“Get seated, Charlotte,” he ordered, feeling important once again.
Charlotte sat down in the co-pilot’s seat and mentally searched for the Garoden interceptors that would surely be firing at them, soon.
Frank felt the prickling effect of the twin fusion reactors as they went critical and the power grid started charging. Then control consoles throughout the ship sprung to life with their sensors and contact warnings sounding.
“Frank, hurry up. We have company,” Charlotte calmly stated, even though she was starting to feel jittery.
“OK, Charlotte. I heard you. I’m almost there,” Frank irritably replied, not having seen how nervous Charlotte was feeling. He was slightly annoyed at her expectation for him to be up to speed with the ship’s controls.
The voice of Neutron’s AI’s could be heard, as it suddenly rattled around the bridge.
“Warning, three enemy vessels are changing orbital positions to intercept us.”
Frank, ignored the advice, and continued to calmly study the tactical display, now indicating that he had force-field and warp capability. Thankfully, the low-level artificial gravity generator had engaged, providing just enough gravity to keep their feet on the floor.
Then, he selected the options that were showing on his screen, one after the other.
Frank picked Raise shields, first. And immediately saw that the Neutron had raised her protective shield.
Then he selected, Search for Andromeda. At which, the indicator, Found, quickly showed on the screen.
Frank noted that the planet below seemed to move as the vessel rotated to lock onto the requested destination of the Andromeda.
“Warning,” the AI chipped in again. “Warp will disrupt other ships at this …”
“Shut up,” Frank snapped and hit the displayed, Warp Extra tab. And, watched, as Neutron warped space directly in front of them and created its wormhole.
Then, everything seemed to stretch, for a split second, before the ship plunged into the wormhole.
Frank felt as if he’d left part of himself behind, almost as if he was surging past a catapult’s arms under immense power. Then, for a moment, nothing. It felt as if he was stationary. Then the rest of his body caught up, and he knew they were in transit, and traveling safely in the wormhole.
The leading Garoden ship’s, captain, cursed as the warped space dragged his ship into the path of another.
“Evasive action,” he yelled.
Too late. The two Garoden vessel’s outer hulls grazed each other, sending a stream of ripped off, field emitters and fragments of damaged weapon’s ports tumbling off into space.
Frank ignored Charlotte and concentrated on checking the Neutron’s position.
“Three hours twenty-two minutes to go before we reach the Andromeda,” he then remarked, reading the information on the system’s display.
“Plenty of time for us, then,” Charlotte commented.
Frank knew what Charlotte meant, and what she had in mind for him. But, right now, he needed to concentrate his attention on seeing how many active warp crystals the Neutron still had in her bank.
He also had to organize the repair droids to move any warp crystals that wouldn’t be needed, over to the Andromeda. And, more importantly, he needed to do all of this without Charlotte realizing these tasks weren’t necessary.
Especially since she had told him that he would be joining Charlotte on her own ship.
But, nevertheless, he had to keep her mind out of his, since he was sure that she had no intention of letting him live after completing her part in the Delta plan. No, he had to protect himself, at all costs.
Charlotte stood up and having forgotten to put on her Mag slipons. Drifted up and off the floor.
“Keep your feet down,” Frank irritably told her. Then moved across and out of the Bridge to the tech lab, to check out the shutdown pulse generator.
The large chamber, or coffin, as Neutron’s scientific technicians, Tom and Stewart, had called it, was still sat in the center of the lab. Inside was a warp crystal that had been taken from the Neutron’s Crystal bank. Several plates were located at intervals around the chamber. These plates contained etched coils which provided the low-level magnetic field needed to keep the crystal stable.
To his surprise, the crystal in the unit was still intact, and in safe mode. The weak magnetic field was maintaining the crystal in a dormant state, waiting for the high magnetic pulse that had been pre-programmed to trigger the shutdown pulse, when the Neutron reached the battlefield.
This pulse would then shut down all the Garoden’s Companion brains in the battlefield area.
Then, without the use of their Companion brains, the Garoden’s would be at a significant disadvantage.
Frank knew that a second chamber was complete with its own crystal, and thoroughly tested. So, all Frank had to do was to temporarily link the spare warp crystals to this second unit, without Charlotte realizing the other crystals weren’t needed. Then move the chamber, and spare warp crystals over to the Andromeda.
After which they would set up the same sequence that the Neutron’s chamber had been programmed for. To enable detonation of the crystal in this second chamber when the Andromeda reached the Garoden’s home world, which would then, hopefully, shut down most of the Garoden’s Companion brains in that area.
Not that easy, he thought. But that was all he could do until they docked with the Andromeda.
Charlotte came over to him, interrupting his thoughts, and held him close against her body. Her blue-green eyes staring steadily into his.
“Come. It’s time,” Charlotte said.
Chapter 27
Ensign Paula Childs
Admiral Winton was pleased to receive confirmation from Captain Campbell’s Michigan group that they had run into and wiped out the Garoden ships that had taken out the Crillon Battlegroup 63. And, that they would jump to the offset Rendezvous location as soon as repairs were completed.
