Chapter 90

I stayed in the small ship or on the planet for two days. I didn't want to leave without accomplishing something. Mom sent me food through the maze and I simply ate it to fuel my body. The hate diminished only because it was converted to determination to kill the Fassoot, root and branch. The family was able to talk to me even if we didn't have holograms to provide visual information.

I had studied and worked on the Misto sensors still on the unused portion of hull. The best course of action was to make a much smaller probe with the intelligence of one of the Relative Class ships. Nothing new could be determined from the construction. I knew its secrets only had to be deciphered but I could not see them. The weapons the Fassoot had used on the planets were discernable after a bit of study. The way we were first attacked must have been very similar to what I had done.

The crystals in my brain were examined to try to find the minimum necessary to interface with the higher dimensions and form a conduit to guide the enormous amount of power.

The remaining crystals were examined. Some were used to brace the structure while some was for precognition. This part had been overruled I found, because of my anger at the Fassoot and my wish to destroy. A crystalline section allowed me to interface with a computer much better than anybody else thought possible. Other portions dramatically increased my already strong, but usual powers that most Tandra already possessed.

My eye gave me the ability to see into the other two dimensions but it was the construct in my head that allowed me to manipulate what I could perceive. By the time I should leave, I had only succeeded in strengthening the framework somewhat, while not making it that much less efficient.

Some good news was sent to me. The children from the Lazarus station had arrived but continued to be kept in stasis till there were enough adults to watch them. The Academy race to repair the minefield was going to be a success, I knew. It was broadly said that Human/Tandra and Human/other could do much more than any one race by itself. I was updated about the new lunar habitats. The travelogues that had been made and shown to the people of Earth. This was designed to make them aware of what our planet could be like. It was also designed to show them that they could save their own environment. It's much easier without having to terraform a planet.

I talked most to my children but the usual question was, "When are you coming home, daddy?"

This was a difficult question. I wanted them safe as well as all the other children. I also knew that they needed me to guide them even though the rest of the family assisted. If I did go home now it would tear me up knowing that certain races were still out here killing so many peaceful people.

Our small probe showed the Fassoot still in the position I last left them. The two battleships had not been completely destroyed and work was going on trying to repair some of the smaller escort ships to carry the survivors of the battle. An inspection of the surviving battleship showed that we had done nothing to it in trying to ram it. Its defences were up to handling a ship of Mom's size even if we had improved shields and hull.

I would love to destroy the remaining battleship but we had no weapon that could breach its shield now. There were pickets placed to warn them of any new arrivals. My sneaking up and destroying two thirds of their fleet must have made them a bit unsure.

The way the Claw was taken came to mind but a few new twists would have to occur if this was going to work well. The Misto had some interesting ships and the Fassoot no doubt were very aware of the race. A smile came to my face for the first time in days. I got into the small one place ship and hurried back to the last system I had helped.

I was greeted on the planet with less than the usual ceremony because I demanded it this way. They already had some equipment ready and I manufactured a large inertial compensator, a shield unit, a frame and some tractors attached to it and last of all, a very small sphere of only ten centimetres in diameter. A Misto sensor was altered dramatically and mounted on the small sphere. The sensor was worthless but it might give the Fassoot a reason to investigate it further.

The ceramic sphere was given a small Tandra type computer with a large, for its size, crystal. Inside my small ship's computer I entered the maze and found the back door to the small sphere. Here I carefully inserted the equipment that would give the same shield that blocked the Misto's back door. This was now energized with the use of a matter transmitter unit.

Leaving the maze, I found the sphere was not any different except that I could not look within it now. The sphere was just a simple computer with a good shield unit inside. For its small size it was fairly strong to resist entry.

I bid the Tandra goodbye and found a small Misto ship that had been seriously damaged. The computer had been sheared off with the remainder of the ship but I left the small sphere with some Misto bodies.

The frame I made with the tractors held the ship as I directed power to the compensator and flew the arrangement to the Fassoot fleet. This took six hours because I could not go fast. As I approached the system, the partial Misto ship was given another push to get it into the system. A faulty accumulator made noise not only in the electromagnetic spectrum but also in others. The power was not high but it was designed to look natural.

My first construction slowed and I brought it to a complete stop. If things worked right it had one more job to do.

The first probe knew where to look. It took the Fassoot only ten minutes to detect the Trojan horse I was sending them.

