“There are more than twenty million ships coming that say otherwise, Jake.”
“I know, Alex, but we cannot harm those that we have promised to protect even if they are planning to attack us. They are attacking because we have been unwilling to give them the freedom to grow up, and in the process of holding them in the Realm, we have violated every principle the Realm was built on.” Jake looked around the room and dropped the bomb, “We are moving the Stars Realm to protect it from its traitors.”
Valerie said, “You’re going to do what?!?”
Jake took the map controller and pushed the buttons. The cursor moved quickly across the universe and left the edge of the most distant galaxy and continued to move outward. Finally it stopped. Valerie said, “Sprig, that looks like your galaxy.”
Melanie said, “And the Demon’s Dark Galaxy is there with it.”
Jake looked at Sprig and nodded. Sprig moved over to the map, then turned and faced the Gardners, “The Spiders went to the Dark Galaxy under the pretense of escaping the Keepers. They searched for and found the mechanism the Demons used to move their galaxy out of normal space into a dimension that overlaps all universes. They replicated it and moved the Dark Galaxy back into that dimension. We now have that device and we moved our galaxy, along with all the millions of newly rescued, primitive, farming civilizations we transported from the Keepers’ universe, to join them in that dimension. Now our destiny is to help these new civilizations grow and thrive. We don’t have to teach those rescued civilizations about the value of peace. They’ve learned it from the Keepers. It wouldn’t matter whether the Keepers were defeated or not. We were going to take direct action to protect those that have been brutalized for centuries. We could no longer trust or be a part of a Realm that had lost its way and its principles. We assumed the Gardners would never allow us to move the Milky Way Galaxy and would use the Kosiev to put down the rebellion.”
Sprig turned from the map and said, “Jake, I visited Jackson Grant and asked if he would be interested in living on the planet where his people were held by the Keepers. He told me that the original colonists had selected that planet because of its beauty. The Keepers came later, but the humans still see that planet as their world. I asked if he wanted to go with us to another dimension and they said no. The humans all said that wherever the Queen of the Realm was located that is where they belong. Their planet is now on the opposite side of Ross’s sun sharing this solar system. They didn’t care if they were destroyed in the coming civil war; they would never be disloyal to the Realm and the Queen and her mate that saved them. It was this spirit that created the Stars Realm. Those in the provinces have no appreciation of what the Realm has done for them. The Realm’s gifts are expected and resented.”
Jake took a deep breath, turned, and said, “And we are going to join those two galaxies and take this new family of ours along with all the planets in our galaxy.” Jake got a faraway look and said, “For thousands of years the humans that were held by the Keepers told the tale every evening of the magical Realm they had left. They longed to return and live in the peace and protection of that beautiful place. They learned the real value of what the Stars Realm provided by experiencing the harsh brutality of being conquered.” Jake looked at the Gardners and said, “How many members of the Realm tell a similar tale now?”
Valerie said in a soft voice, “How can we leave the loyal planets in the five provinces that still believe in the ideals of the Realm? We’ll leave them to be destroyed by those that hate everything about the Realm.”
Jake shook his head slowly, “Valerie, more than ninety percent of all loyal planets remaining are in our galaxy. The other ten percent are now here as well.”
Joe said, “What?!?”
“As all of you may remember, we have been moving planets to protect them for the last eight months. I had Sprig move every planet that refused to send ships to attack Ross to our galaxy this week. They are all here; the Gresh, the Eight Trading Partners, and all the others that are still loyal to the Realm. We have had all of the Realm’s personnel stationed at military installations in the provinces teleport in to Fleet Command.”
Jake looked at the Gardners, “Can you in good conscience force your will on those that don’t want it? If you do, you violate the core of what the Stars Realm has stood for all these centuries. The Stars Realm is more than just membership. It is a belief in the core principles that founded it. It is founded on the real belief and trust in the Star Realm’s Queen to do the right thing for all its members.”
Danielle said, “If we’re gone, perhaps there will be no reason for a civil war.”
Jake and Sprig stared at her, saying nothing.
“There’s something you’re not telling us.”
Sprig looked at Jake, then Jake slowly shook his head showing his sorrow, “Danielle, there are five provinces you created that will covet the Crown with all its power. With Ross gone, the ambitious will not wait to claim the throne. They will see the leadership vacuum and know the time to act is now. They crave power, and possess unrestrained desire to rule this universe. I have created an environment that will slow them down, but war is coming and billions will die.”
Danielle looked at Jake and asked, “What did you do?”
“I moved all the fiveprovince’s planets around such that every province now has twenty percent of all the other provinces’ planets within their borders.”
AG said, “They could just use the probes to move them back to where they were initially.”
Jake smiled, “That could possibly happen if they knew how to operate the probes’ programming. However, only the Spiders and Algeans have the skills to do that.” Jake paused, turned away from AG, then looked back at her smiling, “Did I mention that when the last Keepers Fleet in our universe was destroyed, all the probes self-destructed?” AG actually laughed. “No? Well they did.”
Tag started laughing.
Danielle said, “Tag, billions will die if they fight.”
“Serves them right. They’re attacking the Crown and coming to kill us, which if you haven’t noticed, includes you. That puts them on my list to teach the danger of attempting to kill my family. They don’t know the value of the Realm’s peace. It’s time they learned. I forgot what it means to protect the ones you love. What better teacher than the one who teaches himself.” Tag looked at Cassandra and said, “Alexander, we are going to let them work this out amongst themselves. Do not attack those ships.”
“Cassandra, do you agree?”
Cassandra looked at Tag’s expression and nodded, “Yes, I do.”
Tag said, “Can you imagine what’s going to happen when those provincial rulers attempt to get their subjects to attack another province? That would almost be worth hanging around to see.”
Matt said, “That move was ingenious, Jake. Instead of one giant civil war, you’ll have the five provinces fighting internally to see who is going to rule each of them.”
“They won’t be doing that any time soon, Matt.”
Danielle was watching Jake and Sprig and said, “You’ve done something else?”
Sprig leaned left showing slight embarrassment, “Yes, it seems that we have been putting a small device in every teleportation device we’ve built for the last six thousand years. It allowed us to listen in on any conversation in the Realm that had one of those devices in close proximity. Once I power the master relay, every teleportation unit in this universe will no longer operate. Their ships will be forced to travel the old fashioned way; from the jump limit, if they still possess ships with the old null space star drives. Since most of the old ships that used null space to travel were destroyed long ago, the planets left here are going to have great difficulty attacking anyone. I suspect more than ninety five percent of them will be isolated. The ones that still have ships with null drives will only possess a few ships and most of them are not warships.”