Annihilation: The Power of a Queen (24 page)

“What is that?”

“There are 400 dreadnaughts that you were using to drain our screen. If you will park them at the coordinates I’m about to give you, our engineers will remove all the machinery from them and you can then use them to transport the remainder of your forces. Those dreadnaughts had very small crews because they were not built to fight. With the shuttles and extra cargo space in them, we have calculated that you should be able to get all your crews home.”

The Subleader looked at the Human and saw his crew out of the corner of his eye looking up hopefully. “Why are you doing this? You could have destroyed us all and you chose not to do so. Why?”

“Commander, it has come to our attention that if we destroyed your total fleet, that there was a good chance that the members of the Alliance might begin attacking each other. Are we wrong in that assumption?”

The Subleader thought about all the races in the Alliance that would jump at the chance to destroy his race if given the chance. He knew his race was not alone in that category. “No, you are not wrong.”

“We do not choose to be the ones that cause billions of deaths. We are going to give the Alliance one chance to save itself and there will not be a second. We are having that discussion with the Alliance leaders at this very moment.”

“I’ll bet that’s an interesting conversation,” the Subleader thought.

S
tate Leader Sten looked at his display and saw a young Human male. He thought, “He’s pretty young to be leading that many ships.” Then he said, “I am State Leader Sten. I understand you wish to communicate with me.”

The young man smiled and said, “Relax, State Leader. We are not here to destroy your world.” Sten could feel Headman Dgzh sign and sit down. “Then why are you here?”

“I’m hoping that we can end this madness and come to an understanding where the bloodshed will stop. However, I know that you don’t have the final word in this matter and that we will probably go away with no agreement. I was fully prepared to totally destroy your fleet when it entered our system, but I was shown that if I did that, then I would precipitate a civil war among your members. Our best guess is that if that happened, more than 900 billion could be killed. We cannot allow that to happen if it can be avoided.”

Sten interrupted saying, “What do you mean.”And the young Human held up his hand and said, “I’m not finished. Hold your comments until I am. We allowed half of your fleet to jump out of our system and we have captured the other half and parked them on our moon. We were planning on sending the crews back.”

Sten could see Dgzh desperately trying to get his attention, “Would you give me just a moment, my second in command is going to keel over if I don’t listen to him for a moment.” The young Human smiled and actually laughed. “What is it?” Sten said angrily. “Can’t you see I’m busy?”

“State Leader, this conversation is being heard on every planet. It is on every communication device in the entire Alliance.”

Sten looked at the Human and heard him say, “You just found out that we’re broadcasting this to all the member races of the Alliance.” Sten nodded. The young human paused for a moment and appeared to be listening to someone, then he said, “State leader, we are going to release your ships off our moon with no conditions. I would recommend you return them to the races that contributed them to your fleet. Some of those members will need those ships to protect themselves. We thought about holding them to force you to come to terms with us but one of us thinks that the civil war will start if we don’t get them back into your hands quickly and we respect the opinion of that person highly. We have turned the crews around and are getting them back into their ships and will escort them out of our system. You may do with them as you choose. We are a peaceful race that learned in a bloody history the evils that come with war. We rearmed ourselves because we were attacked by one of your member races that is now one of our brother planets, the Cainth. The Glod Union has also asked to become one of our brothers and we have accepted them into our Stars Realm. We will defend them and ourselves. However, we do not desire to rule anyone. These two races freely chose to join us and are free to leave any time they choose. We do not desire to take anyone’s territory or tell anyone how to govern their planet. We do not want to destroy or kill anyone and will do all that is possible to avoid it, but we will defend ourselves. We are at heart a peaceful race. Having said that, I want to make this clear so that there will be no misunderstanding; should you choose to continue this attack on us, we will destroy the ability to make war of who ever participates in it. If we determine that you are again preparing a fleet for the purpose of invading us, we will destroy it and then systematically destroy every warship of the ones leading the attack. We know the ten planets that truly govern your worlds. Their paranoia has been taught to all of its members but we choose not to live in fear. We are open to discussions but one thing we will not negotiate. The total destruction of worlds and races ends today. If an Alfont tone is ever heard again, investigate first and acquire it for the betterment of all your races. We will not sit by and watch a race totally annihilated. Other than that, you may do as you please. I hope that we have shown in our actions that we don’t make idle threats. All we desire is to be left alone and to live in peace. Think long and hard before you challenge that wish. Contact us if you have any further questions.” And with that the Human disappeared from the screen and after a short pause, the 300 warships surrounding the planet jumped away.

State Leader Sten and Headman Dgzh looked at the empty display and then Dgzh said, “I told you that the Humans would surprise us. What do we do now?”

“We do nothing. I’m sure the ten members of the ruling planets will have something to say about what we just heard. I no longer need convincing; I’m going to suggest that we leave these Humans alone. If we sent every remaining warship in the Alliance, I’m not certain we would win. Perhaps we might go visit the Glod Union and ask them about these Humans. Would you make that trip? I have to stay and wait for the tens response and it might be better if you’re not near when that happens.”

Dgzh looked at Sten and knew he expected the worse for himself. “I’ll contact them and leave immediately. I will ask the creator to watch over you State Leader.”

Sten looked at him and said, “I think it’s even too late for him to help me.”

