The First Male chased the strange ship and could not think coherently. The hive was damaged for the first time in the long history of the Captors and a young mother had been killed. Whatever had struck the hive blew through the screens protecting it like there was nothing there. Now the ship had disappeared again and their chase efforts had been avoided easily by the fleeing ship. He was starting to think clearly again and he wondered why the strange ship had fled. He was one of the ships that had hit it with his main beam with no effect. For the first time in his long lifespan he knew what it felt like to be afraid. He had killed many worlds without a second thought and now he was starting to see what it felt like to be on the receiving end of a weapon that could not be stopped. He hurried back to the hive and contacted the First Mother. “We must move you to a safer place. The attackers can obviously identify where you are on our hive.”
The First Mother thought back, “No, I am not leaving. I have delivered another Mother and you will take her to another location. We will not start a new home for me until this menace has been stopped.”
“Where will we take her?”
“When she had taken enough energy to be self sufficient, you will deliver her to the new home we have selected. In the meantime, I will move away from the hive and wait until she is moved. Once she is safe, I will return.”
“Should we go and prepare the new home before she moves?”
“Not yet. She needs some time before she is ready. As the time approaches you will take your warriors and begin preparing the new home. I do not want to reduce our strength before then.”
The First Male dimmed his light to show his acceptance of her instructions.
Rose, Tag, and Tommy were viewing what had happened at the Captor’s planet. Rose said, “Tommy, my sense of danger to Earth has gone up tremendously since you did this.”
Tag said, “They are coming soon. I think you moved their timetable up with your attack.”
Tommy lowered his head and thought, “I must agree with you. Have we started moving the population yet?”
Rose hesitated and then thought, “Tommy, the two Algeans have entered a coma and have not communicated with us since right after their arrival. We can’t break through to them.”
“I’m coming home, Rose.”
Rose started to object but then decided that there was nothing she could do; Maybe Tommy could.”
Tommy keyed the general com on the Kosiev and said, “Jump warning. We will be jumping in two minutes.”
Cassandra looked at Tommy and he said, “Set the jump coordinates for Earth, the adolescents are in a coma.”
Cassandra immediately keyed her com, “The jump has been moved up to ten seconds, prepare for jump, 3,2,1, execute.” Cassandra pushed the jump button on her console.
The Kosiev broke out into normal space just outside the atmosphere of Earth. Tommy left the bridge with Cassie and commed Ensign Ahn. “Ensign Ahn, do you have the coordinates of where the adolescents went when they teleported?”
“Yes, Your Majesty, I do.”
“Set up the device. Captain Dodd and I will be going to the same location. Make it happen quickly; we’re on our way to you now.”
Cassandra keyed her com and said, “Lt. McAnn, you are now in command until I return. Take the ship out of the system to our previous location and be prepared to return on my signal.”
“Yes sir.” Wes keyed the general ship intercom and announced, “We will be jumping in ten minutes. Jump in ten minutes.”
Tommy and Cassie entered the forward field emitter room and saw a shimmering silver screen in the center of the room. They ran forward and went through the screen… and came out in a room with the two adolescents standing completely still in the center. “Quick,” Tommy said. Cassandra came into his arms before he could say anything and hugged him tight. The shock wasn’t quite as severe as it had been previously but immediately the adolescents began moving. Slowly at first but then they started waving rhythmically back and forth. Tommy released Cassandra and said, “Looks like a good sign.”
Cassandra watched the two adolescents and said, “I hope they don’t take as long to recover.”
Twig said, “Recover from what?”
Cassandra ran up and hugged her. Then Sprig said, “I don’t want to do that again.”
Twig was still entwined in Sprigs limbs and she thought to him, “I didn’t know you felt like that about me.”
Sprig’s leaves turned yellow in embarrassment. “I’m sorry you saw that. I’m not worthy of feeling that way toward you.”
Twig tightened her limbs and pulled Sprig close to her. “You are so much a part of me now that there will never be another for me. It will be you and me or nothing. I will not return home without you.”
Sprig held on to Twig and thought, “That is not your decision to make; you are the Eldest’s seed. Only he can decide who you will be tied to.”
“You aren’t listening Sprig. I will not return home without you. I am his seed and he will decide for us or we will not go home.”
“Twig, I can’t let you endure that. I… love you too much. This is a strange feeling I’m having and I’m somewhat certain that no one in our history has ever had these feelings.”
“That’s because no one in our history had absorbed another. We are unique and for myself, these feelings bring me great pleasure. We’ll discuss this later. I will not live without you, Sprig.”
Sprig grew to fourteen feet. He was also very much enjoying these new feelings. Then he said, “Thank you again for helping us through this problem.”
Tommy said quickly, “The Captors have moved their timetable up and are coming to Jupiter soon. We don’t have much time to move our population.”
