Escape to Earth-The Legacy of a Conqueror (4 page)

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“If you send another ship here to scout my civilization, I will take my forces to your galaxy and find your civilization. I will blast your planets down to bedrock and destroy every warship you possess. If you aren’t willing to let this go and you choose to become a threat to us, I will remove you as a danger.”

“Your threats don’t frighten me.”

“Chad, kill the other ships.” Chris saw the horror in the scouts mind as it watched the signals from the other scouts disappear from its panel. Chris fired a Dark Energy beam a hundred yards away from the small scout and saw its force field drop. “I hope you got a good reading on that beam. I am going to allow you to go and tell your leaders that I will not tolerate your stupidity again! If I suspect you are even thinking about attacking us, I will visit your worlds and introduce them to thousands of those beams. Your warships will only need to know one of them.” The scout looked at his panel and read the energy of the beam that knocked out his force field. He instantly felt his anger disappear and turn into fear. Chris smiled, “Now leave or I’ll destroy you. Go tell your leaders what awaits them if they demonstrate their stupidity again. If you choose not to go, I’ll go tell them myself with my fleets!” The Scoutship ignited his ship’s thrusters and flew away in the void at its fastest speed.

“Was it necessary to kill those other ships?”

“Sometimes you have to get someone’s attention before they’ll listen to reason. They have to fear us and know we will not tolerate their aggression. We are still going to have to deal with that civilization in the future.”

“Why not now?”

“They are helping us keep M-87 in check. We need them to fill that role for a while.”

The wall speaker said, “Audrey, you didn’t hear that being’s thoughts. They do not know how to play nice with others and they are as vicious as any creature I’ve ever encountered. Chris is right, we will have to handle this issue eventually.”

Audrey sighed, “Ok Barbie.” She turned to Chris, “Is this how we’re going to handle things in the future?”

“I suspect things will get harder than this. I may have to kill trillions before this is over.” Audrey stared at him and Chris said, “I will not tolerate our baby being attacked by aliens.” Audrey started nodding and put her arms around his neck, “Do what you have to do. I will support your choices, whatever they are.” Chris hugged her and turned his thoughts to the Fellowship.

L
ukas looked at the three faces on the split screen monitor in his office, “It’s good to see all of you.”

The Welken Royal smiled, “The new communication probes are really remarkable. This saves a lot of time having to come to your planet to talk.”

Lukas smiled, “Thank you. We have a string of them set up between your civilizations and ours. We deem it important that we are all on the same wavelength.”

“Why have you asked for this meeting?”

Lukas stared at them and then said, “I have instituted a new policy on how we will deal with aggressive civilizations that intend to attack us and you need to know about it before we move forward.”

The Johan Ruler’s eyes turned into slits and he said, “I hope it has to do with stopping this waiting for them to come and attack us!”

“As a matter of fact, it does.”

All three Rulers’ were shocked by the statement. The Johan’s head moved side to side, “I was kidding.”

“Well, we’re no longer going to wait for our enemies to come and try to destroy our civilizations.”

The Welken leaned back on his throne, “Do you intend to go out and conquer them?”

“I do.”

“I thought you were steadfastly against doing that?”

“I have been.”

“Why have you changed your position?”

“Because the females in my civilization don’t deserve to live in fear of their children being killed by Invaders. I intend to remove their fear as well as remove those that wish us harm.”

The Myot and Johan looked at the Welken on their monitors and waited for him to speak. The Royal stared at Lukas and leaned forward, “My people fear the danger that your civilization represents to the universe. Your power has grown beyond anything I ever thought possible.”

Lukas nodded, “You fear that absolute power will corrupt absolutely?”

“That’s how it’s always been in the past.”

“You feel this way because your civilizations have not been given all of our technology?”

“Something like that.”

Lukas smiled, “All three of you have attacked my planet in the past. Can you understand why I might also worry about giving it to you?”

The three Ruler’s looked at each other on their monitors and the Royal finally said, “I think we can understand your reluctance.”

“You have proven yourselves during the trial of my Fleet Commander. I have made him the Supreme Commander of all my military forces and have charged him to assume the role of a Conqueror to go out and remove our enemies.”

The Myot nodded, “He would be a good choice. He is not driven by a lust to destroy and kill needlessly.”

Lukas looked at the Myot, “No, he’s not. But I know he won’t hesitate to kill where it’s needed. He just killed five Scout ships that were sent here by the galaxy that attacked the Green Civilization. He sent the sixth one back to that galaxy to tell its leaders that if they send another scout here he will take our fleets to their galaxy and burn all of their planets down to bedrock and destroy every warship they possess. You should know that threat was not made in jest. He is capable of doing it and will if they violate his prohibition.”

The Welken lowered his eyes, “I thought you didn’t believe in destroying planets with civilians on them?”

“Where are their warships being built?”

The Welken stared at Lukas and after a moment shrugged, “You are of course correct. You are sounding much more like one of my warriors instead of a human.”

“Actually, you should know that the human species has it in them to be the most vicious species in this universe, especially when defending their families. I’ve just fought that part of my mind in the past.”

“And you say this to make us feel better.”

“Your three civilizations are now part of our family. We will be giving you all of our technology and ask you to fill a role in the coming campaign to remove the threats to our people.”

The Johan moved side to side again, “I find it difficult to believe you would do that knowing we once attacked you.”

“I will ask you one more time, do you trust us to defend you against all enemies and can I trust you to defend us with all you possess if my people are attacked?” The three looked at each other and they all nodded.

The Welken looked at Lukas, “You mentioned we will fill a role in your plans. What role do you see us doing?”

“If you will look in your scanners, you will each see a large silver colored battleship just arriving above your planets.” The three looked away from the monitor and all of them showed their shock.