A small ship swallowed the wreck and sped back to the centre of the system. A few hours passed and I had no way of knowing where the sphere was but I did slip back into the maze now with a small matter transmitter crystal and fifty grams of antimatter in a small magnetic bottle.

My AI family watched three-dimensional space while I monitored the back door to the sphere. With my hand on the small gray surface I knew that they had breached the ceramic sphere and now were working on the shield inside. They must have taken the bet because they didn't use brute force, which they certainly could do.

I could feel the field waver then collapse completely. This next part had to do with faith in curiosity. The Fassoot would have an AI monitor what was uncovered and try to find out what the device was. I just hoped that soon one of the biological would call the AI off and investigate in person.

A human would have come in within an hour but I continued to wait. The only thing that I was going by was a feeling I had. Two more hours passed and I could almost feel people coming close but the time did not seem right yet. My anticipation started to build and I had the small cylinder in my hand and just waited for the right second.

Suddenly my hand shot out and I drove the cylinder through the maze wall and into the very small computer I had made. The hand had not gone through but my PK was enough to push it the rest of the way and deactivated the magnetic containment.

From the maze I heard the AI family cheer. In two steps I was pushing back into the small ship and looked through the first probe to see for myself what had happened.

The battleship had ruptured completely with the force of the explosion. Mom told me that a destroyer had entered a bay in the large ship and ten minutes later the bay had shown the first signs of the explosion. The battleship's shield had contained it for a moment till the energy had destroyed the generators themselves. With nothing but a material shield to contain a blast that it could not do, the ship ruptured. Material was cast out into space while some of the blast was directed at a cruiser.

The energy was so great that the cruiser was damaged but its shields held. Small Fassoot ships were not as lucky. Many were simply vaporized while some were cast completely away with enough acceleration to kill anyone inside. Inertial compensators in small ships were only so strong.

A ship that looked like an unarmed shuttle that had been far enough away from the explosion appeared to be heavily damaged but not completely. My first probe raced in with all the confusion and started to push it out of the system.

I raced to the framework ship I had used to bring the Misto ship to the system. With this I moved quickly to meet the Fassoot wreck outside the system.

While I waited I used my mind to search for any questing mind that may be after me. This was done very cautiously because I knew what they could do if aroused and had a direction to aim at.

The shuttle came close enough that I figured we would be safe. The ship was larger that the Misto ship. I could not detect any feelings of life onboard. The probe returned to monitor the damaged Fassoot fleet while I pushed the wreck out into open space. I didn't want any Fassoot device to lead other ships to me especially if there were some Tandra world close by. My mind was constantly scanning to find some type of energy that might be seen as a ship that was in trouble. Energy was given off but it appeared to be random at the moment.

An asteroid orbiting behind a neighbouring star provided a good place to work from. I stopped and started to investigate my catch. The hull had been ruptured and the four Fassoot onboard had not had their shields energize. They had literally ruptured themselves from every weak orifice. I estimated that they must have stood about a metre and a half tall but were very wide. They had the appearance of coming from a high gravitational planet, as the Hossin and Misto records indicated.

Four arms were evident and they looked like a heavy Mordis type structure. The lower pair of arms looked to be strong while the pair closer to the head appeared to be used because delicate manipulations. The skull was large and I could not see anything too ugly about it. There were overhanging ridges to protect their eyes something like Neanderthals had. The hair covering most of the visible sections was very dark red and coarse looking. The teeth were like Human, meaning they were omnivorous. The ears and nose were not at the same place and looked different but still recognizable, the eyes were an unknown because they had ruptured.

The computer was not in the centre of the ship as it usually was in Tandra craft but closer to the aft section where the power was developed. It looked damaged by a large piece of hull from the battleship that had sliced the ship almost in two and severed the computer from what looked like the accumulators.

The computer was what I wanted most but this I had to leave for last. The security the other two races used on their computers meant that the Fassoot would probably be even more stringent. This particular machine even if it were just a simple shuttle would get babied as if it were a battleship in power.

The hull was not like a warship and didn't have the thickness and strength but did have a sampling of their sensors. The ones I found didn't look much different than what the Misto used.

As small portions were removed I would try to make sense of them then put them into the maze to send to better facilities for investigation. My mind was able to only do some things very well, and I could not do most of this investigation unless I had a strong feeling about something.

The engines, when I got to them, were much different though. In mass they were twice as much but looked to be the same size as what we used. Using my eyes and hands I was not able to see inside as if this were a wall of a Misto computer room. The shade of gray was much darker and I could only attribute this to the strength of the shield but this was a guess.

