by Saxon Andrew
He sat on his chair and blew out a long, slow, breath. He put his head in his hands and knew he was going to have to take control of his emotions and compartmentalize them, so that he could function with Cali being present. He knew he should have stayed and spoke with her, but she probably had another class…truth be told, he wasn’t up to doing it. She had been glaring at him when he saw her, and it was clear she didn’t want anything to do with him. He had forced his emotions for her out of his mind years ago and never really resolved them. What was she doing here?
He activated his computer and queried the registrar’s office. He discovered she was there when he arrived more than two-years-ago. She had to know he was working for the university and she had not attempted to make contact with him. He leaned back in his chair and knew she had moved on with her life and didn’t want to be distracted by an old …what…flame? Friend? Acquaintance? He didn’t know what he was to her. It was clear whatever it was, she had moved on. He decided to allow her privacy to not be interrupted. He closed his eyes, gathered his emotions, and put them in the compartment he had set aside in his mind for her. He exhaled sharply, stood up, and went to the high energy lab.
• • •
“Are ok?”
“Yes, Bong, I am.”
“What wrong?”
“I saw an old friend. I’m fine.”
“Good, worry bout you.”
“Don’t. I’ll be ok.”
Eddie threw himself into his research and forced Cali out of his mind.
• • •
The next day, a student on the front row raised his hand at the start of class. Eddie looked at him and nodded. “Dr. Taylor, what is your attendance requirements?”
“I don’t have any.” The answer surprised the young man. “As a matter-of-fact, I will allow anyone in my classes to take the final at the time of their choosing. However, you will only be allowed to take it one time. If you find my class is beneath your abilities, I have no issues allowing you to take the final and be done with it.”
“That’s unusual,” The student replied.
“Calculus is not a tightly held secret that I will disclose to you during this class. The answers are always there and if you can find those answers without my assistance, you should move on to something more challenging. I will not take it personally and will cheer your success.”
Cali raised her hand and Eddie’s eyes narrowed as he nodded to her, “Does this policy come from your own experiences, Dr. Taylor?”
Eddie forced a smile, “Yes, it does.” Eddie looked around, “Does anyone want to take the final now?” No one raised their hand. “Let’s get into last night’s assignment. Please send the work you did last night to the link on the monitor.” Eddie waited and, after all the students were looking at him, he pressed a button on the remote, “The answers to last night’s equation is on the monitor. Did anyone get it correct?”
The young man raised his hand, “Go ahead, Mr….”
“Cor. You’re saying that any number would be correct?”
“Yes. All you need to have done was show the work where you arrived at your chosen number. Now someone explain how that can happen.”
The class continued, and Eddie walked the class through the process of solving the equation. He forced himself not to look at Cali.
Chapter Three
Danielle looked around the room and saw the nervous tension. Even Ken was showing signs of stress. She waited for a few moments, as the last attendees arrived, before standing up and saying, “We have a development that most of you have recently learned about. A giant probe appeared in the Yellow’s main universe and then went to the ten-universes occupied by the Red Civilization. Keep in mind that the beings in the Red Civilization are the same species as the one we eradicated in our last war. We call them red because that’s the color of their warships. I’m going to turn this meeting over to Sprigly and allow him to tell you what we’ve been able to determine.”
Sprigly moved in front of the large wall monitor and pressed the remote. An image of a dark green vessel appeared. “This is an image of the probe that scouted the locations of the Yellow and Red Civilizations. It is fifty-percent larger than a main Yellow Battleship and it was inside a force field that is beyond any I’ve ever seen. Its scanner beams were more powerful than any ever recorded. We managed to record the probe’s transmissions and we discovered a number of things.”
Sprigly pressed the remote and an image of numbers separated by small spaces appeared on the monitor. We’ve discovered that the numbers you see on the monitor are actually color-frequencies for different shades of green. Some of these frequencies are only slightly different from each other and our visual perceptions would not be able to see a difference in many of them. However, we collected enough information for my computer to decipher some of their language. This species communicates through colors. Different shades would have different sounds if they were vocally made. The message the probe sent to the ones that sent it was as follows.”
“All planets, warships, defenses lifeless in five-universes.”
Sprigly turned to the attendees, “The second message tells us something we didn’t know.
“All locations at next ten-locations still intact. Population falls below critical threshold.”
Sprigly turned back to the gathering, “There wasn’t much in the way of words used by the probe, but it sent the data it recorded, and that data allowed us to decipher their language. It appears the OAs only attack when the population available crosses a certain density. I suspect with the loss of the five-Yellow-Empires, there could be a delay before they return.”
“How are the Reds responding to the probe’s appearance?” Rose asked.
“They immediately began launching colony vessels from all ten-empires. The fact those ships were ready to launch at a moment’s notice reveals they have planned for the OA’s return for a very long time.”
