Annihilation: A Rose Grows In Weeds (39 page)

The Eldest looked at Dorg as he spoke to Rose and said, “Why didn’t you destroy his world after all the horrific acts his race had done to your people?”

Rose looked at the towering bush and said, “Because then he would not be here to show you what trust really looks like. We really believe that every race has an important role in making the universe a better place to live. To destroy his people would go against everything we hold to be sacred; destruction goes against our strongest beliefs but we will do it if forced to do so.”

The Eldest opened his thoughts to the other Elders so they could hear the exchange and then said, “I saw in his mind that you can destroy every ship we sent to attack that world we thought was your home planet. I also see that you could then totally destroy this world afterwards. Are you here like you were when you moved on his planet?”

“Yes! We are here, Eldest, because I saw that your race did not deserve to be destroyed and I hoped to try and stop our conflict.”

The Eldest bent down and touched one of his branches to Admiral Dorg’s hand, “I hope you find inner peace in your lifetime; you deserve it and I thank you for your thoughts. The little one is right, I have learned much from our contact.” The Eldest then turned to Rose and said, “I can see that you are trustworthy. You are nothing like the Silver Monsters. If you embraced his world after all that happened, then you would not be my enemy but I’m afraid that our conflict will be forced to continue.”

“Tell me why,” Dorg asked.

“Because we cannot feed our people; we are forced to harvest or we will die if we don’t. This small grove is all that remains of our natural food and even it is tainted by that virus the Silver Monsters released on us. Except for that, I now know that you are a people that can be trusted.”

Dorg looked up at the tall plant and said, “However it goes, I will always think of you as a friend. I thank you for your wisdom. I, too, will not be the same from this time on.”

Rose stood and said, “Eldest, I want you and the other leaders to back away from the edge of this grove.”

“Why do you want that?” The Eldest thought fearfully.

“Because there will be a change momentarily and I want you to be able to witness it.”

The tall bushes moved back fifty yards wondering what was going to happen. Rose bent down and put her fingers into the yellow soil and closed her eyes. For two minutes nothing happened and even Dorg was beginning to wonder what Rose was doing. Suddenly the dirt around Rose began trembling and then it seemed to rise up like a wave of soil three feet high and move out from her in all directions like ripples from a stone dropped into a still pond. As the wave moved away, the soil it left behind was bright yellow, even brighter yellow than the grove the Elders were standing in. Then even the Sacred Grove turned a brighter shade of gold.

Dorg watched the wave as it passed the hundreds of thousands of Plant soldiers surrounding the grove. The soldiers looked at the yellow soil under them and then planted their feet in the soil. An immediate change started taking place; their mantis form began to disappear and the soldiers started to grow taller and assume a form that looked like tall sunflowers. The Algean Leaders in the grove watched as their children planted their feet in the ground and began absorbing the natural diet they needed to develop. Even Dorg could feel the joy emanating from the tall leaders and then suddenly the Algean leaders began sprouting blooms. The Eldest bent and lifted Rose and Dorg into his branches swinging them back and forth. The tall bushes smelled wonderful.

“How did you do that?” The Eldest asked.

“The same way I’ll convert thousands of the Planets you have destroyed into the soil you need to survive. All you need do is take a bag of this soil and place it where you want it to spread and the small bacteria you depend on will begin spreading at a tremendous speed. It will only take half a cycle to completely cover a continent.”

The Eldest opened his thoughts to Dorg and Rose then they heard him say on his communication frequency, “Fleet leader, turn your ships around and come home to your first full meal. The Strangers have given us our life back. We have made some new friends today.”

On board the Kosiev, Bridget, Tag, and Danielle saw thousands of shuttles leaving the ships around them and dropping toward the planet. The entire crew of the Kosiev could hear in their mind the millions of thoughts from the plants headed toward the planet thanking them for giving them their lives back.

Tag heard the Algean make the call and he contacted Mikado and Cade and then said over his com, “The war is over; stand down; all Stars Realm military forces stand down and wait for further orders. Commodore O’Donald beamed a message to the government center announcing the joyous news. The entire Stars Realm began celebrating on all of their planets.

The Algean Fleet Leader watched his console and saw the joy at the Sacred Grove and the hundreds of thousands of shuttles headed toward the golden soil that waited for them. He never expected to ever have a family in his lifetime but now there was hope. “All Ships, return to the Sacred Grove for your first satisfying meal. We now look forward to tomorrow without hunger.”

Rose swung on the Eldest’s branches and then thought, “Now for the hard part.”

R
ose and Dorg boarded the shuttle, lifted off the ground, and set course for the Kosiev. Rose keyed her com and talked quietly into it for a few moments while Dorg flew the shuttle into the landing bay. The bay pressurized and Rose ran out and jumped into the arms of her parents. Dorg moved toward the bridge to contact the Rossville. Tag and Danielle were overjoyed at having their daughter back safe and sound. As Danielle embraced Rose, Rose looked over her mother’s shoulder at Commodore O’Donald and saw her indicate the back wall of the landing bay with her eyes. Rose nodded, then smiled and said, “Mom, Dad, step back here with me for a moment; there’s some things I want to tell you and I don’t want to wait. Rose took their hands and walked to the back of the landing bay. She turned them against the back wall and said, “I know you have been wondering why I have been so secretive about what I was doing. Tag and Danielle looked down at her and Tag said, “Yes, we have.”

Commodore O’Donald walked up with another crewman and said, “I hate to interrupt you but we’ve been working on this wall and the surface is exposed; I need you to put your hand in these gloves and keep them on while you’re back here.”

“We can move if you need us to, Commodore,” Tag said.

“I don’t want to wait,” Rose said.

