No Technology Is Invincible (The Death Prophecies-Book Four 4) (13 page)

“Why isn’t a Bosrean Representative here with us?”

Steve looked at Gabby, “My, you do ask the tough questions. I’m going to send a feed of the meeting to the Bosrean Ruling Council. The main problem with them attending is that they require an atmosphere that’s mainly composed of sulfur. Besides that, the Supreme Leader of the Darkness wasn’t comfortable with having a telepath in the meeting.”

Gabby’s head went back, “I didn’t think about that.”

Gabe listened to them talking while he stared at the monitor. The planet grew in size as Poul flew toward it and it was a stunning world. The oceans were more aqua in color than the ones on Earth and so beautiful where they washed up on the green shorelines. The cities were scattered around the planet and surrounded by green forests and mountains. The cities were large but not expansive. There wasn’t urban sprawl like the large cities on Earth; instead they were built high. Some of the towering buildings soared thousands of feet and the glass reflected the stars light in rainbow colors. He heard Heinrik say, “They’ve done a better job of taking care of their planet.”

Gabe turned and heard Gabby say, “They have the technology to make that possible.”

Steve looked at her, “Why do you say that?”

“Those tall buildings have a gravity field around them, which allowed them to build them that high.”

Amy sighed, “However they do it this planet is a gem.”

“I don’t detect any major manufacturing facilities on the surface.” Gabe looked at Gabby and Janell saw them slightly nod to each other. She closed her eyes and slowly shook her head. They knew what each other were thinking without having to verbalize it.

“Landing in five minutes.”

Steve looked up, “Thank you, Poul.”

The Prophet’s Eyes spiraled down from high atmosphere toward one of the buildings located between the tall skyscrapers. It was only a five-story building and Heinrik looked at the others, “I would have thought we’d be meeting in one of the tall structures.”

Gabby looked at him, “The building we’re approaching has underground levels that extend more than a thousand feet down. I suspect it’s a hardened structure and built to survive if the planet is attacked.”

“But those tall buildings could collapse on it if the planet were attacked.”

Gabe nodded to Heinrik, “Which would add another thick layer of protection over it.”

Heinrik turned to Gabe and shrugged, “I didn’t consider that.”

Steve watched the left small monitor showing what was under the ship and saw the roof of the building moving toward the ship. A few minutes later, the ship landed softly and Steve stood up, “Let’s go see what our friends have come up with. He walked off the bridge and the others followed him to the exit port. They walked down the landing ramp and Steve saw the Supreme Leader waiting at the bottom of the ramp.

“Welcome to my world. You are the first and only species other than my own that has ever set foot here.”

“Thank you for your trust and invitation, Supreme Leader.”

“Call me Levi.”

“Levi?”

“That’s the first five letters of my family name. It’s easier to pronounce than my full name.”

“My name is Steve.” He turned and said, “This is Amy, Janell, and Heinrik, who are my war leaders. This is Gabriel and Gabriella who are the scouts that went to the Builder’s Galaxy.”

Levi smiled and extended his arm toward an open portal on top of the building, “Welcome to all of you. Come with me and we’ll start the meeting.” The six fell in behind Steve and Levi as they talked and Janell walked beside Gabe. He looked at her with his eyebrows together and she shrugged, “You know I always feel much safer close to you.” Gabe nodded and smiled as they entered the portal.

• • •

They arrived at the meeting room in less than ten seconds and Gabby said to Amy, “Gravity compensators on the elevator.” Amy nodded and wondered how far underground they had gone.

Levi led them into the huge room and they saw the walls were covered with huge monitors. He pointed to a horseshoe shaped table and said, “We’ll sit in the middle. Your advisors can sit to your right.”

Steve looked at the other officers and said, “”I want Gabe and Gabby sitting next to me.” Gabby moved forward quickly and sat down next to Steve. Gabe looked at her and she shrugged, “I think Admiral Dobson wants to sit next to you.”

