No Technology Is Invincible (The Death Prophecies-Book Four 4) (10 page)

“Poul, you must have a reason for asking that.”

“Well, if I have to go in and fire the missiles on the port side of the hull and then roll the ship to fire the tubes on the starboard side, the attack will take more than twice as long and give the builders enough time to move defenses to the other sites before we arrive.”

Gabe stared at the wall speaker and then said, “How long will it take to fire just the portside missiles on one side of the ship and then run?”

“I’ll arrive and you will have to target the four missiles using your sighting mechanism in your helmet. How long will it take you to do that, Admiral?”

“As soon as I see it, I can designate four locations in about two seconds and then launch the missiles in less than another second.”

There was a slight pause and Poul said, “Sir, I’m going to be forced to come in less than forty miles from those building sites to make sure the Builder defenses don’t have time to fire on the incoming missiles. They will have time to fire on us if it takes three of four seconds to target them.”

“You’re assuming they have heavy blasters defending them, Poul.”

“Do you think they don’t?”

“I think I know a faster way to do this?” Gabby chimed in.

Gabe looked at Gabby, “Oh?”

“We’re going to scan them first, right?” Gabe nodded. “I’ll take the scan from each of the four sites and determine four locations to hit each of them that would cause the most damage. I’ll then feed those coordinates to the four missiles we’ll designate to attack each site. That way, when Poul jumps in, all you have to do is press the firing trigger on the thruster handle and Poul can jump to the next target. Use the port side missiles on the first building site, the starboard missiles on the second site, the port side again on the third, and the starboard on the fourth. That will give the missile tubes time to reload between each attack.”

Gabe stared at her and then looked up, “Poul, will that work?”

“It will.”

“How long will it take to attack each site?”

“I estimate a little longer than a second.”

Gabe sat back in his chair and put his hand on his chin. “Poul, will the missiles make it through a 150 force field?”

“They’re pure superconductive metal, the force field will just go around them. They’re pretty much immune to a force field but a hot blaster beam can destroy them. That’s why they’re really only good for close range targets.”

Gabe nodded, “Which is why you have to be very close to launch them.”

“If the missiles are preprogrammed for their targets, I can move in ten miles above the sites and launch. That would only allow the Builders defenses less than two tenths of a second to detect and fire at them. I know they’re advanced but even computers can’t respond that quickly.”

“Poul, depending on what we see when we scan them, this is how we’ll conduct the attack.”

Gabby looked at him, “Do you think we might be better served to attack that world the Leader is on?”

Gabe blew out a slow breath, “I’ve thought about that. However, it would probably take more than half our missiles to do any real damage to that giant construction and I suspect we would be under attack long before we could launch that many. It would also allow all the other sites to activate their defenses and we’d probably miss the opportunity to take out the ship building sites.”

“But it would take out their communications.”

“Gabby, it would stop the propagation of the blue field, but how long do you think it would take for the blue field to disappear?”

Gabby stared at him and sighed as she shook her head, “It would take a light year for it to just uncover the world’s star system that sends it out. They could build another facility close by and recover that space in in less than a year.”

“I don’t know if they could build a world like that one in less than a year but they could recovered that space again before the damage moved more than a couple of light years. I also suspect they have small mobile modules that could repair the damage quickly while a new world is built.”

“You’re right, Sir. The ship building sites are the best targets.”

“Poul, I want a separate file on every site we scan so they can be looked at individually.”

“I’ll set up the data resources to make that happen, Admiral.”

“Are you ready to start this?”

“Captain Bartoli, are you prepared to take the scans of the four building sites and designate coordinates to attack?”

“I am, Poul.”

“I’m jumping to the first site in ten seconds.” Gabe looked at Gabby and smiled, “Your suggestion was brilliant and I’m really glad you’re here with us.”

Gabby smiled as Gabe turned his command chair to watch the main wall monitor. The countdown ended and he began seeing image after image appear on the monitor and then disappear. He grew worried after ten minutes and at the end of thirty his fear was real. This civilization was far more advanced than the Darkness, Earth and Bosrean. They had to buy time to try and come up with a defense against it.

