The Collective was not connected to the Keepers fighting the invaders, but was receiving information from the Military Quadrant that had another contact. When the psychic blast hit, the contact died with the Keepers at the farm and the Military Quadrant that was in touch with the contact was blown apart. The rest of the Collective was stunned by the blast, but not disrupted. After a few minutes the Collective recovered and asked Values, which had remained separated from the Collective, “What happened at the farm?”
“I do not know. There is no one there to make connection.”
“What?!?”
“It appears all of our forces there are no longer able to communicate. I’ve considered sending another ship to investigate, but the quadrants that have those contacts have been temporarily disabled. I’m not sure if it would be wise to send another ship.”
The Collective now learned that it had become too complacent in allowing the Quadrants to run all the various aspects of the Keepers’ civilization. It directed its attention to six Keepers’ ships above the home planet and ordered them to the troublesome farm. It was going to take them six hours to get to the drive band.
Jake and Valerie finally separated and looked around. Suddenly a huge shadow covered them and they looked up to see the transport descending. “Looks like I was right, Jake.”
“Are you ever wrong?”
“Not really; I did say you would find your initiator here on this planet. I just didn’t know it was me at the time.”
Jake smiled at her and shook his head. Then he heard Manny, “Why did you need all these Searchers? It looks like you’ve got everything under control.”
“Manny, there are 400,000 Keepers’ ships in orbit with their drives off. Junior has discovered that if you launch a high speed penetrator up their drives it will destroy the interior of those ships. We need to do that to reduce their ship count.”
“Stand by.” Manny keyed his com and issued instructions.
Jake watched in his mind as 400,000 Searchers jumped to the rear of the Keepers’ ships and fired a high speed penetrator in each of the three drive tubes.
“How do you know if it worked?”
Jake smiled, “Trust me on this one; it worked. There is another thing you must do quickly. How many ships can avoid detection by the Keepers’ ships in our universe?”
“All of our ships can avoid detection, however only fifty thousand Searchers have the covering to prevent their thoughts from being detected. Why do you ask?”
“Because I expect another, larger, fleet to come here shortly and they will discover how we killed these ships. We must kill those in the Realm before they are warned. The window to make that happen is short.”
“Maybe we can delay them finding out.”
“How can we do that?”
“Every ship has places on the hull where a cord can be attached for hull inspections in zero gravity. Our Searchers have cables strong enough to pull these ships out of orbit and accelerate them toward the star in this system. We have two Searchers for each ship so we should be able to get them moving at a very high velocity. They won’t find out anything if we remove the evidence.”
“That is a great idea, Manny! Get them moving.”
The eight hundred thousand Searchers were given instructions, and in less than an hour two small ships began pulling each Keepers’ ship out of orbit. It was good fortune that the colonies were on the day side of the planet, so they just had to be pulled directly away from the planet instead of around it. Jake and Valerie watched as the Keepers’ ships started moving slowly, but picked up speed rapidly. The Searchers drive systems were powered by red generators and the Keepers’ ships reached half light speed in less than ninety minutes. They were released six light minutes away from the star, and twelve minutes later impacted the star’s corona. They melted and disappeared. Even the brown hulls could not withstand the heat of a sun.
“Manny, we still have to move on those ships quickly. If they don’t know how we did it, they will still try to warn them.”
“We’ll get together when we arrive back in the Realm and decide what to do.”
Jake watched as the transport came down and hovered about two hundred yards above the gathered colonists. Jake heard Edison, “Tell them that they are about to be moved aboard ship. Since we have time, we will teleport the women first and move them to quarters where they can put on clothing we’ve brought for them. Tell any of the females that are holding a male child to please give the child to a male to hold; I would not like them to be injured if they fall.”
Jake gave the instructions to the colonists and watched as many of the women gave their male children to their mates. Valerie and Jake teleported outside the gathering and watched as a silver screen came down and all of the female colonists disappeared. Jake noticed that the ground was covered with thousands of bracelets and wires that were left behind. After fifteen minutes the males were teleported, and the transport began moving into orbit.
Jake sent a thought to Manny, “How is it going at the Glod and Cainth Colonies?”
“They went up in one trip; seems they aren’t as modest as we humans. Their transports have now achieved orbit and jumped back to the Realm.”
Jake had his arm around Valerie, and they watched the huge Stars Realm transport with the big SR on the tail rise higher. “Looks like they are going to be with the Seniors.”
“Seniors?”
“I’ll explain later, Val.”
“Will you please allow me to bring you on board now?”
Jake and Valerie laughed, “Give me a moment, Junior.”
