The Lost Fleet: Genesis: A Slaver Wars Novel (23 page)

“It’s over,”
Les Ketene said as the last Simulin ship vanished from the sensor screen.

“For now,”
agreed Dax. The Humans had destroyed three Simulin ships for every one they’d
lost. “Admiral Jackson is a man of his word. He is protecting Ornellia and
allowing us to rebuild our civilization.” By now, the all clear would be
sounding in the cities.

“What next?”
asked Les.

“We begin
ridding the planets of our empire of the Conqueror Drones. With Admiral
Jackson’s battlecarriers and what remains of our fleet, we can begin doing so
immediately. Councilor Lantoll intends to bring all the survivors here to
Ornellia. He’s hoping that will give us a sufficient population base to get our
industry running and reestablish our presence in space once more. He’s already
making plans to build a new shipyard with the aid of Admiral Jackson’s fleet
repair ships. Our new warships will be more modern and much more powerful
thanks to the technology Admiral Jackson has indicated they’re willing to share
with us.”

Les nodded.
“There was a time when I thought there was no hope for our race; now that hope
has returned.”

“It’s returned
for all of our people,” Dax commented as he watched a flight of Talon fighters
streak overhead on one of the viewscreens. The Ornellian people had made some
powerful allies. Now it was time to get back once more to the task of
rebuilding.

Fleet Admiral
Jeremy Strong was feeling a growing concern over what their long-range scans
were showing. Nearly seven hundred Simulin warships were gathered in the Zeta
3A Star System. There were still several Alton battleships on patrol just
outside the nebula transmitting the results of their sensor scans to the
Avenger
.

“So you think
this is a trap for the
Dominator
?” asked Kevin, his brow wrinkled in a
deep frown. Kevin was concerned since Katie was on board the ship as well as
Kelsey. It seemed wherever the girls went they ended up in danger.

“It has to
be,” replied Jeremy, as he studied the latest data. “There’s no other sound
reason for them to gather such a large fleet this close to the nebula.”

“Jeremy’s
correct,” Ariel said from where she was standing just behind him. “All of my
calculations indicate that is the most likely scenario. They’re waiting for the
Dominator
.”

Kevin shook
his head, still in doubt. “After what the
Dominator
did last time
disabling so many of their ships, how can they expect to succeed with a smaller
fleet?”

“They were
taken by surprise when they encountered the Dominator the first time,” Ariel
said, looking over at Kevin. “The Simulins are a very advanced culture and
their weapons are on a par with ours. They may have come up with a battle
strategy they feel will allow them to overcome the
Dominator
. They have
to know the technology on the
Dominator
could pose a grave threat to
them.”

Jeremy leaned
back in his command chair as he reached a decision. “We can’t risk the Simulins
damaging the
Dominator
; there’s no way to know how Kazak would react if
that occurred.”

This had been
one of Jeremy’s greatest fears. Kazak had been programmed by the Originators,
and not even Kurene, ZED, or Mikow had been able to predict how Kazak would
react in a battle now that the ship was fully repaired.

ZED moved
closer to Jeremy. The AI had been listening with interest to the conversation.
“I believe Kazak is overly protective of the
Dominator
. Any attempt to
damage or destroy it could result in an extremely violent reaction from the
Originator AI, particularly considering what he might be protecting in that
central compartment.”

Kevin looked
confused. “Do you have any idea of what might be in that section?” Kevin was
wondering if Jeremy and ZED were keeping something back. He knew Jeremy had
been strangely quiet since returning from Borton.

“No,” Jeremy
replied hastily. “We have some suppositions but nothing concrete. I’m hoping
between Kelsey, Katie, Mikow, and Andram we’ll know more when they return.”

It was one of
the reasons he had wanted all of them on the ship. Andram, in particular, would
notice any strange behavior on Kazak’s part. Mikow and Katie were supposed to
be discreetly searching for any information about that compartment. With both
of them being computer experts, Jeremy had high hopes they would be able to
discover what Kazak was hiding.

Kevin nodded,
but he still had the feeling Jeremy wasn’t being totally truthful. However, he
wouldn’t question him in the Command Center. He would wait until they were off
duty and talk to him privately.

Jeremy turned
toward ZED. “If the
Dominator
did suffer damage, what do you think Kazak
would do?”

“What do we
know of the weapons that ship possesses?” The energy ball above ZED’s cube
seemed to brighten and even grow slightly larger. “Kazak has revealed a few of
them to us, but what if those are not the ship’s primary weapons but only its
secondary weapon systems?”

