the other industrialized planets were located within thirty days. The ship’s structure was there but the means to provide them enough energy to take on the Black Ships was still not developed. Scotty started greeting the guests and put his worries aside for the moment.
TK saw her Father start greeting guests and worried about him. The stress of ruling the Empire was showing and she knew her Mother was worried about his health. She continued to listen to Jingos as she glanced at the long line of attendees that were hoping to see the Emperor. She saw a couple at the back of the line with a young boy and a baby girl. Who were they? Oh yeah, Carrie and Michael Blake. Their planet was one that was to be moved in a few weeks. She stared at the young boy and saw him immediately look her way and smile.
“I’ve been wondering when you were going to notice me?”
TK’s mouth fell open.
“Yes, I’ve been listening to you all night.”
“You’re telepathic?”
“Of course; I started to beg off and not come but I wanted to see what my future bride looked like. I must say, I am impressed. You are absolutely beautiful. However, now we’ve started communicating, I suspect there will be compulsions to stop us. Do you feel them yet?”
TK did. That told her more than anything this boy just said that he was right about their future. TK smiled, “I’ve been wondering who I was going to be matched up with. You must be further along in your development than I am.”
“Maybe, however, I had to see you before the compulsions became too strong to overcome. Now that I have, I can wait until the right time. You’re really something.”
TK smiled as she stared at him, “You’re not so bad yourself. I’ll see you when the time is right. I’ll try to catch up before we meet again.”
The young boy smiled, nodded, and turned to bow to Emperor Robbins. Scotty nodded and as they stepped away he immediately looked at TK. TK shook her head and wondered how her father, who had no active psychic ability, sensed the boy’s connection to her. She smiled and turned back to ten year old Jingos, Jingo’s youngest child. He had inherited his father’s natural ability to carry on a conversation for hours and he hadn’t even noticed her not paying attention to him. Once he got on a subject, it would take a stunner to stop him from talking for hours. She interrupted, “Jingos, you know you’ll get a Zord of your own before too much longer. Just have patience.” Jingos started complaining again and TK looked at the young boy as he walked with his parents to the other side of the huge room.
TK sighed as she felt the negative feelings hit her. He was right. She was being pushed away from any feelings for him. Even so, he was a very attractive boy with an interesting mind. Even negative compulsions couldn’t prevent her seeing that. She was going to have a talk with her Aunt as soon as possible. Dani could tell her what to expect. TK looked around. Where was Dani and Robby? They should have been here already.
Dani and Robby stood in a crater on the surface of a moon overlooking a huge industrialized planet. They had surrounded themselves with a psychic bubble that would hide them from the Black Ship’s sensors and used their armor’s passive scanners to view the battle taking place above the planet’s atmosphere.
“That ship is a different model than the one that destroyed our two ships.”
Dani shook her head, “I don’t think the ship is new although it has been modified. They’ve added a raised bridge on the hull which will give them additional weapon storage and a better view around the hull. Putting that bulge in the hull changed the lines and shape but everything else looks just like the one that killed our ships.”
Robby stared at his scanner and said, “They’re also able to communicate without having to lower their force field. I detect a frequency being used.”
“That is a change, Robby, but it’s not advancement in their weapons. The strength of the force field is unchanged and the beam cannons on the hull are essentially the same size, location, and barrel length. There have been incremental changes but the ship is still basically what they’ve been using since our last encounter.”
Robby briefly glanced across the surface of the moon and saw the ruins of a base that the Invaders had destroyed directly across the crater from where they were standing. There wasn’t much left of the giant structure. He shook his head and looked back up at the planet with the fleet of huge Black Ships in orbit. The Invaders were kicking off the preliminary invasion of this universe by first attacking the strongest planet and eliminating its fleet. They watched as the Invader Ships destroyed thousands of ships jumping in attempting to defend the planet.
One of the Invader ships had been destroyed when nine hundred ships attacked simultaneously. The destruction of the Black Ship was not good for the planet, as six more Black Ships jumped in to support their attack. Robby and Dani watched their scans as the remaining defending ships were burned out of existence. The twenty Black Ships hung in orbit, killing any new ships that jumped in attempting to save the planet.
Dani looked at Robby, “Why are they just hanging in orbit?”
“The task of this fleet is to soften up the forces they’ll have to face when the entire fleet arrives in nine months. It’s clear this planet has become the major force occupying this universe. More than three hundred thousand ships have already been demolished in the initial attack and, according to my scans, another two hundred thousand jumped in afterwards. They’re waiting because they want to make sure whoever is on the planet calls in all the forces available to defend it. That will weaken all the other planets that they now control.”
“If they’re not invading to start farming, what are they going to do with this planet?”
Robby sighed, “Dani, you know what happens next. This planet is far too industrialized for their purposes. Most of the land masses are covered with huge cities. The effort to clear land for growing pods would be too expensive and time consuming.”
Dani watched as the number of ships jumping in became fewer and finally an hour passed where none appeared. Nineteen of the Black Ships jumped away for other military targets leaving one behind. The ship waited another hour and then it happened. A brilliant green beam shot out from the huge ship and struck the planet at the largest city’s location. The beam was more than a thousand miles wide and when it hit; the continent below was shattered and the shockwave blew the atmosphere away. The Invader moved around the planet and fired four more beams into other major population centers. The entire surface caught fire and a once beautiful green and blue planet turned into a red burning ball of smoke and ash.
Robby watched the planet die and felt his anger start to rise. Dani felt it as well and didn’t want to control it. She was also feeling horror and grief at the huge loss of life. She looked at the Black Ship and said, “Robby, they’ve lowered their force field.”
Robby looked at his scanner and saw that a new frequency was being used to communicate, “Dani, they must have to drop the force field to communicate to another dimension. Now would be a good time to make them pay.”
“How do you want to do this?”
“We know where their reactors are located. We’ll teleport in and hit them with our armor’s strongest beam and then we’ll teleport away immediately after we fire.”
“They also have a missile storage bay on the other side of the ship from the reactors. I’ll hit that port simultaneously with the hit on the reactors. Are you ready?”
“Let’s do this before they stop communicating”
“Do you think they can see us?”
Robby thought a moment, “If we were just using our camouflage there would be a chance. However, we’re using our psychic ability to hide our armor. I don’t think they’ll be able to see us through that. At the first sign of a weapon warming up on their hull, teleport back here. Are you ready?”
Dani connected with Robby mentally and they teleported together. The force field went back up behind them and the two knew that the communication had stopped. They arrived on the hull of the giant ship and they simultaneously fired their armor’s main beam at their selected targets. They immediately teleported away as the Giant Black Ship exploded into a huge fireball and then fell toward the planet. There was no atmosphere to burn the ship as it rolled over and descended. It crashed and added its mass to the burning surface of the now dead planet. The fire was so hot that the entire ship melted and merged with the magma rushing out of the cracks blown into the planet’s molten core.
Dani went into Robby’s arms back on the moon’s surface and held him as they watched the ship turn over, slowly at first, then faster, fall toward the surface. It finally hit and shattered into a huge debris field.
“Do you think they can trace this back to us?”
