by Saxon Andrew
“Are you willing to take that risk?”
The Second was silent for a moment, and then said, “No. I wouldn’t. But we have no assurance they won’t come back and attack us.”
“We do what we must to survive.” The First stared at the Second on his console’s monitor and remarked, “You’re not telling me something.”
“Supremacy, I fear you may take it the wrong way.”
“Tell me what it is, and I won’t hold it against you.”
“We should launch the colony vessels now.”
“This really has you frightened!”
“What if that being could have killed all of our leaders? There would be no one to order them launched, if that were true. I suspect that the new enemy will attack when our vessels enter their universe. I would do it as a precaution.”
“I’ll send the order now.”
“Thank you, Supremacy.”
“We can always recall them.”
• • •
The Red Supreme War Leader remained still for a very long moment. The bridge crew was silent and waited for him to respond. He finally blew out air from his skin and said, “This new threat offered them a way out and they refused to take it. It also told them it could destroy everyone in the room and they didn’t believe it. Now, after all the universes we’ve destroyed, the OAs are still coming back. What a waste of time and effort.”
“What are you going to do, Supremacy?” the scientist asked.
“I honestly don’t know. Do you have a recommendation?”
“If attacking other universes has served no purpose, I’d recommend you recall all of our warships to defend the Ten-Empires.”
The Supreme War Leader was silent and heard his Communication Leader announce, “The Royals have chosen the new Controllers. They request your presence.”
He stared at the leader and then nodded to the Pilot, as he said, “Let’s not keep them waiting.” The Flagship disappeared and headed back to the main Governing Planet.
Chapter Two
Eddie Taylor sat in his advanced mathematics class and stared out the window. The teacher had written an equation on his monitor and it appeared on a huge screen at the front of the room. Every student was working at their desk attempting to solve it, as Eddie stared out the window. The teacher knew he should have just left Eddie alone, but he had a bad night at home arguing with his wife and he just couldn’t refrain from saying, “Mr. Taylor. Are we boring you?”
Eddie sighed and turned to the teacher, as the students stopped writing and looked up. “No, not really.”
“So, you’ve solved the equation?”
“The answers are either three or twelve.”
“Show your work on the monitor, Mr. Taylor.”
“I didn’t need to write out the formulas to know the answers.”
“Come up here to my monitor and show it, Mr. Talor!”
Eddie saw everyone in the class staring at him and he sighed, as he stood up, walked to the teacher’s desk, and wrote an equal’s sign beside the equation followed by a six or twelve.”
“That’s not showing your work, Mr. Taylor!”
“Then mark it wrong.”
The teacher was furious, as he shouted, “REPORT TO THE DEANS’ OFFICE IMMEDIATELY!”
Eddie stood up and walked out of the class. The teacher turned back to the room and a student raised his hand, “Yes!”
“I’ve just substituted a three for the x value and the equation balances.”
“And how did you arrive at three?”
“I used what ET suggested, Sir.”
A few minutes later, the classroom door opened, and Dean Richardson motioned the teacher to come out. He stepped out and said forcefully, “EITHER HE GOES, OR YOU HAVE MY RESIGNATION! HOW CAN I TEACH A CLASS WITH THAT SHOWOFF STEALING THE SHOW?!”
“Mr. Lane. Calm down.”
“I mean it! If he’s in my class tomorrow, I’ll leave!” He walked back into his classroom and Dean Richardson sighed. He went back to the office and motioned Eddie into his private office. “Eddie, why can’t you just let things go and not challenge the teacher.”
“I didn’t challenge him. He called me out and demanded to know how I came up with the correct answer.”
“Why didn’t you show him how you came up with it?”
“It would have taken the remainder of the class to write it out on his monitor.”
“Tomorrow, you will remain in my office until the class is over.” Eddie shrugged and nodded. “If I had a more advanced class for you to attend, I’d put you in it…but I don’t.”
“What grade will I receive?”
“I’ll give you the final tomorrow in my office.”
“That’s fair Dean Richardson. I’m sorry I guess I just…should have wrote it out.”
“Yes, you should have, Eddie. Mr. Lane is the most qualified of all our instructors and I can’t afford to lose him.”
“I understand. I’m sorry.”
“You are going to have to learn how to get along with others that don’t possess your talents, Eddie.”
Eddie sighed heavily and nodded, as he lowered his head.
• • •
After school ended, Eddie was sitting on a bench waiting for the agency’s bus to come and pick him up. Cali walked over and sat down beside him, “I heard.” Eddie shrugged, and Cali continued, “Why did you make it an issue?”
Eddie looked at her with his hazel-colored eyes and said, “I don’t know, Cali! My impatience just gets the best of me at times and Mr. Lane was a real troll today.”
“Your impatience is going to be the undoing of your future, Eddie.”
Eddie ran the fingers of his right hand through his black hair, “If you say so.”
“Don’t act like that toward me, Edward Taylor!! I’ve stood by you and I don’t deserve your indifference!” Cali was hot! Eddie could barely see the blue in her eyes they were so narrow. Her face was as tight as a drum, as she flipped her sandy-blonde hair out of her face. Cali stood up and stormed away. Eddie sighed and wondered how life could get much worse. Being thirteen-years-old was worse than twelve. Fourteen would probably be a disaster.
