Annihilation - Finding Keepers (Annihilation Series (Book Seven}) (45 page)

The three hundred thousand ships jumped into the upper atmosphere of Del Robles and immediately accelerated toward the planet’s surface firing their main beams. The two continents on one side of the planet blew up in a huge blast, and everything was burned a hundred feet into the planet’s surface. The official designated to activate the probe to teleport the planet away was killed in the first Keepers’ blast.

The Keepers Fleet spread out, and in two hours the planet was a smoldering ball of bare rock. The Director jumped his fleet back to the home universe to report his success. Now they could destroy this new enemy and they looked forward to the next attack. For Del Robles, twenty billion died and the Realm lost another provincial capital.

The Gardners were in the map room discussing the cutting beam with Edison and Valerie when Joe rushed in the room and interrupted the meeting, “Valerie! The Keepers have destroyed Del Robles!”

Valerie stood, “How did they get through the frequency generator?”

“It appears they used their universal drives and jumped directly above the planet’s atmosphere. They accelerated to the planet’s surface and fired their weapons. The teleport official was killed in the initial volley.”

Valerie hit her com, “Move Ross now.”

“What?”

“I said teleport Ross right now. Don’t question one of my orders again or I’ll have you shot for treason.”

The Gardners looked at each other and listened as Valerie punched her communications panel. “Attention all members of the Star’s Realm. The Keepers have found a way to jump in to our planets. I am ordering your teleportation official to move your planets every ten minutes until we find a way to counter this new threat. You will activate the first move immediately.”

Valerie punched another key, “Sprig!”

“I’ve just heard, Your Majesty. We are working on how to deal with this new tactic.”

“In the meantime, I want you to order the teleport officials off-planet and to take station near the probe. At the first scan of a universal drive I want the planet teleported.”

“The Keepers Fleet will emerge from their drives in three seconds from the field being detected.”

“How much time does it take for the planet to be moved?”

“About two seconds.”

“Then get five ships up for every planet. There is only one second to respond and we can’t allow fatigue from constant surveillance to allow us to lose another planet. I would also suggest that shifts only last thirty minutes and overlapping ten minutes.”

“The orders are being sent.”

“Now, how can we make this a mechanical process?”

The Gardners listened to Valerie issuing her instructions and their opinion of her changed. Danielle had already seen the mettle of the young woman, but the others saw just a young, inexperienced ruler. She demonstrated that they were wrong.

Tag looked at Danielle, “You’re right. She deserves our respect.”

“I wasn’t much older when I assumed the throne, and Rose was even younger. Her psychic power is greater than Rose’s.”

Tag felt bad, and the other Gardners began to feel shame at how they had disregarded her opinions.

“We can set the probe to initiate the move when it detects a universal drive. However, it will take several rotations to send the instructions to the probes’ processors.”

“Then get on it. I’m sure the Keepers will try to take advantage of this tactic. I want the provincial capitals moved every ten minutes even if we have a mechanical answer.”

Sprig disappeared off her board.

“Jake, are you in this universe?”

“Yes, I am, Valerie. I’ve just received the news. I was talking with Sprig when you commed him, and I think you are doing exactly what needs to be done.”

“When are you coming here? We need to make some decisions.”

“Valerie, you are going to have to handle that end for the foreseeable future. Junior and I are tied up with this project. If you need any suggestions, call me. However, I’m sure the Gardners will help you with any serious threat to the Realm. I’m going to see if we can coat our Searchers with a new process so they can stand up to the Keepers’ main beams. I’m starting with the Brez Division Searchers, and if it works we’ll use it on the remainder of our fleets.”

Valerie sensed that Jake was not telling her the real reason for not coming, and she suspected that it had something to do with the Gardners. She pressed her com and said, “Just be careful and get back here as soon as you can.”

“I will, Love. Take advantage of the Gardner’s experience. They’ve survived this kind of conflict. I’m sure they’ll offer you good council.”

Melanie listened to Jake and still felt something was not right, but it could have been he was stressed over the loss of an important planet. She looked at Danielle and saw she was also sensing something.

“Sprig, how’s the development coming along?”

“I heard what you told Valerie, and you’re not far from the truth.”

“How’s that?”

“We have duplicated the material used to make the hulls on the white ships, and we are going to use it to coat the surface of ships that have been mothballed by the Realm.”

Jake thought about that a moment, “Tell me what you mean. I’m not sure I follow you.”

“If you take the Searchers from the Brez Division and bring them here to be armed, it won’t go unnoticed.”

“That’s true, but we have a cover story.”

“Which may not be believed, Jake. This way we will have the 100,000 ships ready for the pilots to come and use when we’re ready. If the Demon really did develop these ships to kill the Keepers, then their thought beams will not penetrate that white substance. We’ve also duplicated their scanners, and during a trial we were able to see every Keepers’ ship in our universe. They can’t hide anymore.”

“That is good! What about the beam?”

“Remarkably, that was the easiest part. It operates on a frequency outside the normal band we know. Once we got a reading on it, developing a weapon was simple.”

“When will you be ready?”

“I have more than twenty thousand of our planets working on it. We should be ready in less than ten rotations.”

“Then we are going to move the captured civilizations in nine rotations. I’m bringing the Brez Searchers in nine rotations as we move the farms.”

