Human, you must keep this inside your warp field or Opolawn will be able to detect it. Do you understand?
Yes. Thanks, I think. But why are you doing this?
When we get to Lumpeya City I cannot help you. We are under treaty with the Lumpeyins and will not make war with them unless they are infringing upon that treaty. They are not violating the treaty as you are not protected by us. Use this gift of FUER wisely.
Mike, did you get all that?
Yes, Steven. Curious, isn't it?
Let's remember to download it to Tatiana later.
Okay, Steven.
Mike?
Yes, Steven?
You are a good friend.
Thanks, Steven.
* * *
Tatiana had the brilliant idea of attaching the two FUER pieces to a small warp armor belt. If we modified the warp bubble to rapidly collapse like the Gray's confinement bubble, it would force the two pieces of quarkium nuggets together and implement the quark fusion bomb effect. The warp device would be destroyed, thus releasing the mammoth explosion. We talked this over with Mike and were able to build such a device into a box much smaller than a wristwatch. I then had Mike attach the FUER medallions on either side of the thing and place a low-level warp bubble on and around the FUER at all times. This small warp bubble was about the size of a golf ball and I had Mike place a hard shell around the warp field. Then I picked up the little ball with the miniature warp bubble inside it and put the thing in my pocket. I hoped I wouldn't have to use it, but all it would take to activate it would be a mental order from me to Mike and I would use it if I needed to.
CHAPTER 24
"Yeah, but I still don't trust the little bastard," 'Becca replied as she turned and leaned back in her chair. The YIT radar data displayed on the widescreen bridge monitor behind her head overlaying our current position on that region of the galaxy. There was still a long way to go to Lumpeya City.
"Well, I don't either, but why else did he give me the FUER?" I looked around at the group for a response. I could tell that Anson didn't like Prawmitoos either. We had made the bridge, the engine room, and the nanomachine room off-limits to the Gray so we could speak here without worrying about him eavesdropping. Mike kept tabs on what he was up to continuously. The silly Gray just seemed to sit idle in his assigned quarters and did nothing.
"Steven," Tabitha said. "These Grays are very self-serving and conniving. Everything they do is planned. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see that there are plans within plans that we haven't yet considered."
"Plans within plans within plans . . ." Anson said.
I realized he was quoting from Dune. The W-squared's science fiction training seemed ever present. "You're right, of course. But this is quite a gift, I just need to make sure that I don't use it to the Gray's advantage. I'm not sure when or how that will be," I said.
"An opportunity will present itself sooner or later, Steven," Jim said. "As long as we are all on the same page here; none of us trust the Grays, right?"
"Duh!" 'Becca said and slugged him on the shoulder.
"Well, Jim, I'll tell ya one damn thing. That stuff about his soldier drone not having the chance to fail him again sounded a bit like Darth Vader or Admiral Thrawn to me," Anson said. "Hell fire, boy, I wouldn't trust 'em as far as I could throw him."
"I can't quite get a grip on his motivation either," I said.
"Steven, my boy, Prawmitoos's motivation would seem odd to us even if we did know it. You know why?" Anson asked.
"I dunno?" I shrugged my shoulders.
"Because, son, he's an alien. Ergo, therefore, and all that shit, his motivations will be just that . . . alien! It is very unlikely that the alien motives are in line with anything that would make sense to us. So what do we do about it?" He asked everybody this time and I could tell that they had had this conversation before. And the more I really began to think about all the science fiction stories I had assimilated, I was certain I would reach the same conclusion.
"We don't give a damn about their motives. We do what we need to do to survive and thrive," Jim and 'Becca recited.
They were right! We couldn't concern ourselves with why the aliens were doing what they were doing other than for intelligence on a means of defeating them. All of us would have preferred to meet a group of utopians that would give us the cure for cancer and an Encyclopedia Galactica but that isn't what happened. Each species is going to do what is best for that species, most likely. This is what we planned to do. This is what we would do. If what we had to do to insure our survival was detrimental to the Grays' survival, well, I guess I just didn't really give a rat's ass. Anson had used those exact words a few seconds before and I found that I completely agreed with him.
We attempted to come up with a plan of attack, but we knew so little about what was about to happen to us when we reached the Lumpeyine central world that we decided there was no need in wasting our time planning. We had no data from which to plan. Prawmitoos was little help and the YIT didn't have enough details of the city or fortress or temple or whatever it was to give us a clue as to a course of action. We were just going to have to wing it!
We are almost to Lumpeya City, gorgeous. Hang in there.
I'm fine, Stevie. No sign of the Lumpeyins yet? Tatiana asked.
Oh yes! They have been shadowing our approach now for a day or so. The same way the Grays did us when we entered their space.
My idea for getting out of here hasn't panned out yet.
What was the idea?
I thought of attempting to use our quantum connection and to attempt quantum teleportation of a miniature warp bubble through the Infrastructure. I don't have the resources in here to set that up. It's back to the drawing board.
I thought we decided that that probably wouldn't work anyway?
I know, but it makes sense that it would work if the matter was shrunk to as small as half a wavelength of the information beam that is teleported and if we could make the matter fall into the right place in the quantum connected region of the data stream.
I'll think about that, hot stuff. In the mean time, you better get back to sleep. I love you.
I know you do, Stevie.
We reached Lumpeya City while being shadowed by nineteen vessels that implemented something similar to warp drive. They could keep up with the Phoenix's quantum fluctuation drive so it was clear the Lumpeyins understood warp technology far better than we humans did. Prawmitoos remained quiet until we reached orbit around the planet-sized city. The central part of the city covered or perhaps made up the mountain continent of the planet, but the entire planet was the capital city of the Lumpeyins. Prawmitoos then called out in his native tongue to the Lumpeyins and asked to speak with Opolawn directly.
He claimed he was simply here as a liaison to introduce the Earthling delegation to the Lumpeyins. A few seconds passed and then the Phoenix was engulfed in a warp field that was attached to a beam of yellow light that shone from the planet below. The planet was about twice the diameter of Earth and had blue oceans covering nearly fifty percent of it. There were amazingly large technological structures that surrounded and covered the world, even above the oceans. The sky was filled with floating platforms and towers that didn't appear to touch the surface anywhere, and there were space-based buildings and platforms everywhere. As the yellow beam of light pulled us downward we could tell that the architecture appeared to us to be a combination of science fiction techno and ancient Greek temple.