Connection (37 page)

“Yes…and then we learned how to make a time enclosure somehow and showed our allies,” Janos explained when Robert stood there digesting all this information. “Seems they know the design to speed up time inside the field…before you ask…thirty times normal. You do one day of work outside and we get a month inside.”

“What about heat dispersal, waste, water, air and all that?” Robert asked.

“That’s another thing that’s cool. Another alien – Rett – a Tros – no I don’t know that race either came up with a slick stepped portal kinda like what we do with the Hall Drive inside a field. We can move supplies and air through in stages. It’s a bit slow going through but you don’t have to turn off the whole enclosure field. Before you ask – think we can do it in about ten days.”

Robert just stood there for a moment thinking about everything Janos had said and then was doubly amazed that Janos said so much. “You really conveyed a lot of information Janos. Why don’t you speak more often like you did now?”

“I usually don’t have that much to say and I learn more but listening.”

“Ez nagyon jó,” Robert said.

Janos laughed. “You just said ‘That’s good’ in Hungarian. You listen too,” he said and smiled at Robert’s use of his native language.

                                                                                   ****

The time enclosure over the shipyard only took a week because the plans were extremely detailed and allowed for improvisation. Their needed to be a framework and that was already in place because of the existing atmospheric shield. Steven Weathers took the schematics and drawings from the downloaded data and marveled at their specificity. The stepped entranceway allowed goods to move in stages through the field but it lived up to its design – the enclosure needed no
lamlee
and produces a time acceleration of thirty-to-one. You could do thirty days of work inside that passed as one day outside. Of course, thirty days of consumables were needed inside and thirty days of waste had to be handled.

Karen Stockell was put in charge of biological supply logistics. She reveled in the challenge and quickly learned shut down and recycling procedures. The compact fusion sources provided ample power inside. She soon had fruits and vegetables pouring into the enclosure – the Scar’s crew soon had a good supply of Earth foods. Everyone got tons of ideas from the Earth Regulatory Force data module.

Kenny Nakamura exclaimed, “Holy shit! Look at this Robert. Zero-point power sources that produce as much as the fusion units but don’t need H
3
. Their quantum communicators are about like ours but with cool tweaks we can use easily.”

Robert rushed over. “Wow. I’ll see if we can add those zero-point modules over the next two-weeks.”

Kenny laughed. “You mean the next day outside the enclosure. We have already started installing that new drive. We can use the Hall drive and our bias drive without being detected. We are installing smaller time enclosure units in the different cabins onboard the explorer class ships. Crew can sleep ten hours in a normal hour and vary gravity, light spectrum, and humidity. We’ll be able to host any number of species if those charts the ES folks gave us are even partially accurate in this universe.”

Robert sighed. “The Earth fleet will be approaching us in about ten, normal days. How can I persuade them that there is a real threat from these Allung?”

Twlise jogged Robert’s elbow. “The propaganda presentation the Hllumff have them with them about the Allung should convince them.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it. Earth isn’t convinced you’re even an alien yet Twlise. I’m sure we could get some Hllumff to be with us but it would be better if we could capture that ship that appeared when they did. The new sensors still show it just on the far side of the Oort Cloud,” Robert said. Those suits in the downloaded plans are tricky to produce. We manufactured about a dozen. They can do invisibility and can stop projectiles but we couldn’t get them to take the energy from laser hits like they described – some field we haven’t produced yet. We’ve worked on them for three months in the Enclosure. We got the molecular disrupters working. They dissolve any matter into its component atoms. They do nothing to someone with a protective field though.”

“Stokin’…” Kenny said. “You’re planning on boarding that ship and going after those bad boys knowing all about their hidden skin pouches, poisons, and bombs…not to mention having to kill innocent slaves with explosive collars. Stompin’. When? Our Earth fleet is going to be here ten days…normal time.”

“I think one of our Explorer class ships, Cassandra, Nemesis, and the ES ship will be ready for trials in two months enclosure time – two days from now. Think that’s when we’ll try it all.”

[Robert. The
lamlees
are almost alive. They become active when you touch them – or should I say – when someone from our universe touches them. It’s like they reset when they came here but work perfectly well here. I cannot do anything with them – it must be an organic being concentrating on what they want done. Uhmbub has gotten several new suits working that fit Hllumff. They have molecular disruptors. Our suits can amplify our strength and can repel kinetic weapons and the molecular disruptor with their built-in field. The have microcameras that display what is behind the suit so they can be effectively invisible.]

What do you propose?

[I think one Explorer class ship, the ES ship Nemesis, and I should field-test the jump drives. We should try to disable and capture that Allung ship. Steven was able to duplicate the field neutralization missiles. They really do work but take a few seconds to penetrate a ship’s shields before exploding.]

We know not to get directly in front of them. I think their ‘weapon’ is just ‘jumping’ through an opponent using their version of a faster-than-light drive. Our bias drive doesn’t show up on their sensors. I think we can jump accurately enough to attack them,
Robert responded.

[They haven’t done anything in our universe yet – do you want to attack them?]

Hope you’re kidding Cassandra. Slavers are scum in any universe.

