The Pyramid Builders (28 page)

“It appears to have the same beam weapons as the ship we captured. As long as we don’t just sit and allow them to hit us continuously, we should be fine. I know we can outrun them.”

“We could just not go back that way.”

“It would make it much more difficult to get home. I took my readings there from outside the galaxy. We should go back to that place.”

Jillian smiled, “You mean, we must go back to that place?”

“That’s what I said.” Chris looked at his board and looked out the viewport at the cloud of dark gas drifting in open space between galaxies, “Someday someone is going to stumble across this cloud and wonder how it could have gotten out here. It is going to drive them crazy.”

“Kinda like Puma Punku did to us.”

Chris nodded and said, “We’re going straight to the location where I took those readings. Are you ready?”

“Do you want the force field on?”

“No, I don’t want them to know we have one. Just keep your scanners active and if the energy level goes up in their hull, activate it.” Jillian nodded. “All right, jump in 5,4,3,2,1, 0.”

The Cheops disappeared.

Six weeks had passed, and L’grae waited in his chair. He wondered if the strange ship had been destroyed, but decided that it was the only hope for his ship’s salvation. He had to wait; otherwise he and his crew were lost. He wondered several times where the ship was going to get a Jenze weapon. The ship had jumped out toward the open space between galaxies. Could they have found a Jenze ship?

“Sir, we have a ship breaking back into normal space.”

L’grae sat up straight and stared at his display. YES! It was the ship. He nodded toward his communications officer, and then raised his hand to the Weapons Officer to be ready. Both of them nodded. “Welcome back. I was beginning to wonder whether or not you were still alive.”

“You’re still waiting. Did my readings help you?”

“Immensely. We found what we needed at the first location. Did you find what you were searching for?”

“Yes we did. Will you excuse me a moment? I need to take a reading to return home.”

L’grae dropped his hand and the huge silver battleship rushed up close to the small white ship. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to require you to hand the weapon over.”

“Why is that?”

“Because the Alliance will welcome us back as heroes if we bring it to them.”

“You’ll only strengthen their hold over your worlds. You won’t be helping your families.”

“Even so.”

“What will you do if we refuse to give it to you?”

“I don’t want to fire on your ship, but I will.”

“You could destroy the weapon. Then what?”

“Don’t think I won’t do it. We’ll just go back to the civilization you led us to and become the rulers of the planet.”

“What?!?”

“It’s almost funny. What are the odds that the very first set of readings you gave us was to a planet that was civilized? They had rudimentary space flight, but no stardrive. We had to destroy a couple of their cities, but they gave us what we wanted; just like you will if you want to live.” L’grae waited, but there was silence. He knew the being on the other ship was still there; the connection was still solid on his board.

“Sir, a force field has just powered up around that ship.”

L’grae didn’t want to destroy the ship and endanger the Jenze weapon, but he had to stop the ship from jumping, “Weapons, hit the engines.”

A bright beam shot out from the Alliance ship and hit the small white ship in the tail. The beam was stopped. L’grae was shocked that a small ship could have a screen that would stop his most powerful beam. “Hit it with four beams!”

The four beams lashed out, and again were stopped. Then L’grae realized that the small ship could have jumped away by now but didn’t. That scared him, “Fire all weapons.”

Eight beams at a time fired on the small ship as the battleship rotated, and thirty missiles launched at the ship which looked like it was in the middle of a huge explosion. He continued to fire, then heard over his panel, “I’ve been sitting here thinking about just how evil the Alliance must be to have created people like you. I was going to let you go in peace, but after telling me your plans to enslave an innocent civilization, I realize I can’t.”

The bridge crew watched the small ship absorb their fire without any obvious damage. L’grae looked at his Navigator, “Get us out of here!” He reached for his panel but he was too late. A blinding white beam shot out, penetrated their force field, and hit their ship in the tenth deck just above the engines. It went right through the stardrive.

The Navigator yelled, “They’ve hit the stardrive! Now they’ve hit the engines!”

L’grae knew his ship was dead in space. It wasn’t going anywhere. He jumped back on his communicator and yelled, “Can’t we negotiate this?”

