is empty. Those ships are three hundred miles in diameter and the lower floor should hold the entire city and its occupants. We’ll do what’s called a snatch-and-grab, followed by a run.”
“What would that look like, Manny?”
“We’ll teleport three thousand Red Warriors in to surround the garrison, and once they open fire the ships will come in and teleport the entire city into its bay. We will then jump back to the Realm and teleport them down to a planet, which will be their new home.”
Junior asked, “Where are we going to find a planet willing to accept them?”
Jake smiled and said, “There are millions of them in the Algean’s galaxy just waiting to be colonized.”
Manny and Junior both were startled by the insight. “How will they be fed?” Junior asked.
Jake pointed to the screen, “Junior, all their crops and fields are around their city. You could take them with the city.”
Manny looked puzzled and said, “I’ll need to talk with a teleport expert about how far down we can teleport, but this sounds like a great idea.”
“Manny, I’ll talk with Sprig about this. Stand by for a few minutes.”
“Standing by.”
“Sprig, do you have a minute?”
“Hello, Jake; what do you need?”
“I’m looking at a way to repopulate your galaxy with refugees from the Keepers’ universe. I was wondering if that would be permissible to the Algeans?”
Sprig felt his soul turn over, “How are you going to make that happen?”
Twig felt Sprig’s sudden change and tuned in to the conversation.
“We want to make a quick grab of the cities on the Keepers’ farms and teleport the entire city and their crops. Once we have them in a transport, we’ll teleport them to one of the planets in your galaxy. We need to know if this is possible. Can we take the crops so that the cities can feed themselves?”
Sprig was almost overcome with emotion. Twig jumped in the conversation, “Yes, you can! Just set the screen to a depth of eighteen inches and you should get all the plants including the roots. Just how big an area are you talking about?”
“Most cities are contained in an area with a diameter of thirty miles. Of course, we can’t take the water source with them, so we’ll need to find an area with available supplies of water.”
“How many cities are you moving initially?”
“There are five on the planet.”
“Are the inhabitants all of the same species or different?”
“This is a conquered planet, so they are all the same species”
Sprig found his voice, “There is a beautiful planet not far from our home world which was the first planet we consumed. Plant life has overgrown most of it, but we will teleport it out to a depth of twenty four inches, and clear five tracts of the necessary size along the banks of the main river on the northern continent. We will assist these refugees in any manner we can to make them comfortable in their new home. You don’t know how much bringing life back to the worlds we killed means to my people.”
“How long will it take to clear the tracts? We want to move quickly.”
“It will be done in twelve segs.”
“Send Admiral Busigleore the coordinates of the site, and we also need a teleport expert to set the screens to make the grab of the cities.”
Sprig’s leaves turned bright green and blooms emerged, “I will come and do it personally. Where do I need to go?”
“I’ll get Manny to send you the coordinates.”
Twig said, “Thank you, Jake.”
“No; thank you for allowing us to use those planets.”
Jake disappeared from Sprig’s screen. He reached over and wrapped Twig in his branches and wept. Twig joined him, and each of them felt the redemption of bringing life back to the worlds they had destroyed long ago.
“Manny, the site for the cities will be ready in twelve hours.”
Manny looked at his console and said, “We will make the grab tomorrow night. We know the Keepers prefer daylight, so darkness is on our side. Most all of the population of those cities should be in the city proper should there be any difficulty with moving the farms. Are you planning to be present for the grab?”
Junior responded, “We wouldn’t miss it, Admiral.”
Manny smiled and said, “I may have had my doubts initially, but now I know Valerie has made an excellent choice in her mate. We will do it at midnight on that planet’s time.”
Jake was startled, but felt warm from Manny’s statement.
Joe came in Valerie’s office and said, “All of the Algeans are blooming.”
“Why?”
“Jake and Junior are going to move five cities from a Keepers’ farm and take them to one of the planets the Algeans destroyed centuries ago. It appears that Jake plans to bring intelligent life back to them.”
Valerie hit a button on her console and looked at the feed from the Sacred Grove on the Algeans’ main planet. There were immense crowds gathered, and it was clear a huge celebration had begun. She closed her eyes and saw the celebration happening on all the Algean planets. She looked closer and could feel the huge crowd’s happiness and joy. “They need this, Joe. Bringing life back to their galaxy is giving them redemption for the atrocities they did so long ago. They have never forgiven themselves for what they did.”
Joe looked at the monitor and nodded slowly. They were both silent for a few moments, then Joe said, “They may be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. The Keepers are still planning to invade.”
“What do you think would happen if they remained? The Keepers are now being forced to keep their fleet at their home planets to prevent their destruction; they can no longer just make shipments from the planets they’ve conquered. It doesn’t take a genius to see that they will just wipe out one of their planets and transport the entire population on one ship. I believe they are safer here than where they are now.”
Joe shrugged, “That’s why you’re Queen, Valerie; you’ve always been able to see the big picture.”
Valerie got up and hugged her brother, “Joe, be thankful you can’t see that picture. Some of it is gruesome and I just hope it doesn’t permanently damage my humanity.”
Joe smiled, “I know your heart, Valerie, and you will be fine.”
Valerie sat back down and said, “By the creator, I really hope so, Joe.”
Junior and Jake were waiting for the operation to remove the five cities. They were next to the closest moon looking down on the planet. They had remained silent for an hour and Junior broke the silence by announcing, “Five minutes until midnight.”
Jake stood up, stretched, then sat back down and continued to stare at the monitor. “Jake, how do you know my parents are with the Gardners?”
“They may not be, Junior, but it makes the most sense.”
“Why is that?”
Jake sighed and looked up from the monitor, “What if you had a vision of the Realm being attacked thousands of years in the future? You would know that the vision could not be changed; it was going to happen. So it’s not like you could go out and do anything at that moment. Now you’re faced with having to wait thousands of years before anything could be done to save the Realm. If it were me, I would dread the waiting with that hanging over my head for such a long period of time. They must have done something to reduce the waiting period.”
“Well, where are they? The attack has begun and they’re not here.”
“That’s where you come in, Junior. You are the key to finding them.”
Junior was stunned and started to respond, but Jake said, “Get ready, the attack is ten seconds away.”
It was a cool night, and Grimly sat on his front porch staring out at the fields surrounding the community. The full moon overhead gave a luminescence to the crops that made the perfect rows look like they had been combed into the dirt. His long black braid slipped behind his back as he leaned forward. He moved it back over his shoulder, hanging it on his chest.
He was only five feet tall and bipedal. His face was wide with large round yellow eyes, deep set above a narrow, sharp nose. His mouth had thin lips and was wide for so narrow a face. His skin was olive in color in
