Connection (40 page)

The task force was almost ready. The plan was to do a reconnaissance in force of any base at 47 Tau. The Nemesis would go in stealth mode using the Ylee drive and then the bias drive from one-quarter of a light year in – as that was thought to look like a glitch on sensors and the switch-over delay and time-dilation would not be consequential. The enhanced Hall drive would allow close-in observation of the base and what was happening if the stealth façade could be maintained.

The ES Scar and SF Nemesis (destroyer class), Explorer 1 thru Explorer 5 (which would be classified as light cruisers), and the Cassandra (a frigate class) were poised ten light years from 47 Tau. The third planet was supposed to contain an Exploration Service Base – at least it did in the other universe. An inhabited base would better support the theory that the Allung were a threat. All ships went to battle stations and were ready to respond. The Nemesis turned on its camouflage and prepared to jump.

ES tech Uhmbub was aboard the Nemesis as it prepared. The other ships had direct quantum links to the Nemesis so they would see what was happening as soon as it happened. Admiral Kobe was commanding the task force of five Explorer class ships and all had competent commanders from the Sol Force.

“Prepare to jump,” said Commander Dillingham a little too loudly. He was commanding on the Cassandra’s recommendation that the senior commander not be the one to jump into the unknown when there were competent substitutes. Kobe had reluctantly agreed and Robert felt a good fit for Explorer One after several shakedown runs.

Uhmbub passed gas, which everyone heard and chuckled about. They were all in pressure suits so it was not an olifactory problem. They would have smelled the sulfurous smell of fear so Uhmbub was glad he had on that pressure suit.

“Jump on my mark. Five, four, three, two, one, mark,” the Nemesis jumped near the expected position of the base using the Ylee drive and then jumped closer on the bias drive and into chaos.

There were forty Allung ships. Six were cruisers and the rest were destroyers and frigates. Twenty ES ships were fighting a losing battle. “Fire on the Allung cruisers. Use those field neutralization missiles,” Dillingham shouted. Four missiles were fired at two Allung cruisers who did nothing since they thought no missile could have any effect. The missiles did their unencumbered jobs and penetrated both cruisers. One cruiser exploded in an orgasm of destruction and the other started cartwheeling without power and leaking atmosphere. “Jump in here and give us some damn help,” he yelled for his backup. The crew would have smelled the cinnamon scent of anger if he had been Hllumff.

                                                                                  ****

“Sir. One ES destroyer and six unknown destroyers have just jumped in,” said the surprised Tros sensor tech. “…and a frigate class…unknown.”

Captain Sleesques was surprised. She was telepathic and had never felt these fierce minds before. “What are they doing?”

“Sir. They are destroying the Allung. I don’t believe it…they have launched shuttles and are performing hostile boarding,” said the tech.

“Who are they?” she said and then continued “…just attack those Allung and try not to hit those new ships,” she communicated to all her command. The battles were fierce and the ES ships were holding their own now that the Allung could not double-team them. The new ships had lasers that would target Allung ships moving incredibly fast. Their lasers used electronic tracking instead of mechanical tracking and seemed to be able to focus three lasers on one spot and hold it as the Allung ships tried to move away. The Allung had to be nearly stationary to fire yet the new ships could fire on the move.

“Sir. The new ships can jump and don’t show up on our normal sensors. I can only track them because of our docking sensors. One doesn’t even show up visually but I see it on the docking sensor.”

“How do you know that they are doing hostile boarding?”

“I see the atmosphere vent when they blast holes in the sides of those Allung ships and…sir. You won’t believe this but that new ES ship just released some type of missile that shows up on sensors but is jumping through ship after ship. Oh…no. We just lost two of our destroyers. The Allung line up with our ships and then jump through them or something.”

“Send rescue teams to…”

“Sir. There is not much left but debris from those ships.”

“All ships. Don’t let the Allung line up with you. They have some weapon that allows them to jump through you.”

“Get me in communication with those new ships.”

                                                                                  ****

Captain Ummand had his comm tech try their ES codes as the last six Allung ships tried to escape the system at 400 lights. The jump missile was still following and jumping through the Allung ships. It didn’t stop until the last ship was destroyed. That missile, with the jump drive from a shuttle in the alternate universe could travel at 700 lights and had no trouble doing microjump after microjump. It returned quiesently to the Scar and was taken back aboard for maintenance.

“Captain. They are responding in Trade but their tech sounds Tros. It’s an derivative of our codes – close enough that I understand.”

“Reply in Tros and tell them we will launch a shuttle if they guarantee safe passage. Could we have permission to bring a delegation aboard a cruiser shuttle bay? Tell them we are ES but the other ships are new allies,” Ummand said. “Also. Ask Admiral Kobe to send one of his shuttles over to pick me up and head for whatever ship they designate.”

“Yes Captain,” the tech snorted his affirmation.

                                                                                  ****

“Sir. Do you think you should be here? They could be dangerous,” said her support officer.

She flexed her tentacles and clicked her mouth. “They are dangerous – but not to us.”

