“Unless they surrender to us immediately, you will have your opportunity. What is your decision?”
“Will you give us ships that can go to their universe and allow us to wage our own war?”
Jake thought a moment and liked the idea. Nothing teaches others a lesson like having their actions done to them, “I will do all I can to do exactly that, and I will give you ships that can hide from them. I will require your oath to cease fighting if we settle this conflict, and I do mean an oath you will keep.”
“Then melt the bastards.”
“Junior, give the coordinates of the Algean ship building facility and tell Sprig to start measuring these pilots for ships.”
Junior worried about turning these warriors loose uncontrolled, but then he saw the bodies still twitching in the streets of Gredna on his scans and decided if this was going to be bloody, the Keepers were behind in their payment. “Done and done.”
“May we stay and observe what happens?”
“Yes; just don’t go near the system,” Jake teleported out.
The Collective separated out into its Quadrants. Two intervals had passed and the entity had looked at the data with the mental capacity of ten trillion Keepers. Their findings were disturbing. Science spoke first, “It appears that universe is more advanced than we thought. The means of moving individuals inside the drive limit is amazing. We need to capture one of the mechanisms that are being used.”
Production added, “Our scanners were not wrong. The population had to be on the planet when our fleet entered the system. Building all the structures of a civilization with no one to live in them is an economic drain that can’t be endured, especially on the scale we’ve seen.”
The Collective asked Military, “How are we going to wage war on planets where the population can leave before we can attack?”
“We will have to destroy every planet in their universe that can sustain life. We cannot leave a place for the population to come escape. We will burn every planet down to the bedrock. There are hundreds of universes for us to conquer and manage; this particular one must be eliminated. There is also the issue of the Green Creatures. We know they are there; their planets should be the first targeted.”
The Collective pondered the direction it was moving his species and remembered what Values had said. He didn’t want to, but he turned his attention to the Quadrant that was not included in their discussion, “I will not harm you. What do you think?”
“What would you do if those creatures came to our universe and killed planets? Would you just sit by and do nothing?” Values paused for the Collective to consider that thought, then said, “You also know that a very powerful being that possesses mental powers greater than any we have ever seen is now there. Have you taken this being into your considerations?”
“You are only asking questions; I want to know what you think.”
“If you continue this path of conquest and destruction, we will be destroyed down to the last worker. Now I will go back to my solitude; your arrogance will convince you that I am wrong.”
The Collective and Quadrants listened to Values and remembered when it was used in formulating their plans so long ago. Now they grew angry at what it said.
Production said, “You should just disrupt it and good riddance.”
“I promised it no harm and you will do as I say.”
Technology asked, “What is our plan?”
The Collective knew a line was being crossed that placed them on a path that could not be stopped. His thoughts were interrupted by Production. “What about the ships currently fighting in that universe? Are we agreed that the invaders were able to damage our ships at the farm?”
The Collective turned its attention away from the Quadrants and contacted the Messenger Ship, “Go back to the fleet and warn them that there is a weakness in the drive systems of their ships. They must not turn off their drives.”
The Messenger locked in the coordinates of the fleet’s last location and jumped.
The Keepers Fleet organized in orbit above the city and launched 100,000 landing craft. They turned the noses of their ships toward the planet to destroy anything that attempted to prevent the collection of food stores, and watched as the small craft entered atmosphere.
Jake watched the Keepers Fleet come to a stop and turn off their drives, “Now, Manny!”
“Keepers’ ship breaking out of universal drive at the star drive limit.”
Jake looked at Junior’s display as the brown ship emerged. He hoped that the Searchers were going to act before the ship could communicate with the stationary fleet.
The fifty thousand Searchers teleported in, hit their firing solutions, and immediately teleported to their second target.
“Fleet Director, I have a message from the Collective.”
“What is it?”
If the messenger had just said, “Turn on your drives now,” the fleet may have had ships survive. That short pause proved disastrous for the Keepers Fleet. These Searchers were locked on their targets and they did not miss. The blast from the fuel lines burned every Keeper in the fleet and the Messenger lost mental contact with every Keeper above the planet. It was only able to hear the ones on the planet collecting stores. It knew those small craft were not protected like the ships in orbit. It started to warn them, but then saw a red beam hit the city and burn everything down to the planet’s bedrock.
Jake watched the Keepers’ ship hang in space at the drive limit. It did not turn off its drives. Jake sighed in relief and commed Manny, “Admiral, teleport in enough Searchers to haul these ships to the star. That ship at the drive limit can’t do anything about it; it would take it seven hours to reach the planet.”
Manny looked at his display and nodded, “They’ll arrive momentarily.”
Six hundred thousand Searchers arrived three minutes later, hooked cables to the Keepers’ ships, and towed them on a path toward the sun. The Messenger stayed and watched as the fleet accelerated into the star’s gravity and were burned into nothingness.
