Chapter 97A

The wedding plans would take months, as the girls got really into the act. The ceremony itself would be a considerable amount of time in the future to get everything set as it should. The Tandra had many ceremonies but the starting of a family was a fairly laid back affair. Susan and Ingrid wanted this to be a substitute for their own wedding. I felt bad that I had never walked down the aisle with them but either secrecy or timing was off. Now that our marriage was common knowledge we could not just have a ceremony. This meant that Amney had to be a substitute for each of them. It had taken only seconds after Ingrid's first mention of planning for the Tandra wives to get fully behind her.

I was happy to see though that instead of an Earth type wedding it would be the Tandra variety. The same results would happen. The grooms would sweat bullets and the bride would look more beautiful than any other person ever had.

Doris had lost many of her bad habits but did take the lead in getting the family to think more of fashion. Ingrid agreed and this meant that the wives all agreed too. Soon the AI family was hard at work assisting in what would look good. Even when something was found the search had to continue until something better was devised. All this I assumed was in the name of fun but the boys felt like little boys again in the wives company.

I did put my foot down and the boys and Amney went back to their ship. It was only fair to have their shipmates at the ceremony and this meant that the ship had to return to Earth.

This opportunity was a good excuse for me to escape once again. Horus and Isis had worked hard to get the large crystals into their possession. They had approached the Epsilon Eridani system and through the efforts of all the AIs in the know, Sandra took the crystals out of the system for them.

The sensor I fabricated had been destroyed during testing. At the end, it had worked as well as the Fassoot variety but could not take all the power put to it. More facts and data had been recorded that could lead to finding additional characteristics covering these new crystals. I hoped to do much better with the standard, if large, crystals I had made.

The crystal I had fabricated from defective components was compared to the other three. In this uncomplicated environment far from the planet of their origin, I was able to discern slight differences. What they meant was not understood but the only differences in their construction was that one had been made in the base while the others had been roughly fabricated in the depths of the planet.

The first crystal was cut by the two AIs and I then worked with my senses to fine tune it. The spherical shape was very wasteful and I made a note to make the crystals in a form closer to their finished configuration. The crystal was left this way and tests begun. When a probe went through it did not respond. The computer for this ship was in the maze and just informed us that the hull did not survive.

There was simply no way to know the range of this crystal without a ship surviving transit and reporting where it was. One day with enough observers I could find out but not here and now. I was fairly rested and started on making the minute corrections in the crystal. Nature sometimes worked against a pattern and this is why the crystal was not as structured as when I left it. It also occurred to me that I was in that odd environment and I may not have seen things the way they should have been.

This single job took many times longer than in the planet of its birth. Two and a half days later I was done and needed rest more than anything. The crystal was put into position with many energy conduits circling it. The first time though would be to find its basic harmonic and the then the distance. The improved crystal sent another probe the fantastic distance of 13,521 lights. This meant that we could get possibly double this with full power but crystals this size had never been tested before. The old laws governing the crystals didn't seem to work with the increase in size and the truth would only be found with experimentation. When the two AIs put power to the crystal it was substantially more than the three metre model. We used close to 83 times more power and the next probe reported back that it was now 62,201 lights from our present position. This opened a lot of discussion why this should have happened.

Four more tests were conducted with less power and we deduced the power curve. The minimum power where external power was used to fight the crystals properties was 3,950 lights. The family had been monitoring our progress and congratulations came in from much of the Alliance that had seen the tests.

The other smaller crystals were left and I started on the cylindrical shape. Full power to this crystal was beyond what the destroyer could produce but I wanted to see what its passive distance would be.

The size of the crystal was so great that I would need a month of unremitting work to get it into the condition needed. Instead, I sheared half of the thirty three metre length and let the AIs back to rough cutting it. The shorter length allowed me to place the doping atoms now in a paraboloid of revolution instead of a hemi-sphere. The other half went back to Epsilon Eridani so that I could see if I could process it in its natural environment any quicker. The time taken to work on the portion I retained was a full ten days. Doing twice this length required much more than twice the time. I felt compelled to complete this particular job. We would find out all we could about the common crystals we relied so much on. Apparently there was a great amount we still did not know and the research had been going on since the Tandra first entered space.

