The messenger arrived and the Collective immediately made contact. “I did not arrive in time to warn the fleet. All of our ships were destroyed, and my ship was damaged by some sort of beam.”
The Collective and all Quadrants watched the fleet’s destruction and the burning of the craft on the planet. “One of the beings in the other universe sent a message that if you send another ship into their universe they will bring the war to our home.”
The Collective pondered what had happened and asked, “Does this change our plans?”
Technology answered, “We must modify our ships.”
“In what way?”
“We must find a way to prevent a weapon from entering our drives, and we need to change the beam configuration.”
Military asked, “What do you mean by beam configuration?”
“First, we need to put baffles on the drives that drop when the drives are turned off. There are times where we will need the ability to come to a stop and being forced to keep the drives on would not allow it. The baffles will be made from the hull material and will drop over the drive entrance. That will prevent our ships from being damaged by projectiles fired into the engines. The current beam configuration has the main beam in the nose of the ship. We need to have a field surrounding our ships with beams so that nothing can come near it from any direction.”
The Collective asked, “How do you envision this being done?”
“We will put accumulators in the walls of the ship and the crews will charge them when they are in a hostile environment. We will need to double the crew size, but there is more than enough room to make that happen.”
“What about the food stores?” Production asked.
“They will either take their stores from our inventory or from the planets they attack. I believe the latter is the more desired choice.”
“So you’re still thinking we should go through with this attack?”
“Absolutely! Do you think that universe is not a clear danger to us? If we can eliminate them our species will become the ultimate rulers of all universes. We will be safe for all eternity.”
“How do we overcome their jump advantage?”
Science replied, “I believe that I have an idea how their ships are able to make those jumps. I’ll need some time to study the data, but it involves putting a screen around our ships powered by a high powered generator. I’ll have a definitive answer in a quarter.”
The Collective paused, “So now we have to make another modification to our ships. How long is this going to take?”
The entity combined and studied the question. After an hour they separated, “Less than four quarters, but more than two.”
Production said, “That’s for half our ships; the others should be completed in two more quarters.”
Values listened to the others and knew that they were going forward with their plans. It began thinking of a way to save his species. There was nothing it could do yet.
“Are we in agreement to attack this universe?”
All the Quadrants voted yes. The trillions of individual Keepers on all the planets did not know they were going to war. They continued to work at their appointed tasks, feeling safe with the Collective’s decisions. Their tranquility was soon to be disrupted.
Jake sat in Junior and said, “You worry about turning the Cainth survivors loose in that universe?”
“I do, Jake, but I still see the death of all those people on Brayent. I worry that we are becoming our own enemy.”
“There is a major difference in our actions, Junior. We are fighting to prevent the destruction of our Realm. Those creatures will figure out shortly, if they haven’t already, that we are able to move populations. What do you think they will do after that discovery?”
Junior thought a moment, “I really don’t have a clue. What do you think will happen?”
“They will destroy every planet in our universe that has a breathable atmosphere. They’ll burn them all.”
Junior was shocked, “Why would they do that?”
“They will eliminate any place of escape. They will also develop the means to jump directly to our planets without having to come from the jump limit. That ability is the easiest technology to learn once you know it exists, and their ships will have the drive weakness removed. We won’t have time to move the populations before they attack. Some will escape, but huge numbers will be killed. I’ve seen a vision of their future attacks, and more than seventy percent of the Realm’s population will be killed.”
Junior listened and felt both fear and anger in equal measure, “What can we do about it?”
“We have a year before they modify enough ships to start their invasion. We can only slow them down by attacking them first. That entity I sensed is a development from all of the members of their species being connected. If we can kill enough of them, that entity will be hurt or even killed. I hate even thinking about the deaths I’m going to have to cause, but there is no other choice.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I want you to be my ship during this conflict, and that means you will have to do things that you are morally against. Are you able to do what must be done?”
“I don’t know. I need some time to consider what you’ve said.”
“I understand. Take me to Ross and drop me off at the Castle. I’ve got to persuade Valerie to approve this path. I’ll wait to hear from you.”
Junior teleported to Ross and teleported Jake to the surface. He remained silent above the planet as he watched the billions going about their daily lives. He made a decision and disappeared from the Ross system.
