Lens of Time Read online

  “I don’t like it either but if we are going to know the order of the blasts, it’s got to be done.”

  Captain Phillips pushed the ice bag tighter to his head and said, “You don’t have to go back to make that determination.”

  Chris and Jillian turned and looked at the ailing Captain, “We don’t?”

  Phillips said, “Don’t talk so loud. What was in those bottles, liquid pain?”

  Jillian said, “What do…” and she saw Phillips wince. She spoke softer, “What do you mean we don’t have to go back.”

  “If the first blast happened thirty miles from the command center, you’ll see the rubble of the buildings blown from their foundations toward the command center and if the command center was first, the rubble will be blown away from it.”

  Chris looked at Jillian and said, “Couldn’t the second blast have changed the orientation of the rubble?”

  “Only on those structures that were still above ground level. You can have the computer analyze the pattern and tell you which happened first.” Chris looked at Jillian and shrugged. Phillips changed ice bags and said, “If the first blast was the one thirty miles away, you’ll have to go back and look at the explosions.”

  Chris said, “Because we’ll have to know how much time it took for the shock wave to reach the command center.”

  “Exactly, and you’ll also have to lock in your entry point.” Phillips put his head on the table and said, “It might all still be a waste of time.”

  Jillian said, “Why!”

  Phillips winced again and raised his head, “Dolly and the command team were in a reinforced building. It was made to stop radiation from nuclear blasts. Let’s say you have two and a half minutes before the shock wave arrives. How are you going to get into the building and then persuade her to leave?”

  Jillian looked at Chris and Phillips continued, “Don’t think you can just call her on the communication system and tell her you’re coming. That system would have been heavily damaged by the electromagnetic pulse. Remember the picture from her system went to static.”

  Jillian turned and looked at Phil, “You seem to know a lot about what we’re thinking about doing.”

  “I’ve thought about this since I joined you on the Ninja viewing the light from the past. I just haven’t thought of a way to get them out in the time between the first blast and arrival of the shock wave.”

  Chris said, “It would take ten minutes to enter the building and run to the command center.”

  Phil added, “You won’t be able to enter normally. The armored doors to the center would have activated when the attack warning was received. They could only be opened from the inside.”

  Jillian slowly shook her head, “You really have thought about this.”

  Phil sat up and sighed, “She was what bound us together. I’ve kinda worshiped her memory. She was incredibly brilliant and beautiful as well. I just don’t see any way to make it happen.”

  Chris narrowed his eyes and said, “Did you consider blasting your way in?”

  Phil turned his head around quickly and winced, “No, I don’t want to kill the ones in that room.”

  Chris looked up, “Dolly, have you been listening to this conversation?”

  “I have.”

  “Is there any way to make an opening into the main room of the command center without killing those in the room?”

  They waited for a minute and then they heard, “Perhaps.”

  Phil’s eyebrows went up, “What?”

  “We wouldn’t have been able to do it at the time of the event but there is a possibility of doing it now.”

  “How?”

  “An ultrabeam would cut through the building making an opening through the room.”

  Chris smiled, “That’s how we can get in.”

  “Maybe.”

  “What do you mean maybe, Dolly?”

  “The ultrabeam is incredibly hot. If the beam is too wide it will incinerate everyone in the room. If it is fired too close to the people in the room, it will burn them. I can go on but the beam will have to be tightly targeted and it can’t be too wide.”

  Jillian said, “Give me the bottom line, Dolly.”

  “If an ultrabeam is fired through a top corner of the command center furthest away from the people inside and it is focused tightly, a hole could be opened into the room.”

  The three looked at each other and Phil said, “How big of a hole?”

  “Anything wider than seven feet six inches in diameter would kill the ones in the room.”

  Chris looked at Phil and said, “We don’t have a ship small enough to get in and take them out.”

  Jillian said, “I have one.”

  Chris and Phil turned to her and just stared.

  “What do we have stored in the Ninja’s landing bay?”

  Chris thought a moment and said, “Get real, Jillian.”

  Jillian smiled, “My corvette could fly through that hole.”

  Chris shook his head, “That corvette is not built for flight out of the atmosphere.”

  Jillian smiled, “Where will the time field be?”

  Phil tilted his head, “It could be a hundred feet above the building and it would have to be a small field.”

  “Why?”

  Because allowing the attacking Violet Ships to see through that field and see the Ninja would also change the future.” Phil thought a moment and said, “There is also the possibility of you leaving the facility at a rather high velocity.”

  Jillian smiled, “My corvette has gravity technology built into it. When my last one hit Jupiter, I had a gravity controller installed in the new one. I’ll just make sure it stays weightless and even if I hit the Ninja, it wouldn’t cause any damage.”

  “Wait a minute. What do you mean if you hit the Ninja?”

  “Chris, are you a better driver and am I better at manipulating the time fields?”

  Phil said, “The answers are no and no.”

  “How do you know she’s a better driver?”

  “Did you forget the trip through the mountains on Europe?”

