Havemann smiled and nodded. “Wonderful speaking with you again, Chairman,” she said bowing slightly. “But I assume since you and your magnificent ship are here, there is a problem.”
Benny and Gina both smiled at her and nodded.
“There is,” Gina said. “Benny and I would like to ask permission to talk with you and your command crew in private on your ship if we could.”
Havemann nodded, no longer smiling. “Give me fifteen minutes to set it up in a conference room and I will send the location.”
“No need,” Gina said. “We will just jump to your location when you give the okay.”
Havemann shook her head. “You can do that?” Then she laughed and said, “Of course you can do that. Fifteen minutes.”
“Thank you, Chairman,” Gina said and cut the connection.
Benny shook his head and asked, “Star Rain, without your translation, will we be able to talk in person?”
“There has been no translation,” Star Rain said. “You have been speaking their language when you need to.”
Benny laughed and glanced around at the command crew, a few of who were nodding and smiling.
“It felt so normal,” Gina said, shaking her head, “I didn’t know that either.”
Benny laughed. “Never too old to learn I guess.”
“How old are you anyway?” Gina asked, smiling at Benny with that sly grin he loved.
He laughed. “Old enough to know better, Chairman.”
Then he kissed her.
TWENTY-FOUR
GINA WASN’T SURPRISED at the slightly shabby feel to the conference room when they transported on board the Stahl. It had what looked to be old metal panels on the walls that were gray and carpet that looked worn and forgotten.
The table was a fake wood but was actually metal and the chairs were just simply folding chairs of some sort. The air had a faint stale smell to it as well, as if it had been used and recycled a few million times too many.
Chairman Havemann stepped forward and shook both their hands.
Gina had liked Chairman Havemann from the start and liked her even more in person. But Gina was surprised at how tiny Havemann was. If she stood four ten, that would be tall.
And the other two with her were also very, very short. Shorter than Havemann. To the humans, she and Benny must have appeared like giants. Clearly millions of years of hundreds of thousands of generations living on board a ship had made height something that wasn’t required.
Havemann wore a dark blouse and dark slacks and no shoes. Her face looked even older in person. Clearly the stress of being the chairman was wearing on her quickly.
The other two also wore dark shirts and slacks and no shoes. Maybe shoes had also become something not needed in shipboard living. Or they were just too much use of resources to be of value. Gina bet it was the latter.
Havemann introduced the two men with her as her first officers, one military, the other construction and operational. Both were older than Havemann looked and both clearly were shocked at the size and height of she and Benny.
One man wore thin glasses and his name was Lenscarry and the other had almost no hair and his name was Shadelost. Gina doubted she would remember who was who, but she would try.
Havemann was her prime concern.
After all introductions were made and the five of them were seated around the table, Havemann started off by asking a question before Gina could say a word.
“You said humans occupied millions of galaxies? How is that possible?”
Gina glanced at Benny and he nodded, clearly telling her she should go ahead and explain some history, something they hadn’t done much of with The Creators.
“When your people left human space four million years ago,” Gina said, “humanity was just starting to spread out from its home galaxy.”
“Four million years?” Havemann asked, clearly stunned.
“Your people slept for the first million of those years of travel,” Gina said. “Then what you called ‘the great awakening’ happened. But as we said before, you are a far distance from human-occupied space.”
“During those millions of years,” Benny said, “a group of long-lived humans spread out, seeding on habitable planets the basis of more human societies and helping them reach maturity.”
“That’s why we are called Seeders,” Gina said. “Millions of galaxies are now alive with humanity because we seeded humanity on them.”
Havemann nodded, then looked into Gina’s eyes and asked simply, “Are we going to be able to rejoin the mass of humanity at any point in the future?”
“That’s exactly why we are here,” Gina said.
Beside her Benny was nodding.
Havemann sat up straight and glanced at the two men beside her, then back at Gina.
“We believe that you and your people have sacrificed enough in this fight,” Gina said. “Our scouts have found a wonderful planet and system for your people and another system and planet for The Exterminators’ people. Both in the same empty galaxy.”
“How far away?” Havemann asked.
“At your speeds,” Gina said, “about one hundred thousand years. But we can transport your entire fleets of ships in one of our mother ships and have you there within four years.”
“Four years?” Havemann said.
Gina nodded. “In the direction of humanities area of known space.”
“You can start fresh and build and eventually join all of humanity from there,” Benny said.
“Why would you do this for us?” Havemann asked.
“It’s what we do,” Gina said, hoping Havemann would ask no more.
“We are Seeders,” Benny said. “Our entire mission is to help humanity grow and flourish. We will be there to help you as well if you need it and ask for it. Otherwise we will just stay out of your way and invisible.”
