The Lost Fleet: Genesis: A Slaver Wars Novel (9 page)

-

Simulin High Commander
Hark Brasht gazed in satisfaction at the viewscreen. In its center was the
elusive Great Sphere they had been searching for.

“There are
several fleets of organics in the system,” the sensor operator reported.

“Inconsequential,”
Brasht said dismissively. “We will send a message back to the Grand Council
informing them of our discovery. In time, we will have the ships to drive these
organics away. The Great Sphere will be ours and we can begin the conquest of
this galaxy.”

“Scans are
complete,” the sensor operator reported.

“Take us back
into hyperspace,” Brasht ordered. “When we return these organics will face
their deaths.”

A few moments
later swirling spatial vortexes formed in front of the Simulin ships and they
vanished into them, leaving the system of the Great Sphere. They had completed
their mission, now it would be up to the Simulin Grand Council to take the next
action. Brasht knew the Grand Council would order the other Great Spheres within
range of this galaxy to be used to send more ships.

-

Inside the
Dyson Sphere, Reesa Jast lay upon her bed in her survival hut. She had already
decided that if there was no response from the city within two weeks, she would
take matters into her own hands and broadcast a signal. Reaching beneath her
pillow, she took out the Originator key she always kept at her side and gazed
thoughtfully at it. Reesa had already decided on her message. In two weeks time,
she expected to be walking down the streets of the Originator city.

Jeremy was
standing in the Command Center of the
Avenger
gazing at one of the
viewscreens. It showed the blue-giant nebula, which looked the same as it
always did. The nebula filled the screen with its myriad of stars and ionized
gas clouds. The nebula even seemed to glow from the intense amount of ionized
hydrogen. However, he knew at its heart a raging furnace of destruction was
radiating outward. After speaking more to Andram, he had decided to come along
on the mission bringing the
Avenger
and a squadron of the new Gaia class
battlecruisers.

“Looks the
same as before,” commented Kevin from his sensor console. “It doesn’t appear as
if the whole nebula is going to blow up anytime soon.”

“We can’t see
far enough,” Jeremy responded as he looked over at his friend and fellow
officer. “Remember, the nebula is thirteen hundred light years across and the
nova is nearly seven hundred light years away from our current position.”

“The
Star
Seeker
is requesting we enter the nebula and proceed to the proximity of
the nova,” Lieutenant Shayla Lantz said from communications.

“I was
expecting that,” Jeremy replied. The
Star Seeker
was the Alton science ship accompanying the fleet. It was also strange for Angela not to be at her
customary spot. However, Angela had asked to remain behind due to health
reasons. Jeremy had asked her if it was something serious and she told him it
wasn’t. Kelsey didn’t seem to be too concerned about Angela’s illness so Jeremy
hadn’t let it worry him.

“Kelsey, plot
a course to just outside the dark matter nebula, keep us at least a full light
year away,” Jeremy ordered. It was strange to have both Kelsey and Katie on
board, but they had insisted on going on the mission.

“I’ve already
plotted the course,” Kelsey answered with a smile. She had known Jeremy would
be asking for it. “We’ll need to exit hyperspace ten times to safely reach the target
area.”

“Send the
first jump coordinates to the rest of the fleet,” Jeremy said.

Commander Kyla
Malen turned toward Jeremy. “Are you expecting us to encounter any Simulins?
They may still have some bases and ships in the nebula.”

“I doubt it.
With the destruction of the Dyson Sphere, there’s nothing left here for them.”

“Jeremy’s
correct,” Ariel added. She was standing behind Jeremy with her arms folded
across her chest. “I don’t believe the Simulins will be wasting any resources
here in the nebula. They lost a lot of ships and are probably in the process of
reconsolidating their forces.”

Commander
Malen nodded and then turned toward the Helm. “Prepare to enter hyperspace, all
ships to maintain standard spacing and form up on the
Avenger
and the
Star
Seeker
when we reach the first set of coordinates.”

A few moments later,
a blue-white spatial vortex formed in front of the battleship and it quickly accelerated
into its center. Around it, other similar vortexes were being entered by the
rest of the ships of the fleet.

-

Grayseth watched
the main viewscreen in the Command Center of his flagship, the
Warrior’s
Pride
. He had ten Carethian battlecruisers with him as well as twenty of
the small Carethian medium cruisers. There were also twelve of the massive
fifteen-hundred-meter AI spheres serving as escorts.

“All ships
except us have entered hyperspace,” reported Ganlon, Grayseth’s second in
command.

