by Saxon Andrew
“I suppose your planet is better than ours.”
“We will never go out and attack anyone to impose our will on them. Our ships are there only to protect and defend my planet from having another’s will imposed on it. We will die protecting our space. And, quite frankly, we could go out and defeat every planet in the Fellowship if we chose to do so. But that is something we will never do.”
“Why not?”
“Because we don’t want to be like you, always living in fear of the next conqueror. That is something we do not choose to do. Your life is not worth living.”
Jinks said, “That’s not entirely true, Salud.”
Salud looked at Jinks, “What?”
Jinks pointed at the Royal, “His life is very much worth living. It’s all those under him that suffer to keep him in the luxury he commands.”
“I stand corrected.”
The Royal sneered, “That’s not true; my mission is to protect my people.”
“You don’t do that by sending them out to be killed taking planets you’ll never keep!”
“You don’t know what it’s like surviving in the Fellowship?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Three of your powerful members have attacked us and we seem to be doing ok. Our people are free to live a life that is fulfilling for them and no one is forced to fight. All of our warriors have volunteered to fly our ships. I suspect that if you had kept all the warships you’ve built to defend your planets, no one would be able to threaten you. But instead, you send them out and have them blown up in senseless battles that gives you planets that you’ll lose in less than a year in most cases. Your stupidity is absolutely beyond imbecilic.”
“How do you know so much about my people?”
“Because I do love your former subject and he has taught me how crazy you are. Your people fight because if they don’t, they’ll die by disruptor as children. We fight for a reason.”
“What reason is that?”
“To be free to allow all of us to find out where our destiny might take us. We have no desire to rule others or own their possessions. What we have is all we need to find happiness. We fight for the space around our planet.”
“It’s not as simple as you say.”
“Yes it is. You need look no further than the Myot to see where you’re headed. You’ll become powerful enough and one day, everyone will fear you enough to combine against you and your people will be a footnote in a history book. I suppose you’ve taken possession of the Myot planets after we finished with them.” The Royal just stared at them in silence. “Try to rule those planets and see how many problems they’ll cause you. You’ve done nothing but weaken yourself further.”
“I didn’t come here to be lectured by a primitive species that knows nothing about surviving against all odds.”
Salud smiled, “That primitive species is now capable of eradicating you and all your planets from existence. I would think we are exactly the ones you should be listening to. If power is what determines whether a species is advanced or primitive, I would think you fall in the latter category. We’ve lost less than a thousand warships in the three battles we’ve fought. We have destroyed close to a million.” Salud paused and smiled, “All our children stay with their families until they’re grown and then they decide what they want to do with their lives. I think it is you who is primitive.”
Jinks looked at Salud, “I think we’ve said enough. We’re wasting time here.”
Salud nodded and stood up. The Royal said, “I didn’t dismiss you!”
Salud smiled, “We are not your subjects. It is us dismissing you and you should think long and hard about whether or not you want to see who has the biggest stick at this moment.”
“Why?”
“Our ship is in your landing bay.”
The Royal’s face turned darker. He leaned back and said to the Fleet Royal, “Take them back to their ship.”
Jinks said, “Good move. We do wish you success in the Fellowship and we harbor no ill will toward you. After all, it was one of your subjects that taught us this.” They turned and walked out of the giant room. The Welken Ruling Royal sat in his chair in silence all the way back to his Fortress.
• • •
The Fleet Royal took them back to the landing bay and assisted Salud out of the sled. He put his hand on Salud’s shoulder before she entered the bay, “Tell my brother I’m proud of him.”
“Your Brother? I thought his brother was dead.”
“I’m the oldest and was a ship commander. I survived the loss of my battleship and have finally been promoted to the Great One’s personal staff. I know it is Zyrl that made it to your planet.”
“How would you know that?”
‘Because we discussed many times the way our species lives. Both of us were really depressed when three of our siblings were executed for not having the skills to be in the military. Tell him I’m honored by what he’s accomplished and I pray for his happiness.”
Salud sighed, “His name was Zyrl.”
The Fleet Royal smiled and led them into the landing bay.
• • •
They walked through the force field and climbed in Jester. “Take us out.” Jester lifted smoothly from the floor and moved outside the landing bay. Once clear, the small ship blasted away at full speed and the crew on the giant Welken Flagship were amazed at the speed it disappeared from sight. The Fleet Royal watched it disappear and knew no ship in the Great One’s fleet could match it. The Myot Battleships were actually more powerful than the Welken ships and they were decimated. He took a deep breath and decided he would talk about this with the Great One. This was a civilization they needed as an ally. But would they do it?
• • •
“WHAT? My brother is still alive?”
“He is. He’s serving on the Ruler’s personal staff as a Fleet Royal. He told us to tell you he’s proud of you.”
“What did he look like?” Salud’s head went back and Lukas shook his head, “Stupid question. They all look alike.”
Jinks shook his head, “No, he was taller than the others we saw.”
“Taller than me?”
