The Lost Fleet: Genesis: A Slaver Wars Novel (7 page)

“What about
the nanites you used when the
Dominator
first reached Gaia?” asked
Kurene. Nanite technology was something the Altons found highly intriguing.

“Those are for
more serious repairs. If the ship has suffered major damage or the complete failure
of internal systems, the nanites are capable of repairing or completely
rebuilding anything on the ship. Each group of nanites can be programmed to
complete a specific task. To ensure there can never be a danger from the nanites,
they are also programmed to disintegrate following seventy of your hours after
which a new group must be activated.”

“I am highly
interested in your nanite technology,” ZED spoke in his mechanical voice. “They
would be quite useful on our new AI warspheres.”

“That will be
something we will discuss at a later date,” Kazak responded. “I believe it
would be relatively easy to program the nanites to do repair work on your
vessels. Even the small repair robots, which I have activated on the
Dominator
,
you might find useful as they will free up more of your people to perform other
duties.”

Jeremy nodded
to himself. This could help greatly with their manpower shortage. Already he
was finding out things that could be extremely useful in the future. He
wondered if it would be possible to try some of the small robots out on the
Gaia class battlecruisers.

Kazak led them
to a turbo lift, which rapidly propelled them through the ship to the command
level. After exiting, they quickly made their way to the Command Center. Stepping inside, everyone froze upon seeing the astonishing view. In the center of the
room was a raised dais with what appeared to be a dozen or so consoles. In the
center of the dais was an upraised platform where the ship’s commander would
sit. However, what astonished all of them was that the walls on all sides plus
the ceiling seemed to be one gigantic viewscreen. It was like stepping out into
space and being able to see everything around you.

“This is amazing,”
gasped Admiral Jackson as he looked around wide-eyed. He had never imagined
something like this.

“It’s very
similar to our own vessels,” Admiral Cleeteus pronounced as he gazed around
approvingly. All Alton vessels had a massive viewscreen on the front wall.
However, on the
Dominator
this was carried out to an extreme the Altons
hadn’t even considered.

Kazak turned
to face his guests. “The Originators preferred to be able to see everything
around them. The consoles on the dais are capable of controlling all of the
ship’s functions though as the ship’s AI I am responsible for operating many of
the systems. Normally the Originators would tell me what they wanted done and I
would see to it.”

“Much like what
Ariel is capable of,” said Mikow with a thoughtful look on her face.

“Most of the
control consoles on the dais are for emergency use,” Kazak added. “However, the
Originators did fully operate the consoles at all times and the ship’s
commander insisted all of the ship’s officers be capable of controlling the
ship’s systems in case I became nonfunctional.”

“So, what
exactly happened to the Originators?” asked Jeremy. He had heard a short
version from Ariel, but he was interested to know if Kazak would add to that.

“They died due
to a terrible experiment they made in an attempt to achieve immortality,” Kazak
answered with sadness in his voice. “The Originators already enjoyed extremely
long lives, but they had projects in mind that would take millennia to achieve.
They adjusted their genes to undergo self-repair by adding a special organic
nanite that would allow their bodies and minds to remain forever unchanged.
However, after a number of years passed something went terribly wrong. The
organic nanite began creating a virulent pathogen that began to kill the
Originators. There was much panic and desperate research to find out how to
reverse the affect, but it was already too late. Before a cure could be found,
the Originators were gone. This ship was an attempt to save some of the
brightest minds of the race in the hope they could find a cure and bring the
race back from extinction. It failed and all the Originators perished.”

“What about
the Dyson Spheres?” asked Andram. “How many of them are there, and is there any
chance some of the Originators could have survived in other galaxies?”

“There are two
hundred and twelve Dyson Spheres,” Kazak answered. “Or two hundred and eleven
considering you destroyed one. There are also major bases as well as the
primary communications and transport hub. I do not believe any Originators
survived the pathogen which was killing them.”

“Are there any
other Originator facilities in this galaxy?” asked Jeremy. It would be nice to
be able to gain access to more of their technology and even additional ships.

“No,” Kazak
answered. “There was only the Dyson Sphere and the
Dominator
.”

