A Captain Decision Ch. 10

I watched as well over half the ships disappeared, amid a lot of screaming. Though, the best thing was when we disappeared.

We appeared behind them, taking out at least another seventy-five, then we vanished.

"Who are you? You will be made to pay for the destruction of Meltry war ships." I heard the first voice scream. "Where are you from!"

"As if it even matters, I am from right here, Earth. If your asses are the ones that destroyed it? Then it's a good day for you all to die, goodbye" I told him.

"Earth, NO! You are all dead, NO!" I heard him scream as I destroyed the last of the ships. I saved him for last, then disabled it. "Enjoy your death, as much as you obviously did the Earth."

I was mumbling under my breath as I watched the last ship go dark. "You reading any power over there," I asked Rommie.

"I am reading only minimal life support. I give them only about two hours," Rommie said.

I thought about it for a moment. I really ought to let them die within sight of their home.

"Do you have any idea where they are from?" I asked Rommie.

"From everything I have gotten, they appear to be from a kingdom on the other side of the galaxy. I estimate almost three and a half minutes in trans-warp," Rommie said.

"Alright, trans-warp to within a million miles from their planet. How many are still alive?" I asked.

"It appears less than half the crew," Rommie responded.

"Alright, I hate bullies and gangs. Hopefully, if there are really any humans left here, this will scare these Meltry to death," I said as the trans-warp conduit opened.

True to her word, four and a half minutes later, we came out over a million miles from a huge orange planet.

"Warning, warning, detecting highly heavily armored ships. Many with compliments of over five thousand crew," Rommie warned.

I had her release the ship we were towing, suddenly there were several explosions. Even as I watched a ship over three hundred feet long blowing the shit out of the ships. Damn, I thought it didn't even have to aim they were crammed as close as they were.

The thing was, it had to appeared to destroy several hundred and still it hadn't made much of a dent in them.

That's when several of them somehow detected me, then it seemed as if several hundred were heading my way.

"How in the hell are they detecting us? Are we leaking or something?" I asked Rommie.

"Unknown, power of approaching ships far below ours. Might I suggest we destroy them?" Rommie asked.

"Alright, I am tired of being shot at, fire!" I ordered.

Half of them vanished in seconds as the rest started to fire at us.

I growled as I started to point at the ships, moments later, the rest vanished, as did a few more well behind them. This, of course, had a great multitude start toward me. Now I was starting to get pissed off, some of the ships were massive things with huge destructive power.

"We have more than twice what we destroyed before. The destructive power of the largest five is almost equal to us," Rommie said.

I cursed as I started to point again, after several hundred ships vanished or exploded, they actually pulled back.

Within moments, a signal was received by Rommie. "To the second ship, what do you wish?" A gruff voice said.

"I want nothing, I just brought the last of your ships back from where the earth was," I said.

"What are you? Your energy is strange to our sensors, where are you from?" The voice asked.

I could see that the other almost invisible ship was still destroying ships with energy torpedoes. Thermal missiles nice!

"If it matters, though, as I told the last of your ships there, who fired on me for no reason, I am from earth. I didn't appreciate that, so I destroyed all but the last one," I said.

"Earth? NO! All of them were destroyed, you can't be from earth!" The voice was screaming like at the Earth.

I shut the connection off, tired of the gruff ass. Almost immediately, Rommie received another signal.

"Sir? I am receiving another signal; she says that she is human." I looked at Rommie with raised eyebrows.

"Open a channel," I told her.

A five foot-eight-inch blonde woman appeared. "I heard your conversation. I am having a hard time believing you are from earth."

I could see this female had a lot of power, though nothing like my own. Shit, hers seemed to be growing like mine.

"I am from earth, just not your earth," I said. This caused her eyes to open wide, then she slowly started to nod.

"Your ship, I didn't recognize it, or I might have contacted you sooner. As you might have guessed, this is the last of the six races that destroyed the earth. They are also the most war-like. I would appreciate any help that you could give. I have been at this for what seems a very long time," the woman said.

