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The Progenitor Tales
Harmony Planet
Tau Ceti System
“Steady,” she hissed, in a low resonance mode that carried just across the scoutship’s command console.
H’minee sank back on her acceleration couch and looked over at Mwindu B’rath, her astrogator, then to Kaala L'mota , the technical officer.
B’rath was concentrating intently, one limb extended, with a sheathed talon poised to hit the command toggle. She was intently watching the screen with the feedback loop being bled in by L’mota. L’mota on the other hand was a bundle of concentrated energy as her talons flew over her controls, pausing only to listen intently through the ear filters as she fought for matched resonance.
H’minee watched, powerless. This was not her area of expertise. They had practiced this maneuver several times in the training simulator, but never live.
“They’re firing up,” L’mota resonated softly.
B’rath’s response was to toggle the scoutship’s singularity engine. She wrestled with the controls to activate and maneuver the bafflers to dampen the resonance signature to more closely match that of the fission powered Immunity shuttle.
“Ten seconds to launch,” L’mota resonated softly.
B’rath’s talons flew. Genetically engineered for piloting, they had lost the sharpness of their natural state, being blunted for handling controls more readily. Gingerly the resonance built.
H’minee looked at the screen. L’mota had overlain the resonance pattern of the Immunity shuttle against their own, and as the power built in the shuttle half a continent away B’rath matched it on the scoutship.
The power curve rose, and as the data feed continued, with the odd grunt from L’mota, the scoutship rose on its antigrav struts. The graphs were almost identical, as B’rath fought the controls, alternately feeding and bleeding power to parallel the shuttle’s.
“Launching” hissed L’mota.
B’rath hit the toggle, and the drive cut in with its ferocious power, lifting the scoutship on its journey to the stars. As the scoutship rose from Harmony she fought to match the resonance pattern now displayed. H’minee watched the surface of Harmony disappear below, and uttered a silent resonance deep inside: “Farewell, dear Kenal K’esh, my mate. Who knows when we shall see each other again.”
As the shuttle reached for the breakthrough to escape Harmony’s gravity, so did the scoutship, on a parallel arc, matching acceleration and with an almost perfect duplicated resonance signature.
H’minee softly resonated satisfaction to her crew; they altered pride, professionalism. All the more surprising, she thought to herself, as they had only simulated the exercise on screen. The theory had seemed sound, but now they were definitely hostage to the soundness of that theory.
The two resonance charts were overlaid as one, as the acceleration was matched perfectly.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++
“Launch detected,” resonated M’Sanda, at his controls on the monitoring station.
Altered his crewman, Skoth, “probably the Immunity shuttle.”
M’Sanda pondered, watching the feed scroll the data across his screen.
“Heavy today. Huge signature. Getting echo from Harmony herself,” resonated M’Sanda. “Did they advise us?”
Skoth rapidly scrolled the links.
“Affirmative,” he altered. “Transporting resonator grapplers and terraformers –infer expanding Immunity size to accommodate Grand Library additions. We were so advised.”
M’sanda altered affirmation and settled back in his command couch to monitor the routine shuttle flight from Harmony to Immunity.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++
The Caretaker spacefaring fleet had been built surreptitiously, and rarely tested. What few forays that had been made that were more than planetary orbits soon drew the attention of the Usurper warfleet. They were jealous of their position and stature – the ancient warrior race, now exiled from Harmony and occupying their Rim Systems series of engineered planetoids. Much of their equipment was old, and indeed the Caretaker spies reported that several of their battlefleet had weaponry and equipment that either couldn’t be repaired or whose purpose was unknown.
On Harmony the Caretakers had carefully nurtured the planet back to health, bringing it out of the stone age it had been cast into at the time of the Flowering. That had been one of the problems facing the Usurpers after the succession wars. The technology to repair and rebuild the great spacefaring ships was lost initially – and the ground station infrastructure had been destroyed in the Flowering shock wave.
But the old technologies had been recovered, and the Usurpers with their planetbuild capability had harnessed asteroids to form the basic building blocks of planets, fusing them together to form their series of small engineered planets called The Rim Systems. They had also rehabilitated partially destroyed space complexes in space and on moons and planetoids, greatly expanding their painfully limited population and resource base.
Likewise the Caretakers had rediscovered the lost knowledge, and with the benefit of the minerals of Harmony had newer, smaller, more effective and efficient spacecraft that had not tasted the far reaches of space in their 200-year renaissance.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++
“Shuttle’s launched,” the orderly resonated. ‘Yees and ‘Teq raised their drinks in a toast. “To a pristine Planet,” ‘Yees altered softly.
They were lounging in the observation deck of the Great Progenitor Library on Immunity. As the “bringers of the knowledge” they were revered by both factions – and the fact that each was some 4000 years old had much to do with that reverence.
