Chapter 51

Thought could only go so far, and space was so very large, that the chances were very slim of finding anyone. It took almost three hours to make contact. It was with Sula, and her mixed crew of Tandra females, and other races that were first spotted.

At this extreme distance, only a type of radio was functional. I did not know how come we were so far from where Cal should be. There was a lot of confusion, and even suspicion, until I mentioned the pineapple. The call signs I now sported were much different, than the one's Runna had.

I engaged our drive, and within three minutes was almost on top of the diminutive corvette. It was easy to read Sula's and then the rest of the crew's gasps of amazement. When a mountain of ceramic all of a sudden appear beside you and matched course, it should make anyone nervous.

Her face came on the screen even, though I could see through her sensors. My own face was not revealed. "Sula, I would like you to continue your patrol, while I meet the Claw. This ship needs to be investigated before I try to push us to Falm 6."

Though almost speechless, she did manage to say, "Yes, my emperor."

The Claw came into view a few moments later, and I aligned our course so we were right behind their centre of gravity. All the time I was fending off calls and congratulations.

"Blue, are you there?"

"Yes, husband," she said full of admiration.

"I have to tell you..." Then I decided to let her have the images that I had in my mind. I had taken a long time to get them just right, and it took almost five minutes to get the entire story across.

Blue cried, and wanted to come to me. Cal normally would never interfere, but this time said, "Your wife is very upset. What would you like me to do?"

"There is very little you can do. I don't want her altered in any way. Already too many small changes are made, that will eventually make it much harder to deal with. Just interrogate this computer, and see what you can find. The shield, weapons and drive are much more advanced than we currently have. The techs here may be of some help. There is a group of Tandra that are hooked up to the drive controls. They seem to be able to do things much more efficiently, than we can, but I do not want them forced to do this."

Blue made time to come over, and see us. She walked into the room and I could see how appalled she felt. From my mind, she knew all of us were in tanks, but the visual proof was a little too much to take. Her hands came up against the tank, and she placed her face as close as possible, while she sobbed.

"Blue, there is very little we can do but grieve. When we have recovered enough, we will have the funeral to say our goodbyes." I knew Blue was also thinking of the unborn life, that Nema bore, at the time of her death.

I was finally able to get some sleep, because Cal was watching out for all our interests. I had the dreams I feared, and had to go through the agony of seeing my loved ones killed many times over again.

My sleep lasted for almost five hours. I checked on my girls and saw that Star and Chris had made substantial gains, and were out of danger. Susan would only be another few days or so, the same as Nova. Amy would have to stay at least a day longer.

I talked to Cal, and got a synopsis on the capabilities of the new ship. We were very lucky to get her. The main computer and its store of data were seriously damaged. The newer small ships I originally saw in the boat bays were the main source of any newfound data. There had been so many improvements in the last 650,000 years that none or almost none of my old tricks would work.

The computer was actually a group of eight processors, governed by a large crystal. Its grasp of the multi universe, and all their dimensions were crucial to all of its actions.

Medicine had progressed and the virus we made could now be stopped dead in its tracks. If the captain had seen fit, he could have had a vaccine made, and administered it to his troops as they fought.

The galvanized weapons had even been countered during the Tandra / Thonas war, two and a half million years ago. The secret had been kept, along with the need to have the counter-weapons. In the intervening time period, there had been many claimants to the throne, and many lead to civil war and anarchy. This was the main reason for any improvements in war technology.

This vessel was capable of going 80% faster than Cal's best, because it employed the same mechanism as the giant transmitters, but was very power hungry. A bottle neck was still the presence of a bonded deck crew, and the insatiable appetite of the engines. The present crew could only get it to 136 times the nominal ship speed of 1800 lights. Our speed here attested to the ability of the remainder of the crew to assist us. The ship's ability to enter more fully those other dimensions, were the reason for the speed increase, but with my recent experience, I knew that this was just a crude tool from what it could be.

The Tandra confined to their beds, were considered criminals, or malcontents, but I deduced that it was just a reason, to put the poor creatures there. Their medical science had made it impossible to remove their guiding mechanism, except upon death. Their emancipation was on my mind, but I would have to learn an awful lot more, before it could be attempted any acts.

I used the sensors to check out these sleepers better. There were very few young ones, but then again, there were no old ones. They numbered 143 in all. Everyone was a woman, and each looked very thin and weak. At least on Earth we had nurses that would come in and move them around, and give them massages. Here the ever present machines did all the necessary work, and no extra effort was put out.