Jeremy looked
slowly around the massive Command Center. He was a little surprised the floor
wasn’t a viewscreen also. He could see the
Avenger
floating in space
nearby, the Clan Protector, and other ships in the vicinity. Even Gaia looked
unusually large on the front wall. Looking closely, he thought he could see both
Clements and New Eden, the two largest cities on the planet. Both cities were
located in the narrow fifteen hundred-kilometer wide green strip that ran
around the planet’s equator.

Turning back
toward Kazak, Jeremy addressed the AI. “What can we do to gain each other’s trust?
We obviously want access to some of the Originators’ technology and you have
control of the last of their ships. There must be some type of arrangement we
can make that will be beneficial to both of us.”

Kazak looked
long and hard at Jeremy. “Let us speak,” he said. “I have communicated with
Clarissa and now Ariel over this very subject. Both AIs were very positive when
speaking of the Human Federation of Words, your allies, and especially the
Altons. Perhaps there is some common ground we can find.”

Jeremy nodded.
Now would come the hard part. He still had a suspicion Kazak wasn’t being
totally forthcoming, but only time would tell if he was correct in that assumption.

Sergeant
Brenda Wilde stood worriedly at the end of the valley within several hundred
meters of where the first buildings to the fabulous city of the Originators
began. Unfortunately, an energy shield prevented her from going any closer. The
energy shield surrounded the entire valley the exploratory team was in and thus
far, they had found no way around it.

“Still
watching the robots?” asked Melvin Blair, one of the Human scientists with the
group.

Brenda sighed
and turned around. It had been three weeks since they had found their way into
the Dyson Sphere. The movement she had initially noticed in the city later
turned out to be small robots that seemed to rush about on some type of
intricate schedule. Kelnor had suggested the small robots were probably charged
with the upkeep and repair of the city. The scientists with the group had set
up some instruments and recorded the movement for several days, confirming
there were no living beings. It had been a big disappointment to Brenda.

“Yes,” she
said turning around to face Blair. “I keep hoping I’ll see someone living on
the other side of this energy shield. That city is so beautiful; it’s nearly incomprehensible
no one lives in it.”

Blair looked
toward the city, watching as one of the small robots stopped near some plants
that bordered a sidewalk and begin expertly trimming them. When it was finished,
it applied what appeared to be fertilizer and then moved on. “This city’s been
dead for thousands of years, possibly millions. We know of the pathogen that
wiped out the Originators, and if any had survived I’m sure we would have been
contacted by now.”

“Why do you
say that?” asked Brenda.

“Kelnor and
Reesa are convinced this energy shield didn’t appear until we set foot inside
the Dyson Sphere. It’s part of some type of automatic protective system
activated when our presence was detected.”

Brenda turned
back toward the city, seeing a small flying vehicle appear high up in the air
and land on a platform on one of the smaller towers. The first time she saw one
of the flying vehicles, she had hoped it was a sign the Dyson Sphere was still
inhabited. She had later learned the vehicles were only carrying supplies for
the small robots.

“Let’s get
back to camp,” she said.

There was no
point in observing the city. Nothing had changed there from the first day they
arrived. Brenda knew that by now her superiors must be furious at the continued
lack of communication from the exploratory team. When they got back, there was
no doubt in Brenda’s mind she would be busted down to the rank of private,
assuming they ever found a way to get back. Even that was beginning to look
extremely doubtful.

-

Reesa Jast was
busy arguing with Kelnor at their camp over what needed to be their next move.
They had set up a number of survival huts, which had been in their emergency
supplies. The small huts were of Alton design and were even heated and air
conditioned, though neither were actually needed in the small secluded valley.

“I still say
we should broadcast a continuous message toward the city,” said Reesa, crossing
her arms defiantly. She was one of those rare Altons who at times showed
considerable emotion. “From the small robots we can see, there must be some
type of control system somewhere. I can’t believe the Originators wouldn’t have
foreseen the situation we find ourselves in. Why else would they have the
energy shield set up to keep us in this valley and prevent us from being able
to reach the city?”

Kelnor slowly
shook his head. “We must spend more time studying the city with our
instruments. If we provoke a response, there’s no telling what might happen.”

“Our food supplies
will be gone soon,” Corporal Everett Metz commented. He was standing close by listening
to the two Altons. “We’re fortunate the stream is providing us with fresh water,
but we haven’t done any hunting though there are some animals in this valley which
could provide us some much needed protein.”

