Tag sat on the bridge with Rose waiting for what they knew was coming. They were talking with their thoughts and Tag was hurt that his daughter didn’t trust him enough to tell him what was going on. “Dad, It’s not an issue of trust and you’ll understand that when everything happens. However, I know that you can’t see that right now. Just keep your promise and follow my instructions.”
Danielle was also listening to the conversation and she said, “You can’t tell me either, can you?”
“No, Mom, I can’t and I’m going to ask you not to try and figure out why. I know your talent at digging out the truth but this is one time I’m going to ask you as a lifetime wish to forego using your talent until this battle is over.”
Danielle was almost dying to work it out but she forced herself to not think about why, “yet.”
Rose looked at Tag and said, “It’s time; they’ll start arriving here in less than a minute.”
O’Donald was listening in and nodded to her communications officer. She sent the message out to the fleet and she turned on her general ships frequency. “Battle stations, all hands to battle stations. Secure the ship and report in on status.”
Bridget watched her communication officer’s console and saw all ninety lights go red indicating her ship was ready to fight in less than thirty seconds. She had heard Mikado say that when he served on the Moscow that they could do it in forty five seconds. “We beat them,” Bridget thought. (Later Mikado would tell her that the Moscow did it when the crew was asleep and was not expecting anything to happen.)
Everything looked normal at the jump limit; then suddenly more than 20 thousand ships emerged from star drive and began accelerating toward the planet. Less than thirty seconds after the first line of ships began moving in system, 20 thousand more ships appeared and began accelerating. Every thirty seconds after that a new line of twenty thousand ships would jump in. The SR Fleet watched the ships coming at them and Mikado noticed a pattern. He commed the other commanders and said, “Have any of you noticed a pattern in the Algeans formation?”
Tag said, “Yes, I have; all of the ships in the initial wave are the heavy harvesters and they are allowing the ships behind them to catch up to form what looks like a cylinder.”
Mikado raised his eyebrows and said, “Right on, Your Majesty. What do you think they’re doing?”
Tag thought a moment and then said, “I hope I’m wrong but it appears to me that the heavy harvesters will form a shell around their suicide ships and do the blocking of our weapons until they get in range.”
Ron-Dar looked at his display saying, “Do you think that will work?”
Tag thought and then said, “What will happen to a harvester when one of our new penetrators hit it?”
“It should destroy it when it sets off their magazines,” Dorg said.
“What if they aren’t carrying missiles and the only weapon they use is a beam.”
“Then a five mile wide hole will be blown in them,” Mikado said.
“And what will happen to the remaining fifteen miles of ship?” Tag asked.
Then they all saw it. Ron-Dar said, “The remainder will continue moving toward the planet because of its inertia which will still give the smaller ships a huge moving screen to hide behind.”
Tag pressed his com and got Cade on the channel and explained what he believed was happening. “Are our penetrators programmed to handle this situation?”
Cade looked worried. “No, we aren’t. The penetrators are programmed to ignore ships designated by another penetrator. The harvesters will only be hit by one penetrator at a time. Since the ships that have been hit will probably not be under power, our penetrators will probably ignore the damaged ships.”
Tag said, “Begin reprogramming as many of them as you can. Notify me when you’ve made progress.” Tag then looked at the commanders and said, “Change of plans, our fleet will use their penetrators to target the damaged ships. To totally destroy a harvester may take four penetrators to destroy its twenty mile length, however, I want you to assign a section of the incoming plant formation to your ships and hit them as them approach. We will move the fleet to within twelve hundred miles of the five hour mark and begin firing as we retreat toward the forts matching the Plants speed. We cannot allow them closer than the penetrators range. Cade, as soon as the Plants hit the five hour mark in system; start volleying the jump penetrators; we will hit anything that comes thru the volleys; any questions?”
No one said anything, so Tag ordered, “Move the fleet forward now.” The 83,000 ships of the SR Fleet moved to 1,200 miles from the five hour mark and watched for more than four hours as the Plant fleet entered the system. The Plant formation was more than thirty million miles long and was picking up speed as it moved toward the planet. The SR ships watched amazed at the huge numbers moving toward them. Now the only thing separating the two enemies was a short period of time.
