by Saxon Andrew
“I will make the change in the schedule.”
• • •
Chlor’s twin-DEC remained behind at the Yellow Civilization’s main governing planet to report if the Red Civilization sent a ship to investigate. Suddenly, a giant green vessel appeared close to the dead planet. It was larger than a Yellow Warship, but didn’t appear to have any armaments on it. He suddenly saw hundreds of electronic beams erupt from the vessel’s hull and he realized the vessel was some kind of probe that was scanning the planet and surrounding space. He focused on the force field surrounding it and saw the energy level was extremely high. He watched it, until it disappeared, and then sent what he saw to his Algean Partner. Chlor recorded the images his twin captured and used a sliver to forward it to the communication center.
• • •
Algee’s twin-DEC was still in the Red Civilization, when the giant green probe showed up and quickly scanned the planet below the ship he was hiding in. Panic broke out, as Al saw giant colony ships blasting away from the planet he was watching. He listened to the thoughts of the crew on the ship he was in and heard reports of the probe going to all ten-empires to scan them. Every Empire began launching large numbers of colony vessels to insure the survival of their species.
Al moved his consciousness into his twin as his twin watched the giant probe scanning the planet. He recorded the image and knew this had to be a probe from that civilization the Reds called the OAs. He moved back into the Algean Partner and sent a sliver to the communication center. A new enemy had made a sudden appearance and this one was far more advanced than the Yellow or Red Civilizations.
• • •
Sprigly received the data from Seedel and saw that Al’s twin had seen the electronic energy the probe used to communicate with the ones that sent it. He stared at the recorded transmission and was confused at what he was seeing. The probe was communicating a long series of numbers that made no sense. He could see it wasn’t an encrypted code…but it was nothing like he had ever seen before. He finally loaded the code into his computer and asked, “Do you have anything in your databanks that is remotely close to this pattern of numbers?”
“Working.” Sprigly waited for what seemed to be a very long time by Algean standards. His computer never took this long to arrive at a conclusion, even when it had nothing in its data to report. “The recorded transmission is made up of the frequencies of thousands-of-shades-of-green.”
“WHAT?” Sprigly exclaimed.
“Those numbers are all frequencies of shades of green. Some are so close together than you and humans could not visually see a difference in them,” the computer replied. “If I feed this recorded transmission into a green-light, you would see it flickering too fast to follow the color changes.”
Sprigly thought about it and thought, “Are you suggesting that the builders of that probe communicate in green colors?”
“I have been able to see a pattern in the colors and I’m changing my programming to attempt to decipher the message based on the different color frequencies. I have found the particular colors used to say ‘warship’.”
Sprigly looked up at his monitor and said, “I’ve received a sliver from Al that a message has been sent to that probe.”
“Send it to me. The more of the pattern I can analyze, the more likely I can interpret what is being said.”
Sprigly pressed several keys on his keyboard and transferred the new data collected directly to the computer. His computer had deciphered thousands of alien languages over thousands-of-years and if anything could make sense of this use of shades of green to communicate, it could.
“Sprigly, what’s going on?”
“Tag, it appears an alien probe has appeared in the Yellow and Red Empires. It’s run high-powered scans of their universes and has now disappeared.”
“What can you tell me about that probe?”
“Initial observations have it larger than a Yellow Main Battleship and its force field is far beyond anything I’ve ever seen. It also appears they communicate by using various shades of green.”
“Say, what?”
“I’ll explain in more detail when my computer has time to analyze the patterns of color they used to communicate. However, one thing is certain, our current blasters being used by our warships wouldn’t come close to penetrating the force field around that probe.”
Tag thought for a moment and then asked, “Can you extrapolate a guess of the size of their warships from the size of that probe?”
“If the probe is similar to the size of our probes in relation to the transport that we use to launch them, the vessel would be the size of a medium sized moon. It is also likely that the force field on their warships would be far more powerful than the one being used by that probe. I think I can safely say that our Prime Warships would not be able to penetrate the force field on the probe, much less the warships used by the civilization that built it.”
“How did the Red Empires react to the appearance of the probe?”
“Tag, they immediately began launching thousands of colony ships. It appears they have planned for the eventual appearance of the beings that sent the probe for thousands of years.”
“How do you come up with that estimate, Sprigly?”
“Because the colony ships were already constructed, and the colonists being sent out were already on board. They launched the moment that probe appeared, Tag. This has to be the OAs the deceased First Controller talked about.”
“Was the twin that sent us this information seen by the probe?”
“I have no way of knowing, Tag. Perhaps there is something about that in the transmissions we intercepted but that will have to wait until my computer completes its analysis of their communications.” Tag was silent and Sprigly said, “Tag.”
“Yes.”
“We need to think about continuing to build Primes.”
