The Originator Wars: Universe in Danger: A Lost Fleet Novel Page 8

  “Only a few know,” replied Tureen. “Fleet Admiral Nagumo, President Malle, and one or two others in your Federation. A number of my people know as we sent a large number of volunteers to help Fleet Admiral Strong in his war against the Anti-Life.”

  “I’m still confused about that,” confided Tolsen. “If I understand it correctly, the Anti-Life are also Originators.”

  “Originators who have taken a dark path,” answered Tureen. “A path that endangers our very universe. Nearly two million Altons volunteered to go and take part in this great conflict.”

  Tolsen leaned back in his chair, feeling astonished. He had only thought a few thousand Altons had gone at the most. “This makes our conflict with the Ralift and the surviving AIs seem almost minuscule in the grand scheme of things.”

  “I don’t believe we need to fear the AIs or the Ralift if they attempt to take control of the Dyson Sphere. It has defenses and beings in charge now who will make certain it’s an impossibility. Rear Admiral Barnes indicated the Dyson Spheres are now preparing for war.”

  “Then why not let the Ralift fleets through to the Dyson Sphere and allow it to destroy them?”

  “It’s the carnage they will cause on their way to the Dyson Sphere we fear. We have an opportunity to bring the Shari over to our side. Already they have on their own begun to relax many of the restrictions on their slave worlds. Together, we could free all the worlds in our galaxy still under the yoke of the AIs and their two remaining subordinate empires.”

  Admiral Tolsen shook his head. “I wish Rear Admiral Barnes had left us some of the tech of the Originators they’re involved with. It would have been of great use in what’s ahead of us.”

  Tureen’s smile grew broader. “They did.”

  “What!” exclaimed Tolsen, his eyes widening. “What did they leave?”

  “It’s on the forty dreadnoughts and the WarHawk,” Tureen answered. “They left the designs for an advanced fusion power plant, two times more powerful than the Fusion Five’s we’re using now on our warships. In addition, they gave us the plans for a more powerful energy screen. Both of these upgrades are on all forty-one of the dreadnoughts.”

  “Anything else?” asked Race, thinking about what the added energy might mean to the ship’s weapons. They had been powerful before, now they would be nearly unstoppable.

  “Yes, they also left behind the plans for a new sensor system capable of reaching out nearly thirty light years in all directions as well as a faster method to communicate through hyperspace.”

  “Once the system is up and activated we will be able to communicate with any system in the Federation or former Hocklyn space in a matter of hours instead of days. Alton ships have been busy for several weeks now, placing new communication buoys for this system across the areas of space we’re currently operating in. We already have a secure line running from the Shari homeworld to here.”

  Race nodded in understanding. “That explains how Fleet Admiral Nagumo knew so quickly what’s occurring in Shari space.”

  “That’s correct, Admiral,” Tureen replied. “We’ve been furnishing him with the information. The communication lines from here to Earth and New Tellus should be finished in the next two days.”

  “What are the restrictions the Shari have placed on my fleet?” Race was certain there had to be some. He couldn’t imagine them allowing Federation and Alton warships to operate without close monitoring in their space.

  “None,” Tureen answered. “The Shari are desperate. They have no way to destroy an AI battle sphere. Without our assistance, they are in danger of losing a number of their core systems and billions of lives. If we’re successful in destroying the surviving AIs and turning back the Ralift fleets, the Shari are willing to initiate normal diplomatic relations with the Federation as well as some very lucrative trade agreements. They will also aid us in future conflicts against the Ralift and the Borzon.”

  “Will there be any Shari vessels with my fleet?”

  “No, you have full autonomy in how your fleet operates in Shari space. All they ask is that you assist whatever Shari fleets are in the sector you’re operating in. They have already suffered some major losses both in ships and in worlds. The invading Ralift fleets and AIs have the capability to destroy the Shari Empire.”

