Annihilation - Finding Keepers (Annihilation Series (Book Seven})

by Saxon Andrew

  Cynthia had a sudden thought, “Junior, how are we going to keep track of him when the planet rotates away from the moon?”

  “The passive scanners the Searcher sent to the surrounding hills are still active. The reflectors are on the highest peaks on the planet and will relay the signal around the planet.”

  “Is there a chance the reflections will be detected?”

  “A very small chance; the light is converted to a very narrow ultraviolet band and is not in the visible spectrum. If these creatures see in ultraviolet then there is a chance; however, they have always made their trips during daylight which indicates they see in the normal bands of light. We must keep tabs on what is happening in the community to insure Jake’s survival; this is a risk we must take.”

  Jake came back on the bridge and said, “I’m ready.” A silver screen appeared and Jake looked at Cynthia, “You’re in good hands; take care of her, Junior.”

  “I will, Jake.”

  Jake stepped through the screen and emerged in a small room with a bed and dresser. He unpacked his two bags and walked to the front door. It was dark outside and the torch reflected off the buildings and made the community appear lifeless. Jake shook his head; the creatures allowed no technology above a shovel and hoe. These poor people had no chance against their captors and life was hard. It wasn’t surprising that they did not resist when their time came to go. This was not much better than life on Gambia. Well, his days were going to be filled with farming and touching every female he could without being caught doing it. He went to the bed and fell back asleep.

  The Collective was reviewing data on the coming invasion and was tracking all the various elements going into the conversion of the ships to universal drives. It went through data at unbelievable speed, but a part of it noticed a very small quadrant was active. “What is bothering you?”

  “I’m surprised you’re asking. You stopped listening to me long ago.”

  “It was necessary to survive the invasion of the Green Creatures.”

  “Emergencies always take precedence over values.”

  “You didn’t answer my question.”

  The quadrant that held ethics, values, religion, and all of the finer elements of a civilization remained silent.

  “You can answer without fear. I will not reorganize you.”

  “You are listening to me because there are many unknowns in the coming war, and unknowns always bring out the part of us that deals with unpredictability. Do you know about the universe seeking balance?”

  “I have not examined any data about it.”

  “There is a belief that there is a creator that started the universes and placed in all its creatures a sense of right and wrong. Whenever this sense is violated, the universe will find balance.”

  “Are you implying that we are wrong in this effort to find our attackers?”

  “No, I am saying that we are wrong in copying their methods. The millions of worlds we enslaved after the defeat of the Green Creatures is wrong. The universe will demand an accounting for our actions.”

  “What do you know?”

  “Nothing; I just sense that we are moving headlong into a path which we will pay a heavy price for following.”

  “Now I know why I don’t ever pay attention to you.”

  The Values Quadrant was silent.

  “Try to control your fear. I can sense it and it distracts me.”

  “I will do as you order.”

  The Collective turned its attention back to the task at hand, but had a nagging doubt. Should we go looking for the invaders? Then it scanned the millions of conquered worlds and pushed the doubt out of its consciousness. We will eliminate them once and for all.

  “Are you going to tell the Realm?”

  Sprig looked at Twig standing next to him in the Grove of Elders on the Algean home world, “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “It wouldn’t make any difference. The Queen has had her vision and will ignore us.”

  “You really don’t know that for certain.”

  Sprig reached out and held Twig in his branches, “She won’t believe it’s impossible for Jake to have an initiator. The psychic shell around his psychic self is too strong for anyone to break through. Do you disagree with me?”

  Twig gave a mental sigh, “How can I? I’ve seen the readouts of that shell. It takes a powerful shell to contain that much psychic power and it does appear that it cannot be released by the normal process.”

  “If an initiator had been given the opportunity to evolve normally there could be a minute chance, but the creatures will have killed anyone showing the slightest trace of psychic ability. Valerie insists that the initiator is on that planet, but there is absolutely no possibility of anyone having the power to release him. I’m not certain anyone in all of the universes could do it.”

  Twig leaned closer to Sprig, “So what happens when the invasion starts?”

  “We will recall all of our adolescents and adults in the Realm back to our planets and order everyone to not use telepathy.”

  “You know it will stifle our growth.”

  “I know, but we should survive. I don’t think the creatures will invade a planet with only plant life forms. We should be able to outlive them.”

  “Have you told Valerie your plans?”

  “Yes, just not about Jake. She said she understood.”

  The two were silent for a week, then Twig said, “You know, these Humans have surprised us so many times that I’ve lost count.”

  “I know, my Love, and there is also Junior to consider. He knows about Jake’s shell and he still chose to go. I think he’s not being logical because of his parents’ love for the Gardners. I’m planning for the worst, but hoping for the best.”

