Chapter 94

The information flooded into my mind. The Fassoot had detected a cargo ship of some kind. Some of our probes raced to it but this action was detected and all but two were destroyed by just the light cruiser. The relatively small ship was very fast and made the cargo ship appear to be dead in space.

The design of the ship was Tandra. I used the maze to get to one of the remaining probes. At the opening I had to pull back. The attack was even stronger now. I could do nothing for the crew.

Mom reported that the remainder of the Fassoot convoy was coming to a halt. She sent the images into my mind but knew it would take a while till they could start to meet up with the light cruiser.

The cargo ship was not destroyed though but the feelings that had come from it made Mom and now me consider that the mental emanations of the Fassoot had killed the unprotected crew. The crew could be any race but Mom felt that they were Tandra.

Two things now occurred to me. The energized particles emitted by all shipping could be used to trace the ship back to its last port. The probable course could also be deduced by the direction it was heading. All of this and more could be found in the computer itself. Finally the Fassoot could now use the captured computer to invade our area of the maze once again.

Our last probes tried to find the last port and the destination of the cargo ship. I said to Mom, "I need to stop them getting into the maze. I need some weapons and some antimatter."

These were on hand at the Nefron Base, and Dookie gave them to me. I had the two swords, a hundred grams of antimatter and one of the Fassoot guns that worked within the maze. The last was not expected and this gave me some hope. It took a few minutes to find the small opening to the cargo ship. It was not one of our probes with the accompanying computer but did project the mental weapon of the Fassoot.

I just picked one side of the maze close to this opening and pushed into a blank area. The pain was not that strong because I was not really that close to the opening. The wait was almost an hour. Mom sent back information to me about what the probes saw but nothing much was happening other than a large group of Fassoot entering the Tandra type cargo ship.

The first Fassoot came through with a mental thrust. I closed my eyes at the pain but forced them open. The Fassoot turned to my right and took a few steps down the maze. He was armed with a similar gun and some equipment on a strap around its neck.

A few seconds later I felt a large increase in pain. I knew I would not be able to handle any additional newcomers. I moved out of my hiding spot and fired at the first Fassoot. I hit the arm holding the gun. Immediately the majority of my pain stopped. The next Fassoot was just coming through. The gun came through first and when the head fully came through I shot its gun arm too. The being fell down. My gun went into a holster and I came forward, disregarding its ability to hurt me. I pulled it into the maze with one hand and threw the small cannister of antimatter into the Tandra computer. I pushed it with my mind and just hoped it went far enough.

The Fassoot bodies had been studied but these were the first live specimens. The time was up that would have allowed the small innocuous looking cannister to come back.

I knew what hand weapons they had and removed them from the injured beings. The first was coming to its senses even trough the pain and I ran to it and kicked it where similar bodies had a high concentration of nerve endings. This seemed to work quite well. In a few seconds I was repeating this on the second Fassoot.

I had time to talk to Mom and she told me the Tandra cargo ship was destroyed and the light cruiser severely damaged.

The Fassoot bodies were very dense and were difficult to move even in the maze. Dookie had two stasis chambers ready when I brought them back one at a time.

The Fassoot had not learned anything from all the death I had caused them. Their ships blasted away with energy weapons once again and continued this as the battleship took the damaged vessel into its hold. The course they were now going was backtracking the cargo ship.

Rather than interrogate the Fassoot I searched around the opening of the maze to the Nefron Base and found the two other possibilities. I gave the override again and listened to the computer to received a suitable reply. These two areas were going to be explored when I had time. A small roll of substrate entered the first base then the override was give the second. Again the substrate went in to connect them to our network.

It was a toss up which to go in first. I didn't know who or what I would meet so the computers and AIs were compelled to not warn the bases they protected.

The first had a Tandra population numbering in the hundreds. Many more were in stasis. Like most other old Tandra bases, they worked alone with no assistance from people of other origins. I was given this bases position on a multi dimensional map. In only a second I knew that the cargo ship had not come from here. In fact that particular vessel was not even in the records.

With a command to simply comply with Mom's commands I left this base and entered the next opening. The same orders were given this time too. The records though said that the cargo ship had left here recently.

An estimate of the expected Fassoot arrival was about 93 hours from now. The base personnel was different than usual. There were almost 37,000 individuals awake and actually growing. They had a dynamic leader about five centuries ago that pulled the rest into doing something more than vegetating. With so little time in this mode there was nothing new apart from the dynamism of this group.

