Ultimate Warrior (The Fight for Creation (Book Three)) (25 page)

“But we’re going to have to work together. He should know he’s important to me.”

“What do you think Mitch would have done if you told him what you just said to me?” Jixie looked down at her console and said, “I have just received a transfer request from Ken.”

“I don’t understand!”

“Let me help you, Dear. I’m going to send you the image of you yelling at Ken and I want you to pay close attention to your expression.” Pixie watched the images and saw the rage and hatred on her face. “You just revealed your inner self to a man that can see patterns better than anyone I’ve ever seen. He looked into your soul Pixie and found you wanting. He loves you and what you just did hurt him more than you know. He has taken his ship to Fleet Headquarters. I am not going to lose him. I am going to assign him to my squadron.”

“Should I try to tell him I didn’t mean it that way?”

“He’ll know you’re lying.” Jixie paused and said, “I’ve never been ashamed of anything you’ve ever done.”

Pixie thought, “Until now.”

Jixie said, “Until now.”

• • •

Ken teleported in to Sam’s squadron and Jixie teleported to his ship. “Ken, try to understand…”

“Your Majesty, I do understand. I knew going in that she loved Mitch. She’s never once said she loves me. She said she missed me and was bored when I wasn’t there. She says she likes being around me. I don’t blame her; I really don’t. I’m just not able to compete with a ghost and the pain would be too much to see her now and know what is in her heart. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

Jixie looked at Ken, “What about you?”

Ken slowly lowered his head and shook it, “I enlisted to be near her. But now I see the real danger these new enemies represent and I can’t turn my back on defending the Realm. I know my talents and the Realm needs them. I’ll be alright.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty. Don’t blame her. She is the most remarkable woman I’ve ever met. You do have a wonderful daughter. You should be proud.”

Pixie sat on her ship as she listened to Ken and felt her heart breaking. She was confused and felt lost. She said, “Mom, I’m going home.”

“I’ll meet you there after we meet with the Blue Leader.”

“I want to be left alone, Mom.”

“That’s when you should not be alone, my love.”

Ken looked at Jixie, “What?”

“Pixie is going home. She’s really in a fog mentally.”

Ken turned and looked out of the view port. “Let’s get this done, Your Highness. She’s not alone.”

• • •

The Supreme Beetle looked at the chosen speaker for the inhabitants and said, “What do you want us to do first?”

“We want our cities back and some farm machinery that will make the plantings and harvestings easier.”

“We will start work on your ten largest cities first. However, I’m afraid the machinery we use would not function for anyone without our mental abilities.”

“We can help with that issue.”

The Beetle and Speaker turned around and saw two strange beings standing behind them. The Beetle looked at them and said, “I was hoping you would find us again.”

Jixie thought, “We will send some farming equipment here and it can be paid for at a later date.”

The Speaker said, “How will we pay you?”

“With what you grow. Your productivity should go up tremendously and it will take fewer of you to tend your fields.”

“Who are you?”

The Beetle said, “They are the ones that taught us about the entity.”

Jixie looked at the inhabitants and thought where they could all hear, “Your hatred of this species is misplaced. They’re not evil. They just didn’t have all the facts. Once they learned the truth, they changed what they were doing.”

The Speaker said, “You haven’t lived under their control.”

Jixie said, “You don’t know what control really is. Allow me to show you what the really evil species do with planets they conquer.”

Jixie sent images of planets conquered by the Swarm, Demons, Black Ships, and many other truly evil civilizations. Even the Beetle was shocked at what he saw. He looked at Jixie and said, “Will we be excluded from hearing the music?”

Jixie smiled, “The very fact that you could hear it in one of our minds tells me that once you complete your growth, you’ll be allowed to hear her.”

“May I hear her now?”

Jixie looked at Ken and he sent the music to everyone gathered around the Supreme Beetle. Jixie thought to Ken, “Let them hear it for a while.”

Ken sat down and broadcast the music for an hour. Then he stopped. The Supreme Beetle continued to hear it for another thirty minutes and then it faded. Everyone present could see the immediate change in the Beetle’s posture. “Thank you.”

