The Pyramid Builders (19 page)

L’grae watched his display and the four Moet ships gathered and jumped out of the system. “Turn on environmental. If you detect a stardrive, shut it off immediately.” The fans could be heard in the ventilators, and the crew sucked in fresh atmosphere. Some had already lost consciousness, but recovered quickly. After a dais, L’grae said, “Shut them off.”

The systems operator shook his head, but did as ordered. Two dias later a Moet Battleship appeared and scanned the system. It stayed for a few more moments and then jumped away. “Leave them off.”

The system’s operator did as he was ordered.

Dolly landed her skimmer beside an old shack that was obviously in a poor, rundown condition. The shack was on top of a small rise in the outback, and was surrounded by scattered brush and sand. The wind blew dirt devils across the flat landscape that broke up on the brush, and started again after it passed. The dry season had sucked all the color out of the surrounding vegetation and the heat had dried the ground until only fine sand remained. All that was necessary to clear the land was a lightning strike. Dolly looked around and knew that if that happened the ensuing fire could be seen from space.

She walked to the front porch of the ramshackle cabin and saw nothing but the same dreary, hot, landscape for miles in all directions around the hill. The sun was high overhead, and the heat was starting to approach a hundred degrees. She knew that the shack was built above the level of most flashfloods and had been there for more than a hundred years. She jumped as she heard a sonic boom and looked up to see a military speeder zoom by overhead. She smiled; Chris had called in the Calvary. Hemon and Sasha saw the speeder and looked at Dolly. “Give him a minute, he’ll be back.” Dolly walked down to the small clearing at the foot of the hill.

The speeder came floating in overhead and landed next to Dolly’s. Jeff stepped out and walked over to stand next to Dolly. He looked up at the sun and shook his head, “Is it hot enough for you?”

“What are you doing here, Love?”

Jeff smiled, “Haven’t you heard that ninety percent of the world’s most poisonous snakes are in Australia? I’m your local snake charmer. I can see them with my scanners and we wouldn’t want to lose Hemon and Sasha.”

Dolly laughed, “Jeff, I was raised here.”

“Yeah, but big city life can spoil you and snakes are hard to see. Besides, Hemon and Sasha were raised elsewhere.”

“You’re here to stop me.”

“Dolly, no one can stop you when you make your mind up, least of all me. I’m here to support your effort.”

“Jeff, you can stop me if you say no. Chris was right in sending you; you are the only one who could.”

Jeff stared into her eyes and smiled, “You don’t know how much that means to me. Now I know you truly love me. However, I know you know the risk and I can see you feel it must be taken. I won’t stop you; just don’t lose yourself making the effort. Promise me that.”

“It won’t happen this time. Now I have a reason to stay.”

Jeff hugged her, “Well, what we do?”

“We sit down and wait for George.”

“Where is he?”

“He could be ten feet away and you wouldn’t see him.”

“I could scan for him.”

“Go ahead; you still won’t find him.”

“Why?”

“He doesn’t show up on scans.”

Jeff stared at her and saw she was serious. “How does that happen?”

“I have no idea, but we’ve tried before and they never work.”

Sasha asked, “Then how do we find him?”

“We don’t. He’ll find us; or his family will.”

Hemon said, “His family?”

“Yes, they’re two red kangaroos. Keep an eye out for them. If they show up, George won’t be far behind.”

“Maybe I can scan for the Roos?”

Dolly shook her head, “They don’t show up either.”

Jeff snorted, “Really!?!” And turned on his active scanners.

Dolly shook her head, “You’re just too caught up in the technological world, Jeff. You won’t be able to see him.”

He sat down in the shade of the shack, lowered his faceplate, and saw there weren’t any life forms larger than a lizard close by. He sat in the shade and listened while Dolly and Hemon talked about life in ancient Egypt. He wondered about how a human could not be seen on a scan. Maybe the previous scanner was defective. He reached in his backpack, pulled out an energy bar, and opened it. He started to take a bite and noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He slowly turned his head to the right and saw a large, red kangaroo staring at his meal. Jeff checked his scanner and nothing appeared on it. Jeff motioned the energy bar toward the kangaroo, and it leaned back on its back legs and rocked forward. Jeff offered a piece of it, and the Roo took it in its mouth and hopped away. Suddenly he felt a touch on his other shoulder and saw another red kangaroo. He said, “Oh, Dolly.”