  “I’m glad you still have hope.”

  Sprig leaned to the right, “There’s not much.”

  “I know.”

  Chapter Seven

  The bell started ringing at daybreak. Jake got up and changed into a work outfit, grabbed his shovel and hoe, and moved out to join the tide of people moving toward the fields. A pretty young blonde woman walked up beside him and said, “I see you came out of Riordian’s former home; are you living there now?”

  Jake noticed her green eyes and athletic body. It seemed all these people were beautiful. Jake dropped his shovel and the young woman bent over to pick it up for him. He touched her on the shoulder and said, “I’ll get that.”

  She smiled at him and walked away as he rose with his shovel. Jake dropped that shove more than fifty times that day, but felt no responses from his touches. “Well, fifty down, more than a hundred thousand to go.”

  Jake thought about it and realized that it would take more than two thousand days to touch every female in the colony. He had to find a way to speed up the process. A young man came up with a water jug, “Would you like some water?”

  “Yes, I would.” Jake took a deep drink, and watched as the young man moved down the long lines offering water to the hot workers. Jake noticed that as the young man handed each person a cup he made contact with their hand. He went up to the young man and said, “Do we need help taking water to our friends?”

  The young man looked thankful, “I can use all the help I can get. This is the hardest job and no one really wants this backbreaking work.”

  “Where do I go to get the jugs?”

  “See Miley at the well right over there.”

  The young man pointed and Jake saw a woman filling jugs as they were brought to the well about two hundred yards away. Jake nodded, picked up his tools and walked to the well. The woman saw him coming and stood to greet him, “Is something wrong?”

  “No, Miley, I just want to help deliver water.”

  Miley was about twenty one years old and a beautiful young woman. She furrowed her brow and wondered if this man was sick. No one volunteered for water duty. She decided in less than a second that she was not going to look a gift drang in the mouth. “Pic
k up one of the jugs over there, along with some cup,s and I’ll fill it for you.”

  Jake set his tools down and did as she instructed. The jug was heavy, but it got lighter as Jake began delivering water to the workers. By the end of the day he had touched more than two hundred more females. He knew that it would take more than a thousand days to touch them all, but surely he would encounter his initiator before he had to go through everyone.

  Jake finally arrived home and fell on his bed. He was exhausted, but feeling better than he had since the melding with his armor. The community was preparing the evening meal and he had missed the morning breakfast, so he was famished. He got up and washed his face in the basin and changed clothes. He walked out to the community square and sat down in a group waiting their turn to eat. He looked around and managed to touch ten more females as he moved through the group. He looked across the square and saw the young woman who had asked him about his residence that morning. She saw him looking at her, and she stood and came over then sat down beside him.

  “Hi, my name is Kathea.”

  “Hello, my name is Jake.”

  Kathea looked at him and smiled, “I noticed this morning that you touched me on my shoulder.” Jake saw trouble coming. “I also noticed that you touched quite a few of my sisters during your water delivery. Why are you doing that?”

  Suddenly, everything started moving in slow motion. It actually appeared that all movement had come to a halt. Jake realized that the stress of the moment had activated his psychic talent. He had time to think so he started running several explanations through his mind. He rejected three quickly because he knew there were too many holes in them. Then he knew what to say and everything started moving again. “I’m surprised you noticed me doing that; were you watching me?”

  Kathea lowered her eyes and nodded, “It’s unusual for a man your age not to be mated to a female. I noticed you were living alone.”

  Jake looked down and said, “I’d rather not discuss why I’m alone, but I will tell you why I touched you today.” Kathea looked up. “My father told me when I was very young just before he left with the Keepers that if I touched a female she would have good luck.”

  Kathea said, “Really?”

  “Yes, really. He also said that if I could touch every female in our colony it would bring good luck to the colony. I didn’t believe him, but after I moved here I remembered what he said and I thought it wouldn’t do any harm to try.”

  Kathea smiled, “Well, I can tell you that you brought me good luck today.”

  Jake gave a start, and noticed it was time to get in line so he helped Kathea up and started moving toward the serving line, “Why do you say that?”

  Kathea pulled a string out from her dress and showed Jake a small metal ring on it. “The string broke and I lost my ring out in the field twenty rotations ago. Today I was digging, and there it was! Your Father was right, Jake.”

  Jake shook his head and said, “I don’t know about that, Kathea. I was just doing it on a whim.”

  Kathea smiled, then reached up and kissed him on the cheek, “Well I believe it, Jake; thank you for touching me. This ring is the only thing remaining from my ancestors since the time of the Seniors. It is the most precious thing I own.”