Ken said, “I haven’t sent the music to you for the last thirty minutes. You heard it on your own.”

“Really!”

Jixie said, “That tells me that you are moving in the right direction.”

The Speaker looked at the Beetle and said, “Now I understand.” All of the inhabitants nodded.

The Supreme Beetle looked around and said, “We just didn’t know about her.”

The Speaker smiled, “And now you do.” He looked around and said, “And we do as well.” He looked at the Beetle and said, “Let’s build something special here.”

The Beetle actually changed colors as it said, “That is exactly what we’re here to do.”

Jixie looked at the Beetle and said, “I need to know how to contact you.”

The Beetle sent a frequency to her mind and said, “Use it when you need us.”

Jixie smiled and said, “Thank you.”

Suddenly the Beetle looked around and heard the music all around him. He looked at Jixie and she said, “The inhabitants are able to hear the music. Any time you want to hear it come here.”

The Beetle shook, “You don’t know how much the Nest is going to fight over whom gets to come here to build.”

The Speaker smiled, “That is a very good thing for us.”

Ken and Jixie teleported away and Ken found himself in Pixie’s room in Castle Gardner. He started to get angry but heard Pixie softly crying on her bed. He looked at her with her eyes closed and tears falling and heard Jixie say in his mind, “I have prevented her from seeing you. If you want to leave, I’ll send you to your ship.”

Ken continued to stare at Pixie and then he went forward and put his hand on her shoulder and said, “I’ll come back and work with you, Pixie.”

Pixie’s eyes flew open and she saw him beside her. She jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck and wept. Ken stroked her hair, “Shhhhh, it’s going to be alright. I won’t walk away again.”

She leaned back and punched him on the arm and went back to hugging his neck, “You should know that I have demons inside me. You know what I went through when I lost Mitch. I can’t bear losing another man I love. I just can’t bear it.”

Ken looked at her and tilted his head, “What are you telling me?”

“It took this to make me see it. I don’t want to live without you. I can’t live without you.”

Ken pulled her close and saw the new pattern. Mitch’s ghost had left with Pixie’s rage. He held her tight and continued to stoke her hair until her tears stopped. “I’ll always be here.”

Pixie sniffled, “Just make sure you don’t forget it.”

Ken kissed her on the forehead and said, “I won’t. I have a good memory.”

Pixie wrapped her arms around ken’s neck and really kissed him for the first time. This was a moment Ken would always remember and the pattern fit him perfectly.

• • •

Sam, Jixie, Ken, and Pixie were in Sprigly’s office and Sprigly was analyzing Ken’s attack patterns. The four watched him and Sam said, “There must have been some thought put behind those patterns.”

Ken looked at Sam, “Why do you say that?”

“For an Algean to take this long is surprising.”

“The patterns do involve an enemy ship’s angle to the attack and the angle of the beams on its hull; the ship’s speed also plays a role in which pattern will work best.”

Sprigly thought, “Now that is interesting.”

Sam said, “How so?”

“If the correct pattern is chosen, the enemy is probably going to end up with a dead ship.”

Ken said, “But you have concerns about them.”

Sprigly looked at Ken and said, “How do you know that?”

“It’s clear in the way you move your branches.”

“You have got to be kidding me. Are you able to read my body language?”

“The minute color change when you completed your analysis also gives away your concern.”

Sprigly stared at Ken and said, “You might be the first human to ever be able to do that. However, what do you think my conclusion is?”

“Humans won’t be able to make the proper decisions in time.”

Sprigly just stared at Ken. Sam said, “Sprigly, is he right?”

Sprigly shook himself and said, “I’m sorry; I was looking at Mr. Clarke’s mind and was lost in the intricacies. I don’t think we’ve ever seen a mind structured like yours.”

Pixie said, “What do you mean?”

“The power I see there is…different. You should possess massive psychic abilities but I don’t detect a psychic field around you.”

“I’m not psychic, Sprigly.”

“Well, you should be and you’re right, which is another shock. Humans will not be able to make decisions fast enough to make this work.”

Pixie said, “But Ken can do it.”

Sprigly raised a branch and said, “Ok, then bring me sixty other humans with a mind just like his and I’ll change my mind.”

