SECTOR 10 (The CLOUD 2)

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 12

The Concord's new planet-killer awaits activation by starship Nemesis's Captain, Gereon. Before they can finally implement their new strategic plan, a committee will convene at the Mirai station with elder council members of the Grey Order. Technological research has not had this much interest since the advent of nuclear physics centuries. Now, it is nanotechnology that is going to turn the tide. Something so powerful as nanotechnology may wipe out more than they expect if left uncontrolled. They cannot risk interfering with the cosmic web too much, or else they will disrupt the communication channels. If it is a total cataclysm that they are after, then that's what they're going to get.

With the help of the light bridge portal, Gereon uses their image spectrometer to map coordinates of star systems, plotting a course to the past. At the base camp near the Fortress Shield being constructed, he sends out the alert that all crew and troops need to board the starship Nemesis before they depart for another mission. The Martian colonists that are in tow remain chained inside their jail cell.

What they don't know is that the fellow squadron members from Alon Blane's Syndicate crew are readying to take their rebellion further; they want to overtake the starship Nemesis and pirate the teleportation technology that they promised Remold. If it weren't for their immediate capture, Alon and his partners may have been able to board Nemesis themselves at the loading dock. Its swooping Q-thrusters that engulf the rear in elliptical rings are hard to miss. Though as Alon takes solace in knowing, it isn't over just yet. He's going to have one more chance at making things right when his rescuers arrive.

Gereon walks along the slender corridor before coming to a stop when the barricade closes with a firm thud behind him. The large screen displays the Earth in a digitized recreation, and an approximate date millions of years ago, displayed with infrared spectrometry after they travel to a star system that's light-years away. Gereon presses the appropriate switch to key an image that pinpoints where Nemesis will navigate through the light bridge portal. It will make an interdimensional pull, making a quantum leap past the Yhemlen timeline, going further down in evolutionary history.

The Martian colonists see him walk by their cell briskly. Gereon glides along the hallway using his slender Grey frame.

"Where are you taking us?" one of the captives screams from the cell.

Gereon straps himself in beside his son Jasper. "I'm prepared to meet our Neanderthal ancestors, what do you say?"

"Sure thing," Jasper says telepathically through the cockpit's frequency band.

The forced quantum drive propels them forward when power is directed to Q-thrusters. The Nemesis moves away from the magnetic rings where they are tethered by polarizing forces. Moving in an open area of space before reaching the moon, Gereon charts the fastest course through the light bridge. The Q-thruster rings target its lasers in rays of light from the rear of the ship. As the Nemesis moves forward, the light bridge portal ahead of them opens the wave of a course light-years away in streaks of green and blue.

"Are we coming back?" Jasper asks.

"Of course, we should, but what does it matter? We're warriors and warriors always find their way back."

Gereon turns from him, and they proceed with a flash of light, returning the course to meet a prehistoric Earth. "We must get the colonists from their cells," Jasper says.

"Not until we get their filth off the planet, first," Gereon says. The colonists are a threat to security, and The Concord cannot risk another breach.