Galactica: Book 1 - Via Lactea

 

Colony 2 reserved no surprises. The ecosystem had been well on its way to collapse well before the Atlanteans had set foot on it, and their arrival had only sped up the disaster. The atmosphere was a steam-bath due to an uncontrolled greenhouse effect. Life had long left the surface, and whatever ocean or stream had evaporated into the atmosphere. The average surface temperature was well over 400° Fahrenheit, and was still climbing steadily as the Primary’s radiation was entrapped by the cloud cover. Robots were sent down in the thick atmosphere, now well over 20 times normal Earth density, and proceeded with the progressive transport of the material left behind by the Colonists.

"Our next stop is Earth Solar system. We already know there has been considerable changes due to the last battles we fought there. Our objective is to backtrack in time and locate the colony ship. Remember! We must stay undetected at all costs due to the possibility of a time-line paradox!" explained Harp. "Once we have found it, we trace the colony ship’s trajectory back to Atlantis One in an effort to understand why we developed Magic and the home world never did. Also, remember that the first indication that Magic is linked to space travel is the fact that the Seraphrims were visited by a crew of Atlanteans from Atlantis One that showed signs of Magic and the ability to see the future. Paschal, you have the floor."

"Thank you Harp. The idea is simple. We have a good idea as to when the Colony ship was torn out of orbit by the passage of Venusia and the destruction of the Baby Moon that led to the destruction of Atlantis Two. I plan to port back in time a series of Collectors, but in orbit this time. Since the events that precipitated the destruction of Atlantis Two would also affect the Collectors, I need to do jumps rather than a continuous back-flow in time. The Collectors will jump in slices of 1,000 years. Once we detect the Baby Moon, we know we are in the vicinity of the event. I will then bring back the Collectors forward in jumps of 100 years, until Venusia shows up in the Solar system. Hopefully, I shall see it appear well before it intercepts the Earth orbit, giving me time to send exploratory Collectors in the Colony ship."

"What if the Colony ship is not empty?"

"That will create problems. I am not sure the Colonists moved everyone out of cryogenic sleep once they reached Earth. If they did not, we are going to need to decide what to do. Sitar, you have the floor."

"Militarily, the solar system should have been abandoned by now. However, I have no certainty that some of the Scavengers have not been stuck in it so we shall enter the area as if it was hostile territory. I want Timor at the shields. I shall handle the offensive aspects of the penetration. Enron, you are by far our finest Helmsman, so I want you on that seat. Harp, you are to handle sensors. Samson, ready all necessary plans to bring us within the old orbit of Earth once we have an updated map of the solar system. Mom, you handle sick bay. Please have the Hospital ready for an influx of refugees if we detect that the cryogenic cells are not empty. Paschal, once you have located the colony ship, put a sticky tag on it. We might need it to keep track of where it goes upon ejection from orbit."

"Should we track who placed the Soul-Eater trap at the Lagrange point? It might prove vital later on?" asked Colibri.

"We shall see once we have accomplished our primary objective. It might prove interesting," said Ian.

"It might be interesting but ultimately, dangerous. I do not wish that race to know of us and place an added component to their field to hold us hostage to Earth," said Harold. "If we can use tachyons to send signals through time, nothing would stop them from tracking these tachyons to their destination."

"Okay Dad. I shall study the problem of traceability of the tachyons. However, I want to check approximately when the trap was set. It can be done via a time-stamp registry we could collect anytime after the Cataclysm but before the destruction of the Moon. There is a reason for that time frame: We never did look for such a tracer when we left Earth because we did not consider the question and we did not have the technology either."

"How do you plan to detect the trap without being detected yourself?"

"The microscopic Black Hole that fed the trap emits gamma pulses at regular intervals, intervals that match the frequency of the JT-2189 pulsar, at slightly less than one pulse per minute. The JT-2189 pulsar was produced by a super-nova explosion some 12,000,000,000 years ago. It is one if not the oldest pulsars in existence. That does not mean the trap is that old, but only that those who placed it held a long-time view of things."

"How do you plan to set up the upper limit?"

"The Earth is 4,500,000,000 years old and the moon is 4,000,000,000 years old. The trap cannot be older than the Moon. Life on earth is 3,500,000,000 years old and the emergence of the mammals is 65,000,000 years old. The oldest fossil of a primate is 47,000,000 years old. As you see, the window has narrowed considerably just with some thinking. Now then, unless evolution was guided from the start by those that set the trap for the Soul-Eaters, that window can be narrowed even further. The oldest high-level primate fossil showing the first signs of bipedal locomotion is 4,500,000 years old. It is the earliest the trap could have been set."

"Are you not afraid this thinking is a bit too centred on Humans, Paschal?"

"Maybe, but I have to start somewhere. If the sensor detects the pulse active when it materialises in time, it will be allowed to jump back further until it stops detecting it."

"And where do you plan to put the detector?"

"In the Tycho Brahe crater of the Moon."

"Why there?"

"It is shaded from the Sun, faces the Lagrange point where the Black Hole held residence, and it is very deep and narrow, giving the narrow aperture required to prevent contamination from stray signals."

"Okay Son, you have my approval. When will you push it below the surface? I can easily imagine that perturbing the Moon’s surface repeatedly would lead to an early detection of your sensor?"

"It will hover until it stops detecting the Black Hole and bury itself at that moment. Its energy source is easy to camouflage: it will absorb stray gamma and x-rays. The timer is a simple transition detector that counts the number of occurrences of the disintegration of a long-lasting unstable nucleus. The detection of the Black Hole will flip the counter once, setting it to zero. The result will be valid to the nearest 1,000 years."

