Annihilation: Book 06 - Demon's Sacrifice (13 page)

Danielle stood and looked around the room, “Matt and Melanie are going to be directly fighting the Red Demons. What do you think the Realm will do if they learn that their rulers are in the thick of battle against an enemy that puts all the others to shame especially if he is killed in the conflict? Matt has also been charged to find the other crews for the ships the Reg are building. He cannot rule the Realm and also perform the duties he is charged by the Reg to perform. He has no choice but to abdicate and work to build the fleet we must have to protect us. We should also remember that he is our only contact with the Reg.”

Anglo looked at Danielle, “Then that also eliminates you and Tag from the throne as well.”

Matt answered, “Yes, it does eliminate them. The new King and Queen of the Stars Realm will be Duke Sprig and Duchess Twig Gardner.”

Sprig grew four feet before he could stop himself, “The Realm will never allow it. The Realm must be ruled by a Gardner; I’m not qualified”

Matt looked at Sprig, “Sprig, you are a Gardner.”

Sprig mumbled, “Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”

Danielle stood, “Sprig, they will allow it because Matt was going to abdicate before he learned about the Reg ships. Am I right, Matt?”

Matt smiled at Danielle, “You are incredible at seeing the truth. Yes, I was; everyone please sit down and let me explain why Sprig and Twig must accept the crown.”

Twig thought, “What are you talking about “must accept”?”

“The Realm now has more than twenty million members to rule. We are being asked to direct all of the member’s actions between the various members and quite frankly, we are failing to do the job we are entrusted to handle. It is my belief that if we don’t get a handle on ruling the Realm, then it will fall under its own weight. Humans do not have the mental capacity nor the speed to digest all of the issues coming before the crown and make timely decisions. Only two members of the Realm do have the necessary skills to do what needs to be done. The spiders appear to have it as well as the Algeans; however, the spiders are a new member and the Realm will not trust a race that was so violent such a short time ago. Sprig, tell me honestly that I am better equipped to handle the millions of members than you are and I’ll change my mind.”

Sprig was struggling with what to do. He had seen the mass of problems stacking up in the support chambers and knew they were getting bigger by the moment. “A king is more than a problem solver, Matt.”

“A good one is the best problem solver, Sprig. It is also important that their solutions reflect the values of the crown. You are the best candidate to rule the Realm, Sprig. With Twig helping you, the Realm will survive. Without you, I firmly believe it will fall.”

Twig turned to Sprig and put her branches on his, “I don’t want this responsibility but you know he’s right. Look at the data on past civilizations.”

“I already have, Dear; I see it; I just don’t like it.”

“Then you have no choice. You have sworn to do all you can to protect the Realm. If you see it, you must accept.”

Tag leaned forward, “Trust me, old friend, it gets easier after a few hundred years and you know my family is available anytime you need us.”

Sprig looked up, “I wonder what Wes would say at this moment.”

Cassandra laughed out loud, “He’d say, “What are you waiting for you overgrown pile of kudzu?”“

Twig started shaking with laughter, “You’re probably right.” He straightened up, “How do we do this?”

“We need to prepare; we’ll make the announcement next week. This meeting is adjourned until we handle this issue.” Everyone stood and went to congratulate Sprig.

Destiny entered the meeting and General Durk was right behind him. “Your Majesty, one of the probes we left in our old universe arrived at Fleet Command and we have just downloaded what it recorded. The Demon’s new tool arrived in our old system an hour after we left.”

Matt shook his head, “We cut that pretty close.”

“Yes we did, Your Majesty, but that’s not the issue. The probe recorded the creatures giving instructions to all of its ships to go and scan universes looking for the green creatures.”

“A lot of good it will do them, Destiny. You are here hidden behind the Reg’s screen.”

“We are here but the Supreme Males you sent to another universe are not and they know about you and the Reg.”

Matt was shocked, “You’re right. I completely forgot about them. Destiny, we can’t bring them here; they’re too dangerous.”

“I know; your only choice is to kill them before they reveal the existence of the Realm.”

“If they’re found we would be wasting our time. Those Red Demons can make them give up what they know. I’m also concerned that if we go there, we might be followed back.” Matt thought a moment, “We’ve got to go talk with the Reg. Al have you been listening to this conversation?”

Matt found himself on Al’s bridge, “Yes, We’re on our way.” Al teleported to the planet of the Reg and waited. After a minute, three Reg appeared on the bridge and one thought to Matt, “You want to know if you can take the gift we gave you?”

“Should we even try?”

“Yes, there would be a possibility that even if this universe was found by the Demons and destroyed they might still miss our existence. It is necessary for you to try and defend that knowledge.”

“How do I move Al into the ship?”

“He is not needed at this time, Brother.”

“Will they be able to follow me back to our universe?”

“Your gift does not leave any tracks to follow.”

“Are its weapons available?”

“Yes they are. This is an exercise in self-defense; it will not harm us.”

“Where is it?”

“Waiting for you at your home.”

The three Reg disappeared, Al teleported back to Ross, and Matt teleported down to the Castle.

“Melanie, I need you to take a short trip.”

“Where?”

“We need to go to our Reg ship.”

“Now?”

“Yes, now.”

Melanie took Matt’s hand, “I said I’d follow you anywhere.”

Matt pressed his bracelet and they appeared on the bridge of the Reg ship. They sat down in their chairs and the golden glow filled the room and then settled into a light blue luminance. “What are you thinking, Love.”