The Myot shook his large head and said, “My Fleet Commander says that ship flew through his defense formations faster than they could respond.”

“Those three ships are about as fast as our small attack ships. They are more powerful than anything we possess and our Dark Energy reactors power their weapons and systems. I am giving each of you the ship above your planet along with their blueprints and ask you to start building them. We will take them to have the special coating put on them when they are built and you will use them in the coming conflict. Those new battleships are capable of destroying our small ships.”

The Welken smiled, “So we really have no reason to fear you?”

“You don’t any way, Great One. However, your three species are used to flying large ships and I suspect you wouldn’t adjust well to flying our small ships.”

The Myot nodded, “I think you’re right. How do you see us using these ships?”

“We have developed a special suit of armor that is also powered by our new reactors. You saw two of them when the trial took place. We are building those suits at an incredible speed and we want you to take them and train your warriors on attacking the surface of a planet.”

“We’ve not done that in the past.”

Lukas looked at the Johan, “No, but you’ve dropped your forces on planets to take possession of them when you nuked one of its cities. You are equipped to use them to subdue the forces on a planet’s surface. Those battleships will move into orbit above a targeted planet and drop our warriors to the surface. My species will also have warriors in that armor that will go in first and soften up the defenses.”

“How will they get to the surface?”

Lukas looked at the Welken, “Their small ships will take them down and give covering fire. Once the major defenses have been neutralized; the heavies, that would be your warriors, will drop in and take control.”

The Welken smiled, “This would prevent having to destroy the planet?”

“It will be one way to take control but we won’t hesitate to bombard a planet if the situation calls for it. Your battleships would be used to do that.”

The Myot said, “You called our warriors the heavies. What do you mean by that?”

“My warriors will have a lighter suit of armor and will be built for speed. Your armor will have a heavy disruptor and a rotary cannon on them. Three of your warriors will be capable of leveling a city.”

The Royal started nodding, “I can see you’ve thought this through. Do you think we will have time to build the necessary forces to do this?”

“We are currently in a stalemate. The Invaders can’t attack us without the other two galaxies attacking them. The civilization that attacked the Green Civilization can’t attack us without M-87 attacking them. M-87 can’t attack them without the galaxy they previously conquered attacking them.”

“So everyone is frozen at the moment?”

“Yes, and all of them will be building up their forces at their fastest speed. At the moment, we have a lead in technology and we’ve not revealed most of our weapons to them…yet. We have an advantage and I believe we will have time to build.”

The three rulers looked at each other and Lukas knew what they were thinking. The Welken looked at him, “And your species will be commanding our forces?”

“Not like you think.”

“How is that?”

“The human you put on trial will command all of our forces, including our own. We will all follow his orders whether we agree with them or not. He will be our Conqueror.”

“So he will rule all of us?”

“Until his task is completed, he will. At that point, the four of us will sit down and determine how we will live and work together.” Lukas smiled, “Do you have anyone that is telepathic and possesses the skills he has demonstrated. I’m open to your suggestions.”

The Royal smiled, “You and he are related.”

Lukas was surprised by the Welken’s remark and he sighed, “He is my son.”

The Welken smiled, “That also makes him related to me. I will accept your suggestions and will do all I can to make them a reality.”

The Johan leaned forward, “I will also accept them.”

The Myot smiled, “I trust the Welken with my people’s lives. If this Conqueror is related to the Royal, I will also accept him.”

“Before you speak too quickly, you should know that he intends to clip the claws of the other Fellowship Civilizations.”

The Johan smiled, “That is where he should start. They would interfere if given the chance.”

Lukas looked at the Welken, “How do you feel about that?”

“I don’t like it but I will swear that my forces will follow his orders. I can live with doing what he directs us to do. I will not second guess him.”

“Good. I want the three of you to take a shuttle up to the battleship we’ve sent to your planets and go with them.”

“Where are they going?”

Lukas smiled, “To handle the Fellowship. You should bear witness to what happens.”

“Will you be going?”

“I will arrive in a fourth battleship within an hour.”

“May we take the Leader of our forces with us?”

“I would suggest you do. They should also see what’s going to happen.”

The three looked at each other and the Johan smiled, “Come on! You both know you want to see this.”

The Welken and Myot Rulers smiled and said, “We will be on board by the time you arrive.”

• • •

Jinks walked into Lukas’s office as the conference with the three rulers ended. It was fed to every monitor in the One World Military. Lukas saw Jinks’ expression and waited for him to speak. “I know you had to worry about how I was going to receive this promotion of your son.”

“The thought has entered my mind.”

“You shouldn’t worry about it Lukas. He proved to me during the last battle that he’s better for the job. It grates my nerves that I did come to the right answer but not fast enough.”

“That’s not why I chose him over you.”

“It’s not? Then why?”

“Because he’s telepathic and can hear the thoughts of our enemies during battle. The time saved by having him make immediate decisions instead of communicating what he’s learned to you could be the difference between life and death.”

Jinks nodded slowly, “That makes sense. I would have thought that you would take the position.”

“I’d choose you over me, Jinks. If something happens to Chris, you will replace him.”

Jinks tilted his head, “How am I a better choice than you?”

“Because the Welken Royal liked you from the first moment he met you. That is something that is worth much more than you know. Where he goes, the other two will follow. It almost made me pick you over Chris but his telepathic gift is the trump card.”

Jinks smiled, “I can see you still see the big picture better than anyone else. I’m glad we had this conversation.”

“Jinks, are you going to be ok following Chris’s orders without question?”

“He’s your son, Lukas. I’ll do as he orders and I’ll ask questions afterwards. However, I do suspect that what happens afterwards will probably clarify any issues I might have.”

“Jinks, I need you to get the warriors being chosen to drop on enemy planets organized and trained.”