Star Rover-Chosen to Die (Lens of Time) (12 page)

• • •

The Master’s ship appeared in normal space outside its home galaxy and was instantly surrounded by more than a million ships with their force fields expanded against each other. The globe began moving in toward the single ship in the center as they slowly reduced the size of their force fields. The Master looked at the Ship Leader, “Did you determine anything about those three ships?”

“They were the same three ships that killed our six ships.”

“They were!?!”

“Yes; the markings were the same.”

“Why would they send the same ships?”

“They might be the only ones they have in that class.”

The Master thought about that for a moment and said, “Or they could want us to believe they are the only three they have.”

The Leader leaned forward, “You can beat yourself up over and over and still not know the answer to that question.”

“I suspect the other Masters can work on that issue.” The Master looked at the Leader and said, “If you had to make a choice, what would you say?”

“They have more of them.”

“Why do you say that?”

“It would be stupid to destroy all of our probes with only three of those ships in their inventory.”

The Master’s head went back in agreement, “You’re right; they’re playing us just like we tried to play them.”

“It appears they’re better at it than us.”

“Oh?”

“All of the probes we released have been destroyed.”

“Oh.”

“And nothing has been detected around us. They expected us to do this and didn’t have us followed. That civilization is not going to be an easy target.”

The Tenth looked at his Ship Leader and respected his wisdom. He wasn’t a young commander but he was experienced. If he had come from a higher family, he would have been given a fleet. He deserved to have one.

The Tenth watched the giant globe arrive and heard the Fleet Leader say to the Lead Master, “Nothing was here.”

“Tenth, Bring your ship back and report to the table.”

The Master pushed a button, “I’ll arrive momentarily.”

• • •

Angel looked at the three thousand Jukeboxes arrayed in ten formations and looked at the microphone on her visor’s display, “Commodore Arve Arvolo’s fleet will be the first to start the competition. Your ship’s computers are linked to the main computer at Fleet Control and it will track the Gee forces each of you are able to attain during the next twenty minutes. The one hundred ships that pull the highest Gee force during this exercise will move on to the second round. Your engineering section is on board to make sure all your systems are functioning properly so everyone will have an equal opportunity to win. You are challenged to push your ships beyond their capabilities. The exercise will commence in one minute.”

Bret looked at Angel, “Do you think they’ll do it?”

Angel smiled, “Fleet will be announcing the top ten ships and the bottom ten ships as the exercise is being done. You know how competitive pilots are. They won’t want to be in that last group and if they’re not in the first group, they’ll push themselves.”

• • •

Rahj looked at his visor and saw the ships around him. He was nervous about hitting another ship and he decided to accelerate straight ahead and pull the ship vertically. The countdown hit zero and he accelerated at top speed and pulled back on the controls. He smiled at how hard the ship turned and glanced at his panel. His ship was in last place.

His eyes went wide and he pushed the ship into an immediate dive and heard the gravity compensators whine slightly. He looked again and he was in next to last place. He looked in his visor and saw ships doing tight twists and spirals and knew he was out of his league. He twisted the ship hard left and then yanked as hard as he could on the wheel. The gravity compensators screamed and he saw his name in tenth place in the top ten. His eyes narrowed, “So that’s what has to be done.” He flipped the rear end of the ship around and while, moving backwards, accelerated at full speed into a dive with the ship spinning in a tight spiral as it made a hundred and eighty degree turn. He glanced at the board and saw he was back in the bottom ten. He gritted his teeth and thought, “Come on Girl, show me what you’ve got.” He flew the ship like a demon but couldn’t get his name back in the top ten. He forced himself to think. What causes high gravity? Come on think; time is running out. Then he realized that high Gees happen during deceleration as much, or more, than acceleration. He picked a lane through the mass of ships and hit full power on the thrusters as he reduced the ship’s mass to a hundred pounds. He instantly went to half the speed of light and he fired the port side thrusters to swing the ship around. The rear ship’s rear came around as he returned the ship’s full mass and hit full thrusters to slow the ship down. The gravity compensators screamed at a volume that was deafening and the giant ship came to a stop as the compensators blew out. He was slammed forward in his command chair and looked at the panel as the exercise ended. His name was in first place. His ship was the only one that had to be towed out of the competition. “Thanks, Rahj; I don’t know if I’ll be able to stand up for a week.”

