Annihilation: Book 05 - Searcher (15 page)

A ship floated in the void surrounded by nothing but dark black space; there were no stars, galaxies, or even random radiation. This was a universe that had lived its life and died of old age. What matter remained had lost whatever energy it possessed when the last star sputtered it final death throes. Over a billion years the matter had slowly moved together to form a green mass larger than five galaxies, however the giant sphere of matter only had the mass of a medium planet. It was this matter that was used by an ancient race to build its ships and structures. Even the skin of these beings was covered by a thin layer of this green matter. It was unique not only in this universe but in all of creation. Nothing could penetrate it and energy did not affect it. The beings wearing this green matter could stand at ground zero of a nuclear blast and walk away unharmed. This matter was the strength of those that used it.

The ship was more than fifty thousand miles wide and at its center was a giant creature laying on a platform made of thick silver strands with its eight legs hanging over the side. Each leg was in a depression surrounded by electronic devices. The Nest Mother sat on her bed and thought about her appetite; she had not tasted a good meal in a hundred million years and she wondered if her children were harvesting the meals too soon between visits. She remembered the taste of the first meals more than two hundred million years ago when they first began farming other universes and the memory made her shiver; it was so good. Now the taste was barely palatable. One of her large male children came into her chamber and approached a depression slightly below her platform. The male moved quickly forward and turned upside down in the depression. The Nest Mother looked at the male and saw his abdomen was huge and swollen.

“Have you collected all you’ve harvested, my son?”

“Yes, Mother. All of my ships have brought me their harvest.”

The Nest Mother saw that it was a large harvest. Each of the warriors had connected to their leaders and transferred a copy of their feast to their ship leader who had in turn transferred a copy to the Lead Male. She was always surprised at how the taste of all intelligent life in a universe could be reduced to the storage of one male child. Are you ready for transfer, my child?”

The male actually shivered in the depression and answered, “I have looked forward to this exchange my entire life.”

The Nest Mother moved forward quickly and suddenly sunk her fangs into the abdomen of the huge male and began consuming the contents. The male shivered in ecstasy and felt the euphoria that only came during the final transfer. The Nest Mother consumed the male quickly and tossed the dead carcass into a large hole in the floor where the shrunken body was ejected from the ship. The Nest Mother who was ten times larger than the male turned and moved back to her bed. For a moment a large red hour glass shape could be seen on the bottom of her abdomen and then it disappeared as she mounted the platform. Just as she feared, the taste was bland. She placed her legs back in the electronic depressions and wished for a good meal. Her right rear leg started to vibrate. She turned her attention to the vibration and felt the pulses given off when a new universe was created. This was a rare event. The last universe created was more than six harvestings ago. She delayed the consumption of her new meal and focused on the last time she had felt those pulses. “Ahh, that was a good meal.” She used her leg to focus in on the location of the blast that had started the new universe and pinpointed where it occurred. “There has to be an extremely advanced life form to cause that explosion,” she thought to herself. “This last male’s family is finished with its last harvest so I should be able to send them to investigate.” She paused and read her sensors. “Only eight million years ago since we visited.” She paused and thought, “That’s a very short time for a truly advanced life form to develop.” She pondered what to do for a long moment and continued to feel the pulses vibrate her leg. “Perhaps my children missed this life form in their last harvest.” She continued to feel the vibration and decided. “My children need some time to digest their meal. I’ll send them as soon as they are hungry again.” She issued the commands to the new male taking command of the family and then turned her attention to the meal she had just eaten, “Oh for the taste of a good meal.” She began digesting to see if there was anything new she had not learned from a prior meal. The first hundred thousand races she tasted weren’t as developed as the first meal she had eaten millions of years ago. It almost made her delay the harvest she had just ordered but the vibration actually whetted her appetite. “I’ll delay future harvests after this one. I’ll need to reduce the number of families in order to make that happen but I’m sure the males will enjoy the meal that their families will provide them. I know I will.” Population pressures were easily handled in her species.

“S
earcher, do you have time to watch an experiment?”

“Hi, Stem. Of course I do. I’m waiting for a new coordinate to contact so I’ll take my code off the board. Where are you?”

“Al has the coordinates; I’ll wait for your arrival.”

Matt looked at his display and punched the teleport button. Aladdin broke out in normal space just above a planet surrounded by a red screen. Stem teleported on to the bridge and thought, “Thank you for coming.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Why play double shells.”

“Oh boy, I want to see this,” Al communicated.

“Good to see you again, Al.”

“Likewise, Stem. I’m surprised you were able to get a pass from the search.”

“There was another as qualified to handle it. I am better equipped to handle this.”

“Tell me what you’re going to do, Stem.”

“Searcher, I am going to teleport the planet inside the screen to a new orbit around another star. Ten seconds after it’s moved I will teleport one of the dead planets from my galaxy to replace it. We will then go and look at the moved planet to see if it is adversely affected by the move.”

Matt shrugged and said, “Ok, you’re in charge.”

“How come you never tell me that?”

Stem answered, “He’s not that stupid, Al.”

“Oh that’s funny, I’ll just have to write that down and use it later. I’m sure all the plants will just be rolling over at that humor.”

“Who’s being funny,” Stem replied?

“You big sack of weeds; just be glad my commander likes you or I’d trim your leaves.”

