The group was back in the map room and Melanie came down with Angel Gardner and introduced her to the attendees. “Hello everyone, this is A.G.”
Everyone admired their child and all of those with psychic abilities could feel the baby’s power. Melanie then handed Angel to her nurse and she took the baby to the nursery to care for her.
Matt stood and said, “I know some of you that were chosen by a ship yesterday may have misgivings about what that means and the mission you are charged to fulfill. Unfortunately, there is no option about serving aboard them. The Realm will depend on us to protect it and all of you have sworn an oath to defend it with your lives. Does everyone understand this?”
Tag leaned back, “Well, so much for retirement.”
The attendees laughed as Danielle punched him in the ribs.
“There is another issue that has to be resolved and this is something that I have given a lot of thought and feel quite strongly must be done immediately. Melanie and I are abdicating the Realm’s Throne.”
The room burst out as everyone spoke at once, everyone except Danielle. She sat in her chair and nodded at Matt. He smiled at her and waited for the room to settle down. Finally, everyone sat back down and grew quiet. “Danielle, would you explain why this has to be done.”
Danielle stood and looked around the room, “Matt and Melanie are going to be directly fighting the Red Demons. What do you think the Realm will do if they learn that their rulers are in the thick of battle against an enemy that puts all the others to shame especially if he is killed in the conflict? Matt has also been charged to find the other crews for the ships the Reg are building. He cannot rule the Realm and also perform the duties he is charged by the Reg to perform. He has no choice but to abdicate and work to build the fleet we must have to protect us. We should also remember that he is our only contact with the Reg.”
Anglo looked at Danielle, “Then that also eliminates you and Tag from the throne as well.”
Matt answered, “Yes, it does eliminate them. The new King and Queen of the Stars Realm will be Duke Sprig and Duchess Twig Gardner.”
Sprig grew four feet before he could stop himself, “The Realm will never allow it. The Realm must be ruled by a Gardner; I’m not qualified”
Matt looked at Sprig, “Sprig, you are a Gardner.”
Sprig mumbled, “Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”
Danielle stood, “Sprig, they will allow it because Matt was going to abdicate before he learned about the Reg ships. Am I right, Matt?”
Matt smiled at Danielle, “You are incredible at seeing the truth. Yes, I was; everyone please sit down and let me explain why Sprig and Twig must accept the crown.”
Twig thought, “What are you talking about “must accept”?”
“The Realm now has more than twenty million members to rule. We are being asked to direct all of the member’s actions between the various members and quite frankly, we are failing to do the job we are entrusted to handle. It is my belief that if we don’t get a handle on ruling the Realm, then it will fall under its own weight. Humans do not have the mental capacity nor the speed to digest all of the issues coming before the crown and make timely decisions. Only two members of the Realm do have the necessary skills to do what needs to be done. The spiders appear to have it as well as the Algeans; however, the spiders are a new member and the Realm will not trust a race that was so violent such a short time ago. Sprig, tell me honestly that I am better equipped to handle the millions of members than you are and I’ll change my mind.”
Sprig was struggling with what to do. He had seen the mass of problems stacking up in the support chambers and knew they were getting bigger by the moment. “A king is more than a problem solver, Matt.”
“A good one is the best problem solver, Sprig. It is also important that their solutions reflect the values of the crown. You are the best candidate to rule the Realm, Sprig. With Twig helping you, the Realm will survive. Without you, I firmly believe it will fall.”
Twig turned to Sprig and put her branches on his, “I don’t want this responsibility but you know he’s right. Look at the data on past civilizations.”
“I already have, Dear; I see it; I just don’t like it.”
“Then you have no choice. You have sworn to do all you can to protect the Realm. If you see it, you must accept.”
Tag leaned forward, “Trust me, old friend, it gets easier after a few hundred years and you know my family is available anytime you need us.”
Sprig looked up, “I wonder what Wes would say at this moment.”
Cassandra laughed out loud, “He’d say, “What are you waiting for you overgrown pile of kudzu?”“
Twig started shaking with laughter, “You’re probably right.” He straightened up, “How do we do this?”
“We need to prepare; we’ll make the announcement next week. This meeting is adjourned until we handle this issue.” Everyone stood and went to congratulate Sprig.
Destiny entered the meeting and General Durk was right behind him. “Your Majesty, one of the probes we left in our old universe arrived at Fleet Command and we have just downloaded what it recorded. The Demon’s new tool arrived in our old system an hour after we left.”
