“George, this reactor is ten times stronger than the ones on the Jukebox.”
“Something is missing. It’s right outside my consciousness and I can’t get a grip on it.”
“You don’t think this is strong enough to take on a Blue Ship?”
“Possibly, but I don’t like the term possibly. There’s more to this fuel than we know.”
Meisa hugged George and said, “Let’s work through this and see where it leads us.”
“Ok, you start.”
“Well, the first elements we used came from the Alliance. You figured out how they were supposed to come together.”
“That’s true.”
“The second group in the chain was taken from the Jenze shoulder blaster. They really increased the power.”
George smiled, “That is also true. Where does the third group of elements come from?”
“I’m not sure what you mean?”
George thought about it and then saw it, “The elements in the chain are mixed and matched to give the right power for the device it powers.”
Meisa shook her head, “I still don’t understand where you’re going with this?”
George took her hand and pulled her up out of her chair, “Come with me.”
He ran towards the communications room and Meisa ran with him. George rushed in and took a chair in front of the main computer and started pushing buttons. “What are you doing?”
“Chris and Jillian sent me the recordings of the attacks that were made on the Moet planet. The first attack they viewed was done millions of years ago by the Jenze.” George pulled the recording up and they watched the Jenze Ships burn the Moet Fleet out of existence with bright blue beams.
“Do you see it now?” Meisa shook her head. George split the screen and pulled the recording of the Jenze Ship on ancient Earth that was destroyed by the asteroid. George started the video and they watched the Jenze kill a Moet Scout Ship that had destroyed its sled with a bright red beam. The view changed and they saw the small Jenze ship fire a red beam and destroy two other small Moet craft.
“The beams are different colors.”
“Exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
“You remember me saying that the Jenze were nowhere near advanced enough to have been the dominant power they were described by to be by the Alliance. The beam in the shoulder weapon was strong but nowhere near all conquering.” George pointed to the blue beams being fired by a Jenze Battleship, “Now that beam is a different story. That one is different. It’s using a different chain of elements than the shoulder blaster.”
“George, we added nine elements to the Jenze chain in the shoulder blaster.”
“And the Jenze contribution gave us a hundred times the power of our reactors. Those blue beams have more elements powering them that we are not currently using. What if those elements increased our power a hundred times?”
“Why didn’t that small ship have this power?”
“It was too small to contain the reaction. They had to use a less powerful chain for the science vessel. We’ve got to see one of their main Battleships.”
Meisa looked at the screen, “The Jenze aren’t around today. Perhaps we should try to see the power used by the species that destroyed them.”
“Either option is fine with me but we have to find a working model of either ship.”
“I’m sending this conversation to Dolly and will have her view it before we discuss it with her.”
Meisa raised her eyebrows and tilted her head. George made a copy and sent it to Dolly.
* * *
Chris and Jillian arrived at the building where it all started and went through the security portals. They saw the huge stone tablet in the middle of the giant building and a group of people sitting around a table. As they came closer they saw Dolly, Jeff, Arnold, Hemon, Sasha, and that Crazy Cuban sitting and having a conversation. They walked up to the table and saw a display set up at the end of the table with George and Meisa on it. Dolly stood, “Here they are; we can get started.”
“What’s going on?”
“Jillian, George has come up with an issue that we feel must be explored. I’m going to need you and Chris to make another trip in the Jukebox to find some information in the past that we need.”
Chris looked at the display, “What do you need exactly?”
“We need you to find out what elements are used to power a Jenze Battleship.”
Chris started laughing, “Oh, is that all George. I thought it was going to be something hard. Are you crazy? How are we going to do something like that?”
George smiled, “I have no idea but we need you to do it.”
“Why?”
George took a deep breath and looked at Meisa and she said, “Don’t look at me. I can’t explain it in terms they would understand.”
George reached under his desk drawer and pulled out a blue and orange beach ball that he held in his palm, “I’m going to try and do this in terms that everyone can understand. If I lose you, stop me, ok.”
