Ashes of the Realm - Death of an Empire (Ashes of the Realm (Book Three)) (23 page)

“Does anyone we know command that ship?”

Trey thought a moment, “No, but it’s the first sailor she promoted and sent to the Academy. It appears his ship was rated the best in the Fleet in the last competition.”

“You’re talking about Captain Moore.”

“You know him?”

“Oh yes. He’s quite the ingenious commander.”

“What do you mean?”

“Somehow he figured out how to teleport a force field with nothing inside it and when the opposing ships jumped in and fired on that force field he came in and hit everyone one of them with a low power beam knocking them out of the competition. When the reserve ships jumped him he had left another force field behind and repeated the maneuver. He killed more than fifty ships by the end of the day and brought home the trophy to Maddy’s Fleet.”

“We need to promote him again.”

“It’s my understanding that she tried but he begged her not to do it before he had an opportunity to face one of the Black Ships. She agreed.”

“Do you know anything about his background?”

“His mother is Carter Reese’s older sister.”

“Now this should be interesting.”

“He is talented.”

“What did he name his ship?”

“Madeline’s Pride.”

“That explains a lot.”

“It does; doesn’t it?”

T
he year passed quickly and seventeen year old Trey Robbins sat in Greyson’s conference room as the three Commodores waited for their instructions from the Algeans on the plan of battle. The leaders of the Empire were present and the conference room was starting to get crowded. Trey looked around and saw Paul Blake staring at him. He nodded and Paul smiled. TK leaned over and touched Paul’s arm; he looked away and Trey wondered what he knew. His aunt was very pregnant and there was going to be another second generation psychic very soon. Admiral Dorg was sitting with her father and Jingo was having an animated discussion with her. Grang sat next to Trey and was looking around the room saying nothing. Carter was talking with the Algeans and it appeared he was disagreeing with them on something. Oh well, Timmy could sort this out. It was good to just be an observer.

Trey looked at the three Ship Commanders and saw they were relaxed and waiting for their orders. Ron Kune and Jingos Dorg were deferring to Trent. Commanding the best ship in the Empire did give a certain respect to its Captain. Everyone stood and bowed and Trey jumped up to join them.

“Please take your seats.” Emperor Valrico had aged and was relaxed in his role as the Empire’s Ruler. “Who wishes to begin?”

Weed turned to the Emperor, “We were going to lead the conference; however, Carter has pointed out to us that another should lead this discussion. We will defer our comments until after Scotty Robbins gives us his views.”

Trey jerked his head around and was surprised that Weed had used his formal name. Timmy turned to Trey, “Will you please begin?”

Trey heard Cassie say, “Showtime.”

“I know our first trial ended poorly but it’s my belief that we cannot show the Black Ships our full capabilities. We should only use our beams and hold the reflective surface technology for future Black Ships that will be brought in after this initial confrontation. We should also not use a force field.”

“Won’t that place our ships in jeopardy?”

“If it does, we’re out of the game in dealing with the Invaders, Your Majesty. We have two weapon systems on our ships that are independent of each other. Now that we’ve been able to absorb the energy of a star, our beams are on an order of magnitude that dwarfs what we could do in our last encounter. We don’t have to wait for the Invaders to fire if we fire at them first. Even if they manage to get a shot off, I believe the hulls can absorb the hit and store the power for future use. If we can collect a star, I don’t think any of their current beams will damage our hulls. My concern is the next ship that’s sent against us and we know there are other models we will have to confront before we get the creatures behind the Invaders to come in their ships. I’d rather work our way through several models with our beams before we have to confront their strongest ships.”

Timmy stared at Trey and was once again amazed at the maturity of the young man standing before him. He looked so much like his grandfather and had that sense of command that made it so easy to follow him.

Weed said, “I believe Scotty Robbins is right. The reflective hulls are not an offensive weapon as much as a defensive one. If our beams fail, the reflective hull can use the opponent’s beam against them by tripling its power.”

