by Saxon Andrew
Searcher
( Annihilation - 5 )
Saxon Andrew
Saxon Andrew
Searcher
Prologue
The meeting was a large one. Rose stood on the center stage facing the representatives of all planets that made up the Stars Realm. On stage with her in the front row were Tag, Danielle, Tommy, and Cassandra Gardner who were all members of the royal family. Sitting on the second row behind them were Terl, Tgon-Gee, Misty Nicole, Sprig and Twig. On the front row facing the stage were the fifty psychic peers of the Glod Union and the fourteen other clan members of the Cainth Empire. This was a heavy weight meeting; they were gathered to determine the future course of the Realm. Rose Gardner, the Queen of the Stars Realm, who was very pregnant, looked out at the assembly and then sounded a tone that brought all the assembled members to silence. It had been seven months since the Captors had departed the Realm’s universe for the new one Cassandra had created by exploding the particle in energy space. Information left to the Realm by the Captors had led to major developments that demanded the Realm’s attention.
“Thank all of you for coming to discuss our future plans. A lot has happened since the Captors left and we are now at the point where we must make long range plans to confront a new threat that is coming. It seems as soon as we handle one danger to the Realm, another rears its head. I’m going to show you a video the First Male of the Captors made more than eight million years ago which shows a race of beings that makes all of our past troubles seem insignificant. The beings you’re about to see are called Eight Legs by the Captors and it will become clear why after you see the recording.”
The huge display over the stage suddenly came on showing a Galaxy off in the distance hanging in space with its spiral arms. Suddenly a bright violet light flashed and a ship appeared on the screen as large as a medium sized planet. It was deep green in color and had a surface covered with millions of small raised circles. The huge ship hung there for a moment and then flashed into a silver-blue flash of a star drive. The scene changed showing the huge green ship moving toward a planet which had developed space travel. Thousands of star ships were leaving the planet to confront the huge ship that was quickly moving in system. As the ships from the planet moved closer to the huge green ship more than two million small ships emerged from it through the holes on its surface and fell on the incoming fleet. The planet’s ships began firing bright white energy beams and missiles which began hitting the oncoming invaders; the small green ships were unaffected by any of the weapons used to stop them. Beams just stopped at their surface without even a small flash; missiles just hit, stopped, and fell away without exploding. As the two fleets of ships came together the small green ships flew through the force fields surrounding the defenders as if they were nonexistent and landed on each ships surface. A bright green light then appeared under the green ship and a section of the ship directly under it would disappear. The recording moved in close to one of the ships that had just had its surface punctured and everyone could see green colored creatures with eight legs entering the punctured ship through the hole in its hull. Within twenty seconds all power went off in the ship and it hung motionless in space. Ten minutes later the small green ship lifted and joined the fleet moving toward the planet. Every ship that had lifted to defend against the green invaders was punctured and stopped within ten minutes of contact with the small green ships. The recording stopped.
“We don’t know what these creatures do when they move inside a ship but it appears they do it extremely fast.” Rose looked away from the display and at the assembly, “We do know what they will do to a planet.” She turned back to the display screen and the recording continued.
The green ships not involved in attacking the defending fleet moved quickly toward the planet where huge defense satellites in orbit began firing at the incoming ships. These satellites fired massive numbers of huge beams and missiles at the green ships all to no avail; the invaders were unaffected and large numbers of the green ships landed on the surfaces of the huge forts; the forts all quit firing their weapons and grew dark quickly after the green ships punctured their surfaces.
The millions of green ships not involved in attacking the planet’s fleet or orbital defenses started landing on the planet’s surface with the vast majority of them targeting the largest cities. The recording moved closer to the ground and followed one of the small green ships down to the surface. Defenders fired beams and missiles as the ship landed and then turned their aim on the invaders exiting the ship. As soon as it landed eight of the eight legged creatures emerged and scattered almost faster than the eye could follow. The weapons used against them were useless. The green creatures picked targets with some of them going after the military firing at them.
The recording slowed to show one of the eight legged creatures slam into a warrior firing a shoulder weapon and pin him to ground. The creature then sank its fangs into the captured inhabitant’s head and it was clear that whatever was inside the head was consumed by the eight legged creature.
The recording then turned back to the huge green mother ship as it entered planetary orbit and released hundreds of ships more than a hundred miles long from huge holes in the mother ship’s surface; they immediately started moving toward the planet. The recording followed one of them down to the surface and millions of the creatures emerged and scattered to attack every inhabitant they could find. The military forces on the ground fired on the rampaging horde but nothing had an effect on the green colored creatures. The military died just as fast as the unarmed civilians.
The video paused, “I’ll make this recording available for you to view later. It lasts about four hours and I hope you have a strong stomach if you choose to watch it in its entirety. What I’m going to show you now is how the planet appeared eighteen hours later.”
