“How big is that thing?” asked Admiral Sheen as she peered intently at the huge structure floating in the hologram. Not even the orbital battle stations around Earth were that large.
“It’s five hundred kilometers in diameter,” Garan replied. “We believe this is the control center for their operations around the black hole.”
Tanith pressed another icon and the image decreased in size until other structures became visible. A few hundred thousand kilometers from the control center were a group of thirty smaller structures in a circular pattern. Close by was another structure that looked as if it was half the size of the control center. On the far side of the ring formation, another small metallic globe was visible.
Using the laser pointer, Tanith gestured toward the structures that formed a large circle in the hologram. “There are thirty of these,” she commented. “We believe that when they’re energized they will form a spatial vortex that will link with a nearby galaxy. The vortex will be twenty kilometers in diameter. We believe these are controlled by this other control structure.”
“They can take anything they want through it,” spoke Hedon, shaking his head. “Once the AIs escape through this vortex into another galaxy we will never be able to stop them. They’ll grow unchecked and someday return to our galaxy in such numbers they will overwhelm us. Even if we destroy the ones that remain, someday they’ll come back.”
“What about that other remaining structure?” asked Amanda, already suspecting what it was. Fleet Admiral Streth had told her over a year ago what the AIs were planning.
“It’s the one we’re most worried about,” confessed Tanith. “We believe that it will use the hyperspace energy from the spatial vortex to generate an energy wave that will travel through hyperspace across the galaxy. The energy wave will wipe out all organic life.”
“How much time do we have?” asked Rear Admiral Marks, looking pale.
“We estimate the activation of the spatial vortex and the hyperspace wave will occur between nine to twelve months from today.”
The room was silent as they dwelled on Tanith’s words. Then Admiral Streth stood up and looked gravely at each person in the room. “That’s our timeline,” he stated in a calm and determined voice. “We must end the war with the Hocklyns and then move on the galactic center. Those devices of the AIs must be destroyed.”
Everyone looked at the hologram and the images being displayed. The task Fleet Admiral Streth was proposing was gargantuan and sounded impossible. Very few of the individuals in the room would get a good night’s sleep after hearing those worrisome words of what awaited in their future.
-
Jeremy stepped out of the briefing room to find himself wrapped in someone’s arms once again. This time instead of Grayseth, it was a smiling Kelsey.
“About time you got out of that meeting,” she complained, planting a kiss upon his lips. “I have one week’s leave coming, and we’re going to spend it on New Providence. Some resorts have been set up on the shore of one of their oceans, and I have a room reserved just for us.”
“I have to make arrangements to have my ships repaired and some other things before we can go running off to New Providence,” Jeremy said, trying not to sound disappointed. It'd been months since he'd last seen Kelsey, and some time alone at a resort sounded fantastic. “It might take a couple of days.”
“That’s fine,” Kelsey replied, not to be put off. “They'll hold the room for us and Fleet Admiral Streth said my leave will start the day we check into the resort.”
“What about now?” Jeremy asked, not wanting Kelsey on the StarStrike while he was on the Avenger. “Do you have to stay on the StarStrike?”
“No problem,” Kelsey responded with another big grin. “Admiral Streth has temporarily assigned Katie and me to the Avenger to help coordinate repairs. It seems as if you've managed to mess up your big battleship.”
“Then let’s go,” Jeremy said, taking Kelsey’s hand. “We don’t want to keep the Avenger and that resort waiting. We can stop by your quarters, pick up some things, and then head over to the Avenger.”
“I already have my bag packed and it’s waiting in the shuttle,” Kelsey replied with a smile.
The two left, going down the corridor holding hands and talking animatedly to one another. After their long separation, they had a lot to talk about.
Grayseth watched them leave with a satisfied nod. Those two Humans were heroes on his world and he was pleased to see them back together. He would contact Jeremy tomorrow and see if he wanted a tour of the new mobile shipyard. Grayseth was very proud of what his people had built and couldn’t wait to show it off to his good friend.
