Star Fall: A Seeders Universe Novel Read online

  Carey turned with Matt to watch the main board as the thousand plus scout ships and their military escorts responded to the return call.

  Two minutes later all had responded but The Bee.

  Carey felt his stomach twisting in a knot.

  “How long until all ships are back on board?” Matt asked a fraction of a second before Carey could.

  “Three hours,” Star Fall said.

  Carey turned to Matt. “We need to get this ship and the scout ships returning protected.”

  Matt nodded.

  “Star Fall,” he said, “tell the second and the fifth military units to launch on emergency status and protect all returning scout ships and this ship against any threat.”

  Carey knew that would launch over two hundred high-powered military ships with defensive and offensive capabilities. No families on the military ships.

  Star Fall had the capabilities of full defense and offense as well, but no point in taking any chances at all with the three million lives that were on board.

  Of the three million souls on board Star Fall, over eight hundred thousand were military and their families. For thousands of years, Seeders had not really needed a military branch. But since the war it had become a regular part of any Seeder mission and Carey was very glad they had the military with them now.

  FOUR

  THREE HOURS LATER Matt felt a giant sigh of relief as the last of the scout ships and small military escort ships were back on Star Fall. In the three hours, ten of the larger scout ships, without families on board, had launched with ten of the full battle cruisers as escorts, all headed for the galaxy where The Bee had vanished.

  Matt knew they might be overreacting on all of this, but when two thousand of his people suddenly went missing, he didn’t want to take any chances with any others.

  As he and Carey watched on the big screen, the twenty ships arrived near the galaxy where The Bee had vanished and spread out, keeping their distance, but moving quickly to surround the entire small spiral galaxy.

  The galaxy was just over a hundred-thousand light-years across and had just over three hundred billion stars in it. Smaller than their home Milky Way Galaxy. From all the scans coming in, there was nothing at all special about this small spiral galaxy, and no signs of life at all.

  But Matt had a gut sense this small place was very, very special.

  Eight of the scout ships with their military escorts took up positions at points around the outside of the galaxy and one ship went above and another below the galaxy core.

  “Anything unusual?” Carey asked Star Fall as the scans from all of the scout ships came in.

  “Nothing is beyond any standard parameter,” Star Fall said.

  Suddenly Matt had an idea that seemed so stupid to him, he almost decided to not say it, but then went ahead.

  “Have each scout ship scan for the scout ship directly across from them through the galaxy.”

  Carey looked at him, frowning, then turned back to the big screen to watch the data flowing in.

  “Some field is blocking the scans through the galaxy,” Star Fall said.

  Matt nodded, trying to make himself take a deep breath. That was exactly what he had been afraid of.

  “Are you kidding me?” Carey said. “That galaxy is just a massive image hiding something else?”

  Matt nodded. They had to get those ships away from whatever that was.

  “Star Fall, pull all ships back from that galaxy. Emergency.”

  On the screen all ships moved at once, moving away from galaxy at full trans-tunnel drive.

  Twenty minutes later they were back on board and the number of military ships launched and protecting Star Fall had increased by fifty.

  “Now what?” Carey asked, turning to look at him.

  “We stay here and gather data, as much as we can from this distance, then we call for help.”

  Carey nodded. “You think Chairman Ray and Chairman Tacita might know what is going on here?”

  “Since they have been known to keep things from us in the past, nothing would surprise me,” Matt said.

  What he didn’t say was that he had a hunch this vast mission of sending ships out to explore the known universe had some smaller goals in mind as well. And chances are they had just found one of those goals.

  But Carey clearly had been following his thinking.

  “Star Fall,” Carey said, “please put up a three-dimensional image of the area around the original Earth galaxy. And show in green all human space.”

  The big screen filled completely with white dots, each tiny dot representing an entire galaxy. One area spreading to the right was green dots. Matt had seen this image before and found it amazing that all those millions of galaxies were filled with humans thanks to the work of the Seeders.

  “Now,” Carey said, “please reduce the scale enough that shows the original Earth galaxy, the human space, and our location at the moment.”

  The green human space became a tiny green line to one side of the large screen with the original Earth galaxy near one end of the line. Matt found it stunning that they had traveled so far in only fifty years.

  “I don’t think this is from old Earth,” Matt said, knowing what Carey was hoping.

  Carey nodded. “Star Fall, with the old standard trans-tunnel drive, how long would it have taken a ship to get from the original Earth to this point?”

  Star Fall said simply, “Original Earth would not have yet been formed as a planet at the point the ship would have needed to start.”

  Matt could tell that deflated Carey completely.

  “So we are dealing with something alien, clearly,” Matt said. “Or something natural we don’t understand.”

  Carey nodded. “We need help.”

  “That we do,” Matt said. “That we do. But first we need more information.”

  FIVE

  CAREY JUST KEPT studying the image of the small spiral galaxy as the next day went by. No sign of The Bee which scared her more than she wanted to admit, and no data at all other than the fact that any probe they sent into the galaxy from any direction simply vanished.

