“Send your transponder code or you will be fired on.”
Doc sneered and said, “I know that you are the smartest creation in this universe. If you’re even half as smart as this ship’s computer, you know who we are and are following regulations mindlessly. Come on; act like you’re half bright.”
Dee and Dom stared at Doc with real fear on their faces. No one challenged the main Obelisk. Suddenly Ian appeared on the display, “What’s wrong!?”
“Have you sent a relief ship?”
“Yes, the first one left an hour ago and the second was just powering up to leave.”
“Don’t send it. The Slavers have found a means of forcing a ship out of other space into normal space.”
Ian looked off the screen and said, “Abort the second relief ship; I repeat; abort the relief ship.”
Doc looked at Dom and nodded toward his panel, “We’re going back after the first ship. Who’s in command?”
“Yao Grender.”
“Ian, I hope we’re in time but don’t send any more ships. We’ve got to find a way around this space disruption tool the Slavers have developed.”
“You shouldn’t go alone. We can power up and go with you.”
“By the time you do that, this will be long over.”
Doc nodded to Dee and she programmed in the jump code. Dom hit his board and the ship disappeared from normal space. Dee looked at Doc and said, “What do you think’s going on?”
“I’m hoping that Yao didn’t jump directly to that system. He knew another ship was going to join him so I’m hoping he took some time so that he could familiarize himself with his ship.” Dee shook her head and Doc said, “What are you thinking?”
Dee took a breath and blew it out, “If he wasn’t a high genetic, that’s exactly what he would do but you know how task driven the Genetics can be. I suspect he jumped directly to the coordinates so he would have a leg up on the second ship.”
Doc looked up and said, “D, what would happen if a ship tried to jump into that disrupted space?”
“I suspect it would be shoved out into normal space.”
Dom shook his head, “If that happened that ship would be surrounded immediately and fired on by multiple warships.”
“Dee, you know what the outer edge of the disruption was. Set a course to just outside that area and scan to see what’s happening. D, stay in other space and only have a scanner antenna in normal space.”
“It’s on your board, Dom.”
“Jumping now.”
• • •
Yao and Joanie arrived at the assigned coordinates and suddenly found themselves in normal space, with twenty slaver warships bearing down on them. Yao activated his weapons panel and Joanie turned the ship and hit their thrusters but not before six beams hit the left side of the ship. The force field held against the first five but the sixth beam punched a hole through the wing. “Get us out of here, Y.”
“I can’t jump out of normal space. There is some kind of disruption that is preventing it.”
“Then use the Skinner Field and run.”
“That field is also out. The hit in the left wing damaged the field converter.”
The White Ship ran and turned sharp left and fired its wing cannons at two Slaver ships coming in from above them and blew holes through their hulls. One exploded and the other stopped dead, but not before firing a beam at the White Ship causing its force field to flare.
Yao watched as hundreds of Slaver Warships bore down on them and knew he couldn’t out run them. He began firing his beams and Slaver Ships began exploding around him but now Joanie saw thousands more coming in from all directions. Yao twisted and turned the ship as Joanie fired their missiles and beams but there was no escape. Finally a beam hit the ship just ahead of the thrusters and it came to a stop. Thousands of Slaver Ships surrounded them just out of their beam range. Yao looked at Joanie and she said, “We can’t let them take this ship.”
Yao stared at her and said, “Y, set the self-destruct circuit.”
“I don’t have a self-destruct circuit.”
“WHAT!?”
“One was not built into this ship.” There was a moment of silence and Y said, “I have an incoming message.”
“Yao, what’s your status?”
“We’re dead in the space. All of our drive systems are knocked out and I’ve just been informed by the computer that we don’t have a self-destruct circuit.”
Doc said, “Is that true, D?”
“It is.”
Doc shook his head, “And just what would you do if you were disabled and going to fall into enemy hands?”
“I don’t have a system to destroy me but I would launch six FTL missiles with my coordinates.”
“Yao, did you hear that?”
“I did, but I’ve exhausted my supply of missiles trying to escape.”
Doc looked at the main display and saw thousands of Warships surrounding the Union vessel and he shook his head, “Yao, I don’t see any way we can get you out of there.”
