by Saxon Andrew
“Where is your next assignment?”
“I’ve resigned from the Warriors.”
“What!”
“I’m joining the Fleet and will be fighting with the Navy.”
“Why?”
“That’s where the next fights are going to happen. Our Warriors can’t match the next species we’re going to have to take on and it will become a war between fleets.”
“I’m sure you’ll be excellent in the Navy.”
“You’ll be able to see if I am or not.”
“Oh! How’s that?”
“You’re joining with me.”
“Why would I ever do that?”
“There’re two reasons.”
“What’s the first?”
“You’ve given up your first retirement so you’re going to need another.”
Ken tilted his head and started slowly nodding, “Now that’s a good point. What’s the other?”
“If you’re going to love me you should do it up close. You’ll be happier that way.”
Ken stared at Pixie and didn’t know what to say. He lowered his head and sighed, “I guess you’re right. Not seeing you has made my life miserable.”
“I was going to resign from the Scouts before I was offered a position in the Navy.”
“Why?”
“Because after you left, life was just not fun anymore; I suspect I miss you more than you miss me.”
Ken said, “That’s just not possible.”
Pixie said, “Look in my eyes and tell me what pattern you see.”
Ken looked in Pixie’s eyes and after a moment saw something. She needed him. He said, “Maybe it is. I guess miracles do happen.”
“Now you only have to answer one more question.”
“What is that?”
“Do you kiss me first or am I going to have to show you how it’s done.”
Ken’s smile was instant. He pulled Pixie over and kissed her tenderly. She felt his mind and was lost in what she saw. He finally broke the kiss and she said, “I’ll demonstrate how to do it with a little more passion.”
Ken decided at that moment that Major Dinter had been right during training; love does turn your world upside down.
• • •
Jixie sat with Sam in the family room and began crying. Sam looked at her, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, my love. Nothing.”
Chapter Seventeen
Ken looked at the assignments and scowled. Pixie said, “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t understand why we’ve been sent to the Academy. We could learn what we need on the job.”
“Ken, you and I are going to be assigned a squadron of ships to command. Unless you want to enlist as an Ensign, you must complete this course of study. You need to know your ship’s capabilities and how they can be used. Besides, you should be thankful.”
“Why is that?”
“It gives us a chance to be together without the distraction of having to fight in space battles.”
Ken looked at Pixie and smiled, “You’re right. I didn’t think it through.” He turned back to the assignments and completed reading them in three minutes. “Now I have to confess that was interesting.”
Pixie looked at him, “You’re done?”
“Yeah, why do you ask?”
“I’m still storing the material in compartments.”
“Yeah, but you absorbed it in less than ten seconds.”
“There’s more to learning than absorbing it. How much do you remember?”
“All of it.”
“What was on page 408 in the first assignment?”
“Do you want the whole page?”
“The start of the last paragraph.”
“The invisibility mode does not allow absorption of energy and physical objects simultaneously. All objects such as missiles or projectiles should…”
“That’s enough. I know you see patterns instantly but do you also read just as fast?”
“Print is nothing more than a pattern. It takes me longer to turn the pages than to read it.”
Pixie shook her head, “I almost wonder if you’re human. However, it does allow you to do one thing.”
“What is that?”
Pixie came into his arms, “Maximize your chill time.”
Ken smiled and later walked Pixie to her dorm.
• • •
Sam looked at Admiral Bzelle and said, “Admiral, I want you to download every course you have in the academy into one unit and have two of your trainee’s go through them in one sitting.”
“Your Majesty, that’s four years of material.”
“Admiral, I happen to know that these two are not being challenged by the curriculum and are wasting time. Do as I ask and test them on it after they complete it.”
“We’ll have to do it in multiple downloads. They can’t stay on the couches for weeks at a time.”
“Admiral, they will adjust the speed of download to their ability to absorb it. I suspect it won’t take as long as you think. They’ve been there a year and we need them with the fleet. Notify me after they’ve been tested.”
“I’ll set it up immediately, Your Highness.” Admiral Bzelle shook his head. There was no way this was going to speed up the learning process. The huge amount of material was staggering. He contacted the Academy and issued his instructions.
• • •
“What’s going on?”
Pixie frowned, “We’ve been busted. Mom has seen that we’re not being challenged and has taken steps to speed up our education.”
“I was starting to like this routine.”
Pixie smiled, “I suspect you do; there’s huge amounts of chill time.” Pixie sighed, “But she’s right. We should get into the fray.”
The Academy Commanding Officer came over and said, “We’ve been instructed to put all of your classes into one download. Absorb it at a pace you’re comfortable with and notify me when you’re finished.”
Pixie said, “You sound skeptical, Sir.”