Matt shook his head, “We cut that pretty close.”
“Yes we did, Your Majesty, but that’s not the issue. The probe recorded the creatures giving instructions to all of its ships to go and scan universes looking for the green creatures.”
“A lot of good it will do them, Destiny. You are here hidden behind the Reg’s screen.”
“We are here but the Supreme Males you sent to another universe are not and they know about you and the Reg.”
Matt was shocked, “You’re right. I completely forgot about them. Destiny, we can’t bring them here; they’re too dangerous.”
“I know; your only choice is to kill them before they reveal the existence of the Realm.”
“If they’re found we would be wasting our time. Those Red Demons can make them give up what they know. I’m also concerned that if we go there, we might be followed back.” Matt thought a moment, “We’ve got to go talk with the Reg. Al have you been listening to this conversation?”
Matt found himself on Al’s bridge, “Yes, We’re on our way.” Al teleported to the planet of the Reg and waited. After a minute, three Reg appeared on the bridge and one thought to Matt, “You want to know if you can take the gift we gave you?”
“Should we even try?”
“Yes, there would be a possibility that even if this universe was found by the Demons and destroyed they might still miss our existence. It is necessary for you to try and defend that knowledge.”
“How do I move Al into the ship?”
“He is not needed at this time, Brother.”
“Will they be able to follow me back to our universe?”
“Your gift does not leave any tracks to follow.”
“Are its weapons available?”
“Yes they are. This is an exercise in self-defense; it will not harm us.”
“Where is it?”
“Waiting for you at your home.”
The three Reg disappeared, Al teleported back to Ross, and Matt teleported down to the Castle.
“Melanie, I need you to take a short trip.”
“Where?”
“We need to go to our Reg ship.”
“Now?”
“Yes, now.”
Melanie took Matt’s hand, “I said I’d follow you anywhere.”
Matt pressed his bracelet and they appeared on the bridge of the Reg ship. They sat down in their chairs and the golden glow filled the room and then settled into a light blue luminance. “What are you thinking, Love.”
“The Demon’s new tool arrived in the spider’s old universe ten days ago and found them missing. The leader of the Demon’s ships instructed all of his fleet to start scanning universes for the green creatures. I forgot that we sent that ship of males to another universe. If they find that ship, they’ll learn about the Realm and the existence of the Reg. We must prevent that happening.”
Matt, they already know something’s amiss with our universe disappearing. If they find our universe, they find us. This is really about the Reg isn’t it?”
“Yes. There is a chance that even if they find us they could still miss the Reg since they are not organic beings. If the Reg survive, even if we are destroyed, they may be able to end this menace sometime in the distant future. It’s worth the risk to try and protect them.”
“Where are the Males?”
“We’re jumping there momentarily; however, we need to power up our weapons and drives. Are you ready to link?”
Melanie closed her eyes and felt the trillions of links between their chairs. She thought, “Now!”
The small ship started thrumming and the sound quickly rose in frequency and the glow around the ship thickened as the sound went higher up the octave. Matt felt the connection with Melanie and felt his psychic power grow. He closed his eyes and felt the ships weapons come on line. He also felt as if he and Melanie was one person. “This is wonderful. We need to do this more often.”
“You’re right. I just hate we have to do this.”
“We can’t save them, Melanie. They are still bound by the compulsions and could infect Destiny and his family.”
“I know; I just hate we can’t save them.”
“Do you have them located?”
“Yes, and they have been discovered by the new tool.”
“Are we too late?”
“I don’t know but they are dead either way. I’m taking us there now.”
Matt warmed up his weapon console and watched what Melanie was seeing.
“Maker, one of my Clan Warriors has found some of the green creatures. There is only one ship here but the occupants are still alive.”
“Give me your location.” The Red being saw the coordinates on his display.
“Where are you going?”
“My new tool has found some of the old tool still alive. I am going to find out what they know.”
“Is that a good idea?”
“What do you mean?”
“What if your old tool discovered a way to break the compulsions? What do you think the Elders will do if they find out?”
The Red Being thought about that scenario and said, “Either way, I need to handle this situation. I would rather make this trip than have one of them go.”
“I can’t argue with that.”
“I’m taking my ship. I’ll update you when I return.
“I’m not sure I want to know.”
“I can understand that.”
