by Saxon Andrew
The two small ships turned and moved away from the planet. Once they were a thousand miles from the planet’s surface they disappeared. The Warlord sat in his chair and felt his fear. Four days later when the ships returned that he thought destroyed he called in his military commander.
“Prepare a ship. We are going to Hugon.”
“They will kill you on sight if you go.”
“No they won’t. I think those that came meant their promise. I’ll be safer there than anywhere else in this universe. I want to hear what they have to say.”
“Your orders will be followed, Warlord.”
“Matt, the Gresh Warlord has just entered the Hugon system.”
“Thanks, Angel. I really didn’t expect him to come. Would you escort him in to the planet and assign two Red Warriors to take him to the meeting site.”
“I think it would be safer to just teleport his ship in and have the Warriors then teleport him to the site. I’m not sure the population would allow him to be escorted to the meeting.”
“Good idea, would you handle the details; I need to inform those here that he will be attending.”
“Consider it done. Would you mind if I attend. I’m interested in seeing what happens when he shows up?”
“Make sure one of the Defender Ships takes over for you.”
“I’ve already set it up.”
“Then perhaps you should come with the Warriors escorting him. Make sure Wings keeps an eye on you to screen you if necessary.”
“Will do; I’ll inform the Warlord of our arrangements.”
“On board the Gresh Battle ship the Warlord was looking at the huge Red ships around the planet. He was starting to have second thoughts about going when his communications console came on. “Welcome to our get together, Warlord.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m one of the commanders of the two ships that came to visit five rotations ago. We have guaranteed your safety so I want to make sure nothing happens while you are in our care. I need you to follow our plans to make sure of that.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“I am going to take your ship directly to the Planet. Once we arrive in orbit, one of our Defender Class vessels will move next to your ship and screen it to insure no one attempts to harm your vessel. We will be doing that in three intervals.”
The Warlord wondered how they were going to move inside the jump limit but before he could pose a question his ship was suddenly directly above the planet. Almost instantaneously one of the huge red ships appeared next to his ship. “You certainly don’t delay in your plans,” the Warlord said.
“Thank you. I am having two of my armored Warriors come to your bridge and they will take you to the meeting site. They will insure no one will harm you.”
“When will they arrive?”
“They are already there. Red Warriors, show yourselves.”
The Warlord nearly fell over his chair when two red colored beings appeared next to him. “I will be joining you and we will go to the planet together.” A third person appeared on his bridge and he noticed that this one was not armored and was small compared to the two warriors. “Are you ready to go?”
The Warlord looked at his bridge crew and saw they were frightened. Everyone had seen what these Red Warriors had done to their forces during the defeat they had just suffered. He looked at the small being and said, “I must confess that I have second thoughts about attending but I see you mean to protect me. I think it is important that I hear what you have to say. I’m in your power.”
Angel smiled at the Warlord knowing what courage he possessed to come. Perhaps there was hope of saving his race. The Warlord was about seven feet tall and probably massed as much as a Glod Warrior. He actually looked like a large Dremel except they were gold in color, two arms and legs, light covering of gold colored fur. His face was almost human in appearance except for the small slits for his eyes and a wide mouth. “Matt, are you ready?”
Matt pressed the button that sounded a tone and the huge gathering in the meeting hall grew quiet. “I will begin shortly but I have an announcement to make. I invited the Warlord of the Gresh to attend this meeting and though I didn’t expect him to come, he surprised me and is here.”
The room immediately exploded into bedlam. Everyone in the room was furious and yelling their outrage. Matt waited for a few moments and then hit the tone again at a volume that actually hurt. The room grew quiet. “I did not ask him here to resolve the issues between your worlds. He is not here for that purpose, however, I have guaranteed his safety and I trust all of you know by now that I keep my promises. If any of you threaten him in any way I will have the two Red Warriors escorting him eliminate the threat. He is here to listen to information that is important to your and his survival. He should hear what is going to be said. This hall is now a safe haven for anyone attending.” Matt looked out at the assembly and they could see he was absolutely serious about his promise.
Goige stood and said, “We will not violate your promise. We will settle our issues with the Gresh at a later date.” He then turned and said, “We would not be here today except for this being’s help in freeing us. We will not dishonor him by taking our revenge here.” Everyone was holding their anger under control.
Matt looked around the room and thought, “Bring him, Angel.”
The Warleader appeared off to the left of the assembly and was taken to a chair that Matt had brought in for him. The Two Red Warriors stood on each side of him and had their sensors on; everyone saw that their armor was active. The gathered attendees felt their anger turn to fear. No one wanted to do anything that would cause those warriors to act. A fourth smaller being arrived with the Warlord and moved to the stage and took a seat behind the speaker.
