Escape to Earth-Living Legends (23 page)

Every officer above the rank of Commodore was seated in rows by planet on the left side of the giant room. The lead scientists and engineers were seated to the right. Along the wall behind the huge front table were specially invited guests. Jay, Josey, and Jan sat against the wall and felt very small. Jay stared at the row after row of flag officers and shook his head, “I didn’t know there was this much brass in the universe.”

Josey snickered, “I didn’t either. I knew we had a massive number of fleets but seeing that many Admirals really brings it home.” Josey looked at Jan, “You’re being quiet.”

“I wish there were more of them.” Josey and Jay looked at each other and Jay nodded. Trust Jan to see the bigger picture. They still didn’t come close to the numbers they were going to have to face.

Michael walked in followed by Lukas and Salud. The entire room stood and began applauding them. Lukas nodded and Salud smiled at everyone. This was the first time many in the room had seen the former leader of Earth. His reputation was known throughout the four galaxies and the Leaders from the former Fellowship felt better with his being present. Luke was good but he was not his father.

The two had aged but still possessed a youthful exuberance. Michael sat down and Lukas remained standing as the applause continued. He raised his arms and motioned everyone to their seats but they continued to cheer. He shook his head, looked at Salud and waited. Finally, everyone sat down and he said, “Thank you. That is more than I deserve.” Some started clapping again and he quickly said, “Ok, maybe not.” The attendee’s laughed and Lukas said, “I think we all know why we’re here. We need to discuss how we’re going to respond to these new developments. Michael has asked me to handle this part of the meeting and I’m going to turn the floor over to each Leader to tell us what they think about these dangers facing us. We’ll start with the newest member to our Alliance and after the Audon Leader speaks, the Goran will follow.” Lukas sat down and the Audon Leader stood up.

“It took twenty hours to arrive here for this meeting where it only took a few seconds two weeks ago. Our advantage in speed has been removed as well as our ability to hide in the barrier from the Legends’ forces. Now it is going to take fifty days to arrive at the Legends’ Cluster with our fastest Warship; we are going to have to deal with a universe that just got a lot larger.”

Budge pressed the panel in front of him and Lukas said, “I have an attendee who asks to clarify something you said, High Leader.” The Audon looked at Lukas and nodded. Lukas pressed the glowing button on is panel and Budge saw his panel’s light turn green. He stood up and said, “It won’t take us fifty days to arrive. Meaning no disrespect, High Leader, but only the barrier inside our cluster has been disrupted. We can move outside the cluster in less than two days and then use the undisturbed barrier in intergalactic space to skip to the Legends’ cluster. Of course, travel inside the Legends’ cluster will be slowed to our top speed in the void but they will not be able to move any faster than our ships.”

Budge sat down and Josey stared at him. It took some real moxie to stand up and correct one of the Alliance Leaders. She stared at him as he leaned over and spoke to Nudge. Those two were something different than most of humanity. The Audon started speaking and she looked away.

“I stand corrected and I understand the need to keep all of our facts straight. But the fact is we’ve been slowed down by the barrier disruption. I think the ability to hide in the barrier will be missed more than the speed it offered.”

The Audon finally took his seat and the Goran High Leader stood, “I will not repeat anything my esteemed friend and ally has said. I can see everything he’s said is on the side monitor and I’m going to assume everything we discuss will be recorded and a copy sent to all of us.” Lukas smiled and nodded. “My concern is about that predatory telepath that managed to kill two of my scout warriors. My thanks and respect are offered to our greatest scout warrior.” The Goran Leader turned and looked at Hengel and Averel sitting in the row behind the front table. Hengel lowered his head and the Leader continued. “He uncovered that the telepath is a member of a species that is more extensive than the Legends. They are currently under the mistaken idea that my species is located in this galaxy. The Legends have promised this galaxy to them if they’re successful in defeating our forces and I suspect after M-87, this galaxy will be next. This creature is a form of what human legend says is a vampire. It feeds on the minds of their prey and learns all the prey has in its mind. It’s not going to take them long to find out that my species is not here. That means both our galaxies will be attacked. We need to decide how we’re going to confront this new menace.”