Rahj shook his head at the engineer’s comment, “Sorry, Jim. I guess I got carried away.”

“Well, we won. We have a week to recover.”

“What happened to the compensators?”

“They said frip it and quit. I was close to doing the same thing.”

• • •

Bret looked at Angel with his eyes wide, “That pilot is crazy!”

“Well, he taught us what we can’t do. Did anyone else manage to damage their ship?”

“No Sir; however I do have a huge number of them demanding a rematch.”

“Find out from Fleet what they did during the event.”

“They’ve already sent the results to my panel and every pilot improved their gravity quotient more than fifty percent. Even the bottom ten were far ahead of the previous highs.”

Angel looked at Dizzy, “This was a great idea.” Dizzy shrugged and smiled.

• • •

Three weeks later the finals were held and Rahj won the competition. He used the same maneuver to win, only this time he returned the ship to only eighty percent of its mass. Every pilot in the three units came out of the exercise with a working knowledge of what their ship was capable of doing. Angel immediately started the three units running in to each other to determine how much of an angle could be achieved at varying collision speeds. The training started slow but picked up speed quickly. Most of the pilots discovered that a ninety degree turn with little or no loss of speed could be done at combat speed after colliding with another ship. The Fleet was becoming a deadly force.

• • •

Dat and Gresha entered Admiral Hull’s office and she looked up from her monitor, “Have either of you been monitoring the exercises your children are doing?”

Dat looked at Gresha and she shook her head. He looked at Katherine and shook his head, “I can’t say that we have.”

“Come look at this.”

Dat and Gresha walked around her desk and watched collisions between hundreds of Jukebox Battleships. The ships would hit and fly off at impossible angles. Dat shook his head, “Is that possible?”

Kat shook her head, “It appears the new ship’s force field repels each other. She appears to be using that to develop new maneuvers. Who approved collisions with our newest battleship?”

Gresha smiled, “I’m reasonably certain she trialed this before she implemented it in her fleet.”

“Who approved the first collision? This is ludicrous. They’re risking a fifty billion credit warship.”

Dat continued to watch the collisions and said, “Those ships don’t appear to be slowing down when they hit each other.”

Kat rolled her eyes, “Of course they’re not slowing down. According to my computer they’re picking up speed.” Dat’s brow furrowed and Katherine said, “You need to get the rest of the fleets up to speed on this.”

Gresha started laughing and Kat said, “What?”

“I thought you were angry.”

“No, I’m amazed at this. This could be a great escape maneuver.”

Dat smiled, “I’ll talk with them and get the details on how it works.”

Gresha looked at Katherine, “Have you decided on sending the Rovers?”

“Not yet. I’m reluctant to send them.”

Dat shook his head, “We need to know what they’re doing. They may be planning a major attack and we need to know in advance if they are.”

“Do you think they are?”

“I do. I suspect they were delayed by the loss of their probes.”

Katherine pushed a button on her panel and said, “Let me check with Brad on an issue.” A moment later General Robinson entered Kat’s office and she said, “What’s the status of the planetary defense shields?”

“We’ve converted all of the old force fields to the new reactors and Dark Energy fields. The reactors are being supplemented by geothermal generators and their power has gone up tremendously.”

Gresha looked at Kat and her confusion was obvious, “Why have those shields gone unused for so long?”

“They wouldn’t withstand the blasters of the Grillen or the Servants. The holes in the former Dark Energy Fields were little more than a thin film against the newest blasters our enemies were using.”

Gresha nodded, “And the new field?”

Kat looked at Brad, “They can withstand our newest penetrators for several days before starting to fail. The power available on a planet can’t be matched on any kind of mobile platform and that includes the new Jukeboxes.”

