Michael looked at Luke and saw him shrug. Michael blew out a breath and knew something else must have happened. He turned to Talel, “I guess you saw something that has caused you some concern.”
Talel smiled, “You are very astute, First Commander. I stayed until another Elder contacted the one that Pat shocked and it determined that Pat was right, that particular Elder would never do anything to confront us again. Its fear ruled its emotions. I sensed that it had probably gone insane from the contact with Pat.”
“But?”
“The Legend that attempted to communicate with it contacted other Elders and they were all frightened by what had happened to it. Their fear led them to all agree that the danger we represented would have to be eliminated.”
“Is this why you say what we learned in this attack won’t serve us in the next one?”
“It is. They all agreed that the new warships will no longer be built near one of their planets. They intend to select a distant location to build those ships and the ships will be delivered to them all at one time before they commence the construction of the new Black Ships that will replace the current ships defending their planets.”
“Were you able to find out the location where they’re going to build them?”
“All of them agreed that the location would be a secret and that the one chosen to build them will leave immediately and tell no one where it’s going.”
“I should have just killed it.”
Michael shook his head and then nodded, “Talel, do you think Pat’s visit is what prompted them to come up with this plan?”
“They were frightened beyond anyone I’ve ever seen. It was the way Pat treated the Elder with a callous disregard for its life. However, even if he didn’t go down to the planet, I suspect they would have eventually devised this plan. After we destroyed another one of those monster vessels, they would have done this. In this instance, we’ve lost the delay the construction of another ship and its destruction would have given us.” Michael nodded and Geeron and Talel sat down.
Audrey said, “We’re going to need to find that location.”
Michael shook his head, “Fleet Admiral, please remember that they said the ships would be built at a distant location. Do you have any idea what that might mean?”
Audrey stared at him for a moment and then shook her head. Michael looked at Talel who shrugged and said, “I got the feeling that distance meant a very long way from their location.”
Michael looked at Audrey, “The galaxy we attacked is more than a billion light years from here. If they go at least that far to build those ships, there will be more than a two hundred million galaxies within a billion light years from them. If they go two billion light years away, which is what I expect them to do, the number swells to more than a billion.”
Audrey looked at Talel, “Your species is telepathic; shouldn’t you be able to find them?”
Talel shook his head and started to speak but Michael interrupted, “Admiral. It appears they are only sending a single Legend out to build those ships and I’m reasonably certain that he has been instructed to not communicate with those that sent him. If he doesn’t broadcast his thoughts, finding a single legend in a galaxy is impossible.”
Audrey stared at Michael and then looked at Talel, who nodded. “So it looks like war is coming soon.”
Michael stared at the gathering and saw even Katy was no longer smiling. “I see two possibilities, Admiral. The first is that the one sent away will build the initial vessels for the living Legends, which means at least twenty five thousand vessels.”
Luke said, “What’s the other possibility?”
“The one sent away decides to take the whole pie for himself and builds the monster vessels along with the giant black battleships. He then comes back and conquers his species. Once that’s done, he comes after us.”
Josh looked at Michael, “I would think they would be extremely careful selecting the one they send out. I know if we were in their place, we would be.”
Michael smiled, “You’ve never heard their thoughts, Admiral. The one thing every one of them has in common is a major case of paranoia. Their fear of dying is what drives their every decision. And this particular Legend is going out with no one to control him or see what he’s doing. There is a good possibility that he could do both.”
Laney shook her head, “Just how would he do that?”
“He builds his personal fleet entirely of Monster Vessels.” The entire room was struck silent by the comment. Michael looked around at the Senior Admirals and saw their doubts written on their faces. “I know what some of you are thinking. You think that a Legend would never allow their tools to have a vessel that could put them in danger.” Michael continued to look at them and saw the Admirals look at each other and nod. Michael smiled, “However, you need to remember that the technology used by the Legends to control the emotions of those around it can be used for more things than just generating fear. It could also be used to cause adoration among its tools.”
Laney’s eyes went wide, “You’re right!”
Luke shook his head, “How would we handle a fleet of a million of those monsters?”
“We’re going to have to build a special ship designed to take on those vessels.”
“But we don’t have a ship that can do that?”
“I seem to recall we just killed one of those ships with a single shot.”
Josh said, “The heavies!”
Michael nodded, “It can’t be done with a small number. The crossfire those monsters could generate is beyond anything we’ve ever faced in the past. I will entertain other suggestions but I don’t see another way to confront huge numbers of them except to have a ship that can take them out. By the way, who was the one that killed the monster above that planet?”
Jinks stood up, “Sir, it actually wasn’t the heavy that made that ship’s destruction possible. The mission would have failed except for the bravery of one of our pilots. My staff is unanimous in recommending that pilot for our highest award for bravery.”
“Do you have a recording of what happened?”
“I do.” Jinks pointed his monitor control unit at the giant screen and every one present stared at the images on it. They saw the heavy moving in toward the giant black vessel with a clear lane between it and its target. Suddenly, four huge black battleships rushed into the heavy’s path. They heard on the speaker, “JOSEY, DON’T DO IT!!” The four black battleships began showing massive explosions on their hulls and, in less than ten seconds, all of them were vaporized in four massive explosions.
All of the attendees looked away from the monitor at Admiral Jekins. He tilted his head and said, “The problem with dark energy beams is that they’re not visible. The only way my staff was able to find this footage was by hearing that voice just before those enemy ships were destroyed. We went through all of our personnel files on those that participated in the attack and we found a pilot named Josephine Bartolo. We set our computers to find that pilot’s ship frequency and we followed her from the beginning of the attack until those four ships were destroyed. I’m going to replay what just happened but I’m going to bring the view in much closer between the black warships.”
The monitor’s view changed and the gathering saw the four battleships rush at them until they disappeared. “Keep your eyes on the front middle of the monitor.” The view moved in closer and they suddenly saw a Battle Pod appear out of the barrier with all of its disruptors firing. The only way the disruptor’s beams could be seen was when they blew through the Pod’s force field. The Pod was appearing and disappearing at an incredible speed. The Pod moved through the four ships’ positions and it was clear the enemy’s disruptors were continuously hitting it.