The Red Demon entered his ship and activated its drives. The ship immediately appeared above a planet where a hundred of his White Clan Ships were waiting. He looked at his panel and saw the Supreme Male was still on board the Mother Ship. He hit a switch on his console and the Supreme Male felt the compulsion hit it like a stunner. “Give me what you know!”
The Supreme Male began sending his memories directly to the board of the orange colored ship. As the information was being received the Red Demon said, “Destroy all the green creatures on the planet.”
The hundred ships in orbit began hitting the Eight Leg ships on the planet with their main beams as millions of White Warriors swarmed out of their ships and flew down to the planet.
“Matt, an orange ship has arrived next to the main ship.”
“Jump in a hundred miles from it and be ready to run.”
“Jumping now.”
The Supreme Male was dying quickly. He was being sucked dry just as if he was surrendering to the Nest Mother but there was no pleasure in this surrender; the pain was unendurable and the Red Demon enjoyed it immensely. The Sensor Leader watched as the Supreme Male suffered and tried to move his ship to ram the orange ship. He entered the directions to the ship’s drives and immediately fell over dead. Part of the compulsions prevented any attempt to disobey the Red Demon and death happened if one tried.
Suddenly a blue ship appeared and the Red Demon turned his attention to the newcomer. Before he could do anything, a bright blue beam struck the Eight Leg Mother Ship and it shattered into millions of fragments. An edge of the blue beam grazed the orange ship and seven systems were shut down. The Red Demon was briefly stunned and as it quickly recovered it saw the blue ship had disappeared. He turned to his board to scan the area where the intruder had appeared but his systems were still off line. He slammed his fist on the board and sent a message to the white ships, “Follow that ship.”
The White Clan Leader jumped his ship to the spot where the blue ship had appeared but there was no trace of a departure or arrival. “Maker, there is nothing here to track.” He shivered in his command chair hoping the Maker would not take his anger out on him. He cringed anticipating his destruction.
The Red Demon looked down at the planet and saw that all of the old tools had been killed. He should have waited until he finished gathering information from the Supreme Male but how could he have anticipated anyone stopping him. He thought a moment and ordered, “Gather all of your clan at the universe of the old tool. Go there immediately!”
The White Clan Leader hit his plotter and sent the instructions. In all the universes being searched, the White Clan stopped and set their drives for the Eight Legs Universe. The White Clan Leader was excited at the prospect of killing the old tool; why else would the Clan be going back to the green creature’s universe?”
The Red being could see from the information he had gathered that there was a universe that had found a way to kill the old tool. That universe had kidnapped the Nest Mother and her chamber and had removed the Supreme Males from their ships. That universe was where his old tool was now hiding. He also saw a race of rock creatures that had the capability to destroy the old tool and they had been in existence for more than two hundred million years. He had not looked at the information his old tool had gathered and he now knew his life was over if this information was revealed. He decided that this was not going to be given to the Elders. He was also going to keep the blue ship a secret. The Elders would find out about it as soon as the missing universe was found. His systems came back on line and he went to the place where the blue ship had entered and there was nothing to follow. He erased the information he had retrieved and purged the data bank that had stored it. He jumped back to his lab.
“What did you find out?”
“Nothing, that new tool of mine could not restrain themselves and killed every green creature before I arrived. There was only one ship of the old tool present.”
The first Red Demon looked at the second and almost forced him to reveal what had happened but knew the peril he would face if this underling had caused that universe to go missing.
“You have not been able to control them effectively.”
“They are still new and need some detail work. They were not made to capture anything but to kill it. They are very efficient at doing that.
“Is that tool of yours far enough along to go unsupervised?”
“Not really. I also suspect that whoever was capable of moving a universe and hiding it from us will be immune to their attack.”
“You really don’t have time to devote to them now.”
“I know; I’ll dispose of them and start searching.”
“That would be wise. You can make them again later.”
“Does it look like we will have to use our ships to confront this problem?”
“We always knew it was a possibility.”
“Watch your display, this should be entertaining.” The second red creature also knew that all witnesses to the actual events involving the blue ship were about to be eliminated. He planned to do it even if his superior had not recommended it.
The Leader of the White Clan jumped into the Eight Leg Universe with all the members of his clan excited at the prospect of killing the green creatures. He looked at his board and saw there was still no life in the universe and the green ships floating in space were lifeless. What was going on? He thought the Maker had sent them back because the old tool had returned.
