Annihilation: The Power of a Queen (30 page)

Danielle stood there and listened to the cheering and thought, “I’ve come a long way from that medical floater.” It seemed like a lifetime ago but here she was. She had not planned what she was going to say. She just didn’t know what needed to be said to these people. As the cheering continued she looked at Tag and saw his pride of her. She saw Terl and Tgon-Gee looking out at the crowd fearful for her safety. She could have told them they had nothing to fear. Tag would sense it long before they could and Tag was at peace. Then it came to her what she had to say.

“Thank you for your welcome,” she said into the communicator. She waited a moment as the crowd grew silent not wanting to miss her words. “I’m sorry about the delay but I was informed that the citizens standing outside the arena have been there hoping to see me and I didn’t want to disappoint them.” There was a huge roar from the crowd outside the arena and then they quieted down and watched the huge monitors to hear her words. Danielle looked out at the crowd and said, “I’m quite amazed at the number of you that have come to hear me. To be quite honest, I don’t fully understand why the Glod and Cainth wanted me but I’m proud to serve them. I want you to understand that they call me their ruler but in my mind, I am their servant. They have asked me to show them the path to a golden age of peace and prosperity. What they have failed to realize is that they already had all they needed to achieve that age within them. All they had to do was to fully understand that before anyone can find the best that is in them they must first find the best that is in others. Too often we look at other races suspiciously thinking that we have to watch out for ourselves. Nothing is further from the truth. If you look out for the others around you, they will look out for you. My race has a long history of wars that eventually killed 80 percent of all the Humans on my world. We learned from that experience the evil that we are capable of inflicting upon our fellow Humans. It took more than 900 years to recover from the last of those wars and we would still be at peace today but we came into contact with the Alliance. We have been nearly annihilated so many times now that I’ve no longer bothered counting. My brothers of the Cainth Empire were afraid of us even though they didn’t know us. The atmosphere of fear has been a common meal for most worlds in the Alliance and the usual first thought is kill or be killed. So we relearned how to defend ourselves and fortunately for us, we learned quickly; but we did not forget the lessons learned from the wars where we killed each other. Eventually we were face to face with the Cainth Empire with the opportunity to eliminate the source of so much death for Humans. At that moment it could have gone one of two ways, total destruction of the Cainth Empire, or,” Danielle paused at this point and looked over the crowd and everyone there thought she was looking at them individually. Then she continued, “we could try to understand why they feared us. My belief is that life is precious. Every one of us can make a big difference in making our universe a better place to live and raise our families. It cannot happen in a spirit of vengeance. The Cainth killed Human colonists on one of our worlds during their invasion. However, I believe that every one of those colonists would have gladly given their lives to bring peace between our races. I know I would. At the critical moment we simply asked the Cainth, “What do we do now?” And then we listened to them and tried to understand them in their terms. We found common ground and now I know both our races would die to protect the other. I look out at all of you and I see what you could become and how great you could be. I wish you could see the vision where all eight hundred and twenty races would give their lives to protect the others. The knowledge that others value you as much or more than you do yourself is a very liberating experience. The urge to attack each other, take advantage of each other, or exploit each other only makes you smaller than you are. The vision I see for you is something that I would be willing to die for to bring into existence. What greater purpose could there possibly be for anyone except to make the future safe and secure for their children. My people and I agree that all of you are precious and we will do all we can to prevent any harm to you and help you where we can without interfering with your lives. We chose our destiny together. I am here today to simply ask you, what is the destiny you are going to choose?” She then stepped back from the communicator and turned to walk out of the stadium.

The crowd was silent. Sten could feel the electricity in the air. All of the various races were looking at each other and thinking. Danielle had made it all the way to the ground level when she heard a young Vgrig child yell at the top of his voice, “Danielle, I choose one destiny for all of us.” Danielle reached up and extended her hand to the young Vgrig who took it in his talons and shook it. As she turned and continued her walk she could hear the crowd gathered around the young Vgrig start chanting, “One destiny, one destiny, one destiny, one destiny,” until the chant had been taken up by all on one side of the arena. Then the crowds outside the arena took up the chant followed by the remainder of the crowds in the arena. It became a roar and for all the various races that had watched the event over their communication devices on all the worlds of the Alliance, they too began chanting with the crowds at the arena. Across the Alliance billions come out of their homes and gathered to chant in the streets. They could finally see their future and now they could feel it. As the broadcast from the worlds of the Alliance was shown, they could see that they were not alone. They had other worlds and other races to be their brothers and sisters. The billions of the Alliance demanded “One Destiny” for them all.”

Sten sat on the speaker’s platform and watched his console that showed world after world where the chant was taken to the street and yelled. The crowd at the arena had begun shaking hands like Danielle demonstrated with the young Vgrig. Sten thought to himself, “You were right Dgzh. I have never talked with her. Now I have. I don’t think that I or anyone else in the Alliance will ever look at the universe the same way after this moment. I guess now I must answer the question that the Humans asked the Cainth, “Well, what do we do now?” Then he had an inspiration and began smiling. He watched the Human ship lift and move skyward and thought, “We’ll be seeing you again, soon.”

Tag was sitting in a conference room with Kosiev, Dorg, and Danielle. All of them had jumped to Ross after Danielle’s speech and were listening to Klas as he told them what had happened to his world. Atlas provided Tag with video of the attack and the assembled leaders watched as Klas narrated the events. Atlas had loaded the Alliance language into Klas’ link so he could speak without an interpreter. “We prepared for the first attack for a full two cycles and were able to defeat them initially. They first attacked with 900 ships but we were able to destroy them. None of them escaped and they fought down to the last ship. The monsters do not know the meaning of withdrawal. We were hoping that we had gained time to rebuild out losses but it just wasn’t to be. Within sixty rotations, the fleet you see here on this screen came. We were completely overwhelmed.