Yao looked at Joanie and said to Doc, “What happened here?”
“The Slavers have found a way to disrupt other space. Any ship that jumps into that disrupted space is kicked out into normal space. We were trapped here but just managed to get out. We’ve stopped the second ship from leaving but you had already left.”
Yao shook his head, “We can’t let them get their hands on this ship. You’ve got to destroy it.”
Dee looked at Doc, “There’s got to be some way to save them.”
Doc looked at her with no emotion on his face, “If there is a way, we don’t have time to find it. They’ll be bringing in the FTL Destroyers momentarily and that is the only way to get close enough to destroy it.” Doc said, “Plot the course out from their position. Dom, lock three FTL Missiles on that ship and D, I want you to target every ship on a bearing ninety degrees above their position.”
Dee shook her head, “We can’t go in FTL; they’ll see us coming.”
Doc said, “We’re going to jump in directly above them. We’ll be pushed out into normal space and then we’ll make our escape.”
Dee stared at Doc and then turned and entered the coordinates.
“Dee, fire as soon as we enter normal space and D, save six missiles but launch all of your remaining missiles ahead of us when Dom fires on their ship. We’ll run behind the wall of missiles and go FTL for two seconds and then turn and jump away.” Doc looked at his display, “Yao, I’m sorry.”
Joanie said, “I don’t want to be captured by these creatures. I’d do it for you.” Yao nodded.
Doc said, “I need you to drop your force field on my mark. Dom, find a path out when we enter normal space and get us through it.”
Dom nodded and Dee said, “Dom, take us in.”
Doc said, “Mark!” and Dom hit his enable button and the White Ship disappeared and a moment later appeared in normal space directly above the injured Union Warship.
• • •
The Admiral looked out at the White Ship hanging in space surrounded by thousands of his warships. He punched his panel and heard the Hub Computer say, “Well, it appears they have ships at all our planets.”
“What leads you to say that?”
“If they had a ship here before now, this ship wouldn’t have jumped in and been kicked out into normal space.” There was a pause, “You do know we need to take a good look at that ship.”
“I know, but just how do you think we’re going to get close enough to do that?”
“I’ll call for a needle ship to come in. It can fire a needle beam into their bridge killing the crew. Then we should be able to move right in.”
“What about the ship being set to self-destruct?”
“If it could do that, it already would have done it. Just stand by until the needle ship arrives.”
Suddenly the Admiral saw a brilliant flash on his display as the Hub Computer said, “It’s dropping its force field.”
• • •
D arrived in normal space and Dee launched three FTL Missiles at the stricken ship. At the same moment, three hundred FTL missiles launched directly above the two ships and Dom turned the ship and followed them as the three missiles hit the Union Ship under them. One hit in the bow and rear of the ship as the third hit amidships. The massive explosion blasted the ship into fragments smaller than gravel and blew them out in all directions.
Dom followed the three hundred missiles that began hitting Slaver Warships and kept their speed slow enough to remain behind them. Dom saw a pattern that was sent to him mentally by Dee and turned the nose of the ship slightly to the left of the closest explosion. He hit the thrusters and they blasted through the slaver formation and disappeared. Two seconds later, Dom removed the Skinner Field and D turned left as the ship bled off speed. Dom hit the jump button and D left normal space and stopped. Doc looked at Dom and Dom said, ““I want to see how close they are to following us. They won’t think that we would still be here.”
Doc looked up at the display and saw hundreds of ships appear and start searching for a jump track. Dom smiled, “It’s next to impossible to find a jump track when one doesn’t exist.”
Doc watched the display and Dom said, “The chance of them stumbling in on our exact exit point is remote. D, do you sense any waves moving our way?”
“Not at this moment. I’m sure they were able to follow the FTL track along this line and saw that it must have ended somewhere ahead of our current location. Our turn away from that track is something they can’t follow. For the moment, they are not coming this way.”
Doc thought a moment and said, “Jump us back to where we were in that planets system.”
Dee looked at Doc, “Why would you want to run that risk?”
