by Saxon Andrew
“We’ll let you know how it performs.”
“I really hope you can.”
“Are you ready to go, Jixie?”
“Hey Sam, I hear your thoughts.”
Sprigly said, “That’s another thing I didn’t tell you about.”
Sam said, “Tell us more when we get back.” Sam paused, “If we get back.”
Sprigly said, “There is that.”
• • •
The Fleet Commander watched his display as his warriors rounded up the leaders of the inhabitants on the surface of the planet and began their interrogations. It was quickly discovered that there were videos of the ships that had participated in the planet’s liberation. The videos were sent to his control panel and he saw a small ship with a force field extended over a huge gathering. This is the ones they were searching to find. But where were they now? He looked out of his view port and saw the beautiful blue and green planet. This would make a wonderful place for expansion. It had all the necessary raw materials to build ships and it matched the climate his species preferred. Of course the resident population would have to be eliminated. “Sire, we have two ships that just appeared a hundred thousand miles out.”
“Are they the ships we’ve been seeking?”
“No, Sire, they’re much smaller.”
The Commander looked at the two ships on his display and shook his head. They were smaller than his landing craft. “Ignore them.”
• • •
Sam saw the ten thousand ships in orbit around the planet and shook his head. Jixie said, “Sam, my power meters are barely above minimum.”
“I see that. I think Sprigly was right. We’re going to have to allow them to fire at us.”
“Sam, there’s no need for both of us to do this initial pass.”
“I agree. I’ll go first.”
“Sam, since when does the commander go ahead of his forces?”
“Who says I’m in command.”
“Are you?”
“No, you are.”
“Good, then I order you to wait here until I get back.”
“JIXIE!”
“Sam, be realistic. You are much more important to the Realm than me. Just be smart and do the right thing.”
Sam struggled and was forced to agree she was right. “How are you going to do this?”
“I’m going to teleport in close to that command ship and ask them to please go away.”
Sam fought his emotions and said, “I doubt you’ll be able to say much before they open up on you.”
“Let us hope Sprigly has his stuff together.”
“We can only pray, my love.”
“I’ll be back.”
• • •
“Sire, one of those small ships has appeared next to us.”
“Remove it.”
Ten massive beams shot out and hit Jixie’s ship and Sam couldn’t see it. His heart went into his throat and then the beams stopped and the small white ship was still there. “Thank the Creator.” He teleported his ship next to Jixie’s as another salvo of beams hit them.
• • •
“Sire, the ship is unharmed. The other one has now joined the first.”
“Continue firing.”
“Sam, my power system is at three quarters.”
“Start moving among their ships and draw their fire. Let me know when you reach full charge.” The two ships began moving between the giant bronze colored ships and were hit by hundreds of beams.
The Fleet Commander watched the two ships fly through his fleet’s beams unharmed and was stunned. This was impossible. The fleets beams had locked on the frequency of the two ships and all of the beams were hitting the small ships dead center. He yelled, “Launch missiles set on their frequency.”
“Sammmmm!”
“I’m at full power. I’m also focused on hearing the melody. Allow your ship to handle the missiles. If they get close, we’ll know we have to keep teleporting out of their way.”
Eight hundred missiles bore down on Jixie and her ship erupted in hundreds of tightly focused beams that destroyed the incoming barrage. “Are you ready?”
Sam smiled, “I’ll start with the flag ship and work my way out from the planet.”
“That’s a good place to start. I’ll join you and go left. You go right.”
• • •
The Fleet Commander saw that whoever was in those ships were impervious to his weapons. He started to recall the warriors, but his ship exploded around him before he could issue the orders. The explosions started at the front of the huge formation and spread through the invading fleet at an unbelievable rate. Only two thousand ships survived the destruction as they jumped away before the two ships arrived at their location. Sam linked and said, “Bring in your regiments.”
• • •
Two giant transports appeared just above the planet’s atmosphere and twenty thousand Life Warriors and their attack craft teleported to the planet’s surface. The Life Warriors determined quickly that the armor of the invaders was superior to theirs. The fighting was intense.
• • •
Tela teleported in and fired her beam and shoulder cannon at one of the invaders and watched it shrug off the hits. “Oh Crap!” The small Cainth Female Warrior teleported away just as the invader fired a high powered beam through the spot she had just occupied. She upped the power of her beam and fired her heavy blaster at the invader from behind him. The blasts staggered him but he turned and fired at Tela again only to have her disappear again. Tela appeared behind the invader again and felt her anger rising. She fired a hornet at the enemy warrior and followed it with her hand blaster and the invader exploded. “At freaking last.” Tela put out on the command net how she killed the warrior. The tide turned once that information was received by the Life Warriors. Tela teleported away just before a blaster beam passed through her location. She appeared behind the enemy warrior that fired at her and introduced him to a hornet and blaster beam. It took two blaster hits to finish him off. Tela thought, “I guess he was having a blast.” She teleported away, looking for another target.
