SODIUM:6 Defiance (8 page)

After three months of diplomatic efforts and technology exchanges, the Mundari were ready to sit at a table and discuss a defensive pact. With the distance between our worlds I was not sure what good it would do as it would take members of the AMP 12 days to reach Mundari space and in return the Mundari ships required 19 days to reach Earth. We had given up several of our prized technologies, but the relationship was too young to offer it all. That level of trust on our part would have to be earned, over time or through substantial deeds.

After the period of quiet the one Meche ship that we had tagged left their star system. It was headed towards Rigel. I asked for and received permission to spy on the ship as it interacted with the inhabitants of that system. I was concerned, even though the beings there and their technologies were far behind, that the Meche were going to be recruiting the populations of the Rigel system for war against the AMP or the Mundari.

When we arrived I parked the Jacques at one-sixteenth of a light year distance and tuned in all sensors. We were one day ahead of the Meche cruiser. I took the time to ask Hershen what he thought of the matter. He was convinced that we should still be looking at the doors on Dacuban. Each row seemed to have species that were either close together or allied. I reasoned that it was an interesting point, but it was too early to tell; especially, with the Meche about to visit species from a different row than themselves.

The Meche ship stopped short of the Roache system and launched countless pods that almost immediately went invisible. Our long-wave sensors could detect the movement of the pods, but not with any accuracy. We watched in wonder as the Meche went about their business. When the magnetic poles of the planet Auris began to flip I began to think Hershen was right. Each row of species on the door at DaCuban was an entity to itself.

The Ogle ships arrived next and the pods that the Meche had delivered went active. Once again the entire system was brought to a standstill as static fields surrounded everything related to the species under assault. The Ogle prepared and fired their cylinders of death at the Auris sun. Three days later the planet Auris and the Roache species were no more.

The assault continued on Benis followed by Relad. In seven days every living thing in the Rigel system had perished from either a fiery plasma death or a powerful particle beam. Meche ships were then dispatched to the surrounding mining colonies until the three species on the bottom left door on DaCuban were dead.

I toyed with the idea of drifting on-board one of the Ogle ships so that another QE tracking device could be planted. Every request to AMP Command was denied. In a much younger day, I would have taken the initiative and done it anyway. But after years of leading I fully recognized that I didn't have all the answers and it was not up to me to place the rest of the crew and the technology that we possessed... in danger. It was just not my call to make.

The Meche and Ogle ships departed. The Ogle left in a direction differing from when they had arrived, but once past light speed we were unable to track them. The Meche ship was headed home. I requested our next visit be to DaCuban. The request was granted.

When we arrived at the site I took note at how cleverly the whole thing had been disguised. A facade had been constructed covering the site, making it appear as though it was any other mountain top. Only through a deep scan would a nearby ship know that something was hidden underneath.

Once inside the structure we were greeted by the science team that had been left behind. They were attempting to study the rock composition with the goal of bringing the worn off species carvings to the surface. To date, they had reconstructed a partial of the first species on the left door. It was impressive work and had taken months to develop and plan. They hoped to use the same techniques to identify the far right species.

After some study of what had been attempted at the site, Hershen had the idea that we could possibly use the Jacques static generator to open a window in the static field surrounding the mountain structure. The mountain field used several frequencies in unison for its modulation, but Hershen felt we would be able to mimic those with our own generator.

The approval was given by the science team lead and we got to work on our modifications. Several hours after we had begun, Hershen looked at me and winked. The modified static field generator was ready. I enabled the active skin and silently slid through the facade surrounding the site. I gently set the ship down on the flat surface in front of the doors.

The generator was powered up and a window of one meter by one meter was projected onto the right doors surface. The alien field was too strong. We reduced the size of the window, each time increasing the static field delivered, but the static field of the structure was still too powerful. When the size of the window had been reduced to the size of the head of a pin we suddenly broke through.

The scientists were elated at our discovery and immediately began suggesting alternatives. I tuned a sensor to scan only the opening and was dismayed by what I found. Another static layer, more powerful than the first, lay just underneath.