Fleet Admiral Streth watched Jeremy and Kelsey enter one of the turbo lifts that would take them to a lower deck and eventually to the flight bay where their shuttle was waiting. He felt a pang of jealousy, wishing that he and Janice could show such affection publicly. At times, he felt guilty keeping the Special Five apart due to their marriages, but he knew it was the right thing to do.
-
The next day, Jeremy and Kelsey took a shuttle to the new Carethian mobile shipyard. As they drew near, the two of them were astonished at how large it was.
“Wow!” uttered Kelsey as she looked out the viewport at the Carethian vessel. “Just how large is it?”
“I’m not sure,” Jeremy replied as he studied the Bear shipyard. It was far larger than a battleship. “I just want to know how Grayseth managed to fly something that big through hyperspace. I wasn’t aware that it was possible.”
The shuttle quickly approached the monstrous vessel and then slowed as it entered a cavernous flight bay. Setting down smoothly, the shuttle door opened and its ramp descended to the deck.
“Well, let’s go take the million dollar tour,” quipped Jeremy, knowing Grayseth would be wanting to show off his new vessel.
Getting up, the two went to the open hatchway and began descending the ramp. Jeremy could see a group of Bears hurriedly coming in their direction. Leading the pack was Grayseth taking long strides. He was also surprised to recognize several of the other Bears. Daelthon, Grayseth’s second in command as well as Malith and Karelle, two female Carethians. This was a surprise, as female Carethians didn’t normally serve in combat though Jeremy knew that Grayseth was trying to change that.
“Jeremy!” roared Grayseth, grabbing the Human in a big bear hug and squeezing tightly as was customary between clan brothers. Jeremy had been taken into Grayseth’s family clan as a full member with the same rights as any other member.
Jeremy laughed as Grayseth set him back down and looked fondly into Jeremy’s eyes.
“It's been a long time, clan brother,” spoke Grayseth, solemnly. “I greatly feared for your safety during your journey deep into the Evil Ones' territory. If you had not returned, I would have set out in search of you.”
“It was give and go there for awhile,” Jeremy admitted. He'd told Kelsey some of what had transpired on their long journey to the galactic core and back. “But we’re home again now and it’s good to see you. Daelthon, Malith, Karalle,” spoke Jeremy, acknowledging the other Carethians that he knew.
“Hello, Malith,” Kelsey said, pleased to see her friend from Careth. Malith and she had become quite close during the time they'd spent together in the Bear’s home system
“It is good to see you again, Kelsey,” Malith replied with a slight bow. “It's also good to see you together with your mate.”
“So, I see you’re now allowing your females aboard your warships,” Jeremy stated.
“We will no longer be treated as weak females,” Malith said with fire in her voice. “We have just as much right to fight the Evil Ones as our males do. We will hunt with our mates and destroy those that seek to bring harm to our world.”
Grayseth let out a deep laugh, which sounded almost like a growl. “See what I’ve done, Jeremy? Our females will never be the same again. It is as it should be.”
“I thin
k it was a wise decision,” Jeremy said with a nod. “Our females have long fought at my race's side. Now, let’s see this giant mobile shipyard you’ve built. I never imagined you could build anything this large and fly it through hyperspace.”
“You can thank the Altons for that,” Daelthon responded. “When they heard what we were trying to build, one of their science ships showed up and helped with the new hyperdrive system. It is very complicated and the Alton scientists spent considerable time helping us to build and install it. As a matter of fact, there are six Altons still on board helping to monitor the new hyperdrive.”
Grayseth led them off through the large corridors of the mobile shipyard. The Bears preferred the larger corridors because of their large size. Grayseth could easily make two of Jeremy.
“The entire vessel is 2,200 meters long, 620 meters in width, and 400 meters from top to bottom. We have two full size construction or repair bays that can handle a Federation or Alton battlecruiser. There are outside docking ports on the upper and lower hulls that a battlecarrier or battleship can dock to for extensive repairs if needed.”
