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  I reached across the table and took Go's shoulder in my hand. "Thank you for telling me this. And thank you for going against my wishes back there. The Council's decisions of late have been an enigma. At least we now know what they are basing those decision on. I don't understand their initial reasoning, but at least we know enough to ask the right questions now. Something more than a shot at the Grotus has to have been offered. Before I approach the Council again, I will need to know what that is."

  Chapter 3

  * * *

  We landed on Odenta to fanfare. The chancellor had a special celebration planned for the planet's first space heroes. Word of a first encounter with the enemy had spread quickly. The Odentas were a proud people. And given their recent losses, the successful mission would give a huge boost to morale.

  After a lengthy speech, the chancellor joined me at a gala in honor of their new alliance partners. "We are moving forward rapidly on all fronts of ship construction. The autobots number more than four million strong with 70 percent working directly on ship construction. Another 25 percent have been directed toward resource allocation, mining, refining, and transportation of materials. The remainder have been tasked with upgrading our industrial infrastructure to support these efforts, and to replicating themselves."

  I replied, "I saw twenty-two ships on the scans when coming in. Have they been fully flight tested?"

  The chancellor nodded. "They've been conducting daily drills since coming online. Since your departure, our engineers have identified several dozen design flaws. We've made the corrections to the fleet. The Odentus should be receiving those updates in the next few days."

  I smiled. "It sounds like everything is going as well as it could be. What kind of production numbers are we seeing?"

  The chancellor gestured toward my arm pad. "I've had links to the data created that you should have access to. Check under production status. There should be a page showing the ships under construction along with estimates to complete."

  I pulled up the display. "We have sixteen ships under construction at the same time?"

  The chancellor nodded. "And eight new bays will be added within the week. It really is a remarkable sight to see. The assembly of one of those cruisers can be completed in three days. The bots are very efficient at building sub-components and pre-assembling large sections. The bays are only used for final assembly, which is where the three day figure comes from. When this event concludes, I would be happy to show you a ship under assembly."

  I replied, "I'd like to see that. What I'd also like to see is a new transport design. The Salton ships are adequate, but slow. They leave the occupants vulnerable to attacks from armed ships. I would like to see a new design that can carry more personnel and which includes the gravity beam technology. That technology, by the way, has proven to be incredibly useful at neutralizing an opponent's ship."

  The chancellor selected a glass of a local wine from a tray as it passed. "Our engineers have come up with another use for the gravity beam. A small ship equipped with the beam would be a formidable ground assault vehicle. Ground fortifications and structure would be easy targets for such a weapon. They are also working on a handheld version that would be similar to a rifle. They call it a GPR or Gravity Pulse Rifle. The beam housing has been completed. Powering it is still an issue, but one they believe can be resolved."

  I said, "You should ask your engineers to try to design a power supply that will work within an ion inhibitor field. If we had that weapon against the Grumar and Grotus on Doomlight, my Talisan fighters wouldn't have had the losses we did. In fact, we might not have lost anyone."

  The chancellor took a sip from his wine. "I'm certain you are looking to return to Doomlight. Do you have an idea of when that will happen?"

  I nodded as I shook the hand of an Odenta dignitary. "I want to go as soon as we have enough transports ready to carry fourteen million Gruntas back here. The ships would need supplies to last at least a month, and I will have to convince my people to leave."

  As the speeches and other events surrounding the gala began to wind down, Marun Iklause escorted me to the first of the sixteen ship assembly bays. Thousands of the meter-tall autobots were busy tacking welds and tightening bolts. Immense cranes moved dozens of large sections into place as I watched. Within an hour of my arrival, the first two decks of eighteen were laid inside the previously empty frame. The ordered assembly moved along at optimum speed.

  Marun said, "Shortly, you will see the first of the gravity pulse turrets that were added to the design. It's a reduced size from the main gun. The current design of the GPR came from this effort. Each turret houses four guns which will be capable of defending against Grumar missiles. They will also be effective at warding off smaller ships, such as individual fighters. There will be sixteen turrets down the side of each ship, with four additional forward and aft. I would suggest that we also add turrets to any transport designs."

  I nodded. "I think that's an excellent idea, Chancellor. Anything we can do to protect those transports is a good undertaking. I'm beginning to see a way for us to bring about an invasion of Modus. If we can build a sufficient amount of transports and load them up with those inhibitor spikes, I believe the Grunta Council would elect to come with us."

  The chancellor replied, "It would be the obvious choice. Have you thought about sending a scout ship or two out to Modus to observe? Knowing your enemy’s strengths and weaknesses ahead of time would be advantageous."

  I pointed at a ten-meter-wide assembly as it was hoisted from a rolling platform below. "Is that one of the turrets?"

  The chancellor nodded. "I believe it is."

  I moved farther down the catwalk on which we stood to have a better look. "I've been thinking about a scout mission as well. If we do one, I want to be on it. I want to see exactly what's going on out there. But I need to get the Gruntas off Doomlight first."

