Annihilation: Book 06 - Demon's Sacrifice (17 page)

“Can you handle this project for us?”

“Yes, Your Grace. I’ll start immediately if you will notify Fleet Command to allow me to set up the board and download the program for each ship.”

“Stand by just a moment. Fleet Command.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“I have assigned a project to a Spider named Edison. You will assist him in making this happen.”

“Yes, Your Grace; we will be awaiting his instructions.”

“Ok, Edison. You have your clearance.” The small spider disappeared from their screen.

Melanie looked at Matt, “It may be time to allow the Spiders to assist the Algeans in handling the Realm’s issues.”

“Not yet; the invasion is still a fresh memory and the citizens are not ready for that yet. However, we’ve got to do something soon.”

“What’s bothering you, Magic?”

Matt looked at Melanie and lowered his head, “I’m getting the sense that we need to make another trip in our ship.”

“You think we need to go to that dark galaxy, don’t you?”

Matt quickly looked up, “Did you hear me thinking about it?”

“No, but it doesn’t make sense to plan to fight a foe we don’t have any information about. I just worry about leaving AG an orphan if we go.”

“No one else can go; none of the other ships have completed development.”

Melanie shrugged, “None of them possess your level of psychic ability; to send someone else wouldn’t be right.”

“Are you willing to make the trip?”

“Only if we can prevent those creatures from seeing us; do you know if we’ll show up on their sensors?”

“No, I don’t.” Matt thought a moment and then said, “Al, I need to make a short trip.”

“I’m teleporting you now.”

Matt looked at Melanie and said, “I love you,” then disappeared.

Aladdin jumped into the Reg’s system and waited. After a few moments the three Reg appeared on the bridge, “Your plan has danger, Brother.”

“I need to see what we’re facing. Is there any way to prevent them seeing our ship?”

“Possibly; if you stay out of the Galaxy’s perimeter and set your ships screen at absolute minimal power you may not be seen. Make your scans from there. If you enter the galaxy they will know it. Even if they do not see your ship they will detect your approximate location.”

“Will they see my scans?”

“Probably, but they will not know from where they are coming if you stay outside. You should anticipate a rather large reaction if you go forward with this venture.”

“I will be satisfied if I can just get a ship count on what’s coming.”

The three Reg were silent and then one thought, “Be careful.”

“I’ll do my best.” The three Red disappeared.

“Matt, you’re not planning to go to their galaxy?”

“Al we have to know what we’re facing and I have the only working psychic ship. I sense it is something I must do.”

“You do recognize what your loss would do to the Realm, I hope.”

“Yes, but I still have to go.”

Al was silent for several minutes and finally thought, “I hope your ship is all it’s cracked up to be. Melanie will be with you.”

“That is the only thing that makes me hesitate. Let’s go home, Al.”

Matt appeared in AG’s room as Melanie was rocking her to sleep. The baby immediately opened its eyes when Matt appeared and stared at him intently. “She knows what you’re planning. It has her worried.”

Matt came over and picked AG up and hugged her. He saw she still had the intent look, “Look at my thoughts little one and see what I see.”

AG tilted her head and continued to stare at him. Melanie asked, “What are you doing?”

“She has twice the power of you and me; I’m letting her sense what I’m feeling.”

AG continued to stare and then she smiled. Matt handed her back to Melanie and she went to sleep quickly. Melanie looked at Matt, “Well, when do we leave?”

Matt looked at the Woman he loved so much and said, “After you put her down we’ll tell Sprig what we’re doing and then go.”

“You are going to do what?!?” Sprig yelled.

“It’s something I sense we must do.”

Sprig sent a thought, “Tag, Danielle, I need you in the library. Matt and Melanie are planning a trip to the dark galaxy.”

Tag and Danielle teleported in immediately and Tag looked at Matt, “What are you planning to do?”

“Tag, I sense that I must go and see what we’re facing from that galaxy. Use your sense and tell me what you see.”

Tag closed his eyes and after three minutes he opened them and looked at Danielle and Sprig, “He’s right; he has to go.”

Danielle looked shocked, “Tag, that’s entirely too dangerous. We don’t know what technology they possess that could kill them both.”

Tag shook his head, “That’s one reason why he should make the trip; however, my sense of danger goes down if he goes.”

Sprig thought, “Does it go up if he stays?”

Tag shook his head, “No, but that reduction is significant. I suspect that it will take them longer to find us if he goes. We aren’t even close to finding all the crews and we need all the time we can get. I fear for them as much as you do but Matt is right, they must make this trip.”

“Do you know if they survive it?”

“No.” Tag looked at Matt, “Do you know?”

Matt shook his head. Then Matt was surprised when Melanie said, “AG thinks we’ll come back.”

Danielle, Sprig, and Tag just stared at her. Finally, Danielle asked, “How do you know that?”

“She looked in Matt’s mind and saw his plan. She then smiled and went to sleep. You know her psychic field is stronger that anyone in the Realm. We can’t see it but she could. We’ll be back.”

“Melanie, she’s just a baby; how can she possibly know that?”

“How could Rose get that mobile above her bed to mimic the Ross solar system? Remember, her power is much higher than Rose’s was as a baby.”

“How did you know about that?”