“Good news Admiral,” Captain Garret said, ignoring his Comms Officer, Ensign Paula Childs, who was trying to catch his attention.
“Yes indeed,” Winton replied, turning to speak to Garret. Then saw the Ensign’s attempt to get the Captain’s notice.
Winton couldn’t help but like Paula Childs. Her silky black hair, shapely figure, and disarming smile made him envious of Garret. He knew Garret had been dating Paula for a while and thought he was lucky to have her.
“Lover’s tiff, Garret?”
“Err, no Admiral.”
“Talk to me, Paula,” Winton suggested, with a broad grin crossing his face.
“Thank you, Admiral,” Paula replied, smiling at him. “So, Admiral. If I were in the Garoden’s shoes, I would be starting to wonder why no alien ships have arrived yet, at what the Garoden’s believe to be our assembly point,” Paula added.”
Winton looked at Garret for a moment. “Quite right, Ensign,” Winton then replied, and looked at Garret again.
“Well, on that basis, Garret. No doubt the Garodens will send surveillance probes further out, soon. Then, just maybe, they’ll pick us up out here at the offset locations,” Winton stated.
“We could redirect the Michigan group to exit at the assembly location, instead of the offset,” Lieutenant Farrow interjected.
Winton pondered on what his science officer had suggested, before speaking.
“Ensign, send a message to Michigan, and make it loosely encoded,” he ordered.”
Both Paula and Garret looked appalled, on hearing this.
“The Garodens might be able to pinpoint the transmission’s source, Admiral,” Ensign Paula Childs then pointed out.
“Ensign Childs, have faith. Send the message to read:
“We are on-route. Meet you at the Assembly location. Signed, Admiral Winton.”
Ensign Childs got the meaning of this, before Captain Garret.
“Smart move, Admiral,” she acknowledged, a smile beaming across her face.
Chapter 28
Excellency Plank, son of Lord Dankel the head of the Garoden Space-Navy, sat in his command chair and waited for his father to return his call.
However, Plank was still jittery about the whole situation. And, still remembered how excruciating the pain was when these aliens killed his companion brain. In fact, the pain was so much, that they had to abort the mission.
“Excellency, Lord Dankel is coming,” Comms Officer, Ensign Palvric signaled.
“My chair,” Plank ordered while raising his audio damping field level for privacy.
Lord Dankel’s face appeared on Plank’s secondary screen.
“I still find it stressful talking to you without your companion brain, Plank.”
“You may be without yours, sir, anytime soon.”
“Just because you’re my son, doesn’t give you the right to be rude.”
“Sorry.”
“So, Plank. What do you want? We’ve been over everything you need to know.”
“I know you think me a weakling.”
“True.”
Plank looked dismayed on hearing this but nevertheless continued.
“This hyperlinked message, about a big get together of these two alien race’s fleets, that Garoden High Command has supposedly intercepted.”
“Yes, what about it? You know that’s why the Seventh Fleet is about to rendezvous with us.”
“Of course… But, father, there aren’t any alien ships arriving at this so call assembly point.”
“You’re wrong, Plank… We’ve just intercepted an encrypted message from one of their fleets to another… and managed to decode the message. Listen,” Lord Dankel ordered.
“We are on-route. Meet you at the Assembly location. Signed, Admiral Winton.”
“So, it might be genuine, father… But, it still seems suspect to me… We’ve had mental attacks on us. Ships going missing, including ships, Z187 and Z188. And now, one of our surveillance probes has shown eleven of our Star Destroyers being wiped out by the same type of aliens we encountered at Sol 2, their supposed home planet?”
“I grant you that, Plank. But, in a few minutes, we’ll have eighty odd ships at our disposal.”
“That may be so,” Plank thoughtfully replied. “However, my Science officer, Lieutenant Isko, has run an analysis on our ships performance,” he added. Then paused briefly having noted that Lord Dankel appeared to be taking more notice of him than was normal.
“Lord Dankel, do you realize that either the supposedly impregnable cohesion disruptor system that we stole from another race, is losing its effectiveness? Or, the aliens must have improved their capability, because they are in fact penetrating our disruptor field and destroying our ships.”
Dankel didn’t reply immediately. He turned his head, nodded. Then turned his attention back to Plank.
“The seventh fleet is starting to arrive,” he told Plank.
“Excellent, Sir. Nevertheless, may I request that you urgently order Garoden Sciences section to re-analyse that hyperlinked message, and try to establish its origin and authenticity,” he urged his father.
Dankel stared at his son, and a wry smile crossed his face. “I will do that, Son,” Dankel agreed. “But that will take time.”
Plank was amazed. This was the first time for ages that Lord Dankel had called him his Son. And heartened by this Plank carried on.
“Father, you have no idea, how the loss of our companion brains affects us. They carry out our commands…, give us the ability to Teleport around the ship…, and virtually run everything.
For me, it was the most traumatic and painful feeling. I felt lost for hours and struggled to cope. Do you actually realize, that Officers and technicians alike must learn again how to manually operate systems?” Plank asked his father.
