Searcher a-5 Page 3

  “I’m looking forward to it.”

  Matt jerked his attention back to his sensor systems. Someone had fired on his ship as it passed through a system. He backtracked and found the system where the energy beam had been directed at his ship. He energized his weapon systems and extended his sensors. Whoever had fired the weapon had extremely advanced sensors. He had been in the system less than a second and he had been detected and fired on in that brief moment. As a searcher, he was concerned because who ever fired did not have time to determine whether or not he was a threat or a friend which led him to believe that any ship that entered this system was attacked. Matt looked around the system and looked for the source of the attack. The system did not have intelligent life so whoever fired must be from another world.

  “They must think I can’t see them.” Matt saw twenty four ships on his sensors hiding behind the moons circling the ninth planet in the system. So far they had not fired on him again. He looked back at Aladdin’s sensor record and saw that the beam that was used in the earlier attack was strong but wasn’t a real threat.

  “I don’t want to have to attack you,” he thought at the twenty ships. “However, I would like an explanation as to why you fired on my ship.” He waited and heard nothing. “Looks like they need a little help in their communication skills.” Matt jumped Aladdin to within a mile of the largest ship. The large ship immediately fired all of its energy beams and launched fifty missiles at him. Matt ignored the energy beams and used his needles to destroy all fifty missiles before they could move a half a mile from the ship that fired them. He tried to communicate with them again but the large ship kept firing and was soon joined by the other twenty three ships. He didn’t want to destroy these ships because they were not attacking anyone else but him. He had a fleeting thought, “Well Aladdin, how am I going to get them to talk?”

  “I would suggest a display of power,” a voice said in his head.

  “Who are you,” Matt jumped up from his chair and asked quickly?

  ““I am your ship’s computer. I’ve been wondering when you were going to start communicating with me.”

  “What, what, what.”

  “I only answer questions you direct at me; that was the first time you actually asked me a question. Surly you were told at the Academy that your ship had an advanced cybernetic computer.”

  “Yes, but I thought it would only connect me to the ship’s various systems.”

  “Didn’t they also tell you it had all the information of everything ever learned in the Realm?”

  “Yessss. Are you alive?”

  “Actually, no; I am a replica of your brain engrams impressed on the total ships systems. You might say that I am you in computer form. The imprinting process took your neural pathways and produced the program that made me.”

  Matt was stunned. “I think you and I have some catching up to do but I need to handle the current situation first. What did you mean by using a display of power?”

  “I would suggest that you cut a section of the moon off these ships were hiding behind and fire your weapon at it to let them see just how strong we are.”

  “Will you carry that out?”

  “Certainly”

  The ships continued to fire at the small ship and saw that nothing was getting thru the small ship’s defenses. Suddenly a bright white beam leapt out from the small ship and cut a section off the top of the small moon behind the largest ship. The section was longer than fifty miles and moved quickly away from the moon’s surface. The small ship then hit the cut off section with a bright red beam that disintegrated it. The twenty four ships stopped firing.

  “Well, Aladdin, that was a good suggestion. Now let’s see if we can communicate.”

  “I have been monitoring their ship to ship communications and I think I have enough of their language now to broadcast electronically to them in words they understand. Just talk normally and I’ll set the frequency and translate automatically.”

  Matt raised his eyebrows and shook his head. He pressed his com button and said, “Why don’t we try this again. I don’t want to attack your ships but I’m curious as to why you fired on my ship as I flew through this system.”

  There were a few moments of silence and then a voice answered, “We were expecting to be attacked by the Gresh. We thought you were one of them.”

  Matt thought a moment, “Are you from the Planet they are attacking now.”

  The voice sounded puzzled, “No, they defeated us seven rotations ago and destroyed most of our fleet. These twenty four ships are all that survived and they have been chasing us since the battle. I am the elected leader of our world and I was made to board this ship and flee.”

  Matt sent a picture of the planet he had discovered that was being attacked and asked, “This is not your world?”

  “Oh, my God; they’re attacking Hugon. No, that is another planet that we have been trading with for centuries. There are seven other worlds that we have peaceful and harmonious relationships with; Hugon is one of the most populated of the eight.”

  “I have stopped their attack on Hugon and one of my Realm’s ships is there now insuring the safety of the planet’s population.”

  “You stopped their fleet with your small ship?” the voice asked incredulously.

  “Yes. I think I would like to go take a look at your world to see what’s happening if you don’t mind taking me there.”

  “My ship would be destroyed if I went back to my home. The Gresh have scheduled the execution of more than 200,000 of my people in two days for resistance to their invasion.”

  Matt grew angry, “Where on your planet are these executions planned to take place?”

  “The Gresh have set up a holding camp outside our ten largest cities and are going to broadcast the executions. The camps are surrounded by thousands of their warriors armed with heavy disintegrators.”

  “What is your name?”

  “I am Goige and I am the Select of my people.”

