Escape to Earth-The Legacy of a Conqueror (7 page)

“It was probably your talking with her telepathically that caused her to develop too quickly!”

Lukas looked at Salud, “Are you saying you don’t want her to develop at her pace but at a pace you choose for her?”

“Lukas, you can’t be agreeing with this!?”

“Ok, when?”

“When what?”

“When will you allow her to go out?” Salud stared at Lukas and shook her head. “It’s a simple question, when?”

Salud gritted her teeth and said, “Never!”

Lukas shook her head, “You left your parents when you were sixteen to enter college early against their wishes. Why didn’t you stay with them?”

Salud opened her mouth to scream at Lukas and stopped. She lowered her head and sighed heavily. After a few moments she said, “Because life was one long boring day after another. I had to find something to make me want to wake up in the mornings.”

Lukas reached over, put his hand on her chin, and lifted her face, “She’s just like her mother. If you try to hold her back, she’ll will hate you for it.”

Salud stared into Lukas’ eyes and felt her tears. “I always thought I would reconcile with my mother later. She died before I could.”

“What you experienced is what our daughter is feeling now.”

Salud sighed again and thought, “Is what he’s saying true?”

“Mom, my days feel like they’re forty eight hours long. I hate it.”

Salud looked at Lukas and said, “You may join in pod training.” All three of them heard eve’s telepathic shout of joy. “But promise me you’ll be careful!”

“I will, Mom. You know I will! This is incredible. I’m so excited! I’ll be careful!”

“Slow down, Eve. You will still come home at the end of every day.”

“May I bring my pod with me!?”

Salud looked at Lukas, “We’ll have a landing pad built for it, darling.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“We’ll discuss this when we get home.”

“Thank you soooooo much!”

Salud looked at Lukas, “I didn’t think about leaving my family.”

“Now you know how your parents felt.”

Salud nodded and slowly shook her head, “They’re up in heaven making me pay for it now.”

Chris listened to them and saw what love really looked like. Later after they left he heard, “Thank you, Chris.”

“Don’t mention it, Sis.”

“I love you.”

“And I love you, too. Be careful.”

“I will. I have a lot to learn and I’m not rushing this.” Chris smiled and knew she meant it. She was extraordinary.

C
hris looked at the numbers of warships surrounding the planet and shook his head. The Civilizations in M-86 were wasting no time building up their fleets. This was the tenth planet he had moved in to scout and all of them were in full production. If this was happening all over the galaxy…he shook his head. They weren’t going to do all this building and then not use the weapons they were making. “What do you think about this, Allison?”

“I honestly don’t know what to think. Their entire economy is centered on the construction of weapons of war. I’d hate to live in that kind of society.”

“You weren’t here when the Progen were conquering them. Many civilizations were exterminated before they left. They’re doing this to prevent it happening again.”

“I guess I can understand it under those circumstances.”

“We’re doing the same thing.”

“Not really.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because everyone is not employed building our warships. I suspect only about a tenth of our population is actually building them?”

“What percent is in our military forces?”

“Touché. You’re right, a much higher percent but not near the percent of the planets I’ve seen in this galaxy.”

“The main reason for that is our converter technology.”

“Even without it, they’re building them faster than we are.”

Chris looked at the planet and nodded slowly, “Yes, you’re right about that.”

“Have you scanned one of their ships to see how they measure up to our fleet?”

“No.”

“Are you assuming we’re ahead of them?”

“I guess I am.”

“Is that a good idea?”

“You’re starting to sound like Audrey.”

“I have to take that as a compliment.”

“Why is that?”

“You married her. You must respect her opinions.”

“Touché right back at you.” Allison laughed and thought about the issue. “Allison, prepare to make a hasty exit.”

“You’re going to do it?”

“I am. Just be ready to run.”

“We’ll be with you. Just lead the way.”

“Barbie?”

“I’ve been listening to you. What do you want?”

“I want one of those ships in orbit to be scanned all the way down to the molecular level. Focus on their weapon systems.”

“That will take a few seconds.”

“How many?”

“To get everything, about ten.”

