“I am at your service, Sire.”
“Greyson, we are not Royalty.”
“You might get away with that with others but we know who our loyalty lies with.”
“Thank you, Grace; lets dispense with the honorifics until the appropriate time, please.”
“We will do as you command.”
Carter listened and knew what the ships were thinking, “Where are you going?”
“We’re going back to Bristone’s Universe.”
“Anywhere in particular?”
Trey and Cassie smiled, “We’re going where it all started.”
“Do you mind if I go with you?”
Trey looked at Cassie and she said, “Go back to New Hope and pick up Jingo and Grang and come back here as quickly as possible. We’ll be leaving in fifteen minutes.”
“Pyle, take me there.”
Carter disappeared and Cassie looked into Trey’s eyes, “I would prefer to do something else right now.”
Trey smiled, “Me, too, my Love.”
“Well, first things first; Greyson, take us onboard.”
“Grace?”
“I’m going. The rest of you come with me to New Hope.”
The Zetas disappeared from the now completely dead universe. Not even one celled creatures survived the psychic blast.
Carter, Jingo, and Grang arrived after eight minutes and Trey pulled Cassie over and said, “Fathers, this is my wife Cassie Robbins.”
Jingo looked at Grang and they looked back at Trey, “Uhhh, when did this happen?”
Cassie rushed forward and hugged the small Cainth Warrior, “My Grandmother married us yesterday.” Jingo reached up and hugged Cassie around her waist. She was six feet tall and towered over the five foot four inch Jingo. She moved and hugged Grang around his waist. The Seven foot six inch Magrum towered over Cassie. Grang put his arms around her and gave her a little hug, “Congratulations.” Grang nudged Jingo and he jerked and said, “Yeah, congratulations.”
Trey smiled, “We have been waiting for each other our entire lives and the moment has finally arrived where we can be together. We will have the Ceremony after we return from our trip.”
Jingo looked at Trey and felt his joy. He also felt the increased power of his adopted son. “Where are we going?”
“We are going to have a conversation in our former universe.”
Grang grunted and said, “Bristone?”
Trey smiled, “No, El Prado.”
The three looked at each other and Carter said, “Wasn’t it destroyed?”
“No. There wasn’t any intelligent life left on the planet and it was spared when the Invaders attacked. Greyson, if you will take us there?”
The five looked up at the main display and saw their former home. Jingo slowly shook his head, “I miss this place.”
Cassie smiled, “There’s no place like home.”
Grang took a deep breath, “No, there isn’t. This is where I killed Madeline and had my life spared by my brother.”
Trey put his arm around Grang’s shoulders and pointed at the display, “And this is where you were prepared to make me the Warrior I had to become.”
Cassie smiled, “Both of you have done such a wonderful job of raising my husband. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Jingo stared at the birthplace of his first child and the fight during the Night of the Torg. He remembered all the nights gazing at the stars with Scotty, “Why are we here?”
“I wanted you to witness the destruction of the Invader’s ships first. I also want you to witness the next important event in the Empire’s history.”
“What event is that?”
“The return of the Realm.”
The three thousand foot long white ship teleported into El Prado’s orbit and saw the four thousand foot long bright white ship hanging in orbit over the planet, “Do you recognize that ship?”
“Yes, it’s an old Zeta ship.”
“I didn’t think there were any of them left behind.”
“The Defense Facility had twenty of them in its inventory. This must be one of them.”
“I thought those ships weren’t supposed to be released.”
“They weren’t. I’m not sure about why it was.”
“We can handle it, can’t we?”
“That old design poses no threat to us. We need to see if it can tell us what caused that psychic wave and why all the planets have been destroyed in this universe. Something happened here that was disastrous. We need to find out what it was so we can tell the Crown.”
“That’s as close as we’ll allow you to come.”
“It’s an old Realm frequency.”
The Searcher said, “We will hold our position. We need to ask a few questions if you don’t mind.”
“We do mind and suggest you go back and bring someone here that has the authority to carry on a conversation with us.”
The Searcher felt his anger and said, “You will answer my questions.”
“They’re powering up their weapons.”
“Fire a beam through their force field.”
The Searcher fired an intense beam at the brightly glowing white ship and saw it splash and dissipate on the ship’s Screen.”
“Greyson, if you please.”
The Searcher saw a brilliant white beam erupt from the ship above the planet and blow through its screen, disrupting it.”
“If we see you power your teleportation board we will disable your drives. Do you understand?”
The force field was restored after two seconds but the ship and its pilot knew that it was useless against the beam that had just been fired. “I thought that ship posed no threat to you?”
“Evidently, I was wrong.”
The Searcher stared at the bright ship and thought, “What is it you want?”
Trey remained silent for twenty seconds which seemed like an eternity to those that were involved in the conversation, “You want to know why all the civilizations in this universe are dead. I want to tell you but I will only discuss it with your leadership. You should also be aware that your Realm is going to be destroyed shortly and, though I personally don’t care if it is, we feel you should at least have a chance to save yourselves.”
“Do you know anything about the psychic blast that just happened?”
“I do.”
The Searcher waited and finally said, “But you aren’t going to tell me?”
“No, I’m not. We will be back here in exactly seven days to have our conversation with your leaders. If they chose not to come, we feel we have done what we could to save you and you deserve what you get.”
The Searcher watched the bright ship glow slightly brighter and then disappear. “Can you see where they went?”
“No. They left no trace. What are you going to do?”
The Spider replayed the recording of the beam that blew its force field away and shook its head, “The Crown must view what happened here.”
The white ship started glowing bright purple and disappeared in the flash of its dimensional drive.