“And, how far have you ever had to walk, Lord Dankel?” He asked.
“Umm, not very far at all,” Lord Dankel quietly replied.
“So, Lord Dankel. I would like to carry out an exercise to include all officers and technicians who have a companion brain. For them to try and do everything manually.”
“No, that would panic our fleet personnel.”
“But sir…”
“No, Plank. That’s final.”
With that, Lord Dankel’s image vanished from Plank’s secondary screen.
Excellency Plank sat back and went over, in his mind, the mental onslaught he had gone through, and how vulnerable he had felt when his companion brain had ceased to function. Let alone the danger he had been in without his Companion’s abilities.
The trouble is, he thought, I’m the only one to have experienced the loss. Even now, most think of me as they would a brainless trooper.
“Captain Tisk, I want you to immediately carry out a ship’s functions exercise. I want everyone to walk, not teleport. To operate systems manually. And, importantly, do everything without the aid of their companion brains,” Plank ordered.
Captain Tisk looked shocked on hearing this order. But, he respected Plank, even though Plank was without his companion brain.
“That’s a strange request, sir. But I will instigate your order right now.”
Chapter 29
Mixed feelings.
The Neutron was now hurtling through its subspace wormhole and would exit close to the Andromeda in six more hours.
Charlotte made sure that Frank had set the gravity generator as high as possible, which was about forty percent of Earth’s gravity. And, that the ships comfort temperature was holding steady at twenty-seven degrees Celsius.
Charlotte had picked Captain Sherman’s cabin as it was the largest and had a bed which she found was quite firm.
Then, after sharing a meal with Frank, that they’d taken from the automatically synthesized food and water dispenser. Charlotte, took his hand, and without speaking both headed for Sherman’s cabin.
Frank wasn’t sure what someone from the twenty-seventh century’s idea of Sexual protocol was. Still, she was doing all the running, so he followed her into the cabin, still trying to justify what he was about to do with her.
With Charlotte’s mental order turning over and over in his mind.
‘You will make me pregnant Frank… Susanna is dead, your child on Earth thinks you’re dead… So, we will bring up our special children together.’
There was no real reason why he shouldn’t do what she wanted. After all, Susanna was dead. He knew that.
But, he was uneasy, having caught that ‘glimpse’ in Charlotte’s mind. Charlotte had made a slip during their mental quad link-up.
‘Something didn’t add up,’ he’d thought at the time. ‘Something was totally wrong… No. Not something… It was Charlotte who was totally wrong.’
No, he decided. He couldn’t trust Charlotte not to kill him off when she didn’t need him any longer. So, he needed time to make a survival plan of his own.
Once inside, Charlotte turned and faced him.
“Rough or easy?” She asked, standing very close to him, and staring directly into his eyes.
Frank was taken aback at her boldness. “Well, both you and Cindy didn’t come over as aggressive when we were on the Andromeda, so it’s up to you.”
“Let’s make it rough, then,” Charlotte replied, looking into his eyes and smiling.
Frank gulped, not quite knowing what someone from the 27th Century would mean by that. Even so, he realized he wanted her, right now.
Then looking down, was pleased to see that whatever the Garodens had done to him, hadn’t reduced his desire for sex, as he saw and felt the start of an erection.
Charlotte saw it to, saw his erection pushing his clothing outward. She knew the timing was right for her to conceive, and was certain that he wanted her, and it was clear his body was going to perform. She was, however, surprised that she felt such a real desire to feel him inside her, for him to make love to her.
Then, not wanting to wait any longer, she unclipped the Garoden’s o
ne-piece chill-out suit’s top and pulled it down over her body, then all the way down to the floor. Looking directly at Frank, she pushed it away and exposed her naked body to him as she did so.
Frank, feeling the excitement of the moment, did the same with the Garoden’s gray jumpsuit that he was wearing. And, as it dropped to the floor, he hurriedly stepped out of it and kicked it away.
Then Charlotte put her hand down in between them and grasped his erection tightly. All the time, with her blue-green eyes staring directly into his.
Charlotte felt joyous, knowing that all that she had worked for was in her hand, and the fulfillment of her dream was about to happen.
“Keep holding it,” he said as he pushed her roughly backward onto the bed, steering her so that her legs hung over the edge of the bed.
She couldn’t wait for it to happen. Frank’s erection felt hot and throbbing to her as he gently pushed her legs apart. She closed her eyes, waiting for him to enter her.
She felt him move her hand away, but it was the next moments she yearned for. She felt him enter her. Then start his slow rhythmic motion. The feeling was different than anything she had experienced before. She began gasping with pleasure as Frank’s rhythmic thrusting increased in intensity, each thrust sending pulses of ecstasy through her body.
“Harder,” she urged, not being able to help herself.
The Garoden War. (SpaceFed StarShips Series) Book 7. An exciting, action-packed SpaceFed Series finale that also concludes the Garoden War.: ‘Military Gamble.’ Page 12