Edison watched the replay of the Keepers Fleet’s destruction. Newton watched it with him and said, “I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not the heat of the star that melts their ships as much as the sheer magnitude of it.”
“I know. We have beams that are hotter than the star, but surrounding that ship with beams to a depth of fifty miles is just not possible. If any part of the ship is not continuously hit for more than ten minutes then the hull will not be damaged.”
“That hull material is quite the magic substance.” Newton paused and said, “They’re coming and we will be their first target. What do you think we should do?”
“We are going to evacuate to another universe and work on this problem.”
Newton lowered himself to the floor in surprise, “Why would we do that?”
“They used millions of their ships to search for us. If we can leave, then they may be forced to use a similar number to find us. It would reduce the force they can send against the Realm. We once lived in ships and we can do it again; however, if we don’t leave, they will return and destroy our home worlds. We would be forced into ships again; we might as well accept the inevitable and hope our home planets are not destroyed before we find a solution to them.”
“Where will we go?”
“I seem to remember a certain dark galaxy that everyone used to avoid. We’ll go there and start working on this problem. I also hope we can find a way to escape them permanently. Have you talked with Sprig about his findings?”
“Yes, and they are troubling.”
“Do you agree with them?”
“I don’t want to believe them, but I know he’s right.”
“That makes this search even more important. Make sure you assign our best to the task.”
“I will. Do you think we can find it?”
“We won’t know until we try. It looks like we are becoming nomads again.”
Newton turned his head upside down and asked, “Have you discussed this with the Queen?”
“Yes, but only the part about leaving. She thinks it is a good delaying tactic. She is of the opinion that if a large number of our old ships are no longer at the old universal jump point they may think we are going to attack them again. It would again be a delaying tactic so they would not use as many of their ships to invade. They do appear to be paranoid about us.”
“We did destroy more than a hundred thousand of their planets in our first invasion.”
“True, but then they developed that thought weapon and ended our invasion. I really don’t know what our leaving will accomplish, but to stay is disaster. It also gives us the opportunity to search for the item Sprig needs. I’ve discussed this with Destiny and the Nest Mother and met initial resistance, but I left them alone and they eventually came to my point of view. They really love the Realm’s Leaders.”
“We all do. When do we leave, Edison?”
“We don’t Newton. We are staying to help our friends in the coming war. Einstein is also staying; I couldn’t convince him to leave if we weren’t going.”
Newton turned his head left smiling, “I was wondering how I was going to jump ship before you left.”
Edison smiled and put a front leg on Newton, “Don’t get too excited; we’re going to have armor designed for us that is coated with the thought-blocking substance. Not only is our family going back into ships, we’re also going back into armor.”
Newton shook his head, “That stuff always made me itch.”
“Tell me about it.”
Jake sat in the map room at Castle Gardner staring at the millions of galaxies on the wall. Robby sat across the table from him, leaning back in a chair looking at the map together. Jake knew his subconscious was not happy with the direction in which he was moving. Robby was not happy either. Jake knew in his heart that killing on the scale needed to protect the Realm was not something he felt good about. Gambia had made him tough, but it also taught him to love those around him who would have been ignored by most people. He learned to survive, but he never failed to help those in need whenever he could. This decision was deeply troubling. He looked over at Robby and asked, “Do you see another way?”
Robby just stared at the galaxies and shook his head.
Valerie walked in and said, “Who are talking to, Jake?”
Jake looked up at her and once again was struck by the beauty of the Star Realm’s Queen, “Myself, Valerie.”
Valerie came over and stood behind Jake and hugged him, “What’s troubling you?”
Jake shook his head, “You already know the answer to that question. I just wish there was another way.”
Jake had shared his vision with Valerie the week before and shocked her. She had first felt distress and then anger, “Are they that callow? Do these creatures have no redeeming qualities?”
Jake had then told her what the Realm had to do to survive, and she resisted until he showed her the vision again.
“Jake, I’ve had time to think about what you’re planning and I’ve come to terms with what we must do.”
Jake saw Robby turn his head toward Valerie.
“What do you mean?”
