Ashes of the Realm - Death of an Empire (Ashes of the Realm (Book Three)) (12 page)

Timmy reflected a moment and said, “There could be some very advanced civilizations in those universes if they’ve never been attacked. They could also represent a danger to us.”

“Which is something we need to know, Your Majesty; if there is a danger we should go and take a look. The Flyers could use the experience in dealing with them and we could possibly learn some things to help us in our current situation.”

“Have you checked with Trey to see if he feels any danger following this path?”

“I have and he says, and I quote, “The danger level actually goes down.”“

Timmy looked at Virze and she shrugged. He looked at TK, “Has the leadership of the Flyers been established?”

“Yes, we’ve broken down the flocks into units of a hundred in the basic formations. The Commanders of ten of these units have selected by Grang and Jingo who share the overall command.”

“And what is your role in this?”

“I command ten Commanders; Jingo and Grang also command ten.”

“Why didn’t Jingo or Grang come and make this request?”

“They are currently training the Flyers in multi-unit tactics.”

Virze smiled, “I suspect Trey is right in the middle of that training.”

TK smiled, “Actually, Trey developed the patterns for them to use. He’s also changed their weapon mix. He has become quite formidable in combat. Grang and Jingo have done an outstanding job in working with him.”

“I don’t want to lose him.”

“Your Majesty, you are going to have to allow him to follow his destiny as he sees it. He is already light years ahead of us in what he is able to anticipate and handle. His personal flock of protectors can defeat any other flock in the Flyers. He is going to be something to see as he grows up.”

“How many Protectors are in his unit?”

“Vring assigned him a hundred. Trey hand selected them and works with them every day he’s not being trained by his two adopted Fathers. Even our Searchers know they are more deadly than any ship they’ve ever faced. Truth be told, they can take a Zeta ship on and probably win.”

Timmy furrowed his brow and said, “What is he planning to do with his Protectors?”

TK smiled, “He told me that, as soon as they’re trained to the level he wants, he’s going to send each of them out to command a Hundred Unit and replace them and start training the new ones. Grang, Jingo, and I are fighting over who can have them.”

Timmy sat back and said, “You may start leaving to scout those universes.” Timmy leaned forward and looked TK in the eyes, “You will keep me informed of what you find.”

TK smiled, “I will, Your Majesty and we will be extremely cautious in making sure we are not found.” TK bowed and turned to leave.

Virze watched her leave the Throne Room and said, “Has she found anyone?”

“She hasn’t given any indication, yet.”

“We need her to marry and have a family.”

“I know, Love, but that’s not something we can control. If there’s someone, they’ll find each other, if they haven’t already.”

Virze smiled, “Samuel and June had to help us.”

Timmy slowly nodded, “I really miss them, Virze.”

“We all do. Everyone felt their loss deeply; Carrie and Ashley still cry.”

Timmy signed, “So many gone.”

Virze nodded as she reached over and took his hand, “We will pay them back for those that died.”

Timmy looked up at TK as she left the room and knew she was going to have a huge role in making that happen.

* * *

TK left New Hope and jumped to Criston on Malah. They removed their armor ten thousand feet above the forest and Malah caught the afternoon wind in her wings, “Trey, do you have a moment?”

Trey heard her thought and smiled, “Hello, Aunt Tommie, I’ll always have a moment for you. I’m at the weapons practice center.”

TK briefly turned on her armor and found the coordinates and Malah turned and dove for a clearing ten miles to the north. Trey had his armor active and saw the large Zord in the skies to the south. He looked at ten of his protectors that were using their armor’s beams to hit small plastic discs that were shooting across the clearing. They were only allowed to fire beams that were smaller than the high speed discs and he saw that they were making excellent progress with their accuracy. It was rare that one made it across the clearing. He turned off his armor and walked over to Malah as she landed, “Hello Aunt Tommie and Malah, It’s good to see you. What brings you to my neck of the woods?”

“I’m going to use my favored status with you to ask for some of your protectors.”

