Tommy asked, “Is it possible to teleport a moving ship?”
Sprig said, “That is what started us working on this. We believe we can project a field in front of the ship and teleport away. The field will disappear after the ship passes through.”
Twig added, “If we can go to the Kosiev and do some work of the front emitters, we might be able to trial it.”
“Then by all means go and work on it. The crew should be completing their training in four days and a shakedown cruise is needed to make sure everyone knows their assigned tasks,” Tommy said. “By the way, it’s good to have both of you back.”
“Thanks,” Sprig said as they rushed from the library to take a shuttle to the Kosiev.
“Atlas,” Tommy thought.
“Yes, Tommy.”
“Do you use teleportation is your drive systems?”
“No, I do not. I’m curious about what they’re talking about. All of my systems use travel through null space.”
Tommy looked at the door the Algeans had just left through and thought, “We’ll know shortly. I hope they came through the mental transfer ok and this is not a wasted effort.”
“There is a difference in them. They seem to know what the other is thinking before they say it. I don’t think this is going to be wasted effort.”
“We’ll see,” said Tommy.
The crew of the Kosiev was aboard ship preparing for their shakedown cruise. Cassandra was sitting in her command chair letting her mind roam the various systems of the ship feeling peace from the contact. The ship was feeling like a cat purring in her lap. The adolescents were in the nose of the giant ship connecting the device that they had built in Sten’s lab making sure all the connections were secure.
“Tommy!”
“What, Rose?”
“A giant red ship has just come out of star drive just outside the orbit of Jupiter. The ship is almost two thousand miles wide.”
“Rose, ground all ships and stop any in system traffic immediately. What is it doing?”
“It appears to be just firing a beam into Jupiter’s atmosphere.”
Tommy looked at Cassie and said, “We have no choice, I’m jumping into the Captor’s system immediately. If it causes a warning to all ships, perhaps that one will leave and go home to help defend the home world.”
“Tommy, you’ll be killed,” Rose wailed!
“I don’t know if we can out run them or not but if that ship turns its attention on Earth, it will totally destroy the planet.” Tommy keyed his command circuit on the Kosiev and said, “Battle stations, all hands to battle stations; this is not a drill.”
“What’s going on?” Cassandra asked.
“A Captor ship had just entered Earth’s solar system and is firing a beam into Jupiter’s atmosphere. I suspect it is taking readings but when it finishes it will probably turn its attention on Earth. Our shakedown cruise has just been canceled. We are jumping into the Captor’s home system close to the planet, fire a full salvo of penetrators at the Captor’s structure, and then jump away. I’ve entered the jump coordinates into your board, Cassie. We must divert that ships attention away from our solar system.”
Everyone on the bridge prepared for battle but felt the real fear of facing this enemy. Cassandra thought to Tommy, “We aren’t ready. We need more time.”
“That’s something we don’t have. Prepare to jump Captain Dodd.”
Cassie looked into Tommy’s eyes and was frightened that she was going to lose the love of her life in moments. If Tgon-Gee had been there he would have seen the aura around her expand outward faster than the eye could follow. Cassie keyed her command circuit and said, “Jump in fifteen seconds. Penetrator crews will launch their full inventory at the planet and we will jump out and start our escape. Jump in 5,4,3,2,1, execute.”
The Kosiev broke into normal space one thousand miles from the huge planet and launched four thousand of the short range high speed penetrators and then jumped away.”
The penetrators flew almost faster than the sensors could track but every one of them were exploded by beams from the constructs surface before they had flew three hundred miles. The construct looked like a huge explosion of red fire erupting from its surface as millions of Captor ships lifted off at high speed.
Rose watched the giant ship as it quit firing its beam at Jupiter and then begin moving in system. Suddenly, it blinked out of existence. “Tommy,” she thought, “the ship has vanished from our system. Get out of there.”
“Already on our way, Sis, but I think we have drawn a crowd.”
The Kosiev jumped out into the empty space between the Captor’s planet and the next star system. “Full speed ahead, Cassandra ordered.” The Kosiev jumped forward at an amazing speed in normal space. Right behind the Kosiev as it entered normal space thousands of Captor ships appeared. Wes announced, “Ships are jumping in around us and ahead of us. One is firing weapons.”
A giant red ship appeared next to the Kosiev and fired its main beam. The Kosiev absorbed the beam and continued running. “Jumping now,” Cassandra said over the ship intercom. The Kosiev disappeared and reappeared in normal space in a distance galaxy. Immediately the red ships began appearing around them again.
Tommy looked at Cassandra and said, “I’m going to use my push on the Kosiev.” Cassandra nodded. Tommy focused and thought, “Move forward, now.”
The Captor ships were closing in on the strange white ship when suddenly it flew out from among them so fast that their sensors didn’t register it leaving. The First Male who was leading the attack was shocked. “Where did that ship go?” All the Captor ships saw was the energy trail of the strange white ship disappearing in the distance.
A warrior that had arrived behind the main group said, “An object just passed me in normal space traveling more than a thousand times the speed of light.”
The First Male said, “That is impossible. Show me the line they were on.”
The main group saw the line and jumped in front of where the strange ship should be if it was traveling at that speed. The Captor fleet arrived and the First Male watched his sensors as an object passed by him so fast that he had no time to do anything but watch it pass. “Get in front of that ship and block its line of travel,” the first male ordered. More than a million of the red ships jumped forward on the line of the escaping enemy.
Wes looked at his screen and said, “They’re jumping ahead of us into our line.”
Tommy thought, “Move upward.”
The Captor ships watched as the object approached their positions and then changed direction and move ninety degrees away from their position.”
Cassie keyed her com and said, “Sprig, Twig, if that device of yours works we need it now.”
“Captain, we have not done a field trial on it yet.”
“I don’t care, set it up now!”
The two Algeans looked at each other and began adjusting the front field emitter on the ship. The ship jumped once and continued its high speed run. After five minutes Twig announced, “Where do you want us to take the ship, if this works?”
Cassandra said, “Pick empty space between two galaxies far from here.”
Suddenly a giant red blurry sphere appeared on Wes’ sensors, “Brace for impact!’ he yelled over the speakers. There was a huge bump in the ship’s flight path and then Twig said, “Engaging device in 3,2,1, now!”
The Captor ships were doing everything possible to kill the strange ship but it was traveling too fast. Finally, the First Male saw one of his warriors jump directly in front of the speeding white ship. The strange ship flew right through the middle of the fifteen hundred mile wide warrior and left a hole more than three hundred miles wide. The warrior hung is space for three seconds and then exploded into millions of pieces. The strange ship then disappeared from his sensors. “All Warriors, where did the ship go?”
More than a thousand warriors gathered around the spot where the ship disappeared and the oldest warrior at the site said, “There is no reading for us to track. There is nothing that we can see that indicates they were here at all. The residue of their flight ends at this spot.”
The First Male looked at the trail of energy that the fleeing ship had left behind. The Captors could see that