G
abe continued to stare at the wall monitor as each of the Builder locations flashed for a few seconds and then disappeared. He saw another of the large Builder Worlds disappear and then a construct hanging in open space larger than any of the previous worlds he had seen. His eyes narrowed and then he noticed that the giant construct remained on his monitor. He looked at the timer and saw that there was still twenty minutes left before the scanning would be completed, “Poul, what’s going on?”

“You need to take a closer look at this.”

“Why? What do you see?”

“Admiral, this giant construct is a weapon.”

“What?”

“Its entire structure is made up of blaster and missile launchers.”

Gabe stared at the monitor and then looked at the star map on his console. “What’s it doing here outside the edge of the galaxy, Poul?”

“It’s not alone. There are more of them holding position along the outer edge.”

Gabe sat up straight, “How many more?”

Gabby looked up from her panel, “I can see they’re separated by about a thousand miles between them going in both directions. They extend further than I’m capable of scanning, Sir.”

Gabe stared at the giant globe on the monitor and turned to Gabby, “What purpose do you think these defense satellites serve out here?”

Gabby shrugged, “They’re out here to either keep someone from escaping the galaxy or to prevent someone from entering it.”

Poul said, “It appears they’re her to prevent something from entering.”

Gabby looked at her panel and then looked up, “How did you make that determination?”

“The active scans from that construct are being directed away from the galaxy. Standby.” Gabby looked at Gabe and he nodded. They looked at the monitor again and saw more than a thousand Builder Warships emerge from the satellite’s force field and activate their thrusters. They disappeared in an instant headed out toward intergalactic space. A minute later, a thousand Builder Warships roared in and began moving through the giant structure’s force field. They heard Poul say, “There’s something out there that’s a threat to them.”

Gabby nodded, “This explains a lot.”

Gabe looked away from the monitor and asked Gabby, “What does this explain?”

“It explains why the Builders use another species to handle their issues inside the galaxy. I’ve been wondering why they used those Grey Warships.” She shrugged, “I mean we’ve already seen hundreds of thousands of Builder Warships and we’re not done scanning yet. They have enough warships to handle anything in this galaxy. It appears there’s something outside the galaxy that has captured the Builder’s attention.”

Gabe turned back to the monitor and stared at the giant globe hanging in space. “Poul, complete the scan of the other sites but delay attacking the ship building sites. Come back here once the scans are done.” The giant glowing globe disappeared and the monitor went back to flashing with other Builder locations. Forty minutes later, the giant globe reappeared on the monitor. “Do you have all of the locations scanned?”

“I do. I’ve organized them into a data block for viewing.”

Gabby stared at Gabe and saw he was deep in thought. She raised her visor and took off her glasses. She focused on what they had discovered and couldn’t decide what to do next. She put her glasses back on and closed her visor. She looked at Gabe and saw him staring at her. “You don’t know what to do next, do you?”

Gabby frowned, “No, I’ve not been able to determine what to do.”

“Well, we’re not going to attack those ship building sites…yet.”

“Why not? I thought you wanted to get back to Earth as quickly as possible.”

Gabe smiled, “I knew you’d have a problem coming up with a decision.”

“Why is that?”

“Because you are inexperienced in combat operations. Knowing what we know now, what are the chances that the Builders will send their fleets to the Carand Galaxy to go through our black hole?”

Gabby stared at him and then sighed, “It’s not likely they’ll send their fleets away if there’s an enemy threatening them outside their galaxy.”

Gabe nodded, “Poul, what can you tell me about those building sites?”

“They appear to have been recently activated.”

“That’s what I saw in the data as well. They’re building new warships to send elsewhere. I suspect they were intending them to go through their black hole. We’ll probably need to attack them before we leave but knowing this new enemy exists buys us more time to look around. I want to go and see what’s out there.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Why do you ask that, Poul?”

