“Yeah, I need something that will blow up the Cassie 1, and in about ten minutes.”
Riyad looked at Adam as if he’d gone insane. Adam noticed the look. “We need a diversion to get this ship into a well.”
Riyad nodded and began to survey the landing bay. Soon he found barrels that he recognized as propellant for the chemical drives. He called Adam over.
“Great. Let’s get five of these aboard. I also found a repeating bolt launcher.”
In a few minutes, the super-strong Humans had hefted five barrels of chemical into the stateroom aboard the shuttle. Then they set up the bolt launcher aimed at the nearest barrel. Riyad placed a datapad on the launcher and set the timer for ten minutes.
While this was going on, Adam quickly packed a duffle bag of his ‘Human’ clothes, and then went to the pilothouse to program an auto-course for the shuttle.
They left the ship and ran for the airlock. Once cycled through, they watched as the Cassie 1 backed out of the bay with small jets of air. Then the sleek shuttle spun about and streaked off on her last journey.
Adam ordered the other men to begin a systematic search of the ship for aliens, and then he and Riyad set off for the bridge, Adam holding his bleeding side as he went. Riyad had to help him up the last flight of stairs.
“Get ready!” Adam said as he entered the bridge.
Chapter Thirty
Overlord Yan’wal, Commander Siegor and Giodol all stood on the massive bridge of the UN-444. Yan’wal was furious. Siegor had just delivered the latest casualty report from the surface.
“Eighty percent of the Guards have been killed. How can this be? Who are these creatures?”
“Our superior numbers were negated by the confined space we had to fight in. And the Human targeting was especially effective,” Siegor said. He knew this was the end of his career. Even though both of the recent battles with the Humans had resulted in victories, the losses were way beyond anyone’s imagination. Juirean life was far too valuable to be lost in such numbers, and for so little gain. This time, however, the bodies of three Klin had been found, yet that hardly justified the price they had to pay. Yes, the Klin were present, but not in any great numbers.
“Have you heard from your agent?” Yan’wal asked Giodol.
He was about to answer when a technician interrupted. “My Lords, there is a shuttle cutting across our forward position. The transponder is registered as belonging to Counselor Deslor.”
“Deslor?” The three senior Juireans turned to the main screen and saw the tiny speck streak across their view, with the planet Zylim-4 far below.
Just then the point at the end of the streak exploded in a fiery ball of chemical blue and green. “Was it fired upon?” asked Siegor of the technician.
“No, My Lord. None of the ships fired.” Then he looked closer at his screen.
“What is it?” Siegor asked.
“One of the battlecruisers just activated a well.”
The Juireans moved quickly to stand behind the tech. “Which ship?” Yan’wal asked.
“It was last in the line. And it’s gone now.”
“Call the ship, immediately!” Siegor commanded.
After a few attempts, the tech turned to the assembled Juireans. “They are not answering.”
Yan’wal gritted his teeth. “Track their gravity wave. Siegor, send three ship after them. It must be the Humans.”
Chapter Thirty-One
A half hour later, Adam had Kaylor dissolve the well and initiate a ninety-degree turn to port. They proceeded on chemical drive for another five minutes before Adam commanded the ship to go dark, including internal gravity.
As they waited in the dim emergency lighting, holding onto whatever they could to keep themselves from drifting around the compartment, Kaylor noticed an approaching gravity wave. Class Fives were fast and powerful vessels. They disturbed the space around them for hundreds of kilometers. Then the wave streaked by. In fact, all they really knew was that a gravity wave appeared, and then began to quickly dissipate.
After another half hour, Adam had Kaylor initiate another well, and they bolted off. They repeated the maneuver three more times before Adam began to feel confident they weren’t being tracked.
“What now, boss?” Sherri asked after most of the Humans had left the bridge to find sleeping accommodations, the galley or the head.
“I need to see Jym, in private. Keep Riyad occupied.”
Sherri lifted an eyebrow. “I’ll tell you later if anything promising comes out of this.”
Jym met Adam on the bridge. After he entered, Adam shut the door and pressed the security lock. Jym looked at him nervously.
“Relax, buddy. I just need you to plot a location for me.”
“For Earth?” Jym exclaimed, suddenly excited.
“I don’t know. It could be of any place. And I only have a partial.”
Jym sat down at the massive navigation console, marveling at its sophistication. “Can you operate this?” Adam asked.
“Sure. This is all wonderful stuff.” For the first Adam could remember, Jym smiled.
Adam gave him the coordinates. “You know this doesn’t help much?” Jym said.
He was right. All coordinates for locations in the galaxy consisted of four points. The first was the distance from Juir. The next was from the galactic core. These two sweeping arcs would intersect at certain points depending on which direction one was looking. Since Adam was hoping the coordinates were for the Far Arm, he had Jym plot them out in that direction.
The next part of the coordinates was the direction. This was mainly determined by which section, out of 92, that the destination was in. Adam knew that the last digit was “1.” The Far Arm took up twenty-four sectors, ranging from 12 to 48. That would leave three sectors ending in “1.” As Jym plotted the possibilities, Adam’s heart began to race. A cross section of the Far Arm was materializing. These distances and sectors were definitely in the Far Arm.
But just to verify, Adam had Jym plot out the coordinates in another direction. The reference points fell apart. On the other side of the galaxy the distance from Juir and the Core never intersected. They only did on this side of the galaxy from Juir. These HAD to be the coordinates for Earth.
But now they had three points. More correctly, they had three arcs, moving from high to low. Missing from the plot was the degree from the ecliptic plane. Zero-degree was a straight dissection of the galaxy, and then points were plotted as either positive or negative as you moved above or below the plane. Of course, the arcs continued in a full circle, yet the galaxy was a not a sphere. The higher or lower you went, the further from the ecliptic you would go, and soon you would be out of the galaxy altogether. Still, limiting the arcs to only twenty- degrees up or down left a lot of space to cover.
Adam stepped back and considered the screen. A spasm of pain shot through his side. He knew he had to get Sherri to patch him sooner rather than later. He had no idea how much blood he’d lost. But looking at the screen gave him renewed energy.
Three arcs. And a possible twenty degrees or so up or down along the arcs. In there, somewhere, was Earth. Somewhere along those red lines was his home.
