Annihilation: A Rose Grows In Weeds (2 page)

“Then it must be right; I’ve never known you to be wrong,” Tag thought softly to his wife.

“Tag, our baby brought us together.”

Tag just looked at her with a stunned look on his face. He didn’t know how to respond to what she said. “Tag, the part of you that is used to produce a child also has psychic powers. Your DNA was looking for a match that would compliment your talents. I also believe that my DNA was doing the same. Just like your body taking control of you when you’re attacked; your genes sought the perfect partner. Somehow, our inner selves saw each other even when we had never met and manipulated events to insure we would come together. All of this was for us to have this child. The defeat of the Alliance was simply a byproduct of the process. You are right; it is not an accident that the two strongest psychics on earth ended up together.” Danielle placed her head tenderly next to her new baby and nuzzled her cheek.

Tag continued to stare at her. “Are you telling me that we had no say in what happened? We had to come together? I find this hard to believe.”

Danielle kept her eyes closed but thought, “Don’t you see, love? We loved each other from the first moment we touched. Our inner selves longed for each other long before that happened. It was what we are that brought us together. The universe has a reason for this and we may not ever know that reason. However, how do you feel now that our daughter is here? Look deep inside yourself and tell me what you feel.”

Tag closed his eyes and looked at his deepest feelings. Danielle waited and watched him as he sat for several minutes. Finally he opened his eyes and said, “I feel at peace. It’s hard to describe, but somehow I feel complete.”

“As do I; we need a name, Tag. Oh, what a hoot; a name tag. I made a funny.”

Tag smiled and said, “I have read a great deal about Earth’s ancient history and I learned that the flower most associated with love was the rose. I would like her name to be Rose.”

“Tag, what a wonderful name; I agree with you. She will be Rose Luanna Gardner.”

“Luanna,” Tag asked?

From my great grandmother who lost her husband and raised her children on her own; she was the strongest willed person in my family. I suspect our daughter will be a lot like her.”

“Rose Luanna Gardner it is. Are you ready to let the two new uncles in to see her?”

Danielle smiled and said, “I look a mess but they deserve to see her after sitting there for hours. Call them in.”

Tgon-Gee and Dorg walked in the room and saw Danielle and the child. Tgon-Gee came to the bed and bowed low to them and Dorg also hit a knee. Danielle said, “Please stand, you’re here with friends. There’s no need to bow.”

Tgon-Gee said, “My Queen, I can see your child’s aura. She will be the future leader of all our races. She deserves my homage and my total loyalty. I can feel her presence.”

Dorg said, “I can’t see anything about an aura, but I, too, feel her. I also give her my total loyalty just as I’ve given it to you, Majesty.”

Tag and Danielle looked at each other both a little unsettled by the admission that the two leaders could feel their baby’s presence. Danielle thought to Tag, “I think that life has taken a major turn here.”

Tag only smiled because like his two friends, he could also feel her and what a great feeling it was.

A
dmiral Dorg sat in the fleet command chair on the Stars Realm Megaship Rossville. He had just returned from the birth of the Gardner’s baby two days ago and he was introspective about what that child would mean to the Stars Realm. He could still remember the feeling he had when the baby was born. He glanced at the status display on one of his four consoles that gave a read out on the ships readiness for jump. The Commander of the ship, Tresk, sat just below his chair issuing orders to his crew for departure within three drags. Dorg shook his head and focused on the mission he was about to undertake. He would think about the child and the possible implication of what Tgon-Gee had said later.

He was impressed with his former adjutant’s knowledge of the ship’s systems. Tresk had come a long way from being a staff officer to a warship commander and the ship’s crew was excited about the mission. His communication console beeped and he looked over and saw the two human leaders of the Stars Realm Military, Admiral Kosiev and Prince Thomas Gardner. “Good day Mr. Gardner and Admiral,” he said into his com.

Kosiev smiled at him and said, “We just wanted to check on you to see if everything was on schedule for your departure.”

Dorg was a Cainth Warrior and in the aftermath of his species being defeated by the Humans during the Alliance conflict he had learned to respect and actually like his former enemies. The Cainth looked remarkably like a four armed earth kangaroo. The main differences, other than four arms, was that the Cainth had small ears on the side of their heads instead of the long ears of the earth kangaroo and their two legs were very thick and strong which made them walk somewhat stiffly. They had a light covering of brown fur and very narrow eyes that were totally black. His species was known in the past for being extremely aggressive and territorial usually shooting first and talking later. The defeat at the hands of the humans had forced his race to reevaluate their former viciousness and come to embrace the concept of working with other races to become friends and allies. Now his race and the humans had become Clan Brothers sworn to defend and protect each other. After the defeat of the Alliance by the Humans, Cainth, and Glod, his race attained a high status among the 832 races that now made up the membership of the Stars Realm. He had taken a life oath to make up for the deaths of the human colonists that he had ordered murdered during the attack on the human colony planet Ross. His ship was named for the city on that planet where 20% of the colonists were executed. He still had nightmares of the humans that had been killed and he drove himself to make up for their deaths with what life he had remaining. Now he was going to try and save a world that was going to be destroyed by the plant creatures that literally destroyed planets and consumed all life.

“Everything is going fine and we’re scheduled to leave in three drags unless there’s something else you want done prior to my departure,” Dorg replied.

Tag, which was Thomas Gardner’s nickname, said, “As a matter of fact there is. We want to send you two more megaships. We think that you should be supported in your efforts to contact the Dremel and we think each of the original Star’s Realm members should have a representative there.”

Dorg looked at his two friends on the display and smiled, “Is is also because if things go bad quickly there’s a better chance of at least one of the ships escaping with information of what we encountered and I might not be so aggressive with the welfare of three ships in my trust?”

