by Saxon Andrew
• • •
Jon hugged his parents and Robert shook his hand, “I’m proud of you son. I wish I could have shouted it to the crowds today.”
“I’m sorry, Dad. We’ve been able to prevent our fellow warriors from learning who we are and I think it’s best we keep it secret.”
Sarah said, “Many of the news channels tried to find out where you were posted but were unable to find you. I’m just thankful no one else tried to harm you.”
“I’m sure that’s past now that the Royal Family is going to start a family.” Jon saw his parent’s expressions immediately change. “What’s wrong?”
“Very few know this, but Victoria cannot have children. They’ve just found out and they wanted to tell us before it got out.”
Jon sat down stunned by the announcement. He looked at his father and said, “What does that mean for me?”
“Not much right now.”
“What do you mean right now?”
“If something happened to the Royal Couple, we would take their place; not you. You don’t have anything to worry about until many, many years in the future.”
“Dad, Mom, I’m not Royal Blood.”
“Neither was my ancient ancestor that started the Bristone Empire. But he was the right person at the right time. You can always refuse the throne and allow the next in line to replace you. You do not have to accept the crown.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“I am. However, if word gets out about the Royal Couple not having children you will be a target again.”
“Dad, I’m a target either way. Unless a child is born, I will not be forgotten.” Jon paused, “How have the Royal Families become so power mad? Everything I’ve read about the Realm’s rulers doesn’t describe them like this. What’s changed them?”
Sarah sighed, “Most of the Royals lost their psychic abilities. Now the most powerful ships we have are useless and the members of the Royal Family can hide their true thoughts and feelings. Ambition is a temptation that few can resist.”
Jon shrugged, “I don’t want it.”
Sarah looked at Robert and he said, “That is the one quality that the best of our rulers all had in common.”
Jon shook his head, “I really mean it; I don’t want the position. If offered, I will refuse.”
Robert smiled, “Well, I don’t see it coming to that. Just watch your back.”
“I’ll do the best I can.”
Sarah smiled and said, “Let’s celebrate your graduation and put these sad thoughts away for the moment. I’m so glad you’re home even if it’s only for a few days.”
Jon smiled and said, “There is no place like home.”
• • •
William Dodd looked at his oldest son on his display, “Have you been able to find him?”
“I finally have, Father.”
“That’s really good news. Are you going to be able to make it happen?”
“The computer whiz you sent made all the difference. Once we knew the company he was assigned to, the programming was rather simple. It’s set to trigger in their first call up.”
“Can it be traced back to you?”
“No, it can’t. The system is not part of my responsibility and the operator who normally serviced the machine was called out of the room for an emergency to a peripheral computer. The Whiz had enough time to make the changes.”
“Just make sure you’re not around when it happens.”
“It’s not in my area of responsibility. No one will look my way. Besides, he doesn’t know who’s paying for his services.”
“Thanks, Son.”
William sat back and truly hoped his son was correct. He was not a member of the Royal Family so he could have his mind read by a Cat or Zord. Even if they came close, he would act like his brother and remove himself as a danger to the family. He was just barely high enough in the membership so that they could not question him and fortunately, James Jr. knew nothing about the plans. If things fell in place, he would end up being the King of the Realm and the Dodds would be returned to the ranks of high royalty. He smiled and thought about what it would mean to be a Duke.
• • •
The three brothers teleported to the assembly station and were working at perfecting the use of their armor. Jon looked at Dern practicing with his armor and said, “I just don’t understand how you’re able to get your weapons out so fast; your guns seem to appear instantaneously.”
Dern switched between his shoulder cannon and hand gun faster than they could see. “It’s a language thing.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Jon, what’s the command you use to activate your projectile cannon?”
“Activate projectile cannon. Why? What’s yours?”
Dern said, “De.”
Tegen and Jon stared at him. “What do you mean De?”
“The Canith language is done in very short sounds. For instance, if I want the shoulder cannon and the laser together, I say Det.”
“Let’s try this, Dern. We’ll start with no weapons and we’ll activate our laser, small hand laser, and shoulder cannon at the same time. Tegen, you call it.”
Tegen watched them and said, “Now!”
All three of Dern’s weapons appeared before Jon’s first one. “I’m telling you, it’s a language issue.”
Jon looked at Tegen and said, “Can we reprogram our commands?”
“That’s easy. The system is designed to work with each warrior’s preferences.”
“Dern, can you teach us those commands.”
“Sure, we’ll link and I’ll put them in your memory.”
The three linked and Jon thought about the new commands. “This is so much more efficient. I notice you gave us all of your language.”
“Might as well; most no longer speak it, but use the language of the old Alliance. We may want to communicate in it because of how much can be said in the shortest time possible.”
Jon thought in the Cainth language and was amazed at how much could be said with just a few syllables.
Dern said, “We’re reporting to the armory tomorrow to load our real weapons instead of these low power training units. Have you thought about what you’re going to select?”
