The Realm exploded into cheers. The celebration moved from planet to planet and grew to a fiesta of joy and great expectations. Members began to immediately lobby to be selected for the new government centers to be located on their worlds. Those planets that felt pressured to join the Realm began rethinking their wish to leave. They knew the power of the new rulers and the immediate effect of them ruling their provinces. At the end of the thirty day period, only eight hundred and fifty six planets chose to leave the Realm. All eight hundred and fifty six asked for membership again within a hundred years. Thousands of years later, historians incorrectly said that this day was the day the Stars Realm truly began. Everyone correctly agreed that the golden age began on this day.
Chapter 15
Not everyone bought in to the new order. Thirty ships appeared out of nowhere and the first to appear shot the teleport emitter off the front of the huge commercial liner that was parked in orbit over a member planet. The liner was then hit with a beam to prevent it jumping away on its null drive; then the pirates moved toward the ship to board, take hostages, and remove the cargo. Suddenly a small, white ship appeared and fired red beams disintegrating twenty nine ships. A Red Warrior appeared on the last ship and moved through the corridors killing everyone on board. The ship jumped away but the Red Warrior was still on board moving inexorably toward the bridge. The bridge crew barred the door but the Red Warrior burned a hole through it like it didn’t exist. He stepped on the bridge to find the five man bridge crew cowering in a corner as far away from the door as possible.
The huge warrior walked up to the five and stopped just in front of them, “We did not destroy your ship because we are sending you back to your base in the Veumag System.” The pirates flinched when he mentioned their main base. We know that there are more than a six hundred ships that operate out of there; we could destroy all of you now but we have decided to give you a chance to survive. Go back and tell your leader that if one of their ships attacks another ship we will come and destroy every ship and remove the planet’s means of space travel. There will be no exceptions and all will perish. Do you understand?”
They all nodded, but one young Brageth stood and faced the Red Warrior, “I was captured by the pirates and have been forced to be a crew member. I do not want to be sent back; I’d rather die here now.” The other four tried to silence him but he ignored their efforts. “I humbly ask you not to send me back.”
The Red Warrior looked at the other four, “Is what he’s saying true?” The four looked at each other. “I can tell if you lie, my sensors allow me to determine if you’re being honest. If you lie, I’ll find others to send my message.”
“Yes, he’s telling the truth.”
“How many of your crew members are forced to join you?”
“About one third of the crew.”
The Red Warrior reflected that he had killed the crew too quickly; he pressed a button and teleported the hostage to the bridge of the Searcher. “Unfortunately, we are going to have to change our plans. That means we are not sending this ship back.”
The four pirates jumped up and started begging for their lives but the warrior was gone. An instant later the Searcher fired and destroyed the last ship.
“Do you know the crew members that have been forced to serve on the pirate’s ships?”
“Yes, I do. We are kept in chains when not serving on a ship.”
“Searcher, are all their ships still docked at their base?”
“Yes, they are.”
“We are going to free some captives and destroy the other ships. These pirates have no redeeming qualities and slavery is something the Realm does not tolerate. This captive is a citizen of the Realm and we are authorized to take whatever action we deem necessary.”
“How do you want to handle it?”
“I will enter one of the ships and eliminate the crew. I’ll start at the bridge and work my way back; teleport the captives to the landing bay where this young citizen will be waiting to give them their instructions and then you can eliminate the others.”
The Searcher arrived in the Veumag system and the Red Warrior teleported to one of the larger warships and killed every pirate on board. “The ship is clear.” Immediately more than seven hundred captives appeared in the landing bay and cowered away from the Red Warrior.
The red warrior began communicating, “You have been brought here to free you from those that have enslaved you. We have placed the coordinates of one of our bases in your jump drive and we will work to either reunite you with your families or provide a place for you to live in peace in the Stars Realm. Brandt will organize you to make the jump.”
The captives looked at the Red Warrior and some of them began crying. Most of them had marks on their faces and bodies where they had been punished with electric prods by the pirates. The Red Warrior felt his rage at seeing how badly these young hostages had been treated.
The Red Warrior teleported back to the Searcher’s ship and reported, “We were wrong to consider granting mercy to these scum.”
The Searcher activated his weapon console and then hit his communication panel. “Attention all citizens of Veumag, I am going to allow you to see the consequences of your actions. You have been supporting a fleet of pirate warships that have attacked the Stars Realm. If you will turn your attention to the station above your planet, you will see the first action we are taking.”
The pirates on the space station detected the emergence of the Searcher and began scrambling to their ships to escape. Unfortunately, there was not enough time and their time had run out. The entire station was hit by a red beam and disintegrated leaving nothing behind.