“Jake, you’re worried that we are going against all of the principles that our Realm stands for.”
Jake nodded.
“Let’s forget our universe and just look at the Keepers’ universe. There are millions of worlds enslaved and consumed by these creatures. What would the Realm’s response to this have been if we had just stumbled upon them? One principle we hold higher than any other is that the Realm will defend those that cannot defend themselves. Those poor planets represent no danger to the Keepers, but were conquered and enslaved anyway. Even if they agreed to stay home and never come back, could we turn our backs on the billions being eaten? Jake, we turned our back on the millions on Gambia that were being preyed on by the wealthy merchant class. If we had stepped in and stopped the suffering, Gambia would have been saved from the Keepers’ attack. We would have been able to teleport the population.”
“Yes, but then you would have to interfere with a sovereign planet.”
“So what! This universe knows the Realm’s principles. We should have done the right thing. By refusing to step in, a planet is now dead. There is always cause and effect and we bear some blame for Gambia’s destruction. Those unfortunate beings in the Keepers’ universe are like the poor of Gambia; they deserve to be saved. We may still lose this war, but we won’t lose because of our fear of doing the right thing.”
Jake saw Robby smile at him and disappear. He found equilibrium in his conscience. He looked at Valerie and said, “I am constantly amazed at your maturity for your age.”
“Jake, I’ve been in mental contact with the Realm’s most powerful psychics my entire life. My mental development happened at an accelerated rate. I hope you understand that, because I am not a little girl. I turn eighteen in a week, and I’m telling you right now that I am going to announce our marriage at the event.”
Jake stared at her in shock.
“Got nothing to say?”
Jake smiled, “Valerie Rose Gardner, will you do me the great honor of being my wife?”
Valerie smiled and jumped into Jake’s lap, “I thought you’d never ask.”
Jake felt his heart swell as he kissed his future bride.
Junior looked down on the Keepers’ farm as ten colonists were transported to be consumed. He had listened to the colony for two days and learned how gentle and peaceful the beings being eaten were. They lived with their impending deaths amid a sense of helplessness that made them heroic in Junior’s opinion. This was the tenth colony he had visited in the Keepers’ universe, and they were all similar. These enslaved races were not a danger to anyone, yet the Keepers kept them for consumption. “I’ve seen enough.”
He ran a quick scan of the galaxies around him and noticed a huge industrial signature in one. He teleported in to the galaxy and slowly approached a planet that had thousands of Keepers’ ships parked in orbit. He saw a Keepers’ ship being modified with bafflers to cover the drive ports. He also saw thousands of Keepers working on the ship’s exterior mounting devices to project a screen. He recorded the process and after two days determined that they were to be used to jump inside the jump limit. He recognized the process from early Realm developments and he knew that Jake was right; they were preparing to invade the Realm.
Suddenly ten Keepers’ ships jumped in around him. He smiled and teleported away before they could come out of their star drives. He saw that he was inside the jump limit and knew these ships had been modified. He also scanned the ships and recorded a beam the length and width of the ships fired at his former location. He then detected fifteen more star drives breaking into normal space around him, so he teleported out of the galaxy and back to the Stars Realm.
The Director of the ships attempting to attack the strange ship looked at his scanner, “Where did that ship go? There is no way it could have jumped into null space fast enough to avoid us.”
“Tell that to that ship; it obviously didn’t know it was impossible. Notify the Collective.”
Jake held Valerie and forgot about wars, Keepers, ships, planets, and all of the other things bothering him. “I hate to interrupt you two, but I need to speak with Jake.”
Jake was jerked back to the present and thought, “Hello, Junior. Have you decided?”
“Yes, I have, Jake. I’ve spent the last two weeks in the Keepers’ universe scanning the worlds they’ve enslaved. They are a cancer on creation and must be removed. I’m your ship, Jake.”
Valerie looked at Jake with a furrowed brow and Jake shook his head, “We need to get you prepped for the conflict.”
“I know. I’m going to see Sprig in a moment, but first I want to show you what I’ve just recorded.” Junior played what he had seen at the Keepers’ ship facility. “Those things being installed on their hulls are beam projectors that will allow them to jump inside the jump limit. Fortunately, they are not composed of the hull material, so we should be able to burn them off if we can get close enough. Notice also that the ships that came after me jumped inside the jump limit and came out firing a beam much wider and longer than their previous weapon.”