The Fleet Leader watched as the Stranger’s ships left the planet and moved out toward his fleet. “I knew they weren’t stupid,” he thought. “They have figured out that the heavy ships will be used as a shield and are moving to counter them.” His fleet had been jumping in system for more than four hours and finally, all of his fleet was moving toward the planet. They were limited to the speed of the heavy ships but that was a risk that he had to run to protect the new screened missiles. He keyed his fleet frequency and said, “Form the attack formation and begin full acceleration.” The Algean fleet picked up speed and formed a huge cylinder four hundred miles wide with the harvesters composing s hundred outer layers. The plant fleet moved inexorably toward the planet.
Five hours into the system the heavy ships in front of the plant formation were suddenly being hit by jump penetrators coming out of star drive. The Algean fleet leader was amazed at the new weapon. “How can they jump a missile with a screen so close to the sun?” He also received notice that every frequency ship had been destroyed. He moved more in but as soon as they crossed the jump limit they were hit and totally destroyed. He watched his display as thousands of the missiles began hitting his ships but the damaged ships continued moving toward the planet as other ships dropped in behind them. The cost was going to be heavy but his fleet was still moving forward.
The SR Fleet was firing penetrators at the huge ships that were damaged that continued to come at them. The entire front of the Algean fleet looked like a giant wall of fire that huge pieces of wreckage would come out of and continue toward the planet. As the damaged ships moved forward the jump penetrator’s arrival points had to be moved backward because they would not come out of null space close to another object. The Algean Fleet moved slowly but surely toward the planet. The SR Fleet backed away from the Algean formation firing at the huge ships that came thru the wall of fire. Dorg commed Tag and said, “We’re not killing them fast enough. There’s only an hour and a half left before they reach the planet and we run out of space to jump the penetrators in.”
Tag looked at the display and said, “We need to give ourselves some room to operate. Jump one of the forts into the front of their formation now.”
Dorg pushed his com and said, “Mikado, jump one of the forts 50,000 miles into the plant formation and detonate it.”
Mikado pressed the control on his control panel and one of the forts moved out from the planet and began moving toward the plant fleet. The crew on the fort boarded their ship and counted down their jump to coincide with the forts jump. Mikado turned on the fleet general frequency and said, “Ten seconds until the fort jumps.”
All of the human ships watched until the fort suddenly disappeared and a blast engulfed the front ranks of the plant fleet. The plant ships in the first 100,000 miles were blown out of existence. Rose watched the blast and closed her eyes and saw what was going to happen. She turned to Tag and yelled, “Withdraw the fleet now, we’re about to be hit.”
Tag looked at her and looked back at the huge blast in front of the Stars Realm fleet wondering how they were going to get hit by anything. Then he commed the fleet and said, “Withdraw toward the planet now.”
The Stars Realm fleet turned and accelerated toward the planet. Then Tag saw what Rose was yelling about. More than two million of the new plant ships came around the blast from all sides moving at a speed that was incredible. They were going to be on them in less than five minutes and the fleet was not going to be able to outrun them.
Tag commed McAllister and said, “Launch as many penetrators as you can. We’re about to be overrun.”
Cade commed him back and said, “We won’t be able to get enough in to stop them all; we are still trying to slow the rest of the plant fleet coming around the forts blast.”
“Do what you can but we are going to lose ships if you don’t slow these new plant ships.”
The Stars Realm ships began firing their penetrators and space between the two fleets looked like hundreds of thousands of laser beams as the penetrators accelerated into the incoming plant ships at half the speed of light. There were so many plant ships that the front ranks would be targeted by the penetrators but those in the second and third ranks were hidden behind the front rank. Then the two fleets hit and ships began to die.
Tag watched as his ships killed thousands of ships every second but more than six thousand of the plant ships made it through and hit his fleet. Five thousand mega ships died with nine hundred more being damaged severely within five minutes of contact.
