Tommy’s Tale a-4 Read online

  Tommy stood and walked around the table to the chair and knelt in front of Cassandra. She lifted her head and looked at him with tears in her eyes. She said, “I’m so sorry.”

  He reached forward and everyone saw them jerk when he took her hand, “We need to touch each other more often so that these shocks will stop.” Then he leaned forward and kissed her; she wrapped her arms around his neck and cried. Tommy said, “Now I feel whole. Cassie, there is nothing to forgive.”

  Cassandra held on and cried for a long time; first for forgiveness and then from happiness.

  Rose looked at her mother and father and knew that there was going to be another Gardner soon. She could see Cassie’s aura was even darker than her father’s. She wondered what power this couple possessed. Even Tommy’s aura was darker than before. “I need to watch them,” she thought. “They could be dangerous if they don’t learn to control her talents.

  Tag stood up and said, “I believe that there is a party waiting for us. Let’s go have some fun.”

  Everyone stood up and left the conference room. Danielle came to Cassandra and gave her a hug. “If you need me, I’ve done what you’re going through, don’t hesitate to call me. The best part of your life is beginning at this moment.”

  Cassie wiped her tears and said, “I will and thank you.” Danielle nodded and left to attend the wedding party.

  Tommy looked at Cassie and said, “You are beautiful. I meant what I said earlier. You are absolutely gorgeous. Will you dance with me?”

  Cassie stood and took his hand, felt the shock of their contact, and walked out into the auditorium that had been cleared for the party. As they walked out on the dance floor, everyone was speechless. Tommy was right; Cassandra was beautiful and she had a smile that no one had seen before. Wes and Linda Kay watched Tommy hold Cassie tight as they danced and noticed that they only had eyes for each other. Linda Kay could see Wes’ confusion as well as his happiness for his friend; she whispered softly in his ear, “You can stop worrying about him now. She will take care of him.” Wes looked at Linda Kay and she said, “Just like us.” Wes danced with his bride and held here close looking forward to the rest of his life.

  Tgon-Gee stood on the stage and watched as Tommy and Cassie entered. He immediately saw their auras and grew alarmed. Tgon-Gee’s only psychic talent was that he could see psychic auras. He raised his com to call the leader of the Guidance Peers on Glod and had the leader ask him mentally, “Are you trying to contact me?”

  Tgon-Gee lowered his com and said, “I was just going to com you.”

  The Leader said, “I heard you in my mind. How did you accomplish that?”

  Tgon-Gee thought back, “I didn’t. I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Tgon-Gee, I’m hearing your thoughts without having to enter your mind. That means you have to be broadcasting to me psychically.”

  Tgon-Gee looked down and saw an aura surrounding him that was red in color. He walked three steps to the right and the aura stayed around him. The Leader of the Peers saw what Tgon-Gee was seeing and immediately contacted the other forty nine Peers and brought them in to what was happening. Tgon-Gee looked up and thought, “Leader, I’ve never possessed an aura, at least one that could be seen.”

  The Leader of the peers asked, “Why were you trying to contact me?”

  Tgon-Gee answered, I want you to see this and tell me what it means.” Tgon-Gee looked out at the dance floor and watched Tommy and Cassandra dance. The Guidance Peers on Glod drew a collective breath; what they saw shocked them. The aura around Tommy and Cassandra was as black as space and was twisting, rolling, boiling like a gathering storm; it was also growing. The Peers and Tgon-Gee knew that a psychic aura only extended a few inches from the body of one that possessed it. This aura was growing and had already extended beyond the walls of the auditorium. Tgon-Gee walked over to one of the view ports in the wall and looked out. The aura had grown to more than a mile from the learning facility and was still moving away. Tgon-Gee then looked at the other Gardners in the room and saw that their auras had grown tremendously; the auras were now extending more than six feet from them and were getting darker as he watched. Tgon-Gee waited but the Peers were too shocked to respond. After a moment of thought, Tgon-Gee got up and walked over to Rose who was talking with Leila. Rose smiled but then saw the huge Glod’s expression and said, “Excuse me a moment, Leila.” Leila looked at Tgon-Gee, nodded, and backed away. Tgon-Gee said, “I need you to look in my mind and see what I’m seeing, Your Majesty.” Rose hesitated but saw real fear on the Glod’s face. She entered his mind and her eyes grew wide.

  “Oh my God,” she thought. Then she saw herself in Tgon-Gee’s eyes and saw her aura boiling. She also immediately noticed that it was larger; she watched Tgon-Gee look at each of the Gardners and recognized that all of their auras were expanded.

  Tgon-Gee thought to Rose, “What does this mean?”

  Rose shook her head and said, “I have no idea. This is beyond me.”

  The First Male watched on his sensors as the warriors swarmed throughout their galaxy. Suddenly, the old watcher accelerated away from the nexus point at his fastest speed. “What’s wrong,” the First Male asked?