“Whatever it is, the Builders have built a space defense that our warships would be useless against. Those defenses have a force field whose power is off the scale. That tells me a lot about what’s out there.”

Gabe shook his head, “But it doesn’t tell us enough. Don’t take any chances but I want you to go out on a course directly away from the Builder’s line of defense and see if we can find what they’re afraid of.”

Gabby looked at Gabe, “Are you sure about this?”

Gabe turned to her, “Gabby, it just might be that whatever is out there is a bigger threat to us than the Builders. This is another Unknown Enemy and to ignore it would be violating one of the Ten Prophecies. Destroying those building sites might be a mistake but we’ll have no way of knowing without going to see.”

“Admiral, I’ve set a course and I’m going to full speed.”

“That would be good, Poul. Don’t take any chances and don’t get too close until we see what we’re up against.”

“I intend to fly by and then come back to take a look.”

“That would be good. Is there another galaxy on the course you’re taking?”

“There’s a galaxy two hundred and fifty million light years away in the direction I’ll be taking.”

“I’d suggest using that as a point to line up on.”

Gabby said, “Why is that?”

“If there’s an enemy out there, they are going to have to gather stores to support them. If they’re not getting them here, that other galaxy would be the most likely place.”

Gabby nodded and Poul announced, “Here we go.” Gabe looked at the giant Builder Satellite on the monitor and it disappeared. He looked at the monitor scanning the rear of the ship and saw the Builder Galaxy grow small at an incredible speed.

• • •

Gabe stared at the wall monitor and ten minutes later he saw an image appear. His mouth fell open and he stood up and walked up to the monitor. His eyes were wide as he said, “Poul?”

“I’m looking at the passive scanners. I’m collecting everything I can. Give me a moment.” Gabe walked back to his chair and pressed buttons on his console. Gabby was shocked at the view on the monitor and could only slowly shake her head.

Gabe said, “Gabby, how large is that Mother Ship?”

Gabby closed her mouth and looked at her console, “It’s about the size of Mercury. It’s not as large as one of the Builder Worlds but it’s close to it.”

“How many are here?”

“Thirty-seven, Sir.”

Gabe stared at the monitor and then noticed something on his visor. He lept forward and pushed the thruster handle fully forward. The giant fleet of Black Ships instantly disappeared. Gabby was thrown back into her command chair by the vicious acceleration as Gabe turned the ship back toward the Builder’s galaxy. Poul said, “I’m sorry, Sir. I didn’t see them.”

Gabby shook her head to clear it and said, “SEE WHAT?!”

Gabe stared at his visor and turned the ship vertical. He brought it to a stop and yelled, “POWER DOWN, POUL!!” The lights on the bridge went out and the thrusters shut off. Gabe stared at his visor and waited. Four minutes later, twenty Black Warships flew below them at high speed. “Poul, how fast are those Black Ships?”

“They are fifty percent faster than our current warships. Sir, they’re turning around and going back. A group of two hundred Builder Warships are moving out to meet them.”

“We’re going to stay here for a while. Poul, show us on the monitor what you were able to see.” The distant image of the huge Motherships appeared along with the massive fleets of small Black Warships surrounding them.

The image changed and they saw a stream of large starships that appeared to be transports moving toward the giant fleet from the distant galaxy. Gabe looked at his visor and saw the Builder Warships had turned around and headed back toward their galaxy. The Black Warships had moved out of scanning range. He looked back at the monitor and saw the transports were huge. He saw thousands of transports were leaving the giant fleet and headed back toward the galaxy in the distance. “Poul, power-up our systems and take us to that galaxy where the transports are coming from.”

Gabby looked at him, “Why do you want to go there?”

“I want you to think about that question for a few moments. I believe you’ll come up with the answer and the only reason you don’t see it now is because you’re shaken by what just happened.

Gabby raised her visor and Gabe said, “Do not take off your glasses. Close your eyes and think about it.”

“But…”