Grayseth led them to a large hatch where two heavily armed Bears stood guard. Upon seeing Grayseth, one of them reached over and opened the huge metal door. Stepping inside, they found themselves in a cavernous repair bay.
“It’s huge!” Kelsey uttered her eyes growing wide as she looked around. It was hard to believe they were inside an actual space vessel.
“The Altons helped with the design of the two repair bays as well,” Grayseth admitted. “They felt it was important to have this mobile shipyard available if we attack the AIs at the center of the galaxy.”
Jeremy nodded. He could well understand the Altons’ point. When they did attack the AIs, they would be a long way from home and necessary support, though the Federation did have some fleet repair ships of their own but nothing like this. Jeremy was surprised to see a number of Federation work robots moving about. The spider-like robots were a key to rapid repair work as well as new construction. The Bears had embraced using the robots once they'd been assured they couldn’t be used against them by the AIs.
-
For the next hour, Grayseth eagerly showed Jeremy and Kelsey around the mobile shipyard before going through another hatch into a large flight bay. Jeremy was surprised to see dozens of Bear fighters and bombers lined up in squadron formations.
“How many fighters and bombers do you have on board?” asked Jeremy, looking over at Grayseth.
“We have four flight bays like this one as well as two others for shuttles and supply use. The four military flight bays hold sixty fighters and forty bombers each. “We also have facilities on board to build more if needed.”
Jeremy noticed several Bear pilots checking out their vessels, ensuring they were ready for combat. Jeremy nodded his head in approval. The Bear pilots had shown that they could fly with the best Human pilots. They were also fearless in combat, as they had demonstrated in the last massive battle over Careth.
“The ship also has a powerful energy screen as well as sixty-four dual laser batteries for defense,” Grayseth added. “There are eight dual power beam turrets for offense if needed plus twenty-four missile tubes capable of firing either Devastator Threes or antimatter missiles.”
After taking several turbo lifts to the upper levels, they arrived at the Command Center of the massive ship. Stepping inside, Jeremy saw the room was nearly four times the size of the one on the Avenger. Large tactical hologram displays were prevalent around the center command console as well as numerous large viewscreens on all of the walls. Glancing at the screens, Jeremy could see views of just about everything. New Providence was on one screen, a number of Federation warships were being displayed on others, and there were numerous views of the inside of the shipyard. Jeremy noticed several banks of viewscreens were dedicated to just the repair and flight bays.
“Impressive,” Jeremy said, looking over at Grayseth and noting the pleased look upon the Bear’s face.
Malith and Karalle had taken Kelsey and were showing her the navigation and computer stations. Both female Bears were proud to be a part of the command crew.
“How many female Carethians are on board this vessel?” asked Kelsey, feeling curious.
“Four hundred and twelve,” answered Malith, promptly. “The entire crew has 4,000 Carethians. This is a big ship to operate.”
Kelsey nodded; the Bears had come a long way in a short while, and she was happy they were here. She'd missed her long talks with Malith and several of the other female Carethians.
Jeremy was looking at one of the viewscreens, which showed one of the new Carethian heavy cruisers. The ship was one thousand meters long and obviously very heavily armed.
“How many of your new cruisers do you have?” Jeremy asked. He knew the Bears had been working at a frantic pace to build their new warships so they could take a more active part in the war against the Hocklyns and the AIs. The ships had been redesigned several times before Grayseth had approved a design plan.
“I brought twenty with me,” answered Grayseth, looking proudly at the ship on the screen. “Our new construction facilities will allow us to build twenty a year to be used in the war against the Evil Ones and their masters.”
Jeremy was highly impressed by what the Bears had accomplished. For the next several hours, he and Grayseth discussed the war and what might be next for the Federation. When he and Kelsey finally left the large mobile shipyard, Jeremy wondered if he could talk Fleet Admiral Streth into assigning the Bears and their ships to his fleet. It wouldn’t hurt to ask. He also wouldn’t mind having that mobile shipyard around to repair his damaged warships.
