Chapter Nineteen
The Collective and all Quadrants examined the data collected from the recent attacks and the Fleets operating in the enemy’s universe. After two intervals, the massive intelligence separated into its various pieces.
“Military, we have only destroyed one world since our invasion launched. At the current progress, our star will die of old age before we destroy all their planets.”
“I’m of the opinion that the enemy allowed us to destroy that one planet.”
The giant being said, “What data did you use to draw that conclusion?”
“I examined the scans of the ships that were on the destroyed planet. The markings on them match the eight ships we destroyed in our universe that revealed themselves to us. I’ve discussed this with Psychology, and we think that planet was attempting to communicate with us to negotiate its safety in return for assisting us.”
Psychology added, “The probe that is being used to prevent our jumps into the systems of the targeted planet actually prevented the drives of the grounded ships from operating. It appears the governing entity knew of their attempt and allowed our attack.”
Production spoke, “We should have collected one of those ships on the ground and brought it back to us for examination.”
The Collective replied, “We never thought the opportunity would present itself but you’re right; we should have collected one. But we didn’t, so there’s no use in dwelling on that missed opportunity. Our fleets now know to capture one if it becomes possible. It appears we missed an opportunity to use our enemy to our advantage.”
Psychology offered a mental shrug, “We would have still destroyed them, even if we agreed not to do so.”
“Of course, but we would have used them to our advantage.”
Science asked, “What are we going to do about the attacks on our farms?”
“It appears there is not much we can do to stop them. If the new enemy continues to take our food resources, we will probably starve before we destroy their universe.”
“What if we assign a ship to each planet to prevent them from taking the farms?”
The Collective considered the proposal for three seconds, which represented millions of computations, “It will delay the fleet going to the new universe, but we aren’t having much success as it is.”
“How many ships are ready to reinforce the fleets attacking the new enemy?”
“One point two million.”
“We’ll need twenty million more to protect all of our farms.”
“We’ll have them in less than a half cycle.”
“Then send them.”
Military responded, “The orders are being sent.”
Ron Kune continued to monitor the production facility and knew that a new fleet was almost ready to jump to the Realm. Suddenly, the huge fleet jumped away from the facility. He scanned their jump tracks, and none of them matched. Wherever they were going, it was not to the same location. He locked in the closest jump track and fed it to his computer, “Where are these coordinates located, Sally?”
“According to my charts, the ship has jumped to one of their slave planets.”
“Collect some more tracks before they fade and see if there is a pattern.”
After a few moments Sally said, “I’ve examined two thousand and they are all locations of the worlds they use for food. It seems the Keepers’ high command has decided to stop any further rescues.”
“Get this information downloaded and sent to Fleet Command.”
“On its way, Ron. It appears the attacks have bought some time for the Realm.”
Ron shrugged, “There are still more than two million of their ships attacking the Realm.”
“Unsuccessfully, so far. I suspect they are trying to find a way to get around the frequency generators and until they accomplish that task, sending more ships would only be a wasted effort.”
“Perhaps, but these creatures aren’t dumb. Let’s hope our luck holds out.”
Junior arrived back in the Realm and had listened to Valerie yell at Jake all the way back.
“How could you have risked everything? Without you the Realm is lost, and you cut that so close the edge would slice through a Keepers’ ship. Are you crazy? You promised you wouldn’t put yourself at risk and look at what you did! As Queen I am ordering you not to take part in any future combat operations.”
Junior sighed and watched Jake try to get a word in, but Valerie didn’t even take a breath during her tirade. Truth be told, Junior agreed with her. The loss of Jake would have been too high a price for what was achieved. Finally, Jake grabbed Valerie and kissed her hard. She finally became silent.
After a few moments Jake leaned back and said, “You’re wrong. It was worth the price.”
Valerie opened her mouth, but didn’t know how to respond.
Junior did, “No way it was worth it if we lost you.”
Valerie nodded so hard Jake thought she was going to get whiplash.
“Junior, how many teams were killed in the rescue attempts?”
Junior looked at his communication log and said, “Seven hundred teams; about thirty five hundred Red Warriors were killed.”
“With what we learned today, we won’t lose any more.”
Junior and Valerie were silent.
“We don’t need to attack the garrisons to destroy them.”
Valerie asked in a softer voice, “Why not?”
“Because now we know that only a few of them are set up to become new home worlds if we destroy the existing ones. We also know how to identify those that are slated to replace the old ones.”
Junior said, “Give me a minute.”
Valerie punched Jake on the arm and said, “Never scare me like that again.”
Jake rubbed his arm and smiled.
“You’re right.”
Valerie said, “Will one of you explain what’s going on?”
Jake took Valerie’s hand and pulled her over to the command chair. She sat in his lap. “Now we know the structure of the garrisons. We just destroyed the largest garrison in the Keepers’ universe, and there are only a thousand more that are similar in structure. It appears the garrisons that have more than five cities surrounding them are the future planned home worlds. All the rest are not deeper than ten to fifteen levels and if they have eggs, they’re in limited numbers. I should have thought of this before, but Ethan having that Captors’ ball has shown me that there is no need to penetrate their forts with warriors. We’ll just teleport a Captors’ ball into the lowest level and destroy the facility without killing the planet.”
“Where are we going to get the needed number of Captors’ balls?”
“The former home world of the Captors still has billions of them stored, Junior.”
“We have a com from Joe and Manny coming in.”
“Put it on the screen.”
Joe and Manny appeared on the screen and Joe started yelling at Jake. Valerie interrupted him, “I’ve already read him the riot act, Joe. However, I now am thankful he took the risk.”
Joe looked at Valerie and Manny asked, “Why?’
Jake explained what he uncovered and saw the two military leaders of the Realm start to relax. Manny said, “I don’t know if that will help us.”
Jake said, “Why not?”
“The Keepers are sending a ship to every farm planet to prevent further rescues.”
“Do they have that many ships?”
Manny looked away for a moment and said, “Not yet. But they are modifying more and more every day. I suspect they will have enough within four months.”
Jake thought for a moment, “It won’t matter. We’ll still be able to rescue the farms. How many transports does the Realm have in its inventory?”
Joe asked, “What are you thinking?”
Manny looked back at the screen, “Only five thousand are modified with the stealth screen. We have fifty
