Annihilation: Book 06 - Demon's Sacrifice (7 page)

Matt shook his head, “The answer is no for the same reason.”

Stem moved forward, “I’ll go, Father. I have all of your memories and I do understand the teleportation processes.”

Sprig turned to Stem and showed his disappointment at missing the exercise, “You would be a good substitute for us. You will go in our place. Enjoy life while you’re young. I envy you.”

Melanie looked at Sprig, “When are you planning to do this?”

“We are installing the repulsion screen on Life’s and Grena’s ships as we speak. The defender class vessel is ready and Destiny and Edison will check out the universal drive later today. Newton and Einstein are downloading the coordinates of the Nest Mother’s chamber into the Searcher’s computers. In the event we’re successful, we have built a facility to hold the chamber for our tests and we’ve selected a planet with enough food to keep her fed while we work on the chamber. If all goes well, we will jump to their universe tomorrow. We don’t have much time before the Reg implement their block, so time is essential. If we fail to get the Nest Mother, then we are going to fire a load of iron-tree balls into the green command vessel and jump back home.”

“I hope we aren’t forced to do that.” Matt thought a moment then looked at Destiny, “What happens if we are successful and take the Nest Mother? What will those left behind do in her absence?”

“I’m not certain. I suspect the senior Supreme Male will assume command. If we take the command chamber, then he will have no reason to hatch a new Mother. He’ll know that without the chamber the new mother would be useless. Perhaps he will get the scientists focused on building a universal drive that would allow them to come after her. That should fail in that we have never found a generator powerful enough to make it work. Either way, we are going to need her assistance to save the other members of my species. She is going to be the key to our success. If we killed her, we would have to kill every Supreme Male on every ship and I just don’t see that happening. She is our only chance at making this work and anything else would be wasted effort. This is literally all or nothing.”

“How are you going to remove her compulsions?”

Sprig looked at Melanie, “Einstein, Newton, and Freud are working on developing a virus that will attack the instructions that allow them to be implanted. Once that program sees their structure, then another virus will be downloaded into the Nest Mother, hopefully canceling the compulsions. All of this is speculative until we can actually see the device that puts the compulsions in her.”

Matt sighed and looked at the gathered group, “Life, do you think the two of you can pull this off?”

Life and Grena looked at each other and smiled, “I don’t know, Your Majesty, but it will be huge fun trying. I’m sorry you can’t tag along.”

Matt smiled and said, “Good luck with your plan. We’ll keep the light on in the guest quarters. This meeting is adjourned. Notify me of the results.”

Stem looked at the bridge crew of Stars End and thought they were very efficient at their tasks. The ships’ commander was Admiral Sen-gen who was chosen by Admiral Kosiev for this particular mission. The huge Glod female filled her command chair and kept a close eye on the activities of the bridge crew. “Are the Red Warriors on board yet?”

Captain Mendel looked at his board, “Yes Sir, both teams are in the forward ready room checking their weapons.”

“Make sure they are ready before the jump. They may have to repel borders.”

“Yes Sir.”

Sen-Gen looked at Stem and said, “Sir, we are almost ready for the jump. The eight penetrators are locked in place and their systems are active.”

Stem leaned back, “I thought we were only firing three.”

“That is the plan, but I’m not taking any chances on penetration. If the first doesn’t make it through the hull then another will follow it and then we’ll fire two more to breach the other side of the ship. The two Searchers will be notified when to launch.”

“What happens if four don’t penetrate?”

“I am authorized at that point to launch the other four main penetrators and kill everything in that vessel.”

“Keep me notified Admiral.”

Sen-Gen nodded and turned back to her board. The Stars End was active. The crew was manning the 2,400 penetrator launchers and checking the ship’s weapons systems to insure no failures during combat. Sen-Gen knew that once they jumped into the other universe Destiny would become the overall commander of the mission. She was going to make sure the ship was as ready as possible for the coming mission.

Stem went to the teleportation panel and checked the modulator and power readings. These screens must be timed perfectly and only cover the object being moved. It wouldn’t be good if Eight Leg Warriors were brought on Life’s and Grena’s ships. He checked their calibration again.

Destiny was with Edison looking at the jump and teleport boards. “Now you understand that we are jumping in more than half a universe away from the Nest Mother’s ship.”

“I know father, and as soon as our red screen is activated I am teleporting to a distance of fifty diameters from her. We’ll scan the area around her vessel and then teleport away to plan our approach.”

“What happens after the Searchers enter her ship?”

“I will teleport to the opposite side of her ship where the second penetrator has exited and wait for the Searchers to emerge. I’ll teleport them in to the landing bay and then jump back to our universe.”

Destiny looked at his child and knew he was ready. He just worried like any anxious parent. “We may have to fight off attackers, but you keep your eyes on your screen for those Searchers.”

“I will, father.”

“I’m going to the bridge; call me if you need me.”

Destiny arrived on the Bridge and Sen-Gen rose and saluted him, “Your ship is ready to jump when you are, Sir.”

Destiny knew Naval protocols but still felt it unfair that one of the Realm’s highest ranking officers was junior to him. “Admiral, I realize that I have the overall command of this mission; however, I do not know this ship and its capabilities as well as you. You will remain in the command chair and direct the ship. I will give instructions about what we want to see happen and you will use your knowledge of this vessel to carry them out.”

Sen-Gen’s opinion of the spider went up considerably. She recognized a good leader making the best decisions based on available resources and putting self second, “Yes Sir, I will do my best.”

