by Saxon Andrew
Jek heard the Sand Master say, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”
“I believe this being does not wish to do us harm. It has proven itself several times and I want to try and insure that the Most High does communicate with it. I believe it has something important to say to us. And Father, do not order me to leave. I will not obey that order and you will be forced to execute me. Please allow the Most High to determine my sentence.”
Jek only heard silence and, after a few moments, looked at the Leader and thought, “Thank you.” The Leader nodded.
Jek sensed a massive pattern of thoughts approaching and was unable to pull out individual thoughts from the noise. Suddenly, something emerged from the sand behind the huge ranks of Sand Warriors. It looked like the conning tower of the ancient submarines that were used on ancient Earth. It rose more than fifty-feet above the sand and Jek knew the vessel under the sand had to be at least a mile long. Twenty long barrels on the huge structure turned and trained on Jek and the three warriors sitting with him. He smiled broadly and heard Jel say in his mind, “If you somehow manage to survive this, we’ll never hear the end of this.”
Jek smile grew as he thought to her, “You better believe it!”
Then he heard a clear powerful thought cut through the clutter, “You appear to be enjoying this.”
“I am enjoying it immensely.”
“Why?”
“If a warrior must die, what better way to do it than by being confronted by this many intent on my destruction.”
There was a long moment of silence and then Jek heard, “You may have to filter in that the majority of the forces here are just my personal bodyguard that go wherever I go. They’re not here to attack you.”
Jek scowled and shook his head, “Now you’ve gone and spoiled it. You could have just kept that to yourself and let me keep my fantasy.”
Jek heard laughter and then, “Yes, I guess I could have done that. But being dishonest goes against my core beliefs. I’d order some of them away but, unfortunately, they won’t go.”
“I guess you’re someone of high importance to them,” Jek replied.
“You can say that. Why are you here? You’ve caused some disturbance among my children.”
“I came here to find out if your species represents a danger to my civilization.”
“Why would we be a danger to you, if you’re not the species currently attacking my world?”
“We’ve determined that your species is a highly-advanced civilization far ahead of any we’ve ever encountered.”
“That doesn’t answer my question. Why is that a concern to you?”
“My civilization is being invaded by the species that is currently surrounding your planet. They’ve destroyed my home world and will be coming back to invade my civilization. We worry that if we are capable of stopping them and, ultimately defeating them, you would only take their place as an aggressor and represent an even larger danger.”
“We have no desire to attack other civilization.”
“But what if your planet becomes over-populated and you choose to expand?”
“That won’t happen.”
“Why not?”
“Because this is the only planet my species can survive on. It would take a planet just like this one with the same soil for us to move. We also have control over our population such that over-population will never be an issue.”
“Are you saying that you wouldn’t go out to remove this species that is currently attacking you?”
There was a long moment of silence and then the voice answered, “No, I’m not saying that at all. We will defend ourselves against aggressors.”
“The species that is surrounding your planet has many more millions of warships and are a conquering species that devours all the intelligent life on the planets they conquer. If you built up enough forces to go after them, it would be hard not to continue to use those forces for expansion. You could also decide to just remove other civilizations so you would never be attacked in the future.”
Jek waited and heard, “Is that what your civilization will do if you, as you say, are able to defeat them?”
“No. We have no desire to attack innocent civilizations.”
“But aren’t you here to see if we represent a danger and if you decide we are, you will attack us?” Jek was silent and the voice said, “I suspect you are here at the risk of losing your life to make that decision.”
Jek sighed, “I have to say that you are right; you do frighten us. If you had a fleet of warships, your advanced technology would be unstoppable.”
“How do you know that I would be honest with you? I could say that we are not an aggressive species and then prove to be otherwise in the future. Simply coming here and asking our intentions would not offer any definitive proof to support it.”
“Honestly, your initial behavior seems to indicate that you are an aggressive species. You sought to kill me without any conversation when you first encountered me,” Jek replied.
“In our current situation, we have to respond to anyone that comes to our planet as a threat. How would we know you are not one of the aggressors surrounding my planet?”
“You’ve never seen the species in the ships attacking you?”
“Of course, not.”
“I initially believed you were aggressive but the three warriors that initially attacked me have caused me to reconsider my position.”
“Why?”
“Because, even though they were not allowed to communicate with me, their subsequent behavior shows that they looked at the evidence and decided not to kill me. They also set up this meeting. That tells me that your Warriors are not mindless aggressors. It forces me to consider that if they aren’t, then their leaders probably aren’t as well. Hearing your thoughts also shows me that I’m right in that belief.”
“That’s all well and good, but how can I be sure that you don’t represent another threat to us? You’ve already suggested that you came here to determine if you would have to eliminate us.”