Dolly turned around and saw the two large kangaroos. She stood up and walked out into the clearing in front of the cabin. She looked around, took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and lowered her head. She stood there motionless for ten minutes. Jeff started to worry about her getting heat stroke but suddenly an old man appeared next to her. Jeff saw nothing on his scanners. One moment there was nothing, and then he was there. Jeff worried. This was just not possible, but he saw it happen.

Dolly felt her brother close to her. She could hear him walking around her talking softly to himself. Nothing he said made any sense but, as she waited, she could feel his mind. There was a symmetry there that was perfect, and it was calling to her. She waited until he stopped talking. He continued to walk around her, saying nothing.

Dolly kept her eyes closed and began talking to him. She told him about the young man she had fallen in love with, and all that had happened in their developing relationship. She told him about her new friends Hemon and Sasha, and without opening her eyes pointed to them sitting in front of the cabin. She talked about the Sheera and Moet conflict and how Earth was in danger. She told him about the coming asteroid and how all life would be destroyed. George continued to walk around her saying nothing, just looking at the ground. She then told him about the elements Hemon discovered from the Sheera, how to make a reactor fuel, and the process used to make them react. She told him how the addition of other elements would make it more powerful. She spoke to him softly and told him she needed his help to find what elements were missing.

Hemon, Sasha, and Jeff watched the old man walking around Dolly with half open eyes and long dirty hair hanging to his waist. His beard was unkempt and his clothes were filthy. He was bent over slightly from an obvious back problem, and his gait was slow and deliberate. Finally Dolly said, “If we don’t find the answer we will all die. Mum, your kangaroos…” At that point Dolly paused, and then said, “and me.”

The old man stopped walking and continued to stare at the ground. Jeff thought he was just going to stay silent and unmoving. Then he lifted his head and looked at Hemon. Suddenly his eyes cleared and he said in a loud clear voice, “forty percent emeralds, ten percent cobalt, five percent seawater, all heated an additional two hundred degrees with each one added to the mix. Twenty six minutes later freeze it to minus 224 degrees.”

Hemon saw the old man lower his head and start walking into the brush, talking softly to himself. Dolly opened her eyes and watched as he left. Her tears were falling, and Jeff ran up and took her in his arms. The kangaroos joined the old man as the three of them moved away. After twenty steps, he turned around and Dolly saw the brother she loved so much look at her. His eyes cleared for a moment, and said, “I love you, Dolly.” Then his eyes clouded and he disappeared in the brush.

Dolly lowered her head on Jeff’s chest and began to cry in earnest. Jeff stroked her hair and held her close. “I love you, Dolly. I’ll always love you.”

Sasha looked at Hemon and said, “Did you get that?”

“Not all of it.”

“I did.”

Hemon looked at her, “You did?”

Sasha smiled, “I don’t forget what I hear. I just wonder how seawater is going to be added to a mixture that hot.”

Hemon smiled, “It’s probably the things in seawater that are needed. By using seawater, the correct proportion will be done properly. I suspect salt is the main ingredient.” They hugged, and they could hear Dolly cry for her lost brother.

Sasha saw him shaking his head, “What?”

“If what he said works, we have a chance.”

“What do you think about our new friends?”

“I’ve lived more than five thousand years, and I’ve not seen anyone like them.” Hemon then looked in Sasha’s eyes and added, “Or you.”

Sasha smiled and hugged him tightly.

L’grae stood in front of the Leaders and wanted to scream at them. They had challenged him for running from the Moet Main Battle ship, and then for hiding for more than six rotations. Finally he had enough. Tenah looked at him again and demanded, “Why did you run?”

L’grae looked him directly in his eye and said, “My squadron had jumped in less than five kens from the battleship we destroyed. The second squadron jumped in twelve kens from the second battleship. All seven ships in that squadron were vaporized before they could move inside ten kens. Their beams were not breaking through the Moet Ship’s force fields. We were twenty kens from the battleship and it was coming after us. There was no way for us to move inside five kens to do any damage before we were destroyed. If we had not escaped you would not have learned the effective range of the new beam on one of their main battleships. Perhaps you would like to go on our next mission and I’ll be glad to demonstrate what happened?”

