Annihilation Series-Searching for a Hero (16 page)

The man’s fear was immense. He heard the Royal Guard call the woman Your Highness and knew he had a member of the Royal Family present. He started begging for his life and Nicole took the guard’s stunner and changed the setting to blaster. She pointed it at the man and burned him into ashes. These two would never rape again.

Later that night, after she had taken the young woman home and apologized for what had occurred, she thought about what had happened. The woman’s family was overwhelmed at a member of the Royal Family personally showing up at their home. Nicole promised them a guided tour of Castle Gardner and had hugged the woman goodbye. Now she thought about how she had killed the first man and didn’t have a clue how she did it. She had never manifested any telekinetic powers and now she had used them to kill an attacker. She also wondered how she had the courage to kill the second thug without giving it a second thought. Something in her had changed. She lifted her hand and pointed at a vase sitting in a corner of her room and raised her hand. The vase slowly rose and hovered in midair. She dropped her hand and it continued to hover. She walked around it and thought, “Softly, to the floor.” The vase slowly lowered to the floor and stayed there. She focused on Ping and could feel him out in the universe…somewhere…and knew it was that connection that was changing her. What was going to happen when he finally showed up in person? She didn’t know whether to be excited or fearful. She knew she would not have had what it took to kill that man just a year earlier. Now…she liked ending his life. Was that from Ping…or was it inside her waiting for freedom? She had no clue as to which it was.

• • • • •

Ping sat on the bridge with Sprigly and sighed. He thought having the young plant on board would reduce the boredom but Sprigly was tuned in to his computer as screen after screen appeared and disappeared on his terminal. Something was bothering him and he didn’t know what it was. He tried to focus on it but it just wouldn’t come into his consciousness. He thought a moment and activated his armor. Sprigly looked up and said, “What are you doing…” just before he disappeared from the bridge. Ping arrived in open space and closed his eyes and allowed his senses to go free. He turned in a circle and moved slowly to his left…THERE. Something was happening in the direction he was facing. He stared off the direction he was facing and started entering numbers into his teleport unit. The final digit fell into place and he disappeared. “Ping, what are you doing?”

“I’m not sure, Sprigly. Something is drawing me to it. Give me a moment to look around.” Ping looked around and found himself drawn to the area directly in front of him. He waited and after five minutes saw an orange glow start appearing. He teleported a light year away and used his enhanced vision to see the orange disturbance. The orange glow grew brighter and after an hour, it solidified into a bright orange light that Ping recognized as a portal from the other Creation. He looked all around him but only sensed the single portal appearing. He waited and after ten minutes saw a hundred small Black Ships come through the portal. They remained stationary as if they were expecting something and then they jumped away. The Portal flashed briefly and then disappeared. The scouting mission had arrived. “Sprigly, did you get that view?”

“I did, Ping.”

“Get word out to the Realm that our forces need to start organizing.”

“I’m on it.”

Ping looked down at his arm and saw a green glow surrounding him. He smiled. The glow appeared whenever he was around something from the other Creation. He was back in the game.

“I’ve just detected a portal opening.”

“I’m here watching it.”

There was a long moment of silence and Ping heard, “It appears you don’t need my help.”

“I sensed it and arrived before it opened. Thanks anyway.”

“Don’t mention it.”

• • • • •

“What do you think now?”

Danielle tilted her head and shook it, “He’s more than I thought.” Tag nodded and watched his display to see where the Black Scouts were going.

• • • • •

Lex hit his board and all the Realm’s flag officers began reporting in, “Get your ships ready! We’re currently being scouted and I want your fleets out of the Realm and organized to teleport in at a moment’s notice. Only third and fifth fleets will remain here at Ross. Now get moving.” Lex activated another frequency and said, “The initial incursion has started. You need to get your warriors ready to go to war.”

Vremel smiled on the display, “I’ll send them out now. We’ll cover as much space as possible and teleport in wherever the enemy chooses to enter.”

“I’ll let you know your assigned target once we make the determination of their entry points.”

“We’ll help you find them.”

“That would be good.”

• • • • •

Ping teleported back to his ship and activated a frequency. Nicole appeared on his display and he smiled, “I’ll be coming for you soon. It’s beginning.”

She stared at Ping, “Are you ready for this?”

Ping’s smile was gentle, “More than you know, Nicole.”

Nicole’s display went dark and she kept his face in her mind. There was something different about him. She closed her eyes and found him out in space. She knew he felt her watching him and she smiled. Now wasn’t soon enough. She looked around and saw the small Black Ships moving around the Realm. Her eyes narrowed and she felt the feeling she had when she pulled the blaster’s trigger.

• • • • •

The Director looked at the hundred ship leaders as they stood up and raised their left arms over their heads in salute. “The conflict is finally upon us. A scouting fleet has arrived and that means the major forces of the Black Ships will not be far behind. Go to your groups and make sure they understand that the one that shoots first lives. If they delay, they’re dead.”

One of the leaders raised his arm and the Director nodded at him, “Several of my ships have seen the small Black Ships that are scouting our domain. What do you want us to do about them?”

“You will stay away from them and act as if they weren’t seen.” The Director saw confusion on his subordinates faces and he quickly said, “Those scouts are looking for our warships. They’re not coming here to attack our planets…yet. They want to remove us as a threat and they’ll continue to look for our ships until they’re found or they give up and assume we don’t have very many. Every day they delay invading, we add seven thousand warships to our fleets. Our allies are planning to jump single warships close to the scout’s locations and then jump away to another planet. We’re hoping we can bait them for an extended period. We’ll know when they call it off and that’s when I’ll recall all your forces to gather here.”

