“Tommy, you’ll be killed,” Rose wailed!
“I don’t know if we can out run them or not but if that ship turns its attention on Earth, it will totally destroy the planet.” Tommy keyed his command circuit on the Kosiev and said, “Battle stations, all hands to battle stations; this is not a drill.”
“What’s going on?” Cassandra asked.
“A Captor ship had just entered Earth’s solar system and is firing a beam into Jupiter’s atmosphere. I suspect it is taking readings but when it finishes it will probably turn its attention on Earth. Our shakedown cruise has just been canceled. We are jumping into the Captor’s home system close to the planet, fire a full salvo of penetrators at the Captor’s structure, and then jump away. I’ve entered the jump coordinates into your board, Cassie. We must divert that ships attention away from our solar system.”
Everyone on the bridge prepared for battle but felt the real fear of facing this enemy. Cassandra thought to Tommy, “We aren’t ready. We need more time.”
“That’s something we don’t have. Prepare to jump Captain Dodd.”
Cassie looked into Tommy’s eyes and was frightened that she was going to lose the love of her life in moments. If Tgon-Gee had been there he would have seen the aura around her expand outward faster than the eye could follow. Cassie keyed her command circuit and said, “Jump in fifteen seconds. Penetrator crews will launch their full inventory at the planet and we will jump out and start our escape. Jump in 5,4,3,2,1, execute.”
The Kosiev broke into normal space one thousand miles from the huge planet and launched four thousand of the short range high speed penetrators and then jumped away.”
The penetrators flew almost faster than the sensors could track but every one of them were exploded by beams from the constructs surface before they had flew three hundred miles. The construct looked like a huge explosion of red fire erupting from its surface as millions of Captor ships lifted off at high speed.
Rose watched the giant ship as it quit firing its beam at Jupiter and then begin moving in system. Suddenly, it blinked out of existence. “Tommy,” she thought, “the ship has vanished from our system. Get out of there.”
“Already on our way, Sis, but I think we have drawn a crowd.”
The Kosiev jumped out into the empty space between the Captor’s planet and the next star system. “Full speed ahead, Cassandra ordered.” The Kosiev jumped forward at an amazing speed in normal space. Right behind the Kosiev as it entered normal space thousands of Captor ships appeared. Wes announced, “Ships are jumping in around us and ahead of us. One is firing weapons.”
A giant red ship appeared next to the Kosiev and fired its main beam. The Kosiev absorbed the beam and continued running. “Jumping now,” Cassandra said over the ship intercom. The Kosiev disappeared and reappeared in normal space in a distance galaxy. Immediately the red ships began appearing around them again.
Tommy looked at Cassandra and said, “I’m going to use my push on the Kosiev.” Cassandra nodded. Tommy focused and thought, “Move forward, now.”
The Captor ships were closing in on the strange white ship when suddenly it flew out from among them so fast that their sensors didn’t register it leaving. The First Male who was leading the attack was shocked. “Where did that ship go?” All the Captor ships saw was the energy trail of the strange white ship disappearing in the distance.
A warrior that had arrived behind the main group said, “An object just passed me in normal space traveling more than a thousand times the speed of light.”
The First Male said, “That is impossible. Show me the line they were on.”
The main group saw the line and jumped in front of where the strange ship should be if it was traveling at that speed. The Captor fleet arrived and the First Male watched his sensors as an object passed by him so fast that he had no time to do anything but watch it pass. “Get in front of that ship and block its line of travel,” the first male ordered. More than a million of the red ships jumped forward on the line of the escaping enemy.
Wes looked at his screen and said, “They’re jumping ahead of us into our line.”
Tommy thought, “Move upward.”
The Captor ships watched as the object approached their positions and then changed direction and move ninety degrees away from their position.”
Cassie keyed her com and said, “Sprig, Twig, if that device of yours works we need it now.”
“Captain, we have not done a field trial on it yet.”
“I don’t care, set it up now!”
The two Algeans looked at each other and began adjusting the front field emitter on the ship. The ship jumped once and continued its high speed run. After five minutes Twig announced, “Where do you want us to take the ship, if this works?”
Cassandra said, “Pick empty space between two galaxies far from here.”
Suddenly a giant red blurry sphere appeared on Wes’ sensors, “Brace for impact!’ he yelled over the speakers. There was a huge bump in the ship’s flight path and then Twig said, “Engaging device in 3,2,1, now!”
The Captor ships were doing everything possible to kill the strange ship but it was traveling too fast. Finally, the First Male saw one of his warriors jump directly in front of the speeding white ship. The strange ship flew right through the middle of the fifteen hundred mile wide warrior and left a hole more than three hundred miles wide. The warrior hung is space for three seconds and then exploded into millions of pieces. The strange ship then disappeared from his sensors. “All Warriors, where did the ship go?”
More than a thousand warriors gathered around the spot where the ship disappeared and the oldest warrior at the site said, “There is no reading for us to track. There is nothing that we can see that indicates they were here at all. The residue of their flight ends at this spot.”
The First Male looked at the trail of energy that the fleeing ship had left behind. The Captors could see that trail even through null space and that is what they used to track their enemies. The trail extended all the way back to the home world and ended here. This was impossible. If energy was used in the universe, they could see it if they had the signature of the ship that caused it. “Did anyone get a signature reading on that ship?”
Silence ruled. “All ships go back to the home world. I want layers of ships to the outer planets. Go now.” The giant red ships jumped back to their home world.”
The First Male said, “Mother, I am not going to allow you to leave until I am sure of your safety. We will prepare the new nest when I find that ship and eliminate it. It killed one of our warriors and I am not risking you.”
The Mother answered, “I will yield to your caution. However, my sister may not let me stay long.”
The First Male said, “She will allow it as long as we need it. We can always grow another sister; there is only one First Mother. We will begin our search immediately. Warriors of the blue, black, yellow, and orange cells, find that ship. Find it and direct us to it before you try to destroy it alone. Go now.”
Two million red ships jumped away in two million different directions. “That ship withstood two of our beams. Nothing has done that in two hundred million cycles. Did that ship come from another universe? Nothing I have seen in this one can do what that ship has just demonstrated.” Three of his brothers had died recently. This was not something that had ever happened before. “Scientists, please determine if this ship is from this universe or another.”
The section of the construct that housed the scientists began radiating a bright red glow into space. “I want some answers,” the First Male thought, “and I want them quickly.”
The Kosiev erupted into normal space and continued to fly at extreme speed. Wes watched his sensors and after two minutes said, “There are no enemy ships on my sensors.”