by Saxon Andrew
Sprigly nodded, “I think you’re right.”
“Do you see something else?”
“They haven’t completely finished harvesting the Universe they’re in. That tells me they probably started invading here ahead of their normal schedule.”
Ping nodded slowly, “I wondered why they endured the losses they’ve taken at the portals. They really have no choice but to force their way in here.”
Sprigly leaned forward, “Come here or starve.”
Ping sighed, “It looks like this is going to be a fight to the death.”
“It at least buys the Realm time.”
“What happens when the Five see they’re going to lose?” Sprigly just stared at Ping. “The Five will attempt to escape and guess where they’ll go?”
“Their numbers to use against the Realm will be greatly reduced.”
“I suppose; but the death and destruction the Realm will endure will be beyond imagination. Both sides will be so weakened, the Blue Ships can just walk in and cleanup what’s left.”
“It does buy us some time. The Five had started working hard on a new portal to invade. This will slow them down.”
“Not much.” Ping paused, “I think that’s why they came here early. They want to exert heavy pressure on the Five to force them to flee to the Realm as quickly as possible. They could immediately invade the Realm and harvest two universes simultaneously. This is a great opportunity for them and they know it. The Five’s efforts to build a new portal will take on a new urgency for them.” Ping looked away from the display, “Pare, did you record my conversation with Sprigly?”
“I did.”
Ping activated his panel and saw Tag and Danielle appear, “I have a recording that will answer most of your questions. I’ll include a conversation that Sprigly and I just had and what we believe is going to happen.” Ping looked up, “Send it.”
Tag looked away from the display and saw the recording arrive on his panel, “What do you think we should do about what we’re planning?”
“You need to hurry up.”
“I think you’re right; thank you for this.”
“I suspect you could have gone there yourself but would have revealed too much if you did.”
Danielle nodded, “You’re right. We allowed you to face the danger instead of doing it ourselves. We didn’t want to reveal the Kosiev to them.”
“Don’t beat yourself up; I’m beginning to think you are more important than anything we can do here. The numbers we were facing prior to the Harvesters was more than we could handle; now the numbers are beyond overwhelming. Sending us was the best, and safest, way to gather intelligence. There are two enemies here that need to be stopped. I’m beginning to believe your project might be the only way to make that happen.”
Tag’s face showed his anxiety, “It appears the plan takes a lot of things into consideration. This new species is even nastier than the Five.”
“The Five are now down to four; the Rageon have dropped out of their plans and intend to live in peace with their neighbors. There is one thing for certain; there are no accidents. You have to remember that.”
“We’ll keep that in mind.”
The display went dark and Ping sighed, “Pare, you need to get us home; I have a wife that’s probably losing weight worrying about me and she doesn’t have a lot to lose.”
“She is beautiful. Let’s try to keep it that way.”
Ping smiled as the space around the Searcher disappeared and he had a thought flash through his mind; if there were no accidents, why did he have to go in the Searcher? He turned and looked at Sprigly, “Why did I feel we had to make this trip in the Searcher?” Sprigly leaned left and right indicating he didn’t know. “What connection is there between a ship built in the Realm and those Blue Ships?”
“I have no idea.”
“I FOUND IT!”
“Found what, Pare?”
“Sprigly said those creatures looked familiar. I decided to start looking through all the data I have on the Algean Civilization to see if anything related to those beings. I didn’t turn up anything. However, when you asked what connection the Searcher could have to those Blue Ships, I queried the Realm’s databank and found a hit.”
The wall display came on and they saw a body lying on a gurney. It was stretched out and facing straight up. The display split into two images and the new image next to the body was one of the ten beings they saw eating around the broken down harvester. Ping looked closely, “Can you give me a closer view of the being’s face at the harvester.” The image grew in size as Sprigly and Ping moved closer to the display to get a better view. Ping looked back and forth and shook his head, “Sprigly, they’re the same species. Pare where did you find that image?”
The image of the alien on the gurney changed as the view backed out, revealing the picture on the front page of a newspaper. The headline said in large letters, “Proof Aliens Exist.”
Pare said, “This was published by a newspaper called the National Enquirer. It was obviously one of the more reputable publications of that time. The article says that the government was hiding the information from their citizens. It appears a small Blue Ship crashed near a small town called Roswell, New Mexico in the 1950’s. The crash happened before Earth invented computers so there was nothing in any databanks about this. The government did convince most of the population that there were no aliens and the event was nothing more than a crashed weather balloon. I do find it interesting that almost immediately after that crash, computers were invented.
“Do you have anything else other than that document?”
“Not really. However, the image used by humans after that time to draw an alien was the basic shape of the creatures we observed near the harvester. Even cartoons used that shape.”
Sprigly looked at Ping, “They were scouting our universe thousands of years ago.”
Ping nodded and had a fleeting thought that the crash happened four hundred years after Dahlia’s ancestors arrived in their current universe. Ping’s eyes narrowed.
“What’s wrong?”
“Do you remember your thoughts when we found humans living in this universe?”
