by Saxon Andrew
“No, BC. I want you to finish downloading our learning center and add whatever you have to its core. None of us knows what happened to the Keepers. It would be nice to have that information available for our children.”
“If you need me, let me know.”
“I will.”
Two days later, Jess flew through a silver field and Bleath and Vring appeared over the planet of their imprinted memories. They saw the ancient mountains running along the vast sea. They viewed the light smoky air, which was a product of decomposing residue under the great trees. Sunlight broke it apart and left a light haze in the atmosphere. Jess took them to the far right mountain and they flew out of the cargo door. She stayed high above, scanning them down to the surface. Thousands of Zord lifted to welcome them, and Jess saw the joy of the rising flyers. She waited and watched.
Four hours after Bleath and Vring left, Scotty’s bracelet started vibrating. “Your Majesty, Jess reports that we have two hundred star drives breaking into the outer system. I believe the King is not going to be patient and wait for your visit. Should I go and destroy those ships?”
“Is BC with you?”
“I’m here.”
“Where did the King acquire those ships?”
“He took them from most of the worlds he rules. They were forced to give them up. None of them wanted to face a Searcher. They knew they couldn’t win.”
BC, why did you throw your hat into the ring with that King? That just doesn’t seem like something you would do.”
“He’s brutal, Your Majesty, but the brutality that was taking place on those planets was worse. They at least behave out of fear.”
“So if we remove the King, what do you think will happen?”
“There will be a huge loss of life by those that crave power on those worlds.”
Scotty looked up at Zreeg. The huge Zord was waiting for Bleath and Vring to return from their visit. Zreeg tilted his head.
“Which of the two of you has the largest landing bay?”
Anglo said, “That would be me.”
“Anglo, can Zreeg fit in your landing bay?”
“Barely. Why do you ask?”
“Zreeg, what’s the distance of your telepathy?”
“Not that far. Only about ten miles or so.”
“Why is it limited?”
“I have to see those I communicate with.”
“In open space, if you saw the ships we want to communicate with, could they hear you?”
“Could I see the ships?”
“Anglo, are they coming in a tight formation?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Anglo, can you extend a teleport screen so that all their ships could be teleported at one time?”
There was a pause and Anglo said, “Yes, I believe so. What do you have in mind?”
“Teleport Vring and me into your landing bay. BC, give Anglo the coordinates of the Kings planet five hundred miles above its surface.”
Vring and Scotty saw a silver screen appear in front of them and they stepped through.
“Anglo, teleport out to that fleet and let’s see if Vring can hear their thoughts.”
Anglo hid behind his screen and teleported to within twenty miles of the fleet.
Vring looked out of the portal and said, “I can hear them.”
“All right, here is what I want to do. Vring, send them the message in my mind. Let me know when you’ve finished. Anglo, at that point I want you to teleport the fleet.”
Vring said, “Ok, here we go.”
On board the lead ship the Admiral heard, “You have come into space that you are prohibited to enter. This planet is quarantined to all ships. I am going to send you back to your place of origin. Next time, I’ll send you into the middle of this system’s star. You will get no future forgiveness if you choose to violate this world’s sovereignty again.”
Vring said, “Done.”
“Send them Anglo.”
The two hundred ships disappeared.
“Are we going to visit that King now?”
“Not yet. I need to talk with Bleath about what’s happening with his flocks. If they’re moving, I don’t want to be involved with that King.”
“Your Majesty?!?”
“Yes, BC?”
“We’ve lost eight Zord and their Riders to the cats.”
“Get me home, Anglo!”
Anglo teleported Scotty to the communities and he saw the sorrow on many of those gathered at the clearing. Julie came running to him and hugged him tightly. He felt her crying. “Tell me what happened.”
Julie kept her head on his chest and said, “The cats were getting too close to the Zord’s lands so Jingo led an attack against those in the front of the migration. The first riders hit the cats and dropped eight of them. Jingo accounted for four of the eight. The riders in the second wave flew in and somehow the cats sensed them coming. They jumped more than three hundred feet off the ground and dragged the Zord and their Riders to the ground. They were killed instantly by more than two hundred of the giant cats that raced in. The other waves flew higher and were barely missed by jumping cats.”
Jingo walked up and heard Julie’s last statement, “They didn’t see us, Scotty. They smelled us. Those cats can leap.”
Scotty shook his head, “It’s not surprising, Jingo. Cats can normally leap three times their length. Those giants are more than 200 foot long. They might be able to leap six hundred feet.”
“There’s more, Scotty. They’re smart. Now when they smell us they run under trees and wait for us. They are also big enough to leap over the hedges between the ging roots. This is not going to be good if they get into the Zord’s lands. I don’t think a grown Zord will be able to handle those cats.”
“Your Majesty?”
“Yes, BC?”
“I may have an answer to those cats.”
Jingo looked at Scotty and Scotty said, “Anglo, teleport Jingo and me to BC’s bridge.”
Julie watched Scotty and Jingo disappear. She then walked to Zack Greene’s house to share his family’s sorrow over his death.