Sam said, “I don’t think we have any others like him.”

Ken said, “You’re going to suggest we use Algeans to fly our ships.”

“Are you a freaking mind reader?”

“No, but the pattern is clear. What species in the Realm has the fastest reflexes, makes millions of computations a second, can stay mentally connected to the other crews?”

Sam said, “Only the Algeans.”

Ken said, “Are there any that would want to fly with us?”

Sprigly put a branch under his flowering head and said, “Let me see….we don’t have more than several billion at this moment.”

Ken started laughing and Sprigly said, “Tell me I fooled you that time.”

“You meant to say trillion.”

“Drat. You’re good.”

Jixie said, “Sam and I have looked at your plan and we think we’ve come up with a better solution.”

Ken looked at Jixie and said, “You’re planning to join us.”

Jixie leaned back and Sprigly said, “Welcome to shocksville, Your Highness.”

“That is exactly what we’re planning. How do you see us doing it?”

“I developed this plan around using Pixie to get into their ranks. The real danger is that she is delayed getting back to the first ships to allow them to hide in her invisibility field. If there are two invisibility fields, the first ships will go in and attack and the second field will pick them up as it moves into the enemy’s ranks. The second field will then move ahead into the next targets and deliver its ships and the ships from the first attack. The first field will wait for the second to pass and pick up the ships as they complete their assignments. The first will continue forward and drop the ships at new targets while the second waits for it to pass. This process could be used all the way across an enemy’s formation.”

Jixie looked at Sam and said, “This explains a lot.”

Ken said, “What?”

“How Russell Slade’s commands were so successful. That is exactly what we came up with.”

Ken said, “We will be restricted in the number of ships we can use.”

Sam said, “Why is that?”

“We’ll be limited by the size of the smallest field. Pixie’s field is nowherenear as large as yours, Your Highness.”

Jixie looked at Pixie and said, “Show me how you extend your field.”

Pixie extended her field and the entire station disappeared. Jixie said, “Pixie, use this part of your mind.”

Pixie felt her mother’s mind stimulate a section of her cortex and she said, “Is that how you do it?”

“It is.”

The field rapidly expanded and Pixie said, “I didn’t see this.”

“Well, we are still limited to a twenty mile width.”

“Why, Mother?”

“Because the Senior put that restriction on me.”

“I don’t have that restriction, do I?”

“No, you don’t.”

“Then I could use a fifty mile width and deliver an entire fleet into the enemy’s formations without being seen coming.”

“Yes, but how am I going to hide them afterwards?”

Ken said, “Let me think about that.” Ken turned to Sprigly, “When will our ships and pilots be ready for training?”

“Your pilots and ships will arrive together in six days. The Pilots are learning their ships as we speak and will be flying them here when they complete training. More than eight hundred are competing to be a part of your squadron so you’ll be getting the best.”

“Sprigly, send them out in three ship groups during training and see which of them work best together.”

“I’ll notify the training staff.”

J
on looked at Admiral Mirabal on his display, “Have you determined where they are going next?”

“We have, Your Majesty. I don’t believe that we’ll stop them but we’ll make the difference.”

“What is this species called?”

“Actually, no one has ever encountered them and lived. Unless they volunteer to tell us their name we can call them whatever we choose.”

Jon thought a moment and said, “Their ships are bronze in color. Call them the Bronze Destroyers.” Jon paused, “We’re just not able to match their technology, are we?”

“We’re close but not close enough to win when they bring in large numbers. We have to hit them with more than triple their number of ships and we still end up losing most of our ships.”

“Keep me informed.”

“I will. If they keep to their former schedule, they’ll attack in three weeks.”

Jon nodded and ended the call. He felt his nervousness; Mica was going to be involved in the next battle. He sighed and went to reassure Miranda and Scotty.

• • •

Pixie and Ken sat onboard the command ship for their two squadrons. Sam and Jixie had determined that they needed to work together. After a few trials, they determined that Pixie’s parents were right. Ken watched the exercise and said, “It’s a good thing we have two invisible fields to hide in. I don’t know if we could have made that original plan work.”