After their ship, “The Explorer,” which had been disabled during the Flowering, had been detected in the asteroid belt by the Usurper mining craft, they had been tractored in and grilled mercilessly by the Usurpers as to the whereabouts of the six Manifolds. The Usurpers had played upon their naivete to try and convince them that they were the true Progenitors, but while ‘Yees was gullible, ‘Teq would not be taken in.
He had insisted on being transported to Harmony’s surface, and absent any movement on the part of the Usurpers had stolen a small shuttlecraft and escaped from the Usurper warship to Harmony. The near resumption of full scale war that this defection – and the Usurpers subsequent demand for ‘Teq’s restitution to them - had led to the two faction leaders meeting to discuss their differences.
This had produced the agreement between the factions to build the Immunity planetoid, which had been completed in a record twenty five years, during which an uneasy truce had prevailed while Usurper technology and Caretaker wealth had fashioned Immunity out of resonance-fused asteroids.
Then the Great Library of the Progenitors had been built, and ‘Yees and ‘Teq had taken residence.
And Immunity was aptly named.
To preserve the neutrality and sanctity of the joint effort to research their history – and that of the Grand Experiment into the Six Manifolds – each of the two factions, together with one of the survivors of the Emperor’s family, had agreed to place a hostage permanently on Immunity.
The Usurpers had chosen to place ‘Yset, the daughter of their faction leader, the Supreme PlanetLord Pot’r Sh’taad. The Caretakers had responded by sending Kenal K’esh, the brother of their leader and H’minee’s brood mate. The son of the pretender to the Emperor’s throne was the final piece of the puzzle, resident on Immunity.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++
“Reaching apogee,” resonated L’mota.
H’minee sat up, emanating seriousness, concern.
This was the crucial part of the plan.
“Preparing to engage singularity resonance drive,” resonated B’rath.
They tensed.
The moment the shuttle began its fall from the peak of the arc towards Immunity, they would be detectable as a second signature, so every second counted.
L’mota stared at the screen. “Ten seconds,” she resonated.
Reflexively all three tightened their restraining harnesses.
H’minee toggled the intercom.
“R-drive in five seconds,” she warned the crew in the belly of the scoutship, with a soft resonance that could be sensed throughout the ship.
“NOW,” resonated L’mota, as her talons flew across the control panel sending resonating chaff throughout the bandwidth to confuse sensors and buy some precious seconds.
B’rath hit the engage toggle, and the huge singularity drive augmentor engines kicked in, their energy reinforced by the resonance supplementers that took the wave and bent it back on itself, amplifying it and sending it out to the bafflers to be again redirected and amplified before intertwining with the drive emissions to propel the scoutship to the outer reaches of the Tau Ceti star system towards an independent wormhole.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++
M’Sanda sat bolt upright.
“Skoth,” he resonated, emanating alarm and distress. “The shuttle has disintegrated.”
Skoth sat upright and stared at the screen, his eyes squinting as he tried to assimilate the data that was pouring in.
“Massive explosion confirmed,’ he altered, emanating equal alarm and concern.
Then he saw the tell-tale emission signature.
“Fleet alert, fleet alert,” he barked, the resonance wave palpable throughout the small surveillance satellite that they manned far above Harmony’s atmosphere.
“Come in spyeye, what are you observing?” came the calm resonance over the link from the fleet command.
“Here is Deputy Fleetlord Xantra, aboard the Galactic Battleship Resonance. What are you reporting?”
Skoth looked at B’rath, who tapped a tusk indicating for him to continue.
“Junior Ensign Skoth, Deputy Fleetlord,” he resonated, emanating alarm and warning, which of course was lost to the vastness of space.
“We have detected what we believed to be the break-up of the Immunity shuttle, en route from Harmony to Immunity, but it turns out that it – the shuttle, that is – was hiding the signature of a second vessel. This has now engaged its wormhole drive and we can confirm it to be a singularity engine bolstered by resonance wave adapters.”
“Ensign Skoth, stand by,” Xantra resonated.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++
“Theory into Reality” H’minee resonated to her crew. “We’re the test tube hatchlings for the scientists to discover if their elegant theories work.”
L’mota altered “Of course they work. Or at least they did four millennia ago – no reason why they won’t work today. You have to trust science.”
H’minee grunted mirthlessly, the dissonating resonance echoing off the command console surfaces and grating to the receptors of her two crew. “Trust the scientists? Look what they did when we trusted them before. Destroyed complete star systems and almost cost us our own. Never again must they…..”
B’rath’s interruption resonated sharply, insistently, cutting H’minee off in mid stream:
“Singularity approaching – need attention”
H’minee subsided into her couch. This discussion would be continued at a later time. Right now was coming up ther most crucial part of their mission.
