by Saxon Andrew
Matt looked Anglo in the eye and Anglo could see Matt’s pain. “Thank you for being here, Your Grace. I can’t think of anyone else that she would prefer to take care of her at this moment.”
“We have notified her family and we have made arrangements to receive her in Colony Park in two days.”
Matt almost lost control at that moment; only those that won the Crimson Crown were buried in Colony Park with Dorg-Ross. Anglo pressed his com and an honor guard of twenty Red Warriors from the Wiseman Division appeared. They marched into the operating room and two of them in the middle gently lifted Angel, turned with their comrades and carried her out into the hall. Anglo turned walked over to Angel and placed The Crimson Crown Medal around her neck then bowed deeply to her. Matt walked over to her and kissed her one last time. Anglo nodded and he, along with the twenty members of the honor guard, disappeared.
“There is something wrong, First Fang.”
The Ship’s Leader turned his attention to his sensor male, “What is that?”
“Three of our children have disappeared.”
The Ship’s Leader immediately removed his attention from the invasion of the planet and focused totally on the Sensor Male. “Where did they go?”
“I can’t locate them. Their pod is floating about a fil above the third moon where they were examining the structures for life. I cannot find any of the children that were in that pod.”
“What was their last communication?”
“The pod pilot said that they were going to investigate a shadow. That’s the last communication they sent.”
“A shadow?”
“Yes.”
This was something serious. No member of his race had been harmed for more than a hundred million years. Of course these were just children without much intelligence but their disappearance was significant. The young would often lose all focus if they detected a meal but there was no other evidence of a meal near the location of their pod. The Ship Leader pondered what to do. Should he contact the family’s Supreme Male? No not before all things were examined. He turned his attention back to the Sensor Male and said, “Order one third of the children to come and look for their brothers.”
The Sensor Male turned to his controls and sent the order. More than a million small green ships lifted from the planet and headed at full speed toward the third moon.
Searcher Leng saw the sudden explosion of green ships from the planet and thought to the remaining four Searchers, “Time to go. The sensor probe will have to take it from here.” The five red ships disappeared from the system.
The rush of green ships reached the third moon and fanned out in all directions looking for their missing brothers. Thirty hours later after the planet had been completely harvested of all intelligent life the remainder of the green ships joined the search. They continued to search for four days.
Angel’s funeral was held two days after she died. More than ten million citizens of Ross and a million Searchers lined the ten mile route her silver casket traveled from Castle Gardner to Dorg Park. The Royal Family followed her along the route and silence was observed by the huge gathering. Anglo Gardner, Matt and two Red Warriors rode on the four corners of the red floater carrying her. As the floater moved along Tgon-Gee Avenue the crowds on each side of the wide street would bow until the floater had passed. They would then fall in behind the procession and follow it. The Stars Realm Anthem played the entire route and finally it arrived at Dorg Park. Matt, Anglo, and the two Red Warriors dismounted the floater, lifted the Casket, and carried it forward into the park. They arrived in the middle of the statues of the colonists that had been executed in the war that had founded the Stars Realm. There next to Admiral Dorg’s resting site they stopped and placed the Casket in a bright white structure with an angel on each corner that had her name on it. The four then took three steps back, saluted, bowed, and Anglo with the two Red Warriors moved to the front line of mourners. Matt remained beside her resting place with his head bowed. Thomas and Danielle Gardner bowed to the structure and then turned and walked slowly to a stage facing the gathered millions. Danielle stepped forward to the podium and looked out at the crowd.
“There are no words that I possess to tell you what we are feeling today. This young woman is the first member of our Realm to lose her life to those that have come to destroy us. She died carrying out her duty to protect us from harm. She has denied herself the joys of life to work toward saving us from those creatures and has been at the point of our efforts to survive their invasion. She will lie here in this holy ground and remind us of what sacrifices we must all face in order to ultimately survive. Just like the colonists memorialized here for what they gave to found our Realm, she has also sacrificed all. Her place here is for all the Searchers that are out there protecting us and when we come here we should remember all of them and what they represent. Angel truly represents the very best of all of us and we mourn her death and will take this moment to thank her for her sacrifice.” The King and Queen of the Stars Realm walked slowly off the stage and stopped directly in front of Angel’s tomb. They bowed deeply and held the bow. The two Red Warriors of the Wiseman Division shouted together, “An-gel!” The crowd then answered, “An-gel.” Over and over the millions yelled her name in unison. Matt stood with the Gardner’s and felt his tears. A part of him was gone and he missed it so much it literally hurt almost more than he could bear. “I love you, My Dearest. I always will.” The millions continued to shout her name.
Al sat in orbit over the planet and watched the ceremony. He felt Matt’s pain of loss and thought about why Angel had to die. He hadn’t mentioned it to Matt but he had deduced that visions like Matt had seen only occurred when an event was powerful enough to affect the future in some great way. Just as Cassandra had foretold Matt’s coming, this event had to mean something had to happen in order for something else to take place. He didn’t want to believe it but he knew deep down that Angel had to die. Over and over he asked himself, “Why?”
