“With the help of the Zord and Emperor Robbins, I did. I immediately abdicated the Throne of Talben and named my sister Queen. Then I came back to have my sentence carried out. Tomorrow, I will see if the Zord will do it.” June stood and yelled, “Alright children, let’s see who gathered the most pods.”
The children screamed and ran forward to show June what they had collected.
Mallory sat and thought about what June had told her.
Later that evening, Mallory walked to Julie’s home and knocked on the door. Julie opened it to find Mallory standing on the porch. Julie stepped out, “Hello Mallory, how can I help you?”
“June tells me that she is going to the Zord to see if they will kill her?”
Julie stared at Mallory and said, “Yes, she is.”
“I just can’t believe that June did the things she says she did.”
Julie walked over to a rocking chair and indicated another chair. Mallory sat down as Julie looked up at the sky and said, “Just like you can’t believe your father has done the things we say he’s done.” Mallory nodded. Julie looked up at the sky again and said where Mallory could hear, “Who is on guard duty tonight?”
“I am, Your Majesty.”
“Will you ask Kreej to come see me?”
Julie waited and then they heard, “He’s on his way.”
Julie smiled at Mallory and said, “What do you think about our community?”
“You live in primitive surroundings. This is not an easy life.”
“We’ve been unable to develop our planet because of raiders that came and killed us on El Prado. This is the first time we’ve ever had peace.”
Mallory listened as Julie told her about the dangers that were on El Prado. She wondered what a Torg looked like and just how big the grey cats actually were. After what seemed like a very short time she heard, “I’m here, Your Majesty.”
Julie stood and Mallory followed her out into the small clearing in front of her house. A medium sized Zord was standing there. Julie looked up and said, “Kreej, this is Mallory Jongo.”
The Zord looked at her, “The New Ulmerton King’s Daughter.”
“Yes she is. She wants to know if June was telling the truth about her crimes.”
The Zord looked directly at Mallory and said, “You doubt that her father could have fooled her so completely.”
Mallory nodded, “I just don’t see that happening. June is a very smart woman.”
“Just as you are, Princess. Go sit in that chair on the porch and I’ll show you what happened.”
Mallory turned and went back up the four steps to the porch and sat down in a rocker. Kreej said, “We’ll start with the destruction of the hunting lodges and go forward from there. If you have any questions, just ask.”
Mallory closed her eyes and saw five runabouts chasing a Zord over the forest.
Julie knew it was going to take some time so she went inside and brought out a blanket and covered Mallory. She then went back inside and went to sleep.
“Grace, can you install Jessica’s board?”
“Bring her here.”
BC said, “Jessica, can you breakaway for a minute?”
“Sure, I’m at the learning center with Timmy.”
“Grace is going to install a teleport board if you’ll meet us here.”
They heard the excitement in Jessica’s transmission, “Send me your coordinates.”
Scotty looked out the view port and thought about the other Province with thousands of Searchers. He waited five hours for Jessica to arrive at the jump limit at Bristone’s system. Finally, Jessica arrived next to BC. “What do I need to do?”
Scotty said, “Just open your landing bay and the doors to your bridge. The engineers will arrive momentarily.”
“Hello, Jessica.”
“You sound familiar. Who are you?”
“I’m a duplicate of the Kosievs positronic circuits.”
“You sound just like Alex. Did you get his memories?”
“Yes I did.”
“Why did they leave without me?”
There was a long moment of silence and then they heard, “They didn’t know they were leaving until the very last moment. They had every intention of fighting the traitors but Jake talked them out of it. Before they knew what was happening, every teleport device was disabled and the Realm was transported away. We lost contact with the Realm the moment they disappeared.”
“I’ve wondered if I had done something wrong. Thanks for telling me.”
“I’m absolutely certain they would have come for you if they could.”
Scotty thought he could feel a sense of affection for the shuttle from the defense system. He wondered about Jess not being allowed near the facility. BC said, “Your Majesty, I’m going to teleport you to Jess and go find Anglo.”
“That’s a good idea, BC. Let me know what’s going on.”
“Will do.”
Nathan sat in his command chair and listened to Daulun’s transmissions as he screamed at the Searchers that had failed in protecting his daughter. “Boy, he’s hotter than an overused blaster.”
“Yes he is. Stand-by just a moment, I want to hear something.”
Nathan heard the communications and wondered what Anglo was focused on.
Greyson listened to Daulun’s rants and finally had enough, “Your Majesty.” Daulun stopped screaming and focused his anger on the ship that had the gall to interrupt him. Greyson continued, “Our choice was simple; we could protect you or protect her; it was impossible to do both. It was especially true if another Searcher Class ship was involved. Two of us went to the attack on the building facility and that only left four of us to insure you weren’t taken with her. Would you like us to focus on your daughter in the future? You know your safety is the most important thing to us and our loyalty and protection is to you first.”
Daulun was going to order the Searchers to fire on the disrespectful ship but then thought about what it said. If he destroyed it, his protection would be diminished. He fought hard and brought his emotions under control. Finally he said, “Ok, how do we find her?”
Greyson listened to suggestions from the other five and thought about why he interrupted Daulun. He felt sick to his being at what he had become. Then he heard Daulun sneer, “You don’t have any ideas?”
“I was going to suggest sending every scout back to that planet we destroyed and have them started searching for the place that ship originated from that point. If any scouts are destroyed, we’ll know we’re getting close.”
Daulun yelled, “Why can’t the rest of you be that smart? Make it happen!!”
“Something is wrong with that Searcher.”
Nathan looked at his display, “Which one?”
“The one that destroyed Haldale. His transmissions have subtle overtones challenging the King. Something is wrong with his responses.”
“Is that important?”
“I don’t know, Nathan. However, we need to develop a plan to deal with those scouts.”
“Anglo!”
“Hello, BC.”
“You need to go to the Defense Facility to be upgraded. Scotty is there waiting for you.”
“I’m going to have to handle an issue with scouts that are being sent to find us.”
“I’ll do that. I am now the proud owner of a brand new, old, teleport board and I’ll bring Jessica in to help when she completes her updates.”
Anglo downloaded all that he had recorded and BC said, “I think we should try to fool them.”
“How?”
“I’m going to teleport in on those scouts that are searching in the opposite direction of the Empire. By destroying them it should send them in the wrong direction. I suspect it may delay them.”
