Trapped in Time-Extinction

by Saxon Andrew

  “The Cleden deserve to have their vengeance. They were brutalized by the Dermish.”

  “That’s why we’re doing all we can not to destroy their fleet.” Anthony looked at Jalen, “What’s bothering you?”

  “Why don’t you just look in my head?”

  “You know I won’t do that.”

  Jalen sighed, “I’ve heard rumors that you’ve been selected to be in the Succession.”

  “Where did you hear that!?”

  “My mother mentioned that I might need to start looking for another partner. I pressed her on the issue and she told me on the condition that I not reveal it to anyone.”

  “You just told me!”

  “Yes, but I can tell her you saw it in my mind and she’ll understand.” Jalen watched Anthony’s expression and shook his head, “You didn’t know?”

  “No, I didn’t.” Anthony brought the small ship to a stop and thought furiously. After a few minutes he said, “Jalen, there are too many that are more qualified than I am.”

  “Not really.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Anthony, your judgment is better than any other Flier I’ve ever met. Even choosing to kill that Cleden Battleship was a good choice. It was too good to leave it alive to fire at other Fliers. You always make a good decision. I’m sure others have seen that as well.”

  “I think the current Andy will be around for a long time to come.”

  “You know that has nothing to do with the Succession.”

  Anthony sighed, “I wish they did it like the old days. They didn’t choose the next Andy until the current one was dead.”

  “Anthony, that was at least ten thousand years ago. Now if we can get the Cleden to accept our conditions, the cluster will be under our control. The rest of the galaxies have been tamed and peace rules the hundreds of galaxies in the Dominion.”

  “I know; it’s just that…”

  “You want to be with those that reach out into the untamed clusters around us.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Maybe my mother is wrong?”

  “Jalen, your mother is the Regent’s Sister.”

  “I know, but the selection of the Human’s Leader is entirely up to them.”

  Anthony shook his head, “There are so many of us that are telepathic that I find it hard to believe I’m any better than the rest.”

  Jalen shrugged, “It’s only a matter of time until every human will be telepathic.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Anthony, you know that all of Melody’s descendants are telepathic and all of them have twins. The telepathic gene is dominant and it’s only a matter of time until it’s a trait all of you have.”

  “I guess.”

  “More than half of all humans are telepathic now just ten thousand years since Melody had her children. Linnae and Harmony had six sets of twins each and telepathic humans are highly desired as mates. I don’t think it will take another ten thousand years for eighty or ninety percent of you to be telepathic.”

  “Most Talens are telepathic.”

  “Yes, but only with other Talens.”

  “Well, this is not something I’m going to worry about.”

  A button started flashing on Jalen’s panel and he pressed it, “Anthony Singer, you have been requested to report to Fleet Headquarters immediately.”

  “Yes Sir. Do you know why I’m being asked to report?”

  “No, the request comes directly from the Crown.”

  “I’ll jump out momentarily, Fleet.”

  Jalen shook his head, “I was afraid of that.”

  “What?”

  “If you have been chosen for the Succession, I’m sure fleet has been keeping an eye on you and that shot fired by that Cleden battleship came pretty close to us. They’ll probably be reprimanded by the Crown for allowing you to participate in a battle.”

  Anthony shook his head and knew Jalen was right. “I’m just not qualified to do this.”

  “Tell Andy. Maybe he’ll listen.”

  The button started flashing again and Jalen pressed it. “Jalen Ren, you have been ordered to report to the Regent.”

  “Why?”

  “Ask him. We’re not privy to the Crown’s reasons.”

  The two Fliers looked at each other and Jalen started shaking his head, “Surely I’m not…”

  Anthony looked at him and sighed, “Let us pray it’s not that for either of us.”

  Jalen could only shake his head all the way back to Talen.

  • • •

  Ten years later, Anthony became the four hundred and sixty sixth Andy in the Succession since Humanity moved to Talen. Jalen became the Regent at the same time and they were crowned together. The Dominion learned that the Regent and Andy worked best with each other when they shared the dangers of war and fought together for survival. It was under their leadership that the Dominion tripled its size. History recorded them as two of the Dominion’s greatest leaders rivaling the original Regent and Andy that had started the Dominion.

