by Saxon Andrew
Eddie looked up, “That would be so incredibly selfish for me to ask you to endure that, Bong. You should go and find an Algean that suits you. Do not allow them to choose the one for you; you pick the one you want.”
“Why do you say this?”
“Because I love you, Bong and giving up your intelligence is something I could not bear.”
“But you would demand that Cali should give up ever loving anyone again; how is that different?” Eddie was silent, and Bong finally asked, “Is that you acting selfish again?”
Eddie sighed and shook his head, “Yes, I guess it is.”
“And you refusing to ever love again, is that Cali being selfish?” Eddie was silent and refused to answer. Bong finally asked, “Or is that you being selfish again?”
“I loved her, Bong.”
“And I love you, Ed. But you say wanting me to unite with another is the right thing to do. How is it wrong for you to do the same? If it’s wrong for you, it’s wrong for me.”
“I don’t see myself as being worthy of love, Bong. You are more deserving of it than anyone I’ve ever known.”
“And you deserve it even more than me, Ed; especially with all that life has thrown at you. Your heart is pure, and you don’t deserve to punish yourself for things you had nothing to do with.” Bong paused and then said, “My species believes that there is another life after this one and we’ll be with all those that died before us. Do you believe that?”
“I don’t know?”
“Ed, if it is true that one day you’ll see Cali again, what do you think she’ll say to you for blaming her death for having a miserable life? Yet you say you’d want her to suffer if you died. Is that really love?”
“Bong, please!”
“I’ll back off, Ed. But if it’s wrong for you, it’s wrong for me.”
Eddie sat in his office until late in the morning.
• • •
The OA Monitor just couldn’t get the civilization with yellow colored warships out of his mind. He knew that to pursue it any further would be a huge mistake…but…something just didn’t seem right. He pulled up the data from the probe that he initially sent and started looking at the data again. He also did the normal work he was sent but used a portion of his mind to examine what the probe uncovered. Once again, he didn’t find any evidence to indicate the destroyed ships weren’t killed by a plague.
Then he went into the probes secondary data. The secondary data was information that was deemed trivial and unimportant. He began looking at the individual ships and saw that the probe had recorded the data from the universal drives. He looked at one ship’s drive and saw a coordinate just before its last jump. He stared at it and shrugged it off. Those ships were constantly attacking other universes and he saw why the probe didn’t consider the coordinate important. He looked at fifteen-yellow-ships and discovered that half-of-them had the same coordinate. He entered a query and discovered that thousands-of-warships had the same coordinate as the last one before returning to their positions in their universes.
Ummm, was it possible they picked up the plague or virus from that coordinate? They hadn’t gone anywhere else before they were killed. The destroyed ships all had close to the same time on their stardrives, which meant they left that coordinate around the same moment. He made a decision and organized all the data, packaged it, and sent it to the Senior Monitor. This could be a huge mistake, but he wanted to get this off his mind. It didn’t take long for the Senior Monitor to contact him.
• • •
“Why did you send me this data?”
“It’s been troubling me since the probe collected it. Something just doesn’t seem right.”
“They died to fast,” the Senior Monitor stated.
“That’s what’s been bothering me. The disappearance of all those ships is also disconcerting.”
“This does have all the earmarks of a virulent plague.”
“That’s why I’ve not contacted you before. But I need to see if I’m acting foolish about this and your wisdom can help me with that issue.”
The Senior Monitor stared at the data and then said, “Send a probe to those coordinates and report back to me on what it finds.” The image disappeared from his communicator and the Monitor sent instructions to a probe. It turned to the other displays around it and wondered what it would find.
• • •
Several years earlier, the Realm had removed all of its warships from the universe where the horrific battle with the Yellow Warships had taken place. The Bears weren’t as certain about making that decision and left several of their probes scattered around the site of the battle. They had been under attack by the Yellow Warships for more than a thousand years and didn’t trust nothing would happen; they proved to be right. The OA probe arrived at the battle site and began scanning the universe. The Bear Probes began transmitting and the Probe detected them. It opened fire on the Bear Probes and blasted them into vapor, but not before two-of-them had sent an image of the probe to a central location. The Bears saw the image of the OA probe appear just before the transmissions ceased and sent a warship to warn the Realm; the OAs were getting close to the Realm.
• • •
The monitor received the data from the probe and stopped working on anything else. He forwarded it to the Senior Monitor as he tried to figure out what was going on. The Senior Monitor appeared on his display and asked, “What do you make of this?”
“It doesn’t really make sense.”
“Tell me what you see.”
The Monitor hesitated and then began, “We know that large numbers of Yellow Warships went to that universe, however, it appears no civilization there was attacked. If they sent a fleet, they should have begun removing the civilizations in that universe; that is what they did. But none of them appear to have been attacked.”
The Senior Monitor flashed his agreement, “And there were probes around that location.”
The Monitor agreed, “Which says that something happened at that location. Could the Yellow Warships have been infected at that site?”
“That’s possible, but I doubt it.”
“Why not?” the Monitor asked.
