“Carter, are you ready?”
Carter gave a start, “Give me about an hour; I’ll meet you on the ship.”
“We’ll be waiting.”
Jenna looked at Carter, “So, you’re off again.”
Carter kissed her and smiled, “I hate to go, especially with the baby on the way.”
“Oh quit worrying about us; we’ll be fine. Just stay in touch.”
“I will.” Carter went to the learning center and looked in the Military Database at the teleportation probes; fifty minutes later he teleported to the Algean’s ship after speaking with Alex.
Carter looked at the display and saw the orange planet, “I don’t see any difference.”
Seed turned from the scanner and replied, “Today is when the really virulent spores we released are going to activate.”
“I’m not sure what you mean by that?”
“The initial spores are created to delay thirty days before they activate. However, the spores that are released from the infected orange plants will not be delayed. They will attack anything that has that orange plant’s structure. Every time the spores kill an orange plant they will release billions of new spores. We should be able to see an effect shortly.”
Carter stared at the display but saw nothing different from the first visit. He used his armor’s scanner and looked at the surface and absently asked, “How long does it take one of those spores to kill an orange plant?”
“Less than thirty minutes. The new spores will be released in less than fifteen minutes from the moment the spore infects an orange plant.”
“Are we over the place where we dropped the packet?”
Weed shook with his laughter, “Of course. We aren’t so incompetent that we’d miss it.”
“I wasn’t being critical. It’s just that every place on the surface looks identical.”
Seed said from the command chair, “Notice the four tall mountains to the north?”
Carter widened his scan and said, “Those are mountains?”
“It doesn’t look like it from a scan but they are over twenty thousand feet high. The uniform orange color tends to hide them.”
Carter looked at them with an active scan and saw that she was right. He looked back at the plain and saw something. There was a patch of ground that wasn’t orange. “Do you see that?”
“Yes we do; and it’s growing.”
Carter watched and saw Weed was right. The small patch seemed to double in size in less than five minutes. As he watched over the next hour the patch grew from a hundred square yards to a hundred square miles. He backed his scan out and saw thousands of areas on the surface that were losing their orange color. He heard Weed say, “That storm really scattered the spores. We should get a major change in the next thirty minutes; that’s when the second generation of spores begins doing their work.”
Carter moved his scan to the ocean and saw the orange colored seas were not showing any change. He wondered about that but looked back at the original site. He saw hundreds of clear patches of land on the surface that had stopped growing. He checked his watch and waited thirty minutes. What he saw stunned him. The clear patches were expanding at a phenomenal rate. From orbit it looked like the orange surface was retreating before an advance of brown colored dirt. He looked closer and saw the orange plants were falling apart and dissolving. Nothing remained after that brown wave washed over them. He looked back at the oceans and saw the change there was even more dramatic. It was like giant ripples were leaving the center of clear patches of ocean and routing the orange waters before them.
Carter looked at Seed, “Did you think it was going to react this fast?”
Seed looked at Carter leaning back, “No! This is beyond anything we envisioned. That orange plant offers no resistance to our spores.” Seed looked back at the display, “At the current rate of expansion, the planet will be clear in less than two days.”
Carter looked at Seed and shook his head, “If these spores are on a starship, the addicted crew might be dead in less than an hour after the spores activate.”
“You’re probably right. We need to change the delay from thirty days to ninety days.”
“Why?”
“We must make sure the spores are spread around the Invader’s fleets and planets. This would give them a warning before they could be spread.”
“How long will it take to make the change?”
“About four months. We’ll start working on the change while we’re here.”
Carter looked down on a clear continent and knew that someone was going to be really angry at whoever caused this to happen to their drug supply. He needed to see Alex again and soon.
Weed, Seed and Carter looked down on a planet that had nineteen black ships in orbit around it. The Invaders had entered a new universe now that the strongest civilizations had been destroyed. Carter looked at Weed and said, “How do you want to handle this?”
“I want you to go to each city those ships are going to sent their warriors and drop a packet into the middle of the city.”
“Why?”
“I want all nineteen ships to bring back some of the spores when their shuttles return. These ships will support other landings and the chance of contamination goes up.”
“What do we do after that?”
“We’ll teleport to as many planets as we can find and teleport a packet into one of the farms. If we’re discovered we’ll just teleport away. Are you ready?”
Carter turned on his armor and saw the nineteen coordinates on his data screen. He fed them into his guidance module and stuffed nineteen clear bags into the outer surface of his armor. Do I need to teleport them so they can fall?”
“No, just send them a thousand feet over each city. The bags are made to dissolve once they detect a rapid rate of descent. The spores will then scatter and cover the city.”
“Should I drop them up wind?”
Weed looked at his scans, “That’s a good idea. I’ll feed you the weather data on each city. It looks like the winds are nominal for thirteen cities. The six with high winds are being sent to you now.”
Carter read the data and allowed his navigation module to modify the coordinates. He saw the green light illuminate and teleported out. Two minutes later he appeared back on board. “It’s done; how long until the spores activate?”