L’mota was giving B’rath the readouts as they approached the wormhole. To the naked eye, gazing ahead into space, there was nothing discernable. But to the instrument sensors, the gravitational distortion was intense, represented on their screen by a series of colors. B’rath was piloting by sense now, the resonance radar picking up and returning the echoes of the variances in the magnetic field surrounding the singularity.
“Going in” she resonated softly, as the scoutship entered the outer fringes of the gravitational distortion.
The ship bucked, and tossed as it was drawn deeper into the well of the wormhole. The viewing ports turned black, and H’minee was seized again with the nauseous feeling that she always had in these situations – using psi-gates between the Harmony cities always gave her that same feeling.
The antigrav dampers were working full blast as B’rarth wrestled with the controls, aligning the course from Tau Ceti to the Epsilon Eridani star system. Even in a wormhole it would take them well over a year to cross the just over one light year separating the two systems.
Then they would seek the next wormhole link to continue their journey. But it would be a lot safer since they would avoid space debris and interstellar radiation.
As the g-forces built up, H’minee gave up the fight and relaxed into the antigrav bed that the command couch molded round her body.
And slept.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++
On board the Resonance all hell was breaking loose.
Xantra was momentarily paralyzed. Then he snapped to.
“Get Hra’ath to the conning,” he resonated abruptly. “And Moss and A’an,” he altered.
The orderly shuffled to the commlinks to summon the officers.
“Patch the feed through – burstspeed,” he commanded Skoth.
Within seconds the sensor relays could be seen scrolling across the conning screens. Xantra could make neither tusk nor tail of them.
The conning doors hummed open, and Hra’ath waddled in.
Xantra bared his throat, exhibiting obeisance. Then stood upright, facing his commander.
“Supreme Fleetlord,” he resonated, “we have detected what we think is an attempt by the caretakers to escape from the Tau Ceti system. Our surveillance satellite above Harmony detected a split in the Immunity shuttle’s signature and has inferred a resonance-enhanced singularity wormhole drive has been activated. The signals have been transferred and are looping here.” He indicated the screen with a sweep of his forelimb.
Hra’ath did not deign to look.
“Where’s ‘Yfolle?” he resonated interrogatively.
“I have summoned ‘Yfolle A’aan,” altered Xantra. “The Astrogator will be able to make more sense of this than we can.”
Hra’ath altered assent.
The doors hummed and the Astrogator, ‘Yfolle A’an entered along with the Thrall Commander of the Resonance, N’Dab Moss.
‘Yfolle took in the situation immediately, as she walked over to the screens, nodding subserviently to her Fleetlord.
“Arrogant female,” Hra’ath resonated quietly to himself. “She should show more respect when officers are present.” However he remained outwardly calm, as befitted a Fleetlord.
“That’s the Immunity shuttle’s signature,” ‘Yfolle resonated. “Heavily loaded, judging by the power curve.”
Her eyes widened as the trace abruptly disintegrated into a thousand shards of energy, each with their own unique resonance pattern, then she stepped back a pace as the signal showed the massive surge as the scoutship’s singularity drive fired, followed by the now weaker shuttle signature as it arced it’s descent towards Immunity.
Hra’ath and Xantra were waiting expectantly.
‘Yfolle did not disappoint.
“Compact Scoutship, I’d guess,” she resonated. Crew of just under 100 or so. Singularity drive –. Bolstered by Resonance wave enhancers. Probably capable of close to lightspeed in addition to its wormhole drive. Can’t detect from this if armored or if armed.”
“Direction?” snapped Hra’ath.
‘Yfolle looked at the screen, then leaned closer and tapped some commands to the comm link.
A graphic representation appeared on the screen. She then superimposed the vector reading on the displayed graphic, and grunted softly to herself. A few more taps, and she stood up, emanating triumph, resolution.
“Supreme Fleetlord,” she began to resonate, “it is my opinion that they are executing a series of linked wormhole maneuvers. They appear to be heading for Epislon Eridani, about a light year away, where they will emerge and use the gravity of that star to slingshot around, and pick up speed on a vector that will lead them to a wormhole for either Sirius or for Sol. These are the only two that we know of in the Epsilon Eridani system. Whether one of these is their final destination, I cannot tell for now. They may simply be going to repeat the slingshot maneuver around whichever of these is their vector and head elsewhere.”
“Plot them,’ barked Hra’ath. “On an astromap, with Tau Ceti showing.
‘Yfolle’s talons flew, adding Tau Ceti, Sol, Sirius and Epsilon Eridani.
“Now add Cygni and Groombridge,” resonated Hra’ath softly.
‘Yfolle’s eyes widened. These were two of the sites often speculated as the star systems where manifolds Three and Four had been established. The returning researchers had confirmed that indeed these were the locations of 3 and 4.
