Lens of Time: Book 06 - Star Rover-Running Out of Time (21 page)

“I’ve already had them schedule our four ships, Sir. The Captain responsible for the scheduling is a former classmate of mine from the Academy.”

Shane smiled, “Keep up the good work.”

“You know I will.”

“I want you and Captain McCagg to get together and work on possible maneuvers we can use in combat.”

“I’ll let him know. We can work on that while the ships are being modified. We’ll incorporate any new design changes into the plans.”

“That is an excellent idea. I’ll talk with you once we settle into Space Dock.”

“Yes Sir.”

• • •

Katherine looked at the current leader of the civilizations in M87 and listened to his apology for ten minutes before she interrupted him, “I accept your apology and understand that this was launched without your approval. Your intervention could have led to catastrophic results.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Grillen King that launched the invasion into the Red Sector was killed before we attacked the Grillen on those planets and defeated them. The new Grillen King did not agree with the former King and pursued peace. If you had managed to kill him, the peace would have been still born.”

“We didn’t know.”

“Things happened so fast that I neglected to keep you informed; I have to accept some of the blame for what happened. I will do my best to keep you updated on what’s going on.”

“So the war is over and peace prevails?”

“Not really.”

The Leader stared at Katherine, “What do you mean?”

“There is a civilization that was providing the Grillen advanced technology to use against us. We’ve learned that particular civilization represents a much larger danger than the Grillen and we expect them to attempt an invasion in the future.” Kat saw the Leader’s concern, “They’ll be coming after the Union first. I don’t expect your galaxy will be a target unless they defeat the Grillen and us. For the foreseeable future, your civilizations are not in danger.”

“So we need to keep working on our weapon development.”

“I would, if I were in your place.”

“Are you willing to share your technology with us?”

“Your last intrusion into our negotiations should answer that question. You don’t have control over the civilizations in your galaxy and we will not endanger ourselves by sharing our weapons with you.”

“I understand your reluctance. I will endeavor to bring everyone in line.”

Katherine shook her head, “I doubt you’ll accomplish that soon, you’re too big. There’s hundreds of thousands of civilizations in your galaxy and you’ll have your hands full just preventing them from attacking each other, much less anyone else. Unifying them is not something that will happen in the near future.”

“I know you’re right, however, that is another goal for me to work on.”

“I do hope you come to a solution. I’ll make sure you are kept in the information loop in the future. Let me know if you need our help.”

“I will.” The screen went dark and Katherine knew M87 was going to be a future issue. She hoped it wouldn’t be before the Servants were dealt with.

• • •

Dat looked at the Grillen Admiral, “Are you sure about this?”

“I’ve not seen any other type of beams on the ships that came to visit us. The beams on the Bronze Warship were just like the ones we used on the Grey Ships, only much more powerful.”

“How does that help us?”

“That beam does not penetrate the grey force fields we used on the Grey Ships. We believe it won’t penetrate until they are much closer to it.”

“So if we abandoned the normal force fields we use and installed a grey force field, our ships would survive a hit?”

“This is something that can only be determined in combat; however, our readings support they will protect against those beams for a short time.”

“What about the missiles?”

“We only managed to get a small recording of them before they exploded but we determined that they work on the same energy used in their beams. The missile’s exteriors were constructed out of the grey material in the hulls of our Grey Ships.”

“Do you think they’re brittle?”

“I suspect, if they could strengthen that substance, their warships would have been made from it.”

“Perhaps the guns may still be needed.”

“I suspect they are but I wouldn’t use them like you’re currently doing.”

“Oh? Why not?”

“Missiles aren’t ships that can maneuver. They lock on their targets and pretty much act like a projectile. With your technology, you should be able to use the guns to target each missile individually and not waste millions of shards to form a cloud around your warships.” Dat was thinking about this observation, when the Admiral said offhand as he reached for a memory stick, “I don’t understand why you don’t just eject the shards and let the missiles run into them.”

“What?”

