Light Bringer (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 2) (26 page)

He shook his head, and so did
Sara, who seemed amused by the whole thing.

"It isn't that we don't want
your people to have those, but they're
hard
to make. I think we have ten
people that can do that now? If your people want some, you're going to have to
get with some of them, personally. I can't do it. I think Tor can though and
he's coming along. Timon, Tiera... Taman probably can, though I don't know
that. Sam, can you do it?"

There was a head tilt then, the
tall blond man making a face.

"I... Think so? We haven't
been putting out that many of them, on purpose, so far. We have a plan, but
it's about building infrastructure first, rather than just hopping about in a
rush outward."

Brice stood up, and stretched.
Why a mechanical person needed to do that, Dare didn't know.

"I can see that. We, the
fleets, travel, but we carry a lot with us. Planets worth of resources. You'll
see."

There was, strangely enough, very
little conversation after that. Not until Tor came back, floating quickly. He
had a rather nice looking chest floating behind him, that kept up easily as he
moved. As soon as he got inside, Dare closed the door, turning it into a solid
wall. It was a dusky gray color, the way he wanted it to be. Then he cast off
the glowing red tube with a bit of concentration, causing it to retract
rapidly.

Before he could get the ship to
spin in place all the way, the outer wall had opened, to provide a way for them
to escape. It took ten minutes to slowly move out, but after that it was simple
enough to get up into orbit, then recall how he'd found the fleet before.

It wasn't a point in space that
he needed, since the whole thing was rushing in a line through space. Instead
he simply focused on the ships, and let himself get a feel for what he wanted.
When there was a slight visual in his mind of the correct thing, he dropped his
hand under the floating control bobble, which he'd made seem like a smooth bit
of focus stone, all in white, and imagined the needed dotted line.

There was a point to indicate
where he was, and one for the fleet, so far away. The trick of it was just to
know about where you needed to go, of course. Dare also wanted to be far enough
away from them that they wouldn't get scared and start fighting, as well as
matching their speed and direction.

Which all worked pretty well as
soon as he engaged the process mentally.

Lenn, and Brice gasped when they
suddenly saw the vast array of ships in front of them. It
was
an
impressive sight, but one which they were used to, having lived on at least
one
of the giant vessels at some point.

Sara and Sam joined Brice, Lyone
and Lenn as they moved to the shield window. Blocking the view in places from
where he was sitting. Tor smiled at their backs, knowing what was outside,
roughly. In the distance, there were dozens of giant ships. Some of them were
spheres that held about the size and shape of Earth's moon. There were other
ships, including giant things made of what looked like tubes.

Between them, and Dare could see
some of them, there were smaller craft. Thousands of them, dusting space like
clouds. It was a bit daunting.

"I'll just hold the ship
right here? Or should we move closer? I don't think we've been noticed
yet." Not that he could tell, but if a ship had appeared that far away
from Earth, it wouldn't have even been seen by anyone. Really, that was
probably a failure on their part, considering they were getting visitors from
space now.

Lyone turned, and glanced at Tor,
but then locked eyes with Dare, "would it be allowed for me to contact my
people? I sent a message that we were coming, but it will take about nine
months for it to get here. Even from here it will take about half an
hour."

Dareg thought through it all,
glanced at the others and decided that they were there to meet people. If they
were going to be captured or killed, then it made sense for them to be alerted.

"That seems like a plan. We
can have a meal while we wait?"

Lenn looked up, then moved to his
bag, and started digging in it. He didn't turn around, just speaking.

"Can I do that as well? We
have different people... I... Really, it would probably be sort of like Lyone
being from Austra, and me being from Harmony, if that makes sense? We have
different government structures..." He seemed tense about it.

Brice, looking young and a bit
annoyed, turned to face the man.

"Wouldn't this be best
handled by us? The Forten aren't known for being rational all the time. We
don't need an incident." It wasn't spoken in a mean fashion, but Lenn
turned and looked a bit pissed off anyway.

Dareg could see that, since his
entire people had been insulted.

"Really? This from the
people that have been on Earth breaking laws in order to test them for moral
quality? That's
rational
? We managed to do the same as you,
without
being caught at it. It's called watching. You know, where you go in and just
look at what they do? Without threatening people?" There was a sense that
he was ready, and willing to fight with the other two, the ones on his own
side, for a lot of different reasons.

Lyone scowled at him, her face
looking mean.

"We have different ways.
That doesn't mean that one way is better than another. It was decided that
waiting long enough to get a good overview of the situation on the ground would
leave us at a disadvantage with the Adversaries. As it turned out, it wasn't
totally needed, but that doesn't mean it was wrong."

Rather than striking her, Lenn
made a strange motion, like he was waving her away.

"Fine! My point is that we
shouldn't be left out simply because you've been living with these
people." His words didn't become more reasonable in tone, but there was
some sense to it.

Dareg thought for a bit, and
tried to recall what he'd heard about these people.

"Why not..." They
actually turned, to look at him. Both faces becoming more polite suddenly.
"We could get in touch with everyone here, or at least the three main
groups? Your friends, the Ysidril should be invited as well?"

Lyone blinked, and Lenn just
picked up something that looked like a tube of metal, about the size of a force
lance. Twisting the top, he spoke, no more than five seconds later.

