The Lost Prince (29 page)

“How many of the new ships we scanned are going?”

“I only see one at the space facility. I would have thought they would send more.”

“If like that computer said that only the leaders have one of them, there may be a limited number.” Drey shrugged and watched the thousands of ships arriving every minute. Andi thought a moment and said, “What do you think they’d do if we took that ship out?”

Drey looked at her, “You’re starting to sound like Gary. First of all, we want those ships to leave. It reduces their strength here and slows any possible search for the Union.” Andi nodded. “Second, if we’re going to do that we would do it in the other galaxy to solidify their suspicions about it being the location of our ships. Third, I’m not at all sure we could take that ship out even if we wanted.”

Andi stared at the huge fleet for a few minutes and sighed, “I’d still like to give it a shot.” Drey shook his head and knew Andi was becoming more like him. He didn’t know if that was a good thing or not.

• • •

Abby sat in the command chair and heard, “Permission to come aboard.”

She turned and saw Gary standing at the door to the bridge. She smiled and said, “Permission granted.” She returned his salute as he said thank you, Sir.

Abby stood and watched Gary come to the chair. She looked at him and said, “Do you want to continue this charade?”

Gary looked at her and said, “I still feel I’m not good enough, Sir.”

“We’re all born with different talents, Lieutenant. If we gravitate toward those exactly like us, we miss out on a lot of what life has to offer.”

Gary stared at Abby and said, “I’ll never be as smart as you.”

“And I’ll never fly a ship like you do. You should be thankful.”

“Why!?”

“Being smart isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I’d gladly trade talents with you anytime. Besides, those of us that are smart need those that aren’t as smart to show us how to live.”

Gary stared at her and started slowly shaking his head. Suddenly, Abby was in his arms with her arms around his neck kissing him. The ever present pain disappeared and Gary held her tight. Abby broke the kiss and said, “Do we continue this charade?”

Gary smiled, “This time you rub my back and I do hope you stay.”

Abby smiled and kissed him again. Abby felt him in her heart and he said, “You are unbelievable.”

Abby smiled and said, “Wait until you see our new toys. Your chair has also been modified with its own gravity suppressor. The ship will no longer have to stay inside the limits of our bodies. The chairs will keep the gravity below two gravities.”

“That’s really good news.”

“We’ve also had a major revision of our weapons.”

Gary turned in the chair, “What have they done?”

“Cole has added an additional reactor. All the blasters except for one on each wing’s front edge and one on each wing tip have been removed.” Gary looked out at the wings and said, “There’s something still there.”

“Those are the new Higgs blasters.”

Gary shook his head, “They run out of power rather quickly. It’s not good tactics to have to keep going FTL to charge the accumulators.”

“Actually, each Higgs blaster has its own scoop on the wing. The Panel of Scientists determined that a dark matter field isn’t necessary to gather the particles. The reason the alien’s force field didn’t stop the particles was because no force field will stop them. Only a dark matter field will stop them but it will not stop a high intensity blast of them. The scoops will collect the Higgs Particles and keep the accumulators charged as long as the ship is moving whether it’s in normal space or FTL.”

Gary nodded, “That is an improvement.”

“And since the reactor no longer has to be used to charge the main blaster’s accumulators, it can have a direct feed to the four blasters remaining.”

“Can they handle that big a load?”

“They can and they’re stronger…much stronger.”

“Why did he bring in another reactor?”

“It will only power the force field. Cole has been experimenting with the FTL missiles and was determined to come up with a way to stop them. That fusion reactor can do it.”

Gary looked up, “G, are you ready to go back to work?”

“More than you know.”

Abby sat in the second chair and said, “Gary, the doctor has forbidden you to engage in combat for another ten days.”

Gary took a breath and said, “You don’t need to worry. I’ll be ready by then.”

Abby reached across and took his hand, “I’m glad you’re back. I’ve missed you.”

Gary smiled, “It’s good to be home.”

Abby smiled and released his hand and pressed a button, “Ian, we’re ready.”

“We’ll be lifting in ten minutes. The stores for an extended stay are currently being loaded and they’ll wrap up in five minutes.”

