“Yes, Darling,” He replied.
“Is there anywhere where you can communicate privately?”
“Yes, in my quarters, I’ll go there now.”
“That would be good, dear.”
Tag walked about 50 yards and took the lift two levels down and entered his room to find Danielle lying on the bed smiling at him. His mouth fell open and all he could do was stare at her. “You told me to interrupt you,” Danielle said.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m going with you.” Danielle said.
“No you’re not. This is entirely too dangerous for you to be here. Atlas, is this your doing?”
“Thomas Anglo Gardner, sit down and listen. Focus on what I’m saying and try to understand it is important you see why I’m here. The SFT have sent me to be with you because Sung Lea says if I don’t then humanity will be annihilated with six months. Our best possible future is with me at your side during the upcoming battles.”
“I don’t care what she says; we’re not going to do it. I’ll override them.”
“Atlas,” Danielle said, “Open a channel to the SFT.”
“No you don’t…” Tag started but then the seven members were on the com screen.
‘You were right,” Danielle said. “He’s not being cooperative. Would you kindly explain to him what’s happening and the new chain of command?”
The entire group of psychics looked at Danielle stunned speechless that she was already there in less than an hour from their meeting. Sung Lea visibly composed herself, then stood up and began explaining her visions. He asked questions and Danielle could see after a few minutes that the resistance was going out of him. Finally, he asked, “What is she going to do that’s so important to our survival?”
“We wondered the same thing when we made you our leader but according to Admiral Kosiev you have had a huge impact on our successes so far. We don’t know what she will add, but we all agree it’s going to be critical that she does. So, she has been made co-leader of the SFT with you.”
“What!”
“Tag, the two of you should communicate and agree on what ever course of action you plan to take. Do you think her advice is worthless?” Sung Lea asked.
“No, I always go to her on the hard decisions because of her insight.” Tag sat in his chair and stared across the room at the woman he loved with all his being and knew that he had to follow Sung Lea’s direction even though he feared for his wife’s safety. Finally he smiled and said, “Well, there are benefits to having her here and somehow we will make this work. Have you announced the change in leadership?”
“No we were waiting for Danielle to arrive; we planned to do it in six hours however, we see that we can move that timetable up. We hoped you would see reason and we’ll make the announcement now.” Then Sung Lea looked at Danielle with an expression that showed immense curiosity, “Danielle, you arrived there in less than an hour. I do not know of any possible way that could have happened. It feels eerily similar to what Tag did in the battle for Rossville; maybe you’ll tell us how you managed to do that?” Sung Lea said with raised eyebrows.
Danielle smiled and said, “I can walk very, very fast.”
“Good day,” Sung Lea smiled and the screen went blank.
“Why didn’t you tell me before you came out here?”
“You told me to interrupt you,” she said with a sly smile. “So I’m going to interrupt you. And she walked over and put her arms around his neck.”
Just before he kissed her he thought, “Atlas, how could you allow her to be placed in this kind of danger?”
“What danger?” Atlas said. “She has the same shield you possess. There’s not a weapon in the Alliance arsenal that could harm either of you. She has to be here. I believe Sung Lea knows what she’s talking about and if you look deep inside yourself, you’ll see it too.”
Tag forced himself to relax; he knew she was going to be ok, and then he gave her all of his attention, “Beauty and brains, what a combo!”
Chapter 2
“Admiral, how is the evacuation proceeding,” Terl asked as he boxed important documents to be shipped to the colonies? Some of these documents were important treaties agreed to by the Cainth Empire and other Alliance races. They would be important for the future, “If there is a future,” he thought.
“We’ve moved most of the Clan Leaders and their families aboard ships and they are just now leaving for the jump limit to go to our colonies. They should arrive there is eight hours. Some of the ships have arrived from our closer colonies and our ship count is now 967 warships. We are getting some disturbing reports that some of our enemies in the Alliance are moving fleets to occupy our colonies in the event the Humans are successful against us so we can’t pull all our ships. Even if we pulled them all, it still wouldn’t be enough against the Humans if they come in force.” Admiral Dorg looked at the types of ships he had for defense of the planet and knew it was not enough. “We can delay the Humans but not for long. There is no hope of moving the general population and our troops have had to stay on the planet to maintain order; most of them will have to remain on the ground controlling the riots. The news got out that we were heavily defeated and that our home world is at risk of destruction. I believe, Clan Leader that the Alliance leadership leaked that news hoping for chaos and possible overthrow of our government.”
“You’re probably right, Admiral. Who would have thought we would be facing extinction. Let’s hope they give us enough time to save as many as we can and don’t go after the colonies.” Terl glanced at his display and saw thousands of Cainth civilians crowding the space port trying to get off the planet. The streets had numerous fires going and thousands of vehicles were constantly lifting and flying to the side of the planet away from open space which was the probable direction the Humans would approach the planet. The sky was choked with millions of ships trying to hold position as the planet revolved under them. Numerous crashes were happening as citizens forced their way into the mass of vehicles hovering above.
Thirty dregs later Terl was issuing orders to the military on how to handle the riots when Admiral Dorg came on his display, “It looks like our time has run out. Sensors have picked up approximately two hundred plus star drives breaking into normal space in the outer system. Clan Leader, I’m sending a shuttle to pick you up.”
Terl decided that history didn’t matter if you had no future so he left the boxes of treaties and crowd control behind and ran to the lift to take him to the top of the building. He was fighting to control his fear and he wondered if this is what the Humans felt when his fleet had arrived to destroy their home planet 290 cycles ago. He boarded a military shuttle and accelerated at maximum speed out of the atmosphere to join the fleet waiting for the Humans to arrive.
Tag and Danielle entered the bridge of the Washington. Kosiev looked up and then back and forth between them, “I’m sorry Mrs. Gardner but I didn’t see your name on the ships manifest. Perhaps my purser is not as efficient as I thought.”
“Call me Danielle, Admiral. I hitched a ride in about an hour ago. Have you received any announcements?”
“Yes I have, Mrs. Gardner, and this is a warship and we must follow the courtesy of titles especially to one in your new position.” Kosiev looked at Tag with raised eyebrows.
“Admiral, I just found out about this and I told you that I value her opinion. It appears I am not alone in that department. Are we ready to jump?”
Kosiev might have thought that Danielle would leave before the jump but now he knew that both leaders of humanity were going to be on his ship. He was going to have a private talk with Captain Mikado about making sure these two were not placed in harm’s way in the upcoming battle. “Yes sir, we are. Our countdown is holding at 5 minutes waiting on any last instructions you might want to offer.”
Tag looked at Danielle and she decided that she might as well earn her pay or show just how dumb she really is. “Admiral, what is your plan on emergence into the Cainth system?”
“We’ll determine their fleet positions and move in to destroy their fleet. After the fleet is done, we’ll move on
