Annihilation: Love Conquers All (2 page)

On their way out of the Earth’s system, the Cainth encountered one of Earth’s new battle cruisers returning from the Virgo cluster and proceeded to attack it. Unlike the first encounter, this Earth ship had new weapons and was able to hold off its attackers for an hour. It had more than two hundred ships chasing and firing at it, but it still managed to destroy two Cainth destroyers and disable a cruiser and battleship before it perished. The Cainth suddenly realized that in the future it might not be so easy to destroy this young civilization. The final message from the admiral was, “Next time we’ll bring four fleets.”

Even bad things sometimes yield good results. The weapon designers learned a great deal from that battle about the Cainth offensive and defensive capabilities, which would lead to great improvements in Earth’s ships’ armaments. The Directorate felt all along that Cainth visitors showed up looking for an excuse to eliminate a possible rival from the universe. Again, we have to thank the creator that not all races in the Alliance were as bloodthirsty as the Cainth. Another good thing that happened as a result of the Earth’ ship’s destruction was that the Cainth were reluctant to attack with only their fleets. The effectiveness of the Earth ship in battle concerned them, especially since they had no idea how many ships Earth had built. So from that point on, even if they had a reason to try and justify an attack, they had to persuade other members of the Alliance to join them. After a hundred years of hearing numerous petty reasons from the Cainth, most members of the Alliance just ignored them.

So he sat on the moon and thought about why twenty ships were looking for him. He guessed that stealing that ship frightened the Directorate enough to make sure it wouldn’t happen again. “They’re overreacting,” he thought. “Even I wouldn’t dare go outside the twenty-light-year limit. That would put Leila and Danielle in danger and I just wouldn’t do that. I was hoping to make it to a new colony located near Ross 248. Of course, since they didn’t know about Leila or Danielle, they couldn’t trust what I would do. Well, it shouldn’t last too much longer either way. A closer shot from a laser or suffocation would end it.” He wondered how much longer they would continue to look if they didn’t find his body.

He stood up and stretched his legs, moved a little deeper in the shadow, leaned back against the wall to relax, and fell back flat on his back. There was a hole in the wall leading into some kind of a cave. It was in the pitch-black of the crater’s shadow and he had sat down right next to the opening and hadn’t seen it. He stretched his arms out trying to touch the walls but could feel nothing within his reach. He took a few steps further in and turned on his small suit light and immediately saw a body lying at his feet. It had on a strange-looking blue spacesuit that appeared to not have any seams, and it looked to be about seven feet tall. He reached down to turn the body over and as soon as he touched the suit several things happened at once. The opening to the cave instantly disappeared and was replaced by solid rock, lights came on, and he felt and heard a roaring vibration that ran through his entire body. As he fell to his knees in fear he saw a small ship in the back of the cave and knew that because of his stupidity he had just placed Leila, Danielle, and all of mankind on the path to total and complete annihilation.

H
is name was Thomas Anglo Gardner and he was a pretty normal five-year-old. He spent his days in school and his evenings with his mother and father. Life was fun and always full of games, learning, and new experiences. He was a good student and loved math, particularly geometry. He seemed to have a flair for shapes and how they related to each other. He could put puzzles together in record time. He enjoyed his classmates and they liked being around him. You can say he played well with others. He had a quick smile and didn’t mind laughing at himself. He was average in appearance: medium height, light brown hair, and green eyes. It was easy to overlook him until you looked into his eyes; then you could see there was a lot going on and that he possessed a good measure of intelligence.

He had just finished playing tag with his best friend, Eric. They were both out of breath and were lying on the lawn in front of Eric’s home, looking up at the quickly darkening sky as the first stars made an appearance. Eric’s home was on a small hill on the outskirts of Central City, and the spires of the government buildings could be seen in the distance reflecting the setting sun off their crystal windows. Both boys loved looking at the stars and dreaming about someday flying a starship out into the galaxy. The night was coming quickly, and the hum of the insects as they flew around coupled with the drone of the floaters flying far overhead gave a peaceful background noise to the evening. Eric was taller than Thomas, with red hair and a demeanor to match; he was constantly getting into things. His mother had told Thomas’s mother that if the world was a bucket, then Eric was a spoon; he kept things stirred up. Thomas thought that Eric was the most fun to be around of anyone he knew, and Eric played off him constantly. They lay on their backs and stared up at the stars in silence; then Eric rolled over and asked with frustration in his voice, “Why can’t I catch you? I know I’m faster than you are but I can’t ever catch you.”

Thomas laughed and said, “Because no one can catch the tag master; he’s uncatchable. No one in the universe can catch him.” Then Thomas poked Eric in the ribs and laughed even louder.

“I want to know why I can’t catch you.”

Thomas looked at his best friend, who had a very serious expression, and said, “I don’t know. I just go in another direction than the one you’re going. I see which way you’re going and I go the other way.”

“How do you see which way I’m going?”

“Your shadows give you away.”

“Duh, if you haven’t noticed, it’s dark.”

“I don’t mean that kind of shadow,” he said, just as Eric’s mother came through the front door and shouted, “Eric, get in this house right now. You’ve left your room in a mess and you know you’re supposed to be in when it gets dark.”

“Eric’s in trouble, Eric’s in trouble,” Thomas began chanting as they jumped up, and they both laughed as they ran up the grassy slope and through the front door, their game of tag forgotten as they headed upstairs.

