“How did you know about that?”
“It’s still hanging in the Ross observatory and still showing the exact positions of all the planets. I asked the curator and she told me about its creation.”
Danielle smiled as she remembered the day it happened. She shook her head and said, “Don’t stay long. We’ll be worried until you return.”
Melanie smiled and embraced Danielle and Tag, “As long as you two are alive, the Realm is safe. You have meant so much to us and I know how much you mean to the Realm.”
Sprig added, “She’s right.”
Matt and Melanie stepped together and Matt punched his bracelet. Danielle looked where they had just been standing and said, “Just like us, they don’t understand the impact on the Realm if we lost them.”
Tag took Danielle’s hand, “I think they know. They’ll be careful.”
Sprig leaned forward, “Why do you say that?”
“Who other than Matt communicates with the Reg?”
Sprig and Danielle both flinched. Sprig said, “I didn’t think of that.”
Matt looked over at Melanie and said, “We can only use the smallest setting on our screen when we enter space around their galaxy; the Reg insist that anything higher will be seen.”
“Did they say anything else?”
“They said that we can go close to their galaxy but we must not enter it. Anything that enters that galaxy’s influence will be detected by those creatures. We can scan from outside its borders and they will probably see our scans but will not know where we are located. The Reg also said to expect a massive response.”
“Anything else?”
“They said be careful.”
Melanie started laughing.
“What’s so funny?”
“That is so out of character for the Reg. Usually they have an answer for everything.”
Matt smiled and shook his head, “Are you ready.”
“Let me look at the drives just a moment. I know there is a dimensional drive in our inventory but I’ve never used it. Give me a few moments to learn how to use it.”
“You’re amazing, Love.”
“Actually, the ship will teach me. It feels like it has a life of its own.”
Matt watched Melanie’s chair and saw a deep purple color wash through it and go into the walls surrounding them. The color changed to violet and then orange. “Ok, I’ve got it.”
“That quick?”
“Yes, we’re going to have to leave our universe and enter the space between dimensions. The color of that space is orange and our ship had to adjust its hull to withstand the energy. The tricky part is we are going to have to use a high energy screen to move through that space and I’m going to have to reduce it instantly upon emergence into the dark galaxy’s space.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“I’m hoping nothing but stay tuned to your weapon console. This is just a fly and spy mission and that is what my chair is built to handle. You might want to watch things through my thoughts but keep your weapon panel ready.”
“It’s your ship, Melanie.”
Melanie smiled and thought about AG. Then she energized the drive and the blue glowing ship appeared at the blue barrier surrounding the edge of the universe. “We’re going through.”
The small blue ship moved forward and picked up speed. It reached the edge of the barrier and as it crossed the color of the ship changed to orange as it emerged into dimensional space. Matt could feel the ship pick up speed but nothing changed in the orange color surrounding the ship. After twenty minutes, he felt the ship begin to slow.
“Are we there, yet?”
“We’re approaching the border and I have to change the energy of the ship as we cross. Now be quiet, this is not going to be easy.”
Matt watched the front wall of the ship and saw it changing color to a faint blue. The color moved slowly back until the inside walls were all the same light blue color. Melanie, released her board and fell back in her chair, “That was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. This ship is amazing; I couldn’t have done it without its help.”
Matt was looking at his display and there in front of them was the dark galaxy. He saw that most of the stars were extremely old and were dying. He tuned in his weapons panel and looked at Melanie. “Do you need some time to rest?”
“Give me just a few minutes. I want to set my board up to take a fast scan of the entire galaxy but not until after I back the rear of our ship into the border with dimensional space. I’m not going to risk them finding us. Only the nose will be in their space.”
If we have time, I’ll hold the ship at the border as long as possible but the warning from the Reg about a massive response concerns me. I’m holding our screen on the front at its lowest setting but I don’t want to be caught out in the open.” After ten minutes Melanie backed the small ship back into the border of dimensional space until only the part of the ship with the two chairs was still in normal space. “Be ready, I’m starting the scan in ten seconds.”
Matt looked into her mind and counted it down with her, “3..2..1..energize.”
The Red Demon watched his board as he searched for the missing universe. Suddenly his alarm went off and he was immediately moved to the command chair of his ship as it lifted off and jumped to his assigned coverage area. It looked at its sensors and could see the direction the scan had originated but could not determine where the scan was located. Millions of the orange ships were jumping out to the edge of the galaxy and running out from the galaxy’s outer edge. Nothing had been sensed entering the galaxy so it had to be outside the border.
“What’s happening?”
“Some agency is scanning our domain. They are in normal space, that much we know but we are unable to find its location. The direction is out toward the largest spiral arm.”
“Could this be the missing universe’s responsibility?”
“I doubt it. This scan is happening in normal space and we know that universe is not in normal space. This must be a different agency located in another universe. We are analyzing the scan now.”
The second being watched his board and wondered if this was another appearance of the blue ship but dared not mention it. If it was that ship, he knew it came from the missing universe but he could not think of a way to suggest that possibility without giving away what he knew. One thing he did know, if he found the blue ship he was going to stay away from it. His small ship had already demonstrated that it could be damaged.
“What are you doing?”
The second being jumped and said, “Looking for the source of those scans.”
“Well move out into the space outside our galaxy and start searching. I told you it had to be outside our galaxy.”
The second being set his board and cringed against the possibility of encountering the blue ship again.
“Oh my, ancestors,” Melanie said as millions of orange ships exploded out of the dark galaxy less than a second after she began her scan and started moving out from its border. Some of the ships were larger than the Captors and all were moving faster than light speed. The orange ships had arrived in a cone shape and had linked their screens as they moved outward. They looked like a giant bubble being blown up and Tag saw that nothing would be missed as that bubble expanded toward their location.
Matt watched the oncoming wave of ships and said, “Time to leave.”
Melanie backed the ship back into dimensional space and accelerated away from the dark galaxy’s location. Melanie had her eyes closed and Matt could tell she was concentrating but he also sensed something was wrong. He didn’t want to break her concentration so he looked at her thoughts and saw that she was monitoring the border to see if any of the Demons entered dimensional space. He determined that she was going to jump to another universe if any appeared. It was a long twenty minutes until they reached the blue barrier and Melanie flew into it at a high velocity. Matt watched the wall change color faster than he could track visually. Once inside the barrier, Melanie slumped over her console. Matt jumped up and grabbed her.