"I think I can understand, excuse me a moment," I said as I saw another huge number of ships approaching me. I raised a hand when Rommie appeared.

"John, if you do too many you could drain yourself," Rommie said.

"Shit," the blonde woman said. "I know that all too well."

I sighed as I thought a moment, then took out about three quarters of those approaching.

"Damn," the blonde woman said. "I could use a weapon like that. Unfortunately, we haven't even taken a fourth of them. It seems almost as soon as you destroy a bunch, almost as many take their place."

I thought about it, that almost made sense. I searched through all the myriad of ships, finding ten massive, massive ships that seemed to be spitting out ships at a constant rate.

Taking a deep breath, I concentrated on two of them. For a few moments, nothing happened, then one had explosions deep inside. I started to smile as the same thing happened in the other. Within minutes, both ships were unable to move, then disappeared in titanic explosions.

The destruction went beyond the ships as it took out a few hundred ships around them.

I looked at the blonde, "I think we need to retreat a bit," that's when I started to collapse on the deck.

Rommie appeared, getting me to a cot nearby. "Alright, following you," the blonde said.

We both went to trans-warp though hers seemed almost natural. That's when I passed out.

A few hours later, I awoke, seeing that we weren't near the planet. I sat up, then was shocked when the blonde woman was sitting nearby.

"It appears that we both have abilities that are not common to earth people. So you are from another earth, one that I assume is still in existence," she said. She then held out her hand, "I am Wren, by the way."

I nodded, then tried to explain, "I am, what is called in my universe, a high Esper. A high mental power that I have had all my life. I love to read, and that power brought characters from the stories or their universes to mine."

"I take it energy unbalanced things?" She asked.

"Them no, the weapons that they left very much, so yes," I told her.

"Might I suggest that we finish this so you and I can be on our way?" She asked.

I watched as she made what appeared to be a portal, then walked through to her ship.

I just shook my head that, I thought could be handy for sure. We both entered trans-warp and were back in a minute.

I just shook my head it didn't look like we had done much. Had it not been for the ship debris, it might not look as if we had been there.

I reached out searching for the ships that were making more ships as fast as we destroyed them. Before we even started, I found three, making more than a little on board each explode.

I smiled when all three took out a great number of the smaller ships around them. I destroyed another two before they started to send a massive number of ships to destroy us.

At least sixty percent of their fleet was gone, plus most weren't coming back.

Wren's ship appeared to be taking out a good number itself. It helped that the ships weren't being replaced as fast as they were destroyed.

"Alright, I got eight of the ships that were cloning, gonna try to get the last two. After that it should be easier," I told her.

"Perhaps, though the battleships are giving me trouble," she said.

"Battleships?" I asked.

"Those first five ships you destroyed when you appeared. That helped more than you think. Though there are at least another ten out there," Wren said.

"Hmmmm," I said as I searched for the ships she mentioned. That's when I found them, big, fantastically massive hulking war machines. From what I could see, they were a hell of a lot tougher than I had thought they were. I just shook my head. I had taken five of them out, they didn't seem that tough.

I sighed; this was going to wear me the hell out. Reaching, I started a massive number of explosions on the clone ships. Plus, I got one of the battleships that wasn't that far away.

A look at the planet, I could see that more than eighty percent were gone. Wren's ship was taking them out at a good clip now.

I started to back off a bit. I could feel my energy was a little low. The three ships had taken a little out of me, especially with as little rest I had, had.

I also knew that Wren was depending on me. Reaching out, I found the last nine battleships. Damnit! They were a pretty good distance from each other. I started on the closet two, then quickly moved on to another two.

I knew that the five being gone would free up Wren, to finish what she could. I had to stop for a bit. I could feel my energy rebuilding, though I wish it was faster.

I sat down to rest some as Rommie started to fire on the smaller ships. Damn, I thought, she was taking forty or fifty at a time.

A moment later, I saw the nearest battleship explode and break in half. Damn, I thought, it seems she's got a bit of power herself.