Gabe blinked and nodded. Janell heard the exchange and though she didn’t really want to like Gabby, she found herself changing her mind. Gabe thought she wanted to gain points with Admiral Connor but realized she didn’t think that way. He sat down and looked at Janell, whose nervousness began abating. Amy watched them and wondered if it was really over between Gabe and Janell.

Levi stood up and smiled as he raised his hand toward his Advisors, “This is my Advisory Council and their names are on the front of the table in front of them.” A Darkness Officer came in and placed name signs in front of the six humans. The officer put the correct name in front of each of them and Steve looked at Levi, who smiled, “Our conversation on the roof was recorded and name plates made while we came down.” Steve nodded and Levi sat down. The others sat after him. He looked at Steve, “I must confess that we’ve been struggling with what to do about our current situation. Part of our difficulty stems from not knowing how much time we have before we’re directly threatened by the Builders.”

Steve nodded, “Why don’t we see if my scouts have come up with a prediction.” Levi nodded and Steve looked at Gabe, “Have you come up with a projection?”

Gabe looked at Gabby, “Jump in if you see something I’m missing.” Gabby nodded and started her wrist unit recording. Levi saw her and said, “I’ll be sending you a recording of everything.”

Gabby jerked her head up and shrugged, “I’ll have this one faster than the one you’ll send.”

Levi stared at her and looked at Steve, “How do I argue with that?”

Steve smiled, “Don’t even try.” He looked at Gabe, “Go ahead, Admiral.”

“We’ve looked at all the data we collected and we have differing views on some of it, however, we both agree on one thing.” Gabe looked around the room before saying, “We are of the opinion that we might have caused an escalation in the war between the Builders and the Black Civilization, which could lead to the Builders attempting to escape their galaxy.” The room was silent and Steve looked at Levi. They turned back to Gabe as he said, “The Builders will attempt to escape through a black hole and it’s almost a certainty that the Black Civilization will see them do it.”

S
teve looked at Gabe, “Why does them seeing the Builders escaping through a black hole pose a problem for us?”

“Sir, if the Prophet’s Eyes had not escaped from the Carand’s universe through our black hole, would we have ever considered going through a black hole?”

Steve stared at Gabe in silence and Levi said, “Are you saying a ship entered your galaxy through your black hole?”

Steve turned to him, “Yes. Its civilization was under attack and it was forced into the black hole in its galaxy. It came through more than ten thousand years ago but was only recently discovered and brought back to life.”

“You resurrected the crew?”

“No, they died in the process of transiting the black hole. However, the ship’s computer survived and told us about the aggressive civilizations on the other side of our black hole. It was that information that caused us to attempt to go through my galaxy’s singularity to take a look at what was on the other side.”

Levi nodded, “And that is where you found out about the changes that happen to anything that goes through the singularity?”

Steve nodded, “How do you know about that?”

“I’ve been sending my warships to another galaxy to transit the black hole there.”

“You didn’t tell me about that?”

“I assumed you would want us to do everything we can to strengthen our defenses.”

Steve pressed a button on his wrist communicator and everyone in the room heard, “Note to self. Get the Andromeda Civilization to start sending their warships through another galaxy’s black hole.” He stopped the recording and looked at Levi, “This will save some time preparing for a confrontation.” Steve turned back to Gabe, “Why do you say that you have caused the confrontation between the Builders and other species to be moved forward?”

Gabe looked at Gabby and she turned to the two leaders, “It appears that when that Black Species invades a galaxy, they strip the natural resources to build additional Motherships along with all the fleets of small warships that defend it. They’ve not finished stripping the galaxy where they were building those ten new Motherships but it’s a certainty that there aren’t enough resources left to rebuild them.”

Levi looked at her, “So?”

“Who do you think they will believe destroyed those ships? We were not detected by them.”

Levi started nodding, “They’ll believe the Builders did it.”

Gabby looked at Gabe and he picked up the conversation, “Captain Bartoli lacks combat experience and knowing that the Black Species will think the Builders attacked their new ships, they won’t start building at that galaxy again even if there are enough resources to do it. They’re going to remove the threat the Builders represent before they start constructing new ships again.”

Steve looked at Gabe, “Do you think they can do it?”

