Escape to Earth-The Legacy of a Conqueror (2 page)

The Royal stared at Chris and looked out at the assembly that were shouting for Chris’ execution again. The Prosecutor yelled and the room grew quiet. He repeated himself, “It’s clear the human is judged guilty and the Assembly has called for his execution.”

The Welken looked at the Prosecutor and said, “I do not vote for execution.” He looked out at the gathering and said, “Who else agrees with me?” Silence dominated the room but after a moment, the Myot Ruler stood up and walked up to stand beside the Welken, “I also do not agree.” The Johan Ruler stood and joined them on the stage. “I also do not agree.”

The Prosecutor looked around and no one else stood. He smiled and looked at the three standing on the stage, “It appears the vote is against you.” He looked at the two warriors standing on each side of Chris and said, “You will turn him over to us.”

One of the tall warriors stepped forward and said, “I do apologize if you’re under the mistaken opinion that we were here to defend you from him. We are here to defend him from you.” Chris’s eyes widened and he looked at the other warrior standing beside him. The Warrior facing the gathering said, “Before any of you start thinking about doing something rash, you should know that this armor I’m wearing has the same power and weapons of the small ships you saw during the attack.” Suddenly, a white force field appeared around both warriors with Chris sitting inside it.

The Royal said, “What’s going on?”

“We needed to see if the Members of the Fellowship have learned from their past mistakes. We allowed him to be tried here to determine if you have become species that love peace more than war. It is clear that only the three of you have passed that test.”

The Prosecutor felt a slow sense of dread invade his soul, “What are you saying?”

“The three standing on this stage will be defended if any of you attack them. The rest of you will no longer participate in any attacks against forces from outside this galaxy. We will also not share any of our most advanced technology with you or allow you to take part in future decisions concerning how we will survive. You may go back to attacking each other and no one will stand in your way. I truly hope you destroy all of yourselves.”

The Royal said, “You can’t do this!”

“Royal, you’ve seen their hearts today. I can do nothing else. My Leader said to tell you that if you passed this test, he will agree to accept you and the others that passes as an ally. Now you have to decide what direction you’re going to choose to go.”

The Johan Ruler said, “I choose the humans.”

The Myot nodded, “I do as well.”

The Welken looked out at the stunned assembly and said, “All of you will leave this planet immediately and may not return. My people are no longer a part of the Fellowship. NOW LEAVE!!”

The Droken yelled, “You cannot stand against all of us!”

The Silver Warrior said in an amplified voice, “Three of our small ships can destroy every one of your warships and blast your planets into dust! All of you can’t stand against us.” The warrior paused and said, “Or do you want to try. I believe the Royal has ordered you to leave. We will start enforcing that order in ten minutes!”

The room emptied faster than a bucket with the bottom missing. The Warrior waited until it was clear and he removed his helmet. The Royal smiled, “It’s good to see you again.”

“It’s been a long time.”

“I heard you order him arrested for treason.”

“I still have some growing to do, Great One. I knew by the time I went home that I had made a mistake. Our Leader let this happen to allow you to see that nothing has changed with the other members of the Fellowship.”

“How can you trust us?”

“Because of your past actions, which have shown us that we can. You, and us, needed to see this.”

The three rulers on the stage nodded and the Myot said, “We were just like them until you save us, Your Greatness.”

The Welken put his hand on the Myot’s shoulder and nodded, “You are like my own family.” He turned to Jinks, “Perhaps that Green Civilization might learn from this experience.”

Chris shook his head, “They do not control their own destiny. It’s the species that’s directing that galaxy who’s to blame. However, even if they don’t, it was the right thing to do.”

The Johan sighed, “I hope I have the strength of your convictions if I’m faced with a similar situation.”

Jinks looked at the Welken and nodded toward the representatives fleeing the room, “You know that most of them will come to you individually to beg you to join our alliance?”

“What are you suggesting?”

“If you accept them, our alliance will be broken.”

