“The nexus should be ready for use in a short time. I’m surprised the strange ships have not attacked us yet.”
“I am also at a loss. However, if they see our layered defenses they may not want to take us on here in our own system.”
The old watcher thought for a moment and said, “I hope you are right but that has not stopped them in the past. I just wanted you to know that if they are coming it will be soon.”
“Thank you, Old Watcher. I’ll place every one on alert.” The First Male contacted the Queen and said, “First Mother, I fear an attack will happen soon. I want you prepared to jump away if the strange ships appear.”
“Where do you think I will be safer than right here among our warriors?”
“If they attack, then they will come looking for you and me. They have a weapon that can destroy us if it hits. I want you and your escorts to jump out of the system at the first sign of trouble and keep jumping until I tell you to come back.”
The First Mother was silent for a long moment and then said, “I want you to jump with me. If it’s not safe for me, it’s not safe for you.”
“First Mother, I have restrained from leading our attacks, but if I go then we will not have the leadership needed to defeat the enemy. I must refuse in this instance. This is our home and I will not run from its defense.”
“I know you are right but I want you at the center of our warriors starting now. If it gets dangerous, I order you to save yourself.”
The First Male fought the impulse to refuse and then said, “I will if I am in danger.”
“Please don’t be rash. As long as you and I survive our race will live. Do not jeopardize our future.”
“I won’t First Mother.”
“Tommy, I’m afraid that I may not be able to avoid igniting the particle in energy space much longer,” Cassandra thought.
“What’s happening Cassandra?”
“I am being drawn to the nerve centers, Tommy. Even in my sleep I have to fight entering them. I think that the time has come and I just don’t know what will happen if it ignites.”
“Sprig, will you and Twig join Cassandra and me for a moment.”
“Certainly, how can we help you?”
“Sprig, I am being drawn to the nerve centers of the energy particle. I have the feeling that it is time for it to ignite and I have to fight to stay out. The urge is getting more and more difficult to resist to go in and ignite the particle. “
“Cassandra, what do you think will happen if the particle ignites,” Twig asked.
“I honestly don’t know but it seems that my destiny is to do exactly that. It’s almost like a baby whose time for delivery has come.”
“Sprig, are the old penetrators ready for use?”
“Yes they are; the last of them were targeted and loaded with the Coronado balls yesterday. Cassandra, the temperature of the nerve centers has come down to where the Captors can use them again. Perhaps you should go ahead and ignite the particle let’s see what happens. I have studied it with Twig and we don’t have a real idea of what it will do but we suspect that the explosion will not enter our universe but will explode into a new one. I hope that’s the case but we just don’t know for certain.”
Tommy listened in and said, “Unfortunately, I don’t want to have to deal with it until after we launch our attack. Cassandra, you’re going to have to fight that urge at this time and we’ll deal with it after the battle. We are going to teleport all of our converted megaships into the Captor’s system one second after the penetrators are launched and each ship fire on one Captor and teleport out immediately. I need you in full control of the Kosiev.”
“I’m fighting as hard as I can Tommy but if I sleep, I may be pulled into one of the nerve centers. The Attack has to happen quickly.”
Tommy thought for a moment and then said, “Sprig, we need all of those penetrators to launch simultaneously. If they go in waves the Captors will start moving and the targeting will not be accurate. We have to hit them while they are stationary.”
“They are all set to launch together, Prince Gardner. Just tell us when,” Twig said.
Tommy looked at Cassandra and could feel her pain. He punched his com and said, “Admiral Kosiev, I need you on the bridge immediately. Admiral Mikado, have all of the Megaships got their targets programmed?”
“Admiral Mikado appeared on the display on Tommy and Cassandra’s command chairs and said, “We are ready. Just give us the time to teleport.”
Kosiev entered the bridge and Tommy said, “Admiral, we have to move the attack up and go quickly. Cassandra is being drawn into the energy nerve centers and she can’t hold out much longer. Our ships and penetrators are ready to go and I can’t see any reason to delay any longer. Do you have anything that we’ve missed and need to consider before we launch?”
Kosiev looked at Tommy and then at Cassandra. He could see that Cassandra was pale and was shaking. “I have seen two huge Captor ships on our recordings. Have you targeted them?”
Sprig said, “Unfortunately, those two ships are moving around in the system. They are both surrounded by numerous Captors and we’ve not targeted them because we would have to hit a moving target. We felt like it would be a better us of the penetrators to actually hit one of their ships than waste them trying to guess their coordinates.”
Kosiev shrugged and said, “I guess we can’t have everything. I see no reason to delay. We need to make sure everyone is using identical time for the attack. Sprig, will you contact all of our ships and make sure we’re exact on our systems.”
“We’ve already done it, Admiral.”
Kosiev moved to his chair on the bridge and said, “Admiral Mikado, Make sure your ships are at stations and ready. Also reinforce that they will jump in fire and jump away immediately.”
“Yes Sir, I’ll tell them.”
Kosiev looked at Tommy and nodded. Tommy said, “We will launch exactly thirty minutes from my mark.”
“All ships are on the line, Prince Gardner,” Admiral Mikado said.
“Set your timers from right…now, mark.”
The Stars Realm fleet set their timers and the hundred and fifty thousand ships moved to battle stations and waited for the moment to attack. The time ticked down and finally twenty nine minutes and fifty nine seconds elapsed and the two million penetrators launched. One second later the megaships teleported to the Captor’s system.
The First Male had moved to the inner band of warriors to tidy up the spaces between them when the Old Watcher yelled, “Scatter, scatter, out warriors are targeted.”
The First Male looked out at the two outer bands of warriors and saw both bands exploding. Then he saw thousands of the strange ships appear and fire on the warriors in the inner band. He had no time to do anything. The ships appeared for less than two seconds and then they were gone. What remained was chaos. He saw that more than two million warriors were severely damaged or killed outright. His anger was monumental but there was no trace of where the ships had come from. The weapons that had hit the outer bands were traced back into the no space particle and ended there. He then had a terrifying thought. “First Mother, are you alright?”
“Yes I am. You need to get our warriors moving. It seems they targeted them because they were stationary; they had no time to move. Get them moving.”
The First Male sent out to all his warriors, “Scatter and keep moving around our system. Do not stay in one place and move at one half speed.”
The remaining Captor ships became red blurs as they flew around the gas giant. The First Male felt real fear. There was rage but for the first time in his long millions of years old life he feared for his race. There were less than two million of his species remaining and he did not know if they could defend themselves against the inexorable force they were facing.
The Kosiev broke back into normal space and there was jubilation. The recordings showed that the penetrators had killed millions of Captors. Tommy and Kosiev looked at each other and Tommy said, “Your plan was extraordinary. The odds are getting better.”