“We feel like you won’t save much time doing it this way. There is so much material that relates to other modules that it will take just as much time as attending classes with professors explaining those relationships.”
“Well, we might as well get started.”
Pixie looked at Ken and said, “You’re not going to fake this are you?”
“If I do, I’ll be left here and you’ll be gone. Then this will become a chore. I suspect you’ll finish long before I do anyway.”
“Yes, but I’ll have to organize it and process it, where you don’t. It will be interesting to see the difference.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“Oh be quiet and let’s get this over with.”
They lay down on the couches and put on the head bands. The download started and the Commander left. Four hours later he received a call from the librarian, “Sir, they’ve completed the downloads.”
“WHAT?”
“Cadet Mille finished first but Cadet Clarke completed the download an hour later.”
The Commander was astounded. “Send them to the testing facility and have them go through all the exams associated with the modules on that download.”
He sat in his office and wondered how the two cadets could have possibly completed that material in less than a year. An hour later he decided to contact Fleet Admiral Mirabal, but his com buzzed and he saw the testing administrator on the display. “Yes?”
“They’ve competed the testing.”
“How is that possible?”
“It’s not possible but they’re done and both of them had no errors.”
“Is it possible they cheated?”
“I had Professor Petal come in and verbally question them on some of the complicated electronic systems our ships use and they didn’t make a mistake with her either. They know the material.”
“We’ve never had anyone to graduate with perfect scores.”
�
�Well now we have two.”
The Commander decided that the Duke knew something about these two cadets that he didn’t. “Send them to the registrar and process them out. Tell them they can attend the graduation of the next class.”
“Yes Sir.”
The Commander saw a message come in from Fleet Admiral Mirabal instructing him to graduate the two with the rank of Commodore. The Commander shook his head and smiled. With that rank they would command any group of ships without an Admiral. He knew that Clarke was a former Brigadier General and had earned that rank in the ranks. He pushed his panel and issued the instructions. He wondered how the two were going to be used in Fleet Operations but decided to make their promotions simultaneously. The times would be identical so they would be equal in rank. Neither would have seniority. Since Fleet didn’t tell him who should be senior, they could sort it out.
• • •
The eight hundred representatives of the farming communities talked among themselves about what was happening. A week earlier the farming communities had been ordered by the masters to select someone to speak for them. The representatives had been picked up in shuttles and brought to the largest farming community. Once they disembarked they were directed to a large field. The workers in the field wondered what was happening. A Blue Warship dropped out of the sky and hovered ten feet off the surface of the field. A Supreme Master came walking down the incline that emerged from the giant ship and approached the delegates. It thought so all could hear, “Those of you working in the fields may come and listen to what we’re going to discuss. The thousands of inhabitants working in the fields looked at each other and started moving toward the gathering. This had never happened in the past and there were equal measures of curiosity and fear. Curiosity won and the thousands left for the gathering that was growing by the thousands every second.
The Supreme Beetle waited until all of those in the fields arrived, which took more than four hours. Finally it said where all could hear, “We are leaving your planet.”
The crowd was stunned by the statement but no one spoke. Fear of the Masters was ingrained into their psyche. Finally the bravest delegate said, “Why?”
“We have learned that we are harming an entity that we wish to communicate with and to continue to hold you in confinement will not allow us to make contact.”
The delegate said, “Are you telling us you have no issues with conquering our planet and enslaving us to work your farms, but are going to walk away to simply communicate with another being?”
The black colored beetle turned toward the speaker and sunlight reflected a crimson light off its shell, “Part of what we’re learned is that you’re suffering from our invasion is harming the one we want to contact. We have decided that it is no longer appropriate to force you to do our will.”
“I don’t understand.”
The large beetle paused and said, “You are emotional creatures, are you not?”
The delegates looked at each other and the speaker said, “We do have emotions.”
“We don’t possess emotions. All of our decisions are based on logic without any emotional content. It was logical to us to use others to do our work for us. The feelings or thoughts of those we used were not factored in the decision. It was, to us, the logical thing to do. We don’t hate you or love you or feel anything about you. That’s not the way we’re made. However, we have been shown a different perspective and based on what we saw, there are consequences to our behavior that we were not aware of when we conquered your planet. It has become clear that the logical thing to do is to leave.”
The speaker said, “You should know that all of us hate you with a passion we can’t come close to expressing.”
“We know that as well and there was consideration of just destroying the planet and eliminate a possible future enemy.” The large gathering felt fear. Even the speaker knew that these creatures would do it without a second thought. “However, that would be illogical if we were leaving to prevent causing you harm. We decided that we would not harm you further.”
• • •
The speaker took a deep breath and blew it out. “You’re planning to walk away and just leave us here? You destroyed our technology, you made us leave our cities, which are all in decay now, and you destroyed the fleets we used to defend us. You’ll leave and we will be conquered again by the first aggressive species that stumbles on us.”
