Jack nodded. "That I can handle. I'll keep a scan at the ready."
For the next three hours we continued to sweep small clusters of Tamarin ships into the nearby star named Pharaoh. The Capital planet of Ralston served as the center of the Tourduvan family empire and the home of the Paquie people. The Paquie were a meter and a half tall with short legs and round bodies. Their milky white and light green coloring had inspired Go to describe them as cabbage people. Their skin was continuously molting.
Go asked, "Where's Joni been?"
I replied, "Spending time with her family. She's sent me a few messages. It's not been the happiest of reunions. Her uncle is thankful for her help, but insistent on wanting more control. He thinks we are wasting our time with our efforts to find Garrett. You can guess that is not sitting well with his niece."
Jack yelled, "We have a portal opening!"
Go grinned, "Now we have some fun!"
Twelve thousand automated Grotus ships appeared in front of us. Go entered the coordinates as the portal swept backwards, leaving a nice straight line of ships. Before the portal closed and before the ships began to move, I slapped my hand down on the button. A bright light shone through the portal as all twelve thousand ships were moved into the center of the local star, Pharaoh.
Go stood, clapping his hands and clenching his fists in victory.
Jack said, "I have a location. Saw Blade galaxy. They came from a planet listed as Bastion. I'm passing you the coordinates."
Again I slammed my hand down on the button. This time the portal swept over our position, leaving us parked near Bastion.
Joni returned to the bridge. "I heard someone clapping. What happened?"
Go grinned. "We just swept—wait! They are jumping!"
As the portal of the Tamarin ship closed, Jack said. "I have a new location. Still here, but about seventy light years away. A planet named Posirus. Passing you the coordinates now."
I pressed the portal button. A rumble placed us near Posirus. The Tamarin portal ship was already beginning a new jump.
Jack said, "Got 'em. A system named Duraliak. Passing coordinates."
Our chase lasted for another three jumps before we lost the Tamarin ship. Its portal closed just as we arrived.
Jack shook his head. "We were losing ten to fifteen seconds a jump. Even if our scans were automatic and the jump conducted immediately, I still think we would lose them. There just isn't enough time for us to keep up."
Joni asked, "What about bio-readings? Were there any living beings on that ship?"
Jack turned back to his console. "Hold on... yes! The scan shows a single bio on there!"
Joni frowned.
I said, "What's wrong? That was probably Garrett."
Joni frowned, "And we don't have him. And we can't chance letting that ship get away if we can catch it. Garrett is now in danger from his own people."
Go folded his arms. "We wouldn't kill Garrett."
I replied, "Unfortunately, Joni is right. If we get a shot at that ship, we have to take it. None of these galaxies are safe so long as that ship exists."
I turned back to face my console. "I'm jumping back to Bastion. There was a ship factory there. I don't like that those are popping up everywhere. Harden managed to destroy the ones he built. I think these other rulers are starting to have Grotus factories placed at their capitals. If so, the ones who accept will be overthrowing themselves."
Jack nodded. "What better way to take down those you don't like than to have them take themselves out?"
As we settled in at Bastion, we began portal scanning each of the capital planets. Fifteen minutes later, I had my answer. Ship factories were under construction at each of the capital worlds, except Ralton III. A new scan showed that ships were once again massing for an attack.
Jack said, "They want Ralton, we're just going to have to camp there and defend until they open another portal."
Joni stepped up. "Take us back to Ralton. My uncle has insisted that one of us camp out in one of those fighters. He wanted to volunteer, to which I of course said no. Maybe I can squeeze through a portal if they pop one open. I don't see how else we catch them unless they are being sloppy. And with that being their only portal ship, I don't think that will happen."
I leaned forward to rub my forehead. "I believe you are correct. Jack, do you feel well enough to pilot the other fighter?"
Jack stood. "I'd love to."
Go protested. "What about me?"
I said, "I need you here with me doing the targeting. We have to keep Ralton out of the Tamarin's hands."
Go sighed and gestured toward the portal console with a dejected look. "Jump us back. I passed the coordinates in already."
The Tamarin fleet around Ralton had grown to thirty-six thousand ships. Joni and Jack boarded our newest fighters, the Stinger and the Thorn, parking in wait for an opportunity to jump through a portal.
Jack said, "This little fighter packs a punch. And I can tap right into all the controls from my helmet. We'll have to thank Quan for putting these together."
Quan replied, "You are welcome, Jack Carson. If you were unaware, the fighters have the ability to run in an automated mode. Each has a modified AI that will only accept commands from me or members our team. And these ships are courtesy of the sentinel ships and the repair dock. I only requested their construction."
