The Fight for Creation: Book 02 - Scout Warrior (9 page)

“It’s been too long. Let’s go talk about what you’re planning.”

Sam saw Admiral Gardner exit the shuttle with a frown on his face. Sam sighed and Jon said, “He’s not a happy camper.”

“He’ll get over it. Are you sure you want to do this before you have something to eat?”

“Just have them bring it to us in the conference room.”

Sam looked at Gregory and nodded. That darn Gregory. He betted Jon would get straight to business and Sam was foolish to have taken the bet. The castle staff bowed again as they walked by and Sam slipped Gregory a five credit note. Gregory smiled and knew what they needed to do. The bet was the surest way to make sure the serving plans were done without asking. Sam said, “It’s good to see you again, Admiral. How’s Lyla?”

“She’s fine.”

“Good.” Sam wondered what the Admiral thought about his daughter ending their relationship, but that was no longer something to worry about. He followed Jon into the conference room and found Pride waiting on them. Sam was never able to tell the difference between the cats but Vremel told him that the current ruler of the cats was just like the father whose name he carried. He wondered why Pride wanted to be present. He could have just listened in telepathically from anywhere he chose or send another to attend. Something must be going on. He watched the giant Cat lay down on the floor in front of the conference table.

Sam, Gon, Robby, and Dort sat to the King’s left at the table and Admiral Gardner, Root, and General Talent sat to the left. The castle staff started bringing in food and unobtrusively placed it in front of them. Jon said, “Tell me about what you have in mind, Sam.”

Sam nodded at the two sitting beside him and said, “We have discovered that when we link mentally, we can hear the musical trace.” Sam noticed the Cat looked at him with a long stare. “We’ve also discovered that anyone near us also hears the trace. We want to create a unit of Life Warriors and determine what they are able to accomplish.”

Pride said, “What happens when you break the link?”

“The music stops.”

“So if one of you is killed during combat, your unit will lose contact with the trace?”

Sam looked to his right at his mental brothers and then said to the Cat, “I don’t know.”

Jon looked at Sam, “He makes a good point.”

“There’s only one way to test it and I don’t think we’re going to do that. However, we are going to go into combat with the Realm’s Warriors and I would rather go in connected to the trace than without it.”

Admiral Gardner said, “I’m of the opinion that Royalty of your ranks should not be involved in major combat operations.”

“That’s why you’ll never hold that rank, Admiral. We will not run from our responsibilities like the Royalty once did. We’ve come too far to allow that cowardice to exist again.”

Thom glared at Sam and said, “You know what risk you’re taking?”

Robby said, “We do.”

Thom looked at his nephew and smiled. He turned to Sam and said, “That idiot daughter of mine doesn’t know what she gave up. Whatever you need, Duke Robbins, I will gladly do my best to provide.”

Jon looked at the Admiral and said, “You told me you were against this.”

“I was, Your Majesty. I didn’t think they had what it took to be a Life Warrior. Most Royals never make it through initial training; they lack the commitment.” Thom looked at the four sitting next to the King and said, “I see that you do possess the necessary qualities to be one of the Realm’s Warriors.”

Sam said, “Why were you against this initially? You could have given us a company and not worry about us.”

“I’m being asked to place the welfare of two hundred of my Life Warriors into your care. I had to know if you were able to lead them and not get them killed in a wasted effort. Every Warrior in my command is important to me. They expect me to do the right thing, given that their lives are at risk.”

Sam smiled at Thom, “Admiral, you have just impressed me very much.”

“You wondered if I was like my daughter.” Sam didn’t respond and Thom said, “She is like so many of the Royals today. She just doesn’t understand the real meaning of a Royal Title.” Thom looked at Sam and said, “What do you need?”

“We want to link with a division of Life Warriors close by and see how many hear the trace.”

“When do you want to do it?”

“As soon as possible. When is the next major fleet action scheduled?”

“Three weeks. We’re going after a major Grogat Weapon’s Planet. I suspect there’s an even chance we won’t win this one.”

“Why not?”

“All of the inhabitants on that planet are armed and trained. We’ll have to go in and try to steal some of their technology and get out before the billions gather and wipe us out.”

Robby said, “You know that once you jump in on that planet, millions of their ships will be jumping in behind you.”