“Take us in,”
Grayseth ordered as he folded his powerful arms across his chest. “We must
ensure our clan brother remains safe.” Grayseth placed the safety of Jeremy and
the
Avenger
as his top priority.

The
Warrior’s
Pride
entered the vortex and made the transition. Grayseth merely grunted
as he felt the momentary disorientation associated with entering hyperspace.

-

Ten jumps
later, the
Avenger
burst out of its spatial vortex less than a light
year away from what was once the dark matter nebula. Almost immediately, alarms
began sounding and concerned voices began swearing over the ship-to-ship
minicomm.

“Radiation
warning,” Ariel reported as she hurriedly forced the ship’s powerful energy shield
to snap into being. Giving it precedence over everything else.

The
Avenger
shook violently and even the lights flickered.

“What happened?”
demanded Jeremy, turning toward Ariel who was standing slightly behind him on
his left side with a look of deep concern on her youthful face.

“We jumped
into a region of intense radiation,” the beautiful black-haired AI answered.
“This should have been a clear area. Something’s wrong.”

Commander
Malen turned toward Jeremy. “Energy shield is at maximum and all systems are
working at optimum levels. Radiation has dropped to an acceptable level.”

“Jeremy, the
viewscreens,” said Kevin, his eyes widening. “Where are we?”

Shifting his
attention to the viewscreens all Jeremy could see was a sea of white light.

“I don’t like
this,” muttered Kevin worriedly. “What’s going on?”

“Ariel?”
Jeremy asked as he tried to understand what he was seeing.

“It’s
radiation and ionized hydrogen,” Ariel reported as she quickly checked the
ship’s sensors. She was surprised to see the radiation was already having an effect
on the ship’s energy screen. “We can’t stay here too long before our energy
shield begins to fail.”

Jeremy took a
deep breath before asking the next question. “Our other ships?”

“Okay,” she
answered. “Some of the crews may need to be treated for radiation exposure, but
the energy shields are protecting us now.”

Jeremy shook
his head and looked over at Kelsey. He couldn’t imagine her making such a
navigation error as to put the fleet in the middle of a radiation field. “Kelsey,
why did we emerge in the middle of this radiation?”

Kelsey looked
confused. “We shouldn’t have. This should have been a clear area.”

“Are we at the
right coordinates?”

“Yes,” she
answered promptly. “I’ve already checked the calculations, and we’re exactly
where we’re supposed to be.”

“Well,
something’s not right.”

“I have Andram
on the comm,” reported Lieutenant Lantz. “He’s suggesting we make a short jump
of one-half of a light-year farther out from the location of the nova. He
believes that will put us outside the radiation field.”

“Calculate it,
Kelsey, and then transmit the new coordinates to all of the ships.” Jeremy
looked at the viewscreens with a deep frown. “I don’t want to stay here any
longer than we need to.”

-

Moments later,
the fleet jumped once more. This time when the ships exited hyperspace they
were in normal space. The radiation alarms stayed silent.

-

“Jump complete
and all ships are moving into their support positions,” reported Commander
Malen. “The
Warrior’s Pride
is off our starboard bow.”

Jeremy smiled.
He knew Grayseth would be close by. The large Bear took his responsibility of
keeping the
Avenger
and the fleet safe very seriously.

“Radiation is
normal for this area,” Ariel added.

“No unknown
contacts,” reported Kevin. “Sensors are clear.”

Jeremy turned
toward Communications. “Lieutenant Lantz, get Andram on the comm. I want to
know what the hell we jumped into back there.”

“Yes,
Admiral,” Shayla responded.

Looking at the
viewscreens, Jeremy saw they were now showing normal views of space, if being
inside a nebula with over two hundred blue-giants could be called normal.

“Admiral,”
Lieutenant Lantz said. “Andram and Shilum want to come over to the
Avenger
and speak with you personally.”

“Well, that’s
not good news,” muttered Kevin. He knew only something of significance would
bring the two Altons to the
Avenger
.

Jeremy glanced
over at Kevin but didn’t reply. Instead, he addressed Lieutenant Lantz. “Inform
Andram I’ll be waiting for them.” He then looked over at Ariel. “Any idea about
what might be going on?”

“No,” Ariel
replied, her dark eyes looking slightly confused. “However, I’m certain it
relates to the radiation field we found ourselves in earlier.”

Jeremy gazed
at one of the viewscreens on the front wall. It was showing a nearby blue-giant
star. The screen had been adjusted to show the colors and the star seemed so
majestic just sitting there on the screen. He had a bad feeling he wasn’t going
to like what he was about to hear from Andram.

