Tag raised his eyebrows, “Does it carry a reactor?”
“No it doesn’t.” Cade said. “The power cells are charged by taking them close to the surface of a star and once maximum storage has been achieved, it will have all the power it will need for its function.”
Tag sat back, “I’ll listen from this point on without interrupting you; why don’t you tell me all about it.”
Cade looked at Anita and she started by saying, “The penetrator is 140 feet long and thirty feet wide. Fifteen power cells will provide its acceleration which will approach? the speed of light in less than fifty seconds. If you remember Admiral Kosievs’ attack on the frequency ships which cost him his life, he was moving too fast for any of the Plant missiles or ships to hit him from the sides. This penetrator will be moving more than three times faster than the Moscow was able to achieve. It will also be programmed to avoid any missile in its path and target only Plant vessels. The Coronado Screen around it will shrug off any beam fired at it for more than three minutes just like our old destroyers could. It’s the screen that makes this new weapon truly a penetrator. Once it locks on its target, it will accelerate to full speed and the entire screen will be focused in front of its warhead just before it impacts the screens of a Plant ship. The Plants could put ten screens around their ships and this penetrator will punch through. Once it makes contact with the mass of the ship, all of its Coronado power cells will completely release their stored energy.”
Cade looked Tag in the eye, “The resulting explosion will disintegrate everything in a five mile circle. We have also programmed them to self destruct if they miss their target and get close to running out of power. That way the Plants will not get a sample of a power cell.”
Tag was beginning to get excited, “What is their range?”
“Only 1,200 miles,” Anita answered.
Cade could see the disappointment in Tags face and quickly said, “This penetrator is not designed to be launched from the jump limit; this penetrator is designed for ship to ship action.” Anita then pressed her console again and a different penetrator appeared on the screen. Cade pointed at the display and said, “This is the long range penetrator.”
Tag noticed that the two were close to the same size but that the second one had a bulge in the center. He looked at Cade and said, “What’s the difference other than the bulge?”
Cade leaned back and said, “I was troubled when we discovered that if the Plants learned about our null star drives that they would become unstoppable so I have been doing some experimenting with the new drive and this is what I’ve learned. Remember that the outer drive that has no frequency that takes an object into null space is totally stripped off the object and it’s the second screen frequency that the object uses to push it into normal space. We tried to read a star track of numerous objects that used the null drive and we discovered that the only thing that would be read is the coordinates of where it came out in normal space; the null frequency will not follow it into normal space. However, the reverse is not true. If you use the null screen to jump away, the null frequency will remain behind to be tracked thus posing a risk that the Plants would then learn the frequency of null space.”
Tag immediately understood, “We can jump in system but we can’t jump out.”
“Exactly,” Anita said. “The bulge you see on this second penetrator produces the two screens so it can be jumped into null space and then to any coordinates programmed into its software where it will then perform much like the first one you saw.”
Tag’s mind saw almost endless uses for the new weapons. “This could be what ends this war.”
Cade said, “It could certainly make a huge impact the first time they’re used. There is one other thing that I think you’ll find interesting.” Tag raised his eyebrows and Cade said, “We have developed a mechanism that will read the coordinates of any Algean ship that is broadcasting that dampening frequency, download it to the type two penetrator, and it will then jump in next to the broadcasting ship and target it for impact. It doesn’t matter where they are in the system, the penetrators will find them, which means that once they are destroyed, you can jump away using the normal star drive systems.”
“How many of these penetrators can a Megaship hold?”
“Unfortunately, they are 140 feet long which means that the launching ports are big. A Megaship can only carry fifty of them. To carry more would break up the ships surface such that the screen would have holes in it.”
Tag thought quickly, “We now have 100,000 Megaships so that means that the fleet can carry five million of these into combat. If, as you say, each one of them hits, then we can knock down the size of the Plants fleet significantly. “How long is it until you can have enough manufactured to carry out a major fleet action?”
Cade looked at Anita and said, “If our Queen will give me the 200 manufacturing facilities, then we should be ready in a year with the short range penetrator.”
Tag said, “The Plants are close to completing the harvesting of the first planet. I suspect that they will finish within 7 months. What if I gave you eight hundred facilities, then how long?”
“Sten’s facilities are huge. If you include those then we could be ready in five to six months. The bulk of the time will be spent building the new fabricating machines; once those are done we will be able to produce more than 300,000 a month.”
Tag was energized. This is what he had been waiting for five years. “Cade, begin making your plans; the facilities will be yours beginning two days from now.”
Cade and Anita smiled and said, “Thank you Your Majesty.”
Tag sighed again and then sent a thought to Danielle telling her what he needed. “Please let us be ready in time,” he thought.
Suddenly Cade ran back in and said quickly, “A Plant Scout has just entered the Dremels system and has broadcast its location before we could destroy it.”
Tag looked at Cade and said, “We have to have the new penetrators ready before the Plants complete harvesting activities. I’m certain that the Dremel will be the first thing they will address after they’re through. We will make this a Realm emergency project, Cade, so don’t let us down.”
Cade bowed and ran from the room. Tag’s display lit up and Admiral Dorg was on the screen. Tag immediately said, “Cade just informed me about the scout. I need you and your command team to come here to meet with me about our plans to handle this issue. Plan to be here in eight drags.”
Dorg nodded and said, “Yes Your Majesty.”
Tag said, “Not you too.”
Dorg actually laughed, “Oh yes, me too. Besides, we’ve been idle too long; it’s time to get back into some real action.”
Tag looked at Dorg and said, “You miss it, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do. Besides, there are some human colonists to whom I owe a blood debt and a close friend that should still be here that calls for us to act.”
Tag smiled and said, “Wait until you see the new toys we have to play with. I think our playmates will not like them at all.”
“I look forward to seeing you in eight drags.”
Rose was sitting in her room listening to her father start making plans for a major assault against the plants. She stood with a frown on her face and appeared to be concentrating. She got up and went to the map room at Castle Gardner and started looking at the wall maps that showed all of the known universe and the millions of galaxies that had been discovered. She sat and thought for a long time neither moving nor showing any expression. Finally she gave a heavy sigh and looked up at the map that had the Milky Way on it. Suddenly, all of the galaxies around the Milky Way started changing positions relative to each other and then came to a stop. Rose looked at the closest galaxy to the Milky Way. “I hope I’m wrong but I have to make sure.” She thought. “Please, let me be wrong.” She remained in the map room for most of the day for the next four months.
The Fleet Leader sat in his command chair on board the Algean Fleets command vessel pondering the soon to be completed harvesting of the planet that had taken six cycles to complete. There was only two thirds of a cycle left until harvesting operations were totally over and he was curious about why the Strangers had not interfered on any massive scale. The previous five cycles had only seen minor appearances by the strangers and it just didn’t sit right with him. Why were they waiting to attack? Had they just given up? They had discovered a way to get around their frequency ships, he had a recording of that ship jumping into the system, but then they had effectively just disappeared. It was a huge waste of resources to keep the three whole fleets in this system but they could not afford to lose the harvest. Something was going to happen; he could just feel it, even though he had no proof, and if the Strangers were consistent with their past actions, it was going to be dramatic. There was still the other planet
