Star Rover-Chosen to Die (Lens of Time) Read online

  “It’s been determined that the probes have broken our encryption and can hear any transmissions the Admiral makes. She also has a probe above Earth watching her.”

  Dat sat in his chair and looked at Gresha. “Why is he going to be able to go to Earth next week if he’s in danger from that probe?”

  “The Admiral is going to bring the new Jukeboxes in from the Colonies. She hopes it will delay any action the aliens might be planning.”

  “New Jukeboxes?”

  “Belwen developed new technology to strengthen them and they’ve been building the fleets in the Colonies for more than sixteen years. Most of the new recruits have been used to replace the veterans in the Union Fleets and they have been sent to the colonies to train on the new ships. Your children are there commanding one of the new battleships at this moment.”

  “Who knows about those fleets?”

  “The only Flag Officer is Kelli McCagg. She’s the only one that didn’t have a probe following her.”

  Gresha looked at Dat, “If what he’s saying is true, you can’t go to Earth. It might precipitate a war.”

  Dat was angry, “Is that why I’ve been kept away from the fleets?”

  “Admiral Hull was of the belief that if you went anywhere near the fleets, the Aliens would suspect you were there to improve their fighting skills. She didn’t want to do anything to cause them to act before we could build enough ships to take them on.”

  Dat sat and thought for a moment and said, “How was Katherine able to see their probes; we couldn’t see their ships when we talked with them.”

  “Belwen developed an advanced probe that operates above the skip layer. Their probes don’t see them but our probes can see them.”

  “Then she should have sent probes to their galaxy!”

  “She did.”

  “What?”

  “She did.”

  “And?”

  “They’re a pretty nasty civilization.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t have all the details. The meeting is to bring all the Flag Officers up to speed and get them ready to lead their fleets.”

  “How can we lead ships we know nothing about? That’s ludicrous.”

  “She sent a device to transfer all the information on them directly to your brain. Belwen developed the tutorial program and it is effective.”

  “And just when was I supposed to get this tutorial?”

  “I was to give it to you before you go to the meeting.”

  “Dat.” Dat looked at Gresha, “If we’re being watched, that probe knows you and I both entered this ship. If we don’t go somewhere, it will suspect something is going on.”

  Dat stared at Gresha and, after a moment, sighed. He looked at the ceiling and said, “Take us to the Alliance Capital. I’ve been asked to speak to an assembly of new recruits. Arriving a few days early shouldn’t be cause for concern. I’ll contact the officer there and tell him we need to get out.”

  “That would be good. It’s important that you not change your behavior.”

  “Give me a break.” Dat saw Gresha frown and said, “As soon as we lift, I want you to give me that tutorial. Is that clear?”

  “Yes Sir. Make the call first. I’m reasonably certain the probe following you will intercept it.”

  “How are we going to communicate?”

  “All of the Union’s forces have been set up to use our new probe’s system. We’ve also developed a new encryption system that won’t be easy to break.”

  Dat shook his head, “You don’t have any idea how angry it makes me to be left out of what’s been happening.”

  “I believe I do. Make the call and put on the skull cap that connects you to my processors. I’ll activate the device and make the transfer.”

  Gresha quickly said, “I’ll take the transfer after he’s done.” The computer paused and Gresha said, “Don’t even think about not doing it. I also command one of those fleets.”

  “I will make your transfer after Dat is done. Now please make the call.”

  Dat picked up his communicator and said, “When did you find out about this Stein?”

  “When I went in for the software upgrade. I didn’t know anything either.”

  Dat blew out a breath and forced himself to smile. “Put Admiral Gentry on my panel.” The Admiral appeared a moment later and saw Dat smiling, “Admiral, Gresha and I need to get out of the house. Is it possible for me to come now and speak to the new recruits?”

  “Yes, we look forward to seeing you. Will you be coming down to the planet?”

  “No, we like seeing a planet from orbit. We’ll stay on board until morning. Thanks for offering.” Admiral Gentry nodded and the panel went dark. “Now start that tutorial!”

  Stein jumped away from Gresha’s home world and Dat put on the skull cap. He forgot his anger as he learned the capabilities of the Union’s newest warship.

  • • •

  The Leader looked over the head of the Seeker and listened to the conversation between Dat and Admiral Gentry. “Do you detect anything different in that ship?”

  The Seeker read the probe’s data and lifted his head, “The power reading is about one percent higher.”

  “One percent?”

  “That’s the difference between the time it was sent away and current readings. Whatever was done to it didn’t make any significant change in the readings.”

  “They sat on the ground a long time before they lifted.”

  “I suspect they were trying to decide on where to go. It looks like the Admiral is trying to get ahead on his schedule.”

  The Leader looked at the Seeker, “You’ve observed him do this in the past.”

  “The Admiral doesn’t like being behind on his scheduled events.”

  “Let me know if you detect anything different.”

  “You know I will.”