-

Jeremy,
Commander Malen, and Ariel were in the briefing room along with Andram and
Shilum.

“I am sorry to
call this meeting,” began Andram, running his right hand through his thick
white hair. “But I fear we may have made a huge mistake in destroying the Dyson
Sphere.”

“What?” said Jeremy,
aghast at hearing Andram say those words. “Why?” Destroying the Dyson Sphere
had helped secure the safety of the home galaxy as well as seriously weakened
the Simulin presence in this one.

“It’s the
radiation field we jumped into earlier,” explained Shilum. Shilum was an expert
in the field of hyperspace. “That region of space should have been nearly
radiation free. Instead, we found ourselves in such a powerful area of radiation
it would have overwhelmed our energy shields if we had stayed there much
longer.”

“What does the
radiation field have to do with the Dyson Sphere?” Jeremy still didn’t
understand what the two Altons were trying to say. The radiation field they had
encountered was too far away from the nova to be associated with it.

“It’s because
the radiation is from the nova the
Distant Horizon
created,” Andram said
with worry in his eyes. “The radiation front from the nova is moving through
space at nearly three times the speed of light.”

“That’s
impossible,” said Commander Malen, looking confused. “Nothing can move faster
than the speed of light in normal space; that’s why we use hyperspace to
achieve speeds which allow interstellar travel.”

Shilum shook
her head. “I wish that were true in this case. The problem is the dark matter
that surrounded the Dyson Sphere as well as the material the megastructure was
composed of. From the readings we were able to take of the radiation field, the
area of hyperspace in the vicinity of the Dyson Sphere has been radically
changed. It’s not quite a rupture but hyperspace has been strained to the point
that it’s allowing the radiation field to access the lower bands and travel at
an increased speed in what appears to be normal space.”

“You’re saying
the space around the Dyson Sphere now more resembles hyperspace?” asked Jeremy,
finding it hard to accept what the two Altons were saying. He hadn’t believed
such a thing was possible.

“In simple
terms, yes,” Shilum answered, nodding her head.

Jeremy looked
over at Andram. “Just what does that mean for us?”

Andram took a
deep breath and then answered. “The size of the disturbed area of space here is
much greater than the one we believe exists in our own galaxy. Not only that,
it may still be growing.” Andram was referring to the disturbed area near the
black hole in the Milky Way Galaxy.

“One of the
side effects is that it will prevent any type of intergalactic vortex from
forming in this galaxy. Any attempt to create one would require far more energy
than even ten Dyson Spheres could generate.”

“That sounds
like a good thing,” said Commander Malen with a pleased look on her face. “It
means the Simulins in this galaxy are on their own, and they can’t call for reinforcements
from other Simulin controlled galaxies.”

“That’s
correct,” said Andram, nodding his head. “However, we need to do some additional
studies of the nova and what has happened to the dark matter nebula that
surrounded the Dyson Sphere.”

“Why?” asked
Jeremy with a prickly feeling on his neck. “Is there some danger you’re not
telling us about?”

Andram closed
his eyes briefly and then opened them. “Yes. Shilum and I agree that as the
radiation front travels outward, it will cause more of the blue-giant stars in
the nebula to go nova. There is a possibility that at some point all the stars
in this region of space may coalesce and form a black hole.”

“We know about
black holes,” Jeremy said. They all had experience with the black hole at the
center of the Milky Way.

“I
understand,” Ariel suddenly said as her eyes widened. “The radiation wavefront
isn’t going to stop at the edge of the nebula. It’s going to continue outward.”

“That’s
partially correct,” replied Shilum, nodding at Ariel. “However, due to the involvement
of the material of the Dyson Sphere and the dark matter, each subsequent nova
is only going to make the strain on hyperspace in this region of space more
severe. There’s a high probability that most of the novas will be supernovas,
which is what we believe has now happened to the star that was at the center of
the Dyson Sphere. The increased strain upon hyperspace will allow the radiation
front to move outward at an ever-increasing rate of speed. The radiation front
itself will be so intense that it will put additional strain on the lower bands
of hyperspace.”

Jeremy’s face
turned pale as he realized what Shilum was saying. “What will happen when the
radiation front reaches the nebula that Gaia is in?”

“The nebula
will survive and even block part of the radiation. However, Gaia will not. The
intense radiation sweeping across this galaxy will sterilize every inhabitable
world.”

“Just like the
weapon the AIs had planned on using in our home galaxy,” Jeremy said in shock,
recalling the Eternity Device. “Are you telling me that we did to this galaxy
what the AIs originally planned for ours?”