“Have you collected all you’ve harvested, my son?”
“Yes, Mother. All of my ships have brought me their harvest.”
The Nest Mother saw that it was a large harvest. Each of the warriors had connected to their leaders and transferred a copy of their feast to their ship leader who had in turn transferred a copy to the Lead Male. She was always surprised at how the taste of all intelligent life in a universe could be reduced to the storage of one male child. Are you ready for transfer, my child?”
The male actually shivered in the depression and answered, “I have looked forward to this exchange my entire life.”
The Nest Mother moved forward quickly and suddenly sunk her fangs into the abdomen of the huge male and began consuming the contents. The male shivered in ecstasy and felt the euphoria that only came during the final transfer. The Nest Mother consumed the male quickly and tossed the dead carcass into a large hole in the floor where the shrunken body was ejected from the ship. The Nest Mother who was ten times larger than the male turned and moved back to her bed. For a moment a large red hour glass shape could be seen on the bottom of her abdomen and then it disappeared as she mounted the platform. Just as she feared, the taste was bland. She placed her legs back in the electronic depressions and wished for a good meal. Her right rear leg started to vibrate. She turned her attention to the vibration and felt the pulses given off when a new universe was created. This was a rare event. The last universe created was more than six harvestings ago. She delayed the consumption of her new meal and focused on the last time she had felt those pulses. “Ahh, that was a good meal.” She used her leg to focus in on the location of the blast that had started the new universe and pinpointed where it occurred. “There has to be an extremely advanced life form to cause that explosion,” she thought to herself. “This last male’s family is finished with its last harvest so I should be able to send them to investigate.” She paused and read her sensors. “Only eight million years ago since we visited.” She paused and thought, “That’s a very short time for a truly advanced life form to develop.” She pondered what to do for a long moment and continued to feel the pulses vibrate her leg. “Perhaps my children missed this life form in their last harvest.” She continued to feel the vibration and decided. “My children need some time to digest their meal. I’ll send them as soon as they are hungry again.” She issued the commands to the new male taking command of the family and then turned her attention to the meal she had just eaten, “Oh for the taste of a good meal.” She began digesting to see if there was anything new she had not learned from a prior meal. The first hundred thousand races she tasted weren’t as developed as the first meal she had eaten millions of years ago. It almost made her delay the harvest she had just ordered but the vibration actually whetted her appetite. “I’ll delay future harvests after this one. I’ll need to reduce the number of families in order to make that happen but I’m sure the males will enjoy the meal that their families will provide them. I know I will.” Population pressures were easily handled in her species.
Chapter 8
“Searcher, do you have time to watch an experiment?”
“Hi, Stem. Of course I do. I’m waiting for a new coordinate to contact so I’ll take my code off the board. Where are you?”
“Al has the coordinates; I’ll wait for your arrival.”
Matt looked at his display and punched the teleport button. Aladdin broke out in normal space just above a planet surrounded by a red screen. Stem teleported on to the bridge and thought, “Thank you for coming.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Why play double shells.”
“Oh boy, I want to see this,” Al communicated.
“Good to see you again, Al.”
“Likewise, Stem. I’m surprised you were able to get a pass from the search.”
“There was another as qualified to handle it. I am better equipped to handle this.”
“Tell me what you’re going to do, Stem.”
“Searcher, I am going to teleport the planet inside the screen to a new orbit around another star. Ten seconds after it’s moved I will teleport one of the dead planets from my galaxy to replace it. We will then go and look at the moved planet to see if it is adversely affected by the move.”
Matt shrugged and said, “Ok, you’re in charge.”
“How come you never tell me that?”
Stem answered, “He’s not that stupid, Al.”
“Oh that’s funny, I’ll just have to write that down and use it later. I’m sure all the plants will just be rolling over at that humor.”
“Who’s being funny,” Stem replied?
“You big sack of weeds; just be glad my commander likes you or I’d trim your leaves.”
“That’s enough, you two. I know how much you two enjoy needling each other but at this rate I’ll never see the experiment.”
Stem leaned back showing his laughter and then thought, “As you wish. I’ll initiate the first transfer and the second will be done automatically ten seconds after the process starts.”
Matt turned his sensors toward the planet and said, Al, I want a good recording of this.”
“Already in motion, Admiral.”
Matt smiled and said, “You may begin when you’re ready, Stem.”
“Teleporting in ten seconds, Searcher.”
Matt closed his eyes and focused on the planet in front of him. He could actually see when the silver field appeared in front of the planet and the planet pass through it and appear in a galaxy on the other side of the universe. The funny thing was that he actually saw the planet as it moved there. It didn’t just suddenly disappear and then reappear; he could actually see the planet move through the space separating the two galaxies. He then saw the substitute planet coming toward the red screen and then appear inside the screen.”
Stem read his readouts and said, “The substitute planet appears to have a stable orbit matching the planet that we moved. Now let’s go check it out.”
“I can see the planet, Stem and it is also stable.”
Stem looked at Matt for a long moment and said, “I trust that you don’t mind taking me there so I can take some readings.”
Matt pushed his teleport button and they appeared in orbit around the teleported planet.”
Stem read his instruments and then asked, “Will you take me back to the original location?”
“Right away,” Matt hit the teleport button again.
“Uh, Matt, I didn’t put any coordinates on your console,” Al said.
“I already knew them so I entered them myself.”
“Yeah, but you did it faster than I could.” Stem looked at Matt and wondered what had just happened.
“I just followed the trail the planet left behind it.”
“What trail,” Stem quickly asked?
“I saw the planet move through space to its new location. I just mentally entered that location into my console.”
Sprig and Al were silent. Matt sat there and wondered what was going on, “I also saw the substitute planet coming in from its location.”
Matt heard Stem think, “Sprig, Twig, I need you here immediately.”
Matt said, “What’s going on.”
Sprig and Twig appeared instantly and Stem began communicating with them.
Sprig and Twig turned to Matt and said, “Searcher, is it possible for you to share with us what you saw when Stem moved the planets.”
“Sure, this is what I saw,” and Matt opened his mind and showed them the two planets leaving and coming.