Annihilation: The Power of a Queen

by Andrew, Saxon;Chiodo, Derek

  Atlas had seen thousands of worlds that were bare on his travel into this galaxy. He knew he shouldn’t be experiencing any emotion but something in him made him sick with revulsion. Tag had used a term called cancer and he had looked into the Humans mind to understand what he was referring to and he agreed; this was a cancer and it was growing. He had to do something but he didn’t want to disclose his presence. He had seen enough of the savagery at the planet so he decided to take a chance. He jumped out to the fleeing civilian ships and extended his jump field to enclose all three hundred of them. He then jumped to another galaxy away from the one the Humans occupied on the possible chance that that the line of his jump could be traced. He then jumped to another Galaxy and then a third with the escaping ships still safely enclosed in his screen. He waited for forty minutes to see if the Plants had followed and then he jumped to the planet that the humans called Ross and dropped out of null space. He then found the leader of the civilian ships and contacted him on his communications board and explained that he had intervened to save them. He instructed them to land on the planet and to use the buildings that were undamaged on its surface to settle in. He promised that food would arrive shortly and that they would be contacted by a race that would help them. The shock of the interstellar jumps that had happened along with their miraculous escape left most of them in a state of semi-shock. The leader began questioning him but Atlas told him to wait and all his questions would be answered; then he jumped to the battle that had just ended in the Central Alliance system.

  Tag had just finished his talk with Sten when Atlas said, “Tag, will you do something for me?”

  Tag was startled but thought, “Sure, what do you want?”

  Atlas quickly explained that he had saved some people from the plant race and had taken them to the planet called Ross. “Will you go there and help them?”

  “Admiral,” Tag said, “I need you to change the jump coordinates to Ross. We need to go directly there.”

  Kosiev looked at his communication officer and said, “Pass the order to the other ships that we will be jumping to Ross. We will be jumping in 30 seconds.” The Human battleships disappeared from the Alliance system and reappeared just outside the orbit of Ross.

  “Where did those ships come from?” Kosiev asked Tag as he watched the shuttles leaving transports and landing on the planet’s surface.

  “I’m not sure. I’m taking a shuttle down to the surface to see what’s going on. Standby and I’ll let you know.” Kosiev looked at him with an expression that Tag had come to know well, “Don’t worry, I’ll be safe.” Then Tag left to board a shuttle. “Atlas, these people aren’t members of the Alliance, how do I communicate with them?”

  “Their leader is on the ground at the town of Ross. Just touch him and I’ll put a link in him so you can communicate thru your thoughts.”

  Tag landed and all the new inhabitants ran from his ship. They were humanoid in appearance but were dark brown in color and had six fingers on each hand with two opposable thumbs on each hand. Their arms were shorter than Humans but had elbows that appeared to be able to rotate 360 degrees. Their black hair was sparse but covered most of their body. The head was large with a brow that had a ridge of raised skin that ran from their eyes to their ears which were small almost bat like. There was obvious intelligence in their face and one of them began walking toward his ship. Tag stepped out and waited for the Alien to come to him. The Alien said something that was completely unintelligible and Tag held out his hand. The Alien looked at him and then took Tags hand in his own. Tag could feel the small shock that went into the alien and watched him give a sudden start. “I think you can understand me now,” Tag said.

  The alien again gave a start and said, “What did you just do?”

  “I placed a link in you so we could communicate. I’ve been told that you are survivors of an attack on your world.”

  The alien looked at Tag with an expression even Tag could understand, “My world is being eaten alive. Everything is being consumed. They totally destroyed our fleet, blew up our largest cities, and then landed and began eating my people. We had defeated their first attack but the second one overwhelmed us. Thousands and thousands of ships attacked us.”

  Tag could see in the aliens mind what had happened. He was sick with revulsion and felt a deep sorrow for the alien’s loss. “One of my friends saved your ships and brought you here. This will be your new home and we offer this world to you to settle along with any of our colonists that might return later. Now is not the time to talk about what happened here but later if you don’t mind, I would like you to tell my leaders what happened at your world. Get your people settled and in the mean time, I am going to order some food transports to come and give you enough to survive until you can start your own agriculture.”