  -

  That’s where the meeting ended with Race immediately taking command of the forty-one dreadnoughts. The WarHawk was considered to be a battle dreadnought as it was the largest of the forty-one ships. It was three thousand meters in length and six hundred meters in diameter. The forward section was a globe eight hundred meters in diameter and the engines in the stern flared out to seven hundred meters. The ship’s primary weapons were two particle beam cannons and four power beams mounted on the bow. There were secondary weapons scattered across the hull as well as forty-eight missile tubes for Devastator three missiles and the more deadly sublight antimatter missiles. The other dreadnoughts were two thousand meters in length and only slightly less powerful than the WarHawk.

  After leaving the Alton home world, the fleets under Race’s command had set out immediately for Shari space. That’s where they were now sitting, just on the border.

  “This feels strange,” said Commander Madelyn Arnett as she gazed at an auxiliary viewscreen showing a star field. Hundreds of unwinking stars were visible. “Last time we were here we were fighting the Shari. Now we’re here to save them.”

  “Times change,” commented Colonel Brice Cowel, the executive officer. “That’s how war is.”

  Race nodded, recognizing Brice was taking a pragmatic view. He looked up at the large viewscreen showing numerous Federation warships. After much consideration, Fleet Admiral Nagumo had decided the Federation would fight a holding action against the Borzon until the Ralift had been dealt with. As a result both his sister, Rear Admiral Massie Tolsen, and Fleet Admiral Baasil had brought their fleets. Massie’s fleet now consisted of twenty battlecarriers, ten battlecruisers, and forty-six strikecruisers. Alton Fleet Admiral Baasil had seventy Alton battleships and one hundred and forty Alton battlecruisers. Alton Admiral Lankell had one hundred and twenty battleships under his command. In addition, Admiral Stoddard had twelve battleships, forty battlecruisers, and seventy strikecruisers. In Race’s own fleet, he had the forty-one Alton-built dreadnoughts, forty-four battleships, one hundred and ten battlecruisers, and two hundred and twenty strikecruisers. There were also forty fleet supply and six repair ships to support the fleet. It was a massive fleet by any measure, but the Ralift fleet they were going to face was even larger.

  “How far into Shari space are we going?” asked Commander Arnett.

  “To the far side of their core systems,” Race replied. Fleet Admiral Nagumo and he had spent a lot of time discussing where the best location to meet the Ralift and AIs would be. The only concern was that this put them within two thousand light years of the Dyson Sphere. While Race was now confident the Originator AIs and the few Humans on the sphere would destroy any Ralift or AI ship that approached, he would prefer not to take the risk.

  “Will there be a Shari fleet going into battle with us?” asked Brice. “It would be nice to know who their commander is.”

  “There is a High Lord currently in charge of the main fleet who has been fighting a delaying action against the Ralift. His name is High Lord Droll and from what I’ve been able to learn he is an able Fleet Commander. He hasn’t hesitated to engage the advancing Ralift and AIs on a number of occasions. He’s been careful not to risk major losses though I understand in the last battle the AIs became involved and he lost a number of warships before he could disengage and jump to safety.”

  “The AIs have a tendency for doing that,” Commander Arnett said. She had fought against them numerous times in the war with the Hocklyns.

  “We will proceed to the Marlode System where we will rendezvous with High Lord Droll. From there we will make plans to engage the advancing Ralift fleet.”

  “There are sever
al other Ralift fleets currently sweeping through Shari space,” commented Colonel Brice. “What if they all form up into one large fleet?”

  Race let out a deep breath. This was one of his major concerns. If the Ralift were intent on taking the Dyson Sphere, it only made sense that at some point all their invading fleets would join together.

  “We’ll deal with that possibility after we join up with High Lord Droll. He’s supposed to make available to us all his recorded data on engagements against the Ralift and the AIs.”

  “We have one hell of a fleet,” said Commander Arnett, gazing at several battlecruisers on the large viewscreen. “There are over nine hundred ships we’ll be taking into battle. While that seems like a lot, we could easily be facing over ten thousand Ralift warships.”