We sat back in our pilots chairs and discussed what we had found. We reasoned that with a Rubidium reactor or two and with several dozen static generators we might be able to open the same window through a half dozen such layers. I contacted our engineering head at AMP Command and was told that we would only have the first of the prototype Rubidium reactors in a few months. And they were targeted towards our larger ships.

I contacted Kurg over my QE comm and asked if there was anything he could do. He asked for some time to see if his engineers were up to the task of integrating one of their reactors with our ship. He was sure he could authorize the creation of several dozen static generators by use of the particle composers they possessed, but power integration was another issue.

Several hours passed before he came back with a reply. He would have a team waiting to assist in any way they could if I chose to accept his help. I did. We landed on Meyer and were escorted into a hangar bay at their main power research facility. They had been working on a new Cesium reactor that was giving results that were two orders of magnitude better than their current Rubidium design.

His government was willing to integrate the reactor into the Jacques, but only if we allowed a Gidden engineer to ride along on our test flights. AMP Command gave the go-ahead and the integration was begun. Over the course of three weeks our Sodium reactor was removed and the new, smaller, Cesium reactor installed. The reaction chamber was tiny as compared to our old design and it could have been held in the palm of the hand had it not been for the cooling system that accompanied it.

It seemed that the Cesium required cooling to near absolute zero before injection into the high magnetic fields. It was the only way the Gidden had been able to maintain the reaction integrity. Cooling or not... I was excited about the prospect of more power. More power meant higher speeds, better shields and more powerful weapons.

I was curious as to what a Cesium reactor pack would do to my BGS suit. I imagined being in a continuous fire-fight for a year without needing more fuel. The only drawback I could see was the much lower amount of Cesium available in the galaxy. Sodium was relatively easy to come by.

When the project was complete we were eager to take the Jacques for a test run. All parameters had tested out in simulation and it was now time to try out the real thing. We lifted off from the planet Meyer and brought the ship to a standstill when in orbit. The pre-test checklists were gone over three times.

With all parameters green, I pushed the throttle to three quarters full and was momentarily panicked when the cabin began to fill with smoke. I dropped the visor on my helmet and put out the call for assistance. Half an hour later a Gidden ship arrived, pulled the Jacques into its dock and returned to the research center on Meyer.

Later that day we had an answer as to what had happened. The power coupling to the ships systems and the lines between the coupling and the BHD drives were too small. They had blown out the instant the much increased power had been applied.

The Gidden engineers were skilled in their work and soon had new thicker lines to install that had been created using their particle composers. It was an amazing feat given that they had scanned the old lines, tripled their size in a computer program and then printed out new ones with the particle composer. By that evening we were once again in orbit preparing for a new test.

When I again pushed the throttle to three quarters we hit light speed in just under two seconds. The ship continued to accelerate as the new multiple static field generator placed fields directly in front of the ship. The computer ran continuous calculations as to the field strength and number of fields that were needed for the speed we had attained.

When we passed through 50,000 SOL, our most recent high speed, the maximum power output of the reactor had only reached 27%. The static field shielding continued to increase as our speed climbed. As we passed through 100,000 SOL I took note of the 16 static layers that now floated just in front of the Jacques. The Gidden engineer sat in silence as our accomplishment was far beyond any speed the Mundari ships had ever attained.

At 200,000 SOL the reactor was running at a cool 48% capacity. At 300,000 SOL that number had climbed to 62%, with 37 static fields shielding the ship as we blasted through the galaxy. At 450,000 SOL the power readout of the Cesium reactor began to climb at a much faster rate. We topped out our test at 486,000 SOL and 91% capacity with 55 static fields riding in front of us. The trip from Earth to Mundari space had just been shortened to about 16 hours.

I turned the ship back towards Meyer and the readouts on our holo-screens all showed normal parameters. We were in a rapid deceleration before once again heading back to the Gidden planet. When we arrived at Meyer the staff of engineers and scientists that had been awaiting the results was stunned.

At our newly accomplished top speed the Jacques would be able to reach the other side of the galaxy in only 76 days, given an adequate fuel supply. The test had been a complete success except for one single parameter. The test flight used 80% of the Cesium we had on-board. A larger storage tank could easily be added to the ship but Cesium was not a substance that was easy to come by. Still, I was in no hurry to reclaim the Sodium reactor that had been removed.