The Coska system was quite old. Apart from a matter transmitter and ship repair/manufacturing facility it was little different than any other base. I didn't want to come to this system this way and simply sent Mom and Bennechi to the base. When they got close I would just enter the ship through the maze.

I left the maze and checked on my two Fassoot. With some Dooka now inside the base and close, I was hesitant about reviving any of the individuals. They were very strong and would need a very good restraint to keep their powerful bodies from being an ever-present danger to anybody close to them.

Dookie made a strong harness that would give some movement but not much. A device to give it a shock for pain and another one like what was used on Earth to put them to sleep was added. The creature could bleed to death but a small med unit would not work in the maze. A tourniquet was the best I could do.

This device and some cord were put in the maze. I then dragged one of the individuals back. It was still unconscious from the kick and I removed all of its clothing. The harness was difficult to get on and I was mindful of it waking up before I was done. I did make it in time and applied the tourniquet and just sat back trying to get into the being's mind.

It began to wake up and I commanded one control unit to force it back into sleep. The mind was a labyrinth. It was very convoluted, devious and to my way of thinking, insane.

I did see something odd about this one's skull. An area seemed to shimmer just a bit. Now that it could be kept safely asleep I dragged the other back into the base. Dookie transported it to medical where it went onto a table.

The first thing I considered was to repair the arm. To be safer I had the med unit remove it and its mate. The two minor arms went as well. Now only the feet, legs, teeth and of course the mind would be dangerous.

Mom was getting close to Coska. I left the Fassoot with Dookie. She had some very explicit instructions. This type of creature was very dangerous and needed to be sedated at all times. Failing that the shock would be given and if that didn't work it would be terminated if necessary.

The double ship didn't have that much room to spare but was comfortable for short flights. Mom, Bennechi and I pushed the ship for a very short time up to 29,000 lights. As far as I knew the Fassoot could not even go this fast.

Just outside the Coska system we stopped at the edge of what they could detect and asked for permission to enter. We were told to enter and when they saw the size of the ship, a Tandra controller said, "Come at your best speed. You may land in front of the base."

"That is affirmative. We will make the main base at our best speed." This did make me grin and the three of us pushed forward as quick as we could. Five point three seconds later we were above the planet and a two seconds later we had come to a stop where we thought best. I was ready to move the ship into the five dimensions if weapons would bear on us but none did. The computer was cooperating with us and nobody had a chance to give the necessary orders.

I got out after ten seconds and was met by three very irate Tandra individuals. The base commander was one and two of her lieutenants came with her. My identity crystal was switched to the admiral persona for this meeting. The aura was put to low and most of my mind blocked off. This is what a person of my apparent rank would do.

Standing tall, I waited till they came close and the commander said, "What race are you, and why did you land like this?"

"I am a Human from Sofaas III. Quite a distance from here I think. I landed like this because I was asked to proceed at my best speed. Is there anything else you would like ladies?" The term 'ladies' was slightly derogatory term used by Tandra males. The reaction was what I expected and they frowned and got angry. One was eyeing me up to fight while the other two just studied me intently.

Commander Toka said, "Yes there is, male. How can your ship defy physics and fly here that fast and even within the Mardaf Limit?"

"The ship is light and if you investigate, you will find that it doesn't even have any engines or other unless equipment. It has basically only a shield and an inertial compensator. Life support is minimal because I don't take too long getting from one place to another."

"How fast will this ship go?" Lots more questions were in their minds but this is the one that came out.

"It has not been flying long and the highest speed we reached was 29,106 lights per day. Next time I will see if we can get beyond the 30,000 mark."

"Impossible. You are a very deluded male if you think we will believe that."

I just smiled the Tandra way and said, "Then explain how I got here so fast. Last I heard, it was difficult or impossible to state falsehoods."

She got off the subject right away and said, "What business do you have with us?"

I gave the Tandra name for the Canis Major galaxy and the name of the three races of visitors we already had. My mind was opened a bit and I showed them the attributes of each of the races along with their level of technology.

"The group of Fassoot ships composed of a damaged battleship, a heavy cruiser and a destroyer are in route to this location. They will be here in 90 hours. They stumbled on a cargo vessel and are presently backtracking it. The Tandra crew are all dead and the only reason the ships are not here now is that they are staying together to nurse a partially crippled battleship."

