The Lost Fleet: Genesis: A Slaver Wars Novel (33 page)

“That’s where
the missile went,” Kelsey said in sudden realization. With deep sadness, she
knew she would never see Jeremy again. She and Katie were destined to die here
in this system thousands of light years away from Gaia.

“I have three
ships exiting hyperspace near us!” reported Lieutenant Burke excitedly. “It’s
the
Avenger
and two Alton battleships.”

“I have Fleet
Admiral Strong on the comm,” reported Lieutenant Mickelson. “They recognize our
power problem and the two Alton battleships are going to use their tractor
beams to pull us into hyperspace.”

Kelsey felt
faint as if she were about to pass out. Jeremy was here and he was going to
take them to safety.

“Tractor beams
have us,” Andram confirmed. “We’re moving.”

A few minutes
later, the
Dominator
, the
Avenger
, and the two Alton battleships
fled into the safety of hyperspace as the nova swept through the system.

-

Simulin High
Commander Callat watched dispassionately as the nova swept toward Malkor and
his fleet. Already the disturbance in hyperspace had made it impossible for
most of his ships to escape. Those that could were making emergency hyperspace
jumps to Tranton.

“We die,”
spoke High Commander Faberh.

“Yes, we die,”
answered Callat as the nova swept across Malkor, turning it into a lifeless
cinder.

He knew that
with the destruction of Malkor and most of the ships he had brought here, the
Simulin conquest of this galaxy had most likely come to an end. They no longer
had the forces to stand up to the Fitula organics, particularly if they had the
ancient ship on their side. Closing his eyes, he stood defiantly as the nova
incinerated his ship.

The last
Simulin Supreme High Commander in the Triangulum Galaxy was dead.

Admiral Race
Tolsen was in Fleet Admiral Nagumo’s office at New Tellus Station. Former Fleet
Admiral Hedon Streth as well as Alton Ambassador Tureen were there as well.
They had just finished watching the Dyson Sphere destroy the Shari and Simulin
fleets on a viewscreen.

“The power of
that weapon is unbelievable,” commented Admiral Nagumo, his face wrinkled in a
frown. “Is there any chance of anyone ever returning there?”

“No,” answered
Ambassador Tureen. “The Shari have grudgingly agreed to allow a joint fleet of
Federation and Shari vessels to patrol the Rylus Star Cluster to keep all
vessels away from the Dyson Sphere.”

“That’s
progress,” muttered Admiral Nagumo. “At least the Shari are talking to us now.”

“No ships will
be allowed to come nearer than one light year to the megastructure,” Tureen
continued. “Both the Federation and the Shari will have several science ships
which will continually monitor the Dyson Sphere for any additional signs of
activity. They have also agreed to allow us access to the ancient ruins on the
former Originator worlds as long as we share the results of our research.”

“What about
Captain Abrams and the exploratory team?”

“Unknown,”
Race answered. It had bothered him immensely to leave them behind, but Reesa
had made it very clear they were never to return. “The exploration cutter is
still down on the surface. If at some point in time they can talk the
Originator AIs into allowing them to leave, they will have a way to come home.”

“Originator
AIs,” Nagumo said, shaking his head. “I still can’t believe they exist. The
science and technology locked away on that Dyson Sphere could move us ahead
tens of thousands of years.”

“Best left
alone,” former Fleet Admiral Streth said. “We’re not ready for that type of
technology. We’re talking to the Shari now and the Hocklyn Empire is no more.
The galaxy is changing and it’s changing for the better. The technology on the
Dyson Sphere would throw everything into chaos.”

“There are
still the Borzon and the Ralift on the far side of the galaxy,” Nagumo reminded
Hedon. “We’ve already had a few problems with the Borzon and the Ralift are
still relatively unknown.”

Hedon allowed
himself to smile. For months now, his sleep had been free of premonitions. It
was as if the danger for the Milky Way Galaxy had finally receded. “Without the
AIs, I suspect those empires will pose less danger as time goes on. Look at the
Shari, for example.”

“Fleet Admiral
Streth is correct,” Ambassador Tureen said with a nod of his head. “They’ve agreed
to accept a Federation emissary and we will be allowing a Shari representative
to come here. In time, I suspect we can resolve most of our differences.”

-

After the
meeting was over Fleet Admiral Streth and Admiral Tolsen walked together toward
one of the station’s flight bays. Hedon was returning to Maken where Janice was
waiting along with their daughter. Hedon suspected it would be quite some time
before he ever left his home planet again.

“Race, what
are your plans?”

