“That means we won’t have time to hide, Sir.”
L’grae looked at his navigator and shrugged, “I’ve just lost ninety three ships. What do you think will happen to us as a result of that?”
His navigator thought about it and saw that they were probably dead either way. “We will stand by you, sir.”
L’grae smiled and said, “Then let’s play chase. Take us directly away from that ship. Go to full speed.”
The Moet Master put his goblet down and watched the sole remaining ship turn and flee through normal space toward the sun at the system’s center. “How many escaped?”
“Seven, Lord.”
The Master needed to make a decision. If he jumped to chase the seven escapees, this remaining ship would escape. If he chased this ship, the other seven would escape. “How long will it take us to move in to weapons’ range on that ship?”
“Fifteen dais, Lord.”
“Why that long?”
“We are slightly faster, but it can change course much faster than we are capable. We will catch him, but it will be a long chase.” The Master of Navigation then added, “It will now take us eighteen dais.”
The Dreadnaught Master looked at the navigator sharply who then said, “The longer we wait the longer it will take to kill it. It is now twenty dais.”
“What about the ships that escaped?”
“We will probably be lucky to only get one of them if we leave now.”
The Master thought about it and leaned back in his command chair and held his goblet out for a refill. He turned, sighed, and said, “Open one of their frequencies.”
The communications light illuminated on his panel and he pushed it.
L’grae was running at full speed when his Communications Officer pushed a switch, “…have no desire to waste my time chasing your tiny ship. We can eventually catch you and destroy you, but I want you to go and bring more ships to attack me. Set up your next ambush so I can make my time worth the effort. I’ll see you at that time.”
L’grae watched his panel as the giant grey ship disappeared. “Change course, ninety degrees.” L’grae held the arms of his chair as the ship turned. After two hours he said, “Stop all engines.” The small silver ship continued to coast toward the outer system. L’grae’s crew had heard the contempt of the Moet. They, and L’grae, knew they were now back at square one. Nothing they had in their arsenal could defeat that class of Moet Ship. L’grae stared at the behemoth on his display. This was a game changer. He tried to make a decision on what his next decision would be. None of the ships that escaped would know what happened to his ship. If they investigated they would see that only seven trails left the site of the attack. He knew the Leaders had never allowed a Commander and his crew to live if they lost more than twenty ships. They were always executed as an example of what happened to those that failed. He had just lost ninety three. He and his crew knew if they went back they were dead.
He punched the ship’s intercom and said, “I’m struggling with what to do next. You all know that if we go back, we’ll be executed in a very painful display. I’ve lost ninety three ships in this attack, and I’ve never seen our leaders make an exception to executing a Commander and his crew for the loss of more than twenty ships. I sincerely don’t believe they will change that process this time, either. I know many of you have families, but we should consider this: if you go back and are executed as a traitor, they will not be given support by the state. If they think we died in this battle, your families will be supported. I want you to discuss among yourselves what you think we should do, and have one of you prepared to tell me what your desires are. This is not a decision I can force on you. I’ll give you two rotations to discuss this.” L’grae leaned back in his chair and saw his mate in his thoughts. She was now lost to him along with his three children. He stared out the viewport at the unblinking stars and knew that his ship’s chance of survival was not good. He looked at the large planet off the portside of his ship and knew the universe was not a safe place to exist. Life was always tenuous at best. It looked like his luck had run out.
After two rotations, the ship’s crew gathered in the landing bay and L’grae looked around at their somber faces. “What decision have you made?”
His lead Engine Technician stepped forward and looked around, “Sir, we can’t decide what we should do next.” L’grae started shaking his head, but the tech continued, “However, we do know we can’t go back. We’ve decided to follow you wherever you lead us. You’ve saved our lives more times than we can count, and we all feel we’re going to be safer if we just allow you to continue making the decisions on our next courses of action.”
