Junior teleported them to just above the planet’s atmosphere. Valerie looked at her screen and could see Jake flying over the Keepers’ garrison, firing hornets at any exit he could find. Valerie thought, “My, my; aren’t you the busy warrior?”
Jake could see the dark lines going down toward the ground and he fired a hornet every time one appeared, “Valerie, what are you doing here? Are you insane?!?”
“I was going to ask you the same question. You promised you would not put yourself in danger. You know how important you are to the Realm’s survival.”
“I’m nothing compared to you. You must leave now! Junior; why did you bring her here?”
“Because I swore an oath of allegiance to the Stars Realm and its rulers. I will not allow her to be placed in harm’s way no matter what she orders. Just promise you’ll come visit me in prison, Jake.”
“Junior, how can they arrest a ship? You could teleport out any time you wanted and besides, you might enjoy the rest and relaxation. Excuse me a moment, I need to destroy this hanger.” They watched as Jake flew close to the surface and fired a high speed penetrator into the doors of a hidden hanger. “There. I’m sorry, Valerie, but these people have become my family. Would you leave Joe behind to die?”
Valerie didn’t know how to answer, “If it meant the survival of the Realm I would have to do just that.”
Jake continued to fire wasps and hornets while he thought about what Valerie said, “All right, we have a ten hour window before the Keepers can get a ship here. It’s probably longer because when I released my psychic abilities I think I knocked the central intelligence that directs the Keepers off line. I don’t sense that it has recovered yet, and no ships will come until it does. Our main threat is the Keepers in the building below. I also sense that all of the Keepers on the western side of the structure were either killed or so damaged that they will not be able to take part in an attack. Cynthia will be back soon, and she will help with the defense of the communities. You can help, Valerie.”
“How, Jake?”
“Junior, take her down to the Human colony and talk with them. I know they’re terribly frightened and you can help calm them down.”
“Jake, I’m going to hold you to that promise. If it comes down to it, you must leave with me.”
“I love you too, Valerie.”
Valerie felt the tears. He had seen inside her thoughts and knew how she felt. “Junior, take me down.”
Jackson worried that the community was close to panicking. They could hear huge explosions coming from over the hills to the east. He tried to sooth their fears but just didn’t know how to answer their questions. Suddenly everyone saw a ship coming down at a high rate of speed and stop just above the surface of the central square.
Valerie stepped through the silver teleport screen and appeared in front of the gathered community. Jackson saw this beautiful young girl and wondered why someone so young was here in an obviously dangerous environment.
Valerie smiled, “Hello everyone. I know that all of you are scared about what is going to happen to you after the death of these Keepers. I am the Queen of the Stars Realm and I am doing all I can to get ships here to move you safely away from this planet. I see from your expression that you think me too young to actually be the Ruler of the Realm, but I was chosen because of my psychic abilities. I do not know if we will be able to make your escape happen before the Keepers arrive, but we are doing everything in our power to save you. I want you to know that there are more than twenty million planets that are members of the Realm, and three of them are the races from which the three colonies here are descended. The original home world of your race is one of the founders of our Realm, and I am descended from those founders. Take heart and know that you are not forgotten and we will do all we can to protect you.”
“Why was Jake sent here?”
Valerie looked at Jackson and said, “We are now at war with the Keepers. There are a hundred thousand of their ships in our universe and we are working hard to develop the weapons to kill them. Jake is going to be the Realm’s strongest psychic, but he needed to have his abilities released. We know that our founders which were super psychics had to have their powers released by what we call their initiator. I believed that she would be in your population.”
Jackson thought a moment “Is that why he was touching every female?”
“Yes, but I was wrong. There is no woman that could have broken through the psychic shell that contained his powers. I’ve learned that it was necessary for him to be touched by a Keeper, and the combined telepathic connection of their entire species was needed to make it happen. This is the only place where the Keepers make contact with Humans without killing them.”
“Oh, they kill us.”
“Yes, but they also come among you to remove those chosen by them. Jake’s inner psychic self saw this and manipulated events to bring him here.”
“His coming here can get us all killed, Young Queen.”
“Do you call this living? Your species in the Realm live a hundred and fifty years; you are taken at around 35 years of age. You slave in the fields to feed yourself for the Keepers to consume. You are allowed no technology to spare you the hard labor. You are livestock here, but in the Realm Humans are admired and respected by all the trillions of citizens.”
“So what happens now?”
“We are not taking you to the Realm if we can move you.” The gathering started talking among themselves so Valerie switched to telepathy to communicate with them, “It’s not what you think.” Everyone heard her in their thoughts and even Jackson was surprised. “We have citizens in more than a thousand universes. I am not going to take the chance of taking you to the Realm where the Keepers Fleet might scan you and come to take vengeance. I am sending you to a planet of humans who will take care of you until this conflict is resolved. It is time to learn who you are and to know that humans do not give in to tyranny or slavery.”
A young woman stepped out of the crowd and said, “You came here to take Jake back to the Realm didn’t you?”
Valerie looked at the woman and marveled at how beautiful she was, “Yes, but he would not go without you. Our survival depends on Jake and his developing psychic abilities. I was hoping he would listen to reason and leave.”
Jackson shook his head, “You are at least being honest about it.”
Valerie looked around and saw the goodness of the people around her, “He forced me to make this attempt to move you. I could not understand why he was taking this risk with the trillions in the Realm at risk if something happened to him.” Valerie paused and then continued, “But now, after seeing you, I know the truth that he saw before I could grasp it. To turn away from the few to try and save the many is a wrong that only corrupts the values our Realm was founded upon.” She left her thought open so everyone could hear, “Junior, have you been listening to this?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I will not leave without these people. Do you understand?”
The hundreds of thousands of humans waited for a response, “If it comes down to it; we will all die here together, my Queen. I will not abandon you.”
“Thank you for this gift, Junior.”
Jackson looked around, “Who is this Junior?”
“He’s the ship hovering here. He’s an intelligent, mechanical, life form that was made a citizen of the Realm more than thirteen thousand years ago. He was made my friend just a moment ago.”
The young woman looked at Valerie and said, “You love him, don’t you?”
“I now care about Junior very much.”
I wasn’t talking about him; you love Jake. You must be the one he was trying to find.”
Valerie stared at the young woman, “What prompted you to say that?”
“Because he is worthy of a Queen, and nothing less than love would have brought you here to share our fate.”
Valerie lowered her head, “You’ve got it all wrong; it is I that am not worthy of him.”
Jackson shook his head, “Not from where I stand. You were meant for each other.”
Valerie smiled, then walked up and kissed Jackson on the cheek. If a black man could blush, Jackson