Race smiled.
“As long as you don’t have any more of those damn premonitions I have a lot of
accumulated leave time I plan on using. Massie and I are going to go visit our
parents at Ceres, and we may all do some traveling together. Our mother wants
to come here to New Tellus and visit the resorts.”

“Family,”
Hedon said with a nod. “That’s what all of this has been about. Keeping our
people safe and trying to make the galaxy a better place for everyone.”

For the first
time in years, Hedon felt at peace with himself. He knew that while it wasn’t a
premonition, the threat from the Simulins had been removed. He wished he could
see Admiral Strong and the rest of the Special Five one last time, but he knew
that wasn’t in the cards. A premonition from years back had told him he would
never see the five again.

-

The
Dominator
was back in orbit around Gaia and Jeremy, Andram, Kelsey, and Kazak were
standing in front of the hidden compartment deep within the ship. Kazak had
agreed to reveal his secret after Jeremy jumped in with the
Avenger
and the
two Alton battleships saving the Originator ship from certain destruction. They
had barely escaped as the nova encompassed the system.

Jeremy had
spent two days waiting for the
Dominator
to show up at the Simulin
capital world. Ariel had predicted Kazak would take the
Dominator
there
to either make demands of the Simulins or to destroy the planet. Jeremy had
managed to move the
Avenger
and the Alton battleships in close to the
system so they could make an emergency jump to assist the
Dominator
if
it were damaged. They never expected to have to save the ship from an exploding
nova. Jeremy knew if he had been just a few minutes late the
Dominator
would have been lost with everyone on board, including Kelsey and Katie.

Kazak looked
solemnly at the three with him as he took the copper colored globe, which
served as a key, out of his pocket. “What I’m going to show you is my biggest
secret. It is the last hope to resurrect the Originators, and I have been
programmed to protect it at all costs.” Kazak inserted the key into the waiting
slot and the wall slid open. Stepping inside, he indicated for the others to
follow.

Jeremy was the
first one to enter and after taking a few steps came to a stunned halt. The
room was full of large transparent tubes filled with some type of liquid. He
could see vague figures in each tube.

“Children!”
uttered Kelsey in amazement as she looked around at all the tubes in the
compartment. “These tubes are full of children.”

“Intriguing,”
said Andram as he walked over to the nearest and gazed inside. A young female
Originator was inside the tube with her eyes closed and appeared to be
sleeping.

“I don’t
understand,” said Jeremy, looking over at Kazak. “We expected to find adult
Originators in here.”

“There are a
few,” Kazak admitted. “At the far end of the compartment there are twenty-three
adults. Unfortunately, they are all suffering from advanced stages of the life
extension pathogen. Those twenty-three are the greatest minds of all of the
Originators. If I were to awaken them, they would die in a matter of hours.”

“The
children,” asked Kelsey as she stared wide eyed at what appeared to be hundreds
of tubes with children in them. She had never expected to find children in this
compartment.

Kazak’s face
took on a look of deep sadness as he gazed at them. “When the
Dominator
originally left the Dyson Sphere, it was equipped for research as well as
defense. The blue energy spheres the ship used against the Simulins were not
allowed on any other vessel. They were the Originators’ greatest weapon and as
such that technology was never to leave any of the Dyson Spheres. However,
because of the importance of the
Dominator’s
mission, the ban was lifted
in this one instance.”

“Your mission
was to find a cure,” said Jeremy, recalling a past conversation with Kazak.

“Yes, but we
failed. The research scientists on board brought their families, and as the
scientists succumbed to the disease, their children were put into stasis. If
the children were awakened now, they would live out long lives, but eventually
they too would succumb to the pathogen. The scientists worked to the very end,
and when they realized they were going to fail, the remaining scientists
decided to go into stasis and let me continue their work.”

“You failed
also,” Kelsey said sadly. “Without a cure, you didn’t dare awaken any of the
children or adults.”

“I even
traveled back to the Dyson Sphere to see if I could contact other Originators,
but none were left. No one answered my calls to Dyson Spheres in other galaxies
other than AIs and they all reported the same. All the Originators had died.”

“All of them?”
gasped Kelsey. She knew the number of Originators who had inhabited all the
Dyson Spheres had to have been in the trillions.

“Yes. As the
disease swept across the Dyson Spheres, the population rapidly decreased. Even
the remaining children grew up and died of the pathogen,” Kazak explained.
“However, there was a file I found in the core computer of the Dyson Sphere in
this galaxy that suggested a large group of survivors had fled just before the
end to a place they thought might be safe. I searched for them for thousands of
years and found nothing. If they found a place of safety, it is well hidden.”

Kelsey slowly
walked down the aisles of tubes, stopping to examine several. “Genesis,” she
said softly, turning back to face Kazak. “If you could find a cure you could
bring the Originator race back.”