Jack replied, "So we're a team, are we?"
Quan responded, "I believe that to be the proper term."
Jack laughed. "Well, OK."
Over the next twelve hours we managed to send eight thousand automated Grotus ships to their end. No new portals had opened.
Go looked over at the display showing our fuel. "I hate to say it, but with all of our jumping we've really burned through our cesium. Quan? You said this cesium was special? How do we get more?"
Quan replied, "I have a limited supply. There was a small facility on Gratis that refined the cesium to the required isotope. That refinery was destroyed."
I said, "Can you build a new one?"
Quan answered, "The designs for the refinery are in the archives. Until and unless I am able to restore those, our supply is limited to what we have."
Go asked, "And how much is that exactly?"
Quan replied, "We can resupply the Ares to 72 percent from the current level."
Go frowned. "With as much jumping as we do, we could be out of fuel in a month."
Jack said, "You know, I noticed at least one cesium freighter at each of those ship factories. Maybe we go on a raid of all known factories and swipe their cesium. Could be that Harden was right about the cesium being the key to finding that portal ship. It has to refuel and it has to refuel a lot."
Quan said, "Just to keep you informed, I have moved to Effica, including my archive. I had planned on converting the generators on the Quantix to use the remaining cesium isotopic fuel. However, given our needs, I will continue to use the cesium we have in abundance. If I am able to restore the archives, I will begin work on a new refinery immediately. I also have the ability to sweep loads of cesium to this location should they be found. It will place me at risk, but I can provide that service if needed."
I replied, "No, let us handle the portals. We need you to restore the archive. We need that fuel."
"Very well."
Jack said, "Now that I'm sitting here in this little fighter, I've been thinking... Joni, you plan to rush a portal opening if one occurs. You do that and I'll try to scan and jump to the origination point. That gives us an extra chance at catching up to them."
Go said, "You should use the thought commands of your helmet to pass the coordinates through to your drive."
Jack replied, "Already ahead of you. I have a low level scan running continuously. If a portal opens I should have a destination in about five seconds. The drive is sitting ready for coordinates, and I have the scan results dumping straight into it. If I get a lock all I need to do is slap the button."
I loo
ked at Go, "Why aren't we set up for that?"
Go replied, "Because we are busy sweeping out these warships. By the way, they're down to twenty-three thousand now. If this pattern holds we should have this area cleared in about twenty hours. If the Tamarin want control of this planet, they have to send more ships."
Joni said, "Not necessarily. They could start sweeping cities off the face of that planet just like Gottlieb did with the Kergans. But for whatever reason, it looks like the Tamarins want it intact."
Go passed new coordinates to the portal button. "There's a lot about this that doesn't make sense. Why do the Tamarins need this planet at all? They could destroy it with that portal ship."
I replied, "I believe the Tamarin's chief motivation is still profit. They consider this planet an asset and they don't like needlessly destroying assets. Darba, care to speculate?"
Darba Wampros said, "There would indeed be profit motive involved."
Go gestured toward the nav display. "Well, that's exactly what they are doing with these automated ships. Those are assets. Why are they just throwing them at this?"
Darba replied, "They are no longer viewed as a valuable asset. We can always make more. Those ships are like a commodity to be used as needed. You can't make a new planet or grow a new species to govern. They want all the planets in all six galaxies intact. If they can achieve that control here, they will put the massive resources here to work conquering our own galaxy, and then any others beyond. The profit potential would be almost limitless."
Go said, "I'm starting to think individual colonies might be best. Putting so much power in one species’ hands seems to have disastrous consequences."
I replied, "I don't think that to be a viable option either. We all have space travel. With that comes both trade and greed. Instead of one war for control of it all, you will have a thousand small wars continuously running. One side will win, the other will rebel. Wars would continue in an endless cycle."
Go said, "Well, let me ask you this, if the Tamarin win, who’s to say their form of government won't work?"
I frowned. "I had the same thoughts when we first signed that contract with them. As it turned out, when they saw an opportunity to stab us in the back for what they considered a big profit, they took it. I believe our best bet would be another system similar to the AMP, only with safeguards in place to prevent any one individual, family, or group, from becoming too powerful. As we have already witnessed, for many people, power corrupts."
Go winced, "I don't think you can say that about everyone. I don't think it would corrupt any of us."
Jack said, "You take that kind of power and wealth, and even the most moral of us can be broken down over time. The limo turns into the private ship, which turns into the private colony, which turns into, 'OK, you people all have to move because I want that planet.'"
