Annihilation - Finding Keepers (Annihilation Series (Book Seven})

by Saxon Andrew

  Dgran looked closer and saw the flashing bracelets. She looked at other humans in the community and their bracelets were not flashing. The other humans joined the creatures at the entrance. These six had, obviously, been selected by the creatures. One of the creatures motioned to the six, and they walked out of the community and boarded the vessel. The six brown creatures then climbed on board and moved quickly away from the community toward the building where they had originated. “Keep a close view on that vessel, Elef.”

  “I’m already doing it.”

  The vessel flew quickly back to the building and the six creatures exited, followed by the six humans. They walked up to what looked like a knee-high conveyer belt just outside the building, and the creatures motioned to the humans to sit on the conveyer. When each had taken their seat one of the creatures pulled a device and shot all six humans, who fell back onto the belt. The belt began turning and moved them into the building.

  “Are they still alive?”

  “They are still breathing, but there is no electrical activity in a huge area of their brain. Whatever they used to shoot them has totally destroyed all higher brain functions.”

  Dgran was shocked at the matter of fact way the creatures had killed the humans.

  “Commander, I have three ships coming around the moon and closing on our position.”

  Dgran looked at her main screen and saw that the brown ships were on top of their location. “Power up all systems; bring weapons on line.”

  The three ships stopped directly above the Searcher and fired three beams at the small ship. Dgran felt her body start to vibrate, “Jump out, Elef!” Elef did not respond, and Dgran saw that her ship was coming apart. The beams hitting the Searcher’s ship went through its screens like they didn’t exist. Dgran felt her body start to shut down and she pressed the self destruct button just before her body turned to dust. The small ship blew up with a huge blast that shattered the surface of the moon for a hundred mile radius. The three brown ships surrounding the Searcher were hit by the blast, but were unaffected.

  One microsecond before the blast destroyed the small ship, a tiny probe inside the ship’s computer the size of a marble teleported away from the doomed ship. The probe jumped three thousand times in less than five seconds immediately after it recorded the destruction of the Searcher. It arrived out in open space and jumped out of the universe back to the Stars Realm.

  “How can I possibly cause this coming attack you’re describing?”

  Valerie stood up and refilled her cup, “Your psychic ability protects you even when you are unaware of it operating. Do you ever wonder why Robby was caught and you weren’t?

  Jake’s expression turned serious, “Every day.”

  “It’s because your psychic self directed the merchant’s attention away from you. You have survived because you have not been ready to release your power. Whenever you have been in trouble, things were made to happen to insure you survived. How many close calls have you had with the security forces on Gambian?”

  “Before Robby died, there were numerous times that I wondered how I wasn’t caught. Are you saying that these skills you say I possess protected me?”

  ‘Yes, I am. It may have been necessary for another to face the security forces instead of you, but your psychic self will do whatever is necessary to insure your survival.”

  “Why?” Jake asked.

  Valerie shook her head, “Because you had to be kept alive and away from the one that would release your powers.”

  Jake just stared at her. Cynthia asked, “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “Jake has an initiator somewhere, either in this universe of another and we suspect it is in another universe, that when he touches her it will break the barrier that is keeping his psychic power locked inside him. He can only come into contact with her when his psychic self reaches maturity. If he makes contact before he is fully mature, then both of them could be killed by the contact. In all of the prior super psychics, this usually happened between the ages of eighteen and twenty four. Jake has entered the time of his skills being released. He should also start showing some of his skills as they are released due to stressful situations. His full power can only be released by his designated initiator.”

  Cynthia asked, “What makes you think it is in another universe?”

  Valerie looked at Cynthia, “Because all of us are sensing a coming attack and there is no force in our universe that could threaten us. It has to be coming from another universe. That is what makes us suspect that is where the initiator is located. We hope that we can go there before the attacker comes here, but with billions of possible universes, we have to hope we get a clue as to which one has the attacker and is also the location of his initiator.”

  Jake stood up and said, “This is ridiculous.”

  Valerie stood and put her hand on his shoulder and appeared to wait for something to happen. When nothing did, she sighed and said, “No it’s not, Jake. I can see your aura and you will be developing stronger psychic skills immediately. I can see the blue flashes that indicate that your power is seeking release.”

  Jake didn’t know what to think. Then Valerie said something that made him wonder if she was right. “Jake, I saw the recording of when the first psychic scanner exploded. You dove for the floor before it blew up. How did you know to do that?”

  Jake looked at her and said, “I didn’t do anything; my body just suddenly moved to the floor.”

