Annihilation - Tommy's Tale (Annihilation Series (Book Four)) (25 page)

“What are you planning?”

“A rather large shell game,” Cassie answered.

Tommy immediately understood what she was going to do, “I think we might have a few dizzy bees before this is over.”

Cassie smiled, “You think.”

Lt. Edward Jones was standing in the landing bay surrounded by ninety six sensor buoys. He was listening to Captain Dodd explain what she wanted done. The two Algean adolescents were listening attentively. I thought we would just take the Kosiev to all of the sites for these buoys but you can teleport them right from this landing bay can’t you, Sprig.”

“Sure, if you have the coordinates you want to send them.”

“Each of these buoys has a specific transmission frequency. Mr. Jones, I want you to number each one of these buoys from one to ninety six and I want a list of their operating frequencies put on a list matching their designated number. Call your crew in and get busy.”

“Aye, aye, Sir,” and Ed turned and began issuing orders to his team.

“Sprig and Twig, I want to teleport each of these buoys directly opposite of each other in relation to the Captors planet. Picture their planet in the middle of a large box. Send the first buoy to the bottom right corner of the box as far away as possible from the planet but still in range of transmissions. Send the second buoy to the top left hand corner. Send the third to the bottom left hand corner and the fourth to the top right hand corner.”

Twig said, “You’re trying to make sure no two consecutive buoys are anywhere near each other.”

“Exactly, and we want as much distance as possible from the planet. Go to the longest distance our sensors can transmit to the Captors planet. If they destroy one buoy then the next buoy will be on the other side of the galaxy from them.”

“Well, actually we can put them in different star systems or out in empty space outside their galaxy,” Sprig said.

“Now you’re getting it,” Cassandra said.

“Ok, we’ve got the coordinates for the buoys,” Twig said.

Cassandra started and said, “That fast.”

Twig said, “Captain, don’t be sarcastic. We took four seconds. We’re sorry it took so long but we thought about putting one of them inside the atmosphere of that gas giant. We think that they won’t see us do it because they won’t be looking there and the storms will mask the buoy.”

“What a great idea; see if it works. If the Captors see it and destroy it, we will take it off the list and skip it in our transmissions,” Cassandra then said loudly to everyone in the landing bay, “Oh, and one more thing.” Edward and the adolescents looked at her and Cassandra said, “Admiral Mikado is delivering five hundred more in an hour. Please do the same with them.”

Ed’s team moaned at having to move so many buoys; Twig said, “I’ve got your coordinates, Captain.” Cassandra laughed out loud.

“Twig looked at Sprig and thought, “What’s so funny?”

Sprig shrugged and thought, “Lt. Jones must have made her laugh.”

The bridge of the Kosiev was almost crowded. The two adolescents were standing beside Tommy’s chair which was slightly above and to the left of Cassandra’s command chair. Tommy said, I think we are ready; are the buoys all placed and checked out?”

Wes said, “Yes, Your Majesty, we’ve sent a beam to each and they all responded.”

Tommy looked at Cassandra and said, “Are you comfortable transmitting from them telepathically?”

“I learned how to do it from Atlas. He does it electronically but it isn’t that much harder to just do it with my mind. I’m certain that they cannot track telepathy. Wes, I want you to record all of our transmissions. I am going to say out loud what I’m thinking to the buoys. I’m ready if you are, Duke Gardner.”

Tommy thought to her, Oh, so now you’re calling me formal names. You didn’t do that when you were hugging me thirty minutes ago.”

Cassandra couldn’t help herself and smiled at the thought, “We must maintain the discipline of titles on board ship, especially for one as important as you.”

“I’d be careful if I were you; you’ll soon be a duchess yourself.”

Cassandra took a quick breath. She turned around and looked at Tommy and he was smiling at her. She turned back around and faced her display with a red face but felt her heart was singing. “He wants to marry me,” she thought. “He wants to marry me.”

“I was thinking about doing one more thing, Captain Dodd.”

Cassandra turned around and looked at him quizzically.

“Do you think we could mask the ship like you did with Earth?”

“Sure, a ship is easier,” she said.

“Then I want you to jump in to these coordinates once you start transmitting.”

Cassandra looked at the coordinates and smiled. “You do have a way of making a point, Your Majesty.”

Cassandra closed her eyes and outside the viewport of the Kosiev a dark mist began to form; suddenly, the Kosiev disappeared. She handed the coordinates to Twig and said, “Teleport the ship to this location when I raise my hand.”

Twig looked at the location and said, “Standing by, Captain.”

Cassandra leaned forward and triggered the first buoy then closed her eyes and began speaking her transmissions.

The First Male was checking the status of the nexus to see if a watcher could use it when he heard an electronic transmission, “I would like to talk with the leader of the red ships.”

The First Male sent a message to five hundred ships and ordered them to follow the trail of the transmission to its source and destroy it. The five hundred ships began jumping out from the planet on the line of the transmission separating themselves by one light year between each of them. The transmission then said, “You may know me as the one who killed five of your ships at the planet in the new system you are moving to occupy.”

The First Male turned angry and said, “Have you found it?”

“Yes, we have it is just a primitive electronic buoy hanging in space.”

“Track it back from where it came,” the First Male ordered.

“There are no tracks, First Male.” One of the ships destroyed the buoy.

Cassandra keyed the next buoy. “I’m going to offer you one chance to talk with me and if you refuse then we will assume that it is destruction you intend for us and we will respond accordingly.”

