The Lost Fleet: Genesis: A Slaver Wars Novel (18 page)

-

Katie was
watching information scroll across her computer screen, using it to learn more
about the
Dominator
. Kazak had given her access to parts of the ship’s
master computer and memory core. She was casually searching for any data that
might give them a clue as to what was inside the secret compartment. It made
her nervous to think there might be actual Originators inside as ZED had
suggested. What if they awakened and found Humans and Altons on board the ship?
Would their actions be peaceful or would they act as if their ship had been
invaded?

Surprisingly,
Kazak had made some information available that described the Originators’
research into immortality. The more she read, the more amazed she became. The
Originators had dreams of building gargantuan megastructures in deep space
between the galaxies. Their idea was to create a small star cluster of Dyson
Spheres around some very young stars where their civilization could flourish
for billions of years. She had also noticed that while there was a lot of
general information available, almost all technical data was still restricted.

-

Several hours
later Mikow was with Katie in her quarters. She placed a small device on the
floor and pressing a button, activated it. “That should prevent Kazak from
spying on us.”

“Do you think
he would?” Katie had checked to see if Kazak had access to their personal
quarters and as far as she could tell, he didn’t.

“I don’t think
we want to take the chance,” replied Mikow. “This device will show no one is in
your quarters but we need to hurry before he becomes suspicious.”

Katie nodded.
“Have you found out anything about the secret compartment?”

“Not really,”
Mikow answered. She leaned back in the chair she was sitting in and then
continued. “I have confirmed it’s there. I’ve been carefully researching the
Originator crew roster that fled the Dyson Sphere on the
Dominator
.
There were a lot of brilliant scientists and their families on board.”

“How did you
find that out?”

 “I told Kazak
I wanted to learn more about the Originators and their personal lives and the
only ones there are records of are the original crew.”

“What purpose
will that serve?” asked Katie. She didn’t see how that would help them to
discover what was actually inside the compartment.

Mikow leaned
forward. “As each crewmember came down with the pathogen and eventually died,
there is a life termination message listed in their crew file. “What I’m
looking for are crewmembers files that don’t show a life termination message.”

Katie nodded
in understanding. “That would indicate they didn’t die and are in the
compartment Kazak is keeping hidden. Have you found any yet?”

“No,” answered
Mikow, shaking her head. “I’ve only gone through about 30 percent of the crew
files. If I go any faster, Kazak may suspect I’m searching for something
specific and not just general information.”

Katie didn’t
respond as she thought over their current situation. There were two hundred and
twelve Human crewmembers on board the
Dominator
as well as forty-two
Altons. In addition, Kazak had agreed to allow one platoon of Marines to come
on board in case it became necessary to send research teams down to a planet.
It bothered Katie they were keeping secret from Kelsey the possibility there
might still be surviving Originators inside the ship. However, Jeremy had
stressed the importance of keeping that knowledge restricted. Not even Andram
suspected what was going on.

“We should
arrive at our destination early tomorrow,” Katie said. “So far I haven’t
noticed any strange behavior from Kazak.”

“Neither have
I,” Mikow replied. “I’d better turn this device off before Kazak begins to
suspect something’s wrong.”

Katie nodded
and watched as Mikow shut off the device and placed it back in one of her
pockets. Standing up, Mikow left leaving Katie alone in her quarters.

Leaning back
in her chair Katie let out a deep sigh. She didn’t care for this clandestine
snooping they were doing. She knew it was necessary, but she really wished she
could talk to Kelsey about it. She had never kept secrets from her before, at
least not like this one.

-

 Kazak had
been watching and listening to the entire meeting between Katie and Mikow. It
had been relatively easy to disable the interference from Mikow’s device. What
deeply concerned Kazak was the fact they knew about the secret compartment. He
had known there was a risk of them spotting the missing data in the schematics
he had furnished and now that risk was confirmed. What was even more disturbing
was how close they were to the truth of what was inside the compartment.