Jake walked over to the center of the square and looked around. He lifted some bracelets and threw them aside. Valerie asked, “What are you doing?”
Jake moved to his left, leaned down, picked up something, and put it in his pocket. He looked up and said, “You can take us on board now.”
“I thought we’d never leave. Cynthia has been on me for the last hour to get you out of here. She still doesn’t feel safe.”
“It’s the other way around, Junior; the Keepers aren’t safe here. I’ve seen her fight; she’s really good.”
Jake and Valerie disappeared from the now empty farm.
Six Keepers’ ships came out of jump and started moving in-system. The Collective was tuned in to them and saw the fleet sent to the planet was not there. It watched the scan taken of the planet and also discovered that the inhabitants of the farm were missing as well.
The other Quadrants had worked together to pull Military back together, and it was starting to function groggily. It watched the results of the scan and actually felt anger over the loss of life. “How did this happen?”
The Collective ignored the still-damaged Quadrant and wondered the same thing. Where were the ships? Nothing could have destroyed the hull material, yet they were not there. The Quadrants turned their attention to the Military Quadrant and asked, “Why did we not have ships ready to respond to emergencies?”
Military took a moment to gather the answer, “We had the fleet we sent to that planet. I asked how many to send and you ordered them all. How could we have known more than those sent would be needed?”
The Collective pondered the response, “We should always have ships outside drive bands to go where we need them.”
“It will be done in the future but as you know, all of our ships are used to transport food and are usually in orbit above their assigned farms.”
“Let me know how you plan to handle this in the future.”
“I’ll start work on it now.”
“Start on it later; I want all of you to watch the scans of the ships entering the place of our losses.”
The Collective turned its attention to the Director of the six ships entering the system of the recent battle. The six ships arrived in orbit, parked directly above the former garrison, and launched twenty attack craft. They swarmed down to the atmosphere and scanned for life; none was detected. The Collective ordered, “Land and tell me what you find on the surface.”
Ten attack craft landed at the garrison and another ten landed at the site of the colonies. There were Keepers lying dead from the garrison all the way to the hills just outside the colonies. Most of those on the surface were killed, but those still underground looked like they had just fallen down dead. Keepers were hit with explosive projectiles, blown apart by close explosions, and some were burned beyond recognition by some kind of beam. The Collective and the Quadrants watched it in the minds of the warriors on the planet’s surface and saw the ferocity of the combat that had taken place. Some of the beam platforms were still smoking and the crews were scattered around it. Some of the Keepers lying dead on the ground did not suffer severe enough injuries to have died, but every Keeper on the planet had lost their life.
The Science Quadrant said, “I believe that whatever that blue wave was that disrupted Military must have killed all those on the planet and in our fleet. Here at its source it must have been enormous.”
“Do you have any idea what it was?”
Science went into its databanks and responded, “Yes, I do. We have systematically eliminated any life form that possessed any mental powers. Those that had it in high levels released that blue color upon their death. Either a super strong psychic died or released its powers.”
“What do you mean, released?”
“We have studies that show a number of those with mental powers are not able to use them unless they are released by another person with mental powers. It has been millions of years since we recorded this phenomenon, mainly because we have killed any that demonstrated these powers. But we know that the stronger the powers, the larger the blue wave that follows release.”
“Are you saying that an individual had its powers released here on this planet?”
“It is the only thing that accounts for what we’ve recorded.”
“Where did this individual originate? Certainly not in the farm population?”
“It appears that they came after the ship was destroyed.” Science paused a moment and looked in the Military Quadrant and analyzed new data, “It also appears that the invaders are now able to hide their thoughts from our scanners.”
The Collective looked at Military’s data with Science and begrudgingly agreed. “You said that someone who also possessed mental powers would be needed to release this wave. None of our food could have possessed that kind of power.”
“You’re right. However, it was not one of the food that released this individual; we did it.”
The Collective looked again in Military’s information with Science and watched as the Warrior scanned and then touched one of the foods just before the first disruption hit. “How could we release this invader?”
“It was our combined connection with all of our Species that made it happen. The connection with trillions of us is extremely strong. The second blast was done by another invader that arrived when the combat started. They planned the final release just as our fleet arrived at the planet. It was that release that killed all of our warriors on and around the planet.”
Military asked, “Are we in danger of this wave being using against us?”
Science analyzed the data and responded, “Only if there is another individual with that magnitude of mental power and we are dumb enough to touch them. I don’t see how they could be released with anything but our combined mental connection. The being that was released here cannot cause that wave again.”
