by Saxon Andrew
The view changed again and showed ten-of-thousands of the local inhabitants rushing into the areas out from the cities, being chased by the OAs. The OAs would run over an inhabitant and, as it moved past them, nothing remaining behind. “This is more than horrific!” Danielle said with an expression of disgust on her face.
The image went dark and Sprigly shutdown the monitor, “That is when the probe stopped sending,” Sprigly commented.
Tag saw Danielle’s distress and he looked at Ken, “What can you surmise from this?”
“The first thing we did was go into the databanks and ask if any creature like this has ever been seen. The computer asked if size was a limitation and it was told no. The computer came back with the only thing comparable was a tiny one-celled creature called an amoeba.”
Tag’s face showed his shock, “Are you suggesting those things are one-celled creatures?”
“I’m not suggesting anything, Tag. That’s what the computer came up with. We got some videos of amoebas and they do look very much like those creatures. They also seem to feed the same way.” Ken stopped talking.
“Go on.”
“Tag, we skipped some of the video but some of it shows those creatures moving over the inhabitants and nothing is left behind; no bones, cartilage, or any other hard parts of a body. One of them consumed more than two-hundred of the locals and if you stood all of them on top of it, they would have extended five-feet outside the creature’s body. They must absorb life forms at a speed that is impossible. Amoebas surround the food they’re eating and absorb it into their body. These creatures must do the same thing but at an extremely accelerated speed. They also move rather fast.”
“Why do they attack civilized planets. They could do the same thing with animals, couldn’t they?” Danielle asked.
Ken raised his shoulders, “Probably, but it would be more difficult.”
“Why?”
Ken looked at Danielle, “Danielle, they are fast, but most animals are a lot faster than humans, and they can change direction in an instant. You should also keep in mind, where would animals congregate in groups that number in the millions?”
“This planet knew about them.” Everyone turned to Tag. “That’s why they chose to nuke their cities; they knew there was no escape and there was nothing they could do to stop them. I can see that in the expressions of those that were fleeing.”
“The probe used a full active scan to make these recordings and it’s clear that each of those large green circles were a single creature,” Sprigly interjected into the conversation. “And there’s one more thing. You noticed at the start of the video that these creatures went through the forcefields on their warship without even slowing down. The scan shows that the power of that force field would vaporize a Prime if it hit it.”
“What about our blaster beams?” Tag asked.
“Not even close to penetrating that force field,” Sprigly answered.
Tag leaned back in his chair and nodded toward the monitor, “So, we would be just as helpless as the planet we just saw destroyed?”
No one replied. Finally, Ken spoke up, “We’d die just like they did.”
The room was silent, until Jimmy shook his head, “I just can’t get over the notion that a one-celled-animal could have a brain.”
Ken turned to Jimmy, “I felt the same, until I took a look at amoebas, Jimmy. They are the simplest form of life, but their internal systems are highly organized. Given enough time to evolve, something like that green monster could appear.”
“But, Ken…”
“He’s right, Jimmy.”
“Everyone turned to Danielle. “Don’t try to impose your prejudices on what the evidence suggests. I think it’s clear they are what we think they are; highly evolved killers.”
“What are we going to do about it?”
“I don’t know, Lola. We’re not going near them if there’s any chance they can see us. I just hope they didn’t scan one of those Yellow Warships with our coordinates in it.”
“I don’t think they did, Danielle.”
“Why not, Sprigly?”
“The Realm’s universe would have been visited by one of their probes if that happened.’
“I really hope you’re right about that.”
“There’s something else we need to consider.”
“What is that, Ken?” Danielle asked.
“If these creatures really are one-celled animals, they don’t have sexes and will simply divide when the appropriate time comes. The two-creatures that come out of that division will possess all the memories of the original. Unlike humans, who take eighteen-to-twenty-years to fully mature, these creatures are born adults and ready to go out killing.”
“Sprigly.”
“Yes, Tag.”
“Did you find out if those warships have blasters, missiles, or any other offensive weapons?”
“I didn’t find any missile ports on the hulls of those ships but there were hundreds of small holes on them.”
“What do you think they are?”
“Tag, they must be blasters; I can’t think of any other function they would serve.”
“Did the video show any of them being used?”
“I’m still examining the video and I’ll let you know if I find anything. If they are holes for blaster beams, the beam would be very small and extremely intense.”
Tag nodded, “Let me know if you find anything.”
Sprigly leaned left, “We’ve not made it through half of the material the Reds sent to us. I’ll keep you up to date.”
Danielle looked at the others, “It’s clear this civilization is ancient and has an advantage in its technology. We must close that gap and see if they can be stopped.” Danielle saw several of the attendee’s nodding, but some were looking nervous. “I will not endanger the Realm by doing anything foolish. We will continue to move galaxies into the dark dimension and, while we’re doing that, we’ll see if we can devise a way to take a look at their home space.”