Now Kazak had
to decide what to do about the situation. It would be relatively easy to use
the ship’s internal defenses to disable or even eliminate all of the organics
on board. The
Dominator
was completely repaired and safe from any threat
inside this galaxy. So far, he had allowed only the secondary weapons to be
used. The Humans and the Altons had no clue as to the power of the ship’s
primary weapon system.

For several
long moments, Kazak dwelled on what path he should take. His programmers had
left him a lot of latitude in what he was allowed to do to protect the contents
of that compartment. It was obvious that for the time being there was no actual
threat or danger to the compartment or its contents. In addition, the Humans
and the Altons could prove to be a valuable asset in the future. Reaching a
decision, Kazak decided not to take any definitive action as of now. He would
continue to act as if he didn’t know Mikow and Katie were actively searching
for the secret he was hiding.

He also knew
Clarissa would not have wanted him to take any actions against her friends. He
wished Clarissa had survived; they had become friends and he had begun to trust
her. It was one of the reasons he had given her additional information about
the Dyson Sphere, information that if she could have used it might have saved
the
Distant Horizon
. However, the ship had become disabled and his new
found friend had met her end in the fiery explosion of a star.

-

Kelsey was
back in the Command Center gazing in wonder at the massive viewscreen
surrounding her. They were deep within the blue-giant nebula. Nearly a quarter
of the forward screen showed a massive area of white light, the radiation front
moving away from the Dyson Sphere supernova. The rest of the screen showed the
myriad of stars residing in the nebula. It was a breathtaking view.

“What’s the
verdict?” Kelsey asked Andram, who busy at his science console. He had been
using the ship’s numerous sensors to scan the wavefront.

“This is
fascinating,” Andram said, shifting his gaze toward Kelsey. “Since the last
time we were here in the
Avenger
, the radiation front has intensified by
14 percent and substantially increased in speed. The stress on hyperspace is
apparent and steadily increasing.”

Kelsey looked
over at Kazak. She knew the Originator AI had been running sensor scans as
well.

“How many
other stars have gone nova?”

“Six so far,”
Kazak replied. “Four are showing indications of being regular novas and two
others are nearly off the charts.”

Kelsey nodded
her understanding. “So we have two more supernovas.”

“Yes,”
confirmed Andram. “All six novas are adding to the stress on hyperspace.”

“It is as I
feared,” Kazak said, his voice sounding concerned. “The exotic material of the
Dyson Sphere and the black matter that surrounded it has exponentially
increased the expansion of the original supernova and acted as a catalyst. From
the simulations I have run, it’s much worse than I originally projected. If the
wavefront isn’t stopped within six weeks, it will be too powerful to be
affected by any weapon the
Dominator
has at its disposal.”

Kelsey drew in
a sharp breath. The original plan had been to jump into the blue-giant nebula,
take readings, and then return to Gaia to come up with a strategy to deal with
the nova. Now it looked as if they wouldn’t have the time to do that.

“I concur,”
said Andram, turning around to face Kelsey. “The radiation front is increasing
in speed and power each day. It will reach Gaia in half the originally
projected time. If we’re going to stop it, we must do something now.”

Kelsey felt
her world spin. It was much worse than they had believed. At the current rate
of expansion of the radiation front, they would all live to see it reach Gaia.
She shuddered at the thought of seeing their new home die. Of course if they
protected Gaia with an energy shield as Kazak had suggested, they would be
trapped on their world from then on. She couldn’t allow that to happen.

“Kazak, is
there anything we can do?”

The Originator
AI hesitated and then replied. “If we work quickly we can stop the radiation
front by causing supernovas in a number of nearby stars.”

“How many?”
asked Andram. He couldn’t believe they were even discussing this possibility.
It was also frightening to know the
Dominator
had this capability.

