No Technology Is Invincible (The Death Prophecies-Book Four 4) (11 page)

“Do as you’re ordered, Captain.”

Gabby stared at him and he could see she was angry. But she closed her visor and did as he ordered. After three minutes, she said, “You want to see if those Black Ships were built in that galaxy.”

Gabe smiled and nodded, “And if they weren’t?”

“Then the species in those Black Ships conquered that galaxy and are stripping it of what they need to feed themselves and support their fleets.”

Gabe looked at the monitor, “I really hope the former is what’s happening.” Gabe saw the distant galaxy growing larger and thought about what was going on. He didn’t like any of the scenarios he envisioned.

• • •

The Prophet’s Eyes was holding position five thousand miles out from a planet and Gabe stared at the monitor and sighed. One of the large Black Transports was in low orbit and hundreds of small ships were ferrying lots of minerals from the surface up to the transport’s landing bay. He turned to Gabby, “Have you been able to find any animal life on the planet’s surface?” Gabby continued to stare at her panel’s monitor and shook her head. “Poul, are these creatures carnivores?”

“I don’t think they are in the common understanding of what a carnivore is.”

“Please explain what you mean.”

“Gabe, they’ve removed all animal life regardless of size. That would suggest that they take animals and process them into something they can consume. I don’t think they would eat them raw like a carnivore would.”

“How long would it take them to strip a planet like this?”

“It would take months.”

Gabe nodded, “That would suggest they’ve been here for quite a long time.”

“Tens of thousands of years would be a rough guesstimate.”

Gabe looked at his panel, “And we’re detected a hundred and twenty Motherships are still in this galaxy?”

Gabby looked up, “Along with ten Motherships that are currently under construction.”

Gabe stared at the monitor and said, “It’s time to go home. However, I want to take a shot at those ships being built.” Gabby jerked her head around and Gabe raised his hand, “They’re not being defended. All of their small warships are currently surrounding the Motherships that are collecting raw materials from the planets they’ve conquered.”

“But six of them are close enough to launch their fighters; they’ll arrive in less than two minutes.”

Gabe looked up, “Poul, how long will it take us to launch all but ten of our missiles?”

“That will depend on how long it will take to target them at those ten ships.”

Gabe looked at Gabby and saw her fear of going anywhere near those giant constructs, “Can you send an attack coordinate to all of our missiles before we arrive?” Gabby took a deep breath and said, “Yes, Sir.”

“Poul?”

“We can launch them in two minutes.”

Gabe smiled and Gabby said, “That’s cutting it pretty darn close.”

Gabe shrugged, “We’ll have a little more time than that. Their reaction time will factor into the equation and that should give us a few more seconds. I need you to target their reactors and other sites on those ships where their missiles are stored. I want to do maximum damage with the missiles we have on board.” Gabby looked at her panel and began pressing buttons. Gabe watched her and asked, “How long do you need to do this?”

“I’ll have them targeted within two hours.”

Gabe leaned back in his chair. “Poul, do you agree with this?”

“Do you think this species will go through a black hole?”

“I really have no idea about that but I can envision them chasing the builders to another galaxy and see them go through. That would be enough to open that door.”

“So which of these two pose the biggest danger?”

Gabe shrugged, “The Builders, at the moment.”

“Then why do you want to attack the motherships?”

“I want to keep the conflict between the Builders and this species going as long as possible.”

There was a moment of silence and then Poul said, “That makes good sense. I missed that.”

Gabby continued pressing buttons and knew she had missed it as well. She was still miffed about Gabe not allowing her to take off her glasses.

• • •

Poul was hanging in space a hundred miles from the site where the ten new Motherships were being built. The numbers of transports ferrying materials to the site were in the thousands. The beings working on the construction site were in the millions. Gabe stared at the monitor and looked up, “Poul, start the run between the two closest and move slowly enough for me to launch at each of those ships.”

I’m going to start the run ninety miles from the first two targets then move to seventy from the second pair and so on. That way the missiles will arrive at the same moment on the first six. I’ll move directly between number seven and eight and then you can fire on nine and ten when we’re just beyond the last two ships.”