“I’ve looked at the speed that the Yellow Civilization stopped communicating and if they were infected there, they would have never made it back to their home universe.”
“I’ve also been bothered by all of them dying at the same moment,” The monitor added. “For it to be a plague, it would have had to expose all of the crews on all of their warships; you know that some ships don’t come into contact with any other ships for extended periods of time. If it was a plague, it somehow waited until all of them were exposed and then activated to kill them all at the same moment.”
The Senior Monitor paused and then said, “Which means it was a weapon.” The monitor flashed agreement. “I’m going to discuss this with the council. I notice that the universe where those coordinates lie has populations above the critical threshold. We may need to put this one on the schedule for attack.”
“If they have a plague weapon, should we consume them?”
The Senior Monitor paused, “You make an excellent point. I’ll let the Council decide that issue. Inform me if you find anything else.” The display went dark and the Monitor began wondering if what killed the yellow civilization could kill his species as well. There was still not enough information to know. He sent the probe directions to scout the universe for attack. He sat back and wondered what it would find.
• • •
Danielle had an agonized expression as she turned to Tag, “How did they find that universe?!”
“I suspect they found the coordinates for it in one of the yellow ships their probe originally found.”
“But that was years ago!”
“One of them must have checked the data again and found it. I’m just guessing here but that seems like the most likely scenario.”
Danielle’s expression hardened, “I will
not stand idly by and watch that universe destroyed due to our actions!!”
“And what do you suggest we do to prevent it, Danielle? We are nowhere near being able to stand up to them, especially their giant motherships.”
“Call a meeting of all the Senior Leaders on the Defense Facility. Let them know about the probe and tell them to come prepared with plans to stop that universe’s destruction.”
Tag stared at Danielle and said bleakly, “Danielle, we can’t put the genie back in this bottle. I can prevent exposing other universes to this danger but what’s done is done.”
“That’s not good enough, Tag. Find a way to stop this!”
Tag exhaled sharply and said, “Alex, notify all of the Realm’s Senior Military Officers and Royalty to plan to attend a meeting on the defense facility at 1 PM ship’s time tomorrow. Tell them the Queen wants them to develop a plann to stop the universe’s destruction where the probe appeared.”
“Does that include the Bears and Algeans?”
“Yes, it does, Alex.’
Tag sat next to Danielle and didn’t like the box Danielle was putting the New Stars Realm into. But he didn’t have a choice; it was her show and he was along for the ride. If she wouldn’t budge on this issue, the Realm could be destroyed. He looked around the room and saw the Senior Admirals sitting together with their heads together. He challenged Sprigly for being with them but was informed the Senior Elder had made him the Supreme Commander of the Algean Navy. That was just great! If this happened, Sprigly wouldn’t stand much of a chance of surviving. The Bear Senior Commander teleported in and joined the Admirals as Jimmy, Lola, Rose, JP, and Emperor James Robbins arrived together.
Tag glanced at the Senior Admirals and saw Admiral Taylor had brought his weapons officer with him. She stood slightly away from the Admirals and listened in. Tag was surprised at how much she looked like her deceased older sister. She was now about Cali’s age when she died, and the resemblance was remarkable. He looked at Rose and saw her glaring at him. He raised his shoulders slightly and tilted his head; telling her it was out of his hands.
Danielle spoke over the conference room’s PA system, “Please take your seats.” Everyone moved around the large round table, sat down, and stared at Danielle. “I asked you to come up with a plan to prevent the universe we used at bait for the yellow attack from being destroyed. Who would like to begin?”
James’ expression was grave, and he was the first to speak, “What are you trying to do, Your Majesty?”
Danielle turned to him, “We used an innocent universe to lure the yellow warships to it. That was wrong, and I will not make the wrong worse. We must prevent that universe from being destroyed due to our actions.”
James expression turned Grim, “Your Majesty, the OAs already have a probe there and it is scouting that universe for a coming attack. Just what do you think we can possibly do to stop them?”
“I commanded all of you to develop a plan to make that happen! I will not allow an innocent universe to die because of our behaviors!” Danielle turned to the Admirals, “What have you come up with?”
The admirals were silent and Sprigly waited to see if anyone was going to speak. No one did, so he spoke up, “Your Majesty, we do not possess the technology to defeat them. If we go and meet them there, that universe will die.”
“It’s my understanding that we can destroy their warships.”
Sprigly leaned left, “That is true, Your Majesty. However, we have nothing in our inventory that can harm their giant motherships. If we attack them, we, along with all our warships, will be destroyed.”
“If it comes down to that, so be it!” Danielle said with her eyes barely more than slits.”
Rose stared at Danielle and quickly asked, “Your Majesty, did you not approve us drawing the yellow formation to that universe?” Danielle turned to her and nodded slightly. “If doing that was so wrong, why did you allow it?”
“I let my fear get the best of me. But I will not give into my fear again.”
James interrupted, “Are you saying that you are willing to sacrifice the Realm to help you deal with your guilt?” Danielle glared at James and he stood up and placed his hands on the table and leaned toward her, “None of us can change what happened. But it’s done. What would be happening now if we hadn’t done it?”