"We are a week off Earth at our current speed. Have you heard of anything from the antimatter life-forms?"

"No Dad. I am not too worried. They probably reached their planetary system a month and a half ago, and if their population is as panicky as Humans, it must have caused quite the uproar."

"Are you not afraid the politicians on the other side or the religious fanatics might destroy the communication device?"

"I talked to the leading Scientist of their expedition. They plan to hide the plans and the final product until things stabilise. They are no fools. They are well aware that the discovery of another universe will throw their religious fanatics in a tizzy, and that their political structure is held in place by cowards more intent in saving their skin than facing reality."

***

Thebes emerged in the Solar system at the opposite side from which it had left the planetary system an eternity ago. It was recognisable because of the three massive planets and the proto sun Jupiter had become under the effect of the gravitational mine dropped in it during the battle. The location of Mars was the same but it now sported a train of icy debris that ringed it. The Earth’s location was marked by a sparse ring that oscillated under contradictory gravitational influences. The Sun itself seemed to be changing slowly. Its colour had turned a brighter yellow, indicating a higher speed of consumption of its hydrogen reserves under the influence of the microscopic Black Hole it had swallowed along with the Earth and its Moon at the culmination of the battle. A considerable amount of space-ship debris were also found, colliding or otherwise affecting their orbits in one way or another. The Scavengers had lost a vast number of ships, and clearly, some had died a slow death, running out of energy before managing to repair their engines and escape the Sun’s gravity well. Frozen bodies could be seen floating near shape-ships, having run out of atmosphere or energy to sustain their space-suits.

"Sensors?" asked Ian.

"We detect only residual energy sources. There are no life signs."

"Thank you, Harp. Samson, plot a course for Earth orbit."

"The best would be a spiralling degrading orbit. It would let us catch up with the biggest junk rather than come head-on with it. The other advantage is if we pass near some of the still active energy sources, we can blow them up, finishing the clean-up," suggested Samson.

"Proceed as you see fit and co-ordinate with Helm."

Thebes made its way through the debris field, blowing up torpedoes and mines that had not detonated during the battle because of faulty triggers or missed targets. A number of reactors were also destroyed along with their ship. Some plasma cores had survived their ejection and also joined the fireworks. In all, it took Thebes three days to slowly navigate the debris field safely.

"Clear an area around us, Sitar. Set it at 600,000 miles," ordered Ian. "Is our orbit stable?"

"No, it can not be. There are way too much free-floating mass around for us to ever achieve stability. But once we have cleared that sphere, we shall have enough leeway to relax somewhat," said Samson.

"Okay. Paschal? Send out your Collectors in time as soon as the area is clear."

"Okay."

It took another day to remove most of the garbage within the 600,000 spherical radius selected by Ian. Once the process was complete, Paschal sent a Collector one year before the destruction of the Earth to locate its position relative to Thebes. Once this was determined, the Collectors began backtracking in time, jumping in slices of 1,000 years. The Tycho Brahe sensor was held back until the Colony ship had been located in time with certainty.

It took 18 jumps for the Atlantean Colony ship to appear in the sky. The process was then reversed and the Collector was ordered to jump forward by slices of 100 years. Three jumps forward revealed that the Baby Moon had been destroyed and that Venusia had been captured in the interval. Again, the Collector was ordered to reverse direction and go back in time by jumps of ten years. The convergence of Venusia toward the Sun was finally seen and the Collector was told to anchor itself to the Colony ship to wait for the upcoming events. The destruction of the Baby Moon was finally dated with the utmost precision at 17,770 BIE (Before Ian Era), 28 days after the Winter Equinox, and the Atlantean Colony Ship was ejected three days later. There was a deep sense of sorrow to see the giant ship being thrown out of orbit. Where had it gone?

"Track the ship!" ordered Ian. "Meanwhile, get Collectors inside and examine the contents."

Paschal left a marker in time to act as a beacon later on, and then ported another Collector inside the ship. The interior was dark, and seemed to be devoid of life. After exploring the main hall and finding nothing except dust, the Collector moved to the Bridge. Nothing seemed to be out of order except for the fact that it was totally without power.

"Check on Engineering."

The Collector moved down toward the power core. There, everything seemed to be functional. Even the power flux seemed to still be working, much to their surprise. Examining the image sent back by the Collector revealed an important consumption of energy.

"Track the origin of the consumption," ordered Ian.

"I am on it," said Paschal. "I am sending another robot over. This one will transit and be able to actuate the controls on the Bridge, should we need to."

"Locate the Library. We need to find the Captain’s Logs."

"Good sense would put the logs within the Captain’s cabin, and the latest Bridge log on the Bridge itself," said Harp. "Add another robot to send to Engineering. We might need to actuate some controls to man this Mastodon. What is the time lag between collection and reception?"

"The time lag is the three phase shifts required to convert the data from the in-situ frequency to the transfer frequency, the propagation phase, which is almost instantaneous, and the phase shift for the data to resynchronise with our time. In all, the time light takes to travel three Plank lengths," replied Paschal.

"Okay. Have you found a computer interface jack?"

"Not yet, Ian. We did not examine the Captain’s Ready Room, any of the conference rooms, or Engineering yet. I doubt the Bridge would have a general purpose computer interface. The first Collector that I moved inside is mapping the ship as it travels the hallways. Samson, where is the ship headed?"

"From the last photograph we had, it is currently following an hyperbolic trajectory that will eject it into the interstellar space, assuming it does not collide with anything. The absence of active sensors on-board does not allow us to know for sure if such an occurrence is forthcoming."