The Maker came on his board and demanded to know why he had made a mistake plotting. He shivered in fear and then he heard over his ships communication system, “Time to dine.” The compulsion hit the Clan Leader like a hammer. He turned and saw his mate standing next to him and he attacked her just as she was striking at him with her talons. As he was chewing on her shoulder, ten other members of the Clan fell on them and devoured them. The compulsion forced the white creatures to eliminate their leaders first and then each other. In all the white ships, the crews were burning as they attacked each other. The last survivor of each ship left and flew out into space to continue the carnage.
The two red beings watched the destruction of the new tool and enjoyed every moment. They were disappointed when the last creature killed itself. “When you rebuild this tool you need to make this process happen slower. Do away with the burning and just make them eat each other.”
“I will, but you have to admit the compulsion was effective.”
“It was very effective. I just want to see more of it.”
“Me, too, I’ll make the change.”
“I think the Elders are disturbed by the absence of your old tool. You might invent something to tell them.”
“How disturbed are they?”
“Very.”
The red being felt a fear that his creation had just experienced.
The probe that remained in the former universe of spiders recorded billions of ships break into normal space. After an hour, they suddenly turned on each other and begin attacking. The white furred beings with multiple rows of eight-inch sharpened white teeth and long white talons began ripping each other apart. They left their ships to kill each other in open space. In less than a day, the last survivor started eating itself until it died. Only the probe was there to watch its death. The probe waited to be collected.
Matt and Melanie had jumped to another universe and waited twelve hours to see if anyone followed them. “Jump to another universe, Melanie.”
Melanie jumped and they waited another fourteen hours. “I don’t know if we prevented the information from being obtained. That ship wasn’t there very long but I don’t know how fast those beings can take information from their tools. We can only hope we destroyed the ship in time.”
Matt thought a moment and said, “Melanie, we need to take a look at the Eight Leg home universe.”
“Why?”
“One of our probes is still there and I’m not comfortable leaving it there or jumping it away. If it wasn’t destroyed, I want to see if we can find it and possibly retrieve it or download its information.”
Melanie looked at her display panel and thought about what she wanted to see. After a moment, the probe appeared. “I’ve found it. I also see millions of those white ships left floating around. What happened? Do you think the Demons are watching it to try and trace it?”
Matt closed his eyes and thought about the danger of taking the probe. His sense of danger rose to a very high level. “No, we can’t take it.” He then thought about retrieving the probe’s information and his sense of danger remained low. “If we can take the data from it without being traced the danger is at a low level. Are you able to do that?”
“Stand by.” Melanie brought the probe in to a closer view and then felt the psychic links in her chair. She thought about the data storage and her mind went into the device and she could see all it recorded. She mentally absorbed the information and then copied it to her chair’s display. “I’ve got it.”
“Break contact with that universe.”
“I did and I put the probe on self destruct.”
“I think that was a good thing to do. Let’s go home and see what you’ve got.”
“You might want to view it here, Magic. This is pretty gory material.”
“Put it on my board.”
The recording started and they watched as the white furred creatures entered the universe, began searching, and then turned on themselves. At the end, Matt felt horror and outrage. “They created billions of creatures and then totally destroyed them when our universe went missing. Their callousness is beyond belief.”
“I’m as shocked as you are but what if you made a tool and went to try it out and found that you didn’t have time to fine tune it. What would you do?”
“Put it aside until I could repair it?”
“You can’t put a life form aside. They just destroyed it and will create another when they have time. Life has no meaning to them. If we can’t stop them, we will all die Matt. I can see it as clearly as I see you.”
“We need to show this to the Realm.”
“I know.”
The Realm received the announcement that in five days King Matthew Anglo Gardner was going to talk with the Realm about an urgent issue. The announcement was repeated every hour until the time for him to appear. By the time the King appeared on every display in the Realm, more than ninety nine percent of the Realm’s citizens were watching to see what was so urgent.
Matt looked out at the recorders, “Thank you for giving me this time to talk with you about a confrontation the Realm is going to have.” Everyone felt immediate apprehension; they all remembered the last invasion. “We are facing a crisis that has been coming for longer than there has been life in our universe. You all know about the Green Ships that invaded our universe bent on killing all intelligent life. We prevailed in that conflict but there is something you do not know about the outcome. The green creatures were deliberately created by an ancient race of beings to kill all life that possessed intelligence. They placed compulsions in them that forced them to harvest universes. They had no control over their actions. We discovered the compulsions and were able to remove them from billions of the species we call spiders and they assisted us in defeating the main invasion. Without their help, we could have lost the war. Their race is a peaceful and gentle one that was forced to become killers. They now peacefully co-exist with us in our universe. We have since discovered that the beings that created them have created another species even more deadly than the green creatures and that the spiders were to be their first target. When the creators of these new destroyers discovered that the spiders were missing, they decided that they did not have time to develop this new tool of destruction they had created. I am going to play a recording of what they did. This starts when their new creatures entered the old universe of the spiders.”