  “You may call me Searcher, Goige. I want to attempt to save your people but I need you to help me make that happen. Do you have a recording of the surface of your planet and the location of those ten camps?”

  “We have pictures of them that we took before we escaped. I don’t see how you are going to be able to prevent their deaths. They will fire on my people at the first sign of trouble.”

  “Even so, I have to try and you might be surprised at what I might be able to accomplish.”

  “Thank you for your willingness to help. I have sent the information to you.”

  Matt looked at his com and thought, “Al, do you have the information.” There was silence. Matt thought a moment and then thought, “Aladdin, do you have the information?”

  “Yes I do.”

  “Aladdin, I’m going to shorten your name to Al. So if you will respond to either name I would greatly appreciate it.”

  “Change made, Searcher.”

  “You may call me Magic, Al.”

  “Magic it is.”

  “Do you see any way we can save those prisoners?”

  “Not without the use of our Realm’s Red Warriors, Magic.”

  “How many would we need?”

  “A hundred for each site would probably do it, however, just like before these ships would stop firing, we need to impress our power on the invaders. A company at each location would make that kind of impact.”

  Matt thought for a minute and then hit his com, “Angel, do you have a moment?”

  “Well hello, Magic. I am bored to tears right now. I won’t begin my first assignment for another week. I have all the time you need.”

  “Angel, I need you to come help me try to save 200,000 people from being executed.”

  “Where are you? I’ll be right there.”

  Matt sent her his coordinates and her ship appeared instantly. “Angel, these ships have been chased from their home world and have told me that the invaders are planning to execute hundreds of thous
ands of their civilians.”

  “Tell me what you want me to do.”

  “First I want you to listen in to my conversation with Fleet command then we’ll decide how we want to handle it.”

  “I’m all ears.”

  “Fleet Command, I need to communicate with the Delta Ship in the Hugon system.”

  “Go ahead, Searcher.”

  Matt quickly filled in the commander of the SR Defender Ship Vgrig Summer. “It doesn’t surprise me. These Gresh are pretty bloodthirsty and are bent on total conquest. Reminds me of how my race used to be. We have removed them from this system and are standing by to insure they don’t return.”

  “I am planning to try and save prisoners from execution but I wanted to see if perhaps your ship is better equipped to handle the exercise.”

  “I’m sure we could but I think it would give you and some of the graduating searchers an excellent opportunity to take part in an action that will help them shorten their learning curve. I am also of the opinion that you could probably get in closer and faster than a ship this size. Your ship also possesses advanced systems that this class of vessel does not.”

  “I tend to agree, Sir.”

  “It is I that should be addressing you as “Sir”. The commander of an Alpha Ship outranks me.” Matt and Angel were surprised. “All Alpha Ship commanders outrank any other ship’s commander. You have the authority to use Fleet Command’s resources any way you think is needed.”

  “Does Fleet Command have ten companies of Armored Red Warriors available if I need them?”

  “I’m sending you a com code for General Durk. Tell him what you need.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Angel, I need you to go to Goige’s home world’s coordinates and scan the planet. I am going to call in eight other searchers and use them to screen the prisoners when we begin our exercise. I’ll have Al send you the language we have learned so you can speak to him directly.”

  “Who is Al?”

  “He’s my ships computer. Have you spoken with yours yet?”

  Angel looked puzzled and Matt said, “Ask Wings to download the language program from Aladdin.”

  After a moment Angel said, “Always the Magic man. Obviously you found yours first. I’ll use the time going to the planet to familiarize myself with my new friend. Thanks for inviting me to take part in this exercise.”

  “Love having you here, Angel.” She smiled and disappeared from his com.

  Matt hit his com and said, “I request the following Searchers to please come to my location to take part in a defender exercise: Stone Tree, Red Sky, Quilleron Sword, Blue Sea, Bright Star, High Shore, Dorg’s Son, and Vrig’s Wind.”

  Angel returned from making her scan and found nine Searchers waiting for her. The twenty four ships of the Exkath were gathered around the small ships listening to the planning of the rescue. Matt pressed his com and said, “Welcome back, Angel. Were you seen making your scan?”

  “No, I made it from outside the system. I took the time to watch what was taking place on the planet and I must say I look forward to dealing with these Gresh. They are treating the population brutally.” Angel took a minute to say hello to her former classmates and then settled back to see what Matt had planned.

  While Matt introduced the other searchers to Goige, Angel thought back to her first meeting with Matt. She was sitting in the academy’s library during her second year the night before she was to take a math exam. She had struggled for hours with the problems and found that she was lost. The concepts were too much for her and she knew she was going to have her first bad grade. She was sitting there feeling her tears fall on the papers in front of her. It was one of her goals to be at the top of her class and this would end that dream.

  “Excuse me, is something wrong?”

