by Saxon Andrew
The Cat stood and said, “Thank you.” It immediately teleported out.
Jon said, “That was odd.”
Sam shrugged, “Not really.”
Thom frowned, “What do you mean?”
Sam sighed, “For the first time in more than a hundred years, four of us are able to hear the trace. The Cats had to wonder if that being has anything to do with it happening. If it did, it had to be close to the four of us hearing the trace.”
Jon tilted his head, “You’re right. What do you think it saw?”
“Nothing; if it detected anything we would be surrounded by the Zord and Cats to protect you, Your Majesty.”
Sam saw the Admiral shaking his head. “What?”
“My daughter is an idiot.”
Jon smiled, “That she is. She’ll come to her senses eventually.”
Sam looked at Dort and saw him mouth the letters, T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Sam laughed and Gon joined in. Thom looked at them and shook his head. He knew it wouldn’t matter. Sam was too smart to take her back. Or was he? Lyla was pretty persuasive when she put her mind to it.
The group finalized their plans and then ate the meal brought to them. Gregory came in and whispered in Jon’s ear. Jon looked around the table and said, “Sam, Robby, both of you should join me to view our citizens that have gathered.”
Sam said, “Give me a minute to change. Robby, my staff has a uniform for your position. Gregory will take you to be fitted.”
“Thanks, Sam. I don’t keep one with me.”
Sam looked at Gon and Dort and Gon said, “We’ll watch from the main wall.”
Sam nodded and went to change.
• • •
Gon, Dort, Jennifer, and Jixie were standing on the main castle wall looking down on the millions of people surrounding the castle. The crowd extended beyond the cleared land around the castle and well beyond the edge of the city as far as they could see. Jixie said, “Why are they here?”
Dort said, “To see the King and the two Dukes. This crowd is slightly bigger than the one that greeted Sam after initial training.”
Jixie looked at Dort, “Slightly bigger?”
“Sam rules this planet, Jixie. The people know that he has joined the warriors to defend the Realm. He’s laying his life on the line to defend them and they love him for it. They simply wanted the opportunity to see him so they can tell their children they saw the Duke if anything should ever happen to him. I was amazed when I saw it the first time and I’m still stunned at the magnitude of it.”
Jennifer said, “It is astounding.”
Gon said, “The people of Earth love Robby just as much, Jennifer.”
Jennifer turned and looked at Gon. “He’s the senior Royal behind his father on Earth. He is now in the Primary Succession behind Sam’s brother.”
Jennifer slowly shook her head, “He never gave a clue about his status in the Realm. This is something I never saw coming.”
Dort said, “Does it change anything?”
Jennifer sighed, “I don’t know.”
“You’ll do him a disservice to allow his title to scare you away. You should think about that. I can see he has feelings for you.”
“It’s just so overwhelming. I don’t know what to think.”
Gon said, “Don’t think…just remember who you got to know in training. He’s the same person. The title is only a part of who he is. Who will you find that’s better for you?”
Jennifer just turned and stared at the madly cheering crowds, “I just don’t know if I’m deserving of someone like him.”
Jixie said, “He probably feels the same way about you.” Jennifer looked at Jixie. “You really don’t know just how beautiful you are; both inside and out.”
Jixie knew the cat had left so she extended her mind and looked at the thoughts of the giant gathering. She extended her view and looked at Sam with Jon and Robby waving at the millions from the tallest spire. They were special. She discovered that she was with the very best beings this Realm possessed. She looked at the crowd again and decided that she would have to make sure Sam was also defended. She looked at Sam again and felt something. She didn’t know what it was but her heart was beating faster. She tried to slow it and it refused to do what she wanted. What was happening? She thought about how she could defend her friends and decided that a lot of her ability to do that was going to be determined by the things here armor was able to do. She was restricted to playing by the rules and that meant she had to use the toys of her chosen playmates. She knew that she’d have an answer to that tomorrow; that was when they were going to the armory. She noticed that when she had stopped looking at Sam and focused on her armor that her heart beat had slowed. Umm…that meant the increased rate had something to do with Sam. She focused on her downloads and finally decided that she just didn’t get it.
Sam stood on the Spire waving and saw the four at the lower castle wall. He saw Jixie and felt something tickle his memory. She reminded him of someone and he just couldn’t get it out of the back of his mind. He looked out at the crowds again and thought about her skill with the bow. He was still thinking about that when his brother left for Bristone.
• • •
The next day found the six standing in the Realm’s main armory. Sam looked at the group, “This is when we see if we are really going to be able to use the trace to select our weapons. Link now and start looking for the weapons that call to you.”
The four linked mentally and after a moment began moving around the Armory. Jennifer raised her head and appeared to be listening and then moved toward the far end of the vast room. Jixie activated her senses and saw an auto-cannon that stood out from the others near the ceiling in the center of the room. She also noticed five other auto-cannons that were glowing brighter than the others. She went to the rack with her choice on it and pressed the control unit on the pole next to the rack and lowered it to floor level. She climbed on top of the pallet and retrieved the cannon. She saw the others still moving slowly toward their weapon. She went to Dort and said, “Yours is in the rack on the back wall about halfway between the exterior walls.”
