me that I’ve been waiting for you my whole life.”
Tommy looked at her and it took all his effort to not reach for her. “It was the same for me, Cassie. I need you now more than you’ll ever know. I’ll wait forever if needed to be with you.”
Cassandra smiled and said over the ship’s com, “Jumping in 3,2,1, jump.”
They broke out into the pitch-black of empty space and saw one of the forts floating in space ahead of them. “Trust Mikado to be punctual,” Tommy said. “What do our sensors say, Cassie?”
“The screen is at full power and there are no biological readings on it.”
“Atlas, are you ready?”
“Open the port and I’ll take a shot at it.” The shuttle landing bay opened and the Silver ship moved out of the bay and moved toward the large asteroid. Atlas said over the ship’s intercom, “Sprig, are your sensors ready.”
“Yes they are, ready when you are.”
“I’m firing in 3,2,1, fire.” A bright blue beam stabbed out from the small silver ship and hit the screen around the asteroid. The beam penetrated the screen and hit the rock surface causing a giant explosion. Immediately after the beam turned off, the screen came back on line and surrounded the asteroid.
Tommy watched the beam penetrate the asteroids screen like it wasn’t there. He shook his head and said, “Atlas, hide yourself, please.” Atlas disappeared from the sensors. “Tgon-Gee, please call your ship to this location.” Tgon-Gee pushed his com and gave coordinates to his ship and waited twenty seconds until it appeared.
Tommy commed the Glod Megaship and said, “Captain Thid-Bea, please fire your weapons at the asteroid fort. I want you to do your best to penetrate the fort’s screen.”
Thid-bea asked, “You want me to use all the weapons in our inventory?”
Sprig broke in on the conversation and said, “If you don’t mind, use them one at a time and then all at once or in whatever combination you think might work.”
The Megaship fired its needles first using three stage and loaded needles. The screen showed no change. Next the ships primary beams struck the screen and the screen actually grew larger as it absorbed the energy. The short range high speed penetrator came next and the screen finally showed a bright flash as it hit. Finally the Megaship fired its focused primary beam and it made it forty feet into the screens depth. Thid-Bea announced that he was going to full weapons and that he would vary the mix of weapons based on what seemed to work.
The Megaship appeared to catch fire as it fired its weapons on the asteroid. The asteroid’s screen sparked and turned brilliant colors as the beams and missiles struck. The Megaship finally fired more than 600 of the high speed penetrators and continuous focused primaries and needles at one spot on the asteroids screen. Nothing got thru the screen. Finally the Megaship stopped firing and Thid-Bea commed, “It appears that we are unable to penetrate the screen. Is there anything else you want me to attempt?”
Tommy commed him back and said, “No, I appreciate your effort. You may return to your previous location.” The Megaship disappeared into its silver blue flash as it engaged its star drive. “Atlas, it appears we are substantially behind you in our weapon development. If you could penetrate that asteroid’s screen, you could kill any of our ships.”
“I could not hurt the Kosiev, Tommy. It was not affected by my beam. However, my weapons had absolutely no visible affect on the Captor ship that was pursuing me.”
“What about the Captor’s beam weapons; did they affect you?”
Atlas was quiet for a long time. “When the Captor ship began its pursuit, there were four of us together at one place. The Captor jumped in and we hit it with every weapon in our inventory. They had no effect on the Captor’s screen. Just as we started to jump away the Captor fired two beams at two of the ships there with us. It totally disintegrated them. We jumped away and the Captor came right behind us almost through the same jump point. We flew as fast as we could jumping every time the Captor came into normal space to avoid being hit by the captor’s beam. It didn’t matter how fast we jumped, the Captor stayed with us. We finally thought we lost him and we jumped into your system. My companion landed on a planet further out from the sun and I headed toward your planet. Before I arrived at your planet the Captor stopped at the planet my companion had landed on and hit the planet with a beam. The planet blew apart into small rubble. The Captor’s short stop to destroy the planet gave me the opportunity to cut a hole into a crater on your moon and turn off all my power. The asteroid strike happened just as the Captor arrived at your planet. I lived because of that delay.”
Cassandra said, “Atlas, why didn’t you and your companion split up and go in different directions?”
Atlas said in a voice they all understood, “My companion was my mate. I tried to get her to jump away but she refused. I headed toward the inner planets to try and draw the Captor away from her.” There was a long moment before Atlas said, “Even hiding in a planets thick atmosphere didn’t save her. I miss her still to this day.”
Tommy said, “Atlas, what planet are you talking about?”
“Tommy, your system once had a large planet between the two planets you call Mars and Jupiter. All that remains of that planet is asteroids orbiting your sun.”
Sprig said, “One beam totally destroyed a planet?”
“A very large planet, Sprig; my weapons are as far behind the Captors as yours are to mine.”
No one said anything. Finally, Tgon-Gee said, “I need you to do something for me if you are through with your weapon testing.”
The Adolescents, Cassandra and Tommy looked at him and Sprig said, “What?”
Tgon-Gee said, “Tommy, you know I can see auras.” Tommy nodded. “I can see your and Captain Dodd’s auras and they are larger than any aura I have ever seen.”
Cassandra said, “What do you mean larger?”
“Instead of radiating only a few inches around your body like every other aura I’ve ever seen, yours extends more than four hundred yards from you.”
Tommy said, “What do you think that means, Tgon-Gee?”
“I’m not sure. However, if your psychic talents are as strong as your aura is large, you could be the most dangerous people in the universe.”
No one said anything; even the normally talkative Algeans were silent. Finally Tommy sighed and said, “What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to move this ship away from the fort. I know you possess some telekinetic powers. I want you to use it just like you were trying to move a small object only do it to the ship.”
Tommy furrowed his brow, then shrugged, “Ok, here we go.” Tommy focused his mind on the huge shuttle and thought, “Move that way.” Nothing happened.
“Try it again but try different ways to command it,” Twig suggested.
“Go,” nothing happened. “Move,” again, nothing happened. Tommy was starting to feel like this was a waste of time, then he thought, “Move that way now.” The ship flew away so fast from the asteroid that it disappeared from the screen in a blink and the shuttle was picking up speed. Twig said, “We just passed the speed of light, stop us Tommy!”
Tommy was stunned but he gathered his thoughts and commanded, “Slow down and stop now.” The ship slowed and stopped. Tgon-Gee said, “Where are we not in relation to the asteroid?”
Twig looked at the jump reader and said, “We are two light minutes away.
Sprig looked at Twig and asked, “Did we leave normal space?”
Twig said, “No, we did not. I can’t understand how we were not destroyed by breaking every universal law. We did not have any kind of protection; our screen was not on. We should have burned up at the speed we just traveled.”
Tgon-Gee said, “The ship was totally surrounded by his aura. It is what protected us and allowed your ship to ignore the physical laws you just broke. Tommy, do you think you can take us back to where we were?”
Tommy thought about the feeling he had as he thought the command that moved them. He focused hard and pictured looking down on the asteroid. He thought, “Go there, now.”
The shuttle was back at the spot in less than a second. The asteroid fort was shining behind its screen below them.
Tgon-Gee looked at Cassandra and said, “Captain Dodd, your aura is actually larger than Tommy’s.”
Cassandra said, “Don’t ask me to move the ship. I’ve never used any powers in my life.”
“I’m not,” Tgon-Gee said. “I want to confirm something that I suspect. Captain I want you to look at the