The planet hung in space and it looked exactly as it did before it was attacked. The huge green ship was moving away from the planet to find other worlds to consume. The ship that attacked the planet had reentered the giant green ship and nothing remained behind but dead ships and satellites floating in space that would eventually fall to the planet. The view moved closer to the surface and everyone could see millions of dead bodies lying all over the population centers and small communities. The view moved out to the area surrounding the city and there were animals grazing and birds flying. A view of the ocean showed fish were still present at the surface.
“The eight legs only attacked intelligent life on the planet and totally eradicated the local population; everything else was ignored. These creatures appear to only feed on life forms with intelligence. The weapons of the defenders, which were very close to our current technology, had no effect on the attacking ships. Now I’m going to jump ahead to show you the end of the recording.”
The view changed back to the original location where the huge green ship had emerged with the galaxy hanging in space. Suddenly, another huge green ship emerged out of a violet flash and jumped away. Then huge green ships began appearing faster; twenty would emerge and disappear. Then a hundred, then a thousand, then a hundred thousand; each would jump away as soon as they entered normal space.
The assembly was stunned. Rose looked out at them, “The Captors called these creatures “Universe Killers”. They harvest and consume all intelligent life in a universe and then leave to harvest another universe. They were here more than eight million years ago and the Captor’s leaders warned us that by creating a new universe we may have caused the Eight Legs to move their timetable up to return and investigate. They will know that it takes a highly advanced life form to cause the creation of a new universe.”
The assembly began talking among themselves and Rose sounded the tone again. After silence wa
s restored she continued, “My family members and I do not sense a danger from these creatures in the near future so we believe there is some time to prepare for their return. However, after studying these creatures we have determined that our current defense structure will not work against this enemy. I am going to turn this meeting over to Sprig and let him tell you what he and his mate Twig have developed to help us.”
The Algean moved up to the podium and used telepathy to address the assembly. “The Captors also left us another gift; one of their energy generators that caused their red color and powered their ships. They told us that the Eight Legs did not see anything that was surrounded by that particular color so we think that the ships we build with it will be invisible to them. We are also developing a planetary screen that will cover a planet with that same hue so it’s possible they will be invisible as well. We have also determined that the large ships of our fleet will not be able to handle the literally millions of ships that will be used to invade. We have to build our numbers as quickly as possible and build ships that can handle this invasion.
The assembly started talking again and Sprig waited until they quieted down. “We have discovered something extraordinary about using the Captor’s generator.” The crowd became silent and sat forward. “When we removed our black hole reactors and replaced them with the Captor’s red reactors, the power of our ships grew more than a thousand times greater.” Everyone was stunned; this was big. “The Alexander Kosiev is the deadliest ship in our Navy, however, a ship we can now build that is less than three hundred feet long with only one of those Captor reactors can go toe to toe with it and withstand any weapon the Kosiev fires at it. That small ship is going to be the future of our Realm.”
The crowd started talking again. Sprig waited for them to grow quiet, “There is one thing that will slow our construction of a huge fleet down. The red generators will only work as weapons for a pilot that has telepathic ability. It will provide power but weapons will only work with mental commands. Remember, the Captors were energy beings that were part of their ships and commanded their systems mentally. These reactors will have to be directed by personnel that have some psychic skills.”
Rose stood and said, “That’s not as bad as you think. It appears that more and more of our citizens are being born with psychic ability especially after Cassandra’s psychic aura expanded to the edge of our universe. We just have to find them and train them.”
Sprig turned back to the assembly, “Atlas and Diana have given us the means to build the control modules for these new ships. They are currently a part of their ship’s structure just like the Captors, and they have also given us the means to build a hull around the ship that is silver in color and will house the new red powered Coronado Power Cells on their hulls. These cells will now emit a red colored screen instead of white. Each of these small ships will have enough weaponry stored inside those power cells to last them for years of combat.”
Rose stood and moved back to the podium, “Thank you, Sprig. There is one other thing that has become clear to our planners. We cannot build these ships on our planets. We just don’t have the necessary mental capacity or speed for all the information needed to put one of these technological marvels together; only the Algeans do. We will provide them the ship’s hulls but they will have to become the Realm’s ship builders. They will build their ship yards on some of the planets they had originally destroyed. They have also decided to remove all traces of technology from their home worlds so the invaders will not find them. Being plants we believe they will not be detected if there is no technology on their planet’s surface. They will build their facilities on more than a thousand worlds and when the invasion begins they will totally destroy those facilities so that the Eight Legs will not be able to use them to gather information that can be used against us.” Rose stepped back and looked at her mother.
Danielle stood and approached the podium. The Assembly rose and cheered the first Queen of the Stars Realm. She waited and bowed to their applause and after ten minutes the crowd grew quiet. “The people who fly our new ships will be called Searchers. We cannot just turn our back on those worlds in our universe that will be attacked by this coming horde; we have to try and save as many as possible. Our Searchers will go out to the millions of galaxies in our universe and seek out any planet that has intelligent life. When we find them we will try to save them by installing our red screen around their planet. We will sometimes have to resort to force in getting their attention to try and save them but we will not force ourselves on another civilization. If we are refused, then so be it. However, we will try to save as many as we can in the time that remains. I truly hope we are given enough time to save ourselves and perhaps we will be given enough time to save others as well.”
