rejoice in the honor we will bring back.”

  Grayseth was also anxious to return to Gaia. He was curious about the Originators in that formerly secret compartment on the Dominator. He also wanted to know how Jeremy was dealing with Kazak, particularly after the Originator AI had taken the ship and destroyed six Simulin worlds. It was frightful to know a ship with that much firepower was in orbit above Gaia.

  Chapter Three

  Reesa gazed in awe out of the large observation window in the Originator ship assigned to them. The Dyson Sphere flashed by beneath them at an amazing rate as Sible piloted the ship to their destination. Square after square of color was visible. Various shades of blue, gold, brown, and green were present. Even clouds and a few thunderstorms were evident in some of the habitat areas. Reesa knew that in most of those habitation squares, there was at least one Originator city as well as a myriad of exotic plants and animal life. Someday she wanted to return and spend time visiting each and every one. With a deep sigh, she knew that wasn’t practical due to the massive size of the sphere. Nevertheless, she would like to see as many as possible. There was so much to learn here, and she fully intended to ask Leeda if it would be possible for her to return and explore the Dyson Sphere.

  “It’s quite a sight, isn’t it?” Leeda said with a knowing smile. “Even though I’m an AI I never tire of flying above the Shrieel. There are trillions of living creatures in those habitats. Even I haven’t had time to see all of them.”

  “What’s it like going through an intergalactic vortex?” asked Reesa, turning slightly to face the Originator AI. She had learned so much about the Originators over the last few days and in some ways wished she could stay with the others on the Dyson Sphere. Not everyone was going with them on the Originator ship.

  “With our ships, the effect is scarcely noticeable,” Leeda explained. Leeda was an Originator AI with red hair and stood nearly eight feet tall. She was finely proportioned and quite beautiful. “When we are in position, Sible will activate the intergalactic vortex that will take us to the primary Communication and Transport Hub.”

  “How far away is it?” asked Kelnor Mard, the older Alton who was Reesa’s mentor.

  “Nearly ten million light years,” Leeda replied. “It’s just outside the local group of galaxies.”

  “Ten million light years,” Reesa repeated, her eyes growing wide. She couldn’t imagine traveling so far. “How long will it take for us to get there?” The ship they were on was a small one. It was a cylinder with curved ends and two hundred meters in length. The quarters on the ship were quite comfortable, but there were twenty Humans on board, many of them Marines. Reesa wasn’t prepared to spend months on the ship.

  “Not as long as you would think,” Leeda answered with a gentle smile. “The trip will take about twenty of your hours.”

  Reesa felt astonished. Ten million light years in twenty hours. It made her realize how even Alton technology was far behind the Originators.

  “Do you do this often?” asked Sergeant Brenda Wilde. Brenda was in charge of the fifteen Marines on the vessel.

  Leeda shook her head. “No, most of the time we use the vortexes for communication. It’s been centuries since any AI left the protection of the Shrieels. We have made it a point not to engage with any of the budding civilizations in the numerous galaxies where the Shrieels reside. Very few races even know of their existence. Those that do stay away.”

  “But you allowed the Simulins access to a number of the Dyson Spheres,” Brenda was quick to point out. “They didn’t stay away. Look at all the harm that’s been done to the civilizations in those galaxies. Many of them have been wiped out. The Simulins believe there should be no other organic life but their own.”

  “It was a mistake not to take action,” Leeda admitted with a sad look. “We regret the loss of life our complacency may have caused. Part of it was due to the fact that we’re AIs and are forbidden from interfering. The other was due to the Simulins having an access key to the vortex Control Centers. Because of that we were hesitant to respond when they began activating the vortexes. We only have a few military AIs but none like Kazak. There’s no doubt that if Kazak had remained among us, the problem with the Simulins would never have occurred. Kazak was programmed to handle such transgressions. Our other military AIs are not. We will soon be taking corrective action to right that oversight.”

  “How so?” asked Reesa, quirking her eyebrows. “How can you violate your programming?”

  “If the AIs that lead us vote to change our programming to allow us to interfere with the Simulins then we have the ability to modify it. It’s my understanding the vote has already been made and the programming change will be completed shortly. The loss of a Shrieel and the attack upon another has forced our leaders to finally respond.”

  “You can modify your programming?” asked Kelnor, showing surprise.

  “Yes, the ability was given to us once the Originators realized they might not survive the pathogen. It has very seldom been done. I know of only two other instances since the demise of the Originators that modifications to our programming has been approved.”

  “In the briefing you mentioned there were survivors on the Distant Horizon,” commented Brenda as she sat down in a comfortable chair near the large observation window. “Did Rear Admiral Barnes survive?”

  Leeda hesitated and then spoke. “Yes, nearly a third of the crew are alive.”

  -

  “What happened to them?” asked Kelnor, his eyes full of curiosity. “You said the ship was heavily damaged?” Kelnor knew the Distant Horizon was of Alton design and was equipped with a very powerful energy shield. When the ship had left on its mission, it was the most powerful ship the Altons had ever built.

