defend?”
“It would take three hundred ships to cover a planet, and we have forty six thousand planets that have the majority of our population.”
Production interjected, “We don’t have enough ships to cover them all. We can only defend 35,000 planets. If we use our ships for this planetary coverage, there are millions of planets with our garrisons that would be left defenseless. It also begs the question of how we will feed ourselves if we can’t go and collect the food we need.”
“Are you saying we will lose this war?”
“I only state facts, you can see them as well as I can. We have no choice but to defend our home worlds; any other choice would lead to catastrophe.”
Military asked Science, “Why do you say that?”
“Because if they destroy more than sixty percent of our home worlds, we will cease to exist; the population necessary to give us existence will be too small. It will then become a war against our individual planets.”
The Collective thought about this and began to feel something foreign: fear. “What if we release all of our ships to attack their universe? Could we kill them fast enough to survive?”
“Our measurement of their beam’s strength was such that just one of their ships could have destroyed the planet. They fired fifty beams to make a point. They could kill us much faster than we could damage them. Remember, they have millions of those ships and we only have 46,000 home worlds.
Distribution asked, “Why do we have so few home worlds?”
Statistics answered, “Because when we decided to conquer our universe and use the vanquished to feed us, we no longer needed to expand and we could grow our populations to extreme levels. Our decisions have led to this current situation. Without the food we depend on from our farms, starvation is not far from our species.”
The Collective asked, “How do you feel about attacking that universe now? Values, what do you think about this situation?”
“It will not matter whether you attack or not. Our structure is an abomination to creation and cannot survive those that have followed the principles of life. You forget that you have already attacked that universe and killed their planets. Do you seriously expect them to say they’ll just forget your slaughter? Would you?”
“That’s something I will have to ponder; however, send the fleet out to cover our home worlds immediately. That will give us time to decide what to do. Make sure they pick up enough stores from the garrisons to feed us for a quarter.”
Military began issuing the orders.
Sprig looked at the recording of the destruction of the Keepers’ ship building planets. Twig felt his unease and thought, “Would you have preferred those ships be completed and come here?”
“No, but did we have to destroy the planets?”
“Did they have to destroy our populations? You, more than anyone, should understand consequences to actions.”
Sprig sighed and thought, “I just wish there was another way.”
“Well, the recordings that just came in should make you feel better.”
“Why is that?”
“It appears the entire inventory of Keepers’ ships are being used to screen their home worlds. They can’t come here and protect them there. I suspect those attacks will end up saving more lives than were lost.”
Sprig’s leaves turned greener. “That is good news. What is our next step?”
“Since their fleets are being used to defend their planets, we are going to start liberating some of the populations they’ve enslaved.”
Sprig’s leaves turned bright green, “Now that is a lovely thought.”
Junior was parked over the garrison on the planet where he had found the beings that so impressed him with their gentle spirit. Jake sat on board and watched the scans, “Junior, what do you think will happen if we attack this garrison and free these cities?”
“They will no longer have to fear being eaten.”
“Do you not think the Keepers will know if some of their warriors are killed? What will be their response?”
Junior thought a moment, “They’ll come and harvest the entire planet.”
“That’s how I see it. If we free them, we’ll have to move them. I’m not sure the Realm can handle refugees from millions of planets.”
“So what do we do?”
“We find a way to destroy their ships.”
“How do we do that?”
“We find the ones with the most experience at facing this kind of conflict.”
“Who are you referring to, Jake?”
“The Gardners.”
“Jake, no one has any information on what happened to them after they served their thousand years of Ruling their domains. They’ve been missing for more than ten thousand years. Do you think any of them are still alive?”
“I know that Thomas and Danielle as well as Tommy and Cassandra had their life span extended by Atlas. It seems that all of them disappeared in a very short period of time, so I have to think it was a planned disappearance.”
Junior was silent.
“Junior, I’ve had a vision of the Keepers destroying planets in the Realm. What do you think the Gardners would have done if just one of them had a vision similar to mine?”
“They would have been compelled by their oaths to protect the Realm to prevent the Realm’s destruction. But how could they have planned to be here this far in the future?”
“I know they must still be alive, Junior, I just don’t know how to contact them.”
Junior was stunned, “Where are they?”
“I’m not sure, but I believe that your parents are with them wherever they went. Aladdin and Fly Girl disappeared at the same time as the Gardners.”
Junior didn’t know what to say. He and Jake sat silently looking at the scan of the beings being consumed on the planet below.
Finally Junior said, “We’ll work on finding the Gardners later. Today, if we save no one else, I want these cities saved now.”
“Why do you feel that way, Junior?”
“They deserve it, and observing them persuaded me to join this fight.”
“Then this is where we will start our efforts at saving this universe.”
“Admiral Busigleore, I am going to attack a garrison in the Keepers’ universe and I need you to plan the operation.”
Manny looked at Jake and said, “How would you go about making this happen? You are, after all, our resident expert at what to expect from those creatures.”
“I believe that the Keepers will send one of the ships that can jump directly to the planet, so this will have to be done in record time or the population will be wiped out. We need a diversion at one of their home worlds to force them to defend it, then do this while they are distracted.”
Manny thought and shrugged, “Normally we would just hit the garrison with a main beam but if we tried that, it would also heat the atmosphere such that the cities would be destroyed. They are located very close to the garrisons.”
“Do we have anything in our inventory that would just blow it up?”
“Yes we do, as a matter of fact.” Jake started to say something but Manny cut him off, “if you don’t mind dealing with the earthquakes that would follow its use.”
“So how do we do this, Manny?”
Manny smiled and said, “We have been working on our teleportation screen since the last rescue of the colonists. We will now teleport with an exclusion filter that leaves the bracelets and their connections behind. My engineers have taken some of the old defender class warships and have gutted them such that the bottom section