Dort stared at her and saw her nod. He moved toward the back wall and heard the melody increase in volume. He found his auto-cannon exactly where Jixie said it was. Sam had heard the conversations and stopped.
“Jixie, do you see where my cannon is located?”
“Yes, it’s…”
“Hold on a moment. Enter its location in your wrist unit and send it to Dort.”
Jixie entered the information and pushed a button.
“Now I’m going to find it on my own and Dort, come with me while I search.”
Jixie looked at Sam and said, “You’re wasting time.”
“Even so; I need to see.”
Jixie leaned against a rack and looked at her nails. Sam followed the melody and after five minutes found the auto-cannon that was sending the melody. Sam looked at Dort and said, “Where did she say it was located?”
“She didn’t.” Sam’s eyebrows narrowed and Dort said, “The serial number of the weapon she selected was 00800-673490-3210.”
Sam compared the serial numbers and they matched. He looked at Jixie and she said, “It would take too long to put in all the directions and time is not something we have to waste.”
“How can you do this, Jixie?”
“I don’t know. I just look at the room and saw six cannons glowing brighter than the others. They grew brighter whenever one of you came closer so it was easy to see which one was yours.”
Sam looked at the others and said, “Let’s go to the hand blasters and Jixie, you can tell us where they are and we should be able to confirm it when the melody increases in volume.”
“Lead the way, Sir.”
Twenty minutes later the six had selected all their weapons. Sam looked around and said, “We need to load some mini-penetrators into our armor. The sleds have been set up so they’ll feed quickly. I’ll go first and the rest o
f you can move around the armory and see if any other weapons call out to you.”
While the others roamed around the floor with the mini-penetrators, Jixie took the elevator to the next floor below them and looked at the heavy penetrators. These were the main weapons used against starships. Jixie looked around and went over to the massive stockpile and expanded her armor to thirty feet. She made sure she was in an electronic envelope that blocked recordings and stared at the huge missiles. They began flying off the racks and disappeared into her armor. She stayed at it for six minutes and then stopped the process. “That should do it.” She turned and walked over to the rack that held Main Beams and pulled six into her armor. She thought a moment and looked around the huge facility and saw there was nothing available to power the giant high powered lasers. The main battleships used three reactors to power one of them. She thought a moment and examined the storage area inside the skin of her armor that was used to power it. She made sure she wasn’t being watched and teleported to a star a hundred light years away. It was a lone star that had no planets and was by itself orbiting the center of the Milky Way. She moved into the outer Corona and absorbed the entire star in less than a second. It had to be done quickly to avoid damaging her armor’s surface. She teleported back to the Armory and went upstairs to load her mini-penetrators. She loaded forty thousand while the others were looking in other rooms in the armory.
Jixie looked at her armor and saw that it was going to be slow compared to her normal speed. She closed her eyes and followed the circuits connecting all the systems and removed the minute impurities from the connections. The speed of the pathways increased to another magnitude of efficiency. The connections were faster than a superconductor. She thought about it and she went into Jennifer’s armor and made the changes. She decided that if Jennifer’s armor was different, the others would be asking questions. She made the changes in the other four and went to look at the Algean Attack Craft’s force field that was housed in another section. It was the strongest of all the Realm’s ships. Umm…can I make the change?
Sam came over and Jixie sent one into Sam’s armor without him noticing and decided to work on it later. Sam said, “We need to go and see if we can find the warriors for our company. Admiral Gardner has assembled two divisions for us to review.”
• • •
The six Life Warriors stood on the reviewing stand on the training planet and saw the half million warriors standing in ranks on the giant field; these warriors were going to be sent to attack the Grogat planet. Sam looked at the others and said, “Link and let’s see what happens. We might find that everyone here hears the trace.”
The four linked and looked out at the huge gathering. Dort said, “Do you see anything happening?”
Sam looked at the assembled warriors and shook his head. He turned on the PA system and said, “Are any of you hearing anything different at this moment?”
No one moved or made a motion in the ranks before them. Sam looked at his mental brothers and wondered what to do. Gon said, “The Three were able to change the ones that joined their ranks. We don’t have that talent.”
Jixie said, “I don’t know about that.”
The four turned around and looked at her. Sam said, “What do you mean?”
Jixie looked startled and said, “I see numerous warriors in the ranks that appear to be glowing with a violet light.”
The four turned around and saw nothing like she was describing. Sam turned around and said, “Jixie, go out and pull those you see glowing and send them up here to the reviewing stand.” Sam turned and said over the PA, “Those of you selected will come to the reviewing stand.”
Jixie climbed down off the reviewing stand and went out into the warriors ranks. She found the first one and said, “Move forward.” She moved quickly among the warriors and after thirty minutes two hundred and thirty Life Warriors were standing at the reviewing stand. Sam noticed that as they moved closer they started looking around as if they were hearing something.
Admiral Gardner watched the selection process and wondered what was happening. Finally, Jixie came back to the reviewing stand and climbed back up to the other five. “That’s all of them, Sir.”