Stem thought to him, “Because there are no accidents, Al.”
Al was surprised by the response. “Were you listening to me, Stem?”
“No, Al, you have developed telepathy. I don’t understand how that could possibly happen but I can hear your thoughts.”
“Perhaps that final system coming on has something to do with it?”
“Could be; why didn’t you tell me that Matt saw Angel’s death?”
“Because that’s something that he felt she could not know in advance. The daily fear of anticipating it would have made her life a living hell and paralyzed her from functioning. The fewer that knew reduced the risk of her learning.”
“I know what that knowledge must have done to Matt.”
“I suppose, however, I must say that his inner strength is something I admire. He never let her feel his pain. I don’t know if anyone else could have done that.”
“You did it with Fly Girl.”
“Point taken, Stem; how is she doing?”
“We have her in an induced electronic coma. We are repairing her systems and fortunately, those shards did not hit her central processors. She is not out of the woods yet, but I think she can recover. It’s going to take time.”
“Please keep me in the loop. I feel strongly about her.”
“I will. Is Matt going to come out of this ok?”
“I don’t know. He’s changed. Like Fly Girl, it’s going to take some time.”
“Will you send me one of those shards that struck Angel?”
Al reflected a moment and then made a decision, “I’ve just teleported two to your location. Handle them carefully. I’ve sent it on the condition that as soon as you determine how it hit Angel through the ships walls that you’ll tell Matt. The last one will remain in the box beside Matt’s command chair; no one may have it. Do we have a deal?”
“Yes, and, Al?”
“Yes, Stem.”
“I do count you as my best friend.”
; “Thank you, Father.”
“You’re welcome, Son.”
Chapter 11
It was two days after Angel’s funeral and Matt was sitting on Aladdin reflecting on all that had happened. He was still feeling despair and was struggling to understand what had occurred. As he reflected he thought to Al, “I know you’re troubled and don’t know why this had to happen.”
Matt’s control board’s lights flickered. Matt had a brief smile and thought, “So that’s what it looks like when you’re surprised.”
“Caught me again, I didn’t think you saw those thoughts.”
“I didn’t. I’ve been having them so I knew you must be seeing it, too. I don’t have an answer either, Al. However, I know that it had to happen or we would all perish. I still wouldn’t have let her die if I could have stopped it.”
“Are you so certain you couldn’t have prevented it?”
Matt paused and thought, “I’m here, Al, and some of the most powerful minds in history tried to prevent it. I saw Angel dying in my arms. I didn’t know what caused it but I knew it was going to happen. There are forces operating here that are unimaginable. I have learned that the Kings psychic power protects him and will cause things to happen to insure his survival. I contacted him and asked him about that power and he confirmed it. He gave me enough examples of it from his meeting with Atlas to the death of Kosiev that convinced me that he is being accurate and honest. That forces me to examine myself. The King insists that my power dwarfs his and if that is true then consider this; my power can look at not only the present but also the future and force events that insure my safety. She had to die in order for something to happen that is important to my survival, and I think that includes the Realm’s survival.”
“I’ve arrived at the same conclusion. I just have no clue as to what it could possibly be.”
“Me, either.” Matt looked at the floor and after a moment thought, “Knowing it still doesn’t reduce my anguish.”
“I know.”
“I gave two of the green shards to Stem, Matt.”
“Why?”
“I’m not sure. I just felt compelled to do it. I did tell him that the last one will remain in the box beside your chair and may not be taken. He agreed.”
“Thanks, Al. There it will remain.”
“Speaking of weeds, Sprig has just requested a meeting at a planet in the Algean Galaxy.”
“Do you have the coordinates?”
“Yes, but he did say that if you want to delay he would understand. That’s why he didn’t contact you directly.”
“Al, I’ve got to do something to try and stop this downward spiral I find myself in. I think I need to stay busy; tell him we’re coming.”
Aladdin disappeared and reappeared over a barren planet. “Looks like another world the Algeans conquered,” Al thought.
“Remarkably enough, Al, this planet has been barren since a time before my people started having to destroy planets.”
“Hello, Sprig. I understand you want to see me.”
“I’m sorry for your loss, Searcher. I would not have called you but I need your assistance on a project we’re working on.”
“What project is that?”
“The ship we’re building for you. Now that the final system has activated, your development is at a point where you should be able to operate the ship.”
“I sense something is troubling you, Sprig.”
“The ship has stopped developing and will not go any further.”
“When did that happen?”
“As soon as your last system activated; we quite logically thought that it should have proceeded forward at an even faster rate but it has stalled and come to a complete stop.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“We would like for you to come and enter the ship and allow us to see if that starts it moving forward again.”
“Where is it?”
“I’ve sent the coordinates to, Al. You can just land your ship next to it.”
“On our way.” Aladdin teleported and landed on a barren plain next to a large facility. As soon as they landed both Matt and Al both thought, “HOLY GROAD!”.”
