“Could he have read the trajectory wrong?” Tag asked.
“He had five other scientists check the trajectory and they all independently agreed that he was right.” Sten leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling. “It took him four months of troubled thought to come up with a breakthrough; maybe it could not be read by the sensors.”
Bridget frowned and said, “How is that possible?”
Sten said, “He didn’t want to believe it either but he decided to try another way to find it. He ran his calculations again and used three thousand megaships spaced evenly in front of where the object should be traveling and set their visual sensors to alarm if anything caused a star to blink because an object crossed between it and a ship. In less than a day ten megaships had their sensors alarm. McAllister used their readings to triangulate where the object was and jumped to where it should be. He came out of his jump and the object barely missed hitting his ship as it sped by. Cade had his ship accelerate and catch up to the piece of the Moscow and match velocities. He called the other Megaships over and he shot a grappling hook into the object; the grappling hook disappeared and was cut off with the smoothest, cleanest, cut McAllister had ever seen.”
Tag and Bridget looked at Sten with furrowed brows. “What was going on with that piece,” Tag asked.
“Prince Gardner, Cade followed that piece for more than eight months trying to slow it down; nothing worked. Whatever touched the object disappeared and no energy was read from the object. He was starting to get frustrated. He decided to extend his screen in front of the object in hopes that the energy would slow it down.”
Bridget said, “Wasn’t that dangerous? What if the screen touched it and the object pulled whatever was in the screen into it.”
“Sometimes in the heat of frustration one doesn’t think things thru.”
“What Happened?” Tag asked.
“The object hit the screen and came to a complete stop just inside the screen; McAllister was dumbfounded; he immediately fired another grappling hook and it locked on the piece without being destroyed. Cade surmised that the object had to be contained in a Coronado Screen or it would be dangerous to work with. That’s when he called me and asked if I could help him understand what was going on with the object. He brought it here and I erected a space lab to work on it that was completely surrounded by a Coronado screen. Once we got it in we examined it quite thoroughly. We were amazed at what we discovered.”
Sten paused and Bridget said, “Well don’t keep us waiting.”
“You know that the Moscow was powered by five black hole reactors that Kosiev had overloaded and burned out to get to the ships that were preventing our fleet and forts from escaping. Just as they failed, the Moscow was hit with multiple anti-matter missiles that released a tremendous amount of energy. We now believe that just as those five small black holes broke thru their containers in Kosievs’ reactors they were blown into the top center section of Moscow’s hull and all five were trapped in the Coronado Power Cells. The explosion then blew that section away.”
“Why didn’t the explosion destroy that piece like the rest of the ship?” Tag asked.
“Sten smiled and said, “Because once those black holes locked themselves into those cells, their ability to absorb energy grew more than a trillion fold. We, quite frankly, have been unable to determine just how much energy that object can hold but we’re beginning to believe that it has no limit. And it doesn’t have to be energy; we’ve actually flown one of our old megaships that was damaged in battle into it and the megaship disappeared as if it never existed and there were no energy readings given off.”
“That doesn’t make sense. When matter is destroyed, it produces energy.” Tag said.
“You’re singing to the choir,” Sten said. “I really like some of your human expressions; they are so appropriate at the right time. Anyway, you’re right; it should have released energy. We decided to try and reduce its power so we attached a hundred foot long section of power cells that were still connected to their software connection. We hoped that possibly one of the black holes would leave the fifty foot object and enter the new section. A remarkable thing happened; the new section seemed to melt into the object and there were no seams between them. The fifty cells on the new section all melted into one large power cell.”
Tag and Bridget could only stare at Sten.
Sten sat up straight and continued, “The thing that really surprised us was that the new object actually followed the software instructions. We hit the switch to turn it off and it turned off and became safe to work on ever outside a Coronado Screen. Now we had a way to work with the new cell. The result of that work is now sitting there in front of you; there will never be another. We have tried every conceivable method to reproduce the cell and have failed totally. We just don’t have the technology to control the exact moment of black hole insertion into a power cell and we discovered that only the huge energy that happened during those anti-matter explosions could make them enter a cell without exploding it. This is a one of a kind ship and I’m almost thankful that we can’t produce another.”
“Why is that?” Bridget asked.
“Because I believe that it is indestructible and whoever controls this ship has the universe’s most powerful weapon. Prince Gardner, I wouldn’t trust anyone other than you to control it. We have designed it such that its advanced screens and weapons will not work unless you are on board and on the bridge. The software will read your presence and will release the hand reader on your console; place your hand in it and the ship’s advanced systems will be released.”
“What if I have to leave the bridge, will my crew be left defenseless?”
“No, the old weapons such as primary beams and needles will still operate like any of our ships; you may want to send your ship on missions for you and the standard weapons will operate normally; however, your personal quarters are located next to the bridge and the bridge will still operate if you are there.”
“Is Prince Gardner going to have to be here during our training?”
“No, but I will,” Sten said. “I will have a temporary activator programmed to me that will allow the training to take place. Once the training is completed, the activator will be removed and the ship will be yours. I’ve said that you will have the normal weapons of the megaships, however, Commodore O’Donald, they will be quite stronger than any you have ever seen. You and your crew have a difficult time ahead of you learning to fight this ship. However, I’ve talked with Admiral Dorg and he believes that you and your crew are up to the task. I look forward to working with you.”
Bridget looked out at the two mile long ship and hoped she was up to the task. She decided that she and her crew were going to learn this ship inside and out. Prince Gardner deserved their best effort and she was going to make sure he got it. “I look forward to working with you Planet Leader. I’m excited about the possibilities.”
Sten smiled and said, “You have no idea, Captain, tell me that in two weeks.”
Tag looked down at his new ship and said, “The Kosiev will be special, just like the one she’s named after.
Two years passed while the Algeans prepared for the attack on what they thought was the Strangers home system. The Stars Realm grew technologically and economically. Coronado technology made the transformation easy with cheap, unlimited energy. The economy was booming and there was enthusiasm about the future thru out the Realm. Rose celebrated her thirteenth birthday and Danielle had delivered a healthy baby boy one year earlier. They named him after his father and called him Tommy. There was joy in Castle Gardner but the continuous tension caused by the upcoming attack was always present. Then one day Rose thought to her father, “Dad, I believe the time has come. I see Algean fleets forming up.