Valerie and Jake were scared, “We can’t wait any longer; they are obviously preparing for invasion and we must try to slow them down.”
“Jake, send the Cainth against that planet. They are ready and are getting angry about the delay. They may be killed, but if they can knock out that planet and any others like it, it will buy the Realm some time.”
“Valerie, I’ll be back for your birthday.”
“Go, my love. The Realm needs you.”
“Junior, we need to go.”
“If you tell me I’m wasting time again, I’ll scream.” Jake disappeared from the map room and Valerie could still feel his embrace.
Mord and two hundred of his fellow survivors watched the Keepers’ ship facility. They tried to get a feel for the pattern of incoming and outgoing ships. He also passively scanned the planet and saw a huge population of Keepers on the surface. Fifteen of the construction planets had been targeted by the Cainth and two hundred ships had been assigned each facility. The Stars Realm had put them in Gamma ships and coated their heads with the thought-blocking material. Mord knew that unless he teleported in close enough to block out the light from distant stars that he was invisible to the Keepers.
He used a communication device that was on the same frequency as cosmic rays that permeated the universe, and not much stronger than those small bits of energy. “We will hit the hundred and fifty facilities above the planet with our main beams first. The remaining fifty ships will then hit the planet with their main beams. One should do the trick, but I want to make a point here. We believe that the coating on our ships should protect us for just a few moments so don’t waste time; fire and get out. We still can’t hurt those ships, but surprise is on our side. Any questions?”
Silence greeted him and he said, “This is for Brayent. Teleport in five sems from now.”
The two hundred ships counted it down and disappeared… then reappeared at the ship building planet. The hundred and fifty docks in obit were hit with the massive main beam of the Gamma ships and burned into slag. The Keepers’ ships targeted the small ships, but they were gone before they could tune their thoughts to their beams. Then the Keepers’ ships watched as the planet below them exploded into hundreds of pieces and blew away, taking the wreckage of the facilities with them. Where once a planet with more than twenty billion Keepers existed, only dust and burning chunks of the core remained. The other fourteen planets were carbon copies of the first planet’s destruction. More than half a trillion Keepers died in less than five seconds.
The Collective and Quadrants were analyzing the progress of modifying the fleet when suddenly they were stunned. The Collective felt a severe pain, then began receiving reports. Science immediately reported, “I have lost five percent of my stored data on shipbuilding.”
The Collective and all the Quadrants entered the minds of Keepers at the sites of the attacks and saw the destruction. The being was shocked beyond belief. The former planets were blown into small burning pieces flying away from the explosion of the planets’ cores. The Collective Intelligence could feel the loss of those billions, and also sensed their capability was diminished slightly.
“How many of their ships did we kill?” Military asked.
“None; they were gone before we could focus our beams.”
“How many attacked?”
“Two hundred.”
The Collective turned its attention to Statistics, “How many of those ships did we scan in their universe?”
“More than twenty million.”
“How many ships do we have in our inventory?”
“More than a hundred million.”
“How many are converted with the new upgrades?”
“Less than 200,000.”
“Science, how can we protect our planets from these attacks?”
“We need to look at this together.”
The Collective Intelligence combined and began analyzing the attacks. After ten minutes the Quadrants separated and Science said, “It appears that the ships must be just above a planet’s atmosphere to use that beam weapon. If we space our ships with thousand-mile separation ten miles above the atmosphere, we should be able to overlap our beams such that they could not attack.”
“How many ships would be needed to provide that coverage, and how many of our home worlds are there to defend?”
“It would take three hundred ships to cover a planet, and we have forty six thousand planets that have the majority of our population.”
Production interjected, “We don’t have enough ships to cover them all. We can only defend 35,000 planets. If we use our ships for this planetary coverage, there are millions of planets with our garrisons that would be left defenseless. It also begs the question of how we will feed ourselves if we can’t go and collect the food we need.”
“Are you saying we will lose this war?”
“I only state facts, you can see them as well as I can. We have no choice but to defend our home worlds; any other choice would lead to catastrophe.”