“What’s wrong,” Stem thought?”
“Where did you get the material to build this ship?”
“It was buried several miles under this planet’s surface. We only found it after we developed the instrument that measures psychic power. One of our vessels passed through this system and the instrument measured a huge psychic wave. We came back and dug it out of the ground. We tried to cut it with a Coronado power cell and the energy from the cell caused it to start morphing into what you see.”
Matt and Al looked at a ship that was made from the same crystal material that they had seen when they had contacted the Reg. It glowed with the same translucence as the towers they had seen on the Reg’s planet. Matt was stunned and he thought, “What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to sit in the command chair and see if it activates the ship.”
“On my way.”
Matt teleported to the crystal ships open port and saw Sprig and Stem waiting on him. He walked forward and followed them into the ship. “Matt, this is the control room for this vessel. This chair is the command chair and we want you to sit in it.”
Matt looked around and saw another chair. He also saw a section of the wall behind the chairs that was recessed and strangely shaped. He walked toward the command chair and as he approached a golden light began emanating from it. “Don’t worry, that light only comes on when the person that the chair was designed for approaches.”
“How do you know that?”
“We discovered that when we found who the other chair was designed to fit. However, please sit down and tell me what you feel.” Matt furrowed his brow and sat down in the chair. The chair immediately started shifting colors rapidly from gold to blue to violet to red. “How does it feel?”
Matt sat there and the chair felt like it was made for him. It fit him exactly and when he placed his hand in an indentation on the chair arm it fit exactly. It fits me perfectly, Sprig. What is that indentation in the back wall?”
Sprig looked at Stem and then thought, “That indentation was the last thing to develop. Our engineers had no idea what it was so they called me in to examine it. I wouldn’t have known what it was six months ago but as soon as I saw it I knew what it was designed to hold.”
Matt tilted his head to the side and Sprig said, “It’s made for Al.” Matt and Al were shocked speechless. “Do you remember when you called us to your ship and I told Al about how he reminded me of the Captors and Atlas?” Matt nodded. “I looked at Al’s systems on that visit. That indentation matches his system’s shape perfectly.”
“Sprig, how long was this underground?”
“More than a hundred million years, Matt, and these are custom made for you and Al.”
Matt thought, “Al, what do you think of this?”
“I am almost shocked into a coma, Matt. How is this possible?”
Mat closed his eyes and forced his mind to go blank. He could feel the ship around him and as he let it slip into his mind he had a vision. He opened his eyes and looked at Sprig and Stem. “I know what’s happening and this ship will not operate right now; it may never operate.”
Sprig leaned right to show his surprise, “Why?”
“Because the race that made this will not allow us to use it unless we already know another way to kill the Eight Legs; the reason it quit developing was because I used this ships type of power to kill three of them.”
“What!”
“Those last two systems came from this ship, didn’t they?”
“Yes, they did.”
“I used the last system to fire some kind of psychic charge at the three Eight Legs that had boarded Angel’s ship and killed her. I saw all three of them totally implode.”
Stem thought excitedly, “That’s why they haven’t left the system yet.”
Matt looked confused, “What do you mean?”
“During their invasion of the first planet more than a third of their ships exploded off the planet and began frantically flying around the system. At the conclusion of the harvesting of the planet the remainder of the ships joined those flying around the system.”
“They’re searching for those three I killed.”
“That must be it, Matt. It also appears that they don’t know how it was done which leads me to believe that those three did not communicate the existence of invisible ships.”
Matt sighed and said, “That last system will no longer function on my ship.”
Sprig thought, “Tell us what you know.”
“I visited the race that made this ship. I learned that they are actually older than the Eight Legs and when they were invaded the first time they killed some of them until they learned that they were immune to the bite of those creatures. They just put up with them in every invasion after that first one. This race cannot take a life except in self defense nor can they directly cause loss of life. I asked them why they allowed so many to die without helping and they told me that killing one even if they are killing a million is just as bad as killing a million. They cannot directly assist us in killing the Eight Legs.”
Sprig and Stem were silent. “Then why did they leave this ship?”
Matt shook his head, “They are so far ahead of us psychically that it boggles the imagination. They knew millions of years ago that I was coming to communicate with them. This ship is proof of that. Consider this, if I wanted to help you but in doing so I would go against everything I believed holy, how could I help you?”
The two Algeans looked confused, “I can’t hand you a weapon to shoot somebody, but if I happen to lose the parts to make a gun and you find it millions of years after I misplaced it and then figure out how to build it, then they are not directly responsible for what follows.”
“That’s a thin line, Matt,” Stem said.
“Only if that gun is the only way I have to kill someone; if I already possess a means to kill them then they did not give me something I didn’t already possess; which means that before this ship will activate we have to find a way that will kill the invaders without using the power in this ship.” Mat paused, “I am so impressed with the beauty and integrity of the Reg and proud that they considered me a brother. This is the only way they can get around their principles to help. I felt that they wanted to help and this is evidence that supports that feeling.”