I watched Wren's ship as she fired what appeared to be photon torpedoes, nice I thought. I counted no less than fifty before the huge war ship exploded and broke in half.

I thought I had enough energy as I reached out to destroy two of the last three. Rommie was laying me on my cot as I was heading to the floor.

Even as I watched Wren's ship go after the last battleship, a portal opened in front of us.

Weakly I asked Rommie, "did I activate that?"

"Not from what I can tell, John. It is possible though; at the moment your energy is low. Unlike any other portal that has opened, this one is moving toward us," a perplexed Rommie said.

"Status of the fleet?" I asked.

"I am reading eighty five percent has been destroyed. Of the fifteen battleships, only the one that Wren's ship is facing remains. All ten of the cloning ships have been destroyed," Rommie said.

"Move to render aid to Wren and her ship," I said.

I could see that this last ship was far tougher than the rest. The damn thing hardly had much damage at all. I knew that my energy was low, so pointing at it was out.

I could feel my energy starting to rebuild though it was slow.

"John the portal is chasing us, I estimate that it will encompass us in ten minutes," Rommie informed me.

"Alright, take out everything that you can 'til we reach her," I said.

"Now firing all weapons John," Rommie said.

For the next six minutes, we destroyed everything in front of us. Almost all the fleet that we had started facing was gone.

We had pulled near Wren and her ship. She had seemed to have run out of torpedoes, now firing thermal missiles. Though they weren't really doing a damn thing.

"Fire what we have," I ordered Rommie. As soon as she fired our torpedoes, I knew we'd get a better result. The damn battleship still had weapons, so we had to be careful.

A few moments after our weapons hit the ship, well over half the weapons stopped.

"Fire all we have Rommie," I said as a huge volley of missiles erupted from us. Rommie had been keeping us back, though we strayed a little too close. One energy weapon managed to brush us, right before all the missiles broad sided the battleship.

Wren came on the view screen a moment later, "I thank you, though it appears you are leaving. Be well and good luck," she said as the portal caught us then passed over us.

It was the oddest sensation, as we were suddenly in the space outside the universes. The problem was we weren't moving, then I felt them closing in on us.

"Rommie, we need to move!" I was yelling.

"All but subspace is down," Rommie said. I was starting to sweat when another portal opened not far from us.

"Can we make it?" I asked Rommie.

"I believe so, sir, though it will be close," Rommie said.

"Push all the engines as much as you can, we can't let whatever they are, escape into any of the universes. I don't know what they are, but it feels that it would really bad if they got into any universe," I said.

I could feel that my energy had jumped quite a bit since we had left the last universe. Jumped yes, though I was still not where I needed to be to stop the alien presence that I was feeling.

"John, I'm not sure if we are going to get through without a few hanger-ons," Rommie warned me.

I took a deep breath, extending an arm, damnit! I was afraid this was gonna hurt.

Much further away, the supreme master was watching with great interest. A moment later, a lesser being of the leader's entities appeared.

Master the solid has appeared, readings indicate that it is very weak. We have a multitude moving on it," the lesser being said.

"Have all the multitude beware, We have seen the solid appear like this before. Failure to be cautious could result in destruction," the master said.

The lesser being warned the multitude, most of it scoffed at it as they moved in to overtake John's craft.

The master was hoping that what it was seeing and feeling were indeed true. The solid had fooled them before, this was evidenced by the simple fact that there were six fewer of their kind.

The master felt too late that the solid had been keeping its power low 'til they got close. A warning was sent out right before there was a blast from the solid's vehicle.

Screams were heard out in space as eight more of the energy beings winked out of existance. A shake of its head, the master knew that if they continued to lose members of their kind, it would be bad.

I was waiting for them to get closer, like last time I felt it was the only way to get them to back off. Then again, I'd done this before, and it hadn't deterred them at all. They must think they had a chance with me as weak as I was.

I watched as they drew closer, not too close, John, I told myself. Didn't want to give them a chance to get on board. From everything that Rommie and I had gotten from the few readings we had? They were nothing but a negative type of energy.