"I can feed the sensor array of the ship. It will not add much to the energy consumption, and a radar would be useful."

"Do so, Paschal."

"Okay. First, I need to feed the radar arrays. Done. Diagnostic in progress!"

After 15 minutes, Paschal came back with the results.

"Ahem, three of five radar arrays are down. Luckily, one of the front radar arrays is good. I am feeding the controls to the Bridge. Ah, problem. I must bypass the main pathway and use an auxiliary one. Harp, I am transferring a dozen maintenance Spiders across time, including a Duplicator. Can you start repairs?"

"Yes. What about Engines?"

"That will require some thinking. I have some worries about the energy consumption and the security of these oldies. I am sending a data Collector in the Engine nacelles now. We should have a good idea of how they stand shortly. Ian, I wish to know exactly when the ship was put out of commission. I need to send a data Collector back in time to check on its arrival date."

"Do so."

"Okay. Thorsten? Can you handle tracking that Collector for me? I will need to keep an eye on those aboard the ship doing emergency repairs."

"Sure."

"Timor? Are you on secondary Bridge?"

"Yes."

"I will be feeding you the radar information coming from the Colony ship. If you see anything within the area covered, tell me as soon as you can."

"All right, Paschal."

For the next few hours, Paschal and Typhoon applied themselves to repairing the radar arrays using the Spiders. Missing or defective parts were created in Thebes and transferred to a reception Spider for use. Meanwhile, other data Collectors were put to studying the propulsion and energy supply. A hull breach was fixed as well. Of the eight nacelles, seven needed a full replacement of their power conduits, and all required the plasma flow containment magnets replaced. A week after the repairs had begun, the Engines were ready for their pre-heating, and the antimatter Collectors were tested.

"Have we found what was using energy when we arrived?" asked Alexander, which held the Captain’s station when these tests were being held.

"No, but we still have ¾ of the ship to explore yet," replied Paschal.

"Still no plans?"

"Still no plans. The computer core has suffered more than we thought. I have been downloading everything, but quite a few memory banks have been damaged. We are trying to figure out if there is a pattern in the damage, and if there are checksums on the files or duplicates that could help us cross-repair the most damaged ones."

Another week passed before Thorsten came up with the information Paschal had requested.

"I finally tracked the arrival date of the Colony ship. It arrived into Earth orbit at 157,770 BIE."

"So, what we see is something like 140,000 years of neglect. It is not too bad!" said Alexander.

"No, especially since there is still a lot of energy in reserve. There must be an antimatter core somewhere," said Harp.

"I think I found the landing ships’ holds. There is one left. The rest is empty space, and the door is torn out," said Sitar. "The hinges are twisted. I think it got hit by either a leaving shuttle, or by a chunk of meteorite."

"How many were there, Greywolf?"

"Sixty anchors, of which 59 are empty. There are boxes held in place by metal tapes and hitched onto pellets held in place by hooks. Apparently, everything was left in place as is. It is like the migration on the surface came to a sudden halt."

"Okay. I am transferring another Spider to repair the door. It will be under your control."

"Paschal, what should I do? I have two paths for the backtracking Collector: stay in Earth orbit, or track the Colony ship’s path across the galaxy to Atlantis One in the hope of understanding what caused our ancestors to develop Magic."

"Our priority is the origin of Magic. I am sending the special Black Hole sensor where you are, and then Enron navigates it to Tycho Brahe crater for it to start its mission. Once the data Collector senses the arrival of the Black Hole detector, you are free to begin the tracking. It will be a short stream of data on the 21 centimetre radio band matching factor 8, or 40,320 in ternary."

"Okay."

"Sent!"

"Detected! It is six miles off my bow."

"Enron?"

"I see the Colony ship. It is stable at the Earth – Baby Moon L2 point. I am moving to the Moon. The Colony ship has not yet opened its cargo bay doors. I am moving behind to hide in its plasma stream so as not to be detected. Thorsten has moved off back in time."

"What speed have you selected to move back in time Thorsten?"

"I am moving back at one second per year, so we should have a full path in 2.77 hours. If anything seems to get whacked up, I can go back later for a better study of that time frame."

"Okay. Do we have access to their sensors while we go back in time?"

"Only during the blimp. It will be like watching a movie of pictures taken once a year accelerated sixty times."

"Okay. Get a base value when you reach Atlantis One."

"That goes without saying, Paschal."

"Enron, same question?"

"I am jumping back by 1,000 years per second."

Repairs and exploration of the Colony ship continued. The Bridge gradually found its control stations lighting up as Paschal cleared their activation and the flux of energy was restored to each control. The most frustrating were the Weapons and the Engines, that stayed stubbornly inactive. Even Helm was reactivated, but it was useless without power to the Engines. Out to the side of the cargo bay, a series of doors were locked, frozen solid. It took the pressurisation and restoration of heat for the ice to melt and the doors to become visible.

"The rubber seals are gone. The cold ate them up pretty thoroughly," said Typhoon.

"I noticed. The moment the Spider touched the door, there was a cloud of particles floating around. I wonder what is on the other side?"

"These doors use electrical power to open. Did we restore that?"

"Yes. Let me see if triggering the open cycle will work."

However hard Paschal tried to get the door to open, it would not budge.

"It may no longer be sealed, but it is as if."

"Probably there is ice on the other side."

"You have a point. I am porting a plasma torch to the Spider."