  The Seeker and Leader heard muffled screams in the hall outside the room and saw one of the local inhabitants being carried into the room. It was bound and gagged but it was still struggling against its bonds and the gag didn’t reduce the volume of its screams very much. Finally, the evening meal had arrived. The Leader volunteered to watch the Seeker’s panel while he dined.

  • • •

  Arve and Grest sat with Angelica in her quarters on board the Wellington. Arve looked at the flight recordings of her skirmishes and shook his head, “I don’t see how you avoided injuring your crew during these last maneuvers?”

  Grest nodded, “I don’t see any way the sailors could have stayed on their feet.”

  Angel smiled, “What I want you to see is that the ship is capable of maneuvering beyond the ability of the crew to handle the gravity stresses. The frame this ship was built on is incredible.”

  “The gravity compensators aren’t designed to handle that kind of stress, Angel.”

  “The old ones weren’t, Arve. The new compensators emit a whine that gets louder as it approaches it limits. The new Jukebox’s control systems are designed to prevent doing any maneuver that could damage the ship’s structure. However, the ability of the crew to handle these new limits is limited; sudden acceleration throws them off their feet. One of my engineers came up with an idea that was remarkable. He took a pair of magnetic shoes off a spacesuit and inserted a sensor inside them. Whenever gravity exceeded one and half G’s, the magnets would activate and keep their feet on the floor.”

  Grest’s eyes narrowed, “How does that make a difference?”

  “My crew has learned to keep something close to hold on to while they’re on board. The main problem was losing their footing; the shoes solved that issue. Notice the last skirmish.” Arve and Grest turned through the pages and shook their heads at the maneuver. Angel watched them and said, “Guess how long it took for my crew to report all stations ready?” They stared at her and she said, “Twenty seconds. Eighty percent of the blasters were manned in less than ten seconds.” Angel paused and said, “Once the crew
is buckled into their combat chairs, they can tolerate much higher G loads.”

  Arve looked at Grest, “We need to start using this on our ships.”

  “I agree; Angel, may we take some of these shoes back with us?”

  “I’ve actually had my quarter master produce enough for your ships. We’ll load them on your shuttles before you leave. One thing you should understand before you start this.”

  Arve frowned, “What is that?”

  “The two of you are going to have to learn to push your ships hard enough to get your crews ready. Have either of you flown your ship in this manner?”

  Grest shook his head, “No, you’re the best pilot; however, now that I know it can be done, I’ll catch up.”

  Arve smiled, “I look forward to it.”

  Angel smiled, “Have either of you discovered anything of interest?”

  Grest smiled, “I’ve learned how to manipulate the force fields so that they form a cone in front of the ship that is four times stronger than when it covers the entire ship.”

  “Doesn’t that leave you open to fire from the sides?”

  Grest shook his head, “No Angel, the sharp pointed cone extends to the end of the ship. The cone is open at the rear of the ship and that is the only way to attack the ship. I won’t use this force field unless I’m flying at full speed. I don’t think an enemy vessel could move in on my ship from the rear when it’s moving at top speed.”

  Arve looked at Grest’s diagram, “Why did you make the nose of the cone a sharp point?”

  “Remember that the dark energy field is a repulsive force. Anything that hits it is pushed away. It would require a beam about four times more powerful to penetrate that configuration than the standard force field covering the ship.”

  Angel looked at the diagram, “Have you tested it?”

  “I used a standard beam and took readings on the level of penetration using both configurations. The readings were consistent at every power used to hit it. I’ve copied the protocols into these memory chips. All you have to do is download them into the central computer and have a spare button on your panel assigned to the configuration.”

  Angel nodded and turned to Arve, “What about you, Arve?”

  “I’ve sorta violated Fleet protocols.”

  Angel shook her head, “What did you do?”

  Arve shrugged, “I’ve modified the blaster arrays. You know my expertise is weapons.” Angel and Grest nodded. “Well, it just seemed to me that even though the new blasters are incredibly strong, I felt like they could be improved.”

  “I do hope you didn’t damage your ship.”

  “No Angel, but you know how a beam is fired and the power has to be continuous to hit a target.”

  Grest nodded, “But if you cut the power to the beam, it would dissipate; it has to be fired until it hits a target.”

  “Do you remember that potato gun I built as a child?”

  Grest was startled for a moment and then he and Angel started laughing, “You knocked out a hardened glass window six hundred yards from our house. Mom was not happy when the neighbor confronted her about her dangerous children.” Angel smiled at the memory.

  Arve shrugged, “Anyway, I wondered if you could accumulate the beam and launch it like a potato.”

  Angel’s eyebrows went up, “What do you mean?”

  “I built an expansion chamber on the back of the new blaster’s barrel and inserted a resistance coil for the charge to flow through.”

  Angel thought about the idea and said, “The beam collects in the chamber and bursts out in one condensed blast once the coil reaches maximum.”

  “That’s exactly what happens. It looks like a giant potato leaving the blaster toward a target. It’s like firing those old things called bullets at targets. This allows the blaster to fire a series of blasts.”

  Grest said, “How strong is the potato?”