Scotty and Jingo appeared on the small ship’s bridge. “What are you thinking, BC?”
Five small white objects appeared on the table next to them. “Look at those and see if you could attach them to the shafts of your arrows.”
Scotty and Jingo picked one up and noticed it was very light. It glowed and emitted a white luminescence. Jingo took an arrow out of his quiver and held the arrowhead up to one of the objects. They were close to the same size. They were the same diameter as the arrow’s shaft. The white slender object had a square end and tapered quickly to a slightly rounded, sharp point. “What are these, BC?”
“They are Coronado Sparks.”
“What are those?”
“They are charged with enough energy to vaporize anything they hit. They are made to penetrate their target and then release their energy such that it burns until it runs out of organic material. These were made to use against the Keepers in their garrisons. These do not explode. The Realm was afraid an explosion would collapse the Keepers’ tunnels.”
Scotty held one in his hand and it felt balanced. “How do you cause it to activate?”
“Look at the small square end.”
Scotty turned it over and saw a round indentation in the square end about an inch deep.
“There was a mechanism in the hole that would slam forward and ignite the spark on impact. I’ve removed them. Could one of your arrow’s shafts be shaved to fit in that hole?”
“No, the hole is slightly smaller than the shaft.” Jingo broke the head of an arrow and handed it to Scotty. Scotty placed it against the hole and said, “We could turn the shafts and shrink the end to fit in.”
“You would need to have about a quarter of an inch more than the depth of the hole to make it activate.”
What do you mean?”
“The shaft would have to slide into the activator to trigger the spar
k. A tenth of a second after impact the spark will ignite. You’ll need to find a way to keep them on the shaft.”
Jingo looked at the spark and shaft. He took the shaft of the broken arrow and laid it on the table. He drew one of his short swords and began trimming the end. He took a grellup pod out and spread some of the sap on the last half inch.
Scotty watched him push the shaft into the spark and it was a tight fit. “Why the sap?”
“You know the velocity of our arrows. The sap will allow the shaft to slide forward at impact.” He attempted to pull the spark off the shaft and it wouldn’t move.
Scotty watched him, “Did you make it too tight?”
“I don’t think so. You don’t want these things falling off the shaft in our quivers or in flight. The question in my mind is whether or not the nose is sharp enough to penetrate the hide of the cats.”
“It doesn’t have to penetrate, Jingo.”
“Why not, BC?”
“If the charging is released on the hide of the cat, it will burn until there is nothing left of the cat to burn.”
Jingo looked at Scotty and handed him the arrow, “Want to try it out. I know the cat that got the first rider. He appears to be the leader of the group out in front of the other cats.”
“How do you see this happening, Jingo?”
“According to BC, all you have to do is hit it. You can hit a target that big from eight hundred yards. Fly in from downwind and give it a go.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to make seven more of these and then we are going cat hunting. Those eight cats out front are the most dangerous of the lot. I want a shot at them.”
“Michael and Julie need to go with us. We’ll take two each.”
Jingo looked angry for a moment, then said, “You’re right. We shouldn’t risk some of them getting away.”
“How are we going to get them in the trees?”
Jingo smiled and said, “Those eight travel in the open to make good time. They pretty much show us no respect.”
“BC. Have Anglo teleport me down to the clearing. Send Jingo when he finishes the arrows.”
“Your Majesty, you don’t need to run this risk. I can hit them with a beam.”
“BC, that isn’t fair to a life form just doing what comes naturally to it. They attacked us in self-defense. We need to find a way to protect ourselves against them or we’ll start depending on you for our defense. I don’t want you stuck here.”
“I could scan the planet and kill them all.”
“I won’t exterminate an animal without giving it a chance. They have shown remarkable teamwork, and it’s my guess that they may one day evolve into an intelligent life form. To exterminate them would violate our principles. We’ve got to find a way to co-exist with them. That means teaching them to avoid us.”
Scotty disappeared and Jingo continued to work on the arrows.
BC thought about Scotty’s choice to uphold the Realm’s principles. Anglo was right. He was very much like the former Royal Family.
The giant cats were loping across the edge of the wastelands moving south. The leader could smell the scent of the giant flying creatures being carried by the southerly winds. Those creatures were big and tasted good. It looked forward to finding the source of the smell. It looked at the seven running with him and and decided that after another half day they would stop to scout and rest.
The four Zord and their riders were flying parallel to the cats and staying slightly north of their location. They were downwind from the giant creatures and circling about two thousand feet above them. Scotty asked Zreeg, “Does everyone have a cat selected?”
“Yes, they have two chosen. Why are you going to hit only one?”
“I want the group behind to know there is danger here. How will they know if none survive?”
“You assume the survivor will go to tell them?”
“Do you have a better plan?”
“Not really. I just feel animosity toward those creatures. I want to kill them all.”
“Do you want to kill all the Torg on the planet?”
Vring was silent, “I see where you’re going. We were attacking them and they just defended themselves. I still harbor feelings of revenge toward them.”