Chris looked at the planet and said, “Perhaps we should move a little further out before you do it.”

“I think that would be wise.”

“And Barbie.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t get any closer to that moon.”

“I’ll move us away from it as well.” Chris watched the planet move away from his viewport and marveled at how beautiful a habitable planet looked hanging in space. It was truly a miracle of creation and the grey-white clouds moving over its surface only accented its beauty. The ship stopped moving and Chris said, “How far out are we?”

“We’re just outside the gravity limit. We should be able to get out of here in a big way if we need to run.”

“Start your scan.” Chris watched the planet and said, “HOLY BLISTERS ON MY BUTT.” The entire planet looked like a huge hornets nest with thousands of hornets bursting out of it and moving their way. He looked at the moon and saw another huge cloud of ships rushing off the surface and headed his way. “Barbie?”

“Give me a moment.”

Chris watched the huge cloud of warships getting closer, “BARBIE!”

“Done.” The B-Pod and the four Pods around it went to full thrusters and shot away from the planet like a shot. Chris saw two more clouds of ships moving toward them from the fifth planet and Barbie turned and went vertical from the planet’s orbit. She accelerated to full speed and they left the thousands of pursuing ships far behind.

Chris sat back in his chair and then leaned forward. Thousands of warships were skipping in above them, cutting off their line of escape. As he watched, thousands more appeared ahead of them. “Those ships had to be waiting in normal space to get here without us seeing them.”

“I agree.”

“Can you outrun them?”

“Falcon One!”

“Yes Sir.”

“Go to reactor pattern bravo and be prepared to go to full thrusters.”

“Bravo Pattern engaged.”

“In three, two, one, go!”

• • •

The Commander of the pursuing fleets wondered what kind of ship his fleets were chasing. The fleets in normal space above the galaxy dropped into the void to cut them off and he smiled. They had it surrounded. Suddenly, the small ship’s thrusters grew extremely bright and it flashed away so fast it was out of scanner range in an instant. His mouth fell open and he looked at his Sensor Commander, who was shaking his head. “Did you get a reading on how fast that ship was traveling?”

“Not really.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“The maximum speed on my gauge was pegged. I know for certain it went that fast but how much faster, I have no way of knowing.”

“Did you get a color?”

“It was silver in color and there were five of them.”

“WHAT?”

An image appeared on the ship’s monitor and the Commander saw four small ships surrounding an identical ship in the center. All of them flew at the same speed. He shook his head. His communications Commander shouted from across the bridge, “I’m getting numerous calls questioning what kind of ship that was.”

“Tell them their guess is as good as mine.” The Communications Commander shook his head and began talking into his communicator. The Commander felt that the strange ships weren’t from the giant galaxy. He had never fought against ships that small. He was shocked that the ships had been able to get close enough to the planet to make a scan. How was that possible?

Then he remembered two Green Ships closing in on his vessel that suddenly exploded. Was this the ship that had saved him? He stared at the image on the monitor and looked at his Communications Officer. He saw the commander looking at him and he put his hand over his communicator. “Issue orders to all fleets that if they detect their planets being scanned, before they attack, try to open a channel to communicate.” Everyone on the bridge stared at him like he was crazy. He ignored them and wondered if it was his savior.

• • •

“I think I understand why you’re reluctant to make a scan, Sir.”

Chris laughed, “That’s a good lesson to learn, Lieutenant.”

“Uhhh, Sir, I’m an Ensign.”

“Not any more. Keep up the good work.”

“YES SIR!”

• • •

Seven years passed and Chris worked in getting the Alliance’s military forces organized into an effective fighting force. His original four bodyguards were eventually replaced by the newest hot shot pilots and the four were given commands of a fleet of Pods. Allison was placed in command of all the newest fleets as the children on Earth and Eden came of age. She was doing a remarkable job. The number of fleets now numbered more than two hundred with ten thousand pods in each.

Chris sat up on his lounge chair and saw Audrey walking down from their residence. He smiled and kissed her as she leaned down. “What ya doing?”

“I want to go sailing. I’m going to take the small boat out and get in touch with the ocean. Do you want to join me?”