“Count it down.”

Gabe looked at the giant vessels and heard, “Three, two, one, NOW!”

Gabe pressed the launcher trigger on the thruster handle, paused, pressed it again and saw the next two ships filling is visor. He fired twice again and moved to the next two Motherships. He saw they were directly between two of the giants and he pressed the trigger once and saw a giant flash in the rear monitor. He pressed it again and was immediately beyond the last two vessels. He launched the remaining missiles and heard Gabby scream, “I HAVE THOUSANDS OF BLACK WARSHPS JUMPING IN!!!”

Gabe fell back in his chair as Poul went to full speed. He stared at the rear monitor as Poul came to a stop a thousand miles away and started recording what was happening. The construction site looked like it was on fire and then something blew up and all ten ships added their weapon stores to the blast. The massive blast that followed looked very much like a star going nova. The shockwave from the blast roared out and rushed over the incoming warships. Gabe stared at the monitor and only saw a few of the thousands that roared in make it out of the blast. “Get us out of here, Poul! Take us home.”

The burning construction site disappeared and a few moments later, they were outside the galaxy moving through intergalactic space. Gabe replayed the destruction of the building site on the monitor and was amazed at the destruction the small superconductive missiles caused. Gabby must have been reading his mind, “Most of the destruction was caused by the stores of weapons on those Motherships. The missile stores did the most damage.” Gabe was forced to agree with Gabby and continued to stare at the monitor.

• • •

The Prophet’s Eyes flew far above the Builder’s Galaxy as it headed toward the distant Carand Galaxy. Gabe looked at Gabby and saw she wasn’t happy, “Captain, I want you to pull up the tactical recording from the moment we arrived at that Fleet of Black Ships. I want you to send a copy of it to my visor as you’re watching it. When I tell you, I want you to stop it.” Gabby pulled up the recording and started it. Gabe watched it on his visor and after a few minutes he said, “Freeze it!” Gabby stopped the recording and Gabe asked, “Do you see anything significant?”

Gabby stared at her visor and after a moment said, “I’m not sure what you mean.”

Gabe said, “Poul, put the current image on our visors on the tactical monitor.” The image appeared on the right wall monitor and Gabe said, “Do you see anything now?”

Gabby stared at the monitor and after a moment put her hand on her throat as she said, “Oh my god!”

Gabe stared at her and said, “How do you think you missed those two readings, Captain?”

Gabby shifted her gaze back and forth between the image on her visor and the one on the wall monitor. She blew out a breath she was holding and said, “The frames on my glasses blocked them from my vision.”

Gabe nodded, “You didn’t see the bottom left red number indicating that three Black Warships had turned in our direction nor did you see the red number in the top right of your visor letting you know that thirteen more ships had powered up their thrusters.”

Gabby leaned back in her chair and looked at him, “That’s why you ran away?”

“It is and if I had been occupied doing something like Poul was doing at that moment, we would have been hit by those Black Ship’s blasters. You are the scanning officer on this ship and I have to be able to depend on you to provide warning when we’re in danger.”

“Why did you stop me from taking my glasses off?”

“Because you’re going to have to make a decision when we get back to Fleet Operations.” Gabby stared at him intently as Gabe said, “I need you on this ship helping me to see things. You’ve proven that during this mission. However, if you don’t go and have your vision corrected, you will be too much of a liability to continue in your current post. I had you close your eyes instead of removing your glasses to see if you could focus without them. You’ve proven that you can.”

“Sir, you have been making me change my self-image from the moment I came on board.”

“That’s not true.”

“Yes it is. You had me wear this tight fitting grey uniform and wear my hair down. Now you want me to give up using my glasses.”

“I didn’t make you change those things in your appearance. Your armor required you to make those changes or you wouldn’t have been on this mission. The fact that your glasses block part of your visor is the reason you’ll have to give up your glasses. If you can design new armor for yourself where you can continue wearing your oversize uniforms, having your hair in that big bun, and wearing your glasses, I’m all ears.”

Gabby stared at him and pursed her lips, “You know that’s not going to happen.”