  -

  Leeda nodded in affirmation. “When they set off their antimatter weapons in the central star of the Shrieel their ship was heavily damaged. It just barely made it through the vortex the ship’s AI managed to activate.”

  “How did the ship’s AI activate an intergalactic vortex?” asked Brenda, with a confused look on her face. “Did it have a command key?”

  She was referring to the golden globe they had taken from the Simulins in the battle at one of the Dyson Sphere Control Centers. The golden globe allowed the Simulins to gain access to the intergalactic vortex Control Centers. It was how they had gained control of so many. Leeda and Rakell had assured the exploration team that the Simulins had only possessed the one key. Without it, they could not approach any of the other Dyson Spheres.

  Leeda paused as she looked out the observation window. They were rapidly nearing their departure point. “No, they didn’t have a key, though it’s distinctly possible Kazak has one. For some reason Kazak furnished the Distant Horizon’s AI with the code to activate the vortex which would take the ship to the Communication and Transport Hub. If not for the code, the ship would have been destroyed by the nova. We’re not certain of Kazak’s motives in doing so. Kazak himself never used the code to go to the Communication and Transport Hub in all the time he has been missing.”

  “Stand by for vortex activation,” announced Sible over the ship’s comm system.

  Reesa shifted her gaze to the surface of the Dyson Sphere seeing they were over a large concave area. “How large is that?”

  “Ten kilometers,” Leeda replied. “All the intergalactic vortexes are quite large due to the power involved. They were also used in the remote past to bring entire fleets through.”

  “It must have been a glorious age when the Originator
s were at the height of their civilization,” commented Kelnor wistfully. “I wish I could have seen it.”

  Leeda nodded. “Imagine thousands of ships leaving the Shrieels daily on exploration missions or traveling to Shrieels in other galaxies. Even though the Originators moved their civilization into the Shrieels from the thousands of planets they inhabited, they were still highly involved in exploration and meeting new races.”

  -

  The vortex activated as a dark swirling void of blue suddenly appeared directly beneath the ship. Sible turned the vessel until it was pointed directly toward the center and then accelerated sharply. The vortex seemed to rush toward them and then the ship made the transition to hyperspace. The swirling colors of blue were suddenly replaced by deep purple.

  “We’ve made the transition to hyperspace,” Sible announced. “You may now relax and enjoy the amenities on the ship. Our voyage to the communication and transport hub will take twenty hours.”

  -

  “How does the ship manage to travel so fast?” asked Sergeant Wilde. She knew it had something to do with the different bands of hyperspace. She wished she had paid more attention to her studies back at the Academy.

  Leeda turned toward Brenda. “The intergalactic vortex gives our ships a boost into the higher bands of hyperspace where intergalactic travel is possible. Our ship is equipped with a drive capable of maintaining that speed until we reach our destination. Once there, we will transmit a signal activating the receiving vortex. The receiving vortex will decelerate the ship almost instantly until we drop out of hyperspace and exit the vortex.”

  “What’s going to happen once we reach our destination?”

  “The AIs at the Communication and Transport Hub are in the process of repairing and rebuilding the Distant Horizon,” Leeda explained. “Once it’s finished we’ll be returning to the Triangulum Galaxy to see if we can find Kazak. We also need to make plans for taking the intergalactic vortex Control Centers away from the Simulins.”

  Brenda nodded. She had a strong suspicion she hadn’t seen the last of the Simulins or their dreadful Conqueror Drones.

  -

  Reesa turned toward Leeda. Staring out the window at the swirling purple colors of hyperspace was unsettling. “You said earlier Kazak had control of the Dominator and it was the most powerful warship ever built by the Originators. Won’t this be a dangerous mission? What if Kazak doesn’t want to turn over the Originators in the stasis chambers to you? What can you do? Not only that, there’s no guarantee there are any Originators in the chambers. They may have all died from the pathogen millions of years ago.”

  “The Dominator was the most powerful warship the Originators ever built,” confirmed Leeda. “However, we’ve learned a lot in the time Kazak has been missing. We’re putting much of what we’ve discovered into the Distant Horizon. If we can find Kazak and the Dominator, the Distant Horizon will be able to hold its own if a battle breaks out. That’s why we need Rear Admiral Barnes and her ship. Your people are familiar with war where mine are not.”

  “Why would Kazak attack the Distant Horizon?” asked Kelnor, cocking his eyebrow. “Wouldn’t he be excited to hear from other surviving AIs, particularly if you tell him you have a cure for the Originator pathogen?”

  Leeda slowly shook her head. “There were AIs on the Shrieel that Rear Admiral Barnes destroyed. Kazak made no move to rescue them or even go to their aid. In all the years he’s been missing, he never attempted to contact them; though there are confirmed reports he returned to the Shrieel eons ago and then left again never to be heard from afterward. Supposedly he didn’t speak to any of the other AIs, only accessed the Shrieel’s main computer achieves and then disappeared. We fear Kazak may have his own agenda.”

  “Do you know what he was searching for?”

  “We don’t know. The AIs at the time looked into it but couldn’t find what Kazak had been interested in. All traces of his inquiries had been deleted from the archive computer.”

