The Lost Prince (16 page)

“He already has it.”

Ian said, “Ok, if we’re forced to separate, we’ll meet at that system as quickly as possible.”

Drey said, “We need a time frame to decide to give up.”

“If the other hasn’t shown up in a week, assume the worst has happened and take what we know back to the Union.”

“I would highly recommend that we come in at light speed and not jump.”

“Why is that, Andi?”

“If what Drey suspects is true, we’ll want to avoid jumping until the chasers have given up.”

Ian looked at Violet and she nodded. “Let’s go and find a hiding place.” The two ships disappeared.

• • •

They arrived and decided to use the closest moon to the eighth giant planet. The gravity of the planet would mask most energy sources and the moon was ninety percent high grade iron. Ian looked at the moon and said, “The small crater just above the equator is where we’ll go.”

Andi looked at the crater and said, “That’s a great choice. There’s an overhang over the southern edge.”

Drey said, “Now we need to determine how to conduct our search. I don’t have to tell you how difficult it is to find a habitable planet even when you’re looking for it. We need to decide how to improve our chances of finding one with an intelligent species.”

“Do you think we need to separate and improve our chances?”

“Not really.”

Ian looked surprised, “Why not?”

“We might need each other to fight off an attacker. I think we should stay together initially.” Drey thought a moment and said, “Did either of you determine what direction that pressure wave was going and coming from?”

Doc said, “It felt like it was coming from the black hole’s direction.”

“I also sensed it was moving in that direction.”

Andi said, “Listen, all of us have minds that can correlate huge amounts of data. Let’s take thirty minutes and let our minds play around with everything we’ve seen and see what pops up.”

Violet nodded and Ian said, “See you in thirty minutes.”

Drey closed his eyes and let his mind go to work.

• • •

The Ship Commander docked his warship at the space dock and connected to the central hub. He announced that all hands were free to leave as soon as they completed their docking duties. He turned off his control board and heard, “I’m confused about the anomaly you encountered.”

The Commander stopped and said, “It had to be an anomaly. The energy lasted too long to be an emergence.”

“I’ve examined your reports and it was not obscure.”

The Commander sat down in his command chair and said, “I’m not clear on what you mean by obscure.”

“If it was an anomaly, the energy should have differed from the energy of an emergence. It didn’t deviate.”

“What are you saying?”

“It is my opinion that a ship was there.”

“Well there wasn’t a ship there when we went back.”

“Well, I’ve checked my logs and we don’t have a ship anywhere near that location. I want you to go back and make a thorough scan of that system.”

The Commander hit his intercom, “Attention, all crewmembers, prepare the ship to launch. Hub time is canceled.”

The crew stopped their exodus and groaned. The few that made it off ship were forced to turn back. The huge ship backed out from the giant facility and jumped away. Ten hours later it was back and connected.

“You were right.”

“What did you find?”

“The planet had been hit by powerful blaster beams and something that blasted a huge crater.”

“Did you determine how powerful the blasters were?”

“They’re stronger than the ones on my ship.”

“That’s troubling.”

“There’s more.”

“What is that?”

“The frequency of the burn matched those done by the Werds.”

“Are you certain?”

“There is no doubt.”

“They were exterminated long ago.”

“It appears that not all of them were killed.” The Commander thought a moment, “If there are survivors, where do you think they’re hiding?”

The Hub Computer paused and said, “They must be located close to the singularity. A ship building civilization would have to have metals to build warships. The singularity is the place where that happens. They must be located somewhere just outside the event horizon of the black hole.”

“That is a huge space.”

“That’s why they were so successful in escaping originally. Even though the slaves went out and killed the escapees, it later required killing the slaves. They just wouldn’t domesticate. They constantly tried to escape.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Inform the Council and they’ll probably order a search. If you’re going to give your crew some Hub Time, you better do it now.”

The Commander knew the computer was right.

D
rey opened his eyes and saw Andi open hers. He looked at his display and Ian said, “Did you arrive at any conclusions?”

