Finding keepers a-7

by Andrew, Saxon

  She could also see occasional blue flashes erupt from Jake and knew that time was growing short. She sighed and decided, “Jake, I’m going to tell you what a Red Flag is.”

  Chapter Three

  The small, white-colored ship broke into the new universe and immediately turned on its sensors. It was in deep space between galaxies and there was nothing closer than a hundred light years, which was exactly how the Searcher planned it.

  Dgran, a Crengren, was from an amphibious race and at first glance looked very much like an otter, without the whiskers, from ancient Earth. She looked at one of her displays on the arm of her chair and watched as millions of galaxies flashed by each second. She thought to her computer, “Have you seen anything interesting, Elef?”

  “As a matter of fact, I have.”

  Dgran looked up from the screen, “What is that?”

  “I am scanning millions of planets with only three to five communities on the entire planet’s surface, and the populations of those communities are identical.”

  “Elef, how can that possibly happen? It certainly can’t be an accident.”

  The ship’s computer paused and then said, “No, it’s not accidental. Something is causing this to happen. I think we need to go stealth surface now.”

  “Make it so. What has you so concerned?”

  “I’m not sensing any starships in this universe. For this many planets to possess that kind of structure, there has to be an outside agency making it happen and my sensors are not detecting any ships. That either means there are none or I am unable to detect them.”

  The small ship disappeared as its surface began bending light and energy around it. Dgran thought about reporting what she had discovered to Fleet Command, but she didn’t really feel she had enough to make a good report. Suddenly Elef announced, “I have picked up an ancient Stars Realm beacon. It is broadcasting in a galaxy not far from here.”

  “Do you have any records of the frequency?”

  “Standby.” A minute passed and then Elef said, “I had to go far back into the Realm’s history to find it, but it was assigned to a large colony ship that was transporting colonists from Earth, Glod, and Cainth more than six thousand years ago. It seems the colonists were bored with the peace of the Realm and wanted to find newer, untamed worlds to colonize. They never reported back to the Realm after they jumped out of the Stars Realm’s universe. There were so many ships leaving during that period of the Realm’s history that it appears that no one actually tried to see if their colonizing effort was successful. Truth be told, we lost track of thousands of those old transports.”

  Dgran leaned back in her chair and asked, “How does the planet that signal is coming from compare to the others you’ve seen?”

  “There are three colonies, all with populations of 300,000. I’ve scanned them three times and the numbers have not changed except by ten or so new births.”

  Dgran looked at her screen, “We need to go and take a close look at what’s happening on that planet. I want to be cautious, so take it slow going in.”

  Elef powered up the jump engine, “I’m going to jump outside the solar system of that planet and move in using small jumps.”

  Dgran nodded, “That would be wise. I don’t want to reveal our teleportation ability in a new universe.”

  The Elef was one of the new generation Searcher vessels that possessed sensors, weapons, and jump systems that made all of the previous models obsolete. It was literally the most powerful ship ever built by the Stars Realm, and Dgran thought about just going openly to the planet and not worrying about anything stopping her scan. However, her ship had not been able to detect any ships and that worried her. “It never hurts to be cautious,” she thought as her ship moved slowly into the system. Three days later it arrived at the orbit of the closest moon to the planet.

  Dgran looked at her display as Elef fed data to it, “Elef, jump to the surface of the moon and power down all systems except for passive scans and stealth surface.” The small ship jumped, settled into a crater’s shadow, and powered down.

  “I see a ship above the planet, but it does not register on my scans.”

  Dgran thought, “Show me on my screen.” There was a brown ship about 2,800 feet long, cylindrical in shape, with a smooth hull keeping station above the planet directly above the three communities on the planet’s surface.

  Elef reported, “I also see that now the populations of the three communities are back at 300,000 each. I can still detect the new births I scanned earlier, but somehow the populations have been reduced to keep their totals at that level.”

  Dgran examined the ship on her screen and wondered just what was happening on the planet’s surface. She also wondered why her systems could not detect that ship on electronic scans. “Are you recording all of this?”

  “Absolutely, and I’m sending some passive stealth scanners to the planet’s surface.”

  Jake leaned back in his chair and smiled at Valerie, “I just don’t see how I merit all this attention. I know I have a little psychic ability but it’s not much. Both of you have a huge level of psychic skills; it is I that should be worried about you.”

  Valerie sighed and shook her head, “You don’t understand what you are. It’s not the psychic ability you have right now; it’s the ability that is locked up inside you that has us worried. Let me explain. How much do you know about the history of the Stars Realm?”

  Jake shrugged, “I guess I know the basics. The Realm was formed about twelve thousand years ago. The first king was an Algean named Sprig Gardner. He unified the Realm and brought about the peace and prosperity that has endured up to this time.”

  Valerie shook her head, “That’s what the history books say, but they are wrong. The Realm is actually two thousand years older than that, and Sprig was in fact the fifth ruler of the Realm.”

