Chris and Allison jerked their heads around and Chris’s mouth fell open, “How did you find us!? We’re wearing thought blockers.”
“I know a certain telepath that pretty much ignores thought blockers.”
“You shouldn’t be here, Michael.”
Michael pulled up two chairs and sighed, “I’m no longer the First Commander; I resigned a week ago.”
“Why for God’s sake? The Alliance needs you.”
“They could have used you recently but you didn’t show up. You’ve been hiding something from me and now is time for us to clear the air.” Chris’s mouth turned grim and Michael smiled gently, “If after you tell me it requires me to avoid everyone, then so be it. However, Mom is gone and you’re the only Father I have. I will not live the rest of my life without you and Allison in it.”
Chris stared at his son and looked at Allison, who blew out a breath and nodded. “Pull up some chairs.” Michael pulled up two chairs and turned to face his father. “I came to a realization during the first war in M-87 that things were happening that were impossible.”
“What do you mean by impossible?”
“The timing was impossible.” Michael and Jan listened to Chris and Allison for an hour and began adding other events to their list. After another hour, they understood.
Jan said, “This is scary stuff.” Chris nodded. “If these pushers were doing this to make sure we defeated the Legends, shouldn’t it be ok for you to stop hiding?”
“We call them Nudges. And that’s what we thought but the closest thing we had to a direct order from them happened when we talked about going back to the Alliance. We were both overwhelmed with fear at the same moment when Allison suggested it.”
Michael sighed and said, “Hensel, please tell me you’re not listening to this.”
“How did you know?”
“You’re right about being worse than your mother.”
“The ones you’re talking about are listening to you.”
“You can see them?”
“I can.”
Chris looked up, “Is that a good thing?”
“They know there’s nothing they can do about it. I’m a product of their nudges.”
Michael’s eyes narrowed and Chris said, “I remember everyone telling your parents when they asked the High Leader if they could be mated saying they should have done it sooner.”
“My parents are the two most powerful telepaths in Goran Society. I’m a logical product of their union. The Nudges knew that I would be able to see them but needed me to be created. They’re also happy about my sister.”
Michael’s eyes opened wide, “Sister?”
“Mom doesn’t know it yet but she’s expecting another child. I can hear her.”
“So why are these beings…nudging us?”
“It’s the Vampires.” Everyone looked at each other and Hensel said, “Their species was almost exterminated by them thousands of years ago. Only a few managed to escape and remain hidden. If the Vampires learned some of them survived, they would bring all their forces to bear to find them. They have to remain behind the scenes to avoid being eradicated. The Vampires fear them.”
Michael shrugged, “Then, I guess we will all have to remain in hiding.”
“I can help you with that if you’re willing to allow me to erase some of your memories.”
“What?”
“Gorans can hide their thoughts by putting them inside a mental box and keeping it shut. I can’t put your memories in a box because your minds don’t have that capability, but I can remove them completely. That’s why I was invited to this meeting.”
Allison looked up, “You were invited?”
“I was.”
Allison shook her head, “What would you erase?”
“All the connections you made connecting the dots of the events that led you to learn you were being…nudged. I will also prevent you from being able to connect those dots later.”
“What about your mother?”
“I’ve removed the box and she didn’t notice it was gone.”
Chris looked at Allison, “This beach is beautiful but it’s not the one where I fell in love with you.”
Allison smiled and moved over to Chris’s chair. Michael looked up and said, “Hensel, will you make sure things move forward?”
“That’s why my sister and I exist. Your time is now done and they feel bad for the suffering your family has endured for keeping them secret.”
Michael smiled, “We’re going to take our ships to Earth and go to the beach. That would be a good place to start our lives moving forward.”
“I’ll be awaiting your arrival.”
The four stood up and hugged each other. The first two First Commanders were going home.
Epilogue
Hengel sat on his scout ship and looked at the distant Bullet Cluster and listened to the thoughts Shanghai intercepted. He needed to retire and stay home with Averel. He should turn this assignment over to the youngsters and spend the rest of his life with his mate and children. Suddenly, his eyes turned glassy as he reached and pulled a switch on his panel shutting down his computer.
“Ahhhhh, that’s good! It took some time to break the frequency of that thought blocking device you’re wearing. You shouldn’t have remained in one place so long.” Hengel was frozen and he could feel the Telepath freezing the nerves in his brain. He could do nothing to stop it.
“I should just consume you but you deserve a long slow death for all the trouble you’ve caused. I’m going to slowly rob you of all the things you love the most. The first thing I’m going to take is everything you remember about your mate. Sit back and enjoy your death!”
Suddenly, the Telepath grabbed both sides of his head and jumped out of his chair. The crew on the small ship looked at him and felt fear at his erratic behavior. The Telepath rushed across the bridge and tripped over a console and fell to the floor still holding his head. Hengel could see it all in his mind but no longer felt the cold in his brain. The Telepath fought his way to its feet and rushed to the armored wall and start pounding its head against it. A crewmember ran over to pull it away and the Telepath swept its arm across the crewman’s neck and its claws severed the head from the crewman’s body.
The Telepath began a long wailing scream as it heard, “I’m not going to be as generous. You will die now.” The Telepath emitted a long howling scream and smashed its head on the edge of a console at it threw its body to the floor. The head snapped back and its neck made a loud popping sound. The body hit the floor with the head resting on its back looking up at the ceiling with a grimace frozen on its face.
“WHO ARE YOU?!”
“I’m here to have a conversation between two rational beings but I needed to take care of a small issue first.”
“YOU WILL LEAVE NOW!”
“We need to talk first.” The entity sent a powerful devastating thought at the intruder and heard it laugh. This wasn’t possible. “Are you finished?”
“What do you want?”
“That’s a better tone. I simply want to have a rational discussion between two rational beings. Once we finish, I will leave.”
“What do you want to discuss?”
“I want to ask you a hypothetical question. If you discovered a species in a distant galaxy was building weapons of war to come and attack your species here, what would you do?”
“Ignore them. They would not represent a danger to me.”
“Since this is a hypothetical question, assume they could harm you. What would you do?”
There was a long pause and the Entity said, “It would require sending forces to remove the threat.”
“Are you sure?”
“That is the only logical answer given the conditions you stated in the question.”