Tommy took a deep breath and said, “I must agree with Wes; that is another queen on the construct and her small size seems to indicate she’s rather young. We need to take this into account as we make our plans. I think we also have determined that the Captors are looking at Earth’s solar system as a new nest. What do we now know after our first contact with these captors?”
John Ortiz said, “We know we can survive their beams.”
Janet Jackson said, “We are faster than they are.”
James Roswell said, “We know we can kill them if we hit them with our ship.”
Wes said, “We were only hit by one beam at a time. We don’t know if we will survive more than one. We are faster than they are in normal space but we could not escape them without using the adolescent’s device. We were traveling more than one thousand times the speed of light when we hit that ship. It’s hard to aim at a target at that speed. We don’t know what would happen at normal speed. We do not possess a weapon that would be effective against them.”
Cassandra said, “We still don’t know enough.”
Wes said, “I recorded one other thing.” Everyone looked at him, “I had my sensors set to look for one of those nerve centers that the adolescents talked about. My sensors showed one out about three hundred thousand miles from the planet. I took a quick picture before we left. Here it is.” A picture of a bright blue light with a huge red ship holding station more than five thousand miles away. “I believe that what we see here is the very thing the Adolescents described. This is where the Captors get their universal sensors. Notice that the Captor ship is away from the nerve center because of the heat. I’m not certain that we could have avoided them if they had access to that center.”
Tommy said, “More good news.”
Cassandra said, “There is something else. I have developed a feel for the Kosiev and I sense something that might be important.” Tommy looked at her and nodded to go ahead. “It is my understanding that when this skin was formed on the Kosiev that it was due to eight small black holes falling from the burned out reactors that were blown into the power cells by multiple anti-matter hits. I sense that inside the Kosievs’ skin that those black holes have formed into one black hole that is now larger than the one at the center of our galaxy.”
Tommy said, “What are you saying?”
Cassandra said, “It’s still growing and I sense that this black hole is made of negative matter. I don’t know how this works but I know what I sense is accurate. I believe that the Captors can’t hurt us with an energy beam but I don’t know what other weapons they have to use.”
Tommy shook his head and said, “We need to find something to use against them. Rose has contacted me and she senses trouble for Earth and I’m getting the same sensation. We have to keep pressure on the Captors to keep them from swarming and buy some time to move our population. Ensign Ahn, did the adolescents show you how to use their device?”
“Yes sir, they did.”
“We have got to go back to their world and make another attack. Even if our weapons do not affect them, we must maintain their attention. I want you to set their device to teleport us in to their system then change the setting to bring us back to this place. I’m hoping that they can’t track us using our new device.”
Cassandra said, “Prepare for jump in two hours. Reload the penetrators and plan to fire a full salvo from a range of 300 yards from the construct’s surface. We will then run through normal space and see if they can stop us; any questions? No; report to your posts.”
Cassandra keyed her com and announced, “Battle stations, all hands to battle stations; we will be jumping back into the Captor’s system in two hours. Make sure your stations are ready.”
The twelve hundred crew members of the Kosiev ran to their stations and began preparing for the jump. Tommy and Cassandra stayed in the conference room. “Cassie, my sense of danger to Earth has jumped tremendously. I want all of our penetrators targeted toward that new queen. I don’t expect us to break through their screens but we must make an effort.”
“Tommy, surprise was on our side last time; I suspect they will be waiting for us.”
Tommy shook his head and said, “Let us hope the Kosievs’ skin can handle the hits. I wish you were somewhere else, Cassie. I can’t bear the pain of losing you if we don’t make it.”
“Tommy, I wouldn’t want to make it if you were not with me. We are exactly where we should be.” She stood and kissed him and left to prepare the ship.
Tommy thought, “Atlas, if we don’t make it, don’t give up; we haven’t even tried to hit the matrix holding your brothers but I have not forgotten them.”
“Perhaps it’s better that you haven’t tried. I suspect that if the Captors thought there was a relationship between your attacks and them, then they would destroy them all.”
“You’re probably right, Atlas. Make sure you get the information from the adolescents if we are destroyed. I just wish we had some kind of weapon that would work against them. We’re totally defensive.”
“I want to go with you, Tommy. However, it would not be wise to have all of us eliminated at one time. I will be waiting for you here and hoping for the best.”
Tommy smiled and left the conference room for his post on the bridge.
Two hours later Captain Dodd announced over the ships intercom, “I’ve given the target coordinates to all of our penetrator crews. I want all of our primary beams targeted on the same spot and fired immediately on emergence into normal space. Penetrators will also fire at the same moment. We will begin our run as soon as we see if our weapons have any effect on the target. Jump in 5,4,3,2,1, execute.”
The Kosiev appeared in normal space so close to the Captor’s construct that it seemed it had landed on its surface. The Kosiev disappeared in a blinding flash of beams and penetrators leaving for the construct that seemed to hit instantaneously. Cassandra watched her display and saw all of the beams and penetrators stopped and exploded a hundred yards above the construct. Cassie thought angrily, “kill that queen!”
Something left the skin of the Kosiev and hit the construct. A huge blast erupted and a huge section of the construct disintegrated leaving a gaping hole in the surface. Cassie was stunned but then she heard Wes shout, “Run, now.”
Cassie hit the button on her console and the Kosiev sped away from the Captor’s planet. Tommy thought, “Move fast now.”
The Kosiev hit light speed so fast that the Captors surrounding and firing at the ship once again did not record its exit on their sensors. The Kosiev was traveling at one thousand times the speed of light and the giant red ships were jumping into its projected path. Cassie thought. “We have to go faster!” The Kosiev leaped forward and went to five thousand times the speed of light.”
Wes looking at his sensors said, “I don’t know what you did but we are now traveling at five thousand times the speed of light. My sensors cannot see anything at this speed.”
Cassandra said, “I’m taking control.” She pressed a button on her console and closed her eyes. She could see everything around the ship. She saw where the red ships were jumping into normal space to cut them off and she turned the ship away from them. She saw a star directly in front of them and banked the ship away.