Gary said, “G, let me know when they leave.”

“Will do.”

Gary looked at Abby and said, “How do you think we should go in, Sir?”

Abby frowned and said, “I thought…”

Gary put a finger over her lips and said, “You were chosen for a reason. That reason was to make sure I don’t do anything stupid and reckless. You know I have that in me. I need you to do what you’re here to do.” He paused and said, “I love you, but I need you to help ground me.”

Abby smiled and said, “First we find Drey and avoid being seen. The order of the day is run.”

Gary smiled as G said, “They’re gone.”

“Lock it up, G. Take us out to the blast panel.”

The two giant ships lifted and started moving out of the hangar. Abby watched their progress and suddenly whipped around and looked at Gary. Gary smiled and said, “I wondered how long it was going to take for that to sink in.”

Abby jumped out of her chair and slowly sat in Gary’s lap. “I’ll move when we’re ready to lift off.”

Just before Gary kissed her he said, “We’ll leave second, G.”

“Second it is.”

• • •

Drey and Andi watched the thousands of ship jump away. Drey shook his head, “And this is probably only half their ships.”

“It’s going to take a long time to even come close to taking them on.”

Doc said, “E and G are back.”

Drey saw Ian and Gary appear on the display and said, “It’s really good to see you. I was afraid for both of you.”

E and Gary said at the same time, “Thanks, Drey.”

Ian said, “What’s going on here?”

Andi said, “They’re headed off to Andromeda to look for us.”

“That’s a giant fleet leaving.”

Drey said, “That’s only half of it. The other half has already left.”

Violet shook her head, “That’s unbelievable.”

Abby looked over and saw Gary frowning. “What’s bothering you?”

The other four looked and saw Gary’s expression. Drey said, “Yeah, what is bothering you?”

Gary leaned back, opened his mouth, closed it, and then said, “It’s probably nothing.”

Ian said, “Tell us. You’ve made me curious.”

Gary sighed and said, “I know I’m not at your mental level and can’t do the analysis of things as quickly but what if they do what we sent them to do?”

Ian leaned back and looked at Drey. He raised his eyebrows and shrugged. Abby said, “I’m not sure what you mean, Gary.”

“Well, I’m sure you looked at all the probabilities and I’m just being paranoid, but what if they go there looking for a big, mean, nasty, advanced civilization and find one. Will that civilization follow them back here?”

Gary saw the instant shock on everyone’s face. He looked at Abby and said, “You did look at the possibility?”

Abby looked at Andi and saw her working it out in her head. Andi started shaking her head and her eyes went wide, “Abby, you’re better at this. What do you see?”

“You’ve already seen it.”

“I get the worst possibility at forty percent.”

Abby shook her head, “Did you factor in that Andromeda is twice as large as the Milky Way and has four times as many stars?”

“That’s why you’re better. I didn’t want to consider it with those factors. It gets really scary.”

Abby sighed, “The probability of them finding an advanced civilization is greater than seventy percent. The probability of finding a really advanced civilization is fifty-fifty.”

Drey stared at Abby, “That’s not good.”

“No, it isn’t.”

Ian shook his head, “And we just sent an extremely aggressive civilization there. They’ll shoot first and that could cause the worse possible outcome.”

Drey said, “We’ve got to stop them!”

Ian shook his head, “It’s too late. Half of them are already there and attacking those still here won’t bring the others back. It will only convince them they’re on the right track.”

Gary said, “Like I said, I’m not the resident genius here but the tactics are clear.”

Ian sighed heavily, “We have to follow them and attempt to minimize any damage.”

“That’s how I see it.”

Ian looked at the others and said, “We’ll jump to Andromeda. Drey you need to take Doc and get the upgrades done.”

“No way! You can’t possibly cover what they’re doing with only two ships. I’ll take Doc after we check out what’s happening. Besides, we’re there to look, not fight. I caused this and I’m going.”

Ian looked at Gary, “I expect you to cover Doc if things turn bad.”

“I’ll cover him like fur on a cat.”

“I suspect Doc and I can take care of ourselves thank you very much.”