Bridget looked at Rose and then said, “Just put the gloves on, it won’t be but for just a moment.”

Rose, Tag, and Danielle put their hands forward and the crewman and Bridget slipped the gloves on their hands and tightened them. “Are they secure, Your Majesty?” Bridget asked.

Tag and Danielle flexed their fingers and said, “They’re quite snug.”

Bridget said, “Good,” and she and the crewman pushed Tag and Danielle into the wall where they disappeared.

Rose had her eyes shut and was concentrating extremely hard. After thirty seconds, she opened her eyes and said, “OK bring them back.” Bridget pressed a button on her sleeve control and Danielle and Tag were thrown out of the wall into Bridget’s and the crewman’s arms.

Tag was angry, “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

Danielle said, “She had to do it, love, to protect us.”

Rose looked at her mother and Danielle said, “I didn’t work it out until you pushed us into the wall so I kept my promise to you.”

Tag looked around frustrated and said, “What is going on?”

Danielle said, “Turn on your shield, Darling.”

Tag thought, “Shield on,” and nothing happened.

He held out his hand and the weapon did not appear. “What have you done, Rose?”

Rose looked at Commodore O’Donald and said, “Thank you for trusting me and helping me with this.”

Bridget bowed and said, “You father said you were in command of this operation and I was compelled to follow your orders.”

Tag looked at Bridget and said, “We’ll discuss this later.”

Rose looked at Tag and said, “You’ll be thanking her for saving your and Mom’s life at that time.”

Tag looked shocked, “What do you mean? Will you please tell me what’s going on!”

“Let’s go somewhere more private,” Rose said. She took her parents hands and led them out of the landing bay to Tag’s quarters just off the bridge. They came in and sat down and Rose looked at Danielle and said, “Why don’t you tell him what you’ve worked out, Mom.”

Danielle took Tag’s hand in hers and said, “Its Atlas, Tag. He’s been lying to us all along.”

Tag looked at her and said, “What do you mean?”

“Tag, he told us that the Plant Race was attacking other worlds from the beginning. He did not tell us that his race forced them to it.”

Tag sat there for a moment and said, “Well, one could understand his reluctance to admitting causing them to become harvesters but his race tried to correct their mistake.”

Danielle said, “By exterminating a basically peaceful civilization because they did not have patience for their young. That tells me a lot about their moral code.”

“He has lied about much more than that, Dad.”

Tag and Danielle looked at Rose and Danielle said, “What have I missed?”

Rose sighed heavily and said, “Atlas you can join in anytime you want.”

A speaker on the workstation said, “You have genuinely surprised me, Rose. I was not prepared for you to remove my links in your parents. I felt as long as I controlled their safety, I could keep you in line.

Tag was stunned. “Atlas, is she right?”

Atlas said, “Let’s just see how smart you are, Rose. Why don’t you tell him what you think you know.”

Rose shook her head and looked at her parents and said, “I couldn’t tell you about my plan to end the war with the Plants because Atlas would have interfered. He doesn’t want a race bent on revenge against him to survive.”

“But it was his master’s that kill the Plants, not Atlas,” Tag said.

“No, it was ships like Atlas that did the killing; he had no masters. That was his first lie to you.” Tag looked completely confused. “Remember when you touched the body lying in the front of the cave where you found him; it set off an Alfont tone; however, when you touched Atlas, it did not produce a tone. Remember that Atlas said that all of his race’s artifacts had that tone built in, which leads me to believe that the body you found in the cave was an artifact that Atlas used to explore away from the ship. In your memories Atlas said to you, “What did you do to my” and then said a word you didn’t understand. Notice he said “my”. You assumed the word was master but then he asked what you did to “it”; not him or her but it. At that point he went along with your idea that the dead body was the master. You also have to ask yourself; why would you have a force field that produces atmosphere when you’re in a vacuum and the body on the moon wore a space suit.”

Tag saw it with that observation. “You’ve lied from the beginning.” He said at the speaker.

“Is that all you’ve worked out?” Atlas said. “Before I have to destroy your ship because of this knowledge, I would like to see if you could get it all.”

Rose looked at the speaker and said, “You won’t be destroying anything and I’ll tell you why in a moment, but first I want to finish telling my father about you.” Rose then looked at Tag and said, “You heard the Plants call Atlas’ race the Silver Monsters. The Alfont are not dead, the ship is the Alfont. When you touched Atlas in the cave the reason there was no tone was because the ship is the Alfont and not an artifact. At some point in their long history they were able to move their psyche into the ships they traveled in. The Silver Ship is the actual race that destroyed the Plants. Atlas was sleeping for all those years.”

“Then where are all the others?” Danielle asked.

Rose stood up and walked over to a viewport and looked out. “I see you, Atlas. You’re just off our port bow about three thousand yards.” The small silver ship appeared where Rose said it was.

“So what; you know I can’t let you go with the knowledge you now possess.”

“You were going to hold my parents hostage against my remaining silent about you and that’s why I had to remove their links to you; but you will let us go.”

“Rose, I have always liked your parents but that won’t stop me from trying to protect against this information getting out. Why would I not destroy your ship?”

“Two reasons; the first is that your weapons will not work against this ship. The power cell was one of your developments but the merging of black holes was something your race never discovered.” Suddenly a bright blue beam shot out from the silver ship and hit the Kosiev; nothing happened. “Your weapons will not have any effect on this ship. The second reason has to do with why you were hiding in that cave on our moon.”

Tag looked at Rose and said, “He was hiding?”

Rose continued to look out the window at Atlas and she said, “Look at the evidence; four solid walls, all his power shut down for millions of years; he was hiding.”