“And we will protect the outsides of your galaxy from any chance the aliens will get there,” Gina said. “But we require one promise in return.”
Havemann nodded.
“We require that you will never try to build an alien race again in any fashion.”
Havemann looked at Gina for a moment, then just broke out laughing in a high, light laugh.
Beside her the other two were laughing as well.
“That, Chairmen,” Havemann said, “after the last few hundred thousand years, will be an easy promise to keep.”
TWENTY-FIVE
BENNY AND GINA, over the next full year, worked with the humans on both fleets to toss away their bombs and start learning how to build homes and planet dwellings. Benny had no illusion that these two fleets of humans were in for the task of their lives.
And for many generations into the future.
What Benny was the most excited about was in that year, they got the two fleets to agree to work together to learn and build trade agreements between their two cultures. Everyone on all the ships would spend the four years in travel to their new home learning about living on the surface of a planet.
Benny had no doubt that a vast number of them would never be able to leave their ships. But a large percentage would, and that would be enough to start the two cultures.
So everyone on board the two fleets was going to get a crash course over four years while on the mother ship Evening Tide in living on a planet and building towns and eventually cities.
And maybe even how to make shoes. Not one person on either fleet wore shoes.
What had pleased Benny over the last year of working with the two fleets was the fact that Chairman Havemann and Chairman Airst of The Exterminator fleet got along great.
Both of them felt that this was a huge gift for their people.
Now, in just a short year, both fleets were docked on board the Evening Tide. In just a few hours, the Evening Tide would start the journey to take them to their new homes.
Benny found that amazing.
They were sitting across the same conference table in the Sta
hl with Chairman Havemann. The Stahl was docked on the large main deck of the Evening Tide, something that Chairman Havemann had found amazing.
This final meeting was to basically say goodbye. Benny had no doubt that he or Gina would ever see Havemann again. He liked her. She had courage and intelligence and the ability to think for all her people.
They had talked for a few minutes about the crash education program that was going to be offered in the next four years. Then Havemann looked up at Benny and then at Gina and sat forward.
“Can you tell me something in private?” Havemann asked, her expression suddenly very serious. “I promise to take your answer to my grave.”
“That depends,” Gina said. “Ask and we will tell you if we know the answer or can tell you or not and why.”
Benny nodded.
“What is the real reason behind this sudden desire to help us find a home?” Havemann asked. “We all know the battle against the alien spread is not going well. Why do you want us out of the way? I understand we were not helping much, but we were helping, weren’t we?”
Benny laughed and glanced at Gina who smiled.
“Yes, you were helping,” Benny said.
Gina said into the air, “Star Rain, please ask Evening Tide for permission to put a privacy bubble around this room.”
“Done,” Star Rain’s voice came back clearly. “Your complete privacy is guaranteed.”
“Thank Evening Tide for us,” Gina said.
“I will,” Star Rain said.
“Wow,” Havemann said, shaking her head.
“Your fleets were helping overall,” Gina said. “It was not a method that Seeders condoned or would ever do because we believe in letting a race make their own decisions on a planet.”
“Which is why we are stopping their expansion outside of each galaxy,” Benny said. “What the aliens do inside the galaxy is their business. We just can’t let them expand anymore.”
Havemann nodded. “And if stopped, they will die off because expansion is the only thing they know to stay alive.”
“Exactly,” Gina said.
“So if we were helping,” Havemann said, “why pick this point to get us a new home and take us out of the fight my ancestors caused?”
Benny glanced at Gina and then turned back to Havemann. “Because we have better help arriving in a couple of years.”
“Better help?” Havemann asked, clearly puzzled.
“At least five million ships to help stop the aliens,” Gina said. “And they will all have the new, fast trans-tunnel drives as we do.”
“Wow,” Havemann said. “That will turn the tide.”
“Eventually,” Benny said. “Or at least we hope so.”
“So who is bringing these ships?” Havemann asked.
“That’s the part we can’t tell you,” Benny said. “Even under a promise of secrecy.”
“But they have one requirement for joining the fight,” Gina said.
“Let me guess,” Havemann said, nodding. “No humans can know about who they are. So it was time to help us find a home.”
“A win-win situation is how we looked at it,” Benny said. “After millions of years, you finally get a home and out of a war.”
“And we get help that might be able to stop the aliens,” Gina said.
Benny watched the small chairman nod her head slowly.
“I have to be honest,” Havemann said after a few moments, “I doubted we could hold our fleet together much more than a few more generations. So this timing is perfect. A complete win for us.”
“Good,” Gina said.
“In fact,” Havemann said, “the truth is we were discussing asking for your help to pull us out of the fight before you arrived with your offer.”
Benny laughed. “Great minds think alike.”
“And you know we would have helped if you asked,” Gina said.
“I know that now,” Havemann said.