Jake could hear the Keepers’ thought on the lone brown ship and he sent a message to it telepathically, “Tell your leader that if he sends any more ships into our home again, we will bring this war to his door and show him what his actions have done.”
“Do you seriously think you can stop us? We know how you killed our ships and we know how to prevent you from harming us in the future. You will pay for this.”
“Junior, were you armed with that cutting beam that is supposed to be able to penetrate their hull?”
“Yes, but it has not been trialed and we don’t know if it will work. It can only be extended thirty feet, which will not do major damage to a ship 2,800 feet long.”
“I would rather trial it with just one ship instead of a fleet. They can’t see you, so fly by and see if you can cut the rear stabilizer off. The main beam is in the nose, so just make sure you’re moving fast enough to get out of range quickly.”
“Jake, I don’t want to place you at risk; you’re too important.”
“Then fly faster, but we have to see if we have anything to offset their advantage. This is the only chance we have that is to our advantage, so just do it.”
Junior gave a sigh and said, “Buckle up; this should be interesting.”
Junior flew at the Keepers’ ship, extended the cutting beam to its full thirty foot length, and shot by the ship at one-fifth light speed. The rear fin was sheared.
The individual Keepers fired their beams at the rear of their ship but Junior was out of range before they could respond.
The Director of the Messenger felt a huge shock go through his ship, “What happened?”
The Sensor Leader said, “We are now missing one of our rear fins. I suggest we leave.”
“Initiate universal drive.”
Just before the brown ship jumped, the Director heard, “Don’t come back.”
Jake jumped back to the Cainth survivors and said, “I am sorry for
your loss; we will enlist you in the Realm’s Navy and train you to use our ships. Are you ready to start that process?”
Mord felt savage joy at the Keepers Fleets destruction, “The sooner the better.”
“The coordinates are on your com. I’ll communicate with you later.”
Mord nodded at Jake and the survivors jumped away.
Chapter Thirteen
The messenger arrived and the Collective immediately made contact. “I did not arrive in time to warn the fleet. All of our ships were destroyed, and my ship was damaged by some sort of beam.”
The Collective and all Quadrants watched the fleet’s destruction and the burning of the craft on the planet. “One of the beings in the other universe sent a message that if you send another ship into their universe they will bring the war to our home.”
The Collective pondered what had happened and asked, “Does this change our plans?”
Technology answered, “We must modify our ships.”
“In what way?”
“We must find a way to prevent a weapon from entering our drives, and we need to change the beam configuration.”
Military asked, “What do you mean by beam configuration?”
“First, we need to put baffles on the drives that drop when the drives are turned off. There are times where we will need the ability to come to a stop and being forced to keep the drives on would not allow it. The baffles will be made from the hull material and will drop over the drive entrance. That will prevent our ships from being damaged by projectiles fired into the engines. The current beam configuration has the main beam in the nose of the ship. We need to have a field surrounding our ships with beams so that nothing can come near it from any direction.”
The Collective asked, “How do you envision this being done?”
“We will put accumulators in the walls of the ship and the crews will charge them when they are in a hostile environment. We will need to double the crew size, but there is more than enough room to make that happen.”
“What about the food stores?” Production asked.
“They will either take their stores from our inventory or from the planets they attack. I believe the latter is the more desired choice.”
“So you’re still thinking we should go through with this attack?”
“Absolutely! Do you think that universe is not a clear danger to us? If we can eliminate them our species will become the ultimate rulers of all universes. We will be safe for all eternity.”
“How do we overcome their jump advantage?”
Science replied, “I believe that I have an idea how their ships are able to make those jumps. I’ll need some time to study the data, but it involves putting a screen around our ships powered by a high powered generator. I’ll have a definitive answer in a quarter.”
The Collective paused, “So now we have to make another modification to our ships. How long is this going to take?”
The entity combined and studied the question. After an hour they separated, “Less than four quarters, but more than two.”
Production said, “That’s for half our ships; the others should be completed in two more quarters.”
Values listened to the others and knew that they were going forward with their plans. It began thinking of a way to save his species. There was nothing it could do yet.
“Are we in agreement to attack this universe?”
All the Quadrants voted yes. The trillions of individual Keepers on all the planets did not know they were going to war. They continued to work at their appointed tasks, feeling safe with the Collective’s decisions. Their tranquility was soon to be disrupted.
Jake sat in Junior and said, “You worry about turning the Cainth survivors loose in that universe?”
“I do, Jake, but I still see the death of all those people on Brayent. I worry that we are becoming our own enemy.”
“There is a major difference in our actions, Junior. We are fighting to prevent the destruction of our Realm. Those creatures will figure out shortly, if they haven’t already, that we are able to move populations. What do you think they will do after that discovery?”
