Chapter 16
The Captor warrior jumped into a system with a planet that obviously had advanced intelligent life. He was looking for the strange white ship that had attacked the home planet and had found nothing. He scanned the planet and noticed a white ship keeping station above it. He matched it to the ship he was looking for and it did not match. He started to jump away but then matched the ship to the other smaller ships involved in the last attack and discovered that the shape was very similar. The energy reading was completely different but it did physically look like those other ships. He thought about what he should do for a moment then contacted the First Male and sent him a recording of the scan he had just completed. The First Male received the scan and said, “Just a moment. I’m setting up the First Mother’s defense. I’ll contact you momentarily.”
The Warrior held his position and waited for the First Male.
Admiral Mikado contacted Tommy on his emergency frequency, “Duke Gardner, a Captor ship had entered the Crengren system and is sitting stationary at the moment. One of our Megaships is holding station above the planet.”
Tommy punched the control panel on his chair and the ship’s internal alarms went full blast, “Battle stations, all hands to battle stations.”
Tommy linked Cassandra to his com and said, “Admiral, give me the megaships frequency now.” Mikado punched it in and sent it to Tommy’s com. Tommy cut the connection and commed the SR Megaship Phelagend. Captain Gidhu appeared on his com. “Captain, what is your status?”
“Your Highness, the Captor ship is holding its position in the outer system and is not moving. The ship is approximately eighteen hundred miles in diameter and is glowing bright red.”
“Captain, there’s not much time; you are going to have to draw that ship away from the planet. You stand no chance against it in combat and I think it is your ship that has caused the Captor to stop. Order your jump officer to program in five hundred random jumps immediately and if that ships moves, jump out of the system and don’t stop jumping. I am giving you a coordinate for the final jump. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Tommy then thought to Sprig, “Where are you right now?”
“I’m in the library at Castle Gardner.”
“I need you and Twig on the Kosiev immediately.”
Sprig and Twig appeared one second later on the Kosievs’ bridge.”
“Duchess Gardner, update them on what’s happening.” Cassandra linked with the two adolescents and gave them the situation.
Tommy then pressed his com and said, “Wes, what is the status of your ship?”
Wes appeared on the display and said, “We are currently holding station above Sten’s Planet with four of the converted pulse ships. The Rossville is at one hundred percent efficiency.” Wes was given the command of the Rossville which was Admiral Dorg’s flag ship during the Algean War. It was another Megaship that bore a strong history.
“Go to battle stations and take the four ships to the coordinates I’m sending you and expect a megaship to arrive being chased by the Captors. Do not allow your ships to be caught in energy blasts; I expect multiple Captors to take up the chase. Have one of your ships place a teleport screen in front of the coordinates set to one transfer and send the megaship to a safe location. Kill as many Captors as possible then have your squadron escape in different directions away from the Realm; teleport to safety when you must.”
Wes looked at his screen and said, “We’re on our way.”
Tommy commed Captain Gidhu and said, “Captain, if you make it to the final coordinates there will be a silver field in space directly in front of your ship. Take your ship through that field immediately on entering normal space; do not delay.”
“The Captors screen has just turned a brighter red, Your Highness. We are jumping now.”
The First Male finished setting up the layers of ships and turned his attention to the transmission from one of the searching warriors. He looked at the ship in the transmission and then compared it to the ships that had attacked the First Mother. From the angle of the picture he could see similarities between the two but he needed a full side view to make sure. “Move in and take a full scan of that ship; I’ll monitor as you scan.”
The Warrior replied, “As soon as I moved toward the planet the ship jumped.”
“Follow that ship, I want a full scan. The planet isn’t going anywhere; we’ll look at it later.”
“Yes, First male. The ship jumped using a standard drive system and I have recorded that its energy signature does not match the ships that attacked.”
“I don’t care if it matches or not. It may not be the ones who attacked but it may have a relationship to them if their ships are similar. Don’t let it escape.”
The Captor warrior disappeared from the system chasing the Megaship.
Tommy was watching a feed from the planet and saw the Captor disappear. He said a quick prayer for the Phelagend and said, “Jump to the Crengren system, now.”
Cassandra said, “Jump in 3,2,1, execute. The Kosiev broke into normal space next to the planet and Tommy commed President Dgzh. The former Headman of the Alliance looked worried. Tommy said, “We don’t have much time. I am going to hide your planet behind an invisibility screen but I’m uncertain if it will work if the Captors really decide to fly a huge number of ships through the space they expect you to be. Our last resort is to move your planet to the system that Earth is currently hiding. I want to avoid that if possible because they will deduct that Earth was probably not destroyed as they thought.”
President Dgzh looked off the monitor and said, “Are you sure you can do it safely?”
Sprig answered, “We’re actually further along now. We will send your planet to the opposite side of the star from the Earth’s current location so that gravity won’t affect you. Your orbit will be slightly outside that of Earth but we will find a better system for you before Earth catches up with your orbit.”
Dgzh smiled and said, “We are in your hands.”
Tommy said, “Ground all of your space ships and have as many of the personnel on the settlements in your system make emergency jumps to the planet. If they are not on the planet they will be killed.” Dgzh disappeared from his com.
“Duchess Gardner, please plan to hide the planet, however, you have to wait until the last possible moment so that the ones coming from the system’s settlements can find the planet. I suspect that once the chase of the megaship is over, the Captors will be coming here. Communications, make contact with that ship and let us know what happens.”
“Aye, Aye, Your Highness.”
Captain Gidhu and the bridge crew kept their eyes on the sensor monitors watching for what they knew was coming. They had just flashed through the 233rd jump and jumped again just as the Captor ship entered normal space. After every jump the Captor was incrementally closer. The ship was fighting the fear that they were losing the battle. Jump 300 passed with the Captor coming out of normal space and firing some kind of energy matrix that passed through the space the megaship occupied just before it disappeared. “Your highness, we will never make it to the 500 ^ th jump. They almost caught us on the last jump.”
Tommy hit his com, “Wes, are you ready?”
“Yes, we’re on station.”
Tommy looked at Cassandra and said, “Times up; hide the planet.” Then he pushed his transmission key and said, “Jump to the last coordinates now.”
Captain Gidhu nodded to his jump officer and the Megaship jumped as a piece of the energy matrix hit the tail of the ship.