by Saxon Andrew
Lukas stared at the Royal and then reached for a remote control and activated the wall monitor. An image of the conduit appeared with an Orange Ship emerging from it. “What is that?”
“We call it a conduit. It’s a tube made of some kind of energy that is used to instantly move ships from a galaxy in the Virgo Cluster to the edge of our galaxy.”
The Royal shook his head, “You’re telling me that thing extends all the way to the Virgo Cluster?”
“We haven’t flown the entire length to prove it, but yes, we believe it does.”
Kyel said, “And that ship came from that other galaxy?”
“It did.”
“What is it doing here?”
“Looking for the Sentinels. They intend to come here and kill them.”
The Royal began moving his head, “Is that possible?”
“A Sentinel has told us he believes it is. There is a species similar to the Sentinels directing traffic there and they see the Sentinels as a danger to them.”
“Where is that…conduit?”
“It ends about ten thousand light years out from the Myot Empire. There are two of their ships in our galaxy. One is observing the Myot civilization.” Lukas looked at the Royal, “The other is watching your civilization.”
The Royal stared at Lukas. Kyel said, “You know how good our probes are and we’ve not detected anything.”
Jinks smiled, “Their ships are surrounded by a dark matter screen. I suspect you also can’t detect black matter either.”
The Royal said, “Is that true?”
Lukas nodded, “It is Great One. They are as far ahead of us as we are ahead of you.”
Kyle lowered his head, “If they’re not here, why are you worried? We’re the ones that are in danger.”
“They’re pretty much ignoring you. They’re there looking for a particular Sentinel. It appears they have a way to sense one and the only one they’ve seen was in the Myot Empire when it was detected.”
“What are you saying?”
“That particular Sentinel came to this planet after it was detected and intends for them to find him here.”
“Why?”
“Because they will naturally attempt to kill him along with the civilization that is harboring him.”
Kyel said, “Tell him to leave.”
“He refuses to do so. He is of the opinion that the least number of deaths will happen if we’re attacked instead of the planets in the Fellowship.”
The Royal frowned, “What do you intend to do about it?”
“We’re going to fight to survive, of course.”
“You could attack those ships and turn them toward my planets.”
Lukas shrugged, “Don’t think we haven’t thought about that but the Sentinel is right. The numbers that would die are not something we could accept and that burden would be more than we could bear. The Sentinel feels that we’re the best target in that we’re just one planet.”
Kyel shook his head, “You can’t sit here and tell me you’re willing to die for the civilizations that have been attacking you!”
Lukas shrugged, “We aren’t going to just lie down and die. It is our hope to give as much as we get but everyone in this galaxy is in danger of being conquered by this species eventually. Turning them toward you serves no purpose.”
“Why not?”
Lukas looked at the Royal, “Because they won’t find the Sentinel they detected there. After destroying your civilization, they will continue to search until they find him. Turning them on your civilizations won’t really delay the time much until they find us. No purpose is served by placing you in danger.”
“Just what do you intend for me to do, now that I know this.”
Lukas smiled, “I hope you heed my friend’s advice and don’t do anything stupid. Just continue your normal day-to-day activities.”
Kyel looked at Lukas, “You can’t just allow this to happen.”
Lukas shook his head, “Kyel, we never really agreed on what a good life looked like. You’ve always been pro-war and defeating any possible enemy. I happen to think there is more to existence than fighting for things that have no value.”
“If you’re going to fight them, you should be building ships that can take them on. Your small ship…”
“Can destroy any ship in your fleet. Ten of my ships can destroy every ship you possess and not be harmed in the process.” Lukas smiled, “You may find this hard to believe but when people are free to explore new concepts and ideas, advances happen much more quickly than in a restricted, structured existence. We’ll do the best we can with the tools at our disposal and we will not go quietly.” Lukas turned to the Royal, “I thank you for your offer but we cannot accept it in good faith. Under different circumstances we would welcome your offer.”
The Royal stood up and stared at the three humans. He lowered his head and said, “You have something special here. It’s a shame we’re going to lose it.”
Lukas’ smile grew, “It brings me joy to hear you say, ‘we’.”
Lukas nodded and Jinks said, “If you’ll follow us, we’ll take you back to your ship.”
The Royal nodded and they left the room. Kyel looked over his shoulder and Lukas touched his chest. Kyel shook his head and returned the gesture as he left the room.
Chapter Sixteen
Trevor looked at Amanda and shook his head, “This is just not going to work?”
“Why not!”
“Because you have to enter normal space to fire the cannon projectile. That could spell the difference between life and death.”
“What choice do we have? Energy released in the void will cause a major disruption and fling the ship light years away. The occupants will probably be killed in the process.”
Trevor hit the arm of his chair with a fist, “There must be another way!”
Amanda raised an eyebrow, “If there were, don’t you think I would have thought of it?”
