Trapped in Time-Extinction (36 page)

“Why not?”

“My entire life was spent living under the expectation that I would become the Community’s Leader when I grew up. I made bad decisions because of the pressures I felt. I am going to announce that no one will name their child Andy from this time forward.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Do you know the Regent’s name?”

“Does he have one?”

“He does, but he assumed the title and now all his people call him Regent. From now on, anyone chosen by the Community to be their Leader will take the title of Andy. They will lose their original name and go by the name of our original leader.”

Melody smiled and slowly shook her head, “That is a marvelous idea. If not Andy, what will we name him?”

Andy smiled, “Singer.”

Melody’s eyes went wide and she was speechless. She started shaking her head and Andy put his hand on her chin stopping it, “Melody, he loved your sister and refused to allow her to go out into the forest alone. He went with her and protected her until he died. She would have never made it without him. I owe him for his sacrifice. He brought her to me and she brought me to you.”

“But he was a Destroyer.”

“Who had a heart very much like yours and Harmony’s. He knew there was not much chance of surviving but he would not leave her. His bravery was something that I still admire and I often pray he’s found happiness in the afterlife.”

Melody closed her eyes and quietly said, “Harmony loved him.” She opened her eyes and smiled, “Singer is a good name.” Andy nodded and he kissed his son on the cheek.

The Infant cooed and both of them smiled. Melody wiped a tear away and said, “He likes it.”

Andy started shaking his head and Melody said, “They are like their older sisters.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Melody smiled, “I am.” Andy put singer in Melody’s arms next to Destiny and leaned forward to kiss Melody.

L
innae focused on the distant star glowing on the wall monitor and after a few minutes said, “They still have seven warships above the planet.”

The Regent looked at Linnae, “I would have thought they would have left by now.”

Linnae listened with her eyes closed and the Regent wondered if she had heard him. “Your planet wasn’t damaged as much as you thought.”

“What?”

“They didn’t use nuclear weapons to attack. They used explosive missiles and heat beams. The beams were so hot they looked like a nuclear explosions but they weren’t.”

“Why would they do that?”

“They intend to colonize it.”

“If they didn’t use nuclear weapons, there may still be survivors on the planet.”

“There are. I can hear them.”

“How many?”

“I can’t really give you a good answer until we move closer. Those seven ships are there to prevent any other civilization from moving in and taking the planet.”

“So how do I handle this?”

Linnae shrugged, “If you move in and remove those ships, you will have to stay there.”

“Why?”

“For the same reason they’re there. And you’ll also have to prevent a colonizing fleet from taking possession of it.”

“What will you do if I have to stay?”

“We will take their ships, go back to Earth and start moving our communities here.”

“Those ships won’t hold all of you.”

“No, it make take numerous trips to get all of them moved but this is how we’ll start.”

“Do you honestly think my single ship can stand up to thousands of their warships?”

“According to the Time Takers, that’s exactly what you can do.”

The Regent stared at Linnae and turned to Grandel, “What do you think?”

“Our species is immune to the mind weapon. We can use it without blocking its effects with our helmets.”

Linnae nodded, “Once we get one of their ships modified with our new blasters and cutting technology, we’ll go out and collect some larger ships to speed up moving us here.”

“Larger ships?”

“There’s an aggressive civilization that uses ships more than ten times larger than yours. We’ll capture some of them and that should allow us to complete the migration in less than a year.”

“And what will we be doing here while you’re moving your people?”

“You will keep any invaders away while those of us on the planet will start rebuilding it.”

“That could take a very long time.”

Linnae smiled, “Time is something we’ll have in abundance now.”

The Regent smiled, “You’re right. There’s no reason to be in a hurry.”

Linnae laughed, “Exactly right. Let’s go and collect some warships.”

Tyler shook his head and looked at the Regent, “How are you going to collect them?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well let’s say your mind weapon works and kills everyone on those ships. I’m going to assume they’ll have their force fields operating and they will still be up afterwards. How do you get on board?”

