by Saxon Andrew
Alex said, “That is not a good idea, Danielle!”
“Stay out of this, Alex.”
Trey looked at Cassie and she shrugged. Trey said, “Do you have them locked in, Grace?”
“Yes, Trey.”
“Well then, bring them aboard.”
Jake watched as a silver field fell on Tag and Danielle and they disappeared. He was not going to lower the force field for the Gardners to leave and their disappearance stunned him, “Alex, did they just teleport out of our field?”
Alex said, “I have no idea how they did that, Jake.”
Trey looked at the beings of legend standing on his bridge and was amazed at how young they appeared. He said, “Why did you want to come here?”
“Because we are going with you.”
Trey was stunned and Cassie said, “Why?”
“Because you’re right; the Stars Realm died. What is left behind is not worth saving.”
The four of them heard Sprig say over the speakers, “We’ll wait here for your return, Your Highness.”
Danielle said, “Sprig, why did you and Edison destroy those buoys?” Both remained silent until Tag said, “Edison?”
“Your Highness, after we left this universe, we were constantly barraged with cries for help from the worlds that were attacking each other. It was a constant struggle to prevent our Searchers and Adolescents from going back to take part in that civil war. The former citizens had to learn the value of what the Realm represented on their own without our interference. Remember, we had more than two million new planets that we rescued from the Keeper’s Universe that required all of our resources. We are still trying to bring them up to modern technology.”
Tag said, “Go on.”
“We couldn’t turn the buoys off and then reactivate them. If we turned them off, they would then be able to be scanned and found. We didn’t want an advanced sensor buoy falling into one of the Duke’s hands.”
Trey said, “So you destroyed them.”
Edison paused and said, “Yes.”
Danielle said, “These worlds were our responsibility! They were placed in a situation that we created because of our stupidity and weren’t to blame for the evil leaders that evolved out of a structure we built.”
Trey felt her anger. She and her husband were furious beyond words. He listened and saw the reason for the Realm’s actions.
Tag said, “Did it ever dawn on you to see what was happening here?”
Sprig said, “The death and destruction during the civil war horrified us beyond belief. All of my species could feel the pain and anguish of the millions that were dying. We intended to look but just couldn’t bring ourselves to do it.”
Weed said, “And as a result of your decision, more planets were destroyed here than were raped and killed in our galaxy when we were forced to kill to survive.”
Sprig said nothing.
Trey sent his mind to Sprig and had to withdraw immediately. The Algean’s mind was in more torment than was possible to bear. Trey said, “You need to help him...now!”
Sprig leaned to the side and then collapsed to the floor. Jake and Cassandra rushed up and grabbed him, but it was too late. Trey felt his anger die. Cassie looked at him and he said, “We should go home.”
Cassie said, “It was not our intent to harm any of you. I am so sorry the Realm has lost one of its giants. I’m sending you a frequency and if you want to speak with us again, come here and use it to contact us.”
Cassandra said, “What about Danielle and Tag?”
“We will not be going back to the Realm.”
Cassandra wailed, “Don’t leave us!”
“Cassandra, we were left behind long ago by rulers that lost their heart. If we stay any longer, we will lose ours as well.” Danielle turned to Trey and Cassie, “Will you take us with you, please.”
Trey said, “Are you coming to learn our secrets?”
Danielle said, “No, we are coming to be among those that still live by the values we established those long millennia ago. We need to go home.”
Cassie walked forward and hugged Danielle. “You are the Realm, Danielle. They just don’t know it.”
Trey looked at Tag and shrugged, “Welcome to our little Empire.”
Tag took Danielle from Cassie and hugged her tight. Danielle said, “Home is where the heart is, Trey. I saw just how big the hearts of your Parents and Grandparents were; that is what we long to be with again. Our hearts were once like that, but we lost ourselves along the way. Their sacrifice for those they were pledged to protect humbles me and reminds us of whom we should be.”
Jake and Cassandra stared at the main display as the huge white ship vanished. Cassandra knew what she had to do. Jake didn’t have a clue what to do.
Chapter Three
Danielle was sitting in a chair on the Bridge of the Robbins and saw the bright planet below. She remembered her first view of Ross and how the two looked so much alike. She looked at Tag sitting next to her and saw he felt it as well. She thought for a moment and said, “Alex?” Trey and Cassandra looked at her, wondering what she was doing.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Are you a clone of the Kosiev?”
“His cybernetic circuits were originally downloaded into me. I am a twin in a manner of speaking.”
“You’re different from him. You tried to warn our ship not to attack. The Kosiev would have never issued a warning.”
“I have lost that aggressive streak. Seeing the massive loss of life over the years has had an impact on me. Life has more importance to me than when I first came on line.”
“You also sound like two ships that I know who were alive. Are you alive as well?”
“I believe we are.”
“We?”
“Yes, Your Highness, I am Alex’s partner. My name is Grace.”
“You also sound familiar.”