Junior thought a moment, “I really don’t have a clue. What do you think will happen?”
“They will destroy every planet in our universe that has a breathable atmosphere. They’ll burn them all.”
Junior was shocked, “Why would they do that?”
“They will eliminate any place of escape. They will also develop the means to jump directly to our planets without having to come from the jump limit. That ability is the easiest technology to learn once you know it exists, and their ships will have the drive weakness removed. We won’t have time to move the populations before they attack. Some will escape, but huge numbers will be killed. I’ve seen a vision of their future attacks, and more than seventy percent of the Realm’s population will be killed.”
Junior listened and felt both fear and anger in equal measure, “What can we do about it?”
“We have a year before they modify enough ships to start their invasion. We can only slow them down by attacking them first. That entity I sensed is a development from all of the members of their species being connected. If we can kill enough of them, that entity will be hurt or even killed. I hate even thinking about the deaths I’m going to have to cause, but there is no other choice.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I want you to be my ship during this conflict, and that means you will have to do things that you are morally against. Are you able to do what must be done?”
“I don’t know. I need some time to consider what you’ve said.”
“I understand. Take me to Ross and drop me off at the Castle. I’ve got to persuade Valerie to approve this path. I’ll wait to hear from you.”
Junior teleported to Ross and teleported Jake to the surface. He remained silent above the planet as he watched the billions going about their daily lives. He made a decision and disappeared from the Ross system.
Edison watched the replay of the Keepers Fleet’s destruction. Newton watched it with him and said, “I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not the heat of the star that melts their ships as much as the sheer magnitude of it.”
“I know. We have beams that are hotter than the star, but surrounding that ship with beams to a depth of fifty miles is just not possible. If any part of the ship is not continuously hit for more than ten minutes then the hull will not be damaged.”
“That hull material is quite the magic substance.” Newton paused and said, “They’re coming and we will be their first target. What do you think we should do?”
“We are going to evacuate to another universe and work on this problem.”
Newton lowered himself to the floor in surprise, “Why would we do that?”
“They used millions of their ships to search for us. If we can leave, then they may be forced to use a similar number to find us. It would reduce the force they can send against the Realm. We once lived in ships and we can do it again; however, if we don’t leave, they will return and destroy our home worlds. We would be forced into ships again; we might as well accept the inevitable and hope our home planets are not destroyed before we find a solution to them.”
“Where will we go?”
“I seem to remember a certain dark galaxy that everyone used to avoid. We’ll go there and start working on this problem. I also hope we can find a way to escape them permanently. Have you talked with Sprig about his findings?”
“Yes, and they are troubling.”
“Do you agree with them?”
“I don’t want to believe them, but I know he’s right.”
“That makes this search even more important. Make sure you assign our best to the task.”
“I will. Do you think we can find it?”
“We won’t know until we try. It looks like we are becoming nomads again.”
Newton turned his head upside down and asked, “Have
you discussed this with the Queen?”
“Yes, but only the part about leaving. She thinks it is a good delaying tactic. She is of the opinion that if a large number of our old ships are no longer at the old universal jump point they may think we are going to attack them again. It would again be a delaying tactic so they would not use as many of their ships to invade. They do appear to be paranoid about us.”
“We did destroy more than a hundred thousand of their planets in our first invasion.”
“True, but then they developed that thought weapon and ended our invasion. I really don’t know what our leaving will accomplish, but to stay is disaster. It also gives us the opportunity to search for the item Sprig needs. I’ve discussed this with Destiny and the Nest Mother and met initial resistance, but I left them alone and they eventually came to my point of view. They really love the Realm’s Leaders.”
“We all do. When do we leave, Edison?”
“We don’t Newton. We are staying to help our friends in the coming war. Einstein is also staying; I couldn’t convince him to leave if we weren’t going.”
Newton turned his head left smiling, “I was wondering how I was going to jump ship before you left.”
Edison smiled and put a front leg on Newton, “Don’t get too excited; we’re going to have armor designed for us that is coated with the thought-blocking substance. Not only is our family going back into ships, we’re also going back into armor.”
Newton shook his head, “That stuff always made me itch.”
“Tell me about it.”
Jake sat in the map room at Castle Gardner staring at the millions of galaxies on the wall. Robby sat across the table from him, leaning back in a chair looking at the map together. Jake knew his subconscious was not happy with the direction in which he was moving. Robby was not happy either. Jake knew in his heart that killing on the scale needed to protect the Realm was not something he felt good about. Gambia had made him tough, but it also taught him to love those around him who would have been ignored by most people. He learned to survive, but he never failed to help those in need whenever he could. This decision was deeply troubling. He looked over at Robby and asked, “Do you see another way?”
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