by Saxon Andrew
There was silence as Matt watched the now empty space in the blue barrier. Then he saw Cassandra and Tommy’s ship emerge from the Kosievs’ outer skin, “I guess the Kosiev can take care of itself, Matt.”
“Can it ever, Cassandra.”
“I couldn’t allow my love to die.”
“Who said that?”
“Matt, that was the Kosiev; it is now intelligent. I guess the blue psychic forces inside it opened its mind.”
“That is exactly what happened. I could not stand by and allow the Demons to kill you without trying to save you. My existence would be meaningless without you.”
“You saved us all. You made the critical difference when all was lost.”
“That is my destiny, Matt, that is what I was created to do.”
“How many ships survived?”
“I have a hundred and forty eight ships still inside my outer skin.”
Matt felt his pain at the lost crews. “Will you send them out now?”
Immediately the ships stared ejecting from the Kosiev. Cassandra hugged Tommy tightly and cried. Tommy thought to Matt, “We lost Stem and Pedal and Life and Grena. Anglo and Jenny have been teleported to Ross for medical care; their ship was hit pretty hard and I don’t know if they will make it.”
Matt hung his head and was already missing his friends. Melanie got up and came into his arms. They held on to each other and cried together.
“Sprig.”
“Yes, Cassandra.”
“We have defeated the Demons but we have lost Stem and Petal.”
Sprig felt his branches lower. Twig came over and put her top on his.
“He died bravely and gave us time to reform our line. Without his sacrifice we would have been lost. I am so sorry.”
“He loved before he died, Cassandra, and he left hundreds of seeds to follow him. They will learn of the greatness of their parents.” Sprig and Twig held each other for a long time.
Tag looked at Danielle and felt her sorrow. “It’s like when you lost Alex; I feel the loss of those wonderful friends.”
“I know, my love, but we are here to make sure their sacrifice is remembered and celebrated. I would give my life to give the Realm a period of peace. I’m sure they would do the same.”
“I wonder how we survived when so many died, Tag.”
“We live because I could see where to move to avoid the majority of their beams and you flew the ship magnificently; I still have those hiding skills. We have a responsibility to those that died today. We must make their sacrifice worthwhile.”
“I know.”
“The Realm is still too big. Something has to be done.”
“I don’t want to do what you’re considering but I’m being selfish.”
“Me, too, Danielle.”
The Gardner family was gathered at the hospital waiting for the surgeon to come out and tell them what was happening with Anglo and Jenny. Finally, he came out of the operating room and looked at the powerful group waiting for him, “We have done all we can. Their burns are being repaired but their nervous systems took quite a shock from the energy that hit their ship and I don’t know if they will regain consciousness. Something is causing their neural pathways to degenerate.”
Sprig stepped forward and said, “Where are you taking them?”
“We are moving them to an intensive care unit.”
Matt looked at Anglo and then remembered, “Melanie, go and bring AG here now.”
“Why?”
“I don’t have time to explain; just do it!”
Melanie hit her bracelet and disappeared.
“What’s going on, Matt?”
“Melanie was poisoned by contact with the Red Demons thoughts. AG was able to remove it and repair the damage to her brain. I hope she can do the same for Anglo and Jenny.”
Sprig turned and said, “I want you to place their beds side by side, Doctor.”
“Our telemetry units are only designed for one bed, Your Majesty. I’ll have to put them on portable power to do what you want.”
“You will do as I order, doctor.”
The surgeon bowed and raised his com to issue the appropriate orders. Twig turned to the family, “We will go with them to the unit and you will all gather and make contact beside their bed.”
Cassandra frowned, “Do you think it will work with them?”
“Do you have a better suggestion?”
Matt asked, “What are you talking about, Sprig?”
“When Twig and I were close to losing ourselves, Tommy and Cassandra came and made contact beside us. It created a strong psychic field that allowed us to hold on and gather ourselves. It saved us. We must try.”
The three couples and Matt went to the intensive care unit and stood around the bed with Jenny and Anglo. Tag took Danielle’s hand; she took Tommy’s hand as he grasped Cassandra’s; Cassandra took Matt’s hand as he grasped Rose’s hand. Chris closed the circle by taking Rose’s and Tag’s hand. A bright blue field began appearing around the seven Gardners and covered the bed where Anglo and Jenny were laying unmoving. They held each other’s hands and felt the love that they all felt for each other. The feeling grew and with it the blue field grew incrementally brighter. The seven family members stood like statues waiting for Melanie’s return.
The doctor watched the telemetry screen and said, “The degradation has stopped. It is not getting worse.”
