Trapped in Time-Extinction (37 page)

“I noticed in this ship’s landing bay that there are fifteen landers.”

“Yeah, so?”

“We’re going to leave two ships at the Talen’s world. We’ll only be able to take eight to move our population.”

“Why?”

“Two reasons, Linnae. First, the Regent is going to need the landers to collect all the survivors on his world and bring them to one location. He’ll need those landers to make that happen. Once he has everyone in one place, it will make it easier to defend them.”

“What’s the second reason?”

“The Talens need to convert some of the blasters on those two ships to red beams. That will give the Regent three ships to defend his people. It’s going to take some time to make the conversion and I’m of the belief that you’ll need those ships to go after that species that flies the really big ships. The Jemli ships don’t match up well to those behemoths.”

Linnae stared at him and then nodded slowly, “We also have to have a way to remove all the bodies of the dead crew if we’re able to kill them.”

Tyler nodded, “And you can’t take the Regent’s ship to go looking for them without another ship left behind to defend his planet.”

Linnae sighed, “Have I told you today how much I love you?”

“As a matter of fact, you have not.”

“Well, I love you more than the Universe. I’m so thankful you’re able to see the things that would get us in trouble and plan for them.”

“We don’t need to rush. Time is on our side now. Even if we only use eight Jemli ships, we could move all of our communities before the two year deadline passes.”

“That would be cutting it close.”

“I know. But first things first.”

“Thanks, Ty. I’ll contact the Regent and discuss with him what we’re thinking about doing.”

“That would be good, Love of my life.”

Linnae smiled and sent a thought to the Regent.

• • •

Manuel activated the hyperdrive and pressed a button on his panel, “We’ll be jumping in ten minutes.” He looked at the Navigator, who was standing in front of the huge viewport at the bow of the ship. “Are you ready?”

The Navigator continued to look out of the clear armored glass and nodded. Manuel pressed another button and said, “Engine room, are the motors up to full power?”

“They are, Captain.”

Manuel smiled. The Talens had accepted Captain as the title for a ships commander. He looked at the other two Jemli ships holding station next to him and he heard his panel buzz, “Yes.”

“Send Rich and me a signal on your countdown.”

Manny leaned forward and slid a switch to the left and pressed two more buttons, “You should be receiving it now.”

“Got it.”

Manny was surprised at how fast the Talens had discovered how to drop the force fields on the other two ships. It was actually Tyler that found the means. The team had spent six days going over the weapons panel searching for the methods used by the Jemli to operate their force fields. Tyler was sitting in the chair next to the panel and watched the four Talen Engineers working on the panel grow angrier at not being able to find what they were looking for. One of the Talen Engineers shook his head and in a disgusted voice said, “There’s nothing in this panel that tells us the frequency they use to disable their force fields. This has been a huge waste of time.”

Tyler stared at the engineers arguing about it and suddenly had a thought. He reached behind him and put his hand in the crevasse between the chair’s two cushions. He felt around and felt something hard, he pulled it out with his thumb and index finger. He looked at it and smiled, “Could this possibly be what you’re looking for?”

The engineers stopped arguing in midsentence and looked at him. One of them took the small rectangular device and saw two buttons on it. On one end of the device was a clear glass cover. “Where did you get this?”

“It was in between the two chair cushions. It dawned on me that if they used a frequency to operate the force field externally, they needed a device to send it. It would also have to be small to carry easily. The Jemli that operated this panel would probably have been the one that carried the device. Our red beams disintegrated the Jemli’s body and the device fell into the chair. The first one to sit in the chair made the crack between the cushions larger and it slipped into it.”

The three stared at the small device and one said, “We need to go and trial it.”

Manny remembered moving the Jemli ship next to one of the other two and the engineer pointed the small device at it and pressed one button and then the other; the force field immediately dropped. They now had three ships to use in their attack.