Scotty sighed, “So do I, but that doesn’t make those feelings right. Tell the others to follow us in.”
Vring banked away from the giant cats and dove in a shallow path toward the ground. He turned back toward the fast moving creatures six hundred feet off the ground, and watched as the other three Zord drew even. Jingo and Michael were on the end of the formation with Scotty and Julie in the center. The archers notched their first arrow and leaned forward as they came in on the eight cats. The four released their first arrow at eight hundred feet from them, and the second was on its way as they approached six hundred feet. The four immediately rose and gained altitude. Scotty watched the seven arrows hit the running cats.
The giant leader of the group felt a sharp pain in his side followed by agony. He fell to the ground and rolled as his front legs burned out from under him followed by his chest and then his head. He was dead before he stopped rolling and burned to ashes four seconds later. The huge cat running beside him slid to a stop and saw his seven companions burned to ash. It was stunned, and then saw the four flying creatures circling in front of him waiting for him to come closer. The cat looked at the ashes of his former troop and turned and ran back toward the north.
“Vring, tell Michael to follow that cat and see what happens. Also, I’m going to throw him the spark I have. I’d prefer he have it just in case.”
Vetah flew under Vring and Scotty dropped the arrow with its head inside a food pouch. It fell on Vetah’s back and Michael put it in his quiver.
“He says he’ll let you know. I’ve also asked one of our warriors to follow them just in case Vetah gets tired.”
“Good idea, Zreeg.”
Zreeg paused a moment and said, “White Hair, Bleath and Vring have returned to our home.”
“Take me there, Zreeg.” The giant Zord turned and headed toward the three mountains in the south. Scotty hit his bracelet, “BC, the spark performed exactly as you predicted. How many of those sparks do you have in your inventory?”
“About ten billion.”
Scotty was stunned by the number, “Did you say billion with a b? Why so many?”
“Cynthia was the commanding officer of the Searchers designated to attack the garrisons in the Keepers’ universe. We originally thought we would have to attack more than twelve million garrisons and our Searchers were loaded with millions of the weapons. They were called wasps, and were designed to home in on a Keeper’s thought frequency. Cynthia had me loaded with a huge number to resupply her Searchers in the event some of them ran low. I removed that guidance system from the sparks I gave you.”
“BC, why weren’t you in the Realm’s galaxy when it left?”
BC sighed, “She had me personally deliver a new probe to one of the eight trading partners to protect them from Keepers jumping in close with their universal drives. While she was in one of the new white ships the Algeans built, I waited for the probe on one of their planets. I delivered it and then jumped over to one of their fleets attempting to attack one of our members. I wanted to update Cynthia on their new tactics. That trip cost me the opportunity to leave with the Realm. While I was collecting information, the Realm’s galaxy disappeared and my teleport board shorted out.”
“BC?”
“Yeah, Anglo?”
“I was thinking about that. You are a much more powerful ship than I am. I asked Timmy about whether or not my teleport board could be used to replace yours, and he says it possibly could.”
“Anglo, I appreciate what you’re offering, but I couldn’t accept that gift. I can handle most of the ships we may encounter. You’ll need that board if you run into another Gamma Ship.”
“Well, it really doesn’t matter. Timmy s
aid the learning center doesn’t have the military’s data base. Without it, he couldn’t make it work. He has to have the wiring diagrams to make the change.”
BC didn’t respond. Scotty said, “BC, what are you thinking?”
“Scotty, excuse me, Your Majesty. The Realm established a secret military complex in the five Provinces. It was one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Realm. Not more than six people outside of the Royal Family knew of its existence. It is located close to a white dwarf star, whose gamma ray emissions hide its location. That base was put there by the Gardners when they were still ruling the Provinces. The Algeans took over its command after the Gardners disappeared and updated the facility to their standards. There might be some ships still there that were made before the Algeans started putting the destruct mechanisms in the teleportation consoles. It also has an updated Military data base. It was automatically updated every time Fleet Command updated their main computer. It was connected via a master teleport communication relay.”
“BC, you and Anglo should start calling me by my first name whenever we are in private conversation. We’re all friends here. Do you know where the complex is located?”
“Yes, I do. It was part of my update when Cynthia was promoted to Vice-Admiral. Only Senior Flag Officers were given that information.”
“What made you think of this?”
“According to my data base, there are seven ships of Anglo’s class that have never been imprinted. Their cybernetic computers were never activated so there should be a teleportation console available, if we can get the complex to allow us entry.”
“What do you mean, “Allow”?”
“That complex is fully armed with the most modern weapons of the Algeans. Those weapons can kill a Gamma. You must have the entry protocol in order to approach it.”
“I don’t want to ask this, but do you have that protocol?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Flap. I was hoping you would.”
“I do know the main computer.”
“You do?”
“Yes. I think she likes me, but I don’t know if her programming would allow her to override her defenses.”
“How do you know her?”
“She was moved from Melanie Gardner’s Alpha Ship when Melanie moved into Fly Girl. Melanie insisted she be given the position when Fleet Command decided to build the complex.”