by Saxon Andrew
Death of an Empire
( Ashes of the Realm - 3 )
Saxon Andrew
Saxon Andrew
Death of an Empire
Introduction
Captain Maran looked at his Sensor Officer and frowned, “Have you detected a Black Ship?”
“No, Sir. There doesn’t appear to be one within our scanning range.”
Maran keyed his com, “I think we’re going to have to move in toward the closest galaxy and see if we can attract one of their ships.”
Captain Jeck looked at his display and said, “We’re closer than eighty light years from that galaxy so we’re inside their sensor range at this moment. I’m nervous about attracting more than one ship. This is a trial and we really don’t know what to expect from our new hulls once they’re fired on by a Black Ship’s main beam. I’d suggest waiting to see if we’re discovered here. If we move closer we could attract more than one ship.”
Maran thought about it, “Alright, we’ll wait here three hours and if nothing happens we’ll move in closer. Make sure you keep your hull charged; we don’t have the warning we once had when they entered normal space.”
“Will do.”
Maran didn’t like holding his crew at battle stations for three hours but knew the time to respond to a Black Ship’s appearance was small. The two hundred crew members manning each ship were nervous about the coming engagement. The reflective hulls had been trialed against the Empire’s strongest lasers but not against a beam as powerful as the one fired by the Black Ships. The Criston was forty five hundred feet long and its entire hull was coated with reflective cells that could collect energy that struck it and focus it back against whoever fired. The beam operators checked their boards to make sure all systems were optimal. The Missile Crews were waiting for the order to launch once the force field around the Black Ship was penetrated. They hoped they would get a chance to fire the new missiles in their inventory.
Everyone watched their displays intently; waiting for what they knew was coming. The two bright ships hung in empty space with all shapes of the Galaxies floating in the deep black ocean of this universe they had jumped into. Some were spirals, others were ball shaped, and a few had highly irregular formations. One actually looked like a huge smile. They all possessed billions of stars and most of them had giant Black Ships in them attacking intelligent civilizations. It was just a matter of time until the Invaders found them.
Captain Jeck checked his panel and saw all stations were manned and ready. He had hoped only one Black Ship would show up but knew there would be a huge number following up the initial engagement. He looked at his jump board and saw it was enabled and ready for immediate activation. Once the two ships fired at the Black Ship, the plan was to escape and evaluate the results. His Sensor Officer shouted, “Black Ship off the port bow!”
The Black Ship suddenly appeared between the two ships and both ships waited for it to fire on them so they could reflect the energy back at it. Jeck saw Maran fire his beam to provoke a fight and then saw the Black Ship fire a single beam at Maran’s ship. The bright white ship grew even brighter and exploded in less than two seconds after the beam strike. Captain Jeck stood and yelled, “Get us out of here.” The Jump Officer reached for the teleport button but the Black Ship Fired again and Jeck’s ship blew up faster than Maran’s. The secondary explosions following the initial blast blew the ships into vapor and nothing was left of the four hundred sailors but two expanding clouds of small debris and dust.
The Ship Master watched the two ship’s destruction and shook his head. He was hoping for a fight and was disappointed at how quickly they had been destroyed. How could he keep his crew in fighting shape if he never had to fight? He should have just allowed another ship to handle this. It wasn’t worth his time. He contacted the Fleet Master and sent him a recording of the attack. The Fleet Master reviewed the recording and commed back, “It appears those ships no longer represent a danger to us.”
The Ship Master leaned back in his command chair and sniffed a pinch of orange powder, “You’re right; our new ships are more than their screens can handle. What are we going to do now?”
The Fleet Master thought about the question and made a decision, “I don’t see any reason to search for their origin now that we can kill them at will. We would be better served to continue our normal schedule and make up for lost production. I’ll contact the Masters and see if they agree.”
The Ship Master ended the call and replayed the engagement. He saw the two ships didn’t have force fields. That was odd. Oh well, back to the grind of guarding boring invasions. He really wished they had put up a better fight so he could be assigned guard duty away from the mind numbing orbiting of a planet. “Take us back.” The giant Black Ship disappeared. Three hours later the stealth probe powered up and jumped into deep space and returned to the Defense Facility.
Chapter One
“Alex, I’m worried about what’s going to happen when we start killing the orange pods.”
“I’ve thought about that myself, Grace. We’re not ready to take those creatures head on yet. They destroyed the last two ships we sent against them with just one beam. We’re just not ready.”
“That’s part of my concern, but what bothers me most is what the real power behind those ships is going to do if we’re successful.”
“What do you mean?”
“If this creature is also addicted to the orange drug, it’s going to react violently to anything that attacks its supply. I’m not certain that the Invader’s Ships are the best it’s capable of producing. We know it’s at least a billion years ahead of us technologically. I’m really concerned about what its response is going to be.”