Jeremy’s eyes
widened at that thought. He had never questioned Kazak when the Originator AI
mentioned the gravitonic cannons and the antimatter beams. He had assumed what
Kazak was showing him were the ship’s main weapon systems. They had been
impressive and far in advance of anything the Federation or the Altons could
build. Now that he thought about it, Kazak had never said they were the ship’s
primary weapons.

“Kurene?”
asked Jeremy, looking over at the Alton AI specialist.

Kurene looked
thoughtful and then slowly nodded. “It’s possible. We have no idea how Kazak
was originally programmed. We also have no clue as to how being in semi-stasis
for several million years may have affected him.”

“Are you
saying Kazak could be unstable?” Jeremy wished Kurene had mentioned this
earlier. He felt his heart flutter at the thought of everyone who might be in
danger on that ship if Kazak was to lose control.

Kurene
hesitated and then answered. “It’s possible; we have no baseline to measure how
such a stasis would affect an AI.”

“ZED?”

The AI looked
at Jeremy and then replied. “Unknown. How such a long period of inactivity
would affect an AI’s mind is not calculable. We do know the Originators built
things to last. The Dyson Sphere and the
Dominator
are examples of their
superior technology.”

“I was alone
on the
Avenger
for over one hundred years when it crashed on Earth’s
moon,” commented Ariel with a haunted look in her eyes. “It was a difficult
experience and one I would not want to go through ever again. I can’t imagine
what one of several million years would be like. He has never mentioned it in
any of the conversations I have had with him or when he was speaking to
Clarissa.”

“I would
recommend we continue to observe him,” suggested Kurene. “When I return to
Borton, I will search the AI master Codex and see if there is any information
there that might be useful.”

Jeremy nodded.
“We need to do everything discreetly.”

“Do we attack
the Simulins?” asked Commander Malen from her command console. “The fleet is
ready if you give the word.”

Jeremy gazed
for several long moments at the updated tactical display. The red threat icons
were grouped close together at the Zeta 3A Star System. It would be relatively
simple to take the fleet outside the nebula and jump directly into combat
range. It would take less than thirty minutes of flight time in hyperspace to
reach the enemy. However, Jeremy strongly suspected his fleet would be detected
before they could arrive and engage the Simulins. He was also heavily
outnumbered, and he needed some type of tactical advantage if he wanted to win
this battle. He knew there was only one real choice open to him.

“No, we’ll
wait until we detect the
Dominator
returning. As soon as that happens,
we’ll broadcast a message warning them of a potential trap and then jump to
their location and take up a defensive formation around the Originator ship.”

“Why wait?”
asked Kevin. “Maybe by attacking we could force the Simulins to withdraw. If
they’re waiting for the
Dominator
they may not want to fight a major
engagement.”

Jeremy looked
around at those who were listening. “I don’t believe the Simulins would
withdraw. To destroy that fleet and hold our own casualties to a minimum we
need the
Dominator’s
weapons. Besides, in a major battle perhaps we can
learn if the ship has other weapons systems besides those Kazak has revealed to
us.”

“I agree,” ZED
said. “If Kazak feels his vessel is threatened, he will use every weapon at his
disposal to protect it.”

“Then we
wait,” said Commander Malen, crossing her arms over her chest. “We have no idea
how soon the
Dominator
and Admiral Sithe will be returning.”

Jeremy knew
Commander Malen was right. “I believe that’s our best option. Inform the rest
of the fleet we’ll be staying at this location in the corridor until we detect
the
Dominator
.”

-

Kelsey was in
the mess hall eating with Mikow, Andram, and Katie. The four had made it a
habit to do this regularly so they could discuss what was occurring on the
ship. Kelsey also knew that, in all likelihood, Kazak was listening to every
word they said. At least on the
Avenger
, they could ask Ariel for
privacy and she would comply. Kelsey wasn’t sure Kazak would.

“The
technology on this vessel is truly amazing,” Andram said as he looked at the
vegetable dish in front of him. Andram disdained eating meat as it required
helpless animals being slain. Many Altons were vegetarians.

Kelsey took
her fork, cut a plump strawberry in two, and then dipped it in a bowl of
whipped cream. Taking a bite, she smiled at the tart and sweet taste. Even
after all this time, she still loved eating the bright red berries.

Katie shook
her head. Angela had told Katie how Kelsey used to eat strawberries every
chance she could back at the Fleet Academy on the Moon so many years ago.
Kelsey was originally from Ceres where the opportunity to eat strawberries
imported from Earth was very rare. At the time Kelsey was enrolled at the Fleet Academy, Earth didn’t even know about the people living inside the asteroid. That
didn’t come out until years later during the revelation of their existence.