“You’re not telepathic so the only way to offer you proof that we do not intend you harm is to show by my behavior that my civilization is not aggressive.”
“And just how do you intend to do that?”
“I am going to show you how I came to your planet and give a gift to help you against the species attacking your planet.” There was silence and Jek reached into his pouch and took out a clear crystal object. He held it up and said, “I know that you must use computers.”
“We do.”
“Currently, the only way you can detect the ships above your planet is with optical systems, right?”
“I’m reluctant to give you any information about my defenses.”
“You don’t have to; we’ve not detected any electronic systems that emit beams to track objects above your planet. This crystal is a memory cube that you can download into your database that has the instructions on how to build an electronic scanner that will allow you to detect those attackers much further out from the planet. It will more than quadruple the range of your optical scanners.” Jek turned and handed it to the first warrior that attacked him. “Use it to strengthen your defenses.”
“Does this device cause the emissions we detect coming from the attackers?”
“It does.”
“We’ve wondered what purpose they served.”
“I will also show you the vessel I used to arrive here.”
“Will this new device allow us to detect your vessel?”
“If you manage to use a very high level of power in your scanners, they will.”
“So, you’re convinced, we do not represent a threat to you?” the voice asked.”
“Your warrior has convinced me.”
“What are you going to do now?”
“I’m going to call my vessel to come down and pick me up. I’m going to get on board and leave you. I’m trusting that you will not har
m us and allow us to go in peace.”
“Is your ship armed?”
“It is.”
“Then I must leave you before you call your ship. We will not consider you an enemy and perhaps in the future we can meet again.”
Jek smiled, “I look forward to that.”
The conning tower began moving into the soil and then disappeared. Jek listened as the giant vessel moved away at high speed and then disappeared in the distance. The thousands of warriors that arrived with the vessel disappeared with it leaving a few hundred behind surrounding Jek.
Jek thought, “You may want to move back to make some room for my ship.” The warriors began moving away and the three warriors with Jek stood up. The leader looked at Jek and thought, “Thank you for sparing me and my warriors.”
Jek nodded, “It’s like I said; I did not intend to do you any harm.” The three warriors walked away and Jek hoped the warrior wouldn’t get in trouble for speaking to him. He looked up and smiled, “Honey, come and get me.”
Jek waited and didn’t see anything and he wondered if Jel had heard him. Then the soil began blowing in a sudden high wind to his left. It stopped blowing and Jek thought, “I still can’t see you; turn off the camo-coating.”
The Sand Warriors saw the soil being blown by a strong wind and then it stopped. A moment later, a small spaceship appeared. A small port opened and the tall black being entered it. The Sand Master looked at his son and said, “They fly invisible ships. I doubted that they would be a threat but I’m starting to wonder now.”
The small ship disappeared, the wind began blowing again, and then it was gone. The Warrior Leader shook his head, “They are a clear danger but not to us, Father. That being has proven to me that he was being honest when he told me he does not wish to harm us. It’s the ships surrounding our planet that need to worry.”
His father smiled, “The Most High has asked for you to take command of her body guard.” The warrior was shocked. “She thinks you handled this situation with wisdom and believes you will not react emotionally.”
The warrior looked up into the sky and smiled. He hoped the being would come back. Next time he could thank him again.
• • •
Jek ran from the port to the bridge and hugged Jel from behind as she moved the scout into orbit. She tilted her head and he kissed her on the cheek, “Randy and Emily have already left orbit and are moving through the Tronan Fleets. We’re taking a different route so you need to buckle in and man the weapons.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Evidently the Tronan Scanners picked up an image of that giant vessel and they’re moving in closer with all of their weapons charged. They have to believe that something is going on.”
“How are you going to do this?”
“I’m headed toward the South Pole and moving under the ranks of the advanced Tronan Warships. Randy and Emily went to the North Pole and are going over the top. Their ranks are moving closer together and the magnitude of their scanner beams will be greatly increased.”
“Just go straight down from the South Pole and leave the planet in that direction.”
Jel flinched and said, “Good idea. Their ranks are being tightened above the area I landed the ship.” Jel paused and thought, “Randy, move directly above the North Pole. Don’t turn toward their tightening ranks.”
“That’s exactly what I’m doing, Jel. The Tronan Scanners are still higher than normal but not nearly as powerful as those around the center of the planet.”
“Has the planet responded to their movement?” Jek asked.
Jel shook her head, “No yet.”
Jek stared at the passive scanner’s monitor and said, “Keep us above the dark side of the planet.”
“We’ll still be in open space and out of the planet’s shadow, Jek.”
“True, but they’ll be scanning the planet. Aim for a section in their ranks that has the largest separation.”
“Duh…like I don’t know to do that.”
Jek saw the Tronan Warships moving closer and he said, “Are the Tronan still only scanning toward the planet?”