Twig said, “That’s what put us in a trance. Where is the Kosiev?”
Tommy looked puzzled and said, “We sent it back out to empty space between galaxies.”
Twig looked at Sprig and Sprig said, “You’re better at field dynamics, I’ll go with the Kosiev. Tommy, bring the Kosiev back and take me to the sites of stars where we can move the planet. I already have all the astronomical information I need on good locations.”
Tommy said, “Other locations; what are you talking about?”
Cassie lifted her Com and said, “Lt. McAnn, I need the Kosiev back immediately.”
“Aye, Aye, Captain; on our way.”
Twig said, “Captain Dodd, please call Gerald Nelson and Cade McAllister to meet me in Cade’s lab.” Cassie lifted her com and started talking while Twig said to Tommy, “We are going to move the planet to another system.”
Tommy was stunned, “You can do that?”
“We’ll see,” said Twig.
The Kosiev jumped close to Earth and Sprig set up a small device that produced a silver field in front of him. “Captain Dodd, you should probably go with me.” Cassie looked at Tommy and then turned and ran through the field right behind Sprig.
Sprig and Cassie emerged in the front emitter room on the Kosiev and Sprig handed Cassie a list of coordinates. “Take the Kosiev to each of these coordinates one at a time. I need to work on the front field of the Kosiev. Let me know when you arrive at the first one on the list.”
Cassie looked at Sprig then sprinted up to the bridge. “Lt. McAnn, program these jump points and jump to the first one immediately.”
Wes took the list and punched in the first coordinates and announced, “Attention all hands, Jump in five seconds, 2,1, execute.”
The Kosiev emerged into normal space in a system with a type G yellow star. The inner four planets were far away and the outer planets were closer. Sprig read an instrument and said, “Go to the next site, please.”
Wes said, “Jump in 3,2,1, execute.”
The ship emerged in a system with another type G star but there were planets close to the Kosiev. “Sprig looked at his instrument and said, “Next site, please.”
The Kosiev jumped thru eleven systems. On the twelfth system Sprig read his instrument and said, “Hold your position right here. Wes, how many planets are in this system?”
“There are fifteen planets in the system.”
“What is the distance from where we are right now to the center of the star?”
“It’s a little over one AU.”
If we were traveling at the velocity of Earth in an orbit around the star from where we are now, how long would a cycle take,” Sprig asked?
Wes pushed some keys on his console and said, “One year, ten days.”
If we were to move fifty thousand miles closer, how long?”
Wes did his calculations and said, “One year.”
“Wes, get an energy reading on the ship’s hull and compare it to what the Earth’s sun would be generating at the same distance.”
Wes worked on the problem and said, “It is almost identical.”
“Thanks, Wes.”
The crew in the emitter room watched Sprig work on the emitters on the front of the Kosiev. “Wes, orient the ship such that it would be orbiting the star at this distance. I want the nose pointed in the direction the ship would be traveling in orbit.”
Wes looked at Captain Dodd and she said, “Just do it.”
Wes went to the control board and turned a knob and the Kosiev rotated and turned parallel to the star. “Hold it right here Wes.” Sprig took the small device and pointed it at the nose of the Kosiev and took a reading. “Wes, move the nose four degrees closer to the star.” Wes made the adjustment. Sprig took another reading and said, “Hold the ship right here. Don’t let it move.” Sprig took several more readings and then said, “Captain Dodd, please take us back to Earth.”
Cassie nodded to Wes; Wes said, “Jump in 3,2,1, execute.”
The Kosiev broke into normal space and Twig immediately appeared in the emitter room with Gerald Nelson and Cade McAllister. Sprig said, “I’ve found the site.”
Twig said, “Help us.”
Sprig pulled a large device that was on a gravity sled up to the ships emitters and started pulling wires forward. Then Gerald, Cade, Sprig, and Twig worked furiously connecting the wires to connections Sprig had made. Tommy stepped through the silver field and the field disappeared. Tommy said, “Let me know when you are ready.” Tommy then ran to the bridge.
Cassandra saw Tommy enter the bridge saying, “As you were; Captain Dodd move the Kosiev directly in front of Earth’s orbit. Maintain a distance of twenty five thousand miles from the planet and have the nose of the Kosiev pointed toward the Planet.”
Cassandra turned and looked at Wes, “Make it happen, Lieutenant.” Wes moved the ship as ordered and maintained the distance as the Kosiev flew backwards from the Earth as it rotated around the sun.”
Tommy sat in his command chair and keyed his com. Misty Nicole appeared on the screen. Tommy said, “Director, I have bad news. It is the opinion of my family that the Captors will be arriving in your solar system anywhere from a week from now to an hour from now. We feel certain that they will be here before we can move any of your population.”
Misty turned white and said, “Can you protect us?”