The meeting ended, and Ken and Pixie came over to Tag and Danielle, “I know this is not a good time, but the Senior in Jixie’s civilization has requested help in dealing with a new troublesome species they’ve found. If you need us, let us know and we’ll come back.”
“Is Sam and Jixie going with you?” Ken nodded. “I don’t expect anything to happen for a very long time; I’ll contact you if we need you. Thank you for all you’ve done in the war against the Yellow Civilization. We would have lost it but for your help.”
Ken smiled, “I doubt that. However, contact us if you need our help again.” Danielle and Tag hugged them, and they teleported out.
“I’m a little insecure without them, Tag.”
“We can get them back if things go south in a hurry, Danielle, and you’re probably right about nothing important happening anytime soon.” Danielle nodded and tried to not worry.
• • •
Two-days later, the Senior Fleet Admirals were shown the recording of the meeting. Marc, Gary, and Annie watched, and Marc saw Annie shaking her head numerous times during the recording. At the end, he turned to her, “I noticed you kept shaking your head. What’s bothering you?”
Annie’s eyes widened, as she shook her head, “Oh, it’s not anything.”
“Annie, I saw your expressions. Something was bothering you!”
Annie rolled her eyes, “You wouldn’t understand, Marc.”
“Try me!!”
Annie released a big sigh, “I can’t get over Tag and Danielle, especially Danielle.”
“What?”
Marc, she’s thousands of years old and she looks better than I do at twenty-five! That’s ridiculous! Her blonde hair is gorgeous, her figure is perfect, her blue-eyes are to die for, and she carries a sense-of-presence that’s amazing. And Tag! He doesn’t look a day older than thirty and he’s incredible as well. Brown hair, six-feet-tall, green-eyes…I mean…they should be showing some age on them.”
; Marc and Gary laughed. “I guess women see things in a different light than men,” Gary stated.
“We do! We always look at other women to compare ourselves to and I don’t come close to Danielle.”
“Yes, you do, Annie. However, what do you think about the creatures in that video?”
“We’re toast if they find us! We’ll just have to hope the Realm can develop the tools we need to take them on. There’s no sense in losing sleep over something you can do nothing about.”
Gary shook his head, “I wish I had your outlook. I know I won’t sleep well after seeing this.”
“They have to find us before I start worrying, Gary. That could be a very long time.” Annie replied.
“Or it could be tomorrow,” Marc added.
Annie shrugged, “Then I’ll worry about it tomorrow. I’d rather look at devising things that might work against them. Do either of you have any ideas?”
March looked at Gary and he shook his head. “No, Annie; our current ships can do nothing to them.”
“What about the psychic-warships?”
Marc shrugged, “We have no way of knowing.”
“We might want to find out if the OAs look like they’re going to find us. Heck, we might want to find out anyway to start building more if they can stand up to these creatures.”
Gary looked at Marc, “You might want to send that suggestion to the Queen.”
“That’s about all I can suggest. I don’t see anything else we can do.”
• • •
“Tag?”
“Yes, my love.”
Danielle turned to Tag sitting on the couch in her office, “The Senior Admirals suggested we find out if the psychic-warships can stand up to the OAs.”
“Why?”
“They say if they can, we should start building more of them immediately.”
Tag put the report down he was reading and looked at her with a troubled expression, “That was how the Yellow Civilization found out about our existence, when Kogo went and scouted them. Besides, do we have enough psychic crews to man them?”
“We have plenty of crews, Tag.”
“Do we want to take the time to devote our efforts to building them?”
“Not if they can’t stand up to an OA warship?” Danielle paused and pursed her lips, “Tag, this is a circular argument. We don’t want to build more if they won’t standup to them and we don’t want to go and find out if they do. We’re frozen into doing nothing.”
“Are you suggesting we go and confront one of them. Let’s say we’re successful; the OAs would immediately know there is an advanced civilization out in the universe representing a threat to them. If they don’t stand up to them, the same thing would happen. Do we want to take this risk now?”
“Tag, you know how long it takes to build one of the new psychic-warships. We have to start somewhere.”
“Are you suggesting we start building them without finding out, Danielle?”
Danielle pressed a button on her console, “BC?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“How many psychic warships can you construct?”
“I have one construction site on the Defense Facility that can build three.”
“And if you decided to open other sites?”
“We could build about twenty.”
“I want you to start building them. I’ll find the crews for them and send them to you as quickly as possible.”
“I’ll have to have the materials brought to the Kelen system.”
Danielle was startled by the response, “Oh, I forgot about that! Where are you in the project Dr. Taylor is leading?”
“We should be done in another four-months.”
Tag sat forward, “Is it going to work?”
“I don’t know, yet. We’ll have to finish the ship before we do.”
“Can you build more of them?”
“I probably can but they wouldn’t function without someone like Dr. Taylor flying them, Tag?”