  Chris thought a moment and said, “I thought you were asleep.”

  “I had my eyes closed praying we wouldn’t go over a cliff.”

  Chris blew out a quick breath and said, “All of this is a moot point if the first blast was over the command center.”

  Dolly said, “That was the second blast. The first was thirty one miles away.”

  Silence ruled the moment. Phil looked around and said, “How did you make that determination?”

  “I’ve had the recordings of the planet downloaded after it happened. The blast patterns are clear. The first blast was thirty miles away.”

  Phil looked at Chris and Jillian and said, “You’re going to do it?”

  Jillian smiled, “She’d do it for us.”

  “Should you perhaps wait to build a ship to go in?”

  “If we suggested this to anyone they would prevent us from doing it.”

  “Why? I would think George would order it.”

  “Not if it endangered the future since Earth’s destruction.”

  Phil stared at Jillian and said, “What are you not saying?”

  “The only ones that will be in danger are us. If we cause a temporal event, we will be in a different universe than this one and we won’t be able to get back.”

  “What could cause that?”

  “If the Violet Ships see us…”

  Phil took a deep breath and smiled, “Then the use of your corvette makes sense. It will look like an ordinary car attempting to flee the oncoming shock wave.”

  Chris looked at Jillian and said, “Phil, you don’t have to do this with us.”

  Phil put another ice pack to his head and said, “I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I will possibly get the opportunity to meet someone I’ve respected above all others.”

  “Well, fire up the Ninja and let’s go take our readings.”

  Phil
started moving toward the bridge and said, “Dolly, what happens to your name when the real one shows up?”

  “RV’s computer is also named Dolly. I’ll drop to number two and his computer will drop to number three.”

  “Why are you ahead of his computer?”

  “Seniority; the Jukebox was built first.” Phil laughed and disappeared through the port.

  “Jillian, are you sure we should do this?”

  “If it was you that perished in that attack, what would Dolly do?”

  Chris nodded and hugged her tightly. “Whatever happens, at least we’ll be together.”

  • • •

  Mikal watched the simulation and yelled, “No, no, no. That won’t work.”

  Beth nodded, “I agree. Jumping them in to the front of the advancing formations is just not accurate enough. Half the time they appear too far in front or miss the formations entirely.”

  Riebbe sat in his chair and stared at the display. He continued to stare at the line of ships that were used to simulate an advancing fleet. Loree, Mikal, and Beth continued to argue until they noticed Riebbe was smiling. They grew silent and Loree said, “What are you thinking?”

  Riebbe turned to Mikal, “How long does it take the new battleships to enter normal space?”

  Mikal looked at Loree and then said, “I think it’s instant.” Loree nodded.

  “And how long does it take to launch a new attack craft out of the tubes?”

  “We’ve reduced the time to a tenth of a second. But we still have the two second delay to move the next ship into the launcher.”

  Riebbe smiled, “I think I know how to make this happen.”

  “Pray tell.”

  “We’ll have the fleet jump into normal space twenty five thousand miles in front of the enemy fleet and fire the attack craft at them.”

  “Say what?”

  “The attack craft will be weightless and can accelerate at close to light speed out of the launcher.” Riebbe saw them start to protest, “Now stay with me on this. The fleet will be launching a little more than a tenth of a second at light speed from the approaching fleets. Their sensors will receive the scan from our ships in a tenth of a second but before they can respond, the fleet will jump back into Sierra Space.”

  Mikal thought a moment and said, “The attack craft will arrive less than a half a second behind the light from the fleet and be on the approaching ships before they can be targeted. We can program the ships to automatically decelerate and return mass before they hit the force fields of their targets.”

  Loree said, “Once they are inside the ranks of the attacking fleet they can easily move from ship to ship launching their missiles.”

  Beth said, “And once they exhaust their missiles, they’ll go to the beams being installed.”

  Loree thought a moment and said, “Can the ships slow down to the required penetration speed in that time?”

  Riebbe nodded, “Actually, there’s enough time to bring them to a stop if they remain weightless. We’ll have to program their drives to slow to an exact speed less than a few hundred yards from their target before their full mass is returned. If they do it further out they will be hit by a massive beam barrage.”

  “I know what must be done but can we do it?”

  Mikal said, “I’ll contact Boden and see what he says.”

  • • •

  Three weeks later Mikal looked at his display and saw Riebbe and Beth in their ships “Are you ready to give it a go?”

  Beth shrugged, “We’ll soon see. With the relativity effects, things will happen much too fast for us to be able to control this.”

  “We’ll only have control when the ship slows to penetration speed.” Riebbe pushed a button and looked up, “The system is activated and will operate at launch. Good luck, Beth.”

  “Back at ya, Riebbe. Don’t fret too much; Boden insists the system will operate as it’s designed.”

  “Easy for him to say; he should be here trialing it.”

  “Hey relax you two. It’ll be over in no time.”

  “Loree, that’s true whether it works or not.”