Root said, “We think we’ll be able to slow their approach by ten hours.”

Jon said, “How are you going to do that?”

“The Grogat have a teleportation suppression field that prevents our ships from teleporting in. We’ll have to use null drives to get there. However, in the first war between the first Stars Realm and my species, we used a device that also suppresses null drives from operating inside the normal null band. They’ll be forced to jump in ten hours from the planet. That’s how long we’ll have to make the theft, destroy the planet, and make our escape.”

Jon said, “You’ll also have to defeat the fleet they have at the planet. Our White Warriors will not be able to teleport inside their force fields and take them out, so it will be a ship to ship campaign.”

“That’s what’s slowing us up. We’re converting the Algean Attack Ships to use a null drive and we should have enough of them and our main battleships to take on that fleet. We’re jumping in four times their number.”

Gon said, “Are you going to delay bringing in the transports until the Realm’s fleet takes out the Grogat fleet?”

“We have to; the transports will be killed if they come in before that happens. If we find we can’t take them out, then we’ll destroy the planet and forget about stealing the technology.”

Sam said, “How many warriors are going to be used?”

“Half a million; we know where the construction facilities are located and we’ll be dropping in and taking out the defenses while our engineers take what we need. The Warriors will have to hold off the Grogat that will be coming in to prevent that theft.”

“Admiral, I’ll try to have my unit prepared in time, but I won’t send them if they’re not ready.”

Thom smiled, “You are like your ancestor. I’ll have the warriors ready for inspection in two days at the training planet.”

“Thank you, Admiral.” Sam looked at the Cat and said, “You’ve been quiet. Why are you here?”

“I’m looking for a creature that made an appearance at one of our recruiting offices about three months ago. I wanted to see if anything unusual had happened that you might have noticed.”

Jon said, “Why are you looking for this creature?”

“She is probably the most dangerous creature in our creation. She doesn’t come from either of the two creations we know.”

“Can you show us what you know?”

The Cat sent the participants around the table the image of the small creature and the Zord’s memory of the first meeting. Jon said, “She is so small.”

“Yes she is but she is more than you see. We’ve been unable to find it.”

Sam said, “She looks like a fairy.”

“I know and she tried to enlist in the Realm’s Warriors, but was turned down because of her size. We wonder if the creature is able to change her appearance and is possibly now in the ranks of our warriors.”

Sam said, “What are you going to do if you find her?”

“If she’s in the ranks, we are going to remove her and try to determine why she’s here. She doesn’t show up on any video, but she can be seen by those around her. She is also a blank to our minds.”

The beings around the table stared at the Cat and finally Jon said, “It appears we’ve not seen anything out of the ordinary.”

The Cat said, “Don’t be deceived by this creature’s appearance. It is the most deadly force you’ll ever encounter. Six million of them killed an entire Dremor invasion in less than fifteen minutes. This creature looks at war as no more than playtime and we’re nothing more than toys to be used and discarded. If you see anything, tell us.”

Jon said, “I’m sure we will. Thank you for informing us about this. I suspect Admiral Gardner will have to lead the investigation of all new trainees to see if anything turns up.”

Thom said, “That’s not going to happen until the next mission is completed. I’ll start the local forces looking into it, but it will have to wait for me to properly look into it.”

The Cat stood and said, “Thank you.” It immediately teleported out.

Jon said, “That was odd.”

Sam shrugged, “Not really.”

Thom frowned, “What do you mean?”

Sam sighed, “For the first time in more than a hundred years, four of us are able to hear the trace. The Cats had to wonder if that being has anything to do with it happening. If it did, it had to be close to the four of us hearing the trace.”

Jon tilted his head, “You’re right. What do you think it saw?”

“Nothing; if it detected anything we would be surrounded by the Zord and Cats to protect you, Your Majesty.”

Sam saw the Admiral shaking his head. “What?”

“My daughter is an idiot.”

Jon smiled, “That she is. She’ll come to her senses eventually.”

Sam looked at Dort and saw him mouth the letters, T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Sam laughed and Gon joined in. Thom looked at them and shook his head. He knew it wouldn’t matter. Sam was too smart to take her back. Or was he? Lyla was pretty persuasive when she put her mind to it.

