Saxon Andrew: Death of an Empire

The large white ship disappeared.

Carter watched the display and saw an Invader ship above the planet where they had dropped the first packets of spores. The two Algeans were also watching their display intently and Carter didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, “What are you expecting to happen?”

Seed turned to him, “This was one of the first ships infected with our spores. We need to see if the Invaders are going to be affected.”

“Seed, we need to come to your location. Please send me your coordinates.”

Carter heard Dani’s thought and saw the two Algeans turn to each other. “I’m sorry, but we are in the middle of some very important observations. Now would not be a good time.”

“We also need to be there at this time and we insist that you send us your location.”

Carter watched the two Algeans talk to each other telepathically and not include him in their conversation. He heard Weed say, “I’m sorry, but we must decline. We can’t allow this to be disturbed.”

“This is not a request, Weed. The Emperor has sent us to conduct an experiment of our own and we must be there as quickly as possible.”

“I’m sorry, we can’t allow that.”

Carter pulled his gun from his holster and pointed it at the two Algeans, “Send the coordinates.”

The two Algeans turned and saw Carter’s gun. “We cannot do that. Don’t force us to take that weapon from you. We can move faster than you can hit us.”

Carter’s armor activated and he pointed his arm at the two Algeans, “Think you can do that now?”

The two Algeans froze.

Carter turned on his communicator, “I’ve just sent you the coordinates. I’m holding our two friends at gun point. Do you know what’s going on here?”

Grace teleported in next to Pyle and Robby and Dani then teleported on board. The Algeans didn’t move or say anything. Robby looked at them and then looked at the display with the Black Ship. He turned back to the Algeans, “You know why we’re here.”

“Yes, but you must not attempt it. It would cause a domino effect if the Invader’s creator learns what you’ve done.”

“Did you know that we sense a much higher danger from not making the effort?”

Seed looked at Weed and said, “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“You know we have the ability to sense danger.”

“Well, yes.”

“If we don’t make this effort the level of danger skyrockets; we must do this. Now, you can help us or we will teleport you to Greyson who is out in empty space. It’s your choice.”

Seed looked at Weed, “We’ve done what we can. They should be allowed to choose their destiny.”

Weed turned to Robby, “It’s critically important that your theft not be discovered.”

“We’ll make every effort to insure that happens but we will attempt the theft.”

Carter looked at Robby, “What are you going to steal?”

“We’re going to take their interdimensional drive.”

Carter was shocked, “How? That device has got to be massive.”

“We’ll handle it.” Robby looked at the two Algeans, “How far along do you think the crew is infected?”

“The spores became active thirty minutes ago. The crew will be starting to feel the tremors momentarily if our readings have been accurate. What are you going to do?”

“We know that in order to contact their Creator, they must drop their force field. As soon as that field drops, Dani and I are teleporting on board and killing everyone on the bridge before they can start communicating.”

“Surely, you don’t think you can do that fast enough before the transmission starts?”

“You should have done your homework better, Weed. We’ve studied more than eight hundred recordings of their communications and the reason the force field must be dropped is that the communications device needs the power being used to maintain the force field to drive the communicator. We have a five second window. Are you going to help us or not?”

Weed stared at Robby and then said, “Turn on your armor. We’ve scanned the bridge and I’ll give you the coordinates where you must arrive. You must kill the Captain of that ship first before he could trigger its self-destruct mechanism. The other location is what we believe to be the Communications Officer. There are thirty crew members on the bridge and they are all armed. Are you sure you want to try this? Both of you can die in the effort.”

Carter said, “I’ll go with you.”

Dani looked at him, “Sorry Carter, you aren’t armed to handle this. We have broad head slugs that will not penetrate those that are hit. We can’t run the risk of damage to any of their consoles.”

Carter smiled, “I have a hundred of those slugs.”

Robby did a double take, “Why did you take those?”

“Because I saw Dani had taken some out of the Defense Facility’s inventory. I assumed she was smarter than I was so I also loaded them.”

Robby looked at Dani, “Do you see him.”

“No, but that doesn’t mean he’s not there.”

“This explains why you had to be involved. It fits.”

Dani smiled, “Weed, where is the largest concentration of crew members?”

Weed looked at Seed again and said, “Twenty are along the back wall manning the drive and beam controls.”

“Carter, those are yours to handle. Are you ready?”

Carter keyed his armor’s weapon control and made a change, “The slugs are now loaded.”

Robby said, “Lock in your coordinates; Weed, tell us as soon as that field drops.”

“You still haven’t told me how you’re going to remove the drive.”

Robby smiled, “That’s the easy part. Keep your focus on that screen.”

Weed saw the huge black ship fall slightly off its orbit, “It won’t be long. The ship is starting to drift.”

The Ship Master was not feeling well. He felt shaky and his head was hurting with a beating pain that almost made him pass out. He looked around the bridge and saw that his crew was also looking bad. Something was happening. He reached for a pinch of orange powder and saw that half of the container was green. What’s going on? He looked at his hands and saw they were covered with splotchy green sores that itched. One of the crew members suddenly fell out of their chair and began trembling on the floor. “Open a channel to the Masters.”

The operator of the force field reached for the control and tumbled out of his chair unconscious. The Master stood and stumbled over to his console and pushed the pad to lower the field. Suddenly a being in bright red armor appeared to his right and shot him in the chest with some kind of weapon. The Sensor Master raised his gun to fire on the intruder and was knocked ten feet back by something that hit him in the chest. The Communications Master reached for the pad to activate his console and his head blow up.

Carter appeared at the back wall and shot fifteen of the orange colored creatures in less than two seconds. Most of them were unable to draw their weapons because of the tremors they were experiencing. Five of them were on the floor starting the severe tremors that happened just before death. Ten of the crew members that were operating consoles were able to fire at the red colored beings but their beams just splashed off their armor. Every Invader on the bridge was killed and none of them had been able to get off a shot that damaged any of the delicate machinery.

“Kreej, we’re ready.”

Kreej teleported on the bridge and looked around. He turned toward a console and then looked behind him. “Do you want the communications console as well?”

“Can you take both?”

“Yes, I can. However, there is a failsafe on the drive.”