Ian said, “Even so. I want you in continuous contact with G. You got that, Doc?”

“I do, Mission Commander.”

Drey lowered his brows and Ian said, “We depend on you too much to lose you, Drey. I really wish you’d go back and get upgraded.”

Drey shook his head, “This is my doing. I have to be there to see what I’ve done.”

Ian stared at Drey and then said, “E, do you know where those ships are going?”

“They’re jumping to the edge of the galaxy and then jumping in toward the core.”

“Well we’re going to do it differently. We’re going to spread out at the edge and start jumping forward in thousand light year increments. We’ll stop and take a scan for electromagnetic frequencies. If we find some, we’ll notify each other and follow them back to the source. E, Doc, and G will monitor the alien’s communications in the event they find anything. Are there any questions?”

Drey said, “That sounds like a good plan.”

“E, give them the coordinates and stay out of normal space when you arrive.”

Gary saw the coordinates and jumped the ship to the edge of Andromeda. Abby said, “And you say you’re not smart. You saw what we missed entirely.”

Gary shrugged, “I should have said something when Drey mentioned the plan. I won’t make that mistake again.”

“Gary, you’re a High Genetic. There’s not much different in our minds and you’re better than you give yourself credit. The mental computations you do in combat are extraordinary. You shouldn’t hold back on anything.”

Gary looked at Abby and said, “I think you are a tiny bit prejudiced, but thank you for the compliment.”

“You big dummy, that’s not a compliment, it’s the truth.”

Gary quickly looked at Abby and saw her staring at her display. He chuckled and saw that at least her mind thought he was smart. He thought a moment and considered that he might just be smarter than he thought. Abby continued to stare at her display but the corner of her mouth away from Gary went up slightly.

• • •

A week later Abby started to get frustrated, ‘This is the third time we’ve found electronic emissions and had them suddenly die out. This doesn’t make sense.”

Gary looked at the stars ahead and said, “G, is there a G type star ahead of us on this route we’ve been following?”

“There’s one twenty thousand light years directly ahead of us.”

Abby looked at Gary, “What are you thinking?”

“All human life has developed on class G planetary systems. I’m taking an educated guess that if there is a type G one our line, the emissions have a higher probability of originating there.”

“But why have they stopped?”

Gary shrugged, “Something happened twenty thousand years ago.”

Abby stared at Gary, “I really hope it’s not what I’m thinking.”

Gary shook his head slightly, “Buckle in.”

“Hey, no combat.”

“I’m worried about having to run. Buckle in, Abby.” Gary began pushing switches and said, “G, go to full combat power on the blasters and force field. Jump us in to that class G star close to the inner planets. Stay below normal space and run a quick passive scan.”

“Jump in ten seconds. Missiles are activated as well.”

“That’s good, G.” The ship jumped and Gary saw the face of evil.

• • •

The planet had been bombarded from space and nothing on the surface survived. The planet was a huge dust bowl with small patches of green. “G, what can you determine about the civilization that was here.”

“They were primitive. They had discovered electricity and their vehicles ran on petroleum. They did not have flight beyond lighter than air balloons. There’s hundreds of them scattered around the planet.”

Abby stared at the planet and said, “Someone came here and killed everything.”

Gary said, “G, can you get a reading on the blaster burns on the ruins?”

“They were more powerful that the aliens we followed here.”

Gary looked at Abby, “And that was twenty thousand years ago. Imagine where they are now.”

Abby looked up, “They killed the other planets where the emissions suddenly stopped.”

Gary nodded, “The evidence would support that assumption. G, get this out to E and Doc.”

Abby felt immense sorrow at what the beings on the planet must have faced. There was no escape and no way to defend themselves against the horrible beams hitting them from above. She shook her head. G announced, “E is here and Doc will arrive momentarily.”

Ian and Violet appeared on the display and Abby saw Ian’s expression, “This is horrible. This planet couldn’t have done anything to have caused this.”

Gary said, “At least the aliens in our galaxy take prisoners. This one kills everything.”

Doc arrived and Drey said, “I’ve just looked at the data. It looks like our fears are real.”