Annihilation Series-Searching for a Hero (30 page)

“Why?”

“I’m taking a sample of the nemite back to see if there’s anything we can do with it to help our ships avoid detection.”

“Let me know what you find out.”

“Where are you taking Dahlia?”

“First to meet the King and then to Earth to see her ancestor’s home.”

“I’ll have some answers by the time you arrive there.”

Ping nodded and Sprigly disappeared. Tess saw him leave and said, “Where is he going?”

“He wants to see if the substance you’ve hidden your installations in can be used on warships.”

“It can.” Ping stared at Tess. “We have about ten thousand ships whose hulls were constructed from an alloy of it.”

“Are they detectable?”

“We can’t see them. If you like, I’ll launch one and have it move over your ship’s location.”

“That is a good idea.” Ping pressed his wrist unit, “Computer, keep your scanner active and inform me if any new ships arrive in orbit.” Ping felt his unit vibrate in acknowledgement of the order and he turned to Tess, “Why didn’t you use those ships to defend your planet?”

“We don’t have a weapon that would damage a Black Ship. The best we could have done was to ram them but even that wouldn’t have worked if they saw them coming.”

“Did Sprigly give you what you need to build the blasters?”

“He did; however, he’s going to have to bring us some of the isotopes used to control it. We’ve started manufacturing the blasters and hope to have them ready when he returns.”

Dahlia entered the Control room with a bag and smiled, “Are you ready?”

“Waiting for you.”

Dahlia went over and hugged Tess, “Where’s Dean?”

“He’s supervising the construction on the ships.”

“Tell him I love him and I’m sorry I missed him.”

“I will; please be careful.”

Dahlia smiled and Ping held out his hand. She took it and they teleported to Ping’s ship. Ping looked at his scanner and keyed his communicator, “Tess, how much longer until the ship arrives?”

“It’s been directly overhead in orbit for the last two minutes.”

Ping shook his head, “My scanners don’t see it, either. We’ll be back soon.”

Dahlia went to the second chair on the bridge and Ping handed her a skull cap, “I want you to put this on.”

“Why?”

“You are going to need to know how to operate our ships. This will download the information into your brain.”

Dahlia stared at the cap and Ping said, “It’s not a device for brainwashing.”

Dahlia sighed and shook her head, “I guess we are just not given to trust anyone other than our own people.” She put the cap on and leaned back in the chair. Ping saw the download start on his panel and he set the coordinates for the portal at his arrival point. He went through the portal and emerged into normal space in his universe. The download was still operating so he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. Sleep took him in seconds and his sleep was deep without bad dreams.

• • • • •

“Hey, you want to get up?”

Ping was startled and he saw Dahlia standing next to his chair pushing his shoulder. He raised the chair back and looked at his panel. He had slept for ten hours. “I’m sorry about that. I thought I’d wait for you to complete the learning process before I took you to Ross.”

“That’s some program.”

“We use it to train our pilots. What do you think about our ships?”

“I’m amazed. We’re light years behind your technology.”

“Would you like to fly it to Ross?”

Dahlia’s eyes were wide, “Can I?”

“I’ll send the controls to your panel. You’ll find the coordinates of the various worlds in the Realm…”

“On the subpanel next to the teleport drive?” Ping smiled and nodded. Dahlia pressed a few buttons and said, “Ross has six coordinates listed.”

“Hold on just a moment.” Ping picked up his communicator, “Ross Control, this is Paul Kendel requesting a direct jump to Ross.”

“Welcome home, Your Highness. We’ve entered your transponder and you are cleared for direct flight.” Dahlia stared at Ping and he said, “The last coordinate on the list is the one you want to use.”

“Why did he call you, Your Highness?”

“Didn’t Tess tell you I’m a prince?”

“No, she did not.”

“Well, I told you I married one of the King’s daughters.”

“Yeah, so what?”

“That made me a Prince.”

“I hesitate to ask this, but after she died, you didn’t lose the title?”

“No, the King decreed that I was, and will always be, a Prince of the Realm. I personally don’t think I’m deserving of it.”

Dahlia shrugged, “You don’t appear to really ever have had a realistic understanding of who you are.”

