orbital lifters as they moved out of the planet’s gravity well. Twenty of the forts were being aligned around the equator, while the others were lifting past them into high orbit. As they arrived at maximum altitude, a Keepers’ ship would arrive, bring the large pyramid inside its jump screen, and jump away.
Where are they taking those forts? Ron decided to investigate. He was a citizen of old Earth and knew the value of orbital defenses. Why were they building more than they needed to defend the planet? He read the jump track of the last ship to leave and teleported half a light year from the location.
Ron checked his stealth systems and started moving slowly toward the Keepers ship’s jump coordinates. He was in open space between galaxies, so he thought he might have to go back and stay closer to a ship as it jumped away, but twenty light minutes from the coordinates his scanner picked up a huge emission. The Keepers were building a ship modification facility in open space. It was gigantic; three times the size of the one destroyed by the supernova. Fifty thousand ships were in a defensive formation surrounding it, and Ron saw that half of the pyramid forts surrounding it were already active and drawing power.
The structure at the center of those forts was more than eighty miles in diameter. Thousands of ships were arriving and docking with the facility and were obviously unloading materials and crew. He considered firing a penetrator at the structure, but knew it would never make it through the guarding Keepers Fleet. He wondered if this was an isolated event, and how the other Searchers assigned to scan the Keepers’ home worlds were doing. If this was not an isolated event, the Keepers Fleet would be free to attack in very short order. He downloaded the information into a probe and launched it. Fleet Command needed to see this.
Jake and Junior arrived in the Ross system and Jake sent a thought, “Valerie, we’re back.”
Valerie answered, “Jake, I need you in the map room immediately. There has been a major development and we’re discussing it now.”
“On my way,” and he teleported to the meeting. He arrived to find Manny, Joe, Edison, Sprig, and Valerie sitting around the conference table.
Valerie looked up and said, “We have just discovered that the Keepers are building their ship modification facilities in open space and are placing pyramids around their home worlds. We estimate that at the current rate of construction in less than four months more than two million of their ships will be modified. Within nine months, all their home worlds will be protected and the remainder of their ships will be updated within a year. Those facilities are in open space and are millions of light years from the closest star. They cannot be destroyed by a nova.” Valerie looked around the room and shook her head. “I’m reluctant to use stars to destroy their home worlds, but we must do something to slow them down.”
Joe looked at Jake, “I agree. We should begin implementing the plan immediately.”
Jake saw Manny nodding and Edison and Sprig looking at each other with doubt, “If you want to insure our death, then that is exactly what you should do.”
The group grew silent and stared at him.
Valerie looked at Jake and saw he was serious, “Why is that?”
“I have just met with a part of the Keeper’s central intelligence, and it said that if you destroy the Keepers’ home worlds, our universe will be destroyed as well as millions of other universes.”
Sprig thought, “And you believed it?”
Jake told the group about the meeting and the danger of killing the huge populations of the home worlds.
Joe shook his head, “What did you expect it to say? Of course it would try to stop their destruction.”
Jake sat down and pulled up a history of scans from the Keepers’ universe. “I did not want to believe it either. However, I looked at the scans our Searchers have made of the Keepers’ home worlds, and something I saw makes me believe it was being honest. Look at the scans made of their largest planet six months ago and the estimate of Keepers population on that planet.”
The group saw that more than a trillion Keepers were living there.
“Now notice the scan that was taken this week. The population is the same.” Jake waited as everyone compared the two scans. “Their population is being tightly controlled just like the worlds they’ve enslaved. We could not do the same with our populations. I looked at a hundred of their home worlds and they are all the same. Something is happening to control their growth. If this being I spoke with is right, what will happen if we remove that control?”
Junior added, “I also listened to the being, and I believe that it was being completely honest. If we kill the forty thousand home worlds, then millions of their garrisons will explode in population and we will have to fight huge numbers of new home worlds.”
Jake said, “Thanks, Junior.” He turned to Manny and Joe and said, “I know you have difficulty believing what I’m telling you but I could sense that being’s spirit; it was not lying. We must find a way to kill their ships and we must start killing the garrisons. You might also consider that if we destroy the home worlds, their entire fleet would no longer be needed to defend them. I think there are enough facilities currently under construction that the invasion would actually happen sooner. Killing the home worlds will not buy us time.”
Valerie looked at Jake and said, “Show us the conversation you had with this being.”
Jakes shared his thoughts with the group and they saw the discussion with the Keeper being. Valerie said, “He’s right. I can see the being was almost overcome with remorse of what his species has become.” Jake nodded. Valerie looked at Sprig and Edison, “If what it said is true, our only choice is to work in defense of the Realm. How is the frequency generator production progressing?”
Edison said, “We will have enough probes for every member of the Realm in two months. We hope to have enough for the other civilizations within six months.”
Sprig said, “There may be a problem if we teleport planets out of some provinces.”
Valerie looked at Sprig, “You’re thinking Duke Jongo will not cooperate?”
Sprig shrugged, “You know him better than me, however, he asked a lot of questions about our timetable when I notified him of our plan to save the Realm’s planets.”
Joe looked at Valerie and shook his head. Valerie sighed and said, “We’ll have to cross that bridge when we get to it.”
Valerie stood, “Get the generators working. We’ll discuss how to attack the garrisons after we get the Realm’s planets ready for teleportation. Plan to meet here in three weeks.”
Jake said, “An attack on their garrisons may pin down large numbers of their ships. We might want to start sooner than later.”
Valerie shook her head, “I don’t want to show them the generator before they attack. I want to limit their time to find a counter.”
Manny looked at Jake, “Do you have any ideas about how we should start?”
Jake nodded, “I do.”
Joe looked at Valerie, “We’re going to continue this discussion. We’ll delay attacking, but if we are going to use large numbers of our military we can’t delay developing a plan. We’ll let you know what we determine and see if it meets with your approval.”
Valerie sighed and nodded. Another delay before she could have Jake all to herself.
Cynthia Dodd was going to attend a meeting at Castle Gardner. “BC, take us to Ross.”
“What’s going on?”
“I have no idea, but it can’t be good. The Admiral and Prince require my presence.”
“Better you than me.”
“What do you mean? Where I go you follow, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“Not true. I didn’t go to the Keepers’ universe with you. I stayed here where it’s safe.”
“Yeah, but you hated every minute of it.”
Silence greeted her remark. “Got nothing to say?”
“Just don’t let it happen again.”
“I’ll do what I can.”
“We’re here. I’m going to listen in.”
“Nosey sort, aren’t you?”
“Just like my commander.”
Cynthia teleported to the map room and found Admiral Busigleore, Prince Gardner, and Jake waiting there for her arrival. She saw Jake and said, “Why did I think this had something to do with you? You should have just let me
