by Saxon Andrew
Chris ended the call and sighed. This explained a lot. She was fighting every day to be someone her father and mother would be proud of. Her world became one big competition. Now he understood her anger at not having control of the ship. The only time in her life where she wasn’t in control was when she was forced to leave her parents. He shook his head and pressed his wrist unit again, “What are you up to?”
“I’ve brought the ship back to Trevor to see if he can’t improve speed of the manual override systems before we skip out.”
“So you’re here on the island?”
“Yes.”
“Well why don’t you come down to the beach and watch Michael built a fort big enough to defend the planet.”
Allison laughed out loud, “Now that I have to see. I’ll be right down.” Chris smiled and thought that maybe she didn’t have a family but he could take the role of being her brother. Eve was a great step-sister and Allison would be someone his family would like. She arrived and went straight to Michael and ooo’ed and ahhhh’ed.
Michael picked up a sand form and held it out to her. She jumped right in. Michael gave her directions and she followed them to the letter. In no time, both of them were laughing. By the end of the afternoon, the fort was about twenty-five feet square and four feet high. Chris came up and admired their work as Michael took his and Allison’s hands in his, “This is the best I’ve ever done.” He looked up at Chris, “Right?”
“It can defend the Planet.”
Michael looked up at Allison, “Can you come back and help me build a bigger one?” Allison started shaking her head and Michael said, “PLLLLEEEEAAAASSSEEE!”
Allison sighed and blew out a small breath as Michael was jumping up and down. “Alright. How can I say no to jumping up and down that high?”
“YAAAAYYYYYY!”
Allison looked at Chris, “But your father has to approve it.”
“You are certainly welcome to build any structure he might choose.” Chris looked at the fort and held out his arms, “But this! I don’t see how it can ever be improved on!”
Michael shook his head, “Just wait!”
Michael released their hands and ran up the beach toward his home. Allison turned to Chris, “That’s some boy you have, Chris. He’s going to be something special when he grows up. Thank you for inviting me. I need to go check on the ship.”
She turned and started walking toward the dunes and he shouted, “You know he’ll be heartbroken if you don’t keep your promise?”
“Don’t worry, I will.”
Chris watched her go and then turned and stared out at the ocean. It took a few minutes before he saw the pink and blue sail. He sighed and then turned to catch up to Michael.
• • •
“All systems operational.”
Chris pressed the thruster control and the pod leaped off the spaceport at an incredible speed. Chris slowed the ship before it broke the sound barrier and caused a sonic boom so close to the ground. He shook his head and looked at Allison, “All of that manual flying has messed up my coordination. I need to take her out and spend some time getting it back.”
“I’m fine. I didn’t fly it manually so why don’t you get your touch back heading out toward M-86.”
“Good idea.” It took no time to get the feeling back and Chris pressed the center red button on the steering wheel and the distant galaxy moved toward them at a speed that was breath taking. Chris pressed the center button again and the ship left the skip barrier and returned to the void just outside the giant elliptical galaxy.
Allison said, “Now that was impressive. You had me grabbing the arms of my chair.”
Chris shook his head, “I am going to be extremely reluctant to use the barrier inside a galaxy.”
“Do you see the purple button directly above the barrier button?”
“Yes.”
“You can set it to automatically activate; if you press it and hold it down it will always activate as you enter the barrier. It will attenuate the thrusters so you can fly at speeds you can control in the barrier. If you leave the barrier, the system will automatically disengage.”
Chris turned and looked at her, “How did you know that?”
Allison shrugged, “Remember I went back and worked with Trevor. He told me about it.”
“Then we’re going into the barrier to scout this system. If that system operates like you say, we don’t need to hide inside the cloud.” Chris pressed the purple button and held it down; it remained illuminated. He then pressed the red button and the ship entered the barrier. Barbie, do you still have the coordinates where we escaped the ships around that planet that was building warships.”
“I do.”
“I’m giving you control of the ship, take us there.” Chris looked at Allison and saw her smiling. “What?”
“This is where you taught me the dangers of making a full scan. The four of us were really impressed that day.”
Chris chuckled, “I understand why and yes, it is.”
• • •
Lukas sat in his office and tried to capture a thought that eluded him. There was something in the back of his mind that needed release but he just couldn’t grab it. It had been bugging him for a long time. He sighed and put it aside. He just couldn’t get it out. He looked out the window at the thriving spaceport that was growing every day. The rest of the planet was pretty much lifeless except for the force field emitter stations that had a team of engineers assigned to them but some of the population on Eden asked to return to their former home. Looking at the absence of intelligent life made him think that humans were the aliens taking the planet. He shook his head and the thought that had been eluding him came crashing through. His expression changed to concern and then to fear as he thought it through. “PAT!?”
“Yes, Lukas.”
“When you allowed your consciousness to go to M-87, were you able to see the ones called the Legends?”