Kelnor let out
a deep sigh. “Corporal, if we begin killing animals, whatever is controlling
the city and the small robots may decide to eliminate us as we would a rodent
or an insect. We’ve found some plants and even a few fruit bearing trees that
can supplement what supplies we have remaining.”

“I’m not much
on being a vegetarian,” grumbled Metz.

“How much
longer will our remaining supplies last until we’re entirely dependent on what
we can find in this valley?” asked Reesa.

“Two or three
more weeks at the most and that’s rationing them to a minimum and supplementing
them with the plants and fruits we’ve found.”

Reesa nodded
to herself. What the corporal had just mentioned was just another reason to try
to communicate with whatever the controlling intelligence was in the Dyson
Sphere. She just couldn’t understand why Kelnor was being so stubborn.

“Let me talk
to Sergeant Wilde when she comes back about attempting to broadcast a communications
signal,” pleaded Reesa, her eyes focusing back on her fellow Alton.

“You can talk
to her,” Kelnor said evenly. “However, I’ll suggest that we wait until there is
no other option. If there is a controlling intelligence in the Dyson Sphere, it
must know of our presence by now. We just need to wait until it makes itself
known.”

Reesa forced
herself to calm down. It had been so frustrating the past few weeks to be so
close to the city and not able to enter it. For her entire life, the
Originators had been a fascination to her. Now all of the answers she so
desperately sought were on the other side of the energy shield, and she had no
way to get past it.

-

Outside the
Dyson Sphere, Admiral Race Tolsen was in the Command Center of the battle
dreadnought
WarHawk
with his sister, Massie. Massie had come over to
visit as she wanted to speak with Race over several matters that concerned her.

“How are
things going on the
Hera
?” asked Race as he leaned back in his command
chair and looked over at his sister.

It still
seemed strange to be so far from the Human Federation of Worlds and to have his
sister at his side. He wondered what his parents were thinking about all of
this. He was sure they were deeply worried. He wasn’t certain how much Fleet
Admiral Nagumo had been able to tell them.

“Great,”
Massie responded. “We’ve been working on getting the pilots of all thirteen
battlecarriers used to flying with one another. “I’ve promoted Captain
Weinhardt to the rank of major and he’s now coordinating all the flight wings
from the different battlecarriers.”

“Weinhardt is
a fine officer,” Race said approvingly. He was pleased to hear Massie was
sharing her authority with others. The promotion of Weinhardt was a sound
decision.

“Admiral,” interrupted
Commander Arnett. “We have a group of twenty-two Shari warships inbound.”

Race sucked in
a deep breath. For the last several days, the Shari had been probing the
fleet’s defenses. “Massie, you better get back to the
Hera
. I’ll talk to
you when this is over.”

Massie nodded
and hurried from the Command Center. While it was doubtful her fighters and
bombers would be needed for such a small attack by the Shari, there was always
the possibility the probe was only a prelude to a major assault.

“What ship types
are we facing?” asked Race, turning toward Captain Davis.

“Two
battlecruisers and twenty support ships,” Davis answered as the information
appeared on his data screens, which were analyzing the sensor information.
“Looks like a standard attack formation with the support ships leading and the
two battlecruisers trailing slightly behind.”

Colonel Cowel
frowned and looked over at the admiral. “This is the third time in the last
five days they’ve tried this. At some point, they should get tired of losing
ships.”

Race slowly
shook his head. “They have us trapped here. We have no idea how many warships
they have between us and Federation controlled space.” Federation controlled
space would be the former Hocklyn Slave Empire. “I’m sure their commanding
officer is busy studying the data he gains from each attack seeking a weakness
in our defense.”

“They have
twelve hundred ships in the outer system,” Commander Arnett said as she gazed
at all the red threat icons on the screen.

“That’s still
not enough to be a threat to us,” answered Race, leaning forward to study the
tactical display, now showing the inbound Shari vessels. “With the addition of
Admiral Baasil and his Alton warships, it would take a much larger fleet than
that to drive us away from the Dyson Sphere.”

