Annihilation: The Power of a Queen (16 page)

“Our race has a group selected at birth for their psychic skills. Some of my people are able to see the aura that surrounds the ones that have psychic talents. I am one of those that have that ability. When they see a foundling with an aura, then the young Glod is taken to the schools that will develop their skills. The adults that graduate from this school can challenge one of the 50 members of the Guidance Peers for their position. They do this by predicting an outcome prior to it taking place. Only the most successful are chosen for this group.”

“Are you a member of this group, Excellency?”

“No. I wasn’t strong enough in my skills. There are seventeen royal families in our race that the ruler is selected from. When a ruler dies, the fifty members go into a conclave and select the next Crown Prince. They do this by looking as far into the future as possible and seeing which of the possible choices leads our race safely. This choice is made as soon as the current ruler dies. That way there is no gap in the succession.”

“So you were selected by them to rule your race.”

“Yes and I think it was because of my only psychic skill which allows me to see psychic auras that caused me to be selected. I think I was chosen because no one else would have been able to see what I saw in that meeting. Anyone else from my race would have left to inform the Alliance of your relationship with the Humans.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because as soon as I saw the Human Female Danielle and saw the aura surrounding her, I knew we were in the presence of true Royalty.”

“I don’t understand?”

“I was taught in our schools to recognize psychic auras for their strength. The strongest auras are violet the weakest green. Only ten of our fifty strongest psychics have a blue aura; none of them are anywhere close to violet. I saw that every one of their, what was it called, their SFT team, all had varying degrees of blue auras. That impressed me. Her aura stunned me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Her aura was deep purple almost violet. There has only been one member of my race with that strong an aura in the entire history of my species.”

Dorg looked at Tgon-Gee with wide eyes and finally said, “Does that mean something to our chosen path.”

“The reason I swore loyalty to her was that she will take us where we need to go and won’t even know she’s doing it. We are safer following her than opposing her.”

“Does your race know you’ve agreed to make her your sovereign?”

“Our strongest psychic was watching the meeting thru my eyes and the others were getting it thru his view. When I saw her aura, the Guidance Peers called for me to bow down to her and ask her to be our sovereign.”

Dorg was speechless. He stared at the Crown prince of the Glod and had no words for what he had said. Now he understood Tgon-Gee’s behavior at the meeting. Tong-gee saw his amazement and commented, “Your race following my lead was the wisest thing you could have possibly done. However, her aura was not the most amazing thing in the meeting.”

Dorg looked at him and said, “What could have possibly been more amazing that that?”

“You remember her husband was standing off to the side out of sight while the meeting was taking place.”

Dorg thought a minute and then saw in his mind that the Human named Tag had been to the right of the Clan Leaders in a wing that wasn’t visible from the Glods position. “I remember, he was off to the right of your group.”

“Exactly; and when he spoke and stepped out to meet his wife I got my first look at him.”

Dorg looked at the Glod and saw the fear in his eyes. Then Tong-Gee said, “His aura was deep violet with a red glow around it.”

Dorg looked confused and said, “What does that mean?”

“He is death incarnate. When the Guidance Peers saw his aura they demanded we surrender to the Humans unconditionally. Fortunately, I was the one they selected to be there and I was able to keep my head and simply make his wife our sovereign. That removed us from his list of enemies.”

“I don’t understand?” Dorg said. “How does that color aura mean death? I’ve had many dealings with the Human named Tag and he doesn’t appear threatening at all.”

“When the humans came to conquer your world, who made the decision to see if you would try to communicate?”

Dorg thought hard and tried to remember the discussion that Terl had with the Human Director. “I seem to remember that their SFT team said she had to be at his side at every battle after their victory or their future was in jeopardy. The Director said that she was given equal power to his and she had said that they would only attack us if we fired on their ships.”

“That’s because their future is tied to yours. If they had destroyed you, they would have lost to the Alliance in the end. The same thing is true of my race. Who suggested we be made Clan Members?”

“Mrs. Danielle made that suggestion, Excellency.”

“We are here with you today because of her psychic talent. If she had not been involved in their decision making to include us, we would be dead within a half a cycle. She keeps him in check. She can turn him from his target.”

“Excellency, I just can’t see him as that dangerous. He just seems, I don’t know, as one that goes about his business not causing any trouble.”

Tgon-Gee looked at Dorg and said, “Admiral, you could send forty armed warriors against that human and he would destroy all forty faster than you could imagine even if he was unarmed. He doesn’t realize how dangerous he really is because his psychic skills will do whatever is necessary to destroy his enemies. He won’t even have to think about it for it to happen. I understand that he tries to keep the casualty rate down, but make no mistake, if you come at him you’re probably not going to leave alive.”

“Thank the creator he’s on our side but I’m still having difficulty grasping how an individual can have such a big impact on events like you’re describing,” Dorg said.

“No admiral, you’ve got it wrong; thank the creator we’re on his side. That still wasn’t the most remarkable thing at the meeting?” Tgon-Gee said.

Dorg looked at him and said, “You mean there is still something more remarkable than those two Humans.”

Tgon-Gee looked out of his window and said in a far away voice, “Admiral, I couldn’t see it until I bent my knee in front of the Human Female to pledge my loyalty.”

“See what?”

“The Female is expecting a foundling and I got a glimpse of its aura.”

Dorg’s face showed his confusion then showed comprehension.