“The aliens are on the other side of the black hole.”

Ian nodded at Andi, “I also see it that way. “There’s no room for a large civilization this close to it.”

“The ones living on the planet were escaping from those beyond the black hole.” The other three all stared at Drey. “I initially questioned that idea but I’ve found the facts support that idea.”

Ian said, “Tell me what you see.”

“They’re as far away from the other side as one can go and still have a planet with a rich supply of metals. I think if they went any further away the singularity would not produce the abundance of metals. The blasters on the moon were put there to kill ships like those on the planet. Whoever put them there knew that is where escapees would go. Habitable planets are not easy to find. They were attacked by members of their own species in ships that were more advanced. That leads me to believe they were there for a long time before they were found. The difference in technologies is due to the attackers being part of a larger civilization.”

Violet said, “That means they fled for a reason.”

Drey nodded, “Suppression or imprisonment would be my guess.”

Ian said, “E, start directly across the black hole from that planet and make an educated guess as to how long it would take to search around the black holes edge and arrive at that planet.”

“I’ll assume that the search would take place in the range of the heavy metal gravity of the black hole.”

“That would be good.”

Drey said, “Doc, did Cole do an age study on any of the material we took back?”

“He did. The civilization on that planet was about two hundred and fifty years old.”

E said, “Using jump technology, it would take two hundred and forty years to thoroughly search that band. Give or take thirty years.”

Andi said, “You’re right.”

Drey shook his head, “That’s not good news.”

Ian nodded, “Whoever they are, they subjugate others.”

Ian put his hand on his chin and index finger on his lips. Violet recognized that Ian always did that when he was thinking. She looked at him and said, “What are you thinking?”

Ian looked at Drey, “You’re the chase expert. What would you do if one of your ships called in two other ships to investigate a possible sighting and then left empty handed?”

“I would examine what made them go.” Drey paused and said, “They’ll go back and see the planet was hit by our weapons.”

Violet said, “I’m not there yet. Why do you think that’s going to happen?”

“Leaders are by nature paranoid. Those three ships weren’t there long enough to do a real scan of the system or planet. I’d insist one be done.”

Violet looked at Ian, “What’s the probability of that happening?”

“Seventy eight percent.”

Andi said, “If they do that, you know what’s going to happen.”

Ian looked at Drey, “They’ll be looking for us as hard as we’re looking for them.” Drey nodded.

Ian said, “Move into the other place. Just keep your scanner and communication antenna in normal space. Do it now.”

The two ships disappeared and Andi said, “What has you concerned?”

“Where do you think they’ll start their search?”

Drey was impressed with Ian’s understanding. He looked at Violet and said, “And we’re on a direct line from that planet to the edge of the black hole. We should be seeing them, or possibly feeling them, rather quickly.”

Violet said, “There’s a twenty two percent chance they didn’t go back.”

“Would you bet your life on that?” Violet shook her head.

Doc said, “They went back.”

Andi said, “How do you know?”

“I’ve set the jump field to sense pressure and the waves have been increasing for an hour. Ships are moving in large numbers somewhere.”

“Can you tell how far away they are?”

“I’ll get better at making that determination the more I detect, but I’m not there yet.”

Suddenly E said, “One just went by here.”

Drey yelled, “No communicating.”

Suddenly they saw a ship emerge into normal space that made the three original ships look small. The only word to describe it was Dreadnaught. It moved into the system and began scanning the planets. Andi looked at Drey, “This system doesn’t have a habitable planet. What are they doing?”

“We mine other planets for metals. That ship knows this system has an abundance of metals and it’s looking to see if any of them have been mined. If it has, they’ll know they’re close to the civilization they’re looking for.”

“Civilization?”

“We used the blasters from the ships at the dead planet. I’m somewhat certain they believe we’re a member of the species of that planet.”

Andi looked at the giant warship and shook her head, “Any civilization that could build a ship that big will dwarf the Union.”