Danielle was silent and Sprigly spoke up, “That probe would now be scouting the Realm’s Universe. The tactic worked, and it buys us time to try and come up with a way to defeat their largest warships.”
“We were wrong to do it and we must prevent that universe from dying because of our bad behavior.”
James interrupted, “Even if the Realm has to die in the effort?”
“YES!” Danielle shouted.
Rose stared at her mother and asked softly, “When you accepted the New Stars Realm crown, what did you promise?” Danielle turned to her and was silent. Rose waited and finally said, “You swore to defend the Realm against all enemies to the best of your ability. You are now defending that universe and ignoring the danger to the Realm your orders would cause.”
Danielle glared at Rose and then looked around the room. “The Stars Realm was founded on principles of always doing the right thing. We forgot those principles when we used that universe as bait. It is the Realm’s fault they are in danger; we must correct that wrong; I refuse to sell my soul by continuing this.”
“Meaning no disrespect, Your Majesty, but it’s not your soul that worries me!” James said loudly, “It’s the trillions of souls in the Realm you willingly put in danger to satisfy your guilt trip.”
Danielle stood up with an expression of rage on her face, Tag put his hand on her arm, “SIT DOWN!” Danielle jerked her head around to him and Tag glared into her eyes and said, “I promised you I would never put another universe in jeopardy to save us. You agreed to doing this and you, along with everyone here, is responsible for using that universe for our selfish needs! Do you honestly think that by attacking the OAs with the Realm’s forces that it will save that universe?” Danielle sat down and continued to glare at him. “DO YOU?!”
Sprigly broke the silence, “Your Majesties, we know that when the OAs attack a universe, they scout the surrounding universes to see if there are enough intelligent civilizations for them to continue their attack; the Realm is within four universes of the one in question. Even if we brought them here first, they would finish us and then go there and kill them.”
Danielle turned to Sprigly, “That universe deserves our best effort to prevent their deaths! If we fail, then we will have done the right thing.”
Sprigly lowered his branches, “Danielle, I will follow your orders to the death. But we cannot defeat them now. By allowing them to attack that universe, we buy some time to try and come up with something. That was the intention of doing it.”
Danielle took a deep breath and glanced at Tag before answering Sprigly, “Most of the Realm’s important Galaxies are in the Dark Dimension where they will be safe. No one will survive in that innocent universe.”
Sprigly shook his branches, “Danielle, perhaps you’ve not seen the latest scouting reports on the OAs.”
“What are you talking about, Sprigly.”
“Admiral Taylor has confirmed that when the OAs scout a new universe to attack, the probes they use go into the dimensions closest to it and scout them as well. The Dark Dimension will be discovered by them if they invade the Realm’s Universe.”
Danielle jerked her head to Eddie and he nodded, “Sprigly is right, Your Majesty. They don’t expect to find anything but it’s part of their attack protocols to investigate the closest dimensions.”
Danielle’s eyes flew wide open and she turned to Tag and saw his eyes close as he nodded. “You knew this?”
“We’ve just found out.”
Danielle glared at him and then turned to the attendees, “I cannot rule the Realm with this burden hanging over me. I hereby abdicate the crown and Rose Gardner is now the
Queen of the New Stars Realm.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The room exploded with everyone shouting at the top of their voice as Tag took Danielle into his arms. He squeezed her tightly and whispered, “I understand, my love.” Danielle was weeping in his arms and he turned and looked out at the attendees, before shouting at the top of his voice, “BE SILENT NOW!!” The room instantly grew silent. Tag continued to hold Danielle and said with a grim expression, “Danielle has been forced to live with what we’ve done to endanger that innocent universe and her sorrow is killing her. Rose, the Realm is yours and you will make the decisions on how to defend it. I also abdicate my crown and we will not lead the Realm from this moment forward!”
“But we need you!!”
Tag smiled slightly, “I didn’t say we wouldn’t fight to defend the Realm, but we will not make any decisions that will cause that innocent universe to die.”
Rose was shaking her head and everyone in the room was staring at her, as they heard a soft voice say, “Perhaps there’s a way to defend that universe and prevent them from coming to the Realm as well.”
Everyone in the room turned to stare at Janie, who was sitting in a chair to the side of the table. Rose’s eyes narrowed, “Who are you?”
Eddie quickly spoke up, “She is my second-in-command on the Nightmare. I asked her to come with me because she sees things others miss.”
Rose shook her head, “I’ve been stuck on Ross too long. What are you talking about?”
“Well, if you don’t want the OAs to attack that universe or the Realm, then you only have one choice to prevent it.”
“What is that?”
“You attack them somewhere else and force them to concentrate on that place, thereby delaying their attack here.” The room was silent, and Janie shrugged, “The OAs have one more universe to attack in the ones they’re currently located. Perhaps, we should hit them there and try to delay them coming here.”
“But we can’t defeat their motherships!” James said loudly.
“No, but we can certainly take out a huge number of their warships, before they come here. Those Motherships aren’t capable of landing on a planet and they’ll have to rebuild their warships before they launch another attack.”