A tiara of tiny iridescent crystals circled the head, and served both as an interface with the machine, and a control device. The women were supposed to be able to move about, but this was usually discouraged for various reasons. Small transmitters brought each food, and took away the waste. The computer even regulated their sleep patterns, so that some would be able to work at a moments notice. At idle times, they were fed sensations and emotions from a computer generated interface. I did not even know if they would welcome a change in their lives at this time. Visions of Ingrid came to me, and I wondered it a similar tiara could benefit her, if it did not take over her life.

We took the biggest crystal remaining from the stock we got at Epsilon Eridani, and had the tractors inserted it into the dominant position on the computer board. It would be many hours before we knew if it would work or not.

Cal was able to get the tractors and pressors into position to hold the two ships stationary to each other. Cal's engines were not Newtonian in nature, and could be used, but all the energy conduits were destroyed.

Sula, Roderick, and Turner brought their ships into the bay. I started the engines and was better able to control them this time. The strain began to climb and Cal compensated for it and strengthened both shields. We reached 1100 times the speed of light and were forced to stay there. We probably had the power to go faster, but both ships were still not whole. For 63 minutes we ran at this speed and I cut power to return to the Zindor system. We were hailed by the Disembowel, and I replied with our code. There was no need for it to convert us. Two new dreadnaughts, a carrier and many troop transports greeted us. They were ours now. Originally they were part of the forces Dulfa, the former captain and king of a Samutz empire. His kingdom was closer to the core of the galaxy. These ships were being used to assist in his expansion plans.

The original plan was for the present ship to lay waste this planet, and just wait for the backup to arrive from the other empire, and simply take over. Through the records, it was deduced that Falm would be hit as well. The plans were only on the dreadnaught, and the fine details had been destroyed with the fireball.

Cal had been busy making weapons to take on the newer class of ship, and we thought this system would be capable of protecting itself if lead by the right sort of people. Blue remained with the Claw, even though she cried. We swapped half of our crew of Tandra for a mixed bag of races, so that any defeat would not be catastrophic, nor any gains attributed to only one race. The crews would be able to swap data better if this happened.

Claw had to do with her own crew and what help the yards could spare for her repairs. Cal and I had gone over the plans for the improvements we wanted while in flight. Major portions of the hull were to be opened to space and large damaged portions removed. An old idea I had, where a much smaller lithium reactor was used to start a dimensional generator, was worked on. If the reactor was placed close to existing lithium reactors the size could be reduced even more. The shield unit was to be changed, to what our newest ship had, to repel galvanized projectiles.

We were very lucky, for there were one more of the personal shield generators that the Samutz king wore. It was damaged slightly, and had to be worked on by the techs. Its principles were similar, but much more intricate, to repel our zinc/iron ordinance.

The burnt out energy conduits had to just be replaced, with larger models, for we could find no method to reduce their bulk. A battleship that was extensively damaged, would supply all of the engines we needed. The hulk was kept to provide a fabricating centre, to assist all the other ships in need of repair.

Sula and the other captains went back into their ships to patrol the system, and give the imperial override if the occasion occurred.

The trip to Falm was only a little over an hour at our best speed. The approach did not go unnoticed this time. Small but powerful missiles capped with galvanized warheads hit us, time after time. The shields held but there was no way to avoid the heavy fusillade. Any type of missile could destroy our shields, if they were powerful enough.

Mom was being besieged again and I sent off my own reply to a few ships of the new kind. These missiles used the newer technology and their guidance was even better. A battleship blew up and took a conventional frigate with it. Three destroyers almost 800 metres long attacked in mass. I threw my major weapons at them but concentrated on the left most ship. As the destroyer exploded, I worked again on the next left most ship. This allowed me to do the same thing again, but before the ship exploded, our shield was breached four times. The large torus was hit twice, and had to be shut completely down. This device had to be discharged quickly, for fear of a short circuit. The energy weapons came to mind, and the energy drained through them. The last ship became our target.

Damage reports came in and I could do little except ignore them, till we were safe.

The discharge struck, but did little damage to the last destroyer, but did distract it long enough to be hit by our own missiles. This one did not blow up, but dropped its shields and quietly died.

There were quite a number of conventional forces hammering away at the planet, the moon and all of the forts and ships protecting the system. Runna was still in the boat bay, and she used the imperial code through the dreadnaught's transmitters, and all the firing stopped except for the missiles still in flight.

Out of the system moments later, fled a half dozen smaller ships of the improved type, and there was no way I could catch them with the torus damaged.

"Mom, Secric, are you all right?"