Military asked Science, “Why do you say that?”
“Because if they destroy more than sixty percent of our home worlds, we will cease to exist; the population necessary to give us existence will be too small. It will then become a war against our individual planets.”
The Collective thought about this and began to feel something foreign: fear. “What if we release all of our ships to attack their universe? Could we kill them fast enough to survive?”
“Our measurement of their beam’s strength was such that just one of their ships could have destroyed the planet. They fired fifty beams to make a point. They could kill us much faster than we could damage them. Remember, they have millions of those ships and we only have 46,000 home worlds.
Distribution asked, “Why do we have so few home worlds?”
Statistics answered, “Because when we decided to conquer our universe and use the vanquished to feed us, we no longer needed to expand and we could grow our populations to extreme levels. Our decisions have led to this current situation. Without the food we depend on from our farms, starvation is not far from our species.”
The Collective asked, “How do you feel about attacking that universe now? Values, what do you think about this situation?”
“It will not matter whether you attack or not. Our structure is an abomination to creation and cannot survive those that have followed the principles of life. You forget that you have already attacked that universe and killed their planets. Do you seriously expect them to say they’ll just forget your slaughter? Would you?”
“That’s something I will have to ponder; however, send the fleet out to cover our home worlds immediately. That will give us time to decide what to do. Make sure they pick up enough stores from the garrisons to feed us for a quarter.”
Military began issuing the orders.
Sprig looked at the recording of the destruction of the Keepers’ ship building planets. Twig felt his unease and thought, “Would you have preferred those ships be completed and come here?”
“No, but did we have to destroy the planets?”
“Did they have to destroy our populations? You, more than anyone, should understand consequences to actions.”
Sprig sighed and thought, “I just wish there was another way.”
“Well, the recordings that just came in should make you feel better.”
“Why is that?”
“It appears the entire inventory of Keepers’ ships are being used to screen their home worlds. They can’t come here and protect them there. I suspect those attacks will end up saving more lives than were lost.”
Sprig’s leaves turned greener. “That is good news. What is our next step?”
“Since their fleets are being used to defend their planets, we are going to start liberating some of the populations they’ve enslaved.”
Sprig’s leaves turned bright green, “Now that is a lovely thought.”
Junior was parked over the garrison on the planet where he had found the beings that so impressed him with their gentle spirit. Jake sat on board and watched the scans, “Junior, what do you think will happen if we attack this garrison and free these cities?”
“They will no longer have to fear being eaten.”
“Do you not think the Keepers will know if some of their warriors are killed? What will be their response?”
Junior thought a moment, “They’ll come and harvest the entire planet.”
“That’s how I see it. If we free them, we’ll have to move them. I’m not sure the Realm can handle refugees from millions of planets.”
“So what do we do?”
“We find a way to destroy their ships.”
“How do we do that?”
“We find the ones with the most experience at facing this kind of conflict.”
“Who are you referring to, Jake?”
“The Gardners.”
“Jake, no one has any information on what happened to them after they served their thousand years of Ruling their domains. They’ve been missing for more than ten thousand years. Do you think any of them are still alive?”
“I know that Thomas and Danielle as well as Tommy and Cassandra had their life span extended by Atlas. It seems that all of them disappeared in a very short period of time, so I have to think it was a planned disappearance.”
Junior was silent.
“Junior, I’ve had a vision of the Keepers destroying planets in the Realm. What do you think the Gardners would have done if just one of them had a vision similar to mine?”
“They would have been compelled by their oaths to protect the Realm to prevent the Realm’s destruction. But how could they have planned to be here this far in the future?”
“I know they must still be alive, Junior, I just don’t know how to contact them.”
Junior was stunned, “Where are they?”
“I’m not sure, but I believe that your parents are with them wherever they went. Aladdin and Fly Girl disappeared at the same time as the Gardners.”
Junior didn’t know what to say. He and Jake sat silently looking at the scan of the beings being consumed on the planet below.
Finally Junior said, “We’ll work on finding the Gardners later. Today, if we save no one else, I want these cities saved now.”
“Why do you feel that way, Junior?”