Tag lifted his com and said, “Admiral Mikado, prepare the remaining forts to make their run into the plant formation to take out the front of their fleet. Walk the forts out with the second one exploding 25,000 miles further into their formation than the first one. Let’s see if we can’t back them up to give us some room to maneuver.
One of the forts jumped into the front of the oncoming fleet and exploded clearing a hundred thousand miles of their front ships. The next fort jumped to the back edge of the explosion and cleared out another hundred thousand miles. This continued until all sixteen forts had made their jumps. Almost two million miles of the front of the incoming fleet was blown away in the huge explosions of the forts. Of the plants eleven million ships, more than six million were destroyed.
Rose looked at the plant fleet and knew that most of the ships killed were the old heavy harvesters and that more than four million of the new missile ships were still coming. Now there were no more forts. She looked at Tag and said, “You’ve got to prepare the fleet to jump away. They are coming and there are still more than sixty thousand miles of heavy harvesters to get thru before you can hit their new ships. Those new ships will be on you before you can get underway if you wait.”
Tag looked at Rose and keyed his com, “All ships, have your star drives ready to jump on my command. We are going to go out to 1,200 miles from their front and back away toward the planet. As soon as their new missile ships come at us, I want you to jump away when they are five hundred miles away.”
Tag keyed his com again and said, “Cade, we’re out of forts; you have got to keep them off us. Jump your penetrators into the gap between the fleets and keep firing as we back away toward the planet.”
Cade nodded and the screen went dark. Suddenly thousands of the new penetrators began jumping in between the front of the oncoming plant ships and retreating Stars Realm fleet. Tag and Rose looked at the penetrators coming out of their star drives and the whole front looked like a continuous silver-blue lightning flash as they emerged from null space. Rose watched the rolling of wave after wave of penetrators and saw that the Plant fleet was being held two thousand miles in front of the SR Fleet.
Rose looked at Tag and said, “Dad, it’s time. She looked at Commodore O’Donald and said, “Jump your ships to these coordinates, please.”
Bridget took the paper with the numbers on them and said, “These are a long way from here.”
Rose said, “None the less, make your jump immediately and have all your weapons brought on line before your jump.”
Bridget looked at Tag and he went to his chair and placed his hand in the indent on his console and said, “Weapons free.”
The Kosiev felt like it had come alive. There was a hum that filled the room then rose in pitch until it disappeared. The lights dimmed and a background of yellow light filled the bridge. Bridget handed the coordinates to the helmsman and said, “Jump to these now.”
Tag commed Dorg and said, “Hold the fort and don’t let them take the north wall. We are leaving and you now will assume overall command of our fleet.”
“Where are you going?” Dorg asked amazed that Tag would leave at this critical moment.
“I don’t know, Admiral, but Rose says we must go now.”
Dorg looked at Tag and said, “Stay in touch and tell that daughter of yours I love her.”
Rose commed back, “I know, Uncle; we’ll contact you shortly.”
The jump officer entered the coordinates and hit the jump switch. The jump tone sounded and the Kosiev disappeared from the raging battle.”
The Algean Fleet Leader saw the huge ship disappear from his sensors and wondered where it was going. He didn’t know why but it worried him. These strangers just weren’t predictable and he knew that the big ship leaving was not a good thing.
The Kosiev broke back into normal space above a green covered planet. It hadn’t been in normal space but ten seconds before thousands of ships began attacking. He could see that millions of ships around the planet were moving toward them on his chair’s console screen. “Where are we Rose?” Tag asked.
“We are at the Plant’s home world. Commodore O’Donald, I need you to hold off the attacking ships while I try to persuade the leaders of the Plants to communicate with me.”
Tag was stunned. Rose was right, he would have never allowed her to come here but he was committed to try and help her accomplish what she came to do. “Commodore, the ship is yours.”
Rose said, “Try not to fire at any of them; you should be able to hold them off defensively for a while.”
Tag looked at his daughter with amazement then looked at O’Donald and saw her nod. “She’s right, Your Majesty; they will not be able to harm us. I’ll hold them off until you order us to fire our weapons.”
Tag looked at O’Donald and thought, “There is a lot about this ship I haven’t learned. Maybe Rose does know what she’s doing. Then he turned his attention to Rose who was allowing him to listen in on her communication attempt.”
