“So do I, Cassie.”
Rose added, “That makes three of us. Now, let’s repair this ship and let the Realm know that its greatest hero is alive.”
Tag said, “First, Alex needs to make a call to another friend that misses him.” Kosiev looked at Tag with a furrowed brow and Tag said, “Fleet Admiral Len Mikado should get a call before anyone else.”
Kosiev smiled and said, “Fleet Admiral Mikado; by all means let’s contact him.”
Admiral Mikado was on board the Rising Sun when his communications office commed him, “Admiral, I have a fleet priority call for you that asks you to stop and make contact immediately.”
Mikado jumped from his command chair and said, “Send it to the conference room immediately.” Len left the bridge and went to the conference room and punched the comm., “Mikado here, go ahead with your call.”
The display on the com came on and a face he knew from the past said, “Admiral, I leave you in charge for a few moments and you have the Realm right back into another war. I expected better of you.”
Len stared at the screen with his mouth open for a long moment and said, “Is this someone’s idea of a sick joke.”
Kosiev looked at his former captain and said, “It’s no joke, Lin. I just got back and I wanted you to be one of the first to know. I’m proud of you and all you’ve accomplished. It’s good to see you again.”
Mikado stared at the screen and Kosiev could see the emotions welling up in his face. “Is it really you, sir?”
Kosiev smiled and said, “Yes it is. Tag has managed to find me in the skin of the old Moscow and bring me back home. I’ll give you the details later, but I’m back and for me no time has passed at all since the Moscow’s destruction.”
Mikado looked at the screen and said, “Thank the Creator; I’ve thought of you every day since we lost you. Please come see me as soon as you can. This is a gift greater than any I’ve ever received.”
Kosiev looked at Mikado and said, “I’ll do that, Lin. It’s good to see you.”
Tag came on the call and said, “Admiral, the Queen wishes to tell the Realm of Admiral Kosievs’ return but as soon as we can we’ll get together.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty. Thank you for finding my mentor.” The screen went dark and Mikado left the conference room and returned to the bridge. The crew immediately saw that something had happened and that the Admiral was in a high state of emotion. They all looked at him and he said to them, “Pass the word to the entire crew; Admiral Kosiev has been raised from the dead and is back among the living. By the Creator, he’s back.”
The crew looked at each other wondering if their commander had lost his mind but they announced the news over the general ship frequency. Every one of the crewmen on board had seen the destruction of the Moscow during their academy training and the entire ship was wondering about Mikado’s sanity until the announcement came in from Castle Gardner that the news was true; Kosiev was back. The entire Stars Realm was stunned but then the celebrations began. The Realm’s greatest hero was alive and in this time of fear, it brought a new sense of courage and belief that the Realm would prevail. Kosiev was back.
Chapter 18
Kosiev sat in the library at Castle Gardner while Twig fed all of the history of the Stars Realm since the destruction of the Moscow into his mind. The previous three days had been a mad rush from celebration to celebration. Tgon-Gee, Admiral Mikado, and the Eldest of the Algeans had come to welcome him home. He acted in high spirits but he felt that time had passed him by and left him with nothing to do. The thought of these new ships and the race of Captors that the Realm was now fighting for survival left him hollow inside. He was used to being in the center of all the action and now he knew he was not going to be where he wanted to be. The Statue of him at the fleet academy and the outright adoration of everyone he encountered only served to make him feel like he should have just stayed dead. How could he possibly live up to the legend that had been built around him? “Oh, well, I’ve never met a legend before. At least my actions saved the fleet.” He then thought about Tag and how he now looked as old as he did. According to what he had been told, he had died more than twenty six years ago but Tag did not look twenty six years older. As he thought about it, Danielle didn’t either. “I’ll have to ask him about that.”
Then he leaned back on the couch and Twig entered his mind and began the transfer of information. He closed his eyes and felt the rush of new knowledge. He stayed like that for two days which only seemed like a couple of hours.
Twig began the transfer and sorted the information into his memory centers and organized it so that it would make it seem like he had lived all of the time that he had been gone. She also looked into his mind and got a full account of the war between the Realm and her race. She was amazed that the humans had worked to prevent the destruction of her species after all the worlds that the Algeans had destroyed and harvested. “I’ve got to share this with Sprig,” she thought and then focused on the transfer.
Kosiev opened his eyes and blinked. “Wow, a lot has happened,” he looked at Twig and said, “Thank you. It’s like I’ve been here living all of this history. Now I know what I’ve missed. I also noticed that you’ve given me a full understanding of the new ships, weapons, and teleportation devices.”
“Admiral, how can you be an asset if you don’t know how everything works? I suspect you will be put to work shortly.”
“I really hope so, Twig. At least I won’t be lost now in the details. How did you do this?”
“We’ve learned how to download information in tremendous quantities and organize it. This transfer was really rather simple and I think that if you focus on a problem you’ll find what you need to know in your mind now.”
Kosiev smiled and stood up, “It’s time to go to work. I’m truly glad we came to be friends with your species. I would have never guessed that we would become friends during the time of our conflict.”
“You have Queen Rose and Admiral Dorg to thank for that.”
Kosiev frowned and said, “I wish he were still alive. I grew to have a tremendous respect for that Cainth. We could use him now.”
Twig lifted her limbs indicating a smile and said, “We feel the same way about you, Admiral.”
Kosiev smiled and, “Thank you again; I hope I can meet your expectations. Do you know if Cade McAllister is still around?”
“Yes he is; he’s retired and living on Ross.”
“Will you give me his com number; I need to talk with him about an idea I have.”
Twig put the number in Kosievs’ mind and he left the library to make a call.
Five days later Tag, Danielle, Rose, Tommy, Cassandra, Tgon-Gee, Admirals Mikado, O’Donald, and recently promoted McAnn were in the map room of Castle Gardner discussing the upcoming battle with the Captors. Tommy said, “We have to attack within twelve weeks. The places in space that the Captors use to see the universe will be cooled enough for them to find us in sixteen weeks. We have to prevent them from seeing the planets of the Realm. We’re only going to have 150,000 ships to fight more than four million of the Captors and if you look at their world you’ll see that they are staged in multiple layers expecting us to come.”
Danielle looked at Tommy and said, “Why can’t you heat those nerve centers again?”
Cassandra shook her head and said, “Last time I entered one of those centers, I almost exploded the energy particle in it. If I had, it would have created at new universe with a big bang. I’ve gotten a better feel for what is happening in that particle and I don’t think that it will endanger our universe but I also sense that now is not the time for it to happen. I don’t know for certain what the consequences would be if it happened too soon.”
Admiral Mikado frowned and said, “How are we going to do this? Are we just going to jump in and start shooting or do you have another plan?”