The crowd cheered and Rose came forward again. “We will now break off into groups to decide what things we need to do to make this vision become a reality. We will come together again in two rotations.”
The assembly stood and moved to their assigned group..
Atlas and Diana were in orbit watching the event and Diana asked, “Do you think they can stand up to the coming invasion?”
Atlas was quiet for a moment, “My initial feeling is no but these children of mine have done things I never thought possible. You and I will have to do all we can to help them. However, the immense numbers of ships used to invade is staggering. If it looks bad at the end we will shut down our systems and wait for them to leave. Then we will find suitable candidates and try again.”
Diana moved up against Atlas’ hull, “You know I’ll be there with you always.”
Chapter 1
Matthew Gardner looked out at the spiral galaxy he had just been assigned to examine. He was a Searcher and this was his first assignment since graduating from the Stars Realm Academy. “I hope I don’t mess up.” He checked his sensors and decided to start his search on the closest spiral arm and work his way in toward the center of the huge galaxy and then move back out on another spiral arm. His display read more than three million type G suns in the arm he was about to enter which offered hope his search for intelligent life was going to be successful since most of the known inhabited planets were orbiting the medium sized class g stars. His long range sensors were also set to alarm if any sign of technology was discovered in any other star types near the class G’s. He set his sensor systems and reached forward and pressed a white button on his console. His small ship began jumping into the galaxy targeting the stars that had the best probability of life. He sat back and watched his sensors as his ship moved through more than a hundred systems a minute. He looked at his readouts and saw that this arm of the galaxy was going to take more than twenty days to complete. He stared at his display for two hours and grew bored; he sat back, closed his eyes, and thought about the last five years.
He had volunteered to join the Star Realm’s Navy on Cross, his home planet, when he was seventeen and hoped he would be accepted into the academy. Growing up he had read everything he could find about the Realm’s Searchers. He wanted to pilot a ship out into the universe exploring new worlds and species; at every opportunity he and his friends pretended to be Searchers fighting off suspected enemies of the Stars Realm. Finally he turned seventeen and was at the age where he could volunteer to join the Stars Realm’s Navy. The numerous tests he had to take were difficult, exhausting, and after six weeks of examinations he had been notified that he was to report to Ross at the Kosiev Academy to continue his testing. His excitement on receiving the news was monumental and all of his friends gathered to celebrate his good fortune. He was the only one to pass the tests and earn a trip to Ross. There was no jealousy among his friends but they did throw a party that he was still attempting to recover.
He arrived on a commercial star ship along with six hundred other applicants from the worlds of the Realm and was teleported to a huge parade ground where everyone was told they were going to meet the Queen of the Stars Realm in person. He could still
remember his excitement at the prospect of actually seeing her and when she arrived and welcomed everyone he felt that even if he wasn’t accepted into the academy that the opportunity to actually see her was worth all the headaches and worries that the exams had given him.
Then the Queen surprised the assembled applicants and stepped down into their ranks after her welcoming speech. She then started walking down the lines shaking each person’s hand. She had finally arrived in front of him and took his hand and said, “Thank you for wanting to be a part of our service.” He felt like a nervous child at that moment and as she touched him he felt a small shock. As she started moving away she looked back at the Admiral following her and quickly nodded at him. The Admiral handed him a red coin with the Queen’s picture on one side and Castle Gardner on the other. He stared at the coin as the Queen and her attendants continued down the lines of recruits. He looked around and noticed that everyone was given a coin and they were all looking at it as the Queen continued her walk. He noticed that the two recruits on each side of him had been given a gold colored coin and he wondered why his was different. She finally finished and waved to everyone and boarded a shuttle that flew her in the direction of the huge castle in the distance.
The admiral that has followed her through the ranks then moved in front of them and yelled in a loud voice, “Those of you that were given red coins will remain where you are; everyone else, please pick up your bags and move to the ship at the north end of the field and board for a short flight to the Academy.”
He felt his heart fall into his stomach. He had failed and was not going to be chosen. The applicants with gold coins smiled and ran to the end of the field and lined up to board the huge transport. The admiral waited until everyone had left and watched as the transport lifted with the ones that received the gold coins; then he turned and said, “I’m sure you’re wondering about the red coin.” There were only about a hundred people remaining and they all looked at each other nodding. “You have passed the first of two tests. We will now take you to see if you pass the second.” The hundred remaining applicants were shocked speechless. The admiral smiled and said, “You should all know that rose is more valuable than gold in this Realm. Please board the ship at the other end of the field and wait there for your instructions.”