Tag stood up and said, “Stop the video for a moment.” The screen stopped with one of the huge transports filling the screen. “You said you had been preparing for two cycles; your race didn’t have star drive technology, how did you know they were coming?”

Klas looked at Tag and said, “We have not been a peaceful race. We warred among ourselves and our nations had extensive military forces. A race came to our planet and asked if they could meet with our assembled leaders. We attacked them initially but they just shrugged off our weapons and continued to request a meeting. Our nations agreed and they landed and told us about the monsters. They asked if the leaders were willing to go with them to see what was coming and after much argument the leaders were marched at gun point into the Aliens ship. They were then taken to a planet that was under attack by the monsters and saw firsthand what they did to planets they conquered. We were then told that the monsters were moving on a direct line to our world and would arrive within three cycles or earlier.”

“Why did they come to warn you?” Danielle asked.

“They said that we could not win because the monsters were too numerous. They said they had warned us so that we could build ships to possibly save some of our people. They said that after the monsters finished with us that their world would probably be next.”

“What did this race call itself?” Kosiev asked.

“They were called Dremel.”

“Continue with the video,” Tag said. For the next hour the leaders watched as the Pydres world was being harvested and destroyed. They saw the savagery of even babies being devoured alive by the plants.

Finally, Danielle said, “I’ve seen enough. What are we going to do about this? I know they’re a long way from us, but do we wait until they grow so big they can’t be stopped, if they’re not already.” The room was silent.

“Perhaps we can make life difficult for them,” Admiral Dorg said.

Everyone in the room looked at him and he said, “Why don’t we go find these Dremel and give them an Asteroid shield to see how those little weeds deal with it. Perhaps it will cause them to become occupied with something other than one world after another.”

“Atlas,” Tag thought, “do you think we can find them?”

“I already know where they are. I passed their world on the way in to the Pydres planet. They have built some huge transports to escape but nowhere near enough to save the bulk of their population. I’ll give you the coordinates and you can pass them on to whoever you send to investigate.”

“Thanks, Atlas.”

“One more thing, Tag. I’m going to give a series of coordinates that jumps thru three other galaxies before arrival at the Dremels world. Don’t run the risk that they might be able to trace your jump line. Don’t hesitate between jumps; do them as quickly as possible in the event they follow you.”

“Understood, Atlas.” Tag then stood and said to the assembly, “I know where the Dremel are located.”

Kosiev looked at Tag and thought, “It has to have something to do with that ship that brought him back from the Alliance system. He and I need to have a heart to heart discussion about that.”

“I suggest we send one of our ships to open a dialogue with them. However, we need to avoid going straight to the plants galaxy in the event that they might be able to trace jump lines. I’ll provide the one chosen to go with coordinates that goes on a roundabout route.”

Dorg stood up and said, “I’m the one that should go.” Even Kosiev was surprised by that statement. “I have a blood debt to make up and if I can help save this race from destruction, it might in small part make up for my prior actions. I humbly request permission to lead this mission.”

Danielle said, “I agree with you Admiral. I must insist that you go in one of our best ships. I know your Cainth Dreadnaughts are deadly but they can’t match the speed and jump ability of our new ships. We have one that is just being commissioned and I think you’ll agree that it’s appropriate to take her; her name is Rossville.”

Dorg couldn’t speak. His emotions were so strong that he could barely breathe. The room remained quiet while he composed himself. Even Klas could see that something very significant was happening. Finally Dorg said, “It would be my honor to make her my ship; I will protect her honor with my life.”

Tag looked at Kosiev and asked, “Do we have any asteroids ready for transport?”

Kosiev said, “We have eight having their jump systems installed now; they should be ready within six months.”

Tag looked at Danielle and said, “Then when they’re completed we will jump the asteroids into a neighboring galaxy to the Dremel and Dorg will proceed to the planet and open a dialogue. He will then make the decision about whether or not the Dremel can be trusted with our technology. We’ll have to tell anyone that asks that we have top secret plans for the asteroids and crew them with members of your crew, Admiral Dorg. Let’s hope the plants delay for that long. Good luck.”

Tag thought to Danielle, “I hope we have enough time. This video has me concerned.”

“We will save the Dremel. They didn’t have to run the risk of telling the Pydres but they did. I’m sure they are worth saving. See if you can’t speed up the asteroids.”

“I have already contacted the ship yards.”

S
ten stood on the platform facing the Assembly Members who were the chosen representatives of their worlds. Unlike the previous meeting, they sat quietly in their seats waiting for him to start the meeting. Finally, he stood up and stood before them looking at them and thought what a blast they were about to receive. He almost wanted to smile. He had discussed his plan with Headman Dgzh and after he got over the initial shock, he started laughing and told Sten he was behind him one hundred percent. Now was the time to drop the bomb. “I welcome you again to our meeting and I’m sure all of you have had time to process what we heard yesterday and have talked with your home worlds about what direction they would like to go. Unfortunately, I also have had time to think about all I heard yesterday and I’ve come to the determination that things must change for my world. After discussing it with my local government, we have made a decision about my world’s future. With that in mind, I hereby resign my position as State Leader and I also wish to announce that my world has resigned its membership in the Alliance and has formally asked to become a member of the Stars Realm and petition Queen Danielle to become my world’s ruler. That request has been sent to Terl, Tgon-Gee, Thomas Gardner, and of course, Queen Danielle.