“They deserve it, and observing them persuaded me to join this fight.”
“Then this is where we will start our efforts at saving this universe.”
“Admiral Busigleore, I am going to attack a garrison in the Keepers’ universe and I need you to plan the operation.”
Manny looked at Jake and said, “How would you go about making this happen? You are, after all, our resident expert at what to expect from those creatures.”
“I believe that the Keepers will send one of the ships that can jump directly to the planet, so this will have to be done in record time or the population will be wiped out. We need a diversion at one of their home worlds to force them to defend it, then do this while they are distracted.”
Manny thought and shrugged, “Normally we would just hit the garrison with a main beam but if we tried that, it would also heat the atmosphere such that the cities would be destroyed. They are located very close to the garrisons.”
“Do we have anything in our inventory that would just blow it up?”
“Yes we do, as a matter of fact.” Jake started to say something but Manny cut him off, “if you don’t mind dealing with the earthquakes that would follow its use.”
“So how do we do this, Manny?”
Manny smiled and said, “We have been working on our teleportation screen since the last rescue of the colonists. We will now teleport with an exclusion filter that leaves the bracelets and their connections behind. My engineers have taken some of the old defender class warships and have gutted them such that the bottom section is empty. Those ships are three hundred miles in diameter and the lower floor should hold the entire city and its occupants. We’ll do what’s called a snatch-and-grab, followed by a run.”
“What would that look like, Manny?”
“We’ll teleport three thousand Red Warriors in to surround the garrison, and once they open fire the ships will come in and teleport the entire city into its bay. We will then jump back to the Realm and teleport them down to a planet, which will be their new home.”
Junior asked, “Where are we going to find a planet willing to accept them?”
Jake smiled and said, “There are millions of them in the Algean’s galaxy just waiting to be colonized.”
Manny and Junior both were startled by the insight. “How will they be fed?” Junior asked.
Jake pointed to the screen, “Junior, all their crops and fields are around their city. You could take them with the city.”
Manny looked puzzled and said, “I’ll need to talk with a teleport expert about how far down we can teleport, but this sounds like a great idea.”
“Manny, I’ll talk with Sprig about this. Stand by for a few minutes.”
“Standing by.”
“Sprig, do you have a minute?”
“Hello, Jake; what do you need?”
“I’m looking at a way to repopulate your galaxy with refugees from the Keepers’ universe. I was wondering if that would be permissible to the Algeans?”
Sprig felt his soul turn over, “How are you going to make that happen?”
Twig felt Sprig’s sudden change and tuned in to the conversation.
“We want to make a quick grab of the cities on the Keepers’ farms and teleport the entire city and their crops. Once we have them in a transport, we’ll teleport them to one of the planets in your galaxy. We need to know if this is possible. Can we take the crops so that the cities can feed themselves?”
Sprig was almost overcome with emotion. Twig jumped in the conversation, “Yes, you can! Just set the screen to a depth of eighteen inches and you should get all the plants including the roots. Just how big an area are you talking about?”
“Most cities are contained in an area with a diameter of thirty miles. Of course, we can’t take the water source with them, so we’ll need to find an area with available supplies of water.”
“How many cities are you moving initially?”
“There are five on the planet.”
“Are the inhabitants all of the same species or different?”
“This is a conquered planet, so they are all the same species”
Sprig found his voice, “There is a beautiful planet not far from our home world which was the first planet we consumed. Plant life has overgrown most of it, but we will teleport it out to a depth of twenty four inches, and clear five tracts of the necessary size along the banks of the main river on the northern continent. We will assist these refugees in any manner we can to make them comfortable in their new home. You don’t know how much bringing life back to the worlds we killed means to my people.”
“How long will it take to clear the tracts? We want to move quickly.”
“It will be done in twelve segs.”
“Send Admiral Busigleore the coordinates of the site, and we also need a teleport expert to set the screens to make the grab of the cities.”
Sprig’s leaves turned bright green and blooms emerged, “I will come and do it personally. Where do I need to go?”
“I’ll get Manny to send you the coordinates.”
Twig said, “Thank you, Jake.”
“No; thank you for allowing us to use those planets.”