I had paced myself and got enough rest in-between. Everybody I was told was looking at the test results. It didn't bother me much because it was a useful way of letting everybody know that they had a hard working servant trying to assist them to a safer life.

The first probe going through barely survived the experience. Mom told me an hour later that the probe had gone over 56 thousand lights but had not reassembled correctly. This probe simply selfdestructed and now its intelligence waited in the maze for a new hull.

Mom projected images of me working on the large crystal I had just tested but I was really through the maze and into the giant of the Epsilon Eridani system instead. The crystal half had arrived and was sitting a metre above the floor. I started a different focus this time and found that I was at least ten times faster here. It was as if the planet only let the atoms fall in their allotted places and all I had to do was place them close enough. The size and even the shape of the crystals were much easier to alter for the same reason.

When I had a short break, I said to Snowflake, "I want to harvest more of the molten crystal material. I need a way of filtering the liquid centre of the planet and pumping the material to a collection point. Send some probes into the core to find out a bit more about its present composition. The situation could have radially changed since this base was set up. I require an antigrav lift to assist in taking large masses safely from the bottom of the shaft."

"Yes my Emperor."

When the crystal was done, it was sent back to Horus. I went down the shaft one more time to see what had been fabricated. At the bottom I found a pool of the liquid crystal material with none of the large accumulations of liquid rock, though some small portions were readily visible.

Snowflake said, "Probes went into the depths and found areas of higher concentrations of liquid crystal but the probes range is very short due to interference. It may take years even with hundreds of probes."

"If Sandra were a bit smaller she could enter the core."

"A large ship with the proper equipment could open a new tunnel for her to the core."

I countered, "Or I can slip her between the dimensions and take her there."

Another crystal was worked on but it was already cold because it had been in storage in the base far above. It came down the shaft for me to manipulate in this environment as a test. The time taken to move the doping atoms and then align the crystalline structure was only a third of the effort needed in the base proper. This reduction I was sure had to do with the stronger fields just above the crystalline bath.

I saw how the crystals could be cast much easier with a bit more control over the temperature. We could work just at the melting point and still grow the crystals as we wanted. The only reason I could see that the old Tandra empire had not done this was because they would not get the doping right and the crystals would not form correctly far from the core of this planet. This could be done at the bottom of the pit. The crystals needed the doping and the natural way meant that the crystals were repeatedly dipped into the molten lake. Casting would not allow this to happen. The result may look good but were next to worthless. That is, unless someone could take these casting and process them with his mind.

I saw large masses of liquid crystal extracted and roughly purified. They were held in storage in a container of force. A much larger cooling unit played over it as other containers were being filled. When the correct temperature was reached it came close to my ledge. It was fairly easy to redistribute the doping material as I wanted and began the crystal formation as the cooling continued. In a very short time I had a crystal very close to what I wanted it to be and it had taken very little time and effort.

Thirty units were made in all and were sent aloft with the new antigrav units as they were completed. I came up later and inspected what I had done. The concave range of doping atoms formed just a bit differently than the one I had last used with Isis and Horus. The thirty units around me were all dissimilar to the one tested but only minutely so. I hoped to get a much better understanding of their transmission properties by examining the results when they were tested.

All of the units were slated for shipment to Horus. This time Horus was much closer but would still need a stealthy ship to get the components out of the system.

I walked the maze back to my laboratory. I had more ideas about the crystal that had worked to 56,000 lights. The thirty new replacements were coming but would take some time. This one here was altered just a bit with the use of power to change some of its characteristics. It was not far from what the crystal would do normally. It was an easy way of making a small adjustments without having to redo the crystal structure each and every time. I would not cover the same mathematical shapes that the thirty new crystals would encompass. A new probe went through and this time there was no response.