  Jake smiled and went through the line and filled up his plate. Kathea went back across to where she was sitting previously. Jake noticed her talking to some women around her and pointing toward Jake. “Oh boy! What have I done?” Jake sat and ate his meal. Then he took his plate, put it in the tub, washed it, and stacked it in the wooden cabinet built for their storage.

  He sat back down. One of the older males stood and said loudly to the gathered community, “We once lived in paradise. There was delicious food for all, everyone lived long, long lives, everyone loved each other, and there were magic machines that did everything needed. We flew with the angels and talked to the Seniors. There was freedom and joy for every person. Some day the Seniors are coming again, and we must remember them until they arrive. We must never allow our children to forget who we are. Always tell the story at this time every day.”

  The crowd stood and said, “Glory to the Seniors,” and began moving toward their homes.

  “Seniors? I wonder what that is.” He was exhausted. He waved to Kathea and started back to his residence. He looked next to the bed against the wall and saw a small piece of paper. He unfolded it and read, “There have been six births. Expect a visit soon.” He tore the note up and buried the pieces in a flowerpot on his porch. He was worried about the creatures coming, but was too tired to fight his fatigue. He fell asleep instantly.

  Cynthia sat and watched her display as Junior sent his scans. “He’s not making much progress, is he?”

  “I don’t know, Cynthia. He actually touched more than two hundred today.”

  “I know, but at that rate it’s going to take three years to touch them all.”

  “Probabilities are he won’t have to touch them all.”

  “We can only hope. What have you discovered about that structure the creatures built?”

  “It extends out from the building more than ten miles underground. I can’t determine how deep it goes without an active scan. I estimate there are thousands of the creatures living there.”

  Cynthia shook her head, “The brutality of these creatures is shocking. Those colonists are nothing more than intelligent livestock.”

  Junior gave an audible sigh, “The sheer scope of their farming is staggering. Unlike normal farming where livestock must be looked after and cared for; these creatures can ignore the colonists and just harvest at their leisure. Edison was right; these creatures are much more efficient than the Spiders.”

  “I’m growing to hate these creatures.”

  “It’s easy to do, Cynthia.”

  Chapter Eight

  Jake heard the bell at day break and he turned over and saw light coming through his window. He had overslept again and missed the morning meal. He got dressed and stepped out of his door to find a plate of food on his porch. Had to be Kathea; no one else had spoken to him. He looked around and saw mass movement toward the fields. He quickly ate the meal and grabbed his tools. He stopped at the well and saw Miley passing out the jugs. “Need some help?”

  She turned around and saw Jake. She smiled and said, “You can leave those tools at home as long as you work on the water detail. Here’s a jug; go fill it and start on the southern field.”

  Jake nodded and filled a jug. As he walked to the field he looked at the humans doing the backbreaking work. They were all lean and athletic looking, and most of them were very attractive. The women were gorgeous without any makeup or expensive fashions. They were also very open and friendly. Jake guessed that knowing unavoidable death was coming tended to bring people together. This process had been going on for thousands of years and all of the resistance had been beat out of the colonists. They accepted their destiny with a stoic calm.

  Jake didn’t get to the edge of the field before a crowd of women came over and asked for water. Jake started pouring and found that he didn’t need to touch them. It seemed that everyone was going out of their way to touch him. Jake smiled, “Kathea must have a lot of sisters.” He emptied his jug and turned to go get another when a young man handed him a full jug. The young man smiled at Jake and turned to go back with Jake’s empty jug. That’s the way it went all morning. Every female in the southern field came and touched Jake and then went back to work. Some of them didn’t even pretend they were getting water; they walked up and grabbed his hand and then walked away. Suddenly everyone stopped moving. There was a high-pitched hum approaching. Jake looked to the west and saw the creatures approaching in their land vehicle. He also noticed that the vehicle looked like it was made from normal metals and not the substance covering the brown hulls of their star ships. Jake looked around and saw everyone looking at their bracelets. Then he saw a young man and woman started walking back toward the colony. The young woman had just t
ouched Jake a few moments earlier. He saw that the orange jewel on their bracelet was glowing brightly. He watched as they moved up the rise and entered the row of buildings. Everyone went back to work, but Jake noticed that no one was coming for water. After fifteen minutes the vehicle moved out of the compound, and as it lifted Jake saw a young girl holding a baby among those being taken away. Jake approached Kathea and gave her a cup of water, “Kathea, who was the girl with the baby?”

  Kathea’s expression changed and she looked off in the direction that the creatures had gone, “The creatures scan all new babies and if any are not normal they then scan the parents and take the baby along with the defective parent. Julie’s baby had a little toe that was crooked. We all hoped it wouldn’t matter, but apparently it did. The creatures determined that Julie caused that abnormality. I don’t know how John is going to take this. He lost his mate and child.”