Gravity Wielder - Book 2 of Re-Forge

Rescue

From its proximity to the hungry Black Hole, SP1 sent an urgent message to the remaining ships in the fleet via tight beam comms, saying: "To all ships; stay clear, repeat, stay clear. I am launching the Black Hole Containment Projectors."

Sixty-four Graviton projectors controlled by their onboard AI's and 'Plus level' managing AI, swarmed from SP1 and encircled the Black Hole in a giant sphere at equidistant points. The Black Hole had grown since devouring the remainder of the enemy attack fleet and battle wreckage from the battle zone.

Once perfectly positioned, the Graviton projectors activated their inter-connecting graviton fields and slowly, contracted toward each other as the power supply provided by the Black Hole forces grew.

The large sphere continued to contract as it stabilised, and in just a few minutes, the Black Hole was once more successfully contained. Every sensor array in the Solar System lost focus on the Black Hole. It had disappeared once more as if it was never there.

On Storm, Matt was still in shock. He thought: "It is evident that the battle had been going the enemy's way, I had run out of ideas, and I had nothing left I could do unless I was prepared to sacrifice more than fifteen thousand personnel. Thank God SP1 was there. There is no doubt in my mind that it was SP1 who saved the day."

Matt said to the fleet: "Fleet; this is the Admiral. I think the actions implemented by SP1 qualify as the most amazing military climax the universe has ever seen."

On Eden, Calemon entered the auditorium where many of the refugees watched the battle on the enormous four-dimensional hologram viewer in stunned silence. Seeing such raw power left most of them speechless with awe.

Joseph Winton was not a person to be easily impressed. He saw Calemon and walked over to her. Adrian Beecham followed in his wake. Joseph Winton bowed, and said: "Good day, Administrator Eden, do you know what ship is responsible for that terrible destruction?"

Calemon laughed and replied: "Oh, you mean the ship that single-handedly defeated the remaining enemy attack fleet and saved your life and the rest of us as well?"

Joseph Winton said: "Ah... yes, Administrator." Joseph realised that the Administrator had disarmed him with one sentence.

She said: "That ship was SP1, remember the SP you thought you had murdered. If you had succeeded, we would all be dead now. Aren't you pleased you missed?" She nodded at Joseph Winton's, surprised face, and turned to greet other spellbound refugees. The SP1 avatar assisting Calemon ignored Joseph Winton as it followed the Administrator.

Joseph Winton paused and thought: "Jesus, she is entirely right. I almost succeeded in killing the entire human race. What an idiot I... or was this entire war a scam to make us totally dependent on SP's, allowing Matt Black and his cronies to increase their power base?"

He left the auditorium with Adrian Beecham in tow and entered the toilets to relieve himself. As he washed his hands, he looked in the mirror at his reflection. He flicked his hair away from his eyes and had a personal discovery moment.

It was one of those rare moments in Joseph's life that he understood exactly what he needed to do. He smiled with the cunning of one who is driven by the need to exert personal influence over others at any cost and thought: "This requires a long-term strategy. Mr Beecham is my first dedicated recruit to a new movement, and in the years to come, it will be 'Joseph Winton' in control. We have the Gene Resonator now, so there's no rush. I have hundreds of years to take over. There is always power in numbers."

He looked in the mirror and flicked his hair out of his eyes, then nodded confidently at the man of power he saw there. To his reflection, he thought: "You really do look powerful when you flick your hair back off your face... It's the forceful eyes, but the hair covering them is the problem that people laugh at. I need to change my image to lose my negative public image." Joseph checked his small Navigation device that was issued by the Administrator's military assistants and thought: "There, on level ten, shopping mall. Ahh, here we go, there's an auto-hairdresser."