Valerie felt her anxiety level rise, but held Jake’s hand like it was life itself. She knew she would not have been able to handle these events as competently as Jake was demonstrating, and she said, “You are now in command of the Realm. I am now an observer.”
Jake looked at Valerie and felt his love for her to the depths of his soul. He almost snarled at the chance to get the action started.
Valerie sensed his psychic power growing at a tremendous rate, then she saw the capital of the Kosiev Province on her display. Why did we come to Ulmerton?
The Director of the Keepers Fleet waited for the final ships to assume their place in formation, then sent the command, “Activate your universal drives in four dexls. Three, two, one, activate.” The huge Keepers Fleet disappeared from their universe and reappeared near the thousands of dead Eight Leg’s ships.
“Tighten up your formations and prepare to attack your targets in ten dexls… three, two, one, jump.”
Jake kept his eyes on the display and Manny announced, “The Keepers Fleet has just jumped.”
“Carry out the plan, Admiral.”
Manny disappeared from the display.
“Activating the circuit, Jake.”
“What is Junior talking about, Jake?”
Jake looked at Valerie and said, “Watch Ulmerton.”
Four hundred thousand Keepers’ ships jumped in to Ulmerton and moved quickly into the atmosphere. Duke Jongo immediately saw their arrival on his ship’s display and yelled, “Get us out of here!”
The navigator on the Duke’s ships punched the teleport console but nothing happened. He punched it again and again, but still the ship did not move. The Duke felt unimaginable fear and yelled, “Get us off the planet!”
The drive officer hit the engines and the ship began lifting into the atmosphere. Just before the ship entered space, a Keepers’ ship focused one of its beams on the fleeing vessel. It shimmered briefly just before it turned to dust.
Valerie watched the Keepers destroy the planet. The atmosphere and a hundred feet of the planet’s surface was disappearing in a huge dust cloud. She forced herself to witness it all. She now knew that Jake and Junior had set the Duke up for the devastation being done below. She wanted to feel sorrow for the billions being killed, but knew those billions were planning to attack the Realm. The Duke was getting back what he had tried to deliver to Ross. She turned and looked at Jake, “Did the frequency generator fail?”
Jake looked her in the eyes and said, “It did not work.”
She knew that Jake was telling the truth, but not the whole truth. As his lover she wanted desperately to ask how the Duke had not just teleported away to safety, but knew as Queen she could not ask. She looked back at the display and saw hundreds of thousands of the Duke’s ships being disintegrated on the surface of the planet. “Those ships will not attack the Realm,” she thought.
She knew there was going to be fallout from this act, but that would be handled later. She asked, “What about the other planets that were attacked?”
Jake smiled and said, “Their generators did function properly.”
Five Keepers Fleets arrived at the remaining four provincial capitals as well as Ross, and found their ships dropping out of null space outside the null drive limit. The Director of the Keepers Fleet attacking Ross turned to his navigator, “Why are we here instead of the planet?”
“I don’t know. Our drive just shut off and kicked us out of our jump.”
“Try again.”
“I’ve tried five times; our drives will not take us any closer.”
The Director contacted the other five fleets and discovered that only one had made it to a target. The fleets asked the Prime Director for orders. He thought for a moment, and decided, “We will move in to the targets and attack.”
“What if they move the populations?”
“We will destroy the planets. There will be nowhere for them to return. Eventually, there won’t be any where for them to flee. The plan calls for the destruction of every planet that can sustain life. We start that here and now.”
The five fleets began moving in on the targeted planets.
“Citizens of Ross, a large enemy fleet has jumped into our system and is moving toward our planet. Please do not teleport away just yet. We will move the planet to safety when the enemy fleet is an hour out from contact. If we are unsuccessful, then you may activate your teleporters. Please understand that we will be moving the planet as many times as necessary to protect it, and if you leave you may not be able to return until after the war.”
The billions on Ross were afraid, but they did not want to leave their homes and be stranded without being able to return. Half a million citizens teleported out, but the vast majority waited.
“How long until arrival?”
The navigator looked at his board and said. “One interval in thirty dixls.”
The Director watched his screen and one interval from the planet, it disappeared.
“What? What? Where? What just happened?!?”
The navigator stared at his board and said, “It’s gone. The planet is just…gone.”
“Can they be hiding it?”
“Listen for yourself. There is no thought frequency, there is no affect of gravity that we would certainly be feeling if it were still there, and we can see the star through the space it was occupying.”
“Continue to the last place it occupied. I must make sure it is not hidden.”
The Keepers Fleet arrived at the former orbit of Ross and found nothing. Even the moons had disappeared with the planet. The Prime Director began getting calls from the other fleets wanting to know what had happened and what they should do.
The Prime Director felt a touch of fear. “Move your fleets outside the jump band and scan for the planet you targeted. See if it’s located elsewhere.”
The navigator asked, “Do you seriously think the planet was moved?”
“You explain what just happened.”
The navigator was at a loss until eight hours later, when the sensors determined that a planet identical to the one they attacked was now in a galaxy a hundred million light years away. The other fleets also reported identical planets out in the far reaches of this universe.
The Director looked at the Navigator, “Was that planet there when we arrived?”
The navigator looked at the original scan and said, “No, it was not.”
The Director reflected on the level of technology required to move a planet that distance and decided that it had to be verified. “Jump your fleets to the planet that is identical to your original target and attack if it is a match.”
The Prime Director sensed the unease of the millions of Keepers in the fleet, but knew he must carry out his orders. Those planets had to be destroyed. It wondered what other surprises awaited his Fleet.
Col. Cynthia Dodd and Glen David waited for their transportation to arrive. The transports were holding in another universe waiting for the go signal, and Cynthia’s five thousand five-man teams were gathered in the Fleet Auditorium to receive their final instructions. Cynthia stepped on the stage and Glen ordered, “Atenn-shun!” The Red Warriors gathered in the room jumped to attention. Cynthia stared out at the assembly and said, “At ease. Please take your seats.” The warriors sat down and turned on their recorders.
“I have been told that the Keepers Fleet is assembling and getting ready to jump.” The warriors began moving in anticipation of combat. Cynthia continued, “We will not start our campaign until the enemy fleet has jumped to our universe. We believe that to go before their arrival would cause them to target us with overwhelming numbers. I have informed Fleet Command that overwhelming numbers don’t exist as far as we are concerned.”
The warriors shouted, “Hooooo-Yahhhh!”
Cynthia smiled, “This campaign is going to be done completely different from our previous attempts to rescue the enslaved civilizations of the Keepers. In our first two efforts, we attacked the Keepers’ garrisons and pinned them down so our transports could come in and teleport the cities out. Since our last successful rescue, we have developed transports that we believe will be invisible to the Keepers’ scanners. Their hulls reflect all electron and light waves around them such that, like our Searcher’s ships, they will not be detected. They will go in first and