The Life Warriors were outnumbered two to one but the odds were even an hour later. An hour after that the fight was over as Life Warriors began doubling up on the surviving enemy. None of the invaders surrendered, even when called upon to do so. They all fought to the death. Tela killed the last one when he would not surrender. She teleported six times as she tried to get him to surrender. She could tell the warrior was getting angry and frustrated at his inability to hit her. “Private, why are you tormenting that warrior?”
“Hey, I just want him to give it up.”
“It appears they don’t do that.”
“They don’t?”
“NO!”
“You should have told me earlier.” Tela exploded the lone surviving enemy warrior. She looked around and shrugged.
“Private report directly to me once we’re back on shipboard.”
“Yes Sir.” Tela knew she was going to be given a dressing down for what she had done. She was shocked when she left the Captain’s office wearing the single bar of a Bristone Realm Lieutenant.
• • •
“Sam, should we go to their home world?”
“No. I know they have several hundred thousand ships around it and I don’t want to test the theoretical limits of these ships. We’ll take these back to Sprigly and allow him to run his trial. Once we have enough of them for my squadron, we’ll go resolve that problem.”
“You’re the boss.”
Jixie looked down and said, “Sam, what is your power level?”
Sam looked and was surprised, “It’s at one third power.”
“Mine is lower than that. These ships are power hogs.”
“Jixie, that means that they must be fought differently. We need to allow our ships to be hit as we’re attacking other ships.”
“I can see that. I wonder if the power supply can be exhausted.”
/> “If it can we need to make Sprigly aware of the problem. There needs to be a minimum level that allows the ship to escape.”
“Let’s go discuss it with him.”
“I’ll meet you there, Jixie.”
• • •
A month later Sprigly arrived at Castle Gardner where Sam and Jixie met him in the map room. Sprigly looked at the map of the Bristone Universe. “This used to be the most advanced map the Realm possessed.”
Sam smiled, “The playground increased in size during the war with the Spiders.”
Sprigly said, “I’m here to put together a wish list for the new ship. Do you have any suggestions?”
Sam thought a moment and Jixie said, “The headbands have to go.”
“Why?”
“A pilot needs to stay in contact with his ship even when he’s not in the ship. Couldn’t you build it into the band on wrist units we all use?”
Sprig said, “That’s a good idea.”
Sam leaned back in his chair as Jixie continued, “I’ve also been thinking about the new skin. If a high energy beam will pass through it, what about low energy beams?”
“What do you mean?”
“I was thinking about light. If light would pass through the ship, wouldn’t it be invisible? And it would also not appear on any devices scanning for it. We’d no longer have to waste so much of our energy on a cloaking device.”
Jixie looked at Sam and he held up his hands, “No, no, keep going.”
Jixie turned back to Sprigly, “Our pilots should never lose contact with their ships. There may be times where they have to land on a planet and they’ll need a way to hide their ship.”
Sam said, “Actually, if they leave the skin active you could walk into the ship and be caught in the skin.”
Jixie looked at Sam and said, “Then the pilots should never park their ship where that could happen.”
Sam looked at Sprig, “Is her idea about the lower frequencies a possibility?”
“I’m surprised I didn’t think of that. Energy is energy and it would only take a minor adjustment to allow light to pass through. We would have to route it around the largest expanse in the skin, but that is easily done. The ship is already invisible to scanners both optical and electrical.”
Sam said, “Sprigly, have we just invented the ultimate weapon?”
“Maybe.”
Jixie looked at Sprigly, “Maybe?”
“There are some psychic species we’ve encountered that would be able to see it. You need look no further than the Dremor for an example.”
Jixie shook her head, “They are no longer a problem.”
Sprigly looked at Jixie, “Is that so?”
“We eliminated them a few years back. They didn’t play well with others so we paid them a visit.”
Sprigly looked at Sam and he nodded. “Well alrighty then. However, Creation is vast and if there’s one psychic species there could be more. For the moment, I don’t know any species that we’ve encountered that could handle this new ship.”
Sam said, “I need my squadron’s ships replaced as soon as possible. We need to pay a visit to the home world of the species that has been trying to find us.”
“I’ll have them ready in two months.”
“Why that long?”
Sprigly shook slightly and said, “Did you not request some changes, Your Majesty?”
Sam blew out a quick breath and said, “Jon was always more patient than me.”
Sprigly laughed harder and said, “Well, enjoy your time off. I’m sure you’ll use these ships when you receive them.” Sprigly teleported to his ship and lifted from the castle.
Jixie said, “Sprigly, there was one question I meant to ask you but forgot.” Sam looked at Jixie and wondered what she would possibly forget.
“What is that, Your Majesty?”
“Isn’t our warrior’s armor made from the same material as the hull of our ships?”
“By the Creator, you’re right.”
“Would this technology work in their armor?”
“It would be easier because of size. The main battleships would be next to impossible to cover with this technology. A warrior’s armor would be easy.”
“And the mental connections could also be used so that the helmet wouldn’t require so many data systems; he could receive them directly from Fleet.”
