Trent was surprised. The hull collectors had not come close to being overcharged and all three ships were being hit continuously. “Hey, Trent, I see a shy wall flower about a light year away watching the proceedings.”
Trent looked at his scanner and saw the ship, “If I had to guess, I think that might be one of their higher ranking officials. He’s probably their best dancer.”
“Are we going to do anything about it?”
“Ron, we’re holding our own but I feel we’ve gathered enough information. I’m ordering a withdrawal in sixty seconds. Why don’t you jump over on the way out and ask that ship to dance. You can join us at the escape coordinates. We’ll be waiting on you.”
“Thank you. I hope he can cha-cha-cha.”
Trent watched his chronometer and said, “Bristone in 3, 2, 1, Execute!”
The Fleet Master was shocked at the destruction being done to his ships. More than four thousand had been completely disintegrated and fourteen hundred more damaged and hanging immobile. He looked over at his Communications Master to open a channel to the Masters when he heard his Sensor Master yell, “White Ship off our bow.”
He looked at his display just in time to see the beam coming to take his life.
The three Empire Ships waited for another attack but nothing showed up. Ron looked at his display, “How long are we going to wait?”
“I think if they could have detected our escape coordinates, they would have already arrived.”
“I agree, Jingos. Let’s go home.”
The three white ships teleported into ten other universes and waited an hour in the last before they jumped back to New Hope.
“Greyson, it appears you were right about them seeing us. There are more than a thousand Black Ships at the site of the battle and none of them are moving our way.”
“Trey, I was just thinking about the ones behind the Invaders and wondering if they have any connection to the Red Demons.”
“Yeah? So what?”
“Well, I’ve dug around in my ancient data and found the coordinates of the universe where the Eight Legs launched all their attacks.”
Trey thought a moment and started laughing out loud, “Greyson, you sly old dog. You’re brilliant.”
“I just thought it might cause them some consternation.”
“Let me look at this with someone and determine the implications but I want to do it.”
Maddy looked at Jingo, “Do what?”
“I have no idea.”
Maddy looked at her Father, “You better be thankful the Emperor doesn’t know you came along on this trip.”
“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
Trey smiled, “Oh, I suspect he wouldn’t say much.”
Jingo tilted his head, “Why not?”
“Because he was here in Grace watching it as well.”
“What!?!”
“He wasn’t in any danger. He was covered with a psychic bubble as well as the stealth field.”
“Was he here before us?”
“No, he left after we jumped here.”
“How did you cover him in a bubble?”
“I didn’t. I had someone else do it.”
“Who?”
“Let’s just say it was a close friend. Greyson, take us out of here and while we’re jumping through other universes, why don’t you play your recordings of the battle.”
The large wall display activated and they watched in slow motion as the first Black Ship to arrive was blown apart. “Freeze it there just a moment, Greyson and run it back to the view of the Black Ship before it was hit.” The view changed to the huge Black Ship as it emerged out of null space. “Put the picture of the ship that destroyed our first two ships that were sent here beside it.” Trey stared at the two and said, “Can you rotate the picture so we’re seeing the same side?”
“I’ve already done an analysis and it’s the same ship.”
Trey felt his joy and said, “This is the first payback. There’s more to come. Go ahead with the recording of the battle and tell me what you see.”
“The Invaders will need a ship that is several orders of magnitude stronger than those in use presently. I suspect that we may have a delay before that happens.”
“Why do you say that, Greyson?”
“Maddy, Trey can probably answer this better than I but you know how long they were delayed after we seeded their ships with the spores? I would think that their first order of business was to build a fleet to continue their harvesting of the Orange Pods. Once that fleet was completed they sent it out and began working on fleets to be held in reserve. If the next ship is not a huge improvement over the one currently being used, they will have to start construction of a ship that can handle our beams. Even then they may not be successful with whatever they build.”
Trey nodded, “Our ships didn’t use their reflective hulls in this fight so the builder doesn’t know about them. I also noticed that we didn’t use the full power of our beams.”
“They didn’t?”
“No, Jingo. I suspect the Commanders were concerned about tapping into the full energy stored in their ship’s outer skins. If they narrow those beams to less than a hundred yards in width and use full power, I suspect even the next ship they send won’t hold up.”
“So what happens now?”
Trey thought about what was coming and played the various situations in his consciousness, “I think a much stronger ship will be built and the new fleet will come to attack our ships. Once those fail, I suspect single newer models will be sent to trial against us until they find something that works. While they’re working on that, we will send the fleet here to destroy their ships in this universe.”
“What about my suggestion?”
“I need to collaborate with someone to see the long term danger of doing that, Greyson. However, if we sense it’s safe, we’ll send a couple of ships first and have them jump to that universe using their standard universal drives.”
Maddy and Jingo saw it and Jingo said, “Now that should prove interesting.”
Trey started laughing, “I’m going to have to be there to see what happens. I wouldn’t miss that for anything.”
“Grang and I want to see, too.”
“So do I.”
“Ok, ok, just keep this quiet until I check it out.”
Greyson said, “Mum’s the word.”
Chapter Sixteen
The Distributor was jerked awake by a major alarm screaming from his board. He shook himself and stumbled over to the console and silenced the alarm. He pushed the flashing pad and rewound the scene that had been transmitted. He watched as three white ships savaged thousands of the harvesting fleet. His shock drove his lethargy away and he pulled the view in closer. It was the same ships that had been destroyed the last time they