“That’s what allowed them to see my location.”
“What did you determine about them?”
“They’re very much like my species but younger. They’ve not evolved as much as we have.”
“How many were there?”
Pat paused and said, “Around fifty or so.”
“How many Sentinels are there?”
“More than a billion scattered around Andromeda. They don’t tend to stay in a group. Our curiosity makes us explore wherever we are. Many of those that were out exploring returned when the danger to us was uncovered by Pat.”
“Wouldn’t that also be true of them?”
“I don’t know. When I saw them, they were all located on just one planet.”
“Pat, they couldn’t have originated in M-87.”
“What?”
“Think about it. There’s not enough of them. We know it took more than ten thousand years to subjugate all of the civilizations in that giant galaxy. If they evolved in that galaxy, it would have had to have started millions of years ago for them to be where they are now.”
“You’re right.” There was a pause and Pat said, “There are more of them somewhere else and M-87 is just an expansion of their domain.”
“There has to be.”
“This is not good!”
“No, it isn’t. Even if we find a way to remove the fifty or so of them, I suspect we won’t be able to prevent a distress call.”
“There’s no way you could stop them from doing that, Lukas. They would all have to be killed so fast that they couldn’t get a thought out and I don’t see any way that could be done.”
“So, what does that mean to our plans to attack M-87? Should we back off?”
“With the current stalemate happening there, I’m reasonably certain they have contacted Legend Central, wherever it is, and told them what’s going on.”
“Do you think those Black Ships around their planet represent the pinnacle of their technology?”
“I have no way of knowing without goin
g out into the universe searching for others of their kind, and you should know what will happen if I find them.”
“They’ll see you and where you’re located.”
“Exactly, and then you’ll be facing more than just the forces in M-87. I suspect a lot more forces.”
Lukas started slowly shaking his head, “Pat, what should we do?”
“I’ve looked at the new ship Chris is using and it is incredible. That ship wouldn’t exist except for the wars you’ve been fighting and the accident that allowed you to learn about the barrier. In all the millions of years we’ve existed, we never knew about it. Your technology has exceeded my wildest expectations and to stop fighting will only cause your developments to stagnate. You have to hit them in small hits and not cause the Legends to panic. I would suggest that you keep their forces contained in their galaxy and build this new ship as fast as you can. When you’re capable of attacking and removing them, then you’ll have a difficult decision to make.”
“Won’t that bring in the others?”
“That’s what makes it difficult. Yes, it will bring them to M-87.”
“They’ll learn who we are.”
“Not if you pull a little Maskevera.”
“What is that?”
“You plan a deception. You attack from either M-84 or M-86. You make them think their attackers are coming from either of those two galaxies and not this one.”
“But that would put those two galaxies in danger.”
“Lukas, I had to make a choice when I used Earth to divert the Invaders attention from the Fellowship. You will have to make a similar decision, it’s them or you.”
“Pat, I can’t put a whole galaxy under the gun for our actions.”
“Then tell me another way to prevent the destruction of Earth again? Your allies will also go with you next time around along with all the Fellowship planets. Quite frankly, I made a bad choice choosing Earth to die. After the fact, I can see that the Fellowship wasn’t worth saving.”
“Three of them were.”
“It would still be better in the long run for Earth to have survived. Look at what the few that survived have done compared to the Fellowship.”
“This is something I have to think about, Pat.”
“Trust me, I know. It took a thousand years for me to make the decision.”
“I don’t have that long.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I also don’t have your mental skills.”
“No, you don’t.”
“There’s not much time to get these new ships built either.”
“No, there isn’t.”
“Pat, that’s enough of the word no”
“Yes, it is.”
Lukas laughed and shook his head, “I really haven’t wanted to like you but darn it, I just can’t help it.”
“Hey, I’m a very likable being. Would you like to see my resume?”
“I don’t have time to read it and if you say ‘No, you don’t’ I’m going to tell the Legends where you are.”
There was a pause and Pat said, “You’re very observant.”
“That’s just as bad.”
“You didn’t say I couldn’t say it.”
Lukas laughed, “I’ll talk to you later.” Lukas thought about the revelation for an hour and then pressed his panel, “Trevor, Amanda, please report to my office at your earliest convenience.”
Trevor looked at Lukas, “Is something wrong?”
“I want you to go to Eden and convert all of our facilities there to building the new ship. I’m going to have Jinks and Stoney to start selecting the pilots who will be flying them. I’ve talked with Admiral Simmons and she says the new ship is a bear to learn how to fly.”
“It is.”
“Then I’m having all of our flag officers to start working on the simulators immediately. Allison also told me that having more than one computer was necessary.”
“She told us the same and we’ve incorporated her suggestion into the design. It’s slowed us slightly, but we are making progress.”
