Timmy sighed and then smiled, “There is that, my friend. Send me to Virze. I need to be with her.”
“Yes, Your Grace.” Timmy flinched. “You’ve forgotten.”
“Yes, I guess I did.” Timmy disappeared from the bridge.
Rehoben rushed into Jilico’s personal quarters. The King had been trying to activate his broadband communicator and Rehoben was worried. Jilico had not been happy for many years and he had noticed a change in his personality. He was trying to do something. But what was it. He rushed up to the armored door and waited. After an hour it slowly swung open. Rehoben walked in and saw Jilico next to his communication panel. He looked up and said, “Why is my broadband communicator not working?”
“Your Majesty, all broadband communicators on the planet have been disabled to prevent any messages being picked up by the invader’s ship. Only those we send through Fleet Control are active.”
“You will activate my panel immediately.”
Ro lifted his communicator and sent a message to Admiral Hulent. He said where Jilico could hear him, “The King wishes his communication panel to be fully active.”
“I’ve made the connection, Sir.”
Jilico looked over at his panel and pressed the broadband button. He saw a red light illuminate on his panel. “What are you doing, Your Majesty?”
Jilico looked up at Ro and snarled, “I’m ending this charade. I’m going to ask the invader to allow me to assist them in the takeover of this universe.”
Ro didn’t move but said softly, “Why would you do that?”
“My military no longer follows my orders. My subjects show me no respect. I’ve lost all my power to that cursed white haired Emperor.”
Ro took a deep breath. He knew Jilico was right. Once the real history of the Old Realm had gotten out, there was a general disgust of all the Provincial Rulers. The only thing that kept Jilico in his throne was the insistence by the Emperor that to make a change might trigger the invasion. “What if they don’t accept your offer and come to destroy our world.”
“They can have it. I’d rather die than continue with this mockery of my title.”
“All of your subjects could die with you, Your Majesty. Surely you don’t want that to happen.”
Rehoben saw the first smile from Jilico since the masquerade had started. “I’m going to insist that the invaders kill everyone on this planet if they agree to help me. I’ll move to another world and continue my monarchy.” Jilico lifted the com and said, “I’m addressing the black ship that is holding station in the dust cloud in the outer system. Your presence was discovered ten years ago and we have been pretending to have a make believe war to delay your attack until weapons could be developed against you. I want to help you conquer this universe. I will assist you and all I ask is that you allow me to continue to rule my Kingdom. You may even destroy this planet if you choose.”
Rehoben slowly shook his head. Jilico looked at him and said, “What?”
“Your panel has been connected to all monitors in the Kingdom. They are not broadband so the message will only be heard on those monitors. I’ve struggled with the history the Emperor gave us not wanting to believe that the Provincial Rulers were as evil as that history painted them. Now you’ve proven to me that they were exactly that.”
Jilico sneered, “You just don’t have the guts to make hard decisions.”
Rehoben pulled a blaster from his robe and shot Jilico’s head off. “That’s not the only thing you’ve been wrong about.” He put the blaster back in his robe and pushed his com, “Admiral, did you get all of this?”
“I did, Your Majesty.”
Ro flinched, “I’m not royalty.”
“You are now. The military and Searchers will only follow your lead. Lead us to a better day, please.”
“The King’s Family?”
“Already executed. They were in on this and had left the planet for Mabry. We met then at the port. We’re glad you anticipated this happening and we look forward to our future.”
“Will you notify Emperor Robbins of the change in leadership and request his approval.”
“I have and he has.”
“Let us pray our charade is working.”
The large orange colored being looked at his Communications Office, “Sire, we have a message hitting the force field.”
“Open it and tell me what it says.”
“Sire, we have been ordered home. This universe will be taken at a later time. Another one is now ready and we have been ordered to take part in the invasion.”
The orange being shook his head and looked at his display. So much wasted time. He had left five years earlier and had returned a year ago to replace the ship that relieved him. Well, by the time this war was over here, this one would be easy. He looked at his panel one last time and ordered, “Take us to that universe first. I want to see what we’re facing.”
The Navigator said, “Yes, Sire.” He noticed the fluctuation of the cosmic rays but said nothing. The giant ship disappeared.”
Chapter Twelve
“Grace!”
“Yes, Alex. What’s wrong?”
“The Invader’s ship has left and was not replaced by another ship.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am. The probe sent me the information and also sent me the message they received. My language program has most of their dialogue translated and understands the bulk of what they say. They are going to invade another universe and come back later to take ours.”
“Alex, were you able to determine what universe they were going to attack.”
“We got a break. Instead of using their dimensional drive the ship’s commander went directly to the universe being attacked. The probe sent me the coordinates. Why do you ask?”
“At some point in time we are going to have to see if our attempt at developing a ship to take on their main battleship is successful. I would rather do that in another universe. Is the Bristone ready to face one of their ships?”
“I just don’t know. The only way to find out is to send it out to confront one.”
“Will you put a universal drive on the Bristone and activate one of those old stealth probes? I’ll see what Emperor Robbins wants to do.”
“I now have two more of those Ultraships converted to the new technology. Let the Emperor know they are also ready for trial.”
“I’ll let him know. Are you able to convert one of the new Zeta ships to that technology?”
“I am. I just need one of you to volunteer.”
“I should be the first, Alex. I’ll let you know what the Emperor decides.”
“Grace, are you planning to go and confront one of those ships?”
“I want to do it but unfortunately, I would be the wrong choice, Virze.”
“Why is that?”
“We only have twenty Zeta Ships in our inventory. We are not set up to build a Zeta in our factory at the Defense Facility. Those twenty are all we’ll ever have. The Zeta is a product of the old Realm and we are going to need thousands of ships to face the Invaders. We’re going to have to build a ship of our own design that can handle them. We can build ships like the old Ultras. That’s the kind of ship that will have to confront them first. However, it will have to be much larger to fully use the new technology.”
“What happens if it fails?”
“I don’t even want to think about that. We have to have a starting point and we’ve invested ten years in the reflective hulls. Our planets with large manufacturing facilities are ready to begin building them but we can’t do it
