“Do you not think the Keepers will know if some of their warriors are killed? What will be their response?”
Junior thought a moment, “They’ll come and harvest the entire planet.”
“That’s how I see it. If we free them, we’ll have to move them. I’m not sure the Realm can handle refugees from millions of planets.”
“So what do we do?”
“We find a way to destroy their ships.”
“How do we do that?”
“We find the ones with the most experience at facing this kind of conflict.”
“Who are you referring to, Jake?”
“The Gardners.”
“Jake, no one has any information on what happened to them after they served their thousand years of Ruling their domains. They’ve been missing for more than ten thousand years. Do you think any of them are still alive?”
“I know that Thomas and Danielle as well as Tommy and Cassandra had their life span extended by Atlas. It seems that all of them disappeared in a very short period of time, so I have to think it was a planned disappearance.”
Junior was silent.
“Junior, I’ve had a vision of the Keepers destroying planets in the Realm. What do you think the Gardners would have done if just one of them had a vision similar to mine?”
“They would have been compelled by their oaths to protect the Realm to prevent the Realm’s destruction. But how could they have planned to be here this far in the future?”
“I know they must still be alive, Junior, I just don’t know how to contact them.”
Junior was stunned, “Where are they?”
“I’m not sure, but I believe that your parents are with them wherever they went. Aladdin and Fly Girl disappeared at the same time as the Gardners.”
Junior didn’t know what to say. He and Jake sat silently looking at the scan of the beings being consumed on the planet below.
Finally Junior said, “We’ll work on finding the Gardners later. Today, if we save no one else, I want these cities saved now.”
“Why do you feel that way, Junior?”
“They deserve it, and observing them persuaded me to join this fight.”
“Then this is where we will start our efforts at saving this universe.”
“Admiral Busigleore, I am going to attack a garrison in the Keepers’ universe and I need you to plan the operation.”
Manny looked at Jake and said, “How would you go about making this happen? You are, after all, our resident expert at what to expect from those creatures.”
“I believe that the Keepers will send one of the ships that can jump directly to the planet, so this will have to be done in record time or the population will be wiped out. We need a diversion at one of their home worlds to force them to defend it, then do this while they are distracted.”
Manny thought and shrugged, “Normally we would just hit the garrison with a main beam but if we tried that, it would also heat the atmosphere such that the cities would be destroyed. They are located very close to the garrisons.”
“Do we have anything in our inventory that would just blow it up?”
“Yes we do, as a matter of fact.” Jake started to say something but Manny cut him off, “if you don’t mind dealing with the earthquakes that would follow its use.”
“So how do we do this, Manny?”
Manny smiled and said, “We have been working on our teleportation screen since the last rescue of the colonists. We will now teleport with an exclusion filter that leaves the bracelets and their connections behind. My engineers have taken some of the old defender class warships and have gutted them such that the bottom section is empty. Those ships are three hundred miles in diameter and the lower floor should hold the entire city and its occupants. We’ll do what’s called a snatch-and-grab, followed by a run.”
“What would that look like, Manny?”
“We’ll teleport three thousand Red Warriors in to surround the garrison, and once they open fire the ships will come in and teleport the entire city into its bay. We will then jump back to the Realm and teleport them down to a planet, which will be their new home.”
Junior asked, “Where are we going to find a planet willing to accept them?”
Jake smiled and said, “There are millions of them in the Algean’s galaxy just waiting to be colonized.”
Manny and Junior both were startled by the insight. “How will they be fed?” Junior asked.
Jake pointed to the screen, “Junior, all their crops and fields are around their city. You could take them with the city.”
Manny looked puzzled and said, “I’ll need to talk with a teleport expert about how far down we can teleport, but this sounds like a great idea.”
“Manny, I’ll talk with Sprig about this. Stand by for a few minutes.”
“Standing by.”
“Sprig, do you have a minute?”
“Hello, Jake; what do you need?”
“I’m looking at a way to repopulate your galaxy with refugees from the Keepers’ universe. I was wondering if that would be permissible to the Algeans?”
Sprig felt his soul turn over, “How are you going to make that happen?”
Twig felt Sprig’s sudden change and tuned in to the conversation.
“We want to make a quick grab of the cities on the Keepers’ farms and teleport the entire city and their crops. Once we have them in a transport, we’ll teleport them to one of the planets in your galaxy. We need to know if this is possible. Can we take the crops so that the cities can feed themselves?”
Sprig was almost overcome with emotion. Twig jumped in the conversation, “Yes, you can! Just set the screen to a depth of eighteen inches and you should get all the plants including the roots. Just how big an area are you talking about?”
“Most cities are contained in an area with a diameter of thirty miles. Of course, we can’t take the water source with them, so we’ll need to find an area with available supplies of water.”
“How many cities are you moving initially?”
“There are five on the planet.”
“Are the inhabitants all of the same species or different?”
“This is a conquered planet, so they are all the same species”
Sprig found his voice, “There is a beautiful planet not far from our home world which was the first planet we consumed. Plant life has overgrown most of it, but we will teleport it out to a depth of twenty four inches, and clear five tracts of the necessary size along the banks of the main river on the northern continent. We will assist these refugees in any manner we can to make them comfortable in their new home. You don’t know how much bringing life back to the worlds we killed means to my people.”
“How long will it take to clear the tracts? We want to move quickly.”
“It will be done in twelve segs.”
“Send Admiral Busigleore the coordinates of the site, and we also need a teleport expert to set the screens to make the grab of the cities.”
Sprig’s leaves turned bright green and blooms emerged, “I will come and do it personally. Where do I need to go?”
“I’ll get Manny to send you the coordinates.”
Twig said, “Thank you, Jake.”
“No; thank you for allowing us to use those planets.”
Jake disappeared from Sprig’s screen. He reached over and wrapped Twig in his branches and wept. Twig joined him, and each of them felt the redemption of bringing life back to the worlds they had destroyed long ago.
“Manny, the site for the cities will be ready in twelve hours.”
Manny looked at his console and said, “We will make the grab tomorrow night. We know the Keepers prefer daylight, so darkness is on our side. Most all of the population of those cities should be in the city proper should there be any difficulty with moving the farms. Are you planning to be present for the grab?”
Junior responded, “We wouldn’t miss it, Admiral.”
Manny smiled and said, “I may have had my doubts initially, but now I know Valerie has made an excellent choice in her mate. We will do it at midnight on that planet’s time.”