Seed said, “Six months. We’ve decided that we shouldn’t rush the spread by allowing them to be discovered too soon. We’re going to start teleporting to the other planets and drop the packets over the highest concentration of Invaders. There are sixty other planets that are being attacked by multiple ships; we’ll pause at each of those for you to saturate the landers.”
Carter took his seat and watched the display. Planet after planet appeared in rapid succession and he knew the Algeans had already visited this universe and set up the program for dropping spores. He took a deep breath knowing that it was now beginning. He hoped the plan would work but he worried about how the Invaders were going to respond. The Empire’s ships weren’t ready to take on the Black Ships. He worried about Jenna and the baby.
“Alex, the Algeans are delivering the spores. Are you any closer to a solution?”
“No, Grace. It appears that we are going to have to take an entirely new approach to the power delivery and it appears that the process will take years to complete.”
Grace was frightened, “Why!?!
“We can’t get a teleport screen close enough to a star to make the transfer. The heat is just too much for them.”
“Alex, you have to know what that means.”
“I do, but I can’t just conjure up what we need. We really believe the new process will work, but it’s going to take years to put in place.”
Grace teleported away, just after Alex sent a probe into her outer skin. He was going to teleport her to him if she was in trouble. She would just have to forgive him afterwards.
Scotty looked at Julie and felt his heart beat faster. She was teaching a group of ten young children the history of the Empire and somehow she was more beautiful today than he had ever seen. Grang and Geena were with her answering the children’s questions and he knew that it was a moment like this that made all the effort worth it. He didn’t know what the future held but he knew that he was blessed with a love that was larger than the universe. He waited until the class ended and then walked up to her. She smiled and saw his expression “Is something wrong?”
“No, I just need you to spend some alone time with me. I want to go back to our home on Bristone and have some time to ourselves if your schedule allows.”
Julie stood and bowed, “You could order me to go, Your Majesty.”
“Then you are so ordered.”
Julie came into his arms. Scotty hit his com, “Timmy, you and Virze will assume command in my absence. The Queen and I are taking a trip.”
“We’ll arrive momentarily, Your Majesty.”
Scotty held Julie and looked at New Hope from the top floor of the new capital building and saw the capital of the empire was growing at a phenomenal rate. He longed for the simple surroundings of Bristone. Julie looked up at him and he smiled, “Let’s go home, my love.”
Julie held on tight as Greyson teleported them on board and took them home. Three weeks later Scotty stepped down from the throne of the Empire and named Tim and Virze Valrico as the new Emperor and Empress. He didn’t know why but he knew he wanted every moment possible to be spent loving Julie. The Empire worried about the change initially but the new Royal Family quickly put their fears to rest. Grang and Geena continued their roles as the Emperor’s body guards.
Greyson missed Timmy when he became Emperor but was excited that Robby and Dani had asked him and Grace to accept them as their new partners. He knew that Scotty’s son was going to be heavily involved in the defense of the Empire and Grace also accepted their request; they became a formidable team.
Grang would visit Scotty occasionally and saw that he was finally at peace and truly happy. He loved his adopted brother and knew he had to let him go and continue his quest to pay back his sins. He hoped that he and Geena would find the same peace one day. Scotty and Julie would be safe on Bristone.
Alex and Vring were getting the probe ready to trial its ability to absorb extreme heat. Kreej got a faraway look and said, “I’m going to leave you soon.”
Vring turned around and looked at Kreej’s thoughts. Alex said, “Why, we’re at an important point in the new process.”
Vring said, “He has to go, Alex.”
“Why!”
“Robby and Dani are going to attempt to steal a dimensional drive from one of the Invader’s ships.”
Alex was shocked at the statement and didn’t know what to say. Vring looked at Kreej, “You know the risk?”
“We do but, if the spores work, we won’t have another opportunity like this one.”
“Are they sure that this is the time?”
“No, but they sense they need to make the attempt.”
“When are you going?”
“We’ll be leaving tomorrow to find a suitable candidate.”
Alex interrupted, “Then assist us today. This experiment will determine whether or not we’re on the right track.”
“Fair enough; I’ll leave after the probe sends its data.”
Robby and Dani hugged each other and waited for Grace to arrive. “Dani, are you sure you see yourself involved in this?”
“Yes, I do.”
Robby shook his head slowly, “I don’t get that sense when I think about it.”
“Robby, I knew when we were originally selecting weapons for our armor at the Defense Facility that I would need those slugs. Trust me; you are going to need me there.”
Robby shrugged but realized that Dani’s sense of anticipating danger was more developed than his. He knew he had to make the effort to steal the drive but he got no sense of what the outcome would be. He sighed and held her tighter, “Are you bringing Neelah with you?”
“No, I sense that would be a mistake. Kreej is the one we need to take with us. He’s going to play an important role is this mission.”
“Do you know where we’re going to make this happen?”
“Yes, I do. We’re going wherever the Algeans are currently located and I do have a sense of them not cooperating.”
Robby frowned, “Do tell.”
“I don’t understand it but I know they will be a problem.”
