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 touched 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.”
Kathea looked at Jake and saw the rage on his face. “That’s what happened to you, isn’t it? That’s why you don’t have a mate; the Keepers took her.”
Jake felt his anger and rage build as he thought about that poor young woman and her baby. He knew that by now they were brain dead and being processed for delivery. Kathea saw his anger and said, “Jake, calm down. They can sense it if you even think about doing anything.”
Jake forced himself to take deep breaths and finally said, “Please keep my tragedy a secret.”
“I will. Besides, you are our good luck man.”
Jake did a double take, “What do you mean?”
“Ten of the women who touched you yesterday had wonderful luck. Three found lost items, four had proposals given, and two found out they are with child.”
“What about the tenth?”
“She’s the one that didn’t go when Julie was selected.”
Jake looked up the rise and saw the young woman he had touched earlier returning. She walked up to Jake, kissed him on the cheek and said, “Thank you.”
Jake shook his head, “Look, this is just something my father told me. I don’t know if it’s real.”
Kathea and the young woman looked at each other and the young woman said, “Oh, it’s real.”
Jake looked around and saw females of all ages were walking toward him. They may have doubted before, but now they saw the young woman returning and knew that it had to be this lucky man that caused it. Jake didn’t hold the jug; they walked up and kissed his hand.
“Junior, what are all those women doing?”
“You can see as well as I can. They’re touching him.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. He has somehow done something so that they want to touch him. I see that more than three thousand have touched him today. He’s cutting down on the time we’ll have to stay here.”
Cynthia frowned, “Junior, what are the odds of him finding her in the first fifty percent he touches?”
Junior didn’t say anything.
“Junior?”
“Cynthia, I’m going to share something with you that I know I shouldn’t.”
Cynthia didn’t like the tone of Junior’s comment. Cynthia sighed, “Is it going to scare me? ‘Cause I’ve gotta tell you that I live with fear every day. This whole thing is nerve wracking.”
“Cynthia, Sprig and Twig have measured Jake’s psychic strength and both agree that it is so far beyond anything we’ve ever seen that it is a different order of magnitude.”
“Yes, I know that.”
“Cynthia, how strong would the psychic shell have to be to keep that force contained?”
Cynthia thought a moment. “Junior, it would have to be stronger on an even higher order of magnitude than his psychic powers to keep it contained. What does that have to do with our mission?”
“The one who could break that shell, Valerie calls her the initiator, would have to possess an extraordinary level of active psychic power; possibly even as strong as him.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Think about it for a moment, Cynthia.”
Cynthia thought about the woman needed to free Jake, then it crossed her mind that if they were going to take her back with them, her telepathy would not be masked by the skull covering. Then it hit her, “If she existed, the creatures would have already discovered her and eliminated her.”
“That’s what the Algeans think, Cynthia.”
“Then why are we here risking our lives and Jake’s?”
“Because Valerie believes his initiator is here.”
“But she can’t be here, Junior!” Cynthia shouted. “Why did you tell me this?”
“Because I may have to do things that you would never agree to me doing before all of this is over, and you should understand my motivation for doing them.”
“What things?”
“I really don’t know; but I must keep an open mind to any possibility. Cynthia, I know the history of the Stars Realm’s super psychics, and you would be amazed at the things they were able to accomplish. If Valerie says Jake should be here, then here he needs to be. I don’t understand why….yet. However, I know there has to be a reason. We have to give this every opportunity for that reason to reveal itself.”
Cynthia remained silent for a long time. Finally she looked up at the walls, “Thank you for trusting me with this information, Junior. Does Valerie know about this?”
“No, she doesn’t, and I really don’t think it would matter if she did.”
“Why is that?”
“Because she has had a vision and she knows, even if no one else believes it, that this is where our future will be determined.”
Cynthia thought about that for the rest of the day.
The Collective examined the progress of the ships being readied and thought, “Technology, how many are converted and ready to go?”
There was a moment of silence and then, “About half of them.”
“Send them out now. The others will join them as they are completed.”
The Military Quadrant responded, “We need to collect food stores for the ships leaving.”
“Send them to our farms and have them collect what they need.”
“It will disrupt our normal harvesting.”
