Ashes of the Realm - Greyson's Revenge (25 page)

Timmy sighed and then smiled, “There is that, my friend. Send me to Virze. I need to be with her.”

“Yes, Your Grace.” Timmy flinched. “You’ve forgotten.”

“Yes, I guess I did.” Timmy disappeared from the bridge.

Rehoben rushed into Jilico’s personal quarters. The King had been trying to activate his broadband communicator and Rehoben was worried. Jilico had not been happy for many years and he had noticed a change in his personality. He was trying to do something. But what was it. He rushed up to the armored door and waited. After an hour it slowly swung open. Rehoben walked in and saw Jilico next to his communication panel. He looked up and said, “Why is my broadband communicator not working?”

“Your Majesty, all broadband communicators on the planet have been disabled to prevent any messages being picked up by the invader’s ship. Only those we send through Fleet Control are active.”

“You will activate my panel immediately.”

Ro lifted his communicator and sent a message to Admiral Hulent. He said where Jilico could hear him, “The King wishes his communication panel to be fully active.”

“I’ve made the connection, Sir.”

Jilico looked over at his panel and pressed the broadband button. He saw a red light illuminate on his panel. “What are you doing, Your Majesty?”

Jilico looked up at Ro and snarled, “I’m ending this charade. I’m going to ask the invader to allow me to assist them in the takeover of this universe.”

Ro didn’t move but said softly, “Why would you do that?”

“My military no longer follows my orders. My subjects show me no respect. I’ve lost all my power to that cursed white haired Emperor.”

Ro took a deep breath. He knew Jilico was right. Once the real history of the Old Realm had gotten out, there was a general disgust of all the Provincial Rulers. The only thing that kept Jilico in his throne was the insistence by the Emperor that to make a change might trigger the invasion. “What if they don’t accept your offer and come to destroy our world.”

“They can have it. I’d rather die than continue with this mockery of my title.”

“All of your subjects could die with you, Your Majesty. Surely you don’t want that to happen.”

Rehoben saw the first smile from Jilico since the masquerade had started. “I’m going to insist that the invaders kill everyone on this planet if they agree to help me. I’ll move to another world and continue my monarchy.” Jilico lifted the com and said, “I’m addressing the black ship that is holding station in the dust cloud in the outer system. Your presence was discovered ten years ago and we have been pretending to have a make believe war to delay your attack until weapons could be developed against you. I want to help you conquer this universe. I will assist you and all I ask is that you allow me to continue to rule my Kingdom. You may even destroy this planet if you choose.”

Rehoben slowly shook his head. Jilico looked at him and said, “What?”

“Your panel has been connected to all monitors in the Kingdom. They are not broadband so the message will only be heard on those monitors. I’ve struggled with the history the Emperor gave us not wanting to believe that the Provincial Rulers were as evil as that history painted them. Now you’ve proven to me that they were exactly that.”

Jilico sneered, “You just don’t have the guts to make hard decisions.”

Rehoben pulled a blaster from his robe and shot Jilico’s head off. “That’s not the only thing you’ve been wrong about.” He put the blaster back in his robe and pushed his com, “Admiral, did you get all of this?”

“I did, Your Majesty.”

Ro flinched, “I’m not royalty.”

“You are now. The military and Searchers will only follow your lead. Lead us to a better day, please.”

“The King’s Family?”

“Already executed. They were in on this and had left the planet for Mabry. We met then at the port. We’re glad you anticipated this happening and we look forward to our future.”

“Will you notify Emperor Robbins of the change in leadership and request his approval.”

“I have and he has.”

“Let us pray our charade is working.”

The large orange colored being looked at his Communications Office, “Sire, we have a message hitting the force field.”

“Open it and tell me what it says.”

“Sire, we have been ordered home. This universe will be taken at a later time. Another one is now ready and we have been ordered to take part in the invasion.”

The orange being shook his head and looked at his display. So much wasted time. He had left five years earlier and had returned a year ago to replace the ship that relieved him. Well, by the time this war was over here, this one would be easy. He looked at his panel one last time and ordered, “Take us to that universe first. I want to see what we’re facing.”