“First I want to introduce one of the commanders of our small ships that took part in the exercise at this planet. Her name is Angel and she has also guaranteed the Warlords safety.” No one made a sound. “The reason I have asked you here is because I want to explain to you why we intervened in your conflict. My leaders are members of a government that we call Stars Realm. Our Realm came into existence as the result of a galactic war where more than eight hundred worlds almost destroyed each other. We were able to prevent that destruction and now our Realm has more than seventy thousand members across this universe. We live in peace and we prosper together. We will not war against anyone but we will defend ourselves and those that are not able to defend themselves. We will not force our will on any civilization we encounter but will assist them if they so request. I want to make sure you understand that we will not endanger any race, even those that are aggressive. We will defend those attacked but not at the cost of killing another civilization. We believe in the sanctity of life and our prime directive is to save life where ever possible. I am a Searcher. I will tell you more about why I’m called that after I show you a recording that was made more than eight million of your cycles ago; we call a cycle a year. After you have viewed it, I will tell you what you’ve seen.”
A huge video screen as large as the stage dropped from the ceiling. A picture of a galaxy appeared and then the assembly saw the emergence of a huge green ship from a violet colored flash.
Matt sat down next to Angel and looked at her. “Is there anything you would like to say to the group?”
“No, you’re doing a fabulous job. You always seem to say just the right thing at just the right moment.”
Matt turned red and looked down. “Thanks, that means a lot.”
Angel shook her head. She had thought of Matt as a much older, wiser person after all of the events of the last two weeks. Now she realized that he was still just a twenty two year old young man. The dichotomy was interesting. He also seemed to be much more handsome than the time she knew him in the Academy. He was only about six foot tall but looked taller. His green eyes were bright and seemed to occasionally come on fire. His auburn colored hair was rare; she couldn’t recall ever having seen th
at shade before.
Matt for his part could stare at the beauty next to him on the stage for eternity. Angel was angelic; her black hair and hazel eyes were perfect. Her shape was perfect. Her mind was extraordinary. She was not tall; only five foot six, but she was something to behold. He sat there stealing glances at her and the four hours of video seemed to pass too quickly. Finally it ended and the room was deathly quiet.
Matt stood and approached the podium. The beings you have just seen are more than three hundred million cycles of your planet around the star old. They have come to our universe at least twice during that time and have totally consumed every intelligent race. The beings who recorded this were not consumed because their color was not seen by the invaders. Only one other race was not consumed during the last harvesting,” Matt noticed some in the crowd flinch at that word, “the second were intelligent beings that were part of their ships. They simply turned off their power and slept through the period. All other intelligent beings were consumed by these creatures that are called Eight Legs.”
Matt paused and looked back at the video screen which had a picture of an Eight Leg sinking its fangs into a victim. “Now for the important part; they are coming back and we have been informed by our leaders that the time is getting short.”
The crowd remained deathly quiet. Goige looked at the screen, “How do your leaders know this?”
“Our leaders are chosen for their psychic abilities. They possess the ability to sense when they are going to be placed in danger. Until recently, they have not sensed danger coming, however, now they can feel that sense of impending attack.”
One of the other planet’s leaders stood and asked, “What are you doing about it?”
“We are building ships like you have recently seen. We have more than five million of the small ships in our fleet and they are being used to search our universe for intelligent life and try to warn them of what’s coming. I am one of those Searchers and I have been assigned your galaxy. That is what brought us into contact with your civilizations.”
Angel was watching the Gresh Warlord and saw him flinch when Matt said five million ships. “Universe just got smaller for you,” she thought to herself.
“What can we do to protect ourselves? We don’t have your technology.”
“There are two things. First build enough ships to transport your populations and we will provide a planet for you to hide. We think we have a screen generator that will surround the planet with the color the eight Legs can’t see. You will remain there until they move to another universe.”
The Warlord said, “What’s the second choice.”
“Petition the King of the Stars Realm for membership. We will then bring our technology to your planet.” The room started talking among themselves and Matt sounded the tone. Once silence was restored he continued, “I know that some of you are thinking that this is a hoax and just a way to force you to join our Realm. We really don’t care whether you believe us or not. I should also tell you that just because you petition the King doesn’t mean you will be accepted into our Realm. We will not give our technology to any civilization that harbors aggressive intents. All of our members will give their lives to defend the other members and we will not tolerate any race that cannot live by our principles. We, however, cannot stand by and not try to save you; that’s why we offer the first choice. Quite frankly, some of you would not be allowed to join our Realm because of your aggressive behaviors or your desire for revenge.”
Angel stood and joined Matt at the podium. Matt looked at her and she tuned to the crowd, “There is a third option.” Everyone grew silent to hear what it was. “Don’t believe us and just go your way as you have always done. Convince yourself that we were trying to take advantage of you and that you were too wise to fall for our obviously false statements. You should understand that we don’t want anyone in the Realm that cannot embrace our reverence of life. We will never force anyone to accept our views.” She looked up at Matt and then said, “We know that to ignore civilizations and not try to help them goes against everything we hold holy. We have told you and now if anything happens, we can hold our head high and maintain our sense of worth. To do otherwise would erode our belief structure.”
