“I believe I could, but then the Ship’s Males would just replace them. They also have the compulsions.”
What if you ordered them to bring their Ship’s Males with them for a brief meeting; would they then download the compulsions in the one’s left behind?”
“They shouldn’t if forced to attend quickly enough. What do you have in mind?”
“We still have Destiny’s ship.”
“Who is Destiny?”
“I am; it is my new name.”
“We can take his ship to your universe and have the Supreme Males come to that ship with their Ship’s Males in transports. Once they arrive, we will teleport you to another ship and then jump that vessel into a universe that has been recently harvested. We will set the universal drive to self destruct upon arrival so they will be stranded in that universe. There will be plenty of planets with food for them and they should survive.”
“I’m glad you have a plan that allows them to live. I will not kill any more of my children.”
“Will it work?”
“That part of the plan will. What do we do about the remaining ships?”
“Have the Supreme Males order them to stay where they are until otherwise ordered. We think the compulsions will fade in four weeks and at that time you will return and we will attempt to move their ships to our universe. There are enough uninhabited planets for them to settle on until they get themselves oriented to their new world view.”
The Nest Mother thought about the plan and finally said, “When do you want to do this?”
“The sooner the better; we have a limited window of opportunity before this universe is blocked from entry and we have to get it done before that happens.”
“Then let’s do it.”
Matt looked at Sprig, “Can you make this happen quickly?”
“With their help, we should be ready in two days.”
Chapter 6
The Green Ships were searching every foot of the empty universe to find another door. The Senior Supreme Male was watching his board for any reports of success when his Sensor Male shouted, “Universal Drive in the central region.”
“Go there now!”
“Message coming in.”
“What!”
The Sensor male sent it to the Supreme Male’s board, “Who has been in command while I’ve been gone?”
The Supreme Males were stunned; it was the Nest Mother. The Senior Supreme Male keyed his board. He could tell she was angry, “I have, Nest Mother.”
“Well no thanks to you but I have been rescued by the ship that was left in the other Universe. It was hiding from those creatures that abducted me and managed to save me. We are going to have to destroy those creatures. This Ship’s Male has found another way into their universe and we must act quickly and decisively. I want every Supreme Male and every Ship’s Male in their families to come to this ship immediately. Order all your ships to remain where they are, board transports, and come here now.”
The Supreme Males felt their compulsions kick in and wanted to consume their families but knew that they were not ordered to do so by the Nest Mother. They issued the orders and began boarding transports to come.
The Nest Mother looked at Destiny, “They are coming.”
“Nest Mother, should we download compulsions into the ones left in command?”
“You won’t be away that long, don’t waste my time.” She snarled, “I told you to come immediately!”
“Yes, Nest Mother.”
“Order your Ship’s Males to the surface of their vessels immediately for pick up by the transports. I will not tolerate a delay in your arrival.”
Some of the Ship’s Males were considering downloading the compulsions anyway but they felt their fear rise and scrambled from their command chairs and rushed to get to the surface of their ships.
The Nest Mother looked at Stem, “They won’t have time to do any downloading. It takes time to get to the surface of their ships.”
“Will there be room for all of them in this ship?”
“Each family can get two million in a transport. It will take about four transports for each family so we’ll need to board about fifty thousand transports. We can easily hold that many since you’ve removed the ships from this vessel.”
Stem looked at the Nest Mother and asked, “Will they be able to rebuild their universal drive?”
The Nest Mother looked at Destiny who thought a moment and looked at the Nest Mother, “I don’t believe they will. Our ship builders only build ships. I’m sure the information is available to them in their storage of data but the compulsions prevent them from being able to focus on it and correlate all the information they would need. I’m sure they’ll try, but I don’t believe they will overcome the compulsions to build what they need. We are also disabling the system that’s used to down load compulsions; later generations will be quite different. They will be able to find planets that will provide them with the food they need to live. Fortunately, the first planet has enough native life for them to survive for many years.”
Destiny looked at his board, “Some of the transports are moving our way.”
The Nest Mother pushed her communication key, “Bring your ships on board; I will talk with each family separately once every ship has arrived.”
The transports began entering the ship and after five hours all of them were in births. Destiny checked his board and announced, “That’s the last one.”
Edison hit the universal drive key and the huge ship disappeared and reappeared just above a planet in another universe. The Nest Mother’s board immediately lit up with questions from the Supreme Males. Stem looked at the Nest Mother, “The devices are armed, move to the teleport circle. The four moved and stood on a large silver circle on the floor of the command chamber and Stem keyed his com, “Ready to port.” A silver screen appeared above them and moved down on them just as the first Supreme Males entered the room.
“What’s going on?” a Supreme Male yelled just as the universal drive console and download panel shorted out and blew apart.
The Stars End hung in orbit a hundred miles from the huge green ship. Sen-Gen looked at the Nest Mother, “Is there anything you want to say to them before we leave?”
The nest Mother looked out at the green ship hanging above the planet and sighed, “No, they won’t understand because of the compulsions and hearing it will only make the compulsions hit them harder. Let’s leave them to find their own way.”
Sen-Gen saw her sadness and nodded to Captain Mendel. Mendel hit the jump drive and the Stars End disappeared.
The Stars End appeared above Ross and the four teleported to the map room. Destiny looked around and saw Matt and Melanie along with Sprig and Twig looking at the map of galaxies. Sprig turned, “Welcome back. I trust your plan was a success.”
“Yes it was. Why did you want us here?”
“We are going to bring your families to our universe and we need to find planets for them to live on. The planets need to provide the necessary food for them to survive and we want to have them located close to each other.”
The Nest Mother turned her head to the left, “What are you doing?”
Matt looked at her, “Your families are going to have to stay in this universe until we find a way to defend ourselves against the new species being developed to replace you. They will not be able to leave to harvest other universes and I suspect they will no longer desire to do any harvesting. They will also need time to evolve into what they choose to be. A planet is the perfect place for them to accomplish those things. They will still have their ships