Jake disappeared from Sprig’s screen. He reached over and wrapped Twig in his branches and wept. Twig joined him, and each of them felt the redemption of bringing life back to the worlds they had destroyed long ago.
“Manny, the site for the cities will be ready in twelve hours.”
Manny looked at his console and said, “We will make the grab tomorrow night. We know the Keepers prefer daylight, so darkness is on our side. Most all of the population of those cities should be in the city proper should there be any difficulty with moving the farms. Are you planning to be present for the grab?”
Junior responded, “We wouldn’t miss it, Admiral.”
Manny smiled and said, “I may have had my doubts initially, but now I know Valerie has made an excellent choice in her mate. We will do it at midnight on that planet’s time.”
Jake was startled, but felt warm from Manny’s statement.
Joe came in Valerie’s office and said, “All of the Algeans are blooming.”
“Why?”
“Jake and Junior are going to move five cities from a Keepers’ farm and take them to one of the planets the Algeans destroyed centuries ago. It appears that Jake plans to bring intelligent life back to them.”
Valerie hit a button on her console and looked at the feed from the Sacred Grove on the Algeans’ main planet. There were immense crowds gathered, and it was clear a huge celebration had begun. She closed her eyes and saw the celebration happening on all the Algean planets. She looked closer and could feel the huge crowd’s happiness and joy. “They need this, Joe. Bringing life back to their galaxy is giving them redemption for the atrocities they did so long ago. They have never forgiven themselves for what they did.”
Joe looked at the monitor and nodded slowly. They were both silent for a few moments, then Joe said, “They may be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. The Keepers are still planning to invade.”
“What do you think would happen if they remained? The Keepers are now being forced to keep their fleet at their home planets to prevent their destruction; they can no longer just make shipments from the planets they’ve conquered. It doesn’t take a genius to see that they will just wipe out one of their planets and transport the entire population on one ship. I believe they are safer here than where they are now.”
Joe shrugged, “That’s why you’re Queen, Valerie; you’ve always been able to see the big picture.”
Valerie got up and hugged her brother, “Joe, be thankful you can’t see that picture. Some of it is gruesome and I just hope it doesn’t permanently damage my humanity.”
Joe smiled, “I know your heart, Valerie, and you will be fine.”
Valerie sat back down and said, “By the creator, I really hope so, Joe.”
Junior and Jake were waiting for the operation to remove the five cities. They were next to the closest moon looking down on the planet. They had remained silent for an hour and Junior broke the silence by announcing, “Five minutes until midnight.”
Jake stood up, stretched, then sat back down and continued to stare at the monitor. “Jake, how do you know my parents are with the Gardners?”
“They may not be, Junior, but it makes the most sense.”
“Why is that?”
Jake sighed and looked up from the monitor, “What if you had a vision of the Realm being attacked thousands of years in the future? You would know that the vision could not be changed; it was going to happen. So it’s not like you could go out and do anything at that moment. Now you’re faced with having to wait thousands of years before anything could be done to save the Realm. If it were me, I would dread the waiting with that hanging over my head for such a long period of time. They must have done something to reduce the waiting period.”
“Well, where are they? The attack has begun and they’re not here.”
“That’s where you come in, Junior. You are the key to finding them.”
Junior was stunned and started to respond, but Jake said, “Get ready, the attack is ten seconds away.”
It was a cool night, and Grimly sat on his front porch staring out at the fields surrounding the community. The full moon overhead gave a luminescence to the crops that made the perfect rows look like they had been combed into the dirt. His long black braid slipped behind his back as he leaned forward. He moved it back over his shoulder, hanging it on his chest.
He was only five feet tall and bipedal. His face was wide with large round yellow eyes, deep set above a narrow, sharp nose. His mouth had thin lips and was wide for so narrow a face. His skin was olive in color in contrast to the black hair that grew from his head down his back. His vision was extraordinary in both day and night light. He held a piece of twine in his four fingered hands, working it into a strong rope. He couldn’t sleep. He knew his time to be taken was drawing near, and he worried about the community that he had been given to lead. He wondered again why the God of his people had placed them into the hands of the demons that killed them. His people had never harmed another race, and the recited memories each night talked about the time his people had lived on many planets. He stopped twisting the strands of twine and wondered if the communities here were all that was left of his people.
