Andrew Saxon - Demon's sacrifice

“We’re in; we’re teleporting our ships to a safe location.” The two Alpha ships disappeared.

Matt thought privately to Al and Fly Girl, “Where is Junior?”

“He’s with Stem and Petal’s seed. They are going to Atlas and Diana to start their training.”

“I hope Atlas and Diana are up for the effort. Those two should be a handful.”

“You have no idea; junior has already exhausted our libraries.”

“How do the two of you like being in one ship?”

“Matt, this is the greatest feeling I’ve ever had; I love being this close to Fly Girl.”

“Me, too, Matt, this is wonderful.”

“Take this time to familiarize yourself with your new ship.”

“Already on it.”

“Good, Al; I’ll see you after the battle.”

“Count on it.”

“Jenny, do you feel like I forced you into being with me?”

“Oh, Anglo, don’t be ridiculous.”

“No, I mean it. I pressured you a lot.”

“Silly, I was already trying to figure out how to get your attention before anyone said anything. I couldn’t be happier.”

“Thanks, Jenny; I love you.”

“We have time before the Demons come; let’s make good use of it.”

“Oh, Jenny, come here.”

“Rose.”

“Yes, Chris.”

“I feel so unworthy of having you.”

“Why, because I’ve been a queen?”

“That’s part of it. You’re just so beautiful and your mind is extraordinary. I am so thankful you chose to be with me.”

“Chris, that decision was made millions of years ago. You are what completes me and don’t sell yourself short; you are a powerful psychic generator.”

“I’m still not sure what that is, Rose.”

“I am able to use psychic abilities to a very high level; you understand that don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Well you have more psychic power than I do. When we are linked, I can use your power to make my abilities more than ten thousand times stronger. You are the power that will make this ship deadly. You are probably more important than I am in the coming battle. Without you, I wouldn’t be strong enough alone to survive.”

“Then we need each other, Love.”

“More than you will ever know. I’ve needed you my whole life and I didn’t know it. Now my life is complete. No matter how this turns out, the time we’ve been together has been the best of my life.”

“And mine, too.”

“We just have to make sure we win. I want to enjoy this for a very long time.”

Tag looked at his board and then said to Danielle, “We are practically one person now.”

“Yes, Love, isn’t it great?”

“Yes but there is something you must do during the upcoming battle.”

Danielle could hear his concern, “What is that?”

“Part of my talents revolves around being able to see places where we won’t be in the line of fire. When you see a dark shadow around us, you must move the ship into it. Time will also slow down and we’ll be moving much faster than the ships around us. I’ll be busy with the weapons and I have to depend on you to keep us safe. Can you do what I’m asking?”

“Yes, I’ll make sure we move toward the psychic shadows you see. You just make sure you use your weapons effectively.”

“I only have one weapon that is some kind of beam. I’m sure I’ll be able to target the enemy. You keep us moving.”

“I will. I still look forward to retirement.”

“Are our ships ready?”

“Yes, they are.”

“Is everyone prepared?”

“Everyone but the one healing from the first contact.”

“Why is he not here?”

“He is still unconscious; evidently the blast did more damage to him than we thought. His skin has regenerated but evidently his brain was shocked severely by the blast. He is unable to fly any kind of ship.”

“I was going to make him lead the attack. Losing a tool is unforgivable. Could we put him in a ship and push it at the barrier ahead of us?”

“It would be a waste of a good ship and he’ll just get in the way.”

“Ummmmm, perhaps you’re right. He would probably just slow us down, the incompetent fool. When he wakes you should eliminate him; he’s your son.”

“He is your grandson.”

“Don’t remind me; he’s an embarrassment.”

The Demon lay in his cocoon listening to the conversation. He was conscious but had disconnected the dial from the neural reader so no one could see. He was angry to the point where he almost came out and attacked his family. Then he calmed down; there was no such thing as family in his species. He thought about that as he remembered the feelings of the two in the blue ship that had nearly killed him. He saw that both of them would gladly give their lives for the other. Why would they do that? He decided to watch what happened and decide what to do after the battle was over. He knew his ship was no match for the blue ship and this was a battle he was happy to witness from the sidelines.

“They’re coming.” All five hundred ships saw the huge fleet of orange ships moving toward them. There had to be millions of ships in that fleet and some of them were thousands of miles long. “Hold your formation; we must block their entrance; link with your partners now and go to full power.” The blue glow increased in brightness.”

“Do you see it?”

“Yes, I see it. It’s brighter than I have ever seen in my life span.”

“Should we reconsider this attack?”

“If we don’t attack now then this force can only grow stronger. It’s brighter than ever before but it is not a huge source. We are still stronger and larger. We will prevail.”

“Should we try to break in and then attack?”

“Send all the ships to different places along the barrier and breakthrough in multiple locations.”

Matt watched as the huge fleet spread out and moved toward the blue barrier from millions of different locations, “Hold your formation. They won’t break through unless they gather all of their ships at one location; be patient.”

“Grena, no matter what happens today, I am so thankful for you coming to me.”

“It does not matter, Life; we will be together no matter what.”

“This is a glorious way to protect our people.”

“We are not breaking through the barrier. It seems that where we use high numbers of ships we get further through but we don’t have enough hitting it and we are thrown back.”

“Use half the ships at two locations.”

“Stay alert; they will combine their forces shortly at one of those two locations. We will move as soon as they declare their intention on which one they will attack with the entire fleet.”

“Matt, do we start firing before they penetrate the field?”

“I believe they will force a corridor through the field as wide as our formation. As they approach the final hundred miles of the field, we will begin firing. Use full power on your shots, hold nothing in reserve.”

“We are still not getting through. We penetrate half way.”

“Move all our ships to the first location and get all of our ships behind each other pushing those in front.”

Matt watched as the ships on the right disappeared, “Go, Melanie.”

The psychic ships appeared in front of the oncoming Demon fleet. The Demons were now moving quickly through the field and were approaching normal space. Matt watched and saw the orange ships move to within a hundred miles of their ships, “Weapons free, fire.”

The five hundred blue ships had a twenty mile separation between them. The entire front of their thousand mile wide formation erupted in blue fire as each ship fired thousands of blue beams into the oncoming Demons. The front rank of the Demon ships exploded into gigantic explosions. Six hundred thousand orange ships were blown into nothingness but the huge mass continued to move inexorably forward.