“Hey, that’s not nice.”

“But it is true. Jumping now.”

Dahlia’s sense of herself surprised Ping. She was nineteen years old but she never seemed lost in any situation. And no one intimidated her. She handled herself marvelously when she met the Royal Family and she fit in with the citizens of Ross when she was given a tour. It seemed everyone who met her, instantly like her. She had an open, direct demeanor that made people comfortable around her. She could say things that would ordinarily make someone angry but they didn’t take offense when she said it.

Ping was separated from Dahlia while she was taken on tour and Victoria found him standing on the tallest spire at Castle Gardner, “Who is she, Ping?”

Ping jerked his head around and smiled, “Hi, Victoria. She’s the one I was searching for.”

“She’s not much older than I am.”

“No, she’s not. Like you, she is a member of the Royal Family on her planet.”

“Do you and she have a thing?”

“A what?”

“You know what I mean.”

Ping laughed and shook his head, “No, we do not. I really don’t think she trusts me but recognizes that we are going to be forced to work together.”

“She’s quite beautiful.”

“I suppose so.”

“Oh come on! You know she is.”

Ping turned and looked at Victoria with his eyebrows lowered. He thought a moment about Dahlia and after a long moment he said, “I guess she is. I really hadn’t noticed.”

Victoria stared at Ping, sighed, and shook her head, “Ping, you have got to come back to the living. Nicole would be in tears if she saw what you’ve become. You know she would want you to love again.”

Ping shook his head, “Destiny only gave me one love. There won’t be another.”

Victoria walked up to him and hugged him tightly, “Even if you choose to never love again, you will be loved by those that know you.”

Ping closed his eyes and hugged Victoria as Dahlia walked through the portal and saw them. “Am I interrupting something?”

Victoria held Ping tight even though he dropped his arms, “You’re seeing what love looks like.” Victoria looked at Dahlia and smiled, “I love him, and I always will.”

Ping hugged Victoria again and she stepped back, “Don’t stay gone so long.”

“Thanks, Vicki.” Victoria nodded and walked through the portal with a slight swagger.

Dahlia watched Victoria go and was impressed with the young woman’s beauty. “I admire your taste in Women.”

Ping was startled by the response, “What? Victoria is my wife’s sister. I love her like my own sister.”

Dahlia looked at the portal and smiled, “It seems to me she feels somewhat differently.”

Ping stared at Dahlia, “Ok, you’re supposed to see the truth; is that true?”

Dahlia was surprised by the question and she reevaluated what she had seen. After a moment she said, “Why that young twit!”

“What do you mean?’

“She put on that display to get to me.”

“What?”

“Don’t worry about it; I got her message.”

“What message?”

“You wouldn’t understand how women operate. Let it go.”

“Victoria is only sixteen years old. She’s still a child.”

Dahlia laughed out loud, “Who has matured faster than you can ever imagine living in the Royal Family. She’s gotten her message across. Now let it go.”

• • • • •

Victoria sat in her room watching the conversation on the spire and laughed out loud. This young woman was smarter than she had given credit. Poor Ping; he didn’t know what he was in for and she wished she could watch it happen.

• • • • •

Ping and Dahlia left Ross five days after their arrival and Ping teleported to Earth and requested permission to land. He was given the coordinates to take his ship and was greeted by the Commanding office of Earth’s defensive forces, “Welcome to Earth, Your Highness. We’ve missed you.”

“It’s good to be home Jeffery. This is Dahlia Dare and she is a member of the Royal Family of one of our new allies.”

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Your Highness.”

Dahlia flinched at the honorific and nodded, “And I’m pleased to meet you as well.”

Jeffery turned to Ping, “I’ve been contacted by Sprigly and he requests you meet him immediately.”

“Where is he?”

“He’s in the Realm’s main lab in Australia. I have a shuttle coming to take you there.”

A small armored craft appeared a hundred feet from them and Ping turned and walked quickly toward it, “Come on, Dahlia. Something’s happening.”

“What?”

“I don’t know; but Sprigly wouldn’t have come here unless something dramatic was happening. He would have also contacted me under normal circumstances.”

