by Saxon Andrew
“We are at the Plant’s home world. Commodore O’Donald, I need you to hold off the attacking ships while I try to persuade the leaders of the Plants to communicate with me.”
Tag was stunned. Rose was right, he would have never allowed her to come here but he was committed to try and help her accomplish what she came to do. “Commodore, the ship is yours.”
Rose said, “Try not to fire at any of them; you should be able to hold them off defensively for a while.”
Tag looked at his daughter with amazement then looked at O’Donald and saw her nod. “She’s right, Your Majesty; they will not be able to harm us. I’ll hold them off until you order us to fire our weapons.”
Tag looked at O’Donald and thought, “There is a lot about this ship I haven’t learned. Maybe Rose does know what she’s doing. Then he turned his attention to Rose who was allowing him to listen in on her communication attempt.”
“I am trying to communicate with the Eldest Leader of this race,” Rose thought at the planet.
Meanwhile thousands of ships fired on the Kosiev and then attempted to ram. Tag watched as the first ten ships hit the Kosiev amidships and just disappeared into its hull without a trace or even any evidence they had hit. Then he saw one of the huge harvesters accelerate straight at the Kosiev.
Rose continued, “You should be seeing that none of your ships can harm us in any way. If you want to waste the harvester you’re sending to ram us to make sure I’m telling the truth, then by all means do so, however, it will have no affect on my ship.”
The harvester picked up speed and hit the Kosiev. Everything that touched the SR Ship disappeared and the remaining parts above and below the Kosiev continued moving away from the planet.
Rose continued her attempt to communicate. “I allowed your ship to hit us because I want you to know that we cannot be harmed. I also know that you have ordered long ago that no member of your race is to ever communicate with any other race. I know why you did that.”
On the planet below the Algean Elders in their grove were swaying almost uncontrollably. They were almost yelling among themselves that the strangers were going to destroy them and that something had to be done. Then they heard the stranger say that they knew why they would not communicate with other races. The Eldest was so surprised that he responded before he could stop himself, “There is no way you could know that!”
Rose and Tag were startled at the anger in the response. Then Rose said, “You don’t communicate with other races because the only race you ever contacted totally destroyed all of your planets and inhabitants.”
The Algean Eldest was stunned. How could the stranger know that? It had happened more than seventy million cycles ago and no one of his race was alive at that time. The memory had been passed down with the seed that he came from.
He still refused to communicate further until the stranger said, “They not only eradicated your race they also destroyed your food source.”
The other Elders stopped yelling and looked at the Eldest. The Eldest paused and then said, “How do you know these things. Was your race alive when it happened?”
Tag was stunned. What was Rose saying? Then she continued. “Eldest, I want to communicate with you about the future between our two peoples. However, before I continue, I want you to stop the fleet attacking the planet where our fleet is while we are talking.”
“Just why would I do that? We will destroy you in less than another knomel.”
“Because that is not our home world and we have enough of our new missiles to destroy more than ninety percent of your remaining fleet.”
The Eldest was startled. Surly this being was not being truthful with him. Then the stranger said, “Eldest, we moved the race that formerly inhabited the world you’re attacking to our galaxy to save them from your attack. We have more than 3,200 worlds armed like the one you’re attacking. That one is uninhabited. I want you to ask your fleet to stop and hold its position while we talk and I will order my forces to do the same. If at any point you don’t want to continue talking then resume your attack. I should tell you that if you refuse to do as I ask, I am prepared to totally destroy the grove you’re in and all the soil around it for a distance of one quarter of your planet’s surface.”
The Eldest felt real fear. If the stranger did what they said, his race was doomed to eternal savagery and dementia. “You have no idea what that would do to my species,” the Eldest said.
“I believe I do,” Rose said, “and I don’t threaten this lightly.”
“I will order a temporary halt,” the Eldest said.
Tag keyed his com and said, “Admiral Dorg.”
“Yes Your Majesty,” Dorg answered.
The Plants have ordered a temporary halt to their attack. As soon as you see them start stopping, order all of our forces to cease firing until you see them move again.”
Dorg was stunned, “How did you do this?”
“Not right now Admiral.”
Dorg keyed his com and placed the orders. He looked at his display and said, “They’re stopping. Cease fire, all SR forces cease fire.”
While Dorg was stopping the SR Fleet, O’Donald contacted Cade and patched Tag thru, “Cade cease fire on the penetrators immediately.” Cade looked at him with dismay and Tag said, “This is a direct order, do it now.” Cade turned and pressed a button on his console. “Commodore O’Donald will notify you if we need you to continue so keep your channel to her open.”
The Algean Fleet Leader received the order to stop and hold his position and did not believe what he was hearing. “You want me to do what, Eldest?”
“Stop and hold your position until I notify you. The strangers are here at the home world threatening to destroy the Sacred Grove. Now do as you’re ordered.”
The Fleet Leader felt fear course thru his body. Not the Sacred Grove, please, not the Sacred Grove. Then he ordered his ships to stop.”