“I am trying to communicate with the Eldest Leader of this race,” Rose thought at the planet.
Meanwhile thousands of ships fired on the Kosiev and then attempted to ram. Tag watched as the first ten ships hit the Kosiev amidships and just disappeared into its hull without a trace or even any evidence they had hit. Then he saw one of the huge harvesters accelerate straight at the Kosiev.
Rose continued, “You should be seeing that none of your ships can harm us in any way. If you want to waste the harvester you’re sending to ram us to make sure I’m telling the truth, then by all means do so, however, it will have no affect on my ship.”
The harvester picked up speed and hit the Kosiev. Everything that touched the SR Ship disappeared and the remaining parts above and below the Kosiev continued moving away from the planet.
Rose continued her attempt to communicate. “I allowed your ship to hit us because I want you to know that we cannot be harmed. I also know that you have ordered long ago that no member of your race is to ever communicate with any other race. I know why you did that.”
On the planet below the Algean Elders in their grove were swaying almost uncontrollably. They were almost yelling among themselves that the strangers were going to destroy them and that something had to be done. Then they heard the stranger say that they knew why they would not communicate with other races. The Eldest was so surprised that he responded before he could stop himself, “There is no way you could know that!”
Rose and Tag were startled at the anger in the response. Then Rose said, “You don’t communicate with other races because the only race you ever contacted totally destroyed all of your planets and inhabitants.”
The Algean Eldest was stunned. How could the stranger know that? It had happened more than seventy million cycles ago and no one of his race was alive at that time. The memory had been passed down with the seed that he came from.
He still refused to communicate further until the stranger said, “They not only eradicated your race they also destroyed your food source.”
The other Elders stopped yelling and looked at the Eldest. The Eldest paused and then said, “How do you know these things. Was your race alive when it happened?”
Tag was stunned. What was Rose saying? Then she continued. “Eldest, I want to communicate with you about the future between our two peoples. However, before I continue, I want you to stop the fleet attacking the planet where our fleet is while we are talking.”
“Just why would I do that? We will destroy you in less than another knomel.”
“Because that is not our home world and we have enough of our new missiles to destroy more than ninety percent of your remaining fleet.”
The Eldest was startled. Surly this being was not being truthful with him. Then the stranger said, “Eldest, we moved the race that formerly inhabited the world you’re attacking to our galaxy to save them from your attack. We have more than 3,200 worlds armed like the one you’re attacking. That one is uninhabited. I want you to ask your fleet to stop and hold its position while we talk and I will order my forces to do the same. If at any point you don’t want to continue talking then resume your attack. I should tell you that if you refuse to do as I ask, I am prepared to totally destroy the grove you’re in and all the soil around it for a distance of one quarter of your planet’s surface.”
The Eldest felt real fear. If the stranger did what they said, his race was doomed to eternal savagery and dementia. “You have no idea what that would do to my species,” the Eldest said.
“I believe I do,” Rose said, “and I don’t threaten this lightly.”
“I will order a temporary halt,” the Eldest said.
Tag keyed his com and said, “Admiral Dorg.”
“Yes Your Majesty,” Dorg answered.
The Plants have ordered a temporary halt to their attack. As soon as you see them start stopping, order all of our forces to cease firing until you see them move again.”
Dorg was stunned, “How did you do this?”
“Not right now Admiral.”
Dorg keyed his com and placed the orders. He looked at his display and said, “They’re stopping. Cease fire, all SR forces cease fire.”
While Dorg was stopping the SR Fleet, O’Donald contacted Cade and patched Tag thru, “Cade cease fire on the penetrators immediately.” Cade looked at him with dismay and Tag said, “This is a direct order, do it now.” Cade turned and pressed a button on his console. “Commodore O’Donald will notify you if we need you to continue so keep your channel to her open.”
The Algean Fleet Leader received the order to stop and hold his position and did not believe what he was hearing. “You want me to do what, Eldest?”
“Stop and hold your position until I notify you. The strangers are here at the home world threatening to destroy the Sacred Grove. Now do as you’re ordered.”
