Ashes of the Realm - Death of an Empire (Ashes of the Realm (Book Three)) (24 page)

* * *

The Empire’s Ships had moved another eight hundred miles starboard to clear the huge cloud of vapor caused by the destruction of the ten Black Ships that had jumped in on them. The three ship’s beams fired so fast that all ten were dead in less than three seconds. “Alright, the party is about to start. I’m sure the band will arrive with the next group and we’ll have the opportunity to show our dance moves. Start the rotation now and listen for the escape signal. I would suggest a beam width of fifty miles and don’t be afraid to sweep up the floor around you.”

Jingos and Ron looked at their Weapons Officers and they nodded that they heard the order.

One moment the three ships were alone in empty space and the next moment they were surrounded by a thousand Black Ships.

Trent watched his display carefully and saw that half of the Black Ships were close to Jingos’ Ship. “Sweep to the top of the formation.”

As the three ships fired a wide white beam and moved it across the space surrounding their formation, they rotated forty five degrees, and the five hundred ships surrounding Jingos’ ships were caught in a cross fire between two Empire Ships as they rotated. All five hundred were disintegrated and the three ships rotated again and eliminated the remaining ships. Trent heard his Drive Officer yell, “Going horizontal, Sir.”

* * *

“Trey, it looks like you were right. The current model of Black Ships can’t stand up to our beams.”

“Greyson, keep your attention on your scanner. We need to see if we’re detected.”

“I’ve felt several active scans pass us. If they can see us, they would have sent a ship in the last group to our location.”

“I don’t care at this point. Keep your attention on the scanner and have your recorders gather the view of the battle site. You can watch it later.”

“Will do.”

* * *

Trent watched his display and said, “More incoming; continuous firing of the beams.”

Each of the three white ships had six huge beams sweeping space around and inside their formation. “How are the collectors holding up?”

“We’ve been hit seventy four times by one of their main beams. The Collectors are still in the blue.”

Trent was surprised. The hull collectors had not come close to being overcharged and all three ships were being hit continuously. “Hey, Trent, I see a shy wall flower about a light year away watching the proceedings.”

Trent looked at his scanner and saw the ship, “If I had to guess, I think that might be one of their higher ranking officials. He’s probably their best dancer.”

“Are we going to do anything about it?”

“Ron, we’re holding our own but I feel we’ve gathered enough information. I’m ordering a withdrawal in sixty seconds. Why don’t you jump over on the way out and ask that ship to dance. You can join us at the escape coordinates. We’ll be waiting on you.”

“Thank you. I hope he can cha-cha-cha.”

Trent watched his chronometer and said, “Bristone in 3, 2, 1, Execute!”

* * *

The Fleet Master was shocked at the destruction being done to his ships. More than four thousand had been completely disintegrated and fourteen hundred more damaged and hanging immobile. He looked over at his Communications Master to open a channel to the Masters when he heard his Sensor Master yell, “White Ship off our bow.”

He looked at his display just in time to see the beam coming to take his life.

* * *

The three Empire Ships waited for another attack but nothing showed up. Ron looked at his display, “How long are we going to wait?”

“I think if they could have detected our escape coordinates, they would have already arrived.”

“I agree, Jingos. Let’s go home.”

The three white ships teleported into ten other universes and waited an hour in the last before they jumped back to New Hope.

* * *

“Greyson, it appears you were right about them seeing us. There are more than a thousand Black Ships at the site of the battle and none of them are moving our way.”

“Trey, I was just thinking about the ones behind the Invaders and wondering if they have any connection to the Red Demons.”

“Yeah? So what?”

“Well, I’ve dug around in my ancient data and found the coordinates of the universe where the Eight Legs launched all their attacks.”

Trey thought a moment and started laughing out loud, “Greyson, you sly old dog. You’re brilliant.”

“I just thought it might cause them some consternation.”

“Let me look at this with someone and determine the implications but I want to do it.”

Maddy looked at Jingo, “Do what?”

“I have no idea.”

Maddy looked at her Father, “You better be thankful the Emperor doesn’t know you came along on this trip.”

“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

Trey smiled, “Oh, I suspect he wouldn’t say much.”

Jingo tilted his head, “Why not?”

“Because he was here in Grace watching it as well.”

“What!?!”

“He wasn’t in any danger. He was covered with a psychic bubble as well as the stealth field.”

“Was he here before us?”

“No, he left after we jumped here.”

“How did you cover him in a bubble?”

“I didn’t. I had someone else do it.”

“Who?”

“Let’s just say it was a close friend. Greyson, take us out of here and while we’re jumping through other universes, why don’t you play your recordings of the battle.”

The large wall display activated and they watched in slow motion as the first Black Ship to arrive was blown apart. “Freeze it there just a moment, Greyson and run it back to the view of the Black Ship before it was hit.” The view changed to the huge Black Ship as it emerged out of null space. “Put the picture of the ship that destroyed our first two ships that were sent here beside it.” Trey stared at the two and said, “Can you rotate the picture so we’re seeing the same side?”

“I’ve already done an analysis and it’s the same ship.”

Trey felt his joy and said, “This is the first payback. There’s more to come. Go ahead with the recording of the battle and tell me what you see.”

“The Invaders will need a ship that is several orders of magnitude stronger than those in use presently. I suspect that we may have a delay before that happens.”

“Why do you say that, Greyson?”

“Maddy, Trey can probably answer this better than I but you know how long they were delayed after we seeded their ships with the spores? I would think that their first order of business was to build a fleet to continue their harvesting of the Orange Pods. Once that fleet was completed they sent it out and began working on fleets to be held in reserve. If the next ship is not a huge improvement over the one currently being used, they will have to start construction of a ship that can handle our beams. Even then they may not be successful with whatever they build.”