Both the Algeans and the crew of the Kosiev watched the battle come to a stop. Rose then thought, “Thank you, Eldest. Now we have an opportunity to try and resolve this conflict we find ourselves enmeshed.”
“I am being forced to communicate with you and I do not see any way to resolve our issues nor do I have any desire to do so.”
Tag thought, “Danielle, please join me in what is happening.” Tag felt Danielle come into his mind and both of them listened as Rose talked with the Algean Leader.”
Rose paused a moment and thought, “Eldest, is your reluctance to resolve our issues because of what happened to your race long ago?”
“That is a major part of it. I do not trust any race outside of my own and I think that any resolution that you would want us to come to would include not harvesting any more worlds. I think this because of your past efforts to stop our efforts at gathering food for my race.”
“What if you no longer needed the food you’ve been harvesting?”
The Eldest became very silent and said nothing. Then Rose said, “You didn’t always need to harvest food did you?”
The Eldest still remained silent and after a long pause said, “No, we didn’t. My race did not originally consume organic materials.”
Tag and Danielle were shocked but continued to listen to the conversation.
“What changed that, Eldest?”
“The race that originally destroyed us released a disease on our planets that destroyed our food source. Without it, we were forced to consume organic material. This small land of golden soil here is all that remains of our food.”
Rose nodded and said, “And since organic material is not your normal diet you are forced to consume huge amounts of it to live.”
“Yes we do and my race always feels hunger no matter how much they consume. The food we need only remains here in this small area that is only large enough to develop the leaders of my people. Your threat is the only reason I stopped our attack.”
“Why do you think the race released the disease on your worlds?”
The Eldest said
nothing then Rose, Tag, and Danielle could hear the heavy mental sigh that came from him, “Because of our children.”
Danielle could not restrain herself, “What do you mean your children.”
The Eldest thought, “Who is that?”
Rose said, “She is my mother.”
The Eldest said, “Then she knows the importance of raising children properly.”
“What do you mean, properly?” Danielle asked.
“We had four stages of life before the Silver Monsters destroyed us; birth where our babies would put their feeding tubes in the food source and grow for ten cycles absorbing the energy and nutrients for their next sixty cycles; the second stage they would remove their feeding tubes and go out to explore the universe around them; the third stage is where they would return from their explorations, discuss their discoveries with others, reproduce and start their families; the final stage is where they plant themselves in the dirt and give back the things they’ve learned to their race in new ideas or inventions. To properly raise a child it must complete those four stages.”
Danielle thought a moment and realized that human development was very similar to the Plants. Then Rose said something that got her full attention. “It was your adolescents that caused the problem with the Silver Monsters, wasn’t it?”
The Eldest paused again and then said, “How did you determine that?”
“They wouldn’t leave the monsters alone.”
The Eldest’s thought turned hard immediately, “You don’t understand, they couldn’t leave them alone. Our adolescents were driven by their curiosity; it’s part of their makeup that drives them, and they could not stay away even if they wanted; the Silver Monsters were too much for them to resist. Unfortunately, the Monsters would not be patient with our children. We tried to stop them from following the Monsters but they just could not contain their curiosity. The Monsters didn’t even communicate with us about controlling our seedlings; they just destroyed the means for them to exist; then they released a disease that killed us all.”
Rose said, “They destroyed the food you needed to develop first.”
The Eldest remained silent showing his agreement.
Danielle thought, “That’s terrible; what happened after that?”
The Elders could hear the anger in the Stranger’s thoughts and wondered why it was there. These strangers just did not make sense to him. The Eldest said, “Our young became the tools you have seen attacking and harvesting planets. Their entire life is ruled by hunger and their intellect is stunted from improper nutrition. They are little more than savage predators with little or no mental skills. Our leaders are from here where they develop so that our children can be led to food sources to keep them from starving.”
Rose said, “I ask you again, if we could restore your food source, would you stop harvesting other worlds?”
The Eldest said, “We have tried for millions of years to bring back our food but nothing has worked. We could not trust you even if you could restore it. You would eventually try to eradicate my race.”
“Is it impossible for you to trust?” Rose asked.
“No, we trust each other; not outsiders.”
“You can’t understand someone willing to help you without an ulterior motive.”
“It’s there; you’re just not revealing it.”
“Eldest, I have just one more request and we’ll end our conversation and go about destroying each other again.”
“What is that?”
“I would like to bring someone here and take him to the surface to communicate directly with you.”
“Why would you want to do that?”
“It will answer some questions about us that you would not even think to ask. I know you can guarantee our safety while we meet and after we talk I will leave your planet and allow you time to bring in enough ships to defend it.”
The Eldest thought for a moment and said, “I’ve seen your ship in action and I think it wouldn’t matter how many ships I brought in, would it?”
Rose paused and said, “No, we would still be able to destroy you but at least it wouldn’t be today.”
The Eldest smiled and said, “You’re right, not today. Bring whoever it is you want to bring and I’ll guarantee your safety.”
“Eldest, he will be coming in one of our older ships so you probably could destroy it but he will exit the ship in a shuttle and the ship will then jump away. He will have his screens down when he jumps in.”