“Show me Epsilon Indi,” hissed Hra’ath.
‘Yfolle inserted the co-ordinates, and a seventh star system appeared on the screen.
They stood mesmerized, looking at the screen.
“Render it holographically,” commanded Hra’ath.
The screen flickered, and then over the command console came the seven star systems, in full holographic projection, seemingly hanging in the air between them.
Hra’ath padded around them, inspecting them from every angle.
Suddenly Xantra let out a low rumble, emanating discovery, excitement.
They turned to look at him.
“Take out Sol,” he resonated.
The star system blinked out.
They looked at the six star system representation.
“Revolve – Groombridge and Cygni as the base,” Xantra resonated quietly.
‘Yfolle tapped the controls, and the holo shifted on itself, and reformed.
“Connect them,” altered Xantra. Lines appeared connecting the six systems.
As one, they gasped.
A straight line linked three, with one almost in the middle. From that middle one three more lines ran, forming a wide cone, to the other three.
Xantra walked over to the display. He stood beside the central star system from whence the five lines radiated.
His body emanated excitement, discovery. His resonance was deep and powerful, decisive.
“Manifold Six,” he resonated. “That’s where they’re going. To Manifold Six. And it lies in that star system.” He seemed to cup the central holostar in his extended claw.
‘Yfolle tapped the console. Names appeared as if hanging from the star representations.
The name Alpha Centauri hung below the central star.
“Manifold Six is there,” resonated Xantra triumphantly.
“Not so fast,” altered Hra’ath.
They all turned to look at him.
“Restore Sol,” he ordered.
The yellow star blinked back on.
“Drop Alpha Centauri”
The lines disappeared as the star system on Alpha centauri winked out.
“Restore the lines,” Hra’ath grunted.
They all gasped.
The sight was utterly beautiful.
The central axis line had dipped to form a shallow V, and the remaining three lines now showed almost perfect symmetry emanating from Sol. It was the classic shape of the Progenitor energy grid.
“There’s your Manifold Six,” Hra’ath resonated.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++
They were huddled round the command console.
“Twelve lightyears to Sol,” Hra’ath resonated. “And what speed can they attain?”
“Supreme Fleetlord,” ‘Yfolle altered, “I estimate that they can attain point 8 lightspeed. So they will be in the Solar system in fifteen years. And if it’s not in the Solar system, then it’s another 4 lightyears – or five traveling years – to Alpha Centauri.”
Xantra whistle snorted through his nasal passages. “We have nothing that fast. Our entire Battlefleet can cruise at about one tenth lightspeed.”
N’Dab Moss coughed discretely.
They turned to him.
“Supreme Fleetlord,” he resonated. “We have one. Planetary Scoutship, 427_s . It can attain short bursts of point 9 lightspeed.”
“And who is its Thrall Commander?” altered Hra’ath.
“Conqueror Judaa Marr,” re-altered Moss.
“Then contact him.” resonated Hra’ath. Send him to chase the Caretaker ship, and have him summon the fleet when he identifies Manifold Six and has secured it. We will pick up our Exalted PlanetLord Pot’r Sh’taad and his Exalted Lady R’n and their son, YoungLord Ark. They will accompany us.
“The Great Experiment may yet be reborn.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++
Across the Tau Ceti star system, the Planetary Scoutship 427_s was coasting while their crew of marines was conducting exercises in freefall. Conqueror Marr never let a moment go to waste when he could be honing the skills of himself and his troops.
He was sweating profusely as he wrestled with a large trooper who outweighed him by 100 pounds. But in zero gee, there was no weight advantage.
The klaxon resonated:
“Commander to the bridge.”
As his attention was momentarily diverted the trooper seized his right tusks in a lock and was slowly twisting his neck so that he risked a broken neck or a shattered tusk if he resisted.
“You fool,” he resonated in the trooper’s ear. “Release your hold. I’m wanted on the bridge.”
“Sir,” he altered. “You resonated with us never to give you any quarter. You altered – the day that you cannot beat any one of us one-on-one is the day that you quit your command. This might be that day.”
“You fool, you utter fool,” Marr resonated.
He twisted in the trooper’s grasp, breaking his own tusk painfully, but getting leverage on the larger body. With a quick snap of his forelimb he raked his talons across the other’s eyes and at the same time engulfed his head in a necklock with the other forelimb.
A quick snap, and the neck was broken.
Marr left the broken body floating, and pushed off to the rails to get himself to the bridge.
“Have him taken to the sick bay for revivification,” he resonated to an orderly.
Towelling himself down, he reached the bridge.
“Orders just come in, from the Fleetlord,” his number two rumbled.
Marr scanned the message.
Twenty years. Visiting and investigating Sol, then if no sign of the Caretaker ship, on to Alpha Centauri.
