Finding keepers a-7

by Andrew, Saxon

  Admiral Zergl, who had joined the conversation, looked at his board. We have to bring a much bigger teleport system on board and connect it. It’s going to take at least six hours to get the screen working.”

  Valerie said, “That’s cutting it close. Admiral, have we managed to cover any of our Warriors in the telepathy coating?”

  “About fifty of them have the new armor.”

  “Get them on a ship and move them to the Keepers’ planet. We have to support Jake and Cynthia quickly.”

  “It will take at least four hours to power up the armor and load all the weapons.”

  “Then you had better start moving, Admiral.”

  Zergl disappeared from the conference screen.

  Valerie dreaded the next question, but had to ask, “So Jake found his initiator, Junior?”

  “Yes and no, Your Majesty.”

  Valerie leaned back in her chair, “What do you mean by that?”

  “Jake touched every woman in the human colony with no results.”

  Valerie was puzzled, “Then how were his powers released?”

  “A Keeper touched Jake; it released his powers. Evidently it took the combined mental connection of the entire Keepers species to break through that shell of his.”

  Valerie was stunned; then she understood. “That’s why his psychic self keep bringing Keepers to wherever he was! It’s why the Searcher died. That colony of humans was the only place where Keepers regularly made contact with Humans without killing them. It makes sense now.” Then it hit her; Jake did not find the love of his life. She jumped up from her chair, “Junior, where are you?”

  Joe Gardner, who had joined the conversation, said, “No you’re not, Valerie.”

  Valerie ignored him, “Junior, answer me.”

  Junior struggled, but knew he had to answer the Queen of the Stars Realm. “You have my coordinates.”

  “Valerie, you can’t go there!”

  “Valerie appeared on Junior’s bridge and said as she stepped through the silver screen. “Joe, you’re in charge until I return. Remember when you said you would never question me again?”

  Joe looked at his Sister on his com and slowly nodded. “Don’t start, now.” Valerie sat in a chair and said, “Well, what are you waiting for?”

  “Your Majesty, it is not safe there.”

  “Do you intend to go back?”

  “I have to, Your Majesty.”

  “Maybe it’s because you left some friends there.” Junior said nothing, “Well so have I, so quit wasting time.”

  “Is everyone going to accuse me of that all day?”

  “Only if you keep doing it.”

  Junior hit the drive and the ship disappeared from the Realm’s universe.

  Joe watched Valerie’s face disappear from his com, contacted Admiral Zergl, and ordered him to speed up getting the Warriors ready.

  Junior arrived back in the Keepers’ colony next to the moon. Valerie looked at her display and saw the Keepers’ ship on the moon’s surface, “Junior, is that what I think it is?”

  “Yes, Your Majesty. I think we killed it when I fired three penetrators up their drive ports.”

  “Junior, we’re alone now; please dispense with the “Your Majesty” and call me Valerie. Did you share this information with Joe or Admiral Zergl?”

  “No, I had too much happening too fast. I’ll launch a probe and send it back with the video and informationabout what I did.”

  “Joe and Edison thought that might be a weakness in their design.”

  “It is, Valerie, but using it is going to be difficult. If their drives are operating, the penetrator will explode before it can enter the tube. The weak point is located at the very front end of the drive.” Junior paused, then said, “Valerie, I am very uncomfortable with you being here. If we face any trouble I am taking you out of here.”

  “Not without Jake, you won’t.”

  “Sorry, but I will. You are too important to the Realm to risk.”

  “Junior, my value is nothing compared to what Jake means to our success. I’m here because he broke a promise to me and I hope I can convince him to keep it.”

  “Valerie, you won’t. We will either save those Humans on the planet or Jake will die trying to prevent their deaths.”

  “Where is he?”

  “He’s currently on the planet blowing up exits from the Keepers’ garrison.”

  “Oh, my ancient ancestors! Take me there.”

  “I’ll take you to where you can communicate with him, but I will not place you in danger.”

  Valerie started to protest, but then decided that she did not want to force Junior to choose between being tried for treason for disobeying a direct order from the Queen or keeping her safe. She suspected he would take the treason charge. “Take me there.”

  Junior teleported them to just above the planet’s atmosphere. Valerie looked at her screen and could see Jake flying over the Keepers’ garrison, firing hornets at any exit he could find. Valerie thought, “My, my; aren’t you the busy warrior?”

  Jake could see the dark lines going down toward the ground and he fired a hornet every time one appeared, “Valerie, what are you doing here? Are you insane?!?”

  “I was going to ask you the same question. You promised you would not put yourself in danger. You know how important you are to the Realm’s survival.”

  “I’m nothing compared to you. You must leave now! Junior; why did you bring her here?”

  “Because I swore an oath of allegiance to the Stars Realm and its rulers. I will not allow her to be placed in harm’s way no matter what she orders. Just promise you’ll come visit me in prison, Jake.”

  “Junior, how can they arrest a ship? You could teleport out any time you wanted and besides, you might enjoy the rest and relaxation. Excuse me a moment, I need to destroy this hanger.” They watched as Jake flew close to the surface and fired a high speed penetrator into the doors of a hidden hanger. “There. I’m sorry, Valerie, but these people have become my family. Would you leave Joe behind to die?”