“Only take males until new births make up the ratio. The fema
les will make up the difference in a short interval.”
“The orders are being issued.”
“Cynthia?”
“Yes, Junior?”
“Something’s happening.”
“What?”
“Thirty vehicles have left the building on the surface and are fanning out to the three colonies. It appears ten vehicles are going to each colony.”
“What are they doing?”
“I don’t know, but our passive scanners have detected two ships are coming in from the outer system and will arrive here in ten hours. I’m shutting down all passive scans and scanners except for telescopic visuals. Something big is happening.”
Cynthia looked at her screen, “Is Jake going to be safe?”
“I don’t know, and there’s no way we can warn him. He’s out in the fields.”
Cynthia gripped the arms of her chair, “Junior, if it looks like they are going to take him we’ve got to teleport him out and leave.”
“I’m not going to do that, Cynthia. He’s no good to the Realm without his powers. He must stay until that happens and if it doesn’t, then Valerie was wrong.”
Cynthia thought about Valerie’s instructions and struggled with what she should do.
Jake was pouring water for a group of women when he heard the high pitched hum of the creatures’ land vehicle. This time the volume was much higher, and everyone in the fields looked at each other wondering what was happening. Jake saw ten of the vehicles come by the fence and land outside the colony entrance. Jake looked around and saw twenty men looking around; they dropped their tools and started moving toward the entrance. Everyone lifted their bracelets and saw them flashing. Jake noticed that the bracelets of the twenty men walking up the rise toward the community entrance were glowing solid orange light. Everyone began moving up the rise to see what was happening. Jake joined them and pushed a recessed button on the back of his fake bracelet and it began flashing. He stayed at the back of the crowd and as they topped the rise. Looking down on the ten Keepers’ vehicles, Jake saw five men being loaded on each vehicle. No one said a word, but they wondered what was happening. Thirty of the Keepers had fanned out just inside the gate and were watching the gathering crowd. No one dared enter the open square inside the gate, but everyone watched as the men were loaded. The Keepers backed out of the gate to board their vehicles, then lifted off and headed toward the Keepers’ building in the distance.
Jake saw Kathea standing next to him and said, “I don’t remember seeing this many taken at one time.”
Kathea kept looking at the vehicles as they grew smaller in the distance, “I’ve heard about it happening long ago, but they always took equal numbers of men and women.”
Jake worried about Cynthia and Junior. If this many were being taken, there had to be a ship to receive them. Then he heard, “Looks like your luck for the women is holding out.”
Jake looked at Kathea shaking his head, “How could I have affected this?”
“Never question luck, Jake.”
He looked up at the sky and hoped his friends were safe.
Cynthia and Junior watched as the thirty vehicles were loaded and taken to the central Keepers building. The land craft all gathered ten miles from the conveyer belt, then came one at a time as each craft shot the colonists and sent them in on the conveyer. Finally, all thirty delivered their load and flew back into the building.
“Cynthia, I think I know what’s going on.”
Cynthia looked up from the telescopic display, “What is that, Junior?”
“If the Realm was going to war, what would be the first steps taken?”
“Provision the ships and assign them their targets.” Cynthia scowled for a moment and then she saw it, “They’re launching their fleet and they are picking up their food stores.”
“That’s how I see it. If it were a normal pickup of harvested colonists, there would only be one ship. Two are coming, and they just harvested five times the normal numbers. The war is beginning and they are launching a huge number of ships.”
“How did you arrive at that conclusion?”
“They have millions of planets enslaved. They could easily afford to send one ship to each planet; they didn’t. That means that they are either sending more ships than planets or only using half their planets for provisions. Even at half, that is a huge number. Remember that these planets are the food source for their empire. It’s going to take some time to return these colonies to the normal 300,000.”
“The Realm needs to know, Junior.”
“I’ll load a probe with what we’ve seen and an update of Jake’s progress. I’ll send it through a one way teleport screen behind this system’s star and then have it jump out. First we need to see if what we suspect is true. If they are provisioning, then they should jump out of this universe once they arrive outside the jump limit. Our passive scanners should be able to see the color of the flash. If it’s purple, then the invasion is starting. It might still be some time before they find the Realm, but Valerie insists that it won’t be long.”