Sam looked at the warriors gathered and saw a dim glow around them. Jixie looked at Sam and said, “Thirty of them are different from the others.”
Sam looked at her, “In what way?”
Jixie shrugged, “They have the same color but it’s different from the others.”
Sam stared at Jixie, “Why would their color be different?”
Jixie looked up at the sky and said, “I’m not sure, but they have the same color as one of the ships in orbit. I don’t know why.”
Sam looked at Jixie and smiled. “Thanks, Jixie.” He turned to the three and said, “We need to break our link and see if these warriors lose the trace.”
Jixie said, “They won’t.”
The Four looked at her again and Jixie said, “I don’t know how I know, but I see that they are glowing with the same level the four of you are. Jennifer is also glowing at that level. I suspect that if you break your link and really try to focus on hearing the trace, you will. I think that these warriors just needed to feel the vibration of the trace and attenuate themselves to it, they won’t need you to continue to hear it.” Jixie paused and said, “Of course, I could be wrong; what do I know?”
Sam said, “You appear to know a lot. How do you account for that?”
“I have no idea. I just know that since the four of you linked I can see things that make no sense to me.”
Sam stared at Jixie and saw nothing but an innocent expression. “Are you willing to assist these warriors in finding their weapons?”
“Sure.”
Sam looked at Robby and Jennifer, “Go with her and help her make it happen?”
“Dort, I think the role of those with a different color in our group is to find and build the ships to transport us. You need to take them and go to the ship Jixie sees; teleport it to the shipyard to make modifications. Let your senses and that group’s sense lead you. I think we’ll need them to command other ships if our unit continues to grow.”
Gon said, “So you think our Father has plans for us?”
Sam smiled, “It appears he does. Robby, you and Gon meet with our new warriors and get them organized. Meet Jixie in the morning at the armory and get their weapons changed. We’ll start training the next day.” Sam thought a moment and said, “I suspect Jennifer will be in your unit, Robby.”
Jixie said, “Her color matches yours, Sam.”
Sam stared at Jixie, “Are you sure?”
“I am.” Jixie was not going to allow Jennifer to be out of her sight.
Sam took a deep breath and said, “Jennifer, you will take command of one of my squads. Jixie, you will command another.”
“I appreciate the vote of confidence but I sense that I would be best used as a private carrying out your orders.”
Sam smiled, “Sure about that?”
“I am.”
Sam stared at her for a long minute and Jixie worried that she had revealed too much. Sam looked at his brothers and then said, “You are going to be the company’s scout. You will report directly to me and will not be part of a squad. Your job will be to find out what we’re going to face and report your findings directly to me.”
Jixie knew that Sam knew something. However, this was the perfect role for her to play effectively with the ones they were going to face. She smiled, “I’ll give it a go, Sir.”
Sam said, “It’s a shame we don’t have a bow and arrows for you.”
Jixie smiled, “You just never know when one might show up.”
Gon, Dort, and Robby wondered what they were talking about. Sam said, “Let’s go find the warriors for our platoons. Jixie, do you have any suggestions?”
“Yep, you should use that Lieutenant that trained us to take command of the group going to the ships. His color matches them. Then I’d just
spread out and let your warriors find you.”
Sam looked at the others and said, “You heard the lady. Let’s do it.”
Dort linked with Sam and said, “We need to talk about this.”
“We will…later. Just do this now.”
Dort said, “Yes Sir.” He felt Sam’s annoyance and said, “You are the Commanding Officer of this unit. If you wonder about us following your orders we should just stop this now.”
Sam sighed and said, “You’re right. We need to do this if we want to participate in the drop on the Grogat planet.”
“I’m yours to command.”
Sam walked over to Lieutenant Haines and said, “You are promoted to Captain and will go with Lt. Dort to take command of your ship after we organize our warriors. Twenty nine warriors will be going with you.”
Haines looked up at the ceiling and smiled, “I can hear her calling me, Sir.”
“Well, go and introduce yourself. Make her into what we’ll need to survive.”
Haines smiled and went to gather his crew.
Sam smiled and thought about Jixie.
Chapter Seven
The New Grogat Fleet Controller looked at his display and felt his disgust. The Leader of the Swarm Fleet was repulsive to look at and he wanted to end the conversation. “I’ve been asked to assist you in your latest attack.”
“My ships are unable to remove the fleet defending the planet. We need your help in removing them.”
The Huge Grogat stared at the two foot tall winged creature on his display. It had a triangular shaped face with two large multifaceted eyes that reflected different bands of colors. It had eight legs that also acted as hands when needed. The being’s armor was molded around its shape tightly so nothing about the creature was covered. The Grogat knew that if this creature stung another being, it would die a horrible death. The only reason this species had ever achieved a high technology was because of the tiny hands at the end of each of its legs. “Send me the coordinates. I need to get this handled so I can come back and defend our planet.”
“Are you expecting an attack?”
“We discovered a probe in our system. I have to believe the enemy knows the importance of this location. I don’t have time to waste on this.”