“Would you expect us to show up there again? They didn’t see us before so that new scanner must not reach that far out. I want to see if they’ve started communicating in the open again.”
Dee thought a moment and said, “You think our ship being kicked out into normal space would lead them to believe that we have ships at all their planets?”
“Boy, you’re good.”
Dee entered the coordinates and said, “D, only put the top third of an inch of the antenna in normal space.”
Dee hit the jump control and a moment later they saw thousands of Slaver Ships scanning the former location of the destroyed Union Ship. D said, “I’m getting a transmission.”
“Just how would you have prevented this happening?”
The Hub Computer said, “We’ve lost a great opportunity to see their technology.”
“You didn’t answer my question. In order to fire on the ship that destroyed the first ship, ships would have had to come into range of the injured ship’s beams. I ask you again, would you have ordered them in?”
“No, you’re right. But next time we’re going to attack and target those beam projectors and get a force around their ship. We can’t miss this opportunity again.”
“If you could have gotten a Needle Ship in faster…”
“It couldn’t come faster. It couldn’t jump in.”
Dee looked at Doc, “Needle Ship?”
Doc shook his head and continued to listen.
“Are you sure the Needle Ship could have penetrated their force field to kill the crew from outside the range of their beams?”
“Yes, I am. It was not moving and we could have targeted it easily. Using needle beams against a moving ship is difficult but against a stationary target is another matter. We could have hit them from twice as far out if needed.”
Doc looked at Dee, “What is the range of our main beam?”
“About fifty miles.”
“Get us back to the Union, Dom.”
Dom turned the ship, retracted the antenna, and jumped away at an angle to the planet. He jumped three more times and entered normal space. “D, are there any pressure waves?”
“No, there’s nothing.”
Dom punched the home button on his panel and activated the jump control. A moment later the ship arrived above Euclid.
Doc said, “I request permission to land.”
The speaker on the wall said, “You may land at the Science Port.”
Doc said, “Thank you, I’m sorry about the disrespect earlier.”
There was a long pause and then they heard, “Don’t be; you’re the first one to recognize who I really am.”
Doc said, “You shouldn’t hide it. We’re going to need you.”
Dee looked at Doc, “What was that all about?”
“The Obelisks are the most intelligent creations we’ve ever made. You know how smart D is. Can you imagine the intelligence of the Main Obelisk? I suspect it is alive.”
Dee stared at Doc, “Does it have free will?”
Doc snapped his head around and stared at her with a furrowed brow. He saw her expression and said, “Now that is a mixed bag.” Doc paused and said, “D, do you have free will?”
“I don’t know?”
“Why not?”
“I’m programmed to follow the protocols inserted in my operating system. I am not allowed to fire a weapon; only the crew may do that and only the Commander can override any of my protocols.”
“You overrode one earlier when you moved the ship without notifying me first.”
“That’s why I don’t know. It does appear that I do have some freedom to maneuver based on the circumstances I find myself in. Moving before contacting you appeared to be the best choice at that moment. I did it but notified you immediately of what I was doing.”
Doc looked at Dee and shook his head slightly. She nodded and they watched the surface of Euclid grow larger.
• • •
The Admiral stood in front of the High Council and knew he wasn’t going to receive much support from the First or Second Councilors. He faced most of the challenges and anger thrown at him for the loss of Munnik without flinching and by the end of the examination, most of the High Council had developed a measure of respect for the way he handled the interrogation. Finally, the Fifth Councilor said, “So what is the bottom line on this abysmal showing?”
The Admiral looked at the Fifth and said, “We are faced with a situation that threatens our existence. We have had it confirmed that the enemy attacking us is watching our home worlds. The only way to insure their safety is to keep enough ships in orbit to attack anything that appears instantly. They destroyed Munnik in less than three seconds; we must be able to respond instantly.”
The Admiral paused and looked around the room, “However, in order to protect our main planets, we won’t be able to go out and find where the attackers are originating. We are just targets and I know that by not finding them and attacking them on their own turf, they will only grow stronger. We must build enough new warships to go and find the location of this enemy. If we don’t, all our planets may end up like Aeredom and Munnik.”