“But they can hear our thoughts!”
“Barbie will leave the transmitter off. They might get a line on me if I tried to listen because I could not avoid thinking about what I hear. However, Barbie can shut it off entirely.” The wall speaker came on and they heard:
“…PERFORMED DEPLORABLY AND YOU SHOULD BE PUNISHED OR REMOVED FROM YOUR STATION.”
“LORD, WE HAVE TOTAL CONTROL OF THIS GIANT GALAXY, WHICH WAS THE MISSION WE WERE GIVEN.”
“I REALLY CAN’T FIND FAULT WITH THAT BUT EXPANDING THIS DOMAIN HAS BEEN A HUGE FAILURE.”
“THINGS WERE PROGRESSING MARVELOUSLY UNTIL WE DETECTED THAT MENTAL ENTITY IN THE SPIRAL GALAXY FIFTY MILLION LIGHT YEARS FROM HERE.”
“WHAT?”
“WE DETECTED THE MENTAL PRESENCE OF AN ENTITY HERE AND TRACED IT BACK TO THAT SPIRAL GALAXY. IT WAS INCREDIBLY POWERFUL AND WE DETERMINED IT HAD TO BE KILLED BEFORE WE COULD CONTINUE OUR EXPANSION. IT REPRESENTED A DANGER TO OUR SURVIVAL.”
“SHOW ME WHAT YOU DETECTED!”
There was a long silence and Allison looked at Chris, “Can anyone hear their thoughts? I heard them when we were at their planet with the thought blocking system at full power.”
“If a telepath projects his thoughts, then those he’s focused on will hear them. However, if the telepaths power is large enough, everyone nearby will hear them. You heard them because of our close proximity to the planet.”
“Shouldn’t our armor have blocked their thoughts?”
“These creatures are an entirely different level than regular telepaths. The power of their mind is such that they sound like a person who can only talk by yelling at the top of their voice. The power of their thoughts overwhelmed the power of our blocking circuits in our helmets.” The speaker came on again and they turned to it.
“THIS BEING APPEARS TO HAVE A MUCH HIGHER LEVEL OF ENERGY THAN US.”
“LORD, IT COULD BE A REAL DANGER TO US IF NOT FOR OUR DISRUPTOR FREQUENCY.”
“YOU WERE WISE TO DIRECT YOUR EFFORTS AT FINDING IT.”
“IN ORDER TO KILL IT, OUR TOOLS HAD TO FIGHT THEIR WAY THROUGH THAT ENTITY’S WARSHIPS THAT WERE AT A HIGHER TECHNOLOGICAL LEVEL. WE WERE FORCED TO SEND THE MAJORITY OF OUR FORCES TO THAT GALAXY TO KILL IT. OUR LOSSES WERE INCREDIBLE AND WE LOST CONTROL OF THE GALAXY WE INVADED DUE TO HAVING TO PULL OUR FORCES FROM THERE.”
“ARE YOU CERTAIN YOU KILLED IT AND DO YOU KNOW THAT WAS THE ONLY BEING LIKE IT IN THAT GALAXY?”
“WE SAW ITS STRUCTURE HIT BY NUMEROUS DISRUPTORS AND IT FELL APART. WE’VE NOT DETECTED ANY OTHER PATTERN LIKE IT AND WE’VE BEEN SEARCHING THAT GALAXY FOR A VERY LONG TIME.”
“BUT IF THERE’S ONE, THERE HAS TO BE OTHERS.”
“THAT’S WHY WE CONTACTED YOU, LORD. THAT BEING’S SPECIES MAY ISOLATE THEMSELVES IN DIFFERENT GALAXIES SIMILAR TO HOW WE FUNCTION. WE FELT THE INFORMATION SHOULD BE PASSED ON TO YOU.”
“IT APPEARS YOUR CONTROL HAS SUFFERED FROM YOUR ACTIONS.”
“THERE ARE THREE GALAXIES THAT ARE WAITING FOR A WEAKNESS TO ATTACK OUR FORCES. WE ARE REBUILDING OUR FORCES TO REGAIN CONTROL BUT WE HAVE SUFFERED A SETBACK THAT WILL TAKE SOME TIME TO OVERCOME. HOWEVER, WE WILL REGAIN CONTROL.”