One of Thomas Gardner’s favorite games was tag. He was the tag master in his class at school not because he was so fast, although he had good speed, but it seemed just before you could touch him he would dodge just out of reach. No one could catch him. His schoolmates started calling him by his initials, T A G. Somehow the name stuck and from the first level on he was just known as Tag. If you asked his playmates if they liked Thomas, they wouldn’t know who you were talking about; everyone knew him as Tag. Even his teachers began calling him that. His playmates didn’t give much thought as to why he was uncatchable but just assumed he was really quick. If you asked Tag why he couldn’t be caught, he’d say, “I go one way, they go another.” His teachers noticed occasionally that he would start to stand up just before they would ask him a question. They thought this was due to his paying close attention and seeing he was about to be called on. All in all, if you asked anyone who knew him they would tell you he was just a normal, everyday five-year-old. Nothing was farther from the truth.

At home his father would talk with him about life and the things he would have to do to be successful. Often they would lie on the floor in their family room and his father would lift him up and he would pretend he was flying. He would close his eyes and feel all the things surrounding him in the room. Tag always looked forward to this time of day. His father had a good job but he had to work long hours, so Tag was always excited when he came home and his father was there.

“I’m flying, I’m flying,” Tag yelled and held his arms out as his father lifted him and swung him back and forth and side to side while they rolled on the floor.

“You’re landing now,” his father said as he dumped Tag on the floor. Then he said, “Oops, crash landing,” and began tickling him until they both were laughing hysterically. “Thomas, when you grow up it’s important that you study hard and have good scores in school. You could be a pilot of one of our star ships and see the galaxy. Then you’d fly for real.” With that his father picked him up and ran with him to his room to get ready for bed.

“Aw Dad, let’s play some more. It’s not late. Please!”

His father handed him off to his mother and said, “We have an angry space pilot here. See if you can land him in bed,” and then they both laughed as she hugged him and swung him around in circles.

At night his mother would hold her little boy close to her breast and feel the life beating within him as she read to him. From the day he was born she had loved him more than life itself. He was such a good boy who never gave her any problems, and he seemed to always know what she wanted. Sometimes at night she would watch him sleep and wonder just what the world held in store for him. She often thought he was pretending to sleep and that he knew she was there the whole time. She didn’t know it, but she was right. No one could look at Tag without him sensing it. He didn’t know this was a special ability; he thought everyone could do it. He was seven years old when he discovered that just wasn’t the case.

It was the year of his fourth level in school, and one day during playtime his teacher suggested they learn a new game called hide-and-seek. She explained that someone would hide and then she would try to find them. The only rule was you could not go outside the blue line surrounding the playground. She quickly found the first ten students that had tried to hide. There just weren’t very many places where they could completely conceal themselves. They all stood in a playground that was only sixty yards square. One side was totally bordered by the school building and cafeteria. The far side of the playground had a fence but the two interior sides simply emptied out into streets. No one had successfully hidden. Then it was Tag’s turn, and he didn’t try to hide behind anything. When the teacher closed her eyes and counted to ten, he simply walked around behind her and waited for her to start looking. The teacher then began walking around the playground searching everywhere. Tag bent low and followed her around the yard, and each time she turned he would step around her, away from the direction she was turning, so that she would barely miss seeing him. The other students thought this was hysterically funny and began laughing out loud. After ten minutes the teacher put her hands on her hips and demanded to know what was so funny. The students told her that Tag was right behind her. She turned around quickly and he wasn’t there. She turned around the other way and he still wasn’t there. They only laughed harder. With exasperation in her voice, she finally said, “Okay, I give up. Where are you?” Tag stepped out from behind her and the teacher noticed they were standing very close to the blue line. Play time ended and his teacher asked Tag to stay a few minutes after school.

After school his teacher handed him an envelope and asked him to take it home and give it to his mother. Tag smiled, took the envelope, and put it in his backpack. It didn’t even occur to him to open the note and see what it said. He laid it on the kitchen table when he got home and told his mother about it when she walked through the front door. She opened the envelope and read the note. She sat down, and Tag could see that something was bothering her. “What’s wrong, Mom?” he asked.

“Tell me what happened at school today, Thomas.”

Tag walked over and sat down on the little green footstool in front of her chair, looked up at her, and said, “Nothing, really; we spent the first part of the day studying history and we had a playtime learning to play hide-and-seek.”

“Tell me about how you played hide-and-seek.”

“It was really pretty simple and fun. When the teacher closed her eyes, I walked around behind her and then moved so she couldn’t see me.”

“She thinks you left and hid outside the blue line against her instructions.”

“No, Mom! I was right behind her the whole time. All the other kids saw me. You know how you move when you don’t want someone to see you.”

His mother looked him in the eye with a furrowed brow and slowly said, “No, Thomas, I don’t. What do you mean, so they can’t see you?”

“Well, you know how there are shadows around every person that shows where they are not looking or going to look.”

His mother looked even more puzzled and said, “I’m not sure I understand what you are saying. Why don’t you show me?”

“Great, do you want to hide first?”

“No. I want you to do exactly what you did today. I’ll count to ten and you hide, but you can’t leave this room.”

“Okay.”

She stood up and placed her hand over her eyes, counted to ten, opened her eyes, and began searching for Thomas. She looked behind the sofa, the desk, the chair, and in the hallway. After five minutes she was certain that he was nowhere to be found in that room. Then she had a thought. “Thomas,” she said, “stay exactly where you are and don’t move.” She turned around and there he was, right behind her.

“How do you do that?” she asked.

“You know, Mom. I just move away from where you’re going to look.”

She looked at her little boy and said, “I’m still not sure I understand. Do you mean to say you know where my eyes are looking?”