“I do. And I’m serious when I say I need you on this ship. I can’t order you to go through the process to correct your vision but I can’t allow you to go out on a warship with your visibility diminished by your glasses. This is a decision that you will have to make and you can let me know what you decide after we get back. I hope you really think this through and do the right thing.” Gabe stood up, “Poul, how long before we arrive at the Carand galaxy?”

“About a week.”

“I’m going to go and clean up and take a nap. Wake me if you detect anything.”

“I will, Gabe.”

Gabe left the bridge and Gabby said under her breath, “What a jerk!”

“What if your roles were reversed?”

Gabby looked up, “What do you mean, Poul?”

“What if he had no combat experience and Fleet wanted to send you out with him. How would you feel about that? Keep in mind that it was his combat experience that kept us out of trouble and allowed us to survive several times when you were unsure about what to do.”

“That’s different.”

“Is sending a scanning officer out who can’t see all of her scanners any different?” Gabby was silent and Poul said, “Gabby, you are going to have a great career in the Navy. You possess incredible intellectual skills that will serve you well. I’m sure you can advance in the Navy by working in Intelligence or several other departments where you’ll never have to be on board a warship. You don’t have to do what he’s asking.”

“But? I know you have a ‘but’ you’re not saying.”

“Have you ever felt as alive as when your life was in danger on this mission?”

Gabby lowered her head and sighed. “Poul, I’m going to take a shower and rest. Call me if you need me.”

“I will, Gabby.” She walked off the bridge and headed toward her quarters.

• • •

Seven days later, Poul announced, “We’ll be entering the Carand Galaxy in ten minutes.”

Gabe arrived on the bridge and pulled his helmet on. A moment later, Gabby walked in and went to her chair. Gabe said, “Captain, keep an eye out for any Carand Warships.”

“Yes, Sir.” Gabe saw the tactical monitor activate on the wall and noticed Gabby staring at it. She saw him looking at her and shrugged, “I don’t want to miss anything, Sir.”

Gabe nodded and looked at his visor. She had to know that using the tactical monitor during combat was not an option. It was used to track too many other things to devote it to her exclusively. He watched the galaxy growing larger by the second and then they were flying though it at an incredible velocity. He heard Gabby say, “The course Poul is taking does not have any Carand Warships near it.”

Poul announced, “We’ll be entering the black hole in three, two, one…”

Gabe closed his eyes and felt the familiar unfamiliar feeing in the pit of his stomach. He opened his eyes and pressed his communicator, “This is Admiral Eagle. We’ll be arriving at Fleet Operations in a few moments. Please have Intelligence ready to process the data cubes we’ve collected.”

“Welcome back, Admiral. I’ll notify Admirals Connor and Chambliss of your arrival.”

Gabe looked at Gabby, “I had fleet assign you quarters at the Officer’s Building before we left. You should have a few hours before we start our debriefing. It’s been a pleasure having you on board, Captain.”

Gabby raised her visor and then deactivated her armor. She looked at him and said, “Likewise, Admiral.” Gabe nodded as Poul landed on top of the Fleet Operations building. She left the bridge and collected her duffle bag. She was gone before he collected the data cubes and exited the Prophet’s Eyes. He sighed and didn’t expect to see her on board again.

A
dmiral Connor looked at the display on his desk and saw the Supreme Leader of the Darkness staring at him. “Have you and your advisors had the opportunity to examine what my scout brought back,” He asked?

“We have.”

“And what have you determined?”

“That galaxy beyond my black hole is a nest of demons. According to the analysis you sent with it, your warships are no match for either of those two species.”

Steve leaned forward, “We might be able to take on their small warships and we would be evenly matched. However, if you add the Builders defense satellites or those black Motherships into the mix…” Steve could only shake his head.

“So your idea of taking the war to their turf is not viable?”

“No, I don’t believe it is.”

The Darkness Leader stared at him again and, after a few moments, said, “So what do we do?”

“We are going to have to buy time to attempt to develop our technology where we will be able to meet them on an equal footing. If either of those species come through a black hole into our universe, there will be no stopping them.”