  “Our job is to take the AIs out,” Race replied. “If we can do that, then the Shari can handle the rest of the Ralift fleet.” It would be a huge task for the Shari, but they had a large fleet which could be brought to bear. Many of those ships were currently protecting the Shari core worlds in case a Ralift fleet or AI battle sphere showed up.

  “We have the next jump plotted,” reported Colonel Brice. “We can jump as soon as you’re ready.”

  “No point in delaying,” said Race. The sooner he could get his fleet to where the AIs and the Ralift were, the more ships the Shari would have to aid in the battle. “Let’s jump the fleet into Shari space.”

  Race leaned back in his command chair. Once again he was about to lead a major Federation and Alton fleet into battle. He had come to accept this was his destiny in life. It seemed as soon as one threat was dealt with it was only a short time before another popped up.

  -

  In front of the WarHawk, a glowing spatial vortex appeared. Without hesitation the navigation and helm officer took the mighty battle dreadnought into the heart of the swirling vortex. A few minutes later the last ship had made the jump and the vortexes faded away to nothing, leaving no evidence of the large fleet which had been in the system.

  -

  Race gazed at the shifting colors of purple raging across the massive viewscreen in the Command Center. Once again he was off to war.

  Chapter Six

  Rear Admiral Kathryn Barnes watched anxiously as the three-thousand-meter-long Distant Horizon exited the large space doors of the shipyard and into space. On the main viewscreen, numerous structures became visible. All around the area of space where the Originator Communications and Transport hub was located were hundreds of titanic structures. Many of them were massive ship construction yards and others giant manufacturing facilities that processed the raw material the Originators and their AIs needed to maintain the megastructures. There were also research centers where the AIs worked nonstop advancing the science of their creators. The largest constructions were the four Dyson Spheres capable of housing trillions of beings.

  “All ships have exited the construction yard and are prepared to enter the Accelerator Ring,” reported Commander Grissim. “The Dominator has taken up its position on our left flank.”

  Kathryn nodded. Kazak and Commander Zafron had felt it important for them to be part of this mission just in case the missing Originators were located. They also had a large supply of the antidote to the Originator pathogen on board; all the ships did. They had no idea how many Originators they were searching for. It could be a few thousand to hundreds of thousands. Bartoll and Zafron were hoping it was the latter.

  The large viewscreen shifted to show a view of the ring. It was one hundred and ten kilometers across and capable of sending an entire fleet into hyperspace at speeds that made intergalactic travel possible. The Accelerator Ring could send a fleet to any of the galaxies containing a Dyson Sphere in a relatively short time, even faster than the intergalactic vortexes on the Dyson Spheres themselves. It was also capable of sending ships to galaxies where there were no Dyson Spheres though in that case, the ship would have to use its own intergalactic hyperdrive to get back to the nearest Dyson Sphere. That could take anywhere from a few weeks to months.

  “Course plotted,” reported Kelsey as she sent the coordinates over to the Helm.

  “I’m prepared to take the ship into the ring,” added Sible, who was an Originator AI. Sible was now a full member of the crew as she loved flying the giant exploration dreadnought.

  “All systems functioning within set parameters,” reported Clarissa with an excited smile. “This trip is going to be an adventure!”

  “Only if we find the lost Originators,” replied Camlin, who was standing close to Rear Admiral Barnes. “If we do it will make a huge difference in our war with the Anti-Life.”

  “Activate the ring,” ordered Kathryn. She was ready to get the mission started. She was also curious to see everything Admiral Jackson had accomplished at Ornellia.

  “Activating the Accelerator Ring,” said Sible as she pressed several icons on her screen. Then she seemed to concentrate as she linked her mind to the ship’s helm and hyperdrive controls. Sible had a neural implant, which allowed her to link with any system on the ship. “Preparing to activate hyperspace drives.” The use of the drives was necessary to keep the original speed boost from the Accelerator Ring intact.