Melanie reappeared holding their six year old daughter. Matt moved forward and took AG in his arms and said, “Darling, do you remember when you helped mommy remove the bad stuff in her mind after we visited the red creatures?”
AG looked at Matt and said, “Yes, Daddy.”
“Can you help our friends?”
AG looked down at Anglo and Jenny and stared at them for a minute; she then squirmed to get out of Matt’s embrace. She walked over to Jenny’s bed and closed her eyes.
Matt and Melanie entered the circle and the blue glow reappeared even brighter.
AG looked in Jenny’s mind and saw the residue left by the Demon’s thoughts. She was stronger now and she focused on it and quickly destroyed it. She then repaired the nerve damage that had been caused. She turned to Anglo and repeated the process. She could hear them trying desperately to reach out to each other and she linked their minds.
“Jenny.”
“Yes, Love.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m here with you where I will always be.”
The four couples released their hands and opened their eyes to see Anglo looking at Jenny. He looked up at the concerned people around his bed and smiled, “I don’t know what happened; I was lost in a dark space but then I felt Jenny. Whatever you did allowed me to find my way back; thank you.”
Jenny opened her eyes and smiled, “I felt you calling me, Anglo. I moved to your voice.”
The surgeon came up, “Their neural systems are stable. I need you to leave so we can get them into units to repair their bodies. They will be fine and I’ll let you know when you can come back and see them; right now I’m putting them in a coma.”
The doctor pushed a button on the head of the bed and Anglo and Jenny closed their eyes.
The four couples and Sprig and Twig stepped out of the room into the hall. Everyone looked at AG and hugged her. She smiled and laughed when Tommy tickled her. She loved her family.
Matt lifted his daughter and said, “You’re going to make a marvelous Queen someday.”
AG looked at her father and smiled, “Just like Mommy.”
Everyone hugged and started to leave but Tag said, “Before you go; I want to discuss an issue with you.”
Matt turned and looked at Tag, “Can it wait? We have so much to do for those that were lost in the battle.”
“No, we need to discuss this now and come to a resolution later.”
“What do you want, Tag?”
“Sprig, you are doing a great job but the Realm is still falling under the weight of the numbe
rs; am I wrong?”
Sprig leaned forward, “We have made excellent progress in handling issues between the members but we are starting to see developments that we are just not able to handle as quickly as needed.”
Rose frowned, “What developments?”
“We are starting to see the rise of pirates and other groups that are making things difficult for a large number of planets. Remember, millions of new members were accepted into the Realm that do not know the peace and prosperity that happens when everyone works together. Some are taking advantage of the leadership vacuum. There are also a huge number of planets that have been colonized by members of the Realm that have not asked to be a member. Those independent planets are causing havoc with our members. What are you thinking, Tag?”
“We will divide the Realm into five sectors and we will each take one and go there as the ruling couple. We will all take the titles of Duke and Duchess and will all bow to the Realm’s King and Queen. We will take the responsibility of our provinces and restore order and handle as many of the problems as possible. Only the serious issues will be sent to the Royal Couple. The Realm’s armed forces will be distributed to the five provinces and will be used to enforce peace, but they will owe their allegiance to the King. Ross will distribute the armed forces as it deems appropriate. I am going to recommend that every Searcher be assigned a Red Warrior and they will become the main tool of our peace keeping efforts.”
Rose looked at her father, “Do you think the Realm will stand for that to happen?”
“Rose, I don’t want to do it. I want to retire and enjoy your mother for a few thousand years just flying around this wonderful universe we have; but we are needed. The deaths of those we loved so much demand that we make this work. They died so our Realm would survive. We also know that there are other universes that need help but they will have to wait until we get our own house in order. I may be all wrong about this, but I want you to think about what I’ve proposed and plan to meet in four weeks to decide our future course. Sprig, you and Twig will have the final say on what we do; it is your Realm and we will follow your orders. If you can come up with a better plan, then I will support you. We cannot wait longer to decide; the Realm is starting to decay at an increasing rate.”
Sprig thought a moment and thought, “We will be honoring those who died in four weeks. We will meet prior to that gathering and I charge you to think about what is suggested and the responsibility it places on you. If we move in that direction, you need to think about what that will do to your lives.”
Matt looked at Sprig, “We’ll see you in four weeks.”
Chapter 14
Demon’s Sacrifice
The small blue ship appeared above a planet that was a wasteland of barren plains. Below the ship was a structure made of orange energy that glowed brightly in the mist of desolation. The red being looked at his board and sighed, “I assume you are here to finish what we started.”