“The Invaders have pretty much ignored us since they destroyed those two ships and have continued in their usual fashion. They invaded another universe and we’ve not been scouted in the last eight years.”
“I know, but Weed says they’re close to finding a solution to the pods. If we use it, we could be in danger. It might cause them to start scouting again.”
“We’re not far from developing the technology to take on their ships, Grace. We just need more time.”
“If we kill the pods, time is what we may not have. That Creator of the Invaders will respond. We need ships that can take them on now.”
“There are a few minor circuits that are giving us trouble. Once the industrialized planets build the necessary micro-circuit factories, we’ll make faster progress. Ten of them are close to getting their facilities on line. We already have more than a hundred thousand ships waiting on us to install advanced power technology once it’s developed.”
“Alex, I just don’t feel good about this.”
“I’m doing all I can, Grace.”
“I hope it’s enough.”
The Lab was spotless and the display on the front wall was flashing at an amazing speed. Carter watched the symbols flashing and couldn’t understand what they were indicating. The two Algeans stood next to him watching the flashes and swayed gently in the lab’s ventilation. After fifteen minutes the display stopped and a bright red zero appeared on the screen. Carter looked at the Algeans and pointed at the screen, “Does that mean anything?”
“As a matter of fact it does.”
“Uhh, what?”
“We have finally found a way to kill the orange plant, its pods, and its spores.”
“Really!!”
“It appears so; at least the batch in the containment dish is dead. We have to mass produce the spores that caused the plant’s death to make sure but it looks like they’re what we’ve been attempting to create.”
“It’s taken a long time to get this far.”
Weed leaned forward in agreement, “Eight years is actually shorter than what we thought it would take. This has not been easy.”
“How does it work?”
“The spores we made enter the orange plant’s DNA and inhibit two of its major functions.”
“What functions are those?”
“The ability to absorb nutrients or gases; the plant will starve or suffocate. The spores that kill it will reproduce from the plants tissues and release themselves by the billions into the atmosphere.”
Carter thought a moment, “Will these new spores be dangerous?”
Seed turned to Carter, “That’s what’s been the major delay in developing them. What happens when all the orange plants are dead? We didn’t want to create a spore that would then mutate to attack another host. This particular spore will only function with an orange plant as a host. If the orange plants are not available the spores will just become inactive. The new spore’s core DNA cannot be changed or modified. This should not only kill the orange plants but also the spores the plant had already released.”
“What about the possibility of the orange plant mutating to survive?”
“It can’t do it. Their structure is an artificial creation and the internal tissues are fixed and cannot adapt even to a different environment.”
“What will this spore you’ve created do to someone on the planet that’s addicted to the orange plants?”
Weed hesitated, “It will remove the plant from their tissues. Unfortunately, it will probably kill them in the process.”
“Why!?”
“Removing the plant does not remove the addiction to it. It will attack the skin that has the orange spores embedded and we expect the orange colored skin on any addicted being to flake off. While that process is taking place, the body will go into withdrawals and you’ve seen what the end result will look like once the tremors hit. You must understand that any captured populations that are now addicted are living a delayed death sentence anyway. There is no way to save them.”
“I thought those severe tremors were from the plant?”
“No, actually the body eventually gets to the point where it cannot absorb any more than a specified level of the toxin. However, the demand for it continues to rise and can’t be met by what’s available. The withdrawal tremors hit and the body dies horribly; an overdose of the drug also causes the same death.”
“Why aren’t the Invaders dying? It’s obvious by their skin color they’re addicted.”
Seed stared at the experiment’s results as she said, “Remember, the Invaders are using a product that is processed from the plant. The ones being forced to farm the pods are getting it raw. The processed drug is addictive but doesn’t prevent the body from continuing to process it at an infinite level. It’s the raw plants and spores that kill the planets it’s grown on. We do think that if the drug is removed from the Invader’s bodies, they will die as well. We just don’t see any way to wean the body from this powerful drug’s influence.”
“Where did you find the spore to kill it?”
Seed replied, “That’s the ironic thing about this. This spore was developed by the Alfont and used to kill our food source millions of years ago. We’ve modified it to target the orange plants and it’s quite virulent and almost impossible to stop. Once it’s introduced to a space faring species, its spread is almost guaranteed. My species died millions of years ago because of it.”
“Couldn’t they just quarantine a planet that’s been exposed to your spore?”
“If they knew it was there, it might be possible. However, the spores don’t start acting immediately. The initial spores will become active after we determine an appropriate delay to insure their spread. Right now they are designed for a thirty day delay. They will cling to clothing, space suits, the hulls of ships, and get into most ship’s environmental systems. They can survive temperature extremes up to and including the vacuum of space and still be viable. All it takes is for one ship to leave an infected planet and the spores are on their way to every stop it makes. Once it gets on a planet, it will infect any ship that lands. Of course we’ll help with the spread by dropping some of them on every planet the Invaders are currently farming. I’m certain that some of them will be on the packets of orange drug they’re processing and will be taken back to their distribution center before the spores activate and start infecting those exposed.”