Dolly smiled, “We’re all ears.”
“As all of you know, we are going to build the Main Battleships we’re going to use to defend our planet from those that mean to do us harm. Now let’s say that this beach ball represents the material we currently use to power the Jukebox Class of warships. In order to build a ship that can take on one of the Blue Giant Battleships we will need to be able to match their power. So if this is the power of a Jukebox, how big would the ball have to be to double the power?”
Chris said, “Twice as big.”
“Very good, and if we wanted to make it a thousand times more powerful?”
“A thousand times as big.”
“Again, an accurate answer. The measurements we took on the beam fired by that Blue Giant that our Captain here destroyed once it reached full power was 500,000 times stronger than the beam on the Jukebox Class. How big will the ball be now?” George waited as they figured it out in their heads and then said, “It will have to have a diameter of a hundred and eighty miles. “How long do you think it would take to build a ship that big, much less a fleet of thousands?”
George waited as the magnitude of the hypothetical ship’s size sunk in. “Our nuclear material is stronger than that used on the Blue Ships but now do you understand the need for their ships to be nine hundred miles in diameter?” George waited and added, “We know our material is stronger because the Jukebox Class ships can kill their Scouts that are three times larger.”
“George, are you saying we aren’t going to be able to build a ship to stand up to them?”
“Hang on just a moment.” George reached over and picked up a jar with sand and a small ship in it. He poured some sand into his palm and picked out one grain. He held it up between his fingers and said, “Now let’s say this grain of sand represents the power of a Jukebox Class Ship.” George saw everyone seeing where he was going, “If we use material that makes this much energy at its current level, the ship would only have to be three miles in diameter. This would allow us to build high numbers of these ships quite quickly.” George smiled, “Dolly, start the recording I sent you and I’m going to explain what’s happening.”
Dolly started the recording and George narrated, “What you see here is a Jenze Battleship attacking a Moet fleet at that planet you recorded Chris. Notice the color of the beam being fired at those ships.” George paused and continued, “Here you see the red beam being fired by the small Jenze Ship that was destroyed by the asteroid.”
Arvolo said, “The blue beam is much stronger.”
“Yes it is; give the Captain a Cuban Cigar. The beam on the small ship couldn’t be as strong because it couldn’t carry enough material due to its size. I measured the intensity of that blue beam used by the Jenze and it matches up to a power source that is equivalent to a grain of sand.”
Everyone looked at each other at the table in silence; then George dropped the bombshell, “However, if we can get a sample of that material and combine the elements in it with what we currently use, it would be a thousand times stronger than that grain of sand.”
The participants were struck silent. Finally Dolly said, “I don’t see how you reached that conclusion, George?”
“Does everyone remember what happened to our nuclear reactors when we used the materials from the Alliance; our power went up more than a hundred times. We then used the materials from the Jenze shoulder weapon and once more our power went up a hundred times. If we can get the elements from one of the reactors on a Jenze Battleship and combine it with what we have...”
Chris said, “Our ships would only have to be twice as large as a Jukebox Class ship.”
“Boy, you’re good. It would actually have to be three times larger due to the much larger reactors. If you wanted to double the power by having four reactors, it would end up being about 1,800 feet long.”
Chris looked at Jillian, “We have to go.” She nodded.
Dolly looked at George, “So what are you going to do in the meantime?”
“We are going to start building ships 1,800 feet long with space for the newer high powered reactors. If we don’t find the power source we’ll just have to attack each of the Blue Ships with a squadron of our new ships. We’ll just have to outnumber them in every confrontation and we know they have at least two million of the giant ships. There is no way we can build ships a hundred and twenty miles long.”
“We’ll leave shortly.”
Dolly said, “You will not be going alone.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You will have the Ninja updated with our new software and weapons. You will also take two Sailors with you to fly it.”
“No one else knows how to fly the Ninja!”
