“How do you think we reproduce? Remember, your race has part of my DNA.”
“Thank you, Atlas for your honesty. I know what it has cost you. I want you to know that I see you as one of my closest friends.”
Tommy could actually feel Atlas’ smile in his mind. “You are my favorite child, Tommy. I also hate to say it but that adolescent Sprig has also become one I enjoy watching.”
“He is incredible, isn’t he? Don’t give up hope on your brothers, Atlas. You’re never too old to learn.”
Atlas said nothing.
Tommy and Cassandra told Rose that they wanted to be married on the Kosiev with just the crew and family. Rose looked at the two of them and said, “You might have gotten what you want if you hadn’t gone off and saved Earth from destruction. That is all the news tabloids have talked about since the event. I really believe that if you were married secretly I would have to put down a rebellion. Your request is denied.”
“Rose, I didn’t ask. I said that is what we are going to do.”
“Unfortunately Duke Gardner, you have sworn an oath to follow the directives of the Realm. It is not in your province to decline.”
Tommy looked hard at his older sister and felt his stubbornness rise. Then Rose said something that changed his mind. “Tommy, while you’ve been out fighting battles, you have not been here in the Realm seeing what our citizens are enduring. We have grounded the fleet to prevent the Captors from seeing any ship that remotely looks like the Kosiev. More than fifty of our member planets have had a Captor ship pass through their system. Commercial and agricultural space flights are only done on old ships. The Realm is frightened by what happened to Earth. They do not have much in the way of good news happening. Your wedding will be a breath of fresh air and the Realm needs to see you and Cassandra. They need to see the ones leading the fight to defend them. You cannot deprive them of being a witness to your union. Mom was right years ago when she told me that I have no concept of just how much the Royal Family means to our members. I have learned since that time that what I thought our value was represented only one thousandth of what it really is. You cannot hide from the worlds that truly love you, Tommy. You cannot show that much indifference to those that cling to everything they can learn about you.”
Tommy looked at Rose and remembered what Tgon-Gee had told him at his coronation. The people truly loved him and saw him as one of their own. He hung his head and knew she was right. Cassandra took his hand and said, “We better take some dancing lessons before the ceremony if that many people are going to watch.”
“Are you sure, Cassie?”
“Yes, I am, Tommy. We should never forget the ones we’re fighting for.”
Tommy looked into Cassie’s eyes and knew what the answer had to be; then he heard a thought, “Did somebody say there was going to be a party?”
Tommy and Cassandra both laughed out loud. “Yes, Sprig, stay away from the washrooms.”
“Drat. It would have been a hoot. It’s a great way to make friends.”
Rose was smiling, too and shook her head. “I think there’s not much more we can teach those Adolescents.”
Tommy sighed and said, “They’ve been teaching us for the last month.” Then Tommy looked at Rose and said, “Queen Gardner, I humbly request the use of Castle Gardner on the twenty first day of next month to marry my fiancee, Cassandra Mariah Dodd.”
Cassandra jerked her head at Tommy and said, “Where did you learn my middle name?”
“Hush and listen to the Queen.”
Rose laughed out loud and said, “The Crown welcomes you to our home for the ceremony. It will be a glorious affair.”
“I’m going to grow new leaves,” Sprig thought to them.
The wedding was announced to the Stars Realm and Rose was more right than she knew. Every planet went into wedding frenzy. The request for attendance was inundating Leila’s office. More than a billion citizens of the Realm wanted to attend. Tommy and Cassandra left Castle Gardner and boarded the Kosiev. Cassandra walked to the bridge and the crew came to attention, “At ease, as you were.”
Tommy walked in behind her and sat in his command chair and commed Admiral Mikado, “Admiral, I need a command meeting with your staff and your war admirals. I also need you to start taking your ships to Sten’s planet for conversion to our new technology. Ross will start receiving ships in a week. Once they are updated we will begin converting their hulls to negative energy skins.”
Mikado looked at Tommy and said, “The party has gotten bigger. My staff and the rest of the fleet will be excited about getting back into action.”
“We are going to lose ships in the upcoming conflict, Admiral. I just hope we have enough to win.”
“Where do you want us to meet you?”
“Sten’s planet; have your team there at nine hundred hours tomorrow.”
“We’ll be there and congratulations on your upcoming wedding.”
“Thank you, Admiral; I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Cassandra looked at Tommy and then said to Lt. Ortiz, “Please contact Twig and Sprig and request their presence on board the Kosiev at nine hundred hours tomorrow.”
“Yes Sir.”
Tommy went to the ship’s library and was watching the Captor’s planet in his mind as Cassie walked in. He saw they were arranging their ships in layers around the planet. Cassandra joined him mentally and saw what he was looking at, “Some of their ships are missing.”
Tommy saw that she was right. “If you were them, what would you do?”
“I would do exactly what they’re doing. I would layer a defense and once we jumped in I would bring the other ships in to pin us between their energy missiles.”
“Cassie, I have a bad feeling about the attack on their world. They have something new; I don’t know what it is but I know it’s there waiting for us.”
“I didn’t think that they could hurt us with our new negative matter skins but mass will be moved by explosions that are big enough. There is another consideration.”
“What?”
“I think we could still destroy the planet even if I can’t use the particle in physical space.” Tommy tilted his head and lowered his eyebrows. “We could take the Kosiev into the planet’s atmosphere and absorb the planet like we did with the stars. The problem is; what happens to bees when the hive is destroyed? They scatter in all directions. If any of the Captors survive, we will be chasing them all over the universe and I’m not certain we could catch them if they chose to run from us. We must maintain the hive until we destroy all the warriors.”
“You’re probably right. That makes this coming battle even more dangerous.”
“I know, however we must make a quick trip to a galaxy on the other side of the universe from the Captors planet. They have moved the old queen there trying to keep her safe. We need to scare her back to the hive. That will ensure that the warriors will fight to the end. I know that they don’t reproduce quickly. Look how long it took them to build the hive since Atlas’ recording of them sixty million years ago. We may have to fight a war of attrition.”
“You’re saying what I’ve been thinking for the last month. Here’s what I think we should do. We will attack with our original eleven ships and draw the Captors to us. I believe that they will surround us and bombard us with energy balls. We will handle as many as possible and attempt to kill as many ships as we can. After we’re surrounded, half of the fleet will jump in through null space and kill as many ships as possible in five seconds. They will then jump out of the system to a different coordinate. The other half of the fleet will be waiting at those coordinates waiting for the Captors to follow. They will then kill as many as possible and then teleport out to the coordinates that they used to jump into the system. I think that after the battle is over, the Captors will follow those jump tracks to see where they lead. We’ll be waiting and start the process all over again.”
Cassandra said, “Here’s a part you may not like. We should keep the pressure up on them and jump the entire fleet back into their system and kill as many as possible; then we teleport out to lick our wounds before we start it all over again.”