END of LINE: Humanities Last Stand - part 3 (34 page)

"Princess, it may be best if you were to consider this human as just a passing fancy and move on. A young male has just come from Haven to visit one of the lower Royals. His name is Quekko. He is one of the Royals himself and has come looking for Employment on one of the central planets. His position as comptroller for one of Haven's corporations was recently terminated. If something should happen to your father, the duties of the Kingdom will fall on your shoulders. This fellow would make an excellant mate and your offsprinng would have royal blood as well."

"No. If my father dies and I must assume the throne, there will be time enough to select a royal mate." Satrina told her uncle. "Until that time, I will honor my vow to Jon or I will return to sancturary."

After a full two months of slip space travel, the Defiance broke out of slip and entered empty space near a red dwarf star. “Start running scans.” Jon
ordered.

“Sir, there is something a long ways off.” the officer responsible for scanning the system reported. “It looks like a cluster of debris around a blood star. One piece is reading the same measurements as the thing you said to look for, but it’s hard to be sure from here.”

“Nav, plot a course closer to the debris. Coms start transmitting the pass code.” Jon ordered. The coded description in the Connell ledger suddenly made perfect sense. The ledger said Leviathan was set in orbit at blood star! Blood star wasn't the name of a place, it was a code phrase for a red colored star!

“Yes sir!” came replies from both stations simultaneously. Defiance, her sub-light drives screaming to give every ounce of power they had, flew across the
expanse of empty space between where it had left the slipway and where the debris field appeared on her scans. During the entire five day trip, coms repeatedly transmitted
the code that Jon had given to them just that morning. It had been found in the log of the original
Jon Connell's
last flight onboard the
Leviathan. It was that log which made the ship a real thing for his family and not simply the planet killing beast of legend. The log read,

13758; 45093; 824390 from Haven

“Just in case Leviathan is ever needed, I programmed in a pass code phrase to allow access. The phrase is a portion of the Bible's Song of Solomon, King
James Version. Make sure it is in love and with a broken heart that you unlock her secrets. She is a sleeping beast now. Take care when you awaken her.
Broadcast the following as you approach and the ship's defenses will allow you to enter her landing bays.”

'I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine: he feedeth among the lilies. Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem,
terrible as an army with banners. Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me. 6:3,4,5.'

The closer they came to the debris field, the more the scans came back showing one very large ship floating in the center of the remains of hundreds of
smaller ones. Suddenly lights started to come on all over the massive ship and Defiance received a message.

'I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is
filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.'

Suddenly the bow of the ship in the distance was flooded with bright white light and a red, white, and blue banner could be clearly seen. It was
rectangular with red and white stripes over most of it and a blue rectangle in the upper left corner. There were fifty stars clearly shown in the blue
field. Whoever had applied it had made it appear as though it were being tossed by a strong wind.

Jon commed for Phillie, “Wrenches, come up to the bridge right now!”

“On my way Boss.” came her reply and she dropped what she was doing and rushed out of Engineering up the elevator to the bridge. Wondering what had Jon so
excited. She hoped that her recent modifications had not caused any control issues. She had felt the ship as it shuddered coming out of the slip, but that
had been normal especially after slipping for so long at one time. Entering the slip pulled the forward parts of the ship faster than the aft sections and
when exiting, the forward sections slowed before the rear sections, all ships experienced this and some shaking was normal.

Walking onto the bridge she saw the image on the screen in front of her and when she gasped Jon looked back at her and smiled. “Come here little sister.”
he calmly told her and she stepped up to stand next to his chair. When he reached out his hand she placed her smaller hand in his. He gently squeezed. “There
she is sis. Do you like her?”

Still in awe of the immense ship on the forward screen, Phillie stood in shocked disbelief as she tried to speak. “Jon, its beautiful. I've never seen such
a ship. It looks like a massive dragon just laying out there waiting for someone to get too close before it attacks. Are you sure its safe to get near it?”

“I don't know. We sent it the pass code and it responded but I must admit I do not know this Song of Solomon or the Bible it comes from. We may have just
activated its defenses and are about to be killed when it opens fire on us.”

“There is a religious book called the Holy Bible that I found among the files you gave to me. The writing is very hard to understand and it often seems to
contradict itself, but I think it was meant to cause people to think about what they were doing much the same as our book of the Goddess.” she told him.
“The Song you spoke of was written as a love letter between a King and his Queen. It is very beautiful to think that you humans knew such love in your
past.”

“Don't judge all humans by what you know of me Phillie. I remember that my human parents had a great love for their family and those who later became their
employees. When given a chance humans are able to have very strong feelings for those they love.” Jon sadly told her and let her hand drop. “So, shall we
go in and find out if Leviathan loves us and if we can love her back?”

“Oh YES, JON! We've come all this way, we must at least try.” Phillie exclaimed.

“Nav, you heard our Chief of Flight Engineering. Take us in, be careful of the debris.” Jon ordered. “First thing we do once we get onboard is clean up
this mess. If that ship can still fly, I don't want to scratch the paint getting it away from all that wreckage. Phillie, I'll want a complete analysis of
the debris to figure out who found the ship and lost their lives trying to get near her.”

“Sure thing Boss.” she fired back at him. “Boss, can I stay here and watch as we get closer? If I'm about to die, I'd like to at least see it coming.”

“Sure, but find yourself a seat. I want everyone strapped in now and be ready for an emergency slip in case we're attacked.” Jon ordered then he opened the
ship wide coms, “ATTENTION! We are about to enter what could be hostile space. Everyone find a seat and strap in until I give the OK! ALL HANDS TO THEIR
BATTLE STATIONS!”

