you again, Mr. Gardner; how many planets will need to be destroyed before you give up your chase?” Tag said nothing and after a few long moments Cassandra said, “It was my understanding that you took an oath to protect the Realm and that oath should be the main priority here. I don’t want to be the one to point this out but your family appears unwilling to say the things that must be said.”
Tag looked and saw Tommy, Rose, and Danielle looking miserable. He stood and said, “Ok, you’re right but I am not giving up without trying. I will search until the last minute and hopefully it won’t take that long. I refuse to wait until after the battle because the Kosiev might be damaged and we would lose the chance to find him. However,” and Tag looked at Danielle, “I am the only one going in.” Danielle stood and started a protest but Tag said first. “I need you outside to help me find my way back.”
Danielle was stopped mid word; then she said, “Tag, if you don’t come back to me, I promise you that I will come in looking for you battle or no battle.” She then turned to Rose and Tommy and said, “And you two will take this ship into battle whether we are back or not. Your sworn duty is to the Realm, not your parents; do you understand!”
Rose and Tommy looked at each other and said nothing. “I said; “Do you understand,”” Danielle said in a stern voice!
Rose squared her shoulders and said, “Yes, I do; and if I lose the two of you as a result of this decision you’re making, I want you to think about what effect it will have on Tommy and I.”
Cassandra watched the Gardners confronting each other. She then asked, “So how do you do it?”
Rose said, “We will put electronic gloves on Dad and a matching pair on Mom. He will enter the wall and begin his search. Mom will maintain contact with him through the gloves. The main problem is that we do not know the glove’s range. If Dad goes outside the broadcasting range, we may lose him. If that happens, Mom will go in the wall and I will put on gloves to keep track of her.”
“No you won’t, Rose,” Tommy said. “You are Queen of the Realm; you will be the last one to be put at risk.”
Tag said, “He’s right, Rose.” Rose frowned and Tag said, “Part of the price for your chosen profession. Tommy will track Danielle. If she goes outside the range, Tommy will come in and then Cassandra will track Tommy. Tommy, you will not lose contact with Cassandra at any cost; we need you to lead the battle against the Captors. Do you agree to these conditions?”
Tommy looked at Rose and wondered if he could say no to look for his parents if it came to that. Cassandra listened to him in her mind and said, “I will not help you unless you promise to do as he says. I will not lose you!” Tommy looked at Cassandra and she thought to him, “I mean it.”
Tommy hung his head and said, “I agree.”
Rose stood and said, “Well, we have two days; let’s make the most of them.” She then stood and walked over and hugged her parents.
Tag thought, “Are you in there Alex? Please be in there.”
The First Male was overseeing the reconstruction of the construct around the gas giant when he received a call from the Old Watcher. “Do you have a few moments?”
“I always have time for you. What do you want?”
“I have been keeping track of the nexus and it appears the temperature is coming down. If the trend continues, I should be able to use it again within a hesp.”
“That is good news. We should be able to go after the strangers and not wait on them to attack us.”
“I have thought about that and it occurs to me that there is a possibility that they can see the nexus and realize the same thing. It may be that they will attack before the time is up.”
The First Male thought about what the watcher said and replied, “I suspect you’re right. We will go on high readiness immediately and cease looking for the strangers. I’m certain we will need all our resources to defend our home.”
The Old Watcher paused then said, “I know that the strangers attempted to work out a means to stop this conflict. Is there no way to come to an agreement?”
The First Male thought and then said, “Can you allow another ship to enter our system without attacking?”
The Old Watcher paused and said, “No, you know my instincts would take over and drive me to attack. I think that even with our intelligence we are still basically mindless on issues like this. Could we possibly look at our construction and see if there is a way to modify our responses?”
The First Male did not respond. Here was a novel thought. “I don’t know. I’ll mention it to the First Mother and see what she thinks about the idea.”
“Thank you for your time,” and the Old Watcher went back to his task.
The First Male thought about what the old watcher had said and thought, “No, thank you.”
Twig stood in front of the main monitor in the control room of the Kosiev. All of the Gardners were gathered around the monitor watching as Twig rolled the recording of the construction of the Kosiev in high speed. “I have marked the section that McAllister brought back for Sten to work on. I have colored that section that was directly above the control room red so that no matter where it goes during the construction it will keep that color. Now I will run the construction at high speed and follow the section. I think it might surprise you where it ends up.”
The recording began and the red spot moved up and down the length of the Kosiev and then went under the bottom of the ship only to emerge again at the top of the ship next to the rear engine mounts at the conclusion of construction. Then everyone saw the section move slowly forward until it stopped directly above the bridge and there it remained.
Twig pointed to it and said, “Those particular Coronado Power Cells seemed to be able to move around the surface of this ship as if they had a mind of their own. It’s almost like they were looking for the place where they would be most comfortable.”
Sprig pointed straight overhead with one of his branches and said, “It is directly above us.”
Everyone looked at the ceiling and then at each other; finally Cassandra said, “Do you have a way to explain how this happened?”
Twig and Sprig turned toward each other and both said simultaneously, “No.”
Tommy looked at them and said, “Would you care to speculate how this happened?”
Sprig looked at Twig and both of them said simultaneously, “No.”
Rose said, “Why not?”
Twig looked at Sprig again and after a long pause said, “We know that inanimate objects do not have intelligence. This purposeful movement by those cells opens possibilities that are quite disturbing. If they did what we’ve observed, then it tips all the laws of the universe out of whack.”
Cassandra was silent while the group questioned the adolescents and after ten minutes she said, “Alexander Kosiev is in there.”
The Adolescents were in mid argument with Tag and Danielle when Cassandra made her announcement. Everyone stopped and stared at her. “Those cells were not most comfortable in that place, Kosiev was.”
Sprig and Twig stared at Cassandra and Twig said, “That would explain why they moved over the bridge; the bridge is where the Admiral was most at home.”
Tag stood and said, “I think you’re right, Cassandra. His consciousness was locked in that hull and I suspect he wandered around until he found a place that felt best to him.”
Cassandra said, “I have to tell you that I’ve thought this was all a wild escape into some kind of fantasy until I watched those power cells move through the other cells until they found the bridge. I agree that inanimate objects do not have intelligence; therefore, there had to be some kind of intelligence directing it.”
Tag looked around and said, “Ok, how do we do this?”
Cassandra looked at the bridge crew and said, “Everyone off the bridge. You are relieved of your duties until I issue other orders.”
The bridge crew stared at her and then she said, “Right now, unless you want to see what the inside of the brig looks like.”
The Crew rushed for the door and the three engineers standing by began removing the roof and insulation from the ceiling. Sprig said, “We should be ready to begin within the hour.”
Tag looked at Danielle and thought to her, “I love you. No matter what happens, I’ve loved you from the moment I took you hand and I’ll love you until my life is over; and if the creator has a place for us after death, I’ll