Tag and Kosiev looked at each other and Kosiev handed Tag a five credit, “You’re right,” Kosiev said, “He understood immediately.” Kosiev then looked at Dorg on the display and said, “You’re possibly going into a very hostile environment and we don’t know if the Algeans have already discovered the Dremel and have begun harvesting operations. We also don’t know much about the Dremel and you’re too important to risk losing. We also think with more ships involved in this operation you will have more options on possible courses of action; it also increases the chances of survival. I have ordered two of the recently completed megaships to join you and they should be jumping in to meet you within the drag. One of them is a human ship commanded by Captain Mikado and the other is a Glod ship commanded by Ren-Bir. You will have overall command of the squadron and the ships have already completed their pre-jump system evaluations so you should be able to leave on schedule.”

Dorg had patched the conversation to Tresk’s console as soon as he learned of the two new ships and he noticed that the Commander was listening in on the communication. Dorg looked at Tresk as he said to Tag and Kosiev, “We will probably delay our departure for an additional rotation so that we can meet with the two other ship commanders and iron out our plans for contact.” Tresk looked up from his console and nodded at Dorg indicating his understanding and began issuing new orders to his crew for the delay and to get a meeting space prepared for the upcoming strategy session. “I thought Mikado was a commodore,” Dorg said to Kosiev.

“He was in the Directorate Navy but he transferred to the Stars Realm Fleet and lost a rank,” Kosiev answered. “He should make up ground quickly.”

Tag smiled at the Cainth Warrior and said, “If you think of anything else you might need, com us and let us know. We will also have thirty of the old ultra ships on standby ready to jump in to support you if things go bad. Com Kosiev with the coordinates of the Dremels system as soon and you make contact and let us know what you discover.”

Dorg nodded, “Your orders will be followed. Let us hope the standby ships are not needed. Thank you and I’ll contact you upon our arrival in the Dremels system; and once again, congratulations on your new child Mr. Gardner.”

Tag smiled and nodded then Kosiev and Tag looked away from their screen and the connection was broken.

Dorg sat back in his chair and thought about possibly facing one of the Algean fleets that had more than a hundred thousand ships. Some of those ships were more than twenty miles long and were fully armed with beams and missiles. He noticed on his systems console that the weapons officer had reported that all systems were fully operational and armed. If the Plants had already started attacking the Dremel, then all he could probably do was just jump away. The upcoming conflict was frightening in the scale of the enemy they were going to face but the warrior part of him actually reveled in the opportunity to fight the good fight. He remembered the recordings of the Plant Fleet that attacked the Pydres Planet and totally defeated them then began eating the population as they started harvesting all organic life on the planet. They had to be stopped now before they grew too big for anything to slow them down. Dorg looked at Tresk again and wondered if his ship was going to be strong enough to survive in the upcoming conflict. “We’ll soon know,” he thought.

D
anielle and Leila were sitting in her nursery on Earth discussing the multitude of requests for the Queen’s time. Rose had been born eight days earlier and Danielle had asked Leila to come in and update her on her schedule. Danielle was overwhelmed and was beginning to get frustrated. She sighed and gazed out the windows at Central City which was spread out below her home and extended as far as the eye could see. White hazy clouds covered the floors 40 stories below and the sun was reflected off the 4,000 foot tall buildings around her. It was a beautiful spring day on Earth and she was looking forward to taking Rose out for her first exposure to sunshine. She almost wished she was a medical technician again, but then she would have never met Tag; all of this was worth it just to have him in her life. Being queen was not something she would have ever chosen but now that the job was hers, she needed to learn to handle the pressures. She held Rose and listened to Leila as Rose was given a bottle of milk. She looked at Leila and said, “I just don’t see how I can meet all the requests. I’m only one person and there are 832 worlds out there demanding my presence. With a new baby taking a lot of my time,” Danielle hesitated for a moment and then said, “Leila, what am I going to do? I have no idea what a queen is supposed to do. This title was thrust on me and I’m not sure I’m up to the task.”

Leila came over and placed her hand over Danielle’s and said in a soft voice, “Danielle, you can’t do what they’re asking and they know it. They assume that it won’t hurt to ask; all of them would dearly love you to visit them. However, I disagree with your assessment about yourself. I know you and there’s no one else I would trust with the power you’ve been given. You just have to make the decisions that feel right to you. I have not seen you make a bad one yet which leads me to something that you should think about. There’s a problem that will eventually come up that you will need to plan to solve.”

“What is that?”

“If you make Earth your center of government, then how long before other races start to feel you might be playing favorites? You’re loved, but there is a certain jealousy about your being here so much.”

Danielle thought for a minute and said, “You’re right, however whatever planet I choose, all the others will feel slighted.” Danielle thought a moment and said, “Excuse me, Leila; I want to talk with Tag about this.”

Leila stood left to go to her office. “Tag,” Danielle thought.

“Oh hi, Love. What’s going on?” Tag replied.

Danielle knew that Tag was in a star’s system light years away testing new weapons but the link that the Alfont Ship had given them allowed them to hear each other’s thoughts no matter how far they were from each other. She was thankful that Atlas had given them that gift. “I was just talking with Leila and she brought up a point about the location of my home and how others may feel slighted if I have it on Earth. Do you think she’s making a valid point?”

“It’s not what I think, it’s what you sense. You know you’re far better than I am at seeing things you encounter; it’s your psychic gift. Did it sound true to you?”

“Yes it does, however, no matter where I put it; all the members of the Stars Realm will have a problem with me not selecting them. I do know that being from Earth will cause sentiment that I might be playing favorites with my own race if I choose to stay here.”