The Mundari clamored for access to our BHD technology but AMP Command was not in a hurry to release the information. Diplomatic discussions were soon underway about not only a defensive pact but of a full alliance. AMP technology had suddenly made us extremely valuable.

I was eager to take the Jacques back to DaCuban where we could try out the multiple static windows on the fields surrounding the doors. But I was trapped, trapped in endless meetings related to the relations between the AMP and the Mundari Effort. As I sat listening to the drivel coming from the endless line of politicians speaking at the meeting I was attending, I had my elbow on the chair arm with the right side of my face firmly planted in the palm of my right hand. The stimulants of my BGS were all that kept me awake.

Several more weeks of discussions passed before we were given the green light to once again visit DaCuban. The Gidden engineers had replaced our Cesium tank with a larger one that would allow us to run at full throttle for a week. I had convinced Ambassador Kurg to allow a flight without a Gidden engineer on-board. AMP Command was not yet ready to reveal our knowledge of the doors at DaCuban... not before the treaties for a full alliance were signed.

We lifted off from Meyer in the morning and arrived at the mountain site on DaCuban the following day. After an hour of preparations we were ready to attempt to once again break through the static fields that protected the doors. I gave the go-ahead and Hershen brought up the first static window.

This time, with the extra power we had available, the window through the first field was opened as a 50 centimeter square. The second field was then brought online and penetrated the second static field with a 20 centimeter window. When the sixth window was opened the window size had been reduced to a centimeter per side. Each new static window that was encountered took significantly more power than the last to break through.

When the eighth window broke we were again faced with another, more powerful, static field. Our Cesium reactor was running at 90% to keep the eight windows open. Our experiment was a failure. The static windows were closed and the reactor returned to its idle state. We had made no further progress at solving the mystery of the DaCuban doors.

Hershen walked out onto the surface carvings and stood looking down at the prostrate Kurtz figure. He knelt and placed his hands out onto the ring. Just as before, the great stone doors began to slide backwards, again, stopping at five meters. As I stood watching, one of our scientists walked to the human figure and did the same. The doors again began to slide backwards, stopping at ten meters.

I looked up at the doors and had a sudden revelation. I reasoned that perhaps it took all of the species on a door, to bow as prostrate figures, for the great doors to open. AMP Command was all abuzz with our new theory. I suggested that we sign the alliance accords with the Mundari and then bring them to the site.

The following day the Mundari not only signed the alliance papers, they requested to join the AMP. I was stunned and at the same time could easily see it as being a normal reaction after the Jessian annihilation. The Mundari citizens were scared and they had pressed their government for action. The AMP was once again expanding.

I invited Ambassador Kurg along with a Nickarian Ambassador for a ride to the planet DaCuban. At first Kurg was troubled by the thought of returning to the place where he had almost been captured by the Frekkin. But the thought of traveling such a great distance in such a short time had him excited and eager to get underway. The Nickarian Ambassador was stoic and acted unimpressed, but I could see the gleam in his eye when Kurg talked of the Jacques' speed. The following morning we lifted off.

When we arrived at DaCuban the science team was gone. They had been recalled after their extended stay and a new team would be sent out shortly. As we slowed, coming in close to the planet, the Nickarian winced when the Blake Adventure came into view. He had heard enough stories during his lifetime about the ill-fated voyage, that the seeing of it in real life held little appeal. His apathy turned to confusion as we settled next to the disguised mountain top. That apathy next turned to wonder as we slipped through the facade surrounding the great doors.

The Jacques settled gently on the surface area and the door on its side opened. I stepped out and invited the two Ambassadors to see what had been a mystery to us since we had first discovered it. The Ambassadors were fascinated by what they saw. Kurg looked at the Gidden figure on the door and then out at the prostrate Gidden on the surface. He then asked what the meaning of it all was.

I told him it was a mystery that we had not been able to solve. I told of our encounters with so many of the species on both doors. I then told of the crystals and of how the great doors had moved back when one of the species bowed and touched a crystal. The two ambassadors stared quietly as their minds raced. They both had a look of concern and surprise when I mentioned that the doors were more than 70,000 years old, or 24,256,346 Geks.

