by Saxon Andrew
“EDDIE…”
“If you continue to scream, this conversation is over.” Cali screamed and then took a deep breath. She glared at him and Eddie continued, “I’ll ask you the same question I asked Bong; what will happen if I don’t make this voyage?”
“You’ll live!”
“That’s not an answer, Cali. You were there with the King; what will happen?” Cali was silent, and Eddie started speaking, “The Realm will send another ship out to scout that civilization; a ship that’s not nearly as capable as the Knight at avoiding detection. If it’s seen, the odds of that civilization showing up a lot sooner than we think goes up higher than you can guess.”
“But why does it have to be you?!”
“You’re thinking I’m not made of the stuff in heroes?”
“You’re not! You have no military experience!”
“If there was someone else that could see energy, I’d probably not go for the very reason you just stated. Please tell me someone else that has my ability to do that? It will take a pilot that can see energy to make the Dark Knight function properly.” Cali stared at him and Eddie said after a long pause, “I’m waiting for your answer.”
“You know there isn’t anyone else,” Cali said softly. But why are you so determined to do this?”
“Cali, I can honestly say that keeping you safe was my main motivation, at first. But then I gave in to taking you with me and that motivation went out the window with that decision. But now I’m doing it because of the love I feel for the wonderful students working with me on this project. If I refuse to do this, then they will probably die. I will not let them down! You could care less about their survival…but I refuse to give up without doing what I can to keep them safe.”
Cali sighed and lowered her head, “I was wrong.”
“About what?”
“You are made of the stuff in heroes. You’re also right I didn’t think about Bobby, Carol, and the others.” Cali looked up at Eddie and said, “But you’re making a mistake as well.”
Eddie’s eyebrows went down, “What is that?”
“If you really want this voyage to be successful, you need to take the one most familiar with the Knight’s systems. I’m the only one that’s been working on them and it will delay your voyage to have to train someone else.”
“Cali, I will not take someone out who’s scared silly and will want to run at the first moment a risky situation presents itself.”
“I deserve that, Eddie. But I’m not scared of confronting that civilization as much as I am by losing you. I know you will not back off finding out everything possible about that civilization and that could get you killed. The only way I can prevent that happening is by being there and doing the best job possible to make sure it doesn’t happen.”
Eddie sighed, “Cali…”
Cali interrupted him, “Eddie, if you don’t know it by now, I love you.” Eddie’s eyes widened. “I would rather die with you than live without you. I will do everything I can to make sure both of us come back…alive. And if that doesn’t happen, then I’ll accept my fate. Now think this through and you’ll see I’m the best person for this job. Just like you’re the only one that can be the pilot. Don’t give up on me because of my fears.” Eddie stared at her in silence. Cali shrugged, “You’re right, I didn’t think this through. I felt the rush of fear at the possibility of losing you and didn’t consider what would happen if you didn’t go. Can you understand that?”
“I guess,” Eddie replied.
“Now you have to ask yourself if I’m not strong enough to confront my fears and do what’s needed.” Eddie continued to stare at her. “I was frightened silly to take you back after what happened when I lost you, but I beat those fears and here we are. Do you love me, Eddie?” Eddie didn’t answer. “Do you?”
Eddie closed his eyes and sighed, “I do.”
“Then we belong together on this voyage. I’ll not beg and grovel for you to forgive me; but I will be waiting for you to bring me back to your arms.” The monitor went dark and Eddie exhaled a hard breath.
• • •
Cali sat at the dinner table with her family and finally said, “MOM, I messed up. I lost my courage and that’s why I’m here.”
“Well, I’m thankful you’re here safe with us.”
Janie looked at her, “What are you going to do about it, Sis?”
Cali looked at her younger sister, “What do you mean?”
“Cali, courage is not something you lack! You’ve always taken things head on without wavering; what made you do it this time.”
Cali shook her head, “Love will make you do some funny things, Janie.”
Suddenly, Captain Kuhn appeared in the living room, “Miss Roberts, I’ve been sent to bring you back to work.”
Cali screamed and jumped up out of her chair. She looked back at her family as she arrived at the Captain’s side, and shouted, “I love you!” Then, an instant later, she and the Captain disappeared.
• • •
She appeared in her quarters and saw Eddie waiting. She rushed and jumped into his arms knocking him to the floor. She kissed his face over and over and he finally managed to hold her head back, “I’m glad to see you, too!”
She pulled him closer, “We will do this and live!” Eddie nodded, as Cali fell into his embrace.
• • •
The next day, Cali walked into the lab and Eddie asked, “Where have you been?”
“I’ve been talking to Thomas and Samantha.”
“About…”
“I checked to see if it’s too late to install another system on the knight.”
Eddie’s eyes narrowed, “It’s a little late to make radical changes now.”
“This change can be made quickly.”
Eddie stared at her and then asked, “Ok, I give up. What change are you considering?’
“I want two-ports added that can fire a dark matter dart.”
“Cali! This is a scouting mission and we will avoid confrontations.”
