Annihilation - Finding Keepers (Annihilation Series (Book Seven}) (12 page)

Kathea said, “Really?”

“Yes, really. He also said that if I could touch every female in our colony it would bring good luck to the colony. I didn’t believe him, but after I moved here I remembered what he said and I thought it wouldn’t do any harm to try.”

Kathea smiled, “Well, I can tell you that you brought me good luck today.”

Jake gave a start, and noticed it was time to get in line so he helped Kathea up and started moving toward the serving line, “Why do you say that?”

Kathea pulled a string out from her dress and showed Jake a small metal ring on it. “The string broke and I lost my ring out in the field twenty rotations ago. Today I was digging, and there it was! Your Father was right, Jake.”

Jake shook his head and said, “I don’t know about that, Kathea. I was just doing it on a whim.”

Kathea smiled, then reached up and kissed him on the cheek, “Well I believe it, Jake; thank you for touching me. This ring is the only thing remaining from my ancestors since the time of the Seniors. It is the most precious thing I own.”

Jake smiled and went through the line and filled up his plate. Kathea went back across to where she was sitting previously. Jake noticed her talking to some women around her and pointing toward Jake. “Oh boy! What have I done?” Jake sat and ate his meal. Then he took his plate, put it in the tub, washed it, and stacked it in the wooden cabinet built for their storage.

He sat back down. One of the older males stood and said loudly to the gathered community, “We once lived in paradise. There was delicious food for all, everyone lived long, long lives, everyone loved each other, and there were magic machines that did everything needed. We flew with the angels and talked to the Seniors. There was freedom and joy for every person. Some day the Seniors are coming again, and we must remember them until they arrive. We must never allow our children to forget who we are. Always tell the story at this time every day.”

The crowd stood and said, “Glory to the Seniors,” and began moving toward their homes.

“Seniors? I wonder what that is.” He was exhausted. He waved to Kathea and started back to his residence. He looked next to the bed against the wall and saw a small piece of paper. He unfolded it and read, “There have been six births. Expect a visit soon.” He tore the note up and buried the pieces in a flowerpot on his porch. He was worried about the creatures coming, but was too tired to fight his fatigue. He fell asleep instantly.

Cynthia sat and watched her display as Junior sent his scans. “He’s not making much progress, is he?”

“I don’t know, Cynthia. He actually touched more than two hundred today.”

“I know, but at that rate it’s going to take three years to touch them all.”

“Probabilities are he won’t have to touch them all.”

“We can only hope. What have you discovered about that structure the creatures built?”

“It extends out from the building more than ten miles underground. I can’t determine how deep it goes without an active scan. I estimate there are thousands of the creatures living there.”

Cynthia shook her head, “The brutality of these creatures is shocking. Those colonists are nothing more than intelligent livestock.”

Junior gave an audible sigh, “The sheer scope of their farming is staggering. Unlike normal farming where livestock must be looked after and cared for; these creatures can ignore the colonists and just harvest at their leisure. Edison was right; these creatures are much more efficient than the Spiders.”

“I’m growing to hate these creatures.”

“It’s easy to do, Cynthia.”

J
ake heard the bell at day break and he turned over and saw light coming through his window. He had overslept again and missed the morning meal. He got dressed and stepped out of his door to find a plate of food on his porch. Had to be Kathea; no one else had spoken to him. He looked around and saw mass movement toward the fields. He quickly ate the meal and grabbed his tools. He stopped at the well and saw Miley passing out the jugs. “Need some help?”

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 females 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.”