  They actually had no idea at all what had caused the probes and The Bee to vanish. There was just nothing there to even take readings on.

  Carey and Matt both thought that the entire thing seemed to be acting like the skin of an empty-space bubble. With an empty-space bubble, all time and energy inside the bubble didn’t exist. The bubbles were formed by forces in space that caused areas of space to be devoid of time. You couldn’t see the boundary of an empty-space bubble, but you could go through the edge of one and just vanish as The Bee had done, and the probes had done.

  But the largest empty-space bubble possible with the math they knew was just over a hundred light-years across, and was round, not the oblong shape of a hundred-thousand light-year spiral galaxy.

  Plus Seeders knew how to spot and avoid empty-space bubbles. This was not one of them, Star Fall assured them.

  Finally, on the morning of the second day of doing experiments, Carey glanced at Matt. “I think it’s time we call in some help.”

  Neither one of them had left the command center except to eat and shower. And Carey was exhausted. They had had periods like this in the war, but she had hoped these kinds of emergencies had been behind them.

  Matt nodded. “Star Fall, please send word to Star Mist and Star Rain that an emergency chairman meeting is needed. Also include Chairman Ray and Chairman Tacita.”

  “Message sent,” Star Fall said.

  Carey knew there was no way she or Matt or any of the other chairmen could teleport from such a vast distance. And also, each ship as it went out on the mission had left what they called “Breadcrumbs” behind it.

  Carey and Matt, as chairmen, had the ability to teleport millions of light years, but most Seeders on Star Fall could only teleport about one-hundred-thousand light years at a time. So on Star Fall was an entire factory producing small self-sustainin
g stations with beacons. Each station could hold upwards of a hundred people at a time, with bedrooms, kitchens, and other things to make someone comfortable.

  The stations were placed as they went along every hundred-thousand light years. So anyone who wanted to go back to their home galaxy in the human occupied space could do so at any point, jumping from station to station. It might take them a month or so of jumps and resting to go back, but the path was available which gave everyone on Star Fall the feeling of still being attached to their home worlds in human space.

  Every few hundred stations there was a major station, with full-time staff and crew that could hold upwards of five thousand residents if necessary. Carey thought of them as huge resort hotels just floating in space. And they were as opulent as resorts, with lavish pools and spas and restaurants. Plus some of the best traveling entertainment played the station circuit.

  With fourteen large ships like Star Fall headed out, the major stations were expanding their numbers all the time. And it had become a large industry to staff those stations if nothing more than Seeders wanting to jump into deep space for dinner and a night’s entertainment.

  So far, in fifty years, they had planted over one thousand stations, with ten major resort-like stations. And members of the crew moved along the path regularly, often jumping back just to take in a special band or act from human space.

  Carey was just constantly amazed at the scale Seeders just took for granted. She supposed that once you worked on seeding an entire galaxy and billions of planets with humans and helping each civilization grow and expand safely, jumping through space seemed pretty simple.

  “All have answered,” Star Fall said. “Chairman Ray and Tacita have their ship docked near factories in the Milky Way. They suggested you all meet there in ten minutes.”

  “Tell them we agree,” Carey said as Matt nodded.

  He took her hand and a moment later they had jumped to the large resort of Angel, the fifth resort they had launched along the trail of crumbs. They had launched Angel over thirty years ago and it had become a popular vacation spot, being added onto over the decades because of a fantastic image of a giant nebula nearby called Angel.

  From what Carey understood, Angel now had a permanent population of fifty thousand and could hold ten times that many people.

  They had appeared near the Lagoon Bar and Restaurant and went to the bar to get some iced tea.

  The Lagoon Bar sat on the edge of a large lake, surrounded by all sorts of tropical plants and trees. A few hundred people were scattered around the many tables, all drinking and laughing. Above them the ceiling was open to a large clear force field bubble showing a fantastic view of the reds and greens and oranges of the nearby Angel Nebula.

  “Chairmen,” Johnny Bens said as they approached. “It’s been far too long.”

  Johnny Bens ran the Lagoon and was as nice a man as Carey had met. He never seemed to not have a smile on his face and a nice thing to say.

  “Headed for a meeting,” Carey said after giving Johnny a kiss over the bar. “Need a couple of those wonderful iced teas of yours.”

  “My pleasure,” Johnny said, setting to work to build them. “So when are you two going to come back for some dancing and drinks and dinner, on me?”

  “Soon, we hope,” Matt said.

  “Very soon,” Carey said. “But first we have a few things to take care of and then in a week my team and I have to beat him again in the Tip-to-Tip.”

  Johnny just laughed. “I hear that crazy race of yours has now spread to all fourteen Starburst ships. And there is talk here about sending a few teams from Angel to compete.”

  Carey just laughed at that. “The more the merrier.”

  Johnny just shook his head and laughed. “I think they are crazy.”

  After they had both tasted their iced teas, thanked Johnny and promised to return soon, Matt once again took her hand and a moment later they were back in their home galaxy, standing in a stark, old-feeling meeting room with a large wood table and leather chairs.