“I was once Melanie Gardner’s Searcher. How is she doing?”
“Grace, I’m so sorry. Matt and Melanie decided more than eight hundred years ago to have their extended lives changed back to normal. They are no longer with us.”
“Why did they do that?”
Danielle looked at Tag and he said, “Some of us just couldn’t live with the suffering and deaths we left behind. Matt were affected more than any of us. It was Matt who discovered most of those member planets in our former universe. He just lost his heart after we left. Seeing so many of them being destroyed was more than he could bear. Melanie would not let him make that decision without joining him. They died happy, Grace. It was their suffering that probably caused Sprig to destroy the buoys. Their secret destruction did not change how Matt felt. He felt we should have stayed and in hindsight I find we should have listened to him.”
Trey listened to the exchange and began to feel remorse. There was never a simple answer to complex issues. The rage he felt toward his family’s death was directed at the Old Realm and he was beginning to see that it was misplaced. The Old Realm had its own suffering to cope with and he knew that even if they had come back, his family would have still died. He was also angry at Weed and Seed for not telling him about the destroyed buoys, but grudgingly saw that revealing that information would have served no purpose but to make his sorrow and anger worse. He knew they did it to spare him more pain. He looked over at the two Algeans and saw they were sad. Their leaves were brown and they were holding each other tightly. Trey said, “You did him a service.”
Weed turned toward Trey, “We never intended to cause him harm. He is a giant among our species and we caused his death.”
“I entered his mind briefly before he died and had to get out. He has been living a sorrowful existence since the day he ordered those buoys destroyed to protect his charges. I saw that once he learned that all the civilizations had been destroyed, his torment was unimaginable. At the end, he was yearning for release. He deliberately released the structures that held his mind together. He’s running around the Dorg-R
oss now being chased by Wes McCann. He’s in a happier place.”
“I can’t help but think we killed him.”
“His decisions are what killed him. He couldn’t live with them any longer. You are not to blame.”
Seed said, “Do you still blame the Realm for the loss of your family?”
Trey paused and thought about it, “I’m not really sure. Yesterday I was certain…but today…I don’t know. I know my anger is no longer present.”
Danielle said, “You two were not the cause of Sprig’s death. He had stopped taking part in the Realm’s activities hundreds of years ago and even Twig said he was just not himself anymore. Now we know why.” She turned to Trey, “We never asked about that psychic blast we felt.”
Trey took a deep breath and said, “That blast happened when Cassie and I were released.”
Danielle furrowed her brow and looked at Tag. He was just as stunned as she was and Danielle turned back and said, “That blast was stronger than any ever recorded.”
Cassie smiled, “Only forty percent of that blast was released into Creation. This ship caught and stored sixty percent of its energy.”
Tag said, “That’s impossible.”
“Maybe it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. This is the first truly psychic ship ever created and its power is growing from our auras.”
“Where did you learn to build it?”
Trey looked at Cassie and said, “I’m going to share a vision given to me. I think it will explain a lot.” Trey showed them his visit to the temple and then the vision of Creation. Danielle and Tag watched and afterwards they were silent. Trey watched them waiting for a response and after five minutes of silence he said, “What are you thinking?”
Danielle looked at him with tears welling up in her eyes and said, “We lost our way. We forgot our purpose and now we’ve been discarded by the force that created us. So much suffering we could have stopped. We are even guiltier than Sprig.”
Trey watched Tag get up and kneel in front of Danielle’s chair and say, “That’s why our psychics have lost their heart. They are no longer connected to Creation. All of us can feel it.”
Danielle buried her head in his shoulder and sobbed. Tag held her and heard her say, “So much wasted time; so many wasted lives.”
Trey looked at the two Algeans and said, “I’ll answer your question now. I no longer blame them.” Cassie came into Trey’s arms and put her head on his shoulder and thought to him, “I pray our love will be this strong.”
Trey continued to watch the Gardners and thought, “It will be.”
The Algeans, along with Grace and Alex, embraced the moment and felt the love of the two human couples. Alex felt something and looked at his readouts, “Grace, our power banks are at a hundred percent.”
Grace immediately scanned the readings and was shocked, “How? How…?”
“I don’t know, but it appears the two couples have doubled our power reserves.”
“We need to tell Trey.”
“Later, not at this moment.”
Grace looked back at the four humans and said, “You’re right. Not at this moment.”
• • •
The Four Council Members looked at the Distributor on their monitors. They had rushed back to their home world when they felt the huge blue psychic blast blow by their ships. Most of the other Demons were back and more were arriving every moment. All of them felt fear and their leaders were confused about what action to take. The First Councilor asked the others, “What do we do?”
No one responded so the Distributor said, “I suggest we launch another of the older fleets and start them harvesting as much Remid as possible.”
“Why should we do that?”
“We will all die if we run out of our supplies. We need to make plans for a long campaign and we must insure our supply.”
“Won’t those ships come and destroy our ships again?”