The Navigator said, “Yes, Sire.” He noticed the fluctuation of the cosmic rays but said nothing. The giant ship disappeared.”

“G
race!”

“Yes, Alex. What’s wrong?”

“The Invader’s ship has left and was not replaced by another ship.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I am. The probe sent me the information and also sent me the message they received. My language program has most of their dialogue translated and understands the bulk of what they say. They are going to invade another universe and come back later to take ours.”

“Alex, were you able to determine what universe they were going to attack.”

“We got a break. Instead of using their dimensional drive the ship’s commander went directly to the universe being attacked. The probe sent me the coordinates. Why do you ask?”

“At some point in time we are going to have to see if our attempt at developing a ship to take on their main battleship is successful. I would rather do that in another universe. Is the Bristone ready to face one of their ships?”

“I just don’t know. The only way to find out is to send it out to confront one.”

“Will you put a universal drive on the Bristone and activate one of those old stealth probes? I’ll see what Emperor Robbins wants to do.”

“I now have two more of those Ultraships converted to the new technology. Let the Emperor know they are also ready for trial.”

“I’ll let him know. Are you able to convert one of the new Zeta ships to that technology?”

“I am. I just need one of you to volunteer.”

“I should be the first, Alex. I’ll let you know what the Emperor decides.”

“Grace, are you planning to go and confront one of those ships?”

“I want to do it but unfortunately, I would be the wrong choice, Virze.”

“Why is that?”

“We only have twenty Zeta Ships in our inventory. We are not set up to build a Zeta in our factory at the Defense Facility. Those twenty are all we’ll ever have. The Zeta is a product of the old Realm and we are going to need thousands of ships to face the Invaders. We’re going to have to build a ship of our own design that can handle them. We can build ships like the old Ultras. That’s the kind of ship that will have to confront them first. However, it will have to be much larger to fully use the new technology.”

“What happens if it fails?”

“I don’t even want to think about that. We have to have a starting point and we’ve invested ten years in the reflective hulls. Our planets with large manufacturing facilities are ready to begin building them but we can’t do it until we know if they are going to be able to stand up to those huge ships.”

“What about the Zetas that are still at the Defense Facility?”

“We’re going to hold them in storage until the trial is done. If it’s successful, the nine of us will transfer into them after their hulls have been redesigned and then we’ll update the ships we’re currently using. We’ve found more than enough Searchers in Rehoben’s Fleet that have demonstrated that they will follow the values of our Empire. Rehoben has allowed them to leave his fleet and join us. I think Rehoben is ready to swear loyalty to the Empire and is moving his kingdom toward that end. I must say that he has greatly impressed me with his organizational skills and his firm commitment to our vision.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen that as well. Kreej has confirmed it and the Emperor is watching his kingdom closely.”

“How about you and Timmy?”

“We are going to be married soon. I love him so much, Grace.”

“You two are made for each other. You should take the next step.”

Virze stared at the display showing the stars at the former location of the Invader’s ship. “We don’t need to wait. We don’t know how much time we’ll have if this trial is a failure.”

“I didn’t want to say that but you’re right to think that way.”

“Let’s go home. Alex was right. It looks like we will have some time before they return.”

“You might want to think about that.”

“What do you mean?”

“If the trial is a success, I suspect the Invaders will start looking for the place the Ultra came from. Either way, you should make your plans quickly.”

“Take me home, Grace. We’ve put it off long enough.”

Virze hit her com, “Timmy, are you at Bristone?”

“Yes, I am, Love.”

“Please marry me now.”

“I’m so glad you’re ready. We’ve put it off too long.”

“I’m on my way.”

The large white ship disappeared.

Scotty, Julie, Robby, Grang, and Jingo sat at a table looking at Niles and Toland. Scotty said, “I don’t want to send you against one of their ships but we have to know where we stand.”

Niles looked at Toland and said, “We’ve known this day would eventually come, Your Majesty. We’ve been preparing for a long time.”