He put the rope aside and looked up at the stars, which for some reason were no longer there. From horizon to horizon, all he saw was a black sky on a cloudless night. What was happening? Then he heard a giant explosion from the direction of the demon’s home. He looked back up and saw the sky turn silver and fall down on him and his community. He wondered if this was the end, then the silver sky engulfed him.
Mord looked down at the Keepers’ planet with the ships in orbit above it and checked his ship’s clock. He had sixty seconds before his eight ships attacked. He had learned the hard way that he could not get closer than a thousand miles from those ships. He had lost a hundred ships when they had attacked ten planets. The ships guarding the Keepers had rotated their beams out from their ranks, catching the Cainth pilots that had moved to within three hundred miles above the planet. The intensity of those beams had damaged the ships even though they were coated. Most of his pilots had been hit by fifty beams before they had a chance to teleport away and were blown into dust. Now his ships were twelve hundred miles above the Keepers Fleet. Even at that he could only remain for just a few moments. Without the thought coating on his ships he would be destroyed if he remained longer than three seconds.
He watched the clock and finally the time arrived. He fired one of his high powered needles into the planet’s surface. The Keepers’ beams did not affect the beam; a solid penetrator would have been disintegrated. The needle hit the surface and a huge explosion erupted from the ground. More than six hundred yards below the surface the needle vaporized everything in its path. On the Keepers’ planet, eight places were struck with the high-powered needles, killing hundreds of thousands of Keepers underground.
“Time to go,” and Mord teleported away.
The Collective felt the attack and immediately turned its attention to the site of the strikes. It sensed the lives that were lost. Military interrupted the Collective’s attention, “One of our farms is being attacked.”
“We’ll worry about that later; get some of our modified ships into that system immediately!”
Military found the ships and ordered them to jump to the Keepers’ home world.
The Director of the Keepers Fleet guarding the planet turned its thoughts to the Collective and said, “We briefly illuminated the eight ships that attacked the planet, but they jumped away.”
The Collective thought a moment and wondered why those ships had not pressed their attack. Then he decided that this attack must have been a diversion. “Get those ships to the farm that is being attacked. Get them moving now.”
The five hundred Red Warriors teleported from their fifty attack craft to the surface of the planet surrounding the Keepers’ garrison and opened fire on the facility. The fifty attack craft roared in with five ships in ten lines separated by less than a second. The surface of the compound began exploding as each craft launched eighty high speed penetrators into the surface and turned to follow the last line. The Red Warriors watched their sensors and fired hornets at anything that remotely looked like a Keepers’ weapon. For their part, the Keepers had no chance even to look above the surface to see what was happening. The first three levels of the garrison were blown away.
The five Defender ships teleported in less than five seconds after the first explosion and dropped to the surface of the planet above the five cities as fast as possible, taking into consideration the wind that would be caused by their drop through the atmosphere. Ten miles above the cities, the giant ships hit their teleporter just before the high winds arrived and moved all five cities into their landing bays. Caution was no longer needed, and the five giant ships teleported away. Commodore Glzck hit his com, “We’re clear.”
The five hundred Red Warriors hit their teleport dials and the fifty attack craft jumped away just as six hundred Keepers’ ships appeared above the planet. The Collective and Quadrants looked down on a planet that had been dramatically altered. The former five food communities were gone, with only bare soil remaining behind. The garrison was severely damaged and had been unable to record anything about what had taken place on the surface.
“How much time did this attack last?”
“Only one-thirtieth of an interval.”
The Collective Intelligence was stunned. If this kind of attack was to be stopped, they would have to be prepared to respond instantly. “Military, I want an initial plan about what to if this happens. We will come together in two intervals to analyze our response.” The Collective looked at the planet again and thought to the ships, “Move the survivors to another farm, and take their food stores to the main planet that was just attacked.”
The six hundred ships began launching craft to carry out their orders.
“That was close, Junior.”
“It certainly didn’t take them long to figure out that the other attack was a diversion.”
“We’re going to have to think about whether we want to risk another city.”
Junior thought a moment and said, “True, but let’s go check on those we moved.”