Seed added, “That’s not to say that we can’t charge the hulls and reflect our own beam at them with triple the power. We should not reveal all our systems in the first encounter.”

Trey nodded, “We are also going to record the initial confrontation and determine whether or not our new stealth technology works against their scans.”

Timmy looked sharply at Trey, “I’m not going…”

“We will not take part in the conflict and will teleport away at the first sign of being detected. However, we need to make a determination in the first three encounters and I must see if I’m right.”

Timmy leaned back in his seat, “Why is that?”

“Once the three ships take on the first Black Ships they will teleport two hundred light years into deep space. If they aren’t followed we will do the same thing the next two times we attack.”

“What are you trying to accomplish?”

“I want to know if the being behind the Invaders is observing what happens. I’m reasonably certain that it can see much further than that distance and if the ships are followed to that deep space location after the first battle, then we know it’s observing that universe. After the next contact we will teleport the ships to the other side of the galaxy. If our ships are followed there, we’ll know for certain that it’s watching.”

Paul said, “It’s possible that they’re able to read our teleports and that’s how they find us.”

Trey smiled, “Not really. If they could read our teleport coordinates, their ships would be using teleportation. I think the fact that they can’t is what will cause an event to happen that we’ve been hoping for.” The room was silent and Trey said, “That Being will come and have a look for itself at the site of our conflict and we can get a reading on what kind of ship we’re going to have to ultimately face.”

The room was silent. Timmy thought about what Trey said and started nodding, “You’re going to bait it with technology it doesn’t possess?”

“It won’t be able to resist it. Especially when we teleport out of that universe and don’t leave any tracks for it to follow.”

“What do you think it will do first?”

“I believe it will scour all the Universes anywhere near the site of the attacks searching for our location, Your Majesty.”

“Isn’t there a risk it will find us here?”

“This is the last place it will look. This universe was killed more than five hundred thousand years ago and there are more than eight thousand it would have to view before it arrived at this location. It knows that all of its previous conquests are dead universes. It might look at the first fifty or so but, after nothing shows up, it will continue to look at universes that are still alive. That frustration is what will bring it out into the open.”

“Will our ships be able to stand up to it?”

“Probably not and that’s why we have to see if our current stealth technology works. If it does, we can leave a probe behind once we make sure it’s observing the universe we’re attacking. Our ability to hide from it is something that is as important to discover as the effectiveness of our weapons.”

Weed looked at Carter and thought, “Your wisdom has surprised me again. You were right to suggest he lead this dialogue.”

Carter looked at the two Algeans and nodded.

Timmy looked around the room and said, “So what orders are you giving these brave sailors going to confront the Black Ships?”

Trey turned and looked at the three and smiled, “Blast the ever living groad out of them and teleport away when the party crashers show up.”

Trent looked at the other two commanders and said, “That sounds like a party that’s going to be hard to leave.”

“Leave your com code so they can invite you to the next one.”

Ron Kune smiled, “After the mess we leave behind, I’m not sure we’ll be welcome at the next one.”

The room erupted in laughter and Timmy called the conference to a close.

“How did I do?”

“Trey, you were fabulous.”

“Thanks, Cassie.”

* * *

The three brightly glowing ships hung in space outside the Defense Facility preparing to teleport to the universe the Invaders were harvesting. “Jingos, how did you manage to weasel your way into this exercise?”

“I managed to get Admiral Blake to bust me back to Commodore before the plan was submitted to the Emperor. I figured he would never allow an admiral to participate.”

“Clever, how do we want to handle this?”

“Ron, I think we should follow Trent’s lead.”

“Hey guys, both of you are senior to me. One of you should be the overall commander.”

“Seniority doesn’t carry weight during space battles. Tactics and ingenuity trump seniority. You’ve demonstrated that you’re more effective in ship maneuvers than either of us. You’re in command and that’s an order.”

