ran up and took his hands. Their mother walked forward, picked up the little boy, and put her arm on James’ elbow. James looked at her and smiled. He unbuttoned his jacket and put it around the young girl and started walking toward his base. He wondered about the division stationed there but he didn’t care. The thousands of slaves saw the four walking away and fell in behind them. Carol looked at James and saw his heart. Her husband had been killed four years earlier when their planet had been invaded and she still mourned him. She had watched James for months and saw that he was not like the others. He had saved her little boy by sneaking him meals and antibiotics when he was close to death. She knew he could have lost his life if he had been caught but he took the risk anyway. She had decided that whatever the future brought, she was going to repay him for his kindness.
James continued walking and felt Carol tighten her grip on his arm. He looked at her and saw her smile. Even through the dirt she was beautiful. He said, “I’m so sorry.”
She leaned over and kissed his cheek and said, “I know.”
As James topped the hill leading into the Military Base he saw thousands of soldiers marching in the opposite direction toward the slave compound. They were being herded by what looked like giant lizards with a human riding them. The soldiers looked scared and some of them were dazed by what was happening. The slaves began to stop and were barely restraining themselves from attacking the troops. They heard a voice in their minds, “They will receive justice. Please continue to your destination.”
The slaves watched as their tormenters were marched toward their former compound. Something was happening. They topped the hill and found a four armed being standing beside a huge yellow creature waiting on them. They were right. Things were changing.
General Weis listened to the open broadcast from King Jongo and immediately tried to contact him and let him know he was being heard by everyone on New Ulmerton. He immediately stopped his effort when he heard the King order the planet destroyed. “What was going on?!” He hit his alarm and the twenty thousand soldiers under his command were immediately rushing to their assigned posts. He walked out of his headquarters and headed toward his ship. He needed to get into orbit if the planet was going to be hit. As he approached his ship he saw fifty military skimmers begin lifting from the landing field. All fifty were hit and disintegrated. Then he heard over his com, “This is Searcher Ship Greyson of the Bristone Empire; you will assemble in the field next to your base immediately. You will take no weapons with you and any violators will be eliminated. You will comply at once or I will burn your base down to the planet’s bedrock.”
The twenty thousand troops looked at each other and were paralyzed. Six defense laser batteries began raising their barrels toward the sky and were vaporized. Your time is up; anyone not moving toward the field will be killed. The thousands of troops began running toward the marching field next to the camp. Scattered among the thousands, some were not moving. They were hit with an intense small beam from space and burned into gas. Those that were moving slowly began running with the others. General Weis was furious at the tone of the Searcher and shook his fist at the sky. That was his last act and his staff joined the others running.
They arrived at the field and heard, “You will form into your individual units now.”
The troops milled around talking among themselves until a white hot beam hit the ground next to the field. The troops fell over each other moving into their companies. Once they were formed up the troops were stunned as three hundred giant beasts appeared surrounding them with a Human on their back. One of the Riders slid to the ground and moved into the ranks of the assembled troops. The troops were shocked at the size of the yellow colored being walking into their ranks. He was easily seven feet tall and massively built. It walked up to an officer and ripped his jacket open and pulled out a hand blaster and shot the officer with it. The yellow creature looked around and said loudly, “You were told no weapons. You have ten seconds to remove them.”
Thousands of the troops ran out of ranks and threw hand blasters, grenades, and blades into a pile. They quickly ran back into ranks as the yellow creature walked through their ranks pushing soldiers out of his way. He stopped in front of a soldier and stared at him. The soldier looked uncomfortable but looked around wondering what was going on. The yellow creature raised his gun and shot the soldier to the right of the one confronted. It reached around behind the soldier and pulled a hand blaster from his hood. The soldier’s eyes grew large and the yellow being said, “You just can’t trust anyone these days. He slipped it in your jacket when you weren’t looking.” Grang shook his head and turned back toward the mass of soldiers.
The Yellow being then looked over the mass of troops and a four armed being said from the front of their formations, “We know those of you that are still holding weapons and, though we enjoy the scavenger hunt to find them, we will kill anyone else still hiding a weapon. There are still four hundred of you thinking you can get away with it. You have ten more seconds and then we will eliminate you.”
This time the rush was over quickly. The four armed being said, “Grang, there are two of them that just can’t take good advice.”
The Yellow being grunted. It then went to the back row and grabbed a soldier and snatched a hand blaster out of his belt and shot him with it. He casually carried it forward and threw it on the pile. Suddenly, a hand blaster sailed over the heads of the front ranks into the pile of weapons. The four armed being said, “Hey, nice arm there.” It then walked in front of the soldiers and said, “You will now march to the former compound of the slaves and settle in. That will be your home for the near future. There was a large grumble until a beam hit between two of the companies. You will also remain silent during your walk.”
One of the soldiers attempted to run from the ranks and a Zord rushed up and bit him in half. The speed that huge beast moved was incredible. The division moved out with their giant escorts surrounding them.
Scotty sat by the fire in the clearing staring at Daulun squirming against his bindings. He had quit screaming an hour earlier when Scotty had stuffed an old sock in his mouth and taped it shut. He was sitting on an old log with a giant reptile of some sort looking down on him. He had not known fear often but this was the biggest taste he had ever had.
Scotty looked at Kreej, “Do you see anything we need to know?”
“An ambassador from the other province is due to visit in three weeks.”
Daulun jerked his head around at Kreej with wide eyes.
“Ummmm. We’ve got to plan for that.” Scotty then looked at Daulun and shook his head, “I’m struggling with how to administer the appropriate justice for all the horrific acts you’ve done. I must confess it’s hard to decide what we should do with you. Now I’m going to remove the sock from your mouth. If you start screaming again I’m just going to allow Kreej here to eat you.”
“Would you, Your Majesty? I’m really hungry.”
Daulun started vigorously shaking his head.
Scotty ripped the tape off his mouth and snatched the sock out. Daulun thought several teeth were going to come with it. “Who are you?”
“Your worst nightmare. I am the Emperor of the planet that you ordered destroyed. More than forty million of my subjects were murdered by you.”
Daulun knew he was as good as dead. “What are you going to do?”
Julie walked up and joined Scotty at the fire. She reached over and took his hand. Scotty took a deep breath and stared at her. Scotty looked at Daulun and said, “I want to allow Kreej to have a meal but I am going to offer you an opportunity to live. I really, really, hope you turn it down.”
“What opportunity?”
“How many planets have you enslaved?”
Daulun started to lie but remembered the beast could read his mind, “Two hundred and six.”
Scotty smiled and said, “We are going to take you to each of those planets and you are going to order all your troops to board their ships and leave to join your forces at Crimeron. The first planet that refuses to follow your commands will be your death warrant.”
“What if I refuse?”
Kreej said, “I’ll eat you one small piece at a time starting with your fingers.”
Scotty said, “We can go in and kill all of your outposts but there will be loss of life if we’re forced to do that.”
“And if I agree.”
“We’ll teleport you to one of the former Provincial Capitals and leave you alone.”
Daulun looked at the huge beast and said, “I’ll do what you ask.”
“Kreej, I want you to go with the King and make sure he keeps his word. If he doesn’t, he’s yours.”
“I really hope he doesn’t Your Majesty.” Kreej looked at Daulun and said, “Please make a mistake. I’m really
