No Technology Is Invincible (The Death Prophecies-Book Four 4) (20 page)

“But they didn’t know of his presence. They detected our use of a blaster.”

“He had to use a blaster as well and they did search for him. However, they never really examined the asteroids.”

“Why do you think they didn’t?”

“There are too many of them. This asteroid we’re in is far from the largest and there are millions of them circling the star. They have to know their scanners will not penetrate more than a few hundred feet into the rocky surface.”

“Will they be able to detect our antennas?”

“They’ll probably detect the metal but most asteroids have some metal content. With the impacts that have hit this one, I suspect metal is scattered all over the surface. The same is true for most of the other large asteroids orbiting the star. I suspect the leadership of these fleets are reluctant to suggest examining the asteroids?”

“Why?”

“Would you suggest it if you knew that would require you to conduct a search that could take years? Even Fleet Commanders want to go home occasionally. No, they’ll avoid that. Now if their Royals think of it, they’ll have no problem ordering the search. However, I don’t believe the leaders of these Carand Fleets will mention that possibility to them and they’re not here to come up with the idea.”

“Have Ali and Gabby been able to enter the scout?”

“Actually, it was easier than expected.”

“Why is that?”

“The Pilot disabled the self-destruct mechanism to commit suicide. He was out of food and slowly starving so he decided to exit the airlock and open his suit. The ship had to be disabled or it wouldn’t have allowed him to do it. He shut down all the systems making sure the port was open and walked out into the cavern. He leaned back against the ship and removed his helmet.”

• • •

“That was a horrible way to die.”

“I agree. However, he was sitting here in the cave listening to the Carand cheering their victory over my civilization and knew that his species was extinct. He was alone and I’m sure in shock over what had happened. It was a better death than starvation.” Gabe sighed and looked at the monitor; more Carand Warships were arriving.

• • •

“Hand me that cutter.”

Gabby reached over and took a cutter out of the tool bag. She placed it in Ali’s hand that was sticking out from under the front control panel, “What are you cutting?”

“I’m removing the bolts that anchor the computer to the floor.”

“Do you see the stardrive?”

“I do but I’m not going to separate it from the computer.”

“Why not?”

“Because we don’t understand the relationship between them. I’d rather be cautious than do something that would make this effort worthless.”

“Do you see that as a real issue?”

“Poul has said that it’s being able to manipulate the stardrive coordinates that give him his speed. We need them intact.”

“If you say so.”

“I do. Please hand me the slicer.”

Gabby pulled the slicer out of the bag and put it into Ali’s hand again, “Why do you need a slicer?”

“Will you please shut up and let me work! I’m going to cut the bulkhead from around the computer and then remove the bolts anchoring the stardrive. Once that’s done, I’m going behind the wall and remove one of the stardrive emitters.” Gabby almost asked why but realized he was already irritated with her. What if the stardrive required a special emitter? Oh well. She remained on the deck silently following his instructions. She was not accustomed to doing that but realized she was out of her comfort zone doing this removal. She would have never considered removing an emitter. His bad treatment of her was what she’d received all her life. She knew that now was when she should just be quiet.

• • •

She saw the flashes under the panel and after an hour she saw Ali push himself further under the panel until he disappeared. She used her helmet light to illuminate the space and saw the hole that Ali had cut through the bulkhead. He must have pushed the pieces into the bow of the ship. She waited and after a long time passed she had to ask, “What are you doing?”

“I’m recording everything in here. I was right about the emitters; they have some kind of device attached to the shaft. The wiring from that device feeds directly back into the ship’s computer.”

“What do you think it is?”

“I have no idea and will need to trace the wiring to determine its purpose.”

“I thought we were more highly advanced than this civilization?”

“Read your history. The only thing that gives us an advantage over the civilizations here is the changes that take place after transiting a black hole. Technologically, they were far ahead of us when the pilot of this ship died ten thousand years ago.”

“How do you intend to move this? It’s too large for us to do it?”

“Not really. It’s bulky but the gravity on this asteroid is next to nothing. We’ll lift it off the floor and slide the gravity sled under it. We’ll push it on the sled and tie it down.”