Dat went to a chair in front of Admiral Hull’s desk and leaned back, “Are you suggesting our planets are safe from the Alien’s battleships?”

Brad looked at Katherine and then looked back at Dat, “If they aren’t, we will never be. My data says that those six ships that invaded would not have been able to penetrate them.”

“What if they bombard the planet with a hundred thousand ships?”

“We have fleets to prevent that from happening.” Dat’s eyes narrowed and Brad said, “However, they may still hold up even under those circumstances. We won’t really know unless it happens.”

Kat listened to the exchange and said, “Send the Rovers and scouts.”

Dat nodded and Brad said, “I’ll issue the orders under your name, Sir.” Katherine nodded and Brad left the room.

“I need to contact Blacky.”

“The new Ruler of the Matadors is now called Jolam.”

Dat’s head went back, “Say what?”

“The Matadors don’t like their spiritual leader being addressed by a Human name. They feel it doesn’t show the proper respect to his position in their society. They recognize that we can’t pronounce his full name but a portion of it sounds like Jolam spoken very fast. They feel that’s enough to honor him.”

Dat looked at Gresha and she shook her head as she smiled, “What about Ringie?”

“They’re fine with that. She also told them to basically shove it if they didn’t like it.” Dat looked at Katherine and she saw his confusion. “Jolam also tried to retain his old name but the warriors demanded he accept his New Role. He acquiesced to keep our civilizations on good terms.”

Dat said, “Jolam. Ummm…I can’t wait to see him and call him that.”

Gresha shook her head, “Hey, go easy on him. I hear he’s dying to go out with the scouts but has to stay and rule the Matadors.”

“Who’s leading the warriors now?”

“His oldest male child, Leon.”

“Leon?”

“He liked the story of Ponce de Leon. I hear he’s so much like his father, it’s disconcerting.”

Dat smiled, “I met him as a child. He was one highly energetic Matador.”

Kat sighed, “So was Jolam.”

Dat looked at Gresha and smiled, “We’re going to see…Jolam and look at the Matador’s readiness for the mission, if that meets with your approval, Admiral.”

“Please go. I’ve not really been able to find out where they are in terms of getting prepared.”

Dat stood and Gresha followed him out of the Admiral’s office.

• • •

Jolam looked at his son and shook his head, “Explain this to me again. Just how are you able to go into the ground with that belt inside you?”

Leon smiled, “The technology has changed since your time, Father. We are no longer required to absorb the devices into our bodies.”

“Then what do you do with them?”

“As I understand it, the device can be sent into the barrier between normal and subspace until I need it.”

Jolam stared at Leon for a long moment and then said, “Are you serious? That belt has a jump drive installed on it?”

“Belwen says it doesn’t completely enter subspace; it floats on the barrier between normal and subspace, so it doesn’t require a jump to be done.”

“And how do you retrieve it?”

“I take two of my arms, twist them around each other, and press the palms against each other.”

“Are any particular two arms required?”

“No, any of the eight will work.”

“And you won’t be seen if the belt is activated?”

“Belwen says it has the same field as the new probes. I, however, prefer using my natural skills to hide.”

“Notify Belwen I want one of those belts made for me.”

Leon sighed, “The Council of Elders has requested him not to do that.”

Jolam’s anger was immediate, “I won’t leave to use it!”

“They’re more concerned that you might leave to escape your title.”

Jolam sighed as his head rolled down his round body until it was under his legs, “If I knew the cage this position would be, I never would have accepted it. I miss the days of hunting and fighting the good fight.”

Leon nodded, “I know how to program the belts, Father. I’ll get one for you.”

Jolam stared at Leon and said, “And for this favor, what do you require in return?”

“I humbly ask that I not be chosen as your successor. I don’t want to endure what you’re going through.”

Jolam’s head went back up to the top of his body, “I will do as you ask, even if you can’t get me a belt.”

Leon’s smile was huge, “Thank you, Father. Thank you so much.”

“You know you are the best qualified for the title?”

Leon sighed, “I know; I’m just too selfish to allow guilt to force me to it.”