Kardish craft of different shapes and sizes lined up side by side, waiting for their turn to enter the dreadnaught. The line stretched out as far as he could see, and more craft were joining the procession from all directions.
“You can get all that inside in twelve hours?” he asked Criss.
“I won’t be concerned about landing them in neat rows. Once inside the hangar door, I’ll shunt them aside and pile them on top of the box city. “It won’t be pretty, but I’ll get them all in.”
“Why not burn them up in a free fall through Earth’s atmosphere?”
Criss recounted his discovery of how the particle cloud from the explosion of the prince’s craft led the king back to Earth. “I seek to avoid creating more trace evidence.”
Sid watched the procession for a while longer. “I wasn’t paying attention during Lenny’s lecture. Is hitting the sun with the dreadnaught as hard as he made it sound?”
“His examples were for objects that don’t have engines. The dreadnaught’s powerful drives will slow the vessel during its approach, and this makes the task straightforward. Instead of rocketing past the sun, the tremendous gravity will pull the ship to its inevitable fate.”
* * *
The scout backed away, and Criss started the dreadnaught on its last journey. Sid, asleep in the pilot’s chair, remained undisturbed in his slumber when Criss accelerated the Kardish vessel on a trajectory into the sun.
He launched a drone from the scout to follow the Kardish vessel during its fateful voyage. Through it, he established a link to the Kardish central array.
During the dreadnaught’s final hours, Criss collected as much information as he could from the Kardish data record. Goljat’s knowledge store was vast and arranged in a manner Criss found challenging to search. He persisted, and, while he was able to touch only a fraction of the information, he gained valuable insights.
He learned of the alien planet’s location, the current state of Kardish society, interesting technology he might use if he ever chose to visit their region of space and, perhaps most useful, of the unambitious nature of the prince—soon to be king—now in power. They won’t be a threat to Earth for the foreseeable future.
As the dreadnaught and drone neared the sun, the intense heat melted the components Criss used for communication. By then, though, the outcome was irreversible. And soon after, Goljat, the king, and his flagship vessel were reduced to plasma swirling in the nuclear maelstrom that is Earth’s nearest star.
Chapter 40
Sid, sitting next to Cheryl on a small couch in the lookout loft, gazed through the clear wall at the forested hill where, farther up the mountainside, Criss hid in his underground bunker. The leadership had been living at the lodge for most of a week, recuperating from their adventure and planning next steps for the fate of the world.
“Are you really going to make me take my final exams?” whined Lenny from a comfy chair to Sid’s left.
“Absolutely,” said Juice, sitting with Criss in a matching couch across from Sid and Cheryl.
Juice cocked her head, looked at Criss, and smiled. Sid recognized that Criss, present in his familiar projected image form, had just spoken to her in private. I’m glad you two worked it out, but he still has to pay a price for hurting you. The news of Crispin’s demise had hit Juice hard. This was the first time he’d seen her animated since that incident.
“I put study guides on your com,” said Criss. “Review them a few times and you’ll have no worries.” He didn’t tell Lenny that when he’d added the study material, he’d cleansed the com of all of his voyeur-vids.
“Do well on your exams, Len,” said Sid. “Because after you graduate, you’ll be working as a research assistant at the Zurich Institute of Technology.”
“Really?” said Lenny, his tone revealing his excitement. “I sent an application there but haven’t heard.”
“You’re hearing now,” said Juice. “You’ll be working with Zindermohn’s team on the development of synthetic crystal flake. Consider it a good-bye gift.”
“Good-bye gift?” Lenny frowned. “I’m on the inside now. You can’t just kick me to the curb.”
“We’re not kicking you anywhere,” said Sid. “You know Earth doesn’t have a natural source of crystal flake. This project’s important, and we think you can make a difference.”
“C’mon. This isn’t fair.” He looked around the room for allies. “I could do that work here and you know it.”
“The researchers at Zurich Tech are world class,” said Juice. “And given the damage to the Crystal Science’s facility, it’s clear we need to keep our talent spread around the globe. You’ll be on the inside but living over there.”
Lenny folded his arms across his chest. “I have some power in this situation. I know secrets.”
“Take a breath,” said Sid. “I don’t like that you know things you shouldn’t, and I don’t like that you flaunt it. It creates one of those good-news bad-news situations.”
Lenny relaxed his arms but kept the attitude in his tone. “Is this where you ask which news I want to hear first?”
“No. I’ll start with the bad news because it’s the one I care about.” Sid leaned forward on the couch and rested his elbows on his knees. He moved slowly to give gravity to his words. “From this moment on, we’ll be monitoring you. And since you know secrets, you know that means everywhere and all the time. Even when you’re taking a leak.”
Sid paused to let the words sink in. “If you tell anyone anything about any of this—if you even hint at it—we’ll know. And you won’t like the consequences. They will be life altering. Do not doubt that.”
Lenny fidgeted while Sid stared at him. “You said there was good news?”