“These two super strong psychics have combined to have a child. Its aura is so deep in the violet as to appear black. It has three surrounding auras colored red, yellow, and green.”

“What does that mean? Dorg asked.

“The Guidance Peers have told me and all our people that our next rulers for the foreseeable future have been chosen and my race is celebrating its good fortune to find such fine leaders. Even our warriors are scared of doing anything that might anger the male human. They know what his aura means. I think that if good fortune happens and we survive the might of the Alliance, we are entering a golden age for our people; Glod, Cainth, and Human. That foundling of theirs is going to be incredible in its abilities. It is my races sacred duty to make sure of its safety at all costs. It will become our ultimate leader.”

Dorg thought to himself that he had a lot to discuss with Terl and the Clan Leaders.

T
gon-Gee was on his communications console talking with Danielle and Tag. “You Majesty it is important that you come to our home world and allow your subjects to see the one selected to lead our people. There is too much they don’t know about you and it would go a long way toward cementing our agreements.”

Tag looked at Danielle and said, “I will not allow her to go where she would be in danger, Tgon-Gee. Have the asteroids been put into service?”

“They are in position now and the system will be on line in two rotations. They were fully charged before their arrival and she will be safe on the planet.”

“How many dreadnaughts have been converted to power cell technology?”

“We have fifty around the planet and expect fifteen more within five rotations.”

“Why is it so important for her to come now?” Tag asked.

“Our people are amazed at what our Guidance Peers have told them and a large number are skeptical of what they are being told. It is important in a warrior race such as mine that they see the ruler they are pledged to follow. Some of them are having difficulty grasping that an alien is being made ruler of our people. Her visit would help assure them of our choice.”

Danielle put her hand on Tag’s arm and said, “We will be there in six rotations of your planet. We will jump in as close as possible to the planet and I will make myself available for whatever you choose to schedule.” Tag started to protest but she looked at him and said, “These are dangerous times my darling. We must do what is right by our Allies and to delay would only show fear. In his culture, fear is not respected.”

Tgon-Gee was once again amazed at her insight. “You’re right. There are some that insist you won’t come out of fear.”

Tag looked long and hard at Tgon-Gee and then at Danielle and closed his eyes and said, “There are some of your warriors that actively oppose her selection. Will they be a danger?”

Tgon-Gee was startled by his statement and wondered, “How can he possibly know that?” Then he said, “That is why she must come quickly to head off any growth of their views. We are at a threshold of major change and the timing is critical.”

Danielle interrupted them and said, “We will be there in two rotations when your forts are active.” Tag looked at her sharply and she said, “These people are depending on us to be the symbol of their belief structure. We cannot let them down.”

Tag looked at her for a long moment and then said to Tong-Gee, “We will be there tomorrow before the forts are activated. We will be coming with 600 ships so let your defenses know. I also will be at her side where ever she goes during the visit. My people will take it seriously if anything happens to harm her.”

Tgon-Gee said, “I need some time to prepare for her arrival.”

Danielle smiled and said, “Prince Tgon-Gee, you have one rotation. It will also limit any time the opposition has to plan anything.”

Tgon-Gee bowed his head and said, “As you wish my Queen.”

Kosiev looked at Tag and said, “Are you out of your mind? Their world is in the middle of Alliance territory. There are Alliance diplomats on their planet. There is no way this can be kept secret. You not only place yourself in danger but you also endanger their planet.”

Tag shrugged his shoulders and said, “We have agreed by treaty with our Allies that she is our ruler. Do you think you can change her mind?”

Kosiev looked at Danielle and started to speak then stopped. “Ok if this has to happen, we need to make sure we can get her out if the groad hits the reactor.”

I told them we would be bringing 600 ships to escort her. We can’t take more because it would tip our hand to the Alliance that we have more than 640 ships.”

Kosiev thought about the trip and said, “We will be bringing 100 of our new battleships then. We’ll keep them inside the ranks of our ships to prevent too close an inspection.”

“I didn’t think we had that many ready yet,” Tag said.

“We actually have close to 500 in the ranks. Even the Cainth haven’t seen one yet. They will be hard to hide at 1,400 feet in length.”

Tag whistled. “I’m still amazed that those nine foot power cells could be charged on a mobile platform like a ship. Have they lost any speed?”

Kosiev smiled and said, “They are 50% faster than anything we have. We’ve also discovered another benefit of their screen; they can jump in closer to stars that we ever thought possible. Gravity doesn’t seem to affect them as much because a screen at that power reduces the effect of gravity when it is pulled in to 100 feet from the hull.”

“How did you find that out without killing someone?”

“Our engineers noticed a measurable change in gravity when the screen around the planet was operating. In moving the asteroids out to the Cainth system one of our engineers stopped at a solar system in transit and jumped one of the rocks into the system close to an inner planet.”

“I’ll bet he was chewed up and spit out over that.”

“Not really. It wouldn’t complete the jump if it was too close to the sun and gravity interfered with the emergence. If it was too close it would just continue in non-space to the other side of the system until it was in a space that would allow it to work. He discovered that with screens as strong as those asteroids, they could jump almost to the stars outer corona.”

“Atlas, is that how you’re able to jump into a system?” Tag thought at Atlas.

“No. I use a different process but this was one of the steps that led to discovering the process I use. That’s also why they are so much faster; gravity and inertia has less of an effect on the ships mass.