“Why do you say that, Sprigly?” Admiral Marc Thompson inquired.
Sprigly’s leaves changed to a brighter shade of green, “Let’s say we built numerous colony vessels and put them in a safe place. How long would it take us to move colonists and their provisions on board before we could launch them?”
Marc stared at Sprigly and finally answered, “Months.”
“They launched immediately, Admiral, which has to mean the colonists were already on board and the ship was fully provisioned. Those colonists must have lived on those ships, against the day they would be forced to flee. I suspect the two-Empires always kept them provisioned. A thousand-warships left with each colony vessel and they all went in the opposite direction from the direction that probe came from, as they spread out to different universes.”
“At least the Yellows didn’t launch their colonists,” Admiral Shan added.
Danielle turned to him, “Yes, they did, Admiral. Root’s twin has reported that they launched their colony vessels just prior to their attack on us.”
Emperor Robbins asked, “What level of fear would prompt this behavior, Your Majesty?”
Tag answered, “I can tell you that the Yellow’s First Controller was extremely afraid of them. Sometime in the Yellow’s distant past, they were attacked by the OAs and it prompted their universe conquering behavior. I didn’t fully understand it until that probe’s message was intercepted. If population density increases above a certain proscribed level, the OAs will return and attack. They killed the civilizations in thousands of universes to make sure they stayed below that level. For those of you who don’t know, OA means Original Attacker.”
Danielle turned to Tag, “Tell them the rest of it.”
Tag glanced at her and continued, “The First Controller also said that if the OAs detect a highly advanced civilization, they would return and attack it along with every universe near it.”
“Weren’t the Yellows an advanced civilization, Tag.”
Tag turned to Ken, “The Yellow Warships would have no chance of surviving a
gainst the force field we saw on that probe. If the ratio between the force fields used on probes compared to those used by warships holds with this new threat, just one of their vessels could destroy all of their fleets.”
“What about our warships?”
“Ken, the force field we expect them to be using on their warships would be impenetrable. I don’t even think flying our warships into their vessels at full speed would penetrate it.”
“There’s more,” Sprigly interrupted. Everyone turned to him, as he said, “If the size of a probe compared to a warship is consistent with the size of their vessels…” Sprigly paused and then continued, “Then their warships could be the size of a medium-sized moon.”
“We need to stop building our Primes until we determine what we need to confront them!” newly promoted Admiral Annie Powell added to the conversation.
Danielle nodded in agreement, “We’ve contacted the Bears and they stopped construction of Primes. They’ve also requested that we move their galaxy back into a dimension. We’ve decided to move them to the Dark Dimension with us. They’ve earned our trust by coming to our defense in the last battle.”
“So, what happens now?” Emperor Robbins asked.
“We can’t move forward without learning what we’re up against,” Danielle answered.
“I don’t want to sound paranoid, but could that cause an earlier attack?”
Danielle smiled, “James, all of us are frightened by what we’re facing and you’re right. At the moment, we believe they won’t attack unless the population density in the Red Civilization reaches a critical level. However, we can’t just wait until that happens. We’d be frozen for who knows how long. We know that the twin that saw the probe wasn’t detected. We need to find a way to get a twin into their territory without being detected.”
“Can we do that?” Pixie asked.”
“Not at the moment,” Sprigly answered. “The power of that probe’s scanning beam would blow through our masking fields and see any vessel we send.”
James Robbins shook his head, “I hate to even ask this, but…is it possible they have a dimensional drive?”
“I can only pray they don’t, James.” Danielle answered. “But we have no way of knowing without going to see.”
“So, what is the plan, Danielle?”
“The Bears and we are going to the five-Yellow-Empires and remove every warship and defense structure at their planets along with any structures on the planets surfaces. We’ll bring them to the Dark Dimension and use them as raw material to build what we need to meet them one day. In the interim, we’re going to continue to move galaxies out of the Realm’s universe to the Dark Dimension in hopes the population remaining won’t be higher than the critical threshold needed to cause an attack.” Danielle paused, “Even if we fail to reduce the numbers enough, at least the ones we move will be safe here.”
“If the OAs don’t have a dimensional drive,” Ken added.
“There is that,” Danielle replied. “We have a lot of work ahead of us and making this happen is going to take some time.”
“How long do you estimate?” Cassie asked.
“At least five-years to make the necessary moves.”
Everyone stared at Danielle, as she turned to Admiral Thompson, “Get in touch with the Bear’s Senior Commander and get moving on moving the ships out of the Yellow Empires.”
“Why do we need to do that, Danielle?” James asked.
“Because millions of them have the coordinates of the universe where we fought the Yellows in their databanks. That universe is practically next door to the Realm’s universe.” James’s face turned pale and Danielle ordered her admirals, “Get moving and start moving those ships.”