She stood and moved around to shake Benny and Gina’s hand as they stood as well. “I have to get my people learning how to live on something that isn’t metal and flying through space. Going to be a very quick four years.”
Benny smiled at the chairman. “I have a hunch you’ll get them ready just fine.”
“I hope so,” Havemann said. “And I hope this fight here goes as well as you plan.”
“So do we,” Gina said.
With that Benny and Gina transported back to the command center of Star Rain.
Two hours later, from their apartment, Benny and Gina watched as Evening Tide vanished, taking two amazing fleets of humans to their new homes.
Benny actually felt sad to see them go. And considering how angry he had been at them when they first arrived here all those years ago, that was pretty amazing.
And when he mentioned that to Gina, she just nodded, then said, “I felt like I have just said goodbye to a friend.”
“We did,” Benny said. “We did.”
SECTION SIX
A Much, Much Bigger Problem
TWENTY-SIX
AFTER THE DEPARTURE of the two human fleets, it took almost five years for the first Gray ships to start arriving. It seemed that they had a few more problems with containing the alien outbreak than they had thought they would have.
Gina hadn’t been the slightest bit surprised.
The other scout ships had found no other outbreaks, so now the daily routine had settled into battle reports and meetings with newly arriving chairmen to brief them on the problems they all faced.
The six chairmen had started having dinners together every other week to just informally talk about the problems and compare notes. They switched apartments for each dinner and who did the cooking and Gina had started looking forward to those nights.
They were wonderful breaks every few weeks with friends. There really were no notes to compare. The battle was still lost and with every passing day, the aliens spread out more and more, a flood that even though they were trying, there seemed to be no way to stop.
Every few months Benny would ask Star Rain to calculate the odds of victory against the aliens and every time, without fail, even with the Gray ships pouring into the area, the answer was zero percent.
Now, after ten years and over three million Gray ships and almost a million Seeder ships, that answer from Star Rain seemed wrong to Gina. To Gina, it seemed as if containment was starting to happen. But when Benny did his standard question, Star Rain said once again zero percent chance of defeating the aliens.
Benny and Gina had just finished going over the daily reports from not only their area of battle, but the other three major areas when Benny asked his question.
“That seems so wrong,” Gina said.
Benny shrugged. It had been the same answer so many times, Gina doubted Benny even heard it anymore.
“We need to ask the question in a different fashion,” Gina said.
Benny shrugged once again and indicated she should try.
“Star Rain,” Gina said. “Will the area of battle that we focus on every day ever be contained?”
“Yes,” Star Rain said.
Benny’s head snapped up and he stared at Gina, a total look of shock on his face. She hadn’t seen him be this surprised in a very long time.
And she felt exactly the same way.
She chose her words carefully for the next question.
“How long will complete alien containment of this area take?” Gina asked Star Rain.
“One hundred percent containment of this battle area will be achieved in approximately six-hundred-and-seven years.”
Benny opened his mouth, but Gina stopped him from speaking.
“How long will containment take in the area Star Mist focuses on?” Gina asked.
“Fifty years less,” Star Rain said.
“And the area Star Fall focuses on?” Benny asked.
“Approximately the same amount of time as this area,” Star Rain said.
Benny stood there, hi
s mouth opening and closing as he stared at Gina. Behind them the light chatter of the command center had silenced. Gina could tell that everyone was shocked by these answers.
“Let me ask the next question,” Gina said to Benny and he indicated she should go ahead.
“So this entire battle area will be contained and the aliens defeated in this area in just over six hundred years?” Gina asked. “Correct?”
“That is correct,” Star Rain said. “At the current levels of fighting and technology. More ships or other fighting advances will shorten that time frame by factors.”
Benny just shook his head.
“Star Rain,” Gina said. “When Benny has asked you repeatedly the chance of defeating the aliens, you have always responded with zero percent chance. Please explain.”
“There are other alien incursions,” Star Rain said.
Gina wanted to just sit down on the deck in front of her command chair. She felt sick.
Completely sick.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Benny said.
“I am not joking,” Star Rain said.
“How do you know this information?” Gina asked.
“I had access to the Creators’ ancient records,” Star Rain said, “many of which were not even accessed by those on the Creator ships.”
“Oh, no,” Benny said, turning and walking away a few steps.
“Star Rain,” Gina said. “Please explain.”
“The Creator’s fleet continued movement for thousands and thousands of human generations. Much information was lost in those generations to the humans on board. The aliens were first created and planted just over two-point-one millions years ago and the human ships moved on without stopping to study their project.”
“They forgot, didn’t they?” Gina said.
“The information on the alien culture was stored and most likely forgotten, yes,” Star Rain said. “The reason was that the alien growth would have taken dozens of human generations before the aliens would even have built their first ship.”
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