"Henry, oh Henry, it is you. We have had so much death," came from Secric, as she started to cry.

Mom called now, and said, "You are making it a habit of saving us. This time you cut the time, very close."

"I would have come sooner, but I had a few problems of our own. Let me get rid of the Samutz first and we can talk. Send me a list of loyal ships."

"Yes, Henry."

I found that there were few ships left on our side. There did seem to be a disproportionate number of enemy casualties, even three more battleships with the new shield, and each one was a wreck. A quick count gave me three battleships, six large troop transports, eight destroyers, and two carriers. A large number of frigate size or less was also present, but most were damaged.

The usual place to store a captured enemy was in stasis in our holds. The sheer number here would put a strain on the number of fighting ships.

The airless moon would be a good place to store them, but it would be subject to attack the next time an invasion occurred. Samutz cared little for life, but if the prisoners were kept out of harms way, then it was a good chance that they would not be rescued. The outer planets were certainly barren, and it was not a hard job to set up domes with the necessities of life, and large stasis generators. If the generators alone were used, then very little life support was necessary.

Our ship was still manoeuvrable, but not between the stars. I gave the order to all of the now loyal ships, to follow, and we headed out system at 100 gravities, the best that they could collectively maintain.

A small planetoid that was originally called Guyda was our best choice. We had raced ahead; the fabrication units started making large shield generators, food units, air makeup units, and sanitary facilities. Our energy weapons started to melt the rock in various areas, to smooth out the rough features, and make it liveable. Domes went up after the necessities of life were installed. Before we finished, there was fifty three domes that covered almost six million square metres each. The vaccine for our virus was administered to each Samutz or there would be none left at our next visit.

Most ships were able to land next to a dome and use their matter transmitter to move the Samutz into the domes. Some were not capable of that, and had to off load to other vessels, that could, and the process completed. Many dead Samutz littered the surface. Some from the conflict, but most trying to retake the computers of their former ships.

Before we were finished the long process, it was time to awake Nova and Susan from the tank.

Lots of Susan's hair was burnt, and I used the tractors to cut it to look... all I could say, is less bad. Nova sported a lot of pink skin, the same as Susan. Other than cosmetic and possible mental problems, there was little damage now, to show for our narrow escape.

"Henry, Henry! Where are you?" Came from Susan, as she sat up abruptly from the recovery table.

"I am here, but busy for a moment. It is good to have you back. I am sorry I can't hold you or Nova, but many things have to be done."

Nova was a little groggier, and when she was able to stand, she just sat and started to cry. Soon Susan sat beside her, held her close, and did some crying of her own.

An hour later the girls had a shower, and were doing what they could to make each other presentable. They had queried Runna, and knew all what had happened since our last flight. They came over to each of the tanks, and looked in, trying to communicate in some way. I was the only one awake and Nova said she had never heard of a person in the tank retaining consciousness. I had done my own questioning, and found that the archives of both major ships did not list this happening either.

When the last of the Samutz were finally removed, all the ships headed for Falm. I did not want to ever hear the word Samutzi again.

On the way back, Mom and Secric joined our conversation through a hologram. Before too long all of us were either crying or almost there. I uploaded the crystal between my shoulder blades, another time, and sent the data to Mom for posterity. The way things were going, one of these times the information would not be able to be sent.

An hour later, Mom dressed up in her own probe induced hologram, and Secric in the flesh, joined us in the sick bay, with Runna happily playing hostess.

Small trays of food came out, and both Susan and Nova dove right in. Susan in particular was familiar with how much hunger she would have at this time. Cups of the ever present tea were filled and emptied on a regular basis, as we talked about what had happened, and what our fears were of what might happen soon.

My personal concern was that all the small systems, that had the Samutz killed off by our virus attacks, would be easy game for any roving group of Samutz or others. The original populations on these planets, if not already eaten, could be faced with an even more voracious predator, if they had to come in quickly and consolidate their position.

Our new unnamed ship would be able to go to each of the systems quickly, and leave a small garrison of troops, and some extra ships that could be co-opted to follow me, as a would-be emperor.

Susan after her experiences on the ship had a drastic change of heart. "I want all of the Samutz dead. There is no way any should live after what they are capable of doing." She turned in her chair and looked into my tank, and said, "I want all of the ones we captured, killed. There is too much of a chance of having them regain their position, and kill people like Nema." She stooped for a while, overcome with emotion and buried her face in her hands.

Nova as a good suna, followed the dictates of the head wife, and said, "I too, want the Samutz killed. At one time, I would have given them some clemency, but not now."

