Annihilation: Book 06 - Demon's Sacrifice Page 4

  Newton and Einstein nodded.

  Destiny had to leave the room to laugh. Oh what wonderful children.

  The Nest Mother examined the data that had been stored in her memory and looked for what was causing her to be unable to control the harvestings. She couldn’t find anything so she stopped and thought. “Maybe one of my predecessors would know.” She started with the Nest Mother she replaced and reviewed her memories. Nothing. She then moved to each of the previous Nest Mothers and finally viewed the memories of the original one that started her species. She traced everything back until she saw the moment where she was given intelligence. She saw the Nest Mother as a small spider that was viciously protecting her egg sac against a huge red being that was about to hit it. She felt the protectiveness of the mother for her offspring and watched as the being stopped and collected the mother into a device. The next thing she saw was the moment the spider was given intelligence. She heard the red being’s thoughts as he told another being, “This one will be a good tool for us. With the right technology it could do all we require.” Then the memories stopped and she saw the Nest Mother being placed on the command bed. She was shocked at the revelation. We are tools for another species. Then she felt the compulsions hit her and she ordered another family to harvest another universe. She felt the fear of those that have no control.

  Life was at home visiting his sister on Gresh. The Stars Realm was at peace and for the first time he could remember, he had some free time to go home and relax. He actually wished there was more action for him but the war was over and the Searchers were assigned planets to assist them in assimilating into the Stars Realm. After the fight with the Eight Legs, this was boring. He requested time off and was given a two week furlough. He sat at home and then thought about taking the family’s boat out for a little alone time. He furled the sails on the small craft and headed out into the large bay. Sailing always relieved his stress and he thought about all that had happened since the war with the Eight Trading Partners. Those planets were now close allies of the Gresh and even after all the terrible things that had been done during the Gresh invasions, the populations knew they were saved by his intervention on their behalf with the Stars Realm. Two of the Trading Planets had an Eight Leg Mother Ship moving in on them during the Eight Leg invasion when two of his brothers killed them with a penetrator. The Realm possessed no stronger subjects than these nine planets. The applicants for the Realms Military was huge and they told the story to new worlds just joining the Realm about how they were extremely fortunate to be allowed to become a part of such a generous, glorious, union. Then he started thinking about his new assignment.

  “I heard they let you out early for good behavior.”

  Life smiled, “If that were the case I would have never been delayed. What are you doing here, Grena?”

  “I just made planet; like you I have some free time. I thought I would enjoy it but I must confess that I’m already starting to get bored.”

  “I’ve taken the boat out; would you like to join me?”

  “I’d love it; anything but this sitting around telling the family war stories.”

  Life smiled, “I know; the same story gets old after the eighth telling. Here’s my coordinates.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  Life stopped the boat and waited for her to teleport.

  Grena reclined on the front deck of the small sailboat with her eyes closed. Life had the boat tacking away from land toward the wide mouth of the bay and the ship was skipping lightly across the waves. Grena thought to Life, “I hear you’ve been given a promotion.”

  Life flinched, “Where did you hear that?” Life had just learned of it himself.

  “I have also been offered a position but I wanted to discuss it with you before I accepted.”

  Life held the boat into the wind and then turned and tacked back, “What are you being asked to do, Grena?”

  “Before I answer, I need to know if you still feel the same way about me before you were chosen to be our Warleader. I appreciate your inviting me to be your partner at the Gardner’s wedding but we didn’t resolve our issues.”

  “How could we? We were swept up in the festivities and I was called to a meeting of the command council. When I finished, you were gone.”

  “I, too, was called to a meeting off planet.”

  Life remembered back when he was notified by the ruling council that he was to lead their efforts against the trade planets. He and Grena were very much an item but the Warleader is not eligible to take a mate. This practice prevented the strongest Warleader from forcing their children on the planet as successors. He remembered Grena’s sorrow and anger at the decision and her telling him she would never forgive him for accepting. “Grena, you told me it was over. I had to place the welfare of our people ahead of my own desires. Just how do you think I feel?”

  “You still love me; you might as well admit it.”

  How could she possibly know that?

  Grena saw his expression and smiled, “Life, after we joined the Stars Realm and you resigned your position as Warleader; you were approached by every available female on the planet. You ignored them and joined the Realm’s Navy. I knew they held no interest for you. I knew that you still cared for me; I could feel it.”

  Life started to tell her she was right but she held up and hand and stopped him, “I had time after joining the Realm’s Navy to reflect on the oath I swore; I came to realize that sometimes duty is more important than one’s own selfish desires. I was wrong to blame you for being strong enough to make a hard decision. I have never stopped loving you and I’m here today to see what you want to do about it.”