“Unfortunately, you have a good understanding of what’s happening.” The inhabitants began seeing their future and it wasn’t looking good. At least the Masters had not killed indiscriminately. They hadn’t even blasted the cities. “However, we are willing to make you an offer but I suspect you won’t be willing to take it.”
“What is that?”
“We invaded and made you farm because we don’t like doing it. We now know that we will have to feed ourselves. We are willing to pay for your services.”
“What do you mean pay?”
“If you will continue to grow food for us, we will rebuild your cities and transportation facilities. We will also assist you in rebuilding your fleets and defensive capabilities. We will build a structure for everyone that chooses to work in the fields and pay them based on how much they produce. We will also defend your planet against all aggressors while you are transitioning to independence from us.”
“Why do you say we’ll not accept this offer?”
“Because you said you hate us with a bitterness that is indescribable. We don’t understand emotions but we assume you will want nothing to do with us after we leave. We’re making this offer to try and at least reduce your hatred. We know those emotions are not going to make it easy for us to make contact.”
“Just who is this entity you want to contact?”
“She is the Creator of everything and our actions have harmed her. She has heard your suffering and it weakens her. We never knew she existed but another species allowed us to hear her song. We want to hear it again.”
The speaker looked at those around him and turned to the Supreme Beetle, “Will you give us some time to decide?”
“I will leave one of my subjects here with a shuttle to deliver your answer. We will not come back again without your permission. If we knew what we know now, we would have never bothered you, but we didn’t. This new knowledge forces us to reevaluate and act logically. That is why we have a representative from every community here to hear what we’ve discussed.”
“Will you do one thing before you go?”
“What is that?”
“We have no way to travel between our communities and we need for us to go back and explain what has happened. Will you take us to our communities and bring us back here?”
The Beetle looked up at the sky and after a moment shuttles began arriving and landing on the field outside the gathering. “The one I’m leaving here will teach you how to fly the shuttles. You may keep them and use them for whatever you decide.” The Supreme Beetle turned and reentered the warship. After the ramp was retracted it lifted into the atmosphere and disappeared.
The Speaker watched it go and shouted, “Before we go back to our communities, you are the largest on the planet. Please discuss what you’ve heard and prepare to tell us what you want done before we leave.” The Speaker turned to the lone Beetle and said, “What do we do with our crops?”
“They are yours. Do with them what you choose.”
There was enough to feed the inhabitants. They would have time to discuss what should be done.
• • •
Vremel was behind his psychic field listening to the conversation on the surface. Now this was a development. He teleported away and arrived at El Prado to tell Eyes about the new development. Two hours later the king knew and soon after that Sam was given a recording of the conversation and Jixie laughed. Sam looked at her and she said, “Mitch bought us this opportunity. And bless Russell’s soul for allowing the Blue Creature to hear the song.”
• • •
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br /> Ken looked at Pixie and said, “I can see why the Life Warriors will no longer play a role in future actions.”
“Tell me what you see.”
“The remaining species that are the real problems we’ll have to confront don’t invade planets; they destroy them.”
“That’s how I see it as well.”
“I also see the Zord have found thousands of other aggressive species but the Fleet and Warriors can handle them. It’s this last group that is really scary.”
“The one we’ve stumbled on recently are more advanced than our technology. We can kill their ships but it takes multiple hits to kill one of their ships. We’ve lost a large number of ships attempting to stop them from killing civilizations.”
Ken nodded and said, “We didn’t stop them. They sent reinforcements and we were forced to flee. The planets were still destroyed. This doesn’t look good, Pixie.”
“Dad tells me that fleet is planning to give us sixty ships to use in our squadrons. What’s your opinion about how we organize them?”
“I think that we should put them all under my command and that you operate independently.”
Pixie thought about the idea and said, “This is different from ground warfare, Ken.”
“Not really. We need to see how the enemy’s ships are organized and we will then choose an appropriate method to attack. I see that Mitch’s patterns would work against individual enemy ships.”
“How did you come up with that?”
“According to the video recordings, their ships can detect a teleport signature and fire within two tenths of a second after detection. It takes our ships a tenth of a second to emerge and fire. That leaves just one tenth of a second to hit and move. If we develop a pattern where each ship has an arrival point at a specified place and time, we should be able to continuously hit them. I’ve also seen a pattern that seems to indicate that if they fire a beam, it will take it a half second to recharge. Their beams overlap so if we can get two beams located next to each other to fire, we’ll have more time to move back in and fire multiple shots.”
Pixie looked at the recordings in her mind and said, “I missed that recharge time. I think you’re right but this is not going to be easily done with a ship flying at high speed. Arriving at the right time and place will be extremely difficult.”