  “The nexus point is releasing heat into normal space,” the old watcher replied. “The nexus is now approaching the temperature it was at the time of the original explosion that started this universe and the temperature has not stopped rising.” One of the young warriors that was only twelve hundred miles wide, turned and attacked the nexus to protect the old watcher. Before the First Male could stop him he entered the area in space that held the nexus and fired his energy beam into the nexus. A black field erupted out of the nexus and followed the energy beam back to the attacking warrior. There wasn’t time for the warrior to scream. The huge ship’s bright red screen collapsed and the entire vessel shrank so fast that as the black field seemed to suck the attacking ship into the nexus, the young warrior disappeared from view. The Old Watcher called over and over for the warrior but there was no response. The First Male ordered, “All warriors, come no closer than five thousand miles from any nexus until ordered otherwise. What is happening,” he wondered and began to experience an emotion he had no words to define, fear.

  Tommy and Cassie continued to dance.

  Chapter 9

  The Gardners were not the only ones affected by the psychic storm. Twig and Sprig were standing in the back of the room observing the wedding. Both had absorbed information that described the process of weddings but seeing it first hand was different. Wes and Linda Kay’s emotions were open to the telepathic plants and they were moved by what they felt. They both stood observing and saying nothing until the psychic storm front washed over them. They both jerked as it touched and then passed them. All of the data they had stored was undergoing a massive reorientation. They stood and felt the inner change but were paralyzed unable to move. Finally Twig thought to Sprig, “Did you feel that?”

  Sprig answered, “Yes, I did. It seems I finally understand the data from that black hole incident and that it relates to the fields that operate in null space.”

  Twig shook the leaves around her feet indicating her confusion and said, “I didn’t see that. However, I now understand how the Kosievs’ power cells came into existence.”

  Sprig shook his leaves and said, “How do you see that? We have both absorbed the same information and I didn’t get that relationship.”

  Twig was silent for a full minute which was equivalent to a week in normal time, “I think that something has happened during this ceremony to reorient all of our data into a different storage. The process must have been done differently for us because we do not look at information the same way. It appears that it made it easier to understand based on the differences between us.”

  Sprig looked at the new relationships that he now could understand and thought, “I do not need more information. I need time to process what I now see and attempt to understand what it means.”
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  “As do I,” Twig said.

  Tommy and Cassie left the wedding celebration and walked to the empty observation deck to talk. Tommy dispensed a caffeine drink for Cassie and a sweet drink for himself along with a bag of popcorn. He sat at the table and said, “Cassie, what just happened to us?”

  Cassie sat there looking at him amazed at how one’s fortune could change so suddenly. “I really don’t know but what your mother said makes sense to me. I never wanted to hurt you at the academy but every time I came close I felt a driving desire to punish you and make you go away. I didn’t understand it then or later. I think now it makes sense. I was protecting us from each other. It may be that you still touched me a little too soon and that was why the shock was so severe yesterday.”

  Tommy looked at her and wondered where the intense feelings of wanting to protect her were coming from. “I agree; I think that you and I were destined to eventually find each other. I even think that we were trying to get there even when it was dangerous for us to touch. Our inner selves fought us and caused the pain that happened. Now I’ve seen inside you and know what you are truly like and I must confess that I am totally amazed by what I see. I’ve never in my wildest dreams knew the depth of feeling you never allowed anyone to see.”

  Cassie smiled and said, “Most everyone thinks I’m a cast iron witch and honestly I’ve not tried to change that image. I felt I needed it to be a good officer.”

  “Cassie, I want to try something. Instead of voicing what you want to say, just think it.”

  Cassie thought, “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  Tommy thought back, “I thought so; as you were talking I was also hearing your thoughts at the same time.”

  Cassie furrowed her brow. Tommy had not said a word but she heard his thought. She thought back, “Can you hear me now?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Cassie shook her head and thought, “I guess what Tgon-Gee said was true. Somehow your touch has given me some psychic skills.”

  “I think it is a lot more than that. We need to see just what your skills are; we need to experiment and make that determination.”

  Cassie smiled and said, “Can we save that for tomorrow. Tonight I just want to hold you. I’ve never felt so alive as when you kissed me tonight.”

  Tommy smiled and leaned close to her and thought, “Then let’s just see if we can repeat the experience.”

  Cassie leaned in to him and kissed him. They both felt the shock again but it was worth it. They stayed in their embrace losing track of time.

  The old watcher saw plumes of the black field exploding out of the nexus and thought, “It’s still getting hotter. I hope this doesn’t destroy the universe.”

  The warrior flew toward the closest nexus in a galaxy close to his home galaxy. He noticed as he approached the nexus that there was a planet located in the middle of it that was advanced technologically and had space travel. As he approached more than four thousand ships jumped in front of his approach. The warrior contacted the first male, “I have found a nexus that has a technologically advance planet located on its edge. They have sent ships out to intercept me; what do you think I should do?”

  The First Male thought and said, “I wonder if they could be the cause of the nexus’ heat. Destroy them.”

