“Aren’t you afraid of showing them our teleportation ability?”
“Let them see it. Trust me; knowing it exists and coming up with the knowledge on how to develop it are two different things entirely. My mate and I nearly died from the overload. We just have to make sure they do not capture one of our ships.”
“Sprig, if they come close we’ll just teleport it away and they will be left behind,”
“Sprig raised his branches laughing and thought, “There is that.”
“Are we going to have enough time to build these weapons?”
“Matt, there are more than twenty million planets in the Realm or under its care. Every one of them is building them at this moment. The crews from the Defender Class ships are now training on the Megaships. We will be ready in eight months. Until we are, we are going to be playing a shell game with the invaders. They will be looking for a pea but we will have a rock ready for them. We are going to start killing them and that first ship is going to be our practice target. After them, we are going to make them pay a price for the atrocities they have committed.”
Matt felt something inside actually longing to make them pay. He heard Melanie’s thought, “We owe them for Angel.”
Matt looked at her puzzled, “We?”
“They hurt you terribly. That’s reason enough for me.”
Matt felt a warm feeling for his friend, “Thank you for understanding; I so want to hurt them.”
“So do I,” thought Fly Girl.
“Not as much as me,” thought Al.
“Oh yes I do.”
“No way; you know I want to hurt them more.”
“You retarded dish washer, you’re not even close to how I want to hurt them.”
Sprig and Twig laughed and were amazed at Stem’s two creations.
“So am I, Father,” Stem thought.
The huge green ship arrived back at the system where they had lost their three children and began exploring it in fine detail. The Sensor Male watched his sensors and said, “The children’s ship wasn’t damaged when they disappeared; I’m not certain that we will find anything in this system. That planet certainly wasn’t one of the advanced life form.”
“I suspect as much, but here is a good place to start looking elsewhere. Let the ships look through this system; I want you to look through your data and find a place where there should be a planet that has intelligent life but doesn’t register on our scans.”
“I will begin looking, First Fang.” The Sensor Male looked at the last harvest and narrowed his search down to the Galaxy there were in. He found a planet that had good possibilities and then looked at its system. There it was glowing with intelligent life, so that wasn’t a prospect. He moved his search further out and found another prospect; he looked at the system and there was no sign of intelligent life. “First Fang, I may have found a prospect. May I suggest we send a ship there to just scan the system and have it return immediately?”
“Where is it?” The Sensor Male sent the data to his display and he looked across the galaxy and saw there was no intelligent life in the system. “Send a ship. Even if it doesn’t return we will know we have found what we’re looking for.”
The Sensor Male turned to his board and ordered a transport to go and look at the system. He thought, “If it doesn’t return; should we go?”
“Matt, an Eight Leg transport just jumped into the Begron system and then disappeared,” Al said.
“That’s where they’re going next. Stem go ahead and move the planet and replace it with a barren one. Take the screen with Begron so they will see it when they arrive. We aren’t quite ready to hit them yet. I’m sure they will investigate before they move on. We should be ready by the next one.”
“We’ll have it done within two hours.”
The Eight Leg mother ship appeared at the jump limit and launched its ships. The Sensor Male looked at the system and saw a planet where there was none on the transport’s scan. How does this happen? He turned and looked at the Ship’s Male, “There is a planet where there was none. How is this happening?”
“I don’t know; I also see no sign of intelligent life on that planet. Do you?”
The Sensor Male twisted its head upside down indicating his frustration, “No, but if the planet could be hidden from our scan, it’s possible life could also be hidden.”
“Then let us go and see.”
The Sensor Male turned back to his display and worried. Nothing in the data banks matched with what was happening on this mission. He hoped the family arrived soon. This did not feel like things were going to go well.
After twelve hours the huge fleet arrived at the planet and looked at the barren, lifeless planet. There were old cities that were standing in ruins from some kind of long ago conflict. Their skeletal remains stood with overgrowth of plants and the dark green of corrosion. The streets were cracked and most bridges were collapsed. There was some sea life but land animals were totally absent.
The Sensor Male looked out at the dead planet and said, “How could anyone totally destroy a planet like this?”
The Ship’s Male raised two legs and said, “We are in the business of doing something just like this.”
“No we aren’t,” The Sensor Male replied. “We harvest a life form, maybe two, but we leave the planet vibrant with life to develop new intelligent beings. We cultivate and harvest our universes like a good farmer should. “This,” and he indicated his display, “is blasphemous.”
The Ship’s Male looked at the planet and said, “Why didn’t we see this on our first scan? Obviously, there is no one here that could cause it.”
“First Fang, is it possible that there is a life form that can hide themselves from our sensors?”
“Perhaps, are you suggesting that there may be life on the planet and we don’t see it?”
“I don’t know, but we should go down and make sure.”
“Issue the orders and let’s see what happens.”
The Sensor Male turned to his boards and began sending out the orders. Millions of ships landed on the planet and swarmed around the surface and found nothing. The Ship’s Male watched his display and could see that there truly was no intelligent life on the planet. “Find another candidate for us to explore. We won’t send a scout this time but will go ourselves and see what happens.”
The Sensor Male had been looking even before the fleet arrived at this system and had found two other prospects. “I have discovered a prospect not far from this system.”
“Recall the ships and let’s go see.”
“Matt, the probe shows the mother ship recalling its ships.”
Matt shook his head. “They didn’t waste any time. We’re still not ready.” Matt thought a moment and then said, “Al, which system with a hidden planet is closest to the Eight Legs current location?”
“There are two; one of them is pretty close.”
Matt looked at Melanie, “Where do you think they are going?”
“The closest system; they want to see if the planet is invisible when they go with the mother ship instead of sending a scout.”
Matt hit his com, “Stem, move the planet out of the closest system and don’t replace it. Let’s see what happens.”
The Eight leg fleet arrived in the Ojcek system directly above the plane of the planets and scanned their positions. The Sensor Male immediately said, “First Fang, the fourth planet is missing.”
“What do you mean it’s missing?”
“There is no planet where there was one during the last harvest.”
“Is there debris where it might have exploded or been hit by a large asteroid?”
“No, there is no evidence a planet ever existed in that orbit.”