Chapter 51

Eleven days after Sennis fell, I was on the Ronnas. A plane had made a few passes to photograph Kallos Island. This area was going to give a lot of problems. The island was fifteen kilometres by ten. The island had very little flat land. It was all mountain peek that must go fifteen hundred metres above the ocean.

There had been extensive preparations for war done over the centuries. A strong stone wall extended out into the sea so there was no place to dock a ship. A small, well defended island had a good harbour and probably connected with a gate to Kallos.

There were seventeen other islands more or less in a circle. Intermixed were a eleven much smaller islands and reefs that were also fortified. The Church had gathered an armada of wooden hulled ships. I was sure they all would be protected with a shield.

The Church had some major weapons. On the last pass of the executive jet, it was hit by a very powerful laser. The laser cut the ship into three portions as if the craft was only a few metres away. The pilot and the two girls from Section M had a secondary shield in place when the attack came. All three fell to the ocean. The girls had separated at the last second and gone completely inert. They hit the ocean and just stopped. They had the foresight to increase their mass and go beneath the waves. We ported them out a few minutes later.

When the girls had recovered, Jamieson said, "That weapon made your plasma gun look like a toy. You're not going to get much of a rock to hit that island."

"I was thinking that myself."

A few minutes later we found out just how accurate the gun was. We went into another of a long string of meetings to see what we could do with the new data.

Cabot said, "You might be able to get close in a small sub. Whether the gates would work or not, I don't know."

Dimitri said, "That was a line of sight weapon. The beams originated near the three summits. They will have a considerable amount of coverage. I estimate that it will be nearly a hundred and forty kilometres at least. If they had waited for our ships to get near we would all have died very quickly."

I said, "What do you suggest?"

"A submarine may be the best choice but the sea is shallow in that area. You could not get near enough to do any damage. It's a foregone conclusion that the island will be covered by the strongest shield they can make. My only alternative is to make a shield to reflect the laser while employing one of equal or more power to destroy the enemy units."

Croteau said, "Can't the plasma weapon go that distance and have even greater power?"

Tiffany said, "They can, but we couldn't keep it locked onto a target for more than a split second."

Dimitri said, "This laser is close to what we already have on Earth. It has far more accuracy and doesn't need a nuclear weapon to power it. It doesn't seem to be in the same class as the silver icons."

Artlam said, "They may be from our first civilisation or the second. We got very high before we fell. The Church would have saved all the weapons and other artifacts they could find. They must have mountains of pieces unless they record the data and destroy the artifact."

None of us liked this idea but it was quite plausible. The idea that the laser was just an advanced Human weapon seemed to please all of us for some reason.

I asked, "What has been used to counter a military laser on Earth?"

The Earth military were working on lasers and they had some minor successes only. The power must have been far lower than what we had found here. The lasers could not make it through a tank for instance but they would heat the metal or destroy the ceramic armour. A reflective surface would help but some frequencies could use x-rays that might penetrate much easier.

Apparently a storm or even heavy fog would cut the power of the laser down considerably. The fact that there were so many lasers and their uncanny accuracy said that all the lasers could conceivably hit one point and stay there until they bored through.

There were other suggestions. Camsa wanted to mount a hundred plasma guns on a rack and use them as one weapon. It didn't sound that good but I let him try to make the device. I'd be a poor leader if he didn't get a chance. Then again, some of the youngsters had come up with good ideas that adults had discounted.

Sirois came up with fast missiles that might flood the defences. Since we had a lot of them I let him plan this. The Selna and the Ronnas had some very nice missiles and it would be nice to get rid of some since we had plundered Admiral Slavas's ship. Sirois could also look to find what was better to take out a laser battery with. Bakhtin had found some Chinese anti-radar missiles but we only got two. These had cost half a million each.

I was afraid that I would have to find a real mountain and drop it on the island. Lasers would only have so much time to prune portions before the mountain hit. The problem was that there would be a tsunami of monumental proportions that would kill innocents all over the world and not those just around the island.

One idea was that we use sappers to dig to the island and then upward. This had some backers but the time taken would allow the priests to find out what we were doing and allow them to set up shop elsewhere.

The photographs we did have suggested that the surrounding islands were armed, possibly with the same weapons. If we went by what Earth navies might do in the future, we had to consider missiles and mines of exceptional power and accuracy but the Church seemed very reluctant to go too deep into its bag of tricks just yet.

I didn't think darkness would help us take out the weapons. The plane taking photos had been very high and using only a minimal amount of fuel to be making much of a contrail when it was hit. This meant that the priests were using radar to find us. The Humans on Earth had made disrupting or evading radar signals into a fine art form. It was also assumed that the long dead natives of Bejek would have done the same thing and found ways around the problems. This tit for tat could be far beyond what Earth Humans had considered possible. The only way to find out was to try.

The school searched out large rocks. They were far smaller than had been used on Sennis. These were only ten metres square and two metres thick on the average. We would fly with two of these rocks so the weight was between a thousand and twelve hundred tonnes. There were enough people to fly fifty seven pairs of rocks.

We came from the west but two units came from the east that were to stay out of the action and observe if possible. Our group had one rock beneath us and one in front. The laser beams lashed out when we were only twenty kilometres away. The shielding rocks took fire from many sources and those in the lead could look back at what was happening to those behind. The shield apparently was able to allow us to remain invisible to the radar used against us.

Our shields had been formed into giant wings much like what a sailplane would have. We would gain altitude and dive to trade it for forward motion. Dimitri was talked into coming with us but I could see that he didn't like this job. Equipment from Earth was used to analyse what radar waves penetrated the shield.

There was a lot of mental communication to let everybody with us and at home know what was happening. When the time came, we guessed and dropped our burdens. We had no idea what damage we did because to look around the rock was to be blinded.