When the engineers told the Regent about Tyler finding the device, he promptly promoted Tyler to Lead Engineer and when Tyler protested, he told Tyler he should have done it sooner. The Talen Lead Engineer agreed with the change. He was already going to Tyler to discuss anything new. Tyler immediately made him his Second-in-Command.

• • •

Manny saw the display on his panel illuminate and he saw the Regent, Tyler and Linnae standing together on the Talen Warship, “We will be jumping in a minute after you arrive.”

“Hopefully we won’t need your assistant, Regent.”

“I certainly hope you don’t.”

The display went dark and Manny knew from Tyler and Linnae’s expressions that they weren’t happy at not being allowed to participate in the attack. Manny knew the Regent was right to forbid them to go. They were too important to risk. He looked at the Navigator still standing in front of the viewport and knew that another Talen was standing at the viewports on the other two ships as well. The Leaders of the two species would have to learn to trust their subordinates to operate without them eventually; it might as well begin now. “Ten seconds to jump.”

The Navigator nodded, turned around and looked at him, then raised his thumb. Another human gesture the Talen had picked up. The countdown hit zero and Manny pressed the jump button.

• • •

The Jemli Warlord stared at the planet filling his display and blew out a breath. This mission was mind numbing. The seven ships held position above the planet facing out into open space. They would occasionally detect a survivor on the planet land send a lander out to kill it. The Overlord had forbidden the use of their main blasters on the planet. It had been damaged enough during the initial invasion and the Overlord didn’t want any more destruction on the surface. Getting a lander prepared and then launched was a pain in the lower side. By the time it arrived at the site of the detection, most of the time, the survivor was gone. Now they just ignored them. The occupation fleet could send out the warriors to hunt them down.

“LORD, I HAVE AN EMERGENCE SEVENTY MILES OUT.”

“Go to war positions!”

“Lord, it’s three of our battleships.”

“Cancel war positions. Why are they here?”

“Lord, I’ve not received any notification of an arrival.”

The Lord leaned back in his chair and said, “I really hope this is a relief force. I suspect it’s a surprise inspection by the Fleet Lord. Contact them and put them on my board.”

The Communication Jemli pressed a button and everyone on the bridge immediately grabbed their heads and fell to the deck.

• • •

The three Battleships moved in toward the seven Jemli Warships and when they received the Warlord’s transmission, the three Talens screamed their thought weapon. They were forty miles away when the Talen sent the thought waves and their sensors revealed a moment later that there was no life on the seven ships. Manny smiled, only four ships had kept their force field up. The Regent’s Warship appeared and accelerated past the three battleships to the seven Jemli derelicts, where it began barraging them with its Red Beam Blasters. In less than thirty minutes, the operation was over and more than 12,000 Jemli were disintegrated into particles that were too small to detect.

• • •

The Regent looked at Linnae, “Would you start contacting the survivors and tell them I have returned.”

“Why don’t I just send your thoughts to them, Your Highness?”

“Your Highness?”

Linnae smiled, “It’s an ancient human term used to show respect to Royalty. You deserve it.”

The Regent smiled and nodded to her, “Thank you. Now if you’ll find the survivors…”

“Why don’t we do this, Your Highness? Do you know where you want to have them taken?”

The Regent looked at the new Navigator and he said, “Regent, the Capital has been heavily damaged on the southern side but the rest of the city appears to be intact. Evidently the population attempted to flee the city and were blasted once they were out of the city.”

The Regent snarled and shook his head, “They wanted to use the city for their colonists.”

“It does appear they did.”

Linnae stared at the Regent and he appeared fearsome in the helmet with the Raptor’s image on the front. He looked at Linnae, “We’ll bring the survivors to my former capital.”

“I would also like to make a suggestion to change our plans slightly.”

“What is that?”

“We now have ten Jemli Battleships but only five pilots able to fly them are here. Why don’t we move five ships to the surface and your crew can use the landers to collect your survivors? That would expedite moving them faster while we take the other five ships back to Earth to start moving our communities. We’ll leave five landers from each of the five ships we take to use in gathering the survivors. You can then take three of the ships on the planet back into orbit to assist you against any Jemli ships that might arrive while your engineers start modifying the two on the surface to use the Red Blasters.”

