The Eldest stood still and then said, “Make sure your plan works, Fleet Leader.”
Tag was sitting in his office with Cade McAllister looking out over the rapidly growing city that has sprung up after Danielle had announced that Ross was to be the Stars Realm Capital. The population had grown swiftly and in the last five years had grown to more than a billion. Every race in the Ream had some of their citizens living there and the planet was becoming a model for the other members of the Realm to emulate. It was also the home of the Fleet Academy and it also became the center for weapon development since it was the academy that their use would be taught.
The fleet had arrived from the attack on the Algeans a week before and Tag had isolated himself from the military and had stayed in his study pondering the next action to be taken. He called Cade in an hour ago and he had promptly dropped what he was doing and went to Castle Gardner.
Tag looked at Cade and asked, “How did the new star drive work in the Plant system?”
“Both jumps worked perfectly, Mr. Gardner, they went off like clockwork.”
“I want to show you a video, Cade, that I received a day after we arrived home from the attack. I think you’ll find it interesting.” Tag then played the video from one of the stealth buoys that Tresk’s ship had dropped in the Plant harvesting system while making the two jumps. Cade saw Short Sword come out of a jump close to one of the inner planets of the system and then jump away. “Here’s the interesting part,” Tag said. Cade continued to watch and he saw a Plant Shuttle lift off one of the planets moons and fly quickly to the sight of the jump. Cade was shocked.
“Sir, our sensors did not show anything of Algean activity.”
“I know,” Tag said. “The Plants have an installation buried under the surface of that moon. With its high metal content, your sensors would not see it. It is now a certainty that the Plants know that we have found a way around their dampening field which leads me to believe that is why they changed their tactics after we left.”
“What changes did they make, Sir?”
“Take a look at the current feed we’re getting from our probe,” Tag said.
A picture of the system being harvested was on Tag’s display showing the planet that was being attacked surrounded by what looked like millions of ships evenly spaced around it out to 100,000 miles; outside the ships was a band of anti-matter missiles also evenly spaced encircling the plant ships. “Cade, there are more than a billion anti-matter missiles in that formation and the spacing between those ships means that any ship that jumps into their formation would be hit by five to ten anti-matter missiles as soon as it emerged from null space.”
Cade was speechless. “One more thing,” Tag said. “I’ve had a thought about your new star drive. Have you tried it in a small ship with a standard screen to see if it could jump inside the jump limit?”
“No Sir, why do you ask?”
“I have a feeling about the new drive that bothers me. What would happen if the Plants discovered the frequency of null space; could they then jump inside the jump limit from null space? Right now they can’t because they don’t have power cell technology. Would this new technique give them the means to jump inside the jump limit?”
Cade had a quick nightmare about that possibility. “I don’t know but I’ll find out quickly. Give me one day and I’ll let you know tomorrow.” Tag nodded and Cade left the room quickly.
The next day Cade was back in Tag’s study. “You were right, Mr. Gardner, using the null space resonance frequency allows any ship to be kicked out to whatever coordinates their second screen uses. Ships no longer have to use the larger power cells to reduce the effect of gravity to jump inside the jump limit. If the plants acquired this knowledge then they would be unstoppable.”
Tag looked at Cade for a long moment and then said, “I don’t think they know what we did when you jumped into that system. I timed how long it took that shuttle to get to your jump point and it was twelve minutes. If it read anything, it would read no resonance, which will cause them to think that we can now mask our star drive tracks or that they just arrived too late to get the reading. Our probe doesn’t show any of their ships being taken off line to change their drives so I think we’re safe at this point. However, we cannot use the new star drive system because we can’t run the risk of the Plants discovering it.”
“So we’re back where we started,” Cade said.
“Yes we are. I’ve asked our analysts how long it is going to take the Plants to harvest that planet and they say that it will probably take them five years.” Cade furrowed his brow and Tag said, “That planet has very small oceans and a huge amount of land mass; the amount of organic life is huge. They will have to keep a large number of their ships in the defensive formations and out of the harvesting activities. It would be suicide to try and attack that planet. Since we cannot jump into the system, we would have to fly 8 hours to get to their fleet. I’m sure that the plants would also jump a fleet in behind us. We are going to take the time they are harvesting the planet to work on our weapons. The Plants are also going to attack another planet after they finish the one they’re harvesting which means if we can keep them occupied with long range attacks we will probably have more than eight years before they move on to another planet. I want some long range weapons we can fire from the jump limit at their ships so I can remind them that we are still here and force them to keep all those ships in that system. You and your team have to find us the tools to win this fight, Cade.”
Cade looked at Tag and said, “We’ll do our best, Sir.”
Tag smiled, “That’s all I ask.”
Chapter 19
Five years passed while the Stars Realm fleet would jump in and fire penetrators at the jump limit to remind the Algeans that they were still aware of their harvesting. The Stars Realm had also grown and prospered during that time. The original 832 members had grown to 856 with the discovery of new races and the 1,400 planets that were originally inhabited had grown to 3,300 with the economic expansion of the Realm. Now that the members no longer feared being attacked by other members, they turned their attention to making life good for their citizens. Danielle played a huge role in choreographing the new expansion and she had become more and more dependent on Rose’s help. The psychic talents of Rose were incredible and she seemed to know everything that was happening and how it all related. She was eleven now and she enjoyed the ruling of the Realm immensely. The Stars Realm loved their Queen but they also adored Princess Gardner. Danielle was sitting in her bedroom in front of the fireplace with Tag and enjoying the moment. She looked up at him and said, “Tag, Cade McAllister has asked me to issue an order to convert more than 200 of our fleet weapon facilities to a new device his team has developed.”
Tag sat up straighter, “He hasn’t said anything to me.”
“I think he plans to do that soon. He knows that I would discuss it with you and that you would call for him to explain. You haven’t been easy to contact since the last fleet action.”
Tag lowered his head, “I didn’t want to stifle his creativity. I sensed that he and his team would need some room to maneuver and my constantly looking over his shoulder would be a distraction.”
“Well, I’ve appreciated your help in governing the Realm but I think he might have what we need to get you back into the fight. As Kosiev said, you should be the point on the Stars Realm spear.”