“You don’t think they can change?”

“They’ve been working together for more than five years to meet a common enemy. If they haven’t changed during that time, when will they?”

The Welken looked at the other two Rulers and saw them nodding in agreement. “I was hoping the Fellowship would become something special.”

“They are what they’ve been. We will be leaving but if you have any trouble, contact us.”

The Royal nodded and looked at Chris, “Your heart is strong. Don’t lose it.” Chris nodded and turned to leave.

He looked at Jinks and Chad, who had removed his helmet. “Lukas?” Jinks nodded. Chris shook his head.

“He had to know where we stand.”

“I know. I just hate he allowed Audrey to suffer like this.”

“She was told what was going on as soon as we left the prison. She’s waiting for you in orbit.”

Chris smiled, “Perhaps I was a little hasty to be angry.” Jinks nodded and put his helmet back on as they exited the building. Chad followed his lead. “You just never know when trouble might raise its ugly head.”

“Jinks, when did the armor come online?”

“The first prototypes were approved five months ago. The miniature DE Reactors were installed four months ago. Making them small enough to fit was the main issue but Amanda and Trevor really performed magic with them.”

Chris’s eyes went wide, “The armor uses Dark Energy reactors!? I thought they would use Dark Matter Reactors?”

“That’s what’s taken them so long to come on line. However, the converters are producing them at a high rate and all pilots are going to be fitted for them before we start arming our ground forces.”

“They aren’t going to be very comfortable while flying the Pods.”

“They’re being made to replace the chairs in the Pods. You’ll be sitting on it; Press a button and the armor wraps around you in an instant. You’re going to like the features.”

Chris nodded as they approached the armored shuttle, “I look forward to learning how to use it. Chad, thank you for coming.”

“I didn’t want to miss it. Those Fellowship Reps are really a nasty bunch of punks.”

“Yes they are.”

“Chris, Lukas wants to see you as soon as you get back.”

“He’s going to have to wait.”

“Why?”

“Because Audrey and I will take some time to be alone first.”

Jinks smiled, “I’ll let him know.”

C
hris walked in the large office in Fleet Operations and sat across from Lukas and Salud. Lukas smiled, “It’s good to have you back. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you about what was going on.”

“I understand why; you needed my reactions to be genuine.”

“Exactly.”

“I couldn’t hear the thoughts of Chad and Jinks in their armor. Is that a new development?”

“It is. Piper assisted us in finding the proper scrambling frequency to block a telepath from hearing the wearer’s thoughts.”

“Why would he do that? I would think being able to hear our thoughts was not something he would give up.”

“He has finally come to the point where he trusts us. We’ve been talking with Barbie while you’ve been incarcerated, and she showed us the strange thought pattern she detected in M-87. We are of the opinion now, after the fact, that pattern came from a scout sent there from M-84. It appears a species in that galaxy is telepathic. It also appears it is highly aggressive.”

“How did you come to that conclusion? They were attacked by the Green Civilization first. They only retaliated.”

“But look at how they retaliated. The Green ships destroyed three planets. They came in and attacked and destroyed thousands of planets and they didn’t back off until they were highly outnumbered with the return of the invasion fleet.”

“Why are you worried about them? We didn’t attack them.”

“No, but we led the Orange Ships chasing our scouts toward their galaxy. We actually caused the destruction of those three planets.”

“Do you think they know about that?”

“They’re telepathic. One of them would have learned that the Green Ships followed skip traces toward their galaxy. If you possessed that knowledge, what would you conclude?”

Chris shook his head, “They will eliminate the Green Ships as well as the Orange Ships. That only leaves us.”

“That’s how I see it. I’ve asked Piper to check and see if he can detect any strange thought patterns around our galaxy.”

“And?”

“There’s six of them out there waiting to signal the proper time to attack.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“No, what are you going to do about it?”

“Me?”

“You are now in command of all our military forces and I’m counting on you to make the right decisions about defending us.”

“Why would you choose me instead of Jinks?”

