The Unseen War

Chapter 9

Earth Year 3010, August 3rd

Thirty Months after the Attack

The five days had gone past quickly. Qhil had shut himself into his research lab for the last three days and we were making a slow approach to Dicury. I had suggested that we try to get there before Faucheur had a chance to get there, but Qhil had said that he wasn't worried about whether Faucheur was there or not.

We were coming to the final couple of passes before I had a chance to talk to Qhil again. He asked me to the research lab and was staring at a broken table. "McMillan, thank you for your help. We would not be here without you, our people have a chance with yours and the Regored help." The ship dropped out of a Pass and Qhil turned to face me, his expression said that he wasn't looking at me though. "Before we get to Dicury, I want you to take one of the small cargo ships and go to Qronia with the Proto Guardian and my latest project."

"Wait, Qhil, I thought that I was going to be your backup." The pit that had been in my stomach before just got larger.

"That was the original plan, but I can not let the Voidstorm Guardian anywhere near battle yet." Qhil was too worried to even notice he had named his project to me.

"Voidstorm Guardian?"

"I have already put safeguards in place but without proper testing or proper space I can't let this anywhere near battle."

Nothing was making sense to me. "Then why not dismantle it? Keep it from being used at all?"

"There is too much that could be gained from it to just destroy it. The breakthrough I had last night was eye opening."

"Qhil, what does it do?"

Qhil's eyes focused on me for the first time during the conversation. "It might be a functional, albeit artificial, black hole."

My brain was struggling with the idea. "Why would that..."

Qhil interrupted. "If it was unstable it could wipe out an entire planet. If it were unquantifiably unstable it could wipe out an entire quadrant. The amount of damage that a theoretical black hole could do... but it isn't theoretical now. I made one."

"You made one?" My brain was finally catching up but it didn't make me feel any better.

"Last night in the lab, I managed to contain it and disable it before it consumed the ship." He motioned to the table and I started to realize how much damage had been done. There were pieces of the table in everything. "The artificial black hole started to pull in everything and when I shut it down, it expelled everything with force. I had been lucky with my shielding, so I remain uninjured. I connected it to the Voidstorm Guardian and designed it to be unable to work outside of the Guardian armor."

There was a moment of silence and I shook my head. "What do you want me to do?"

"We have a smaller cargo ship that can transport the Proto Guardian and the Voidstorm Guardian. I want you to take that back to Sedronia, there are other Taggon scientists that will be able to use the information that I embedded to great effect. Specifically, take it to a scientist named Qhuten. He was the one who designed the Mobile Guardian. I programmed the ship with access codes to allow you into Sedronia airspace. If you need more, tell them that I sent you."

This was all happening too fast, I wasn't sure what to say or do. "But what about your meeting with Faucheur? What about the possible ceasefire? Or the trap?"

"If we get the ceasefire I will quickly follow behind you, if we don't I will try to follow behind you even faster. I would rather you be on your way to Qronia if it is an ambush."