[Just playing devil’s advocate. We should be ready Wednesday.]

                                                                                  ****

The Hllumff crew took the news well about being in another universe. The Dexs they got as gifts along with other items made them think well of their current allies. Their ship had been resurfaced with metacrete that would absorb most laser hits and their non-functioning new tech had been rejuvenated. They would look for ES colleagues later if everything worked out before trying to get back to their own universe.

The four ships smoothly left dock on Mars and rose on the new propulsion system that required no burning fuel. They moved away from the planet and then planned short speed runs.

[On my mark we use top speed for 1 div. Five, four, three, two, one, mark] Cassandra said to all parties in Hllumff.

The ships surged away and stopped one div later. [Report,] Cassandra said as she was fairly fluent in Hllumff now.

[Cassandra reports 1,506 lights. Nemesis?]

[Nemesis reports 1,503 lights]

[Scar?]

“Scar reports 1,504 lights…thank you brothers.”

[Explorer One reports 1,503 lights]

[Good job. Now let us try the Ylee Drive. We have to all try for near maximum velocity for a mini-div for the shortest jump. Let us all try for 1,500 lights toward Venus with the Ylee drive. On my mark… Five, four, three, two, one, mark.]

The four ships disappeared and reappeared just as quickly near the orbit of Venus. It took several moments before they could move within sight of each other.

The bridge of the Scar was jubilant with much gas and acrid smell of surprise. “Captain Ummand to Cassandra. Thank you for this marvelous technology. Shall we try your
bias
drive now and go back toward Mars?”

“Cassandra to Scar. Good idea Captain. All ships ready with bias drive? You call it Captain.”

“Very well. Scar to all ships. Bias drive on my mark in five. Five, four, three, two, one, mark.”

All the ships disappeared once again and reappeared near Mars orbit. They were aligned closely with each other on emergence.

“Captain Ummand here. That was marvelous. You do not show up on our normal sensors. Our conventional space drive shows up on sensors even when light-years away. We must take that Allung ship. Shall we do it now?”

“Everyone. Prepare for battle stations. Suits on and tested…We need to disable the drive units first and then burn through mid-hull. We do the clearing operations. The slave-collar-release transmitter will be on from the moment we are within range. Acknowledge when you are ready,” Robert stated on all ships broadcast.

The Allung ship was still powered and showed on their sensors at the outer edge of the Oort cloud.

                                                                                  ****

Coercer Cetc watched the sensors with alarm. He had restocked oxygen and water from the methane and chemicals available in the outer system ring far from the Earth sun. His sensors had displayed one ship for several months on the fourth planet before there were suddenly four ships. Those four jumped across the system and then disappeared and reappeared. The rumors of a stealth drive must be partially true. They could jump large distances and do so in ways without being visible on sensors. He hoped his brothers would be here soon as Master Blestmk had promised. He said there would be hundreds of ships targeted at Earth to erase this new scourge.

                                                                                  ****

The four Mars ships jumped to the indicated proximity of the Allung ship. The Scar released two penetrator missiles that easily had time to penetrate the field of the Allung ship and pierce the hull by the rear drive section before the ship could respond. The ship was dead in space as the Sol Force, Exploration Service, and robotic soldiers used molecular disruptors and breached mid-hull of the Allung ship. The amidships breech was rapidly covered with a sealing fabric to keep atmosphere in while they cleared the ship compartment by compartment.

The ES crew was clearing the engineering section when four humanoid slaves with collars attacked them with, what only could be called machetes. One ES suit failed with the weight of bodies slashing at it and he was killed, even as the other ES troops used their disruptors to carve up the attackers. All those attackers were killed. Another compartment opened revealing two Allung, who looked like large frogs with wide mouths and weak arms. Their back legs were more powerful and they lunged at the three Sol Force soldiers. One Allung sprayed a caustic chemical that coated the helmet of the lead soldier. This soldier, uninjured but with vision obscured, reached forward and ripped the thin arms off his attacker. He then disintegrated a hole through the center of his attacker’s body. The Allung dropped and the second one dropped his weapon and surrendered uncharacteristically. The prisoner was quickly scanned and several hidden skin pockets were ripped open revealing tools and weapons. Robert came in and put a dog collar around the neck of the prisoner. It had been designed for a mastiff but a friend had given it to him in jest and said he ought to use it on the Allung. It would deliver a nasty shock when a button was pressed but lacked the explosives of the slave collars. The transmitter to release the slave collar devices had not worked at all.

Robert looked at the obscene creature. The creature was a dull green with a huge mouth lined with little sharp needle-like teeth. It had a long thin tongue and two huge, black, soulless eyes. It probably massed about ninety-kilos. It had a toolbelt that the capturing soldier had removed. It said nothing and sat on its hind legs looking at them malevolently. They had encountered twenty slaves on board – usually humanoid. All but one had been reluctantly killed while attacking the boarding troops.

[The ship is secure Admiral. The hidden areas had four Allung in them and many weapons and food stocks. We have disarmed a self-destruct. One slave was released because a molecular beam came so close it dissolved the detonator-receiver. It is humanoid but seems in shock and hasn’t responded to questioning,] Cassandra said.