“I thought that Earth’s old solar system would be a good place to start. There is so much history that happened there. I want to see the star that Jupiter became in the Captor War.”
Matt waited for a moment and then heard, “Let’s also try and find the remnants of the moon that Earth left behind.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Matt jerked his attention back to his sensor systems. Someone had fired on his ship as it passed through a system. He backtracked and found the system where the energy beam had been directed at his ship. He energized his weapon systems and extended his sensors. Whoever had fired the weapon had extremely advanced sensors. He had been in the system less than a second and he had been detected and fired on in that brief moment. As a searcher, he was concerned because who ever fired did not have time to determine whether or not he was a threat or a friend which led him to believe that any ship that entered this system was attacked. Matt looked around the system and looked for the source of the attack. The system did not have intelligent life so whoever fired must be from another world.
“They must think I can’t see them.” Matt saw twenty four ships on his sensors hiding behind the moons circling the ninth planet in the system. So far they had not fired on him again. He looked back at Aladdin’s sensor record and saw that the beam that was used in the earlier attack was strong but wasn’t a real threat.
“I don’t want to have to attack you,” he thought at the twenty ships. “However, I would like an explanation as to why you fired on my ship.” He waited and heard nothing. “Looks like they need a little help in their communication skills.” Matt jumped Aladdin to within a mile of the largest ship. The large ship immediately fired all of its energy beams and launched fifty missiles at him. Matt ignored the energy beams and used his needles to destroy all fifty missiles before they could move a half a mile from the ship that fired them. He tried to communicate with them again but the large ship kept firing and was soon joined by the other twenty three ships. He didn’t want to destroy these ships because they were not attacking anyone else but him. He had a fleeting thought, “Well Aladdin, how am I going to get them to talk?”
“I would suggest a display of power,” a voice said in his head.
“Who are you,” Matt jumped up from his chair and asked quickly?
““I am your ship’s computer. I’ve been wondering when you were going to start communicating with me.”
“What, what, what.”
“I only answer questions you direct at me; that was the first time you actually asked me a question. Surly you were told at the Academy that your ship had an advanced cybernetic computer.”
“Yes, but I thought it would only connect me to the ship’s various systems.”
“Didn’t they also tell you it had all the information of everything ever learned in the Realm?”
“Yessss. Are you alive?”
“Actually, no; I am a replica of your brain engrams impressed on the total ships systems. You might say that I am you in computer form. The imprinting process took your neural pathways and produced the program that made me.”
Matt was stunned. “I think you and I have some catching up to do but I need to handle the current situation first. What did you mean by using a display of power?”
“I would suggest that you cut a section of the moon off these ships were hiding behind and fire your weapon at it to let them see just how strong we are.”
“Will you carry that out?”
“Certainly”
The ships continued to fire at the small ship and saw that nothing was getting thru the small ship’s defenses. Suddenly a bright white beam leapt out from the small ship and cut a section off the top of the small moon behind the largest ship. The section was longer than fifty miles and moved quickly away from the moon’s surface. The small ship then hit the cut off section with a bright red beam that disintegrated it. The twenty four ships stopped firing.
“Well, Aladdin, that was a good suggestion. Now let’s see if we can communicate.”
“I have been monitoring their ship to ship communications and I think I have enough of their language now to broadcast electronically to them in words they understand. Just talk normally and I’ll set the frequency and translate automatically.”
Matt raised his eyebrows and shook his head. He pressed his com button and said, “Why don’t we try this again. I don’t want to attack your ships but I’m curious as to why you fired on my ship as I flew through this system.”
There were a few moments of silence and then a voice answered, “We were expecting to be attacked by the Gresh. We thought you were one of them.”
Matt thought a moment, “Are you from the Planet they are attacking now.”
The voice sounded puzzled, “No, they defeated us seven rotations ago and destroyed most of our fleet. These twenty four ships are all that survived and they have been chasing us since the battle. I am the elected leader of our world and I was made to board this ship and flee.”
Matt sent a picture of the planet he had discovered that was being attacked and asked, “This is not your world?”
“Oh, my God; they’re attacking Hugon. No, that is another planet that we have been trading with for centuries. There are seven other worlds that we have peaceful and harmonious relationships with; Hugon is one of the most populated of the eight.”
“I have stopped their attack on Hugon and one of my Realm’s ships is there now insuring the safety of the planet’s population.”
“You stopped their fleet with your small ship?” the voice asked incredulously.
“Yes. I think I would like to go take a look at your world to see what’s happening if you don’t mind taking me there.”
“My ship would be destroyed if I went back to my home. The Gresh have scheduled the execution of more than 200,000 of my people in two days for resistance to their invasion.”
Matt grew angry, “Where on your planet are these executions planned to take place?”
“The Gresh have set up a holding camp outside our ten largest cities and are going to broadcast the executions. The camps are surrounded by thousands of their warriors armed with heavy disintegrators.”
“What is your name?”
“I am Goige and I am the Select of my people.”
“You may call me Searcher, Goige. I want to attempt to save your people but I need you to help me make that happen. Do you have a recording of the surface of your planet and the location of those ten camps?”
“We have pictures of them that we took before we escaped. I don’t see how you are going to be able to prevent their deaths. They will fire on my people at the first sign of trouble.”
“Even so, I have to try and you might be surprised at what I might be able to accomplish.”
“Thank you for your willingness to help. I have sent the information to you.”
Matt looked at his com and thought, “Al, do you have the information.” There was silence. Matt thought a moment and then thought, “Aladdin, do you have the information?”
“Yes I do.”
“Aladdin, I’m going to shorten your name to Al. So if you will respond to either name I would greatly appreciate it.”
“Change made, Searcher.”
“You may call me Magic, Al.”
“Magic it is.”
“Do you see any way we can save those prisoners?”
“Not without the use of our Realm’s Red Warriors, Magic.”
“How many would we need?”
“A hundred for each site would probably do it, however, just like before these ships would stop firing, we need to impress our power on the invaders. A company at each location would make that kind of impact.”
Matt thought for a minute and then hit his com, “Angel, do you have a moment?”
“Well hello, Magic. I am bored to tears right now. I won’t begin my first assignment for another week. I have