Mom said, "This one did not make it through the transit."

I continued my experiment with low power modifications and used up twenty seven probes till one appeared to be undamaged. The distance was 53,000 lights but the power used was almost nothing.

I immediately started to modify the crystal to what the power had forced it to do. The concave form was not much different but it seemed to have a bit of rightness to it. This only took a few hours and another probe left. It went almost the same distance and appeared to be undamaged. We could now work with this configuration and power to see what this particular crystal could do. This was done in a passive mode with no power.

While I rested in a chair and feeling quite satisfied I asked Mom, "What's new that I should know about?"

"Within the last hour we can now see a pattern for some of our missing ships now. It appears like somebody is clearing out a section of space. Everything Tandra or any other race is being destroyed. I have sent additional forces to investigate."

"Fassoot? Misto?"

The damage looks to be more of what the Misto would do but we are not sure. It may be another race completely. You have destroyed all of the Misto computers in this galaxy so it must be another race with the same modus operandi. The probes were summoned but will take time to get there."

"Would a 53,000 lights give them an advantage?"

I could almost feel Mom smile. "They need to travel well beyond that distance. The shortcut should cut the time significantly."

"Then use this device. Tell me about any danger to surrounding systems."

"There are three that we know of but they are not on our net yet. We only know of them from their energy usage. More races could be in danger or dormant bases with their personnel in stasis."

"Where is Bennechi and your twin?"

"An hour and a half from that area."

"I have to have a short rest and then walk there at that time. We need lots of our probes again."

"Yes Henry."

I woke up at the correct time and just grabbed a shower and a bit of food before jogging through the maze to where Mom and her daughter were. I slipped into one of the seats and said, "Hello ladies. What have you found so far?" I was not that happy even though I tried to be up-beat. I knew this situation would be very dangerous.

Bennechi said, "We just picked up their trail moments before you were informed. Two Tandra bases with only one of which was actually expanding have been destroyed. Five races in six systems have been killed. The enemy did not stay to occupy the systems. They races killed were unique as far as our records show."

This meant that life had developed in these systems independently. When they died there was no way to see how those races could have enriched the Alliance or gave us problems. Not all could or would do this but now we would never know. "Where are the attackers?"

"They are less than five minutes ahead of us at our present speed. They are headed toward an inhabited system and should be within firing range in 27 hours. There appear to be many tracks so the fleet is large. Do you want me to slow to stay at maximum sensor range?"

"Good idea. Send our own probes ahead for us. What assets do we have in this area?"

"There are three bases within fifty light years but that was only from our records. We do not know what their current status is."

"Try to find out for me."

"Yes, Henry."

I interfaced with the computer and read the record of the raw data myself and soon saw new information flowing in from out scouts. The speed compared to ours looked to be faster than the Misto but less than what the Fassoot were capable of. We had twenty probes and eight more that could be here in less than an hour. More were coming but were much further away. Their job was to provide data from the other side of this fleet. It appeared to be dispersed enough that a quick view from one side was not sufficient.

"Give me the data on this volume of space. If we can get them to chase us later, we can go where they have nothing to shoot at." The data came to me and I saw that we were in a fairly vacant area. It might be that any race to emerge from a cave would get killed every million years or so by one egotistical race or another.

Our probes flew further ahead as we started to decelerate. In a moment additional data started to come in. Their placement appeared to be a different fleet formation from either the Misto or the Fassoot. I could not see the full extent by any means but it looked like all the ships were just cruisers in size or smaller. This was the same way I was grooming our navy. When I thought our shields and weapons were the best, it was only reasonable to have smaller and thus faster ships to bring a semblance of order. Since finding these new races I knew that we were far from top dog even in our own galaxy.

The apparent size of the formation grew as more and more probes sent us data. This reminded me of the mass migration of the Misto but there were no large ships seen yet. Our probes could not get close enough to read the area far within the cloud of ships. Anything was possible in this region but the gravitational gradient did not indicate that there was that much mass.