Chapter 24

“That would be nice, but I haven’t been able to get the light-bending array to align properly. The fact that the apparatus won’t power up has me perplexed. I’ve checked the system three or four times and can’t find anything wrong with it,” Jim said, a look of extreme concentration on his face.

Mary once again was deep in thought, this sounded a lot like one of her missions where her cloak went down and she couldn’t get it backup. Thinking harder, it was starting to frustrate her that the answer wouldn’t come to her. Jim was quiet, he’d seen her like this before, once she was onto an idea if anything broke her concentration she might never finish the idea.

Mary was replaying that whole part of the mission in her head. It started out well. She was near the target, activated the cloak, and nothing happened. What the hell? She’d taken the cloak apart and found nothing wrong with it. Then she’d done it again three times, still finding nothing. Then, she tested her other equipment to see if something was interfering with it. That was it! Turning, Mary almost collided with Jim, “I think I know what’s wrong,” Mary said as she ran out of the control room. Jim was close behind her. “I had a similar problem years ago. The cloak IS working. It’s just that there is another piece of equipment interfering,” Mary said.

“Interfering?” Jim asked.

“Yes,” Mary threw back as she ran, “It has the same power demand and draw as the cloak, it would fool the system that it needed twice the power consumption, there by the system wouldn’t supply any power to the cloak.”

In engineering Jim watched as Mary started adjusting the power and frequency settings of the cloak, not really sure that she could solve the problem. To his complete and utter amazement he watched as not only the cloak system came on but started to work at almost one hundred percent!

Turning to face him a happy smirk on her face she stated, “After all Jim, the cloak idea was my idea to start with you just helped me to bring it to life.” With that she danced away a wide mouthed Jim following not far behind wondering why he hadn’t seen this in the first place. “Don’t feel bad Jim, I’ve found that when I am emotionally attached more than I usually am, I can’t see the easy fixes either.”

Jim walked back to control Mary, not too far behind. Amber, having heard the whole thing, couldn’t help but smile.

Looking over the readings Jim saw that indeed the cloak was now operating, though it was only at ninety five percent it was more than enough for what they needed to do.

“Dickie I need the status on DMTM three, is it damaged too much to effectively repair?” Jim inquired about his AI.

“Scanning,” Dickie droned back. A few minutes later, its answer surprised all three of them. “Captain, I have examined the third Distance Matter through Matter device. I am finding no major problems with it mechanically; it appears that several of the power supply lines to it have been severed. Suggest repair before any further attempts to retrieve the cerebral components of the three Stock members.”

Sighing, Jim again thought he’d have to check Dickie’s logic circuits, “I think we need to run a diagnostic on you when we return Dickie,” Jim said half-heartedly.

“As you wish, Captain, though I can perform that myself,” Dickie returned.

Mary and Amber were both hiding the fact that Jim was irritated with Dickie was hilarious.

It took the better part of the day to repair all the breaks. Finally, everything was ready. Early that morning, while most of the largest cities slept, they implemented their plan. All three brains and equipment were transferred, and a massive amount of explosives were placed around the area where the brains had been. Jim had Dickie slowly moving away from the planet, the cloak down to seventy percent. They’d started charging the planet killers but were still a little close to activating them.

Though Mary knew that the world ships couldn’t see them, she still kept a wary eye on them. Finally, far enough out, Jim knew they had to execute the planet killers. Soon, the cloak was at fifty percent and falling fast. One of the world ships was on the move when Jim activated two of the planet killers. With a huge, satisfied smile, he watched as the planet shook, the atmosphere disappeared, then cracks formed, and finally, the planet exploded, taking one of the world ships with it. Wasting no time, though they were still a little close, Jim activated the tunnel drive.

Drawn in, they were straining to maintain the tunnel when the proximity alert went off five minutes later. Rushing to the sensors Jim and Mary cursed when they saw the second world ship had entered the tunnel with them. Though they couldn’t catch them, the extra mass was straining the tunnel drive to its limits. Jim estimated they were maybe two hours from the Krong planet now decided they weren’t going to escape this world ship that easily and dropped out of the drive.

“Dickie status of the Phasic drop missiles?” Jim inquired.

Mary and Amber looked at Jim like he’d lost his mind, “You combined the two?” Mary almost shouted, “Are you trying to blow the fuck out of everything? As I said once before, you know they WILL turn on us!”

Jim clicked on a screen, letting Mary study the plans, “A macro AI? Ah, I see you removed half the explosive payload for a bigger AI. Damn Jim, this just might work!” Mary said, now more excited.

“I only have fifty thousand ready, though I must warn you, Captain, these are highly unstable,” Dickie replied.

“I know!” shouted Jim, “Deploy!”

They watched as the missiles quickly made their way to the world ship. As expected, the missiles were too small to concern the ship. Too small, that is, till two of the main engines were ripped from the body of the ship. The ship was trying to avoid the missiles now when a few more ripped through the front of the ship. This ignited several layers of fuel that also exploded. Within minutes, the ship was a burning piece of debris. All breathed a sigh of relief as Jim and Mary went over all the equipment again after the strain on it, then reactivated the tunnel drive.