Ashes of the Realm - Death of an Empire (Ashes of the Realm (Book Three)) (7 page)

“What do you think will happen when they do show up?”

“I don’t know but it won’t be good.”

“We aren’t ready.”

“We know.”

Robby looked at the display, “Let’s go home. Worrying about it won’t change anything.”

* * *

The Distributor had the Council on his display and was as frightened as it had ever been in its long lifetime. It knew the words it used were going to determine whether it lived or died. The First Council Member stared at him with obvious rage and said, “What have you discovered!?!”

“We have been attacked by a very advanced civilization.” It watched the Councilor carefully and saw the rage change to doubt. Maybe he had a chance to survive.

“What do you mean?”

“The spore that attacks our pods was artificially created; it is not a naturally grown organism. It is deliberately designed to attack the pods and will not affect anything else. It was engineered to kill our supply of Remid.” It watched the four Council Members look at each other and, though they were still angry, they were also thinking about that piece of information.

“Where was it developed?”

This is where he had to be careful. He knew that if he said he didn’t know he was dead. “It came from one of the universes we have scouted to invade.”

The Council didn’t say anything. Finally the Third Councilor asked, “How do you know it didn’t come from the universe that was being harvested?”

“If that universe had that spore, it would have seeded their planets before we arrived to protect them and there would have been no delay in its activation. That spore had to have been spread developed before we started our harvesting in that universe.” The Council looked doubtful. “I’ve determined that the spore activates after fifty turns. It first appeared on a planet that was invaded more than eighty turns after the harvesting began. The first planet harvested began showing signs of the spore at the same moment as the one invaded eighty turns later. They had to have been seeded at the same time.”

“They could have developed it after we started our invasion.”

“None of the planets infected by the spore had a civilization advanced enough to develop it. It would have taken us more than six thousand turns to develop anything like it. No, this was brought to that universe and deployed against us. The long delay before the spores activated was intentional to insure complete dispersal in all of our facilities and ships. The second generation of spores does not have that delay engineered into them; they attack immediately.”

The Distributor saw the Council’s rage was gone and they were thinking about what had happened. He was not out of the woods yet. Be careful, he kept telling himself.

“Can we develop a means to kill that spore?”

“It would take us more than a million turns to even come close. That spore is hardy and almost impossible to kill. Whoever designed it is very close to our level of bioengineering.”

“Is it possible to modify the pods to withstand the spore?”

“Not without losing the benefits of the powder and that still wouldn’t protect us from it.”

The Fourth Councilor leaned forward and stared at the Distributor in the display, “Then where did the spore originate?”

“It had to come from one of the universes we’ve been scouting for harvesting.”

The Fourth leaned back and frowned, “And you determined that….?”

“Whoever created this monstrosity had to know about our existence and possess the ability to go to other universes. It is my belief that one of our scouts was discovered and followed.”

The Distributor saw the First register fear, “Do you think they came here?”

“No, I do not. If they possessed a dimensional drive they would have attacked us here instead of in that universe. No, they saw one of our ships, followed it, and ddtermined we were coming once they saw our harvesting efforts. That gave them time to develop this spore.”

“How many universes have we scouted that have not been attacked?”

“Ten but only eight of them are candidates for the attacker. Two of them are only recently being scouted and wouldn’t allow enough time for the spore to be developed.”

The Third asked, “How much Remid do we have in our stores?”

“We have enough to supply us for more than four thousand turns. We eliminated three fleets because the supply was growing too fast and, as we all know, the potency is reduced over time. One fleet harvesting filled our needs perfectly.”

The First then asked the question that could get him killed, “How much has been contaminated?”

The Distributor knew that they would see his fear if he wavered so he answered honestly and hoped for the best, “I am forced to act like everything has been exposed. Our production centers, our distribution centers, and our reserve fleets.”

The Second stood and the Distributor saw his rage, “How was the reserve fleets infected. Are you that inefficient?”

The Distributor forced himself to show no outward fear and said, “It was your command that required me to only send the needed number of ships to harvest a universe. You ordered me to invade with the entire fleet but then withdraw those ships not needed to manage the harvest. The current universe being attacked has one third the normal number of galaxies and after the initial attacks, I followed your command and began withdrawing the appropriate number of ships to reserve. I have no way of knowing if any of the spores are on their hulls. I choose not to run a risk in using them in any future harvestings.” The Distributor saw the Second deflate immediately as the other three on the Council stared at him. The Distributor smiled and said, “Unless you think I should use them.”

The First continued to stare at the Second as he said, “No, you’re right in that choice. Does that mean we must rebuild our entire infrastructure again?”

“It does.”

“What are you going to do about the old fleets?”

“I think we should destroy them all including the reserve fleets and quarantine those locations. A completely different universe should be used for our new facilities. I have been waiting for your guidance before I take that step.”

The first looked at the other Councilors and saw them nod, “You will carry out that plan. How do you plan to make up for lost production?”

The Distributor knew he was at another danger point but he pushed a button and sent the four Council Members a listing of priorities, “I will build eight fleets that we will use to harvest new universes. I will start the first ships harvesting before I build any of the advanced models we normally hold in reserve. We will no longer scout before we attack. We have not encountered any universe that can stand up to our technology. We scouted to pick the optimum universe to invade for fast and efficient conquest and that worked when our supply exceeded our needs. However, it is my belief that by scouting our future invasions, one of them was warned and the spore is a product of that knowledge. Once our supply is back to normal, we’ll eliminate as many fleets as needed to maintain optimal levels.”

“What about those eight universes that were scouted?”

The Distributor looked at the First and said, “I will carry out your orders on what you want me to do with them.”

The First leaned into the display and snarled, “Destroy them all.”

The Distributor smiled, “It will be my pleasure.”