  The alien looked at Tag and said, “My name is Klas and my people are called Pydres. Thank you for your help. I’ll discuss what happened after my people overcome their shock and grief.”

  “I’ll be back later.” Tag then offered his hand again and the Alien took it and Tag shook it. “This is our way of greeting each other.” With that Klas shook it firmly.

  Chapter 18

  Three months had passed since the battle at the Alliance Central World and State Leader Sten had seen remarkable change among the members. The members that had quarrels were brought in and put in a room to resolve their differences and they were not allowed to leave until they were. Headman Dgzh was the mediator of these meetings and Sten often felt sorry for his assistant and friend but progress was being made. Even the Vgrig were changing their warlike ways after the Subleader became a hero of the Alliance and Supreme commander of all Alliance space forces. The first action he took was to take the fleet to his home planet and make the leaders come to terms with what would be accepted in the future. It’s hard to argue with 8,000 warships above your planet. But something was lacking. Sten just couldn’t find what it was that would make them a real Alliance. So he called Tgon-Gee and asked for advice.

  Tgon-Gee told Sten, “Your members don’t share a common vision. You have 800 members and they all have their own vision of the universe with them controlling it. Until they share a common vision, you’ll always have conflict.”

  “How did you and the Cainth unite with a common vision?” Sten asked.

  “That was the easy part. We listened to our Queen. She united us,” Tgon-Gee said. “We would gladly give our lives for each other now.”

  “Do you think she might speak to our members?”

  Tgon-Gee looked at Sten and said, “I’ll ask her.”

  Seven rotations later Sten received a com from Tgon-Gee. “State Leader, Queen Danielle has agreed to speak to your members. How do you want to arrange it?”

  “We will call a gathering of all representatives of the members and have her address the Assembly here at our Central Government Planet. When can she come?”

  “Ten rotations from today and we will be bringing our fleet with her to insure her safety.”

  “I’ll announce the meeting immediately. See you in ten rotations.”

  Sten sent the order for all representatives of the Alliance Worlds to come to the General Assembly at Alliance Central in nine rotations and announced that on the tenth rotation the new Queen of the Glod, Cainth, and Human Races would address the assembly. One would have thought that a bomb had been dropped on every planet in the Alliance. There was almost civil war on a large number of the planets as to who would attend the assembly. Sten was inundated with requests to attend. The rumors about the new queen were rampant and had circulated among the membership until everyone wanted to see this new queen that had united such diverse races. It was getting out of hand. Finally Sten announced that the meeting would be broadcast to all worlds and that she would address the assembly in the outdoor arena that would hold 300,000. The reservations were gone in less than a drag. Sten looked at Dgzh who was sitting in his office and said, “I’ve been trying to find someth
ing that would unite us and the only thing so far has been the arrival of this queen. What’s wrong with this picture?” he asked.

  “You haven’t met her and besides after the Humans defeated the Hargon fleet all of our members developed a huge curiosity about them. You would be surprised at how little is known about these Humans. The members also can’t understand how the Humans allowed the Cainth to become their brothers after trying for so many cycles to destroy them. That doesn’t even approach their amazement at the change that has taken place in the Glod. Did you know that the Glod actually offered to leave their ships behind to protect their former enemies from attack and asked for nothing in return for doing it? The stories about these Humans have given them a super race mystique that has fascinated all of us. The members were stunned that they just left and didn’t conquer us all.”

  “So am I,” said Sten.

  “You haven’t talked with their queen,” Dgzh responded.

  “No I haven’t. Maybe it’s about time I did.”

  Nine rotations later Sten was in front of the chosen representatives of the members and was trying to bring order out of the chaos. The races were loud and the accusations that were thrown at each other were being roared. Suddenly, Tgon-Gee walked up to the speaker’s platform and looked out at the assembly without saying a word. Some of the members noticed him and started pointing; soon everyone was looking at the platform and the noise lessened until finally silence prevailed. The seven foot tall Glod made an imposing figure next to the four foot tall Sten. After the crowd grew quiet he turned to Sten and said, “State Leader, may I have permission to address the Assembly for a moment.” The members were amazed at the deference being shown to the Small Adjemt.