I did not have to ask Secric, but she too was Susan's suna, and would voice the same words as her metsu. Tandra culture was taking over our lives. It was not necessarily a bad thing, for their culture was more advanced and thought-out, than ours was. When the head wife wants something, it is the policy of the rest of the family, to try to make it happen.

Quizzing Mom on a probable action was not the way I should guide our family. Susan position as metsu would be a more elevated position than mine, and Susan did not always think in an orderly way of accomplishing her goals, or think of the consequences of her actions.

"Susan, I have killed literally billions of the Samutz, and want no part in completely eradicating the race. One day, in the future, some race will use our president to kill another race, and those others, may be us." I changed my voice to sound more conciliatory, and said, "We have made may plans, and you had your input into them. It was decided to place the Samutz in a place where they could hunt and live as their ancestors did, and we would restrict their ability to use anything more destructive than a bow. They will not be able to harm any of us again."

"That was then. Now I want them all killed," she said, as she folded her arms across her breasts.

The next hour or so was not pleasant. Susan had made up her mind, and the minds of her fellow wives, about the matter. My previous hold over her when it came to sex was useless now that I was in a tank, and would remain there for quite a while. Being an Emperor, if only in name, gave me the command of the ships, but my own family was an entirely different matter.

When we got back to Falm, I pulled into the yards on the moon Scorso, ahead of one of the battle ships. The fabricators worked full time as well as the Tandra and T'aut slaves that had just tasted freedom. I was not able to greet them, but the sensors were able to sample what they thought, and said. There was a lot of adjustment to do; for most had been slaves for such a long time that they did not really know how to function without a supervisor's attention.

Almost every available tutor ran all the time, as the techs caught up on what they needed to know. Non-techs were trained to help as best they could, while others that were not able to mindspeak were trained to do so in the chairs. Some of the other races could train the same way but most were unable to interact with the machines this way. Old-fashioned classes had to be run with hologram teachers, doing the necessary work. This was hundreds if not thousands of times slower, than the methods the rest of us enjoyed.

The usual bitching was absent; as they did the best they could on their own. Training supervisors was very difficult, and lots of this duty had to fall on the Humans, Tandra from Sol, and the most stable of the remainder of the rescued people.

The last destroyer hit had a surprising supply of parts we could use. Our giant torus on the other hand, had to be rebuilt with fabricated parts. This put me into thinking why the shield admitted galvanized iron in the first place, then of the methods to keep it out. Finally the missiles needed to puncture this new shield, needed to have a defence made when used against us. There were a few research areas onboard, and I set up a few experiments to find any answers I could.

The old Tandra Empire had found the original solution, just after the great exodus. The work on the shield had lasted for hundreds of years, and resulted in untold numbers of Tandra, sacrificing themselves to keep the Thonas at bay. The missile able to pierce this new shield had waited almost two million years.

The original number of Tandra working on the project must have been fantastic, and the thoughts of one upping them, was very far from my mind, but the effort had to be made.

Two days into the repairs, the AI came aware, and I tried my best to bond with it. Its job was very hard, because it would have to do the work of eight others as well as its own. Much of the computer was still damaged, and the AI had to work with what was left. I only hoped the crew could be counted on to help as they had done before. It seemed that Tandra brains could even take over for an AI, but the need for rest was one of our weak points.

At the same time as the AI awoke, Chris and Star came from the tanks. Susan, Secric and Nova were there to give them all the support they could handle. Chris had come through the ordeal fairly well, but Star seemed to be withdrawn. She dwelt on the battle with the Samutz, and would not let the matter go. I knew serious problems were in store for us, if she did not pull herself out of it.

The girls took her into their arms, and made tender love to her many times, and in different ways. Susan even fabricated some vibrators and their use helped, but only for a short time. They did not give up though, and gently weaned her off to the old level in the next week.

I had done my own diagnosis, and found that all the babies were doing fine, though it had been touch and go with the one Star carried. Perhaps I could use the old trick I used before, and take an orphaned child and get Star to care for it. The problem was that Susan was still angry with my decision to save some of the Samutz, and I was in the proverbial dog house. She also knew of my stratagem that had brought Nedue and Soma to us. Even though I was in a tank and not able to participate very well in any sexually gratifying events. Susan made it known, that I was not as well respected, in the candasu or female family, as I was before.