"This is a message for all
three fleets. This is for all listening. The scouts to Earth have found aid,
and bring visitors. We request an audience with all concerned parties. Our
current position is about... Half a million miles away from Planet Seven. We
have the capability to move to any point in the fleet rapidly. Nearly
instantly, at need. Please advise."

Dareg had to listen carefully,
and would have missed what was said, except that Tor touched his arm, and
passed the information about what was said to him directly. Hopefully he was
getting it well enough.

They waited then, so Dareg got up
and started making food for everyone that wanted it. Brice came over to help
him do it, carrying plates, and adding a few dishes to the the mix. Mainly
sweets.

Grinning, he waved at a tray of
plates.

"We might be having guests.
It seems right to do this here, really. I'd love to go home, but in a first
contact situation like this it isn't a good plan. After all, I already know
I
can talk to you all, and get you to not go on a planet killing spree. That
makes me pretty valuable, doesn't it?"

Lenn, across the room, laughed,
but not meanly, earlier tensions aside.

"Correct. Having worked with
these people, we need to not let ourselves be pushed to the side now. Holding a
meet here seems like a plan that would be functional. Especially since
we
have all the good food. I swear, if we could offer some of these food magics as
gifts we could wrap all three collections around our fingers." He shook
his head a bit. "We have power, and light, but it's always hard to keep
everyone fed. This project has been going on long enough that we've exhausted a
lot of resources."

That just seemed to be the
correct, or at least the others accepted it without expression of note. Tor
glanced at Sam, then Sara, and finally Alphonse, who spoke for them after a
moment.

"You... Probably need a lot
of those. So the larger kind would work better? I don't know how many people
you have out there, but we can do
something
. Would... Here, one
second?"

No one moved as he got his
handheld out, and tapped out a name quickly, used to it, from long practice.
After a moment Timon Baker's voice came out of it.

"Problem?"

Alphonse shook his head.

"Our new friends might be
able to use some large food units. Probably... Ten to fifteen times what Earth
needed? Can we get that going?"

There was a soft exhalation, but
one audible to Dare.

"I have a few thousand right
now. I can build that up... We, Tor, and I, can probably have enough for them
in a few months? Faster if it's an emergency, I just don't want to lose time on
other projects."

Tor looked at the silver eyed
alien man.

"How much do you need?"

He froze for a bit, and Lyone
spoke instead.

"We aren't allowed to tell
you what our real population is. It was in the mission briefing, in case we
were taken hostage or prisoner."

Tor glanced at her, smiling
sweetly.

"About twelve billion beings
here. I got that last time. That doesn't say how much you need however."

Dareg had to nod, since it
had
felt about like that.

"They have food though, they
just need more? Are people starving, or is it just that it would be nice to get
some extra in?" It was a very personal question, but it came out of his
lips, and no one shouted him down or offered to beat him. Yet.

The smaller mechanical fellow
waved at the table that he was still filling with food.

"We could use a lot of this.
No one starves however, but there are times when everyone has to go on lower
rations. We all need to eat. The Ysidril will let themselves
starve
before allowing even one of us to do the same. They're... Well, I think they
might be the best of us." He glanced at Lenn.

Lenn let his head come up.

"Their way is different than
that of the Forten, but
none
doubt their good will. We need to make
certain they're protected, if we can."

That fit with what Lyone had said
before, so Dareg nodded, just a bit, not looking at any of the others. That
sounded like it should be his part in things, really. Not that he could say why
that was. It felt correct however.

"So, call it one large unit
per every ten thousand people? That would require them running full time to
feed everyone constantly, but we've done that. Then it will require material to
make things from, but waste can be used if you aren't picky. That, or... Well,
probably anything you find, out here." It was still a lot, on a level that
was nearly insane.

Timon snorted.

"So, only a million and a
quarter of them? I'll start on that. An organic grow, but large batch. Call it
a month? Dareg, can you come get the ones we have?"

"Probably. We'll ask if they
want them and do any meetings we have, first, then I'll do that after I return
everyone to their places? Or... We can do that now, but I don't want to miss
the communications, in case people get in touch with us." Almost like it
was planned, a small light headed toward them. It was different than the ones
that had come the time before, being a bright white light, that moved very
quickly.

Lenn looked at it, and rolled his
eyes.

"Well, that's predictable. A
mech fighter drone? Would you like to go on about how rational your people are
again?" There was a hard look at Lyone.

She rolled her eyes right back.

"Standard procedure. They
won't attack
unless
we offer violence. Unlike what some people might
do."

Tor looked at first the
mechanical woman and then the silver haired man.

"Did you two used to date or
something?" He was a bit sarcastic sounding, and both of the aliens stared
at him for a moment, pulled between their angry bickering and being rude to
what had to be considered an Ambassador of sorts.

Brice however just laughed.

"That's one of the things I
love about the modern Earth people. They
do
love to point out when
others are being silly. Anyway, there are others coming. My bet is that the
Ysidril get here first by at least ten minutes. Their ships started further
away, but are the fastest. Nothing compared to this one, but... Here we go! I
should have taken bets. See the green ones coming, over there?"

Dareg did, but waited, which took
about half an hour longer, then as they got about a thousand miles away, there
was a buzzing that came from Lenn's silver tube device. It spoke without him
picking up.