Defiance moved through the debris field very slowly until it finally passed the last of what had become a cloud of orbiting ship's parts around Leviathan.
Nav had decided to attempt to land on the top most surface and try for an EVA crossing when a huge hanger door opened and the coms rang out with a metallic
voice,
“Approaching Lexonian Destroyer, please slow to docking speed and enter bay four using lateral thrust only. Welcome back Jon Connell.”
Everyone on
the bridge turned to stare at Jon in open-mouthed dismay. Only the pilot who was busy watching where he was flying Defiance noticed the huge bay doors
opening along the other ship's flank.

“Don't look at me that way, I've never been here before!” Jon exclaimed.

“Respectfully sir,” the Bridge Commander said, “that ship seems to think you have. I would suggest that you let it continue to think that way until we are
safely onboard and in control of its systems.”

“I concur Commander.” Jon said. “I most certainly concur.”

Carefully maneuvering the Defiance, the pilot brought her inside the Leviathan's largest landing bay and allowed the docking collar to connect with the
main hatch as giant arms clamped around her hull holding her in place. The screens showed that this one bay could not only hold Defiance, but also any one
of the other ships in Jon's small fleet. “We've completed docking Sir” the pilot told Jon. “This is one big ship sir. I've never seen anything this huge
before!”

“I don't think any of us have Lieutenant.” Jon admitted. “This is more like an orbiting station than a ship.”

“Sir, the pressure outside in the bay has mated our own. We can open the ship at any time.” Environmental told him. “I think its even safe to just walk on
our own hull as long as we're inside this bay.”

“Wrenches, interested in taking a stroll with me?” Jon asked Phillie.

“You could not keep me away!” She answered excitedly. “Imagine, an actual ship built by the Umins! I wonder what secrets she has in store for us.”

“Help me get into my wheelchair someone, please, and see if you can find my cat. He'll want to explore the ship too.” Jon smiled at the thought of letting Talga
run loose on the Umin Warship.

Forty five days later...

Jon was overwhelmed at the sheer size of the ship. Everything was huge! The landing bay where Defiance was parked could easily hold one of his Carriers
along with his Destroyer, with the other ones stored in other landing bays around the ship leaving still more bays open. Then he was led forward to find
several flights of cargo shuttles and attack shuttles, not to mention over twenty fighter ships. Each of them was armed and ready for combat. All he needed
were pilots to fly them. He'd have Jarrieal start making inquiries and see if any of the guys from his old Peacekeeper units knew of good fighter pilots
looking for jobs. Jon wasn't going to let these beautiful little ships sit on the deck when they could be fighting. Phillie would need help getting
everything working! Better get her looking for good Engineers. She had shown him the engineering section and she was so busy bouncing around the room he
had only heard about half of what she had told him. The one thing he did hear was her telling him of an advanced drive system. This massive ship did not
travel the slipways. It somehow jumped from place to place in the blink of an eye!

They had been inside Leviathan for over a month when it was Talga who had found the hidden section of the ship. There were statues of saber-tooth tigers in
front and a pair massive doors with fierce dragons carved on them. No one could open the doors except Jon. Once Jon placed his palm on the pad beside the
door, an indicator light started to blink green before alarms went off and the huge doors slid apart into the walls. Inside was another control room with
four consoles and a command chair. Phillie had been studying the data on the ship and could understand the writing on the stations. This room controlled
the planet killing weapon. The ship really could destroy an entire planet! Jon had never believed that part of the legends but here was the proof that the
stories had been true!

In another room near the engines, Jon was shocked when Phillie showed him five more attack shuttles neatly parked in a row. There were far less of these than there were of the others, but these looked much more deadly. Even sitting on their landing pads the outline of a legendary dragon could be plainly seen.

“I think the middle one is yours Jon.” Phille told him.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because it has your family colors.” Phillie answered.

“Want to find out?” Jon asked and he rolled himself up the rear ramp. He pulled himself into the pilot's seat of the ship and watched as it slowly came to
life.

Phillie came up behind him and leaned over the pilot's chair to wrap her arms around his neck. “Jon, you do realize what this means don't you?”

“That the ship likes me?”

“In a way, yes. It means you have the Umin marker. Everything I found in the data says these ships only respond to those with the marker in their genes.
The ship thinks you're one of its creators.” she told him before jumping into the copilot's seat. “Let's go for a ride in this Dragon.”

“We can't Phillie, my legs still won't work the controls.” Jon sadly reminded her.

“You won't need them if I'm right.” she answered him back. “According to the records I've found, the original
Jon Connell
was a great pilot. These
are the ships he and his men flew to destroy the machine race. Did you ever hear about the Dragon Ships?” Jon nodded that he had heard of the Dragon Ships.
“If I'm right, that's what these five shuttles are. But even he didn't understand why these ships responded to his commands the way they did. The ship
doesn't respond to the controls as much as it responds to your thoughts!”

“OK, so how does it work?”

“If you were going out during a regular mission what would you do first?”

“Have the controller open the outside doors.” The words were not even out of his mouth when flashing lights began to fill the bay with reflected light and
alarms began to sound. Then the doors cranked open.

“What's next?” Phllie asked.

“I'd start the engi...” the shuttles engines came to life and went through their warm up cycles.

“Phillie, what's happening here?” Jon asked suddenly frightened himself.

“You're just telling the ship what you want it to do and its doing it.” she told him. “I hate to say this, but it’s all in your head.” Phillie giggled. “I
still haven't figured it all out, but between your marker and the nanoid nuroenhancers the Peacekeepers gave you, the ship and this shuttle can both react
directly to your brain's commands. The other pilots will need to use the controls, but their enhancers should let them fly these birds even without the
genetic marker. Come on Boss, let's go play among the stars!” she begged him. “I want to see if these things can really just jump from place to place.”

“Help me out, how does that part work?” Jon asked her.