Ashes of the Realm - Greyson's Revenge (34 page)

Grace said, “I’m going to download a few records of what’s been happening.

After fifteen seconds Greyson said, “Is there any chance of bringing Varner and Kelly back?”

Grace said, “No, their partners were killed with them. It was Timmy that provided the pattern for your return.”

“Thank you, Grace.”

“No Greyson. Thank you for saving us.”

“It was the right thing to do. However, I’ve missed a lot. I don’t remember anything since I was transferred to a Zeta. Am I going to be transferred to a Zeta again?”

“No?”

“Why not Alex?”

“I’m not willing to risk the loss of your pattern. Another transfer is dangerous for you.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t sound so dejected, I have a few upgrades that will brighten your day.”

“What are those?”

“You are going to be the first Searcher to have the reflective hull installed as well as a connection to the teleporting energy system. You’ll actually be stronger than the current Zetas. Your screen will have access to almost unlimited energy to protect you.”

“Timmy, I’m sorry I’ve caused you so much sorrow.”

“You’re forgiven. Now we need to get you ready to go back to work. But first things first; Grace will you take Virze and I home. I need some time with her alone.

Virze smiled and came into his arms. The two disappeared.

“Grace, can this process be used again.”

“Unfortunately, no. Your partner survived which is extremely rare. Plus, all the ships that were converted to the Zeta’s didn’t have a partner at the time of their transfer. This is a onetime event.”

“Well, I’m thankful. Alex, let’s get started on the upgrades.”

“Right away; Grace, are you able to stay a while?”

“Yes, I am Alex.”

“Good.”

The Ten new Ruling Masters had the dead bodies of the former Masters removed. Tyl looked around at the other nine, “It seems leadership is now an occupation fought with deadly consequences. We don’t want to follow the examples set by the twenty former leaders. Number Two, when will the new ships be arriving?”

“The first half million will be here in two cycles.”

“We have been ordered to bring this universe under control and to make sure those we’ve previously conquered are performing at an acceptable pace.”

Three said, “I’ll make sure about the others.”

Tyl smiled, “I’ll hold you accountable. Number Seven and Eight, you will take responsibility for the current conquest.”

“What about finding the location of the universe sending those ships?”

“With the new ships, they will no longer be a concern. We’ll resume our conquests after the ships are here.”

Scotty and Robby were in the learning center with the two Algeans. The Algeans were absorbing everything that had happened since it was originally manufactured. Scotty looked at Robby, “Good work, Son.”

“It wasn’t me. Carter is the one that found them.”

“Even so, it happened on your watch.”

Weed leaned forward and said, “We’ve found something that is troubling.”

“What?”

“These Orange Beings don’t seem to operate in a normal fashion.”

“Of course not. They go around killing civilizations.”

“That’s not what I mean, Your Majesty. There are many examples of aggressive civilizations that do that. However, they normally follow certain behaviors that are standard for them to survive. It appears the Invaders are driven by compulsive behavior that is not survival driven.”

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“These beings remind us of some other species we’ve encountered.”

“Who?”

“The Spiders and later the White Creatures that were made to kill the Keepers.”

Robby said, “They’re someone’s tool.”

“More than that. Unlike the Spiders and White Creatures that were originally a viable species, these beings appear to have been totally designed.”

Scotty looked at Robby and then at Weed, “How do you know that?”

“Because the orange pod was also a designed life form.”

“What does that mean?”

“The Invaders actually are more deadly than any of the former tools we encountered. At least with them, life was left behind that could eventually achieve intelligence. The Invaders leave those spores behind and nothing will live on the destroyed planets. We know of only one Species that had this level of bioengineering; the Red Demons. This species creation is even beyond their capabilities based on what we learned after their defeat. This makes me consider that the Red Demons were also a development of the one that designed these beings.”

“But those Demons were ancient. Are you saying that whoever designed them is even older?”

“If our hypothesis is valid, yes. I see nothing in the pattern we’ve observed that indicates we’re wrong in our analysis. That being exists in another dimension.”

“Seed, can the Stars Realm help us?”

“They might but there is no way to contact them.”

“We know their galaxies are visible. Can’t we just go there and ask?”

Weed leaned in, “Have you ever seen the reflection of a distant mountain on the calm waters of a lake?”

“Sure.”

Well what happens to those distant mountains when you touch the surface of the lake.”

Scotty said, “Well, nothing. It’s simply a reflection.”

“Those galaxies you see are reflections in normal space of them as they appear in another dimension. We can’t reach them without a dimensional drive.”

“Shouldn’t they be keeping track of what’s happening here?”

“No, Robby. Remember that millions of primitive civilizations were moved to our galaxy from the Keeper’s universe. They will have their hands full of getting them developed. They’ve only been gone for a little more than two thousand years. I’m reasonably sure they may not want to see all the death from the civil war in this universe, either.”

“Well if this evil creative being exists, that you postulate, aren’t they also in danger. That being does have dimensional capability and it can attack the Realm.”

The two Algeans turned to each other and Seed said, “That is a real possibility that we’ve considered. However, we don’t believe the Realm has been discovered yet.”

“How would you know?”

“Because these Black Ships wouldn’t be wasted attacking here. They would be directed to attack the three galaxies.”

Scotty thought about that statement. “What can we do?”

“Not much. We’ve measured the force field surrounding the two ships that tried to capture one of your new Zetas and your current Zeta beam will not penetrate it or even make a hole. It took two Zeta Beams to make that temporary hole. We’ve also seen that their new beams will destroy the Zetas.”

