“Psychology, have you seen this data?”
“Yes, but I don’t really know what it means.”
The Collective thought and asked, “Could those beings develop a weapon that uses that wave, and are just waiting for us to attack with our larger fleets?”
Silence greeted his question. Psychology said, “We won’t know unless we go ahead with the attack.”
“Don’t send the full fleet. Send four million and an observer to see if they possess that weapon. How many planets have been destroyed?”
“We have destroyed seven thousand which were all uninhabited. We are going to jump a small fleet in on one of their inhabited planets within twelve intervals to see if we’re successful.”
“Then hold off on sending any ships until we make that determination.”
Three hundred thousand Keepers’ ships waited for the scout to arrive and give them the coordinates needed for their attack. The Fleet Director watched his display and the scout jumped in and transmitted the location. The Keepers began sending thoughts to the main beam and when all ships reported ready, the Director said, “Jump in 5,4,3,2,1, jump.”
The three hundred thousand ships jumped into the upper atmosphere of Del Robles and immediately accelerated toward the planet’s surface firing their main beams. The two continents on one side of the planet blew up in a huge blast, and everything was burned a hundred feet into the planet’s surface. The official designated to activate the probe to teleport the planet away was killed in the first Keepers’ blast.
The Keepers Fleet spread out, and in two hours the planet was a smoldering ball of bare rock. The Director jumped his fleet back to the home universe to report his success. Now they could destroy this new enemy and they looked forward to the next attack. For Del Robles, twenty billion died and the Realm lost another provincial capital.
The Gardners were in the map room discussing the cutting beam with Edison and Valerie when Joe rushed in the room and interrupted the meeting, “Valerie! The Keepers have destroyed Del Robles!”
Valerie stood, “How did they get through the frequency generator?”
“It appears they used their universal drives and jumped directly above the planet’s atmosphere. They accelerated to the planet’s surface and fired their weapons. The teleport official was killed in the initial volley.”
Valerie hit her com, “Move Ross now.”
“What?”
“I said teleport Ross right now. Don’t question one of my orders again or I’ll have you shot for treason.”
The Gardners looked at each other and listened as Valerie punched her communications panel. “Attention all members of the Star’s Realm. The Keepers have found a way to jump in to our planets. I am ordering your teleportation official to move your planets every ten minutes until we find a way to counter this new threat. You will activate the first move immediately.”
Valerie punched another key, “Sprig!”
“I’ve just heard, Your Majesty. We are working on how to deal with this new tactic.”
“In the meantime, I want you to order the teleport officials off-planet and to take station near the probe. At the first scan of a universal drive I want the planet teleported.”
“The Keepers Fleet will emerge from their drives in three seconds from the field being detected.”
“How much time does it take for the planet to be moved?”
“About two seconds.”
“Then get five ships up for every planet. There is only one second to respond and we can’t allow fatigue from constant surveillance to allow us to lose another planet. I would also suggest that shifts only last thirty minutes and overlapping ten minutes.”
“The orders are being sent.”
“Now, how can we make this a mechanical process?”
The Gardners listened to Valerie issuing her instructions and their opinion of her changed. Danielle had already seen the mettle of the young woman, but the others saw just a young, inexperienced ruler. She demonstrated that they were wrong.
Tag looked at Danielle, “You’re right. She deserves our respect.”
“I wasn’t much older when I assumed the throne, and Rose was even younger. Her psychic power is greater than Rose’s.”
Tag felt bad, and the other Gardners began to feel shame at how they had disregarded her opinions.
“We can set the probe to initiate the move when it detects a universal drive. However, it will take several rotations to send the instructions to the probes’ processors.”
“Then get on it. I’m sure the Keepers will try to take advantage of this tactic. I want the provincial capitals moved every ten minutes even if we have a mechanical answer.”
Sprig disappeared off her board.
“Jake, are you in this universe?”
“Yes, I am, Valerie. I’ve just received the news. I was talking with Sprig when you commed him, and I think you are doing exactly what needs to be done.”
“When are you coming here? We need to make some decisions.”
“Valerie, you are going to have to handle that end for the foreseeable future. Junior and I are tied up with this project. If you need any suggestions, call me. However, I’m sure the Gardners will help you with any serious threat to the Realm. I’m going to see if we can coat our Searchers with a new process so they can stand up to the Keepers’ main beams. I’m starting with the Brez Division Searchers, and if it works we’ll use it on the remainder of our fleets.”
Valerie sensed that Jake was not telling her the real reason for not coming, and she suspected that it had something to do with the Gardners. She pressed her com and said, “Just be careful and get back here as soon as you can.”
“I will, Love. Take advantage of the Gardner’s experience. They’ve survived this kind of conflict. I’m sure they’ll offer you good council.”
Melanie listened to Jake and still felt something was not right, but it could have been he was stressed over the loss of an important planet. She looked at Danielle and saw she was also sensing something.
“Sprig, how’s the development coming along?”
“I heard what you told Valerie, and you’re not far from the truth.”
“How’s that?”
“We have duplicated the material used to make the hulls on the white ships, and we are going to use it to coat the surface of ships that have been mothballed by the Realm.”
Jake thought about that a moment, “Tell me what you mean. I’m not sure I follow you.”
“If you take the Searchers from the Brez Division and bring them here to be armed, it won’t go unnoticed.”
“That’s true, but we have a cover story.”
“Which may not be believed, Jake. This way we will have the 100,000 ships ready for the pilots to come and use when we’re ready. If the Demon really did develop these ships to kill the Keepers, then their thought beams will not penetrate that white substance. We’ve also duplicated their scanners, and during a trial we were able to see every Keepers’ ship in our universe. They can’t hide anymore.”
“That is good! What about the beam?”
“Remarkably, that was the easiest part. It operates on a frequency outside the normal band we know. Once we got a reading on it, developing a weapon was simple.”
“When will you be ready?”
“I have more than twenty thousand of our planets working on it. We should be ready in less than ten rotations.”
“Then we are going to move the captured civilizations in nine rotations. I’m bringing the Brez Searchers in nine rotations as we move the farms.”
“We’ll let you know if anything slows us down.”
The Collective received the data and ordered, “Organize the ships into units and begin the invasion. Recall the fleets currently in that universe and get them organized into the major fleet.”
Production asked, “You’re not worried about that psychic weapon?”
“I’ll worry about it if they use it.”
“Get the scouts to start assigning targets. We need to use this method before the new enemy finds a way to counter it.”