Lukas stared at Trevor and saw Amanda looking over his shoulder, “I don’t want to do this, but I’m going to be forced to separate you. One of you will go to Eden and the other will stay here and keep the building going. I’m also bringing in enough of our building contractors and Engineers to build other plants on Earth.”
Trevor looked over his shoulder and saw Amanda’s distress. “Sir, we work better together.”
“I know that, Trevor. How am I going to get Eden on board and make sure we don’t fall behind here without sending one of you there?” Lukas saw him pause and look at Amanda, “Look, if one of you go to Eden in one of the new ships, you could come back almost instantly and spend every night together.”
Trevor looked at Amanda and saw her smile. “You’re right, Lukas. We’ll do it your way.”
Lukas nodded and pressed another button, “Jinks, I need you and Stoney to come by my office.”
“We’re on our way.” Lukas leaned back in his chair. He thought for a minute and pressed another button.
“Yes Sir.”
“Admiral Goddard, I want you to keep your fleet at M-84 and make sure none of the planets there are attacked.”
“Sir?”
“The Sentinels are defending Eden. First Commander has promised the civilization he attacked that he would defend them.”
Jason tilted his head and said, “Yes Sir. How much longer will we be here? The crews are missing their families.”
“I’ll relieve your fleet in another week. You’ll come back to Eden for a month and go back.”
“Yes Sir. I’ll notify my fleet.” Lukas nodded and ended the contact. He thought about what he was considering and didn’t like it. But he had to at least leave the possibility open. He shook his head and looked out at the spaceport.
Chapter Eleven
“They’ve been really busy!” Chris nodded. Allison extended an antenna out of the barrier into normal space and made a ping scan. Chris looked at her and tilted his head. She shrugged, “I know we can see normal space above us but I’m wondering what they have waiting for an intruder.” Chris nodded and looked at the large monitor over the front viewport. Thousands of ships were moving at maximum speed toward the antenna’s location in the void. Allison pulled it out of normal space and sighed, “We should be able to see them without the antenna in a moment.” She was right, the mass of ships blew past the antenna and came to a stop a hundred miles past them.
“Their detection system is pretty good.”
“Not as good as the Orange Ships.”
“Why do you say that, Barbie?”
“The Orange Ships that detected our probe’s scan outside M-87 only went a few miles past the antenna’s location.”
Allison nodded toward the monitor, “They’re coming back.”
“Were the Orange Ships moving as fast as those ships, Barbie?”
“No.”
“Then the jury is still out on their capabilities.”
Allison nodded, “I think you’re right, Chris.” A moment later, thousands of ships appeared above them in normal space. “This really looks familiar.”
Chris laughed and listened to the thoughts of the crews in the void and focused on finding the leader of the ships. He finally found him.
“…and I did not open fire on the location, Commander but there’s nothing here.”
“It could be hiding behind that black cloud they use to hide their ships.”
“If it is, it’s no longer here. We could see the swirling of the cloud if it was this close.”
“Spread out and see if you can find anything. Don’t open fire without direct orders to do so.”
“Yes, Commander.”
Allison looked at Chris, “Why are they withholding their fire?”
“It appears that whoever is in charge here has ordered them not to do it.”
“Why would he do that?”
“I re
ally don’t know.”
“Chris, we now have about a hundred thousand ships swarming in the void below our current position and an equal number above us in normal space.”
Chris looked at the void below the barrier and saw massive numbers of warships moving around them. “Gene, where did you detect those ships coming from?”
“Pretty much from every direction.”
Chris nodded and focused on finding the being that communicated with the leader of the ships in normal space. There were so many thoughts that he couldn’t locate him. “Barbie, can you isolate the thoughts of the one that communicated with the ships in normal space?”
“I’m listening to him now.”
“Link me in with him and put the conversation on the speakers.”
“Commander, that has to be one of the Progen ships that’s come here to scout us.”
“Prove it is by finding it.”
“We must destroy it before it can skip away and report on our location.”
Chris thought, “We are not a Progen ship.”
The being’s thoughts immediately froze and then focused on Chris, “Who are you?”
“I come from a galaxy the Progen attacked.”
“How can you prove that?”
“I will not do that by revealing my ship and open it to attack.”
There was a long pause and the Commander thought, “Have you been here before?”
“I have.”
“Was it your ship that we chased away?”
“It is.”
“Was that the only other time you’ve been here?”
“My leader was here years ago scouting the change of the Orange Ships to the Green.”
“Did that ship he was on do anything while it was here that would allow us to see it?”
“It destroyed two Green Warships pursuing a Black Ship that ambushed some of them.”
“THAT WAS ONE OF YOUR SHIPS?!”
“Yes.”
“STAND DOWN. ALL SHIPS STAND DOWN AND RETURN TO YOUR ASSIGNED POSITIONS!”
“But Commander!”
“Do as I order!”
Chris looked at Allison and she was shaking her head. What was going on?