“That was fun, seeing all of our friends again,” Kelsey said, taking Jeremy’s hand. Then she looked at Jeremy with a big smile on her face. “Tomorrow starts our leave, Admiral Streth is granting us two weeks on New Providence.”
“Two weeks!” uttered Jeremy, surprised. The last he'd heard their leave was only going to be one week.
“Yes; two weeks,” Kelsey answered with a nod. “I have several new two-piece swim suits I’ve bought just for this. I hope you have a lot of energy saved up. After all, you’ve been gone for several months and we have a lot of catching up to do, if you know what I mean.”
Jeremy looked at the flirting look in Kelsey’s eyes. He knew just what she meant. He allowed himself to lean back in his seat and smile. This leave was already sounding like just what he needed.
Chapter Seven
Ten Months until doomsday.
Admiral Streth watched the main viewscreen of the StarStrike as the ship dropped out of hyperspace into Earth’s solar system. It had been a long trip from New Providence to the New Human Federation of Worlds. It would have been even longer without the newly updated hyperspace drives the Altons, along with some Human engineers, had designed. The trip had taken four weeks, and he was glad for it to be finally at its end.
“We’re being challenged by two light cruisers,” Janice reported as her communications console came alive with several messages. “They’re demanding our ship IDs.”
Hedon allowed himself a satisfied smile. Even though there had been no danger from the Hocklyns or the AIs in months, it was good to see the Fleet was still on its toes. On the tactical display, he saw their two escorts, the battlecruisers Ajax and Potemkin, move into defensive positions off the port and starboard side of the StarStrike.
“Send our Ids,” ordered Hedon, watching the tactical screen curiously as more icons began to show up. Earth’s system was the most heavily defended star system in the new Federation. Only New Tellus came close, and that was due to its massive asteroid fortresses.
“Sending,” replied Janice as she tapped several icons on her computer screen.
“There sure are a lot of ships in the system,” commented Colonel Trist as he gazed at one of the tactical displays, which was rapidly filling up with new icons.
“Admiral Nagumo’s fleet is ju
st outside of Lunar orbit,” added Colonel Grissim as she saw a large grouping of green ship icons a short distance past the Moon. Admiral Nagumo had returned to Federation space a few weeks back.
“He’s supposed to be here for the meeting,” Hedon said as he thought about all the firepower gathered now in this one system. The Federation had been building warships at a record pace after the attack on New Tellus.
“I have Fleet Admiral Johnson on the com,” Janice spoke quickly. “She is inquiring as to how soon you expect to be in Earth orbit. She's authorized us to microjump in.”
“Tell her we’ll be in orbit within two hours,” Hedon responded. “Also, will someone tell our two Alton guests we’ve arrived at our destination.” Garan and Tanith were in the guest quarters aboard the StarStrike. A big part of the planned meeting would deal with their discoveries at the galactic core and their recommendations. Only a few people currently knew about what the Deep Search mission had found.
“I have already dispatched an ensign to inform them,” Clarissa responded from the admiral’s left side where she was standing. The two Altons always showed a little unease when they were around Clarissa.
The blonde AI was a little put out as Katie and Kelsey were not on the StarStrike. Both were still back in the New Providence system. Clarissa knew that Hedon had extended their leave since when they returned most of the fleets would be leaving New Providence to implement his new plan on how to deal with the Hocklyns.
“Helm, plot a short hyperjump to just outside Earth’s gravity well,” Hedon ordered. “Have the Ajax and Potemkin jump with us.”
The helm officer quickly entered the new coordinates into the navigation computer and also sent it to the two escorting battlecruisers. In just a few moments, a blue-white spatial vortex opened up in front of the StarStrike and the helm officer expertly maneuvered the large battleship into it.
The Slaver Wars: Endgame Page 9
