Read The Dead Sun (Star Force Series) for Free Online

could pinpoint the source if we got it directly from space.”
    “Very insightful objections, but you really don’t think that I came here with an incomplete proposal, do you?”
    I paused, thinking about it. “No, I guess not.”
    “I’m not here to insult your intelligence, Colonel. I’ve thought of these difficulties, and I believe I have a solution. First, we will not use the ring in the Thor system to relay the transmission. Second, I’ve come up with a way to get a directional fix on a ring-to-ring resonance signal.”
    He had me at last. I folded my cards and dove in. Sometimes, when Marvin was really flying high, you just had to go with him. His thought patterns were quite possibly superior to those of any human being that had ever lived, at least when it came to quantifiable things like science and engineering. Essentially, he was the smartest being I’d ever encountered.
    He laid out for me in detail how he was going to do it. Really, it was ingenious, even for Marvin. He had invented the ring-to-ring communications boxes in the first place, so I should have expected he could improve upon his original designs—but I hadn’t.
    “You’re telling me that you can do this?” I asked when he’d finished going over screen after screen of blueprints, diagrams and advanced math. “You can get two small devices to communicate instantly across any distance—even a hundred light years or more?”
    “Exactly. And what’s more, I can detect the direction of the signal. That part has been tested.”
    He showed me his prototype, and I had to admit, I was impressed. He’d built small resonance-communication devices in the past. Every major ship in the fleet had one. Using them, we were able to turn the rings into a series of routers, relaying information between distant ships in real time. The difference in his new design would be the size of the units—each unit would be small and wouldn’t need the larger rings to relay the signal.
    “Have you got a prototype of these two smaller boxes?” I asked excitedly.
    “If I did, I wouldn’t need your approval to build them, would I, Colonel?”
    My grin faltered. “Let me guess…this is going to cost me, isn’t it?”
    “The devices in question will require a fantastic amount of power and rare materials. I’ll be constructing the rings from collapsed star material—dark matter—then forming them into precisely matched and entangled shapes. Essentially, they have to be the same ring.
    “How can you shape collapsed star-matter? You couldn’t touch it physically.”
    “Actual physical contact would be dangerous and essentially impossible. We’ll use gravitational emitters. Something similar to the weaponry and drive systems of Phobos , but on a much grander scale.”
    “Grander?” I didn’t like the sound of that. Phobos was seven miles in diameter, and about half the ship’s volume was dedicated to generators. “How much power would it take to activate a gravity emitter that could do the job?”
    “The output of the local star would be enough.”
    “What?” I shouted. “You mean Sol? Are you crazy?”
    “Humans have often suggested there is a pattern of irrationality to my circuitry that causes me to generate ill-advised theories and plans. If that matches your definition of insanity, then I might match that classification.”
    “Yeah,” I said slowly, trying to wrap my mind around the conversation. “Mad as a hatter.”
    He finally left, and Jasmine came out of the bathroom drying her hair.
    “What did that crazy machine want this time?” she asked me.
    “He wants to build a big stick and poke the Macros with it,” I said.
    “That’s crazy.”
    “Yeah…” I said slowly. “But I think I’m going to let him do it.”

-4-
     
    The following evening, I called a meeting with Admiral Newcome and his senior staff. When I went to meet with them, my mind was already made up. I was going with Marvin to the Thor System to attempt his