“Are you ready to go?”
“Yes, we are Grace. Is Kreej with you?”
“Yes, he just teleported on board.”
Robby and Dani turned on their armor and teleported to Grace’s Bridge. Dani went to the command chair and checked the system’s status, “Grace, go to full stealth and take us to the universe the Invaders are currently attacking. Scan for the Algeans as soon as we arrive.”
The large white ship disappeared.
Carter watched the display and saw an Invader ship above the planet where they had dropped the first packets of spores. The two Algeans were also watching their display intently and Carter didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, “What are you expecting to happen?”
Seed turned to him, “This was one of the first ships infected with our spores. We need to see if the Invaders are going to be affected.”
“Seed, we need to come to your location. Please send me your coordinates.”
Carter heard Dani’s thought and saw the two Algeans turn to each other. “I’m sorry, but we are in the middle of some very important observations. Now would not be a good time.”
“We also need to be there at this time and we insist that you send us your location.”
Carter watched the two Algeans talk to each other telepathically and not include him in their conversation. He heard Weed say, “I’m sorry, but we must decline. We can’t allow this to be disturbed.”
“This is not a request, Weed. The Emperor has sent us to conduct an experiment of our own and we must be there as quickly as possible.”
“I’m sorry, we can’t allow that.”
Carter pulled his gun from his holster and pointed it at the two Algeans, “Send the coordinates.”
The two Algeans turned and saw Carter’s gun. “We cannot do that. Don’t force us to take that weapon from you. We can move faster than you can hit us.”
Carter’s armor activated and he pointed his arm at the two Algeans, “Think you can do that now?”
The two Algeans froze.
Carter turned on his communicator, “I’ve just sent you the coordinates. I’m holding our two friends at gun point. Do you know what’s going on here?”
Grace teleported in next to Pyle and Robby and Dani then teleported on board. The Algeans didn’t move or say anything. Robby looked at them and then looked at the display with the Black Ship. He turned back to the Algeans, “You know why we’re here.”
“Yes, but you must not attempt it. It would cause a domino effect if the Invader’s creator learns what you’ve done.”
“Did you know that we sense a much higher danger from not making the effort?”
Seed looked at Weed and said, “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“You know we have the ability to sense danger.”
“Well, yes.”
“If we don’t make this effort the level of danger skyrockets; we must do this. Now, you can help us or we will teleport you to Greyson who is out in empty space. It’s your choice.”
Seed looked at Weed, “We’ve done what we can. They should be allowed to choose their destiny.”
Weed turned to Robby, “It’s critically important that your theft not be discovered.”
“We’ll make every effort to insure that happens but we will attempt the theft.”
Carter looked at Robby, “What are you going to steal?”
“We’re going to take their interdimensional drive.”
Carter was shocked, “How? That device has got to be massive.”
“We’ll handle it.” Robby looked at the two Algeans, “How far along do you think the crew is infected?”
“The spores became active thirty minutes ago. The crew will be starting to feel the tremors momentarily if our readings have been accurate. What are you going to do?”
“We know that in order to contact their Creator, they must drop their force field. As soon as that field drops, Dani and I are teleporting on board and killing everyone on the bridge before they can start communicating.”
“Surely, you don’t think you can do that fast enough before the transmission starts?”
“You should have done your homework better, Weed. We’ve studied more than eight hundred recordings of their communications and the reason the force field must be dropped is that the communications device needs the power being used to maintain the force field to drive the communicator. We have a five second window. Are you going to help us or not?”
Weed stared at Robby and then said, “Turn on your armor. We’ve scanned the bridge and I’ll give you the coordinates where you must arrive. You must kill the Captain of that ship first before he could trigger its self-destruct mechanism. The other location is what we believe to be the Communications Officer. There are thirty crew members on the bridge and they are all armed. Are you sure you want to try this? Both of you can die in the effort.”
Carter said, “I’ll go with you.”
Dani looked at him, “Sorry Carter, you aren’t armed to handle this. We have broad head slugs that will not penetrate those that are hit. We can’t run the risk of damage to any of their consoles.”
Carter smiled, “I have a hundred of those slugs.”
Robby did a double take, “Why did you take those?”
“Because I saw Dani had taken some out of the Defense Facility’s inventory. I assumed she was smarter than I was so I also loaded them.”
Robby looked at Dani, “Do you see him.”
“No, but that doesn’t mean he’s not there.”
“This explains why you had to be involved. It fits.”
Dani smiled, “Weed, where is the largest concentration of crew members?”
Weed looked at Seed again and said, “Twenty are along the back wall manning the drive and beam controls.”
“Carter, those are yours to handle. Are you ready?”
Carter keyed his armor’s weapon control and made a change, “The slugs are now loaded.”
Robby said, “Lock in your coordinates; Weed, tell us as soon as that field drops.”
“You still haven’t told me how you’re going to remove the drive.”
Robby smiled, “That’s the easy part. Keep your focus on that screen.”
Weed saw the huge black ship fall slightly off its orbit, “It won’t be long. The ship is starting to drift.”