After applying the torch to the joints for an hour, Paschal ordered the Spider to try and open the door again. This time, it did open, albeit with a stately speed. Behind the door was a vast room filled with boxes on pellets piled to the roof. Only a few rows of pellets seemed to have been moved out. On the far end were dried-out husks of Atlanteans, that seemed to have died in-situ.

"I think I understand what happened," said Ian as he eyed the images sent by the Spider.

"Yes?" asked Paschal.

"They were in the process of unloading the ship and moving things down to Earth when the door jammed, or was hit by an object, but anyway, they could no longer close the door and seal the hull. It was no longer possible to pressurise the cargo bay to work in it and bring stuff down. These guys were stuck in the room and died of either starvation or of cold. There is more. It also prevented those outside from accessing the ship, in effect trapping them on the surface."

"That makes sense."

"Thorsten, how is the tracking going?"

"The tracking is at the halfway mark to Atlantis One. They are navigating the galactic plasma bar presently."

"They went in there?"

"Apparently. I have no idea why they did that yet."

"Pascal, from what you make of the ship’s design, was it properly shielded for that transit?"

"No. Definitely not. And the impact might well have been compounded by their travel speed."

"Okay."

"Paschal, this is Blackie Dog from the secondary Bridge. There is an object heading toward the Colony ship. It is not natural."

"How much time before it reaches the ship and what is its expected intercept angle?"

"It should cross the port bow in six days."

"I shall focus on the forward target acquisition then. They have powerful lasers. I need to repair the energy streams. Typhoon, continue on the sixth Engine while I handle this."

"Okay Paschal," replied Typhoon as he moved his repair Spider toward the flux regulator that controlled the warp field folder. "Maybe we should involve more people into the repairs. We only have been tacking one yet, and it is only partly done."

"You have a point. We have seven to tackle. I shall port 14 more Spiders and distribute them to seven teams. Let me see... Violin and Piano work well together. Ness and Iridia on the next team; Fanfir and Cello for the third team... Jefferson and Yamato seem to click, Viola and Willie Coyote; Alaric and Apalapa; and finally... Colibri and Tarik. I need a replacement since I will be supervising the teams. Do you have a preference, Typhoon?"

"I kind of like Rockhook. He has experience in ship repairs."

"Okay, Rockhook it is. Ian? Call them to the Bridge so we can begin this in earnest."

The tasks distributed, the teams moved off to a control room off the Bridge to undertake their assigned work. As Paschal emerged from the conference room, he was called to the Bridge by Ian.

"We have a preliminary report on the tracking of the Colony ship from Thorsten. Do you want to view the data?"

"Yes. Wait for me."

Moving quickly to the Captain’s Ready Room, the three Atlanteans were surprised to be joined by Enron.

"I have some information to report. It is not related to the Black Hole’s installation but more to what you plan to discuss."

"Okay. Join and sit down," said Ian.

"Can I start?" asked Enron.

"My, my! It must be one Hell of a surprise!"

"Yes, it is! As I was monitoring the images coming from the Black Hole sensor, I saw a space-ship fly by the crater. It was definitely Atlantean of origin, a scout ship. It flew around the Moon, the Baby Moon and then headed for an entry in the Earth’s atmosphere. From the terminal point, it landed in the vicinity Atlantis Two. I have been tempted to check if it left, but that would have interfered with my primary mission."

"When did it show up?"

"Around 217,770 BIE, or, according to the journal we found, the time of the landing of the lost Scout. Remember, we managed to recover the Journal when we sent Collectors in time to retrieve archives from Atlantis Two. It was the oldest archive of all. We were unsure of the dating, but now we can rest assured it is exact."

"That is interesting. We now know these Scouts were badly shielded and left trails that could be followed by the Cyborgs and probably by the Soul-Eaters as well," suggested Paschal.

"But we do know the Soul-Eaters were there when the second Scout came, which happens to be that one. Are you telling me the first Scout might have led the Soul-Eaters to the Earth?"

"Ian, everything is possible. All depends on how closely the first Scout examined the Earth and if it failed to detect the Soul-Eaters or was followed by them."

"Hopefully, I shall be lucky and catch the arrival of the first Scout. In fact, to make sure I do, I will now slow down the progress back in time to one year per second. I expect the first Scout took some time to look around and I shall be able to see it fly by. If not, its interplanetary ion drive will leave a detectable trace," added Enron.

"Okay. What about you, Thorsten?"

"I have yet to play back the recording. Thebes? Play recording Colony One, sixty frames per second, please."

The recording showed the different sensor data plotted as distinct curves. Some were flat, but others swung wildly over time.

"First, the flat ones: they are the Engine outputs, as you see. They were running at cruise speed non-stop except when they crossed the galactic bar. There, they piked at 120% above safety margins, and that for several decades! That the engines did not blow up is a remarkable feat of engineering maintenance. Then they returned to cruise speed after crossing the galactic bar."

After a sip of Orange juice, Thorsten continued his report.

"Now, notice that the magnetic fields oscillate wildly as the ship travels. Some of these oscillations are easily explainable by the fact that they had to cross quite a few star systems to reach the Earth. Another part is due to the galactic bar, which is a jumble of contradictory magnetic force fields and other things I need not explain to any magical user. Now, we come to the crux of the problem. The Colony ship was badly shielded from electromagnetic shock waves, that is quite clear given the number of accidents reported in the Ship’s log. Unfortunately, we still have to find the Captain’s logs to understand what they thought of the issue, or at least the Chief Engineer’s log. Neither have been found so far, and I can not help you since the Collector stayed tied to the Bridge and only accessed one page of the log every year."

After looking at the eyes of each one present, Thorsten let out the bombshell.