“Even so, if it looks like you’re in real danger, I want you to jump away.”

Toland shook his head, “I’m sorry to disagree with you, Your Majesty. We have to see if they can destroy our ship. We must stay and take on anything they can throw at us. I think we have to see if we can be destroyed and running will only endanger the ships that come after us.”

Niles nodded, “I agree and we’ve prepared for the worst. If we survive, then we’ll be as thankful as anyone but we must find out. We owe it to the Empire to give it our best effort.”

“I don’t want to lose the two of you.”

“And we don’t want to die but we must see what the Invader’s capabilities are.”

Scotty shook his head, “I just don’t like sending someone out to fight with no hope of survival.”

“All of us will possibly face that moment someday. There is always hope, even now; just not a lot of it.” Niles looked at Scotty, “Would you go, if you were the only one capable of facing this enemy, to fight for the Empire? If you say you wouldn’t, Toland and I will reconsider.”

Julie said, “I wouldn’t let him go.”

Niles shook his head, “That is not an answer. Would you go?”

Scotty looked at Julie and slowly shook his head, “You wouldn’t be able to stop me, Julie. Both of us know it.” He then looked at Niles, “Make this count for something. My prayer is you come back.”

Toland smiled, “Oh, we’ll make it count. We’ve been looking forward to a good fight that means something. We owe a huge debt for the planets we allowed to be invaded by Daulun. This is the first part of repaying it. Maybe now we can save them from another enemy.”

Grang looked at them and said, “Do you need anyone else to assist you.”

Scotty looked at Grang, “Now is not your time, Brother.”

Niles shook his head, “No, the ship is built for two. We do appreciate your offer.”

Grang looked at Scotty and then at Niles and grunted.

“Vring, is the probe ready?”

“Yes it is. We’ve attached it to the Bristone and it will detach once we arrive in the other universe and the Bristone encounters one of the Invader’s Ships.”

Scotty looked around the room and asked, “Does anyone else have anything to add.”

Robby said, “They have to go. Our survival depends on it.” Everyone looked at the ten year old. “I can’t explain how I know it but we are in much greater danger if they don’t. It’s imperative that they go.”

Scotty looked at his son and wondered what he knew.

Niles said, “We’ve changed the color of the Bristone to green. It will not match any ship here in color. They should experience a lot of difficulty matching it to any ship they may have recorded when they were here. The rear engines were also changed along with the lines of the hull. Even if they come here looking, they shouldn’t find anything to match.”

Julie sighed and asked, “When are you leaving?”

Niles looked at Toland, “In the morning. We want to take a last look at the stars tonight.”

Jingo smiled, “Do you mind if we join you?”

“Not at all.”

Scotty stood up, “Then we’ll have a going away party tonight. We’ll have a blast.”

Toland smiled, “We hope to have one tomorrow as well.”

Kreej was lying down outside the fire in the middle of the clearing watching the huge party. Robby was leaning back against Kreej looking up at the stars. “Kreej, do you think they’ve thought the attack through?”

“They have.”

Robby took a deep breath, “It was wise of them not to mention it to the others.”

“I know. I admire their bravery. They’re afraid but they aren’t being affected by it. They needed this gathering tonight to prove their commitment is worth the price.”

Robby looked at Niles and Toland across the circle and slowly shook his head. Kreej thought to him, “You’re starting to miss Dani.”

“I am. Most of the time I can just focus on things happening around me but when things slow down, my thoughts turn to her.”

“She’ll be there when the time is right.”

Robby turned his head and looked at the Zord, “Have you seen something?”

“I saw it years ago. The two of you are connected. I think you and she are doing the right thing by avoiding contact. The connection has strengthened since she left. I think the decision not to make mental contact is making the connection stronger.”

“Then I’ll continue to abstain. Now that she’s not here, I don’t feel as bad about being around her.” Robby looked back up at the stars and smiled, “I’ve seen the vision of when you were very young asking Mom if she was Dad’s mate. You were really small back then.”