  Valerie didn’t know how to answer, “If it meant the survival of the Realm I would have to do just that.”

  Jake continued to fire wasps and hornets while he thought about what Valerie said, “All right, we have a ten hour window before the Keepers can get a ship here. It’s probably longer because when I released my psychic abilities I think I knocked the central intelligence that directs the Keepers off line. I don’t sense that it has recovered yet, and no ships will come until it does. Our main threat is the Keepers in the building below. I also sense that all of the Keepers on the western side of the structure were either killed or so damaged that they will not be able to take part in an attack. Cynthia will be back soon, and she will help with the defense of the communities. You can help, Valerie.”

  “How, Jake?”

  “Junior, take her down to the Human colony and talk with them. I know they’re terribly frightened and you can help calm them down.”

  “Jake, I’m going to hold you to that promise. If it comes down to it, you must leave with me.”

  “I love you too, Valerie.”

  Valerie felt the tears. He had seen inside her thoughts and knew how she felt. “Junior, take me down.”

  Jackson worried that the community was close to panicking. They could hear huge explosions coming from over the hills to the east. He tried to sooth their fears but just didn’t know how to answer their questions. Suddenly everyone saw a ship coming down at a high rate of speed and stop just above the surface of the central square.

  Valerie stepped through the silver teleport screen and appeared in front of the gathered community. Jackson saw this beautiful young girl and wondered why someone so young was here in an obviously dangerous environment.

  Valerie smiled, “Hello everyone. I know that all of you are scared about what is going to happen to you after the death of these Keepers. I am the Queen of the Stars Realm and I am doing all I can to get ship
s here to move you safely away from this planet. I see from your expression that you think me too young to actually be the Ruler of the Realm, but I was chosen because of my psychic abilities. I do not know if we will be able to make your escape happen before the Keepers arrive, but we are doing everything in our power to save you. I want you to know that there are more than twenty million planets that are members of the Realm, and three of them are the races from which the three colonies here are descended. The original home world of your race is one of the founders of our Realm, and I am descended from those founders. Take heart and know that you are not forgotten and we will do all we can to protect you.”

  “Why was Jake sent here?”

  Valerie looked at Jackson and said, “We are now at war with the Keepers. There are a hundred thousand of their ships in our universe and we are working hard to develop the weapons to kill them. Jake is going to be the Realm’s strongest psychic, but he needed to have his abilities released. We know that our founders which were super psychics had to have their powers released by what we call their initiator. I believed that she would be in your population.”

  Jackson thought a moment “Is that why he was touching every female?”

  “Yes, but I was wrong. There is no woman that could have broken through the psychic shell that contained his powers. I’ve learned that it was necessary for him to be touched by a Keeper, and the combined telepathic connection of their entire species was needed to make it happen. This is the only place where the Keepers make contact with Humans without killing them.”

  “Oh, they kill us.”

  “Yes, but they also come among you to remove those chosen by them. Jake’s inner psychic self saw this and manipulated events to bring him here.”

  “His coming here can get us all killed, Young Queen.”

  “Do you call this living? Your species in the Realm live a hundred and fifty years; you are taken at around 35 years of age. You slave in the fields to feed yourself for the Keepers to consume. You are allowed no technology to spare you the hard labor. You are livestock here, but in the Realm Humans are admired and respected by all the trillions of citizens.”

  “So what happens now?”

  “We are not taking you to the Realm if we can move you.” The gathering started talking among themselves so Valerie switched to telepathy to communicate with them, “It’s not what you think.” Everyone heard her in their thoughts and even Jackson was surprised. “We have citizens in more than a thousand universes. I am not going to take the chance of taking you to the Realm where the Keepers Fleet might scan you and come to take vengeance. I am sending you to a planet of humans who will take care of you until this conflict is resolved. It is time to learn who you are and to know that humans do not give in to tyranny or slavery.”

  A young woman stepped out of the crowd and said, “You came here to take Jake back to the Realm didn’t you?”

  Valerie looked at the woman and marveled at how beautiful she was, “Yes, but he would not go without you. Our survival depends on Jake and his developing psychic abilities. I was hoping he would listen to reason and leave.”

  Jackson shook his head, “You are at least being honest about it.”

  Valerie looked around and saw the goodness of the people around her, “He forced me to make this attempt to move you. I could not understand why he was taking this risk with the trillions in the Realm at risk if something happened to him.” Valerie paused and then continued, “But now, after seeing you, I know the truth that he saw before I could grasp it. To turn away from the few to try and save the many is a wrong that only corrupts the values our Realm was founded upon.” She left her thought open so everyone could hear, “Junior, have you been listening to this?”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “I will not leave without these people. Do you understand?”

  The hundreds of thousands of humans waited for a response, “If it comes down to it; we will all die here together, my Queen. I will not abandon you.”

  “Thank you for this gift, Junior.”

  Jackson looked around, “Who is this Junior?”