“How do you intend to get it down to the exit port?” There was a moment of silence and Gabby said, “Surely you’ve thought about that?”

“Actually, I haven’t.”

“Well, how are you going to do it?”

“I’m thinking about it. Let’s complete the job and then worry about removing it. Hand me a compression grip.” Gabby took the compression grip out of the bag and crawled under the panel and put it in Ali’s hand sticking out of the hole he cut into the bulkhead.

• • •

Gabe looked at Ali and lowered his eyebrows, “Explain to me again what you’re suggesting.”

Ali sighed, “Sir, I didn’t bring a tool powerful enough to cut through the hull of that ship. I can cut through the inner bulkhead but not through the hull. In order for us to get the computer and stardrive out of the ship, we’re going to need the hull cut to make a large enough hole to pull them out.”

Gabby looked at Gabe, “If we separated the stardrive from the computer, we could move them to the exit port.”

Gabe looked at Ali, “Is that true?”

“It is, Admiral but I’m convinced that if we separate them we won’t be able to determine how they function. They’re too intricately connected.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Sir, even the emitters are connected directly to the ship’s computer and bypass the stardrive. Disconnecting everything from the computer might make all this worthless. Please remember that this ancient civilization was still more advanced technologically than we are today.”

“You still haven’t suggested a way to remove it.”

“We do it like a bank robbery, Admiral.”

“What in creation do you mean by that?”

“We use one of the Prophet’s Eyes’ blasters to cut through the bow of the scout. Commodore Bartoli and I will shove the gravity sled out of the missing bow.”

“Ali, you have to know that even five miles of rock will not hide the energy made by one of our blasters. The Carand Warships are close enough to detect it through the rock and be on us like white on rice.”

“I know, Admiral. We’ll have a cable ready to attach to the front of the gravity sled that runs to a wench in the bay. Once we’re out of the bow, Poul will activate the winch and pull the sled into the bay with Commodore Bartoli and me hanging on to it. Once it’s inside the bay, you’ll get the flock out of the pasture while we tie the sled down.”

Gabby shook her head, “I told him he was nuts, Sir.”

“Why is he nuts?”

“Sir, the temperature of the hull will be incredibly high. It could burn the computer and stardrive as we take it out.”

Gabe looked back to Ali, “Is that true?”

“Admiral, we’ll wrap a heat blanket around the gravity sled and our armor is capable of handling that temperature. We’ll be out in less than four or five seconds and in the bay in a couple more.”

“That’s seven seconds. The Carand will be on us faster than that.”

Ali shrugged, “They will.”

Gabe stared at him and finally said, “But?”

“Someone will have to make a decision to open fire on the asteroid.” Ali looked at Gabby and said, “Start a chronometer from the moment I say my first word. Let me know when you’re ready.” Gabby pressed a button on her panel and nodded. Ali looked at Gabe, “Sir, the energy we detected appeared to have originated from this large asteroid. What are your orders?”

Gabe was surprised by Ali’s question and he quickly said, “Have you scanned it?”

“I have and nothing has been detected.” Ali looked at Gabby, “How long?”

Gabby looked at her chronometer and replayed the conversation watching the time. She shook her head and looked at Gabe, “Ten seconds.”

Ali nodded, “And that ship has still not been given the order to fire on the asteroid.” Gabe sat and thought about what Ali was suggesting and Ali said while Gabe was thinking, “It is also going to take some time for the Carand to localize the source of the energy and move a warship close enough to run a scan.”

Gabe nodded and looked at Ali, “And just how many Carand Warships will be surrounding this asteroid when we make our breakout?”

“Poul should have the locations of all of them from our antennas on the surface and choose the best escape route.”

“And what if the tunnel we cut leads to a huge number of them?”

“Admiral, we just cut a tunnel in the direction we need to escape.”

“But the blaster won’t be able cut a hole large enough for the ship from that close to the wall.”

Ali smiled and shrugged slightly, “You’re right. However, all eight of them will do it easily.”