Dahlia followed Ping to the shuttle and an instant later they landed on a pad outside a massive building in the desert of the Outback. Sprigly was walking out of the building toward them as they exited the shuttle’s landing bay, “What’s wrong?”

“We’ve got a major problem, Ping.”

“What?”

“Come inside, Rider’s waiting for you.”

Ping shook his head and Dahlia said, “Who is, Rider?”

“He’s a Northern Mountain Cat.”

“One of the large cats you told me about.”

“Exactly.”

Dahlia looked forward to seeing the large cat until she arrived at his location. This cat wasn’t large; it was enormous. Ping watched her and smiled. “What do find amusing?”

“This is the first time you’ve lost your composure.”

Dahlia pointed at Rider, “Have you taken a good look at that?”

Rider thought, “Actually, I’m a he.”

Dahlia jerked her head toward the Cat and heard, “I think he told you my species is telepathic.”

“He did…but I didn’t believe him.” Rider laughed, which sounded like a muffled roar. Dahlia just stared at the giant creature.

Ping walked up to Rider, “What’s going on?”

“The barrier between the two Creations is starting to atrophy.”

“What?”

“It appears that all of the portals made by the millions of Realm Warships are starting to weaken the bonds.”

“I’m not sure what you mean?’

“You know that the portal used by a ship to enter the other creation remains where it was formed until the ship that made it goes back through.” Ping nodded. “Well, those millions of tiny holes are causing the fabric of the barrier to start to fall apart. If we don’t remove those ships soon, the other creation will be able to open portals into our space.”

Ping shook his head, “How does this happen?”

Rider shook his head, “Imagine the new barrier as a giant bubble. Every place is connected by the surface of it and what happens when one small area of a bubble is pricked?”

Dahlia said, “The bubble bursts.”

Rider nodded, “And the entire barrier will fall at the same moment.”

“Rider, if we remove our ships, the Five will win.”

“What do you think will happen if we don’t?”

Dahlia said, “The Five will open thousands of portals into your space and send eighty percent of their forces to destroy your civilization.”

Rider stared at Dahlia and tilted his head to the left, “She’s exactly right and they will open more portals than we could defend against.”

“We can’t leave Dalia’s world undefended.”

Sprigly said, “We don’t have a choice.”

“Can we remove them and then go back when the barrier regains its strength?”

“We can if you know how to build its strength.”

Ping stared at Sprigly, “I was only able to do that by making physical contact with Nicole.”

Sprigly leaned forward, “That’s not going to happen again, Ping. And if there’s no way to strengthen the barrier, we can’t send ships back without causing it to fail.”

Ping started pacing back and forth, “This doesn’t make sense. Why was I sent to find Dahlia to lead us if we aren’t going to be able to be there? What purpose do I serve if we can’t fight them? Why did my friends have to die if this entire exercise was doomed to failure from the beginning? This is ridiculous!” Ping stopped pacing and looked at Dahlia, “This is where you earn your pay! What do we do!?!”

Dahlia stared at Ping and after a moment turned to Sprigly, “Why does the portals cause the barrier to fail?”

“A huge amount of energy has to be used to create the portal and that energy erodes it.”

“So the portal is not the issue, it’s the energy that creates it.”

“Yes.”

Dahlia thought a moment and said, “What about the portal that my ancestors used to go there. Is it still active?”

All three of them looked at Dahlia with shock on their faces. The first one to recover was Sprigly, “I have no idea.”

“Well, that portal was created long before anyone here even used electricity; so it had to be created using natural forces, which probably wouldn’t affect the barrier.”

Ping said, “Sprigly?”

“Get on the shuttle!”

Ping, Dahlia, and Sprigly ran to the shuttle and Sprigly entered the coordinates of the North American Continent. They arrived moments later and moved down the east coast until they arrived of the coast of what was once called North Carolina. Sprigly compared the current map of the coast to the one in the archives and saw that the coast line had changed dramatically. Sprigly began pushing buttons on his board and overlaid the old longitude and latitudes on the map. He looked at Ping, “I’ve used the information used in a search for the colony four hundred years after it disappeared to find the area off the coast where it was located. It appears we are on top of what was once Roanoke Island.”