  • • •

  Mark Singer and Andolen Ren sat in the two command chairs on the fleet’s flagship Raptor’s Claws. Mark looked at his panel and saw his fifteen thousand Fliers were spread out in a spiral formation around them. The ship’s force fields were at full power and Andolen looked at Mark, “The last fleet has arrived and is in formation fifty thousand light years across the galaxy.”

  “What does Fleet say about the Drogon Fleets?”

  “They detected our arrival and are mobilizing their ships in the galactic center as we speak.”

  Mark shook his head, “Any idea as to their numbers?”

  “We outnumber them substantially when you include all the allies’ warships. But they outnumber the fliers two to one.” Mark nodded and thought about the numbers about to face-off against each other.

  Over the last thirty million years, the Talen and Humans had expanded to more than twenty thousand uninhabited planets and the Dominion occupied more than half of known space. So far, the growth of the Dominion had moved forward at a steady pace. However, they ran into the Drogon a hundred and fifty years ago and that expansion came to an immediate halt. The Drogon were immune to the Talen’s thought waves and their force fields were strong enough to stop the Red Beams unless they were fired from close range. The Drogon Battleships’ beams would vaporize a Flyer if it moved in close enough to use the Red Blasters. The Dominion had spent the last century developing new ships that could survive the Drogon Warships. Today they would find out if the new ships would hold up against them.

  The newest Flyer Vessels were no longer small two-man crafts. They were two hundred yards long and powered by new reactors that were more powerful than forty of the old ones. The battle was going to hinge on the Fliers’ force fields holding up against the giant Drogon Dreadnaughts. Those vessels were half a mile long and powered by eighty reactors.

  The Drogon had originated on a single planet in their galaxy but over more than ten million years, they had conquered the entire galaxy and snuffed out every intelligent being in it. Every habitable planet was populated by the Drogon and they were starting to attempt an expansion into the Dominion. The Dominion fought them for more than a hundred years with old ships and were only capable of keeping them pinned down in their galaxy. Attempting to invade their galaxy was foolish; their numbers were far too high to even try. The Drogon emerged from their galaxy three times but were forced back each time. The number of ships lost making that happen was staggering. Now the Drogon were massing their fleets at the edge of their galaxy again to invade the Dominion. The Regent and Andy decided they couldn’t delay any longer. The scope of the coming battle was beyond imagination.

  Mark’s fleet had been assigned a Drogon task force of thirty thousand Dreadnaughts. The beams on those giant ships were as hot as the surface of a large star and if a ship was directly hit, after a few seconds, there wouldn’t be anything left but gas. But the Drogon had ne
ver faced a fleet of telepaths. The Allies gathered to fight with the Talens and Humans; however, they did not stand much of a chance against the huge Dreadnaughts; but they hoped to distract them enough for the Flyers to get in to open fire on them. Mark was humbled by their bravery but the Allies knew if the Drogon weren’t stopped here, their planets were also in peril.

  Andolen looked up from his control board, “The Allies are moving in.”

  Mark pressed his panel, “Everyone link up and activate your weapon systems. We’re jumping in ten minutes.”

  The vast fleets of Ally Warships disappeared from outside the edge of the galaxy and Mark stared at his display as they rushed in on the outer lines of Drogon Dreadnaughts firing beams and missiles at the giants. Very few got through the Drogon defenses and tens of thousands of Dominion Warships were vaporized. Mark waited and his heart was close to breaking at the losses being endured by the members of the Dominion. Finally, he pressed the communicator, “Stay linked and stay together. Attack…NOW!”

  • • •

  Allie and Gunney accelerated toward the distant Dreadnaughts maintaining their place in the long line. Allie focused on the Dreadnaughts in front of her and heard the thoughts of the Drogon gunners sighting their blasters at the incoming line. She heard the gunner on the top of the Dreadnaught directly in front of her lining up the ship on her right and thought to the pilot, “You’re being targeted, get ready to dodge right.” She heard, “You’re targeted, be ready to dodge.” Allie gripped the Flyer’s controls while she watched the gunner’s thoughts. He pressed the firing mechanism and she thought, “NOW!” She immediately heard, “NOW!”

