all the time you need.”

“Angel, I need you to come help me try to save 200,000 people from being executed.”

“Where are you? I’ll be right there.”

Matt sent her his coordinates and her ship appeared instantly. “Angel, these ships have been chased from their home world and have told me that the invaders are planning to execute hundreds of thousands of their civilians.”

“Tell me what you want me to do.”

“First I want you to listen in to my conversation with Fleet command then we’ll decide how we want to handle it.”

“I’m all ears.”

“Fleet Command, I need to communicate with the Delta Ship in the Hugon system.”

“Go ahead, Searcher.”

Matt quickly filled in the commander of the SR Defender Ship Vgrig Summer. “It doesn’t surprise me. These Gresh are pretty bloodthirsty and are bent on total conquest. Reminds me of how my race used to be. We have removed them from this system and are standing by to insure they don’t return.”

“I am planning to try and save prisoners from execution but I wanted to see if perhaps your ship is better equipped to handle the exercise.”

“I’m sure we could but I think it would give you and some of the graduating searchers an excellent opportunity to take part in an action that will help them shorten their learning curve. I am also of the opinion that you could probably get in closer and faster than a ship this size. Your ship also possesses advanced systems that this class of vessel does not.”

“I tend to agree, Sir.”

“It is I that should be addressing you as “Sir”. The commander of an Alpha Ship outranks me.” Matt and Angel were surprised. “All Alpha Ship commanders outrank any other ship’s commander. You have the authority to use Fleet Command’s resources any way you think is needed.”

“Does Fleet Command have ten companies of Armored Red Warriors available if I need them?”

“I’m sending you a com code for General Durk. Tell him what you need.”

“Thank you.”

“Angel, I need you to go to Goige’s home world’s coordinates and scan the planet. I am going to call in eight other searchers and use them to screen the prisoners when we begin our exercise. I’ll have Al send you the language we have learned so you can speak to him directly.”

“Who is Al?”

“He’s my ships computer. Have you spoken with yours yet?”

Angel looked puzzled and Matt said, “Ask Wings to download the language program from Aladdin.”

After a moment Angel said, “Always the Magic man. Obviously you found yours first. I’ll use the time going to the planet to familiarize myself with my new friend. Thanks for inviting me to take part in this exercise.”

“Love having you here, Angel.” She smiled and disappeared from his com.

Matt hit his com and said, “I request the following Searchers to please come to my location to take part in a defender exercise: Stone Tree, Red Sky, Quilleron Sword, Blue Sea, Bright Star, High Shore, Dorg’s Son, and Vrig’s Wind.”

Angel returned from making her scan and found nine Searchers waiting for her. The twenty four ships of the Exkath were gathered around the small ships listening to the planning of the rescue. Matt pressed his com and said, “Welcome back, Angel. Were you seen making your scan?”

“No, I made it from outside the system. I took the time to watch what was taking place on the planet and I must say I look forward to dealing with these Gresh. They are treating the population brutally.” Angel took a minute to say hello to her former classmates and then settled back to see what Matt had planned.

While Matt introduced the other searchers to Goige, Angel thought back to her first meeting with Matt. She was sitting in the academy’s library during her second year the night before she was to take a math exam. She had struggled for hours with the problems and found that she was lost. The concepts were too much for her and she knew she was going to have her first bad grade. She was sitting there feeling her tears fall on the papers in front of her. It was one of her goals to be at the top of her class and this would end that dream.

“Excuse me, is something wrong?”

She looked up and saw Matt looking at her with a concerned look. She was used to the human students in the academy approach her because of her beauty. She had become quite adept at fending off most suitors, but this young man really looked concerned. His green eyes seemed to go through her. She lowered her head and said, “I just can’t understand the concepts of these problems. I know I am going to fail my exam tomorrow. Thanks for asking but I need get back to work.” She turned her attention back to her problems.

Matt looked at the problems on the paper in front of her and said, “Would you mind if I helped you?”

Angel looked back up at him and said, “I’m beyond help but thanks again.”

Matt looked her directly in the eyes and said, “You can do this; you just have to change your perspective.”

Angle furrowed her brow, “What do you mean?”

“These problems are in the wrong order. The concepts are hidden in them but they must be done in a particular order because they build on each other.”

She looked up at him and saw he was not just coming on to her; he really wanted to help. “Show me what you mean.”

“You don’t have enough time to just observe me do the problems. I want you to enter my mind and watch me do the problems mentally. I know that you might be nervous about that but I am inviting you to see what I see.”

Angel knew that opening one’s mind was a serious thing and that everything about the person would be available for viewing. She looked at him and he said, “I trust that you will only look at the part of my mind doing the math.”

She nodded and she entered his mind and saw the fourth problem. “I want you to follow me as I look at all the permutations of this question. I am going to just follow them until I find a pattern.” She watched as he rapidly went thru each of the avenues that the problem gave him and then she saw it. There was a pattern to how the permutations flowed. Once she saw it she knew the answer. “The answer doubles and adds the first number to each value.”

“Exactly,” Matt said. “Now that you’ve seen that pattern, question eight uses that pattern and give you another one that you have to see to arrive at the correct answer.”

She followed him through eight questions and discovered each new pattern as she watched him go through the variables. Then she said, “I can already see the answer to the remaining two questions. I can also look at the second page of problems and see what order they should be solved.”

She left his mind and looked at him. “I can see math like I never have. You have opened my mind in a rather remarkable way. It’s almost like magic.”

He flinched when she said that and she asked, “What’s wrong?”

“My childhood friends called me Magic.”

“I didn’t look in your mind to see that. However, it is a perfect name for you. Thank you for helping me. I really appreciate it.”

He smiled at her and turned and left. She sat there for an hour and remembered the feeling of being in his mind. He was amazing and though she didn’t look around in his mind, she could sense the power of his intellect. He intimidated and fascinated her in equal measure. He was also quite nice physically. She asked around the next day and found out that he, like her, was going to command an Alpha Ship. That didn’t surprise her after she had seen his mind. She kept her eye on him from that moment on and she always called him Magic for the gift he had given her that night. No one else held any interest for her from that night on but he never approached her or asked her out. She knew this was the man she wanted in her life.

She came back to the planning session when she heard Matt ask her, “How are their troops organized?”

“They have set up housing facilities in the center of each of their cities. Most of the troops operate out of those structures.”

Matt pressed a button on his com and a new face entered their conversation. “General Durk, I am going to

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