Kazak nodded.
He turned and looked at Andram. “The Altons are the most highly advanced race
I’ve encountered since the Originators. Is there any chance your people could
help in finding a cure?”

Andram paused
in front of a tube holding a young male Originator, who looked to be five to
seven years of age. “We do possess considerable knowledge of life prolongation
drugs. I’m sure my people would be willing to work on this. But if the
Originators never found a cure, I don’t know if we can either.”

“I accept
that,” Kazak answered. “All I ask is that you try.”

-

Hours later,
Jeremy and Kelsey were down on Gaia. Angela’s baby shower was planned for later
in the day. Her due date was very near and both Katie and Kelsey were excited
to get the party going. Katie had gone off shopping, saying she had a
particular gift in mind.

“Do you think
the Altons will find a cure?”

“If anyone
can, it would be them,” Jeremy replied. They were walking down a street in New
Eden. “Kazak is going to make a lot of data on the Originators’ biology
available to the Altons. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”

Taking
Kelsey’s hand, he wondered what was in their future. The menace from the
Simulins had been greatly reduced but it was still there. He intended to send
another task group out to Admiral Jackson to shore up the defenses in the
Ornellian Empire and seek out new allies. The AIs were building new Warspheres
at an ever-increasing rate. In two more days Grayseth was taking out a fleet to
destroy several nearby Simulin bases. Jeremy intended to remove all Simulin
threats within two hundred light years of Gaia. He would then send out AI ships
to patrol the region and keep it clear of Simulin vessels.

He was also
still concerned about Kazak. Since being rescued from the nova the Originator
AI had been very cordial, but Jeremy knew it could all be an act. Kazak would
bear watching. He still didn’t fully trust the Originator AI.

“Are you going
to the baby shower?” asked Kelsey.

“No, I think
I’ll pass,” Jeremy answered. “Kevin invited me over for a cookout.”

“Hamburgers,”
groaned Kelsey. “You know that’s what he’ll cook.”

“I’m taking a
couple of steaks,” Jeremy said with a grin.

At least for a
while life could be normal. For the first time since coming to the Triangulum
Galaxy, Jeremy felt there was real hope for the future. The threat posed by the
Dyson Sphere supernova had been eliminated and the Simulins had suffered a
major setback. For the foreseeable future, Gaia was safe.

-

On board the
Avenger
,
Ariel was reviewing the sensor scans from when the power had failed on the
Dominator
.
As she studied the information, she began to realize not everything added up.
The
Dominator
should never have lost its power, even with the Simulin
ships attempting to jump in on top of the vessel. With a worried feeling, Ariel
began to wonder if Kazak had set the whole thing up. She decided the best thing
to do was keep her suspicions to herself. She would monitor Kazak as closely as
possible to see if she could discover any ulterior motives. She wished Clarissa
were here with her. Between the two of them, they could solve any problem. It
was times like this that Ariel felt extremely lonely.

-

In the Rylus
Star Cluster Reesa, Kelnor, and Sergeant Wilde had been summoned to a meeting
with the AIs. Entering the briefing room, they found Leeda, Rakell, Tamon and
Sible waiting for them.

“I hope your
people are comfortable,” Rakell said from the head of the conference table. “I
also regret the lives lost fighting the Simulins.”

“They’re
adjusting,” answered Brenda. “They all would like to go home though.”

“I’m truly
sorry about that,” Rakell replied. “But that can’t be allowed. Your people have
seen too much of the Shrieel.”

“Why have you
summoned us to this meeting?” asked Reesa.

Leeda stood up
and walked over to a viewscreen. “Seven months ago one of your ships appeared
at the primary communications and transport hub of the Originators. It is the first
ship to travel there in over two million years.”

“One of our
ships?” Brenda said confused. “I don’t understand. None of our ships have
access to any of your intergalactic vortexes. We didn’t even know this Dyson
Sphere existed seven months ago.”

“The ship
didn’t come from this galaxy,” explained Rakell, nodding at Leeda.

Leeda
activated the viewscreen and everyone in the room grew quiet. A ship was on the
screen. A ship of Alton design but heavily damaged. Jagged rips in the hull and
burn marks indicated the ship had either been in a major battle or submitted to
a terrifying force. The ship looked to be nearly a total wreck.

Reesa stood up
looking in shock at the ship. She instantly recognized it since she had seen it
in orbit around her homeward. She also knew from what the AIs had told her
before that this was the ship that had destroyed the Dyson Sphere in the Triangulum
Galaxy. “That’s the
Distant Horizon
!”