Everyone on the bridge looked at each other and the Regent turned to his Weapons Officer, “He makes a good point. Is there any way to turn them off?”

The officer shook his head, “I know on our ship they’d stay on until someone turned them off.”

Linnae looked around and said, “Then that means you’d have to leave someone on board at all times. Are you saying that you couldn’t land the ship and leave the field on with everyone off the ship?”

“No, we have a frequency that will turn it off.”

“Wouldn’t that put you in danger in a space battle if an enemy stole that frequency?”

“Not really, the computer would only accept it from someone just outside of the field. You could send it all day but unless you’re ten feet away, the computer wouldn’t accept it. Our engineers built it that way because if an enemy is ten feet way, our weapons would keep them from moving closer.”

Tyler looked at the Regent, “Didn’t you tell me that one of the three ships you killed the first time you used the mind weapon had its force field go down.”

The Navigator nodded, “Yes, but we didn’t go on board to see why.”

The Regent looked at Tyler, “Perhaps we need to go and take a look at that ship before we go after those at our planet.” He turned to the Ship’s Controller, “Do you still have those ships’ coordinates?”

Linnae shook her head, “Wouldn’t the, what did you call them?

“Jemli.”

“Wouldn’t the Jemli have come and retrieved those three ships?”

The Weapons Officer shook his head, “I sincerely doubt it.” Linnae tilted her head. The Officer continued, “We were running and jumping into hyperspace in random directions. Those ships had all they could do just to stay close. I really doubt they had time to broadcast their position in the time they broke into normal space and were killed by the Regent.”

“Wouldn’t they have some sort of device where they could be tracked?”

“I don’t know of any device that could be located in normal space further than a light year. I really think they’re where we left them.”

Linnae shrugged, “Well, let’s go see. If they’re gone, then we’ll have to come up with another idea.”

The Regent nodded to the Controller and he activated the hyperdrive. Three hours later the ship entered normal space and the three Jemli ships were still hanging in space. The Regent smiled and said, “Take us to the ship without a force field.”

The Weapons Officer shook his head, “You’ll need to put on suits to go onboard.”

“Why, we can just lock on their airlock and enter from there?”

“There’s eighteen hundred dead bodies that have been decomposing; I imagine the smell will not be something you’d want to be exposed to.”

Tyler said, “Perhaps we can remove them and trial our new blasters in the same process.” Everyone turned to him and he smiled, “If we hit that ship with our blasters at high power, all those bodies should disintegrate. I suspect it will also remove the residue of the smell as well.”

Linnae shook her head, “Tyler, the smell from the orange mist is not much better.”

“You didn’t see the trial of the new blaster.” Linnae nodded. “The red beam blasters on our ship are thousands of times more powerful than our handblasters; they leave no orange mist.”

The Regent nodded, “We’ll fire the blasters but I think it would still be a good idea to wear suits.” He looked at his Ordinance Leader, “Do we have a suit that will fit them?”

“We do.”

“Take them down to the landing bay and get them suited up with the other three humans.” He looked at the Weapons Officer, “I want you and the Navigator to go on board and see if you can find the method they use to power off their force fields externally.” He looked at the Controller, “Move the ship five hundred yards from it and we’ll fire our blasters at it.” He looked at the Weapons Officer, “You’ll have your blaster operators fire on it and then you’ll join them in the landing bay.”

The Leader nodded to Tyler and Linnae and they followed him off the bridge. Tyler flinched when the blasters fired. The sound could be heard throughout the ship and it caught him by surprise. Linnae looked at him, “Our handblasters are silent.”

“I know, but the ones on the hull are a higher magnitude of power. Their beams will reach out eighty miles and still be more than a hundred times more powerful.”

The Jemli ship was raked with a barrage of red beams and the Talen Warship moved slowly toward the derelict. Linnae waited in the landing bay until the giant Jemli Battleship was right next to it. The controller moved the ship slightly and then held the ship in place as the landing bay crew moved a section out of the hull and extended it to the Jemli’s hull. It covered an airlock and then locked on the hull surrounding it.