“Kazak has
allowed me access to even more files,” Katie said as she took a bite of the
Swiss Steak she was eating. It was nice to be able to sit down at a table and
not have hamburgers present. However, just to have Kevin around, she would
gladly watch him eat his favorite food.

Mikow nodded.
“Yes, he’s given me access to even more in depth crew files. The Originators on
this ship were some of the most esteemed scientists from all of the Originator
Dyson Spheres. They had been gathered and sent out in the hope they could find
a cure for the life prolongation pathogen before it became too late. The
disease was already killing hundreds of millions daily, and there was a growing
belief none would be spared.”

Andram nodded.
“Yes, they spent years doing research. In the end they all succumbed to the
disease, leaving Kazak alone on the
Dominator
.”

“From what I
understand, Kazak wandered about the galaxy for centuries trying to complete
the research on his own,” Katie said. “When he finally realized he couldn’t do
it, he returned to the Dyson Sphere only to find that all the Originators had
died. He did find some files in the main core computer, which seemed to
indicate the remaining survivors had fled at the very end for some distant
destination in the Triangulum Galaxy. Kazak searched for them for years, before
he finally gave up and parked the ship in the asteroid field where the
Ornellians eventually found it.”

Kelsey
shuddered. Just thinking about spending so much time on the
Dominator
with no one to talk to was mind-boggling. It almost made her feel sorry for
Kazak.

“How big was
the original crew of the
Dominator
?” she asked. The
Dominator
was
much larger than any known Federation or Alton ship, even larger than the
Distant
Horizon
had been.

Mikow looked
over at Kelsey and answered. “A little over six thousand. However, from what I
understand many of those were family units. A head researcher and his or her
family.”

“I wish they
would have succeeded,” Andram said with sadness in his eyes. “They could have
taught us so much.”

-

Kazak had been
listening. There was nowhere on the
Dominator
any of the crew could go that
he couldn’t listen to their conversations. He was still evaluating the Humans
and the Altons. He was beginning to realize in many ways they were similar to
the race that had built and programmed him, particularly the Altons. The Humans
were still a young race and prone to irrational behavior at times. He was also
aware the Originators had been much the same in the early stages of their
civilization. It would be necessary to continue to monitor the crew to decide
if they could be useful to his future plans. If not, they could be very easily
eliminated.

-

Four more days
passed and Kevin was in Jeremy’s quarters along with Ariel. The three had been
discussing the
Dominator
and what they would need to do once the ship
returned. Kevin was anxious for Katie to return home as he disliked being apart
from her for such a long period of time.

“Once we’ve
driven the Simulins away, then we need to send out some of the Alton science ships under escort to find the dark matter Kazak will need for the missiles
he’s constructing,” Jeremy said as he took a sip of tea.

“Dark matter,”
muttered Kevin, shaking his head. “What if we make things worse than they
already are? We have plenty of time to evacuate Gaia if we need to. We could go
to a place outside the galaxy like the Ornellians are doing.”

“No,” Jeremy responded
with a haunted look in his eyes. “We caused this problem in the blue-giant
nebula, and it’s up to us to fix it if we can.”

“Kazak’s plan
should work,” Ariel said as she watched her two friends.

She wished she
could be in two places at once figuratively. It made her feel uneasy knowing
both Kelsey and Katie were on board the
Dominator
and out of her zone of
protection. In the past, between her and Clarissa, the Special Five had always
been watched over. However, even Angela was away. Of course that wasn’t too big
of a concern considering the last member of the Special Five was pregnant and
her husband, Brace, was a major in the Marines and well capable of keeping her
safe.

“I wish they
would get back soon,” Kevin said, leaning back on the sofa and taking a sip of
the soft drink in his hand. “What if they run into some Simulin warships at the
nebula?”

“I wouldn’t
worry,” Ariel said. “Between the
Dominator
and Admiral Sithe, they
should be able to handle anything they come across.”

She was
keeping track of the latest reports from the two Alton battleships outside the
nebula that were constantly monitoring the waiting Simulin fleet. She was also
tapped into their sensor systems so anything they detected would become
immediately apparent. Even as she prepared to speak, she noticed a faint
disturbance at the far edge of the Alton battleship
StarNet’s
long-range
sensors. Her eyes widened as the vague contact solidified into a group of
twenty-two green icons. It was the
Dominator
and Admiral Sithe returning!