“Jillian, that’s exactly why I can’t allow you or Chris to take it into a dangerous situation. Don’t you realize that if we lost either one of you we would lose the technology that created the two ships that can view time? It would be like sending George out into danger. Would you do it?”
Chris looked at Jillian and slowly shook his head, “If we aren’t going to fly the Ninja, who is?”
Dolly looked at Arvolo, “The best pilot we have in the Navy. He will also have the best Weapons Officer in the Fleet with him.”
Arvolo said, “I thought we no longer needed Weapons Officers.”
“You might have to actually control the weapons manually to avoid damaging the very thing we need to find, Captain. We can’t just turn on automatic weapons and hope we don’t destroy that material.”
“Who is this Officer?”
Dolly picked up a sheet of paper and read, “Isadore Rosillo.”
Arvolo tilted his head, “Is she Cuban?”
“She was born in Cuba.”
Arvolo tilted his head, “Then she would have to be good.”
Dolly turned back to Chris and Jillian, “You will train the two of them on how to operate and fly the Ninja. If it has to be used, they will fly it. You will also start training a team of engineers on your inventions.”
Arnold said, “The President agrees with this and has issued direct orders that the two of you not place yourselves in harm’s way unless you have thoroughly trained someone else that can replace you and build another Ninja. Have either of you trained anyone else?”
“No Sir. We’ll abide by the orders.”
Dolly saw Jeff staring at her and she looked away quickly. Darn him. She said, “George start building your ships and we’ll go looking for a power source.”
* * *
The Messenger knew this would probably be his last trip to the Leader’s Chamber. He had only brought bad news and was amazed they had allowed him to live this long. Bad News Messengers were always eliminated. This was going to be the trip that ended his life. He accepted it and knew his long life had been good and he had few regrets. He entered the Chamber and the First Leader looked at him, “Tell me what you know.”
“The Battleship went to defend a Scout Ship and was destroyed before it could send a message. The Scouts that followed up on the site of the attack found it destroyed exactly like the first ship that was demolished.”
“Tell me Messenger, what do you think I’m going to do now?”
“You will take my life for all the bad news I’ve been bringing.”
“Normally that is exactly what I would do but you have not withheld any information no matter how bad. Your four predecessors did. They feared death more than honesty. If you were in my place, what would you do?”
“I would recall all of our ships from that Galaxy and not go back until I designed a much better ship.”
“That’s surprising. Why would you do that?”
“It has become clear that whoever is in that Galaxy killing our ships can do it at a speed that is astounding. Neither of those ships had an opportunity to tell us what was happening before they were destroyed. They also have a communications system that is more advanced than our own. It is not a huge leap to consider that they have ships we cannot defeat. There is a real possibility that if we sent our fleet we could lose a huge number of ships. If I were going to make a mistake I would make it on the side of caution. If they possibly know we are here, then they will be coming to our home and we must be ready. I would not do anything to weaken the defense of our home.”
“You don’t think we should overwhelm them with numbers now?”
“We’ve made the assumption that whoever it is killing our ships was in that Galaxy when we originally surveyed it. What if they are a new arrival from another Galaxy and have huge numbers of ships at their disposal? I just worry that we are diving into the unknown and it’s clear that we don’t know how deep it is or the price we’ll have to pay to find out.”
The First Leader stared at the Messenger and then looked at the other five Leaders who leaned forward. “You are no longer a Messenger. You will join us here at the table and be one of the Leaders. Your last duty will be to recall the Fleets.”
* * *
Aman Forester began eating his dinner and wondered what the Blue Giants were going to do after the destruction of the huge battleship. He poured a glass of grape juice and heard his alarm go off at full blast. He jumped up from the small table in the storage room and ran to the bridge and looked at his monitors. “On my God!” He saw more than a hundred thousand of the Blue Giant Scouts hanging in space with thousands more appearing every second. “Fleet, we have something major happening out here!”