Tag sighed, “I know. If they are useless against the warships of this new civilization, we need to explore what would work against them.”
“You need to let the Bears know not to throw away all the main battleships they have collected.”
“I will, Sprigly. Find out what was communicated.”
“That might take some time and I don’t know if we’ve collected enough of their communications to decipher their language.”
Tag put his chin on his hand and nodded. “We know the direction their universe is located; the Yellows gave us that clue before they were eradicated.”
“Tag, if you send a ship into their space…”
“I know.”
“Besides, the Yellow and Red Empires are more than a million universes from the New Star Realms’ Universe. If we stay away, we may not be found for a very long time,” Sprigly stated.
“Sprigly, the First Controller of the Red Empire met with the First Controller of the Yellow Empires before we killed him. The Reds may know about the Bears and, if this new civilization is as advanced as you suspect they are, they could find out about the Bear’s location and be on our doorsteps sooner than you think.”
“Tag, the two-First-Controllers met about the development of a dimensional drive. I don’t think the Bears were discussed in that meeting.”
“Dig up what Root’s twin heard and let me know.”
“I’ll do that now.” Tag thought a moment and his expression changed to shock. Sprigly saw it on his monitor and asked, “What?”
“Sprigly, when all the warships we were attacking in the other universe jumped away, all of them had the coordinates of the universe where we met them in their drive systems. We have to remove or destroy every Yellow Warship in the Five Empires.”
Sprigly’s leaves turned brown and drooped, “It may be too late, Tag. If that probe scanned those ships, it may already have that information.”
“We’re still going to have to get rid of those warships. I can only hope it was not programmed to scan them. Get in touch with the twin that gave us this data and see if he saw the dereli
ct warships being scanned.” Sprigly nodded and Tag disappeared from his monitor.
• • •
The Supreme War Leader sat on his chair and sighed as he stared intently at the wall monitor on his vessel. It had finally happened; the OAs had returned…well…they had sent a probe to investigate his civilization. It was only a matter of time until they came back in force. “Supremacy, I’ve received a message from the new Council of Royals.”
“What do they have to say?”
“They have chosen you to be the next First Controller and have requested you come to the council and direct the Empire on what is to be done.”
The Supreme War Leader turned to his subordinate, “Tell them to finish their selections of the other Controllers and then notify me.”
“But Supremacy, they have requested you to come immediately.”
“Tell them I’ll come when all of the next Controllers are chosen!”
The Communication Leader lowered his head and sent the message. The Supreme War Leader was exasperated, of all times to be chosen to lead, this was the worst one possible. He knew he had no choice on accepting; it was either accept or be executed. But what was he going to be able to do about this new menace. He thought about it and decided that perhaps there was one way out of this dilemma. He turned to his pilot and ordered, “Jump to the Yellow’s Governing Planet.” The Pilot hesitated, and he started to rise from his chair. The Pilot immediately entered the universal coordinates into the giant flagship’s drive and the giant vessel disappeared.
• • •
The vessel arrived above the Yellow’s capital planet and found nothing living on, or above it. “Scan the planet and the defenses!” he ordered.
A few moments later he heard, “Supremacy, all of the Yellows on the planet are dead. There are also no living beings on any of the defense installations or warships. Something has killed everything.”
“Jump to the Yellow’s Second Empire!”
• • •
An hour later, it was clear that the Yellow Civilization had been eradicated. The scope of what they witnessed was beyond comprehension. The War Leader turned to his scanning leader, “What caused them to die?”
“I have nothing in my databanks that can explain it, Supremacy.”
“Did the OAs do this?”
“No, Supremacy. There would be no bodies or warships left if they attacked. This was caused by something new.”
“Didn’t the former First controller say that the Yellows were searching to find an advanced civilization that attacked some of their ships?”
“Yes, Supremacy.”
He forced air out of his skin and said, “It appears they found them.”
“Supremacy, what are we going to do about this?”
“Make certain we don’t find them.”
“Supremacy.” He looked at his Lead Scientist. “The ones killed here suffered the same death as those on our capital planets. It appears they have already found us.”
The War Leader changed color, “Well, isn’t that just wonderful. Now we have this new threat and the OAs to contend with simultaneously.” He paused and muttered, “I wonder why they didn’t attack all of our planets like they did here?”
“Perhaps they’re warning us not to go looking for them,” the scientist replied.
“Supremacy, I’ve completed a long scan and there aren’t enough warships.”
He turned to the Scanner Leader, “What?”
“The Yellow Empires had as many warships as ours possess. There are nowhere near enough warships in my scan to account for them.”
He leaned back in his chair and turned to the scientist, “Your opinion on this?”
The scientist leaned forward and lowered his head, “It does appear they found the advanced civilization, attacked them, and lost.”
“Why would you suggest that? They could have been attacked here.”
