Chapter 571

Kei sat staring at the table for a few seconds, before, “I have never been as scared in my life,” she quietly replied. “It was as if I were in a dream and was falling from some enormous height, but yet, I was already standing on what seemed to be solid ground. I never want to go into that thing again. Oddly enough, I do not even remember entering it – whatever it was.”

“Me either,” Tosha said. “You guys disappeared, and suddenly I was there – whatever there was, but all I could ... sense were colors, but instead of seeing them, I... felt them.”

“My Prime, General Whitworth has left a message asking you to contact him as soon as you return home,” Ship said.

“Where is he now?”

“According to the Retreat’s AI, he and his wives are in the gym.”

“Thank you, Ship. Okay, is everyone ready?”

Selina took a last gulp of her ... coffee and quickly came to her feet. They all thanked Ship before walking down the ramp and on through the fake building. It was late afternoon, and the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. With Diana holding his left hand and Tosha his right, and with Selina riding on his shoulders, Jeff and the women walked down the slight incline toward the Retreat. Thinking that he would enter through the basement door closest to the gym, he started to turn that way, but his wives thought differently.

“The General...” he began only to realize that his Clan Queen was shaking her head.

“He did not say that it was an emergency. Husband, if you don’t greet your wives first, you are going to be in major trouble, and I for one, don’t want to spend our first night back watching you grovel – when you aren’t groveling to me, that is,” she finished with a wicked little grin before adding, “If it involved an emergency, the General would have said so.

“Besides,” Diana repeated with a smile, “I’m sure that Ellen and Barbara will remember that you have wives who haven’t seen you in two days. And I won’t tell them that you almost went to see the General before coming to greet them.” she finished, oh so sweetly.

Just as Diana predicted, his other wives were waiting in the living room to greet him, and that greeting involved a lot of kissing and his promise of an early bedtime where he would make his absence up to them.

As the return greetings were winding down in the living room, Whitworth, Ellen and Barbara walked in arm in arm. Barbara’s and Ellen’s nipples seemed to be trying to poke holes in the tight tops the young women were wearing. (Whitworth’s wives now appeared to be in their early twenties, but they were actually in their early forties.) The two passed a glance before each managed to stifle a giggle. Even the General seemed to be holding back laughter.

“The AI informed me about the message from the scout. Sorry about not being here when the torp came in,” Jeff began.

“Nonsense. If it had been an emergency, I would have used the chamber to send someone to get you.”

Joyce, without being asked, was already pouring coffee for the three of them. The General took the small towel that was draped around his neck and wiped the last drops of sweat from his forehead before the three seated themselves on one of the love seats.

“Good workout, Sir?” Jeff asked as the General leaned back into the comfortable seat, his wives beside him.

There was a slight hesitation before Whitworth replied, “Excellent,” which seemed to trigger simultaneous blushes from Barbara and Ellen, and an accompanying one from the General as well – a rare event, indeed.

Joyce brought the coffee over on a tray. After accepting the coffee and adding his thanks to that of his wives, Whitworth said, “The torp was from Martin and White, who are the current team watching the aliens’ vessel.” Jeff tensed as the General went on. “Seems that the aliens have launched a small ship, and it left the mother ship, to quote, ‘as if the little ship’s ‘ass was on fire’, before going to warp. As you know, to avoid detection, the scout team must remain three light minutes from the alien ship, so that recording is about all the useful information they were able to obtain from the launch.

“Martin and White speculate that the small craft is headed for Earth and think it might well be on a reconnaissance mission. They aren’t certain why it was launched the way it was, but again speculate that the aliens know they’re being watched. But ... I wonder why the commander of the scout – if that’s what it is – didn’t try to sneak away if they have any type of stealth capabilities.

“The team sent a copy of the launch video, but at three light minutes, all that’s visible is a very faint streak of light leaving the mother ship. Even with the image blown up and enhanced, it is barely discernible as a craft of some type. It went to warp, presumably as soon as it was at a safe distance from the mother ship.”

Whitworth gave the AI the file name and told it (him) to play it. After the AI ran the file, Whitworth had it run again.

Jeff sat sipping his coffee while thinking. “Sir, assuming that our scout’s AI is correct, the little alien ship is more than twice the size of ours. Question is: what do they do with the extra room? Our scout is cramped – very much so – but it is reasonably comfortable for the team, and it also has amenities to pass the time. It has all the technology pertinent to a scout, it is shielded and armed, and I strongly suspect that if it were pitted against a foe of similar size, it would prove formidable. However, its technology should keep its location safe so it does not have to fight. Against the aliens’ mother vessel, though, its weapons probably wouldn’t do more than scorch the paint.”

Whitworth frowned as he sat forward. “Now considering that the aliens’ Paladins have numerous weapon mounts, and logically, personnel to operate those weapons, what should we expect from their scout?”