“There are really not many options, Dern. The choice of weapons is limited by the cannons, lasers, and projectile guns the armor is designed to use.”
Tegen said, “I’ve been playing with the software and I think there is another weapon we can put into our armor. I’m not sure how we’d use it but it’s a pretty powerful choice.”
Dern looked over at Tegen, whose talent was mechanical. Neither he nor Jon could match the Glod in the ability to make, design, or understand mechanical devices. “What is that, Teg?”
“I was looking at all the weapons stored in the armory and I saw a large storage area that contained mini-penetrators.”
Jon snorted, “Get real, Teg. Those missiles are designed to kill starships. They’re longer than we are.”
Teg smiled, “But they’re not wider. I measured our armor across the shoulders and we could push the missiles length wise into our back armor and I think it would accept them.”
Jon thought a moment and said, “But what would we use to fire them? We can’t put a launcher in our armor.” He saw Teg smiling, “You’ve already come up with a way to do it.”
“It’s as simple as turning your body to your target and having it come out of your chest armor. Your targeting software would aim it.”
“But it’s wider than my chest when the force field activates.”
“True, but the space inside the skin of your armor at your chest is large enough to launch it and the force field will activate after it leaves. All you’d do is eject it and it would automatically ignite and lock on whatever target you designate with your tracking system.”
“Do you have the software to control it?”
“That was the easy part. They’ll each be assigned a number
and they’ll eject sequentially. If you want to fire multiple rounds, you just say how many you want. It’s not any more difficult that pulling out clips for your other weapons.”
Dern said, “How do we get them in our armor?”
“One of us will stand with their back to them and the other two will push them in.” Jon and Dern stared at Tegen and he said, “Hey, they’re on sleds that will make it easy. Just give them a push and they’ll go right in.”
Jon sighed and said, “I don’t know where we’ll need something as powerful as a mini-penetrator, but I guess it’s better to have them and never use them that to need one and not have it.”
“You two need to give me your helmets and let me make the necessary software changes. Dern, it would be easier for us to just copy your weapon commands directly into our systems than have to reprogram them one by one.”
Dern called up his armor and took off his helmet and handed it to Tegen. Jon pulled his off and also handed it to the huge Glod, “I think most of the regiment has already armed themselves.”
“They have; they wanted the first choice of weapons.”
“Well, tomorrow is the last day so we need to get up early and get it done.”
Tegen sat down at his work bench and said, “I’ll see you in the morning. I’m going to make these changes before I go to bed.”
Dern and Jon left to get some sleep before the next day.
• • •
The three brothers entered the armory the next morning and Jon said, “Can you hear it?” They nodded. “This is the music I heard when I selected the cutlass. Some of these weapons are calling to us.”
Tegen had a huge smile on his face as he said, “Well go and get them. We’ll move the penetrators later.”
Jon went over to the auto-cannons with his eyes closed and finally stopped and lifted one from the pallet. He immediately looked at his memory and the girl in the green fencing outfit and saw it starting to fade. He thought, “There is no need to worry, you and your brothers will have my complete devotion.” The memory drew back into clear focus and he moved to the next pallet.
The three brothers moved around the armory as if they were in a trance and after two hours, their armor was complete. Jon listened to the music and said, “I don’t think I’ll have to select these weapons.”
Dern said, “You’re right. They’ll select themselves.”
Tegen said, “All that time wasted changing the commands.”
Jon smiled, “It wasn’t wasted. We just don’t know when we’ll have to do it manually.” Suddenly all three turned toward the far wall. The power packs for the armor were in containers next to the wall. They looked at each other and went to the packs, pulled out a new unit, and changed them into their armor. Their systems immediately had a higher illumination. “Tegen, what’s going on with the power?”
“According to my analysis, these packs are different. The circuits operate at a much higher speed.” Tegen said, “Quiet my beauties. We’ll sing together soon.”
Jon and Dern repeated what Tegen said and the music faded far into the background. Tegen looked at them and said, “Now the penetrators.”
• • •
Two weeks later Admiral Mandel received a call from the Central Armory, “Hi Steve, what’s going on?”
“Admiral, I have an issue here that I’ve not been able to resolve and I was wondering if you might help me.”
“What’s the issue?”
“We are missing sixty thousand mini-penetrators. Have any of your fleets received any recently?”
Mandel looked at his computer and said, “None of my fleets have come back in the last four weeks.”
“I thought as much but according to my inventory, I’m short sixty thousand.”
“Have you looked at who’s taken inventory out?”
“We’ve been arming the new Life Warrior graduates for the last eight weeks. We don’t show any warships during that time.”
Mandel slowly shook his head, “Then the mistake must have happened more than eight weeks ago.”
“That’s just it; the count was accurate five weeks ago when we scanned inventory. I just don’t know if this is a computer error or something else.”