Tommy shook his head and said, “No, we cannot. We might stop one ship but we think it will be more than one ship; probably more than a thousand. If we don’t do something, Earth will be destroyed.”
“What do you mean by do something,” Misty asked?”
Tommy looked at Cassie and said, “We are going to move the planet.”
“You’re going to what!”
“We don’t have time to do anything else, Director.”
“Can you do it?”
Tommy paused and said, “I have two Algeans that think they can. At this point it’s my belief that we have to let them try.”
Wes suddenly interrupted, “Captain, we have more than five thousand of the Captor ships emerging around Jupiter.”
“Put it on the screen, Lt.”
Misty and Tommy watched as the giant red ships surrounded Jupiter. One of the giant ships flew toward Europa where one of Earth’s installations was located. The ship fired its beam at the moon and the moon exploded into rubble blown away in all directions.”
Misty saw the destruction of Europa and said in a shaking voice, “Do what you have to do.”
“Sprig, we’re out of time,” Tommy said.
“We need more time.”
Suddenly five Captor ships appeared around Earth. Cassie felt her fear and thought, “Kill them.” Five pitch-black balls shot out of the Kosiev and struck the five Captor ships. The giant red ships did not have time to fire their beams before all five imploded and disappeared.
The remaining Captor ships moved away from Jupiter and remained motionless. Tommy looked at Cassandra and then thought to Sprig, “We’re going to get crowded here very quickly. I know our friends out at Jupiter have just called for help.”
Twig said, “Not much longer.”
Tommy and Cassandra watched the ships at Jupiter. On Earth, Misty Nicole saw the destruction of Europa and felt her fear soar. This was beyond her imagination and she began communicating to the population what was happening and asking for their prayers. The planet did not have much longer before death arrived.”
The First Male received the message from the new nest. “The ship is here at the third planet from the sun. It just killed five of our warriors.”
“Move no closer until I arrive. First Mother, the ship that has attacked us is in the system of the new nest. It appears the third planet is technologically advanced enough for space flight. The ship has just killed five of our warriors. I am going to confront the ship and destroy that planet.”
“If you destroy that planet, will that ship come here and destroy our world?”
The First Male said, “I don’t know but we cannot allow them to go unpunished.”
“Then gather your warriors and make sure you have enough to complete the job. I forbid you to take part in the attack.”
The First Male said, “First Mother, I beg you for the right to lead the fight.”
“No, we have to have you if we must create another mother. Your request is denied.”
The First Male fought down his anger and said, “Yes, First Mother, it will be as you order.”
The first male called for a million warriors to follow him and jumped to the new nest.
Tommy watched as the million new red ships appeared around Jupiter. The ships then began flying toward Earth.”
Wes said, “Why aren’t they jumping here.”
Cassandra said, “All we’ve seen so far has been their beam weapons. I suspect they do not want to risk any more ships so they will use their standoff weapons.” The huge fleet arrived at the orbit of mars and stopped. Then a giant red ball of energy was launched at Earth. The red ball was traveling at three quarter light speed. Cassandra key her com, “Sprig, Twig, the Captors have fired an energy weapon that is traveling at the three quarters of light speed. It will be here in less than seven minutes. That is all the time you have remaining.”
Tommy looked at the incoming energy ball and said, “That ball is larger than Earth. Captain Dodd, is there any way to detonate that ball before it hits?”
Cassandra thought a moment and said, “We could launch all of our shuttles into its path.”
“Launch them now. I’ll explain why later.”
All fifty shuttles launched from the Kosiev under remote control and moved between Earth and the incoming energy ball. The ball was two minutes away and Wes started a countdown to impact. “Two minutes. One minute. Thirty seconds.”
Sprig looked at Twig and said, “Energize the emitters; prepare the device.”
“Fifteen seconds, ten seconds, nine, eight, seven, six..”
“Twig threw the switch on the device and a silver field appeared between the Kosiev and Earth. Earth moved into the field and disappeared.”
The energy ball lost the target it was locked on and only saw the shuttles in the zone. It struck the shuttles and a giant explosion rocked the Kosiev and blew it more than twenty thousand miles from the position it was holding. The Kosiev then flew away so fast toward the sun that the explosion had not started to settle and it was gone from the solar system. Where once a green and blue planet existed, now there was only a moon following a wobbling orbit where the planet had been.
The First Male watched the explosion and saw afterwards that the planet was gone. The strange ship was also missing. Something wasn’t right; there should have been more debris left behind from the Planet’s destruction. One of the Captor scientists heard his thought and said, “It is possible that the planet had huge stores of energy on it and combined with the energy missile it was enough to totally disintegrate the planet. It certainly isn’t there now.”
The First Male went to the site of the explosion and still didn’t feel comfortable with the findings. “Were we able to see anything behind the explosion of the energy missile?”
