Chapter 11

"Good morning!" Jeff said to everyone in command central.

Kayleigh was stunned at the appearance of Beth. Jeff had kept her up-to-date on events, but she still wasn't mentally prepared for the sight of the Earth woman. Beth was in shorts and a tank top. She was even barefoot. She looked so ... normal. She was no longer a wild alien.

Beth looked at the viewscreen currently displaying the planet below. It was on that screen that she last saw her ship.

"Jeff?" she said.

"Yes?"

"Tell me the truth. You were glad my ship was destroyed, weren't you? You didn't want us here at Magnif."

Jeff said, "Why should we be happy about an Earth ship showing up? We had no idea if they would try to reclaim Magnif. How could we believe the captain didn't really want to take over especially when she acted like she wanted to be in charge of everything? Fortunately she is gone."

Beth smiled then said, "But another Earth ship will come. What will you do then?"

"When will that be?"

Beth looked at Jeff curiously. There was something in the way he said it.

"You didn't send the message, did you?" she asked.

Jeff inhaled deeply then decided to be honest.

"Code 9C is to tell my crew to play along with me. It was to pretend to do what I asked, so you and Weston would think I did it."

"A very simple ruse."

"It worked. We know Earth will eventually come looking for what happened to your ship, but it will be a little while longer now."

"There is still one thing I wished I knew," Beth said.

"What is that?"

"I don't know what happened to my ship."

"It was a failure or an accident."

"It couldn't have happened. It's impossible!" she said insistently. "There are too many failsafes. The engine core will shut down before it blows."

"Could you live without knowing? It is unfortunate that the ship is gone, but the ship brought you here. It brought you to me."

"Oh, yes," she said snuggling into him.

"Good. We have a party today. It's Zander's birthday."

"What do you do to celebrate it?"

"You will see. It will be very fun."

"Good."

Jeff looked over at Kayleigh at the same moment she looked over at him. They shared a knowing stare. Jeff looked at Beth wrapped tightly in his arms. She was a Magnif now and Jeff would train her to be part of the command crew. It was important to have her experience on the team if another Earth ship ever did arrive. Beth would learn everything. Almost everything. She would never need to know the full power of their defense systems. She would never need to know Kayleigh activated Magnif's defensive beam which receives its power from channeling the immense wheat field and was created by the collective minds of the five races. Beth would never need to know that Jeff gave Kayleigh the order and so he was ultimately responsible for the destruction of her ship.

All that was important was that Magnif was still safe and still independent.