Several Group Leaders lifted their communicators to issues instructions to those ships that had found a Black Scout. The Director nodded and snarled, “Go to your commands and I’m counting on you to make the invaders pay for coming to our home!” The Group Leaders snarled in answer and rushed out of the room to go to their flag ships.

• • • • •

The red colored beast looked at his console at the three warships hanging in space above a blue and green planet. He had jumped his ship into the shadow cast by the moon and had immediately turned off all power to his ship. His environmental conditions would be sufficient for another twelve grends, so he wasn’t worried about being discovered. His ship was almost a vapor in this new location and he felt reasonably certain he had not been scanned by the ones chosen for conquest. This was the fifth planet he had scouted and three warships were the most he had seen at any of them. Surely there had to be more than what he had found. He sat back on his powerful legs and shook his head. He reached out and touched the wall on his bridge and it felt as solid as it did the day he boarded it…but, it looked almost like a cloud in this place. His eyes narrowed as he thought, “I wonder if that means I am also like a cloud. Will we be able to set foot on the planets here?” He shook his head and decided those issues would be left to those in authority to answer. He waited and kept his passive scanners on the three warships. If they left, he was going to follow them. He was glad they couldn’t see him.”

• • • • •

“Mrenga, how much longer do you think our uninvited guest is going to hang out here?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

The Micro-Leader thought a moment and pushed his panel and discussed his idea with the Elite Director. He received approval and contacted his second ship, “I’ve been given approval to bait our little friend.”

“What?”

“The Director is sending twelve more ships here. Once they arrive, we’re all going to jump out to a deserted asteroid that was once used for mining operations. We’re going to stay there for twelve hours and then have six more ships join us. Then we’ll start the process all over again.”

“The Director approved this to buy us more time?”

“He did and he promoted me to Mini-Leader for thinking of it. He’s going to have this process done at all our planets. If they buy the subterfuge, we should put off their departure.”

Brenga looked at his panel and waited for the other ships that had just been assigned to his command to arrive. He hoped he had time to discuss the strategy he had developed to take out the Black Ships. He was going to need them to work closely together. He discussed the tactic with his Group Commander and he thought it might work. He knew the ships sent away from the home worlds were working on it at that moment but his Den could do it until after the Black Scout had left. He sent the instructions to his ships and they felt they could do it without any trouble but anyone could tell you that bait-and-switch was never easy to pull off in real life.

• • • • •

The Master watched his Senior Advisor enter his chamber and tried to decide if it was time to kill him. He was growing quickly and would soon be large enough to take him on; however, this was not a good time to be changing advisors. He decided to listen to what he had to say and then make the decision.

The Advisor saw the Master’s expression and decided that today would probably be the day he had to choose. If the Master decided to kill him, he would have to choose to submit to it or fight. If he fought and lost, all of his family would be executed. If he submitted, they would be left alone. The Master was a giant…but he was getting older. He kept his expression neutral and arrived at the Master’s throne, “Why are our Scouts wasting so much time?”

“They have been unable to find any gathering of ships larger than fifteen or twenty.”

“Our reports show thousands of them before the last incursion.”

The Advisor did find that troubling and the Master saw it in his face. “Master, the reports we received from the incursion said that they were killing thousands of their ships without losing any of our ships. It might be possible that the incursion killed most of their inventory.”

The Master had missed that possibility. He thought a moment and looked at the Advisor who said, “I know that sounds peculiar, especially since all of our ships were destroyed. However, if they only have a limited number of ships that possess the energy weapon used to kill our ships, then that would account for what the scouts are finding.”

The Master showed no emotion but knew the Advisor was going to live another day. He leaned back and the Advisor saw it as well. “How do we make sure we’re not missing anything?”

The Advisor thought a moment, “Send in thousands of scouts and have them do a real active search of the two civilizations we’ve been watching. If nothing shows up, then you would have done all that you could.”

“What do you think will happen?”

“If any ship with that energy weapon defends their planets, we’ll know what happened. I suspect if they have any hidden resources, they’ll appear with the scout’s appearance.”

The Master nodded and grudgingly moved his head forward, “Implement the plan and let me know what you find.”

“I’ll keep the portal open and monitor our communications from there.”

“That would be good.” The Advisor walked out and the Master knew that he was going to be a formidable adversary. He thought a moment and sent a message to the Advisor to board a scout vessel and personally lead the next group in to the other place. Perhaps the civilizations there would do his work for him.

• • • • •

Ping sat on his ship and watched the Black Scouts moving around his universe. He could see them and knew they were starting to feel frustration at the long search for the Realm’s forces.

• • • • •

He felt something and brought his vision back to the ship. He stared at the location the portal had appeared as Sprigly looked up at him, “I have an energy reading at the portal’s location.”

“How does it compare with the first one?”

Sprigly looked at his monitor, “It’s building at the same rate as last time. It appears it is not going to be a massive portal like the first time they appeared.”

“What do you think they’re doing, Sprigly?”

“This doesn’t look like an invasion. They might be sending in more ships to take a look around.” An hour later, Sprigly’s observation was verified. The portal solidified and thousands of small Black Scouts began pouring through. Finally, the last one emerged and the portal remained open.

“Sprigly, I counted about twenty thousand.”

“You’re off two.”

“Plus or minus?”

“Minus two.” Sprigly paused, “You know those scouts might take a shot at a planet to see if it brings rain.”

Ping nodded and closed his eyes. He opened them and said, “Are you able to see my thoughts?”

“I haven’t been able to see them but you appear to be open to me at the moment.”

“How long will it take you to see the planets in my mind and dispatch a ship to it?”

Sprigly looked at Ping’s thoughts and leaned forward, “Are you sure that’s where they’re going?”

“I am; however, I don’t want the ships at the planets. Have them jump in when the Black Scout arrives. We’ll send one ship for each of their scouts.”

“That will tell them we have more ships than we’ve shown.”