I was starting to sweat a bit. I was going to let them get a little closer. I was hoping that this time I could disway them a lot more. It damn sure hadn't worked last time, that was for sure.

They had closed to very near when, I let loose a blast that struck the entire front of the energy beings. I swear that I could hear the screams of several voices, then as suddenly it was quiet.

The rest of the energy beings were alarmed when eight of their number were just gone. Faltering, almost stopping, they watched as the solid's craft slipped into another universe portal.

The master could hear and feel the anguish that came from those still there when the portal closed. The fact that another eight were gone had many of them screaming for revenge.

They were going to have to again change how they did things. The solid was far smarter and stronger than they at first thought. No, this was going to take more than just brute force to get out of here. A small feeling of a smile lit up the master, yes, they need to be far cleverer to overcome this.

I again dropped to the deck after the blast I had released, shit that took a lot out of me. Once again, Rommie was fussing over me, trying to get me off the deck. I had to stop doing this, something in the last universe had slowed my energy buildup.

"Any chance you took readings of the last universe? Possibly tell me why my energy recharge was so slow?" I asked Rommie.

"It appears that it was the young woman that was on board. It appeared that her body was charged with trans-warp energy. This in turn seemed to interfere with you, though not dangerous. It did retard your energy build-up," Rommie explained.

Huh, I thought, at least now I wasn't face down on the deck unconscious, though, I wasn't too far away. Damnit, as soon as I could, I needed to up everything in me. It seemed that as I went further into this, all my opponents were a hell of a lot stronger.

Here I thought I had become strong enough, yeah I thought, to get killed with a lot of pain. The next time I needed to go as far as I could, then more, then maybe I wouldn't be so damn weak.

I looked at the earth as we approached it, "uh Rommie? Aren't we approaching a little fast?" I asked, the Earth was quickly approaching far faster than I was used to.

"Yes, it is, Captain, almost all but the sub-light is out. Our braking power has been seriously limited," Rommie said. "I am attempting to shunt some power to the engines. It is going to get rough as soon as we make the atmosphere, Rommie explained.

I started to reach out when Rommie appeared, "No John, you are far too depleted to effect much," she said softly.

"If I don't, then you and the ship might not survive. I can't let that happen," I told her.

"I am but a tool," she started.

"NO!" I shouted, surprising her as well as me. "You are far more than that. I told you I never wanted to hear that again."

I could see that she was far more worried about me than she let on. Rommie then stood up straight, "Yes Captain," she said.

"Tell me when we hit the upper atmosphere. I also want you to tell me when we are slowed enough to not burn up coming down. If I pass out, which I may, put all the power into the engines," I said. Rommie started to complain when I held up a hand. "If I am unconscious, and it isn't enough, then it won't really matter will it?"

Rommie's head was down as she replied, "I will do all I can, Captain, to save you and the ship."

"I have no doubt about that, Rommie, thing is, if we fail? Pretty much everything is gone. From all that I saw. Even one universe exploding could take a great number of the others. I am doing this for more than just this universe though, I care more about this one than any other," I told her.

"Now entering the edge of the atmosphere, speed increasing outer hull still cool," Rommie said.

"Alright, wait 'til we are lower before you put all the power into the engines," I told Rommie.

It was a mere two minutes later that the interior of the ship started to get warm. Another minute I felt the engines start to strain.

"We are still descending too fast though speed has been reduced," I heard Rommie say.

Not yet, I thought, as the temperature started to climb. Not yet. Finally, we were halfway down when I put what I had into slowing the ship. I felt the engine's strain lessen, plus the heat started to abate. At least that's what I was feeling before I felt the darkness take me.

Rommie, I thought, start all the repair mods, then I was out.

When I awoke, it was dark, shit I thought how long was I out. I saw that Mary was asleep nearby.

"Rommie? Where are you?" I asked. Ah, shit I thought, Rommie? Rommie! damnit! Now what?

I thought I heard a very weak voice, though I wasn't sure what had happened?