Mikado looked at Tommy and said, “The party has gotten bigger. My staff and the rest of the fleet will be excited about getting back into action.”
“We are going to lose ships in the upcoming conflict, Admiral. I just hope we have enough to win.”
“Where do you want us to meet you?”
“Sten’s planet; have your team there at nine hundred hours tomorrow.”
“We’ll be there and congratulations on your upcoming wedding.”
“Thank you, Admiral; I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Cassandra looked at Tommy and then said to Lt. Ortiz, “Please contact Twig and Sprig and request their presence on board the Kosiev at nine hundred hours tomorrow.”
“Yes Sir.”
Tommy went to the ship’s library and was watching the Captor’s planet in his mind as Cassie walked in. He saw they were arranging their ships in layers around the planet. Cassandra joined him mentally and saw what he was looking at, “Some of their ships are missing.”
Tommy saw that she was right. “If you were them, what would you do?”
“I would do exactly what they’re doing. I would layer a defense and once we jumped in I would bring the other ships in to pin us between their energy missiles.”
“Cassie, I have a bad feeling about the attack on their world. They have something new; I don’t know what it is but I know it’s there waiting for us.”
“I didn’t think that they could hurt us with our new negative matter skins but mass will be moved by explosions that are big enough. There is another consideration.”
“What?”
“I think we could still destroy the planet even if I can’t use the particle in physical space.” Tommy tilted his head and lowered his eyebrows. “We could take the Kosiev into the planet’s atmosphere and absorb the planet like we did with the stars. The problem is; what happens to bees when the hive is destroyed? They scatter in all directions. If any of the Captors survive, we will be chasing them all over the universe and I’m not certain we could catch them if they chose to run from us. We must maintain the hive until we destroy all the warriors.”
“You’re probably right. That makes this coming battle even more dangerous.”
“I know, however we must make a quick trip to a galaxy on the other side of the universe from the Captors planet. They have moved the old queen there trying to keep her safe. We need to scare her back to the hive. That will ensure that the warriors will fight to the end. I know that they don’t reproduce quickly. Look how long it took them to build the hive since Atlas’ recording of them sixty million years ago. We may have to fight a war of attrition.”
“You’re saying what I’ve been thinking for the last month. Here’s what I think we should do. We will attack with our original eleven ships and draw the Captors to us. I believe that they will surround us and bombard us with energy balls. We will handle as many as possible and attempt to kill as many ships as we can. After we’re surrounded, half of the fleet will jump in through null space and kill as many ships as possible in five seconds. They will then jump out of the system to a different coordinate. The other half of the fleet will be waiting at those coordinates waiting for the Captors to follow. They will then kill as many as possible and then teleport out to the coordinates that they used to jump into the system. I think that after the battle is over, the Captors will follow those jump tracks to see where they lead. We’ll be waiting and start the process all over again.”
Cassandra said, “Here’s a part you may not like. We should keep the pressure up on them and jump the entire fleet back into their system and kill as many as possible; then we teleport out to lick our wounds before we start it all over again.”
“It’s going to take almost six months to get all of our ships ready. We better make good use of our time, Cassie.”
“First we go visit a Queen.”
The First Mother was sitting in orbit above a large planet with her escort of warriors around her. Suddenly those strange white ships appeared and began attacking her escort. The First Mother jumped away and appeared at the Captors home planet. She came in giving the warning of the attack at her hiding place and the First Male sent four hundred thousand ships to the site of the attack. The First Male said, “You will not be safe away from our home. They have demonstrated that they can find you. You must stay here.”
The First Mother still unnerved by the attack said, “I will stay.”
The Kosiev was fighting the remaining ships of the queen’s escort when the mass of ships jumped in and fired energy balls. Cassandra ordered, “Hold her steady.”
As the huge red missiles approached, the closest Captor ships fired their beams into the energy balls causing a tremendous explosion.” Tommy saw the approaching blast and time slowed. He reached for the fleet teleport button as the blast wave approached the eleven ships. He watched it coming very slowly as he punched the button. He watched the silver screens appear in front of the ships and the first two pulse ships disappeared. Then one by one the Stars Realm ships disappeared just before they were hit by the incoming wave front. The Kosiev was the last to go and barely escaped.
On board the Stars Realm flotilla they all saw the huge blast go off in front of their ships and then a moment later they were in another place. Cassandra looked at Tommy and said, “You’ve got to show me how you do that.”
Tommy was shaken by the size of the blast they had managed to escape, “I would if I could; I think it’s instinctive. My father has the same gift; I guess I inherited it from him.”
“Well, I’m glad you have it. That blast wave, according to our instruments, totally destroyed the planet behind us. There wasn’t even dust left behind. I guess we know what they have now. If one of those blast waves hit us we would be slammed away from it possibly breaking the ship apart.”
Tommy watched the video of the blast and said, “Yes, I guess we do. This changes a lot of our plans.”
Cassandra shook her head slowly and said, “That blast wave came from just two of their energy balls. There will be millions when we attack.”
Tommy didn’t know what to say; he continued to watch the video.
The wedding delay allowed Wes time to recover from his injuries. Cassandra and Tommy were thankful for the delay due to their efforts to get the fleet changed to the new technology and more than ten thousand ships were ready for combat. Now the day was near and the Stars Realm learned the benefit of the new teleportation system. As citizens were given a pass to attend the wedding they were also give a coordinate on the pass. Each of the Realm’s planets had a new teleport facility that the visitors would go to, give the coordinates to the operator, and then step out into the lobby of the facility they would stay during the event. This removed the traffic of ships going in and out of the system and also allowed security the control they needed to keep things under control. Every living facility on Ross was full and another half a million visitors were teleporting in the day of the ceremony to the area set aside for them to view the event. The ceremony was planned on the top tower of the castle to afford a view to the huge crowd that was coming.
Tommy was getting ready with Wes assisting him. Wes had lost some weight but showed no sign of the injuries he had sustained. Tommy was nervous and Wes remembered how he felt at the small wedding he and Linda Kay had. This was a completely different order of magnitude. The news organizations estimated that more than twenty million people were going to be present. Wes saw Tommy was one nervous groom. Wes straightened his sash and said, “Relax, you’ll be fine.”
“Easy for you to say; I just can’t get used to being the center of attention.”