Gabe glanced at Gabby and said, “We’re of differing opinions on that issue.”

Steve looked at Gabby, “What do you think, Captain?”

“I believe that the Builders can hold them off.”

“Why?”

“Because no fleet can match the resources of a Galaxy. The Builders have construction sites where they can manufacture more of those giant defense satellites faster than the Black Species can build new Motherships.”

Steve looked at Gabe, “What do you think about what she’s saying?”

“I genuinely hope she’s right, Sir.”

“But…?”

“It’s a question of timing, Admiral. The Builders have built up defenses to hold off the thirty-seven Motherships that are holding position in open space outside their galaxy. I suspect they have no idea that more than a hundred are still in the galaxy they invaded. If the Black Species sends all of those Motherships to join the ones holding position and they immediately attack the Builders defenses, I believe they will overwhelm the Builders before they can build enough defenses to stop them.”

Gabby chimed in, “Those defense satellites are extremely powerful.”

Steve looked at them and sat back. Everyone in the room looked at him and Levi finally broke the silence by asking, “What’s bothering you?”

Steve looked around the room and said, “A week after our ship came back from that galaxy, the ship’s computer found an image in its recorder.” Steve looked at Gabe and Gabby, “Neither of you have seen this particular recording.”

Levi said, “What is it?”

Steve pressed his wrist unit and found the frequency being used by one of the wall monitors. “Please understand that the computer keeps its recorder operating for the entire duration of the voyage. It replayed the recording and sensed a blip in a long blank section of data. It was leaving the Builder’s Galaxy at high speed and this image was taken out in intergalactic space more than a thousand light years outside the galaxy’s edge.”

Steve pressed a button on his wrist unit and sent the image to the wall monitor. Everyone stared at the small light in the distance. Gabe and Gabby stared at the monitor and saw Admiral Connor bring the view in closer to the distant light. It took a few minutes, but suddenly they saw one of the giant Black Motherships in the distance. There were no lights on it and it was only visible because of the reflected light from the stars in the outer edge of the huge galaxy in the distance. As the view grew larger, they began seeing the blasted hulls of thousands of Builder and Black Warships scattered around the Mothership. Gabby suddenly gasped as she saw the wreckage of one of the giant Builder Defense Satellites. As the view moved in closer, ten more of the satellites could be seen.

The room was silent. Gabby looked away from the image, “Have you been able to get a count of destroyed warships?”

Steve looked at her, “We’ve been able to use a section of space above the destroyed Mothership to count the number of ships destroyed. If you use this as a sample for the rest of the areas around it, the Builders lost three hundred thousand warships and seventy-five defense satellites. The smaller Black Warships that were destroyed numbered at around four hundred thousand. Fleet analysis says that the bulk of the Black Warships were destroyed by the Builder Satellites.”

Gabe stared at the image and looked at Steve, “That must be the initial Mothership sent to scout the Builder’s Galaxy prior to their invasion. Do we know how long ago this battle took place?”

“The radioactive decay detected from the hull of the Mothership says it took place a thousand years ago.”

“The Builders used good strategy attacking that monster.”

Everyone in the room looked at Gabe as Steve said, “What do you see?”

“The Builders sent their large Defense Satellites in first and they decimated the Black Warships defending the Mothership. Once they were eliminated, they sent in their fleets.”

Steve looked at the image and said, “Are you saying that all the damage to the Builder’s was done by that Mothership alone?”

Gabe pointed at the image, “Look at the dispersion of vessels. All of the Mothership’s dead defenders are a long way out from it. All of the Builder’s losses are close to the Mothership.”

Gabby sighed and looked at Gabe, “I’m wrong in my assessment.”

Steve looked at her, “What about this has changed your mind.”

“It boggles the imagination to think about the power of those giant warships, especially if they move close together, overlap their force fields, and create a crossfire to defend themselves.”

Gabe nodded, “If the combined might of the Black Species is used against the Builders, the Builders will lose. They will be forced to flee their galaxy.”

Levi looked at Gabe, “How will they be able to build enough transports to move them?”