The Fleet Leader felt fear course thru his body. Not the Sacred Grove, please, not the Sacred Grove. Then he ordered his ships to stop.”
Both the Algeans and the crew of the Kosiev watched the battle come to a stop. Rose then thought, “Thank you, Eldest. Now we have an opportunity to try and resolve this conflict we find ourselves enmeshed.”
“I am being forced to communicate with you and I do not see any way to resolve our issues nor do I have any desire to do so.”
Tag thought, “Danielle, please join me in what is happening.” Tag felt Danielle come into his mind and both of them listened as Rose talked with the Algean Leader.”
Rose paused a moment and thought, “Eldest, is your reluctance to resolve our issues because of what happened to your race long ago?”
“That is a major part of it. I do not trust any race outside of my own and I think that any resolution that you would want us to come to would include not harvesting any more worlds. I think this because of your past efforts to stop our efforts at gathering food for my race.”
“What if you no longer needed the food you’ve been harvesting?”
The Eldest became very silent and said nothing. Then Rose said, “You didn’t always need to harvest food did you?”
The Eldest still remained silent and after a long pause said, “No, we didn’t. My race did not originally consume organic materials.”
Tag and Danielle were shocked but continued to listen to the conversation.
“What changed that, Eldest?”
“The race that originally destroyed us released a disease on our planets that destroyed our food source. Without it, we were forced to consume organic material. This small land of golden soil here is all that remains of our food.”
Rose nodded and said, “And since organic material is not your normal diet you are forced to consume huge amounts of it to live.”
“Yes we do and my race always feels hunger no matter how much they consume. The food we need only remains here in this small area that is only large enough to develop the leaders of my people. Your threat is the only reason I stopped our attack.”
“Why do you think the race released the disease on your worlds?”
The Eldest said nothing then Rose, Tag, and Danielle could hear the heavy mental sigh that came from him, “Because of our children.”
Danielle could not restrain herself, “What do you mean your children.”
The Eldest thought, “Who is that?”
Rose said, “She is my mother.”
The Eldest said, “Then she knows the importance of raising children properly.”
“What do you mean, properly?” Danielle asked.
“We had four stages of life before the Silver Monsters destroyed us; birth where our babies would put their feeding tubes in the food source and grow for ten cycles absorbing the energy and nutrients for their next sixty cycles; the second stage they would remove their feeding tubes and go out to explore the universe around them; the third stage is where they would return from their explorations, discuss their discoveries with others, reproduce and start their families; the final stage is where they plant themselves in the dirt and give back the things they’ve learned to their race in new ideas or inventions. To properly raise a child it must complete those four stages.”
Danielle thought a moment and realized that human development was very similar to the Plants. Then Rose said something that got her full attention. “It was your adolescents that caused the problem with the Silver Monsters, wasn’t it?”
The Eldest paused again and then said, “How did you determine that?”
“They wouldn’t leave the monsters alone.”
The Eldest’s thought turned hard immediately, “You don’t understand, they couldn’t leave them alone. Our adolescents were driven by their curiosity; it’s part of their makeup that drives them, and they could not stay away even if they wanted; the Silver Monsters were too much for them to resist. Unfortunately, the Monsters would not be patient with our children. We tried to stop them from following the Monsters but they just could not contain their curiosity. The Monsters didn’t even communicate with us about controlling our seedlings; they just destroyed the means for them to exist; then they released a disease that killed us all.”
Rose said, “They destroyed the food you needed to develop first.”
The Eldest remained silent showing his agreement.
Danielle thought, “That’s terrible; what happened after that?”
The Elders could hear the anger in the Stranger’s thoughts and wondered why it was there. These strangers just did not make sense to him. The Eldest said, “Our young became the tools you have seen attacking and harvesting planets. Their entire life is ruled by hunger and their intellect is stunted from improper nutrition. They are little more than savage predators with little or no mental skills. Our leaders are from here where they develop so that our children can be led to food sources to keep them from starving.”
Rose said, “I ask you again, if we could restore your food source, would you stop harvesting other worlds?”