  Jake was surprised by her answer. He had made a point of studying the Realm’s history before he started going out into the Realm to make money in the casinos. He was sure that the history did not go back beyond the reign of Sprig. “None of the history I’ve seen says anything about other rulers.”

  “I know, and the Royal Family prefers that history not tell about those times. The Realm was in a constant state of war for survival during those early years, and it was a close thing indeed that the Realm survived. The Realm faced five foes during that period, and every one of them could have completely destroyed the Realm. The forces arrayed against the Realm were, in several instances, hundreds of millions of years more advanced technologically than the Realm’s military, and outnumbered the Realm’s Navy by millions of ships.”

  Cynthia sat down. She had also learned the Realm’s history from the same source as Jake. This was all new to her.

  Jake took another bite of his sandwich and said, “What does that have to do with me in this current situation?”

  Valerie looked Jake in the eyes and said, “The difference maker in all of those wars was a super psychic leader that led the Realm against the forces arrayed against it. Starting with Thomas and Danielle Gardner, followed by Rose and Tommy Gardner, Cassandra Dodd, yes Cynthia, you have the same last name, and finally Matthew and Melanie Gardner. Notice that all of these psychics had a common ancestry.”

  Cynthia interjected, “Well, that Algean was not part of their ancestry.”

  Valerie nodded, “That’s true. It was decided after the last conflict that only the chosen ruler of the Stars Realm would use the name Gardner. The Gardners decided that Sprig was needed to handle the tremendous details of ruling the Realm, and it was they who suggested only the ruler would use that last name. That is how it is still done and my last name is Gardner. I am a direct descendant of Rose and Chris Andrews. Rose was Thomas and Danielle’s daughter.”

  “So what are you saying? Are you insinuating that I am one of these Gardners?”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if you are, since over 12,000 years the ancestry of the original Gardner family gro
ws too much to be able to track all of their descendants. The point is that these super psychics never appeared unless the Realm was under attack by an overwhelming enemy. We have not had a super psychic since the last war against the Red Demons, which ended more than 13,000 years ago.”

  Cynthia put her drink on the table and said, “I thought the Royal Family has psychics that have tremendous psychic powers; as strong as any in history?”

  Valerie shrugged, “That’s true. Several of our stronger members have skills that are even more powerful that the last super psychic, Matthew Gardner. One of their skills is the ability to sense when danger is coming, and they are also given occasional glimpses into the future. We are all sensing that the Realm is in danger and the feeling has been growing for more than five years. One of us has also sensed that another super psychic is coming whose ability will be stronger than all of the previous rulers and that, whoever it is, they will be absolutely critical if the Realm is to survive the coming attack.” Valerie didn’t mention that she was chosen to be the next ruler of the Stars Realm because she was the strongest psychic in the Royal Family and it was her vision. She was young in years, but more experienced than others twice her age at using her talents.

  Jake just stared at Valerie. “And you think I might be that super psychic you’re expecting?”

  Valerie tilted her head to the left and sighed, “Jake, you are that psychic we’ve been looking to find. It maybe also be true that it is you that will cause the coming attack on the Realm.”

  Jake and Cynthia were both shocked by that statement.

  Dgran watched the feed coming from the planet and focused it on one of the colonies. Elef had reported six new births and Dgran wanted to know how the population was held to exactly 300,000. She watched, and as Elef brought the view in closer she noticed a small craft leaving a structure that was located forty miles outside the valley where the communities were located. It was skimming over the terrain at a high rate of speed.

  The view moved closer, and she could see six creatures that were basically brown in color with four legs on a lower rounded section and an upper section that had two arms. The head was on a short stalk extending from the upper globular section, and looked triangular in shape with two saber shaped mandibles and numerous small white spikes on top that were constantly moving. The eyes were black on the side of the head and protruded out from the sides. The vessel was moving quickly and arrived outside the entrance to the colony, which was populated by human beings. The six creatures dismounted and walked into the entrance. One pointed a device and scanned the surrounding area. The view moved in closer and Dgran saw one, then two, and finally three humans walk to the six creatures and stand together in front of them.

  Elef said, “I want you to notice that each of those six humans have a bracelet on their left arm that is flashing an orange light.”

  Dgran looked closer and saw the flashing bracelets. She looked at other humans in the community and their bracelets were not flashing. The other humans joined the creatures at the entrance. These six had, obviously, been selected by the creatures. One of the creatures motioned to the six, and they walked out of the community and boarded the vessel. The six brown creatures then climbed on board and moved quickly away from the community toward the building where they had originated. “Keep a close view on that vessel, Elef.”

  “I’m already doing it.”

  The vessel flew quickly back to the building and the six creatures exited, followed by the six humans. They walked up to what looked like a knee-high conveyer belt just outside the building, and the creatures motioned to the humans to sit on the conveyer. When each had taken their seat one of the creatures pulled a device and shot all six humans, who fell back onto the belt. The belt began turning and moved them into the building.