“If they have been tracking our movements, they must have seen that we have followed a direct course through the universal chain. We will go to a universe much further down the chain and I suspect if we go directly there and start our farming, we will go unnoticed.”
The First looked at the other three and they nodded, “Launch the fleet.” The First then said, “What do we do about that Creation Wave?”
The third said, “We need to get help.”
“What do you mean?”
“We should ask the Family about what we should do.”
The First felt his fear but forced it down, “They would derive great pleasure in killing us.”
“That would normally be true, but this is not normal. The strength of that wave must have caused them as much trepidation as us. They may welcome our help.”
The First looked at the others and said, “That will be an action of last resort. We should attempt to find where the blast originated before we even think about going back to the Family. Do you agree?”
Everyone hesitated but finally nodded.
The Distributor said, “How long will we search before we go?”
“Why do you ask?”
“I want to gather as much Remid as possible before we make that move. I want to make sure all of us have a large enough supply to last us a very long time if we are forced to run.”
The First Councilor said, “Send all four fleets out. We will collect our powder and then see what must be done.”
The Fourth said, “Are you sure you want to send the advanced ships?”
“If they can’t stand up to those ships, we might as well find out while they’re doing something productive. If, like the Distributor says, they probably won’t be followed, it’s worth the risk.”
The Distributor watched the four and said, “I’ll send them out immediately.”
• • •
Cassie sat in her chair with her eyes closed, watching the dimension of the Orange Demons. She had remained on the Robbins while Trey and the Gardners met with the Emperor. She had felt something tug at her subconscious, so she began searching for what caused it. She leaned back in her chair and just let her mind be free. After thirty minutes, she saw a huge glow and focused closely on what she was seeing. Millions of ships were leaving the Demon’s Dimension and jumping away. She started looking in the Realm’s dimension, fearing the worst. She waited and watched and after an hour nothing showed up. They weren’t going there. Where were they going?
She got up and had Greyson teleport her to the Emperor’s Quarters where Trey, Tag, and Danielle were meeting with Timmy and Virze. She appeared and the four of them stopped talking in midsentence. Trey looked at her, “What’s wrong?”
“The Demons have launched millions of ships.” She saw Danielle put her hand to her throat and she said, “I’ve not seen any of them go to the Realm.”
Timmy said, “What do you think they’re doing?”
Trey said, “Give us a moment.” He and Cassie held hands and pushed their view out to all of creation. They let their minds go free and after ten minutes they found the universes the Demons had jumped to. Trey opened his eyes and said, “They have invaded four universes, far down from their last conquest.”
“Why do you think they did that?”
“I’m not really sure, Your Majesty.”
Danielle said, “What do you mean by far down?”
Cassie said, “They have been invading universes sequentially for the last million years. Those universes are far beyond the last one they harvested. I suspect they are unaware that we can see their movements. Perhaps we should go confront them there?”
Danielle said, “Let’s see if we can figure this out.”
Trey looked at her and knew she was the best there had ever been at finding the truth. He saw Tag sit back in his chair and knew he had an idea about what was about to happen. “By all means, help us see it.”
“Why do they invade universes?”
“To harvest a powerful drug that they are dependent on.”
�
��How dependent are they?”
“We believe that if they quit taking it they will die from withdrawals and the death won’t be pretty.”
“Do they usually invade one universe at a time?”
“They always did before we destroyed their stock piles. Then they invaded with multiple fleets until they harvested enough to replenish the amount they lost. Once that supply was replenished, they went back to using one fleet.”
“Now they are using four fleets, so we can surmise that either they have had their stock piles reduced or they are going to build a larger amount in their inventories.” Danielle paused and asked, “Which feels right to you?”
Trey and Cassie said together, “They need a larger inventory.”
“Good, so now we have to ask why they would need a larger inventory. Are they using more or are they afraid they don’t have enough?”
Cassie said, “They’re worried about their supply. I’m certain their population isn’t growing. They must be worried about the amount they’ve stored. Something they’re planning has them worried.”
“Are we expecting them to do anything?”
Trey looked at Danielle and said, “How long did it take you to see this?”
Danielle shrugged, “It’s obvious if you think about it.”
“No it’s not.”
Timmy said, “See what?”
Trey said, “We expect the Orange Demons to go to the Dark Galaxy to contact the Red Demons that they think are still there for assistance. I’m sure they are stockpiling additional stores in the event that they are forced to run. I’m certain that they still fear the Dark Galaxy Demons.”
“Why would they go there in the first place?”
“The Psychic Blast from our release must have severely frightened them. They fear the Creative Force more than their ancestors. Once they have enough stockpiled, they will go to the Dark Galaxy in the Stars Realm.”
Danielle said, “So if you attack them now, what will they do?”
“They will go to the Realm much sooner.”
“They will learn if you go to their current invasions that you can see wherever they go and whatever they do. That will frighten them even more and they will go to the Realm immediately.”