Lgrae looked around and said, “Then here is what we do for now. We will power down and hide until our Leaders send someone to investigate the battle site. They will send someone; they always do. We can’t leave and allow them to suspect we survived. There is so much wreckage at the site of the battle that it’s impossible to know how many ships were destroyed. Once that ship leaves we will wait three more rotations and then see if we can find a place for us to live in this universe. I’m sorry it’s come to this, but such is our fate. We need to cut back on our rations, and I’ll be looking for a planet where we can replenish our stores. We are all in this together, and I’ll do my best to make the best choices for us.” L’grae paused and said, “Dismissed.”
The Moet Watcher observed the destruction of the silver ships. He wanted to yell at the Dreadnaught Master to chase the ships that escaped but, he knew any attempt to tell one of the High Masters what to do was a death sentence. He watched as all of the survivors escaped, pounding his chair’s arm the entire time in frustration. Now the enemy would learn about the Dreadnaught. There was no way to kill all of them now. He couldn’t even call in ships to give chase without overstepping his authority with the High Master. He leaned back in his chair and put his secondary brain on the task of handling the board. The watcher forced himself to calm down. It really wouldn’t matter. The enemy was never going to be able to handle a Dreadnaught. He just wished for just once a competent Master would be given command of them, but he knew that would not happen. Only those of proven loyalty would be given control of a Dreadnaught, which meant the Royal Family. What could he do? He turned his attention to the board and tried to forget the missed opportunity. This would come back to bite them some day. He was right and didn’t know it.
Chris looked at Jillian with a wisp of her sweaty hair hanging in her face. They had finally gotten the emitters aligned properly, and tuned them to get through the force field frequency. It was hot work inside the Cheop’s hull, and both of them needed a bath. “What are you doing later this evening?”
Jillian looked up with furrowed brow, “Is it Thursday?”
“No, it’s Monday. Have you made any plans?”
Jillian thought a moment, “No. What do you have in mind? Do you want to go out with Dolly and Jeff?”
“We can’t. She’s collecting a meal from Hemon. I was wondering if you wanted to go take a look at the other construction site.”
Jillian looked up from the emitter cable she was attaching and frowned, “I thought we had eliminated it as a source of information.”
“We did, but we should at least make sure. The engineers have to close up the hull and apply the clear armor. We have a few days before we leave, and I’ve been thinking about that site.”
“What’s bothering you?”
“Well, it occurs to me that whoever the other Sheera Assistant was, they might have wanted to make sure a message was left in the event something happened. Hemon was suspicious and I suspect the other Assistant was as well. He wouldn’t be able to carve a tablet as a Rosetta stone because his people had not developed a written language. It dawned on me that he might have left notes in the language of the Sheera. I’ve also been studying the structure over the last month, and there’s a block I want to examine. It might be nothing, but I’d like to make sure.”
“Have you been studying the Sheera Language program Dolly made for us?”
“As a matter of fact, I have. I think that it might improve our understanding of it if we communicate in it from this point forward. I think I can now handle most of the terms needed to communicate intelligently.”
Jillian shook her head slightly, “I don’t think I’m there yet.”
“Then there’s even more reason to start.”
Jillian took a deep breath and started talking in the Sheera language, “When do you want to go?”
Chris smiled, “That was good. Why don’t we clean up, grab a gravity gun and take off in an hour? It will be dark here shortly, but it’s still daylight in Bolivia.”
Jillian looked at her watch, “Can we make it before it gets dark?”
“I thought you might want to take the Ninja on a trial flight.”
Jillian thought about it, ““Let’s do it. I’ll meet you back here in an hour. I’ll have Dr. Morrison prepare the Ninja.”
Chris smiled and ran from the room. Jillian watched him go and knew she would never be able to outrun him as easily as the first time they met; he had been training. She grabbed her computer and followed him out of the ship.
Chris watched as Jillian toggled the engine switches on her pilot’s board and listened to the deep thrum of the reactors as they came on line. Jillian looked at the board and saw a new row of controls on the top right corner, “What are these?”
“I’ve had Morrison add my sensors to the Ninja’s hull and tie the weapon’s armaments into them. You won’t have to target anything. The sensors will show you on your display what’s around you, and all you have to do is touch the screen. The weapons will automatically lock on the target. You fire by pushing the red button under the clear cover on you chair arm.”
