by Saxon Andrew
The fourteen million white ships jumped to their original targets and made short work of the mother ships. They then rushed to the planet below to sate their hunger. After ten hours, the Clan Leader saw a message on his board and felt immediate fear. “Stop eating and return to your ships. We have been ordered back to our world by our maker.”
The billions of the White Clan stopped instantly and lifted off planet. Not one of them wanted to anger the Maker. They boarded their ships and shivered hoping the Maker wasn’t angry.
“Very impressive.”
“I thought you would like the demonstration.”
“I notice you gave them the ability to jump directly to a planet.”
“I just couldn’t justify the waste of time having to move in from the gravity belt. The old tool wasn’t given this technology because I enjoyed watching the fear of the planets being attacked.”
“And now?”
“It bores me.”
“Destroying large populations was a nice touch. Is there enough left to feed them afterwards?”
The Red Being smiled, “I made them eat the ones they killed but they survive on the energy their ships collect from the stars in the attacked system. They have no real need to eat but I thought it was the environmentally right thing to do to remove all the waste.”
The first red being looked at the second with an expression that showed his disbelief, “Oh you are so sarcastic; environmentally right thing my crooked left leg. When have you ever worried about the environment?”
The Red Being laughed out loud holding his sides, “You’re right, I only set it up for this one demonstration. I thought you would find it funny. The final product will just leave the dead behind. You caught me. Don’t you find it humorous?”
The first red being laughed and said, “Yes, it was a nice touch; I also see you don’t have them collecting any information from those they kill.”
“I originally added that so the tool would be able to develop whatever it needed to be effective over its millions of years use. I hate taking time on them. They never added anything to their weapons so it was a wasted effort.”
“Why develop anything if you never lose? Do you think there might be anything they collected of interest to us?”
“They killed almost every one they encountered. If those attacked had anything of use my tool wouldn’t have been successful.”
The first thought a moment, “There was one instance.”
“It’s being handled.”
“I suppose you’re right. What now?”
“I see no reason not to go ahead and make the necessary numbers to replace the current tool. It will take some time for me to make that happen and there is a little fine tuning left to finish. The means to remove them if necessary needs some work but I don’t see it taking much longer.”
“What about those you just used?”
“I have to bring them back to make the necessary numbers. I’m sure they won’t like it but what choice do they have. I’ll stun them so they won’t be a nuisance. I also need to manufacture their ships. Do you have any other concerns?”
“No, but if I think of any I’ll let you know.”
“You always do.”
“Nest Mother, one of our families sent to harvest is not reporting.”
The Nest Mother felt her fear, “Send ten ships to investigate. Report back immediately.”
Ten Green Main Ships entered the targeted universe and did not detect any of the Main Ships that had come to harvest. “Sensor Leader, do you detect any of our ships?”
“No, First Fang but there are grounded transports on numerous planets. I do not detect any life around them.”
The Supreme Male looked at his display and decided, “We will take nine ships to one of the planets and investigate. Leave one here up against the entry point ready to jump instantly if anything appears.”
“It will be as you order, First Fang.”
The nine main ships jumped to a planet where hundreds of grounded transports were seen on the surface and moved in system. Eight hours later they arrived above the planet’s surface and saw the devastation. Cities were burned and billions of bodies were lying everywhere. They also saw millions of their warriors scattered around the ships they had used to land. Most had not moved very far from their landing site; whatever had killed them had done it extremely fast.
“Send a transport down and see what happened.”
The transport landed and saw the atrocity. Millions of their brothers were laying where they had been ripped to pieces. Some had holes burned through them that cooked the Eight Leg inside its armor. The Landing Leader was sickened, “First Fang.”
“What have you found?”
“Something has killed our brothers here. They have ripped through our green armor with some kind of sharp object and killed millions of our family. They also possess some kind of energy weapon that was not stopped by our armor. The local inhabitants are all killed in the same manner and they were killed in huge numbers by some kind of beam weapon. It looks like the cities were struck from above, so it is my guess that they were fired on from above the planet’s atmosphere.”
The Supreme Male looked over at his Sensor Leader, “How many planets still have intelligent life?”
The Sensor Leader looked at his board and said, “None.”
“There were millions reported here.”
“They no longer exist, First Fang. Someone has killed them all.”