“The Demon’s new tool arrived in the spider’s old universe ten days ago and found them missing. The leader of the Demon’s ships instructed all of his fleet to start scanning universes for the green creatures. I forgot that we sent that ship of males to another universe. If they find that ship, they’ll learn about the Realm and the existence of the Reg. We must prevent that happening.”

Matt, they already know something’s amiss with our universe disappearing. If they find our universe, they find us. This is really about the Reg isn’t it?”

“Yes. There is a chance that even if they find us they could still miss the Reg since they are not organic beings. If the Reg survive, even if we are destroyed, they may be able to end this menace sometime in the distant future. It’s worth the risk to try and protect them.”

“Where are the Males?”

“We’re jumping there momentarily; however, we need to power up our weapons and drives. Are you ready to link?”

Melanie closed her eyes and felt the trillions of links between their chairs. She thought, “Now!”

The small ship started thrumming and the sound quickly rose in frequency and the glow around the ship thickened as the sound went higher up the octave. Matt felt the connection with Melanie and felt his psychic power grow. He closed his eyes and felt the ships weapons come on line. He also felt as if he and Melanie was one person. “This is wonderful. We need to do this more often.”

“You’re right. I just hate we have to do this.”

“We can’t save them, Melanie. They are still bound by the compulsions and could infect Destiny and his family.”

“I know; I just hate we can’t save them.”

“Do you have them located?”

“Yes, and they have been discovered by the new tool.”

“Are we too late?”

“I don’t know but they are dead either way. I’m taking us there now.”

Matt warmed up his weapon console and watched what Melanie was seeing.

“Maker, one of my Clan Warriors has found some of the green creatures. There is only one ship here but the occupants are still alive.”

“Give me your location.” The Red being saw the coordinates on his display.

“Where are you going?”

“My new tool has found some of the old tool still alive. I am going to find out what they know.”

“Is that a good idea?”

“What do you mean?”

“What if your old tool discovered a way to break the compulsions? What do you think the Elders will do if they find out?”

The Red Being thought about that scenario and said, “Either way, I need to handle this situation. I would rather make this trip than have one of them go.”

“I can’t argue with that.”

“I’m taking my ship. I’ll update you when I return.

“I’m not sure I want to know.”

“I can understand that.”

The Red Demon entered his ship and activated its drives. The ship immediately appeared above a planet where a hundred of his White Clan Ships were waiting. He looked at his panel and saw the Supreme Male was still on board the Mother Ship. He hit a switch on his console and the Supreme Male felt the compulsion hit it like a stunner. “Give me what you know!”

The Supreme Male began sending his memories directly to the board of the orange colored ship. As the information was being received the Red Demon said, “Destroy all the green creatures on the planet.”

The hundred ships in orbit began hitting the Eight Leg ships on the planet with their main beams as millions of White Warriors swarmed out of their ships and flew down to the planet.

“Matt, an orange ship has arrived next to the main ship.”

“Jump in a hundred miles from it and be ready to run.”

“Jumping now.”

The Supreme Male was dying quickly. He was being sucked dry just as if he was surrendering to the Nest Mother but there was no pleasure in this surrender; the pain was unendurable and the Red Demon enjoyed it immensely. The Sensor Leader watched as the Supreme Male suffered and tried to move his ship to ram the orange ship. He entered the directions to the ship’s drives and immediately fell over dead. Part of the compulsions prevented any attempt to disobey the Red Demon and death happened if one tried.

Suddenly a blue ship appeared and the Red Demon turned his attention to the newcomer. Before he could do anything, a bright blue beam struck the Eight Leg Mother Ship and it shattered into millions of fragments. An edge of the blue beam grazed the orange ship and seven systems were shut down. The Red Demon was briefly stunned and as it quickly recovered it saw the blue ship had disappeared. He turned to his board to scan the area where the intruder had appeared but his systems were still off line. He slammed his fist on the board and sent a message to the white ships, “Follow that ship.”

The White Clan Leader jumped his ship to the spot where the blue ship had appeared but there was no trace of a departure or arrival. “Maker, there is nothing here to track.” He shivered in his command chair hoping the Maker would not take his anger out on him. He cringed anticipating his destruction.

The Red Demon looked down at the planet and saw that all of the old tools had been killed. He should have waited until he finished gathering information from the Supreme Male but how could he have anticipated anyone stopping him. He thought a moment and ordered, “Gather all of your clan at the universe of the old tool. Go there immediately!”

The White Clan Leader hit his plotter and sent the instructions. In all the universes being searched, the White Clan stopped and set their drives for the Eight Legs Universe. The White Clan Leader was excited at the prospect of killing the old tool; why else would the Clan be going back to the green creature’s universe?”

The Red being could see from the information he had gathered that there was a universe that had found a way to kill the old tool. That universe had kidnapped the Nest Mother and her chamber and had removed the Supreme Males from their ships. That universe was where his old tool was now hiding. He also saw a race of rock creatures that had the capability to destroy the old tool and they had been in existence for more than two hundred million years. He had not looked at the information his old tool had gathered and he now knew his life was over if this information was revealed. He decided that this was not going to be given to the Elders. He was also going to keep the blue ship a secret. The Elders would find out about it as soon as the missing universe was found. His systems came back on line and he went to the place where the blue ship had entered and there was nothing to follow. He erased the information he had retrieved and purged the data bank that had stored it. He jumped back to his lab.