The power to feed the engines was similar to what I presently used on our ships. They took energy from the upper universe but in a different method. My method was much simpler but had a great many limitations. I could only use raw energy for the most part to propel a ship or an inertial compensator. These units looked to be much more subtle and much more capable of producing power in a superior form.

The compensator and power generation unit along with many other important parts could not be seen into. The crystal I found could only be the cause. At the end of the day I had the majority of the ship cut apart and being held by the weak gravitational attraction of the asteroid.

The various types of communication instruments were separated if possible to see what new types of information we could find. It all broke down to the basic principles of the new crystal. Without this there was no understanding any of the remainder of the equipment. I felt like a twenty first century man investigating Tandra equipment for the first time with no idea of how it worked.

What I did find out was that there was no way of defeating these Fassoot technologically with the information we already had. They were always at war or so it seemed, and they would be much more wary than what the Samutz had been.

Pieces that were small enough, were transferred back through the maze. Defren and the monarchies were the most technologically advanced. The maze brought some of the equipment to my empty ships and these made the deliveries to hide the source. I didn't want then to know of my method of travel. Now was the time for all of them to work very closely together. Soon they may have to face the Fassoot and probably die.

Again I went back to the last Tandra base to get some additional help. The larger pieces of Fassoot equipment stayed on the asteroid.

The base had only a thousand individuals and most of them were now busy making another ship for me. As soon as possible, I pulled Mom and Bennechi back into position and they assisted in this work.

The small escorts I had made were replaced and the computers' AIs reinstalled. I still didn't know enough about the Fassoot technology to make any improvements. Mom and Bennechi did make some improvements in the new hulls to get the best we could but this was only a small increment.

One of the first things I had done was to get back in visual communications with the family. Audio was limited but they were satisfied with it till the video became available. I was able to give my biological family a sample of my memories when I showed them the Fassoot bodies and the equipment.

The system now taken by the Fassoot looked to be changing. They had very few operational ships larger than a destroyer. We found that seven had been repaired enough to continue with their duties. One stayed in the centre of the repair work while the other six very actively searched out an enemy. The three battleship wrecks seemed to be now being salvaged to make one working unit. More of my small probes were sent to keep them under surveillance. This was much safer than before. Now there was a huge amount of ceramic equipment that was blown about the system by the explosions or the collision of the first two ships.

Matthew slowly recovered. He was sore all over but mostly in his neck and left shoulder. He remembered where he was and immediately tried to get a status report from Goosey.

The AI was responding oddly and the boy tried to delve deeper. He was shocked to find that the programming he was dealing with was simply the computer itself. His mind quested out in a different direction and searched for his crew. Some were hurt badly. An accident of some kind had driven the ship to one side. Matthew started to get up and found the artificial gravity gone. It had been kept to a minimum before to let people navigate better. Now it was completely missing.

Trixie seemed to have been hurt the most and it took Matthew a moment to find her in one of the workshops. Matthew took a portable diagnostician and a medical repair unit and worked on the small T'aut. She had a bloody face and it looked as if she had fallen very hard. An arm was broken and her back seemed to have suffered some damage. It was good that a T'aut was not constructed the same way as a Human because she would now be very dead. When she looked stable he went to see about the rest.

Mui and Dolk were in the next room and the young male was already working on his mate. Matthew said, "Can you handle this? I have more to check on the others."

"Yes Captain."

This reminded Matthew of his responsibilities. He had to watch over his crew. Mayaz, Lyrra, and Conda had been sleeping and were now up looking to see what they could do. Toosm was crying beside Possa as he tried to get her repaired with a med unit. He was just too upset about this sort of thing.

Jeremy was lying crumpled in a corner with both Maout and Jonathan working to give him first aid. Matthew wanted to rush over but knew the other two would be doing their best. The only one missing was Jerome. Matthew quizzed the computer about the last crewmember and found the record listing him as lost and probably dead. "How could this be?" The young captain rhetorically asked the machine but no answer came. The computer was able to perform a simple search for Jerome but Jeremy's mind told him the other crewmember was not near.

He raced back to Trixie and she floated at his urging to her berth. He tucked her in then used some portable tractors to hold her in position. "You will be alright Trixie. I am going to call off the contest and head in."

Trixie looked so sad before saying, "Yes Captain but I would continue with you."