The Supreme Male knew there was no way this family could have done what they were witnessing. It had only been a short time since their harvest started and less than a quarter of this universe could have been collected in the time since their arrival. Someone else was killing intelligent life and it was also able to kill them.”
“Recall the transport and tell the Transport Leader to download what he has collected as soon as he arrives on board. Prepare to leave immediately.”
The Nest Mother looked at the collected information and knew real fear. She deduced that the first universe that had stopped her harvest did not do what she saw in the second. She knew that the being had not lied when he said that the missing Mother Ship was now a friend. She also thought that if the first universe had a universal drive to go to any universe without being limited to one door, then they would be coming here. It also didn’t make sense to threaten to kill her for killing intelligent life and then go out and do the same thing.
If not them, then who could have done this? Then she thought about the being that had made her species intelligent. This had to be their doing. This must be a new species being controlled and this was one that represented a real danger to her and her families. She fought hard but then ordered another harvesting. She tried to resist but could not overcome the compulsion. She feared for herself and her children.
Two weeks had passed since Sprig was charged with coming up with a plan to try and save the Nest Mother. The round table was full with Matt and Melanie at the head of the table and all the other attendees were seated by species. Matt looked around the table, “What have you come up with?”
Sprig stood, “We have been working to prepare a ship that can take us to the Nest Mother’s location. We decided to work on making a defender class vessel the instrument that might carry out our plan. Destiny has converted the drive system so that it can jump into other universes. Newton has connected his repulsion device to a red generator and it should keep the Green ships away from us long enough to make our attempt. We’re hoping our red screen will allow us to get close enough without being detected so we can launch a penetrator to pierce the hull of her ship.”
Matt took his hand off his chin and asked, “Do we have a penetrator that can penetrate a hundred miles?”
“We actually have quite a few that could get through that far; however, it is going to take two more special penetrators to make a hole big enough for our purposes.”
Melanie tilted her head to the right, “What do you mean by that?”
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Sprig looked at the Royal Couple and said, “We are going to blow a hole through the hull big enough for two searcher vessels to fly into the core of the ship.”
“Isn’t that dangerous; how are they going to escape?”
“We will fire a second penetrator through the same hole that will be tipped with an extremely hot Coronado Power Cell that will burn all the standard materials used inside the ship all the way to the hull on the opposite side. The third penetrator will follow the second and should pass completely through the ship and exit the hull providing an escape route out. The three penetrators will be launched simultaneously with a half second spacing between them; the two ships will follow the third penetrator through the hole and stop only long enough to teleport the queen into one ship and her command chamber into the second.”
Matt said, “You have got to be kidding. Do we have that kind of control in aiming the penetrators? Why do you need the command chamber?”
“We believe we can do it. The hull is too thick to teleport them out so we have to bring them out to us, teleport the two ships to the defender, and then escape to our universe. All we need to do is fire the penetrators at a section of the hull where they pass through close to the center. They will go out as one unit and will all hit the same strike point.”
“Why the command chamber?”
“Oh yes, I skipped that point. If we are going to break the compulsions controlling the Nest Mother, we have to do it with the leg receptacles. Einstein has studied pictures of the command chamber in his ship’s data and it is his belief that the chamber is totally self-sufficient. All of the power supply, atmosphere generators, and connectors are in a room slightly smaller than the size of a searcher ship’s landing bay. It is not made of the green matter so it should teleport normally. Before you ask why we don’t just teleport both of them together, consider that we don’t want her to send a distress call to her creators through those receptacles.”
Just who is the commander of the defender class vessel being sent to do this?”
Sprig looked at Destiny and the Spider rose on his eight legs, “I am, Your Highness.”
Matt started and said, “I am not willing to risk losing you, Destiny.”
Destiny lowered himself, “I am sorry to disappoint you your highness, however, we are the only ones that know how to control the universal drive. We do not have time to train anyone else in time to make this mission possible. The drive requires eight different tasks to be done together and unfortunately, we are the only ones in the Realm with eight appendages.”
“Who are the Searchers chosen for this mission?”
Life stood and said “Grena and me, your majesty.”
Matt shook his head, “Why are we risking some of our most valuable assets in this exercise?”