Gabe sat in silence and Gabby said, “Are you seriously considering this?”

Gabe looked at her and turned back to Ali, “Is the gravity sled ready to go?”

“We just need to put the heat blanket around it and tie down the computer and stardrive.”

Gabe thought some more and looked up at the tactical monitor showing the location of hundreds of thousands of Carand Warships. He remained silent and looked at the main monitor. Gabby and Ali were silent and Gabby could only shake her head when Ali looked at her. Gabe took a deep breath and turned to them, “Death Prophecy Four says never stop development; no technology is invincible. And Death Prophecy Seven states that only knowledge can save you. Death Prophecy nine says that survival isn’t free. I happen to agree with them and I know that all of us will be called on to pay a price to protect humanity. We are going to do this.” Ali smiled as Gabby shook her head, “But not before you link your spare computer into Poul’s processors.”

Ali tilted his head, “I’ll go get my tool bag.”

• • •

“Are you ready, Poul?”

“I am.”

“I’m activating the link…now!”

Gabe sat in his chair and said, “Poul?” He was greeted with silence and his eyes narrowed, “POUL?” He heard no response and he jerked his head around to Ali, “Have you killed my computer!?”

“I’m not dead, I just need a few moments to get oriented.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I have to get accustomed to the speed before I can answer, give me a few minutes.”

Ali held a hand device up to the outside of the Eye’s computer console and stared at it, “I can understand why he needs some time.”

Gabe looked at him, “What’s going on?”

“His processor speed has gone up two hundred percent. His processors are going to have to adapt to the new speed.”

“Can your small computer make that big a difference?”

Ali continued to stare at the device and lifted his left shoulder,” I would have never expected it but it appears it has made a significant difference. Even the computers our engineers linked to him are performing at a faster speed.”

Gabe sat back and noticed Gabby reach into her console and move something. He started to ask her what she was doing but heard Poul say, “Now that’s what I’m talking about!”

Gabe looked up, “What is that?”

“There’s an easier way to get the sled out of the scout and into the landing bay.”

Ali looked up, “How?”

“I’ll attach the cable to the scout and pull the bow around so that it’s pointed directly toward the bay. That will cut the distance to less than fifty feet. Gabby will hold the winch’s cable next to my hull and you will take a portable blaster out of the armory and line it up with the scout’s bow. You’ll burn the bow off and Gabby will run forward and attach the cable to the sled. You’ll run and join her on the sled as I winch it into the bay. Total time should be less than four seconds. Of course you’ll have to set the portable blaster to completely burn away the entire bow section.”

Gabby said, “Gravity is so low that when you try to winch the scout around, you’ll only pull the two ships together.”

“No, Ali will attach an anchor into the wall and anchor me to it with a cable. I won’t be moving anywhere.”

Gabe looked at Gabby, “Why are you so against this? You should have seen using a cable to prevent pulling the two ships together without really focusing?”

Gabby shook her head, “I guess I’m afraid of dying here. I’m not thinking clearly.”

“Well think about this. We didn’t bring enough food stores to last us more than five months. Did you take a good look at the body of the scout? That’s what’s in store for all of us if we don’t get out of here before our food runs out. At least death by a blaster beam is a lot faster and far less painful.”

Gabby stared at him and sighed, “I didn’t think it through.”

“No you didn’t. Ali, get the anchor and cable, put it into the wall, and attach it to one of the anchor points on the Eyes’ hull. Once the scout is turned toward the landing bay, remove it.” Ali turned and walked off the bridge. “Gabby, you go and wrap the sled in a heat blanket and tie everything securely down. Make sure the hook on the front is uncovered so you can attach the cable.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Gabe stood up and walked down the ship’s corridor. Gabby saw him following her and she said, “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to the armory to take a portable blaster out into the cavern. Once the scout is pulled around I’m going anchor the blaster and set the beam to disintegrate the bow.” Gabby nodded and headed toward the supply room to collect two heat blankets.

T
he Fleet Leader looked at the Royal on his monitor and said, “Sire, we’ve not been able to find anything here.”