Sprigly nodded, “I was astounded.”
“What do you think those aliens would think about finding humans in both places? You know they scouted both universes before we found Dahlia’s planet.”
He had a sudden premonition, “PARE, GET US BACK TO THE PLANTERS!” The Searcher arrived in orbit above the planet and he pushed his communication panel. “ALL PLANTER SHIPS; RETURN TO THE PLANET IMMEDIATELY. I REPEAT, RETURN TO THE PLANET IMMEDIATELY!”
Dean appeared on his display as thousands of Mites teleported in, “What’s going on?”
“I believe we are going to be attacked momentarily and we need our ships here to defend the planet.”
“Why do you think we’re going to be attacked?”
“We are the only species in this universe that are like the humans in the Realm. I’ve got to believe that if those Blue Ships scouted here, they know about us and will come and investigate.”
Dean stared at Ping for a moment and lifted his communicator, “Launch all ships from the Northern Facility.” Ping couldn’t see them but he knew more than fifty thousand large Nemite Warships were moving above the planet. The fleet of Mites had grown to a hundred and fifty thousand and he prayed he was wrong. Dahlia appeared on board Pare and rushed to Ping and held him. “Thank God you made it back!” She tried to restrain her tears but was having great difficulty doing it.
Ping lifted his communicator and spoke on the general frequency, “If alien ships arrive here, do not wait for commands to attack. Your computers have everything the Realm has ever learned about space combat and depend on them to direct you to your targets. They will work together to maximize your effectiveness. Your goal is to kill anything that comes here and do it as quickly as possible.”
Dahlia looked up at Ping and he said, “I took the Sear
cher instead of a Mite.”
She thought for a moment and nodded, “You’re right. They’ll be coming here.”
Sprigly shook his head, “How are we going to be able to hold them off with our limited number of warships?”
“I wondered why we installed the Searcher’s beams on all of our ships. None of the major Battleships were going to be used to attack the Five’s production planets but we still installed the red beams on them. I believe it was done for this particular moment in time. I’ll know if I’m right shortly.”
“But our ships don’t have a force field.”
Ping smiled, “You can’t hit what you don’t see.”
• • •
Three hours later, a massive wave of Blue Ships appeared and began moving in toward the planet. The explosions in their ranks were immediate and ripped through the ranks of the Blue Ships that arrived first. Hundreds of thousands more jumped in and the wave of destruction moved through them at an unbelievable speed. More than a million Blue Ships were destroyed before they stopped appearing. The only Planter Ship that was lost was due to a collision with the hull of a blasted Blue Ship that exploded into its path. It didn’t have time to avoid the collision. It was the Realm’s beams that caused most of the destruction, although the green energy pulses also wreaked havoc to them.
Sprigly looked at Ping at the end of the battle, “It appears the Searchers will be able to face the Blue Ships.”
Ping shook his head “Only if enough of them survive the Five’s invasion. I’m sure the Blue Aliens know it and are attempting to force the Five into the Realm’s Universe.”
Sprigly was amazed at Ping’s ability to see things he was missing. Something was happening to him.
Chapter Sixteen
Tag Looked across the Kosiev’s bridge at two sets of legs sticking out from under the panel that controlled the ships emitters. “I trust you heard Ping say we needed to hurry up.”
A female voice said, “Easy for him to say; he’s not having to do this.”
“Would you rather be in his place?”
“Oh heck no; but this isn’t a walk in the park either. Sam, hand me that spot welder.”
“Is there anything we can do to help?”
“You might go over and ask Pixie and Ken. I thing they’ve been complaining about the heavy lifting.”
Danielle slowly shook her head, “Don’t they know about gravity suppression?”
“It appears they don’t. We’ll see you later.” Tag and Danielle teleported over to the giant blue psychic ship and saw Ken struggling with a huge box. Danielle said, “Thomas, can’t you moderate the gravity field under that box?”
“I can.”
“Then do it so Ken won’t have to hurt something trying to move it.”
Ken suddenly felt the box’s weight disappear and he lifted it off the floor with one hand. He looked up at the speaker, “Why didn’t you tell me you could do this?”
“You told me last week when you needed my help, you’d ask for it.”
Tag looked at Ken, “Did you really say that?”
“He wouldn’t be quiet long enough for me to collect my thoughts.”
“You were about to make a huge mistake and wouldn’t listen to me.”
Ken shook his head, “Thomas, please help me wherever you can.” Ken’s remark was greeted by silence. Ken looked at Tag, shook his head, and said, “I’m sorry, Thomas; you were right.”
“Rose just sent me a recording of the cable pairings Jixie did on her panel. I’ve color coded the cables and the hookups. Just match the colors and you’ll have the pairings completed.”
“Thanks, Thomas.” Ken looked at the Gardners, “What brings you here?”
“We’ve come to help.”
“Well, grab a spot welder and you can join us under the panel. We’re running behind.”
Danielle smiled and went to the bridge, picked up a welder, and slid in under the panel. She looked at Pixie and heard her whisper, “He’s been a real bear to be around.”
