Annihilation - Finding Keepers (Annihilation Series (Book Seven}) (41 page)

“There is always a choice.”

“Not in this instance, Junior. The Realm has two issues confronting it, and one of them is the Keepers. Have you discovered a weapon to kill their ships?”

“No, Jake.”

“Then it boils down to this; which gets more attention: a blaster being fired at you from ten feet, or a missile coming at you from a distance?”

“Well, if you’re going to die anyway….. I guess the blaster. One never really knows what will happen if one is given more time.”

“That’s how I see it.”

“I notice you didn’t say anything to the Realm’s leadership.”

“The real leaders aren’t here.”

“You make a good point.”

“You know what your parents will say about this?”

“I’ve already turned down my hearing.”

Jake looked at his communications log and noticed it was full. He reached over and turned it off. “Junior, I need to be able to trust you to follow my plan.”

“What is the difference between the two?”

“The end result will probably be the same, but the route will be considerably different.”

The bridge was silent for ten minutes. Finally, Junior said, “I told you that I’m your ship. I won’t hide anything from you again.”

“That’s all I ask. Now, are you ready to meet history?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Nope.”

“Then let’s make it happen.”

“Before we do, I don’t want to discuss the issues with them until the problem of the Keepers is resolved.”

“Mum’s the word.”

“That includes your parents.”

“They wouldn’t listen anyway. I’m still their little child.”

“OK; call them.”

“What?”

“You are the link to the Gardners. You always have been.”

“What are you talking about? How am I going to call them? I’ve tried to contact my parents so many times I’ve lost count.”

“Junior, do you have a distress beacon?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Who put that in you?”

“I was born with it.”

“Your parents would never agree to leave without making sure you were safe in their absence. A mother can sleep while a scheduled train roars by her house each night, shaking the building. A huge hauler can fly overhead and she’ll remain asleep. However, let her new born child whimper in the next room and she is immediately up and checking on it. You activate your distress call and your parents will arrive faster than you can imagine. If they are with the Gardners, and I really think they are, then the entire group will come with them.”

“My distress beacon will only work in this universe.”

“That’s why they are here. I might be wrong, but I doubt it.”

Junior considered what Jake was saying and decided, “We need to move to a more secure location.”

“Pick one.”

Junior jumped out into empty space between the galaxies. “Are you ready?’

“Give it a go.”

Junior activated his distress beacon.

A giant silver screen formed a hundred miles away and Jake and Junior saw the giant ship appear. The legendary Alexander Kosiev came out of the screen, followed by Aladdin and Fly Girl.

The Prime Director of the Keepers Fleets had passed frustration more than two weeks earlier. His fleets had chased the six planets from one end of this universe to another. Every time his fleets came close, the planets disappeared. This entire operation was a wasted effort.

“Enough!” he yelled.

The navigator looked up and wondered what he was going to do.

“It appears the inhabited planets are capable of escaping. If we can’t destroy them then we need to start our efforts elsewhere.”

“What do you mean?”

“There are millions of planets without intelligence that can be used for them to flee. We’ll destroy those and hope our scientists can find a way around this technology. Divide the fleet into twenty four units with a hundred thousand ships each. Find planets that are habitable and destroy them.”

The Fleet Directors reorganized their fleets and selected their new targets. The huge fleet disappeared.

Jaxl followed one of the fleets and watched as it jumped in close to a blue and green planet. Twelve hours later the planet was an airless burning ball. “Fleet Command, the Keepers are now destroying uninhabited planets.”

“Maintain station, Searcher. We knew it was coming.”

“Science, have you found a way around that frequency?”

“Not yet. However, we are going to attempt a new way to attack.”

“How?”

“We know that our non-space jump systems are blocked by the frequency. We are going to see if we can jump ships in close to one of their planets using the universal drives.”

“Will it work?”

“We’ll only know that after we attempt it. We are using a hundred thousand ships in the initial effort, and upon emergence they will immediately enter the planet’s atmosphere. We hope that if they move the planet, our ships will go with it.”

“Keep me informed.”

“Valerie?”

“Yes, Jake?”

I’m sending you Junior’s coordinates. I think you should be here to welcome our guests.”

“Really?!?!?!?”

“Yes, really. They’ll be here momentarily.”

Valerie appeared on Junior’s bridge, saw on the main screen the giant white ship approaching, and immediately recognized it. The Kosiev had its screens extended at full power and she could see all the weapons ports were energized and active. Two small ancient Searcher ships were also approaching at high speed, and they were also ready for combat.

“Junior, are you all right?”

“Yes, Mom, I’m fine.”

“Then why the distress beacon? I told you to never use it except in an emergency.”

“Father, you never told me I had a distress beacon.”

“I didn’t?”

“No, you did not.”

“Fly Girl, I could have sworn I gave him the speech about using the distress beacon.”

“Al, you missed giving him a lot of speeches.”

“Mom, Dad; I’ve missed you so much.”

‘How long have we been gone?”

“More than thirteen thousand years.”

Suddenly Jake and Valerie hear a thought, “How long did you say?”

Jake answered, “The Alexander Kosiev and the Gardner Family have been missing for more than thirteen thousand years. It is my guess that you decided to go because of the current situation the Realm is now facing.”