L’grae waited, then heard, “Just like you negotiated with the cities you destroyed? I hate what you represent, but most of all I hate you for soiling my soul for having to remove you.”

L’grae watched the bright white beam flash in and knew it was targeted on the reactors and weapon’s storage. His last thought was that at least his family was being cared for by the state.

Chris and Jillian watched the giant silver ship explode and scatter debris out in all directions. Chris said, “I’m so sorry. I thought we could just let them go their way.”

Jillian stared at her display, “You have nothing to be sorry for, my Love. I actually feel better knowing that we have saved a civilization from that scum. I’ll actually sleep better knowing there’s one less monster loose in the galaxy.” Jillian turned to Chris, “How about you? Are you going to be ok?”

Chris shrugged, “Well, putting it that way, I have to agree. At least we now know why the Moet and Alliance are fighting.”

“Why is that?”

“Neither one of them could ever trust the word of the other. I don’t see how there can ever be any peace between us and them.”

Jillian shrugged, “Well, let’s go home.”

“We’ll be there momentarily. Hang on.”

Jillian looked at Chris and saw him struggling to see the controls on his board. Then she saw his face was white. “Chris, lie back in you chair. I’ll take us in from here.”

Chris felt the room start to swim, and he reclined his chair. His head hurt unmercifully, and Jillian could see the pain on his face. After a moment he passed out and Jillian saw his arms fall from the sides of his chair. She ran over and belted him in, then raced back to her board and hit the jump button. Two seconds later the Cheops appeared just outside the disruption in Sierra Space that surrounded Earth’s solar system. She hit the board and the Cheops emerged back into normal space just outside Neptune’s orbit. Immediately a small white ship flashed up and she heard on her speaker, “Welcome back. This is the EG ship Melbourne. I hope your trip was successful.”

“I have an emergency medical situation. I have an injured crew member and I’ve got to get him to a hospital.

“I’ll notify them you’re on your way.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“We can now communicate faster than light. “

“Let them know.” Jillian went weightless, hit full thrusters, and the Cheops instantly approached light speed.

Dolly, George, Hemon, and Sasha were discussing the list of new ships when the communications channel came on. “Fleet control. We have a medical Emergency. I repeat, a medical emergency. The Cheops has arrived and is returning at high speed. Dr. Gordon notified me that one of her crewmembers is injured and will need to be taken to a hospital immediately upon arrival.”

Dolly’s face turned white, “Oh my God, it’s Chris.” She hit the panel and interrupted the call. She yelled, “Attention Melbourne; did Dr. Gordon say what the nature of the emergency was?”

“No Sir, she did not. She sounded like it was serious, and she left at light speed.”

“How fast did you say?”

“My instruments said 92% light speed.”

Dolly hit her communicator, “Ben, Jillian is coming in at light speed from Neptune. She notified our picket that Chris is seriously injured and needs to be taken to a hospital. Get a ship up there to meet her.”

“I’m on it, Dolly.”

Jeff came over and took Dolly in his arms, “He’ll be ok. Just hold on, he’ll be ok.”

George saw his sister’s fear approach panic, so he said, “You need to focus on getting everything ready for him. Don’t lose yourself to your fear.”

Dolly looked at George and nodded. She grabbed Jeff’s hand, and they ran from the room. The three left behind looked at each other, then ran after her.

Jeff lifted the Jukebox and went vertical into the atmosphere. The other four occupants were belted in and saw the atmosphere rushing by the viewports. Hemon yelled at Dolly over the roar of the engines, “Why is Jillian coming in so fast?”

“She’s using relativity to help Chris.” Dolly saw that Hemon was puzzled by her remark. She said, “You know that it takes light four hours to reach the orbit of Neptune?

Hemon nodded.

“Well, that means she will arrive in four hours. General Keenan is lifting the hospital ship Margaret Thatcher into orbit and should have it done within two hours. He’s taking the Thatcher because its landing bay is big enough for the Cheops to dock. The Lady Gabriella is a newer ship, but it’s too small.”

Sasha asked, “Do you always name your hospital ships after heads of state?”

“Yes, we do. Gabriella was a great President and deserving of the having the ship named to honor her memory. However, I was telling you about why she’s coming in at light speed.” Dolly stopped and said, “What?” Jeff said something and she nodded.