"I believe that the Colonists were exposed to intense magical fields as they travelled through space to reach the Earth. Their magical core grew from an adaptation to use an abundant resource, a resource made abundant because the ship travelled at warp speed and crossed several high-concentration magical fields, collecting on its hull both Mithril and Orichalque. Yet, had they not crossed the galactic bar, they might not have met a field of high enough intensity to effect the change and get a functional magical core."

Everyone looked at Thorsten in shock.

"That we are magical is due to the fact that our ancestors did not shield the Colony ship from the magical field?"

"How could they, Ian? They had no inkling of its existence! And I am not finished! Remember the Matriarch?"

"What about her? I do not understand?"

"Ian, they met a Scout ship of Atlanteans that were magical! But we know for certain that those that stayed on Atlantis One were not magical! So, it is more than likely that the Scout ship, looking for life, travelled a lot in space, unknowingly changing the nature of the Crew and giving them Magic. When they reached the Seraphrims’ home World, they had developed enough Magic to have far-seers, and probably a lot more as well, but they were unprepared to resist the onslaught of the Cyborgs that had been tracking them. The Seraphrims paid the ultimate price for the Scout ship’s visit: the Cyborgs destroyed the Scout ship and condemned the surviving Atlanteans to a losing battle, and the destruction of the Seraphrims was an unfortunate by-product of a war that had begun well before even the Atlanteans of the metropolis ever knew it had started. In a way, it is lucky the Scout ship was destroyed. Had it been able to report to Atlantis One, the destruction of our Home World would have occurred a lot earlier. The Cyborgs never tolerated any competition. The Soul-Eaters were not considered a risk due to their specialised diet, but an advanced society that could mine planets was digging in the Cyborg’s larder."

Those present at the table sat silent, too stunned to even debate Thorsten’s analysis. Finally, Ian spoke up.

"Write that down, Thorsten. I want a full analysis of the data, the speculations, the reasoning, the conclusions, everything. I want this report to be classified for Imperial Family Eyes Only. We shall debate how and when to make it public at the next family meeting. Get with Enron for the part that intersects your report."

The two Boys looked at each other and nodded.

"Paschal, what have you on the repairs of the Colony ship?"

"I distributed the repairs of the Engines to 8 teams. I plan to focus on repairing their laser banks for now. From what I have, several were already damaged when they reached Earth and time did not improve the situation. The least damaged should be functional in six hours."

The meeting disbanded quietly, and the difficult task of repairing the Colony ship continued. Two and a half days later, the forward laser banks had been fixed and tested successfully. Target acquisition was also successful, and the forward defences were turned over to the secondary Bridge crew, while Paschal focussed on fully restoring power to the ship. Progress was slow, and it could be seen: as each sector was suddenly supplied with energy, lights came on flashing and sometimes blowing up, requiring even more repairs. The Bridge itself was a nightmare. The mapping of the ship had continued unabated and the recovery of the computer data slowly made headway. Three hours before the object that had been detected by radar was to intercept the Colony ship, one of the engines finally reported functional at the Engineering bay, and could be used should the situation require it.

"Do we test it?"

"No, Ness. It might render the ship exposed by moving it in such a way that the laser banks would point away from the target," said Sitar. "Have we identified the origin of the object?"

"It is a lone Soul-Eater ship, severely damaged and drifting more than flying into the Solar System," said Blackie Wolf from the Secondary Bridge.

"You are hereby authorised to fire on it when it is less than 10 minutes off the ship. Use all banks. I want it to be reduced to dust on the first blast," said Sitar. "Paschal, what will happen if we do this?"

"It will not stress the energy output. However, the photon emissions will act like an engine, and push the ship in the axis of the firing lasers. Samson? I need an estimate of the impact on the current trajectory of the Colony Ship."

"It depends on the duration and intensity of the photon emission. Let me do some scenarios. I need to model the current movements of the Colony ship in order to figure out in what position the intercept will find it. AI-3? Can you project the movements of the Colony Ship so we know what will be its orientation when Blackie Dog fires?"

"I have been working on this ever since we began restoring the ship. It has three axis of rotation. The fastest roll is along the longitudinal axis; then it rotates very slowly head over tail; and finally, it rotates perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis at a very slow speed. The laser array will be able to target the objective for only a very brief 8.23 seconds."

The screen on the station showed each movement of the Colony ship individually, and then combined to reveal the complexity of the motion the abandoned ship was caught in. The firing aperture appeared regularly, clearly shrinking as the two ships converged.

"Why is it shrinking?" asked Ian.

"The time the ship’s bow faces the approaching ship is getting smaller as it slowly rotates," replied the Artificial Intelligence.

"Estimate the impact of firing the laser arrays for one, two, four and eight seconds respectively," requested Samson, not in the least interested in doing all the vector analysis hand calculations would require.

"The full power of the array is estimated at 20 TJ, but this is only valid while the array points directly at the object. Curves are now being calculated as the aperture opens and closes to estimate the sum of all outputs depending on the requested time frames. One moment please."

A few minutes later the Artificial Intelligence came back with the results.

"In general, the ship would slow down, since the laser will fire facing forward for the most part. At one second, the ship’s trajectory would barely change, only bringing the inflection point of the parabolic trajectory closer to the Sun by 2 million miles and ejecting it in the direction of the Cassiopeia Constellation. It will pass by Jupiter in the process. At two seconds, the trajectory brings the ship closer to the Sun by 8 million miles and ejects it in the direction of the Dragon Constellation after a visit to Saturn. At 4 seconds, it brings the ship even closer to the Sun, at 16 million miles, but sill safely away from the Sun’s danger zone. However, it will bring it uncomfortably close to Mars and graze Uranus, ejecting it toward the Constellation Sagittarius. Finally, at 8 seconds, the ejection puts the ship in the path of an unstable Venusia. It might miss, or it might enter the atmosphere and burn down. If it manages a safe fly-by, it will be ejected toward the Southern Cross."