Matt then turned and faced the assembly, “We are going to leave your worlds.” He looked at the Warlord and said, “We have agreed to come to the defense of the planets you attacked. We are leaving a device they can use to contact us.”
“What if they attack me,” the Warleader asked?
“Then they forfeit our good will and defense. I suspect, however, Warlord, that you are fully capable of defending yourself. Most of your fleet is still intact.”
The Warleader stood facing the stage, “I am going to order all of my military forces recalled and all of our warships converted to commercial vessels. I will also disarm our more violent nobles. We will remove any mechanism of war from my planet within the next hundred rotations and will not build any in the future.”
The entire room was stunned. Matt looked at Angel then back at the Warleader, “What is your intent in performing those actions?”
“I fully intend to petition your King for membership. I am going to do everything in my power to do the things necessary to persuade him of our sincerity. I sense that you are being truthful and the time is short.”
Matt looked at the Warleader and could tell he was serious. He closed his eyes and he could actually hear the Warleader’s thoughts. “Warleader, why did you attack the eight planets?”
“Why to protect ourselves from their planned aggression.”
The entire room stood and started yelling. Matt looked at Angel and saw confusion on her face. “Stem, are you watching this?”
“Yes, I am and I must confess that I’m uncertain of what is happening.”
“I need you to perform an experiment with me. Will you help me?”
“What is it that you need, Searcher?”
“I need the coordinates of the ships that are waiting for a pilot. I also want you to teleport down here and take the Warleader and me with you to their location. Angel, I need you to maintain order until we return.”
“Why would you possibly want that?”
“I have a feeling and I need to see if I’m right. Will you do it for me, Stem?”
“On my way.”
Matt hit the loud tone and said, “I am going to make a short trip with the Warleader. I want everyone here to wait for us to return.” The Warleader looked puzzled when suddenly a plant appeared next to him and in the next instant the plant, the Warleader, and Matt disappeared from the meeting hall… and reappeared on a large flat barren plane with numerous rows of ships.
The Warleader looked at the ships and said, “They’re absolutely beautiful.”
Matt walked up to the Warleader and said, “I want you to try something.” The Warleader forced his attention away from the ships, looked at him, and nodded. “I want you to look out at those ships and command them to rise.”
“What are you doing, Matt,” Stem asked quickly.
“I’m going to administer some healing but first I have to see who is really sick.”
The Warleader looked out at the rows of ships and was lost in their beauty. He thought, “Rise, oh beauty, rise.”
On the back row twenty ships lifted off the ground. Stem was stunned silent. Matt then said, “You can lower them now.” The twenty ships returned to the ground.
The Warleader looked at Matt and said, “This is how you feel about your friend, isn’t it.”
“Yes it is, Warleader, and it’s surprising that you know that it’s a friend.”
“How could it be anything else? They are miraculous creations.”
“What’s going on, Matt,” Stem asked?
“Stem, we have found a race of very high powered psychics. The Gresh are not an aggressive people by nature, and Warleader, you can correct me anytime I say something that is untrue, but found that they had to learn war to protect
themselves from the members of the eight planet trading partners. His people could sense the danger they represented to his race. The Gresh knew they were going to come and destroy them.”
“We could actually sense it long before we developed space travel. We knew they were in our future and we were doomed unless we could stop them.”
Stem leaned to the side showing his shock. “So you attacked them because of your sense of impending doom.”
“Yes.”
“Why were you so brutal to their populations?”
“We have been sensing their danger for more than a hundred generations. That built up a tremendous amount of pressure on our minds. My warriors felt they had to be destroyed to protect our people. We saw them killing every member of my race.”
“Why are you giving up your weapons now,” Stem asked?
“Because I could see the truth in your recording and part of the danger we felt was not from them but from the coming horde. Your psychics are right; they will be here in less than six cycles from now.”
Matt and Stem were speechless. What is your name, Warleader?”
“My name is Life. All of our Warlords are named Life for their prime responsibility; saving their people.”
Matt stared at the huge Gresh, “I am no longer going to address you as Warlord. I am going to call you Life.”
“If you will give me one of those ships, you can call me whatever you want. My life will not be complete unless I can have a friend like yours.”
Stem looked at the two and asked, “Life, how many of your people possess the mental skills you’ve shown us?”
“Why, all of us.”
Stem looked at Matt stunned, “By the creator, the universe is full of surprises.”
“We have one more task to perform.”
Stem nodded and punched his teleport device.
Matt and Life reappeared on the stage at the meeting and the room fell silent. Matt looked out at the assembly and everyone could see the almost anger on his face. Angel began to worry about the safety of the Gresh. She wondered what the Warlord had done to make Matt so stern.