Life started to tell her she was right but she held up and hand and stopped him, “I had time after joining the Realm’s Navy to reflect on the oath I swore; I came to realize that sometimes duty is more important than one’s own selfish desires. I was wrong to blame you for being strong enough to make a hard decision. I have never stopped loving you and I’m here today to see what you want to do about it.”
Life looked at Grena with pain in his eyes, “I have been asked to take command of the Searchers. Our ships are going to be modified for a different type of drive and we will be the force that takes on the new invaders. I will be away from here indefinitely training our Searchers to go to other universes. I love you with all my being, Grena; I always have. It is just not fair that we are always being separated by duty.”
Grena smiled, “You still don’t know how I know about your promotion?”
Life squinted, “How do you know?”
“I have been asked to be your executive officer. It seems our leaders know quite a bit about those they select for leadership. They think, rightly I think, that I might be able to help you in your new duties.” She got up and went to the back of the boat and hugged Life tightly. The small boat suddenly turned and fell off the wind as Life let go of the tiller and embraced her. “I would not accept the position unless you still loved me. I could not bear to be near you and hurt from not being able to love you.”
Life looked in her eyes and smiled, “This will be glorious. I am truly whole again. The war was fabulous but I missed you every moment.”
The boat drifted for hours as they held each other. Life’s com beeped and he saw Sprig on it, “Yes, Your Grace?”
Sprig saw Grena behind Life and said, “Am I interrupting you; I can com you later?”
Life looked at Grena and she shook her head, “No, I am able to take your com.”
“I need you to come to Castle Gardner’s Map Room as quickly as possible. Bring your staff with you.”
“I only have one staff member, Your Majesty.”
“I know; so you shouldn’t be delayed very long.”
“We’ll be there in ten hours.”
Sprig smiled, “See you then.”
Grena looked at Life, “We can teleport to our ships and be there in less than fifteen minutes.”
“I’ve given up too much time with you already. Today I’m going to make up for what I’ve lost.”
Grena smiled brightly and pulled him down to her.
Chapter 4
The Supreme Male joined his family after millions of Eight Leg ships had jumped into the new universe to be harvested. It had been more than six million years since the last harvest and the scouts had discovered millions of planets with intelligent life. This was going to be a good meal for his children. There were still six million ships to jump in and go to their initial targets as the first four million set their star drives for their assigned planet. The Supreme Male looked at his sensor leader and asked, “Status?”
“Our first arrivals will be arriving at their targets within six dxls. The remainder of our ships will be here in less than four dxls.”
The Supreme Male leaned back on his pad and looked forward to the harvest.
Six light hours away from the universal entry point a white furred being listened to the thoughts of the two eight legs and felt his excitement rise. His plotting board had every Eight Leg main ship plotted that had arrived in the universe and it was good news that all of their ships would arrive before any had actually landed on a planet; those planets were a meal best saved for later. It punched up its plotter and sent the updated information to those waiting in another universe. It wasn’t going to be long before his clan’s arrival. As the Eight Leg ships continued to jump in, the plotter tracked them and sent their coordinates to the waiting clan.
Four hours later the sensor leader said, “All ships are here, Supreme Male and have received their assignments.”
“Excellent, prepare to jump to our first meal.”
The White Furred Creature heard their remarks and hit the communication panel, “They’re all here. Begin your attack.” The Supreme Male’s Ship was the target of the plotter and he jumped his five hundred mile long ship in to within six miles of the huge, thirty thousand mile wide, main ship and fired his ships’ main beam. A thousand mile wide hole was blown through the mother ship and exited the other side. The beam was targeted on the mother ships engines and communication panels and the huge green ship began drifting. The green substance of the mother ship’s hull was not immune to the energy being used and all of its drives were destroyed.
“What was that?”
“I don’t know, Supreme Male but our ship is disabled. We are unable to move or communicate.”
The white ship flew into the huge hole blasted through the mother ship and stopped at the center of the huge green ship. Millions of white furred creatures began exiting holes in its surface and spread out attacking every Eight Leg they could find. The spiders viciously fought back but their fangs stopped on the skin under the fur of the white creatures. The talons and teeth of the attacking clan ripped through the Eight Legs’ armor exposing them to the vacuum of space and exploded them.
The White Clan Warrior exited the white ship and immediately sensed huge numbers of the green Eight Legs floating directly ahead. It rubbed its feet talons and moved toward the huge floating mass and smiled as it began striking the Eight Legs with its talons. The eighteen inch retractable talons were made from a substance that nothing physical could resist and Eight Legs began exploding in their armor as the vacuum of space entered and pulverized them. This was wonderful. Three Eight Legs landed on the Warrior and bared their fangs to attack but could not penetrate its skin, which was made of the same substance as its talons. The white warrior just shrugged them off and ripped them to pieces. She saw three of her other clan members approaching and was angered to have her fun interrupted. She snarled at them but heard, “Don’t be ridiculous. There’s millions more here for all of us.”
The clan warrior looked around and released her senses and saw her brother was right. “Come join in, I see a much larger mass of them behind the large ship our beam penetrated.”
“We see it, too. Now quit wasting time talking and enjoy the moment.”
The White Warrior flew toward a group of ten Eight Legs trying to escape and ripped them apart.
The white creatures also carried hand guns that disintegrated every Eight Leg unfortunate enough to be hit by its white beam. Those beams killed large groups of Eight Legs that were attempting to mass to attack the boarders. Each of the White Clan killed thousands of the spiders floating in the weightless environment before they could respond. The spiders quickly determined that they could do nothing to protect themselves from these creatures and tried to escape to formulate a plan to handle these mysterious invaders, but the attackers sensed them wherever they tried to hide. The White Clan could sense any creature that possessed organized thought. Thousands of Eight Legs would attack a single white creature only to be disintegrated or ripped apart by teeth and talons. The white creatures easily maneuvered in the weightless environment by rubbing the claws of their feet and hands, which directed a propulsion beam. The substance of their claws absorbed energy and used it for movement. These creatures were designed to kill in the emptiness of space or the surface of a planet.
They flew around the interior of the mother ship killing every Eight Leg on board before landing on the hulls of the thousands of ships parked inside the giant green ship. The ships could not escape because the machinery that operated the doors on the surface was disabled by the initial beam strike. The White Clan Warriors landed on the hulls of thousands of small ships and used their talons and guns to rip their way into the interior. The Eight legs inside were dismembered or disintegrated. After the small ships were destroyed, the huge white ship used its main beam to blow large holes in the hundred-mile-long transports, making it easy for the Clan’s Warriors to enter.
The Supreme Male could hear millions of his children dying and could not grasp what was taking place. His interior sensors had been destroyed when the main beam had blown through his ship and the Sensor Leader could not determine what was happening. His time to develop a strategy to combat these creatures was short as the Plotter entered the bridge of the mother ship and smiled as it killed every Eight Leg it encountered in the room. He saved the Supreme Male for last. As The Supreme Male backed into a corner he heard, “Your species is weak. Is this the best you can do?” The white creature back handed the Supreme Male into the back wall where he fell and