“THAT TIME SHOULD BE SHORTENED WITH THE ADDITION OF THE NEW WARSHIPS I’VE BROUGHT YOU.” Chris looked at Allison and shook his head. “YOU SHOULD USE THEM WISELY.”
“LORD, WE WILL USE OUR TOOLS TO DO MOST OF THE FIGHTING. THEY NEED TO HAVE THEIR NUMBERS CONTROLLED OR THEY MAY EVENTUALLY REBEL.”
“YOUR TRAINING IS NOT AS BAD AS I FIRST THOUGHT. I CAN NOW SEE HOW YOUR EXPANSION WAS SLOWED. IT DOES APPEAR THAT YOU SHOULD GO AND MAKE THE ADVANCED CIVILIZATON IN THAT SPIRAL GALAXY YOUR NEW TOOL.”
“ONCE OUR TRAINING IS COMPLETED, ONE OF US WILL TAKE CONTROL THERE.”
“YOUR TRAINING WILL BE COMPLETED WHEN YOU REGAIN CONTROL OF THIS GALAXY AND REMOVE THE THREATS TO YOUR TOOLS.”
“THANK YOU, LORD. THAT IS OUR FOCUS AND THE SHIPS YOU BROUGHT TO US WILL HELP MAKE THAT HAPPEN.”
“DON’T DISAPPOINT ME AGAIN!”
“YES, LORD!”
Chris looked at Allison, “I want you to turn off all our monitors and send the passive controls to my console.”
“Why?”
“I need to conduct an experiment. I want you to sit in your chair and tell me when that ship moves toward our position.”
“Without my scanners, that’s impossible.”
“Humor me and focus on seeing if you can feel them. Gene, Alley, Barbie, do not tell her anything.”
“Chris why are you doing this?”
“Allison, I can’t tell you until that ship leaves this galaxy. Then I’ll explain what’s going on.”
Allison sighed and nodded. “I am going to assume the last thing they said indicates that it is departing.”
“I’ve arrived at the same conclusion.” Allison sat back in her command chair and closed her eyes. Chris kept his eyes on her and fifteen minutes later, she started squirming in her chair, then she started shaking followed by opening her eyes and looking at Chris in a panic, “They’re here!” Chris looked at the monitor and saw the massive black ship blow past the edge of the galaxy and then accelerate away at an incredible speed. He got up and went to Allison and went down to a knee in front of her. He grabbed her hands and shook his head, “You are not afraid! What you’re feeling is caused by that ship. It’s not real, it’s induced.”
Allison was shaking and she saw that Chris appeared to be calm, “You’re not showing fear!”
“Because I suspected it wasn’t real and that allowed me to fight it.”
“Why didn’t you tell me!?”
“I had to know if I was right and I had to see if it affected normal people that aren’t telepaths.”
Allison took deep breaths and in a minute shook her head, “This feeling is overwhelming but I’m fighting it. What happened and how did you know they caused this?”
Chris held her hands and looked back at the monitor, “You showed me it wasn’t real.”
Allison’s head tilted, “What?”
“You came into my arms in stark uncontrollable fear. Allison, you are the bravest person I’ve ever known and that is not like you. Something overwhelmed you emotionally and it had to be artificial.”
Allison’s breathing began slowing and she lowered her eyes as she focused on the feelings threatening to overwhelm her. She looked at Chris and he said, “Are you alright?” Allison nodded and Chris stood up and went to his command chair.
“How does this happen?”
Chris exhaled loudly and looked at her, “I’m not really sure but I suspect that the Legends emit either a technological energy pattern or their minds naturally give off a field that causes any being they encounter to have the part of their mind that controls their emotions to be adversely affected.”
“But the only emotion I felt was fear.”
“The first emotion I felt when I saw that ship moving toward us was fear. It was that emotion that was enhanced to the point where it ran out of control. I don’t know if I’m right but if they’ve conquered a species that now worships them, it would be that adoration that would be exploited.”
“That would almost be addictive.”
“It would be addictive. That is how they control the galaxies they conquer after enough time has passed.”
“Why haven’t the two species in this galaxy learned to adore them?”
Chris sighed, “I hate to say this but the Legends here may be children of their species that are being taught how to conquer a galaxy; the part of their mind that creates that field is not fully developed yet.”
“Children?”
“I’m strictly guessing but the being that came here sounded like an adult scolding them.”
“They’re the nastiest children I’ve ever seen.”