Trevor looked at her and shook his head, “That’s your most endearing trait.”
“What is that?”
“Your modesty.” Amanda punched him on his arm. Trevor rubbed it and said, “I’m just saying.”
“You’re just blowing hot air.”
“What?”
“I said you’re a wind bag.” Trevor’s eyes narrowed and Amanda’s eyebrows went up, “What. What did I say?” Trevor grabbed her cheeks and kissed her hard. He ran out of the room and Amanda yelled, “What did I say!?”
• • •
“Do you honestly think this is going to work?”
“What’s the pressure?”
Amanda looked at the panel and said, “Eighty thousand pounds per square inch.”
“We need to point this away from our galaxy.”
“You honestly think this is going to pose a danger?”
“This hollow shell might not cause severe damage but it will be moving faster than light speed.”
“Get real Trevor.”
Trevor smiled, “You’ve never been hunting, have you?”
“Well…no! It’s not a sport unless the animals can shoot back.”
Trevor smiled, “I used to reload my own ammunition. You’re a genius with nuclear energy, how good are you with good ole gunpowder.”
“Never really paid it much attention.”
“You should. A high powered rifle bullet has about thirty thousand pounds per square inch pressure in each round when it’s fired.” Trevor looked out of the viewport, “Willow, orient us out so we’re facing above the plane of the galaxy.”
“Done.”
“Try to track the velocity of the round when we fire it.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Try not to aim directly at the powerful magnet we took out.”
“I won’t.”
Amanda shook her head, “Dark Matter doesn’t make a good propellant.”
“Does air?”
“What?”
“Does air
make a good propellant?”
“Not really.”
“You should look up some of the devices that are fired using compressed air. Anyway, the thing about dark matter is that it doesn’t react with anything. All normal matter just flows through it without being affected in anyway. That property also holds true in the void.”
“So?”
“It won’t cause a disruption.” Trevor reached forward and put his hand on the red button on the panel, “Willow, track it in three, two, one, Fire!” Trevor pressed the button and the small ship jerked slightly. Trevor waited and said, “Willow?”
“I lost it.”
“What?”
“It left too fast for me to track.”
“Drat, that was the only hollow shell we have.” Trevor stared at the viewport and said, “Take us back to the magnet.”
Amanda rolled her eyes, “Come on, Trevor. There’s no way that thing turned enough to hit that magnet.”
“Humor me. Willow, take us back to the magnet.”
Willow skipped back to the magnet and it wasn’t there. Amanda’s eyes widened and she looked at Trevor as she said, “Willow, is this the right place?”
“It is.”
Trevor smiled, “Take us into normal space. The Milky Way appeared behind them an instant later and Trevor said, “Scan the space around us.”
“There are numerous minute pieces of the magnet scattered over a large volume of space. It appears it was hit by something that knocked out the drive field and vaporized the magnet.”
Trevor looked at Amanda with a huge smile and she shook her head, “It works.”
“Yes it does!”
“But that shell was hollow with only a very thin layer of Dark Matter.”
“Think about what would have happened if it were solid.”
Amanda looked at Trevor, “I guess I don’t know everything.”
Trevor nodded and said, “No one can my love. We have our weapon.”
Trevor stared out the viewport laughing loudly and Amanda softly said, “I thought I did.”
• • •
Lukas looked at Jinks, “Tell me again how this pressurized Dark Matter is collected?”
“They use a scoop under the ship to feed it into a collection tank under eighty thousand pounds per square inch of pressure.”
“Do we have a tank that strong?”
“It could handle more but that’s enough to power the cannon. The tank has a relay that releases a quick burst and a valve that closes behind it. We’ve determined that it can fire more than a thousand shells before it has to be pressurized again.”
“So now you’re going to trial it against those Orange Ships.”
“If we can detect a magnetic field moving through the void, we are.”
“Can we do that?”
“It’s the easiest thing. A simple compass needle will turn toward a magnetic field. Simply turn the ship to line up with the needle and press the trigger.”
“Surely you’re not using a compass needle?”
“We’re not. The device we’re using is much more sensitive than a compass. However, it works the same way.”
“How close do you have to be for it to function?”
“Less than a light year in the void. About fifty miles in normal space.”
“Jinks, if we do this…”
“I know. It may cause an invasion. But if we’re going to rearm our ships with a different weapon system, we have to know if it works.”
“Will it cause a disruption in the void?”
“If the ship explodes, it will.”
Lukas stared at Jinks and said, “Just fire on one of them.”
“Why?”
“Dark Matter leaves no trace. Maybe they’ll think it was an accident. If we take both of them out they’ll know it was done by an outside agency.”
Jinks stared at Lukas and then nodded, “You’re right. I should have thought of that. Which one do you want to hit?”
“Take out the Welken ship.”
“Why that one?”