“Why not?”
“Dr. Taylor can see energy. That is an absolute requirement for this new vessel to function properly.”
“Are you saying this new ship will be one of a kind, BC?”
“I won’t know until it’s done, Danielle.”
“All right, keep us posted. In the meantime, I’ll find three-new crews and you can start building three-new psychic warships in the area you’ve set aside to do it. We’ll expand to other ships once Dr. Taylor’s ship is completed.”
“I have the materials to start building, Danielle. I’ll start when the three-crews arrive.”
“Thanks, BC.”
“No, Problem.”
Tag’s eyes narrowed slightly, and Danielle quickly asked, “What do you sense?”
“Nothing about building the ships; but extreme danger at going to the OAs universe.”
“Do you sense anything about psychic ships confronting the OAs?”
Tag sat back, “That’s the weird thing, Danielle, I don’t sense or see anything about that.”
Danielle stared at him and finally said, “I’m going to treat that as a good enough reason to start building them.”
“How can you say that?”
“No news, is good news.”
Tag smiled and chuckled slightly, “I guess.”
Chapter Eight
Eddie sat on the control chair in the new ship he was constructing. An engineer was there with him flipping switches on the panel in front of him. “What are you doing?”
Bobby Cor smiled, “I’m checking the systems to verify they function with dark energy to power them.”
Eddie stared at the control panel and saw various buttons glow and then go dark. “I originally thought we’d have to use standard electrical energy to power these systems.”
Bobby nodded, “It was the final equations you had us solve in class that led to this new development. We’ve duplicated all the parts of the normal systems in a starship with compressed dark matter. Dark energy should allow them to perform their normal functions.”
“You’ve compressed enough dark energy to provide the necessary power?”
“We have. The containment vessels are inside this control room.”
“Why did you need to do it this way, Bobby? The polarization of the ship’s hull should have been enough to avoid being scanned.”
“It probably would have, Dr. Taylor. But you wouldn’t have a teleport system by doing it that way. The dark energy mimics the normal teleportation field and it won’t be detected.”
“Why not?”
“Any scanner that is set to detect dark energy would be blocked from looking very far; there’s just too much of it in every universe. Your former students made it a priority to find a way to get you out of trouble if it showed up.”
“I could always move out of the universe.”
Bobby smiled, “You don’t know if using a universal drive would not be detected. However, we’ve duplicated the universal drive as well, so that shouldn’t be an issue. However, you might find you don’t want to be forced to leave. The teleport system will allow you to hang around if you choose.” Bobby lowered the unit he was holding and said, “The teleport system will also allow you to move instantly out of the way of numerous scanning beams.”
Eddie smiled, “It appears the students are now the professors.”
“Not really. You would have seen these developments if you weren’t so tied up in getting the ship’s hull built.”
“Tell the other students I appreciate them.”
Bobby smiled, “I will. You just make sure you don’t go out and get yourself killed doing this!”
“I’ll do what I can.”
“Is Cali going with you?”
“That’s under discussion.”
Bobby pushed another button and raised the device, “I hope she does.”
“Why?”
“You won’t take foolish risks with her on board.” Bobby lowered the device and smiled
, “Everything is purring like a kitten. I’ll check in with you later.” Eddie nodded, and he teleported out.
“I thought we were going to just go out and take a look at other universes and leisurely take our time.”
“Bong, perhaps you missed the part about being drafted into the military. I suspect our destination will be decided by the Queen.”
“No, I didn’t miss that. However, before we do anything dangerous, we have to learn how to operate this ship. That could take some time.”
“I’ve been told by the Queen to take whatever time I need.”
“I’ve been talking to some other DECs and they are of the opinion that when we go out, some of them will be going with us?”
“WHAT?”
“Come on, Ed. If we’re being sent out to scout a dangerous civilization, the more eyes we have, the less time it will take.”
“What if they can detect you and the other DECs when they leave the ship?”
“You’ve seen the recordings of those probes that showed up in the Red universe. There were DECs present and the probe didn’t react to them.”
“That doesn’t mean they weren’t seen!” Eddie replied.
“The DECs are made of dark energy. If they can be seen, so can this ship. I think we’ll be ok.”
“That’s the first thing we’ll explore, Bong. I’m going to make sure the ship won’t be seen before I allow you, or anyone else, to leave it.”
“I know that, Ed. I can see your thoughts.”
“Just saying.” Bong chuckled. Eddie paused and asked, “Did you get any blowback from the Algeans about uniting with me?”
“The Queen handled that.”
“What happened?”
“The Algeans were somewhat ticked off that they no longer had the market on uniting. However, the Algean I was supposed to unite with was given another DEC to unite with and they didn’t really have an argument. Danielle straightened them out pretty quickly.”
“I imagine she did.”
“You have no idea. However, all’s well that ends well.”
“Are you looking forward to doing this.”
“You are!”