Annihilation - Tommy's Tale (Annihilation Series (Book Four)) (17 page)

Then Tommy saw it. Jupiter was a gas giant just like the planet of the Captors. The Captors were coming to make Jupiter a new home. Once he saw it, his psychic sense verified what he was thinking.

“Tommy, they will destroy every living thing in your system to insure their planet is secure. If any other planet comes to help defend Earth then their world will also be obliterated.”

Tommy thought, “Rose, I need you to listen to this.”

Rose answered, “Uh oh. I can sense trouble in your thoughts.

Tommy said, “You have no idea.”

The conference room at the Learning facility was full; Rose,Tgon-Gee, Terl, Misty Nicole, Tommy, Cassandra, the two Algean Adolescents, Admirals Mikado, Ron-Dar, O’Donald, Sten, and the two elected leaders of the Stars Realms First Family. Tommy had updated everyone on the Captors and introduced Atlas to the group which was a big shock for the ones that did not know of his existence. Atlas then told what had happened to his race millions of years ago and finished with how he escaped capture. As Atlas finished, the room was deathly quiet.

Rose stood and said, “It is the belief of my family and me that the Captors will be coming to take possession of Jupiter. They will, as a matter of their normal doctrine, destroy any possible threat to their new possession which includes any intelligent life in our solar system. Atlas has shown you the video of the ships used by the Captors. They are gigantic and their screens can stop any weapon we currently have and their weapons penetrate every screen we have developed. These creatures are hundreds of millions of years ahead of us technologically. They totally eradicated or captured Atlas’ race and Atlas is more advanced than any ship in our arsenal.”

Admiral Mikado asked, “Can we do nothing to protect us? How long do we think we have before they come?”

Sprig said, “I have looked at all the information I have absorbed about bees and here is what I know. Once a colony becomes crowded the hive instinctively swarms with the old queen leaving the hive to find a new nesting location leaving the new queen behind. This is the first swarm. After that swarm as many as five other swarms will leave the original hive within a short time. As long lived as these creatures are, it could be millions of years before the follow up swarms. One way to prevent a swarm is to cut off one of the queen’s wings which will prevent her from flying away or kill any new queens while they are still in the birthing cell. Another possible way is to destroy a large number of the warriors which will reduce the urge to swarm because of population pressures.”

Rose looked at the group and said, “We do not possess the technology to do any of those actions. However, we are not going to wait until they show up.” The room started murmuring among themselves. “The first action I propose is to transfer as much of our population as possible to another planet.”

Misty Nicole stood up and said, “We won’t go. I will not run like a coward.”

Rose looked at the Director of Earth and said, “We will not force you to go. However, the people of Earth will be allowed to decide what they want to do. We have found another planet on the spiral arm of our galaxy that is almost a twin of our home world and does not have intelligent life or a gas giant in the system.” She then looked at Misty Nicole and said, “If one of their ships comes into our system, just one of their beams would totally destroy the planet and our asteroid forts would have no effect on it. If we launched one ship to defend the planet, they would imprint the energy signature of that ship and destroy every ship and world in the universe with a similar signature. Director, to stand up against these creatures would be like you attacking an armored naval marine bare handed. You would stand no chance and the fact that you did not represent a threat would not stop these creatures from killing you. They will not tolerate the presence of any other life form near them.”

Misty sat down and the room was silent. Rose continued, “We must insure the survival of our race. We will begin transporting our population as soon as possible and I am going to call on the rest of the Stars Realm to help us build the structures necessary for our people to survive on the new planet. I hope we can get them there quickly. In the event of the Captors arriving here at our system, we will not use any of our fleet to attack them.”

The room erupted with shouts of dismay. Rose waited and finally the room was quiet. “Do not forget what happened to the Alfont. Just one ship entered their system on a random jump and the eels read that ships energy signature and could see all of their ships throughout the universe. They eradicated the Alfont and after a hundred years captured those still alive and have held them prisoner. We cannot allow them to see the entire Realm as a threat. Until we find some way to counter their technology, we must avoid them at all cost. Misty that is why we must move the population.”

Misty looked sick and asked, “Are you certain that they are coming here?”

Rose looked at her and said, “All of my family members can sense them as a danger to us. We all agree that they are coming; when we don’t know; but we cannot sit idle and do nothing.”

“Some of us will refuse to go,” Misty said.

Rose shook her head and said, “We have a picture of the planet that once orbited between Mars and Jupiter. Atlas took it when he was running from just one of their ships. That planet was eight times the size of Earth and the eel blew it apart with one shot of its beam. Look at the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and you will see what awaits us if we sit and wait.”

Terl stood and asked, “Are we just going to run?”

Rose said, “No, we are going to have the Alexander Kosiev take on one of their ships. It is like no other ship in our fleet and possesses technology that, unfortunately, we cannot duplicate. There is a real possibility that even it won’t stand up to them but it is the only tool in our tool box available to us to try and prevent the eels from coming. Pray for its brave crew and I wish them God speed.”

Tommy looked over at Cassandra and she thought to him, “I hope we can reach for each other before we attack.”

Tommy smiled at her and thought back, “Me, too, my love. Me, too.”

S
prig and Twig were in the library absorbing material from Sten’s world about how the Kosiev came into existence. When they had finished Twig thought, “I don’t see any way to replicate her hull; do you?”

Sprig thought back, “No, I don’t.”

Twig thought a moment and then thought to Sprig, “I have been considering the suggestion that Tommy made to us about absorbing each other.”