“Put that information into a form for all Quadrants to examine, and plan to discuss it next interval. Now; where is our fleet?” Silence greeted the question. “We can assume the crews were killed by that blue wave, but what happened to the ships?”
Science responded, “Perhaps we need to ask that question another way.”
“Such as?”
“If our crews were dead, we know no one could enter the ships from outside. That means they had to have been moved or disintegrated. The Question should be; what could destroy our ships?”
“Enough heat would do it,” Production answered. “We use high temperatures to mold the hulls.”
The Collective and all Quadrants looked at the star in the system. “Ship Director, make a detailed scan from the planet toward the system’s star.”
Two ships moved away from the planet and picked up speed as they broke out of orbit. “We have a reading of fuel across a wide band.”
“Fuel?”
“Yes. It’s very small, but is in a very wide band between the planet and the star.”
Science asked, “Is the fuel raw or burned?”
“Some of both.”
Military said, “They moved our ships into the star. They must have towed them.”
The Collective felt immediate nervousness, “How many ships did we send here?”
Military said, “We sent 400,000.”
“How long after the ships stopped reporting did we arrive in this system?”
“Six intervals.”
“Explain how our fleet could have been towed to the star and the ships used to move them could then get out of this system before we arrived? It’s ten intervals to the drive band from the planet, and they had to go another five intervals in-system to move our fleet. It also suggests that at least the number of our ships was used to move them. What does this tell us?”
Science answered, “They are not bound by the star drive limitation.”
The Collective and every Quadrant pondered that threat.
Military suddenly said, “What about our ships in the invader’s universe? We must warn them.”
“Do we have a ship outside the star drive band to send?”
“No; you told me to work on it later.”
The Collective ordered, “Send a ship from a system that has a small drive band.”
“It will still take five intervals.”
“Then get them moving; they must be warned.”
Values remained silent and knew trouble was not far away. It was becoming more difficult to hide the fear it felt.
Valerie and Jake arrived back in the Stars Realm and immediately received a com from Joe Gardner, “Your Majesty, the Keepers Fleet is now entering the Brayent System. The Cainth Colonists have launched ships to meet them coming in-system but have done no damage to the Keepers Fleet. What should we do?”
Valerie looked at Jake and said to Joe, “How many planets have they now attacked since our absence?”
“They destroyed the Gilmer System and immediately jumped to Brayent.”
“Give me a moment, Joe.”
Valerie looked at Jake, and he could tell something was wrong, “Jake, the first planet the Keepers Fleet attacked was Gambia.”
Jake stared at her struck silent by her revelation. After several moments he asked, “What happened?”
“They killed everyone with those beams and took two million from the largest city for consumption. No one survived.”
Jake thought about all the friends he had left behind and slowly started shaking his head. Valerie could hear his thoughts and worried about what this would do to him. Jake looked up at her and said, “Life there for most of the population was worse than living under the Keepers. For the millions suffering starvation and disease, quick death was a blessing. For the rich that preyed on the population, they couldn’t die slow enough to suit me.” Jake paused and then hit his com, “Joe, this is Jake Talant. How many Searchers do you have that are thought blocked?”
“Fifty thousand.”
“Get them together to attack this fleet.”
“How are we going to make that happen?”
Jake thought a moment, “Is there any time that the fleet stops and has its drives turned off?”
“That normally happens just before it goes to the planet’s surface to start their attack. They also reorganize their lines into formation after they leave the planet, and send craft down to collect inhabitants for their food stores.”
“Have they started their attack at Brayent?”
“No, but we can’t organize fast enough to get there before they do. They’re only an hour out from the planet.”
“Then it will have to be after the attack. Assign two Keepers’ ships to each Searcher and have them fire penetrators into their drive tubes. Each Searcher must make it happen quickly before the ships not hit first have time to react. It will kill their ships if we can do it before they turn on their drives.”
Joe looked at his display, “Manny, have you been listening in?”
“I have, Your Majesty. I’ve sent the message to Fleet Command and the ships are gathering in Earth’s system assigning targets from the probe’s scan. They will have the feed sent to their ships and will all jump simultaneously at the best moment to make this happen.”
Valerie looked at Jake, “We can’t save the planet?”
“Not and kill that fleet. If we jump in they will not turn off their drives. I wish there was something we could do, but I just don’t see any way to hit them and make a difference. Look at the feed from the planet: the Cainth there have modern ships that only lack teleportation capability. They are jumping in close to attack the Keepers’ ships and are having no effect on them. I’ve just watched six of their ships ram a Keepers’ ship and nothing happened, except the ships are disintegrated immediately after they strike the hull by a Keepers’ beam. Evidently the Keepers inside the ship can fire their individual beams through the hull.”