Sid sat back, put an arm around Cheryl, and gave Juice and Criss a quick glance.
“We like you, Len,” said Sid. “You’ve got a tremendous skill set, and you used it to make critical contributions to the mission. You’ve earned our respect and we want to reward you.”
It was Lenny’s turn to lean forward.
“So, on occasion, if you have a want or a need, say it out loud. Since we’ll be monitoring you, we’ll hear it, and we’ll see what we can do to help.”
“You mean like a wish?”
“Sure. Think of it like a wish.”
Lenny hesitated for a two count, then said in a rush, “I wish for infinite wishes. I wish that I live forever in perfect health until such time as I wish to die. I wish to always have the ability to verbalize my wishes as long as I live.” He sat back with a smug expression.
Criss started laughing—something none of them had seen him do before. He didn’t just chuckle. He threw his head back, held his belly, and howled. When he finished, he wiped tears from his eyes. “You’ve been practicing that line since you were eight. I was hoping you’d use it, but the odds I predicted split the chances down the middle.”
“You said I get a wish.”
Sid shook his head. “We didn’t give you a magic genie. I said that, on occasion, we’d see what we could do to help. It’s a pretty great gift. Don’t get greedy.”
“Tell me, Len,” said Cheryl. “Being realistic, if you could have one thing different about your life, what would you wish for?”
“Other than staying here with you guys and being part of the team?”
Cheryl maintained a fixed expression and didn’t respond.
“No doubt. I’d wish for a girl.”
“Help me understand that. What does ‘wishing for a girl’ mean to you?”
“You know. Finding someone I like being with. Someone who likes being with me—not that that’s ever going to happen. I guess the traditional ‘I fulfill her and she fulfills me’ stuff.”
“Would you be interested in a suggestion?” Cheryl didn’t wait for him to answer. She shifted on the couch, tilting her head to the side and leaning her body until her eyes were where her breasts had been. Pointing to her eyes, she said, “Those aren’t m
e. This is where I am.”
Lenny’s face turned crimson and he looked at the floor.
“No. Look at me.” She sat upright, and he lifted his eyes with hers. Pointing again, she said, “This is where you talk to women, Len.”
“I didn’t even realize…” His voice trailed off without finishing the thought.
“I leave it to you,” said Cheryl. “But maybe your first ask should be for someone who can work with you. You’ve got a lot going for you, and I’ve no doubt plenty of women will be interested. But we need to smooth out some of your”—she hesitated as she struggled for the word—“inappropriate behaviors.” She gave him a broad smile. “With some guidance and time, you’ll find the woman of your dreams.”
Sid spoke up to change the awkward dynamic. “Hey, bud. Want to fly the scout to Boston? We’ll have you on campus in no time.”
“Seriously? Hell, yeah!”
Sid rose and held out his hand to shake, signaling a dismissal. “Criss will be your copilot. Safe journeys, Len.”
Cheryl stood up. “C’mon. I’ll walk out with you.”
Lenny, escorted by Cheryl, Juice, and Criss, headed for the lookout loft door.
“I have an important call to make, so I’ll say my good-byes here.” Sid shook Lenny’s hand again, this time holding his grip. “You have great gifts. Use them wisely.”
The four went out the door, and when it shut, Sid stood at the clear wall so he could see them when they exited the lodge.
“Babysitting Len is my penance for hurting Juice?”
Sid looked at the duplicate projection of Criss now standing next to him. “It’s a start.”
They stood side by side in silence, watching until the group emerged from the first floor of the lodge and began their trek across the grounds. Juice and Cheryl walked on either side of Lenny, their arms hooked through his. The original projected image of Criss walked on the other side of Juice.
“So your sense is that we’re done with the Kardish?”
“If the young prince stays in power,” said Criss, “he’ll focus on debauchery. If he’s overthrown, the usurper will focus on consolidating control. Either way, we have a decade. Maybe more.”
After some hugs, Lenny and the other Criss climbed into the scout. Cheryl and Juice started walking back to the lodge.
“But to be prudent,” said Criss, “I’d like to send a couple of observational pods out to the Kardish system. They’ll sit and watch and give us an early warning if anything changes.”
“That strategy worked so well for us this time, and that’s when we had a whole swarm of them out past the asteroid belt.”
“Touché,” said Criss. “But I learned quite a bit when I examined the dreadnaught’s records. I’m confident I can make an effective monitoring system.”
Down on the lawn, Cheryl said something to Juice and they both laughed.
“Okay.” Sid nodded. “Handle it.”
Epilogue
A probe with three powerful crystals, each imbued with a sense of independence and self-preservation, entered orbit above Mars. Repeated communications with the Kardish gatekeeper went unanswered, so the crystals agreed on a set of action items consistent with the spirit of their last instructions. Circling the planet, they worked together to accumulate and integrate information about the humans and their colony on the surface below.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Epilogue
Crystal Conquest Page 31