“Ok, you two lovers can come back,” Al announced.
Matt and Angel ported back and Al said, “Looks like you’re stuck with me.”
“That’s great news, Al. I never thought of you as anything else but alive.” Matt turned and looked at Sprig and said, “Did anything change after you rebuilt your structures?”
“Yes, Searcher, we believe that we know how the Eight Legs move from universe to universe. If we are able to survive their next invasion and develop the means to destroy their ships, we should be able to go and take this conflict to their turf.”
Fly Girl said over the intercom, “Say it isn’t so; I love to travel.”
Everyone erupted into laughter and happiness ruled the moment.
“Danielle.”
“Yes, Tag.”
“Is Cassandra alright?”
“She got to see her child. It was something she never hoped to do but it is what kept her going all these years. She is complete now.”
“I sense her peace. There’s something else there that I’m not quite able to grasp.”
There was a long moment and then Danielle sighed and thought, “She and Tommy have made Atlas change their life spans to normal.”
“What!”
“Darling, the only reason she allowed it in the first place was because she and Tommy wanted to insure this child arrived safely and found his powers. She rightfully feels that as long as she lives, the universe is in jeopardy. She lives with the constant fear of causing destruction. You can’t imagine the pressure that places on her. Living her normal life span has removed that pressure.”
“What does Tommy say about this?”
“He has felt her anguish over the many centuries and he agrees with her. He will not continue without her. I believe that their remaining years will finally be happy.”
Tag sighed, “I don’t want to lose them.”
“I sense your sorrow and I feel the same but your loss is not close to how Atlas feels about their decision. He is wounded deeper than he will ever let them know. He loves them so much.”
“They freed his brothers.” Tag reflected for a long moment. “What about us?”
“I feel no need to make that decision, Darling. The years have added so much love to my life and it has only grown. I was reluctant at first but I did it out of duty to the Realm. Then I was reminded that an Algean lives more than a million years. If I can live that long and see our love grow as it has, I get excited at the prospect. How do you feel, love?”
“It feels like I just met you the day before yesterday and I kissed you for the first time an hour ago. Even if we choose to abdicate our crowns, I’ll love you forever.”
“Remember these words, Darling, “Love is Eternal”.”
Chapter 9
Time flew as the Realm grew to more than twenty million civilizations. Matt called a meeting of all the Realms leaders and finally met the King and Queen for the first time. The group was sitting in the library of Castle Gardner and everyone stopped talking and bowed as the King and Queen of the Stars Realm entered the room.
“Please rise, and make yourselves comfortable,” Thomas Gardner announced. The Royal Couple moved to their chairs at the head of the table and sat down.
Sprig stood and thought to the group. “We have called this meeting to plan our actions once the invasion begins. I am going to turn this session over to Admiral Gardner; he has some important information for us.”
Matt stood and said, “The invasion will begin with the first Eight Leg vessel arriving exactly six months from today.” The room grew very still. “That first ship is a preliminary scout and the rest of their ships will start arriving two months later. I know the location of where they will enter our universe and it is not close to the Realm but it is a galaxy that has ten of the Realm’s members. I requested this meeting because of some concerns that I’ve developed after watching the recording of their last invasion. I really haven’t focused closely on that recording before but now I sense some things that trouble me.” Matt paused and keyed the display controls. “I have made some excerpts from the recording and I want to show you what I think I’ve seen.” He started the video and the group saw picture after picture of one of the green ships being hit by energy weapons. In every picture the green ship showed no reaction to the hits.
Sprig thought, “Energy will not work against them.”
“That’s what I’m sensing, Sprig, and even our strongest beams will not affect them.”
Tag said, “Surely none of those beams are as strong as ours.”
Sprig thought, “probably not, but notice that Admiral Gardner has shown us pictures where each beam striking those ships was progressively stronger than the previous one. If they could be affected then some kind of difference would be seen. There is no difference in any of those strikes.”
“What about the negative matter,” Danielle asked?
“I sense that no form of energy will affect that substance on their ships.”
“What does that mean to us,” Anglo Gardner asked?
“It means that the majority of our weapon systems will not work against them. I also suspect that they are also immune to any projectile that is fired at them.” Matt paused and then said, “That’s not the worst of it.” The tension in the room could be felt. “I also believe that we will not be able to see them with our sensors. We can only track them visibly.”
Twig leaned to the right, “What makes you say that.”
“I believe that they are invisible to any form of energy. Our sensors use energy to operate.”
Anglo leaned back, “The Captors tracked them.”
“Yes they did, however, we know that the Captors had the use of the energy nexus to see every place in the universe. Those no longer work now that the particle has been exploded.” The room grew very still. “The Captors could also visually see any tracks made through null space because they were energy beings; we are not.”
Tag looked at Matt and everyone could see his concern, “You mean our ships are useless?”
Matt paused and then said, “I’m not sure. They have to have an Achilles heel; we just don’t know what it is. I think that I have come up with a way to track their movements though.”
Sprig thought, “How?”
“They move from universe to universe using a system that we are completely unfamiliar, however, once they enter normal space, they appear to use standard star drives to move through null space. We can read jump tracks so we would know where they are going if we are there to read their jumps.”
Anglo leaned forward, “How would you do that?”
“It appears that all of the Eight Leg ships jump into our universe at the same starting coordinates. If our ships are truly invisible to their sensors, we could read those jumps and send the coordinates to one of our Searchers and it would be their task to follow one of their mother ships where ever it jumps. If one of their jump tracks is going to one of our protected planets, we could offer advance warning to prepare for moving the planet. We cannot attack them and risk showing them the existence of our red screens. We will be forced to watch as they find those civilizations we have not contacted and consume them.”
Danielle’s expression turned hard, “Why can’t we try to draw them away?”
“Because once they see a weapon coming from empty space, they will know they are not seeing something on their sensors and I fear they may find a way to nullify our invisibility. Remember, this race is incredibly old and they are advanced beyond anything we possess now. If they can see our protected planets through their screens, then they will see the substitution take place when we move them. Are you willing to take that risk?” No one spoke. “We are going to attack them,” Matt said.
Danielle flinched, “I thought you said we couldn’t.”
“Not with our screens on. We are going to have to attack without being invisible to them. We have to attempt any method we can think of to try and find what will get around their technology; however, I believe that we will not need a screen to protect us. It’s my firm belief that they would go right through any screen we have. They certainly demonstrated that ability eight million years ago and they’re probably better at it now than then. I think that it won’t put us in harm’s way because nowhere in the recording I viewed did the invaders use an energy or projectile weapon. The small ships are apparently their only weapon. We will find out soon enough if I’m wrong but I think they have no idea that jumping inside the jump limit is possible. With the speed of their craft, they have probably seen no need to use those weapons.”