Jake looked at Valerie and hugged her tightly, “Junior and I are going to that battle. I need you to go to a safe place.”
“Jake, I’m not leaving you.”
“Yes, you are. You are the Queen of the Realm and your place is keeping the Realm reassured that we are doing all we can to protect them. My place is finding the means to kill these creatures. We are only a thought away and you know I’ll come when I can.”
Valerie looked into Jake’s eyes and marveled at how he’d changed since the casino. She wanted desperately to stay with him, but knew he was right. “Junior, you’ll take care of him, right?”
“If he’ll allow it.”
“What about me?”
“Cynthia, I think you need to stay close to him.”
“Why? We brought him back safe!”
Jake smiled at the Searcher and said, “Now you know I’m going to be right in the middle of all the action. Do you want to be on the sidelines?”
Cynthia smiled and said, “Oh, well; I guess I’ll put up with you a little longer.”
Valerie smiled, “You two make a good team. Keep it up.”
Cynthia asked, “By the way, Valerie, where’s Admiral Zergl?”
“He’s been replaced by Manny.”
Cynthia’s expression turned into a huge smile, “Now we’ll get somewhere. What about Jake here; what’s his rank?”
“He is the Liaison for the Crown.”
Cynthia whistled. Jake looked at her and asked, “What does that mean?”
Cynthia smiled, “Very simply put, Mr. Talant, you actually outrank them all. You operate with the Authority of the Queen.”
Jake looked at Valerie and she nodded, “You are the difference maker; now go make a difference.”
Admiral Mord watched his fleet die around him. He banked his Alpha around one of the Keepers’ ships and fired his primary beam into the brown hull; it didn’t even show a flash. He jumped to the other side and launched twelve penetrators that hit the tail and just stopped and fell off. Nothing he tried had any effect. His original fleet had thirty thousand ships, which was now down to 3,200. He ordered his ships away from the huge fleet and gathered his forces outside the range of the Keepers’ main beams. “What are we going to do, Admiral?”
“We petition the Realm to join their forces and hope to take revenge on these creatures. Our planet is doomed and I see no sense in throwing away your lives against a force we cannot harm. I’ve already witnessed the death of most of my brave sailors. I desire to fly my ship into them, but it would only be suicide. You will stay here with me and watch our planet die and you will remember this moment the rest of your lives. I charge all of you to make them pay for what they’ve done this day.”
Mord watched the Keepers Fleet enter Brayent’s atmosphere and thought about the decision not to join the Realm when Brayent was first colonized. The new colony knew that it would be the power in this sparsely settled sector and wanted to be free to exercise its will over its neighbors. The Realm had issued them warnings several times, but the leaders made sure no Stars Realm planets or citizens were victims of their attacks. Mord shook his head, “If we had just joined we would have been able to teleport our population to safety. Now we pay the price for our arrogance.” The killing of the Brayent population began, and the Cainth Sailors watched with restrained rage.
Jake and Junior were parked outside the star drive limit watching as the Keepers moved toward the planet’s surface. “Jake, I need you not to use your telepathy when we are in proximity of a Keepers’ ship.”
“I can do that, Junior. It’s not using my mind to watch what’s happening that will cause me the most difficulty.”
“I’ll keep the screens active with a feed from our probe and my passive scanners. You should be able to view everything.”
Jake watched the death of Brayent and felt his anger grow. “Jake, a Keepers’ ship has just come out of star drive and is moving in-system.”
“That must be the ship coming to warn this fleet. I hope they don’t change their protocols.”
“Fleet Director, I have been sent here by the Collective to warn you about an enemy in this universe, however, I see you have already encountered the ships that are able to jump inside the Drive Band.”
The Fleet Director answered, “I was surprised by their ability to do that, but they were unable to harm my ships. We could have just ignored them, but we killed as many as came in range of our weapons.”
“Is it possible to take one of their ships back for us to examine?”
“Unfortunately, they would not stop fighting to the point where we could. If we go after those that survived, they will just jump away. Were you able to witness the battle?”
“Yes, I scanned it when I entered this universe and you’re right: these ships are no a danger to us. I’ll take the scan of this action back and report to the Collective as ordered. Please send me all that has happened so far.”
The Fleet Director linked minds with the messenger and sent the data. “I will deliver this. If anything happens that is out of the ordinary, send a ship back to report.”
“I will.”
The ship at the Star Drive Limit jumped out of the universe.
“Looks like they didn’t discover how we killed those ships.”
“Why do you say that, Jake?”