This did get them very interested. A warning went out because they could not detect any lies. They now wanted direction because two cargo ships had left recently. More information was requested and I gave specifics as to mass, present speed, and the capabilities of the surviving weapons on the ships.

Commander Toka gave orders to check on this fleet even though the ships would probably not make it back. I interrupted, "I can give you and your computer a real time display."

"That is thousands of times beyond possible range."

"Do you want the information?"

I got a grudging, "Do it." This was definitely an order and not a request.

The information came in on a large display. The present time was shown along with all the data being collected. This scrolled at the side and bottom of the screen in the Tandra language. The range was questioned when it was noticed because we had nothing as good as this before. We still didn't because the properties were still unknown. The equipment was taken from captured or destroyed enemy vessels.

Commander Toka started again to send out ships but this time in a defensive formation. I said seriously to the commander, "This will not help. They will just come in with their missiles. They are so fast, that they are hardly even be seen, never mind intercepted or evaded."

"I can probably destroy one of the minor ships approaching us, by booby trapping one of your ships. They want to find information about the way our computers are constructed. They just lost a light cruiser to this trick of mine, and I may be able to do it one more time. It will probably not take one of the major ships though. They use a mind weapon that tells the cells of your body to shut down. There is very little defence against it. The cargo ship could not be protected and I believe everyone was dead when they got onboard without a shot being fired."

The woman demanded, "Show me the information about the cargo ship and tell me how you destroyed this other ship."

"The first you may have but the second is something only I can do." She looked at me very seriously now and I knew she would have me scanned by the computer if she could. She normally did have the authority.

The information about the capture was shown and after a time lapse where I waited for the two Fassoot. The next view was the explosion that destroyed the Tandra ship and most of the Fassoot as well. The battleship soon came into view and it was compared in size to the light cruiser. There was so much difference that the smaller ship was insignificant.

Her next command went to the computer to arrest me and find out the information she wanted. The computer refused without giving a reason why.

"I have had some experience with this race." I said calmly. "The best you can do is evacuate. You had more than enough vessels to do so. The Fassoot battleship will take at least twelve days to repair I think. By that time you could have dispersed. I will harass the Fassoot till I am able to get them all but they keep their mental weapon up all the time now and it would kill me to even try."

The woman sneered at my plan and would rather fight, thinking that she had at least a chance to win when, in fact she had none. "We can do better than that. The Tandra do not run when an enemy faces us. If we do not stop them here then they will just take on other even more defenceless bases or races."

"That is very commendable commander. I want them to stop here for a while though and then I can send some small intelligent missiles to slowly work their way close to the ships. At the same time all of them will explode. All it takes is enough antimatter."

"That will never work."

"You are mistaken. I have already done it once. There were no survivors to tell the story."

"So now you are taking on this race and they are following you. I think you should leave."

"I would but I am afraid you will instead." I said this with the most impressive voice in mindspeak I had while releasing my aura. I concentrated on my identity crystal and gave myself the Emperor persona now.

She was stunned by the effect but that was only the mind and the aura. She asked, "Who are you?"

"Ask your own computer. Check through her the very many other computers now linked to our union of different peoples."

She mentally stuttered then said weakly, "You are the Emperor?"

"Yes I am. I want the entire population of this system to prepare to be evacuated. Bring in your largest ships and I will do some work on them to give you a greater chance to survive." She just looked at me. "Commander Toka, I am giving you an Imperial order. Do it now or I will have you replaced."

"Yes sir... your majesty. I will do it right away."

When I saw that matters were going as planned, I entered the base computer and started to build a better computer in the maze. In a few days all Tandra equipment would be destroyed and this included the computer. This last article would possibly last a bit longer while it was raped and the Fassoot gain access to our maze.

Three cruisers were operational and in the system while a light destroyer was getting a new engine. We had the equivalent of a conference call with everybody in this system. They now knew that their base would be utterly destroyed and possibly the ships chased till they were too. For this reason the ships would leave in different directions and even the smaller vessels too so the Fassoot might have some false leads to pursue.

I got the usual protocols when I entered the first ship. I thanked them for this but told the others that time was important to this effort. This computer was moved into the maze. This at least would give it enough speed to possibly escape the coming fight.