  The warrior fired one of his small beams into the ships that were in his path totally disintegrating all four thousand. The inhabitants of the planet watched as a brightly glowing red ship more than two thousand miles wide approached and stopped a hundred thousand miles out from its atmosphere. The warrior fired his main beam into the planet and watched as the planets core exploded blowing the planet into huge pieces that flew out from the center of the blast. A living planet that was home to a thriving civilization perished in less than three seconds from the impact of the warrior’s beam. Nine hundred ships jumped into the system responding to the planet’s distress call to find debris moving away from the planet’s former location. The ships immediately began attacking the huge ship that had destroyed the planet. The warrior ignored their attacks and tried to take readings on the nexus to see if anything had changed after the destruction of the planet. The nine hundred ships attacking the giant red ship had no effect on it. One of the nine hundred actually flew directly into it and was totally destroyed when it contacted the screen surrounding the huge ship.

  The warrior contacted the First Male and reported, “I can detect no change in the readings coming from the nexus. Perhaps if this planet was the cause it may require some time before the readings change.”

  The First Male asked the old watcher, “Do you sense any change in the temperature of the nexus?”

  “There has been no change.”

  The First Male said, “It appears that the planet was not the cause of what is happening in the nexus. Continue your search.”

  The huge captor ship turned and accelerated out of the system leaving the attacking ships behind. The warrior did not even think about the damage he had done or the billions he had just killed. They were too insignificant to warrant his attention. For the civilization he had just destroyed he had doomed all the colonies because of the destruction of their food source. The chance of survival for the survivors was less than one percent which for them was not insignificant.

  The day after the wedding, Twig and Sprig contacted Tommy mentally and asked for him to meet them in the library and to please come alone. Tommy left his quarters and went to the elevator to take him to the lowest floor of the learning facility. He wondered why the two Algeans wanted him to come quickly and to come alone. He walked into library and said, “Is there a problem?”

  Twig said, “Duke Gardner, we have undergone a strange metamorphosis and have had our storage reoriented which has changed the way we view the universe. One of the changes is that now I have a much broader understanding of how energy works. As you know, we have our readers connected to the observational equipment that records astronomical data in real time and downloads the recordings. I think it was done just to keep our pain to a minimum, however, I’ve noticed something that Sprig agrees should be discussed with you to see if our conclusions are in error.”

  Tommy furrowed his brow and said, “Twig, I have no idea what you’re talking about. You might need to tell me what you want in simple terms.”

  “I’m going to show you,” Twig said and entered his mind telepathically. “I have produced a new type of optical device that see’s energy fields. When I looked at the recordings from our observatories, I discovered that there are areas in the universe that appear to be, for lack of a better term, nerve centers. It appears that these nerve centers are connected to all the energy in our universe. Sprig is of the opinion that there is an energy space just like null space that connects all energy. It is also the size of an atom so one can actually read all of the universe’s energy.

  “Atlas, are you getting this?”

  “Yes, and that is probably how the captors saw us where ever we were. They saw our energy signature and then just looked into one of those nerve centers and saw where all of us were located.”

  Twig said, “Well, I don’t think they can see you right now.”

  Tommy thought, “Why is that, Twig?”

  “I’ll explain in a moment but first I want to finish what we were discussing. Once I saw those nerve centers, I wanted to see what was going on in one of them. I sent a recorder into one and it was burned out. Sprig developed a field reader that allowed us to see the heat coming out of these centers. We immediately found that the heat was increasing. Obviously we wanted to know how long this had been taking place so we rewound the observatory tapes and looked at them with Sprig’s reader. We were surprised to see that it started two days ago.”

  Tommy furrowed his brow and said, “Where is this going?”

  “Duke Gardner, we rewound the tapes back to the moment the heat started and used the reader to tell us the exact moment the energy field’s heat rose. We then turned our consciousness
to sift thru every observation we’ve seen during that time period to see if anything happened at the precise moment the heat rose. Nothing is the tapes showed anything astronomically but something close to home matched closely to one of the spikes in temperature. We would like to ask you some questions to see if what we saw was just a coincidence.”

  Tommy was still confused but said, “Go ahead and ask.”

  “One of the spikes in temperature started when you took Captain Dodd’s hand to dance last night and continued until you stepped away from her.”

  Tommy looked at them and drew a blank. Sprig said, “We determined that the event began the day before the wedding immediately after the meeting in the auditorium. Did you within ten minutes after that meeting make any physical contact with Captain

  Dodd?”

  Tommy remembered that he had touched Cassie’s hand and had been severely shocked after the meeting ended. “Yes,” he answered.

  Sprig and Twig stopped moving. “You did.”

  “Yes, I did,” Tommy said.

  Twig said, “Immediately after the ceremony, all of the Gardners, Tgon-Gee, and Captain Dodd left the celebration and went behind closed doors. Did you while you were behind those doors have any physical contact with Captain Dodd?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  Atlas said, “What are you trying to prove here?”

  Sprig said, “One more question; Tommy when you and Captain Dodd left the celebration, did you have physical contact with her for a period of one hour four minutes and six seconds?”

  Tommy remembered holding Cassie in the cafeteria for a long time. He shook his head and said, “I don’t know exactly how long but yes I was in physical contact with her for an extended period.”

  Twig said, “I’ve just requested Captain Dodd to join us.”

  Cassandra entered the room and saw everyone look at her with a funny kind of expression. “What’s wrong?”