• • •
Al contacted Seedel in the communication center, “My twin has worked his way into the place where the new Red leaders are about to meet. Do you want to ask the Queen if she wants to listen in?”
“DANIELLE!”
“What’s going on?!”
“Algee’s twin has managed to hide in the building where the new leaders of the Red Empires are about to meet. Do you want to listen in?”
“Where is Al now!?”
“I’ve moved my Prime to just above Ross and I can allow you to listen in if you’ll link to me telepathically.”
“TAG, GET ON THE BRIDGE NOW!!” Tag instantly teleported in and Danielle quickly said, “Link with my mind, while I link with Al.”
Tag was confused but caught on quickly, as the young Algean moved his conscious mind to his twin.
• • •
The new First Controller looked around the room and stared at the ten-rows of newly elected Royals. He looked at the four-new-Controllers sitting beside him and, finally, looked at the Supreme War Leaders sitting in a long row to his left. He was silent for a long moment and then began speaking, “The time we’ve all dreaded has finally arrived. The OAs have appeared and it’s only a matter of time until they confront us again. We’ve launched the colony vessels and perhaps our species is insured against extinction, however, the rest of us are in dire jeopardy. To make things worse, all of our species in the five-Yellow-Empires have been eradicated.”
Even the Royals, who were required by law to be silent, erupted in shouts. “YOU WILL BE SILENT!!”
Silence fell on the room and the new Second Controller asked, “What happened to them?”
“They made an attack on an advanced civilization and lost. That same civilization is what caused the destruction of all our Capital Planets and the loss of our former leaders.”
“Why would they attack us?” the Third Controller asked.
“They were sending us a message that we would be next, if we decided to continue the attack against them.” The First paused and then continued, “One of the beings from that civilization came and attempted to persuade the Yellow First to call off his search to find them; he refused to do so. He evidently did find them, and it led to the extinction of the five-Yellow Empires.”
• • •
“How does he know that, Tag?”
“I have no idea.”
Al’s twin quickly said, “This new First Controller went to the main governing planet of the Yellows and copied the records of their meetings. He escaped before Chlor’s twin could take action against him.”
Danielle nodded and focused on what was being said. She heard the Fourth Controller stating;
• • •
“…would be foolish to continue an attack on any other civilization now that the OAs have returned.”
“Tell me something I don’t know!” the First replied. He paused and ordered, “You will recall all your warships from the universes they are currently attacking, and we will end that practice immediately.”
The Second asked hesitantly, “Why would we do that, Supremacy?”
“What good has it done? The OA’s have returned and killing other universes has done us no good. Do any of you know why we’ve been doing it?”
“The First Controller of our species ordered it done, Supremacy.”
The First turned to the Fifth, “Why did he order it?” No one could answer his question. “We need to try and contact this new advanced civilization and let them know we will not be looking to find them.”
“How will we do that without looking for them, Supremacy?” the Second asked.
“Somehow, I think they’ll know.”
Danielle looked at Tag and he nodded. “Al, can you send my thoughts to them?”
“Yes.”
Danielle took a deep breath and thought;
• • •
“We will not attack you further if you will leave us in peace.”
Everyone in the large room looked around and the First Controller smiled, “I thought you might be listening in on our meeting.”
Danielle smiled, “You know how it is.”
“I suppose I do. Could you kill everyone here if you chose?”
“Yes, but let�
��s hope it doesn’t come to that. I can tell you why your very first Controller ordered surrounding universes attacked.”
“I find that hard to believe,” the First responded.
“We intercepted that probe’s communications and deciphered them.” The five-Controllers all looked at each other in disbelief. “It appears that the OAs, as you call them, will only attack when the population density of a group of universes located close together reaches a certain threshold. Your first Controller must have understood that, and he systematically removed all intelligent life in universes surrounding your locations to make sure your civilization stayed below that threshold. We heard the probe report that the population density was below the threshold, after the loss of the five-Yellow-Empires. You do have some time before you’re attacked again.”
The First quickly asked, “How were you able to decipher their transmissions?! We have millions of their transmissions recorded and we’ve not been able to translate any of them.”
“Do you have any recordings of their warships and the beings on them?”
“Why do you ask?”
“I’m willing to make a trade,” Danielle answered. “If you will send us copies of your recordings, I will send you how to translate them.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Perhaps we might have to face these OAs in the future.”
The First thought about it and the Second said, “Supremacy, we don’t require their assistance. We have the science ships.”
The First turned bright yellow in anger, “Are you that short-sighted! This being is willing to leave us alone and is offering assistance. Our issue is with the OAs and we will not survive another attack. We can use everything we can find to assist us against them!” He looked at the second row of Royals and the leader stood up, “Second Controller, you are relieved of your position, please leave the chamber.”