Now the First Male saw the track coming from a different direction opposite of the first one. He ordered five hundred more ships to go. He decided to give them time by communicating with whoever was speaking. He sent a message on the same frequency, “Who are you.”

Tommy tilted his head and shrugged at Cassandra. “We are the race that lived on the planet you destroyed when you moved to our fifth planet.”

“Obviously, we didn’t get all of you.” The second buoy stopped broadcasting.

Cassandra keyed the third, “No, however you were coldblooded when you systematically killed every settlement in the system.”

The First Male dispatched five hundred more ships. “They were close to our home.”

“That system was our home and you destroyed it with no attempt to see if we represented any danger to you.” The third buoy stopped and Cassandra keyed the fourth.

The First Male said, “It doesn’t matter, it was now our home and you were too close.”

The conversation continued as the Captors destroyed the buoys and Cassandra keyed a new one after each buoy’s destruction. “It sounds like you do not regard anyone as having the right to live except yourselves.”

“The First Male said, “You can survive as much as you want as long as you don’t intrude on us.”

“But you can intrude on us and that is fine in your view.”

“Certainly, it can be no other way.”

“What if we decided to destroy you for intruding on our space?”

“If you could do it you would have already done it.” Buoy two hundred stopped transmitting and Cassandra raised her hand and Twig threw the switch.

Suddenly the First Male saw the transmission coming directly from the planet under him. He sped down into the atmosphere and destroyed the buoy. He came back up to the construct and felt his first touch of fear. How did they get that buoy close to the planet without being seen?

“Perhaps there are races that are more tolerant than your own. I want you to think about what would have happened if that buoy you destroyed happened to be a black hole instead.”

With that the First Male jumped off the construct and began flying around the planet in attack mode. Finally he slowed down and said, “We will totally destroy you and everyone associated with you.”

“If you could do it you would have already done it,” Cassandra said.

The First Male was furious. His warriors were now attacking the broadcasting buoys without having to be ordered; buoy number three hundred and three stopped.

“How many races have you destroyed in your long history,” Cassandra asked.

“More than a million.”

“And you feel no remorse for that?”

“No, the eight legs would have killed all of them, we just did it first.”

Cassandra looked at Tommy and then said, “Eight legs?”

“They harvest this universe for intelligent life then move on to another universe. No civilization will live past them.”

Cassandra said, “You did.”

“Yes, but they can’t see us. Every other race is just food for them. Destroying other races means nothing; they would be killed any way eventually.”

Buoy four hundred and seventy nine stopped broadcasting. “There is one thing you have not considered in your point of view.”

The First Male said, “What is that?”

“We can see you.”

The five hundred and ninety sixth buoy was destroyed. The first male broadcast, “So what.”

Suddenly, the strange white ship materialized next to the construct and he heard in his mind, “This is your last warning. If you want peace, we will discuss it, however, if you attack us, we will move to destroy you.”

Ten thousand ships rushed toward the intruder and the First Male saw black balls fly from the hull of the ship and start hitting the ships rushing in. The giant red ships that were hit by one of those balls stopped dead still and imploded into nothingness. All ten thousand ships were vaporized into seconds, not even dust remained. Then he heard, you have the frequency to contact us. If it’s war you want, we are ready to bring it to you. You have one revolution of the planet below you to contact us.” The intruder disappeared from the planet as a million ships rushed at it.

The First Male did not know if they left out of fear of that many ships or because of their agreement. The uncertainty of which one it was unnerved him. Then he could not help himself, his instinct drove him to fly around looking for the intruder. How stupid of the strange ship, they must think that he had a choice about attacking. That action was reflex; he could not do anything else. It was ingrained into his genes over millions of years of selective breeding. Anyone or thing that came near or even knew about the nest must be destroyed. That ship must be found and eliminated.

Tommy looked over at Wes and said, “Did you record both ends of the conversation?”

“Yes Sir, I did.”

“Sprig, what do you think about Captain Dodd’s idea of dropping a black hole on their planet?”

“It’s a great idea. How are you going to do it?”

Tommy looked at him and said, “Just like you dropped the buoy; teleport it in.”

Sprig leaned forward to show his discomfort and then said, “I’m afraid we can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because sending a black hole big enough to cause any damage to the planet would disrupt the field before it could go through. The gravity from it would cause the field to collapse.”

“Well, it was a good idea while it lasted. When do you and Twig want to start working on converting a megaship?”

“Where are the ships,” Twig asked?”

“They are waiting for you at the learning facility.”

“We’re on our way,” and they adolescents left the bridge.

The conference was a large one. All the major leaders were present and many of the Realm’s elected officials were present. This one was being done in person and the conference room at the Government Center on Ross was full. Only the ones on the raised dais were allowed to speak during the conference but many of the assembled crowd didn’t care. This was history being made.

Tommy had just completed playing the recording of the conversation with the first male and the room was silent. Rose said, “Did they answer?”

Cassandra said, “We have received no transmission.”

“I wish I could be certain of their answer,” Rose said.

Tommy said, “That’s easy enough to find out.” Rose and all the other attendees looked at him. Tommy lifted his com and said, Lt. McAnn, please transport the buoy now.” Tommy looked back at rose and said, “I’ve just teleported a buoy five light years from their home world. Captain Dodd, if you will ask for their answer.”