The group finalized their plans and then ate the meal brought to them. Gregory came in and whispered in Jon’s ear. Jon looked around the table and said, “Sam, Robby, both of you should join me to view our citizens that have gathered.”

Sam said, “Give me a minute to change. Robby, my staff has a uniform for your position. Gregory will take you to be fitted.”

“Thanks, Sam. I don’t keep one with me.”

Sam looked at Gon and Dort and Gon said, “We’ll watch from the main wall.”

Sam nodded and went to change.

• • •

Gon, Dort, Jennifer, and Jixie were standing on the main castle wall looking down on the millions of people surrounding the castle. The crowd extended beyond the cleared land around the castle and well beyond the edge of the city as far as they could see. Jixie said, “Why are they here?”

Dort said, “To see the King and the two Dukes. This crowd is slightly bigger than the one that greeted Sam after initial training.”

Jixie looked at Dort, “Slightly bigger?”

“Sam rules this planet, Jixie. The people know that he has joined the warriors to defend the Realm. He’s laying his life on the line to defend them and they love him for it. They simply wanted the opportunity to see him so they can tell their children they saw the Duke if anything should ever happen to him. I was amazed when I saw it the first time and I’m still stunned at the magnitude of it.”

Jennifer said, “It is astounding.”

Gon said, “The people of Earth love Robby just as much, Jennifer.”

Jennifer turned and looked at Gon. “He’s the senior Royal behind his father on Earth. He is now in the Primary Succession behind Sam’s brother.”

Jennifer slowly shook her head, “He never gave a clue about his status in the Realm. This is something I never saw coming.”

Dort said, “Does it change anything?”

Jennifer sighed, “I don’t know.”

“You’ll do him a disservice to allow his title to scare you away. You should think about that. I can see he has feelings for you.”

“It’s just so overwhelming. I don’t know what to think.”

Gon said, “Don’t think…just remember who you got to know in training. He’s the same person. The title is only a part of who he is. Who will you find that’s better for you?”

Jennifer just turned and stared at the madly cheering crowds, “I just don’t know if I’m deserving of someone like him.”

Jixie said, “He probably feels the same way about you.” Jennifer looked at Jixie. “You really don’t know just how beautiful you are; both inside and out.”

Jixie knew the cat had left so she extended her mind and looked at the thoughts of the giant gathering. She extended her view and looked at Sam with Jon and Robby waving at the millions from the tallest spire. They were special. She discovered that she was with the very best beings this Realm possessed. She looked at the crowd again and decided that she would have to make sure Sam was also defended. She looked at Sam again and felt something. She didn’t know what it was but her heart was beating faster. She tried to slow it and it refused to do what she wanted. What was happening? She thought about how she could defend her friends and decided that a lot of her ability to do that was going to be determined by the things here armor was able to do. She was restricted to playing by the rules and that meant she had to use the toys of her chosen playmates. She knew that she’d have an answer to that tomorrow; that was when they were going to the armory. She noticed that when she had stopped looking at Sam and focused on her armor that her heart beat had slowed. Umm…that meant the increased rate had something to do with Sam. She focused on her downloads and finally decided that she just didn’t get it.

Sam stood on the Spire waving and saw the four at the lower castle wall. He saw Jixie and felt something tickle his memory. She reminded him of someone and he just couldn’t get it out of the back of his mind. He looked out at the crowds again and thought about her skill with the bow. He was still thinking about that when his brother left for Bristone.

• • •

The next day found the six standing in the Realm’s main armory. Sam looked at the group, “This is when we see if we are really going to be able to use the trace to select our weapons. Link now and start looking for the weapons that call to you.”

The four linked mentally and after a moment began moving around the Armory. Jennifer raised her head and appeared to be listening and then moved toward the far end of the vast room. Jixie activated her senses and saw an auto-cannon that stood out from the others near the ceiling in the center of the room. She also noticed five other auto-cannons that were glowing brighter than the others. She went to the rack with her choice on it and pressed the control unit on the pole next to the rack and lowered it to floor level. She climbed on top of the pallet and retrieved the cannon. She saw the others still moving slowly toward their weapon. She went to Dort and said, “Yours is in the rack on the back wall about halfway between the exterior walls.”