“I would expect there to be at least four beings on board,” Helen (the genius) said, “and possibly even twice that many.”

“I agree, and the scout’s AI made no estimate about the other vessel’s armament, but judging from the number of what appears to be weapon blisters and turrets on the aliens’ mother ship, and the same for the Paladins, I would expect their scout to have some formidable teeth, too,” Jeff commented.

“Absolutely,” Ann added as she leaned forward in her seat. “The more we watch the videos of the Paladins’ training, the more I believe they are truly the bad boys on the block.”

“I agree,” Arlene added. “Those Paladins with all those weapon mounts would be ideal for strafing ground targets, not to mention being able to have a three-hundred-and-sixty degree field of fire when in space.”

“So,” the General asked, “do you think this scout thing will do more than just watch?”

Jeff, frustrated, got up to pace. “Obviously, there’s no real way to tell. Logically, it would be ridiculous for a small ship like that to threaten Earth, but remember, all it would have to do would be to stand back a few hundred miles, and with its energy weapons, bombard us at will. How long would it take Earth to plan and execute a mission to try to hit the thing with a missile? Even then, the alien scout, if that’s what it is, would see our missile coming and could easily move to a much higher orbit. The missile would run out of fuel, and the ship could continue with its mission. There are thousands of missiles on this planet, but I suspect there are few, indeed, that could reach even low orbit, let alone reach out a couple of thousand miles.

“All that said, it still seems logical that the small ship is on a reconnaissance mission. Maybe they got tired of waiting due to their obvious engine problems and decided to send the scout on ahead.”

“So,” the General said as Joyce refilled their cups, “should we have Ship hunt the scout down and capture it? That would stop it from acquiring targeting information, but when it didn’t report in...”

Jeff sat back down, and as Joyce refilled his cup, she stole a quick kiss.

“Exactly. Whether they get information about us from orbit now, or later when the mother ship gets here, doesn’t seem to make much difference in my mind. We have no way of stopping them without using Ship, and that’s assuming that Ship could even find their scout. Surely they have some type of cloaking device, or at least something to camouflage their vessel, particularly if it is a scout. Also, space is big, really, really big. If the little ship drifts in without using power, even with Ship’s technology, it would be almost impossible to detect until it nears Earth.

“Ship tells me that, with her technology, she can obtain an amazing amount of information about Earth from anywhere in our system, but the closer she is to the planet, the more details she can acquire. These aliens crossed no telling how many star systems to be where they are now. We would be remiss to assume that their technology is not far beyond anything Earth can currently imagine, let alone produce. If Ship can amass that much information from that far out, it’s logical to assume that the aliens can as well.”

The Prime went on, “Even if we do manage to find their scout, I think we should tread lightly. Ship thinks she can take the aliens’ monster ship, but even if we went out there and swatted it, what about the race that sent it? We can’t fight an interstellar war with only one ship, even if we wanted to. In the end, it could mean the extinction of our race.

“Ship is continuing to build weapon platforms, but she isn’t a shipyard. And ... we don’t know what it would take to do damage to that thing, anyway. Do they have major shields that will shrug off the platforms’ beam weapons? Ship, herself, has a variety of weapons to call upon: rail guns with inertialess assist, particle beams, plasma weapons ... even dark energy weapons, if I’m understanding her correctly – on and on. With all those, she feels that she can override any shields that the alien ship can mount against her weapons. Also, her own shields utilize dimensional technology that she is almost positive the aliens can’t overcome. On the other hand, she has many recordings of battles, many of which showed weapons overcome that their builders thought impossible to stop.

“From what little we have learned about the alien ship, it seems obvious that it will take Earth a couple of hundred years to catch up, and maybe even that is wishful thinking. Five hundred would probably be a more reasonable answer, for Earth doesn’t have a clue about a warp drive. Judging from what we’ve seen of their warp drive so far, it appears that Ship’s warp technology is far superior to the aliens’ version, though. But, what we have seen of their speed so far may not have been anywhere near their maximum since it’s obvious that they have been experiencing engine problems. Even our scouts can cover the distance back to Earth in a couple of hours, and Ship can greatly exceed that.”

Turning to face the General, the Prime asked, “Shall I have Ship began searching for the scout?”

The General didn’t answer immediately, but eventually did let out a sigh, “I know that Ship remains invisible while she’s out back, but what about from space? Can the alien scout see her – detect her while she’s maneuvering in deep space?”

“I asked her that,” Jeff hesitantly answered.

“And?”

“She seemed amused by the question. She claimed she could even nudge the alien scout, and those aboard would still not be able to detect her.”

“And do you believe her?”

Jeff hedged in spite of himself. “She has never lied to me to my knowledge, but her technology is so far removed from what I know and understand...”