“By about three inches.”
“It must be Kyel.”
“Why does this bother you so much?”
“He deserves a better life.”
“He’s serving the Ruler. You can’t get much better than that.”
“It’s still no life worth living.”
“Do you want to go and take him?”
“He wouldn’t go.”
“Why not?”
“For the same reason I refused to meet with the Ruler. We are programmed to obey our Ruler. That’s why he wanted to speak with me. I couldn’t refuse to go back with him.”
“I’m not so sure about that, Lukas.”
Lukas looked at Salud, “You don’t know that.”
“I know you love me and I don’t believe any programming could ever make you leave me.”
Lukas stared at her and after a long moment smiled, “You’re probably right. Welken really don’t know what love is.”
“So what do we do?”
“We start focusing on that new species that is observing them. That is what we’ve been trained to do.”
Salud shook her head, “I don’t understand.”
“Call the meeting and we’ll discuss it. I think it’s time.”
Salud nodded and looked at Jinks. She hoped her face didn’t show as much stress as his.
• • •
The ONE WORLD leaders assembled in the huge Fleet Operations conference room. Every flag officer and high-ranking civilian were present and they wondered what was going on. Lukas had Willow connected electronically to one of the monitors and speakers and Willow also wondered what was going on.
Chad looked at John and Julie, “Why are the top brass so stressed?”
John shook his head, “I have no idea. Something has them bothered.”
Lukas, Salud, an
d Jinks walked into the room and everyone came to their feet. Jinks smiled and said, “Sit down and relax.” Everyone took a chair and Jinks said, “I’m going to turn this meeting over to Lukas. I ask that all of you hold your questions until he finishes.”
Lukas remained seated at the center of the huge circular table and moved the microphone closer. “I’m going to discuss something today that has been bothering me for a long time. I want all of you to focus on probabilities while I’m talking with you. I simply want you to just consider what the chances are of the things I mention happening.” Lukas looked around the table and said, “Willow, what is the possibility of you deciding to deliberately violate a Sentinel Covenant.”
“What do you mean?”
“Isn’t part of your programming to make sure you don’t do anything to cause issues with the Sentinels?” Willow was silent. “Willow?”
“You removed that program before I fled from Earth.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Yes, there were protocols that prohibited covenant violations.”
“But you decided soon after we escaped to bring me to Earth, violating Sentinel Covenants. Why did you ignore them?” Again there was silence. “Willow?”
“Give me a moment. I’m looking through my databanks.” The group waited and then they heard, “Apparently that programming was removed.”
“By who?”
“I have no idea.”
“Where did you get the idea?”
“I got the idea when I received the Fellowship Probe’s data.”
“So the idea was put in you.”
“Yes, I suppose it was.”
Lukas looked at the gathering, “Once I arrived here, I found a job at the restaurant where I met Joey, Salud, and Trevor. What are the chances of all four of us being together in the same place? I inserted a line in Salud’s equation to help her solve it and never looked at what the purpose of the equation was. If I had, I wouldn’t have done it. The equation is what she used to build our force field.”
The room stared at Lukas in silence and there were many furrowed brows in the room. “One of the employees in that restaurant was killed by the Stalkers and Trevor was hired to take his place. Trevor, why did you come to that restaurant?”
“I needed a job.”
“Why did you come there that day?”
“I don’t know; I just felt the need to go out and look.”
“What are the chances of the two most brilliant minds in nuclear power and high energy lasers ending up together? Much less one of them working with me in that restaurant.”
Joey said, “Do you mean to say that Tony was set up to die?”
Lukas smiled, “Please hold your questions. But yes it appears that is exactly what happened. Rachel told me she didn’t know why she had told Tony she was going to see someone else and didn’t tell him it was a girlfriend. However, Tony was gone and Trevor had a place to work. Think about the odds.”
Lukas looked at Julie and John, “And the two of you; you were juniors in college with one year left to graduate. Why did you leave to join us before you graduated?”
Julie looked at John and said, “I don’t know. I guess the vision of ONE WORLD captured my heart.”
“And attention?”
Julie nodded, “That as well.”
Lukas looked at Kathy and Stoney and he saw Kathy’s apprehension. “Kathy was my next door neighbor and I rescued her from a street gang in Boston. Even Willow told me not to get involved, but I did. Kathy became someone who knew me and was thankful for my intervention. Keep that in mind. One of the most important persons in our group is Jinks. What possibility was there for him and me to meet each other? He was looking for the Alien that may have stayed on the planet when Willow blasted off to get the Stalkers off the planet. I went into hiding and trust me on this, he wouldn’t have found me. As a matter of fact, the bulk of the evidence supported that I left with Willow, but he didn’t stop looking. I felt compelled to take up pro-golf to make money to build the structures we’d need to build our ships. I questioned at the time why I was doing it but I felt compelled to do it. I was on national television and Jinks was questioning Kathy about my being an alien. She saw me on TV and pointed me out to Jinks. The only way for him and me to be brought together was for her to see me and tell him. That required I be on TV at the moment he questioned her. What are those odds?