“You are telepathic; he’s not. I believe the two of you aren’t that different in your command skills.”

Chris shook his head, “What do you see happening?”

“Piper says those scouts arrived after their attack in M-87. My real concern is that being telepathic, they will look at the thoughts of our pilots and learn about our technology. We have to prevent that from happening and we need to remove them as quickly as possible. We’ve developed a blocking field for our armor and ships that prevents telepaths from hearing the thoughts of our warriors but the armor hasn’t been distributed yet. We will be able to block them from learning anything from our warriors but we can’t block the thoughts of everyone on the planet.”

“You’re right, they have to be removed.”

“Yes they do, Chris, and in this particular case, it’s our own fault they are here. We caused it.”

“What about the Invaders?”

Lukas smiled, “We are about to enter an extended time of peace.”

“What?”

“The Invaders are trapped into a situation they can’t escape. If they send ships to the galaxy they conquered, M-84 will attack again. If they send ships here, M-84 and M-86 will probably launch against them.”

“M-86?”

“The Orange Fleets that were on their way there turned around and returned to defend their planets. For the first time in almost a hundred years, the civilizations in M-86 are not fighting for their survival. They have started banding together and have instituted a massive building campaign to manufacture warships. They’ve also launched a thousand ships to go to M-87 and deploy probes to keep an eye of them. If the Invaders go to attack M-84, they will seize the moment and attack them. M-87 has probes in M-86 and they have to know what’s happening. I’m sure they also believe we would join the fleets from M-86 in their attack.”

“We would go and attack them there?”

“We wouldn’t join M-86 because there is a real possibility that they would attack our ships as well, but they don’t know that. They would expect us to do it because that is what they would do in the same situation. A stalemate exists and we will have time to prepare for when the powder keg goes up.” Chris tilted his head and Lukas shrugged, “There’s too much anger and aggression out there. Eventually, someone is going to tire of waiting and go on the attack. That’s when all hell will break loose and we’ll be sucked up in it, along with the other three galaxies.”

Chris thought for a moment and shook his head, “If M-86 attacks M-87, then M-84 will not have to worry about being attacked and they will be freed up to attack us here.” Lukas nodded. “And if M-87 attacks anyone, the others will pounce on them.”

“Right again.”

“We need to really start building Pods.”

“There’s something else.”

“What is that?”

“We’ve always taken the stance that we will only defend ourselves against outside aggressors.”

“Yeah, I’m aware of that.”

Lukas looked at Salud and she said, “That is going to change.”

Chris looked at her and saw her anger. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve stood by and watched twice as another galaxy came to exterminate mankind and all I’ve done is live with my fear and pray we can survive. I’m done with that. I am not going to live in fear that my children are going to be blasted by an aggressive civilization that wants us dead. We will probably be the ones that light the powder keg.”

Chris looked at Lukas, “Do you agree with this?”

Lukas stared at Salud and then turned to Chris, “To a point. Those wishing our demise should be given an opportunity to change their evil ways, but if they refuse, then they deserve what they get. Being a father has changed my perspective.”

“How is that?”

“Do I want to wait for an intruder to enter my house before I defend my family or do I meet them outside?”

Chris lowered his head and nodded slowly, “Audrey is pregnant.”

Salud smiled brightly, “Congratulations!!”

Chris looked up at her, “I understand what you’re saying.”

Lukas shook his head, “No you don’t.”

Chris jerked his head from Salud to Lukas, “What am I missing?”

“You are chosen to be the Conqueror that goes out and removes those that pose a danger to us.”

“Conqueror?”

“You are tasked with removing any civilization that represents a threat to the planets of our allies and us.”

Chris shook his head, “I don’t see myself as a conqueror.”

“That’s why you’ll be a good one. I know you’re not ready to go out and take on those galaxies but we have some time to build the forces you’re going to need. We will announce your new position shortly and call for all of our planets to give you their total commitment and support to accomplish your mission.”