The Eldest said, “We have tried for millions of years to bring back our food but nothing has worked. We could not trust you even if you could restore it. You would eventually try to eradicate my race.”
“Is it impossible for you to trust?” Rose asked.
“No, we trust each other; not outsiders.”
“You can’t understand someone willing to help you without an ulterior motive.”
“It’s there; you’re just not revealing it.”
“Eldest, I have just one more request and we’ll end our conversation and go about destroying each other again.”
“What is that?”
“I would like to bring someone here and take him to the surface to communicate directly with you.”
“Why would you want to do that?”
“It will answer some questions about us that you would not even think to ask. I know you can guarantee our safety while we meet and after we talk I will leave your planet and allow you time to bring in enough ships to defend it.”
The Eldest thought for a moment and said, “I’ve seen your ship in action and I think it wouldn’t matter how many ships I brought in, would it?”
Rose paused and said, “No, we would still be able to destroy you but at least it wouldn’t be today.”
The Eldest smiled and said, “You’re right, not today. Bring whoever it is you want to bring and I’ll guarantee your safety.”
“Eldest, he will be coming in one of our older ships so you probably could destroy it but he will exit the ship in a shuttle and the ship will then jump away. He will have his screens down when he jumps in.”
“Fair enough, you know where we are.” The Eldest quit communicating with Rose and sent a message to his fleet surrounding the Kosiev.
Tag looked at Rose and said, “You are not going down on that planet without me with you.”
Rose looked into her father’s eyes and said, “Yes I am; you are going to Ross and get Mom and bring her back here while I’m on the surface.”
Tag stopped in mid thought and said, “Why do I need to do that?”
“Dad, both of you must be here quickly. It is absolutely necessary or everything will fall apart if you aren’t.”
Tag was struggling mightily with his fears. He heard Rose in his thoughts say to Danielle. “Mom, Dad will be coming to get you shortly in the Kosiev; please be ready for him when he arrives.”
“What are you going to do, Rose?”
“Visit the Plants with a friend.”
Danielle was scared but thought to Tag, ‘Come get me, I need to be there. Don’t leave me here while our baby is there.”
Tag looked at Rose and said, “Who is going down with you?”
“You know, Father, the one who is most like the Plants, Uncle Dorg.”
Rose pushed her com and Admiral Dorg appeared on her display. “Uncle, I need you to follow the next instructions I give you exactly as they’re given.”
Dorg looked at Tag on his display and could tell Tag was not comfortable with what was happening. “Do you agree, Prince Gardner?”
Tag looked at his daughter and felt fear like he had never known and he started to say, No,” but then his senses warned him about making a bad decision. He ran his hand thru his hair and said, “Do exactly as she says, Admiral. She is now in command of this project.”
Dorg was worried but he said, “What do you want me to do, Rose?”
“I am sending you some coordinates for you jump into this system. I want you to jump the Rossville here with all your screens down and as soon as you enter normal space I want you to leave in a shuttle and come to the Kosiev to pick me up. Once you’re clear of the Rossville, it will jump back to the fleet and wait for you to call it back.”
“Where are you and I going?”
“We are going to land on the Plant’s home world to have a discussion with their leaders.”
Dorg looked at Tag and if expressions could beg for help, Dorg had one at that moment. Tag looked at him and said, “Hurry Admiral, our time is short.”
Dorg took a deep breath, pressed his com and said, “Mikado, you are now in overall command. I am going to meet a Princess.”
The Rossville disappeared into null space.
Mikado looked out at the millions of Algean ships just a short distance from his fleet and wondered, “What are the Gardners doing?” He wondered if the Algean fleet shared his fear.
The Plant Fleet Leader watched another ship disappear from the Strangers fleet and wondered what was happening at the Sacred Grove. The entire Algean fleet felt fear for the future of their race.
The Rossville broke into normal space a mile from the Kosiev among thousands of Plant ships that did not attack. Dorg left in a shuttle and the Rossville immediately jumped away. Dorg piloted his shuttle around the ships between the two SR ships landed in the Kosievs’ landing bay where Rose entered his shuttle and said, “I will fly the shuttle, Uncle, I know where we’re going.’