I then asked Hershen to bow and touch the crystal in front of the Kurtz figure. The great stone doors moved back five meters. I asked Kurg to do the same. After a short hesitation he knelt, extended his long spindly arms and touched the crystal in front of him. The crystal in its center glowed and the door moved back another five meters. I next asked the Nickarian ambassador to do the same and again the great doors moved back.

I knelt down, extended my arms and placed the palms of my hands on the crystal in front of me. The crystal glowed but the doors would not move. I knelt, staring down the corridor before us wondering what I was doing wrong. The doors remained closed and nothing was revealed. As we each stood the great doors moved back to their original position. I looked up at the figures on the door and reasoned again that perhaps we needed all of the species together before the great doors would open.

We discussed our findings on our flight back to Meyer. I asked the ambassador if there were any Jessians still alive in the Effort. He replied that he was unaware of any. The assassins had done a thorough job during the Jessian annihilation. I then began to think of the other species we had encountered.

On the right door we knew nothing of the species on the top row. The Jessians were now missing from the second row and the Waffen were gone from the third. On the left door the Roache, Moom and Reladians were all dead from the fourth row. I began to wonder if the species were being systematically annihilated. The anthropologists at AMP Command soon came back with the same thoughts.

They reasoned that perhaps the Ogle, Meche and Frekkin were intent on wiping out the other species on the doors. If so, they were also possibly aware of the DaCuban doors existence. I then remembered that the Borten were dead, wiped out by the Ogle. It made no sense that the Frekkin would be working with the Ogle or the Meche when there was already evidence that they were bitter enemies. There were too many mysteries remaining that needed to be solved. We arrived back at Meyer in the morning.

With the Mundari now a part of the AMP my ambassadorial duties were stepped up. For months I was sent to meeting after meeting in the Mundari system, cementing ties between their leaders and ours. Each of the species we encountered had their own quirks, as did Man, but they each had qualities that we had normally only associated as being human. Love, hate, jealousy, happiness, charity and greed... each race had their own versions of the same emotions, fears and cultural norms that made their race unique but eerily similar to the rest.

I was in a meeting with the local politicians on a minor Mundari planet when an alert came through. Visitors were approaching DaCuban. With no new headway being made the science team that had been assigned to the planet had been sent home, but our sensors remained and an alert was issued.

I broke the meeting early and apologized to the other attendees. Hershen and I rushed to the Jacques and were soon speeding towards DaCuban at full throttle. Our sensors at DaCuban soon identified the approaching ship as the Frekkin matrix. It had stopped in orbit around the planet and then a single sphere had separated, dropped through the atmosphere and stopped just short of the mountain site.

Several quick bursts from its weapons and our facade that hid the mysterious doors was destroyed, along with our sensor arrays. The Frekkin were now in control of the site. I set our shields to max and then maneuvered the Jacques down through the atmosphere to a position only a kilometer away from the Frekkin vessel. Our newest shielding and our latest attempts to mask any signature we might be emitting were paying off as we sat undetected while we quietly watched.

A Frekkin emerged from the ship followed closely by a number of Por Hollis guards. Various boxes of equipment were brought out, hooked up and powered on. It seemed the Frekkin had a science team of their own and that this was not their first visit to the site.

As we watched I was curious as to what the Frekkin might know that we did not. Our brightest minds had been hard at work on the site for more than a year and had come away with nothing more than what we had learned in our initial visit. From the movements on the surface area in front of the great doors I could only guess that the Frekkin had found out nothing more than our own teams.

Several hours passed when the first of the other species was brought out. It was a Meche which sent a sudden chill up my spine. But it was soon evident that the Meche was not there of its free will. Next out was a Roache followed by a Reladian. Eight Por Hollis soldiers then struggled to pull out one of the monstrous Jessians as it pushed and pulled with the obvious intention of making the soldier's lives difficult.

I looked at Hershen and remarked that there was at least one Jessian still alive. Following the Jessian was a Gidden who looked as though he had been severally beaten or injured. The Gidden struggled to walk down the ramp of the ship under its own power.