  “Yes, Tgon-Gee, you may.” Sten walked back to his chair and sat down.

  Tgon-Gee looked out at the assembly and said, “You show a remarkable lack of respect to the leader that saved your worlds from destruction. If not for Sten, you would not be here today. I don’t think you fully understand his contribution and bravery in standing up and making sure of your survival. However, I’m not here to teach you respect, I’m here to tell you how and why we chose our Queen.” The entire room leaned forward to make sure they heard every word. Then Tgon-Gee told them about how the royal families and rulers were selected on Glod and the role of the fifty peers. Then he said, “I know some of you are skeptical about psychic abilities but our race can see the aura around a person that possesses the ability. Some have a very light aura almost white and are unaware of their talent. Some have a blue aura and know they possess psychic abilities. I don’t ask you to believe me on this issue but my race has recognized the meaning of these auras for thousands of years. The strongest aura among our peers is a medium blue. He is without question our strongest psychic. When I first saw our new queen, the first thing I saw was that her aura was deep purple almost violet. It is the strongest aura ever seen by my race. We know what her aura means; she can find truth in any situation and if we would but follow her then my race will enter a golden age. The peers were unanimous in their desire to make her our ruler and I pressured her to become our queen. She reluctantly accepted. Incidentally, it was she that saved the Cainth from destruction by the Humans and found a common ground where they could exist as allies instead of enemies. I tell you this today because I want you to understand that she will not tell a falsehood to you tomorrow and sometimes the truth hurts to hear. If you can’t bear to hear the truth, don’t listen to her. I also want to make sure that everyone knows that three fleets will be escorting her here. You’ve seen the Humans, but the Glod and the Cainth will protect their selected ruler.” Tgon-Gee looked out at the assembly and everyone in the room knew what he was leaving unsaid. Contrary to what he thought, it only made the assembly more excited about the next day’s event. They had already built her up in their imagination; this only made her larger than they already thought she was.

  Sten looked out at the Assembly and could see the excitement. He knew nothing was going to get done so he said, “We will close this meeting today. We will meet again to chart the future course of our Alliance the rotation after tomorrow. This meeting is ended.”

  The crowd at the arena was standing room only. It was designed for 300,000 but 420,000 had squeezed in. There was an additional 500,000 standing outside the stadium hoping to simply see the Human Queen so that one day they could tell their children about their good fortune. The event was scheduled at mid day but the crowd had started arriving four rotations early. No one knew what she looked like, only that her name was Danielle. Finally the crowd saw an earth warship come and hover over the stadium. It was brilliant white in the bright sunlight and its smooth lines declared deadly beauty. A large shuttle left the ships side and dropped toward the Center of the arena. Suddenly the ship stopped and flew to the outside of the stadium and landed in an area that the Alliance troops cleared for the landing. The door opened in the side of the shuttle and an honor guard of 140 Glod in full ceremonial dress including their swords marched out and formed two lines. Richard Wiseman marched 80 of the veterans from the battle at Rossville to form up outside the Glod. They had their full space armor on and their screens were active. After the Humans had formed on the Glod lines, 140 Cainth Warriors marched out holding the 4 short swords in their hands and formed a point in front of the formation. Once they were in place Danielle walked out of the ship and stepped into the center of their formation. She wore a bright green one piece outfit that was form fitting. Her blond hair looked like it was pure light in the bright sun. She smiled at the crowds and waved to the people around her. The crowd went crazy. She was small for a Human. They wondered who the Human male was walking at her side as she turned toward the stadium. As she moved thru the mass of races that had gathered at the arena, everyone started pointing at her and it seemed everyone had a recorder to get a picture of her. She continued to smile and wave as she entered the arena and climbed to the platform where Sten waited for her. As she moved closer, Sten noticed how relaxed and at ease she was. Then he recognized the Human Male walking beside her; it was the Human that had been on his display during the battle with the Hargon fleet. The Human Queen arrived at the top of the platform and Sten said over the public communicator, “All the various races and worlds of the Alliance would like to welcome you and thank you for coming to address us. We all have a lot of questions and hope that you can help us understand some of the events that brought you to your current position. Members of the Alliance, I give you Queen Danielle.” The roar from the Arena could be heard more than twenty trigs away and continued for 10 dregs.