The Talen operated the tunnel and waited until a purple light illuminated on his panel. He pressed an orange button and after a moment said, “The tunnel is pressurized.” The door to the tunnel opened and two crewmembers entered and went to the airlock. One opened the panel over the external airlock controls and used a small handheld device to scan it. He pulled a small handle down and pressed a green button. The airlock portal made a small noise and then opened inward. The seven members of the insertion team then entered the tunnel and went into the Jemli ship.

They were followed on board by an engineering team that headed toward the engine room and the reactors. The Weapons Officer had three of his subordinates go on board to find their blasters and determine if they could find out how to operate them.

The Jemli ship was twice as large as the Talen ship and it took the five Humans and two Talens an hour to find their way to the bridge. Linnae and Tyler felt a chill go up their spine; there was no trace of the crew that had been on board the ship. Once they arrived on the bridge, they began using small scanners to trace the wiring from the control panels and then began labeling the panels as to what purpose they served.

Manuel and Jennifer immediately went to the panel directly in front of the main viewport and sat down in the chairs. The Navigator looked at Linnae and she said, “They know how to fly this ship.”

“How did they learn to do that?”

“My sister and I have been watching the Jemli and sending what we saw to them.” Suddenly, Linnae smiled, “Do you know how to use the thought weapon?”

“I do. Why do you ask?”

“Do you think those ships at your planet always keep their force fields up?”

The Weapon’s Officer, who had been listening in, waved a hand, “No, it would be a waste of power.”

The Navigator nodded, “Their scanners also function better with the force fields down. What are you thinking?”

“What if we take this ship back to your planet and attack them with your mind weapon?”

The Weapons Officer said, “If we jumped in they would see the emergence pattern where we were entering normal space and turn on their force fields.”

The Navigator shook his head, “Not if our emergence was a long way out from them. They’d wait to see what it was.”

The Weapons Officer stared at him for a moment and shrugged, “But would our weapon affect them from that distance?”

Linnae looked at Tyler and then turned to them, “I know that thoughts appear to travel around the universe instantly. I suspect that if you can see your target, your thought waves would be effective.”

Suddenly, the two Talens opened their mouths and said together, “NO!”

Linnae turned around and saw Tyler was removing his helmet. He looked at them and smiled, “There is a slight smell but nothing that’s too bad. I’m tired of trying to work in this suit.”

The two Talens looked at him and the Navigator angrily said, “If something happened to either of you, the Regent would punish us severely.”

Tyler lifted both shoulders, “I checked the composition of the atmosphere and it is within tolerable limits for us. Check it out.”

The Weapons Officer removed his helmet and took a small breath. He wrinkled his nose slightly and then nodded, “It is bearable. Just check with us in the future before you break protocols.”

“I will.” Tyler walked over to the weapons console and said, “Before we attack anything, we need to find the method they use to drop their force fields.”

Linnae shook her head, “Why?”

“Because we can’t be absolutely sure they won’t…” he hesitated and then smiled, “break protocol and leave them down when they detect an emergence.”

Linnae and the two Talens laughed and the Navigator said, “You’re right. Let’s get busy.”

Linnae sent a thought to the Regent, “While we’re looking for a means to drop their force fields, you might want to use the blasters on the other two ships.”

“I’ll retract the tunnel and come back after we complete the cleansing.”

Linnae turned to Manuel and thought, “Can you fly it?”

“Yes, I’m familiar with the controls. It’s easier than the Talen ship, the pilot enters the coordinates for the jump drive instead of using a Navigator.” He reached over and pressed a button, “This engages my panel to automatically lock on a ship and follow its coordinates as soon as it’s detected. It can see the ship’s trace through hyperspace.”

“That’s good. I’ll see about getting a ship for Rich and Jenny.”

The three nodded and went back going over the controls together. Linnae listened to them and smiled, they were ready. After a moment she sent a thought to Tyler, “What’s the real reason you want to wait to attack?”