Susan was gaining enough power, so that she could supplant me, if she chose. Looking into her mind, I knew that this was not the case, but it would certainly come to her eventually. Whether she would use it or not, was debatable. At least my position with the Tandra was fairly secure, but the position itself relied on a family of bonded individuals. I had no intention of forming a new family. The girls I loved were just being led astray, and I would fight with everything I had, to keep them.

I had private conversations with Mom on the manifestation of the fireball, its path, control and our obvious escape, even if we had not done it unscathed. Then I mentioned about using the combined intellect of the crew to pilot the ship without an active AI.

"Henry, this is just more of your hidden abilities coming out. I have no idea how this happened or how the energy was guided, without great amounts of power. I examined the control room, and saw that it melted far into the ship, destroying much of the controls. The only thing I do believe, is that Nedue was partially responsible for the control, but how it was done, is as I said, unknown."

"Nedue was also responsible for our unpowered flight. I got a tiny glimpse of how the ship did this. It seemed it was more or less greased so it would slip higher into the hyper universe. The power there was not as important as just breaking the surface. A feeling I have, is that we will be able to go much faster, perhaps even 100,000 lights and use very little energy doing so. The tough part is trying to find enough power to get that far into the higher dimensions. The amount of mental power the crew supplied seems to work better, than all the energy the engines could put out."

Amy was due out soon, and I thought of her as my surrogate to get Star better adjusted. There were many orphaned children, and I searched for the best choice. I felt it best to pick one Soma's age, and now I had to find a way to get Amy to accept the baby, even if it were against Susan's wishes. I knew that Susan might suspect this as too much of a coincidence, but I had to do it anyway. One idea was to get Star away from the rest, and give her the baby. It would take little time before she would be utterly devoted to the child, or she would abandon it in her grief.

The unnamed ship would be ready in a week and one course would be for me to leave Susan here, while I took the rest with me. This would also mean either giving Susan the authority to kill the captured Samutz, or give her only limited command. The latter would prove to be very undermining, and her resentment would grow.

With enough ships capable of supporting our guests, I decided to call out some of the less skilled individuals, and give them a job.

"Computer."

"Yes my Emperor."

"First, I would like to give you a name. Jamal was a brave friend of mine that died recently. I think he could best be remembered, if you tried to carry on his ideals."

"Thank you my Emperor. It has been a long time since any entity aboard this vessel has been given a biological name."

"You are welcome. The other matter I want you to look into is a team of Tandra that could look after the sleepers that drive this vessel. I want at least three hundred, so that there is someone handy all the time. I do not like the present Tandra custom of keeping the sleepers in bed all the time. I want them awakened in groups, exercised, talked to, fed solid food, and basically told how much they are appreciated."

"I have just queried my faulty memory, the other ships, and see that this has been tried before, and resulted in untold confusion. It would be much better to leave them as they are."

"I understand what you are saying, but I want this to happen. Search for techs first, that are still too psychologically damaged to perform their regular duties. The first of them, I want over here in an hour."

"Yes, my Emperor. It shall be as you ask."

Small shuttles started arriving soon after. Jamal explained as best he could, what would be asked of them. When a few more than 300 Tandra had arrived, I had Jamal form a hologram of me, when I had all my limbs, and was able to walk around.

My image formed in the room with the sleepers, and immediately all of the Tandra went to one knee. I simply said, "Hello, please get up. I am only here as a hologram at the moment, because I am actually in the medical section undergoing treatments for burns, and to regrow an arm." They got up a little confused and looked at me for more information. "You have been told, about the sleepers that propel the ship, when we go into the hyper universe. I do not like having slaves, and would like each of you to help me get these people back into something resembling what a crew should be like. I would do some myself, but I am stuck in the tank at the moment, and could only help a few in any case."

I could read some incredulity, in that I was awake, while still in the tank. Others had a difficult time taking care of themselves, and now they were told to care for ones even less fortunate than themselves. I knew now why Jamal brought over more than what I originally required. At my urging they went to numbered bed locations, and huddled around individual naked Tandra, held with tractors to their beds.

Jamal used his tractors to move one girl over, and applied a light oil to her back. She, like the rest, had been kept scrupulously clean, and the oil and a light massage would help get her circulation back into shape. The tractor pushed the skin and muscles, but it was not as good as hands. The girl was put back on her pallet, while I talked to the new crew.

I stepped up to one new girl, and asked, "Form a long line, and then take your hands and rub each other, so you will know what I am talking about." From what I knew of the Tandra on Earth, they did not go in for massage, and these ones here, were just the same. "Place your hands on your partner's shoulders, and work the muscles to make them relax." I heard a few groans of pain, and an equal number of pleasurable ones.