  The chancellor said, "Our engineers have calculated the time it will take your ship to reach Modus. Seven weeks is a long voyage. If the gravity beam option is added to your ship, a week can be taken off the journey. If you first visit Doomlight, you will need an additional two months before you start off for Modus, the time it will take to venture to Doomlight and back. From your prior explanations of the scan technology you have available, I would think it best for you to send a recon team to Modus now while you are preparing to gather your people from Doomlight."

  I rested my elbows on the railing. "I'll have to talk it over with Garrett, Go, and Jack. If the decision is made to send them to Modus, how long would it take to configure the Garmon with the gravity beam technology?"

  The chancellor touched a comm device that rested in his right ear. "Captain Dalga, ask one of the AIs for a time estimate to install a gravity beam on the Garmon. And get another estimate for adding two of the prefabricated turrets to her hull."

  "Yes, sir," the captain replied.

  As I continued my chat with the chancellor, the captain reported, "Sir, an install of the full weapon will require us to divert 8 percent of our resources for a period of fifty-six hours. The turret additions would require an additional twenty-three hours. Would you like to implement these changes, Chancellor?"

  The chancellor looked at me with raised eyebrows. "Your call, Mr. Beutcher."

  I took a deep breath. "I suppose we will want those on the Garmon anyway. Pass along the order if you would."

  The chancellor nodded. "Captain, please schedule the updates to the Garmon to begin immediately."

  The chancellor touched his earpiece. "Is there anything else I can assist with, Mr. Beutcher? If not, I must be getting back to my wife. She does require that I spend at least a minimum amount of time at home."

  I smiled. "Thank you, Chancellor. And go see your wife. You are more than deserving of a break."

  I hailed Garrett on the comm. "Get Jack and Go together if you can. Meet me by the main conference room in front of the Odenta engineering building. We need to go over
a few things and make a few decisions."

  Twenty minutes later, the trio followed me into the empty conference room. "Here's what I have: we need to retrieve my people from Doomlight, and we want to do a recon run at Modus. While the Garmon is being updated, I want the three of you to ping the Odentas about every bit of stealth or spying technology they have. I want a list of possible upgrades we could make and a plan as to how we would go about doing it. I want you headed to Modus within the week if possible. It's a long ride out there and back, but we need the data for what it is we will be facing when we get there. We need to know if we will be expecting a hundred of those battlecruisers or a thousand.

  "I've been thinking about what we might do if we eventually put together a ground assault of Modus. Drop in the troops, drop in inhibitors, and add a ground gun that will function when the inhibitor is on. The ground gun would be like one of these turrets and would be used to keep them from just dropping debris on the inhibitors from above."

  Jack raised his hand. "Wait. Does this mean the nuke 'em strategy is off the table?"

  I shook my head. "Nothing is off the table at the moment. If we do split up and you three go out to Modus, I want an eval of targets for both the nuclear option and a full-on ground assault."

  Garrett offered a half laugh. "I don't see what the difference is other than destruction on the ground. You will still be killing just about everyone there. At least if you bomb from orbit you don't risk your own people."

  Go replied, "Yeah, but you kill everyone, regardless if they are fighting or not. I have to agree with Jack on this one. At least the ground assault gives them the option of surrender."

  I frowned. "I wish that were a possibility, but the Grotus will not surrender. And given that the Grumar worship them, they will not surrender, either. Even if we go in as a ground assault, we may have to kill everyone, at least every Grotus. There is the possibility that the Grumar would surrender to my people if the Grotus were all dead."

  Jack said, "When will the Garmon be ready?"

  I replied, "I would give it three days. I asked the Odenta to upgrade her with one of the beam guns, and with a turret on either side. Are you familiar with the turrets they are adding to all the ships?"

  The three nodded.

  Garrett raised a finger. "What about the Jess? Is there anything we can do to her? That increased speed option from that gravity beam would be a welcome one."

  I looked at Go. "Can you get with the engineers to see what's possible for the Jess? Any advantage we can add to any of our ships should be done while we have the ability and the time to do it. And if you haven't already done so, you might look into repairing the coffee maker. If I have to go in her for any length of time, I'll want my coffee."

  Go laughed. "OK, I'll make sure the brewer is functional, and I’ll see to it that any updates that can be done, are done."

  After several meetings with the Talisan and Odenta engineers, a transport design was settled upon. Each transport would house two hundred fifty thousand individuals, with the ability to sustain them for up to three months of travel. That travel time could be indefinitely extended with the use of supply ships.

  Construction began immediately, with the first of the transports set to take flight within a six day period. I marveled at what the AIs and autobots were able to accomplish in such a short time span. Our target would be to build forty of the Mega transports. When combined with the transports we had, the entire Grunta population could be moved at once. Initial scheduling had the last of the great ships taking flight in thirty days' time.

  When flight tests were complete, I would once again make a run to Doomlight. The Council would have to see it my way. I would convince them to return to Odenta with me, where we could plan out the assault of Modus. There would be no need of involving the Saltons. Plans could be drawn from data returned by Garrett, Jack, and Go.

  I boarded the Garmon as she came off the line for a flight test. "Did the engineers give you instructions for making use of the gravity beam?"