“You’re worried about me, aren’t you?”
Chris ignored the question and continued, “If you want the system to go full automatic and hit everything around you, just touch the screen in the top right hand corner of the display on the “Auto”, then press and hold the red button down for three seconds.”
“Chris, I’ll be fine.”
“If you say so, but I’m going to try and make sure everything that can insure your survival will be at your disposal.”
“I love you, Chris.”
“I don’t want to lose you, Jilly.”
“You won’t.” Jillian hit her communicator and said, “Dad, will you contact the Bolivian Government and let them know one of our ships will be landing at Puma Punku in ninety minutes or less?”
“Stand by.” Jillian waited and hummed the Jukebox song. Chris smiled as he remembered. “Ok, you’ve been cleared.”
“Thanks, Dad.” Jillian lifted the small white colored ship. It slowly rose a hundred feet, and then accelerated straight up into the atmosphere.
Chris looked at the sensors and said, “How fast do you intend to go?”
“Once we clear the upper atmosphere, I’m setting speed at a hundred miles per second.”
“We should be there in less than five minutes.”
“I know.”
“Why did you say ninety?”
“There are some radical groups still operating in Bolivia, and I didn’t want them planning a reception.”
“Perhaps we should go armed?”
“I never go out without being armed. Your gun and holster is in the slot on the right side of your chair.”
Chris leaned over and pulled a small plastic gun from the holder, “What is this?”
“It’s a ray gun; Flash Gordon style.”
Chris started laughing, “Flash Gordon?”
“You’ve never heard of him?”
“Of course I’ve heard of him. Remember, I love ancient history.”
“Well, Flash is not ancient history, that’s a super powerful ray gun. Be careful where you point it. The button on the right side turns it on and off.”
“Who designed this?”
“Dolly and Dr. Levin.”
“Oh boy, this should be a doozy.”
“It is. Just be careful where you point it.”
“You brought the remote control with you, right?”
Jillian held up the small device and smiled, “I also see where you’ve added a weapons control to it.”
“I did. It will fire on anything that is not within ten yards of that remote. If it moves, it will be hit. So be careful where you point it.”
“Touché’. Hold on, we’re about to land.”
“By the way, the Sheera don’t have touché’ in their language.”
“Yes they do. Look on the eighth page next to last paragraph of translations.”
“I’ll do that when we leave Puma Punku.” Chris suspected she was probably right. She had a memory that was amazing, and he had never seen her forget anything she read.
Jillian landed the Ninja outside the huge blocks of granite at the end of the stone wall that marked the boundary of the ancient temple. They stepped out of the ship, climbed one of the huge granite blocks, and looked around. Off in the distance they could see the Andes Mountains. All around the ancient temple there was nothing but barren plains with scrub grass. The altitude was too high for trees to grow and it was as barren as most deserts. There had always been a mystery about how an ancient civilization had moved stone blocks weighing hundreds of tons without trees to act as rollers. Now they stood and gazed at the massive stone wall before them and knew how it was done.
Chris put his holster on, checked his ray gun, and picked up his tablet before they exited the ship. It was two in the afternoon and the sun was high and bright over the landscape. They looked at the interlocking blocks that formed the huge wall and saw that the blocks were larger and different from the blocks of the Great Pyramid. They were cut exactly to interlock with each other, and it was clear that they must have been cut from a template. They were actually more massive than the largest stone blocks used in the interior of the pyramid. Some of them weighed more than a hundred tons, and a couple of them over 400 tons. Chris looked around and Jillian said, “Do you see anything that might be interesting?”
“All of this is interesting but I know what you mean; where could a message have been left?” Jillian nodded and walked over to the huge stone standing at the entrance. Chris joined her and turned to look back at the wall. He opened the program on his tablet and looked at the particular block he had found in his studies of the site, then he stared at a section of the wall to the south and compared it with images on his display. Jillian noticed he was very quiet. He walked a hundred yards south to the wall and looked at three heads that had been carved on three blocks surrounding a stone plain granite block in the center.