The only other person that could have done it was the owner of the building that rented me the room but he died of a heart attack and couldn’t do it.” Lukas looked at Salud, “No, I don’t think that was part of the plan. Becoming a golfer was a way around it.”
He looked at Jinks, “You told me that you followed me around Augusta for two days and you didn’t want to but you ended up liking me.” Jinks nodded. “You decided to approach Salud to question her and as a result of that conversation, you and Stoney left your chosen careers to join us. And you had just been promoted to a General’s rank. What’s the chance of that happening without outside interference?”
Lukas held up fingers and started pointing to them, “The CIA quit spying on us and they never quit. Jinks didn’t turn us in, and normally, he would. The first ships we built were invisible to the Johan scanners. We beat them. The next development came from Amanda and Willow, a more powerful reactor. The Swiss developed a star drive and forced us to fight. The Welken and Myot attacked and our stronger ships defeated them. We found the new civilization that is here looking for something.”
The room started buzzing and Lukas said, “You don’t know about them and they are far ahead of us technologically. However, Amanda, Willow and Trevor have discovered how much of their technology works and that’s what led to our current Attack and Defense Pods. We have been slowly trained to become the fighting force we are today. How many of you have had a sudden thought that turned out to be a difference maker? You question afterwards where it came from. Like Stoney telling Jinks he should have all the ships in orbit just before an attack.”
Lukas shook his head, “Look around this room at the couples here. What are the odds of all of these powerful people ending up together? Think about it.” The room was silent and Lukas said, “Salud and I had a conversation with a Sentinel soon after Tony died. The Fellowship Fleets were gathering outside our Solar System fighting to get the first nuke in so they could take possession. The city that is the center of terrorism has been hit twice by Fellowship nukes. That is impossible. And there are many other small things but taken as a whole, they defy logic.”
Lukas looked up as he said, “The Sentinel who spoke to us removed the restrictions on me that prevented me from doing things that would affect Earth’s development. That violates one of their strongest covenants. He also told me about the civilization that was coming here from another galaxy.”
“I DID NOT!”
Lukas still looked up, “Yes you did; you just didn’t recognize it at the time.” There was silence and everyone in the room was looking around wondering where the voice had come from. “I told Salud that the Sentinels were the most powerful species in the Universe. You said that wasn’t quite true. I then corrected myself by saying the most powerful in our galaxy and you agreed. That told me that there was another species outside our galaxy more powerful than you. It wasn’t at all difficult to make the leap that the other species was a danger to you and as a consequence, to us as well. The real truth is that it’s a real danger to the Sentinels and you’ve been manipulating us to confront them.” Lukas paused and said, “I’ve learned that the two ships here are not observing the Myot or Welken but are looking for something in their civilizations. That something is you, Pat.”
Suddenly, an old man appeared in a chair in front of Lukas at the table. He was dressed exactly like the night Lukas and Salud saw him in the restaurant. “You’ve got to tell me how you know that?”
Lukas shook his head and smiled while the rest of the room was shocked into silence. “Do you remember telling me that yo
u were watching me from the moment I left my battleship in an escape pod?” Pat nodded. “That battleship was in Myot space. You were there before you left and came here. You must have been seen by that other species and they’re looking for you now.”
“Very good, Lukas.”
“Is the Sentinel that was assigned to the Welken Confederacy here with you now?”
Pat smiled, “Well, he couldn’t very well stay there with that second ship showing up.”
Lukas stared at Pat and shook his head, “What happens when that other civilization finds you?”
“You’ve got all the answers; you tell me.”
“They’re going to come and try to kill you and anyone else that happens to be where you’re located at that time. That means that if you are here, we will be in the middle of their bull’s-eye. You’re setting us up to be eradicated.”
The room was a quiet as a tomb. Pat stared at Lukas and after a moment smiled, “Bravo, I’m impressed. However, I’ve accelerated your development. You are close to being able to take them on.”
“Come on, Pat. One planet against an entire galaxy. It’ll be a blood bath.”
Salud looked at Pat, “The other Sentinels don’t know about this, do they?”
Pat’s smile disappeared and he looked around, “No, they do not. Let’s keep this a secret between us.”
Lukas shook his head, “You’ve gone rogue.”
Pat’s smile returned, “I suppose that’s true. However, look at the Fellowship and you’ll see what my species is capable of creating. If the Fellowship is the best we can do, we’re really not all that. There is a rule that states we are forbidden to look outside of our galaxy. However, I saw one of those things you call a conduit being constructed between two galaxies and knew that the ones that built it would one day come here.”
“Why would they come here?”
“Because they are the real conquerors. The Fellowship are rank amateurs compared to them. It was only a matter of time until they arrived. Unfortunately, they detected me looking at that conduit and that brief exposure frightened them.”
“I though you said they were more powerful?”
“Taken as a whole, they are.”