Connection (43 page)

The ES Scar appeared at Bellatrix. Other ES ships were close by. “This is ES ship Ssett. Is that you Scar? We thought you were lost. Is that an Allung ship behind you? Watch out – they can jump straight ahead.”

“Stand down Ssett. This is Ummand. The Allung ship is remotely controlled as you can see,” he said over the communicator and rolled the Allung ship to turn broadside with no shields. Are there any ERF here? Is Bettlam still in command? There was a Captain Andrew Williams in charge of the ERF forces when I left.”

“ERF have an embassy here. Williams is still in charge…you mean Captain Betlasm don’t you? We barely beat off those Allung. Are you undamaged? Your hull looks different? We are sending over a shuttle and expect some answers Ummand. Where were you all this time? Drop shields. We will escort you back to port.”

Captain (First Admiral) Ummand sighed. His crew emitted sulfurous fear smell. Close, he thought. We were so close.

                                                                                  ****

The Nemesis, Cassandra, and ES Cruiser felt a jolt like a slap. They appeared to be right where they had been monitoring near Mars. The communication buoys did not function and the
lamlee
adapted devices no longer functioned. The zero-point modules provided ample power and the enclosures worked fairly well but touching the
lamlee
did nothing. They would have to travel intentionally with the bias drive. Mars was still the closest inhabited planet. There were electromagnetic communications but the volume deemed much less than previously.

It was readily apparent that the new Explorer crusisers and Behemoth weren’t here – wherever here was…

“Captain. I have contact with a large ship. They claim they are the USS Husky. This ship is big sir. They are using English. I have identified ourselves as the SF Nemesis, Cassandra, and ES Ssett. They asked if we were fighting the Snakes. No idea sir. Your response.”

“Ask them if they have a shuttle and would they mind sending a delegation over. Signal Commander Sleesques and ask her to bring as many different species as she can. Looks like we’re in the same position as the Scar. I hope they are in good shape.”

                                                                                  ****

“Captain. I have contact with several ships sir. They SAY they are with the Sol Force and the Exploration Service. They asked if we had a shuttle and could we come aboard to talk,” said the tech.

“Negative. Tell them to come here. Sensors. What can you tell me about their ship designs.”

“Sir,” said the sensor tech. “They’re a bit odd sir…just odd readings. Feel okay about them otherwise.”

“Ask them to bring a shuttle – tell them we’re from Earth – Wallups Island,” said the Husky’s captain.

The comm officer jerked his head back. “Captain. Their commander says he is from California and one with him is from the ES base at 47 Tau. Says it's a long story in a universe far, far away.”

Can’t wait to hear this one, thought Captain Sheffield.

                                                                                  ****

The shuttle had landed aboard the Husky and the ramp stayed shut for a few moments.

“Captain. Did you notice their design? No external jets. Gravity control. Spectroscopy can’t recognize the hull material. The…ramp sir. Maybe you better…” said the lieutenant.

“At ease lieutenant,” said the Captain.

The ramp came down and the oddest collection of beings came down the ramp.

“Hello. My name is Robert Kobe and I am an Admiral with the Sol Force. I was the one that was born in California – but not from this universe. This is Commander Sleesques of the Exploration Service posted at 47 Tau.”

“Yes. I speak English Captain and 12 other languages. This universe does not have teaching machines.”

“This universe” asked the lieutenant.

“Yes lieutenant…we also need one of you to touch our
lamlee
,” said Sleesques.

“What the hell are
lamlee
?” asked the Captain.

                                                                                  ****

The USS Husky crew was accommodating but skeptical. They said they had just had a big battle with the Snakes – as they called them. They were with the
Coalition
. That was a group of nations fighting together against a race of telepathic, mind-controlling reptilians. I hadn’t figured out how they got the tech to do what they were doing. It seemed they had acquired this technology from one man – not Andrew Williams. They seemed incredulous of our technology but sent several of their technical people over to evaluate the differences (who wouldn’t check out someone’s spaceship if it was different from yours).

Good thing too, as we had them ‘touch’ activate our
lamlee
. It seemed that no
lamlee
stayed active in an interdimensional jump and only beings from the current universe could reactivate their function. We must have had some residual ‘spin’ or something that kept us from activating it. They got an eyeful and we were back up to speed quickly. It turned out to be a good way to exchange information. We were headed back to Earth and Cassandra said she was picking up interesting information about some guy named Richard Patterson who had just rushed off planet chasing some escaping prisoners. Evidently there were several alien races just identified but none were familiar with the Hllumff or Tros – much less the Exploration Service. They had ships that could perform interstellar travel but hadn’t done any – insane…  Guess we’ll have to get them up to speed.

The Sol Force was the center of attention with all the different, and
new
, species now in the solar system. Richard Patterson had disappeared to look after the ‘Snake’ escapees. The snake escapees were apparently trying to navigate back to others of their species but had an issue with time dilation when traveling faster than light. Patterson had been the mover and shaker in this ‘universe’ and was evidently responsible for all the innovation; which Nemesis said was suspicious. Cassandra thought Patterson might have been from even another universe.

The Earth coalition said they would roll the Nemesis, Cassandra, and ES Ssett into the Earth defense. Admiral Kobe was less than enthusiastic at this proclamation but thought he might be able to improve the tech in this universe in exchange for the ships to make an attempt to return.

Twlise grabbed Robert and pulled him close. “Let’s go visit LesMa. Latima and LeEck want to do it too.”

“You realize that it isn’t the same LesMa as our universe.” Robert said.

“Yep,” she said grinning at her use of his pet phrase.

“Why not? Maybe the ES Ssett will want to investigate if they have a base still at 47 Tau,” he said and gave his wife a long passionate kiss. “Think this universe is ready for us?”

She laughed. “Nope.”

Thank you for reading this book. If you liked it – please give a good review on Amazon. Reviews are the lifeblood of struggling authors and inspire us to complete other books in a series.

Trade World Saga
and
Uplift
are different series all in different universes but you’ll like them. They both interlace into this story, which I hope to expand in the Uplift Universe.

Send comments to
[email protected]

Thank you – typos and narrative changes are rampant – yep – thank you for reading anyway. Hollar if you are ever through Nashville and I’ll show you around Vanderbilt. Hoping to write a new book with Rob Buckman – friend and writer. Read his stuff if you want exciting sci-fi.

Other books by Ken Pence:

At First Thought

Trade World Saga
(all four in one)

Manual Interpretation

Patently Obvious

A Certain Expertise

Core Values

Uplift

Upcoming (Odyssey – blend of Uplift and Connection)

Connection

Ken R Pence, PhD is an engineering professor at Vanderbilt University (for 12 years in 2016) researching magnetic levitation, big data (crime prediction), and DARPA (location of sniper fire through cell phones). He retired as a captain with the Metro Nashville Police Department after 31 years (16 in SWAT). He is a martial artist (50 years) with replacement knees. He lives with his lovely wife and black lab that eats furniture.

Recommended books by Rob Buckman (many others too):

He Who Dares (The Gray Chronicles) 1, 2, 3

Echo of Tomorrow (1, 2, 3)