“No, he would have to be directly connected to the data systems.”
“Well, I just thought it might work.”
“Oh your idea was marvelous; the pass through system will work in their armor and they’ll have all the benefits that system offers.”
“Thanks, Sprigly.”
No, Your Majesty, thank you.”
Sam looked at Jixie, “It looks like we have some time off. What do you want to do with it?”
“I owe Jennifer a visit. I’ve never seen humanity’s home world. Will you take me there?”
“Where thou doest go…”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Get packed and let’s go see Earth.”
“I’ll be ready before you are.”
Sam was talking to empty air. He laughed and rushed to his quarters to find Jixie blowing on her nails with a packed bag at her feet.
Chapter Twenty
Three months later, the five hundred ships in First Fleet moved in on the home world of the bronze colored ships. The three hundred thousand warships around the planet never detected the intruders moving through their ranks. Jixie thought, “At least they don’t hold hostages or slaves.”
“No, they kill all the populations on the planets they invade.”
“Sam, this entire planet is just one huge armory. It’s totally developed to build ships and weapons.”
“If you want to see what a tumor in the body of Creation looks like, you need look no further than this species.”
“How many planets do they occupy?”
“A hundred more just like this one.”
“Should we wait until we have enough ships to do this all at one time?”
“I’ve considered that Jixie, but what about the civilizations being destroyed while we wait? I suspect that if we destroy this planet the others will recall their fleets to defend them. At least that’s what I’m hoping.”
“Then you need to leave the ships here alone.”
“Why is that?”
“They’ll be called to the other planets for defense and they’ll have no idea how it was done. If we attack their ships, they’ll know. We won’t be able to kill all of them. Some will escape and warn the others. The lack of knowledge of how it was done will have them chasing their tales.”
Sam thought a moment and said, “I don’t want to agree, but I think you’re right. Attention First Fleet. Exit the system and return to home port. I’ll issue your orders once we determine what we’re going to do with the other planets.”
Sam watched his display which allowed him to see his ships. The Fleet made an orderly withdrawal and Sam said, “Are you ready?”
“I am.”
“On my mark; ready…mark!”
Two massive beams erupted immediately above the planet and hit it in the planet it the northern and southern hemisphere. The planet blew apart and shattered in a massive explosion. Sam and Jixie teleported away before the shockwave reached them. The shockwave rushed out into space and the closest bronze ships were tumbled away from the planet. The ships further from the planet accelerated away and began sending urgent messages to the other planets. The leaders that came to investigate examined every recording and were unable to determine where the killing beams had originated. Every planet felt fear and soon every warship was patrolling the space around every planet looking for…something.
• • •
Jixie and Sam arrived at Castle Gardner and after handling the details of fleet training, they settled in the family room and Jixie moved under Sam’s arm in front of the fireplace. They just sat there enjoying each other’s company.
&
nbsp; “Jixie.”
Sam and Jixie straightened up. Jixie looked at Sam, “You hear her?”
“I’m communicating so he can, Jixie.”
“What’s wrong, Mother?”
“You have to come home.”
“Mom, I’m not leaving.”
“Jixie, you don’t have an option this time.”
“Why not?”
Mille sighed, “The Senior has elevated your status and it requires you to return.”
“What?”
“He’s made you an Elder.”
“Mom, that’s stupid. I’m barely an adult.”
“I know that. I know he does as well, but it is within his power to make the designation.”
“Well, I refuse the position.”
“You certainly are within your rights to do just that but it must be done in person. You are required to face the Senior and High Caste to make your declaration.”
“I won’t do it.”
Sam grabbed her arm. “Jixie.” She looked at him and he said, “Not what you want but what you must.”
“Sam, the Senior is fixated on forcing me to go home and stay. I’m not going to allow him to do this to me again.”
Sam slowly shook his head, “A society is nothing without the laws that govern it. You are required to do this.”
“Sam, the Senior may have some strategy to keep me there. I don’t want to live without you.”
“I know that feeling well, Jixie. I lived it for ten years, but you are Royalty and our choices are restricted by our duty.” Sam looked up, “Will you tell me if she’s forced to stay?”
Mille said, “I will, but she does have the option to refuse.”
“I suspect this Senior has more than just one option to keep her there. Will you please help her as much as you can?”
“She’s my daughter. I won’t allow her to be mistreated.”
Jixie stared at Sam and said, “My heart is here. Never forget that.”
“I won’t my love.”
Jixie said, “Tell them I’m coming.”
“I’m sure he heard everything we just discussed.”
“I’m beginning to understand how your Creator died, Jixie.”
The Senior heard Sam’s statement and flinched. The High Caste heard it as well.
• • •
Jixie arrived and all of the people were gathered. This was the first gathering in many lifetimes and the excitement was easily felt by all present. Jixie arrived and all the members of her hatching rushed up to congratulate her. She shrugged them off and started looking for the Senior. He and the High Caste had not arrived. Her Hatching saw her expression and wondered what was going on. Jixie walked by Trex who said, “Hello, Jixie.”