The Admiral looked up, “Huh?”

“What did you just say?’

The Admiral collected his thoughts and tried to remember. “Uhhh…oh yeah. Why fire them at the missiles? Just eject them and have a stationary cloud around your ships they would have to go through to hit you. It wouldn’t work if you were in a running battle, but you could use them to fight from a stationary formation.”

Dat smiled, “I wonder if we really are the most intelligent.”

“Oh, I know you are; but even an idiot can sometimes see the obvious that the most brilliant of us miss.”

“You are far from being an idiot, Admiral. Let’s talk about how to incorporate this information into a defense that might work against them. I have to believe they have more than just those grey weapons.”

“You’re giving them more credit than they may deserve. They’re coming after you to become more intelligent. You would certainly have multiple weapons systems; I’m not so sure they would even consider it.”

“If what you suspect is true; we have the advantage here.”

“What if they have enough ships to saturate your defenses?”

“Let us hope that’s not the case.”

“We need to take a look at them and see.”

“Admiral, we know they can detect our probe’s transmissions. What do you think they will do if one of our probes transmits from one of their planets?”

“I suspect they will attack you rather quickly to prevent you attacking them first.”

“That’s why we haven’t activated the probes yet.”

“Can you recall them?”

“I’m not sure. Why do you ask?”

“You could have them move to open space between galaxies and transmit their data. You should find out.”

Dat lifted his wrist unit and started talking. After several moments, he lowered his arm, “General Robinson seems to think we can recall them. Our normal transmissions go out and are pretty much untraceable from long distance. He’s sending new programming to the ten tracker probes and they will drop off whatever ship they’re attached to and drop into green space. When they detect nothing around them they will jump to an assembly point in open space and transmit their findings. They will then self-destruct in the event they were followed.”

“I suspect they will be very difficult to follow. If they’re as small as you’ve described in normal space, in green space they should be smaller than a water molecule.”

“They’re actually smaller than a proton. We’re still not taking any chances.”

“How long will it be before they jump away?”

“They should have the new instructions by tomorrow at the latest.”

“Perhaps we should wait for their findings before we proceed with our plans.”

Dat nodded and saw a message come in from Gresha to contact her. “I’ll meet you here tomorrow.” Dat stood to leave the room and contacted Gresha. “Hi, Love. What’s going on?”

“There has been a development.”

Dat hated that statement; it always meant trouble. “What’s happened?”

“I’m pregnant.” Dat was shocked speechless. Gresha saw his expression, “You need to come home.”

“I’m on my way.”

“Dat, I’m having triplets.” Dat fell into a chair and stared at her on the wrist display. Gresha shook her head, “No, I don’t know how this happened!”

Dat jumped up and yelled as he ran from the room, “I’ll contact you when I can meet with you!”

The Grillen Admiral heard the conversation and smiled. It was always a great thing to have children. Then he remembered that Dat and Gresha were two different species; he was also rendered speechless.

• • •

Dat arrived at Earth and broke too many traffic laws to count. He landed outside his home and rushed inside to find Gresha being examined by a team of doctors and scientists. “What’s going on?”

Gresha jumped up and ran into Dat’s arms. She started crying, as he held her close and stroked her hair. The team leader came over and said, “We can’t understand how this has happened. This is beyond anything we know about genetics.”

Dat held Gresha, “Shhhh…it’s going to be alright. Let’s sit down and talk about this.” Gresha nodded and started wiping her tears with her sleeve. Dat turned to the team leader, “What do you know, Doctor?”

“Gresha is carrying three infants. Our scans show that one is human, one is Gresha’s species, and the third appears to be a hybrid of the two. They all appear to be developing naturally and are about ten weeks in their development. Dat looked at Gresha and thought back to what was happening ten weeks earlier. He saw Gresha doing the same thing and saw her realize that they were not together at that time. She looked at him and said, “You are the only one, Dat.”

“I know, Gresha. I have no doubt about that.” He shook his head and was dumbfounded about how it could happen.