Drey nodded and stared at it as it moved further in toward the star. Three hours later it jumped away. Three hours passed and Drey said, “Doc, send a light beam toward E’s scanner and raise the communication antenna.”

Ian and Violet appeared on the display and Ian said, “It appears we’ve learned some interesting tid bits about the aliens.” Drey nodded. “I’ve also been thinking about Doc’s ability to sense them approaching.”

Andi said, “Jumps aren’t instantaneous.”

“That’s how I see it.”

Drey’s brow furrowed, “How did you come up with that?”

Andi looked at Drey, “If they were instantaneous, there wouldn’t be any warning of their approach.” Drey nodded. “The other place where the ship goes does not have time as a dimension.”

Ian nodded, “The trip inside that place could take a hundred years but the ship would disappear and instantly appear in normal space with no sense of time having passed. Since time doesn’t exist there; the occupants would not sense a difference.”

Ian looked at Drey, “What do we do now?”

“You should know the answer to that.”

Ian thought a moment and then smiled, “If someone is searching for you in one location, you go to another where they aren’t.”

Drey tipped an imaginary hat, “And where would that be?”

“Where they live.”

Drey turned to Andi, “No wonder I couldn’t catch him.” He turned back to his display and said, “Fortunately, the Milky Way is primarily a flat plain. We’ll jump above the opposite side of the black hole above the plane of the galaxy and look down at what’s below us. I suspect we’ll be able to find where they live.”

Andi said, “Oh?”

Drey shrugged, “We know that civilization has been there for centuries. We’ll just set our scanners to track any electromagnetic waves. Above the galaxy there won’t be any interference from stars, nebulae, or black holes.”

Andi pursed her lips, tilted her head, and nodded, “Very good.”

“E, do you have the coordinates?”

“I’ve got some around the area you want to go. I’ll send them to Doc and we’ll jump.” Drey nodded and the display briefly dimmed.

• • •

The two ships arrived on the opposite side of the black hole and they looked down on the beautiful spiral galaxy below them. Ian said, “We’re about a hundred light years above the core.”

“Doc, do you detect any electromagnetic waves?”

“I do.”

“Can you put a map of the area you’re seeing them and designate the strongest sources by giving the stars a brighter glow?” Suddenly the view changed on the display and the bright lights appeared. They numbered close to a million. All four were stunned at what they saw. Drey sighed, “How long will it take the two of you to chart those stars?”

There was a moment of silence and E said, “We should have it done in four hours.”

“Put the coordinates of the brightest sources at the top of the list.”

Ian stared at the display and said, “This is not good.”

“Maybe.”

“What do you mean? They have more than ten times our numbers.”

“Andi, did you get a reading on that giant ship’s force field?”

“Yes, it was actually weaker than the first three ships.”

Ian looked at Drey on the display, “How did you know that?”

“Remember that Cole said that more power in, more power out. The power needed to power a field that big would be monumental. Cole also told me that our reactors are much more powerful than the ones that were in the ships on the planet.”

“But those ships were old.”

“Reactor technology is based on what you use to power them. If the power source doesn’t change, the output doesn’t either. I noticed that most of the radioactive material on the planets close to the black hole are nowhere close to what we find elsewhere. I suspect that giant gravity well causes those radioactive ores to degrade faster.”

“I hope you’re not thinking what I suspect you are.”

“Do you see another way?”

Violet said, “What are you two talking about?”

Andi said, “We’re going to have to take on one of those ships before we leave.”

Violet stared at Andi and then looked at Ian, “Tell me she’s kidding.”

Ian said, “Ask Drey.”

Violet looked at Drey and crossed her arms. Drey said, “It’s the logical thing to do and we must learn how we stack up to their defenses.”

“But there’s only two of us.”

“And just one of them.”

“Yeah, but you saw the one of them! It has more blasters on the bow than we do on the entire ship.” Drey shrugged.