Jel looked at her console, “It appears they are.”
“That means our boosters will be shielded from them by the body of the scout. When you get close, activate the boosters and go to full speed.”
Jel’s head went back and she nodded. As the scout moved even with the oncoming mass of warships, she went to full boosters and the small vessel leapt ahead at high speed. In less than twenty seconds, they were clear of the Tronan Fleets and she turned off the boosters. “Why are you shutting them down?” Jek yelled.
“If they detected us, I don’t want to give them anything to see if they use their rear scanners. I’m flipping the ship and pointing the fins toward them.” A moment later, an alarm went off and the scanner warning blared at high volume. Jek held his breath and then Jel said, “They didn’t detect us. Their rear scanners have shut down.”
Jek thought quickly, “Randy!” He was greeted with silence and he thought again, “RANDY!?”
“Give us a moment!”
Jek fell back in his chair and quickly thought to him how they had used their boosters to escape. Ten minutes later he heard Randy think, “Thank you!”
“Head for the filament and let’s get out of here!” Jek thought.
Jel quickly added, “Be prepared for Tronan Ships at the filament to be scanning for us. If they detected something, they’ll warn the others to be on the lookout for something.”
“Will do.”
Jek sighed, “You know I’m going to hug you to within an inch of your life, Jel.”
“Hold it until we’re out of here.” Jek nodded as the scouts headed toward the filament. Jek was thankful that these new scouts had eight fins on the bow instead of the four on the previous model. The fins had made the difference deflecting the Tronan Scanning beams. Getting around the Tronan Warships holding station at the filament wouldn’t be difficult.
Randy looked at Emily and smiled, “I’ve heard a lot about Jek in the past but nothing really comes close to just how courageous he is. I don’t know that I could have landed on that planet and faced off with those warriors.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, cowboy. Each of us have different talents and you are one of the bravest men I know.”
“Thanks, Emily.”
“Truth is truth. You might have your own face off one day. I know you’ll face it with the same level of courage Jek displayed.
Chapter Ten
Randy sat on the balcony overlooking the capital city on Romania. He had been meeting with the design engineers on the performance of the new scout since he arrived back from Tronan space two weeks earlier. He was weary of the long meetings and the never-ending questions about the recordings he had gathered on the Tronan Fleet surrounding the Sand Civilization. It was interesting that neither Jek nor the Sand Leader asked what they called each other. Sand Civilization seemed to be as good a name as any.
He thought back to the escape and knew that it was Jek’s warning to use the boosters that made the difference. Now he was in command of the growing scout fleet and he wanted to get to work. Emily left the week before to visit her husband and family. He missed having her around. He could at least share the memory of the events with someone who experienced them with him, if she were around. Still, she needed to visit Frank and her parents.
He looked out over the giant city and saw the small civilian aircraft that looked very much like the military scouts. The engineers here were really amazing. He felt his communicator vibrate and he saw Emily was checking in. He pressed a button and saw her appear on the small display. His eyes narrowed as he saw her eyes were red and she looked a mess, “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“What makes you think something’s wrong?” Emily said softly.
“Your eyes are red, your hair is a mess, and that never happens, and you look like you haven’t s
lept in a week.”
Emily lowered her eyes, “Frank has left me.”
“WHAT?”
“He decided life was too short to spend it waiting on someone who is constantly absent. He filed for divorce while I was gone and is now living with an engineer he works with.”
“Emily, I’m so sorry.” Emily started crying and Randy felt helpless. He started shaking his head and Emily sobbed, “You were right to avoid a relationship while you’re in the service. I made a foolish mistake.”
“But the two of you were perfect together.”
“I thought so, too. But that black-haired hussy moved in while I was gone and stole his heart. I thought something was wrong the last time I was with him but he insisted everything was fine.”
Emily started bawling and Randy shook his head, “You’ve got to do something to get your mind off this. Book a flight to Romania and you can take part in developing the new scout’s modifications.”
“I don’t want to go anywhere!”
“It’s not a suggestion, Commodore. It’s an order. Book a flight and get away from there now!”
Emily wiped her eyes and said through her tears, “Yes, Sir.” The display went dark and Randy sighed. He thought something was amiss with Frank when they left to trial the new scout but he didn’t want to say anything. Distance can kill a relationship. That’s why he avoided getting involved in any personal relationship; the long months away are unbearable for those that truly love another. He couldn’t force himself to hate Frank; he was emotionally vulnerable during Emily’s long absences. He had to keep Emily busy and give her time to recover from her heartbreak. He knew it was going to take some time. She loved Frank dearly.
His communicator vibrated again and he saw one of the Romanian Engineers, “Admiral, we need you to meet us in the construction hangar.”
Randy sighed, “On my way.” He blew out a breath and knew another long day laid ahead of him.