Scrapyard Ship 4 Realms of Time by Mark Wayne McGinnis Read Free Book Online Page A

your tests?”
    “ The drones do not have any inherent weaknesses. Their dynamic shielding can withstand an attack from multiple directions so there’s no way for an adversary to sneak up on them.”
    “ Are you saying they can’t be destroyed?” Jason asked him.
    “ No. We may have come up with an idea.”
    “ We?”
    Ricket looked over to Billy and Orion, then back to Jason. “Actually, the idea came from Bristol.”
    “ Bristol?”
    “ Yes, sir.”
    “ And you trust him? Five days ago he was involved in a raid on outpost warships. Why on earth would we trust—”
    “ It’s his idea or nothing, Cap,” Billy said. “Look, I don’t like the guy any more than you do. But he has a good idea and I think we should consider it.”
    Jason noticed out of his peripheral vision that both Orion and Dira were nodding their heads. He’d been avoiding looking in Dira’s direction. “So? What’s his idea?” he asked.
    Ricket continued, “We replicate five identical transmitter drones. Similar to the one I replicated on the Minian. If we do this correctly, we’ll position each one within several yards of a drone now situated on Earth. With luck, their presence won’t trigger a combative response. Once all five drones are in suitable alignments, we activate a simultaneous phase-shift.”
    “ Where will they go? Where will they phase-shift to?”
    “ Off-planet, somewhere into deep space. We were thinking about multiple programmed phase-shifts that will transfer them to the far reaches of the universe.”
    Jason thought about the idea and had to admit it sounded like it could work.
    “ There are a few kinks we need to work out, Cap,” Billy said.
    “ Like what?”
    “ We have a general idea where the drones are located. They are stealthy, and we can’t pinpoint their locations any closer than a mile. So each drone will require a fairly rigorous search.”
    “ A search traversing multiple time references,” Ricket added.
    “ And once we do locate the drones?”
    “ We relay our position to the Minian and she maneuvers to within three thousand miles of our location. We then phase-shift each drone’s mate down from the Minian, one at a time.”
    “ Can’t we just take the drones along with us?” Jason asked.
    “ The drones are heavy, and anyway there’s isn’t sufficient cargo room in the shuttle to carry all five of them.”
    “ All right, we’ll go with the plan. Now let’s discuss our assault team. Billy, assemble ten of your best SEALs. Ricket, Orion, Dira, you’re all on the team. We’ll need rhino-warriors. Unfortunately, they’ve returned to Trumach, but I’ll talk to Traveler and see if he’ll join us one more time.”
    “ I’ll need two hours to produce and program the drones, Captain,” Ricket said.
    “ I’ll get to work on outfitting the team with multi-guns and upgraded battle suits,” Orion added.
    “ Okay, in three hours we meet back on the Minian. The Lilly will head back to Allied space. If there’s no more questions, let’s get to it.”
    Chapter 9
    Jason had to face reality. Nan was dead. Gone forever. And the feelings he’d tried to bury were catching up to him. His grief, masked in anger at both Bristol and Dira and the impossible drone situation on Earth, was quickly setting him up emotionally to explode like a powder keg. And with Mollie now sixty light years away, back in Allied space, his last true connection to Nan was gone.
    Seconds after The Lilly disappeared through a newly-formed wormhole, an outpost Craing light cruiser emerged in its place. Earlier, Traveler and his rhino-warriors had returned to Trumach, their home world—a world free from the tyranny of the Craing. They’d returned to their mates and offspring. Now, with help from his father back on the Independence, Jason had tracked down Traveler. Happy to hear from Jason, Traveler explained how he had found Stands in Storm’s mate and her offspring, several young rhino males. After delivering the