  Jack nodded. "I've been going over them for two days in a simulator with my crew. I'm excited to see what speeds we can achieve. The gravity drive on this ship is more efficient than the ones constructed by those bots. Not by much, but anything can be everything when you are in a fight."

  Garrett and Go walked onto the bridge.

  "Are we ready?" Garrett said.

  Jack sat in the captain's chair. "Mr. Jefferson, let's see what she can do."

  We watched intently on the view-screen as the docking clamps were released. After a slow taxi upward, the bay was cleared and the throttle was pushed to full. We left orbit in only a few seconds and achieved top speed in under a minute.

  Jack smiled. "Mr. Jefferson, bring the gravity beam online please."

  Jefferson replied, "Beam is charged and ready, Captain."

  Jack nodded. "Enable the beam, Mr. Jefferson. I want to see data points for speed on the screen every five seconds."

  Jefferson complied.

  Jack smiled as the numbers climbed. "We have 10 percent, 12 percent, and climbing!"

  When the data settled out, the beam technology had added 18 percent to the Garmon's top speed.

  I slapped Jack on the back. "You command a very fast ship, Mr. Carson."

  Jack nodded. "I can't say I've ever achieved, or seen anyone else achieve, this velocity, Mr. Beutcher. This is outstanding!"

  Garrett crossed his arms as he laughed. "Man, what I wouldn't have done to have this kind of speed on the Jess when I first got her. Could have added years to my life rather than what I spent in open space just traveling."

  Go said, "It does eat fuel, though. Instead of a biennial refresh of the cesium cores for the ion generators, you may have to change them out every year."

  Garrett laughed. "Hey, with that speed, who cares."

  Jack replied, "I think I see Go's point. Where are we going to get new cores?"

  I gestured toward the nav screen. "We have transports we can cannibalize. And there is always a new stream of them coming through that portal, so long as Harden Salton wants this galaxy. Speaking of such, if we can get my people away from Doomlight, we could try a trip through the portal again to check on the progress of Harden's portal ship. We'll want to be there when that ship goes operational if we want a shot at grabbing it."

  Garrett nodded. "If we can't grab it, we need to destroy it. That single ship would be a more devastating weapon than anything else in all the galaxies. I would take that over a million of these fission missiles."

  Jack gave an order. "Mr. Jefferson, take us back to the docks."

  I held up my hand. "Hold on. What can we do to test out the turrets? Do we have any target drones, or anything like that to send out?"

  Jack replied, "Target drones? Not a chance. We're lucky to have a handful of passive probes. And I wouldn't want to risk damaging them."

  Go stepped up. "I can go."

  Garrett laughed. "If he's going, I want to sit in one of those turrets!"

  Go crossed his arms. "No, really, I can go. I have the sensors that will tell what we are seeing from one of those beams. Just dial it down to begin with, and we'll go from there."

  I shook my head. "That doesn't sound like a good idea. What if that suit gets overwhelmed?"

  Go replied, "It won't. And we don't have to be traveling at speed to test those turrets. We can be at a dead stop."

  Jack ordered the Garmon to a stop. "Mr. Jefferson, bring our velocity to zero. Knog, I think Go will be fine. The beams from these cannons can be set to a reduced output. We can use that at least to test out the aiming mechanisms."

  After several minutes of discussion, my caution gave in to reason. Go blinked out and readied for the first of several dozen firings of the gravity beam defense weapons. If the turrets worked as designed and an attack of Grummar missiles were to come our way, the Garmon would have the ability to prevent a strike.

  Go came over the comm. "OK, hit me with what you got!"
>
  Garrett walked over to the weapons officer. "Let me press that button."

  The officer moved back from the console. Garrett fired the weapon with a smile.

  Go said, "OK, I received a fifteen millisecond beam of forty-six Gees. What output were we expecting?"

  Garrett looked down at the console. "One hundred. Move two meters to your left and a meter up."

  Seconds later, Go replied, "OK, I'm there."

  Garrett fired a pulse. "What'd you get?"

  Go checked his sensor data. "I got 97 Gees."

  Garrett punched in a set of numbers on the console. "Move to the right five meters and down two meters."

  Go nodded. "In position."

  Garrett again fired the turreted weapon.

  Go smiled. "That one was 100 Gees."

  Garrett turned back to face us. "We have optical alignment. The directional sensors have been reset to match. I'll apply those settings to all turrets. We can do a random sampling to see that it took."

  With the turrets aligned and the speed enhancement tested, we returned to the docks at Odenta. The following day the Jess came out of repair dock with a scaled-down main gravity beam and a turret. Tests showed a 16 percent improvement in speed.

  After a battery of tests on the Jess, Jack, Go, and Garrett departed Odenta in the Garmon with two Odenta cruisers alongside. The trip out to Modus would take just under six weeks.

  Chapter 4

  * * *

  Four weeks after the departure of Jack, Go, and Garrett, the fortieth mega transport was run through flight testing. With the fleet in good standing, the chancellor held a small ceremony where he promoted Gar Thexan to the position of fleet admiral. From what I had witnessed of Gar, it was a promotion which was well-deserved.