“It was probably your talking with her telepathically that caused her to develop too quickly!”
Lukas looked at Salud, “Are you saying you don’t want her to develop at her pace but at a pace you choose for her?”
“Lukas, you can’t be agreeing with this!?”
“Ok, when?”
“When what?”
“When will you allow her to go out?” Salud stared at Lukas and shook her head. “It’s a simple question, when?”
Salud gritted her teeth and said, “Never!”
Lukas shook her head, “You left your parents when you were sixteen to enter college early against their wishes. Why didn’t you stay with them?”
Salud opened her mouth to scream at Lukas and stopped. She lowered her head and sighed heavily. After a few moments she said, “Because life was one long boring day after another. I had to find something to make me want to wake up in the mornings.”
Lukas reached over, put his hand on her chin, and lifted her face, “She’s just like her mother. If you try to hold her back, she’ll will hate you for it.”
Salud stared into Lukas’ eyes and felt her tears. “I always thought I would reconcile with my mother later. She died before I could.”
“What you experienced is what our daughter is feeling now.”
Salud sighed again and thought, “Is what he’s saying true?”
“Mom, my days feel like they’re forty eight hours long. I hate it.”
Salud looked at Lukas and said, “You may join in pod training.” All three of them heard eve’s telepathic shout of joy. “But promise me you’ll be careful!”
“I will, Mom. You know I will! This is incredible. I’m so excited! I’ll be careful!”
“Slow down, Eve. You will still come home at the end of every day.”
“May I bring my pod with me!?”
Salud looked at Lukas, “We’ll have a landing pad built for it, darling.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!”
“We’ll discuss this when we get home.”
“Thank you soooooo much!”
Salud looked at Lukas, “I didn’t think about leaving my family.”
“Now you know how your parents felt.”
Salud nodded and slowly shook her head, “They’re up in heaven making me pay for it now.”
Chris listened to them and saw what love really looked like. Later after they left he heard, “Thank you, Chris.”
“Don’t mention it, Sis.”
“I love you.”
“And I love you, too. Be careful.”
“I will. I have a lot to learn and I’m not rushing this.” Chris smiled and knew she meant it. She was extraordinary.
Chapter Five
Chris looked at the numbers of warships surrounding the planet and shook his head. The Civilizations in M-86 were wasting no time building up their fleets. This was the tenth planet he had moved in to scout and all of them were in full production. If this was happening all over the galaxy…he shook his head. They weren’t going to do all this building and then not use the weapons they were making. “What do you think about this, Allison?”
“I honestly don’t know what to think. Their entire economy is centered on the construction of weapons of war. I’d hate to live in that kind of society.”
“You weren’t here when the Progen were conquering them. Many civilizations were exterminated before they left. They’re doing this to prevent it happening again.”
“I guess I can understand it under those circumstances.”
“We’re doing the same thing.”
“Not really.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because everyone is not employed building our warships. I suspect only about a tenth of our population is actually building them?”
“What percent is in our military forces?”
“Touché. You’re right, a much higher percent but not near the percent of the planets I’ve seen in this galaxy.”
“The main reason for that is our converter technology.”
“Even without it, they’re building them faster than we are.”
Chris looked at the planet and nodded slowly, “Yes, you’re right about that.”
“Have you scanned one of their ships to see how they measure up to our fleet?”
“No.”
“Are you assuming we’re ahead of them?”
“I guess I am.”
“Is that a good idea?”
“You’re starting to sound like Audrey.”
“I have to take that as a compliment.”
“Why is that?”
“You married her. You must respect her opinions.”
“Touché right back at you.” Allison laughed and thought about the issue. “Allison, prepare to make a hasty exit.”
“You’re going to do it?”
“I am. Just be ready to run.”
“We’ll be with you. Just lead the way.”
“Barbie?”
“I’ve been listening to you. What do you want?”
“I want one of those ships in orbit to be scanned all the way down to the molecular level. Focus on their weapon systems.”
“That will take a few seconds.”
“How many?”
“To get everything, about ten.”
Chris looked at the planet and said, “Perhaps we should move a little further out before you do it.”
“I think that would be wise.”
“And Barbie.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t get any closer to that moon.”
“I’ll move us away from it as well.” Chris watched the planet move away from his viewport and marveled at how beautiful a habitable planet looked hanging in space. It was truly a miracle of creation and the grey-white clouds moving over its surface only accented its beauty. The ship stopped moving and Chris said, “How far out are we?”
“We’re just outside the gravity limit. We should be able to get out of here in a big way if we need to run.”
“Start your scan.” Chris watched the planet and said, “HOLY BLISTERS ON MY BUTT.” The entire planet looked like a huge hornets nest with thousands of hornets bursting out of it and moving their way. He looked at the moon and saw another huge cloud of ships rushing off the surface and headed his way. “Barbie?”
“Give me a moment.”
Chris watched the huge cloud of warships getting closer, “BARBIE!”
“Done.” The B-Pod and the four Pods around it went to full thrusters and shot away from the planet like a shot. Chris saw two more clouds of ships moving toward them from the fifth planet and Barbie turned and went vertical from the planet’s orbit. She accelerated to full speed and they left the thousands of pursuing ships far behind.
Chris sat back in his chair and then leaned forward. Thousands of warships were skipping in above them, cutting off their line of escape. As he watched, thousands more appeared ahead of them. “Those ships had to be waiting in normal space to get here without us seeing them.”
“I agree.”
“Can you outrun them?”
“Falcon One!”
“Yes Sir.”
“Go to reactor pattern bravo and be prepared to go to full thrusters.”
“Bravo Pattern engaged.”
“In three, two, one, go!”
The Commander of the pursuing fleets wondered what kind of ship his fleets were chasing. The fleets in normal space above the galaxy dropped into the void to cut them off and he smiled. They had it surrounded. Suddenly, the small ship’s thrusters grew extremely bright and it flashed away so fast it was out of scanner range in an instant. His mouth fell open and he looked at his Sensor Commander, who was shaking his head. “Did you get a reading on how fast that ship was traveling?”