“Then launch when you are ready, Admiral.”

Sen-gen hit her intercom button, “Attention all crew members, report your ready status to the bridge.”

Captain Mendel looked at his board and said, “All sections report ready, Admiral.”

Sen-Gen looked at Captain Mendel, “Go to battle stations, Captain.”

Mendel hit the button and the klaxon began wailing, “Battle stations; all hands to battle stations. Arm your weapons.” The lighting on the bridge went to combat luminosity so the board’s lights would be clearer. Sen-Gen nodded and the klaxon silenced. “All hands report ready, Admiral.”

Sen-Gen looked at Destiny and nodded; he said, “Edison, take us into the other universe.” The huge three hundred mile wide ship disappeared.

“Nest Mother, I have detected a universal drive entering our universe.”

The Nest Mother looked quickly at her communication panel, “Where is it?”

“It’s about halfway across our universe from this location.”

“Is it one of our vessels?”

“I do not see a vessel, Nest Mother. We just sensed a drive but nothing where we scanned it.”

Could this be a hidden vessel? She had to know, “Send a family to investigate. Get them there immediately to scan for jump tracks.”

The communications male issued the orders and watched as millions of ships left for the site of the disturbance. After ten minutes he reported, “Nest Mother, there were no jump tracks and no ships in the area we scanned.”

The Nest Mother was confused. “Are you sure a universal drive was used?” The ships had arrived in plenty of time to read jump tracks if a ship had entered there and jumped away. Could it be that it was not visible?

“Nest Mother I have no doubt about a drive being used in that area.”

“Have another family report to the site and then order both families to fly through the area covering every inch of that space.”

Thirty million ships began crisscrossing the area of the emergence. The Nest Mother watched her display as her children looked for a ship.

Edison teleported away from the entry point to a point where he could barely see the Nest Mother’s ship; there were millions of ships around her vessel. He scanned their locations and downloaded it into his board and then teleported away. He sent his download to the bridge’s main display and waited for Destiny to decide about how to approach. The bridge crew took one look at the screen and was dumbfounded. The Nest Mother’s ship was totally surrounded by main ships out to ninety thousand miles.

Life looked at Grena on his display, “Are you sorry we accepted this mission?”

“No, love; I would have been sorry if you were here without me. Even if we die today, at least we do it together. That is all I really want; to be with you.”

“I think we can do this, and if we do make it out of here I want you to become my mate.”

“You could have asked me before now. How am I going to show you how happy you just made me?”

“I thought about that but I want you to know going in that I love you and always will. I just couldn’t wait if things don’t work out.”

“I accept, Life. No matter what happens today, I will always be your mate.’

Life smiled and felt his resolve grow to survive this mission. Grena just sat, waited, and felt her heart sing.”

Stem looked at the screen and said, “How are we going to get through those?”

Destiny looked at the display, “I am open to suggestions.”

Sen-Gen shook her head, “I don’t see any way we can get a clear shot at that vessel. The penetrators must have four hundred miles to get up to speed before they hit.”

Everyone remained silent and began fearing that all of their plans were wasted effort. “Father, I have an idea.”

Destiny started and then said, “Go ahead, Edison.”

“We have more than ten thousand screened probes on this ship. Why don’t we teleport them outside this system and then have them use their jump drives to jump back in on the other side of the Nest Mother’s ship. They will detect the probes breaking back into normal space and it should cause some kind of reaction from those surrounding the ship. We’ll turn the probe’s red screens off before they jump back and it might make them think an attack is in progress. I suspect some of the ships on our side will move around to defend against the incoming probes. Just before the probes jump I’ll teleport just outside the outer edge of her defenders and scan for a clear approach to fire the penetrators. All we need is one of the ships in the inner group next to the hull to move. Once we fire, I suspect all of the ships will move to our side just as we teleport to the other side. It’s the only thing I can think of that might give us a chance.”

Destiny looked at Stem and Sen-Gen and they were nodding. Sen-Gen looked at the display and said, “Let’s do it. I am going to have the probes programmed to detonate their power cells just after they enter normal space.”

Stem thought, “Then have them jump in among the outer edge of ships and spread them out.”

Sen-Gen pressed her com, “Attention probe storage; we are programming the stored probes for auto teleport and jump coordinates followed by self-destruct. Check your status boards and insure that all of them respond receipt of the download. Notify me as soon as they are ready.”

Destiny sent a thought to Edison, “Thank you child. That was good use of your brain.”

“Let us hope it works.”

“We’ll know shortly.”

Stem pressed his com, “Admiral, the probes are programmed. They will jump back in groups of four hundred every four seconds.”

Sen-Gen looked around the bridge, “Teleport the probes in ten seconds from my mark; Edison, you have control of the ships navigation. Weapons, standby for firing the first three penetrators.” Sen-Gen looked around and announced over the intercom, “Mark.”

The Nest Mother was watching her display of the ships searching for the possible hidden vessel when the communications male shouted, “We have explosions close to the ship.”

The Nest Mother jerked around and saw giant explosions among her defenders. Her fear rose dramatically, “Get your ships between me and those attackers. Now!”

Every Supreme Male thought she was ordering them to engage so they all ordered their families to the other side of the huge ship.”

Destiny watched his screen closely and then saw one of the innermost main ships move away from the vessel it was guarding. There was a thirty thousand mile wide opening and Edison teleported the Stars End into it. “We have a clear shot, Admiral.”