Six hours later I had done as much as I could. The computers had to grow and transfer yet, but this would happen. The AI family was busy now assisting what they could to make the process as quick as possible. On the planet the small ships were busy taking people and property into orbit and storing articles and people on the larger ships.

Once I had done this task, I took a small combat craft the infantry would use and started to modify it. Again I was going to use the Trojan Horse routine. A small computer was made with the new crystals and the old. This was securely mounted to the keel and more or less hidden so it would not be casually found. Some devices were mounted around it to camouflage any emanations it made. There were not enough small Fassoot ships and possibly one of the larger ones would take this prize into their hold. The idea was to show the Fassoot that I had something worth hiding well.

When I was done, Tandra blood was spread inside and even some small body parts from medical. Mom and Bennechi flew off with this to place it along the path of the approaching fleet.

Commander Toka was with me whenever she could be. I did not shun her but did give her jobs to do that were best done with a biological.

She saw what I had done and was then given a rough explanation. She then asked, "You have no ship now. You could be killed. You have to leave. I will stay and make sure that everybody gets off safely."

"Thanks for your concern commander. I am a bit harder to kill that you might believe. Ask my AI family about this or even my biological family. I can do much better with nothing to worry about but the enemy."

She didn't leave and usually she had a few of her lieutenants close by in case something was required. I had the computer make more of the small probes that would sneak up on a ship and explode if the ships stayed in orbit long enough.

At the sixty hour mark I had enough of the probes made and sent them into hiding in the system. The Tandra left finally with all they held dear in as many directions as possible. Smaller empty ships went as a convoy to make it look like they were a larger ship.

With a now empty planet I had my first good sleep. Mom woke me up part way through and showed the Fassoot slowing a bit to retrieve a small Tandra craft that was emitting a weak distress signal.

An hour and a half later the ship was examined by a cutter and then after an hour more was towed to the destroyer. Once it was inside I took five hundred grams of antimatter and shoved it into the small unit. It was the maximum size it would take. I pulled away quickly and looked out one of the openings to look through the probe. The mental emanations had not abated a bit. When the field around the antimatter collapsed, it touched and destroyed the crystal controlling the shield.

The destroyer grew into a gigantic ball of energy. At that time the Fassoot just stopped in shock for a split second. I had sighted on the heavy cruiser and drove it as hard as I could toward the battleship. The AI was very quick and I stayed as long as I could. I felt the start of the renewed attack. The cruiser was destroyed like the others. I rushed back to the portal but could not get close. There was no major escorts now, and no chance of destroying the remaining ship.

The battleship was now alone apart for the very small ships like fighters and very small ships that carried work crews. Most were not even made to be in open space. Atmosphere and a stellar system was their usual operating areas or hugging the hull of the ship they serviced.

The battleship had started firing just after the destroyer exploded. It continued as it looked for survivors and I guess some salvageable portions of the wrecks. This would give the Tandra a bit longer to escape. I knew that Mom was transmitting all of this information even if some of the actual mechanics was not given. Mom gave me the feedback and said that the newest Tandra members of the Alliance were very happy about this outcome.

I had hopes of dropping small amounts of matter and antimatter in the path of the battleship. Interstellar space was very devoid of matter and it would not react very much with the inverse variety. This could not happen now because the ship went into a different posture and destroyed anything it could find with its sensors. This did not bode well for the mines I wanted to lay around the planet I was protecting.

A troubled sleep claimed me. I was very worried now about my plan.

When I awoke I began to call for any new findings. There was a great amount of it but it was all minor pieces of information. I looked through the data trying to find a pattern. There were a great many structures though and I sent out requests to pursue certain leads.

The Alliance was still on a war footing and our frontline units still battled Samutz ships and systems. The Thonas had become harder to find but they too had not entirely stopped. Like their allies, they did not have the communications we had and thought themselves still on the offensive.

Our small computers that linked through the maze made great communication devices. Mom had come up with a way to do a hundred percent of the fabrication on these units. I previously had to do only a small portion but now I could happily say that I was put out of a job by automation.

Research and development I think had shot ahead in fantastic amounts. The Imperial records showed that even at the height of the Empire and with the large number of Tandra citizens they could not do what we were now doing.

Mom sent these communicators through the maze by being passed tractor to tractor or even using Susan's rope idea. The devices went to ships that could communicate with us presently through their own connection. Other ships, planets and installations were given the communicators till we were able to make a better connection. Substrate continued to grow and infiltrate Tandra computers but this process was slower.