“Your planet has prospered by supporting these pirates and has demonstrated a callous disregard for life. You will not be allowed to leave your planet until you demonstrate you will not be a menace to other races.”
The Searcher then fired beams into their spaceports, ships in orbit, and all satellites circling the planet, removing any means of lifting from the plant’s surface. “If you choose to disregard this warning, our next visit will remove all of your technology and force you to learn farming to survive.”
The Red Warrior listened to the planet’s leaders beg for mercy, “They should have listened; they were warned.”
The Jimnil began launching their fleet from the stations orbiting their planet. The ten thousand warships moved smoothly away from the planet toward the jump limit. The Jimnil had not been contacted before the Eight Leg invasion because they were a warlike race and had conquered four other planets and enslaved the populations that they ruled with barbarous brutality. The fleet commander looked at his well ordered formations and knew they were well trained for the coming conquest. A bonus was that the planet selected for conquest did not have a fleet to stop them.
“A small ship has appeared between us and the drive limit.”
“Put it on my screen.” The commander saw a small red glowing ship in front of his fleet. Then he heard a thought, “You will stop your forward progress and return to your planet.”
“Who are you to order us?”
“I represent a Realm that does not allow defenseless planets to be attacked. We do not interfere with a civilization’s internal issues but we will prevent loss of innocent life. My leaders have finally decided that your reign of terror will no longer be tolerated. If you want to live, turn your ships around.”
The commander looked at his screen and asked, “Are there any other ships out there?”
“We detect only that small ship.”
“Order the first squadron to fire on that ship.”
Two hundred ships launched five hundred missiles at the small white ship. All five hundred were hit by small red beams that detonated them a foot above the ships that fired them destroying all two hundred ships. The commander was stunned.
“I hope that demonstration is enough to persuade you to turn around and return to your planet. I know you do not want to believe me but I can
destroy your entire fleet before any of you reach the place where you can jump.”
“If you know us at all you must be aware that we yield to no one.”
“I was really hoping that you would not force me to kill needlessly. However, since your fleet is well organized, I will begin destroying your ships as soon as they move within twenty thousand miles of the limit. If any want to live, turn around and return to the planet.”
The Commander ordered his fleet to fire their beams at the red ship and to continue forward. The remaining ships all fired their entire batteries of energy weapons at the small ship and the million beams just flashed on its screen. As the fleet moved forward, a thousand ships crossed the twenty thousand mile limit set by the stranger. The small ship fired those red beams and all of the thousand ships were blown apart. A thousand more crossed and they were destroyed. Three thousand more ships were blown up before the commander ordered his fleet to stop.
The Ruler on the planet watched as the small ship ravaged his fleet. Then he heard a thought along with every other being in the system, “I am glad you decided to stop throwing away lives needlessly. It is important that you listen to what I am about to tell you and to understand that I will carry out what I say. You will move your fleet back to your planet and will only use it only to defend your world from outside aggression. You will immediately recall all of your forces from the four worlds you have conquered and will not harm the native populations in any way during your withdrawal. If you do not comply with these instructions within seven rotations, I will destroy your forces on those planets down to the last warrior and then come here and remove your ability to wage war. It is my belief that there will be unavoidable loss of life here on your home world if you force me to carry out my threat. You may not think I am capable of carrying out my threats but just to make sure you know, I am going to offer one more demonstration. I hope you will take it to heart and make the right decisions.”
The small ship disappeared and reappeared above the surface of the eighth planet in the system. The fleet commander was stunned that the ship had jumped inside the drive limit and then he along with every member of his species saw the ship fire a huge red beam into the planet. The planet exploded and vaporized leaving nothing but empty space where it had been.
“I will be watching your actions; you might want to begin your withdrawals immediately. Patience is not something I possess. Remember, seven rotations from now.” The small ship disappeared.
The three hundred gang members moved down the middle of the street shooting into the dwellings on each side as they passed and laughed at the cowering civilians hiding in their homes. Fires lit the street behind them and the damage being done to homes was extensive. This was their territory and one of the civilians had not responded fast enough when told to pay for protection. The gang’s leader decided they needed to be reminded who was in charge. Two of the gang members moving ahead of the main group had captured a young female returning home and dragged her to their leader who stripped her and threw her to the ground; suddenly a huge red glowing being appeared in front of them. The gang members froze.
“Your world has petitioned the Realm for membership and while we are considering whether or not to accept their petition, we have promised the Realm’s protection for its citizens, which include you. However, one of our guiding principles is that we defend those that cannot defend themselves. This young female is obviously incapable of warding off your attack. I will make this offer only once; leave and return to your homes and you will live.” The Red Warrior looked at her display and saw ninety of the three hundred gang members moving behind vehicles and other structures to present a smaller target as they raised their weapons. She set the lower barrel of her auto cannon to target them with high velocity slugs.