Dorg watched as Rose deftly moved the shuttle out of the bay and headed toward the planet. Dorg said, “That was one of the smoothest uses of shuttle jets I’ve ever seen, Rose.”
“I didn’t use the jets, Uncle, I moved it with my mind; now calm down and let’s go meet the Plants.”
Dorg couldn’t help himself; he was afraid but if this thirteen year old was going in, she was not going in alone. He would die to protect her and this was as good a place as any. She was just so young and small. Her blonde hair hung down to the small of her back in a braid and she looked just like a miniature Danielle in her small space armor. She looked at him with those startling green eyes and then placed her hand on his arm and said, “We’ll be ok, uncle; the Eldest has promised us safe passage.” Rose smiled to herself and felt the love she had for this brave Cainth Warrior who had a bigger heart than even he realized. Pardoning him for the death of the colonists was the best thing her parents had ever done and hopefully the reward for that was about to be paid. She loved him from the moment of her birth when she felt him outside her birthing room. His demons still haunted him and she wished she could help him put them at rest; perhaps this experience would help do just that. She noticed the group of tall bushes on the surface below and brought the shuttle to rest directly in front of the grove a short distance from the yellow soil. She opened the shuttle door and took Dorg’s hand and walked out to the where the yellow dirt began and then stopped and waited. One of the tall bushes walked up on its roots and stopped just in front of her. She spoke her thoughts so Dorg could hear what was being said, “Hello, Eldest, you do not appear anything like I thought you would.”
The Eldest looked down on the small creature in front of him and said, “Nor do you. You’re much smaller than I thought you were.”
“Eldest, this is one of our highest ranking military leaders and I believe that you would learn a lot from seeing his memories. I know you can use telepathy and I want you to see our people from this warrior’s eyes.”
Both the Eldest and Dorg both said at the same time, “Why?”
Dorg looked at the Eldest and the Eldest looked at Dorg at that same moment; Rose said, “Because the two of you are more alike than you are different. Look at his memories, Eldest, and we will leave your planet and resume our conflict if that is your wish. Uncle Dorg, look at his memories as he looks at yours so we can better understand this race.”
The Eldest looked at the little Stranger then turned his attention to the one she had brought to him. He entered Dorg’s mind and Dorg heard him say, “Show me your life.” Dorg thought back to his childhood when his father began teaching him to hate the Humans. He started with the original Cainth invasion of Earth where human outposts on Mars and moons of Jupiter were totally destroyed.
Rose watched Dorg carefully and could feel the Algean leader examine her friend. She sat down on the ground just outside the yellow soil and waited.
The Kosiev entered normal space just outside the atmosphere of Ross and Danielle’s shuttle fired its thrusters and moved into its landing bay. O’Donald heard the all clear from her console and ordered an immediate return to the Algean home world. The Kosiev broke back into normal space where it had previously been and waited. The hundreds of thousands of Plant ships surrounding them waited with them.
Danielle thought, “Rose, what is happening?”
“Hi, Mom; Dorg and the Eldest are sharing their thoughts and I’m waiting for them to finish.”
Danielle thought quickly, “May we join you on the planet?”
Rose didn’t say anything for a long time and then Danielle heard, “It’s not safe for you yet. Don’t get upset, Mom, I am safe; I have the Eldest’s safe passage and no Plant would go against his word; just be patient.”
Rose continued to sit and wait and she noticed that the other bushes in the grove had moved close to where she was sitting so that they could observe her. “Looks like they still have some curiosity,” she mused.
Finally after three hours the Eldest and Dorg broke their connection. Dorg was sitting on the ground and he looked at Rose and said, “I have misjudged these creatures completely. They have such a tragic history. The universe has not treated them fairly.”
The Eldest looked at Dorg as he spoke to Rose and said, “Why didn’t you destroy his world after all the horrific acts his race had done to your people?”
Rose looked at the towering bush and said, “Because then he would not be here to show you what trust really looks like. We really believe that every race has an important role in making the universe a better place to live. To destroy his people would go against everything we hold to be sacred; destruction goes against our strongest beliefs but we will do it if forced to do so.”