  “You would think after this many centuries they would change the look of this place,” Matt said, glancing around.

  Carey had to admit, it looked exactly the same as it had when she and Matt had first been recruited to become Seeders. This room had scared her to death.

  Now it just looked old and dated.

  She and Matt took their normal positions at the big table. She didn’t like being here at all. They hadn’t had a meeting here since before the Starburst program started.

  It didn’t feel good now to be back.

  SIX

  ANGIE AND GAGE from Star Mist were the next to arrive, followed by Benny and Gina from Star Rain.

  Matt was stunned at how excited he was to see his four friends. It had been the six of them that had been recruited because they were new and fresh and could fight the aliens’ infestation.

  And all of them had decided to take their ships into the Starburst program.

  All four of them looked the same as they had fifty years before and three hundred years before that. None of them aged or changed how they dressed.

  Just as Matt and Carey stayed in jeans and informal shirts and blouses, so did the other four. Just as Matt did, Benny kept the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up, but unlike Matt, Benny kept his dark hair cut military short. Both Benny and Gina were tall and both were in perfect shape. Gina kept her long black hair pulled back and tied.

  Angie also had long black hair that she kept pulled back and Gage looked more like a fashion model than anything else, with intense dark eyes and a short military haircut that looked stylish on him.

  Matt couldn’t believe how much he missed being around them. Once they got this problem solved that brought them here, he needed to suggest the six of them get together regularly, even if they were farther apart in space than any human could imagine.

  After a few minutes of catching up and laughing, Chairmen Ray and Tacita showed up. They were two of the oldest Seeders still alive at millions of years old. Matt had no idea, even after living for going on four hundred years now, how anyone could live that long. But they had.

  Both were tall and stately looking. Ray looked to be middle-aged with long bright silver hair that reached down his back. Tacita had short, shining black hair that gave her a stern look. As far as Matt was concerned, it matched her personality.

  They were the ones that had come up with the Starburst program to send out exploring ships to make sure no surprise threatened human space.

  When they sat down at the table with a smile at everyone, the rest of them sat as well.

  “It is good to have this team back together again,” Ray said. “But I am in the dark as to why?”

  Matt nodded, glanced at Carey who indicated he should tell them what happened.

  “We have a missing scout ship,” Matt said. “Chairman Ray, could you have your ship put me in contact with Star Fall?”

  “You are now,” Ray said.

  “Star Fall, would you please transmit the image of The Bee going missing, from the military escort Sinclair’s vantage point.”

  A moment later the image of The Bee moving through space toward the spiral galaxy came into being in the middle of the table. For ten seconds nothing seemed to happen, then suddenly The Bee vanished.

  “Empty space bubble?” Gage asked.

  “No,” Carey said. “But taking tests, we discovered that something is not allowing scans to pass through the galaxy. We had scout ships on both sides of the galaxy trying to scan each other, but all signals were being blocked.”

  The image of the spiral galaxy vanished, leaving the room quiet.

  “We are at full stop and all scout ships have returned to Star Fall,” Matt said. “We have half our military launched and surrounding Star Fall until we discover what this might be.”

  “Are you saying that galaxy is completely surrounded by a shield of some sort?” Gage asked.

  Carey was watching Ray and Tacita
as Matt said, “Yes, that is exactly what we are saying. And we know it can’t be human caused because at the old trans-tunnel speeds, no ship could have gone that far.”

  Ray and Tacita both just frowned.

  “Natural event of some sort or another?” Angie asked.

  “We honestly don’t know,” Carey said. “But it feels artificial to all of us.”

  “So why would an entire galaxy be shielded?” Tacita asked.

  Matt shrugged. Carey said nothing.

  Finally it was Benny who said simply, “Because something inside that galaxy doesn’t want to be found.”

  “But as empty as space is,” Gina asked, “Why?”

  Carey suddenly got shivers up and down her back. She glanced at Matt who clearly was thinking the same thing from how his face had gone white.

  “Because maybe there’s something ahead of us,” Carey said. “Or to the side of us. Something that scares hell out of whatever is inside that shield.”

  Silence once again filled the meeting room. And with the eight of them, Carey knew that wasn’t a good sign.

  SEVEN

  FOR THE NEXT hour the eight of them kicked around every idea they could think of. Nothing made sense.

  Matt hated that not a one of them could even come close to an idea.

  So they decided to work down in the details first. They all agreed to change the protocols of a scout ship approaching a galaxy on all fourteen of the Starburst ships. The scout ship and military escort was to stand off first and send in a probe. That would have saved The Bee from being trapped in whatever it was trapped in.

  They also decided that all fourteen Starburst ships and their scientists should work on this problem, so Star Fall would send them all every bit of data that came in.

  Also, Ray would contact the experts on empty space bubbles and see if they had come up with a way to seeing inside an empty space bubble. That kind of technology might work on this shield, or whatever it was.

  And Ray would get every scientist he thought might have a chance of solving what that shield was looking at it.