only have been vaporized ships. Morn flashed a
message to North, "Drop your escorts, take up formation. We'll
rendezvous with those survivors and find out from their Commander
what's going on."
19 As the ships approached each-other and Morn called the Commander of
the surviving fleet, North got a surprise. The face of his old friend
Gray Mountain appeared on the screen. "Commander Gray Mountain," he
signaled, "glad to see you gentlemen! We've got somewhat of a mess
here."
20 "Give it to us as fast as you can!" Morn ordered.
21 "Well, basically, sir, apparently the people in this system were
part of some rebellion plan and knew they didn't have enough manpower
or ships to defeat the Empire. So they built a completely automated and
self-repairing battleship with more armor than anything that has ever
been put up before.
22 Apparently they were testing it against the ships of their station
fleet when the thing went berserk and wiped them out. Before it blew
away the shelters on the planet itself, they managed to get out a
message to Fleet Command. And we were sent in with the battleships. The
battleship's Commander thought they could take the thing easy and we
went in after it. This is all that's left of us."
23 Morn put his left hand up to his forehead, and rested his elbow on
his knee. He stayed in this position for several moments. Finally, he
straightened up. "Damned fools!" he snapped, "Didn't they learn
anything from the Mountain Of Glory incident? Why do they think
computers can't get control of our ships except in absolute emergencies?
24 Gray Mountain, I want you to transmit all the data you've got. As
soon as we're in range, come over by transport beam. You, too, North.
You're the expert on