“Because they didn’t detect a Sentinel there. There’s more of a chance it might be seen as an accident if that one gets hit, especially if it happens a long way from the Welken Confederacy.” Lukas paused, “Who is going to fire at it?”
“Trevor wants to do it.”
“He certainly has the right but I’d prefer you send Chad and Julie.”
“Why?”
“We can’t risk losing the best minds we have. I think Chad will not take any chances if Julie is with him.”
Jinks shook his head, “You really see things I miss. How do you do that?”
“It must be the combination of my Human and Welken brain.”
• • •
“How much longer do you think we’ll have to wait?”
“The probe we left detected them changing ships three weeks ago today. They should be coming soon if they hold to their established pattern.”
Julie stared at the Magnometer and sighed, “Do you think we’re close enough to the line they’ll be taking to the conduit?”
“We’re not far from the most direct line from the Welken Planets to the conduit. If their force fields block their magnetic field, we won’t detect them and we’ll have to try something else.”
“I was just hoping that…” Julie saw the Magnometer move slightly, “It’s detecting something.”
Chad looked at the dial and saw the pointer moving until it lined up to the port side of their ship. It began moving around the dial until it pointed directly in front of them. He looked at Julie, “If you’ll do the honors.” Julie leaned forward and pressed the red button on the control stick. They felt a small jerk and a few moments later the void exploded into a violent, bright light to their starboard side. The disruption in the void was huge and it was rolling in on itself. Chad shook his head and activated three reactors to power the force field. He turned the ship and flew away at the ship’s highest speed.
• • •
The Orange Ship from the Myot Empire arrived at the Conduit and was surprised the ship stationed at the Welken Planets wasn’t there. It had been delayed and the other ship should have arrived first. The two ships relieving them were waiting outside the conduit and he extended an appendage out of his tub and pressed his communication’s circuit, “How far out are you. Our replacements are here.” His question was greeted by silence. He pressed the button again and again but did not receive a response. “The other ship is not responding.”
“The Senior Commander on the two new ships said, “You will go with us and check on it. Follow me.”
The three Orange Ships ignited their thrusters and flew away at high speed. In less than ten minutes, they saw a massive disruption in the void. The Commander stopped and began scanning the void. He contacted the ship that came from the Myot Empire and said, “Enter normal space and scan for debris.”
The Orange Creature moved in close to the disruption and lowered its drive field. It entered normal space and began scanning. The debris was scattered over an incredibly large area but it was clear it came from the Welken Observer. He went back into the void, “There is a huge debris field in normal space and it is clear it came from the other ship.”
“We will remain here and you go back and ask for instructions on what we should do.”
The Orange Being turned his ship and flew toward the conduit at high speed. He entered it and disappeared. It was glad it didn’t remain. What could have destroyed that ship?
• • •
The Light Blue colored vaporous creature stared at the information it had been sent. It sent its intellect to the site and didn’t see anything more than what was in the report, “Does anyone think this ship was destroyed by the being we’ve been searching to find?”
“If that being did it, the ship’s systems would have detected it and sent a warning. This must be something else.”
“Does anyone think this was the result of an attack?” The question di
d not receive an answer. “Surely one of you has an opinion.”
“There is not enough information to make a determination. Something caused that ship to explode. That is the only thing that can be said for certain.”
“There were not enough pieces of the ship to determine if the explosion was caused by an internal malfunction or an outside force.”
“What is the likelihood of one of our vessels exploding on its own?”
“Not good but not impossible either.”
The Being was silent for a moment and said, “With the numbers of ships we have, the odds are not so high as to eliminate an accident.”
“If it was an attack, both ships should have been targeted.”
“Not if the ones that did it want us to think it was an accident.”
“Now you’re ascribing your thoughts to an imaginary attacker. However, you are right. That is also a possibility.”
“A trace was found at the conduit.”
“A ship stumbled on it but no other ship has come since.”
“That is troubling.”
“I have no thoughts on who or why that happened.”
“Does that call for us to launch a full examination of that galaxy?” His question was greeted with silence again. “Are we that uncertain about the one we detected?”
“I can only speak for myself, but yes, I am greatly concerned. We need a better reading on it before we take definitive action.”
“What we’re doing isn’t working.”
“I propose we continue doing what we’ve been doing and see if another ship mysteriously explodes. If nothing happens after an appropriate time, we’ll send more ships to investigate.”
“I think that would be wise.”
“I agree with the suggestion.”
The Being staring at the report again and said, “We will do as you recommend, for the moment.”
“If we assume that ship was attacked, what would that tell us?”
The Legends heard the question and thought about it. Finally, one of them said, “Then we shouldn’t delay too long. If they learned about the transport tube and developed a weapon that fast, we can’t wait and allow the attacker time to build it into their warships.”
“Do you think it was an attack?”
“I lean toward no but my fear makes me worry about any possibility. It probably was an accident but…one never knows.”