Trey smiled, “Now you know that my two Father’s would not appreciate me giving you preferential treatment.”

“I know, but I have a valid reason for my request that they can’t match.”

Trey tilted his head to the right and smiled, “What would that be?”

“My Division is the first to leave for another universe and I barely have enough time to get your protectors acclimated to their units.”

Trey’s expression turned serious, “When are you leaving?”

“The Scouts are jumping out in two weeks and the remainder of the Division two weeks later.”

“Why are you rushing this?”

TK looked at Trey and shook her head slightly, “I’m not sure, Trey; but I sense a need to do it quickly. I just get a feeling that…I don’t know; I can’t explain it.”

Trey thought about TK leaving with her Division and looked at the level of danger. He then thought about her delaying her departure and his sense of danger increased, “You’re right; something is going on in that universe that is important for our survival. You can take all but ten of them.”

“What do you sense?”

“There is something dangerous there. You need to be careful and make sure you’re not traced back here. How many Scout Units do you have?”

“Eighty at the moment.”

“Then take eighty of the Protectors and assign them to their commands today. I’ll keep twenty here to start training the next hundred on the list.” Trey paused, “Who is in overall command of your scouts?”

“I am.”

Trey shook his head, “That’s not going to work. You’re going to have to stay here to get the main body of flyers ready. It’s not good tactics to force your troops to have to contact you in another universe to get approval for their actions or questions answered. I have someone here that has been instrumental in training the Protectors and he will assume command of your scouts as an advisor. I know you’ll be pleasantly surprised at his abilities.”

TK thought about giving up command of her troops to a stranger but Trey had made some good points, “Who is he?”

Trey turned and said, “Here he comes now.”

TK turned and saw a handsome young man walking toward her. He smiled and she recognized him, “You’ve grown up.”

“It couldn’t be avoided; time has a way of doing that.”

Trey saw that the two knew each other, “This is…”

TK interrupted, “Paul Blake.”

Trey heard the way she said it and knew, “It appears your time has come.”

Paul never took his eyes off TK as he said, “Yes, it has.”

TK ran forward and wrapped her arms around Paul’s neck and an incredibly bright blue flash jumped out of them. Paul smiled, “I’ve looked forward to this day since your Father’s birthday.”

“I’ve forced myself to not even think about it.”

Paul looked at Trey, “Your sense is right. There is a species in that universe that must be slowed down in their conquests.”

Trey and TK looked at each other and Trey said, “Do you see them?”

“I do. You should also get either Grang’s or Jingo’s Division ready to follow up on the initial incursion.”

TK held Paul tight and said, “Perhaps you should be in overall command and I should go with the Scouts; I can see your abilities are more advanced than mine.”

Paul laughed, “Your Flyers love you. You would only hurt their moral to make that change. Think about it for a moment and you’ll see it.”

TK closed her eyes and after a moment opened them, “You’re right.”

Paul turned to Trey and said, “You need to get the Protectors that are being reassigned moving so they can get their units ready. We barely have enough time.”

“Barely enough time for what?”

Paul looked at TK and said, “Why, to have a wedding before we leave.”

TK’s smile was dazzling and Trey knew that his time was still several years away. He really envied them as he watched the two nineteen year olds walk away to be alone for the first time. He shook his head and sent a thought to Jingo and Grang, “Fathers, it looks like it’s back to war. Please plan to meet with TK in an hour.” He watched as TK put her arms around Paul’s waist as they walked away and he smiled, “Better make it five hours.”

* * *

Vring watched as another ship melted in the star’s outer corona, “This is not going to work. Weed leaned back and said, “It appears you’re probably right.”

Eight ships had been burned in the effort to develop a hull that could absorb the energy of a star before it would burn. All eight attempts were failures.

Kreej said, “Call Carter.”

Weed leaned back, “What is he going to be able to do that we haven’t?”

Kreej smiled, “Even the Spiders said the Humans were smarter than they were. There are different types of intelligence and Carter has it in abundance. Call him in; what could it hurt?”