“The Fleet didn’t change what it was doing. I suspect they thought that it was my release that killed every Keeper. We’ll know shortly if they launch craft to collect stores from the surface.”
The Keepers Fleet was moving quickly forward when the Sensor Leader said, “There are thousands of craft fleeing in front of the fleet. They are in the air and flying faster than we are.
The Fleet Director looked at the scan and saw there was a huge cloud of aircraft a hundred miles in front of his ships. He thought a moment, then ordered, “
I want every odd numbered ship to accelerate ahead of our line and destroy those ships in front of us. Even number ships extend your beams to cover the space of the ships moving forward. We will slow down to make sure the beams stay at maximum efficiency until the ships return to our line.”
The Sensor Leader asked, “Do you not want to leave some of these creatures behind to later populate a farm?”
“No, they have fought too hard to stop us. They do not possess the right temperament to work a farm.”
“The ones in our home universe were domesticated.”
“And look what happened to our brothers there. No, we will eliminate them wherever we find them. Now that first planet would have made a good farm, and I regret disposing of them, but it’s too late now to change what happened.”
The Sensor Leader shrugged as 50,000 Keepers’ ships accelerated and closed on the fleeing craft in less than five seconds. As the beams hit the cloud of ships they began falling to the surface and exploding. Thousands scattered attempting to escape, but the Keepers overlapped their beams and there was nowhere to hide. Every ship crashed to the surface. The advanced Keepers’ ships stopped and waited for the rest of the fleet to join them, then they all moved forward.
Jake looked at the three thousand Brayent ships gathered in a group just outside the planet’s first moon and worried. “Junior, the Keepers may not launch their attack craft if the Brayent ships are still in system.”
“I was just thinking that, Jake, but how are we going to get them to move?”
“How far can you extend your jump screen? Is it possible to jump them all out of the system so I can communicate with them?”
Junior took a reading and said, “I’m sure I can make that happen. Stand by; I’ll jump in and take them.”
Mord was feeling rage and helplessness in equal measure. He was ready to order another attack but suddenly the planet disappeared and he found himself in empty space between galaxies. “What’s going on?” he asked his navigator.
“Communication coming in.”
“Put it on my console.”
“Please forgive me for taking you away from your planet, but we are going to attempt to attack that fleet and your presence may prevent us from using the only means of killing them.”
“Who is this?”
“My name is Jake Talant and I represent Valerie Gardner, the Queen of the Stars Realm. I have just arrived from the home universe of those creatures and I managed to kill one that was planning an ambush. We want to try and do the same thing to that fleet. I am truly sorry that we did not arrive in time to prevent their attack, but we need that fleet to stop and turn off their drives in order for us to hit them. Their normal pattern is to assemble in orbit and send landing craft to the surface. If you had remained, they would probably change that pattern.”
Mord thought a moment, “Do you think you can kill those ships?”
“If they stop and turn their drives off, we will kill them.”
“Will they launch landing craft before you can attack?”
“Probably. Why do you ask?”
“I want to handle the landers.”
Jake thought a moment and then said, “I will send a feed from our probe to your board; the frequency is on your com. If we attack you will see explosions from the rear of the brown ships. You may then return and we will allow you first crack at the Keepers’ forces on the planet.”
The Cainth Warriors were excited to have an opportunity to vent their rage on the creatures that killed their world.
The Collective absorbed the data from the messenger and presented it to the other Quadrants. “It appears that even if they are able to jump inside the drive band, their ships are ineffective against our hulls. It seems that nothing has prevented us from killing whenever we choose.”
Technology added, “I’m troubled by their ability to deceive our scanners. We scan huge populations and arrive to an empty planet. How can that possibly happen?”
The Collective turned its attention to Science who responded, “If they broadcast a huge signal on the frequency of the brains of the local population, it might be seen as a population.”
“But why would they do that?”
The Collective pondered that question and said, “What if our scans are not wrong? Is there a possibility of the population actually leaving the planet unobserved?”
Technology answered, “I know they can jump inside the drive band, but it takes enormous power for that to happen. There is no way individuals can jump from a planet’s surface.”
Production asked, “I’m also puzzled by the fuel that was in the system where we lost our fleet. If that blue wave killed them, why would the ships have lost fuel?”
The Collective paused and then ordered, “We will combine for two intervals and examine these questions in unity. We’ll discuss our findings after we complete the examination.”
All of the quadrants melded into the overall structure of the Collective, and the immense mind began taking all the collected data and processing it.
Twig looked at Sprig and said, “You’ve not said much since the rescue of the colonists.”