“If they were attacked here, there would be millions of more dead warships. I see no evidence of warships being destroyed, only dead crews on them. The hundreds-of-millions of missing warships must have perished somewhere else.”
“How long ago did this destruction take place?”
The scanner Leader looked at his console and replied, “It appears the planets here died around the same time as our capitals were attacked.”
The Supreme War Leader thought about the statement, before saying, “This new enemy must have known that the two-First-Controllers met and sent us a message we’d understand.”
“Why do you say that?”
The War Leader turned to the scientist, “How else would they know of our existence. The First Controller’s visit to the Yellows was the only contact we’ve had with them in thousands-of-years. Jump back to the former Capital of the Yellows.”
• • •
They arrived back, and he ordered, “Scan the Gathering Chamber for records of the meetings they had before they died.”
• • •
Chlor’s twin was at a loss on what to do. He saw the Red Warship appear again and immediately asked what to do. By the time he received a reply, the giant Red Warship disappeared. It was no longer his problem. His partner arrived quickly in a Prime warship and picked him up. His task was complete. He was left behind to determine if the Red Civilization showed up to investigate. They did and now the leaders would have to decide what to do next.
• • •
“Supremacy.”
“Yes.”
“A being interrupted one of their meetings and asked them to call off their search.”
“Play it for me.”
“It won’t do much good. Evidently, the being communicated telepathically and their side of the conversation isn’t recorded.”
“Play it anyway!”
The Supreme War Leader Listened and heard;
• • •
The Second was speaking to the new Supreme War Leader, “…and you will take your fleets to that universe with the millions of inhabited galaxies and start cleansing it. If any of the new enemy’s ships appears, you will press the call button to the other fleets in the empire to join your attack.”
“Yes, Great Second.”
The Red Supreme War Leader saw everyone in the chamber was shocked by something. The First Controller looked around and asked, “Who said that?”
“WHERE IS THAT BEING!?!” The First screamed.
The Second furiously punched buttons on his console and finally looked up, “NOTHING IS ON OUR SCANNERS, SUPREMACY!!”
“SCAN AGAIN!!”
Finally, the First turned to the Fourth Controller, “YOU LED THEM HERE!!”
“YOU ARE THE REASON WE DO IT!!” The statement was followed by a pause and the Yellow First said, “The OAs will come back and destroy everything because of you!” There was another pause and he said, “The ones that eradicated my civilization millions of years ago. If they sense high technology, they will come and remove it. They will destroy you and us if they sense your presence!”
The deceased First yelled, “BECAUSE WE REMOVE ANY THAT ARE A DANGER TO THEM! WE WILL FIND YOU AND KILL YOU!!” The First got his emotions under control, “Are you that simple minded. If you could remove us, they would know there is a danger here. You would still die. We are going to destroy you and nothing you can say will stop that from happening!”.
• • •
After another pause the Yellow First Controller sneered, “If you could do it, you would have already done it.”
The First hesitated and then leaned forward and said, “And we would still go out and kill you. Your interrupting this meeting proves that we must find and eliminate you.” There was another pause and he said, “We will not take that risk! I now know that we’re closer to finding you; that’s why you’re here. Enjoy the little time you have remaining!”
• • •
The War Leader listened and filled in the blanks in the conversation. The scientist said, “I have another meeting between the First an
d Second Controller that has some bearing on that meeting.”
“Play it.”
• • •
The First Controller pressed a button on his console, “Second, where is the Fourth Controller?”
“He has gone to personally deliver the attack orders to the Supreme War Leader, Supremacy.”
“Why would he do that?”
“The importance of this attack is too vital to allow a mistake. One of us should go and make sure the War Leader understands his mission.”
“You appear to like this new Controller.”
“He doesn’t say what we want to hear, like all the others. Even if it costs him his life, he will be honest. That is a rare trait in one of our military leaders.”
“You were once a Supreme War Leader.”
“And that’s why I know how valuable he is to us. He wants to make sure that if things get out of hand, the fleet won’t be lost.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Supremacy, we’ve not fully scouted that universe to determine what we’re up against. I agree that we need to attack as quickly as possible but that one damaged warship appeared to destroy all four-hundred of the warships pursuing it.”
“I suspect it had some help.”
“I do as well…but what if it didn’t? We need to insure we don’t lose our entire fleet before the others arrive.”
“Do you think that’s what he’s telling the War Leader?”
“I hope so. I suspect he’s telling him to use good judgement and he will support his actions.”
“Do you think that being that interrupted our meeting could have killed us, if it chose to do so?”
“If it could, it probably would have done it.”
“That’s how I see it,” the First replied.
“Supremacy, do you think we’re doing the right thing?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“We’ve become exactly like the OAs by destroying so many universes. We could ask this new enemy to join us against the OAs.”