  Valerie could see the confusion in his face; then she saw him realize a truth he had missed, “You’re saying I caused Robby to die because of my psychic abilities?”

  Valerie sighed, “Why was Robby outside that merchant’s office wearing the same tunic you had on when you decided to take that bag? I’ll bet if you asked him he wouldn’t be able to explain why he came there.”

  Jake was almost losing control, “He didn’t know. He just wandered to that location. He didn’t know what I was doing.”

  “Jake, your powers do not care about anyone else but you. If someone you love has to die to protect you, they will die. If a planet has to die to insure your survival, it will die. It does not care. If a Realm has to die to make your powers active, it will die. If a dangerous enemy has to attack the Realm to get you to where your initiator is located, the enemy will attack. The most powerful force in the universe is psychic power, and until your power is released and you take control of it you could cause unimaginable destruction.”

  “But I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

  “Neither does your power, but it will if it is necessary for you to find your initiator. The first rulers of the Stars Realm caused a war with the Alliance of worlds just to insure that they would not be separated. The end result of that war was the formation of The Stars Realm. The Royal Family has been searching for you for five years. Why do you think we have eight hundred teams at the casinos trying to capture anyone with psychic ability? We were looking for you. Thank the creator, we’ve found you.”

  Jake looked at the beautiful young girl and did not want to believe her, but something inside him told him she was right. Then he could hear her thoughts. He looked at her and thought, “Does this mean that I am now telepathic?”

  Valerie jerked, then thought back, “Yes. We have to get you to your initiator. We know that high levels of stress will cause your psychic skills to manifest themselves.”

  Cynthia was telepathic, and she was amazed. Then she asked, “How do you do that, Your Highness? I mean, how do you find this initiator?”

  “We wait for something to happen that is totally unexpected, then we follow up.”

  Jake thought, “What do you mean, unexpected?”

  Valerie smiled, “It wouldn’t be unexpected if I knew what it was, but this much I can tell you: it won’t be long.”

  Chapter Four

  The probe teleported into the mainframe at Fleet Control and immediately downloaded its information. A loud siren went off, along with bright flashing r
ed lights. The Spider in command that day pressed a button and announced, “We have the destruction of a Searcher. All command staff report in immediately. The Spider then toggled a switch and said, “It’s starting; both of you come here now.”

  A silver screen appeared and two more spiders stepped out. “What’s happened, Newton?”

  “We’ve had a Gamma ship destroyed.”

  The two spiders were shocked, “How is that possible? Those ships are the most powerful ships we’ve ever created.”

  “I don’t know, Edison, but from what I’ve initially seen from the escape probe it wasn’t even able to fire its weapons before it was killed.”

  The third spider asked, “Do you think this is what the Royal Family has been sensing?”

  “It has to be, Einstein. Any ship that can destroy a Gamma is a real threat. We at least know what universe the ship was located in when it was destroyed.”

  Edison sat down at a control board, “Do we know anything about that universe?”

  “There’s nothing in the Realm’s data on explored universes.”

  “Have you looked at our data?” Einstein asked.

  Newton leaned right, indicating he had not, “I was hoping you and I would do that while Einstein assimilates the information the probe brought back and try to get our analysis organized.”

  “I’m on it.”

  “Have you notified the Royal Family?” Edison asked.

  “I just sent a message to the King.”

  Edison thought a moment, “We’d better have our information ready quickly. According to the Castle, we are going to be attacked soon.”

  Newton looked at Edison’s control panel, “You’d better call in the Algeans to help organize the information from the probe.”

  “Already done; they have the data downloaded to them and they are going to work on the information gathered from the planet the Searcher was scanning.”

  Newton rose and moved toward the teleport screen, “I’m going to try and determine how those ships were able to see the Gamma through its invisibility screen. I’m going with Einstein to see what we have in our records. “

  Edison looked up, “Just got word the Royal Family wants a meeting in two days to see what we know. Get to work, and link the Algeans in to your computer.” Edison was worried; a Gamma had been destroyed.

  Valerie got a faraway look and put her cup down on the table. She appeared to be listening to something for a moment, then looked at Jake and Cynthia, “Well, it looks like it’s starting. Cynthia, take us to Ross. We are going to attend a meeting at Castle Gardner that will be held in two days. While we’re waiting, report to fleet command and have them go over your ship’s systems.” Valerie looked at Jake, walked up and gave him a hug, and kissed his cheek. “I know you doubt that you can help us, but I know in my heart that you will make the difference in our survival. I am so thankful I’ve had this time with you. Please don’t forget me.”