The recording began and ran for thirty minutes. The death of the final survivor was added to the end to show how it ended. A picture of the Red Demon was shown after the video stopped. The Realm saw the picture and started to feel fear and revulsion.
“This is how those beings appear. That race they created to replace the spiders had no choice but to kill each other because of compulsions put in them by the beings that are now looking for our universe. They had no regard for the billions that they killed. Our universe is currently hidden from them by a psychic barrier but they will eventually find us. A race that is the oldest in our universe is providing that barrier and is currently building ships for us to meet the coming demons and I have been charged to find the crews to use these ships in the defense of our universe.
I am at heart a Searcher. It is my calling and I must find the warriors to crew the ships that will be used to protect us. With that in mind, I also want to talk with you about the tremendous difficulty the Crown is having in providing the necessary support for our members. The sheer mass of decisions that must be made to keep the Realm functioning smoothly is becoming more that we can cope. We know that if something is not done to handle this problem the Realm will fall from the weight of its numbers. You know what I’m telling you is true. Unfortunately, humans are just not equipped to handle the necessary volume of decisions fast enough.
We know someone that can and the Realm needs him now. Melanie and I are abdicating our crowns and are stepping aside for Duke Sprig Gardner to replace me as King of the Stars Realm. His mate, Duchess Twig Gardner will become the Realm’s new Queen. My family will be available for his use any time he needs us however for the immediate future we will be focusing on protecting the Realm from its enemies.” Matt leaned forward, “An Algean can process more information is a minute than a Human could in twenty years. He is the only one capable of breaking the logjam of decisions that must be made. It is his active role against the Captors and the Eight Legs that allowed us to survive without having to totally destroy them. He embodies all that is right and good with our Realm and the Gardner Family trusts him with our lives. He is what will save us. I thank you for your time and I ask your support for the Realm’s new Royal Family.”
The Realm was in a somber mood. A Human Gardner was not going to be the Realm’s ruler. Then a recorded history was shown of all that Sprig had done during the war with the Captors and then with the Eight Legs, giving emphasis to the development of the teleportation device and duplication of the Kosievs’ hull. They learned of the risk he and Twig took to download each other and their near death as a result. They learned how he had teleported into Wes McAnn’s damaged ship risking his life to save the survivors just a moment before it was going to be destroyed by Captor energy balls. They learned of how the Realm’s ships and weapons had all been designed and built by the Algeans working for Sprig. The Realm also learned that there would probably not be a Realm except for the bravery and skills of the Algean. The cheers began soon after the history completed. They grew as the billions thought about how the Realm had to have him to handle the load of ruling the Realm. They finally could be heard outside Castle Gardner as millions of the Realm’s citizens teleported in to cheer their new King.
Sprig heard no cheers after the announcement and felt that perhaps the decision was a mistake. Twig sat with him in the map room, “They will come to like you, Dearest.”
“I’m not a Gardner.”
Twig wrapped him in her branches and pulled him tightly to her. They stood like that and lost track of time. Matt came in and said, “I think your citizens are demanding a viewing.”
Sprig and Twig separated, “What?”
“I said that if you don’t come out and see your citizens we might get an angry mob to storm the castle to see you.”
Then Sprig heard the crowd. He followed Matt up to the upper balcony and looked out at a sea of beings. There had to be millions gathered yelling his name. He looked out at them and raised his branches high. The ensuing roar from the crowd was deafening.
Matt leaned over and thought to him, “We have received more than fifty billion requests to come and greet the Realm’s newest King. We had to put a damper on any more teleporting to the field outside the castle. The Realm knows your importance, Sprig. Now help it survive.”
“I will, Matt. It is mine to protect and defend now.”
Twig came forward and held Sprig. When the crowd saw her, they roared even louder. “You always had it wrong, Love.”
Sprig looked at Twig, “What?”
“It was I who was not good enough to have you. I am so thankful you chose me.”
Sprig felt his love for her and pulled her tighter to him.