Sprig leaned forward, “Your Majesty, this exercise will determine our future efforts against the beings in that galaxy. If we are unsuccessful, then we will probably turn to developing weapons. Our armed forces will have very little to do for many years. It is thus incumbent upon us to use the absolute best personnel to maximize our chances of success. The Gresh have the best vision of all our Searchers and their depth perception is the best. Their natural psychic skills will also keep the two connected mentally such that they should be acting together with no communication delay. Destiny and his children know the place we are going and are best qualified to navigate us there. I am the best at teleportation devices so I will be there as well.”
“Sorry, Sprig; you cannot go.”
Sprig looked at Matt, “Why not?”
“Because you are in line for the throne of the Realm and are prohibited from combat operations. This is not a rule I’ll ignore.”
Sprig lowered his branches and Twig said, “I’ll go.”
Matt shook his head, “The answer is no for the same reason.”
Stem moved forward, “I’ll go, Father. I have all of your memories and I do understand the teleportation processes.”
Sprig turned to Stem and showed his disappointment at missing the exercise, “You would be a good substitute for us. You will go in our place. Enjoy life while you’re young. I envy you.”
Melanie looked at Sprig, “When are you planning to do this?”
“We are installing the repulsion screen on Life’s and Grena’s ships as we speak. The defender class vessel is ready and Destiny and Edison will check out the universal drive later today. Newton and Einstein are downloading the coordinates of the Nest Mother’s chamber into the Searcher’s computers. In the event we’re successful, we have built a facility to hold the chamber for our tests and we’ve selected a planet with enough food to keep her fed while we work on the chamber. If all goes well, we will jump to their universe tomorrow. We don’t have much time before the Reg implement their block, so time is essential. If we fail to get the Nest Mother, then we are going to fire a load of iron-tree balls into the green command vessel and jump back home.”
“I hope we aren’t forced to do that.” Matt thought a moment then looked at Destiny, “What happens if we are successful and take the Nest Mother? What will those left behind do in her absence?”
“I’m not certain. I suspect the senior Supreme Male will assume command. If we take the command chamber, then he will have no reason to hatch a new Mother. He’ll know that without the chamber the new mother would be useless. Perhaps he will get the scientists focused on building a universal drive that would allow them to come after her. That should fail in that we have never found a generator powerful enough to make it work. Either way, we are going to need her assistance to save the other members of my species. She is going to be the key to our success. If we killed her, we would have to kill every Supreme Male on every ship and I just don’t see that happening. She is our only chance at making this work and anything else would be wasted effort. This is literally all or nothing.”
“How are you going to remove her compulsions?”
Sprig looked at Melanie, “Einstein, Newton, and Freud are working on developing a virus that will attack the instructions that allow them to be implanted. Once that program sees their structure, then another virus will be downloaded into the Nest Mother, hopefully canceling the compulsions. All of this is speculative until we can actually see the device that puts the compulsions in her.”
Matt sighed and looked at the gathered group, “Life, do you think the two of you can pull this off?”
Life and Grena looked at each other and smiled, “I don’t know, Your Majesty, but it will be huge fun trying. I’m sorry you can’t tag along.”
Matt smiled and said, “Good luck with your plan. We’ll keep the light on in the guest quarters. This meeting is adjourned. Notify me of the results.”
Stem looked at the bridge crew of Stars End and thought they were very efficient at their tasks. The ships’ commander was Admiral Sen-gen who was chosen by Admiral Kosiev for this particular mission. The huge Glod female filled her command chair and kept a close eye on the activities of the bridge crew. “Are the Red Warriors on board yet?”
Captain Mendel looked at his board, “Yes Sir, both teams are in the forward ready room checking their weapons.”
“Make sure they are ready before the jump. They may have to repel borders.”
“Yes Sir.”
Sen-Gen looked at Stem and said, “Sir, we are almost ready for the jump. The eight penetrators are locked in place and their systems are active.”
Stem leaned back, “I thought we were only firing three.”
“That is the plan, but I’m not taking any chances on penetration. If the first doesn’t make it through the hull then another will follow it and then we’ll fire two more to breach the other side of the ship. The two Searchers will be notified when to launch.”
“What happens if four don’t penetrate?”
“I am authorized at that point to launch the other four main penetrators and kill everything in that vessel.”
“Keep me notified Admiral.”
Stem went to the teleportation panel and checked the modulator and power readings. These screens must be timed perfectly and only cover the object being moved. It wouldn’t be good if Eight Leg Warriors were brought on Life’s and Grena’s ships. He checked their calibration again.