  “It’s the same power as the standard beam but you can lay down a spread of them with just one modified blaster. You know how hard it is to hit a ship that is using evasive maneuvers; this thing can surround it with a wave of blasts leaving it nowhere to go.”

  Angel thought about it and said, “You’ve left out that the blaster can be used as a potent antimissile weapon.”

  Arve smiled, “I thought that would be obvious.”

  “How many have you converted?”

  “I have twenty on the four sides of the ship. They can fire a wide barrage that would cover the entire ship against incoming enemy ships.”

  Angel nodded, “You could also put three of them on the rear of the ship firing barrages and prevent a ship from attacking when you use Grest’s cone shaped force field. It would lay down a barrage a following ship couldn’t fire through or avoid without exposing itself to our normal blasters.”

  Grest’s and Arve’s eyes went wide. Arve smiled, “Hey, you’re right.”

  Angel shook her head, “Modifying a Union Warship without prior approval can get us thrown in the brig and stripped of our commands.” Angel slowly shook her head and sighed, “I guess it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission. We need to get to work and make these changes. I’ll have the shoes put in your shuttles.”

  Arve nodded, “I brought enough expansion chambers and coils for each of you to use. I’ll send three more over for the rear of your ships when I get back to my ship.”

  The three stood up and hugged each other. Angel smiled, “I’ve missed you. I hope we can see Mom and Dad before we get caught up with our assigned units.”

  Arve smiled, “I miss the time when we were at home. I really miss Mom’s cooking.” Arve smiled, “I suspect Grest misses it the most; he looks like he’s losing weight.”

  Angel laughed and Grest said, “Let’s get moving; we have a lot to do. And for your information, I’ve gained five pounds.”

  Arve’s eyes went wide and he said, “Where, in your wrists?” Grest actually smiled, which he very seldom did.

  Chapter Three

  Brad entered Katherine’s office and she looked up from her console, “Dat knows.”

  “He wasn’t supposed to find out until the new ships arrived!”

  “His ship send a message to another Rover that he was going to come and visit you but changed his mind. I suspect his ship had to tell him to prevent him from coming here.”

  Katherine shook her head, “I imagine he’s quite put out with me.” Brad tilted his head and nodded. “Is that probe still following him?”

  “It is.”

  Katherine nodded and stood up. She walked over to the window looking out at Fleet Academy and watched cadets marching on the parade ground. “Have you been able to determine if all the planetary force fields have been upgraded?”

  “All of the main planets are; there are about a hundred in the periphery of the galaxy that haven’t come on line.”

  Katherine stared out of her office window at the marching cadets moving around the Academy’s parade grounds and shook her head, “That company has one cadet that must have two left feet.”

  Brad smiled, “What are you thinking about?”

  “Do we have all their probes spotted?”

  “We do.”

  Katherine looked at Brad, “Recall all our probes from their galaxy immediately.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  “What do you think would happen if we simultaneously destroy all their probes?”

  Brad thought for a moment and said, “They would know that we are able to see them.”

  “Go on.”

  “They would guess that their probes were being tracked by our probes.”

  “Very good; what would they do?”

  Brad looked at Kat, “They would flood their territory with ships looking for our probes.”

  “Yes they would. I suspect they wouldn’t find them; but they could get lucky. I don’t want them to know we’ve been spying on them in their galaxy.”

  “So you’re going to take out their prob
es?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “When?”

  “As soon as you give the all clear on our probes being withdrawn from their galaxy. I’ll have the new Jukeboxes jump in immediately after they’re removed.”

  “How do we go about removing them?”

  “How many of the second generation probes do we have?”

  “More than they have here.”

  “Send them out and replace the first generation probes currently tracking them. Program all of them to fire at the same moment.”

  “We’ll have to select a time where all of their probes are in normal space; which means we’ll have to have every Union Ship remain in place.”

  Katherine thought for a moment and smiled, “Send a message to all our ships that they will remain where they are and synchronize their chronometers to the clock here in my office. Tell them that is going to be done and no ship will be exempt.”

  “That sounds hokey.”

  “Yes it does; but hokey enough to prevent those probes from seeing what’s going on.” Kat sighed, “Get our probes out of their territories; we’ve mapped their space sufficiently. Get back to me when we’re ready to take them out.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  “I love it when you say that.”

  Brad laughed and left the room. Katherine picked up her communicator and placed a call to Admiral Kuhn, “Kuhnny, I was wondering if you want to come and join Brad and I at the Academy Dance.”

  “I’d love to, Admiral; when is it?”

  I’m going to have all our ships synchronize their clocks in a few days and I want you to make sure your ships get that done. The dance is scheduled immediately after that task is done.”

  “So they’re making their schedule fit yours?”

  “Rank does have its privileges.”

  “I’ll get my dress uniform cleaned up.”

  “That would be a good idea.”

  Katherine ended the call and wondered what the being intercepting her communications thought about the one she just made.

  • • •

  “What do you mean you don’t know what a dance is?”

  “I’ve pulled recordings of everything we’ve seen and the only thing that appears is large groups of them moving around together to random sounds.”