Infinite Exploration by D. L. Harrison

Author:D. L. Harrison [Harrison, D. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-07-20T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve – Interlude

Five minutes ago…

Captain Hius of the Keldet Empire said in a panicked voice, “Commander! We have a problem.”

Commander Jilo frowned at the captain. He didn’t like the panic in the younger officer’s voice and made a mental note of it for his next review. The universes could be an unpredictable and dangerous place, that kind of excitability wasn’t a good thing in one of his officers.

“Report, Captain.”

Hius winced, “Yes, sir. Universe nine five eight six was just attacked. Our civilization there just lost all their ships to a surprise attack. There’re three hundred and eighty million enemy ships, and they’ve taken over the borders and are currently destroying Keldet infrastructure. They are not destroying the Keldet planets, as of yet.”

Jilo nodded calmly, even as he felt quite a bit of shock himself at the news. He brought up the data on that universe. It’d been four hundred years since they’d encountered that version of the Keldet. They’d given them their best weapons and shields and upgraded their wormhole drives, but they had of course withheld the quantum universe jumping technology. At last report, they were expanding steadily, if a bit slowly for the emperor’s taste. At any rate, there hadn’t been any signs of another threat in that universe, which could only mean one thing.

They were being attacked by another universe, another race had quantum technology. It was bound to happen sooner or later, but he didn’t like it. They’d need to be dealt with.

Jilo looked up, and Hius was searching through their stealth sensor net data in that universe.

“What have you determined?”

Hius said, “There’s obviously another stealth net in that universe, one that’s not ours, and who knows how long it’s been under surveillance. They knew where every ship and space infrastructure of our Keldet counterparts were. Their empire was taken down in moments. We need to investigate further.”

Jilo frowned, “No. The last two orders given were to remove the two systems, Nyria and Earth. That is what must’ve triggered the attack. That makes these interlopers either Nyrian or human.”

Hius said, “With all due respect, sir. Neither the Humans nor the Nyrians have ever been a power in any of the universes we’ve visited. The humans here are still on their planet, and their technology is crude and uninspired.”

Jilo grunted, “Send a fleet to take care of it, now. We will not wait like cowards, when just one of our fleets outnumbers them by almost three to one. I want one of their ships captured, that will tell us all we need to know.”

Huis said, “Yes, sir. Sending orders to fifth fleet, they’re next on tap for a cross universe mission.”

Jilo wasn’t as certain as he acted, but that was the fate of a commander. Showing any doubt would destroy morale and just get him stabbed in the back in the long run.

The fifth fleet was a trillion ships strong. It wasn’t often they had to dispatch a full fleet, but on the good side they’d never encountered an enemy that could withstand a full fleet before.

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