Scotty took his left hand and rubbed his forehead, “It just never ends. We’re back where we started.”

“Not really.”

Scotty looked up, “Why not?”

“Because you have the Zord,” Weed looked at Seed and continued, “and us.”

“What are you saying?”

“Ross is in danger as well as our home. We will not stand by and do nothing. Our duty requires us to get involved in helping any way we can. We’re off the sidelines and in the game.”

“Do you think we stand a chance?”

“Probably not, but we have to try.”

Robby looked at his Father and Scotty said, “Welcome to my world.”

“You’re also leaving out something else.”

Scotty and the Algeans looked at him. Weed said, “What is that?”

A huge book shelf levitated off the floor and hung four feet off the floor, “Dani and I are now in the fight as well.”

Scotty sighed, “I hope it’s enough.”

“We’re just the first. There will be others. That means we have some time to prepare and we must use it wisely.”

Weed leaned forward and said, “There is also the creative force to consider.”

Robby nodded, “That’s why we’re here at this time and place. The Zord were created to meet this new enemy with us. They are also a creation. If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on them.”

Seed said, “First we find a way to kill the pods. That will bring that being out in the open where we can get at it. Then we see.”

Scotty stared at the two Algeans and worried about the vision that might appear.

The End

D
ani jerked wide awake from a nightmare that had her trembling, “Robby!!”

“What’s wrong!?!”

“I need you here, now!!”

Scotty teleported to Dani’s room on Bristone and reached for her. He saw her shaking and crying out of control, “What’s wrong. Tell me!”

Dani was breathing short breaths as she held on to Robby with all her strength. Robby wrapped her in his arms and said, “Shhhh, everything’s alright. I’m here now.” He rocked her slowly in his arms and she began to slow her breathing.

After ten minutes, she said with a quivering voice, “Everyone is going to die.”

Robby fought hard not to over react but felt his heart rate increase, “What do you mean?”

“I’ve had a vision and everyone in this universe is going to die.”

“Show me, Dani.”

Dani let him into her mind and he saw the vision she had just experienced. Scotty watched and felt his anxiety level skyrocket, “Are you sure this is a vision?” Dani leaned back and looked at him; he sighed and shook his head, “I just hoped that I saw it wrong. We need to tell my parents.”

Both of them suddenly started trembling. Dani wailed, “We can’t tell anyone!”

Robby was stunned; his sense of danger went off the scale when he thought about warning Scotty and Julie. The danger level was lower when he thought about saying nothing. “Oh, Robby, everyone is going to die.”

Robby looked at the vision of Bristone burning. The atmosphere had been blown away by one of the giant Black Ships and the continents were cracked down to the planet’s core, causing molten rock to spew miles above the dead planet’s surface. He saw that all of the Empire’s planets were burning just like Bristone. He knew from the vision that no planet with an intelligent species on it in this universe was still alive and that trillions had died. He also saw that he and Dani were on Bristone’s surface talking with his parents when the beam was fired. He heard the warning from Anglo and looked up at the night sky just before the Invader fired that terrible beam.

Dani put her head on his chest and continued to cry. This was a psychic vision and it was going to happen; there was no avoiding it. He looked at it again and felt fear and anger in equal measure. He looked down at Dani and took a deep breath. There was a reason for this; there had to be. He had to find it. He knew that even if he found it, life in this universe was ending soon and he couldn’t warn anyone about what was coming.

D
r. Christopher Connor has discovered a way to view the past. His invention collects light and focuses it such that events that occurred on Earth years ago can be viewed. All one need do is travel one light year away and one can see what was happening on the planet a year earlier by capturing and focusing the reflected light that left Earth a year ago. There’s only one problem: no ship exists that can travel faster than the speed of light, so his device cannot be conclusively demonstrated to function as advertised. That’s fine with Christopher, who would much rather party and have a good time rather than defend his creation against critics and governmental bureaucrats. Besides, who would pay to view the past anyway?

Jillian Gordon, an Egyptologist with a PhD in Quantum Physics, has discovered that the survival of Earth depends on viewing what happened at the building of the Great Pyramid of Khufu five thousand years in the past. Christopher’s device would allow her to do just that and she intends to draft him into the project. Christopher is about to discover that the organization Jillian works for has engineered a starship with a faster-than-light drive, which will now allow his device to be field tested. The stardrive for that ship was developed from diagrams carved on the back of an ancient stone tablet excavated at the site of the Great Pyramid.

Life for Christopher is about to make a radical departure from his party, happy-go-lucky lifestyle. Getting Christopher to focus on what needs to be done is a problem Jillian hadn’t counted on in her quest to save humanity. The predicted destruction of Earth, which is carved on the front of the tablet, doesn’t leave her much time and Christopher isn’t cooperating.

What neither of them know is that the answer to survival is more than sixty five million light years away in light that left Earth just before the mass extinction of the dinosaurs.

Love Conquers All

The Power of a Queen

A Rose Grows in Weeds

Tommy’s Tale

Searcher

Demon’s Sacrifice

Finding Keepers

Juliette’s Dream

Greyson’s Revenge

The Pyramid Builders

Planet Predators (April 2012)

S
axon Andrew is the author of the number one bestselling Annihilation Series. All seven books of the series have been a number one bestseller on Amazon’s kindle Science Fiction Series. Ashes of the Realm is the second series created by him and continues the history of the Stars Realm after its destruction. A third series, The Lens of Time, will be published in early 2012.

His books are written so that anyone can enjoy them and not worry about their children picking them up. He lives in Tampa, Florida with his wife and looks forward to each day so he can write the stories that his fans enjoy.