“Actually, I do but Dad is coming down with two surf poles to teach me how to fish in the waves. I think he wants to talk about something but can’t bring himself to tell me.”

“He’s like that.”

Chris nodded, “Yes he is. Where’s Michael?”

“He wanted to go and play with Junior. He should be home by nightfall.”

Chris stood up and helped her pull the small sail boat into the water and gave her a push. She raised the sail and tacked away from the shoreline. He shook his head; Audrey was a fine sailor. The bright pink and blue sail moved quickly out into the waves. Hey, give me a hand!” Chris turned around and saw Stoney lugging two long fishing rods and a rather large tackle box. He ran over and grabbed the tackle box and Stoney whistled, “Man, I need to get rid of some of those lures!”

“You know that will never happen; you’re too much of a hoarder.”

Stone smiled, “No, I guess you’re right. I’ve tried before but all of those lures are tied to the memory of a large fish I pulled in. Here, let me show you how to bait your pole.” Chris smiled. Stoney had taught him to bait a line when he was just five years old. He handed the pole to Stoney and watched him.

Ah hour later, Chris cast the line far out into the waves and set the reel. Stoney cast his line as well and looked at Chris, “Son, do you miss not having a childhood?”

Chris looked at his father, “What do you mean?”

“You changed your DNA into an adult when you were ten years old. You missed so many of the things that make a childhood fun.”

“Such as?”

“Going to high school. Playing sports. Going on family trips. I could go on and on but I worry that we allowed you to grow up too fast.”

Chris said, “Sit down, Dad.” Stoney sat down in a folding chair on the beach and Chris joined him. “I had a great childhood. You and mom took me to all the meetings that happened here and also wherever you went. My telepathy didn’t start developing until I was nine and my childhood was spectacular up until then. Once I started absorbing the thoughts of people like Amanda, Trevor, Jinks, Lukas, Salud, you and mom, playing with toys just didn’t do anything for me.”

“But you missed graduating from high school and college.”

Chris shook his head, “Dad, once I absorbed the thoughts of our leaders, I knew more than most Ph.D.’s. Going to school to confirm it would be a waste of time. I’ve done things that are important and I also found a woman to love that loves me just as much. I have a six-year-old son and I just don’t see how life could be any better. You and Mom did a wonderful job of preparing me for life. I don’t regret anything.” Stoney smiled and reeled his line in. “Are you leaving?”

“I am.” Stoney looked out and saw the pink and blue sail far out on the waves, “She’s a pretty good ways out.”

“She’s an excellent sailor, Dad.”

Suddenly, both of them jerked their heads to the north as the giant defense disruptor discharged a giant beam into the atmosphere. Instantly, the force field protecting the island slammed into place an instant before a brilliant flash turned it black to prevent them from being blinded. The sound of the explosion directly above the force field was deafening.

• • •

Chris shook his head to clear it from the explosive noise and suddenly looked out at the ocean. The force field was still pitch black but he didn’t see the pink and blue sail inside it. Stoney saw him look away and he looked out to sea with him. He felt his heart go into his throat, Audrey had sailed outside the force field’s coverage. Chris screamed at the top of his lungs and turned to run into the waves. Stoney tackled him and held on with all his might. Chris was screaming Audrey’s name over and over. He pressed his wrist communicator, “GET A DOCTOR TO THE BEACH NOW!!!!” Stoney held on to Chris and saw a doctor and nurse running down from the shore. The doctor saw Chris’s hysteria and took a syringe out of his bag and filled it with a clear liquid from a vial. He pushed the syringe into Chris’s neck and pushed the plunger. A moment later, Chris’s screaming stopped abruptly and his eyes closed.

“What’s going on, Stoney?”

“Jinks, Audrey was sailing outside the coverage of the force field.”

“OH MY GOD!”

“I had a doctor sedate Chris. Send a transport to the beach; we need to move him to a hospital.”

“It’s on the way.”

“Jinks, how did this happen?”

Jinks forcefully blew out a breath, “I don’t have all the details yet. I’ll let you know as soon as I find out.”