during their evening meal.”
Jake smiled and wondered if they still recited their history about the Seniors.
Jackson Grant was reciting the history of the Seniors when a familiar shape came dropping out of the sky, hovering over the central gathering area. Jackson smiled and said in a loud voice, “Call their name and they appear.”
The huge multitude began cheering Junior’s arrival and continued until Jake, Valerie, and Cynthia teleported into the center of the clearing. Jake looked around and saw Jackson walking his way, but before Jackson arrived Jake was bowled over by an excited Kathea who ran up and jumped on him to give him a huge hug. Valerie laughed so hard she thought she was going to stop breathing. Kathea got up and punched Jake in the ribs, “What took you so long to visit?”
Jackson arrived at that moment and helped Jake to his feet, “Easy, Kathea; he’s not in shape since he quit farming.”
Jake smiled and hugged both of them.
Jackson turned and walked over to Valerie and kneeled in front of her. Immediately, every human in the community knelt and lowered their heads. Jackson said in a voice that all could hear, “My Queen, we thank you for saving us and we pledge ourselves to your Realm and to you. We owe you more than we can ever repay.”
Valerie’s heart swelled as she touched Jackson on the shoulder and said to the gathering, “Please rise. I only did what a Queen should do to protect her subjects.”
Jackson remained kneeling and said, “No, Your Majesty. You endangered yourself to insure our survival. We will never forget what you did, and we will always include your name in our evening recitals.”
Valerie felt the tears and didn’t care who saw them. This is what she knew was demanded from the Realm. She now knew that putting off the wedding was the only choice. These humble people allowed her to remember what it really meant to be responsible. Jake said, “Please rise, we have come here for a reason.”
Everyone stood and Jake said, “Kathea, will you please come forward?”
Kathea looked at Jake and furrowed her brow. Jackson nodded and Kathea walked over and stood in front of Jake. Jake turned to the crowd and said, “Kathea is the one that started the story of the good-luck man. It was that path that ultimately led to the release of my psychic abilities and your freedom. What convinced her of my good luck was finding a ring that her ancestors had passed down from generation to generation. She had lost it in the fields and found it the day I touched her. That ring was left behind when we teleported her away from the Keepers’ planet.” Jake reached into his pocket and pulled out a string with a small gold ring on it. “I searched and found that ring after she left, and I am returning it to her today.”
Kathea’s eyes grew wide and Jake continued, “Kathea, you told me that you wanted to leave the ring behind because it would remind you of all the ugliness that happened while you were held prisoner by the Keepers. I would suggest another view. This ring left the Stars Realm with your original ancestors along with all of their hopes, dreams, and prayers for a happier life. That ring stayed with you until it could bring you back home to our Realm. Now it has come back home and it brought all of you with it. If it had not come back to you, Kathea, after you lost it, the good-luck man would have never happened and things might have ended differently. But it did come back to you, and here you are.” Jake took the string and placed the ring around Kathea’s neck. Valerie heard Jake whisper to Kathea, “Always treasure this ring, Kathea. It brought you back home and gave me the sister I never had.”
Kathea began crying and hugged Jake tightly. Valerie joined them and hugged Kathea with Jake. The gathering moved forward and began lightly touching Kathea. She looked up and Jake said, “They know who the real good-luck person is; it’s you.”
Junior watched the events unfold and discovered that something that had always troubled him was now answered. He never understood his parent’s complete and total connection with Matt and Melanie Gardner; now he did. He would put his life on the line to protect Jake, and he now knew that he truly was Jake’s ship. Something inside him found freedom, and he felt the first real happiness of his long life.
The Collective began regaining consciousness and said, “Values, I need your help.” It waited but there was no response. It called again but could not find any trace of the exiled Quadrant. “What happened?” it wondered. It rapidly began organizing itself and started reconstituting the Quadrants. Science was the first it organized and it said, “Find out how they destroyed our planet.”
Science groggily responded, “I’m on it.”
The other Quadrants began organizing, and after six intervals the massive directing intelligence of the Keepers was functioning again. The Collective said, “Values is missing. I no longer sense its presence. I need you to consider what could have happened to it. I also want a plan on how to overcome these enemies. We will combine for twelve intervals and consider the problem.” The massive intellect began processing data at a tremendous rate. Values looked on and sighed. It moved away from the planet where the Collective was located, reached the outer reaches of the planet’s system, and moved to a planet with a garrison located near the last attack by the white ships. There it waited and extended its perceptions into all the Keepers. “I hope this doesn’t take long.”
Jake, Valerie, and Cynthia arrived at Castle Gardner to find Joe and Manny waiting for their return. They teleported to the map room and found the two Stars Realm Military Leaders looking at a map of the Keepers’ universe. Valerie looked at Joe, “What’s going on?”
Joe looked at Manny and said, “We now know how to kill the Keepers’ home worlds, and we think we should start moving to destroy them.”
Jake shook his head slowly and said, “I assume you’re talking about using negative energy to destroy their suns.”
Manny nodded, “Exactly; they can’t prevent it.”
Valerie felt Jake’s remorse, “What’s wrong with their plan, Jake?”
Jake went to a display of the Keepers’ universe, took the map cursor, and moved it to the sun that had just gone supernova and expanded the system. Everyone saw the giant blast moving through the Keepers’ solar system burning everything in its path. “Have any of you considered how far this blast is going to expand before it stops?”
Manny and Joe looked at each other and Joe said, “What are you trying to say?”
“Joe, a supernova will destroy everything in the path of the shock wave and debris field. This shock wave is traveling close to the speed of light, and the follow up debris blast is moving at one half of light speed. Have you looked at how many planets with intelligent life are inside the radius of that star’s destruction?”
Valerie felt a chill in her heart. Jake moved the cursor forward in time and the blast extended two hundred and fifty light years from the center of the explosion. Jake hit another key and tens of thousands of green lights illuminated inside the glow.
“Those are life-bearing planets, many of them with captive populations that are going to be extinct due to our actions. Every one of those planets is going to be stripped of life and burned. Thousands of the Keepers’ home worlds are located in a dense region of that universe and if you explode their suns, you will be destroying millions of planets that now have intelligent life and eliminating those that could eventually evolve intelligence. Is that what we want to do?”
Silence dominated the room. Finally, Cynthia said what most were thinking, “We have no other way to kill them, Jake. It’s the only weapon we’ve found and if we wait for them to come here in force, we will all probably die.”
Jake sighed, “I know that. However, do we save ourselves by killing trillions of innocent beings to protect our Realm? I think our Realm was founded on higher principles that that. I have no problem killing every Keeper in existence if it comes to that.” Jake paused, “However, not if it involves killing millions of innocent planets. What would we become if we choose that path?”
The room was silent and then Junior sent a thought to the group, “Hey, you don’t want to miss our little game of hide and seek with the Keepers. If we kill them we’ll never get to have our fun.”
Jake started laughing and soon everyone joined him. “Junior, you sound more and more like your father.”
“I wish he were here. I really believe he would avoid that path of killing innocents.”
Valerie shook her head, “And we will; we will not move in that direction. That choice is a doomsday device that will only be used in the event of our unavoidable destruction. I pray we won’t ever have to make that decision.”
Cynthia looked at the map, “What are we going to do about those doomed planets?”