“When are you planning to start this process?”
Weed thought a moment, “We want to trial it first in one of the universes the Invaders has already killed. We’ll drop the spores on several planets and see what happens.”
Carter looked up at the display and smiled, “I suspect whoever is running the show for the Invaders is going to be somewhat upset with our meddling; especially if we destroy their stockpiles of the drug.”
“That’s what we hope. We need to get them out in the open where we can see what we’re dealing with. Right now, they are unknown and we’re working in the dark.”
“Do you mind if Jenna and I go with you?”
“No, you should plan to leave in two days. The Invaders will be wrapping up their destruction of the universe they’re now farming and start moving to their next target within the next nine months. We need to hurry and perform the trial while we have a maximum number of planets to attack.”
“I’ll let Jenna know.”
Scotty looked at Julie and blew out the candles. He shook his head and wondered at how fast the years had flown. It seemed just yesterday he was ten years old on El Prado looking at stars. Now he was forty six and starting to feel it. Julie was still as beautiful as the day he first saw her and her smile still warmed his heart. He noticed that his white hair was starting to turn a slightly different color and he knew it would be noticeable before too much longer.
He looked and saw Grang and Geena with Maddy who was growing up to be a beautiful Cainth Female. Scotty smiled knowing that Maddy was Grang’s favorite. She was a commander of a twenty unit of Flyers and was moving up in the ranks quickly. Robby was growing up to be a tall young man and he was proud of the way he and Dani fit in with everyone. Their psychic abilities were amazing and really helped him make good decisions; they did an excellent job of not demonstrating them around the citizens of the Empire. Dani’s sense of impending danger was invaluable. They were married three years ago and anyone could see how happy they were together. Jenna and Carter were married six months later. They were a high powered couple as well and Carter never ceased to amaze him with his brilliance.
Michael and Carrie had just had a baby girl and, to June’s shock, had named her Maranda. Carrie explained that the real Maranda was one of the most beautiful people she knew. June finally knew she was forgiven and insisted on babysitting her at every possible moment. Even Samuel loved the little girl.
The forty six industrialized planets were making progress in the construction of ships but they were not able to stand up to the new ships the Invaders had brought in. Alex and the Zord were still working on a power system that would allow them to take one on but in the initial confrontation, the Invaders had destroyed two new ships with one beam into each of them. They still weren’t there yet.
Scotty heard laughter and didn’t even have to look to know that his daughter was the source. TK was seven and was psychic. Unlike her mother, she had blonde hair but her eyes were green like Julie’s. Scotty chuckled; I wonder where she got that hair. It would soon be time for her to choose a Zord and there were hundreds competing to be on the list for her selection. Once she decided, she and the Zord would go to have their armor installed.
The Flyers had all been fitted and were now an imposing force. They were responsible for the fast growth of the Empire. Scotty heard Julie shout, “Tommie Katherine, only one piece of cake.” Scotty heard TK laugh again and smiled; TK was always up to something.
The Empire had grown to more than a thousand planets but its future was going to be determined by the forty six indu
strialized worlds that had been moved close together to build the ships to fight the Orange Creatures. Twenty more planets had developed industry to the level where they were slated to be moved to the galaxy where the other industrialized planets were located within thirty days. The ship’s structure was there but the means to provide them enough energy to take on the Black Ships was still not developed. Scotty started greeting the guests and put his worries aside for the moment.
TK saw her Father start greeting guests and worried about him. The stress of ruling the Empire was showing and she knew her Mother was worried about his health. She continued to listen to Jingos as she glanced at the long line of attendees that were hoping to see the Emperor. She saw a couple at the back of the line with a young boy and a baby girl. Who were they? Oh yeah, Carrie and Michael Blake. Their planet was one that was to be moved in a few weeks. She stared at the young boy and saw him immediately look her way and smile.
“I’ve been wondering when you were going to notice me?”
TK’s mouth fell open.
“Yes, I’ve been listening to you all night.”
“You’re telepathic?”
“Of course; I started to beg off and not come but I wanted to see what my future bride looked like. I must say, I am impressed. You are absolutely beautiful. However, now we’ve started communicating, I suspect there will be compulsions to stop us. Do you feel them yet?”
TK did. That told her more than anything this boy just said that he was right about their future. TK smiled, “I’ve been wondering who I was going to be matched up with. You must be further along in your development than I am.”
“Maybe, however, I had to see you before the compulsions became too strong to overcome. Now that I have, I can wait until the right time. You’re really something.”
TK smiled as she stared at him, “You’re not so bad yourself. I’ll see you when the time is right. I’ll try to catch up before we meet again.”