• • •
Eddie learned early in life that he was different from other children. He was talking with a large vocabulary before he turned two and his father smacked him in the face numerous times, calling him a smart-ass. Eddie quickly learned to keep his mouth shut. By four-years of age, he learned to keep his telepathy hidden as well. He usually kept that part of his mind shutdown and didn’t use the talent. His father was a single parent and he took the loss of his wife extremely hard. She died giving birth to Eddie and his father blamed him for her death. Nothing Eddie could do would ever please his father and he hid the bruises all over his body, when he went to school. Eddie was nine-years-old when his father finally took one too many sleeping pills and died in his sleep.
Eddie was placed in a children’s agency and he accepted his new life; at least he was no longer being beaten daily. He was a loner and didn’t talk much with others. But it was quickly discovered that Eddie was brilliant, especially in math. Many of the children he lived with were adopted out of the agency, but Eddie chose to not go that route; he learned the danger of having parents. He was safe, and he intended to keep it that way. He made it impossible for anyone to want the little terror he became in their family.
Cali had broken through his solitude when he was ten. She refused to leave him alone and he finally opened-up to her. She listened and realized that Eddie was different…really different! She accepted him, along with his silence and became his first, and only, friend. He hoped she would get over what happened today and understand; he didn’t want to lose her friendship. Life was bad enough at it was.
• • •
Eddie was fifteen when the Agency allowed him to take the shuttle into orbit alone. Pretty much every family had shuttles and the Agency was glad to get him away from the other children. He spent hours
staring out at the distant stars and galaxies and lost himself in the energy he saw filling the universe. It was on his tenth-launch that he heard, “Who you are?” Eddie’s eyes narrowed, as he looked around the shuttle and didn’t see anything. He checked the communicator and it was not active. He turned back to the stars and heard again, “I ask, who you?”
Eddie realized he was hearing thoughts and he reluctantly opened his telepathy talent, “My name is Eddie Taylor. Who are you?”
“I Bong.”
“Where are you?”
“In front.”
Eddie stared out of the viewport and squinted. After a moment, he saw a light color in front of the shuttle that was about thirty-yards across. “Are you a DEC?”
“What that?”
“Dark Energy Creature?”
“I hear called that.”
“What are you doing here?”
“What?”
Eddie thought for a moment and replied, “Why here?”
“You here.”
“There are…” Eddie paused and then continued, “many here.”
“You young, like me; others older.”
Eddie talked with the young DEC from that day forward and it was always there when he used the shuttle. It checked every day to see if he was in orbit and it looked forward to seeing him. Its brain was very simple, and it took Eddie a long time to explain most things to Bong. But Eddie enjoyed the feeling of Bong in his mind and he came to accept Bong as his second-friend. Bong accepted him as a friend as well.
• • •
On his sixteenth-birthday, he told Cali about Bong. She asked if she could meet him and Eddie took her up in the shuttle with him on his next scheduled flight. They spent four-hours conversing with Bong and, after Eddie landed the shuttle, Cali sighed and shook her head slightly. “What’s wrong Cali; you didn’t like him?”
“Oh, Eddie. You know it’s only a matter of time until Bong is forced to leave you.”
“What do you mean?!”
“I’m reasonably sure he is going to be united to an Algean and that will end your visits with him. The Algean will become his main partner and I’m sure the Algean won’t be coming to visit a kid in a shuttle.” Eddie’s eyes widened, and his mouth fell open. Cali took his hands and said gently, “You need to prepare yourself for when that happens, Eddie.” Eddie nodded slightly, as Cali sighed, “I’ll always be here for you, Eddie.”
Eddie looked at her and knew that wasn’t really true. One day, she would get married and he would lose her, as well, to another man not interested in having his wife continue her relationship with him. She was already dating, and it was clear it was taking up a lot of her attention. If she weren’t so beautiful…but she was. And he had no transportation to take her out and certainly no funds to do it either. She hugged him and went to her speeder. She drove away, and Eddie knew that he would not lose Bong willingly. There wasn’t much he could do to stop Cali but…if anyone was going to unite with Bong, it was going to be him. He turned his attention to finding a way to make it happen.
Four-weeks later, he was transferred to a major university to continue his studies. His talent in math and skills with energy transfer got him noticed and he realized, too late, that he shouldn’t have aced the college placement test. He told Bong where he was going, and the young DEC told him it would come with him to have their conversations. Eddie discovered that Bong could compress himself into a small ball of dark energy and he became a constant friend and companion.
• • •
The day before Eddie left, Cali came and picked him up in her speeder. Cali caught a lot of grief from other students about her relationship with ET. No one called Eddie by his name anymore; he was ET to all the other students; everyone thought he was the weirdest person in their classes and had to be an alien or some sort of extra-terrestrial. Cali cried and told him that he had better not stop contacting her. He promised…but it soon became clear, after a few weeks passed, that she was no longer available. He sensed it in her words and felt it in her tone.