“I know that, Eddie. But I’d rather have them and not need them than need them and not have them.”
“You’ve seen the power of their force fields! A dart would never make it through.”
“It would at the juncture of the force field.” Eddie stared at her thinking about her statement and she quickly added, “The ports would be on the outer edge of the hull and not interfere with the polarization. The system to control the darts can be added in less than ten-hours and the ports won’t take much longer. They can be done before the polarization is completed.”
Eddie titled his head and smiled, “Ok, see if you can make it happen.” Cali smiled and ran out of the lab.
“We should have thought of that.”
“I know, Bong. Let’s hope we don’t have to use them.”
“Like she said.”
Eddie laughed, “I know; it’s better to have them.”
• • •
“Bobby, start the power flow at a low-level.”
“Starting power, now, Sprigly.”
Sprigly focused his ship’s scanner on the Prime Warship and saw a weak field appear around it. He focused on the flow and announced, “It’s flowing smoothly. What power level are you using?”
“One-thousandth of the reactor’s available power,” Bobby replied.
“Ok, increase it to a hundredth.” Sprigly stared at his monitor and saw the force field spring into a brilliant field. “Hold it there!”
“Holding.”
Sprigly stared at the strength of the field and his leaves turned red in surprise. This field was already ten-times stronger than the previous force field the Prime used. “I’m reluctant to raise it any more with you on board. I’m teleporting you to my ship. Bring the remote control for the reactor with you.”
The force field around the Prime disappeared and Bobby appeared on Sprigly’s ship. Sprigly backed away from the Prime and Bobby’s eyes widened slightly, “Why are you m
oving away?”
“The hull temperature on the Prime is high. I’m concerned that if we use more power, it might melt the hull.”
Bobby nodded, “We need to change the emitters.”
Sprigly leaned left in agreement, “The field is not far enough out from the hull.”
“Do you want to wait to make the changes?”
“No, Bobby. We have Primes to spare and we need to collect as much data as we can, as quickly as possible. I’m backing out further and I want you to start raising the power the reactor is using.”
“Why is the field so close to the Prime, Sprigly?”
“The smaller the field, the more strength it offers. I’m not sure that applies with this new directional-flow force field.”
Bobby raised his shoulders slightly, “Ok, raising the power slowly to a tenth of the reactor’s power.”
They stared at the monitor on Sprigly’s console and saw the force field start turning too bright to look at directly. Suddenly, the force field collapsed into the Prime and it went up in a massive explosion. Just before it went up, Sprigly teleported a hundred-miles away. Even at that distance, the shock wave jolted Sprigly’s ship.
“When did it go off?”
Bobby looked at the power remote, “At a twentieth of the reactor’s power. What was the power of the force field, Sprigly?”
“It was extremely close to the power we measured on the OA’s warships.”
“Then we have to make some changes in the Primes.”
“You’re right, Bobby. We’ve got to find a hull material that can handle a higher level of heat and we must move the field further out from the hull.”
“You know that this ship will be detected from a long way out.”
“I know,” Sprigly answered. “But we can leave it off until the Prime encounters a dangerous situation and increase the power as needed.”
“They will still be detected, Sprigly. The scanner beams used by the OAs are incredibly strong.”
“One step at a time, Bobby. Let’s go and modify the emitters on the next Prime.”
“How far out were the force fields from the OA warships?”
“About a mile in open space. They must have reduced the power when they landed on a planet; they were only about four-hundred yards at that point.”
“Then they had to be using flexible emitters to do that.”
“I guess. I don’t know if we’ll need to do that.”
Bobby looked at Sprigly, “Is there a possibility that we may have to go down to a planet to take them on?”
Sprigly shook his branches, “I don’t want to admit it, but you’re probably right. We’ll work on changing the distance.”
“It won’t lose much strength,” Bobby mumbled. “It will be smaller, and the reduced size will maintain most of its strength.”
Sprigly agreed. This young engineer was incredibly brilliant.
• • •
They melted six-Primes before ten-more-Primes arrived with different hull materials. Bobby looked at the ten-green-Primes and asked, “Why the change in color?”
“We used one of the Spider’s ships to coat them in the material used to build their giant warships. It isn’t affected by energy.”
“Everything is affected by energy, Sprigly!”
“Not that substance, Bobby. It was developed by the Demons thousands of years ago and nothing can penetrate it.”
“Why haven’t you used it before?”
“Just dumb, I guess. However, if we install blasters on the hulls, that section of the hull would be vulnerable.”
Bobby nodded as he thought about it and then suggested, “Install them inside the hull and make ports that can be raised to fire the blasters. They’ll only be open for a short time and the hull underneath should be able to withstand the heat long enough.”
Sprigly chuckled, “We’ll install them in ports that are lined in that Spider hull material. We’ll just have to build a blaster tube strong enough to handle the heat.”
“Build the blaster barrels out of the same material.”