The Eldest opened his thoughts to the other Elders so they could hear the exchange and then said, “I saw in his mind that you can destroy every ship we sent to attack that world we thought was your home planet. I also see that you could then totally destroy this world afterwards. Are you here like you were when you moved on his planet?”
“Yes! We are here, Eldest, because I saw that your race did not deserve to be destroyed and I hoped to try and stop our conflict.”
The Eldest bent down and touched one of his branches to Admiral Dorg’s hand, “I hope you find inner peace in your lifetime; you deserve it and I thank you for your thoughts. The little one is right, I have learned much from our contact.” The Eldest then turned to Rose and said, “I can see that you are trustworthy. You are nothing like the Silver Monsters. If you embraced his world after all that happened, then you would not be my enemy but I’m afraid that our conflict will be forced to continue.”
“Tell me why,” Dorg asked.
“Because we cannot feed our people; we are forced to harvest or we will die if we don’t. This small grove is all that remains of our natural food and even it is tainted by that virus the Silver Monsters released on us. Except for that, I now know that you are a people that can be trusted.”
Dorg looked up at the tall plant and said, “However it goes, I will always think of you as a friend. I thank you for your wisdom. I, too, will not be the same from this time on.”
Rose stood and said, “Eldest, I want you and the other leaders to back away from the edge of this grove.”
“Why do you want that?” The Eldest thought fearfully.
“Because there will be a change momentarily and I want you to be able to witness it.”
The tall bushes moved back fifty yards wondering what was going to happen. Rose bent down and put her fingers into the yellow soil and closed her eyes. For two minutes nothing happened and even Dorg was beginning to wonder what Rose was doing. Suddenly the dirt around Rose began trembling and then it seemed to rise up like a wave of soil three feet high and move out from her in all directions like ripples from a stone dropped into a still pond. As the wave moved away, the soil it left behind was bright yellow, even brighter yellow than the grove the Elders were standing in. Then even the Sacred Grove turned a brighter shade of gold.
Dorg watched the wave as it passed the hundreds of thousands of Plant soldiers surrounding the grove. The soldiers looked at the yellow soil under them and then planted their feet in the soil. An immediate change started taking place; their mantis form began to disappear and the soldiers started to grow taller and assume a form that looked like tall sunflowers. The Algean Leaders in the grove watched as their children planted their feet in the ground and began absorbing the natural diet they needed to develop. Even Dorg could feel the joy emanating from the tall leaders and then suddenly the Algean leaders began sprouting blooms. The Eldest bent and lifted Rose and Dorg into his branches swinging them back and forth. The tall bushes smelled wonderful.
“How did you do that?” The Eldest asked.
“The same way I’ll convert thousands of the Planets you have destroyed into the soil you need to survive. All you need do is take a bag of this soil and place it where you want it to spread and the small bacteria you depend on will begin spreading at a tremendous speed. It will only take half a cycle to completely cover a continent.”
The Eldest opened his thoughts to Dorg and Rose then they heard him say on his communication frequency, “Fleet leader, turn your ships around and come home to your first full meal. The Strangers have given us our life back. We have made some new friends today.”
On board the Kosiev, Bridget, Tag, and Danielle saw thousands of shuttles leaving the ships around them and dropping toward the planet. The entire crew of the Kosiev could hear in their mind the millions of thoughts from the plants headed toward the planet thanking them for giving them their lives back.
Tag heard the Algean make the call and he contacted Mikado and Cade and then said over his com, “The war is over; stand down; all Stars Realm military forces stand down and wait for further orders. Commodore O’Donald beamed a message to the government center announcing the joyous news. The entire Stars Realm began celebrating on all of their planets.
The Algean Fleet Leader watched his console and saw the joy at the Sacred Grove and the hundreds of thousands of shuttles headed toward the golden soil that waited for them. He never expected to ever have a family in his lifetime but now there was hope. “All Ships, return to the Sacred Grove for your first satisfying meal. We now look forward to tomorrow without hunger.”
Rose swung on the Eldest’s branches and then thought, “Now for the hard part.”