Chapter 8

Ray looked at her as if she were crazy for a moment, then realized that everything she’d said was true. He didn’t watch close enough and always seemed to think that he was stronger than his attackers were. Ray was about to thank her when he felt a sharp cry from the leader, telling Nali he had to go, and he was back on the planet in no time. As he had expected, they were once again trying to open portals inside his shields. He could see thousands of the invading spiders walking out of the portal into open space; then the vacuum overtook the portal, and several hundred ships imploded, taking even more nearby ships with them. The only problem was this was like a drop of water in a full bucket. Then the bombardment started, though this time with 18 of his devices, there was hardly any strain at all. Ray was a little worried though; considering the sheer number of ships, they could easily overpower the shields in a matter of hours.

Sitting on the ground, Ray tried to think of something that could help. Sure, he could think and the ships would explode. The problem with that was he didn’t think he had the energy to do that, especially with the Queen out there somewhere, plus the fact that he had obviously pissed her off when he tried to destroy her. Guess she didn’t like getting a taste of her own medicine, feeling helpless for once on the receiving end of an attack. “I need to destroy her,” Ray thought. “I hurt her, so I’m afraid she’ll never give up. If only I could ... that was it!” It all depended on if he could pull it off with more than one at a time. Concentrating, Ray found the 4 weakest minds controlling the weapons of 4 ships at the front of the fleet. Taking control was fairly easy and took no energy at all. With this control, he had all 4 start firing at the ships behind them in rapid succession. Smiling, Ray watched as hundreds of ships were destroyed before the 4 were fired upon. Ray reached out and could ‘hear’ the spiders screaming that the Treg Trag was using a tactic he’d used before and to watch for him on the ships.

Ray withdrew, laughing that this new tactic was working better than he thought it would. Reaching out, he tried to find more weak-minded weapons operators. The first 20 he touched were all weak. What the hell? What, was it a prerequisite that in order to fire the weapons, you had to be an almost slush brain? Ray wasn’t sure he could take all 20; taking 6, he once again started to fire, this time getting a few hundred more ships than before. This time he actually heard the Queen screaming at her soldiers to find him before most of the fleet was debris. Hmm, thought Ray, the Queen couldn’t actually feel him then ... wait! That had to be it; she was sensitive, yes, but only when he had his power on a frequency that she was used to or was below where she was at the moment. Interesting, Ray thought. I can feel where she is, but she nor any of her army could feel him, not while he was shifting his energy higher. Ray quickly released the first 6 and took the next, even as the fleet opened up on them. Ray had the operators destroying hundreds more ships.

That ought to keep them busy for a while trying to find me, give the shields a chance to rest. Ray knew that soon they would catch on, so it was time to change tactics. Reaching out, Ray had to go hundreds of miles to find the Queen, not only NOT with the fleet but quite a distance away. Reaching in, he saw that the Queen was still trying to recover from the last attack. Christ, Ray thought, what an ugly, disgusting, repulsive creature she was. Several creatures, almost a mirror of her, were crawling around her, tending to her, feeding her, taking her waste away, stimulating her. Ray could only guess it was her sex entrance. Shuddering, he saw several lines of teeth lining the inside of the opening. “Fuck this,” he thought. “I have got to kill this thing.” He saw that she had some type of helmet on; it was obviously what he had felt clamp down on her mind when he attacked her earlier. Counting again, Ray had at least 10 attendants plus the Queen. Great, never can make it easy. Reaching over, Ray grasped the helmet. He’d have to do this quickly; he didn’t know just what the attendants would do.