“Steve, do you honestly think a Life Warrior could take one mini-penetrator, much less sixty thousand? It’s nine feet long.”
“No, but I’m grasping at anything at this point. They were here and now they’re not. I can’t explain it.”
Mandel had something playing in the back of his mind, but couldn’t get a grip on it. He looked at Steve and said, “Let me know what you find out.”
“Yes Sir, I will.”
Admiral Mandel knew there was something that he was missing but he just couldn’t see it. Four weeks later he remembered the three brothers had been in that armory. The next day is when the question about the missing penetrators was answered in a rather startling fashion.”
Chapter Six
“Jon, what do you think about the Cat saying we’re not part of Creation?”
“I don’t know, Teg. I’ve tried to get my mind around it but can’t. There are too many questions that just confuse the issue.”
Dern added, “Not the least of which is if we’re from another Creation; what about our parents?”
Jon nodded, “I’ve also learned that Teg’s house was the only one on the planet with a hidden passageway under it. Why was it there? Did they know what was going to happen? If they did, why didn’t they just leave the planet with us?” Jon paused and said, “I could go on but I think you get the picture.”
“I tried to give myself a shot.”
Jon and Dern turned toward Teg instantly, “You did what?”
“I wanted to see what would happen, so I tried to inject some water into my arm.”
“What happened?”
“The needle flattened and wouldn’t penetrate. Do either of you ever remember being cut?”
The Three looked at each other and they shook their heads. Jon said, “What are you suggesting?”
“I’m not sure. I know that if our bodies rejected everything in Creation we would have starved to death. We eat, drink, and nothing appears out of the ordinary. However, I’ve never been sick. I’ve never had a physical injury. I’ve never even had a headache.” Teg paused and said, “I remember the day Jon fell out of that tree and hit the ground without a scratch. Now I think I’m beginning to think we really are different from everyone else.”
Jon closed his eyes and after a few minutes he said, “We’re a hybrid.”
Teg sighed, “That’s the only answer it could be.”
Dern took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, “Do we want to test this?” Jon shook his head. The three linked and Jon said, “Now that we’re out of training, I know we’re being watched. I refuse to believe that we are impervious to anything in this universe and I really pray we don’t have an opportunity to find out. I’m already concerned about how our armaments will function compared to other warriors and this is not something that will ease the worries of the Cats. Just keep this among us.”
The three nodded and Teg said, “We need to make a trip.”
The other two nodded and thought about what Teg had told them.
• • •
The three brothers were walking through the streets of the small community outside of their post. They saw the merchants selling their wares and felt at home among the friendly faces. Dern said, “You know, the Realm is a wonderful place.”
Teg said, “I agree; I’ve been…”
He never finished the thought. The three of them were teleported to the Anglo Gardner Troop Transport in full armor and the alarms were going off at full blast. “This is not a drill. All units form up and prepare for teleport. This is not a drill.”
Jon ran to his squad and heard Teg and Dern say they had arrived at their units. The company was in place and everyone had reported in. The Regimental Commander announced over their general circuit, “The Megat hav
e invaded one of the inner planets in the Realm. They have launched landing craft and thousands of their troop carriers have landed on the planet. We are going to teleport in and attempt to hold them off until reinforcements arrive. We will form a perimeter around the capital and attempt to hold them out. Hold your positions and don’t let them break through.”
Captain Debat came on the frequency, “We’re teleporting in five, four, three, two, one, now.”
The company disappeared from the transport and reappeared just outside the southern end of the city. The Company formed up and saw more than twenty thousand Megat Warriors moving at high speed toward them. Captain Debat yelled into his communicator, “What’s going on! Where’s the rest of the regiment? We’re heavily outnumbered and my company is the only one here.”
Jon saw the Megat heavy armor coming in behind their lines and he knew that something had gone wrong in a major way. Debat yelled, “Spread out and open fire!”
The two hundred Life Warriors in D Company spread out and opened fire on the charging mass of soldiers and knew they were out gunned, out manned, and out of luck. Jon looked at the incoming mass and heard music swell to a symphony. His armor looked like it was on fire.
Debat looked at his company as he screamed for reinforcements. Nothing got through to Fleet Control. He watched as the Megat came closer and he saw one of his Warriors blowing holes in their lines. The firepower coming from the Warrior exceeded everyone else in the company combined. He gave up trying to communicate and joined the line of Warriors. Soon, the heavy Megat Armor began opening up and the incoming shells around the company created massive explosions.
Jon moved as if he was in a trance. His hand laser reached out and killed twenty charging Megat and then his auto-cannon appeared and sent five hundred rounds into their ranks. The cannon fired at a rate that exceeded anything it was designed to do. The front of the charging Megat line was blown back from Jon as he moved from side to side avoiding incoming fire. Debat yelled over the frequency, “I can see more than twenty thousand more Megat Warriors moving in close to their Heavy Armor.”