“Not yet. I need to talk with Bleath about what’s happening with his flocks. If they’re moving, I don’t want to be involved with that King.”
“Your Majesty?!?”
“Yes, BC?”
“We’ve lost eight Zord and their Riders to the cats.”
“Get me home, Anglo!”
Anglo teleported Scotty to the communities and he saw the sorrow on many of those gathered at the clearing. Julie came running to him and hugged him tightly. He felt her crying. “Tell me what happened.”
Julie kept her head on his chest and said, “The cats were getting too close to the Zord’s lands so Jingo led an attack against those in the front of the migration. The first riders hit the cats and dropped eight of them. Jingo accounted for four of the eight. The riders in the second wave flew in and somehow the cats sensed them coming. They jumped more than three hundred feet off the ground and dragged the Zord and their Riders to the ground. They were killed instantly by more than two hundred of the giant cats that raced in. The other waves flew higher and were barely missed by jumping cats.”
Jingo walked up and heard Julie’s last statement, “They didn’t see us, Scotty. They smelled us. Those cats can leap.”
Scotty shook his head, “It’s not surprising, Jingo. Cats can normally leap three times their length. Those giants are more than 200 foot long. They might be able to leap six hundred feet.”
“There’s more, Scotty. They’re smart. Now when they smell us they run under trees and wait for us. They are also big enough to leap over the hedges between the ging roots. This is not going to be good if they get into the Zord’s lands. I don’t think a grown Zord will be able to handle those cats.”
“Your Majesty?”
“Yes, BC?”
“I may have an answer to those cats.”
Jingo looked at Scotty and Scotty said, “Anglo, teleport Jingo and me to BC’s bridge.”
Julie watched Scotty and Jingo disappear. She then walked to Zack Greene’s house to share his family’s sorrow over his death.
Scotty and Jingo appeared on the small ship’s bridge. “What are you thinking, BC?”
Five small white objects appeared on the table next to them. “Look at those and see if you could attach them to the shafts of your arrows.”
Scotty and Jingo picked one up and noticed it was very light. It glowed and emitted a white luminescence. Jingo took an arrow out of his quiver and held the arrowhead up to one of the objects. They were close to the same size. They were the same diameter as the arrow’s shaft. The white slender object had a square end and tapered quickly to a slightly rounded, sharp point. “What are these, BC?”
“They are Coronado Sparks.”
“What are those?”
“They are charged with enough energy to vaporize anything they hit. They are made to penetrate their target and then release their energy such that it burns until it runs out of organic material. These were made to use against the Keepers in their garrisons. These do not explode. The Realm was afraid an explosion would collapse the Keepers’ tunnels.”
Scotty held one in his hand and it felt balanced. “How do you cause it to activate?”
“Look at the small square end.”
Scotty turned it over and saw a round indentation in the square end about an inch deep.
“There was a mechanism in the hole that would slam forward and ignite the spark on impact. I’ve removed them. Could one of your arrow’s shafts be shaved to fit in that hole?”
“No, the hole is slightly smaller than the shaft.” Jingo broke the head of an arrow and handed it to Scotty. Scotty placed it against the hole and said, “We could turn the shafts and shrink the end to fit in.”
“You would need to have about a quarter of an inch more than the depth of the hole to make it activate.”
What do you mean?”
“The shaft would have to slide into the activator to trigger the spark. A tenth of a second after impact the spark will ignite. You’ll need to find a way to keep them on the shaft.”
Jingo looked at the spark and shaft. He took the shaft of the broken arrow and laid it on the table. He drew one of his short swords and began trimming the end. He took a grellup pod out and spread some of the sap on the last half inch.
Scotty watched him push the shaft into the spark and it was a tight fit. “Why the sap?”
“You know the velocity of our arrows. The sap will allow the shaft to slide forward at impact.” He attempted to pull the spark off the shaft and it wouldn’t move.
Scotty watched him, “Did you make it too tight?”
“I don’t think so. You don’t want these things falling off the shaft in our quivers or in flight. The question in my mind is whether or not the nose is sharp enough to penetrate the hide of the cats.”
“It doesn’t have to penetrate, Jingo.”
“Why not, BC?”
“If the charging is released on the hide of the cat, it will burn until there is nothing left of the cat to burn.”
Jingo looked at Scotty and handed him the arrow, “Want to try it out. I know the cat that got the first rider. He appears to be the leader of the group out in front of the other cats.”
“How do you see this happening, Jingo?”
“According to BC, all you have to do is hit it. You can hit a target that big from eight hundred yards. Fly in from downwind and give it a go.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to make seven more of these and then we are going cat hunting. Those eight cats out front are the most dangerous of the lot. I want a shot at them.”
“Michael and Julie need to go with us. We’ll take two each.”
Jingo looked angry for a moment, then said, “You’re right. We shouldn’t risk some of them getting away.”
“How are we going to get them in the trees?”
Jingo smiled and said, “Those eight travel in the open to make good time. They pretty much show us no respect.”
“BC. Have Anglo teleport me down to the clearing. Send Jingo when he finishes the arrows.”
“Your Majesty, you don’t need to run this risk. I can hit them with a beam.”
“BC, that isn’t fair to a life form just doing what comes naturally to it. They attacked us in self-defense. We need to find a way to protect ourselves against them or we’ll start depending on you for our defense. I don’t want you stuck here.”
“I could scan the planet and kill them all.”
“I won’t exterminate an animal without giving it a chance. They have shown remarkable teamwork, and it’s my guess that they may one day evolve into an intelligent life form. To exterminate them would violate our principles. We’ve got to find a way to co-exist with them. That means teaching them to avoid us.”
Scotty disappeared and Jingo continued to work on the arrows.
BC thought about Scotty’s choice to uphold the Realm’s principles. Anglo was right. He was very much like the former Royal Family.
The giant cats were loping across the edge of the wastelands moving south. The leader could smell the scent of the giant flying creatures being carried by the southerly winds. Those creatures were big and tasted good. It looked forward to finding the source of the smell. It looked at the seven running with him and and decided that after another half day they would stop to scout and rest.
The four Zord and their riders were flying parallel to the cats and staying slightly north of their location. They were downwind from the giant creatures and circling about two thousand feet above them. Scotty asked Zreeg, “Does everyone have a cat selected?”
“Yes, they have two chosen. Why are you going to hit only one?”
