“Yes, we are. Our experimental probe was able to absorb the outer surface of a star for three minutes.”
“Is that good?”
“It’s a huge step forward in our plans.”
Robby looked back at the dimensional drive console and then asked Alex, “What is your ultimate goal in this?”
“We want to absorb a star into the hulls of our ships.”
“For how long?”
“Robby, you know the Alexander Kosiev absorbed a dead star into its outer skin?”
“Yes, most of the ancient Megaships did the same.”
“We want to absorb a live star into the outer skin of our ships.”
Robby was stunned, “Is that possible?”
“Not yet, but we’re working on it. We’ve found that we’re able to teleport power from inside the screen to its surface. We have much better control inside that skin and the transporter of the power does not burn up. We are currently getting enough small black holes made to convert the fleet’s hulls to the absorbent hulls. It’s going to take a long time to make it happen but we feel like this is the way to go.”
“Keep me in the loop, Alex.”
“I will. Come back and see me whenever you can.”
Robby smiled and teleported to Greyson.
Dani sat on board Grace and watched the destruction of the Invader ship. “I’m surprised Kreej was able to get away in time.”
“Me too, Grace. He cut it pretty close.”
Grace was silent for a moment and said, “The Algeans are requesting permission to go back to the site of that the theft.”
“Did they say why?”
“No, but they say it’s important to predicting the Invader’s next plan of attack.”
Dani thought a moment and said, “I don’t like them. They are on a different agenda than us.”
“That is probably true but that doesn’t mean their views aren’t valuable.”
“Ok, go pick them up and see what’s going on.”
“They’re here on Bristone. I’ll teleport them aboard.”
Weed and Seed appeared and bowed to Dani, “You have no need to bow to me; I’m not royalty.”
Weed replied, “Was your husband’s Father not the Emperor?”
“Well, yes he was.”
Seed said, “And if something happens to the current Emperor, who will take his place?”
Dani thought about that question and didn’t know how to answer, “I really don’t know. I’m not sure if Emperor Valrico has named a successor.”
“It doesn’t matter who he names; who will the people demand?”
Dani slowly shook her head, “I see where you’re going with this but I’m not sure we would accept.”
“You may not be given a choice. Your psychic skills may force you to take the throne to make sure the right things are done for the survival of the Empire.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because in every previous war, the Realm was led by a ruler with psychic abilities and the current Emperor does not possess those skills. You and your husband do.”
“That may have been true in the past; however, it appears there are other forces pushing us in a different direction at this moment.” Dani sighed, “What is it you want me to help you accomplish?”
“We need to go back to the invaded universe and find one of their ships.”
“We can find one of their ships pretty much everywhere now. It appears most of the crews have died.”
“No, we need to find a specific ship that was used to destroy a civilization that killed more than three thousand of the Invader ships. I believe you witnessed that destruction. That ship is the next model in their fleet.”
Grace said, “Carter told me about that ship. Isn’t it half again as large as their current ships?”
“Yes it is.”
Dani thought about what Weed was asking, “Why do we need to find it?”
“Because if it isn’t there, it had to have been taken back to the place where they hold their reserve fleets.”
“Why would that matter, Seed?”
“Because if they did take it back, and if spores were on its hull; it would infect their entire inventory of reserve ships.”
Dani saw the implications, “You’re right. That would prevent them from using those ships now to attack us. How do we make sure?”
“We recorded the frequency of its force field. If it’s there, we should be able to easily scan for that frequency over millions of light years.”
Dani stood up, “Let’s do this. I’ll bring Robby in and one of you can go with him and one of you with me. If it’s there, we’ll find it.”
“We should hurry, your Grace.”
Dani flinched at the honorific but asked, “Why should we hurry?”
“I don’t expect those ships to be left intact by their maker much longer. I suspect they are there as bait and if no one takes it, the ships will be destroyed and we won’t know.”
“Then we need to hide our ships behind a psychic screen instead of our normal stealth screens.”
Weed leaned to the right, “Perhaps we should use both.”
Dani smiled, “Perhaps we should.”
Greyson passed through the galaxy at high speed and scanned for the frequency of the huge ship. Scotty waited and nothing appeared on the scan. “Seed, there’s only three more to check.”
“I know; I really expected Dani and Weed would find it first because the planet it was used to destroy was in their half.”
“Let’s finish with the last three. Perhaps you’re right and it was taken back.”
“I really hope it was.”
Greyson said, “I’m teleporting to the next one.”
Robby shook his head at the hundreds of thousands of dead Black Ships they had viewed. Some of them were still alive but were not moving. They had obviously been ordered to remain where they were. He wondered if Dani had found it. He decided to check with her after the last galaxy was scanned. This universe didn’t have the billions of galaxies like our universe. That made the search easier but they had not found that frequency in any of the galaxies scanned. It wasn’t going to take much longer to complete the search.
The two ships jumped into a solar system where nine of the Invader ships were hanging above a planet that was starting to turn orange on one of the continents. Weed checked his memory and said, “We did not drop a packet on this planet. This must have been one attacked at the end of their invasion and these ships have not visited any other site.”
“Notice that the farms are being ignored on the surface. Evidently they heard about the infections and decided the safest place to be was aboard ship.”
Weed leaned forward, “I think you’re right. I’m teleporting a packet of spores to the surface. We should try to save whatever life remains below from the pods.”
Suddenly, all nine ships blew up like a giant string of firecrackers in huge explosions. Robby watched the ships as they were blown into small pieces and then saw the debris start falling and burn up in the planet’s atmosphere. Some of the larger pieces hit the planet’s surface causing huge explosions and tsunami’s. Robby looked at Weed, “What do you think this means?”
Weed stared at the display and said, “If that new ship was taken back to their inventory, we have been given some time before the Invader’s Creator can respond.”
