“The Captors screen has just turned a brighter red, Your Highness. We are jumping now.”
The First Male finished setting up the layers of ships and turned his attention to the transmission from one of the searching warriors. He looked at the ship in the transmission and then compared it to the ships that had attacked the First Mother. From the angle of the picture he could see similarities between the two but he needed a full side view to make sure. “Move in and take a full scan of that ship; I’ll monitor as you scan.”
The Warrior replied, “As soon as I moved toward the planet the ship jumped.”
“Follow that ship, I want a full scan. The planet isn’t going anywhere; we’ll look at it later.”
“Yes, First male. The ship jumped using a standard drive system and I have recorded that its energy signature does not match the ships that attacked.”
“I don’t care if it matches or not. It may not be the ones who attacked but it may have a relationship to them if their ships are similar. Don’t let it escape.”
The Captor warrior disappeared from the system chasing the Megaship.
Tommy was watching a feed from the planet and saw the Captor disappear. He said a quick prayer for the Phelagend and said, “Jump to the Crengren system, now.”
Cassandra said, “Jump in 3,2,1, execute. The Kosiev broke into normal space next to the planet and Tommy commed President Dgzh. The former Headman of the Alliance looked worried. Tommy said, “We don’t have much time. I am going to hide your planet behind an invisibility screen but I’m uncertain if it will work if the Captors really decide to fly a huge number of ships through the space they expect you to be. Our last resort is to move your planet to the system that Earth is currently hiding. I want to avoid that if possible because they will deduct that Earth was probably not destroyed as they thought.”
President Dgzh looked off the monitor and said, “Are you sure you can do it safely?”
Sprig answered, “We’re actually further along now. We will send your planet to the opposite side of the star from the Earth’s current location so that gravity won’t affect you. Your orbit will be slightly outside that of Earth but we will find a better system for you before Earth catches up with your orbit.”
Dgzh smiled and said, “We are in your hands.”
Tommy said, “Ground all of your space ships and have as many of the personnel on the settlements in your system make emergency jumps to the planet. If they are not on the planet they will be killed.” Dgzh disappeared from his com.
“Duchess Gardner, please plan to hide the planet, however, you have to wait until the last possible moment so that the ones coming from the system’s settlements can find the planet. I suspect that once the chase of the megaship is over, the Captors will be coming here. Communications, make contact with that ship and let us know what happens.”
“Aye, Aye, Your Highness.”
Captain Gidhu and the bridge crew kept their eyes on the sensor monitors watching for what they knew was coming. They had just flashed through the 233rd jump and jumped again just as the Captor ship entered normal space. After every jump the Captor was incrementally closer. The ship was fighting the fear that they were losing the battle. Jump 300 passed with the Captor coming out of normal space and firing some kind of energy matrix that passed through the space the megaship occupied just before it disappeared. “Your highness, we will never make it to the 500 ^ th jump. They almost caught us on the last jump.”
Tommy hit his com, “Wes, are you ready?”
“Yes, we’re on station.”
Tommy looked at Cassandra and said, “Times up; hide the planet.” Then he pushed his transmission key and said, “Jump to the last coordinates now.”
Captain Gidhu nodded to his jump officer and the Megaship jumped as a piece of the energy matrix hit the tail of the ship.
Wes watched as the Megaship flashed into normal space and moved slowly toward the teleport screen. The engines of the Megaship was enclosed in some form of energy that prevented them operating. Just before the ship hit the field the Captor emerged into normal space and hit it with a beam destroying it. Wes ordered, “Fire.”
Two black negative energy balls hit the Captor and it imploded so fast it didn’t even flash as it disappeared. “Be ready, they’ll be here shortly.”
Captor ships began appearing around the four pulse ships and started firing energy balls at them. Each of the SR ships fired at the Captors as they emerged into normal space and watched as they were imploding by the hundreds. Wes watched two energy balls flashing toward his ship and he pressed the jump button on his console and came out into normal space directly behind the Captors that had fired on him. He hit them with negative matter shots and then jumped again. The jump button was a new development where the sensors automatically tracked incoming missiles or ships and determined the closest point behind them and entered the coordinates into the Captains console. The four pulse ships were killing giant red ships by the hundreds. Finally Wes saw thousands of red ships jump in around him and he ordered, “All ships escape.”
The four pulse ships jumped away in four different directions. Wes watched as the Rossville entered normal space and said, “Ready weapons, fire.”
Forty Captor ships appeared at the jump point and were immediately hit by negative energy balls; all forty imploded. “Jump now,” he ordered. The Rossville disappeared as five thousand ships appeared. This process repeated itself ten more times before the Rossville teleported to safety. The Vgrig pulse ship Vendriqul was hit by ten energy balls as it attacked the incoming Captor ships. The pulse ship was broken in the tail and the Captain knew there was no escape. He hit the detonate button on his console to prevent the Captors from getting one of the SR ships and learning its technology. The skin of the ship blew outward from the ship with all of the negative energy being released. All ten thousand Captor ships in the system were disintegrated along with every planet, moon, and asteroid. The star’s gravity slowly pulled what negative matter remained and when the two combined, the star went supernova and exploded.
The next eight hundred Captor ships jumping into the system burned in the Atomic fire before the watcher could warn the others to stay away. The First Male asked the watcher, “What happened?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure if we caused the explosion, the strangers caused the explosion, or the star was just ready to explode naturally. We lost many warriors in that system.”
The First Male asked for and got a ship count from his ship leaders and learned that more than thirty five thousand warriors were killed chasing those ships. Then he thought, “Groups orange, blue, red, and black. Jump to the planet where this chase began.”
“Cassandra, the chase is over; now is the time. But Tommy, there are eight hundred ships still moving toward the planet.”
“It’s them or the planet, Cassandra. Do it now!”
Sprig said, “We’ll teleport the ships to Ross. Hide the planet.”
A huge silver field appeared in front of the ships moving toward the planet and moved toward them. As it passed, no ships remained. “Now, Cassandra, now!”
Cassandra closed her eyes and thought, “You cannot see it, you cannot see it, you cannot see it.” The Planet disappeared along with the Kosiev that was orbiting just above the planet’s atmosphere. Cassandra extended a tube from the skin to the surface of the field hiding the planet and used the passive sensors to watch what happened in the outer system.
“Twig, if we have to move the planet, how much room do you need to do it?”
“Actually, we can do it from right here.”
Sprig said, “She has become quite the maestro at manipulating the fields.”
Tommy looked at the sensor display and said, “Be ready to move.”