"Estimate the time required to destroy the incoming ship?" asked Sitar.

"Given the construction methods employed by the Soul-Eaters, the diminishing distance, and the total output, we shall not have enough time to fully destroy it. It would take a continuous feed at full power for 12.3 seconds."

"Estimate the impact on the Soul-Eaters’ ship’s trajectory of the laser beams following the 1, 2 and 4 seconds firing scenarios?" asked Samson.

"At one seconds, the ship would collide with the rear rather than the front, destroying one of the nacelles. At two seconds, it would miss us by a hair, passing less than a yard behind us, and it could use magnetic grapples to hitch a ride. At four secpmds, it would be three miles behind us when our trajectories crossed."

"Good. Blackie Dog, you have your orders. Fire four seconds, not one second longer!" said Sitar. "We have no need to destroy the ship. By the way, where will the Soul-Eaters end up?"

"Their orbit will be modified sufficiently to bring them within the Sun’s corona, but not enough to fall in it flat out, at least in the first orbit. Anything inside will roast. On the second orbit, with an apogee located just beyond Venusia, it will fall in."

"Good riddance," said Ian, with a wide grin that would have scared a Great White Shark.

As the meeting came to a close, Enron walked in, with a wide smile.

"I do not know what is so fascinating about the Tycho Brahe Crater, but the first Atlantean Scout ship crew studied it closely before moving off toward the Earth. I have tracked their behaviour, and they completely missed the presence of the Soul-Eaters or of the black Hole at the Lagrange L1 point. I admit the Soul-Eater laboratory was mostly underground, but even then, it did have some surface buildings! These guys focussed around the equator, studying the equatorial forest of Africa and the Amazon basin, as well as the area around Malaysia. They never even ventured over the drier parts of the planet, where they could have seen the Eden Project in full bloom!"

"Did you have a date stamp?" asked Ian.

"Yes. They did their study for a year or so around 297,770 BIE, or somewhere around 80,000 years before the arrival of the second Atlantean Scout ship."

"That is quite a gap!"

"Hey, you forget the first ship had to go back to Atlantis One, file its report, some administration or other had to interpret and decide to allow the second ship to do the trip back to Earth, and somewhere after that, someone decided the second ship had been lost and Atlantis One got incinerated. We now know from the history archives recovered from Atlantis One that there were several palace revolutions, numerous coups, changes of dynasties, and what not that kept the Atlanteans focussed on their belly button rather than on a far-away planet’s events. Remember the Emperor’s Secretary, of not so missed memory!"

"You have a point. What are you doing now?"

"The Sensor is back to its original mission and moving back in time by slices of 1,000 years per second, Ian. By the way, I saw several waves of Soul-Eaters land on the Earth. We thought they had all arrived at the same time, but apparently, it is not the case. Their waves are spaced between 1,000 and 2,000 years apart and comprise several hundred ships. From what we know of these bastards, each wave is made up of a family and a Patriarch."

"Okay. Count and estimate the maximum population of Soul-Eaters that arrived from space. I know we cannot estimate their growth locally but if we have a base value of their numbers, it can prove interesting."

Finally, the meeting dissolved and the Atlanteans returned to their task of guiding the Spiders repairing the Colony ship. Felicia intercepted Ian as he made his way to the Mess Hall.

"Your Highness!"

"Felicia, did you blow up something that might cost you your head?"

"No. Why do you ask?"

"You know how I hate formalities. I am named Ian, and I expect you, little Sister, to call me that!"

The sheepish look the Wolf Bitch gave Ian would have been comical had anyone been around to observe the exchange.

"What can I do for you? And are these six little Devils your last brood?" Ian asked as the six Pups made circles around them, yipping all the time.

"Yes, Ian. I am taking them out for their first walk in the forest. I came to pick up some meat for them from the mess hall, since I plan to begin weaning them today. I wanted to tell you that the mapping of the Colony ship is complete. I suggest you take a look at it. It has some very interesting features."

"Like what?"

"Huge racks that seem to be similar to those found in the Hospital wings. However, they are not exactly the same thing."

"Cryogenic chambers for long-distance travel, maybe? Are they all occupied?"

"No, the first row is empty. The rest seem to be functioning normally."

"Thank you. I think I need to return to the Bridge and inform Paschal of this development. Let me create the meat on which your Pups can use their teeth. I wish you to accompany me to the Bridge, Felicia."

"What about these six Devils, as you call them? They are a pain in the legs!"

"They will benefit of an early visit to the core of the Ship, that is all. They probably are totally unaware that they are travelling in space."

After introducing the Pups to their first taste of meat, in the form of liver, the Wolf family made its way to the Bridge, surprising Paschal which had taken the Captain’s chair.

"Paschal, Felicia has some news for you."

"Yes?"

"The mapping of the Colony ship is complete. And it shows a vast number of cryogenic chambers still occupied!"

"Holy shit! That was the energy consumption we could not explain. What is their status?"

"Some were empty, but most are occupied and reporting perfect conservation of those in suspended animation."

"Harp?" asked Paschal from the Bridge.

"Download the map for the Colony Ship and send a Spider to inspect the Cryogenic Chambers. According to Felicia, most are occupied."

"Okay."