Sprig gave a mental sigh, “I made a mistake not believing Valerie Gardner’s vision.” Twig started shaking her branches and Sprig interrupted, “I know, I know; there was nothing to support it becoming reality. But you and I have seen the power of these human psychics. Even now I doubt Jake Talant will be able to overcome this threat.”
“Valerie has not said he will; she only says he is our only hope.” Twig paused a few moments and then said, “Do you remember when we were looking for a way to kill the Eight Leg Invaders and both of us were frustrated to the point of feeling that the war was lost?”
Sprig leaned forward.
“Well, that is where we are at this moment in time. I believe that there is a way to beat these creatures and it is right in front of us again, but we don’t see it.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Matt Gardner, thousands of years ago, postulated that our Realm was created to bring balance back to creation. These creatures go against everything we’ve seen about the creative force. I believe he was right and a way will be found. I doubted it at first, but I am now certain that we not only must, but will, win this war or all creation will look like their universe. Jake is not here by accident and to quote a very famous queen, “There are few accidents.”
“Then you know what that means. The only way to stop them from coming here is to take the war to their turf. There will be monumental loss of life if we are forced to do that.”
“You worry that it is not in us to do what’s necessary?”
“Yes, I am.”
“That is why you should believe we will prevail.”
Sprig just looked at her puzzled.
“It’s why Jake was the perfect choice to lead us; he was raised on Gambia and knows what it means to struggle to survive. We may lack the courage to do what’s necessary, but do you doubt for a moment that he isn’t strong enough to make the hard decisions? The ones you should worry about are those creatures that had the stupidity to kill his home.”
Sprig thought, and said, “What will we become if we take that path?”
“Survivors, my love; survivors.”
“Manny, what’s happening at Brayent?”
“We are waiting to see if the Keepers Fleet parks in orbit to launch landing craft. So far they have destroyed the entire population, and they may not stop long enough for us to attack. Jake jumped the remaining Brayent warships out of the system so we’re hoping they follow normal doctrine, Valerie.”
Valerie hesitated but then asked, “How are our ships reacting to Jake giving orders?”
“The Red Warriors and transport crews that moved the colonists away from the Keepers’’ planet have been contacted by huge numbers of our military and told about the fighting powers of the White Demon. That information has a way of traveling fast in our navy, and there is a huge amount of curiosity about how he was able to do the things he accomplished. The word has also leaked out that he is the psychic savior of the Realm that the Queen has foretold.”
“White Demon?”
“The Red Warriors that fought with him against the Keepers’ garrison were amazed at the damage he caused to the Keepers; they say he fought like a demon. Some of their recordings of his bravery have been released to the fleet, and the numbers that have viewed them is staggering. Trust me, Valerie, his actions have earned him more respect than anything we could ever say.”
“How are the colonists?”
“Their happiness makes all the risks we took worth it. We need to remember why we fight, and they are a great example. They are in another universe on a planet of humans that are caring for them.”
“Thank you for accepting your new role, Uncle. I know the Navy is excited to be working for you.”
Manny nodded and Valerie ended the connection. She leaned back in her chair and missed Jake. She closed her eyes and saw Junior just outside the Brayent ships in another galaxy and wondered how he was going to turn things around. She wanted to be with him but he was right, the Realm was almost in a panic. She thought about it and decided to return to Ross and the Castle. The Realm needed the reassurance that the Queen was not running scared. If the Keepers Fleet showed up she would teleport away, but for now it was time to be the Queen. Her eighteenth birthday was three weeks away; she hoped Jake would be there to celebrate with her.
“Director, those ships have jumped away.”
“Where did they go?”
“They are no longer in this galaxy. We will need to leave the planet for a better scan. Are you planning to collect food stores?”
“I wasn’t, but the uncertainty of finding another planet to attack soon leads me to lean in that direction. Is there enough left to collect?”
“We will arrive at a medium city in one third interval with the required numbers. It is the only one remaining with population enough to meet our needs.”
The Director knew that if he didn’t take the stores from a densely population area, the landing craft would have to touch down over wide areas to gather enough stores. “Issue the orders to modulate the beams over that city.”
“Orders issued, Director.”
The Director thought about those ships coming back, but he would have his ships’ beams pointed toward the collection point and destroy any ship that tried to interfere with the process. He looked at his navigator, “Have the next target selected.”
“I’ve narrowed it down to three choices.”
“This just in, there are bodies lying in the street at Gredna.”
“Junior, are you sure?”
“Look at your monitor; you can see some of them are still twitching. You did the right thing to move the Cainth ships out of the system. There wasn’t another city after they hit Brayent large enough to justify a landing. They should be wrapping up the beaming of the planet momentarily, then they should park in orbit.”