The Distributor watched his display closely and saw three of the Council Members staring at the Second just before the picture went black. It leaned back and took a deep breath and felt his shaking start. It appeared there was going to soon be an open couch on the Council. It knew the real reason it couldn’t use the reserve fleets was because he had taken one of the next generation of battleships and used it to destroy a planet in the new harvesting. Returning it to the reserve fleets was an error that would have gotten him killed. He had rushed and brought other ships back following the Second’s orders, which he had previously ignored, once he learned of the spore. He knew those fleets were contaminated when he brought those ships back but it was the only way to save him from certain death. It was a good thing the Second had issued that order several thousand cycles ago. It turned to its board and sent the self destruct signal to the old facilities and fleets. Four hundred planets exploded and more than eight million ships and crews ceased to exist. Now it could begin the construction of the fleets and processing centers. It was angry about the long time he was going to have to remain awake to build the new structures but he looked forward to destroying eight universes. He never tired of seeing death and destruction of other species and this was worth staying awake to view. It would provide many pleasant dreams when he returned to his couch.

D
ani jerked wide awake from a nightmare that had her trembling, “Robby!!”

“What’s wrong!?!”

“I need you here, now!!”

Scotty teleported to Dani’s room on Bristone and reached for her. He saw her shaking and crying out of control, “What’s wrong. Tell me what’s wrong!”

Dani was breathing short breaths as she held on to Robby with all her strength. Robby wrapped her in his arms and said, “Shhhh, everything’s alright. I’m here now.” He rocked her slowly in his arms and she began to slow her breathing.

After twenty minutes Dani’s breathing slowed to a point where she was able to say with a quivering voice, “Everyone is going to die, Robby. Everyone.”

Robby fought hard not to over react but felt his heart rate increase, “What do you mean?”

“I’ve had a vision and everyone living in this universe is going to die.”

“Show me, Dani.”

Dani let him into her mind and he saw the vision she had just experienced. As Scotty watched, he felt his anxiety level skyrocket, “Are you sure this is a vision?” Dani leaned back and looked at him; he sighed and shook his head, “I was hoping I saw it wrong. We need to tell my parents.”

Both of them suddenly started trembling. Dani wailed, “We can’t tell anyone!”

Robby was stunned; his sense of danger went off the scale when he thought about warning Scotty and Julie. The danger level was lower when he thought about saying nothing. “Oh, Robby, everyone is going to die.”

Robby saw the vision of Bristone burning. The atmosphere had been blown away by one of the giant Black Ships and the continents were cracked down to the planet’s core, causing molten rock to spew miles above the dead planet’s surface. He saw that all of the Empire’s planets were burning just like Bristone. He knew from the vision that no planet with an intelligent species on it in this universe was still alive and that trillions had died in agony. He also saw that he and Dani were on Bristone’s surface talking with his parents when the beam was fired. He heard the warning from Anglo and looked up at the night sky just before the Invader fired that terrible beam.

Dani put her head on his chest and continued to cry. This was a psychic vision and it was going to happen; there was no avoiding it and nothing could stop it. He looked at it again and felt fear and anger in equal measure. He looked down at Dani and took a deep breath. There was a reason for this; there had to be. He had to find it. He knew that even if he found it, life in this universe was ending soon and he couldn’t warn anyone about what was coming.

He held Dani through the night and couldn’t get the vision out of his mind. He knew Dani was suffering from what she saw but he didn’t have the words to comfort her. He was shocked beyond words and fought to control his anger at a Creator that would allow the death of so many worlds. Finally, Dani took a deep breath, got up, went to the kitchen and filled a bowl with ice cream. Scotty followed her and she said, “Ice cream always makes me feel better. We need to think this thing through and we can’t if we allow our fear to overwhelm us.”

Robby filled a bowl with cookies and then put the ice cream on top. Dani furrowed her brow and he said, “Cookies always makes it better.” She reached over and put a layer of cookies on top of her bowl.

They ate in silence and Dani said, “Why are we being warned?”

Robby shook his head and chewed the cookies for a moment, “We can’t prevent what we’ve seen.” Dani nodded. “That means something must be done to reduce the damage of this vision. Otherwise, there would be no reason for seeing it.”

“There’s one other reason.”

“What is that?”

“This has to happen to prevent a larger harm.”

“What could be worse than this?”

“I don’t know but I sense that is the reason.”

Robby pondered her idea and said, “We have always said that psychics appear at a time when creation is out of balance. When evil is threatening the balance, psychics appear. Do you think our universe is a pawn in the larger game?”

Dani looked at Robby and nodded, “Picture the Creative Force as a parent and the universes are its children. These Orange Creatures are killing the children of this Force. We are shocked and angered at what’s going to happen here but how many other universes have died at the hands of the Invaders. If we have to die to stop them, we will. If we attempt to change the future, I sense we will still be destroyed but greater harm will follow. The Invaders may not be stopped.”

“So why have we been warned?”

“I don’t know but we can’t tell anyone. Do you understand that?”

Robby nodded.”

“I’m serious, Robby. Your parents are going to die. Can you stand by and watch that happen?”

Robby took a deep breath, “I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.”

“We are there with them, Robby.”

“I think that is the reason for this vision, Dani.”

Dani tilted her head, “Why do you say that?”

“We know it’s coming; we have armor and can teleport out. This warning gives us enough time to react before we’re hit. This vision is to save us.”

Dani looked him in the eyes and nodded, “Then if we are going to be saved, there must be others that can also survive.” She thought a few moments and sighed, “Here’s what we’ll do. We can’t do anything to prevent this but we can determine what we can do to minimize it by making sure we look at every future decision and determine the level of danger. If it’s high, we can’t do it. Will you agree to do this?”