"I know Sweetie, but there are more people hurt and I want to get you and Jeremy back to get better treatment than we have here."

Jeremy was put into stasis till the ship could be put back in order. He had many injuries that would better be handled by a fully functioning computer and AI.

The ship had somehow been thrown far from Earth. The stars and constellations were very odd but some of that could be from parallax. The ship itself was fairly safe. Matthew went out with Mui to inspect the damage and found out how close they had come to death. The large accumulator in the stern had been cut away but left the smaller spare unit. This one had been shorted out but it was now being charged. The small lithium reactor that Matthew had insisted on installing along with the rest of his safety equipment would now provide energy.

While trying to deal with keeping his crew alive, Matthew had to tell Jonathan what he knew of his brother. The boy had not accepted this and ran through the ship calling the brother that was always there for him. Soon the mental calls were heard. This lasted longer than Matthew thought prudent considering how trained his crew were. He also had to take into consideration how young every one of them were.

Lyrra just clutched a chair and rocked herself back and forth. Her own mind coming unhinged at the loss of her lover. It was hours later that Mayaz had taken Jonathan and Lyrra into a corner and worked to get each to forget their troubles at least for a while. The weeping and love went on and on till they fell asleep exhausted.

This affected the other Tandra and they too needed reassurance. Matthew did his duty even though he was not sure if he should. Guilt was still very prominent in his mind and the Tandra worked hard after a while to reassure their Captain.

Trixie and her mate Maout now did things their way in the presence of others as did Mui and her mate Dolk. Matthew did manage to look up and at least saw his crew working together to keep all of it strong.

When they awoke Matthew had to do some necessary work to get the ship functional. While surveying the damage from the exterior of the ship, Mui asked, "What are we going to do Captain?"

"Mui, the engines are gone but we do have some smaller units that could be altered to provide propulsion. We need the shield completed first. There is very little in the way of energetic particles but when we get moving they will kill us almost as quick as an explosion."

The way the crew treated him made him even more worried because he was now much more the Captain than ever before. They, at least, didn't blame him for the condition they were in. They actually thanked him for ensuring that the ship was as strong and as well prepared as it was. The fact that a star was so close made them feel all much better.

The raw materials they had in their hold were being used to replicate and replace the hull a piece at a time then fused into one homogeneous whole. When the sensor arrays were placed on the hull and the shield tested, it was a time to rejoice. The crew had worked almost without stop trying to get the shield up for their Captain.

After one sleep Matthew was stripping all the crystals that were not needed and tried to make them into a series of ten small engines that would get them to the nearest star in only twenty-three hours.

Mui and Dolk worked on the computer to get it repaired. Trixie and Maout helped but soon left to help their Captain. Jonathan had come out of his depression and started to work with as much determination as the rest.

Possa was very depressed like the rest and every day so far looked to Matthew for support. This was not always sexual but she constantly needed the reassurance that she was doing right. Matthew saw this and tried to act both professional and as a fellow crewmember. It was hard to do both jobs without spoiling each of them.

Twenty-eight days after they came to a ring of rock much like the Oort cloud around a planetary system. They were again moving and this helped greatly. Their speed was not as great but it was better than staying stationary.

They moved within the cloud and closer to the primary. It was not till they were seventeen hours from the star that they had to veer off. There were a great many ships in the system but all of them were small, chemical and electrical driven models. This is what Earth would have been like in two hundred years if they had not killed themselves first or the Tandra had not shown themselves.

Tandra doctrine stated that civilizations were to be left alone till experts came to assess the situation. There was too many times that a small Tandra delegation had been swamped and killed by a much more barbaric race.

Rather than interfere, they just began taking some of the asteroids in the area and converting them to what they needed in their stores. The only parts needed were a larger accumulator and some way of making a better propulsion system. This required some large crystals but failing those, smaller units could be fabricated then used to augment the motors they already had.

It was six days later that the AI came back to life. It had been fractured in the accident and was now joined by other crystals to form an AI that hopefully would be even more intelligent. This had been decided right after the accident because they had a great need for every helping hand.

When the AI passed all its tests Jeremy was awoken and his injuries treated. Soon the Tandra had to go through the process of healing him as the rest of the crew had done to each other. He had loved Jerome as crew and family and it hurt him deeply that he had been lost.

