Junior was stunned, “I honestly don’t know.”
“Well, until this is over, you’re going to have to stay away from them. I’m sure the Reg would give parents the tools to manage the behavior of their offspring. You can’t risk everything on the chance they can’t.”
“Why do you think they can?”
“They responded to your distress beacon in less than ten seconds. I believe they heard it before it actually activated. That concerns me, Junior. Just tell them you’re not where you can leave me for the short term. Hopefully we can delay them getting suspicious, but I’m certain that the Gardners are already wondering what I’m hiding from them and they may ask your parents to find out.”
“Are you going to meet with the Gardners again?”
“Not if I can avoid it. I can probably hide what I’m planning from them, but I’m not so sure I could from AG.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jake sat down and looked at Manny. “Thank you for meeting with me, Admiral.”
“Call me Manny, Jake. What do you need me to do?”
“I need you to give me command of the Brez Division’s Searchers, and make sure every one of them is totally loyal to the Queen.”
“That would strip Ross of its defenses.”
“I know.”
“I need to know why.”
Jake stared at Manny and finally decided. He began telling Manny what was going to happen and his plan for handling it.
Two hours later Manny was convinced, “Does Valerie know?”
“No, she doesn’t, and she would not go along with what I’m going to do.”
“I can see that.” Manny sat and mulled over what Jake had told him. “Why did you tell me and not just order me to give you the ships?”
“You are the only one in the Realm that can see if what I’ve told you is true. I was thinking that you might know of something that I’ve missed that would change my plans. Do you know anything I’ve missed?”
“I know a number of things you don’t know, but they only support what you’re planning. I’m not certain you can make this happen.”
“Me either, Manny but I have to try.”
“This could be considered treason, Jake.”
“So shoot me, but first help me.”
“The Division is yours. There are five hundred Searchers that are spies, and I need to assign them to another venture.”
Jake stared at Manny. “Don’t act surprised. I have more than six thousand scattered throughout the Realm. The Division is yours. I’ll notify the General Officers that they are to follow your orders without question, no matter what you ask of them.”
“I want Cynthia Dodd to be second-in-command.”
Manny smiled and said, “Another promotion?”
“An Admiral outranks a General, and she is going to have to command the operation in the Keepers’ universe.” Jake paused, “Manny, if Joe knows what I’m planning, AG will know.”
“I know. I’ll make sure I stay away from any meetings with them.”
Jake tilted his head, “That’s a good Idea.”
Manny nodded, and worried.
The Kosiev jumped away from the Keepers Fleet it had attacked, and the Gardners replayed the recording of the battle. “I tried everything in my inventory and nothing affected their hulls.”
Tag said, “We see that. Do you think flying through one would cut it in half?”
There was a long pause, “I’ll try that, but I want Cassandra taken off if I do.”
Cassandra sat up in her chair, “Why do you say that?”
“I felt their beams and they started to get through to my processors. I’m of the mind that I would be broken in half if I tried it.”
“Then we won’t try it.”
Tag looked at Cassandra and knew she would not allow him to place the ship in danger. “Can you think of anything else we can do?”
She shook her head.
“If we still had those blue ships we used against the Demons, there might be a good chance of damaging them.”
Matt sighed, “That possibility does not exist. The Reg took them when they moved out of our universe. I’m also pretty certain that they would not allow us to use them to kill another species if they are not also endangered by that species. And they are not where we can reach them. They left for another dimension and we do not possess an interdimensional drive.”
“Perhaps that cutting beam is a possibility.”
Tag shrugged, “You’re probably right, Alex. Take us to Ross and let’s see if the spiders are ready.”
The Collective asked Military, “How many ships are ready for the second wave?”
“Ten million. I have also learned another of those psychic waves happened in that other universe.”
“What?”
“It appears another being has been released.”
“Was there any damage to our fleets?”
“No, it happened far away from our fleets.”
“Psychology, have you seen this data?”
“Yes, but I don’t really know what it means.”
The Collective thought and asked, “Could those beings develop a weapon that uses that wave, and are just waiting for us to attack with our larger fleets?”
Silence greeted his question. Psychology said, “We won’t know unless we go ahead with the attack.”
“Don’t send the full fleet. Send four million and an observer to see if they possess that weapon. How many planets have been destroyed?”
“We have destroyed seven thousand which were all uninhabited. We are going to jump a small fleet in on one of their inhabited planets within twelve intervals to see if we’re successful.”
“Then hold off on sending any ships until we make that determination.”
Three hundred thousand Keepers’ ships waited for the scout to arrive and give them the coordinates needed for their attack. The Fleet Director watched his display and the scout jumped in and transmitted the location. The Keepers began sending thoughts to the main beam and when all ships reported ready, the Director said, “Jump in 5,4,3,2,1, jump.”
The three hundred thousand ships jumped into the upper atmosphere of Del Robles and immediately accelerated toward the planet’s surface firing their main beams. The two continents on one side of the planet blew up in a huge blast, and everything was burned a hundred feet into the planet’s surface. The official designated to activate the probe to teleport the planet away was killed in the first Keepers’ blast.
The Keepers Fleet spread out, and in two hours the planet was a smoldering ball of bare rock. The Director jumped his fleet back to the home universe to report his success. Now they could destroy this new enemy and they looked forward to the next attack. For Del Robles, twenty billion died and the Realm lost another provincial capital.
The Gardners were in the map room discussing the cutting beam with Edison and Valerie when Joe rushed in the room and interrupted the meeting, “Valerie! The Keepers have destroyed Del Robles!”
Valerie stood, “How did they get through the frequency generator?”
“It appears they used their universal drives and jumped directly above the planet’s atmosphere. They