“If they are using huge numbers, then it shouldn’t take very long to find the Realm.” Cynthia stood up, “Junior, they’re looking for the Spiders.”
There was silence, then Junior said, “You’re right. That must be why they’re leaving this universe. They have to think that the Searcher was sent by the previous invaders. Cynthia, that means they will ignore universes they enter until they find the Spiders.”
“Our universe is the only one with high numbers of them. The Realm needs to know. They must be warned.”
“I’ll include your conclusion in our probe’s report.”
Ten hours later they watched the two ships arrive in orbit at the planet, and multiple shuttles lifted and brought stores which were unloaded into the ships. The loading was done in four hours, and the two ships moved out of orbit and accelerated toward the jump limit. Once they were a hundred thousand miles beyond the limit, they both disappeared in a purple flash.
“Launch the probe, Junior.”
“Already on the way. I did include one other conclusion, Cynthia.”
“What was that?”
“I advised them to put the Royal Family and any other psychics on board ships and move them away from the Stars Realm’s capital. If they can scan for those that use telepathy, they will see Ross shining like a giant beacon.”
“I didn’t even consider that. I’m so thankful you’re here, Junior.”
“Thank you Cynthia. I’m turning our scanners back on. It appears they can’t see us.”
“Valerie?”
“Yes, Manny? What has you so disturbed?”
“We just received a probe from Junior and the creatures are coming. Their ships are jumping away from their universe.”
“There’s something else, isn’t there.”
“Yes. Cynthia and Junior believe the creatures are coming to attack the Spiders.”
Valerie reflected and said, “That makes sense. They probably think the Searcher was one of their agents.”
“We need to warn them. It also means that they will ignore any universe where their scans don’t show their presence. They also suggest that the Royal Family and all of those that possess psychic skills be placed on ships and moved away from Ross. They think the invaders will see Ross as a giant beacon if they can see those that use telepathy.”
Valerie felt sudden fear. “Issue the orders, Manny. I’ll contact Joe now.”
Joe sent a thought to Valerie, “What’s wrong?”
“Joe, the creatures are coming. If they can see those that use telepathy, then Ross will be targeted as one of their first objectives.”
“By the Creator! I should have thought of this. I’ll have the Family’s ships come immediately. I’ll tell everyone to cease using telepathy to communicate until they leave the planet. We need to scatter and try to prevent using what psychic abilities we have until we’re away from Ross. I’ll also tell our military to only c
ommunicate using their electronic devices. Valerie, go to your ship.”
“I’m teleporting now. I’ll jump out of the Ross system and move out toward empty space.”
“I’ll let you know about our progress, Sis.”
“Thanks, Joe.” Valerie arrived on the Bridge of the Megaship Tgon-gee and went to her command chair to give Captain Misty Robbins her orders. The Captain thought a moment and said, “Your Majesty, moving out to open space presents a real danger to you.”
“Why is that?”
“We can’t detect their ships; however, they can see you. They could jump on top of us before we could see them if we’re in open space.”
Valerie saw she was right. “How would you do it, Captain?”
“I know a star system that went nova thousands of years ago and killed all life. The star’s gravity is huge and the jump limit is fifty hours out from the star. The system is located in a dense region of the galaxy where we should be able to see them coming when they block the light from the background stars. I have five other systems plotted just like this one if we need to jump away.”
“Pass those coordinates to Prince Gardner and inform him of your observations.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Valerie left the bridge, went to her private quarters, and commed Manny, “Was there any other information on the probe?”
“Yes. They included all their scans of Mr. Talant.”
“Com those to me immediately, Manny.”
Manny looked to the right of the display and said, “You have them now.”
“Thank you.” Valerie began playing the video of Jake and she laughed when all the women started lining up to touch him. “My, you are quite the ladies’ man, Jake.” Then she thought about him finding his lifelong love and she turned off the video. She sat there alone in the dark and thought about Jake.
The Keepers’ ship jumped into a universe and began scanning. It noticed that there were pockets of races using telepathy, but it was not concerned about them. It had the thought frequency of the Green Invaders and it continued to scan. The Director of the ship directed a thought to his sensor operator, “Do you see anything?”
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