With the extra fabricator that had been brought onboard, and the happily working AI, sixteen more small engines were manufactured and then mounted. The accumulator was powered up and some lithium found to supplement their supply. The ship was not as good as it should be. A light ten light year journey would take four months not the two days it once would have.

The cadets had been in the military and Matthew had argued that he would like to put a military type shield on his craft. He had to go to Kitten to get this last request permitted. Looking back now, it was as if Matthew had foreseen this happening and prepared as best he could for this event. The extra preparations had been the reason why they worked so hard and still almost didn't make it to the contest.

They took a leisurely trip through the system before checking for better sources of supplies of minerals and elements. A better ship had to be made. The trip home, if at all possible, would take many years if not centuries. A ship the size of the Gorrsenz would make the figure much higher and the crew would eventually be at each other's throats without suitable room to move and work.

Radio was used by the natives for short distance but maser and laser was a better way to communicate if you knew the location you wanted to send your signal. The language was analysed and nothing odd was found about it. Many first meetings between races in the past had caused a low-tech race to go into hysterical fits. They could not take the idea that they shared the universe with others. Some had even committed racial suicide.

The native race was assessed and found to be not able to help in building a new ship. The team found a large rock that at one time had been part of a planet till it had been ripped apart by tidal forces. Here they started to look for the valuable crystals that were sometimes found in nature. Lithium was very abundant but had to be extracted if you needed it all. Here they found a rich ore that made the job much easier.

Metals of some kinds were needed to do some jobs and these too were extracted. Here hydrogen was found locked in some molecules. The hydrogen was extracted and then changed into the metallic form. The metal was used to construct storage tanks because some of the volatile materials. When these tanks were buried in larger debris, they were filled with other gases that were necessary to get back to Earth before they died of old age. Even though they had to work, Matthew made sure they continued with their studies. This left very little if any free time other than to sleep.

Jonathan found a large meteoroid about twenty-three kilometres long and seven kilometres at it's widest. The current quest was to find a place to build a ship within the system but not allow the locals to see it being constructed. They flew to the rock barren of any of the local outposts because it was worthless and fairly far out from the primary.

A very deep pit was labouriously made with a small opening. This was sealed with a screen that would keep in the air. Housekeeping was set up and the large rock started to heat. Jonathan was given the honour of naming the rock and simply called it 'Home'. Matthew was a bit concerned because he wanted to get home one day no matter how good they made this rock.

It was not even six months later that Lyrra found herself pregnant. Jonathan was thought to be the culprit but the two humans could have done it too. Toosm the lone Tandra male was never considered because he was usually found with the males. Ordinarily the zygote could be extracted for disposal, stored for later or put into a tank to continue its growth. This was discussed at length. Lyrra wanted to keep the child and allow it to grow naturally. They looked at Matthew and he saw how things were running and how this new event would affect his small colony.

"I think Lyrra should have her wish."

There was a celebration after this and in a section of their habitat a nursery was started. Jeremy made sure it was more than large enough to do the task and did much of the work with Jonathan.

Six months later a small dark skinned boy was born. By not only mutual acclaim but by Jonathan, the child was named Jerome. Within three months every Tandra female including Lyrra again were pregnant.

The plans for the ship they were building had changed. Tandra designs were in the large memory banks because Matthew wanted them put in along with everything he thought they might need.

With their large communal family growing the way it was, the ship had to be large. The males' instincts to protect their young necessitated that it be strong and powerful too. So far it hadn't mattered much because only fabricators and computers had been made. Mining machinery had been some of the first equipment to begin harvesting the rock of their home and more now had to be made.

A plebiscite was held and defensive weapons were the first order of business. Later they would be loaded on the ship they were making so it was not a matter of wasted effort.

On their off shift, Possa and Matthew stopped in the nursery and watched their child. The tiny girl was called Justine after Matthew's foster mother that did so much to protect them when they were young and not able to defend themselves.

The large family grew steadily with Toosm being the natural one to look out for the children. Gorrsenz had gone out many times to bring back needed supplies that could not be found in their large habitat. Zinc could be built up from sub-atomic particles but it was much easier to just extract it from ore.

Usually Goosey brought back more data about the people that they shared the system with. Their ships had been shadowed a few times and after a considerable amount of work it was found that the race could project their thoughts. They were like Humans though and used speech only.

The neighbour's ships had problems on occasion and as a means of showing their good will, the ship had been assisted without the crew of the vessel actually knowing how it happened. Most times the ship was halted in its course and propelled in a safe direction.