The Goran Leader sat down and the Myot Ruler stood, “My fear is that those new Legend Warships are going to be too much to handle. Thank you.”

He sat down and the room burst out laughing. Lukas laughed and after a moment said, “Very well succinctly said, Your Supremacy.”

The Johan stood and said, “I don’t have anything to add to what’s been said. My concern revolves around what we’re going to do about them.”

He sat down and the Welken Royal looked around the room and then turned to Lukas, “The Goran Leader said that he believes M-87 will be the first target. Is this the consensus of our military leaders?” Lukas nodded. “Why, if they know our galaxy is responsible for the deaths of the Legends in M-87.”

Lukas looked at Michael. He looked at the Welken, “It’s our belief that they don’t know our galaxy is responsible.” There was an intake of air by everyone present and Michael said, “Please remember that the only ships present at the Legend Planet when it was destroyed were the Silver Ships. The Legends on the planet had never seen them before that moment and we believe they thought those ships belonged to the Sentinels that came there at the end. My father kept our ships away from that attack and I’m pretty certain the Legends in Pandora have no records of the Silver Ships.”

The Welken Royal looked down the table and saw the other leaders digesting the information. He looked out at his Fleet Leader and saw Kyel shrug and then nod. “So them coming here after M-87 would be to consume the Goran?”

Michael nodded, “That’s how we see it.”

The Royal leaned back in his chair and stared at Michael, “So what do we do about it?”

Michael looked at Lukas, who said, “It’s your show now.”

Michael sat down and said, “Computer, summarize all statements.” The wall monitor with everything that had been discussed suddenly changed and a short list appeared. Michael read, “The Mental Vampires, matching up with the new warships, coming up with a way to fly faster; have I left anything out?”

The Welken smiled, “I think that would be more than I expect if you have a way to get around just those three.”

Michael nodded, “I’ll start with the first.” He looked at the rows of fleet officers and said, “Starting immediately, no one in the Alliance Forces will be onboard their ships without wearing a thought blocker and that holds doubly for the Goran. We have developed a new band that can be worn without having to activate their armor but make sure that anyone who violates this order will be subject to execution. It is imperative that those telepaths do not learn our technology, our plans, or anything about the location of our species.” Michael looked at the flag officers and said, “Is that understood?”

The entire group yelled, “YES SIR!”

Michael turned to the Leaders and scientists, “Hengel has developed a method of setting an ambush for those telepaths and he is going to train ten thousand scouts on how to use it. How this is done will be included in the handout you receive after the meeting is over. The decoys will be built at the Goran Capital Planet and the scouts will leave as soon as enough are ready.”

Michael looked at the Welken Royal, “I sent a message out to our Leaders a while back letting you know that we’ve found a way to increase the thickness of the silver coating on our ships.”

The Royal nodded, “I remember reading it. How much thicker can you make it now?”

Michael turned around and looked at Nudge and Budge, “The Blaine Twins discovered the process and the Alliance owes them more than we can ever repay for all of their inventions.” The Twins smiled and both had red faces. Michael turned back to the Royal, “The newest warship we’ve developed has a silver hull six feet thick.” Silence slammed down on the room and even the Royal was stunned by the remark. Michael smiled, “We’ve added three heavy round tubes on the bottom of the new ships that should be able to penetrate the Monster Warship’s hull and blow the living hell out of it. This new round is stable and can be used during a space battle. We’re uncertain about how long these new ships can withstand a full volley of the giant disruptors but we believe it will be long enough to get close enough to take a shot at them.”

The Goran thought, “How many of these new ships do we have?”

“That’s the fly in this ointment. It takes time to build the electronic systems that can be extended through the hull. The conduits for them are already in place before the coating is applied but you can imagine the difficulty at making that happen. The first ships will come on line starting tomorrow and I along with my personal bodyguards will take ownership of the first two. We’ve been training more than five hundred pilots on how to fly them and they will also start flight training the same day.”

