Saxon Andrew - Escape to Earth-The Legacy of a Conqueror

Chris watched her go and then turned and stared out at the ocean. It took a few minutes before he saw the pink and blue sail. He sighed and then turned to catch up to Michael.

“All systems operational.”

Chris pressed the thruster control and the pod leaped off the spaceport at an incredible speed. Chris slowed the ship before it broke the sound barrier and caused a sonic boom so close to the ground. He shook his head and looked at Allison, “All of that manual flying has messed up my coordination. I need to take her out and spend some time getting it back.”

“I’m fine. I didn’t fly it manually so why don’t you get your touch back heading out toward M-86.”

“Good idea.” It took no time to get the feeling back and Chris pressed the center red button on the steering wheel and the distant galaxy moved toward them at a speed that was breath taking. Chris pressed the center button again and the ship left the skip barrier and returned to the void just outside the giant elliptical galaxy.

Allison said, “Now that was impressive. You had me grabbing the arms of my chair.”

Chris shook his head, “I am going to be extremely reluctant to use the barrier inside a galaxy.”

“Do you see the purple button directly above the barrier button?”

“Yes.”

“You can set it to automatically activate; if you press it and hold it down it will always activate as you enter the barrier. It will attenuate the thrusters so you can fly at speeds you can control in the barrier. If you leave the barrier, the system will automatically disengage.”

Chris turned and looked at her, “How did you know that?”

Allison shrugged, “Remember I went back and worked with Trevor. He told me about it.”

“Then we’re going into the barrier to scout this system. If that system operates like you say, we don’t need to hide inside the cloud.” Chris pressed the purple button and held it down; it remained illuminated. He then pressed the red button and the ship entered the barrier. Barbie, do you still have the coordinates where we escaped the ships around that planet that was building warships.”

“I do.”

“I’m giving you control of the ship, take us there.” Chris looked at Allison and saw her smiling. “What?”

“This is where you taught me the dangers of making a full scan. The four of us were really impressed that day.”

Chris chuckled, “I understand why and yes, it is.”

Lukas sat in his office and tried to capture a thought that eluded him. There was something in the back of his mind that needed release but he just couldn’t grab it. It had been bugging him for a long time. He sighed and put it aside. He just couldn’t get it out. He looked out the window at the thriving spaceport that was growing every day. The rest of the planet was pretty much lifeless except for the force field emitter stations that had a team of engineers assigned to them but some of the population on Eden asked to return to their former home. Looking at the absence of intelligent life made him think that humans were the aliens taking the planet. He shook his head and the thought that had been eluding him came crashing through. His expression changed to concern and then to fear as he thought it through. “PAT!?”

“Yes, Lukas.”

“When you allowed your consciousness to go to M-87, were you able to see the ones called the Legends?”

“That’s what allowed them to see my location.”

“What did you determine about them?”

“They’re very much like my species but younger. They’ve not evolved as much as we have.”

“How many were there?”

Pat paused and said, “Around fifty or so.”

“How many Sentinels are there?”

“More than a billion scattered around Andromeda. They don’t tend to stay in a group. Our curiosity makes us explore wherever we are. Many of those that were out exploring returned when the danger to us was uncovered by Pat.”

“Wouldn’t that also be true of them?”

“I don’t know. When I saw them, they were all located on just one planet.”

“Pat, they couldn’t have originated in M-87.”

“What?”

“Think about it. There’s not enough of them. We know it took more than ten thousand years to subjugate all of the civilizations in that giant galaxy. If they evolved in that galaxy, it would have had to have started millions of years ago for them to be where they are now.”

“You’re right.” There was a pause and Pat said, “There are more of them somewhere else and M-87 is just an expansion of their domain.”

“There has to be.”

“This is not good!”

“No, it isn’t. Even if we find a way to remove the fifty or so of them, I suspect we won’t be able to prevent a distress call.”

“There’s no way you could stop them from doing that, Lukas. They would all have to be killed so fast that they couldn’t get a thought out and I don’t see any way that could be done.”

“So, what does that mean to our plans to attack M-87? Should we back off?”

“With the current stalemate happening there, I’m reasonably certain they have contacted Legend Central, wherever it is, and told them what’s going on.”

“Do you think those Black Ships around their planet represent the pinnacle of their technology?”

“I have no way of knowing without going out into the universe searching for others of their kind, and you should know what will happen if I find them.”

“They’ll see you and where you’re located.”

“Exactly, and then you’ll be facing more than just the forces in M-87. I suspect a lot more forces.”

Lukas started slowly shaking his head, “Pat, what should we do?”

“I’ve looked at the new ship Chris is using and it is incredible. That ship wouldn’t exist except for the wars you’ve been fighting and the accident that allowed you to learn about the barrier. In all the millions of years we’ve existed, we never knew about it. Your technology has exceeded my wildest expectations and to stop fighting will only cause your developments to stagnate. You have to hit them in small hits and not cause the Legends to panic. I would suggest that you keep their forces contained in their galaxy and build this new ship as fast as you can. When you’re capable of attacking and removing them, then you’ll have a difficult decision to make.”

“Won’t that bring in the others?”

“That’s what makes it difficult. Yes, it will bring them to M-87.”

“They’ll learn who we are.”

“Not if you pull a little Maskevera.”

“What is that?”

“You plan a deception. You attack from either M-84 or M-86. You make them think their attackers are coming from either of those two galaxies and not this one.”

“But that would put those two galaxies in danger.”

“Lukas, I had to make a choice when I used Earth to divert the Invaders attention from the Fellowship. You will have to make a similar decision, it’s them or you.”

“Pat, I can’t put a whole galaxy under the gun for our actions.”

“Then tell me another way to prevent the destruction of Earth again? Your allies will also go with you next time around along with all the Fellowship planets. Quite frankly, I made a bad choice choosing Earth to die. After the fact, I can see that the Fellowship wasn’t worth saving.”

“Three of them were.”

“It would still be better in the long run for Earth to have survived. Look at what the few that survived have done compared to the Fellowship.”

“This is something I have to think about, Pat.”

“Trust me, I know. It took a thousand years for me to make the decision.”

“I don’t have that long.”