“Is the Realm at war?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Has Ulmerton been destroyed?”

“Just as you envisioned.”

“Will you join us on the Kosiev?”

“Give me the coordinates. I will be bringing the current Queen of the Realm with me.”

“By all means; we look forward to meeting her.”

Jake looked at Valerie, “Are you ready?”

“I’ve so looked forward to this moment, Jake, but we need to take one more person with us.”

Jake smiled and shrugged. Valerie hit her com, “Joe, please teleport to the coordinates I just sent you.”

“I was so hoping you wouldn’t forget me.”

Joe appeared on the bridge next to Valerie and stared wide-eyed at the main display.

Junior, if you’ll do the honors.”

Jake, Valerie, and Joe disappeared.

“What’s going on, Junior?”

“First things first, Dad. I need to get the two of you modernized. Sprig, is everything ready?”

“Yes, bring them in.”

“Sprig, you old wildflower. Is it really you?”

Sprig laughed, “Yes it is, Al. We need to update your armaments and control systems. Plan to be here about five days.”

The three small ships teleported away.

Joe, Valerie, and Jake arrived on a large bridge that dwarfed every ship they had ever boarded. Waiting for them were six people that came forward and offered hugs and handshakes. Joe recognized them. The muscular, short haired man had to be
Thomas Gardner, and the pretty blonde next to him had to be Danielle. A young man with blue eyes approached and shook his hand, “Hello, I’m Tommy Gardner and this is my wife Cassandra.”

Jake smiled and said, “Hi, I’m so pleased to meet you. I’m Jake Talant and this is my fiancée Valerie Gardner, the current Queen of the Stars Realm.”

The couple immediately smiled and bowed to Valerie.

“No! No! Please stand up! It is I that should be bowing to you.”

The other four Gardners came forward and introduced themselves, and Jake got his first look at Matthew and Melanie Gardner. He could see the resemblance between Cassandra and Matt. Their hair color was quite distinctive. Melanie was quite pretty.

He looked around and asked, “Aren’t some of you missing?”

The group looked at Jake and he continued, “Are Rose and Anglo here?”

Tag looked around and said, “Rose and Chris, as well as Anglo and Jenny, decided to live a normal life span after their thousand year rule ended. They moved out into the Realm and had their families.”

Jake noticed Danielle appeared sad. “I miss them.”

Tag said, “Why don’t we go to the conference room and sit down. I’m sure we all have questions we’d like to ask.”

Valerie said, “Lead the way. You have no idea how much I’ve anticipated this day.”

Danielle smiled and led the Gardners through a passageway that entered a long hallway. As they walked to the conference room, Jake whispered to Valerie, “I want you to be the spokesperson and allow me to be just an observer. Will you do that for me?”

Valerie looked at him with a huge smile and nodded. She was caught up in the moment.

Jake knew that two of the most powerful truth detectors were going to be in the room and he didn’t want to give too much away. He focused and felt his psychic power build.

After a hundred yards the group turned right into a spacious conference room. The Gardners took chairs and the three visitors sat across from them.

Tag looked around and said, “Why don’t we start, and then we’ll answer your questions.”

Valerie said, “That would be fine.”

“Tell me about the war the Realm is having currently.”

Valerie started telling them about the five years before she met Jake and how her sense of danger started increasing until she had a vision of what was coming. She told them about her search to find Jake, and then all the things that had happened since. Jake and Joe sat and listened. Joe would occasionally add a few details. Jake said nothing. He noticed that Danielle and Melanie would occasionally look at him, then look at each other. Jake knew they were taking a reading, but he was not giving them anything to read. He turned his attention back to Valerie.

The conference room door opened and Jake looked to see who was entering. A beautiful young woman stepped in and said, “I’m sorry I’m late.”

Joe stood up from his chair and stared at the vision entering the room. Melanie turned and said, “That’s ok, honey. Everyone, this is my daughter, AG.”

The young woman stepped forward, shook Jake’s hand, and hugged Valerie. She did not come around to Joe, but instead went to the other side of the table.

Joe was crushed. He could not take his eyes off AG. He tried, but just couldn’t do it. He wondered what was happening.

Jake watched AG take her seat and was worried. This young woman’s psychic power was equal or possibly even greater than his. Fortunately, she seemed to be watching Joe very carefully. Jake thought Matt had the highest psychic power of all the Gardners, but he sensed that this young woman was another order of magnitude stronger than her father.

Valerie finally finished bringing them up to date with the plan to move all the enslaved populations to the Algeans’ galaxy.

Tag looked around the table and said to Jake, “So you’re the super psychic of this time.”

Jake smiled, “It appears I am. Sometimes I wonder about that.”

Jake saw Danielle smile and nod to Melanie.

“What have you planned to do about removing the invaders?”

Jake tilted his head and said, “I was thinking you were going to help us with that issue. I was hoping you would have a weapon that would penetrate the hulls of their ships.”

Tag sighed and said, “We don’t have one now.”

Jake saw Valerie’s disappointment, but then Tag said something that shocked him.

“However, we think we know where to get one.”