She had a steady boyfriend and he didn’t like her talking so much with someone else. During their calls, all she did was talk about her boyfriend. Eddie, finally, stopped calling and afterwards, she didn’t initiate a call to him. He waited for more than a month for her to contact him and then he wept; she was gone. He had lost her.
• • •
It didn’t take the university long to discover that Eddie was beyond any courses they could offer him. The University’s President finally decided to enroll him in a doctorate program and offered him a job teaching mathematics to undergraduates. Eddie accepted the offer and now had an income, as well as access to some of the most advanced technology in the Realm. He focused on dark energy and his journey to unite with Bong began. No one realized that one of Eddie’s psychic talents was that he could actually see energy. It was this talent that would serve him well in his search. He remained unnoticed on a planet far from Ross, Earth, and Bristone, in a galaxy far away from the main planets in the Realm. He settled in with Bong and tried to find peace in academia. He also struggled to find the means of uniting with his only remaining friend.
• • •
The upper classmen were initially dismayed that a seventeen-year-old was teaching them advanced calculus and energy fields. That changed quickly, as they learned that Eddie was light years ahead of them in his math talents. He solved extremely difficult equations in his head and had a way of explaining the complex relationships, such that the students could understand. They accepted the quiet professor and his class was one of the most sought after by all students majoring in mathematics. Eddie had found his calling.
He enjoyed teaching and looked forward to his classes. He received his doctorate degree, when he was nineteen, and life threw another curve at him. He was called in to the President’s office and was told that he was being requested to transfer to Kelen Technical Institute. He initially refused the offer, but the President asked him to reconsider.
“Why would I do that, Sir? I’m happy teaching here and I can continue my energy studies here.”
“That’s just it, Dr. Taylor. You have surpassed all that we can offer you in continuing your studies into dark energy. We don’t have the facilities to allow you to move forward and Kelen Tech does. If you’re willing to struggle here with developing your theories, then I would be more than happy to notify the Chancellor of Kelen Tech of your decision.”
Eddie rolled his eyes and knew that he was at a standstill in his effort to unite with Bong. He lowered his head and decided, “I will take the position at Kelen Tech.”
“They expect you there at the end of this session. Thank you, Dr. Taylor, for all you’ve done to help our students, and I really hate to lose you. Please stay in touch and we’ll always have a position for you here.”
Eddie smiled, stood up, and shook the President’s hand, “Being here has been the best time of my life, Sir. Thank you for allowing me to find my way.” The President nodded, and Eddie left his office. Four-weeks later, he arrived at Kelen Tech and started a new beginning…again.
• • •
One of the benefits of moving to Kelen Tech was that he had a personal research ship to go out and investigate dark energy. It had two-seats, but he never took anyone out with him but Bong. He studied the tutorial system in the shuttle and began to see a way that he could possibly unite with Bong, but he was a long way from developing the mechanism to make it happen.
Then, one day he was out with Bong, he noticed something. He had activated the universal drive and saw the field surround his small ship and made eye contact with the universal energy that kept the universes separated from each other. He stared at the orange-colored energy and saw that dark energy was moving back and forth through it. He activated his dark energy reader and recorded what was happening. This small discovery was one of the major finds in scientific history…but he didn’t know it at the time…that would come later.
•
• •
On his twentieth-first-birthday, he looked out at the new students in his advanced calculus class and saw their eager faces. His reputation preceded him to Kelen Tech and his class was always filled and closed out before most students even had an opportunity to sign up; the University pre-enrolled the most promising students before any others could register for it. He looked out at the hundred-plus students in the lecture hall and began letting them know what was required. He very seldom remained behind the podium but chose to carry a wireless microphone and wander around the huge room. He went over the syllabus and then looked around, “I know this is a large class and offering individual assistance is not going to be easily done. However, for those that are struggling with making a passing grade, I will offer my help as much as I can. I have ten-graduate-assistants that will also help any of you that are having difficulty and they are well qualified to help you get through the course.”
He walked up the steps and smiled as he looked down the long row of students. Then…he saw her…Cali was sitting in the middle of the row glaring at him. He froze, for a moment, then quickly turned, and went back to the podium. He forced his mind to come to order, as he stared at the first day’s lesson plan on the monitor. Everyone was wondering what had happened; it was clear something had taken place.
Eddie had been approached by numerous co-eds during his classes in the past, but he never allowed himself to fall into that trap. Some even approached him after they completed his classes, but he still kept his distance. He took a breath and activated the wall monitor. He turned to the monitor with a pointer and said, “Your assignment for tonight is to solve the equation on the wall monitor. You may use any reference material you can find to assist you and you will turn in the work you do at the beginning of tomorrow’s class. He saw the students entering the equation into their tablets and when they looked up, he forced a smile, pressed the remote, and another equation appeared on the monitor. Let’s solve this equation to prepare you for what you’re going to have to face tonight.”
He began asking various students what they would do to start solving it and time flew by for the class. It seemed like an eternity to Eddie. The warning tone for the next class sounded and Eddie quickly completed the equation. He turned to the class and said, “I’ve sent the work to your tablets. Refer to it tonight when you’re working on the first equation. Good-luck.” He turned, walked off the podium through a rear door, and went to his office.