“Ten,”
answered Kazak. “Ten supernovas at the proper distance from the radiation front
would disrupt it to the point as to cause space-time to seal itself up, and the
stress to hyperspace would be eliminated. The radiation front would then be
moving at under the speed of light, and its destructive nature would be
considerably diminished. The front would die out shortly after passing the
boundaries of the blue-giant nebula. There’s also a reasonable chance the
majority of the stars in the nebula would be unaffected and never go nova.”

“Andram?”
asked Kelsey. While she believed what Kazak had just said, she trusted Andram
implicitly. “Will it work?”

Andram
hesitated as he studied data Kazak had just transferred to his science console.
“I would have to study this data a bit longer, but in theory it should work.
That’s assuming we have some way to cause these ten stars to go nova. The
hyperspace math involved is far above anything I’m familiar with. Shilum might
understand it, but I don’t.” Shilum Torre was the hyperspace specialist that
had been with him on the
Distant Horizon
. She was currently back in the
Gaia System working with the AIs.

Kelsey was
quiet as she thought over Andram’s words. “The
Distant Horizon
used
their antimatter missiles to create the Dyson Sphere supernova. Kazak, I
understand you suggested using dark matter instead.”

“Dark matter
would create the desired explosive force to disrupt a star to the point of
causing a supernova,” Kazak answered evenly. “We just need to find a source. I
spoke of this with Fleet Commander Strong recently, and he planned on sending
out a number of Alton vessels to locate the necessary dark matter.”

“We’re not
going to have time for that,” Andram said with a deep frown. “However, I may
know of another source close by. There’s a chance some of the dark matter that
surrounded the Dyson Sphere might have been blown away by the explosion of the
star.”

“I have
instruments on board which can detect dark matter,” said Kazak. He shifted his
gaze to Kelsey. “It may be highly dangerous to collect the amount we’ll need. I
would recommend we only use the
Dominator
and have the rest of the fleet
move out of the blue-giant nebula. Once we have a sufficient quantity of dark
matter, I can use the weapon manufacturing facilities on the ship to create the
necessary warheads. The special missiles are already finished. Then all we have
to do is go to the ten designated star systems and deploy them.”

“The stars
will need to be equidistant from the radiation front,” added Andram. It amazed
him they were casually discussing blowing up stars. It made him fully realize
just how dangerous the science of the Originators could be if it were to ever
fall into the wrong hands.

-

Several hours
later Kelsey watched nervously as the
Dominator
approached the deadly
radiation wavefront. Kazak had located a patch of dark matter which was being
pushed ahead of the radiation by the stress being generated on hyperspace. The
rest of the ships of the fleet were on their way out of the nebula and would
wait at a selected rendezvous point for the
Dominator
. Admiral Sithe had
been very unhappy to learn of Kelsey’s decision to leave the fleet in the
Originator ship. It had taken quite a bit of explaining to get the admiral to
finally agree.

“I’m sending
out a probe to capture a sufficient quantity of dark matter for the ten
warheads,” Kazak informed her.

On the viewscreen,
a small vessel left the
Dominator
and accelerated toward the wavefront,
which was uncomfortably close to the ship.

“Detecting
high levels of radiation,” reported Lieutenant Burke, her eyes showing her
nervousness.

“The ship’s
energy shield can handle it,” Kazak said confidently. “The probe is nearing the
dark matter.”

Kelsey watched
the probe intently. The massive viewscreen was showing an enhanced view of the
small vessel. A hatch opened on the front and the probe began to slow. In a
blinding flash of light, the probe exploded.

“Probe is
down,” reported Lieutenant Burke.

“What
happened?” asked Kelsey, looking over at Kazak for an explanation. She was
concerned this was going to be much more difficult than Kazak had implied.

Kazak spent a
moment reviewing the incident and then turned toward Kelsey. “There was too
much dark matter for the probe to handle safely. We’ll have to use the
Dominator
.”

Andram looked
with concern at Kazak. “Will that be safe? In order for the
Dominator
to
approach the dark matter, it will be necessary to lower the energy shield.”