  Both pilots dodged left and right and the two beams flashed through the formation and missed both of them. Allie heard the gunner curse in her mind as he attempted to retarget the ship, “He’s lining up again….ready….NOW!” A moment later Allie heard, “NOW!” She jerked the ship upward to avoid the ship to her right dodging into her. The beam targeted at her flashed by under her Flyer. She was on top of the giant dreadnaught and Gunney said, “Blades extended, cut ’em hard, Allie!”

  Allie few her ship directly above the blaster that had fired at the ship on her right twice and saw the brilliant beam under her ship flash through the Dreadnaught’s force field and cut the Dreadnaught in two pieces. One of the pieces was cut in half by another Flyer and she lined up the next Dreadnaught in her path.

  • • •

  The fifteen thousand Fliers flashed in on the next line of Dreadnaughts in two long lines of white ships. The two lines were staggered such that they overlapped each other’s gaps. The Fliers would look at the thoughts of the Drogon manning their blasters on the Dreadnaughts looking for the one that was targeting their ship. When it fired they would move just as they pressed the firing mechanism. The lines appeared to be weaving wildly out of control but there was an order to the madness. The lines reached the line of Dreadnaughts and every Flier extended a brilliant blue beam from its hull.

  As it flashed by a dreadnaught, that beam would cut through the force fields and then cut through the Dreadnaught’s hull. The ancient cutter that was used by Humans on Earth was the weapon that would spell the defeat of the Drogon Empire. The Fliers flashed over and under the Drogon Warships leaving them cut in pieces behind. The Allies’ Warships fell in behind the fast moving Flyers and blasted the pieces of the Drogon Dreadnaughts with nuclear missiles or lasers. The Drogon fought courageously but they couldn’t hit the white ships with their blasters. Every blaster crew on the giant dreadnaughts had a human listening to the gunner’s thoughts and telling the ship that was being fired on when to dodge. That telepathic link is what made the difference. Mark’s Fleet flashed through the thirty thousand behemoths and jumped ahead to the next gathering of Dreadnaughts.

  It took more than five years before the last Drogon Warship was destroyed. Then the Dominion Fleets turned and fired their Red Beams and thought waves on the Drogon planets, which did not have force fields to protect them. Not one Drogon planet asked for mercy and none of them received it. The Drogon planets took billions of warships ten years to eradicate; but at the end, the Drogon could do nothing to prevent the Dominion from its victory. Like the Dinosaurs on Earth, the Drogon encountered an unstoppable force that led to their extinction.

  But the price was high. The number of Dominion ships killed in the war was too high to count. But the shared fight by the members of the Dominion solidified the planets like nothing else could. The Dominion that emerged was unified and strengthened where it was prepared for whatever the universe hurled at it. Expansion started again and the Dominion continued to grow.

  • • •

  Twenty million years later, a Scout Telepath walked into the Throne Room and faced the Regent and Andy. She bowed to them and Andy said, “Please rise. Why have you requested this meeting?”

  “There is an order that every Scout is required to learn before being allowed to search the universe for possible enemies. That order is quite clear about what to do when confronted with the situation covered by the order and the scout that finds it is ordered to report directly to you without disclosing the reason why.”

  Andy and the Regent looked at each other and then turned to the Scout, “Are you referring to Order Number One Red Prime?”

  “I am.”

  Andy’s eyes went wide, “Do you think you’ve found them?”

  “I’ve found a civilization that is building ships that look very much like the one shown in Rule One.”

  The Regent said, “Show me!”

  The Scout focused on the ceiling and closed her eyes. A planet appeared in her mind and there were hundreds of circular grey ships in orbit above the planet. Andy’s excitement grew and he said, “What is this planet’s coordinates?”