  Danielle stood there and listened to the cheering and thought, “I’ve come a long way from that medical floater.” It seemed like a lifetime ago but here she was. She had not planned what she was going to say. She just didn’t know what needed to be said to these people. As the cheering continued she looked at Tag and saw his pride of her. She saw Terl and Tgon-Gee looking out at the crowd fearful for her safety. She could have told them they had nothing to fear. Tag would sense it long before they could and Tag was at peace. Then it came to her what she had to say.

  “Thank you for your welcome,” she said into the communicator. She waited a moment as the crowd grew silent not wanting to miss her words. “I’m sorry about the delay but I was informed that the citizens standing outside the arena have been there hoping to see me and I didn’t want to disappoint them.” There was a huge roar from the crowd outside the arena and then they quieted down and watched the huge monitors to hear her words. Danielle looked out at the crowd and said, “I’m quite amazed at the number of you that have come to hear me. To be quite honest, I don’t fully understand why the Glod and Cainth wanted me but I’m proud to serve them. I want you to understand that they call me their ruler but in my mind, I am their servant. They have asked me to show them the path to a golden age of peace and prosperity. What they have failed to realize is that they already had all they needed to achieve that age within them. All they h
ad to do was to fully understand that before anyone can find the best that is in them they must first find the best that is in others. Too often we look at other races suspiciously thinking that we have to watch out for ourselves. Nothing is further from the truth. If you look out for the others around you, they will look out for you. My race has a long history of wars that eventually killed 80 percent of all the Humans on my world. We learned from that experience the evil that we are capable of inflicting upon our fellow Humans. It took more than 900 years to recover from the last of those wars and we would still be at peace today but we came into contact with the Alliance. We have been nearly annihilated so many times now that I’ve no longer bothered counting. My brothers of the Cainth Empire were afraid of us even though they didn’t know us. The atmosphere of fear has been a common meal for most worlds in the Alliance and the usual first thought is kill or be killed. So we relearned how to defend ourselves and fortunately for us, we learned quickly; but we did not forget the lessons learned from the wars where we killed each other. Eventually we were face to face with the Cainth Empire with the opportunity to eliminate the source of so much death for Humans. At that moment it could have gone one of two ways, total destruction of the Cainth Empire, or,” Danielle paused at this point and looked over the crowd and everyone there thought she was looking at them individually. Then she continued, “we could try to understand why they feared us. My belief is that life is precious. Every one of us can make a big difference in making our universe a better place to live and raise our families. It cannot happen in a spirit of vengeance. The Cainth killed Human colonists on one of our worlds during their invasion. However, I believe that every one of those colonists would have gladly given their lives to bring peace between our races. I know I would. At the critical moment we simply asked the Cainth, “What do we do now?” And then we listened to them and tried to understand them in their terms. We found common ground and now I know both our races would die to protect the other. I look out at all of you and I see what you could become and how great you could be. I wish you could see the vision where all eight hundred and twenty races would give their lives to protect the others. The knowledge that others value you as much or more than you do yourself is a very liberating experience. The urge to attack each other, take advantage of each other, or exploit each other only makes you smaller than you are. The vision I see for you is something that I would be willing to die for to bring into existence. What greater purpose could there possibly be for anyone except to make the future safe and secure for their children. My people and I agree that all of you are precious and we will do all we can to prevent any harm to you and help you where we can without interfering with your lives. We chose our destiny together. I am here today to simply ask you, what is the destiny you are going to choose?” She then stepped back from the communicator and turned to walk out of the stadium.