Dat stood up and looked at the scientist who was running the medical scanner, “Have you scanned the babies’ genetic profile?”

“We have and there is absolutely no doubt that they are a product of Gresha and your DNA.”

“But I thought there was no way for our DNA to combine to produce a child?”

“There isn’t.”

“Then how did this happen?”

“Even if we took samples of your cells and tried to produce an offspring in vitro, we have no possible way of making it happen. This is beyond anything we know.”

Dat had a thought crash through his consciousness and he fell to the sofa behind him. Gresha looked at him, “You know something!”

“Blacky did it.”

Gresha fell to the couch beside him with shock on her face. She started shaking her head and he looked her in the eyes, “In one of our recent conversations he told me that the enemy he’s going to face would be shocked at what his species was capable of doing genetically. He was talking about his species being immune from them injecting their lava, but he revealed that his species is highly advanced in genetic science.” Dat thought a moment and said, “I remember that he hugged me when I met him after his initial mission and my midsection hurt for a week.”

Gresha stared at Dat and said, “My back has hurt every time I went to their planet.”

Dat sighed, “They must have taken the cells needed to do this and created the embryos.”

Gresha stared at Dat and, after a long moment, she smiled, “I knew I loved that big glop of putty for a reason.”

Dat was shocked at Gresha’s remark but then he stared laughing. He tried to stop but couldn’t do it. Gresha smiled and joined him. The scientists were confused and wondered what was going on. Dat finally caught his breath and looked at them, “We know how it happened. You can take your equipment and leave.”

“But…but…”

“We’ll give you the details later; first we have to make a visit.”

The team leader tried to ask questions but Dat rushed them out of the room as he and Gresha went to Dat’s ship and lifted off the planet.

• • •

Blacky was working with a large group of Madator Warriors when Ringie came flying in at high speed, “Blacky, Dat and Gresha have arrived unannounced and are inquiring as to your whereabouts.”

Blacky stopped what he was doing, “Do you think they know?”

“How would I know?”

“Stay here with me and send them my coordinates.”

“You’re on your own in this.”

“YOU WILL STAY WITH ME!”

“Coward!”

“You’re right. I won’t face them alone. You may have to defend me.”

“Get real; you could take them both.”

“I could but I would never lift an arm against them. I’m hoping you can hold them off me.”

“Hey, I’m just as guilty as you are.”

“Yeah, but they don’t know it, yet.”

Both of them looked up and saw the Rover moving quickly through the atmosphere toward them. Ringie shook her head, “Looks like they know your location; maybe we were rash in doing this.”

“Now’s a fine time to think of that.”

The small ship landed and both Madators remained frozen in their tracks. The port opened and Gresha leaped out of the port and rushed toward Blacky; he stiffened up expecting her to hit him hard. She rushed up and wrapped both arms around him, “Thank you so much; from the bottom of my heart, I love you for your gift.”

Blacky was shocked by the response and said, “It was Ringie’s idea; she helped make it happen. Gresha released Blacky and rushed over to Ringie and hugged her tightly.

Dat arrived and slowly shook his head, “Blacky, you are without doubt my best friend. I can never thank you enough for this gift.”

“How do you know we did it?”

“You gave yourself away when you mentioned you knew genetics far beyond what the Servants would expect.”

Ringie glared at Blacky and his head rolled to the top of his body, “Hey, I wasn’t thinking about this at that moment. I had just found out about the Ultimate Prey. Give me a break.”

“That’s the only reason I’ll forgive you.”

Gresha smiled, “Why would you not want us to know?”

Ringie sighed, “We didn’t know if you wanted children. We assumed you did but we imposed this on you without your consent. We were hoping you would think it happened naturally.”

“It can never happen naturally, Ringie.”

“But without any clues as to how it did, you would have to believe that.”

Dat smiled, “We may ask you for assistance in the future. Can you tell me about the baby that is a combination of our DNA?”