“It’s still hanging in the Ross observatory and still showing the exact positions of all the planets. I asked the curator and she told me about its creation.”

Danielle smiled as she remembered the day it happened. She shook her head and said, “Don’t stay long. We’ll be worried until you return.”

Melanie smiled and embraced Danielle and Tag, “As long as you two are alive, the Realm is safe. You have meant so much to us and I know how much you mean to the Realm.”

Sprig added, “She’s right.”

Matt and Melanie stepped together and Matt punched his bracelet. Danielle looked where they had just been standing and said, “Just like us, they don’t understand the impact on the Realm if we lost them.”

Tag took Danielle’s hand, “I think they know. They’ll be careful.”

Sprig leaned forward, “Why do you say that?”

“Who other than Matt communicates with the Reg?”

Sprig and Danielle both flinched. Sprig said, “I didn’t think of that.”

Matt looked over at Melanie and said, “We can only use the smallest setting on our screen when we enter space around their galaxy; the Reg insist that anything higher will be seen.”

“Did they say anything else?”

“They said that we can go close to their galaxy but we must not enter it. Anything that enters that galaxy’s influence will be detected by those creatures. We can scan from outside its borders and they will probably see our scans but will not know where we are located. The Reg also said to expect a massive response.”

“Anything else?”

“They said be careful.”

Melanie started laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

“That is so out of character for the Reg. Usually they have an answer for everything.”

Matt smiled and shook his head, “Are you ready.”

“Let me look at the drives just a moment. I know there is a dimensional drive in our inventory but I’ve never used it. Give me a few moments to learn how to use it.”

“You’re amazing, Love.”

“Actually, the ship will teach me. It feels like it has a life of its own.”

Matt watched Melanie’s chair and saw a deep purple color wash through it and go into the walls surrounding them. The color changed to violet and then orange. “Ok, I’ve got it.”

“That quick?”

“Yes, we’re going to have to leave our universe and enter the space between dimensions. The color of that space is orange and our ship had to adjust its hull to withstand the energy. The tricky part is we are going to have to use a high energy screen to move through that space and I’m going to have to reduce it instantly upon emergence into the dark galaxy’s space.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“I’m hoping nothing but stay tuned to your weapon console. This is just a fly and spy mission and that is what my chair is built to handle. You might want to watch things through my thoughts but keep your weapon panel ready.”

“It’s your ship, Melanie.”

Melanie smiled and thought about AG. Then she energized the drive and the blue glowing ship appeared at the blue barrier surrounding the edge of the universe. “We’re going through.”

The small blue ship moved forward and picked up speed. It reached the edge of the barrier and as it crossed the color of the ship changed to orange as it emerged into dimensional space. Matt could feel the ship pick up speed but nothing changed in the orange color surrounding the ship. After twenty minutes, he felt the ship begin to slow.

“Are we there, yet?”

“We’re approaching the border and I have to change the energy of the ship as we cross. Now be quiet, this is not going to be easy.”

Matt watched the front wall of the ship and saw it changing color to a faint blue. The color moved slowly back until the inside walls were all the same light blue color. Melanie, released her board and fell back in her chair, “That was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. This ship is amazing; I couldn’t have done it without its help.”

Matt was looking at his display and there in front of them was the dark galaxy. He saw that most of the stars were extremely old and were dying. He tuned in his weapons panel and looked at Melanie. “Do you need some time to rest?”

“Give me just a few minutes. I want to set my board up to take a fast scan of the entire galaxy but not until after I back the rear of our ship into the border with dimensional space. I’m not going to risk them finding us. Only the nose will be in their space.”

If we have time, I’ll hold the ship at the border as long as possible but the warning from the Reg about a massive response concerns me. I’m holding our screen on the front at its lowest setting but I don’t want to be caught out in the open.” After ten minutes Melanie backed the small ship back into the border of dimensional space until only the part of the ship with the two chairs was still in normal space. “Be ready, I’m starting the scan in ten seconds.”

Matt looked into her mind and counted it down with her, “3..2..1..energize.”

The Red Demon watched his board as he searched for the missing universe. Suddenly his alarm went off and he was immediately moved to the command chair of his ship as it lifted off and jumped to his assigned coverage area. It looked at its sensors and could see the direction the scan had originated but could not determine where the scan was located. Millions of the orange ships were jumping out to the edge of the galaxy and running out from the galaxy’s outer edge. Nothing had been sensed entering the galaxy so it had to be outside the border.

“What’s happening?”

“Some agency is scanning our domain. They are in normal space, that much we know but we are unable to find its location. The direction is out toward the largest spiral arm.”

“Could this be the missing universe’s responsibility?”

“I doubt it. This scan is happening in normal space and we know that universe is not in normal space. This must be a different agency located in another universe. We are analyzing the scan now.”

The second being watched his board and wondered if this was another appearance of the blue ship but dared not mention it. If it was that ship, he knew it came from the missing universe but he could not think of a way to suggest that possibility without giving away what he knew. One thing he did know, if he found the blue ship he was going to stay away from it. His small ship had already demonstrated that it could be damaged.

“What are you doing?”

The second being jumped and said, “Looking for the source of those scans.”

“Well move out into the space outside our galaxy and start searching. I told you it had to be outside our galaxy.”

The second being set his board and cringed against the possibility of encountering the blue ship again.