Alex said, “I’ll make the call.”

Weed shrugged and felt it was a waste of time.

* * *

Four days later, Carter looked up from the down loads of the eight failures and smiled, “Well, you can’t say you haven’t tried to make this happen. I also agree with Vring that this is a step in the wrong direction.”

Alex waited a moment and said, “Why do you say that?”

“Because you throw away all the work you’ve done designing the reflective hulls. Those are still formidable weapon systems that can’t be used if you move in this direction. You’re also expecting a physical material to handle the atomic heat at the core of a star. I just don’t see that happening.”

The group was silent and Kreej said, “Thanks for your input, Carter.”

“I said it can’t be done using the current process; I didn’t say it couldn’t be done.”

Weed turned sharply and said, “What do you mean?”

“You’re trying to move energy into a container. It’s the highest level of energy in creation and if you’re going to do that you have to fight fire with fire. You’ve got to move it with energy not a physical substance.”

Seed interjected, “You have something in mind to make that happen. What do you see?”

Carter said, “Alex, when we teleport objects, where does the teleportation happen? Does it take place at the back of the teleport screen or at the surface?”

“I’m not really sure. Weed, your species developed this process. Do you have the answer to this question?”

Weed looked at Seed and they thought about the teleportation process. “We believe it happens at the surface. We can run some experiments to confirm it but why do you ask?”

“I looked at your earlier efforts to teleport energy into the ship’s hulls and noticed that energy was moved but the teleportation module melted quickly after the process started. That leads me to believe that a star’s energy can be moved; you just can’t do it with a physical module that would be exposed to the heat of a star.”

Vring listened and thought he understood Carter’s point, “So you’re saying we have to move it without using a machine to make the transfer?”

“Yes, and that can be done, I think.” Carter turned back to Weed, “How thick is the teleport screen?”

“About six inches thick.”

“And how thick is the Coronado Power Cells that make up the hulls of the new ships?”

Kreej yelled, “You’re absolutely right, Carter! We can do it.”

Weed, Seed, and Vring stared at Kreej as he excitedly continued, “We make the ships the teleportation module and move the energy directly into the hull.”

Carter smiled, “That’s the direction I would go. Extend a teleport screen one inch above the ship’s surface and teleport whatever hits it directly into the skin. If you can make that happen, the heat would not get through the field to burn the ship.” Carter paused and said, “And you could use the reflective surfaces on top of the normal black hole screens. They could be charged with the energy stored inside the skins and they should be able to handle the beams of any ship imaginable.”

Weed and Seed turned to each other and started thinking. Carter saw them not moving and asked, “What are they doing?”

Vring said, “They are processing the possible equations needed for your idea to happen. They could be unavailable for a while.”

“I thought Algeans thought at an incredible pace.”

“They do. Give them some time and we’ll see what they come up with when they finish.”

Alex said, “I’ve run some initial computations and they look good.”

Carter smiled and thought about Jenna and Cassie. Cassie was growing up fast and he already missed them. He wondered what Cassie’s role was going to be in the coming conflict. He knew she was psychic and she must have a role. He decided to go home after he left here to see them. But first, was this idea possible; he had to know. He looked out the viewport and saw the unblinking stars filling the view. There was still so much to do.

T
he Distributor heard the alarm and sat up from its couch. It silenced the Alarm and turned his boards to the scans of the eight universes that had been destroyed. He went through the summary and saw that no ships had entered any of the eight universes since their destruction. He turned the knob and viewed the data from the current universes being harvested and saw that the ships that had been attacking had not been seen.

It was glad that it had ordered all the starships that were not on the planets being attacked in those eight universes to be destroyed before the fleet left. Ummmm, it checked the inventory of the new Distribution Center and saw that after eighty turns they were not being affected by that dangerous spore. Now he could contact the Four Council Members and tell them that they were back to the level before the spore killed their supply. The position was still available on the Council after the Second Council Member was removed and he hoped they would choose him to be the replacement.