The Watcher that had accompanied the warriors said, “The missile was actually bigger than the planet. We were not able to see anything behind the blast and until we can get into a nexus, there is no way to see the details.”
The Scientist said, “It had to be disintegrated. It’s not here. Would you prefer to believe that these creatures moved the planet?”
The First Male snorted at the idea and said, “Of course not, but there just isn’t enough mass left to account for the planet’s destruction.” After a pause he said, “I must agree with you; I can’t see any other possibility. He scanned the system with his sensors and said, “There are outposts of the creatures on some of the moons and asteroids in this system. Warriors, clean them up.” The giant red ships scattered through the solar system and systematically destroyed everything with intelligent life on it. Five of Jupiter’s moons were blown apart and the pieces obliterated.
Rose sat in the throne room in Castle Gardner and watched the destruction of all the settlements left in Earth’s solar system. Then she saw the Giant ships moving toward Earth’s moon, “Tommy,” she thought.
“Yes, Rose.”
“The Captors are moving in on Earth’s moon. There’s more than 125, 000 people in the settlements there.”
Tommy ordered, “Stop the Kosiev and prepare to return to….,” then he stopped in mid sentence. “Rose, did you just feel that?”
Rose signed heavily and said, “Yes, I did.”
Suddenly Tag broke into their thoughts, “What are you two planning? Whatever it is, stop now!”
Rose thought to her father, “Dad, the Captors are moving in on Earth’s moon. If they destroy it more than 125,000 people will lose their lives.”
“What were you going to do about it?”
Tommy said, “I started issuing orders to return and possibly teleport the moon away. But then I felt what you must have felt, too.”
“If you do that Tommy, Earth will be destroyed.” Tag paused a moment and listened to his senses and then said, “It appears that the Captors did not see the Earth disappear. My sense tells me that Earth is safe for the near future. However, when I think about you going back to save the moon, my alarms go off full blast.”
“I know, Dad. Tommy and I both felt it, too. I just can’t bear to watch so many innocent people die.”
Then they all felt it; the moon was gone. Tommy felt anger and then hate for the race that so callously killed. Cassandra sitting on the bridge just below his chair could actually see the aura around Tommy roll, boil and turn in on itself. Cassandra’s heart grieved for the loss of life on the moon. More than two hundred of her former classmates were assigned there. She had watched the moon while Tommy was discussing what could be done without endangering the Earth. She listened to the Gardners and watched the moon in her mind as three Captors approached and hit it with their main beams. The resulting blast exploded it out from its center in all directions. The Captors then fired their beams at the largest pieces of the moon to erase the possibility of them ever being a danger to Jupiter. Once they were through, they turned and moved toward mars. The settlements there were blown out of existence but the planet was left intact. The Captors did not want huge pieces of the planet near their nest. Within three hours, more than 1,430,000 people were killed in the systematic extermination of all intelligent life in the system. Not once did the Captors attempt to communicate with the ones they were destroying and they ignored the pleas for mercy. Cassandra felt a harness in her heart for this cold blooded race of killers. Everyone on the bridge suddenly felt the Kosiev begin vibrating and then start shaking.
Tommy interrupted his conversation with Rose and his father and thought to Cassandra, “Are you alright?”
Cassandra came back into the moment and thought, “Yes. I just let them get to me.” The Kosiev quit vibrating and returned to normal. The bridge crew was sharing glances at each other. They had begun talking among themselves that the Captain could probably fight the ship alone. Even Wes sensed that Captain Dodd and the ship moved to the same heart beat. Unlike his fellow crewmen, Wes was thankful that the Captain and the ship performed almost like they were one. “We’re going to need all she can do against these creatures to stay alive. Be glad she can do what we’ve witnessed.”
Cassandra turned her attention back to Earth’s former solar system and saw millions of the Captor’s ships jump in and surround Jupiter. The ships then began construction of the construct they saw in their home system. Cassandra’s eyes narrowed and she wanted to jump in and start killing those red ships. The Kosiev started vibrating again and Cassandra saw Tommy look at her so she settled down and the vibration stopped. She thought to the ship, “Settle down, you’re giving me away.” She could almost feel the ship smiling at the thought of action. Then she knew that it was the ship reflecting her own feelings back at her.
Sprig entered the bridge and Tommy and Cassandra looked up at him. “We need to go check on Earth and make sure the orbit is what it should be.”
Cassandra looked at Tommy and saw him nod, “We will be jumping in two minutes. Prepare for jump in two minutes. Please count it down, Mr. McAnn.”
“Aye, Aye, Captain.” Wes entered the coordinates and counted it down.
Cassandra sat in here chair and wanted revenge. This fight had become personal and the Captors had no idea of the power they had just turned against them. Even Cassandra didn’t know; but the Kosiev was vibrating to a deeper hum and the crewmembers could feel a difference in the ship. The Kosiev jumped and Cassandra turned her attention to her home planet.