Tenah’s anger was immediate. L’grae didn’t care, and Tenah saw he didn’t care. He knew he was not going to intimidate this Commander, so he sat down and stared at L’grae. “So what do we do with this information, Commander?”

L’grae expected to be executed for his bluntness, but he answered quickly, “We set traps for their ships. They’re looking for us; let them find us in numbers large enough to do damage.”

“How would you do that?”

“They have always followed our trails. We send single ships out and have them arrive where we have a fleet. The Moet will jump in at the point of our ships’ emergence and we will be in range to kill it.”

“What do you think they will do about this strategy?”

“There’s not much they can do. If they move past the point where the trail ends, even by a small distance, they will be light years away. They’ll be forced to come out where we’re waiting. I suspect they will eventually start using a much higher number of ships to follow our trails. When that happens, we change our plan. We’ll adapt to what they do.”

Pject said, “You should shoot him for his disrespect.”

Tenah looked at Pject and motioned for a warrior to come forward. L’grae knew his life was over. Tenah looked at the Warrior and said, “Take Pject outside and execute him.”

“What?!? What?!? Why? Why? Wait a moment!”

Tenah looked at Pject and scowled, “This officer comes up with a brilliant plan and you’re asking for us to eliminate one of our effective leaders.” He looked at the warrior and said, “Take this slug out and kill him.”

Pject was screaming as he was dragged out the door by the armored warrior. The ones in the room heard the abrupt end of his screaming by a blaster bolt.

Tenah turned to L’grae and said, “Where were we?”

L’grae said, “Planning attacks.”

“Oh yes. I’ll give you three hundred ships as soon as they are rearmed with the beam. Make good use of them or you’ll be talking with Pject about your next plan.”

L’grae bowed.

Jillian watched as the engineers tore the hull apart on the Cheops. She sighed and Chris looked at her, “What’s the matter?”

“We don’t have time for this. We need to go.”

“I’ve been meaning to talk with you about that. If the new information Dolly has from George works, why do we need to go?”

“Because it’s just a form of the technology that our adversaries are using. They aren’t dumb. It’s just a matter of time before they duplicate what we’ve done. We need something they can’t steal.”

“We should be much stronger than they are now.”

“And what happens when they attack with a million ships? Are we that strong?”

Chris was silent as he thought about that vision. “Well if that’s the case, then we need to take the time to update The Cheops.”

“Why?!?”

Chris took her by the shoulders and made her look at him. “Jillian, what would have happened if that Moet Ship that was following us had not been attacked?”

Jillian shivered. “We’d be dead.”

“Exactly. We have to arm the Cheops and build in a force field to give us time to escape. We are going to leave a very long trail behind us on this next trip.”

“I thought we could erase it.”

“No, we can make it difficult to follow when there are other trails around. This disturbance we’ll be making will be out in open space as we leave our galaxy, and that disturbance will be visible in Sierra Space when there are no other trails or solar systems. Jillian, to see the event you’re looking to view, we will have to go beyond some of the closer galaxies around the Milky Way. The Andromeda Galaxy is 2.4 million light years away. We’re going to have to travel more than thirty times that distance. We’re going further than M87, our cluster’s largest galaxy which is fifty five million light years away. This is not going to be easy.”

“Why?”

Chris looked up and then said, “Picture our galaxy as a clock. Our solar system is on the outer dial, about two thirds out from the center of the galaxy. Keep in mind that our galaxy revolves around its center and it takes about 250 million years to complete one revolution. Are you with me so far?” Jillian nodded. “So let’s say that when the event you’re looking to see happened; our planet was at the twelve o’clock position on the galaxy’s clock. Now 65 million years have passed. Where is Earth now located on the clock?”

Jillian saw it, “We’ve moved to three o’clock.”

Chris smiled, “Very good. It’s more like three fifteen. We’re now moved more than one fourth of the distance around the galaxy’s center. The light with the event in it left when our galaxy was at the 12 o’clock position. We have to go back around the outer edge of the Milky Way to the place where that light left and move away from there.”