The shuttle ramp opened and Captain Ummand saluted in their way with arms straight down as he snorted with a slight bow at his waist. The next being appeared to be a pink skinned, skinny humanoid and she sensed he was in charge. He saluted with his hand coming to his forehead and said, “Permission to come aboard,” he said in passable Tros.

“You are not Tros,” she said. “You are in charge.”

“Neither are you,” he said in Trade. “but you read minds,” he said because he didn’t have the word for telepathic. “Are you Commander Sleesques?” Kobe remembered the description of the rare octopi-like commander of the ES at 47 Tau from notes of Captain Ummand.

Her large, black, pupiless eyes blinked. “I am. How can you know? You do not touch my mind yet…yes. Have your people bring whatever you want? Thank you for saving our…
bacon
. I am not familiar with the food but it is an amusing analogy. Who is the one behind you? She is another species I have not seen…she is your mate…on a fighting ship…wait…what is that behind you…it is one of those Allung…a prisoner…the Allung have never lost a battle. You are many layers upon layers…like an
onion
…ah …another food analogy. I find you very amusing. Please come with me…You are certainly welcome here,” she said in Trade so all her crew could hear. “Treat these visitors as senior officers for we only stand here alive because of them. This way.”

                                                                                  ****

“That presentation was wonderful. I see it is a copy of the one brought by Captain Ummand. I would never have believed all that you say even seeing it in your minds. Yes, Admiral Kobe. We have another base at your 30 Tau but Commander Xyl was killed several years ago. We have not seen an Earth Regulatory Force anywhere. The Allung have been pressing us lately. We do not know about any
lamlee
. Your ships can do things we could never dream of doing but without
lamlee
we have no chance,” Commander Sleesques said. “It sends me a chill to the tip of my tentacles to see you in our…our…universe. Really! These other ES are from another universe. I am…so…pleased to see you. I see you are our hope. Do you have more of these
lamlee
?”

“I am sorry,” Captain Ummand said, “but we have several thousand
lamlee
given to us by the ERF in our universe. I have no idea where they got that many but Admiral Kobe has technologies that do not require
lamlee
.”

Robert leanedforward and started talking. “I have sentient computers that have learned Hllumff and Trade. They can show you how to make time enclosures that are large enough to build a fleet. You can build within the enclosure while time passes thirty times slower outside. We have compact power sources, zero-point modules, which are as powerful as fusion power plants but require no fuel. We have a type of drive that lets you travel between stars – not quite like the one you have but this works without
lamlee
. You will be able to build a Ylee drive with the
lamlee
you have – one large enough to carry destroyers or frigates and enough of the jump missiles to destroy any Allung you meet. We have enough small computers that can be trained to make those missiles attack only Allung vessels. Keep trying to make transmitters to release slaves on the Allung ships. Ours didn’t work but should have,” Robert said. “Captain Ummand gave us some
lamlee
that we used to make our Explorer Class ships function with the Ylee Drive.”

“So you intend to try to get him back to his universe?”

“I am not sure how to do that…” Kobe said. “…but yes…we intend to try.”

“Yes…” she said hearing the question and turning toward the ES Captain. “Captain Ummand. You are certainly welcome here. Your people would keep all your rank though we would need to update your codes while you update everything we have. You might never get back to your families. You will always be welcome here if you cannot.”

Captain Ummand was touched. “Thank you commander.”                                                             

****

“I think we’ve figured out the way the Scar and the Allung transited to our universe,” Kenny Nakamura said.

“I thought we had no idea how it happened,” Robert said.

“It was the Ylee drive,” he stated.

“…but we’ve used the Ylee drive lots of times and there wasn’t any problems – no shift in universes. What are you talking about?”

“It was, we think, because the Scar was doing a microjump at the same time the Allung jumped with their last resort weapon,” Steven said. “That’s what we think anyway.”

“Okay. I’ll buy that they traverse universes but why would they end up near Earth. How about that?” Robert asked.

Steven paused. “The bias drive sends a wave front like surfing, we think. The Ylee drive uses a huge surge of energy to jump over folds in space.”

“Why Bellatrix to Earth?” Robert queried. “It really doesn’t follow.”

Nakamura jumped in. “We had that problem too… until we realized that the ERF forces had just jumped into the Bellatrix system FROM Earth. We thought it may have altered the standing background radiation and left a weak area of space.”

“A weak area…like a puncture in a tire?” Robert asked.

“More like a distortion in water when you drip in a large stone and there is a temporary depression or hole following the rock – just for a moment in time,” Nkamura said.

“I can see the analogy but how could we create a recurrence? There must be multiple universes if there is more than one. We saw that this is VERY similar to ours – what if they jumped a bit further. There is no record how far the Scar had planned to jump.”

“Look Robert. We can go back to Earth with Captain Ummand in the Scar. We could get one of the captured Allung ships. Then we would jump to Bellatrix – assuming the Allung haven’t captured it yet and jump back to Earth. When we arrive – we have the Scar do a microjump exactly when we have a robot activate that Allung device,” Steven said.