The gang leader looked at the armored being in front of him and sneered, “Kill this bum while I enjoy the company of this lady.”
Eight gang members fired energy weapons at the red colored being. Ten seconds later all three hundred gang members lay dead on the street. The Red Warrior moved forward and lifted the young female, carried her home, and handed her to her parents. “Please care for her; she’s been through a bad experience.” The warrior then turned and moved out into the street where she teleported the dead bodies into the systems sun. Every gang in the city heard what had happened and after two more gangs were killed, they went home and stayed.
Ten thousand years passed and the Stars Realm was at peace. Every citizen enjoyed the prosperity the Realm had brought to their worlds and populations grew and expanded to millions of new worlds where they grew in wisdom and knowledge led by the inventions and developments of the Algeans and Spiders. It was at that time that the exodus began and citizens that longed for the excitement and adventure that come from new beginnings began moving into other universes to start over in an untamed, unknown, new environment. The majority of those that left were the races that provided the warriors of the Realm. Three thousand years later the Searchers were released to go out and explore new universes to spread the ideals of the Stars Realm.
Epilogue
“Do you still enjoy every day as much as I do, Darling.”
“More.”
“What’s your favorite memory?”
“Watching Rose’s children sending those bunnies out to find their lost toys; I still smile every time I remember them marching out of the room.”
“Do you think it’s time to retire?”
“What do you have in mind?”
“There are other universes to see. Would you like to go see some of them?”
Danielle moved into Tag’s arms and said, “My universe begins and ends right here.”
Rose and Matt entered the room and Tag looked at them and saw something was wrong, “What’s bothering you?”
Danielle turned and could see the two were upset.
Rose said, “Dad, we have both had an identical vision and we think we know what that Demon meant when he said we would regret killing him.”
Tag looked at Rose and asked, “What have you seen?”
Rose looked at Matt briefly and said, “The total destruction of the Stars Realm and the enslavement of all intelligent populations in our universe.”
Tag and Danielle looked at each other and Danielle said, “Why can’t it ever be easy?”
Tag looked at the two and they could see his anger rising, “Tell me about your vision.”
The End
Excerpt from “Finding Keepers”
“A ctivate the emitters.” Every Keeper on every ship connected with the other keepers on their ship telepathically and turned off their hearing. They then began sending the vibrating thought patterns into the emitter at the front of the ship. Each navigator watched their boards keeping their ships in formation while the weapons operators focused the intensity of the beam as it rose to the desired frequency and threshold; at that point the Director sent the command to the fleet, “Move forward.”
Abul Cahale was stretched out on a chair on the front of his yacht when he noticed something in the sky at the horizon moving toward his ship. The three young women that were attending him stood and looked at the approaching line of…somethings. As the objects moved closer, Abu saw that the objects were huge star ships and they were approaching quickly. The three women had moved to the front bow to get a better view and Abu saw them waving as the ships came closer. Suddenly they began screaming, twisting violently, and turned to dust. He jumped up and ran toward the rear of the huge vessel but didn’t make it to the main cabin before the most intense pain he had ever felt gripped him. Then he was gone as the dust from his body blew away in the sea breeze. The yacht continued sailing until it ran aground.
The Keeper’s beams showed no discrimination between rich or poor. Unlike Gambia’s population, there were no class distinctions; it treated all the same. The long line of brown ships moved north and left millions dead behind it. Animals were not touched by the beam, fish were not affected, bi
rds flew through it safely, and plants never noticed it pass; only Humans felt the intense pain and death. The stealth probe above the planet captured it all and witnessed the horror taking place.
The line of ships moved toward the main city of Gambia destroying everything outside the city proper. The population standing on the outskirts of the tall grey buildings looked up into a blue sky and saw the line of ships approaching. Public speakers were blaring a warning of an invading fleet and called for everyone to flee the city, but the inhabitants saw there was no time to exit. Many running from the city’s buildings saw the ships approach the Degrund Park just south of the main buildings.
A young man and woman standing in the park embraced each other and then turned to dust. Two children ran from the oncoming shadows and hid under the slide and watched as the people closest to the approaching ships turn to dust just before they, too died and blew away in the wind. At the Abu Galei hospital located next to the park, the maternity ward heard the babies go silent as the beams crossed the room. Hundreds of dogs were roaming the park with leashes dangling trying to find their owners that had blown away in the wind as the ships passed overhead.
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Document ID: fbd-d050b5-1b87-3644-62a4-7cdd-ac2a-fdfacf
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Document creation date: 21.03.2012
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