The Myot shook his head, “Only five hundred ships?”

Michael tilted his head, “It takes two to fly these ships. The first squadron will start with two hundred and eight ships.” The room was silent and then Michael said, “As with most things, getting something started is the most difficult thing to accomplish. All of the mistakes in this ship’s development have been ironed out and, whereas it’s taken us six months to build two hundred and sixty of these ships, we expect to start producing about a thousand a week from this point forward.” A cheer erupted from the room but Michael saw the Welken’s expression. He held up his hands and the room grew silent. “I know you are aware that we are going to have to face millions of the smaller Monster Battleships and tens of thousands of the larger model. I understand your concern.” The Royal nodded. “You have to factor in that there are more than a billion Silver Ships and they are also going through the process of growing their hulls. It doesn’t take them more than a day to complete that process.” The Welken’s expression changed to a smile. He had forgotten about their ally because they were not in the room.

The Audon said, “You’ve answered the first two, what about the third?”

“You’re talking about our loss of speed?”

“Yes.” Michael leaned back in his chair and put his hand on his chin. He was silent for a long moment and the Audon Leader said, “You’ve not come up with a way around that obstacle?”

Lukas, Luke, Salud, and Jinks all looked at Michael shaking their heads. The Welken Royal saw them and said, “Why are they trying to prevent you from saying something?”

Michael looked at him and sighed, “They’re afraid if I do that everyone in this room, with one exception, will think I’m either crazy of insane.” The Alliance Leaders stared at Michael and he said, “It’s better I remain silent.”

“I don’t think so. The thing about you humans that has given me comfort in our dealings is that you have always been open and honest with us. Now is not the time to start hiding things.”

Talel stood up among the Admirals and said, “Does this have something to do with what we discussed?” Michael nodded. Talel shook his head, “There’s no way anyone here will understand what you’ve come up with.”

The Welken looked at Talel, “Who are you to make that decision?”

The Goran Leader looked down the table at the Welken, “Talel is the most brilliant military leader in our species. If he could not understand it, I suspect I wouldn’t as well. Are you challenging his intelligence?”

The Welken stared at the Goran and looked at Lukas, “Do you understand it?”

Lukas shook his head, “Not even close.” The Welken looked at Salud who had been a professor at MIT studying high-energy fields. She saw him look at her and shook her head. The Welken turned back to the Goran, “Please accept my apology. It’s obvious I didn’t have all the facts.” The Goran nodded. The Welken turned back to Michael and said, “However that does not remove my objection to things being hidden. Even if we don’t understand, I want to hear it. Nothing you can say will shock me!”

Jan knew what was coming. She remembered Michael’s expression and she shook her head. Michael looked out at the gathering and said in a matter of fact tone, “Space does not exist.”

The room was shocked silent and then erupted as many shouted disagreements. Michael stared at the Welken Royal and saw him shake his head and lean back. He started laughing and soon everyone stopped yelling and stared at him. He laughed harder and soon many joined in. Michael tilted his head and shrugged. The Royal laughed even harder but the humans at the table didn’t join in. They knew what was coming and they braced for the blowback.

Michael sat in his chair in silence even after the room grew silent. The Royal stared at Michael for a long time and finally said, “The next time I say you can’t say anything that would shock me, you have my permission to hit me with a metal pole.” Michael nodded. The Welken waited and the silence grew uncomfortable. Finally, the Johan Royal said, “For the love of space, are you going to tell us what you mean?”

Michael sighed, “I’ve tried to discuss this with the other humans at this table and they are all convinced I’m out of my mind.”

The Johan said, “Are you?”

Michael smiled, “No. But it’s similar to describing any color other than black to someone that’s blind.”

The Johan smiled, “They just can’t see it.”

“That pretty much describes it.”

Averel stared at Michael and wondered where his thoughts had come from. She saw the box still closed in her mind and thought where everyone could hear, “You face what one of your revered scientists once faced.” Michael looked at her. “Einstein was ridiculed when he developed his theory of relativity. You don’t sound so different now.”