"Blackie Wolf to Bridge! Firing on the Soul-Eater ship in one minute! Lasers fully charged and ready. No response from the target. It is surprising, I sort of expected them to have an automatic force field activation should they detect an external energy source!"

"You seem to forget that this ship may look like those we blew up recently, but it is in fact a real museum piece. It is likely that the installation of force fields or their automatic triggering was not implemented at the time."

"I seem to forget that we are looking at something that occurred in the past! Sorry."

"Do not cut your hairs in four, Blackie Dog. You are not the only one with the problem."

"Luckily you did not order me to cut my hairs in quarters! I would have had quite the job!"

"Do not tempt me!"

"Firing beginning! The Soul-Eater ship is slowing down and the laser array is eating up at its bow. Sudden decompression of the forward bulk! The ship is slowing down even more! Sudden decompression of another compartment! The Bridge blew up! Two seconds into firing sequence. The ship is gradually being pushed into a new orbit. Three seconds! Core breach in progress! It is being thrown perpendicular to its current axis of displacement. Four seconds! Firing stopped. Cascade collapse of the interior in progress! Several hull breaches occurring all over the ship. No escape Pod released. There is another core breach on the opposite side of the ship. Another sudden atmospheric decompression, and a nacelle flew off toward the Sun. That ship is dead. It will pass behind us some 80 miles off. I am going into monitoring mode."

"Acknowledged."

"Calculating the changes in the Colony ship trajectory," said AI-6. "According to the sensors we added, the trajectory is in conformity with the model."

"Thank you."

Repairs continued on the Colony ship, and the Cryogenic chambers were checked. Meanwhile Enron’s backtracking continued in the search for the elusive date when the Trap was set. His reports were terse.

"The first wave of Soul-Eaters arrived on the Earth at around 407,770 BIE. That is interesting. It marks the discovery of fire by the Neanderthals, and the sudden establishment of religious rituals. I think the Soul-Eaters quickly realised the potential for this in feeding them and began encouraging the establishment of religious rituals, from burials to ritualistic cannibalism. I believe they spent some time studying the Neanderthal genome and those of other Humanoids, before beginning the artificial selection that ultimately led to Homo Sapiens Sapiens in their Eden Laboratory. I had always wondered what came first: farmers or cullers. Apparently it was the farmers. I suspect the cullers came in at a later date and tried to take over the work of the farmers. The Trap was already in place and the Farmers were unable to warn the others of the situation. I am still progressing back in time to find out when it was set up. I now have increased the jump rate to 100,000 years per second, thus minimising the chances of falling in the midst of the task force that put it in place."

"That clarifies some history points. I wonder if it might not be interesting to look at how things developed over the years before the second Scout ship came around and threw some wrenches in their research!" said Sitar.

"Maybe later, Brother. For now, finding out when the Trap was set can help us understand what drove those who put it in place to do it in the first place."

"Yes, I understand your worries, Ian, and I agree with you."

Another month passed spent at repairing the Colony ship. When it had been fully fixed, it was like brand new, and everything was working according to specifications and beyond.

"What now, Ian?"

"Dad, we can track its travel through time and find out where to intercept it in our current time frame. Also, we can leave behind Spiders tasked with the ship’s maintenance, and reporting any anomaly the ship will encounter over the next 17,780 years. We know that at its current speed, it will not have travelled very far from the Solar system. Its maximum speed will be twice the liberation speed of the Sun or somewhere in that vicinity, so the error will be minimal. And nothing stops us from obtaining from the sensor on the hull a star map that will help us locate it once a year. Seventeen thousand seven hundred or so readings, taken at one second interval, will tell us exactly where it is now. Should issues develop, the Spiders can always transmit something via the sensor, and we shall do some real-time interventions."

"I understand. I must admit that the idea of tracking the trajectory of an object that travelled for 17,780 years in less than five hours boggles my mind, Son."

"That is not my fault if you live in a fixed time frame, Dad. Newton has been dead for thousands of years!"

"Are you calling me a dinosaur?"

"No, Dad, just a mummy!"

"You impertinent brat!"

"No Dad, I am just a heir in your soup! Oops, it is not me! You are balding Dad!"

"Given what I have to put up with you, Son, I am lucky I still have some!"

"Anyway, I have begun the tracking of the Colony Ship forward in time from its ejection," said Thorsten. "I recovered the monitoring Collectors sent back in time to inspect the Colony Ship’s trajectory to Earth."

"Do we need to stay here any longer?" asked Harold.

"I would prefer we do, Dad," said Paschal. "It will reduce the stain on the Collectors’ data transmission, and ease our control woes."

"And it will also reduce my issues with the monitoring device I plan to put on the moon," added Enron.

Harold nodded and left his Sons to their work. He felt overwhelmed and preferred focussing on managing the Empire than juggling with time lines spanning several thousand years.

After two hours, Enron called up on Thorsten.

"Hey, I finally have an upper limit for the installation of the Trap. It is in the order of slightly less than 65,000,000 years, somewhere after the Dinosaurs died off."

"Can you pinpoint it better?"

"I am working on it using the convergence method. Where are you in your own project?"

"I am at the halfway mark. At its perigee, the ship was travelling at 2,762 miles per hour, or slightly below twice the escape velocity of the Sun. It has been losing speed since, but at a very slow rate. Most of its velocity loss was at the beginning, and now it is stabilised at 2,550 miles per hour. I have decided to use that as a constant rather than bother with the gravitational breaking effect since it was for such a short time. The result places the ship about 198,584,820,000 miles from the Sun. It is still not out of the Oort Cloud. If things continue like they are going, it will be 397,169,640,000 miles from the Sun when we pick it up, if it is what Ian intends to do. By then it will be 591.84 light-hours from the Sun or slightly over 24.675 light-days away, still well within the Oort cloud, again. I plan to ask that we use our ion drives to reach the ship. Using Warp would be overkill."