I received many of the reports where I had to make a decision that could and would involve a great many deaths. Most of the time I sided with the AI family but not always. In those cases factors had to be juggled so that our chances of survival were a lot higher. Now, instead of worrying about the safety of a squad I had to worry about the decimation of an entire planet.

While this was being done, I worked on the mental attack the Fassoot used. A helmet would not work. Tissue samples would die under this type of attack. A full suit specially constructed would not allow me to manipulate the tube and energy from the higher universe. The ships I made could use the tube for propulsion but were not able to move the tube for navigation. They were barely able to even flex the tube a small amount.

The Fassoot were now worried enough to not let anything close to their only remaining hull and even expend a prodigious amount of energy to make sure this happened. Their shield was better than ours but again was very power hungry.

My old study of the crystal's structure came to mind as an alternative weapon. I knew it could work into one of the Fassoot computers but just not far enough inside to be useful. This time I called for large amounts of the crystal and hoped that a special configuration or even size would allow me to defeat their computer or perhaps even their shield.

Another avenue to pursue was the two captured Fassoot. The maze brought me back to the other base. I was now sure that the sleep inducing device worked so the second being was taken from stasis and kept sedated. Again the arms were removed and the body healed. The shock device and an additional way of rendering it somnolent were added for safety.

The Fassoot brain had been extensively studied. As a species they were odd because each one was different. Not like fingerprints but in much broader terms. When their equivalent of DNA was studied it looked like each Fassoot was forced to grow in one of a wide range of possibilities. Any organism could change within certain parameters if the environment forced those alterations on them. These changes sometimes modified the basic DNA but usually those variations were already encoded at some previous time.

The two being studied were similar to others but the range in modification was much greater. The Thonas specialization came to mind where the individual members were altered to do one particular job well.

Dookie reported that the two beings were now communicating even while asleep. The information was collected but it maybe quite a while before we could decipher what it actually meant. The possibility of a subconscious hive mentality was a distinct possibility.

The improved Dooka were now taken out of the tanks and I watched this process. Saldak was the first to emerge. I took her to get cleaned and then fed a good meal.

She held my neck as I moved the small body around to get her clean. The cleanser she already knew about and enjoyed. She said, "Your Majesty, I can do this." She was not worried about being molested but now she knew who I was and was worried that I had many other pressing and important matters to look into.

"Saldak, I am a simple being at heart. If you want you can call me Henry like before." I could see the uncertainty and added, "If you like, you can call me Uncle Henry." This made the young girl smile and she felt much better.

I got her dressed soon after and then we went to the cafeteria to eat. She walked along and got some of the new foods and usually picked small amounts so she could continue her quest to find the best tasting. I had to leave her to eat alone as more were revived. The computer could do this unassisted but I thought it better to have a biological entity assist, especially the first time.

"I have to help your family now. Finish eating and then you can help me."

"Yes,... Uncle Henry."

This task didn't take long and I was usually able to get two cleaned up at once. Saldak came in and assisted and smiled at me because the roles were now reversed so that she was now helping the adults. The unimproved Dooka came in later and the two groups now talked. I could see the increase in intelligence and so could both groups. They were very excited because of what was happening to their civilization. New tutors were made and the education of another group of beings begun.

The basic premise for assisting this race now, was that the Fassoot would soon arrive. This may not happen now or not as soon as I had first predicted. There must have been a reason for the Fassoot to come in this direction in the first place. It was thought that a scout just reported its findings and a task force went out to destroy anything more than a simple animal.

My own research had to continue now. The slight shimmer in the area of the Fassoot brain was caused by very small crystals. They were similar to what I had in my body and especially in my own brain. The structure was different and the type of crystal as well. Not only were they doped differently than mine, some were of the new kind we ran across. This told me that the current crystals I knew about still could do things the other crystal could not do or not do as well.

With the many races in our galaxy, most races' minds could be read fairly easily. Some were impossible for various reasons. It looked like the Fassoot and the Misto would be of this latter class and even the Hossin were difficult. I didn't push too hard at the time of our first meeting to read the Hossin because of the situation I was in. They possibility existed that they would damage my psyche when I was in their computer.

The flow of crystal came and the portions were stored in the maze while I worked on trying to make heads or tails of the way the Fassoot thought. Even with the massed AI effort we just did not have enough data to make too many suppositions.