“We’ll let you know if anything slows us down.”

The Collective received the data and ordered, “Organize the ships into units and begin the invasion. Recall the fleets currently in that universe and get them organized into the major fleet.”

Production asked, “You’re not worried about that psychic weapon?”

“I’ll worry about it if they use it.”

“Get the scouts to start assigning targets. We need to use this method before the new enemy finds a way to counter it.”

Twelve million Keepers’ ships organized into forty fleets of 300,000 ships. The scouts began jumping in with target coordinates, and the forty fleets jumped.

Alex Jongo received the news about the destruction of Del Robles and actually held a private celebration. Duke Zenic posed a real problem to his mounting the Realm’s throne because of his own ambition, and now the Keepers had solved another problem for him. He contacted the military commander of the province and offered to lead his forces in the absence of a successor being chosen.

“Why would I turn my forces over to you? You haven’t been given the title of your own province.”

“Do you doubt that I will be the next Duke? You also need to ask why it is that two of the strongest planets in the Realm were allowed to be destroyed. You don’t seriously believe the story the crown is using to explain it, are you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Perhaps those devices designed to protect us were, shall we say, conveniently broken. Do you think that inexperienced child is worthy of the title? We all know that the Realm’s leader should be a strong, wise leader. One of our Dukes should have been given the title. Do you not also find it strange that one of the Realm’s ships attacked that universe and they responded to our unwarranted aggression? This is a clear attempt by the Realm trying to grab more subjects and power, but it backfired on them. Now, those of us in the Realm that can hold them accountable for their actions have been destroyed. We are paying the price of their unbridled ambition. Have you not heard your Duke say the Realm was not to be trusted?”

Admiral Teplig thought about what was being said, “What’s in it for my province to support you?”

“You need a new Duke. I’ll support you for that position once this affair is handled.”

The Admiral didn’t even need to think about that offer, “Count us in. Just make sure you keep your commitment.”

“Oh, you know I will. I need you to meet me to discuss how we will respond when the moment arrives.”

“Tell me where and when.”

Jongo had one more trip to make, then he would be ready. It would be a real shame if the probe protecting Nove Vista happened to be destroyed. Thank goodness for the stealth mode of his ship. He smiled as he entered Nove Vista’s current coordinates into his teleport unit; one more capital to meet a terrible fate.

Valerie was on board the Kosiev to see if the trial would work on the cutting beam when her com buzzed. She pressed it and saw Manny. “What’s wrong?”

“We’ve lost Nove Vista.”

“How? They were ordered to move the planet.”

“It appears that the probe was somehow destroyed and before another could be teleported in, a Keepers Fleet arrived and destroyed the planet.”

“Manny, what happened to that probe?”

“The ships that were monitoring for Keepers said that a red beam struck it.”

Valerie was stunned. Only Searchers had red beams. “What’s being said, Manny?”

“Ales Jongo is spreading a story that the Realm is destroying the provincial capitals and making it appear as if the Keepers are to blame. He says they are doing our dirty work for us.”

Valerie felt her rage build, and vowed to make Jongo pay for the billions that died on Nove Vista. “Where is Jongo now?”

“He’s meeting with the military leaders of the province and volunteering to assist them in their time of need.”

“Do you know if he did the same with Del Robles’ leaders?”

“They are being evasive. Admiral Teplig is not answering my calls ,and his second in command says he’s too busy protecting the province to waste time communicating with the Realm.”

“You better start planning a defense, Manny.”

“I’ve been working on it since the attempt on Ross, Valerie. However, if Jongo gets those two provinces to join him, he’ll have more than three times our ships to use against us.”

“Does Jake know?”

“Yes, and he says we need to keep the roof up and worry about the back door later.”

“Keep me informed.”

“What was that about?”

Valerie looked at Tag and said, “We are facing a civil war if we can survive the Keepers. We have a number of the provincial leaders that have been posturing to assume the Realm’s throne. They are beginning to make their move while we are distracted by the Keepers’ invasion.”

Tag’s expression turned hard.

“I’ll explain what’s happening after we get the current issues handled. There won’t be a Realm to fight over if we can’t find a way to stop this invasion.”

Tag looked at Danielle and she nodded.

Valerie turned and said, “Are we ready for the trial, Cassandra?”

“Yes, Alex, show us what you can do?”

The Kosiev was parked a mile from an asteroid belt, then moved its nose toward one of the larger rocks. A bright yellow beam erupted from the surface of the giant ship and struck the asteroid. The huge rock split in half. It was cut cleanly through the middle.

“Move out to fifty miles and try again.”

Once more a huge rock was split in half.

“Now a hundred miles.”

This time the rock took twenty seconds to split.

The Gardners began congratulating Cassandra. Valerie looked at the data and said, “Alex, how far were you from the Keepers Fleet when you felt their beams affect our processors?”

The group became instantly silent. “Three hundred miles, Your Majesty.”

“Tell me what you know about this new device you’ve just demonstrated.

“It will only work once. I should be able to kill one of their ships before they destroy my central processors.”

“And you’re willing to do it even if you can only kill one ship?”

“They are the Realm’s enemy.”

Cassandra sighed, “We are not willing to lose you for the destruction of just one ship.” She looked at Tag and he nodded.