The race for Manifold Six had begun.
Tau Ceti System
“Steady,” she hissed, in a low resonance mode that carried just across the scoutship’s command console.
H’minee sank back on her acceleration couch and looked over at Mwindu B’rath, her astrogator, then to Kaala L'mota , the technical officer.
B’rath was concentrating intently, one limb extended, with a sheathed talon poised to hit the command toggle. She was intently watching the screen with the feedback loop being bled in by L’mota. L’mota on the other hand was a bundle of concentrated energy as her talons flew over her controls, pausing only to listen intently through the ear filters as she fought for matched resonance.
H’minee watched, powerless. This was not her area of expertise. They had practiced this maneuver several times in the training simulator, but never live.
“They’re firing up,” L’mota resonated softly.
B’rath’s response was to toggle the scoutship’s singularity engine. She wrestled with the controls to activate and maneuver the bafflers to dampen the resonance signature to more closely match that of the fission powered Immunity shuttle.
“Ten seconds to launch,” L’mota resonated softly.
B’rath’s talons flew. Genetically engineered for piloting, they had lost the sharpness of their natural state, being blunted for handling controls more readily. Gingerly the resonance built.
H’minee looked at the screen. L’mota had overlain the resonance pattern of the Immunity shuttle against their own, and as the power built in the shuttle half a continent away B’rath matched it on the scoutship.
The power curve rose, and as the data feed continued, with the odd grunt from L’mota, the scoutship rose on its antigrav struts. The graphs were almost identical, as B’rath fought the controls, alternately feeding and bleeding power to parallel the shuttle’s.
“Launching” hissed L’mota.
B’rath hit the toggle, and the drive cut in with its ferocious power, lifting the scoutship on its journey to the stars. As the scoutship rose from Harmony she fought to match the resonance pattern now displayed. H’minee watched the surface of Harmony disappear below, and uttered a silent resonance deep inside: “Farewell, dear Kenal K’esh, my mate. Who knows when we shall see each other again.”
As the shuttle reached for the breakthrough to escape Harmony’s gravity, so did the scoutship, on a parallel arc, matching acceleration and with an almost perfect duplicated resonance signature.
H’minee softly resonated satisfaction to her crew; they altered pride, professionalism. All the more surprising, she thought to herself, as they had only simulated the exercise on screen. The theory had seemed sound, but now they were definitely hostage to the soundness of that theory.
The two resonance charts were overlaid as one, as the acceleration was matched perfectly.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++
“Launch detected,” resonated M’Sanda, at his controls on the monitoring station.
Altered his crewman, Skoth, “probably the Immunity shuttle.”
M’Sanda pondered, watching the feed scroll the data across his screen.
“Heavy today. Huge signature. Getting echo from Harmony herself,” resonated M’Sanda. “Did they advise us?”
Skoth rapidly scrolled the links.
“Affirmative,” he altered. “Transporting resonator grapplers and terraformers –infer expanding Immunity size to accommodate Grand Library additions. We were so advised.”
M’sanda altered affirmation and settled back in his command couch to monitor the routine shuttle flight from Harmony to Immunity.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++
The Caretaker spacefaring fleet had been built surreptitiously, and rarely tested. What few forays that had been made that were more than planetary orbits soon drew the attention of the Usurper warfleet. They were jealous of their position and stature – the ancient warrior race, now exiled from Harmony and occupying their Rim Systems series of engineered planetoids. Much of their equipment was old, and indeed the Caretaker spies reported that several of their battlefleet had weaponry and equipment that either couldn’t be repaired or whose purpose was unknown.
On Harmony the Caretakers had carefully nurtured the planet back to health, bringing it out of the stone age it had been cast into at the time of the Flowering. That had been one of the problems facing the Usurpers after the succession wars. The technology to repair and rebuild the great spacefaring ships was lost initially – and the ground station infrastructure had been destroyed in the Flowering shock wave.
But the old technologies had been recovered, and the Usurpers with their planetbuild capability had harnessed asteroids to form the basic building blocks of planets, fusing them together to form their series of small engineered planets called The Rim Systems. They had also rehabilitated partially destroyed space complexes in space and on moons and planetoids, greatly expanding their painfully limited population and resource base.
Likewise the Caretakers had rediscovered the lost knowledge, and with the benefit of the minerals of Harmony had newer, smaller, more effective and efficient spacecraft that had not tasted the far reaches of space in their 200-year renaissance.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++
“Shuttle’s launched,” the orderly resonated. ‘Yees and ‘Teq raised their drinks in a toast. “To a pristine Planet,” ‘Yees altered softly.
They were lounging in the observation deck of the Great Progenitor Library on Immunity. As the “bringers of the knowledge” they were revered by both factions – and the fact that each was some 4000 years old had much to do with that reverence.