"What is the density of the Oort cloud?"

"We crossed the path of five object so far, and they were no bigger than a football. Bigger objects are even rarer."

"I shall go back to pinpointing the installation of the Trap. Let us meet at the Captain’s Ready Room for our report to Ian, say an hour before vespers."

"He is still sitting there?"

"On the Captain’s chair, you mean? No, it has been taken over by a Dragon. I suspect Ian just wants to be on top of everything."

Vespers was closing in quickly for Thorsten and Enron. They made their way to the Captain’s Ready Room with trepidation. They had some interesting developments to expose to those who would be present. The number of individuals present surprised them: Ian, Falcor as Captain, Paschal, Sitar, Harp, Colibri and Rockhook showed up for what was supposedly an preliminary report. Ian presided, even if normally it would have been the prerogative of Falcor.

"Whom of you has the shortest report?" he asked as Thorsten and Enron walked in.

The two Boys looked at each other and Thorsten nodded, standing up.

"I have located the position of the Colony Ship as of 10 minutes ago. It is slowly drifting in the Oort cloud, 24.675 light-days away. I suggest we use ionic drives to reach it. We would constantly miss it with Warp drives. I have direct contact via fold space with the beacon we placed on its hull, and it awaits my signal to activate. Navigation has the target point, and the path is plotted and at the disposal of Helm."

"Thank you, Thorsten. Well done. Enron?"

"I have the date of the installation of the Black Hole. It has been around for far longer than I thought. The sensor reported its installation at approximately 64,500,000 BIE, slightly after the destruction of the Dinosaurs by the meteor. I also have the first ever picture of the ships that placed that Black Hole at the Lagrange point. It is a totally unknown type."

"That is a long way before the Soul-Eaters showed up!" exclaimed Sitar.

"Yes, and it tells us the Soul-Eaters have been around in one form or another for even longer for that species to set up that trap."

Enron’s comment sent shivers down everyone’s back.

"If they have been around that long and, apparently, longer, that only can mean one thing: they must have spread much further than we anticipated."

"Harp, you have a way to hammer a nail in a bowl of jelly!" said Sitar acidly.

Harp showed a finger to Sitar and continued his comment. "By the way, it also tells us one thing about those that built the Trap. They have very powerful far-seers! Otherwise, how could they have foreseen the evolution of Humanoids when the biggest Mammals on the planet were no bigger than gerbils?"

"Harp has a point. However, how come we could leave the planet?" asked Rockhook. "It is like we were a negligible quantity for them."

"Maybe we are, or maybe they do not see us as a threat. We have no way to know their previous dealings with the Soul-Eaters," Colibri replied. "It appears to me that they had a long-lasting and contentious relationship with the Soul-Eaters, enough to invest in that plan, to put it in place, and to wait for its final activation by the destruction of the planet and the black hole falling at the Sun’s core. This is the ultimate plan of vengeance and illustrates without any doubt that vengeance is best served slowly and cold. And here, I assume they are still around."

Ian nodded, and continued interrogating Enron.

"What could you learn from your observations?"

"Their engines are like no other. They do not travel in space. They travel in time. It is highly unusual and probably requires a considerable amount of planning to prevent paradoxes. To reach a point, they jump to that point in time. I, for one, am at a loss to understand how they manage to prevent collisions."

"Could they still be around?"

"I have yet to detect a tachyons trail like theirs in our time-frame. And it would glow like the Alexandria Lighthouse did on the Mediterranean in the Egyptian epoch. No, I believe they are not here."

"Could they be the Founders we hear about in legends?"

"I can not speculate, Ian. We have never found trace of the Founders. But then, neither did we ever find out about those ones. All I can say is if we ever see a ship like that, we shall know it is from those that set up the Trap. So far, I have yet to receive a report from AI-2, whom I asked to compare the image with all known ship types found by Atlantis One in its peregrinations in the galaxy, both from dead or at the time alive civilisations."

"There are so many unanswered questions: Who are the Founders? Who are these people? Are they and the Founders one and the same? Why did they set up that trap exactly? Where do the Borgs come from? And, for that matter, where do the Soul-Eaters originate from as well? All we know is that the Soul-Eaters evolved on a planet similar to Earth or they would have been hard put to adapt so well to it."

"Ian, we may never be able to answer these questions. I do not recommend we pursue the study of the Trap builders," said Enron.

"Why?"

"Simply because we went undetected because I kept the transmission in between tachyons. We may have been lucky, but I do not believe it is worth the risk calling attention on us just to answer some questions that may have lost all relevance today. However, we can always revise our position and send back sensors later on. I recalled the sensor from the Moon as the Colony ship arrived in the vicinity of the Earth. I did not want fortuitous discovery of the sensors, creating a time paradox. We skirted the issue enough as it is. I think I did well, if only because they sent a landing robot toward the Tycho Brahe shortly after inserting themselves into Earth orbit. Yet I am quite sure they did not detect the sensors. Maybe they decided to use it for some reason, but it is of little interest. They must have been surprised to see that cave under the surface."

"Okay, I agree, Enron. Report to Helm and catch up with the Colony ship. We have to take it in and it is past due we do so. Ionic drive should take us in its vicinity in 48 days?"

"Yes," replied Thorsten.

"Then off we go."