  “Are they still alive?”

  “They are still breathing, but there is no electrical activity in a huge area of their brain. Whatever they used to shoot them has totally destroyed all higher brain functions.”

  Dgran was shocked at the matter of fact way the creatures had killed the humans.

  “Commander, I have three ships coming around the moon and closing on our position.”

  Dgran looked at her main screen and saw that the brown ships were on top of their location. “Power up all systems; bring weapons on line.”

  The three ships stopped directly above the Searcher and fired three beams at the small ship. Dgran felt her body start to vibrate, “Jump out, Elef!” Elef did not respond, and Dgran saw that her ship was coming apart. The beams hitting the Searcher’s ship went through its screens like they didn’t exist. Dgran felt her body start to shut down and she pressed the self destruct button just before her body turned to dust. The small ship blew up with a huge blast that shattered the surface of the moon for a hundred mile radius. The three brown ships surrounding the Searcher were hit by the blast, but were unaffected.

  One microsecond before the blast destroyed the small ship, a tiny probe inside the ship’s computer the size of a marble teleported away from the doomed ship. The probe jumped three thousand times in less than five seconds immediately after it recorded the destruction of the Searcher. It arrived out in open space and jumped out of the universe back to the Stars Realm.

  “How can I possibly cause this coming attack you’re describing?”

  Valerie stood up and refilled her cup, “Your psychic ability protects you even when you are unaware of it operating. Do you ever wonder why Robby was caught and you weren’t?

  Jake’s expression turned serious, “Every day.”

  “It’s because your psychic self directed the merchant’s attention away from you. You have survived because you have not been ready to release your power. Whenever you have been in trouble, things were made to happen to insure you survived. How many close calls have you had with the security forces on Gambian?”

  “Before Robby died, there were numerous times that I wondered how I wasn’t caught. Are you saying that these skills you say I possess protected me?”

  ‘Yes, I am. It may have been necessary for another to face the security forces instead of you, but your psychic self will do whatever is necessary to insure your survival.”

  “Why?” Jake asked.

  Valerie shook her head, “Because you had to be kept alive and away from the one that would release your powers.”

  Jake just stared at her. Cynthia asked, “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “Jake has an initiator somewhere, either in this universe of another and we suspect it is in another universe, that when he touches her it will break the barrier that is keeping his psychic power locked inside him. He can only come into contact with her when his psychic self reaches maturity. If he makes contact before he is fully mature, then both of them could be killed by the contact. In all of the prior super psychics, this usually happened between the ages of eighteen and twenty four. Jake has entered the time of his skills being released. He should also start showing some of his skills as they are released due to stressful situations. His full power can only be released by his designated initiator.”

  Cynthia asked, “What makes you think it is in another universe?”

  Valerie looked at Cynthia, “Because all of us are sensing a coming attack and there is no force in our universe that could threaten us. It has to be coming from another universe. That is what makes us suspect that is where the initiator is located. We hope that we can go there before the attacker comes here, but with billions of possible universes, we have to hope we get a clue as to which one has the attacker and is also the location of his initiator.”

  Jake stood up and said, “This is ridiculous.”

  Valerie stood and put her hand on his shoulder and appeared to wait for something to happen. When nothing did, she sighed and said, “No it’s not, Jake. I can see your aura and you will be developing stronger psychic skills immediately. I can see the blue flashes that indicate that your power is seeking release.”

&nbs
p; Jake didn’t know what to think. Then Valerie said something that made him wonder if she was right. “Jake, I saw the recording of when the first psychic scanner exploded. You dove for the floor before it blew up. How did you know to do that?”

  Jake looked at her and said, “I didn’t do anything; my body just suddenly moved to the floor.”

  Valerie could see the confusion in his face; then she saw him realize a truth he had missed, “You’re saying I caused Robby to die because of my psychic abilities?”

  Valerie sighed, “Why was Robby outside that merchant’s office wearing the same tunic you had on when you decided to take that bag? I’ll bet if you asked him he wouldn’t be able to explain why he came there.”

  Jake was almost losing control, “He didn’t know. He just wandered to that location. He didn’t know what I was doing.”

  “Jake, your powers do not care about anyone else but you. If someone you love has to die to protect you, they will die. If a planet has to die to insure your survival, it will die. It does not care. If a Realm has to die to make your powers active, it will die. If a dangerous enemy has to attack the Realm to get you to where your initiator is located, the enemy will attack. The most powerful force in the universe is psychic power, and until your power is released and you take control of it you could cause unimaginable destruction.”

  “But I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

  “Neither does your power, but it will if it is necessary for you to find your initiator. The first rulers of the Stars Realm caused a war with the Alliance of worlds just to insure that they would not be separated. The end result of that war was the formation of The Stars Realm. The Royal Family has been searching for you for five years. Why do you think we have eight hundred teams at the casinos trying to capture anyone with psychic ability? We were looking for you. Thank the creator, we’ve found you.”