As the Gidden was moved into position over the prostrate carving of itself the Frekkin in charge barked orders for the next of the species to be brought out. It was a Waffen and was followed closely behind by a Kurtz. I looked at Hershen and then back at the Kurtz and then again back at Hershen. While I had believed initially that most Kurtz looked alike that perception had drastically changed over the years as I became familiar with those little subtleties that made each of them unique. But this Kurtz looked identical to Hershen in every possible way.

As the next figure emerged from the Frekkin ship Hershen stood up in his chair. He looked at me and then pointed at the holo-screen. I zoomed in with the video sensor and was shocked at what I saw. It was me or at least an identical version of me, walking down the ramp from the ship. As I thought back to our time of captivity with the Frekkin I then realized why they had taken so many blood and body tissue samples. We had been cloned!

Missing from the known species on the right door was a Nickarian, a Hark, a Bellian and a Karant. From the left door an Ogle, a Borten and a Moom were absent. As I sat staring at my exact copy standing on the carved human figure the Frekkin commander then barked another order. Five more Por Hollis soldiers brought out another struggling species. It was an Ogle and it was fighting mad.

The Ogle was heavily bound and yet it was still able to twitch and squirm and jerk, making the task of moving it a heavy chore. When the soldiers had the Ogle in place over its carving the Frekkin commander then moved to a position directly in front of the doors. An order to proceed was then given.

The Gidden was the first to be forced into the prostrate position. The crystal in the center of the Gidden ring soon began to glow and the great doors moved back five meters. Next was the Jessian. It lurched violently and rolled free for only a moment, but it was long enough for a swing of its powerful arm to send a Por Hollis flying backwards and over the cliff's edge. It had a thousand meter fall to its death.

Several shocks were administered to the Jessian's temple and it quickly fell in line. With the Jessian once again subdued the procedure was continued and the great doors again moved back five meters. The Waffen was then forced into position and again the great doors moved backwards. The Kurtz clone knelt without struggle making it evident that it had no animosity towards the beings that ruled over it. I reasoned that it had probably been taught that its captors were really its god and having learned such it bowed willingly.

Next was the clone of me. Again there was no sign of struggle as my perfect replica knelt and placed the palms of its hands out onto the Human crystal. I took note that the crystal glowed but the great doors did not move, just as they had done with me. The clone tried repeatedly to enable the crystal, with each attempt being a failure. The Frekkin commander was livid and lashed out at the others standing on the surface. He then turned to the species of the left door, starting with the Ogle.

The Ogle kicked, growled and jerked violently before a shock to its temple brought it into submission. With each of the species of the left the great doors again moved back another five meters. The last of the species to bow before the great doors was the Frekkin commander. As she stretched out her tiny arms and looked up the crystal began to glow and the great doors move back another five meters. But nothing else happened...

After several minutes in the prostrate position the Frekkin commander rose and began to scream and stomp around in frustration... her tiny arms and hands cupped behind her head as she exposed her teeth in anger. A Por Hollis soldier then appeared at the door of the Frekkin ship yelling at his commander.

Seconds later alerts went off on our holo-screens as an Ogle and then a number of Meche ships appeared in orbit. A powerful particle beam began to cut through the matrix of Frekkin globe ships as they began to spin up. When the orange glow of their shields came on full the Ogle particle beam could no longer penetrate the Frekkin shield.

The Meche ships then began their assault but no damage was being done to the Frekkin matrix. The matrix began to eject the parts from its globes that had fallen prey to the particle beam. Several minutes later the matrix was spinning fully and began to move. The Meche ships were quickly chased and annihilated.

The Frekkin commander at the DaCuban doors had taken the few moments of chaos to load his captives back onto his ship. The Frekkin ship shot quickly upward through the atmosphere in an attempt to rejoin the matrix. The Ogle ship moved in with a tractor beam and pulled the Frekkin vessel aboard. Then, in the blink of an eye, the Ogle ship disappeared.

When the matrix had finished off the last Meche ship it returned to its place in orbit. Five more Ogle ships then appeared and another fierce battle ensued. The five Ogle ships quickly joined together and the particle beam they emitted was just powerful enough to cut through the orange Frekkin shield. The fight lasted for nearly an hour before the Frekkin matrix left in retreat. The Ogle ships then vanished as quickly as they had come.