Free AMP The Core by Stephen Arseneault Page B

galaxies appeared, with a line tracing the path the ship had taken. Sarah Rogers had searched on her own for over three hundred years in her quest to find the Humans that had been taken away.
    I then asked, "How fast can this ship go?"
    As I waited for an answer, an alarm sounded. The holo-image floating in front of me changed to a tactical display that showed a large fleet gathering just outside of the Molov star system. The Bulgars had returned.
    The display changed to an outside camera view, and in an instant the ship rocketed up and out of the atmosphere. It began a wide arc that would sweep us around to where the Bulgar fleet was assembling. I was shocked at how quickly it had passed through light speed.
    A zoomed-in tactical display of the fleet then appeared before me. A tracing line drew repeated patterns through the fleet until a set of forty-two ships was identified through a single straight line. The Defender continued to accelerate. Thirty seconds after liftoff, we were aligned for a strike on the Bulgar fleet. The visual of Molov and its sun was stunning on the display as we swirled out from it and circled back around.
    The Bulgar fleet continued to show on the tactical display as we came in perfect alignment with the forty-two ships in question. In an instant, I felt a slight rumble as we passed through the ships to the other side. The Defender then began another wide arc as it turned to align itself for another pass. The forty-two Bulgar ships now showed as red Xs on the tactical display.
    I spoke. "How did we do that? How is the ship not visible?"
    The ship responded as a new orientation of the Bulgar fleet showed on the tactical display. The targeting lines crisscrossed the ships until a new alignment of thirty-one ships appeared. The Defender moved to position itself for another run.
    The ship’s computer replied, "The destructive power of the Defender comes from the firing of tungsten rounds from four coil cannons mounted within her structure. While traveling faster than the speed of light, the round enters the target, sweeping away material with it as it proceeds. The void created causes the surrounding material to implode before it explodes. The Defender has a sodium-covered skin. The spin of the electrons within sodium atoms is brought to a halt through the application of an extremely high-magnetic field. The lack of electron spin allows the Defender to pass through material objects."
    The computer continued, "The same phenomenon allows objects to also pass through the Defender. Material is absorbed into the sodium skin, passes around the hull of the ship, and is then expelled on the other side, in the exact formation as when it entered. All known wavelengths of light and radio frequency travel through and around the Defender as if the ship was not there."
    I spoke. "Wow, we could sure make use of this technology for our fight with the Durians."
    I looked at the display and noted the ship’s speed as being five times the speed of light. "How fast can this ship go? What is its maximum speed?"
    The computer replied as another thirty-one Bulgar ships turned into red Xs on the display, "The Defender is propelled by a black hole drive system. The BHD rings on the front, rear, and all sides of the ship are used to propel the ship in the direction of the active rings. The maximum speed of the BHD is unknown. The drive will continue to accelerate the ship so long as sufficient power is supplied."
    I spoke. "So, if power is applied to the BHD, the ship will just keep going faster and faster?"
    The computer replied, "The statement your question implies is correct."
    I looked around the cabin and then back at the display. "What kind of gravity or inertial dampening system does the Defender have?"
    The computer answered, "The sodium skin isolates the interior of the ship from all known forces, including those of gravity and inertia. As with material objects, those forces are absorbed by the skin, passed around its