General Durk smiled, “No, our helmets operate through a solid face plate.”
“So we could dip your warrior’s armor into that reservoir and they would be protected from the green shards of the attackers?” Durk paused a moment, “They can be trained on how to smooth it before it hardens; we may have to hit them with an energy beam to prevent the liquid from cooling too fast. I do think we need to incorporate whatever new weapons they’ll use into their armor before we dip them.”
“Not really. The weapons will just attach to the new coat of armor. We should start coating them as soon as possible and give them their weapons as we build them. I started our weapon labs working on those before this meeting. I think you’ll like what they’ve cooked up for your Warriors.”
“I look forward to seeing them.”
Terlen, Teng-Gee, do we have your permission to harvest enough trees to make our weapons?”
The Two rulers looked at each other and Terlen said, “Take as many as you need. How are you going to get them to our weapon factories?”
Sprig said, “I think I can handle that.”
Matt tilted his head to the right and Sprig said, “We will place a teleportation device on each device that is used to build a weapon. The machine will be given the coordinates of the appropriate size stone trees on Cainth and once the current tree being processed is manufactured, it will form a field over a tree on their monitor and the field will move down the tree on Cainth only teleporting the size and shape out of the tree needed for the machine. At the other end of the fabricator will be another teleport device that will send it to whatever location we desire once it’s completed.”
Matt shook his head and whistled, “Sprig will you set that up?”
“No, Stem will. He’s actually far better with machines than I am.”
Al sent a thought to Matt, “Amen to that; that’s my pop.”
Matt smiled briefly and then said, “Sprig, are we going to have to use a reservoir to dip our Searcher Class ships?”
“I think I know a way to handle that, Prince Gardner.”
“How, Cassandra?”
“I will take the Kosiev to Glod and move her down to the surface of the planet and extend our hull and absorb as many trees as necessary to coat our ships. The Kosiev will heat the material inside the hull and then extend it into a small field surrounding the hull. The Searchers will fly through that field and come out coated with the surface already smoothed. When they exit the field the cold of space will instantly harden it.”
“Can you do that, Cassandra?”
“I’ve already asked the ship and it says that it knows the exact amount needed to complete the task. We can be ready any time the ships are.”
Tommy said, “You know that if these creatures have energy weapons they will destroy the coating on our ships.”
“They have not used them yet and I think they cannot even if they wanted; no energy weapon would fire through the material their ships are made of and nowhere on their surface have we seen any kind of mounts for that type of armament. As old as this race is, I believe they have become complacent and have not even considered that they are vulnerable. Our universe has two organic trees that are hard enough to penetrate their ships. I suspect that those trees are very rare. No, when we hit them they are going to be shocked. I’m hoping that we can hit them and kill them fast enough so that they won’t have time to communicate to the full invasion what to expect. I also think our screens will stop any energy beam they decide to use.”
Melanie said, “If you can knock out the mother ship quickly, none of the other ships can communicate or travel outside this universe to escape; they will be trapped here.”
Everyone looked at her. She saw them staring and said, “It’s obvious; when their ships enter our universe they only travel in those mother ships. I’m sure it requires tremendous energy to make the universal jump and the other ships are just not big enough to do it. I’ve also noticed that they communicate with their ships using short range telepathy. Did you notice that when the transport came to investigate Hugon that they had to leave to inform the mother ship.”
Anglo said, “They could have communicated and been told to return.”
“They didn’t have enough time to take sensor readings, communicate those readings, and wait until they were interpreted on the mother ship and then be told to return. No, if we knock out the mother ship then the smaller ships will be stranded. We should hit them when they are close to a planet so that the survivors can’t jump away.”
Danielle looked at Melanie and asked, “How did you see this?”
Melanie shrugged, “It’s obvious….isn’t it?”
Danielle shook her head, “No, it isn’t. I believe that you, like I, have a way of seeing what is happening in situations.”
“She did see the connection with the shard and organic life when we had been missing it,” Matt said.
“You should pay attention to her observations then; I think you will find them valuable.
Matt looked at Melanie, “Count on it.”
“What are you going to do now, Matt,” Danielle asked?
“I’m going to send Aladdin and Wings with the Kosiev to be coated and while that’s being done, I am going with Director McAnn to Earth’s weapons labs to assist in developing the tools we need to defeat these invaders. Melanie is going to take charge of getting our ships coated. General Durk, will you get your warriors ready for coating and will you assist Melanie in setting up a roster for the Searchers to meet the Kosiev and receive their coatings?
“I will begin immediately.”
Teng-Gee stood, “I will get the reservoir ready within five days.”
Terlen said, “I will clear the forest on our northern continent to make sure no one is harmed when we begin harvesting the stone trees. You are actually helping my world in using them; they are a pain to try and clear for development.”
Tag rose from his chair, “Get to work; we have to get ready before the invaders come to the Hugon system.”
The Sensor Male looked at his readout, “First Fang, I’ve detected that strange wave again.”
“And?”
“It appears to have just expanded and moved to all parts of this universe; I can detect it in all directions.”
The Ship’s Male thought about what he had just heard, “Does it affect us?”
“No, it seems to have no effect at all. It’s just present.”
“Is it a natural phenomenon?”
“I still don’t know. All I can do is read it on our sensors.”
“Perhaps the Crystal Creatures are using it to communicate?”
The Sensor Male raised two legs, “Perhaps, I certainly can’t determine that with my instruments. Are we going to investigate that missing planet?”
“Yes, but not until we feed two more times; I’m not going to have my children left hungry after the main family arrives. I may send some ships to take a closer look before I take the children.”
The Sensor Male vibrated his acceptance and once more thought the First Fang was truly wise. It was good to take care of one’s children.
Matt and Melanie stood talking with Robert McAnn. The Director of Earth’s Government, “Director, I communicated with William Rankdutie about the use of the Cainth stone tree and he promised me some prototypes quickly. Do you know if he has made any progress?”
“Your Grace, I think he has produced some for you to see however, the problem arises that it would be bad policy to start mass production of them without first testing them to see if they actually work in actual combat. We are going to have to produce millions of these new weapons to deal with the numbers of the invading forces and it would be disastrous if they were not effective. What do you want us to do?”
Matt thought a moment and Melanie spoke up and said, “Director, do you know if he has any working prototypes?”