“So have I.”

“I do not want to die but this is a chance to significantly increase our learning. We are expendable; that’s why we are made like we are. We take dangerous risks because we are driven by our hunger for knowledge. I think that if we had not downloaded so much we might be forced to do what he asked.”

“I have come to the same conclusion,” Sprig thought. “I do not feel pressured to do it but I can’t help but feel that we should to help our new friends. I cannot answer for you but I am willing to take the risk and if I lose myself or die, then at least I do so learning.”

Twig looked at Sprig and felt admiration for his bravery. She did not want to lose him; he had become more than just a seed. She made her decision, “We will do it. If one of us survives, then the human’s chances are better than with both of us at our current level of learning.”

“Are you sure?”

Twig looked at Sprig and entered his mind. Sprig entered Twig’s mind and just before they began absorbing each other’s knowledge Sprig gave Twig a mental embrace, “Good luck, Twig.” Twig saw deeply into Sprigs inner thoughts and said, “I didn’t know you felt like this about me.” Sprig felt embarrassed and then they started. Twig still feeling Sprig’s embrace, began absorbing all that was Sprig into her learning center.

Cassandra thought, “Tommy, meet me in the library. Something is happening to the adolescents.”

Tommy jumped up from the control board he was learning and ran to the library. He entered the room and found Cassandra and Wes standing next to the Algeans that were standing in the middle of the room with their limbs intertwined. Cassandra said, “Wes missed seeing Sprig yesterday and when he didn’t see him today he came here looking for him.”

“They were both standing still like this. They are not attached to their readers so they can’t be learning.” Wes looked extremely concerned. Since the bad beginning, Wes and Sprig had become good friends.

Tommy looked into the minds of the Algeans and quickly withdrew. “They are doing what I suggested. They are absorbing each other.”

Cassandra said, “Didn’t they say that it was dangerous for them to do that?”

Tommy looked at Cassandra and Wes and said, “Yes they did. I just looked in their mind and the transfer rate and it is enormous. I had to get out.”

Wes looked at his friend and said, “What are you going to do?”

Tommy shook his head and said, “We must allow the process to complete. I feel that if we interrupt them then we will do them great harm. We have to wait.”

Cassandra walked up to the two Algeans and then she had a thought, “Tommy, do you remember that Sprig and Twig both said that while we were touching each other…”

“They found they could process their information much more effectively,” Tommy completed. “We cannot touch each other for long.” Cassandra walked up to Tommy and put her arms around his neck ignoring the shock and kissed him hard.”

Wes watched the Algean adolescents grow to their full height and start swaying gently back and forth. “Ok you two, back off.”

Tommy and Cassandra reluctantly stepped back and saw the adolescents swaying. Cassandra said, “This must be a good sign. Let’s wait for them to complete whatever it is they are doing.”

Wes said, “Permission to stay, Captain.”

Cassandra looked at her sensor officer and thought about how far Wes’ relationship with Sprig had come. Cassandra keyed her com and said, “Lt. Ortiz.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“I’m placing Lt. McAnn on a temporary assignment. Please assign a replacement until further notice.” Cassandra said to Wes, “Let me know if anything changes.”

Wes sat down on the floor in front of the two Algeans and said, “Yes Sir.”

Five days later, an exhausted Wes and Linda Kay were sitting in front of the Adolescents. Linda Kay had brought Wes a dinner because he refused to leave his friend. Linda Kay sat next to her husband and laid her head on his shoulder. Wes tilted his head against her and said, “Thank you for being patient with me; I love you.” Linda Kay closed her eyes and sighed feeling her happiness.

Then they heard behind them, “He should be thankful, you have to have a lot of patience to put up with him.”

Wes and Linda Kay jumped up and Sprig and Twig were leaning over looking at them. “Thank the creator you’re alright.”

Sprig said, “I’m not completely sure about that but we felt you here watching us. We thank you, Wes.”

Wes heard a lot that was not said in Sprigs thought. He said, “Me, too, Sprig.”

Tommy came running into the room with Cassandra not far behind. Tommy thought, “Hello you two. We’ve been worried about you coming out of your little project.”

Twig said, “It was close that we were going to lose ourselves but we received a strengthening of our psyche during the critical moment and it allowed us to keep our own identity.”

“What did you learn from the experience,” Wes asked?

The two Algeans were quiet and then Sprig said, “I think we have found a way to move Earths population quickly and safely.”

Tommy raised his eyebrows and said, “How are you going to do that?”

Twig said, “We need some time in Sten’s lab but we think we have found a way to teleport without using a screen.”

Tommy thought a moment and asked, “How will that help us?”

“Picture a doorway on the planet’s surface that when you step through a door you arrive on a planet on the other side of the galaxy. You could make the doorway wide enough that more than a thousand could walk through together.”

Cassandra said, “What you’re describing is that the population will not have to be transported in ships. They can drive their floater through the portal carrying all their belongings with them.”

Then Tommy saw it. “We can put a portal on a major highway and evacuate a major city through the portal.”

Sprig said, “I was thinking that every door on the planet could be set up for teleporting those that were in the room behind the door. Press a button and step through the door. You could evacuate the whole planet in less than an hour.”

“How would you convert a normal door to a teleporter?” Wes asked.

“If our ideas work, all you need do is place a mat on the door that is preset to a location on the target planet. Press a button and the mat activates. Then you step through. After five minutes the mat turns off and will not operate without someone on the other end turning it on. This would prevent the enemy following.