After their ship, “The Explorer,” which had been disabled during the Flowering, had been detected in the asteroid belt by the Usurper mining craft, they had been tractored in and grilled mercilessly by the Usurpers as to the whereabouts of the six Manifolds. The Usurpers had played upon their naivete to try and convince them that they were the true Progenitors, but while ‘Yees was gullible, ‘Teq would not be taken in.
He had insisted on being transported to Harmony’s surface, and absent any movement on the part of the Usurpers had stolen a small shuttlecraft and escaped from the Usurper warship to Harmony. The near resumption of full scale war that this defection – and the Usurpers subsequent demand for ‘Teq’s restitution to them - had led to the two faction leaders meeting to discuss their differences.
This had produced the agreement between the factions to build the Immunity planetoid, which had been completed in a record twenty five years, during which an uneasy truce had prevailed while Usurper technology and Caretaker wealth had fashioned Immunity out of resonance-fused asteroids.
Then the Great Library of the Progenitors had been built, and ‘Yees and ‘Teq had taken residence.
And Immunity was aptly named.
To preserve the neutrality and sanctity of the joint effort to research their history – and that of the Grand Experiment into the Six Manifolds – each of the two factions, together with one of the survivors of the Emperor’s family, had agreed to place a hostage permanently on Immunity.
The Usurpers had chosen to place ‘Yset, the daughter of their faction leader, the Supreme PlanetLord Pot’r Sh’taad. The Caretakers had responded by sending Kenal K’esh, the brother of their leader and H’minee’s brood mate. The son of the pretender to the Emperor’s throne was the final piece of the puzzle, resident on Immunity.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++
“Reaching apogee,” resonated L’mota.
H’minee sat up, emanating seriousness, concern.
This was the crucial part of the plan.
“Preparing to engage singularity resonance drive,” resonated B’rath.
They tensed.
The moment the shuttle began its fall from the peak of the arc towards Immunity, they would be detectable as a second signature, so every second counted.
L’mota stared at the screen. “Ten seconds,” she resonated.
Reflexively all three tightened their restraining harnesses.
H’minee toggled the intercom.
“R-drive in five seconds,” she warned the crew in the belly of the scoutship, with a soft resonance that could be sensed throughout the ship.
“NOW,” resonated L’mota, as her talons flew across the control panel sending resonating chaff throughout the bandwidth to confuse sensors and buy some precious seconds.
B’rath hit the engage toggle, and the huge singularity drive augmentor engines kicked in, their energy reinforced by the resonance supplementers that took the wave and bent it back on itself, amplifying it and sending it out to the bafflers to be again redirected and amplified before intertwining with the drive emissions to propel the scoutship to the outer reaches of the Tau Ceti star system towards an independent wormhole.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++
M’Sanda sat bolt upright.
“Skoth,” he resonated, emanating alarm and distress. “The shuttle has disintegrated.”
Skoth sat upright and stared at the screen, his eyes squinting as he tried to assimilate the data that was pouring in.
“Massive explosion confirmed,’ he altered, emanating equal alarm and concern.
Then he saw the tell-tale emission signature.
“Fleet alert, fleet alert,” he barked, the resonance wave palpable throughout the small surveillance satellite that they manned far above Harmony’s atmosphere.
“Come in spyeye, what are you observing?” came the calm resonance over the link from the fleet command.
“Here is Deputy Fleetlord Xantra, aboard the Galactic Battleship Resonance. What are you reporting?”
Skoth looked at B’rath, who tapped a tusk indicating for him to continue.
“Junior Ensign Skoth, Deputy Fleetlord,” he resonated, emanating alarm and warning, which of course was lost to the vastness of space.
“We have detected what we believed to be the break-up of the Immunity shuttle, en route from Harmony to Immunity, but it turns out that it – the shuttle, that is – was hiding the signature of a second vessel. This has now engaged its wormhole drive and we can confirm it to be a singularity engine bolstered by resonance wave adapters.”
“Ensign Skoth, stand by,” Xantra resonated.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++
“Theory into Reality” H’minee resonated to her crew. “We’re the test tube hatchlings for the scientists to discover if their elegant theories work.”
L’mota altered “Of course they work. Or at least they did four millennia ago – no reason why they won’t work today. You have to trust science.”
H’minee grunted mirthlessly, the dissonating resonance echoing off the command console surfaces and grating to the receptors of her two crew. “Trust the scientists? Look what they did when we trusted them before. Destroyed complete star systems and almost cost us our own. Never again must they…..”
B’rath’s interruption resonated sharply, insistently, cutting H’minee off in mid stream:
“Singularity approaching – need attention”
H’minee subsided into her couch. This discussion would be continued at a later time. Right now was coming up ther most crucial part of their mission.