  “If we knew it might explain why he disappeared for so long,” Kelnor suggested. “It’s evident Kazak was searching for something, something he never found.”

  “Perhaps we’ll know when we speak to him,” answered Leeda. “I’m still hopeful all of this can be worked out peacefully.”

  Reesa leaned back in her chair. She still found it hard to believe all she had learned in recent weeks. Now she was off on a journey to the center of Originator power. She still wasn’t quite sure why Rakell had been so insistent she and the others accompany Leeda on this mission. Touching one of her pockets, she felt the small round copper colored globe she still carried with her. The globe was an Originator key that could grant her access to most of their facilities. While it didn’t have the capabilities of the gold command globes, it had served her very well in the past and Rakell and Leeda had allowed her to keep it.

  All of her life she had dreamed of meeting the Originators. While that might not ever be possible, this adventure she was embarking on was the next best thing. She would be learning more about the Originators, and if it was true there were still surviving Originators in the stasis chambers on the Dominator, then the rest of her dream might just come true as well.

  -

  Rear Admiral Kathryn Barnes was back on board the Distant Horizon. She had spent several hours speaking to Clarissa about how she had gotten the code to activate the intergalactic vortex on the Dyson Sphere. After that she and Anne had gone over the list of surviving crewmembers. A few were still in one of the AIs’ medical centers but should be up and around in the next week. She carefully sat down in her command chair and nearly jumped when it adjusted itself to her form. Looking around the room, she saw that much had changed. The massive viewscreen still covered the front wall, but the number of control consoles had been reduced and those that remained had been updated. Even the tactical displays had been modified.

  Kathryn turned toward Camlin. “What exactly have you done to my ship?”

  “I’ll let Jolban explain as he’s in charge of the reconstruction.” Camlin motioned for an AI who was busy speaking to several crewmembers to come over to them.

  “Camlin,” Jolban said respectfully. “What can I do for you?” Jolban was dark haired with an athletic looking body.

  “This is Rear Admiral Kathryn Barnes,” Camlin replied. “The Distant Horizon is her ship. Will you tell her what modifications you’ve made?”

  Jolban nodded. “We’ve pretty much rebuilt the ship from the keel up. As you can see, we’ve modified the Command Center. While some of it is the same, all the consoles have been modified. All the screens are touch screens or can be voice controlled. Just tell the screen what you want done and the action will be carried out. The ship’s primary computer now has more control over ship operations. We’ve also greatly expanded the computer’s capability. It’s not an AI, but it’s pretty close. All a crewmember needs to do is tell the computer what he or she wants and the computer will see that it’s done.”

  “I would have thought the consoles would be even more advanced than that considering how advanced Originator technology is,” commented Kathryn.

  “They could be if your crew would like neural implants. The implants would allow your crew to communicate directly with the ship’s computer with just a thought. It would make ship operations far more efficient and response times would be cut down to milliseconds.”

  Kathryn’s face turned pale at the thought. “I think it was wise to pass on the implants. I don’t think we’re quite ready for something like that. What else have you done?”

  “The Distant Horizon has been increased in length from 2,600 meters to 3,000 and in width from 400 to 600 meters. That allowed us to keep all of your research facilities, which we have also updated, and to install the new power systems and other installations that were needed.”

  “What type of power system did you put on my ship?” The Fusion Five reactors the ship had been equipped with were the most powerful the Altons had been a
ble to design.

  “Two antimatter chambers,” replied Jolban. “They are capable of generating ten times more power than the advanced fusion reactors you were using.”

  Kathryn leaned back as she thought of the power that was now available. “Why does my ship need so much power?”

  Jolban looked over at Camlin who nodded. “The energy screen has been greatly enhanced. We have increased the power of the ship’s particle beam cannons by tenfold. We have also added gravitonic cannons and antimatter projectors to the ship’s weapons. In addition your ship’s sensors can now reach out for a distance of thirty light years.”

  Kathryn’s eyes widened as she listened to Jolban. It sounded as if her ship, when finished, would be able to take on an entire Simulin battlefleet by itself.

  “What about the defense globes? Did you leave alone them or make changes?

  “We made changes. The defense globes have been modified. They contain a miniature antimatter chamber for power. Their energy shields have been greatly enhanced, and the power of their particle beams and the ion cannon have been increased substantially. If you overload one now, it will result in a two hundred-megaton explosion. The number of defense globes has been increased from sixty to one hundred.”

  Kathryn looked over at Commander Grissim. “How is the training of the crew going?” She knew it would take her crew time to learn all of the new systems. Her greatest worry was that they would be able to operate them but have no idea how they worked, which might make repairs a problem.

  “It’s been slow,” Anne replied. “Many were seriously injured and have only recently been revived and allowed to resume their duties. They’re learning but it’s going to take awhile. When Jolban says he rebuilt the ship, he means just that. Everything is more modern and bigger. If you want to see how significant some of the changes are just go down to Main Engineering. Our new engineering deck bears no resemblance to the old one. Chief Engineer Jalat is in the process of retraining his entire engineering team with the aid of several Originator AIs.”