Saxon Andrew - Escape to Earth-The Legacy of a Conqueror

Chris tilted his head, “Where was it going?”

“No one knew and they contacted us as it moved closer to Earth. The thing that didn’t make sense was that each time it disappeared, it would reappear a long way ahead of the Pods escorting it back to Earth. They were all traveling at their maximum speed so there was no way that pod should have been able to move that far ahead of them. I ordered them to stop the pod and have it remain stationary in the void. It still disappeared and reappeared.”

“What was going on?”

Trevor tilted his head and smiled, “Chris, something remarkable. We took a repair team out to the ship and managed to get an engineer on board before it disappeared. He hooked up his analytic computer to the drive and discovered that the stardrive’s frequency modulator was going out. It couldn’t hold a frequency.” Trevor smiled and said, “It wasn’t going into normal space. We activated its scanners and found out that it was going into a small area of space that separates normal space from the void.”

“Say what?”

“The engineer on board was able to get a reading on the frequency that the stardrive was using when it disappeared. It took us a few weeks but we were finally able to duplicate that frequency and set a pod up so it could switch between the normal frequency and the new one. When we switched to the new frequency, the pod disappeared.”

“Was it able to see anything from that band?”

“Remember, the pilot never had any indication that he left the void. He was able to see everything in the void just as he normally would. We also discovered that he could see normal space as well.”

Chris looked at Allison and saw her shaking her head. He looked back at Trevor and said, “This is a way of hiding that can’t be traced.”

“Not until another species finds that barrier. We can track a ship in that barrier because we know its frequency. But that’s not the remarkable thing about this.” Chris stared at Trevor and he said, “We can travel to the Virgo Cluster almost instantaneously.”

“WHAT?!”

Amanda couldn’t restrain herself any longer. “We decided to check it out for speed and we set our course for open space in the Virgo Cluster. We overshot it by a million light years.”

Chris looked at Trevor and he nodded. “How were you able to find your way back?”

“M-87 can be seen from a lot further than that. We reduced the power going to the thrusters and found we could modulate the speed, but it wasn’t easy. We’ve developed a new system to make it easier but you don’t want to go to full thrusters. You could end up at the other end of known space. Maybe even further.”

“Have you tried firing a disruptor from that barrier?”

“That’s also something you don’t want to do. We used an unmanned Pod to do it and it blew up in a rather big way. You’ll have to leave the barrier and go into normal space or the void to use the ship’s weapons. That band is more sensitive to them than the void.” Trevor paused and said, “There’s one more thing.”

“What is that?”

“The gravity limit has no effect on a ship traveling in the barrier.”

Michael looked at Chris and said, “AWESOME!”

Everyone laughed and Chris looked at them, “And you’re building this ship with that new stardrive?”

“Yes, we are.”

Chris looked at Michael sitting on his lap, “I guess you know what this means.”

“What?”

“If I need to take a nap or break, I can be home to do it with you.” Michael’s eyes went wide and his mouth went wide open. He wrapped his arms around Chris’s neck and squeezed him tightly. Allison watched them and felt how much they loved each other. She thought about what she heard and knew her old fleet formations could now be thrown out the door. This was a new era in controlling fleets of warships.

Chris looked at Trevor and Amanda, “Are you going to update our fleets to this new technology?”

Trevor looked at Amanda and then looked at Chris, “It can’t be done. These new ships take a lot longer to build because of this new technology.”

“What about the battleships?”

“It’s even more difficult with them. We’ve also measured the barrier and it’s a lot smaller than we thought. This vessel is about the largest that will safely fit inside it.”

Chris stared at them and then looked at Allison. She knew what he was thinking even though she wasn’t telepathic. She nodded and he turned back to Trevor, “You will immediately stop all construction on the Pods and battleships. You will focus on building as many of these new ships as possible.”

“I was hoping you would do this.”

“Why didn’t Lukas authorize it?”

“Because we are heavily outnumbered and outgunned. He feels we need as many ships as possible to avoid being overrun by numbers we can’t deal with.”

Allison shook her head, “Lukas hasn’t led a fleet of ships in combat. Quality trumps quantity.”

Chris smiled. He could see why Lukas had not committed to the new technology. Allison reassured him he was right. “Do as I order and I’ll handle any issues.”

Amanda jumped up and hugged Chris. Things were going to change.

Jinks walked into Lukas’s office and said, “Chris has ordered all construction be devoted to the new ship.”

“He is in command.”

“The reports I have coming in from the probes in M-87 show a massive buildup of warships.”

“What are you saying, Jinks?”

“If you have an invincible warship, it could not stop a million ships from attacking. They would swarm by it and attack around it.”

“Do you remember what the Silver Ships’ relatives are currently doing?”

Jinks looked at Lukas and tilted his head, “They’re hiding behind their force field while they’re building ships.”

“It may be that we will be forced to do the same. I agreed to not second-guess our chosen Commander. We will do what he wants.”

“You’re the boss.”

“No, he is, Jinks.”

Jinks smiled, “Yes, I guess he is.”

“You need to get busy.”

“Doing what?”

“These new ships aren’t going to fly themselves no matter how good they are. You need to get with Trevor and Amanda and develop a simulator to train the crews chosen to fly them.”

Jinks’ eyes went wide, “You’re right. I didn’t think about that. I’ll see you later.”

Jinks rushed out and Lukas sighed. He hoped Chris knew what he was doing. He had also seen the reports from the Progen building efforts. It was something to be very concerned about.

Chris looked at his panel and had to look for the controls. He had been studying the control panel for three weeks but it was nothing like the panel he was accustomed to using. He shook his head and looked at Allison who was also looking around her panel. “Allison, we should take some time to really learn this ship’s controls before we go out.”

Allison stared at her panel a moment longer and looked up, “This is frustrating. It would have helped to have a simulator to work on before we were handed this Rubik’s Cube.”

Chris shook his head and remained silent for a few moments and then said, “All right, we’re going to make multiple runs between Earth and Eden. We’ll continue the process until we can do it without looking at our panels.”

“That doesn’t help us operate the weapons.”

“No, but you have to learn to walk before you run. We’ll use it in the void and normal space and then we’ll try using the new drive to go in and out of the Skip Barrier.”

“You’re flying the ship, what am I supposed to do while you’re doing that?”