Trent laughed and said, “This is how we’ll go in; we’ll form an equilateral triangle with our ships separated by two thousand miles on each leg. That way we’ll overlap our beams and support each other in the event one of us is heavily outnumbered. Every ten seconds we’ll teleport a thousand miles and rotate the triangle forty five degrees. Every thirty seconds we will turn the triangle ninety degrees horizontally and rotate in the opposite direction. We’ll start the maneuver on my mark.”

Ron looked at his drive officer, “Lock the pattern in and start the clock with Commodore Moore’s signal.”

Jingos said, “We’ve locked the pattern and will implement it on your signal.”

“At some point we’re going to have to withdraw and we should do it together. The escape command is Bristone. We’ll jump to our predetermined escape coordinates and wait to see if we’re followed. Commodore Kune, if you will deploy the stealth probe.”

“It will be my pleasure, Sir.”

Trent sighed, “Thank you.”

“Get used to it. As an admiral you’ll hear it all the time.”

“I’d rather be here fighting.”

Jingos laughed, “We’ll all miss the next round if we’re successful here so enjoy it while you can.”

Trent looked at his Drive Officer and he nodded, “Set your chronometers on our departure and that will happen in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, execute!”

* * *

“Alright, Greyson, it’s show time.”

“We’re teleporting right behind them, Sir.”

“Keep your teleport system hot. If we’re seen we won’t have much time to escape.”

“You could use a psychic bubble.”

“Yes, but then we won’t know if our stealth technology is effective.”

“Stealth is active and we’re teleporting now.”

* * *

The Ship Master sat in his chair and fought the constant mind numbing boredom of watching ships land and leave with the finished production of Remid. This was a warship, yet there was no war to fight. He had instructed his Sensor Master to keep an active scan of deep space running at all times in the hope of something happening to break the monotony of guard duty. Destroying those two white ships had been a welcome distraction. He settled back in his chair and fought falling asleep. Then…

“Sire, I have three ships on the long range scan.”

He jumped up and sat erect in his chair, “Send me an image.” He stared at the three ships and thought he recognized them.

“Sire, those ships are exactly like the ones we destroyed in our last attack.”

“Get the Fleet Master on the channel. Power up all systems and prepare to jump to their location.”

“Why are you disturbing me?”

“Master, there are three ships exactly like the two ships I killed out in open space.” He looked at his board, “They are at the same location as the last encounter.”

“Take you ship out and eliminate them. Notify me when you’re done.”

The Ship Master looked at the Drive Master and nodded, “Now this was more like it.” He was about to learn that sometimes boredom is not always a bad thing. He thought about killing two of the ships quickly and chasing the third. He started to issue the orders as his ship broke into normal space but all he was able to get out was the first three words when the rest of his sentence was blown away by the heat of the beam that burned through his bridge and ignited his reactors. Even the reactors couldn’t explode when the following two beams burned the nuclear fuel out of existence. A fourth beam was fired and all the dust and debris were burned into gas.

* * *

“Gentlemen, let’s move a hundred miles starboard to get away from this cloud.”

“That didn’t take long.”

“All weapons are free. We should be receiving some uninvited guests momentarily.”

“Hey Trent, I sent an invitation to all of them.”

“What address did you use, Ron?”

“1234 Get Your Grump Fried Ave.”

“Maybe they aren’t sociable.”

“Give them a moment. They need to be dressed appropriately.”

* * *

The Fleet Master looked over the harvest inventory and took a pinch of orange powder and sniffed it. Oh that was so good. He turned back to his reports and noticed that the light on his communication panel from the ship that was sent to investigate the three ships was extinguished. That was odd. He pushed a control toggle and sent a query. No response. Something wasn’t right. He punched his board and sent the coordinates of the three ships to a ten ship group. “Tell me what’s going on out there.”

“I’ll contact you as soon as we arrive.”

The Fleet Master watched his board and saw all ten lights on his panel go out in less than three micro units. He stood and hit his main alarm and sent the coordinates out to the quick response units. He looked at his Ship Master, “Take me one light year from these coordinates and feed the view to my display.”