Dolly turned back to Hemon, “It appears that she is going over the top of the planetary plane to get here. I’m sure she wants to avoid the asteroid belt. Anyway, for those of us waiting on her, four hours will pass. However, as any physical object approaches light speed, time for anyone traveling at that speed will slow down.”

Sasha furrowed her brow, “You mean it will take them longer.”

“No, it will take them a much shorter period. As the Cheops gets close to light speed, time changes. The trip for those on the ship will only be five minutes instead of four hours. She is seeing Earth getting closer extremely fast. She’s doing it to save Chris. On that ship, only five minutes will pass to make the trip. Out here, four hours will pass. She reduces the time it takes to arrive by using relativity, and thus reduces the time Chris takes to receive medical help.”

Jillian was flying the Cheops using the manual controls. She pulled back on the steering wheel and the Cheops moved over Saturn and roared toward the inner Solar System. She looked at the sensors and saw Jupiter off to the right as she zoomed past its orbit. Ordinarily it would have been impossible to see anything, but Chris’ device gathered the light they were rushing into and focused it into a coherent picture. She looked at her display and pulled up the current locations of the planets, seeing that Earth was ascending toward Mars. She saw Mars pass below her, and she banked the Cheops to the left and set the sensors for Earth. She saw it further to the left and she had to bank away from the sun. She had crossed Earth’s orbit and she pulled back on the steering wheel as she turned the ship. Earth was getting larger by the second, so she pulled back on the speed control and saw her display was adjusting for the radical drop in speed. She slowed to a thousand miles a second and heard on her speaker, “Jillian, this is Dolly. The hospital ship Margaret Thatcher is holding station over the equator. We’ve been notified you are coming in from the west, so look for us over Mexico as you approach. The landing bay is open and a weak force field is maintaining air pressure in the bay.”

“I see you. I’ll be there in a minute.”

The Cheops roared up and Jillian pulled the speed lever back to zero. The Cheops came to a sudden stop. Jillian added mass and started applying thrusters. The Cheops moved into the landing bay, and Jillian deployed the four landing gears. Jillian added more mass, and the Cheops settled to the deck. She hit the port button and the right rear door opened to the eight waiting technicians. They rushed up to the bridge as Jillian was releasing the belts holding Chris in his chair. Right behind them, Dolly and Jeff rushed in and saw Chris with the large bandage on his head. She looked at Jillian and she started crying.

“He was injured saving my life. It’s my fault.”

Dolly came over and gave her a hug, “He’ll be ok. Just hold on; he’ll be ok.”

The technicians placed Chris on a gravity stretcher and rushed out of the bridge. “I’ve got to go with him.” Dolly nodded, and they followed the technicians out of the ship.

Jeff went over to Chris’ command chair and punched in his ID. The board blinked and he pulled up the recordings of what had happened. Jeff remained on the bridge for the next three days making copies of the database. When he saw what Chris had done to save Jillian he knew he had not given Dr. Connor the respect he was due. The sheer bravery of what he had done made Jeff remember his medal. He knew that this action was remarkable, and he knew for certain that Dr. Connor was in love with Dr. Gordon. He knew from viewing the recording that Chris expected to die. He could see it in his eyes as he held the screen in place for Jillian to escape as the huge explosion rushed at him. He was not going to allow her to be harmed, even if it cost him his life. He thought about his love for Dolly and knew what Dr. Connor had been feeling. There weren’t many people that had earned Jeff’s respect, but now Dr. Connor had entered their ranks. He now understood Dolly’s love for the wacky professor, and it made him feel better. He was not a competitor; he was a brother. Jeff smiled and prayed for Chris’ survival.

Ben was outside the operating room in his scrubs talking to Jillian, Dolly and George. “He has a blood clot in his brain and we can’t get to it. We know there is a slow leak somewhere around the clot, but we can’t seal it unless we remove the existing clot.”

Jillian made herself remain calm, “Can you go in and remove it?”

“Not without permanent brain damage. We’ve been able to get a micro needle into the clot but we can’t pull the clot out. It’s just too thick.”