Trey nodded, “Our ships didn’t use their reflective hulls in this fight so the builder doesn’t know about them. I also noticed that we didn’t use the full power of our beams.”

“They didn’t?”

“No, Jingo. I suspect the Commanders were concerned about tapping into the full energy stored in their ship’s outer skins. If they narrow those beams to less than a hundred yards in width and use full power, I suspect even the next ship they send won’t hold up.”

“So what happens now?”

Trey thought about what was coming and played the various situations in his consciousness, “I think a much stronger ship will be built and the new fleet will come to attack our ships. Once those fail, I suspect single newer models will be sent to trial against us until they find something that works. While they’re working on that, we will send the fleet here to destroy their ships in this universe.”

“What about my suggestion?”

“I need to collaborate with someone to see the long term danger of doing that, Greyson. However, if we sense it’s safe, we’ll send a couple of ships first and have them jump to that universe using their standard universal drives.”

Maddy and Jingo saw it and Jingo said, “Now that should prove interesting.”

Trey started laughing, “I’m going to have to be there to see what happens. I wouldn’t miss that for anything.”

“Grang and I want to see, too.”

“So do I.”

“Ok, ok, just keep this quiet until I check it out.”

Greyson said, “Mum’s the word.”

T
he Distributor was jerked awake by a major alarm screaming from his board. He shook himself and stumbled over to the console and silenced the alarm. He pushed the flashing pad and rewound the scene that had been transmitted. He watched as three white ships savaged thousands of the harvesting fleet. His shock drove his lethargy away and he pulled the view in closer. It was the same ships that had been destroyed the last time they had interfered with their fleet. The color, lines, size, and shape were identical but that was all that was similar. It looked at a read out next to the display and saw that the power of the beams being fired by those ships was incredible. It looked at the panel again and saw that the recording was sent to him from one of the ships that survived the battle. It was heavily damaged but had been able to transmit the recording.

His display changed and the Council was staring at him, “What is happening in that universe!?!”

The former Distributor started feeling extremely nervous. Evidently the origin of those ships had not been in one of the destroyed eight universes. He had to think of something to deflect the Council’s anger from him.

The new Distributor glanced at the data, “It appears that the builders of those ships escaped our efforts to destroy them.”

The first three Council Members looked at the former Distributor but turned back to the new Distributor when he said, “That really shouldn’t surprise us.”

The First Councilor jerked its attention back, “Why do you say that?”

“If these beings are advanced as we believe them to be, they must have made plans to escape our retribution. I’ve looked over the data from the destroyed eight universes and we were unable to find any civilizations that possessed a technology high enough to develop the spores. That leads me to believe that they were smart enough to move somewhere else to avoid us.”

“I’m not clear on how you came up with that analysis.”

“I agree with my predecessor that we were seen by one of the universes we were scouting. They had to know that they would be attacked after they used the spores. They had enough time to move their operations to another universe before we could return with another fleet.”

The former Distributor knew that he now owed his replacement and he didn’t like being indebted. However, he knew he would pay him for his help.

The First Three looked at the Fourth and he said, “Our Distributor is right and it couldn’t have been avoided. We didn’t have the ships to strike fast enough after the infection. It makes sense that they moved to another universe and set up operations there.”

“Then where did they go?”

“I’ll open a view of that universe and follow them next time they return. However, we will be delayed in our response.”

The First was enraged, “And why is that!!”

“I’ve just sent you the power of the beam that was used by those ships. Please examine it for a moment.”

The First looked at the readout and felt his rage evaporate, “Is this possible?”

“I’m afraid it is. We don’t have a ship in our reserves that can stand up to that beam. We’ll have to build the last two designs and hope the first one handles them.”

“You think it won’t?”

“I hope it will but we should know that whoever is building those ships is a very advanced civilization.”

“We may have to eliminate them with our own ships.”

“I hope I don’t have to interrupt the sleep of the Nation and will attempt everything possible before I suggest that course of action.”

The First snarled, “See that you do. Keep us informed.”

“I will.”

The new Distributor kept its eye on the Fourth and saw it nod just before the screen went dark. Good, it knew it had a debt to pay. It turned and set the scanner on the universe being harvested and set the alarm. Next time it would know instantly when those ships returned. It had no doubt about their returning. The question of where they were going afterwards had to be answered.

He notified the production planets to start construction on the final three models. Perhaps the first of the three would prove efficient. It could only hope.

* * *

Trey sat in the small clearing in front of Grang’s house and stared at the Robbins Memorial five miles away. It was lighted at night and was beautiful to see. The white marble gleamed and Trey thought about all that had happened since that terrible night on Bristone. He looked up at the stars and remembered lying between his parents as they stared at the sky with billions of stars from horizon to horizon. This universe didn’t have as many and the view was not as breathtaking as the one from Bristone. He wished he could go back and see them again but knew that Bristone was dead and no longer had an atmosphere. He felt his anger begin to grow but looked at the Memorial and felt it fade. Soon it would be time to be angry but not just yet.

“Do you want to discuss Greyson’s idea?”

“Hi, Cassie. Yes, now is a good time.”

“Tell me what you sense.”

“The short term danger level doesn’t go up but the long term does.”

“Do you know why?”

“Yes.”

“You do?”

“The danger is not to us.”

“You’re right.”

Trey didn’t say anything and felt Cassie in his mind. It always brought him peace to have her with him. “I find myself tempted to forget the possible fallout from jumping to the Eight Leg’s former universe.”

“You’re just angry about the loss of your family.”

“How can I not be? They were sacrificed to save those cowards.”

“You know that’s not true. You’re placing the blame on the wrong place.”

Trey remained silent and finally took a deep breath and let it out slowly, “If the spores weren’t rushed into production, would that vision have been needed?”