chair and felt the ship power up. He looked at his display panel and thought, “Where is the demon?” He saw the orange ship moving through the space between universes and could see that it was moving at a rather deliberate speed. “Melanie, we need to go.”
Melanie appeared on the bridge and took her chair, “I just didn’t want to leave her. I’m sorry.”
Matt reached across and took her hand, “I understand. Are you ready?”
“Yes, is that the one coming on the display?”
“Yes, do you have any suggestions?”
“I sense the ship is telling me to power the links between our chairs; I’ve never done that before.”
“Then I guess it’s time, love.”
Melanie thought a moment and then put her hand in the indentation on her left chair arm. The ship emitted a low frequency that rapidly built and grew higher in tone until it passed the range of human hearing. As the tone rose the ship grew brighter until it radiated blue light bright enough to be seen on the planet’s surface. Matt looked at the oncoming Demon ship and thought, “Go to meet him.”
The ship disappeared from the orbit above Ross and reappeared out at the border of the universe. They saw the blue field ahead of them and followed it as the universe expanded. “It should be here shortly.”
“Do you know how to use the weapons on this ship, Magic?”
“There’s only one weapon, Melanie. I use my mind to activate it. You have control of the defensive screen.”
“I have it at full power. Are you going to activate the device the spiders put in?”
“No, if this ship can’t handle one of the Demon’s small ships then we are all doomed. I don’t want to show it to them on first contact.”
“What’s your plan?”
“We’ll see if it can break through the field. If it does, we’ll fire on it.”
“Are you going to try and communicate first?”
“What would I say?”
“Perhaps ask it to go away.”
“I think that in this particular conflict we should face these beings in the interest of all life.”
“And go against all that we hold to be true. Will we be the ones to start this war?”
Matt shrugged, “Ok, let’s see what happens. However, we will not use telepathy to communicate; I’ve seen what happens when you allow them in your mind.”
“I’ll use the ship’s system. I don’t want to ever feel them in my mind again.
The orange energy ship came closer and saw blue barrier around the universe approaching as the universe expanded. Just before it made contact with the blue field the Red being heard, “Would it do any good to just ask you to leave and not come back?”
The Red Being stopped his ship and backed away from the approaching blue field maintaining a hundred thousand mile separation. “That depends.”
“Depends on what?”
“On whether or not you remove this barrier and allow this universe to go back into its normal dimension.”
“Let’s just assume we did that; are you saying that you would then leave this universe alone and not send the species you develop to kill life into it.”
The Red Being flinched, “So you are the one that detonated the recording machine.”
“Of course, weren’t you able to see us do it?”
“Uh, actually no; but we knew whoever did it was in this universe.”
“You haven’t answered my question.”
“We will leave you alone.”
“If you will leave us alone, why don’t you just leave us here? It seems you want us to remove our barrier so you can attack us.”
“If we want to attack you we will. You cannot stand up to us.”
“Perhaps you’re right; however, I must warn you that should you attempt to cross that blue barrier I will be forced to take action to prevent your entering. I’ve seen what you do to species that you create. If you have such little regard for them I’m certain that you will have even less for any others.”
“I will destroy you if you do anything to inhibit my movements.”
“Just like all the other millions of civilizations that you have sent your created species against.”
“Your destruction will be much worse than those suffered; that I promise.”
Melanie broke in, “You have murdered them because you fear what might come from them.”
The red being jerked, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes I do; I can see it now. Your species is frightened that another species would develop and would be powerful enough to destroy you. It is that paranoia that drives you. Before you continue to make threats that you are uncertain about, I would recommend that you turn around and leave. If you try to come through our field, we will kill you.”
The Demon felt fear, “Many have thought they could and are now all dead.”
“I notice you haven’t moved toward us since we began this conversation; you are uncertain about our power or you would have just ignored us. Your actions give you away. Are you the one who designed the eight legged creatures?”
“Yes, I am. Did you kill them?”
“Did you find their bodies?”
“They are here in your universe; your question gives you away. I will take care of them as well.”
Matt felt his rage build; this was the one that caused all the deaths, “We are through communicating. Do as you want; you’ve been warned.”
The Demon could see a bright blue glow behind the blue field and assumed that is where the being that was communicating was located. He jumped around the universe to the other side and started forward but saw the bright blue glow in front of him. He stopped and jumped to another place and saw the blue glow again. He made a series of fast jumps and every time the blue glow appeared in front of him. “Quit wasting time and go kill that insolent being.”
The Demon jumped. The Elders had been listening in and now there was nothing to do but go into that universe. He set the field around his ship to match the universe’s energy and moved forward and hit the blue field… and bounced off. He strengthened the field and moved forward again and bounced back. He moved away from the blue field and then flew faster into the blue colored field and penetrated a small distance before being pushed back. “If you come at this barrier again I will fire on you. I will not allow you to experiment with how to get through.”
“Go to full speed and hit that field, now.”
The Demon shook his head and backed away and flew full speed toward the barrier. Just before he hit it a bright blue bolt of light came through the barrier and hit his ship causing a massive explosion. When the light from the blast diminished, the orange ship was hanging still and flickering. It had been reduced to little more than the room the Demon occupied. He hit the jump button and disappeared. He reappeared in the dark galaxy and called for help. Several support creatures ran up and lifted him out of his ship and dropped him into a cocoon in his lab. He stayed conscious long enough to remember the blue light that struck his ship and demolished every layer down to the last one protecting the command cabin. His skin burned from the exposure to the bright light and resulting explosion; the pain was incredible. He felt the cocoon turn on its healing lenses and he closed his eyes in blessed relief from the pain and slipped into unconsciousness.”
“Your son was not very effective.”
“He did what he could.”
“Why didn’t he take one of the bigger ships?”
“He and I thought you wanted him to take his.”
“I did; he still could have asked and I might have allowed it.”
The Red Being said nothing.
“Now we know where our enemy is located. We will go and kill them with all our ships.”
“All of them?”