  Jake was astounded. What did she mean? He was a nobody and this woman child was one day going to rule the Realm. He looked at her and said, “You’re too beautiful to ever forget.”

  Valerie smiled and Cynthia felt a pang of jealously. Then she said, “Why am I going to this meeting?”

  Valerie looked at Cynthia and said, “Because wherever Jake has to go, you are going to take him.”

  “Why?”

  “Because his psychic self led him to you. You captured him because you were selected to do so; at least that’s what we think. Either way, the two of you will be traveling partners for the foreseeable future.”

  Cynthia didn’t know what to think about that. She just knew that it couldn’t be good.

  Einstein entered the command chamber and thought to Newton, “I’ve found that universe in our data banks.”

  Newton looked up, “And?”

  “The information was suppressed by the Demons. A family was sent to harvest it about twenty million years ago and was destroyed by the creatures there. We sent a follow up family and they were also decimated by those creatures. We never went back. It seems the Demons implemented a compulsion for us to stay away.”

  Newton leaned a little lower and said, “Then my belief that we were undefeated until the war with the Realm is not accurate.”

  “It appears that way. The records from the survivors of the failed follow up show the creatures using a kind of invisible beam that destroyed anything it hit, including the green substance used on our ships. We don’t know what produces that beam, but it is not energy as we know it.”

  “Take what you know to the Algeans and see what they can determine. I’m doing an analysis of their ships. They do not show up on our scans. I’ll let you know what I find out.”

  “Better hurry; we only have forty five hours left to get ready for the meeting.”

  “I know; now get out of here so I can concentrate.”

  Jake and Valerie teleported down to the castle and Valerie took him to a room on the eighth floor. “This is where you will be staying until the meeting. You might want to visit the library and catch up on the actual facts about the Stars Realm while you’re waiting. The meeting is scheduled for the day after tomorrow.”

  “How do I get to the library?”

  Valerie smiled, “Right here beside your door is a panel with all of the main rooms in the castle. Simply press where you want to go and walk through your doorway. To come back here, just press the button that says living quarters on any panel in the castle. The system has recorded you and will send you back to this room.”

  Jake shook his head, “This is some place you live in.”

  Valerie nodded, “It grows on you, and can really spoil you when you travel. See you later, Jake.”

  Jake nodded as Valerie pressed a button, walked through the silver screen in the doorway, and disappeared. Jake thought a moment, then pressed the library button, stepped through the silver screen, and emerged into a huge room. He saw that there were headsets on many of the tables and he walked over to one and put it on. He immediately heard a voice, “What would you like to view?”

  Jake thought, then said, “The early history of the Stars Realm before Sprig was king.”

  The headset responded, “Would you like the information downloaded or simply read?”

  Jake wasn’t sure what downloaded was, but he figured it would have to be faster than having it read. “Downloaded.”

  “Please sit down in one of the chairs to commence download.”

  Jake sat down in a chair at the table. It immediately moved to a reclining position, then his brain came alive with images and information at a rate that was incredible. He lost track of time.

  Upstairs the King of the Stars Realm thought to Valerie, “You have removed the protocols on the library?”

  “Only for him, Father.”

  “That is information that may not be a good thing to have known.”

  “He is going to need every advantage we can give him, and he needs to know what he’ll be fighting for in the upcoming confrontation. He needs to know what we are.”

  “You still see us being attacked, Daughter?”

  “Yes, and it won’t be long before it starts.”

  “Then the death of our Searcher is the opening of hostilities?”

  Valerie sighed, “Yes, and there are going to be many more that die.”

  “And you think this young lad is going to make a difference?”

  “Without him we are lost, Father. He is our only hope, and if he fails then the Stars Realm is doomed.”

  “I’m having extreme difficulty believing that. Our military is quite strong and we have millions of ships.”

  “Listen to what information comes out in the meeting and then tell me you don’t believe it. We stand no better chance than that dead Searcher did.”

  The King reflected a moment and said, “We’ll see.”

  Meanwhile Jake remained motionless on the chair downstairs.

  Einstein teleported in to Edison’s command c
enter and said, “I have uncovered some disturbing news.”

  Edison looked up from his terminal, “What is that?”

  “These creatures are a product of our invasion. They are much more dangerous to intelligent life than we ever hoped to be. It appears we caused it to happen.”

  Edison lowered his body and said, “Give me what you’ve discovered.”

  Einstein pressed a button on a device on one of his legs, “You have it. I hope you know how to present this.”

  Edison hoped so, too.

  Cynthia said, “Ouch, that hurts!”

  The Algean working on a device on her head said, “Oh, be still. These connections are absolutely critical if this is going to work.”