  She looked up and saw Matt looking at her with a concerned look. She was used to the human students in the academy approach her because of her beauty. She had become quite adept at fending off most suitors, but this young man really looked concerned. His green eyes seemed to go through her. She lowered her head and said, “I just can’t understand the concepts of these problems. I know I am going to fail my exam tomorrow. Thanks for asking but I need get back to work.” She turned her attention back to her problems.

  Matt looked at the problems on the paper in front of her and said, “Would you mind if I helped you?”

  Angel looked back up at him and said, “I’m beyond help but thanks again.”

  Matt looked her directly in the eyes and said, “You can do this; you just have to change your perspective.”

  Angle furrowed her brow, “What do you mean?”

  “These problems are in the wrong order. The concepts are hidden in them but they must be done in a particular order because they build on each other.”

  She looked up at him and saw he was not just coming on to her; he really wanted to help. “Show me what you mean.”

  “You don’t have enough time to just observe me do the problems. I want you to enter my mind and watch me do the problems mentally. I know that you might be nervous about that but I am inviting you to see what I see.”

  Angel knew that opening one’s mind was a serious thing and that everything about the person would be available for viewing. She looked at him and he said, “I trust that you will only look at the part of my mind doing the math.”

  She nodded and she entered his mind and saw the fourth problem. “I want you to follow me as I look at all the permutations of this question. I am going to just follow them until I find a pattern.” She watched as he rapidly went thru each of the avenues that the problem gave him and then she saw it. There was a pattern to how the permutations flowed. Once she saw it she knew the answer. “The answer doubles and adds the first number to each value.”

  “Exactly,” Matt said. “Now that you’ve seen that pattern, question eight uses that pattern and give you another one that you have to see to arrive at the correct answer.”

  She followed him through eight questions and discovered each new pattern as she watched him go through the variables. Then she said, “I can already see the answer to the remaining two questions. I can also look at the second page of problems and see what order they should be solved.”

  She left his mind and looked at him. “I can see math like I never have. You have opened my mind in a rather remarkable way. It’s almost like magic.”

  He flinched when she said that and she asked, “What’s wrong?”

  “My childhood friends called me Magic.”

  “I didn’t look in your mind to see that. However, it is a perfect name for you. Thank you for helping me. I really appreciate it.”

  He smiled at her and turned and left. She sat there for an hour and remembered the feeling of being in his mind. He was amazing and though she didn’t look around in his mind, she could sense the power of his intellect. He intimidated and fascinated her in equal measure. He was also quite nice physically. She asked around the next day and found out that he, like her, was going to command an Alpha Ship. That didn’t surprise her after she had seen his mind. She kept her eye on him from that moment on and she always called him Magic for the gift he had given her that night. No one else held any interest for her from that night on but he never approached her or asked her out. She knew this was the man she wanted in her life.

  She came back to the planning session when she heard Matt ask her, “How are their troops organized?”

  “They have set up housing facilities in the center of each of their cities. Most of the troops operate out of those structures.”

  Matt pressed a button on his com and a new face entered their conversation. “General Durk, I am going to include you in our planning session. I hope that after we have saved the prisoners that we can use your warriors to negate the forces the Gresh have landed on the planet.”

  “I have viewed the scan of the planet and I think that we have enough warriors to neutralize ninety five percent of their armed fo
rces. I am making assignments as we speak and setting up the objectives for each of our participants. The ones that we will miss are those Gresh scattered out in the population. I’m hoping that you will be able to scan the cities and find them and prevent them from causing a massacre.”

  Matt pushed his com, “Each Searcher will be assigned a city. The selected targets of our warriors will be downloaded into your ships and you will scan the rest of the city for any one that has the frequency of Gresh weapons. If they attempt to kill anyone, you will have to do what is necessary to defend the population. Once we have things under control, I’ll call in a Defender ship and they will relieve us. At that point you may return to your previous assignments.’

  “What about the Gresh Fleet in the system,” Emerald asked?

  We will be scattered around the planet’s surface. If any of their ships come inside the orbit of their moon, we will fire on them. I will warn their fleet to stay away from the planet once we start our operation but I don’t expect them to listen. It’s important that you use your scanners and allow your ships to keep you informed as to what’s happening in your area of responsibility; any questions?”

  Goige asked, “Do your ships have the ability to do all that you just talked about?”

  “I’m going to honest; there may be some loss of life, however, I think that the numbers will be far less than if we don’t take action. Do we have your approval to implement our plan? We will not force ourselves on another civilization unless innocent people are going to be killed. If you say no, then we won’t carry out our plan and leave. It’s your decision.”

  “Goige, I believe we have to allow these ships to help us. I’ve seen that the first ship could have destroyed all of us when we attacked him and he chose not to harm us. I believe these are people we can trust.”

  ““My Fleet Admiral seems to feel like as I do.” Goige paused and said, “Implement your plan.”

  The ten Searchers felt their excitement rise; this is what they had trained for at the academy and now they were going to be able to use their ships to save lives. They were totally in the moment and the ten hours until they began seemed to last forever.