“That’s enough, you two. I know how much you two enjoy needling each other but at this rate I’ll never see the experiment.”

Stem leaned back showing his laughter and then thought, “As you wish. I’ll initiate the first transfer and the second will be done automatically ten seconds after the process starts.”

Matt turned his sensors toward the planet and said, Al, I want a good recording of this.”

“Already in motion, Admiral.”

Matt smiled and said, “You may begin when you’re ready, Stem.”

“Teleporting in ten seconds, Searcher.”

Matt closed his eyes and focused on the planet in front of him. He could actually see when the silver field appeared in front of the planet and the planet pass through it and appear in a galaxy on the other side of the universe. The funny thing was that he actually saw the planet as it moved there. It didn’t just suddenly disappear and then reappear; he could actually see the planet move through the space separating the two galaxies. He then saw the substitute planet coming toward the red screen and then appear inside the screen.”

Stem read his readouts and said, “The substitute planet appears to have a stable orbit matching the planet that we moved. Now let’s go check it out.”

“I can see the planet, Stem and it is also stable.”

Stem looked at Matt for a long moment and said, “I trust that you don’t mind taking me there so I can take some readings.”

Matt pushed his teleport button and they appeared in orbit around the teleported planet.”

Stem read his instruments and then asked, “Will you take me back to the original location?”

“Right away,” Matt hit the teleport button again.

“Uh, Matt, I didn’t put any coordinates on your console,” Al said.

“I already knew them so I entered them myself.”

“Yeah, but you did it faster than I could.” Stem looked at Matt and wondered what had just happened.

“I just followed the trail the planet left behind it.”

“What trail,” Stem quickly asked?

“I saw the planet move through space to its new location. I just mentally entered that location into my console.”

Sprig and Al were silent. Matt sat there and wondered what was going on, “I also saw the substitute planet coming in from its location.”

Matt heard Stem think, “Sprig, Twig, I need you here immediately.”

Matt said, “What’s going on.”

Sprig and Twig appeared instantly and Stem began communicating with them.

Sprig and Twig turned to Matt and said, “Searcher, is it possible for you to share with us what you saw when Stem moved the planets.”

“Sure, this is what I saw,” and Matt opened his mind and showed them the two planets leaving and coming.

Every branch on the three Algeans dropped. Al said, “I have never seen this much shock by an Algean.”

“What do you mean shock?”

“What you just showed them violates everything we know about teleporting. It invalidates all of the basic principles that we thought we knew about the process.”

Matt watched the three Algeans and after five hours began to worry. “Al, they’re not acting normal.”

“I know; what should we do?”

Matt’s mind was in turmoil. He just didn’t know what should be done. Then he had a thought; he pressed his com and Anglo Gardner appeared on his display, “How may I help you, Searcher?”

Matt explained what had happened and showed him what was taking place on his bridge. Anglo immediately showed fear and said, “I’ll get back to you.’

Matt and Al watched the three Algeans. “I hope the sack of weeds is ok.”

“Me, too, Al.”

Suddenly a silver field appeared and a young man and woman appeared on the bridge. They immediately moved forward and embraced each other. Instantly the branches of the three Algeans began to rise from the floor and they started swaying gently back and forth. The couple then parted and turned to Matt.

“Thank you for contacting us. I think they will be alright but we need you to wait for them to come out of their trance.’

“What happened?”

“You gave them a shock that disoriented their storage systems. They couldn’t handle the impact to the structures that organized their minds.”

Matt stared at the Algeans and then looked at the young couple. He started forward to thank them for helping when the female held up her hand and said, “Please, come no closer.”

Matt stopped and his face showed his total confusion. “What’s going on?”

The young couple looked at each other and then the young man said, “My name is Tommy Gardner and this is my wife Cassandra.”

Matt and Al almost went into shock themselves. Matt fell back into his chair stunned at the revelation. “How, what….” and his mind just froze.

Cassandra looked at her husband and then said to Matt, “It would be dangerous for you to touch me. There would be a real risk of totally destroying this universe if we made physical contact.”

“Why?” Matt asked showing his shock.

The young couple looked back at the Algeans and saw the gentle swaying continuing and then turned back to Matt. The beautiful young woman whose hair color was identical to Matt’s looked at him with obvious affection in her eyes and said, “I was the one that exploded the particle that started the new universe that the Captors left to live in more than twelve hundred years ago. It was a close thing that the explosion did not destroy our universe but I was able to prevent it from erupting out of the energy nexus. I was the most powerful psychic at that time and have remained so until you were born. Your power makes mine weak by comparison.”

Matt and Al were still trying to grasp what was being said and Cassandra could see Matt was still confused.

“You are one of my children. I want so much to embrace you but I know the danger. I also refuse to use telepathy with you and I want you to also refrain from using it during this conversation. You and I cannot make contact in any manner other than verbal.”

Matt said, “I’m sorry I am such a danger.”

“You are not the danger, Matthew; I am.”

Matt did not understand what he was being told. “What do you mean?”

“My psychic power is enormous but it is not controllable. My skills happened but I had no control over them. There was a real risk that I could inadvertently cause total destruction by using my power. My abilities appeared whenever I was placed in a stressful situation. Whatever ability was needed to handle the situation I found myself in would manifest itself and those powers were growing. I could not control them, they controlled me. You are the next level of my powers. You are blessed with the ability to exercise restraint and control where I could not.”