“Connect me with Fleet Operations.”
Manny appeared on his console, “Admiral, they have left bodies in Gredna. Have your Searchers selected their targets?”
“As soon as they park in orbit our computer will assign the ships. The Searcher will attack their assigned target and the ship immediately to the left. The computer will also download the coordinates of each firing point behind those ships. The ship’s computers will target the drives and have already gone weapons live.”
“How long between shots, Admiral?”
“We guess two seconds; however, that is truly a guess. We aren’t jumping the Searchers to the second ship until we verify the first was hit successfully.”
Jake thought about what he wanted, then decided he had to do what he thought was right, “How long between shots if we don’t wait to verify?”
Manny looked at Jake and said, “Less than a second.”
“Change the protocol, Admiral. If you wait to fire again, it’s possible one of the two ships will escape. Your program is set to make the two shots; we’ll go back to the first after the second. There are three drives to hit, and certainly one of them will be damaged in the first firing. That’s the one we’ll target after the second ship is killed.”
Manny stared at Jake and then said, “It will be done as you order.”
“Manny, I can’t give you orders.”
Manny smiled, “You and Joe are the only ones that can.” Jake’s screen went dark.
Junior announced, “The Keepers Fleet is moving into orbit above Gredna.”
Jake hit his com, “Admiral Mord, I want you to reconsider your request.”
The Angry Cainth glared at his com and said, “You made a commitment.”
“Just think about this. We are going to be forced to take this fight to their universe and I’m going to need pilots who are willing to fight their way through planetary defenses to kill their planets. You are about to attack 100,000 landing craft, with sixty Keepers on each craft, using your 3,200 ships. Those landing craft have the beams that destroyed your other ships. I will keep my commitment to you if necessary, but I thought you might want to make them pay on a much larger scale”
Mord felt the need to kill permeate his body and he knew his pilots felt the same. But the chance to kill a planet of these creatures for the death of his home cried out to him. He hit his com, “You’ve heard the offer. I long to kill these creatures, but not as much as I want to kill one of their worlds. What is your wish?”
One of the Cainth Pilots asked, “What do you intend to do with the ships on the planet?”
Jake smiled and answered, “I’m going to melt that city they land in down to the bedrock of Brayent. I’m not giving them a chance to kill or consume any others.”
“Will that harm their Landers?”
“Their Landers are made from a different material than their main ships. Oh yes, it will harm them.”
“Do you promise to give us a chance at revenge?”
“Unless they surrender to us immediately, you will have your opportunity. What is your decision?”
“Will you give us ships that can go to their universe and allow us to wage our own war?”
Jake thought a moment and liked the idea. Nothing teaches others a lesson like having their actions done to them, “I will do all I can to do exactly that, and I will give you ships that can hide from them. I will require your oath to cease fighting if we settle this conflict, and I do mean an oath you will keep.”
“Then melt the bastards.”
“Junior, give the coordinates of the Algean ship building facility and tell Sprig to start measuring these pilots for ships.”
Junior worried about turning these warriors loose uncontrolled, but then he saw the bodies still twitching in the streets of Gredna on his scans and decided if this was going to be bloody, the Keepers were behind in their payment. “Done and done.”
“May we stay and observe what happens?”
“Yes; just don’t go near the system,” Jake teleported out.
The Collective separated out into its Quadrants. Two intervals had passed and the entity had looked at the data with the mental capacity of ten trillion Keepers. Their findings were disturbing. Science spoke first, “It appears that universe is more advanced than we thought. The means of moving individuals inside the drive limit is amazing. We need to capture one of the mechanisms that are being used.”
Production added, “Our scanners were not wrong. The population had to be on the planet when our fleet entered the system. Building all the structures of a civilization with no one to live in them is an economic drain that can’t be endured, especially on the scale we’ve seen.”
The Collective asked Military, “How are we going to wage war on planets where the population can leave before we can attack?”
“We will have to destroy every planet in their universe that can sustain life. We cannot leave a place for the population to come escape. We will burn every planet down to the bedrock. There are hundreds of universes for us to conquer and manage; this particular one must be eliminated. There is also the issue of the Green Creatures. We know they are there; their planets should be the first targeted.”
The Collective pondered the direction it was moving his species and remembered what Values had said. He didn’t want to, but he turned his attention to the Quadrant that was not included in their discussion, “I will not harm you. What do you think?”
“What would you do if those creatures came to our universe and killed planets? Would you just sit by and do nothing?” Values paused for the Collective to consider that thought, then said, “You also know that a very powerful being that possesses mental powers greater than any we have ever seen is now there. Have you taken this being into your considerations?”
