“The one who could break that shell, Valerie calls her the initiator, would have to possess an extraordinary level of active psychic power; possibly even as strong as him.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Think about it for a moment, Cynthia.”
Cynthia thought about the woman needed to free Jake, then it crossed her mind that if they were going to take her back with them, her telepathy would not be masked by the skull covering. Then it hit her, “If she existed, the creatures would have already discovered her and eliminated her.”
“That’s what the Algeans think, Cynthia.”
“Then why are we here risking our lives and Jake’s?”
“Because Valerie believes his initiator is here.”
“But she can’t be here, Junior!” Cynthia shouted. “Why did you tell me this?”
“Because I may have to do things that you would never agree to me doing before all of this is over, and you should understand my motivation for doing them.”
“What things?”
“I really don’t know; but I must keep an open mind to any possibility. Cynthia, I know the history of the Stars Realm’s super psychics, and you would be amazed at the things they were able to accomplish. If Valerie says Jake should be here, then here he needs to be. I don’t understand why….yet. However, I know there has to be a reason. We have to give this every opportunity for that reason to reveal itself.”
Cynthia remained silent for a long time. Finally she looked up at the walls, “Thank you for trusting me with this information, Junior. Does Valerie know about this?”
“No, she doesn’t, and I really don’t think it would matter if she did.”
“Why is that?”
“Because she has had a vision and she knows, even if no one else believes it, that this is where our future will be determined.”
Cynthia thought about that for the rest of the day.
The Collective examined the progress of the ships being readied and thought, “Technology, how many are converted and ready to go?”
There was a moment of silence and then, “About half of them.”
“Send them out now. The others will join them as they are completed.”
The Military Quadrant responded, “We need to collect food stores for the ships leaving.”
“Send them to our farms and have them collect what they need.”
“It will disrupt our normal harvesting.”
“Only take males until new births make up the ratio. The females will make up the difference in a short interval.”
“The orders are being issued.”
“Cynthia?”
“Yes, Junior?”
“Something’s happening.”
“What?”
“Thirty vehicles have left the building on the surface and are fanning out to the three colonies. It appears ten vehicles are going to each colony.”
“What are they doing?”
“I don’t know, but our passive scanners have detected two ships are coming in from the outer system and will arrive here in ten hours. I’m shutting down all passive scans and scanners except for telescopic visuals. Something big is happening.”
Cynthia looked at her screen, “Is Jake going to be safe?”
“I don’t know, and there’s no way we can warn him. He’s out in the fields.”
Cynthia gripped the arms of her chair, “Junior, if it looks like they are going to take him we’ve got to teleport him out and leave.”
“I’m not going to do that, Cynthia. He’s no good to the Realm without his powers. He must stay until that happens and if it doesn’t, then Valerie was wrong.”
Cynthia thought about Valerie’s instructions and struggled with what she should do.
Jake was pouring water for a group of women when he heard the high pitched hum of the creatures’ land vehicle. This time the volume was much higher, and everyone in the fields looked at each other wondering what was happening. Jake saw ten of the vehicles come by the fence and land outside the colony entrance. Jake looked around and saw twenty men looking around; they dropped their tools and started moving toward the entrance. Everyone lifted their bracelets and saw them flashing. Jake noticed that the bracelets of the twenty men walking up the rise toward the community entrance were glowing solid orange light. Everyone began moving up the rise to see what was happening. Jake joined them and pushed a recessed button on the back of his fake bracelet and it began flashing. He stayed at the back of the crowd and as they topped the rise. Looking down on the ten Keepers’ vehicles, Jake saw five men being loaded on each vehicle. No one said a word, but they wondered what was happening. Thirty of the Keepers had fanned out just inside the gate and were watching the gathering crowd. No one dared enter the open square inside the gate, but everyone watched as the men were loaded. The Keepers backed out of the gate to board their vehicles, then lifted off and headed toward the Keepers’ building in the distance.
Jake saw Kathea standing next to him and said, “I don’t remember seeing this many taken at one time.”
Kathea kept looking at the vehicles as they grew smaller in the distance, “I’ve heard about it happening long ago, but they always took equal numbers of men and women.”
Jake worried about Cynthia and Junior. If this many were being taken, there had to be a ship to receive them. Then he heard, “Looks like your luck for the women is holding out.”
Jake looked at Kathea shaking his head, “How could I have affected this?”
“Never question luck, Jake.”
He looked up at the sky and hoped his friends were safe.
Cynthia and Junior watched as the thirty vehicles were loaded and taken to the central Keepers building. The land craft all gathered ten miles from the conveyer belt, then came one at a time as each craft shot the colonists and sent them in on the conveyer. Finally, all thirty delivered their load and flew back into the building.
“Cynthia, I think I know what’s going on.”
Cynthia looked up from the telescopic display, “What is that, Junior?”
“If the Realm was going to war, what would be the first steps taken?”
“Provision the ships and assign them their targets.” Cynthia scowled for a moment and then she saw it, “They’re launching their fleet and they are picking up their food stores.”
“That’s how I see it. If it were a normal pickup of harvested colonists, there would only be one ship. Two are coming, and they just harvested five times the normal numbers. The war is beginning and they are launching a huge number of ships.”
“How did you arrive at that conclusion?”
“They have millions of planets enslaved. They could easily afford to send one ship to each planet; they didn’t. That means that they are either sending more ships than planets or only using half their planets for provisions. Even at half, that is a huge number. Remember that these planets are the food source for their empire. It’s going to take some time to return these colonies to the normal 300,000.”
“The Realm needs to know, Junior.”
“I’ll load a probe with what we’ve seen and an update of Jake’s progress. I’ll send it through a one way teleport screen behind this system’s star and then have it jump out. First we need to see if what we suspect is true. If they are provisioning, then they should jump out of this universe once they arrive outside the jump limit. Our passive scanners should be able to see the color of the flash. If it’s purple, then the invasion is starting. It might still be some time before they find the Realm, but Valerie insists that it won’t be long.”
“If they are using huge numbers, then it shouldn’t take very long to find the Realm.” Cynthia stood up, “Junior, they’re looking for the Spiders.”
There was silence, then Junior said, “You’re right. That must be why they’re leaving this universe. They have to think that the Searcher was sent by the previous invaders. Cynthia, that means they will ignore universes they enter until they find the Spiders.”