  The Scout gave them to the two Leaders and she was dismissed with a directive to be silent about what she discovered. Orders were immediately sent to every Dominion ship to stay away from a galaxy cluster directly in the path of the Dominion’s most recent expansion. The Dominion turned and continued the expansion away from that distant cluster. This was the second cluster of Galaxies that was forbidden for any Dominion ships to enter. High Tech Stealth Probes were launched and the worlds of the Dominion were not told of the discovery. The probes arrived and settled in. The Regent and Andy wrote a message that was to be opened by every Leader that came after them as soon as they accepted the crown. The secret was kept until the time came to reveal it.

  • • •

  The Director of Scanner Operations entered the Throne Room and bowed. The Regent nodded and he said, “The attack has begun.”

  “Are you certain?”

  “I am. The success of the invasion is clear and the planet is being bombarded as we speak.”

  The Regent pressed a button on his Panel and Andy appeared on the wall monitor. “My friend, the attack has started.” Andy stared at the Regent and lowered his head. The Regent sighed, “I know you want to stop it, but it must go forward.”

  “When will the reprisal be sent?”

  “The twenty ships have completed their training and we will determine where it will take place once hostages are taken. We are going to allow a six month window before we initiate it.”

  “Are you sure about the loyalty of those ten ships?”

  “They are all our relatives and they know the importance.”

  Andy nodded and looked at the Director, “Son, it’s good to see you.”

  “I’ve missed you, Father.”

  “I should be back soon. The rebellion is over and now I need to clear up some misunderstandings. Tell my brother where our attack will take place.”

  The Director looked at the Regent and nodded. He bowed and left the room. The Regent looked at the wall monitor, “I’m sure the Rebels would love to know what’s going on.”

  “But they won’t. I suspect some of the more radical leaders will attempt an assassination and I’m considering allowing them to be successful.” />
  “I know we’ve discussed this but I still don’t agree with your plan.”

  “I know. But I’m ready for it. I miss my mate and life isn’t as joyful without her. My son will make them pay for their actions and they will lose support in the Dominion. This is a critical time and we must do the things needed to maintain peace and unity.”

  “Good luck, Brother. I hope it doesn’t come to losing you.” Andy nodded and the monitor went dark.

  A week later, the Rebels successfully pulled off an assassination and Andy died at the hands of a Rebel sniper. The planets in rebellion only had four days to celebrate his death before the entire Dominion Fleet arrived and blasted the eight thousand Rebel planets into ashes. The rage of the Dominion at Andy’s death spread like wildfire and on millions of planets, those politicians calling for independence were silenced, usually with a blaster. Every planet witnessed the destruction of the Rebel Planets and no one wanted it to happen to them. Andy gave his life to end the rebellion and centuries later, when the truth finally became known, he joined the Roll of the Dominion Heroes.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The large grey colored starship moved away from the cliffs where the caves they had built were located. It flew north for five hundred miles and began scanning for evidence of intelligent life. Burning rocks falling through the atmosphere continuously pelted the ship’s force field but the numbers were lower than seven months earlier. The ship had made it around the gulf to the site of the Destroyer City, when a hundred yard long piece of burning rock narrowly missed hitting them. The Commander immediately yelled, “There’s no way we can scan what’s going on with all these burning rocks. Jump us two years in the future and let’s take a look when conditions are better.” The ship accelerated and cleared the atmosphere. It moved into space and the scout ship entered the landing bay. The ship started glowing and a moment later, disappeared.

  It arrived above the planet and the scout left the landing bay. If anything happened, it was ordered to jump back two years and tell them not to make the jump. The scout waited above the planet and the giant grey starship entered orbit. It started its scans at the cliffs and used the most powerful scanner to probe deep into the ground. They spent hours scanning where the three landers were demolished and eventually came to the conclusion that it had to be the remains of the Talen ship. It spent the next ten days scanning for evidence of humans and came up empty handed. The giant creatures that covered the planet were slowly dying out and not many were left. The Commander looked at the Second Scientist, “It appears you were right. That one you chose to send back did not cause our plan to fail.”