  Life looked at Grena with pain in his eyes, “I have been asked to take command of the Searchers. Our ships are going to be modified for a different type of drive and we will be the force that takes on the new invaders. I will be away from here indefinitely training our Searchers to go to other universes. I love you with all my being, Grena; I always have. It is just not fair that we are always being separated by duty.”

  Grena smiled, “You still don’t know how I know about your promotion?”

  Life squinted, “How do you know?”

  “I have been asked to be your executive officer. It seems our leaders know quite a bit about those they select for leadership. They think, rightly I think, that I might be able to help you in your new duties.” She got up and went to the back of the boat and hugged Life tightly. The small boat suddenly turned and fell off the wind as Life let go of the tiller and embraced her. “I would not accept the position unless you still loved me. I could not bear to be near you and hurt from not being able to love you.”

  Life looked in her eyes and smiled, “This will be glorious. I am truly whole again. The war was fabulous but I missed you every moment.”

  The boat drifted for hours as they held each other. Life’s com beeped and he saw Sprig on it, “Yes, Your Grace?”

  Sprig saw Grena behind Life and said, “Am I interrupting you; I can com you later?”

  Life looked at Grena and she shook her head, “No, I am able to take your com.”

  “I need you to come to Castle Gardner’s Map Room as quickly as possible. Bring your staff with you.”

  “I only have one staff member, Your Majesty.”

  “I know; so you shouldn’t be delayed very long.”

  “We’ll be there in ten hours.”

  Sprig smiled, “See you then.”

  Grena looked at Life, “We can teleport to our ships and be there in less than fifteen minutes.”

  “I’ve given up too much time with you already. Today I’m going to make up for what I’ve lost.”

  Grena smiled brightly and pulled him down to her.

  Chapter 4

  The Supreme Male joined his family after millions of Eight Leg ships had jumped into the new universe to be harvested. It had been more than six million years since the last harvest and the scouts had discovered millions of planet
s with intelligent life. This was going to be a good meal for his children. There were still six million ships to jump in and go to their initial targets as the first four million set their star drives for their assigned planet. The Supreme Male looked at his sensor leader and asked, “Status?”

  “Our first arrivals will be arriving at their targets within six dxls. The remainder of our ships will be here in less than four dxls.”

  The Supreme Male leaned back on his pad and looked forward to the harvest.

  Six light hours away from the universal entry point a white furred being listened to the thoughts of the two eight legs and felt his excitement rise. His plotting board had every Eight Leg main ship plotted that had arrived in the universe and it was good news that all of their ships would arrive before any had actually landed on a planet; those planets were a meal best saved for later. It punched up its plotter and sent the updated information to those waiting in another universe. It wasn’t going to be long before his clan’s arrival. As the Eight Leg ships continued to jump in, the plotter tracked them and sent their coordinates to the waiting clan.

  Four hours later the sensor leader said, “All ships are here, Supreme Male and have received their assignments.”

  “Excellent, prepare to jump to our first meal.”

  The White Furred Creature heard their remarks and hit the communication panel, “They’re all here. Begin your attack.” The Supreme Male’s Ship was the target of the plotter and he jumped his five hundred mile long ship in to within six miles of the huge, thirty thousand mile wide, main ship and fired his ships’ main beam. A thousand mile wide hole was blown through the mother ship and exited the other side. The beam was targeted on the mother ships engines and communication panels and the huge green ship began drifting. The green substance of the mother ship’s hull was not immune to the energy being used and all of its drives were destroyed.

  “What was that?”

  “I don’t know, Supreme Male but our ship is disabled. We are unable to move or communicate.”

  The white ship flew into the huge hole blasted through the mother ship and stopped at the center of the huge green ship. Millions of white furred creatures began exiting holes in its surface and spread out attacking every Eight Leg they could find. The spiders viciously fought back but their fangs stopped on the skin under the fur of the white creatures. The talons and teeth of the attacking clan ripped through the Eight Legs’ armor exposing them to the vacuum of space and exploded them.

  The White Clan Warrior exited the white ship and immediately sensed huge numbers of the green Eight Legs floating directly ahead. It rubbed its feet talons and moved toward the huge floating mass and smiled as it began striking the Eight Legs with its talons. The eighteen inch retractable talons were made from a substance that nothing physical could resist and Eight Legs began exploding in their armor as the vacuum of space entered and pulverized them. This was wonderful. Three Eight Legs landed on the Warrior and bared their fangs to attack but could not penetrate its skin, which was made of the same substance as its talons. The white warrior just shrugged them off and ripped them to pieces. She saw three of her other clan members approaching and was angered to have her fun interrupted. She snarled at them but heard, “Don’t be ridiculous. There’s millions more here for all of us.”

  The clan warrior looked around and released her senses and saw her brother was right. “Come join in, I see a much larger mass of them behind the large ship our beam penetrated.”

  “We see it, too. Now quit wasting time talking and enjoy the moment.”