“How will we get the ships on the planet?”

“We’ll fly them down and come back in a lander to the five in orbit. You can send some of your crew to move the landers off the ships in orbit to the surface. I imagine some of your survivors are in a bad way. We’ll make sure our first trip to Earth brings back enough pods to feed them.”

The Regent smiled and said, “Once again, your judgment is outstanding. Please bring enough seed pods to start plantings.”

Linnae nodded and began sending instructions to the captured Jemli Warships. Then she began sending the Regents thoughts to the survivors on the surface. Five days later, all the survivors had been located on a map and Linnae, Tyler, Manny, Jenn, and Rich jumped away. The Regent felt something when they left…alone. He realized he had come to depend on them to help guide him and he looked forward to their return. He discovered his crew felt the same.

He looked at the numbers of survivors and saw that out of more than five billion inhabitants that lived on his world before the Jemli invaded, only half a million had survived. The Capital City once had ten million living in it and now there would be less than a million. He felt his rage at what had been done to his world and he forced himself to be patient; there would be time enough for the Jemli later. First, he had a planet to rebuild.

• • •

Six months later, Harmony and Mat arrived back at the Talen’s planet with ten gigantic brown warships. Two of them were landed on the surface to start being modified and the other eight jumped to Earth to assist in the exodus. The Regent missed having the twins around, they were a huge asset in communicating with his people. The giant farms growing pods extended for miles around the capital and the first crops were already being harvested. The pods grew at an amazing rate in the planet’s soil and their taste was even better than before. The local population had also started growing other crops as well and the meals were something everyone on the planet enjoyed. The Cursors had been brought after three months to assist the Riders in keeping the crops safe from the local wildlife that liked them as much as the Talens and Humans. The Regent asked about the primitive bows and arrows being used by the Riders and discovered they were an important part of the human’s history. Soon, the young Talen were learning how to shoot them and ride the cursors. They loved the experience.

His mate came up behind him and hugged him, “You’re acting melancholy.”

“I wish the Human Leader and his family was here.”

“You know they refuse to leave until everyone else is here.”

“I know.”

She walked around him and moved into his arms. She started to kiss him but realized both of them were wearing their helmets. She took hers off and he removed his as well. He kissed her and she put her head on his chest, “I find myself amazed at how our two species that are so different have come together so smoothly.”

“The difference is external; we are so much alike inside.” She smiled and nodded. “They should arrive soon. The brown ships will speed up the exodus.”

“I know. But I want to solve the Jemli issue.”

“They think we should have our own ship building plants in place before we go out to take on other civilizations.”

“They’ll be online within another year.”

“Patience, my love.”

The Regent smiled, “Where have I heard that before?”

“I think we’ve all heard it.”

The Regent smiled and knew he wasn’t going to take any major steps until Andy was here to discuss them with him. He pulled her close and felt their baby move. He smiled and closed his eyes and felt his love for his mate and their new addition to his family.

• • •

The landers were coming down to the Hole in a continuous stream and Andy watched the community boarding them with their possessions. The Time Takers were due in another seven months and he knew all the evidence of the other communities had been erased. Explosives had been used to collapse all the caves that had been dug in the mountains and now there was only one more to erase.

He looked at Linnae and Harmony holding the babies and saw the babies were focused on their older sisters. They were communicating mentally. He looked out over the blasted landscape surrounding the Hole and shook his head. He would occasionally see the rare dinosaur out in the valley searching for something to eat whenever he went outside and he felt sorrow at their fate. The clouds were still hanging low and he hadn’t seen the sun since the comet’s impact. It was cold. He vividly remembered the thick forests teeming with life and the sky filled with Pterodactyls. Now the ground was bare and the sky was only filled with clouds.