“You are only asking questions; I want to know what you think.”
“If you continue this path of conquest and destruction, we will be destroyed down to the last worker. Now I will go back to my solitude; your arrogance will convince you that I am wrong.”
The Collective and Quadrants listened to Values and remembered when it was used in formulating their plans so long ago. Now they grew angry at what it said.
Production said, “You should just disrupt it and good riddance.”
“I promised it no harm and you will do as I say.”
Technology asked, “What is our plan?”
The Collective knew a line was being crossed that placed them on a path that could not be stopped. His thoughts were interrupted by Production. “What about the ships currently fighting in that universe? Are we agreed that the invaders were able to damage our ships at the farm?”
The Collective turned its attention away from the Quadrants and contacted the Messenger Ship, “Go back to the fleet and warn them that there is a weakness in the drive systems of their ships. They must not turn off their drives.”
The Messenger locked in the coordinates of the fleet’s last location and jumped.
The Keepers Fleet organized in orbit above the city and launched 100,000 landing craft. They turned the noses of their ships toward the planet to destroy anything that attempted to prevent the collection of food stores, and watched as the small craft entered atmosphere.
Jake watched the Keepers Fleet come to a stop and turn off their drives, “Now, Manny!”
“Keepers’ ship breaking out of universal drive at the star drive limit.”
Jake looked at Junior’s display as the brown ship emerged. He hoped that the Searchers were going to act before the ship could communicate with the stationary fleet.
The fifty thousand Searchers teleported in, hit their firing solutions, and immediately teleported to their second target.
“Fleet Director, I have a message from the Collective.”
“What is it?”
If the messenger had just said, “Turn on your drives now,” the fleet may have had ships survive. That short pause proved disastrous for the Keepers Fleet. These Searchers were locked on their targets and they did not miss. The blast from the fuel lines burned every Keeper in the fleet and the Messenger lost mental contact with every Keeper above the planet. It was only able to hear the ones on the planet collecting stores. It knew those small craft were not protected like the ships in orbit. It started to warn them, but then saw a red beam hit the city and burn everything down to the planet’s bedrock.
Jake watched the Keepers’ ship hang in space at the drive limit. It did not turn off its drives. Jake sighed in relief and commed Manny, “Admiral, teleport in enough Searchers to haul these ships to the star. That ship at the drive limit can’t do anything about it; it would take it seven hours to reach the planet.”
Manny looked at his display and nodded, “They’ll arrive momentarily.”
Six hundred thousand Searchers arrived three minutes later, hooked cables to the Keepers’ ships, and towed them on a path toward the sun. The Messenger stayed and watched as the fleet accelerated into the star’s gravity and were burned into nothingness.
Jake could hear the Keepers’ thought on the lone brown ship and he sent a message to it telepathically, “Tell your leader that if he sends any more ships into our home again, we will bring this war to his door and show him what his actions have done.”
“Do you seriously think you can stop us? We know how you killed our ships and we know how to prevent you from harming us in the future. You will pay for this.”
“Junior, were you armed with that cutting beam that is supposed to be able to penetrate their hull?”
“Yes, but it has not been trialed and we don’t know if it will work. It can only be extended thirty feet, which will not do major damage to a ship 2,800 feet long.”
“I would rather trial it with just one ship instead of a fleet. They can’t see you, so fly by and see if you can cut the rear stabilizer off. The main beam is in the nose, so just make sure you’re moving fast enough to get out of range quickly.”
“Jake, I don’t want to place you at risk; you’re too important.”
“Then fly faster, but we have to see if we have anything to offset their advantage. This is the only chance we have that is to our advantage, so just do it.”
Junior gave a sigh and said, “Buckle up; this should be interesting.”
Junior flew at the Keepers’ ship, extended the cutting beam to its full thirty foot length, and shot by the ship at one-fifth light speed. The rear fin was sheared.
The individual Keepers fired their beams at the rear of their ship but Junior was out of range before they could respond.
The Director of the Messenger felt a huge shock go through his ship, “What happened?”
The Sensor Leader said, “We are now missing one of our rear fins. I suggest we leave.”
“Initiate universal drive.”
Just before the brown ship jumped, the Director heard, “Don’t come back.”
Jake jumped back to the Cainth survivors and said, “I am sorry for your loss; we will enlist you in the Realm’s Navy and train you to use our ships. Are you ready to start that process?”
Mord felt savage joy at the Keepers Fleets destruction, “The sooner the better.”
“The coordinates are on your com. I’ll communicate with you later.”
Mord nodded at Jake and the survivors jumped away.