I have no idea about who the other cities leaders are.”
Jake smiled and looked at Sprig who said, “We will meet with you in the morning, and would you mind if some of us joined you in the celebration?”
Grimly smiled and said, “The more the better.” Then he ran over and started hugging everyone he could find. Immediately, thousands of Algeans began teleporting in, joining the happy crowd.
Jake teleported to Junior’s bridge and said, “Your cities appear to be quite happy about your choice.”
“Do tell?”
“Let us go and allow them this moment for celebration. The Algeans can take it from here.”
Junior hovered for a few moments, watching the revelry, and felt somehow complete. Jake saw Robby in the crowd dancing with one of the Algeans. “This is what we are here to do,” he thought.
Junior lifted into the atmosphere and jumped to Ross.
Lorg, one of the Cainth survivors from Brayent, watched his monitor and saw a huge amount of activity taking place around the Keepers’ planet he was viewing. He had landed two days earlier in stealth mode on an asteroid outside the planet’s fifth moon, set his sensors to passive, and started searching for a means of attack. After a day, he watched more than fifty thousand Keepers’ ships arrive and take station in high orbit around the planet. This was in addition to those that were in low orbit protecting the planet from surprise attack. “What’s going on?” He wondered.
He looked closely at the scans and saw that there were twenty objects being lifted from the planet’s surface into high orbit just below the outer band of ships. He moved the view in closer and saw that these objects were brown in color, and were made from the hull material used for the Keepers’ Fleet. They were about a mile in length and were slowly moving out of the atmosphere and maneuvered into orbit such that they were equally spaced around the middle of the planet. The objects were pyramidal in shape, and the base of each was pointed toward the planet with the point oriented away from the surface below.
Lorg knew what those structures were designed to do; they were orbital fortresses that would protect the planet below with the Keepers’ thought beams. He watched the alignment of the forts for two days, then the fifty thousand ships jumped away from the planet. He watched as the twenty pyramids began rotating and changing color from light brown to dark brown. “Looks like they are now on line and active,” he thought as he watched the monitor. “What is that?”
Numerous blasts were seen on the planet’s surface and huge structures began lifting into space. Lorg captured a picture of one on his monitor, and had his computer look to see if anything similar had been seen. After four seconds the computer placed a picture beside the first and Lorg felt a wave of fear. Those huge structures lifting into space were the exact match for the ship modification facilities that had been destroyed at the first Keepers planet’s destruction. After five days the structures were in stationary orbit. Lorg estimated there were two hundred circling the planet. It was then that the two hundred ships that had been protecting the planet began leaving their assigned places in the coverage and started docking with one of the facilities. It was clear that the Keepers felt that they were no longer needed to defend the planet.
Lorg loaded everything he had recorded into two microprobes and left a message that the range of those forts had to be determined. One of those probes was going to Mord and the other to the Stars Realm’s Command Center. He reported that he was teleporting to within fifty thousand miles of the planetary forts, firing a high speed penetrator at the planet, and then teleporting out at which time he would report. Lorg set his systems to teleport the two probes simultaneously with his attack. He placed his hand on the teleport button and pushed.
The Gamma ship came out of its silver screen and disappeared into dust. The two probes recorded Lorg’s death from the orbit above the last moon and then disappeared.
One of the Keepers on the closest fort to the Gamma’s destruction reported, “The system works. We have killed one of the ships attacking us at half of the beam’s range.”
The Collective received the message and knew that the stalemate would soon be over. The war was back on.
Jake sat in the map room at Castle Gardner and listened to a small device on the table in front of him. Valerie’s eighteenth birthday party was wrapping up, and he left her to say farewell to all the dignitaries, friends, and family. There was a huge surprise when Valerie announced her plans to marry Jake Talant, and everyone congratulated them as the Realm pondered the ramifications of that union. Valerie was still an unknown to most of the Realm’s members, and no one had ever heard of the man she was marrying. The various news agencies began reporting about the events in which Jake had taken part and showed video of the defense of the colonies that were rescued from the Keepers. After seeing the destruction Jake had caused to the Keepers, the Realm was actually more curious about him than the new queen, and everyone started scrambling to gather any information about this handsome human and his background.
Those videos were eye-opening, and those in the military of the Realm that had not already viewed them were more amazed than the citizens. They knew he had done things that a normal Red Warrior could never do.
Jake just sat in the library and listened to the small device on the table, unaware of the attention being given to him. Valerie finally walked in and sat down in his lap, “I’m sorry it took so long.”
“I understand, Val; duty comes first.”
“What are you doing, Jake?”
“I saw in the Realm’s early history where Anglo Gardner discovered a vault in one of the ancient cities called Chicago and found some cigars. I was hoping some were left to celebrate this moment.”
“Did you find any?”
Jake shook his head, “No, but I did find some music that was recorded on circular discs. I asked our science department to transfer it to one of our devices so I could see what they listened to fifteen thousand years ago.”
Valerie smiled, “Was anything worth listening to?”
Jake removed his headphones and looked into Valerie’s eyes. “I found one bit of music that made me think of the first moment I saw you. It was recorded by an artist named Rick James, who must have been a great balladeer of his time, and it touched my soul.”
“What was the title?”
“It’s actually two songs joined together; This Magic Moment and Dance with Me.” Jake turned on the sound and started the recording. As the first strains of “This Magic Moment” began, he stood, took Valerie in his arms, and held her close.
Valerie listened to the lyrics with the music and marveled at its beauty. Jake started moving around the library with her as the song moved into Dance with Me. She lost herself in his arms. Valerie whispered in Jake’s ear, “It’s beautiful, and I love you with all my heart.” The two continued dancing in the map room lost in each other; forgetting, momentarily, Keepers, death, and destruction.
Admiral Busigleore watched the recording sent by the Cainth Pilot that had been killed attacking the new Keepers’ shipbuilding planet. This was material that was used to make nightmares. He thought for a long moment, then hit his com, “Valerie, I need to see you and Jake as soon as possible.”
Valerie appeared on his com, “What’s wrong, Manny?”
“The Keepers have found a way to defend their planets and release their ships. They are beginning to modify their fleet, and it’s only a matter of time before they launch an attack on the Realm in force.”
Valerie got a scared expression and said, “Bring what you have and meet Jake and me in the Library.”
“On my way.”
“Jake, I need you to meet Manny in the library; now.”
Jake was on the top floor of the castle looking out at Ross and its huge city, “What’s wrong?”
“You’ll be filled in when you arrive.”
Jake walked over to a door, punched the library button, and stepped into the library just as Manny teleported in. Manny said, “I’ve set the recording into a download and I need you to look at it.”
Jake and Valerie put on the headphones and the entire recording was transmitted to their brains in less than ten seconds.
“We still have no way of killing their ships, and they will be coming here soon.”
Jake looked at Manny and asked, “Have you sent another ship to see what’s happening at that planet?”
“Yes, and the only change so far is that the two hundred ships being modified are still there.”
