The Red Being thought about that scenario and said, “Either way, I need to handle this situation. I would rather make this trip than have one of them go.”
“I can’t argue with that.”
“I’m taking my ship. I’ll update you when I return.
“I’m not sure I want to know.”
“I can understand that.”
The Red Demon entered his ship and activated its drives. The ship immediately appeared above a planet where a hundred of his White Clan Ships were waiting. He looked at his panel and saw the Supreme Male was still on board the Mother Ship. He hit a switch on his console and the Supreme Male felt the compulsion hit it like a stunner. “Give me what you know!”
The Supreme Male began sending his memories directly to the board of the orange colored ship. As the information was being received the Red Demon said, “Destroy all the green creatures on the planet.”
The hundred ships in orbit began hitting the Eight Leg ships on the planet with their main beams as millions of White Warriors swarmed out of their ships and flew down to the planet.
“Matt, an orange ship has arrived next to the main ship.”
“Jump in a hundred miles from it and be ready to run.”
“Jumping now.”
The Supreme Male was dying quickly. He was being sucked dry just as if he was surrendering to the Nest Mother but there was no pleasure in this surrender; the pain was unendurable and the Red Demon enjoyed it immensely. The Sensor Leader watched as the Supreme Male suffered and tried to move his ship to ram the orange ship. He entered the directions to the ship’s drives and immediately fell over dead. Part of the compulsions prevented any attempt to disobey the Red Demon and death happened if one tried.
Suddenly a blue ship appeared and the Red Demon turned his attention to the newcomer. Before he could do anything, a bright blue beam struck the Eight Leg Mother Ship and it shattered into millions of fragments. An edge of the blue beam grazed the orange ship and seven systems were shut down. The Red Demon was briefly stunned and as it quickly recovered it saw the blue ship had disappeared. He turned to his board to scan the area where the intruder had appeared but his systems were still off line. He slammed his fist on the board and sent a message to the white ships, “Follow that ship.”
The White Clan Leader jumped his ship to the spot where the blue ship had appeared but there was no trace of a departure or arrival. “Maker, there is nothing here to track.” He shivered in his command chair hoping the Maker would not take his anger out on him. He cringed anticipating his destruction.
The Red Demon looked down at the planet and saw that all of the old tools had been killed. He should have waited until he finished gathering information from the Supreme Male but how could he have anticipated anyone stopping him. He thought a moment and ordered, “Gather all of your clan at the universe of the old tool. Go there immediately!”
The White Clan Leader hit his plotter and sent the instructions. In all the universes being searched, the White Clan stopped and set their drives for the Eight Legs Universe. The White Clan Leader was excited at the prospect of killing the old tool; why else would the Clan be going back to the green creature’s universe?”
The Red being could see from the information he had gathered that there was a universe that had found a way to kill the old tool. That universe had kidnapped the Nest Mother and her chamber and had removed the Supreme Males from their ships. That universe was where his old tool was now hiding. He also saw a race of rock creatures that had the capability to destroy the old tool and they had been in existence for more than two hundred million years. He had not looked at the information his old tool had gathered and he now knew his life was over if this information was revealed. He decided that this was not going to be given to the Elders. He was also going to keep the blue ship a secret. The Elders would find out about it as soon as the missing universe was found. His systems came back on line and he went to the place where the blue ship had entered and there was nothing to follow. He erased the information he had retrieved and purged the data bank that had stored it. He jumped back to his lab.
“What did you find out?”
“Nothing, that new tool of mine could not restrain themselves and killed every green creature before I arrived. There was only one ship of the old tool present.”
The first Red Demon looked at the second and almost forced him to reveal what had happened but knew the peril he would face if this underling had caused that universe to go missing.
“You have not been able to control them effectively.”
“They are still new and need some detail work. They were not made to capture anything but to kill it. They are very efficient at doing that.
“Is that tool of yours far enough along to go unsupervised?”
“Not really. I also suspect that whoever was capable of moving a universe and hiding it from us will be immune to their attack.”
“You really don’t have time to devote to them now.”
“I know; I’ll dispose of them and start searching.”
“That would be wise. You can make them again later.”
“Does it look like we will have to use our ships to confront this problem?”
“We always knew it was a possibility.”
“Watch your display, this should be entertaining.” The second red creature also knew that all witnesses to the actual events involving the blue ship were about to be eliminated. He planned to do it even if his superior had not recommended it.
The Leader of the White Clan jumped into the Eight Leg Universe with all the members of his clan excited at the prospect of killing the green creatures. He looked at his board and saw there was still no life in the universe and the green ships floating in space were lifeless. What was going on? He thought the Maker had sent them back because the old tool had returned.
The Maker came on his board and demanded to know why he had made a mistake plotting. He shivered in fear and then he heard over his ships communication system, “Time to dine.” The compulsion hit the Clan Leader like a hammer. He turned and saw his mate standing next to him and he attacked her just as she was striking at him with her talons. As he was chewing on her shoulder, ten other members of the Clan fell on them and devoured them. The compulsion forced the white creatures to eliminate their leaders first and then each other. In all the white ships, the crews were burning as they attacked each other. The last survivor of each ship left and flew out into space to continue the carnage.
The two red beings watched the destruction of the new tool and enjoyed every moment. They were disappointed when the last creature killed itself. “When you rebuild this tool you need to make this process happen slower. Do away with the burning and just make them eat each other.”
“I will, but you have to admit the compulsion was effective.”
“It was very effective. I just want to see more of it.”
“Me, too, I’ll make the change.”
“I think the Elders are disturbed by the absence of your old tool. You might invent something to tell them.”
“How disturbed are they?”
“Very.”
The red being felt a fear that his creation had just experienced.
The probe that remained in the former universe of spiders recorded billions of ships break into normal space. After an hour, they suddenly turned on each other and begin attacking. The white furred beings with multiple rows of eight-inch sharpened white teeth and long white talons began ripping each other apart. They left their ships to kill each other in open space. In less than a day, the last survivor started eating itself until it died. Only the probe was there to watch its death. The probe waited to be collected.
Matt and Melanie had jumped to another universe and waited twelve hours to see if anyone followed them. “Jump to another universe, Melanie.”
Melanie jumped and they waited another fourteen hours. “I don’t know if we prevented the information from being obtained. That ship wasn’t there very long but I don’t know how fast those beings can take information from their tools. We can only hope we destroyed the ship in time.”