  “He’s the ship hovering here. He’s an intelligent, mechanical, life form that was made a citizen of the Realm more than thirteen thousand years ago. He was made my friend just a moment ago.”

  The young woman looked at Valerie and said, “You love him, don’t you?”

  “I now care about Junior very much.”

  I wasn’t talking about him; you love Jake. You must be the one he was trying to find.”

  Valerie stared at the young woman, “What prompted you to say that?”

  “Because he is worthy of a Queen, and nothing less than love would have brought you here to share our fate.”

  Valerie lowered her head, “You’ve got it all wrong; it is I that am not worthy of him.”

  Jackson shook his head, “Not from where I stand. You were meant for each other.”

  Valerie smiled, then walked up and kissed Jackson on the cheek. If a black man could blush, Jackson did.

  Kathea walked up and hugged Valerie, “I, too, love our Good Luck Man. I know you’ll be happy together.”

  Valerie was approached by many in the crowd to tell her of their good fortune caused by touching Jake. She listened and stored them in her heart. She kept hearing in the back of her mind, “I love you too, Valerie.” The explosions over the hills grew louder.

  Cynthia teleported to the row of hills overlooking the Keepers’ garrison; she turned up the magnification in her helmet and saw Jake continuing to fire at the building and surrounding grounds, “Should I come and join in the fun?”

  Jake disappeared briefly and reappeared a short distance above his last position. “No, Cynthia. The Keepers are starting to move some of their larger focused-beam platforms to the surface and I can’t protect you, dodge the beams, and fight effectively.”

  “How are you doing against that weapon?”

  “I’m dodging it. My new psychic skills allow me to sense it before they fire, and I can also see it coming slow enough to get out of the way. The problem is there are so many exits to that facility it’s just a matter of time until they fire a wide spread of those beams. I’ve managed to kill any beam platform that fires at me so far, but they’ve stopped firing for the last fifteen minutes so I believe they are marshalling their weapons to fire in unison.”

  “Then you need to get out of here right now.”

  “Not yet. I’m going to have to get down to ground level shortly but if I go now, those beams will be available to use against the colony. I want them to fire, which will allow me to target their larger beam platforms. I’m also sensing that the central intelligence of these creatures is starting to reform and get organized. Ships are going to be sent shortly.”

  Suddenly Jake pressed the teleport button on his jaw, disappeared from the west end of the camp, and reappeared over the eastern boundary. Cynthia then saw hornets leave Jake’s armor at an incredible rate. Even with her view magnified, the small missiles left faster than her scanner could track. She knew the hornets were not designed to fly that fast. Jake was doing something that made them fly as fast as a high speed penetrator. The surface of the Keepers’ facility exploded like it was on fire.

  “Are you ready?”

  “Yes, I’ve set the coordinates of the beam and it will overlap the two on each side of my platform.”

  “We will fire simultaneously in twenty degrons. Have your team start charging your weapon.”

  The ten Keepers turned off their hearing and began sending their rhythmic thoughts toward the aperture feeding into the barrel of their platform. The firing officer watched as the intensity level rose to maximum, and waited as the countdown reached zero. He pressed the discharge button and felt the recoil of the beam as it left the facility at light speed. Immediately after the recoil, the three teams stationed at the central opening on the surface were hit by a hornet and all thirty Keepers in the three groups were blown into fragments. Of th
e hundred beams fired, all hundred platforms and the thousand Keepers manning them disappeared in huge explosions.

  The Leader of the garrison was dumbfounded by the destruction being done by the single entity that was hovering over his vast complex. If one of his brothers fired at that creature, then that brother died. Everyone that had moved to the surface of the complex to take a shot had been killed. He continued to try and contact the Collective, but had no success. His teams had fired a three-square-mile pattern at the floating entity and had somehow missed. He was not going to order any more warriors back to the surface until the Collective gave him instructions. He continuously had attempted to contact the ship on the moon, but he sensed no one in the area where they were supposed to have landed. He could only assume that the ship had somehow been killed. He thought a moment and decided, “Well, if not killed, then out of contact like the Collective.” Another explosion rocked his chamber and he sent a thought to all of the surviving Keepers to stay away from the surface until further notice.

  The Collective managed its first thought in three hours, “Are any of you here?” He heard nothing in response. It was still mentally groggy and processing data very slowly. It did, however, sense that it was slowly picking up speed. Then he heard, “I assume you did not want me to respond.”

  The Collective was startled, “Values, how did you survive that hit?”

  “You separated me from you. I only received a minor charge from whatever that thing was.”

  “Obviously, whatever it was is an enemy. Help me get the other quadrants organized.”

  “Which one do you want me to help first?”

  “Military.”

  “I will begin now.”

  The Collective watched as the Values Quadrant started pulling the various pieces of the Military Quadrant together to allow them to reform. He was thankful that he had separated Values; recovery should speed up now that one of the Quadrants was functioning normally. As Military began to organize, the Collective felt the growing connections to all of the Keepers begin to function normally. Then he heard, “What happened?”

  “We’ll discuss that later. Right now send some ships to that farm where the strange ship was killed.”