“Fair enough, you know where we are.” The Eldest quit communicating with Rose and sent a message to his fleet surrounding the Kosiev.
Tag looked at Rose and said, “You are not going down on that planet without me with you.”
Rose looked into her father’s eyes and said, “Yes I am; you are going to Ross and get Mom and bring her back here while I’m on the surface.”
Tag stopped in mid thought and said, “Why do I need to do that?”
“Dad, both of you must be here quickly. It is absolutely necessary or everything will fall apart if you aren’t.”
Tag was struggling mightily with his fears. He heard Rose in his thoughts say to Danielle. “Mom, Dad will be coming to get you shortly in the Kosiev; please be ready for him when he arrives.”
“What are you going to do, Rose?”
“Visit the Plants with a friend.”
Danielle was scared but thought to Tag, ‘Come get me, I need to be there. Don’t leave me here while our baby is there.”
Tag looked at Rose and said, “Who is going down with you?”
“You know, Father, the one who is most like the Plants, Uncle Dorg.”
Rose pushed her com and Admiral Dorg appeared on her display. “Uncle, I need you to follow the next instructions I give you exactly as they’re given.”
Dorg looked at Tag on his display and could tell Tag was not comfortable with what was happening. “Do you agree, Prince Gardner?”
Tag looked at his daughter and felt fear like he had never known and he started to say, No,” but then his senses warned him about making a bad decision. He ran his hand thru his hair and said, “Do exactly as she says, Admiral. She is now in command of this project.”
Dorg was worried but he said, “What do you want me to do, Rose?”
“I am sending you some coordinates for you jump into this system. I want you to jump the Rossville here with all your screens down and as soon as you enter normal space I want you to leave in a shuttle and come to the Kosiev to pick me up. Once you’re clear of the Rossville, it will jump back to the fleet and wait for you to call it back.”
“Where are you and I going?”
“We are going to land on the Plant’s home world to have a discussion with their leaders.”
Dorg looked at Tag and if expressions could beg for help, Dorg had one at that moment. Tag looked at him and said, “Hurry Admiral, our time is short.”
Dorg took a deep breath, pressed his com and said, “Mikado, you are now in overall command. I am going to meet a Princess.”
The Rossville disappeared into null space.
Mikado looked out at the millions of Algean ships just a short distance from his fleet and wondered, “What are the Gardners doing?” He wondered if the Algean fleet shared his fear.
The Plant Fleet Leader watched another ship disappear from the Strangers fleet and wondered what was happening at the Sacred Grove. The entire Algean fleet felt fear for the future of their race.
The Rossville broke into normal space a mile from the Kosiev among thousands of Plant ships that did not attack. Dorg left in a shuttle and the Rossville immediately jumped away. Dorg piloted his shuttle around the ships between the two SR ships landed in the Kosievs’ landing bay where Rose entered his shuttle and said, “I will fly the shuttle, Uncle, I know where we’re going.’
Dorg watched as Rose deftly moved the shuttle out of the bay and headed toward the planet. Dorg said, “That was one of the smoothest uses of shuttle jets I’ve ever see
n, Rose.”
“I didn’t use the jets, Uncle, I moved it with my mind; now calm down and let’s go meet the Plants.”
Dorg couldn’t help himself; he was afraid but if this thirteen year old was going in, she was not going in alone. He would die to protect her and this was as good a place as any. She was just so young and small. Her blonde hair hung down to the small of her back in a braid and she looked just like a miniature Danielle in her small space armor. She looked at him with those startling green eyes and then placed her hand on his arm and said, “We’ll be ok, uncle; the Eldest has promised us safe passage.” Rose smiled to herself and felt the love she had for this brave Cainth Warrior who had a bigger heart than even he realized. Pardoning him for the death of the colonists was the best thing her parents had ever done and hopefully the reward for that was about to be paid. She loved him from the moment of her birth when she felt him outside her birthing room. His demons still haunted him and she wished she could help him put them at rest; perhaps this experience would help do just that. She noticed the group of tall bushes on the surface below and brought the shuttle to rest directly in front of the grove a short distance from the yellow soil. She opened the shuttle door and took Dorg’s hand and walked out to the where the yellow dirt began and then stopped and waited. One of the tall bushes walked up on its roots and stopped just in front of her. She spoke her thoughts so Dorg could hear what was being said, “Hello, Eldest, you do not appear anything like I thought you would.”
The Eldest looked down on the small creature in front of him and said, “Nor do you. You’re much smaller than I thought you were.”
“Eldest, this is one of our highest ranking military leaders and I believe that you would learn a lot from seeing his memories. I know you can use telepathy and I want you to see our people from this warrior’s eyes.”
Both the Eldest and Dorg both said at the same time, “Why?”
Dorg looked at the Eldest and the Eldest looked at Dorg at that same moment; Rose said, “Because the two of you are more alike than you are different. Look at his memories, Eldest, and we will leave your planet and resume our conflict if that is your wish. Uncle Dorg, look at his memories as he looks at yours so we can better understand this race.”