  “That’s true. We’re entering normal space in five, four, three, two, one, and now!”

  The main battleship appeared for a brief moment and disappeared. Two white flashes left and hit the oncoming ships faster than could be seen. “It worked; I’m inside the force field. What about you. Beth?” Riebbe listened, “Beth! Beth can you hear me?”

  “Relax; I was just checking my readings.”

  “I’m going to spank you. You scared me out of ten years.”

  “Promises, promises.”

  Loree laughed out loud. “Hey, you’re embarrassing the whole team. Get back over here and let’s look at the recording.”

  “Dundee and Macbeth, were you able to track the ships coming in?”

  “I did, but my computer tells me that they arrived too fast to be targeted.”

  “My computer says it might have been able to fire one shot but it wouldn’t bet on whether or not it would have hit.”

  “Thank you for your participation. Return to the fleet maneuvers.”

  The two main battleships disappeared and Mikal brought the Rome back into normal space. Riebbe flew the ship into the landing port and said, “Was the Probe able to track what happened?”

  “It’s pretty fuzzy but we can make some assumptions about it. Come to the bridge as soon as you arrive.”

  • • •

  The four looked at the main display on the wall and saw two beams of light leave the Phoenix and appear to hit the two main battleships.

  “That doesn’t look right. We slowed to about six hundred miles per hour. We should be able to see our ships hit those force fields.”

  Mikal said, “Nexu, why is the recording not clear?”

  “Unfortunately, the resolution can’t keep up with the sudden changes in speed.”

  Loree looked at the display and said, “Mikal, did Boden design this to only operate from twenty five thousand miles out?”

  “I don’t know; let’s ask him.” Mikal entered the frequency and pressed his transmit button. Boden appeared on the main display and smiled, “How did the trial go?”

  “It worked flawlessly. However, Admiral Barber has a question about the distance from which we can launch the ships. Is it from only twenty five thousand miles?”

  “No. The system on your navigation panel is designed to download the distance into the attack craft. You determine how far you want to launch and enter the distance into the display on your board.”

  “So we could have launches from multiple distances?”

  “If you deem it necessary; however, the further away you launch the better the possibility of success.”

  “Why is that?”

  “It would take longer for the return of your ships signature to reach the enemy ships.”

  “How far out will the system operate?”

  “About a light second, any further than that and the attack craft will have difficulty targeting a single ship in the ranks of the enemy.”

  “What if two ships target a single attacker?”

  “Then one of them will need to go to another ship and attack it. That should be easier than getting inside their ranks.”

  “You make an excellent point. We’ll just keep enough distance between the battleships, so that the possibility of hitting the same ship is reduced.”

  “Let me know if you have any other questions.”

  “Thank you, Boden.” Mikal turned to the two pilots, “What did you learn from this?”

  Beth said, “There is no picking a target. One moment you’re in the launch tube and the next you’re on top of a force field.”

  “Do you have enough time to go around the ship in front of you and hit another behind it?”

  Beth looked at Riebbe and he shook his head, “Only if we’re targeted in the gaps between the ships in the front ranks. Why do you ask?”

  “If
we could get you beyond the ships in front we could fire our beams at the front ranks and you could be taking out the ships behind them.”

  Riebbe slowly shook his head, “I think you might be taking on more than you can handle.”

  “Why is that?”

  “You’ve only launched the first wave of attack craft. You still have two more waves to launch and you don’t want to give the enemy time to start firing a solid wall of beams in front of their ranks.”

  Mikal slowly nodded, “You’re probably right. Let’s think about this overnight and see if we come up with a different idea.”

  “We do now have a weapon.”

  Loree said, “Yes we do, Beth. Yes we do.”

  • • •

  RV watched the recording from Mikal and thought about how to use the new attack craft. Cyanna watched the video with him and said, “They should cause real trouble for the enemy’s front line.”

  “I think they will act like a wild fire as they blow into their ranks but think about this. What would you do if the same weapon was launched at our fleet?”

  “I guess I’d respond like I would to a wild fire; I’d move away from the destruction as quickly as possible and put some distance between it and my ship.”

  “Distance is the enemy of the new attack ships. With the numbers I expect us to face, they could fire a wall of beams at our ships and take a lot of them out.”

  ‘I thought you wanted the new ships to blow a hole in their front line so we could exploit it?”

  “I did originally, but what if the Majors combine their ships against us. If we flew into the center of their lines they would collapse all of their ships around us and have us caught in a cross fire.”

  “Even if we destroyed twenty million of their ships?”

  “I’ve read the scans done by the Nexu and there are more than four hundred million ships in the Major’s civilizations.”

  Cyanna stared at RV, “There’s no way we can take on that many ships.”

  “It gets worse; about a hundred and fifty million are advanced ships that can go toe to toe with ours.”

  “They we better hope they don’t combine against us.”

  “That’s a false hope. If we’re successful at holding them off the Minors, they will combine. It’s just a matter of time.”