The lasers did very little damage to the rocks so the priests used a plasma type of weapon. This did more damage, even at this altitude. It was not tied in with the radar or a telescope so they could not hold their position for long. I was very relieved when our group came home safe. There were others still out there and this bothered me.

Artlam quickly said, "That proves that you can use a big rock on the shields. Let's get to it as quick as possible."

I countered, "We can't hit anything. It was all a guess. You saw what a rock did to Sennis. If that happened in the ocean, there would be a tidal wave that would kill untold millions around the world."

"Millions died at Sennis."

"They were working for or with the Church. If I could have spared them, I would have. The Church may not worry about a lot of deaths but I do."

"Use smaller rocks."

"The shield is probably stronger if they know a way to do that. There is a mountain in the middle to support part of the shield. In fact, there are three peaks."

Camsa and Caiti came in later and said, "Somebody hit the edge of Kallos and it just slid off. The walls are inside the shield." There were photographs made and even a movie. We saw the shield actually bouncing the rock. One of the smaller islands were hit and it looked like there was some damage but we could not tell how much until later.

Porta and Sonna had formed a shield small enough to contain them and a rock. It was made neutral in buoyancy not with a fulcrum but with the size of their shield. The shape had lots of thin fins that would allow more oxygen to be extracted from the water.

Their craft had gone out much earlier because of its slow pace. I was still worried because detecting submarines was old hat on Earth and it was much older to the Bejek military.

The girls had some serious tasks to conduct. They had to plant coins near some strategic areas including the main shield protecting Kallos. During our attack, the girls were to observe how effective we were if they were lucky enough to see. They were not to use the gates though they had one inside a silver box. I wanted to see if the priests were creating interference, but I doubted it. We were too far away to use the portal. If they thought we were near by, they would act much differently.

Porta and Sonna came home twelve hours later and I was there to greet them. They were not fresh as daisies but I held my thoughts as I hugged them.

Porta said, "They detected us somehow and we had to leave."

I looked at both and said, "Tell me about it."

"We layed a coin or two at every one of the islands. You hit one but we couldn't see what was happening inside. Lots of their ships were sunk though. Sonna layed one coin beside the Kallos shield. I was listening hard with my mind and knew that somebody was very excited all of a sudden. We left quickly and left a trail of coins behind us. We actually got behind a reef and dove. They started shooting into the water with the laser and then the plasma. It was not long before the water was boiling. We moved along the reef slowly instead of using the gate. They didn't know where we were. It was good that we left because they used a very powerful weapon that must have blasted a hole in the ocean. The only thing that saved us was that we were behind one of their islands by that time."

"You two did a great job but you didn't have to risk your lives like that. You should have used the gate."

Sonna said, "We didn't check but I think they put that interference device to work. I don't think they wanted us to get away." That put a new colour to it but my feelings were still the same.

They gave me a lot more details about the area and I liked the deep channel that went close to the area. I was also sure that this feature would be watched even more than other areas.

The girls went off to shower and I sat down and thought about this weapon they mentioned. This would probably not be of the two failed civilisations but something thought of long ago and probably before the Church started.

The operation was discussed with this new information. Porta and Sonna opened their mind to us and we saw and felt what they had gone through. Both were very frightened young ladies but also very brave.

When we took Sennis, we made a quick check of what we could do to protect ourselves. This was being put into our database all the time as more books were scanned and added. They had to be deciphered and this is where the data Osston provided helped a lot.

Weapons and shields were written with a different code and in different languages. The one we had found was just one example. There were some places where we could read the passages and we got hints from other topics about what we were after. We still didn't know how much the Church knew but suspected that everything we found out was hidden in some old books.

There were a lot of history books and they made fascinating reading but we had no time for this. Real spaceships had been made but not necessarily by Humans or even flown by Humans. The space ships were strong and very powerful but still had a shield. In a few places we found that the shield here was very strong and it was not punctured for propulsion or to transport people or goods. It was formed in such a way that you could not port through it. In passing, we found that a ship, along the lines of a shuttle craft, pulled up along side the major ship and the two shields merged to allow the smaller vessel to enter.

Kallos Island may have this type of shield or perhaps it didn't but I was going to assume the worse. This got us working on how to not only make an impervious shield but also to find a way of slipping through it like the ships at one time had. The silver icons we recovered were investigated to find this particular ability. We searched for power sources like the one in our chest but as yet we had not found any. Quite a few icons had been on the lowest levels and all of these were completely new to us.

The history books humbled me in two major ways. Our long ago ancestors were like gods in their power. This is what I was aiming the Human race toward. I was very interested if my proposed route had led to their eventual downfall but this fact had not been found yet. I had little data to go by.

I knew that Humans had achieved relative greatness but they were more or less labourers in a far-flung galactic civilisation. They did much of the scut work but learned all they could while doing it. Even after our race was at its height, our ancestors revered those that chose to elevate them. That put present day Humans very far down the totem pole.

There were centuries worth of work just studying the history books. I had to get by with a short synopsis that some people were able to put together after they read any particular book. These people were usually those that were injured but few of them had the ability to read.

Dimitri came in with Artlam and said, "What are we going to do?"

"We are going to have to go with your plan. I'm worried about this new weapon the girls found. Did anybody see it in action?"

"No, it was shaded by an island and its shield at the time. It gave off a very strong magnetic pulse. It was definitely not a laser. I don't know what kind of weapon it is but its something I have never heard of before."

"The lasers were of Human manufacture but this had to be something made by some advanced race. We can't go into battle against that without knowing its capabilities."

Artlam said, "Dimitri said he can rob the guidance system from one of his larger missiles so it can steer a rock from a distance."

"Let's try it."