Sprigly turned to Bobby, “DUH!” Bobby burst out laughing and Sprigly joined him. Finally, Bobby asked, “If that new hull can’t be defeated by any energy weapon, how were we able to defeat the Spiders when they attacked the Realm?”
“A piece of wood would penetrate it.”
Bobby’s head lowered, “Say what?”
“That’s not an issue with these ships.”
“Why not, Sprigly.”
“The Spiders didn’t have force fields around their ships. Any wood fired at the Primes would be destroyed by the force field around it.”
“It seems to me that someone missed an opportunity against the Yellow Civilization the Realm recently defeated.”
“Fear has a way of making you remember things you’ve forgotten, Bobby. Getting a force field around a planet sized warship wasn’t possible back then.”
“The OA motherships have a field that size.”
“That’s another issue for us to face. But first, let’s work on the OA warships.”
“We don’t have a blaster powerful enough to penetrate our own force fields, Sprigly.”
“I know. But we didn’t have a ship capable of standing up to them until now. We’ll work on what we can and hope for the best.”
“Have you seen one of their blasters in action?” Sprigly leaned right telling Bobby they haven’t.
• • •
Danielle looked at Destiny standing on the Kosiev’s bridge with Newton and she smiled, “Destiny, I appreciate your willingness to attack the OA warships with your vessels, but you haven’t thought this through.”
“What do you mean? We should be able to go through their force fields with our ships.”
“OK, and then what?”
“What do you mean?”
“So now you’ve managed to get through their force fields, what happens next?”
“We release our warriors and take out the crew.”
“How?”
“We’ll use our fangs, like always.”
“Destiny, our scientists believe the skin of the OAs is more than seven-feet-thick and is the hardest substances we’ve ever encountered. Can your fangs penetrate the hulls of our Primes?”
Destiny stared at Danielle and Newton answered, “No, they can’t.”
“So now you’re on their ship and your warriors can’t harm the OAs on board. Do you know if they can harm you?” Both of the spiders were silent. “Your warriors are not completely covered by their armor; all the OAs would need to consume you is a small opening.”
“We don’t know if we’d survive,” Destiny said softly.
“Right, Destiny. If I had to say, you wouldn’t. Until we can find a way to penetrate those creature’s hides, it wouldn’t be feasible for you to attack them.”
Destiny went up and down and finally said, “We have enough damaged warships to provide you the materials you need to coat your Primes.”
“And I thank you for them. If anything changes, I’ll let you know.”
Danielle watched them teleport out and sighed; even the miracle substance used on their hulls wouldn’t be enough.
Chapter Ten
Danielle looked up as Tag joined her on the Kosiev’s bridge, “Hello, Honey.”
“What’s on your mind, Danielle.”
“Hey! How about a hug or something before business?!” Tag rolled his eyes, went to Danielle’s chair, and hugged her. “That’s better.”
“I’m sorry, Danielle. I’m neck deep in getting the Primes coated and…”
“I know. But I’ve been thinking about Dr. Taylor.”
Tag’s expression changed, “What about him?”
“He’s telepathic.”
“Yeah, so what?”
“Is he psychic?”
Tag’s head went back slightly, “I don’t know. I guess he could be if he’s telepathic. Why do you ask?”
“He’s appeared on the s
cene rather abruptly, wouldn’t you say?”
“I guess. What are you suggesting?”
“Could he be a tool of Creation?”
Tag went to his chair and sat down. He stared at the wall and then turned to Danielle, “I can’t sense anything about him.”
“If he were a new tool, you wouldn’t sense anything.” Tag stared at her and then nodded. “I want to use him to launch the Proton.”
“Danielle, that could cause some real problems.”
“Look, either he launches it, or we take a psychic ship to do it. Which would be more dangerous?”
“But if the Proton is detected, the OAs would know there is an advanced civilization out in creation.”
“It has to be done or we need to stop building psychic warships, Tag.”
“I know, I know.”
“We’re going to go and discuss it with him.”
“That’s why you had me come to the Kosiev.”
“It is.”
Tag shook his head, “This is more important than getting the Primes coated.”
“I thought you’d see it my way.” Danielle looked up, “Alex, take us to the defense facility and send a request for Dr. Taylor to meet with us at his earliest convenience.”
“Oh boy! Sending message and teleporting to Kelen.”
“Where is the Proton?”
Danielle smiled, “I have it in my purse.”
“Remind me to never open your purse.”
“I shouldn’t have to do that. There’s more there than the Proton.”
“Do tell!” Tag replied. Danielle laughed, as they saw the Defense Facility appear outside the Kosiev.
• • •
“Eddie.”
“Yes, Cali.”
“The King and Queen have requested a meeting with you as soon as possible.”
“When will they arrive?”
“They’re here now and will wait to meet with you.”
Eddie jerked his head up to the giant viewport high overhead and saw the giant psychic warship above the Defense Facility. “I wonder what they want?”
“Only one way to find out.”
“Contact them and tell them that now is as good a time as any.” Instantly, Eddie and Callie appeared on the Kosiev’s bridge. Eddie chuckled, “You must have been listening.”