Two months later eleven megaships had been converted, had their control systems installed, and had been dropped into a star. Cassandra went to each ship and changed the penetrator launchers so that they were mounted inside the ship and the barrels stuck into the inside walls of the hull. She then melded the launchers to the negative matter inside the skin of the ship. Now when fired, the launchers would send a piece of negative matter at the target. The size of the matter was set for a medium size captor ship. It should destroy the largest but would leave wreckage. On a smaller ship, there would be negative matter left behind that would need to be reabsorbed into the skin of the ships. Tommy watched Cassandra fine tune the launchers and marveled at her mental control of the ships systems. “You’re remarkable, Cassie. I have no idea how you’ve made this work but these ships should give more than they get in a battle with the Captors.”
“This is easy; I’ve always had an affinity for machines. They talk to me now and I just tell them what I need them to do. Well, something like that.”
“You do that to me, too.”
“Yeah, but you don’t always listen.”
“That’s true, however the Royal Family has approved you for a medal and I’m here to present it.”
“I don’t deserve a medal. Everyone on the ship deserves one as much I do.”
Tommy moved in front of her and said, “That maybe true but there’s only one person on this ship that the metal will fit.”
Cassie tilted her head to the side obviously confused when Tommy opened a ring box and held it up to her and said, “Cassandra Dodd, will you marry me?”
Cassandra looked at the ring with a stone the size of a small planet on it and felt her heart swell ten times its size. She started crying and said, “Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.” She rushed forward and threw her arms around Tommy and held him tight.
“Hey, hey; don’t you want to see the ring?”
“Right now I want to see you as close as I can get to you.” She held him close and after a few moments stepped back and Tommy placed the ring on her finger. “After Jupiter we will have the wedding.” Tommy reached for Cassie and held her tight.”
Chapter 15
Captain Wes McAnn looked at his control board. He had been given the command of the Atlantis one of the new pulse ships as the new models were called. He had worked his crew into top shape and his board showed their readiness. His com beeped and he looked on his screen and saw Captain Edward Jones the new commander of the Polaris. “Wes, I just wanted to make sure you saw that I will be covering your port side.”
“Hello, Ed; yes I did. I couldn’t ask for a better wingman. Congratulations on your promotion.”
“Thank you and congratulations to you, too. Let’s make sure we bring these ships back.”
“I agree, keep your eyes open and stay close to the Kosiev. She’ll protect our flank; our job is to keep the masses as far away as possible. I’ll keep my eye on you,” Wes said.
“And I will be watching both of you.”
Wes looked at his com, “Hey Captain Fergerson. Is the Sydney up to your expectations?”
“Yes it is, however my Davlid sensor officer developed stones in her primary stomach and had to be taken to a hospital. They’ve replaced her with a Cainth.”
Ed smiled, “How lucky can you get. Have you ever seen how the Cainth can perform four functions simultaneously with those four arms?”
“Yes, but I can’t stop thinking that he looks like a bloody Roo from my farm in Australia. It’s something I’ll just have to get over but I keep expecting to see him hop off the bridge.”
Wes and Ed laughed, “You’ll get over it Ferg.”
“I know, I know; it’s just weird.”
The twelve ships were in formation preparing to teleport into Earth’s old solar system and begin the fight against the Captors. Admiral Cassandra Dodd keyed the fleet frequency and said, “Hold our formation and do not get pulled away from the Kosiev. If the Captors launch one of those huge energy missiles, we will teleport out of the system and come right back after the ball has passed our position. If the fight gets out of hand, I will push the fleet teleport key and take everyone out. Hold your positions around the Kosiev until we launch the fusion missiles into Jupiter. We will be going in five minutes. Make sure your ships are ready. That is all.”
The Algeans were standing on the bridge running calculations and Sprig didn’t like what he was seeing. “Admiral Dodd, our calculations lead us to believe that the fusion missiles may not be enough to ignite the core.”
Tommy looked at Sprig and said, “How many will it take to ignite the core?”
Sprig raised his limbs over his head and said, “It a mass problem. Jupiter is just too big. I’m not certain every fusion missile in our inventory will do the job. If the Captors have been raising the temperature of the core like we believe, then it might work. We just won’t know until we launch,”
Tommy and Cassandra looked at Sprig and Tommy said, “We have to try. The plan stands as we’ve drawn it up.”
Lt. Johns, the Kosievs’ new sensor office said, “Teleport in one minute.”
Cassandra said, “Count it down, Linda Kay.”
“5,4,3,2,1, execute.”
The Stars Realm Pulse Ships appeared above the southern Pole of Jupiter and the Kosiev launched twelve fusion missiles into Jupiter’s atmosphere just before a hundred thousand Captor ships came screaming around the planet. Cassandra said over the fleet frequency, “Weapons free, hold your positions.”
The Captors started blowing up and imploding. The Kosiev had the black negative matter balls leaving its hull so fast that the entire skin looked black. The first wave of Captor ships were disappearing faster than the eye could follow but now the rest of the Captor fleet arrived with more than a million ships piling on the rush to destroy the intruders. Linda Kay announced, “The fusion missiles have detonated.” She paused for a moment and said, “The core has not ignited.”
The Captors launched thousands of the energy balls and Cassie hit the mass teleport button. The fleet came out above Jupiter’s north pole and fired negative matter at the construct that the Captors had been building and huge holes were blown into it.”
Sprig yelled at Cassandra, “Go into energy space and ignite Jupiter’s core.”
Cassandra was so focused on fighting the Kosiev that she only heard Sprig with the back of her mind. Then it broke through her consciousness and she keyed the ships com and said, “Penetrator crews, take over firing weapons.” Then she looked for the nearest nerve center in space and focused her mind into it.
Wes saw thousands of Captor ships rushing in to attack and he issued orders as fast as he could. “Penetrators focus seventy percent of weapons on the starboard side, helmsman, roll us sixty degrees to the starboard, Launch a volley of two thousand toward the nose, Belay that roll. Move toward the Polaris, keep them off his flank.”
The Atlantis moved closer to the Polaris as thousands of red ships flew at the beleaguered pulse ship. Wes ordered, “Take some of the heat off Polaris’ port side. Helmsman, take us in closer.” Suddenly the red ships turned from the Polaris and moved on Atlantis. More than five thousand energy balls flew at Wes’ ship. The Captor’s beams were being absorbed by the pulse ships’ skin but the energy balls blasts were so violent that the ships were being tossed around like leaves in a gale. Five hundred energy balls made it through Atlantis’ defenses and hit on both sides of the rear of the ship. Simultaneously two hundred energy balls hit the front port side of the ship. The rear was held in place by the blasts on each side but the front part of the ship was slammed starboard. The ship broke in half.
Linda Kay on board the Kosiev watching her sensors saw the Atlantis break up and said, “Oh no! Please God, not Wes.”