The Subleader was sitting in his command chair waiting for the remainder of his ships to be escorted to the moon when his display showed the Human Leader. Kosiev said, “Commander, we have changed our mind about parking your ships.”

The Subleader and all his crew suddenly felt the cold chill of fear. “But you gave your promise.”

“I know, however, after considering what would happen if this many ships were removed from some of your member races, we determined that the civil war we fear would happen quickly. We are releasing your ships and crews with no conditions other than after we escort you to the jump limit that you leave our system and return home to your home planets.”

“What!” The Subleader was astonished. This was unheard of, “How can you do that after we invaded you? What am I saying, I’m just amazed that you would even consider doing that.”

Kosiev looked at the Alliance fleet leader for a moment and said, “I personally would not do it but I am a military man. Fortunately for you, minds greater than mine can see the big picture where I am primarily concerned with tactics and victories. Commander, we cannot have the death of billions of innocent people on our conscience. If you do it to yourselves, then that’s not on us but if we cause that loss of life, it will put a huge burden on our society that will eventually erode our belief structure. We really believe that every individual is precious and has an opportunity to make the universe a better place. If we allow that many to die, we violate every tenant of our values.”

The Subleader was from a violent race and had advanced because of his violent nature. This was an entirely new way of looking at the universe. He didn’t want to believe what he was hearing, but deep down he felt the message and felt shame. This Human warrior was stronger than him and he knew that strength allowed him to follow his values. This was something that he would think about. “How do you suggest we make this happen?”

“You still have about half your fleet with you,” Kosiev said. Send all the ships from each race one by one out to the moons orbit and we will escort them to the jump point. From there they can go home. The crews of the ships that are parked on the moon that are leaving in shuttles will be turned around and brought back to their ships and we’ll also escort them out race by race until they are all gone. None of your shuttles have reached the jump point yet so we should be able to get all your ships out of our system within four rotations. If you would wait until the last group to ensure that our instructions are followed then it should be done with no loss of life.”

The crew on the command ship could not believe what they were hearing but after the first twenty races were escorted out and jumped to safety they knew the Humans were not deceiving them. After four days the last group of Alliance warships headed out to the jump point and the Subleader sat in his command chair and felt small. Of the 8,420 ships trapped by the humans more than 6,000 of the commanding officers vowed to themselves that they would not participate in any future attack on this race. Kosievs conversation with the Warleader had been broadcast to all the Alliance ships and they knew that they owed the Humans for sparing their lives. Information is what changes one’s view. All of these crews had something to tell about this Human race that would impact the members of the Alliance in ways that they would never imagine. There exists a race that wants them to live peacefully, be happy, and value each other. It was a message that the races of the Alliance had never heard and upon hearing it, many asked the question, “Why not.”

“Atlas, thank you for helping me with the broadcast,” Tag thought.

“Glad to do it. How hard was it to convince the leaders of your government to go along with your plan?”

Danielle chimed in with, “Not as hard as you might think. Sorry, I was listening in to you two.”

“Hello, my love,” Tag said. “You’re welcome any time. You still haven’t told me why you think the civil war would have started if we kept those ships.”

“It wasn’t me that saw that, it was Sung Lea;” Danielle said, “she saw how some of the races that sent ships to the Alliance fleet would be attacked if their fleet didn’t return. All the possible futures had that war starting now. She said after the first forty worlds were destroyed that hundreds would jump into the fray. Now that the ships have been released, she tells me that only one of the possible futures has that war happening immediately. The threat of that war is still with us but it has been delayed.”

“Why would you care if they destroyed themselves, Danielle?” Atlas asked. “It would remove a threat to your existence.”

“Atlas, all life is precious, just as you are to us. If we could stand by or even worse cause that loss of life then it would scar us. It would harden us to accept that and it would lead to us eventually hardening our hearts to each other.”

Tag waited for Atlas to respond and after a long wait he asked, “Atlas, what are you thinking?”

“I think that my master’s race is gone today because we did not value life as you do. The virus that killed them was a development of a weapon they used to eradicate a rather nasty life form that consumed all it came into contact with. After that it became easier for my master’s race to eliminate races that they decided were not worth living. My masters eventually after a million years became loners that explored the universe by themselves and avoided contact with each other. They didn’t like being around other masters. It wasn’t always like that. I think it began with the eradication of that first race after the plant creatures were defeated.”

“They killed every member of that species? Tag asked.

“No,” Atlas said. “Some of their spores survived and the race came to life again several million years ago long after my masters had died.”

Tag felt something move inside his chest. “Atlas, where is that race now?”

“They are in a Galaxy located just beyond the constellation you call horse head.”

“Are they dangerous?”

“Yes, I guess you could say they are. They have killed every civilization they’ve contacted in that Galaxy and have used up most of its natural resources.”

“Atlas, will they move in our direction?”

Atlas was silent and after two minutes said, “I don’t know. They have interstellar technology. I don’t know.”

“How do we match up to their technology, Atlas?” Danielle asked.

“You are slightly ahead of them with your power cells, but they number in the trillions.”

“Do you have any video of them?”

“Yes. Let me look thru my files and I’ll prepare one for you. Why, are you worried?”

“If they, like you say, consume everything they contact, then they are like a cancer. It sounds like this particular cancer cell is about to divide. It is just a matter of time until they find us. What happens then?”