“It must be from the stress.”
“I guess; I’m glad you’re here to help. Do you think this will work?”
“We won’t know until we have all three ships connected. I do know we need to hurry; things are starting to get out of hand.”
Pixie nodded and went back to work.
• • •
The table was quiet as they watched the recordings of the universe as the Blue Ships were completing their harvesting efforts. At the conclusion, Tess looked at Ping, “I’ve always thought Creation was a dangerous place; this is proof of it.” She turned to Ping, “It looks like the doomsday device is the only answer to this.”
Ping looked at Dahlia and then to Tess, “I’m afraid you’re right.”
“Is there any way to save our planet if it’s launched?”
“At this moment, I don’t see any.”
Dean said, “Why do you say it that way?”
“I just don’t believe there is no way out. There has to be something I’m missing. I do agree that the device must be launched.”
Tess stared at Ping for a long moment, “I’m of the belief that those Blue Ships won’t be coming back.”
Ping shrugged, “You’re probably right.”
Sprigly was surprised by Ping’s response, “Why do you think that?”
Ping turned to Sprigly, “These creatures just lost a million ships attacking our planet. They are, if nothing else, smart enough to know that the cost wouldn’t justify what they would get for the investment. Why waste another million ships to take one planet? They’ll just ignore us and harvest every other planet that offers no resistance. They’ll eventually leave and the Planters will inhabit an empty universe.”
Tess stared at Ping and frowned, “You act like that is a bad thing.”
“I would hope that you are as smart as the Blue Aliens.”
“What does that mean?”
“Let’s for a minute say that we could stop the Garners from launching their device. What would happen as a result of that decision?” Tess just stared at Ping.
Dahlia said, “The most likely thing would be the survivors of the Five will flee and attack the Realm. The Blue Ships will follow on their heels and invade the Realm as well.”
Tess shook her head, “But if they launch it, everything here will be destroyed.”
Ping remained silent but Dean said, “Tess, whether the Gardner’s device or the Blue Ships do it; everything here is dead either way. If they don’t launch it, the Blue Ships will kill everything. If they do, you get the same result. The only difference is that our planet might survive the Blue Ships. The question boils down to one thing; are we willing to let the Realm and every living thing in its universe die so we can live in a lifeless creation?”
“Why should we sacrifice our lives to save the Realm?”
Ping nodded, “That is the only issue. It always has been. Now you have to choose; we can no longer put off making a choice.”
Tess stared at Ping and Dahlia said, “It should be left up to the people.”
Tess stared at Dahlia, “Are you willing to live with their choice?”
“That’s the wrong question, Tess.”
“Oh?”
“Are they willing to live with that choice?”
“We’ll hold the referendum in three days. I’ll take the position of life.”
Dahlia said, “I’ll play the recordings Ping made and let them speak for themselves.”
Tess looked at Ping, “Before we take this vote, what’s to prevent us from going out and defending the planets in this cluster and having more civilizations survive?”
“Because if you did that, the Harvesters will send every warship they have to eliminate your interference. Right now it’s just one planet they’re writing off. They won’t take your interference lightly and will do what they have to do to end it.”
Tess looked at Dahlia and she nodded. Tess looked at Dean, “Notify all the locations of t
he vote and the issue we’ll be deciding.”
The meeting ended and Ping was left sitting with Dahlia. Dahlia looked at Ping’s expression and said, “Ping, would you be willing to allowing our daughter to die to save the Realm?” Ping stared at her saying nothing. “These people are Tess’ children. She can’t allow them to die if there is anything she can do to prevent it.”
Ping slowly shook his head, “And how many daughters like ours will lose their life so ours can live? Do you think our daughter will be able to live with that burden?” Ping paused, “Can you live with it?” He stood up and walked out of the control room. Dahlia watched him leave and couldn’t come up with an answer.
• • •
Dahlia found Ping at the stream and said, “I can’t answer your question. I’ve struggled with it and can’t decide.”
Ping shrugged, “That tells me you have a good heart. That counts for a lot.”
“I need to know what you’re thinking.”
Ping looked out at the stream and shook his head, “Do you really believe there is a plan?”
“Why do you ask?”
Ping turned and looked at her, “If you did, you could answer my question.”
“I’m not sure what you mean?”
“Is the Gardner’s device part of the plan? Dahlia said nothing. “Would the plan have the Blue Ships included in it?” Dahlia’s expression show how troubled she was. “Would the plan produce the right result?”
“It could kill all of us.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Dahlia sat down and shook her head, “Ping, I’ve seen a pattern in everything that’s happened; but I just have tremendous difficulty in letting go and simply believing a plan exists.”
Ping sat down beside her and took her hands, “Dahlia, if there was no plan, explain how I found you. If you can do that, you have your answer.”
Dahlia stared at him and finally said, “This vote will determine our survival, won’t it?” Ping nodded. Dahlia lowered her head, “The only way to live is to vote to die.” Ping sighed and nodded again. “I’m not going to show the recordings.”