L’mota was giving B’rath the readouts as they approached the wormhole. To the naked eye, gazing ahead into space, there was nothing discernable. But to the instrument sensors, the gravitational distortion was intense, represented on their screen by a series of colors. B’rath was piloting by sense now, the resonance radar picking up and returning the echoes of the variances in the magnetic field surrounding the singularity.
“Going in” she resonated softly, as the scoutship entered the outer fringes of the gravitational distortion.
The ship bucked, and tossed as it was drawn deeper into the well of the wormhole. The viewing ports turned black, and H’minee was seized again with the nauseous feeling that she always had in these situations – using psi-gates between the Harmony cities always gave her that same feeling.
The antigrav dampers were working full blast as B’rarth wrestled with the controls, aligning the course from Tau Ceti to the Epsilon Eridani star system. Even in a wormhole it would take them well over a year to cross the just over one light year separating the two systems.
Then they would seek the next wormhole link to continue their journey. But it would be a lot safer since they would avoid space debris and interstellar radiation.
As the g-forces built up, H’minee gave up the fight and relaxed into the antigrav bed that the command couch molded round her body.
And slept.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++
On board the Resonance all hell was breaking loose.
Xantra was momentarily paralyzed. Then he snapped to.
“Get Hra’ath to the conning,” he resonated abruptly. “And Moss and A’an,” he altered.
The orderly shuffled to the commlinks to summon the officers.
“Patch the feed through – burstspeed,” he commanded Skoth.
Within seconds the sensor relays could be seen scrolling across the conning screens. Xantra could make neither tusk nor tail of them.
The conning doors hummed open, and Hra’ath waddled in.
Xantra bared his throat, exhibiting obeisance. Then stood upright, facing his commander.
“Supreme Fleetlord,” he resonated, “we have detected what we think is an attempt by the caretakers to escape from the Tau Ceti system. Our surveillance satellite above Harmony detected a split in the Immunity shuttle’s signature and has inferred a resonance-enhanced singularity wormhole drive has been activated. The signals have been transferred and are looping here.” He indicated the screen with a sweep of his forelimb.
Hra’ath did not deign to look.
“Where’s ‘Yfolle?” he resonated interrogatively.
“I have summoned ‘Yfolle A’aan,” altered Xantra. “The Astrogator will be able to make more sense of this than we can.”
Hra’ath altered assent.
The doors hummed and the Astrogator, ‘Yfolle A’an entered along with the Thrall Commander of the Resonance, N’Dab Moss.
‘Yfolle took in the situation immediately, as she walked over to the screens, nodding subserviently to her Fleetlord.
“Arrogant female,” Hra’ath resonated quietly to himself. “She should show more respect when officers are present.” However he remained outwardly calm, as befitted a Fleetlord.
“That’s the Immunity shuttle’s signature,” ‘Yfolle resonated. “Heavily loaded, judging by the power curve.”
Her eyes widened as the trace abruptly disintegrated into a thousand shards of energy, each with their own unique resonance pattern, then she stepped back a pace as the signal showed the massive surge as the scoutship’s singularity drive fired, followed by the now weaker shuttle signature as it arced it’s descent towards Immunity.
Hra’ath and Xantra were waiting expectantly.
‘Yfolle did not disappoint.
“Compact Scoutship, I’d guess,” she resonated. Crew of just under 100 or so. Singularity drive –. Bolstered by Resonance wave enhancers. Probably capable of close to lightspeed in addition to its wormhole drive. Can’t detect from this if armored or if armed.”
“Direction?” snapped Hra’ath.
‘Yfolle looked at the screen, then leaned closer and tapped some commands to the comm link.
A graphic representation appeared on the screen. She then superimposed the vector reading on the displayed graphic, and grunted softly to herself. A few more taps, and she stood up, emanating triumph, resolution.
“Supreme Fleetlord,” she began to resonate, “it is my opinion that they are executing a series of linked wormhole maneuvers. They appear to be heading for Epislon Eridani, about a light year away, where they will emerge and use the gravity of that star to slingshot around, and pick up speed on a vector that will lead them to a wormhole for either Sirius or for Sol. These are the only two that we know of in the Epsilon Eridani system. Whether one of these is their final destination, I cannot tell for now. They may simply be going to repeat the slingshot maneuver around whichever of these is their vector and head elsewhere.”
“Plot them,’ barked Hra’ath. “On an astromap, with Tau Ceti showing.
‘Yfolle’s talons flew, adding Tau Ceti, Sol, Sirius and Epsilon Eridani.
“Now add Cygni and Groombridge,” resonated Hra’ath softly.
‘Yfolle’s eyes widened. These were two of the sites often speculated as the star systems where manifolds Three and Four had been established. The returning researchers had confirmed that indeed these were the locations of 3 and 4.