  The White Warrior flew toward a group of ten Eight Legs trying to escape and ripped them apart.

  The white creatures also carried hand guns that disintegrated every Eight Leg unfortunate enough to be hit by its white beam. Those beams killed large groups of Eight Legs that were attempting to mass to attack the boarders. Each of the White Clan killed thousands of the spiders floating in the weightless environment before they could respond. The spiders quickly determined that they could do nothing to protect themselves from these creatures and tried to escape to formulate a plan to handle these mysterious invaders, but the attackers sensed them wherever they tried to hide. The White Clan could sense any creature that possessed organized thought. Thousands of Eight Legs would attack a single white creature only to be disintegrated or ripped apart by teeth and talons. The white creatures easily maneuvered in the weightless environment by rubbing the claws of their feet and hands, which directed a propulsion beam. The substance of their claws absorbed energy and used it for movement. These creatures were designed to kill in the emptiness of space or the surface of a planet.

  They flew around the interior of the mother ship killing every Eight Leg on board before landing on the hulls of the thousands of ships parked inside the giant green ship. The ships could not escape because the machinery that operated the doors on the surface was disabled by the initial beam strike. The White Clan Warriors landed on the hulls of thousands of small ships and used their talons and guns to rip their way into the interior. The Eight legs inside were dismembered or disintegrated. After the small ships were destroyed, the huge white ship used its main beam to blow large holes in the hundred-mile-long transports, making it easy for the Clan’s Warriors to enter.

  The Supreme Male could hear millions of his children dying and could not grasp what was taking place. His interior sensors had been destroyed when the main beam had blown through his ship and the Sensor Leader could not determine what was happening. His time to develop a strategy to combat these creatures was short as the Plotter entered the bridge of the mother ship and smiled as it killed every Eight Leg it encountered in the room. He saved the Supreme Male for last. As The Supreme Male backed into a corner he heard, “Your species is weak. Is this the best you can do?” The white creature back handed the Supreme Male into the back wall where he fell and jumped back up. “No wonder you’re being replaced.”

  The Supreme Male bared his fangs and rushed the advancing white creature that contemptuously slashed him in half with his talons and burned the remains with his hand gun. He looked around the bridge and turned to go back to his ship. He killed fifty Eight Legs on his way out and wondered how the rest of his Clan was faring.

  As the White Clan Leader flew back to his ship, he looked around and saw the killing continue around him and start to spread to the parked ships. He entered his control room and punched his control panel and heard, “Clan Leader, the first green ships that jumped into this universe launched their attack craft before we arrived. What is your order?”

  “Kill the Mother Ship and then follow the attack craft to the surface of the planet; you will then dispose of every Eight Leg and all other intelligent beings after you finish the green creatures on the surface. If they try to escape in their ships, use your ships’ main beam to destroy them.” He then hit his general communication button, “All ships that finish with the Mother Ships will go to their targeted planets and dispose of any intelligent life. Your next targets have been sent to your boards. Do not waste time. We’ll come back to eat the remains later.”

  Every Eight Leg Mother ship that had jumped into the new universe had a white ship assigned to it and they jumped in next to them and killed them. Every green ship and every green creature was dead in less than twelve hours. The white ships then jumped to planets that had not yet been attacked by the Eight Legs and began systematically destroying every civilization. The main population centers were hit by beams from ships above the planet and cities disappeared in a white inferno that burned down to the planet’s bedrock. Millions of white creatures flew down to the surface and used their senses to home in on any survivors that possessed organized thought. Unlike the creatures they were replacing, these beings enjoyed killing in large numbers callously using their guns to hit any concentration of inhabitants. Collecting information from those killed was not something they were programmed to do and the death of a planet’s population happened at an unbelievable pace.
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  The killing released a blood lust in the White Clan and they reveled in the misery and suffering of those they attacked. Anyone struck by their claws slowly died if they weren’t killed immediately; the substance of their talons was poison to any other life form. A huge number of intelligent beings were slightly slashed so they would die slowly and be alive when the white creatures returned for their meal; like cats they wanted to play with their meal before consuming it. They were amazingly fast and could move faster than any other creature in existence; hitting these creatures with any kind of weapon was next to impossible. They sensed the weapon being aimed and moved faster than the defenders could target them. Their hardened skin was impenetrable to any projectile fired at them and beams didn’t even burn their fur. Where the Eight Legs killed planets in ten to eighteen hours, these creatures finished in less than five; they were extraordinary killers.

  Six weeks later the universe was empty of intelligent life. The savagery was beyond imagination and the Clan Leader wished for more; he was angry there was nothing left to kill. He looked at his board that had originally shown millions of intelligent planets and saw it empty. He thought a moment and then ordered, “Go back to the green mother ships and disintegrate them. I want nothing of them left behind. After you have completed that task, you may feed.”