He also had
twenty Indomitable Class battlestations, forty of the smaller Type Two battlestations,
and two thousand particle beam satellites. Unless the Shari were willing to commit
a significant portion of their empire’s fleet, he felt pretty confident they
could hold their present position above the Dyson Sphere for as long as needed.

“They will be
in weapons range in twenty minutes,” Commander Arnett added.

“Take the
fleet to Condition One,” Race ordered. He wasn’t going to take any chances; he
preferred to err on the side of caution. If anything went wrong, they were cut
off from the Federation for help and all they could do was rely on their own
resources.

-

High Lord
Aktill watched his tactical screen with interest. For the last five days, he
had been sending in small task groups to probe the Humans’ and Altons’
defenses. He had already learned those huge one-thousand-meter battlestations
were to be steered clear of. Even the smaller ones had shown to have teeth that
could severely damage or destroy a Shari warship.

“Lower Lord
Dalold is requesting additional instructions,” Samarth reported.

“What are the
Humans doing?” Aktill knew a Human admiral was commanding both the Alton and Human warships.

“They’re not
responding,” answered Samarth. “We’re detecting higher energy readings which
indicate their shields have come fully online, but their ships haven’t moved.”

“I want close
in sensor readings,” Aktill said determinedly. “I want to know what’s so
important about that region of the Dyson Sphere that the Human admiral has
decided it must be defended.”

“Do you
believe they’ve found a way in?”

“I doubt it,”
Aktill replied as he turned his eyes toward a large viewscreen showing the
Dyson Sphere. He still found it astonishing that any civilization could build
such an object. If the Shari could gain access to the megastructure before the
Humans and the Altons, they could learn the science that had allowed such a construction
to be built. Once they had the science and technology, they could do what the
AIs had failed to do, conquer the entire galaxy and bring it under the rule of
the Shari Empire.

-

Lower Lord
Dalold was pacing nervously in front of his ship’s tactical screen. The red
threat icons the screen was covered with were growing steadily closer.

“How long
until engagement range?” he demanded as he stepped over to his command chair
and sat down.

“Six minutes,”
the sensor operator replied.

“All weapons
are online and the energy shield is at 98 percent,” the tactical officer
reported.

“Our other
ships?”

“Ready for
combat,” answered his second officer. “How close are we going to the Human
fleet?”

“Close enough for
detailed sensor scans of the surface of the Dyson Sphere,” Dalold answered. “We
must see if they have found a way into the structure.”

-

The minutes
passed by slowly and then suddenly two of the leading escort vessels exploded
as powerful antimatter explosions blew away their energy shields. The missiles
had come from one of the large battlestations.

“Weapons
range!” called out the sensor operator.

“All weapons
fire!” ordered Dalold, leaning forward with his eyes focused sharply on the
tactical screen. “Sensors, I need those readings!”

“We still need
to get closer,” the sensor operator replied.

“Navigation,
take us nearer the Dyson Sphere.” Dalold knew this meant the probable
destruction of most of the ships in his small fleet, but he had his orders. High
Lord Aktill wanted detailed sensor scans of this section of the megastructure
and Dalold would do what was necessary to get them.

The weapons
fire increased between the two fleets. On one of the viewscreens on the front
wall, the bottom section of an escort cruiser exploded, sending debris flying
off into space. The vessel attempted to reverse course and escape the wrath of
one of the Humans’ massive battlestations. Even as the ship was turning broadside,
it was steadily firing its remaining weapons. Then the entire vessel was
transformed into a glowing sun as one of the Humans’ antimatter missiles annihilated
the ship.

Dalold
suddenly felt himself flung forward and the safety harness he was wearing cut
deeply into his skin. He gasped at the pain as klaxons began sounding.
“Report!” he barked as he drew in a deep breath.

“The hull near
Engineering has been compromised,” his second in command reported. “We have numerous
compartments open to space and we’re venting atmosphere. There are also several
fires burning in adjoining compartments.”

“Energy shield
is down to 48 percent,” added the tactical officer. “We lost six of our energy
turrets and three missile tubes.”

“What hit us?”

“Several of
their energy beams,” the sensor operator answered. “At least two from what I
can determine.”

“I’m flushing
the air from the compartments where the fires are burning,” added the second
officer.

“Enemy
losses?”