Serena
Page 13
The ships which had run away rendezvoused to form a fleet, hoping to fight their way out of trouble. They didn’t realize they had been tracked, and they didn’t realize that their opponents were able to cloak, since that technology was unknown to the Empire. In addition, the Pixie communicators used different technology and could not be monitored by the Empire ships. Thus they had no warning when a combined fleet of To’Ach’an and Pixie vessels opened fire. This time the Empire ships did have their shields up, so the battle was a more protracted one. They were firing blindly, but they were able to see where shots were coming from. One To’Ach’an ship, the Kortal, was destroyed, as were two Pixie ships. The Pixie ships had weaker shields than the To’Ach’an, but were so small that there was also much less chance of them being accidentally hit. All of the Pixie crew were wearing suits, as were the To’Ach’an from the Kortal, and so most were recovered alive. In the end, when the galaxy-wide battle was over, 2 Pixies and 7 from the Kortal were lost. The survivors from the Kortal, 578 in number, were interviewed by Jonu, Krasal, and Shaban. All were taken on as crew on the Thorcal, the Korste, or the Vorstad. The three giant To’Ach’an freighters now had full crews.
Shortly after this, Kysandra and her Pixie friends, with some support from Miko and the ship Morkalla, quit waiting and went underground after the remaining To’Ach’an traitors. It took two days, but they were all eliminated, with only minor injuries among Kysandra’s team. She then took her small ship, along with her Pixie friends, and returned to Shanna so she could help with exploring the new planets. The Pixies remained with her because they said she was “fun.”
Chapter 30, Conclusion
Following the battle, Nante formally and publicly thanked the To’Ach’an for their help. Since the existence of the Pixies was not really known outside of the To’Ach’an, no mention of them was made, but Nante, who did know of them, thanked them privately. As another way of saying thanks, Nante also compensated Jane and Jonu for the costs associated with getting the freighters back online.
It turned out that they didn’t sell any of the cargo from the four ships which the Pixies had given Jane. The ships had all been planning to plant colonies when they got lost, and so the cargo on the ships was all stuff of great use to settlers. Instead of selling it, they continued to transport settlers, and the cargo was all very helpful to the settlers on their new planets. In the first stages of this, they put about 2000 settlers on each of 19 planets, all of which were in the Large Magellanic Cloud. All of these planets were very Earthlike, and the settlers had no trouble at all establishing viable, self-supporting communities.
Since the Tocal who owned the planet Caimerce was no longer among the living, Kysandra claimed it. It was centrally located in the Milky Way, and made a good place to transfer cargo, hold gatherings, and meet Empire people when necessary. She didn’t live there, of course, but did visit fairly often. Now that the trouble with the other To’Ach’an was finally settled, Robert and the other ships in his group did allow the To’Ach’an who were not part of their group to make settlements on planets in the Large Magellanic Cloud. They were never given jump coordinates that would allow them to visit the Small Magellanic Cloud. That was reserved for the ships in the “inner circle.” Each of those ships was allowed by Jane to claim one planet in the Small Magellanic Cloud and establish a base there.
Robert made it clear that his group of ships had a monopoly on freight and passenger service between the Milky Way and the Clouds. Since all of the To’Ach’an ships had formed an alliance with Robert and Jane, they would not carry cargo to the Clouds. When settlers were brought to the Clouds, they and their goods had to travel on Porcalt, Thorcal, Vorstad, or Korste, which were the four ships which had been gifted to Jane by the Pixies. As for the Pixies, they dropped out of sight completely, except for their interactions with the ships in Robert’s group. Of course, they still had observers scattered throughout the three galaxies. Glenora even let it slip that they had observers in the other satellite galaxies as well, but Robert had enough on his plate without adding any more galaxies to his collection.
A few years later, Robert’s group was contacted by the Potriem, who wanted to hire them to help against attackers from an unknown source, but that is a story for another time.
An excerpt from Book Three of the series: Warriors
About fifty five years ago, somewhere on Earth…
“Hello, my Queen. We are honored by your visit. It has been many years since you have graced this planet with a visit.”
“You may all sit. It has been too long since I have been here, because this backwater, primitive excuse for a civilization seems to be assuming an importance which I had not anticipated. You must watch these two children. It is strange that two humans from an otherwise unimportant planet will have such an enormous impact on several galaxies. I have not been surprised like this in many millennia.”
“Do you want us to intervene, my Queen?”
“If you have to intervene then do so without hesitation. They must grow up safely, and then they must meet each other. You must do whatever is necessary to make these things come to pass. Keep them safe and send me regular reports.”
“We will keep you informed, my Queen. Why are they so important?”
“One of them has been foretold in a very important prophecy, and the other is necessary for the prophecy to be fulfilled. Do not fail in this, or 50,000 years of planning will be lost. This is a critical time, and these two are the pivot points upon which time is turning. Even I cannot see exactly how this will play out, but there is grave danger ahead – for all of us.”
Warriors is a novel length collection of a novella, a novelette, and several short stories. These are prequels, taking place before the events in the first book of this series, Shanna.
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About the Author
Bill Nolan lives in Willcox, Arizona, on 5 acres in the country, along with his wife, Sara, their dog Allie, their cat, Bandit, two chickens named Lucy and Ethel, six turtles, and a few hundred fish. The property is certified as wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. Animals which have visited our ponds include mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, kit foxes, gray foxes, coati mundis, skunks, javalinas, cottontails, jack rabbits, lots of lizards of various kinds, box turtles, and half a dozen kinds of snakes, including, of course, rattlesnakes. It is Arizona, after all. We have also identified over 120 species of birds on our property. Bill taught College for 35 years, and is very active in community affairs.