Tommy looked at Cassandra and saw her nod. He focused and thought, “Slow down,” and after a minute the ship entered normal space where light looked normal. “Stop,” he thought and the Kosiev stopped and hung in space.
“Rose, has the ship returned?”
“No, it has not. Tommy, we need the teleporting process to start moving Earth’s population.”
“Sprig, Twig, I need you to get your teleport device to Earth to begin moving population.”
Sprig thought, “We will just step through a screen right here on the Kosiev and take a working model of the device. We do need to take a reading of the floor in the Kosievs’ library in order to return.”
“Take your reading; we are not going to move for a while. Captain Dodd and I need to examine the readings we took in the Captor’s system so you should be able to come back here. We will try not to move while you are gone.”
“Duke Gardner, you may go wherever you choose. Once we read the floor, you can be going faster than the speed of light and we will be able to teleport right to that spot.”
Tommy and Cassandra were stunned. “Are you going to explain to us how this device works?”
“Certainly, when we return.”
Ensign Ahn said over the intercom, “One of the Algeans has returned from taking their readings. They just walked into a silver energy field and disappeared, Captain.”
Tommy said, “Well, that certainly wasn’t wasted effort.”
Gerald Nelson sat with the two adolescents in Wade McAllister’s lab going over the device that they had brought from the Kosiev. He was shaking his head and even Cade was confused about what the device did. “I don’t understand how this works. Can you possibly explain it in simpler terms?”
Sprig gave the equivalent of a mental sigh and said, “The math is more complicated than I can express to you and unfortunately your computers are not at a level where they can process the equations in less than four hundred years. We had to take a huge risk to be able to see it visually in our minds; however, I will attempt to explain what it does and forego the science behind it.” Gerald and Wade nodded and Sprig continued, “You are aware that every place in the universe has a resonance that is unique. We currently use a screen surrounding a ship that resonates at the frequency of the place we want to jump. Once the screen resonates at that frequency, the ship goes out of normal space through null space and reemerges at the location of the frequency the screen had matched. Are we together so far?”
Gerald said, “We understand that process.”
Twig then said, “What we discovered was that it wasn’t necessary to match that frequency to go to the desired location.”
The two scientists looked blank. Sprig then said, “We thought about instead of matching the frequency of the place you wanted to go, why not bring the place to you.”
The two Algeans watched the two humans and gave them time to process the information. After several minutes Gerald said, “So you take the frequency of the place just as if you were there using a reader to see it and form a field with that exact frequency at that place.”
“Exactly, and just like the frequency is not limited to light speed but exists in real time everywhere in the universe, once the field is established all you do is step through it and you’re there.”
“But the field is at the location where the reading is being taken, not where you are,” Wade said with a furrowed brow.
Twig said, “Of course, but once that field is made, it’s also everywhere else in the universe. It’s not just limited to the location of the frequency. Remember, the space that contains all of the universe’s location frequencies is smaller than the smallest atom. If it exists, it exists everywhere. So if the field is made somewhere other than the exact location, it still exists at the location of the frequency and everywhere else.”
“So, even if you make the field in another galaxy, the field with the desired location will exist at the exact location you want to go,” Gerald said with wide eyes.
The Algeans smiled mentally and Twig said, “Now you understand.”
Gerald continued, “So you don’t need null space because you don’t go through it; you go directly to the location of the field frequency.”
Cade looked at Gerald and said, “Do you understand this?”
Gerald nodded and continued to talk with the Algeans, “This is an advance that is amazing. You can literally step through your front door on Ross and go right to Glod, or anywhere else in the universe.” Gerald looked at Wade and said, “This is revolutionary. Have the two of you thought about turning this field horizontal and transporting cities to another planet?”
The Algeans looked puzzled for a moment and then they saw it, too. “No, we haven’t but you’re right. Create a big enough field and drop it over a city and it will go to another location.”
The Algeans looked at each other and it was like a bomb went off mentally. Sprig said, “Why limit it to a city. If we can move a city, why not move a planet?”
Cade looked at them and said, “Is that possible?”
The Algeans were not answering; they had locked their limbs together and were thinking furiously. Neither Gerald nor Cade could break into their attention.
The officers of the Kosiev were meeting in the Kosievs’ conference room after the escape from the Captors. Everyone was on edge expecting the Captors to jump in on them while they were away from their posts. Tommy and Cassandra entered the room and everyone jumped to attention. Tommy said, “At ease, and I do mean at ease. I can sense your nervousness but I can tell you that my sense of danger is telling me that they do not know where we are; that means that they did not get a reading on our ship. I’m forced to believe that if they did not get a reading of us when we came that close to their home world, then they probably can’t. However, they have demonstrated for me that once they see us, then their sensor systems can track us on whatever route we take to escape.” Tommy lowered the big display from the ceiling and said, “I’m going to replay the sensor records from our brush with the Captors and I want you to tell me what you see that might hold interest for us.” Tommy started the recording showing the huge planet surrounded by the construct that the red ships were parked on.
Wes’ said, “Stop the recording.” Tommy froze the picture of the planet. Wes said, “I’ve examined this picture very closely since the attack and I’ve seen some things that I want you to see if I’m wrong in what my conclusions are.” Wes took a laser pointer and said, “I want you to notice that every cell on this construct has a ship on it. I am going to assume that the other side of the planet looks just like this side. That means there is no room for any ships unless a ship leaves the construct.”
Everyone looked closely at the picture and finally Tommy said, “Ok, I agree. Does anyone else think differently?” No one disagreed.
Wes continued, “Now before we leave this picture, look up here at the top right of the construct. Wes pressed a button and the section he was indicating grew larger. Look at this ship right here.” The pointer rested on a ship that was significantly larger than the other ships around it. “That ship is four thousand miles in diameter and has a deep purple band around its center. I believe that this is the queen of this colony if they really are like bees. It looks like this colony is full.” Wes then moved the pointer to the lower corner and the view grew larger. Then everyone saw it; in a small cell was a small ship with a purple band around the center. “I have scanned this picture with the computer and these are the only two ships in the picture with purple bands. If these creatures are like bees, there can only be one queen in a hive. One of these will have to leave and probably soon.”
Everyone looked at the photo and felt the fear of what that meant. Wes then said, “I want you to pay close attention to what happened when the ships detected us and left the planet. I’m going to play it at normal speed and then I’ll slow it down.” The recording started and the planet looked like it exploded with a red wave exploding upward. Wes said, “Now I’m going to slow it down to super slow motion. I want you to pay attention to the location of the two queens.” The recording began and once again the officers saw the giant red ships explode off the construct but now at slow motion they could see thousands of the red ships move over the top of the two queens and form a wall around them. At normal speed with millions of ships lifting it was not possible to see the move to protect the two queens. The recording ended as the Kosiev jumped away.