“Show me Epsilon Indi,” hissed Hra’ath.
‘Yfolle inserted the co-ordinates, and a seventh star system appeared on the screen.
They stood mesmerized, looking at the screen.
“Render it holographically,” commanded Hra’ath.
The screen flickered, and then over the command console came the seven star systems, in full holographic projection, seemingly hanging in the air between them.
Hra’ath padded around them, inspecting them from every angle.
Suddenly Xantra let out a low rumble, emanating discovery, excitement.
They turned to look at him.
“Take out Sol,” he resonated.
The star system blinked out.
They looked at the six star system representation.
“Revolve – Groombridge and Cygni as the base,” Xantra resonated quietly.
‘Yfolle tapped the controls, and the holo shifted on itself, and reformed.
“Connect them,” altered Xantra. Lines appeared connecting the six systems.
As one, they gasped.
A straight line linked three, with one almost in the middle. From that middle one three more lines ran, forming a wide cone, to the other three.
Xantra walked over to the display. He stood beside the central star system from whence the five lines radiated.
His body emanated excitement, discovery. His resonance was deep and powerful, decisive.
“Manifold Six,” he resonated. “That’s where they’re going. To Manifold Six. And it lies in that star system.” He seemed to cup the central holostar in his extended claw.
‘Yfolle tapped the console. Names appeared as if hanging from the star representations.
The name Alpha Centauri hung below the central star.
“Manifold Six is there,” resonated Xantra triumphantly.
“Not so fast,” altered Hra’ath.
They all turned to look at him.
“Restore Sol,” he ordered.
The yellow star blinked back on.
“Drop Alpha Centauri”
The lines disappeared as the star system on Alpha centauri winked out.
“Restore the lines,” Hra’ath grunted.
They all gasped.
The sight was utterly beautiful.
The central axis line had dipped to form a shallow V, and the remaining three lines now showed almost perfect symmetry emanating from Sol. It was the classic shape of the Progenitor energy grid.
“There’s your Manifold Six,” Hra’ath resonated.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++
They were huddled round the command console.
“Twelve lightyears to Sol,” Hra’ath resonated. “And what speed can they attain?”
“Supreme Fleetlord,” ‘Yfolle altered, “I estimate that they can attain point 8 lightspeed. So they will be in the Solar system in fifteen years. And if it’s not in the Solar system, then it’s another 4 lightyears – or five traveling years – to Alpha Centauri.”
Xantra whistle snorted through his nasal passages. “We have nothing that fast. Our entire Battlefleet can cruise at about one tenth lightspeed.”
N’Dab Moss coughed discretely.
They turned to him.
“Supreme Fleetlord,” he resonated. “We have one. Planetary Scoutship, 427_s . It can attain short bursts of point 9 lightspeed.”
“And who is its Thrall Commander?” altered Hra’ath.
“Conqueror Judaa Marr,” re-altered Moss.
“Then contact him.” resonated Hra’ath. Send him to chase the Caretaker ship, and have him summon the fleet when he identifies Manifold Six and has secured it. We will pick up our Exalted PlanetLord Pot’r Sh’taad and his Exalted Lady R’n and their son, YoungLord Ark. They will accompany us.
“The Great Experiment may yet be reborn.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++
Across the Tau Ceti star system, the Planetary Scoutship 427_s was coasting while their crew of marines was conducting exercises in freefall. Conqueror Marr never let a moment go to waste when he could be honing the skills of himself and his troops.
He was sweating profusely as he wrestled with a large trooper who outweighed him by 100 pounds. But in zero gee, there was no weight advantage.
The klaxon resonated:
“Commander to the bridge.”
As his attention was momentarily diverted the trooper seized his right tusks in a lock and was slowly twisting his neck so that he risked a broken neck or a shattered tusk if he resisted.
“You fool,” he resonated in the trooper’s ear. “Release your hold. I’m wanted on the bridge.”
“Sir,” he altered. “You resonated with us never to give you any quarter. You altered – the day that you cannot beat any one of us one-on-one is the day that you quit your command. This might be that day.”
“You fool, you utter fool,” Marr resonated.
He twisted in the trooper’s grasp, breaking his own tusk painfully, but getting leverage on the larger body. With a quick snap of his forelimb he raked his talons across the other’s eyes and at the same time engulfed his head in a necklock with the other forelimb.
A quick snap, and the neck was broken.
Marr left the broken body floating, and pushed off to the rails to get himself to the bridge.
“Have him taken to the sick bay for revivification,” he resonated to an orderly.
Towelling himself down, he reached the bridge.
“Orders just come in, from the Fleetlord,” his number two rumbled.
Marr scanned the message.
Twenty years. Visiting and investigating Sol, then if no sign of the Caretaker ship, on to Alpha Centauri.
The race for Manifold Six had begun.
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