  In front of the Distant Horizon and the other eleven ships in the small fleet a massive glowing spatial vortex appeared. It was dark blue and seemed to shimmer and swirl as if beckoning the ships to come forward. Sible was controlling the gravity drives on all twelve ships, and with a simple mental command the ships accelerated rapidly and entered the vortex. Gravity was one of the prime forces in the universe and present in every corner. The drive simply reversed polarity to either propel the ship or slow it down. It was capable of reaching a speed nearly half that of light. As the fleet entered the vortex, Sible activated the hyperdrives.

  Kathryn felt a sudden twinge, her eyes blurred, and then everything returned to normal. Her eyes shifted to the large viewscreen and the raging colors of deep purple flowing across the screen. It was almost as if they were at war.

  “I am pleased to report our successful entry into the intergalactic vortex. We will arrive in the Triangulum Galaxy in two weeks, one day, and seventeen hours,” reported Sible, looking pleased with herself. This was the same announcement she had made the last time they had traveled to the Triangulum Galaxy.

  “Turn the screen off,” ordered Kathryn. The raging colors of purple were causing her stomach to twitch. “We don’t need to stare at that for two weeks.”

  Andram reached forward on his science console and deactivated the screen.

  “I can adjust the screen to show star patterns,” Sible said, looking back at the admiral.

  “How?” asked Kathryn. Sible hadn’t mentioned this the last time. Anything would be better than what was on it before.

  “It’s actually quite simple. We know the coordinates of all the nearby galaxies and rogue star clusters. I can correlate our travel through hyperspace and the change in their coordinates compared to our rate of travel. I can then place that on the viewscreen and you can watch the galaxies as we fly past them.”

  “Do it,’ ordered Kathryn. She was curious as to what the screen would show.

  Almost instantly a star field appeared. Thousands of distant white dots filled the screen. Kathryn knew these were not stars but actual galaxies. Due to the speed of the ship, a few of them seemed to be slowly moving. One galaxy, which was closer than the others, actually showed a spiral shape.

  “That’s much better,” said Kathryn, pleased with the change to the screen. It also made her realize just how small the Distant Horizon was in the vastness of intergalactic space.

  “How about this?” said Andram, reaching forward and making some adjustments on his science console.

  Almost instantly, the screen was filled with color. Reds, blues, yellow, white, and others.

  “I activated some filters on the screen. You’re now seeing those galaxies as they would look if the vacuum of space was transmitting the ac
tual colors of the stars and nebula.”

  Kathryn gazed in awe at the screen. It was as if the universe had come alive with color.

  -

  Jeremy was inside his office standing at the large window looking out over the city the Originators had built for the slightly over four million Humans who now called it home. The Humans, Altons, and Carethians had each been given a full habitation square. All three bordered one another and thanks to the transportation the Originators had made available, going from one city to another was relatively quick and easy.

  “We’ll be leaving tomorrow,” said Kevin, who was standing next to Jeremy. “We’ve got a long ways to go.”

  “Kelsey and Katie left a few minutes ago,” Jeremy replied. He and Kelsey had spent a long night of lovemaking since it would be awhile before they saw one another again. Jeremy suspected Katie and Kevin had done the same considering how he kept yawning as if he had little sleep.

  “Angela and I watched on one of the screens down in the Communications Center,” replied Kevin. “I hope they find the missing Originators.”

  “They have eleven exploration ships, plus the Dominator,” Jeremy replied as he watched numerous vehicles moving about on the city streets below. “At least this time we don’t have to fear for their safety.” The Simulins in the Triangulum Galaxy had been disarmed by the Dominator and a fleet of AI warspheres immediately after the cataclysmic battle above Gaia.

  “Admiral Jackson is at Ornellia with a sizable fleet,” remarked Kevin. “At least they have a safe harbor if they need one.”

  “Jeremy,” a soft female voice spoke from behind them.

  Turning, Jeremy saw Ariel dressed in her normal dark blue fleet uniform. She was using one of her holograms as she was on the Avenger making final preparations for departure.

  “Bartoll and the others are waiting for you in the main conference room.”

  “Thanks, Ariel,” answered Jeremy. He wanted to have one final meeting with the Originators before setting out to investigate the Anti-Life.