Go laughed, "Wow, Jack, you corrupted yourself in four steps."
Jack replied with a grin, "What can I say, I want my own planet."
Joni yelled, "We have ships coming in! And they aren't from a portal!"
I growled. "They opened the portal beyond our sensor range. How many ships are there?"
Joni replied, "Five thousand and counting... eight... twelve... fifteen. Still coming! And they are spread out!"
I said, "You two make use of your guns, Go and I will keep doing what we're doing."
Jack said, "I have missiles coming up from Ralton. Only looks to be half of what they sent last time."
I sighed as I pressed the portal button. "It's probably all they have left."
Joni said, "Missiles are impacting. Wow, that didn't last long. They just took out seven thousand ships. That leaves about thirty thousand. Jack and I aren't making much of a dent in their numbers."
Jack said, "That force is all moving on the planet. I think this is it. That must have been the last of their defenses."
Go yelled, "Whoop, whoop! I have ion bolts coming up from surface weapons! We aren't done yet!"
I stopped pressing the portal button. "We're done here. Those guns won't last long, just as they didn't last on Alpha."
Joni said, "Well, let's not just sit here and watch. I say we make a tour of the capital worlds and destroy what ship factories we can. I know it's futile, but maybe we can catch that portal ship at one of them."
I replied, "You and Jack jump ahead. Send us back any locations that have cesium ships. We now focus on those freighters. That ship has to refuel."
Jack sighed. "I only see one problem with that plan."
"What's that?"
Jack said, "It looks like they are starting to position those cesium freighters everywhere. That's going to make our jobs a lot harder. We need that archive restored so we can fuel the Ares. We'll be non-stop jumping for the foreseeable future."
Joni passed a set of data to Jack. "You take these six capitals, I'll take the others."
Go sat back in his chair. "I guess I just became obsolete again. I feel like a one-armed Gornian monkey with no trees to climb. The lab on this ship is lacking. I wish we had the Garmon back."
Jack replied, "You and me both, kid... you and me both."
Joni portaled to the first of the capital worlds. "I have a ship factory that looks to be about half complete. And two ore carriers."
Jack asked, "Joni, how many of those QE tags do we have left? If we could put a tag on some of these ore freighters, we might just get lucky and catch that portal ship when it's filling up."
Joni replied, "I have three left. And until Quan gets his archive restored, we won't have any more."
Quan stated, "That is not true, Joni. I only lack the equipment to produce them. Since those were constructed recently, the designs are still in my short term memory."
I said, "You provide us with a list of what you need and we'll get it."
Quan replied, "The list is coming your way."
~~~~~
Once again, this Human is asking for your help! If you enjoyed the book, please leave a review on the site where it was purchased. And by all means, please tell your friends! Any help with spreading the word is highly appreciated! I have a free science fiction eBook short story, titled "THE SQUAD", waiting for anyone who joins my email list. Also, find out when the next exciting release is available by joining the email list at [email protected]. Visit the author's website at www.arsenex.com for the rest of the series and other works!
Thank you for reading my work! I hope you have a great day!
Stephen
Books written by Stephen Arseneault
SODIUM Series
A six-book series that takes Man from his first encounter with aliens all the way to a fight for our all-out survival. Do we have what it takes to rule the galaxy?
AMP Series
Cast a thousand years into the future beyond SODIUM. This eight-book series chronicles the struggles of Don Grange, a simple package deliveryman, who is thrust into an unimaginable role in the fight against our enemies. Can we win peace and freedom after a thousand years of war?
OMEGA Series
Cast a thousand years into the future beyond AMP. The Alliance is crumbling. When corruption and politics threaten to throw the allied galaxies into chaos, Knog Beutcher gets caught in the middle. Follow along as our hero is thrust into roles that he never expected nor sought. Espionage, intrigue, political assassinations, rebellions and full-on revolutions, they are all coming to Knog Beutcher's world!
HADRON Series
HADRON is a modern day story unrelated to the SODIUM-AMP-OMEGA trilogy series. After scientists using the Large Hadron Collider discover dark matter, the world is plunged into chaos. Massive waves of electromagnetic interference take out all grid power and forms of communication the world over. Cities go dark, food and water supplies are quickly used up, and marauders rule the highways. Months after the mayhem begins, and mass starvation has taken its toll, a benevolent alien species arrives from the stars. Only, are they really so benevolent? Find out in HADRON as Man
faces his first real challenge to his dominance of Earth!
Find them all at www.arsenex.com.
Table of Contents
Title
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Next
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