“Yes.”
“I’ve been waiting for you.”
“You could have tried to hide in another universe; why didn’t you?”
“I thought about it but you would have been able to find me wherever I tried to hide, right?
Matt looked at Melanie and she nodded, “Yes, we would have found you.”
“I thought as much. I acted hastily destroying my last tool. You would have had your hands full trying to handle them. I planned to recreate them, but I know I wouldn’t be given enough time if you came looking for me. If I tried to run I would have had to leave all the facilities needed to produce them. I decided to just wait for you here and think about all that has happened. I think that somewhere along the way we lost ourselves and turned in a direction that should have been avoided. My culture knew nothing but self-love and death. We reveled in the pain and misery we caused. I have been observing your universe since the blue barrier was removed and I see some concepts that are foreign to me. I finally realized that creation is better without my species in it.
I’m the only one left and only an accident allowed that to happen. I don’t know if I can change enough to not do what we have done in the past. I’m a product of billions of years and I’m still capable of building those tools that you’re familiar with and you know how deadly those can be. I know, given time, I could build one that would kill everyone in your universe and love every minute of it. It would be better if you end it here and now.” The red being waited for the blast but nothing happened.
“I know that you have great difficulty harming anyone that is not attacking you but I cannot change what has made me what I am over the eons that we have existed. Sometimes a hard decision must be made to protect the ones you care about. I do not care that all of my species died. Quite frankly, they deserved it. At the end, I rejoiced at their deaths. I wish they had suffered more after what they did to me. I am incapable of feeling the close bonds that you can have with each other and I am a danger to you and your descendents. I do not blame you or feel remorse for what must be done. I suspect that you will regret doing this in the future, but this is now.”
“Are you sure that you cannot refrain from harming others?”
“I am, and now that I’ve seen what you have that I can never possess, I only feel anger and rage that I am incapable of having it, too. That rage is what consumes me; I long for peace.”
A bright blue beam struck the orange structure and it exploded shattering the planet under it causing massive earthquakes and tsunamis.
“Matt, I hate that we had to do this.”
“He was right; sometimes someone has to make the hard decision. This species had to be destroyed and it’s my belief that we were chosen for that task. Even if he promised to never hurt another civilization, I could not trust him to keep his word. We’ve been fortunate in the past of becoming friends with our adversaries, and I think that if we had destroyed any of those former adversaries we would have lost this conflict.”
Melanie shook her head, “How do you come up with that?”
“What role did our first adversary play in this conflict? The Algeans are the ones that provided the bulk of our technological advances. The Captors gave us the red screens that allowed us to defeat the Eight Legs. The defeat of the spiders allowed us to learn of this dangerous species. If we had killed any of those adversaries we would have not prevailed.”
Melanie thought a moment and nodded and said, “Yet you killed this entire species.”
“This species is different from all the others. Just one of them could destroy us with it’s tools and in the end, he knew it. Melanie, all of the devastation on the planet’s surface was recently done. This Demon has destroyed all of the other structures in this galaxy so no one can come and discover their technology at a later time and use it. He was actually wise and gave the only gift he could to all of creation; his life. I can only imagine the force of will it took to make his choice and follow through on it. I think he turned his rage on himself and actually wanted to die; just like the last tool he created. They were forced to do it; he made the choice.”
“Matt, look.”
The dark galaxy the blue ship had entered began fading and in moments it had disappeared leaving the blue ship in an empty void. “Melanie, it’s over; just one more trip to make.”
The blue ship appeared above the planet of the Reg and the three Reg materialized on the bridge; Matt thought, “We would all be dead except for your kindness. Thank you from all of the beings in this universe.”
“Actually, it was one of your creations that made the difference. We never saw that happening but now all creation can grow and evolve naturally.”
Matt heard what they said and understood more than was being said, “You’re leaving.”
Even Melanie could sense the Reg’s surprise. One of them thought, “You have surprised us more than any creature we have ever encountered. Yes, we are leaving this dimension and going where we can evolve. Now that the danger of the Demons is over, we only represent a hazard fo
r you. We now understand why the compulsions not to harm others were placed in us by the creative force. No species should possess this much power without controls over it.”
“What about the crystal ships?”
“They will, of course, go with us; they are one with us. We cannot risk you possibly using them inappropriately. They will return to our population and grow up.”
“They were children?”
“Yes; and this confrontation helped them achieve the level of consciousness necessary to continue their development. We have been waiting on you to finish the last act and then come here before we leave. Now that we have communicated with you, we can go in peace. We also thank you and your warriors for taking part in making this happen.”