Chapter 15

Returning Home!

The destroyer landed on the planet Nanux. John had everyone take a walk, to observe the planet. It had been stripped of its wealth, the soil was dead without nutrients or even earthworms. John got intuitively it needed a good dose of chickens. He thought of Funston and got the same sense that the ground had just been overused for thousands of centuries. Then it had been covered. Nanux had been used until there was no more life in it.

John asked everyone to form a circle and hold hands. He said the Lord’s Prayer. He also asked for the spirit of the planet to come to visit with them. A little girl appeared at the center of the circle. Lucy, Willy, and Skut ventured out to say hi. Jenny took a knee and something that very rarely happens, two planetary spirits come close to each other. Gaia was kicking up a storm. Lucy and the little girl spoke to each other, then Lucy brought the little girl over to see Jenny. The little girl was the size of Lucy. Black hair fair skin and a smile that would warm your heart, “Thank you for coming. I have been asking our father in heaven to send me some help. I did not believe he would send me the leaders of another world and perhaps the Galaxy. The planet has no animals. You have seen another planet with the same problem. Bring rabbits, and chickens and buffalos. Bring seeds to plant the empty prairies with grass, wheat, and oats. My people are starving. Can you help?” The mother of the Planet Nanux asked.

“What would they like to eat?” John asked.

“They would not care at this point. They are willing to eat anything.”

“Do they have things to cook with?” Jenny asked, “Clean water too?”

“Yes, they can cook. The people have good water too.” The little mother said.

The kids rejoined the circle. The Little Mother of Nanux also held onto Lucy and Willy’s hands.

Jenny lead, “Ten buckets of wheat flour with Nanux instructions.” When the ten buckets appeared, Jenny continued, “Now everywhere there are people on the planet.” Jenny then led the group for ten buckets of shredded beef, shredded chicken, dehydrated corn, peas, tomato cubes, corn oil, brown rice and black beans each along with ten buckets of wheat flour.”

Willy added, “Three Boxes of Delicious Apples everywhere. A bucket of chocolate chip cookies too.”

Ben added, “Ten buckets of Strawberry Oatmeal.”

Lucy added, “Ten containers of Salsa.”

John added, “A dozen buckets of large potatoes, and a dozen buckets of dehydrated chilly.”

“Does that feel complete?” Jenny asked. When Jenny got nods around, “Mother of Nanux, what is your name?”

“Gaia. Thank you for your help, people sent by God!”

Back on Board:

“Mr. Bible come to earth. Visit our world. We will get you home.” Jenny suggested.

“No, I need to see if my family is okay. I have tried so many times before.”

“Alright then Captain, as soon as you check out what we talked about, take us to Algol,” John said over the mic attached to his ear. Algol was Director Bible’s home planet. He had lived there off and on for two thousand years. He had had no communication for over one hundred Earth years. Not even the return appearance of a planetary Lord.

“Mr. President, sorry for breaking in, but take a look at that.” Iceman directed. There on the big screen was thousands of ships slowly moving. Another group from the back side of the planet was joining with the group on the screen.

“Patricia, How many and of what class?” John asked.

“The original group has 41 Battleships and 1,235 Battle Cubs or fighters. The second group moving to join has 79 Battleships and 1,776 of the Battle Cubs or fighters. There may be more Cubs on the Battleships.” Patricia reported, “There also appears to be a cloaked escort of 2 ships. One of them is moving this way.”

“Please identify yourself.” Came to the request over the speaker in a language that only Amen recognized.

“John, I think I know that voice.” Amen said, “Let me speak to him.”

“Bobo? Bobo, this is Amen.” Mr. Bible said, “Let’s speak English.”

“Okay, Director Bible.”

“Is this the entire Nanux force?” Amen asked.

“Yes. They do have one Battleship on the land, but it looks like it may have been used for parts. They are also building a Man-Made Moon of sorts, but it is not finished” Bobo reported, “I believe Nanux have or are about to take over another planet based on some of the information we have been able to obtain.”

“Bobo, we understand that the leaders of Nanux are planning on taking a part of Earth for their own use,” Amen added.

“Then that is what this gathering of force is all about,” Bobo said.

“How fast can the Battleships travel?” Amen asked.

“Between 80 and 100 light years per day,” Bobo said.

“Thank you, Bobo. Stay safe.” Amen said.

“Will do Director,” Bobo said.

After a few minutes from Nanux:

John heard in his earpiece, “John we are ten minutes out from Algol. You might have Director Bible try to contact the planet.” Iceman suggested.

“Will do, thank you!” John turned to Director Bible, “Who do we contact on Algol to get permission to land?”

“Algol Central.” Director Bible said.

“Algol Central, this is the Patricia from the planet Earth requesting permission to land.”

“This is Algol Central, who are you and what is the purpose of the landing?”

“I am Lord John Taillefer of the planet Earth. We are carrying Director Amen Bible to your planet to visit with his family.”

Another older voice, “Did you say Amen Bible? Please put him on the line.”

John handed Amen the mic, “This is Amen Bible.”

“WE THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!” an excited voice screamed.

An equally excited Amen, “WHO ... WHO am I speaking to?????”

“Your brother Ohm.”

John looked to Jenny who was nodding her head. John in his mind was asking his own question, “What kind of family names their sons Amen and Ohm?”

Jenny looked to John and whispered, “The leaders of a very religious planet. You have spent many past lives on this planet too.”

Many Minutes later, on the planet:

“They came, hit us at night. There were six ships much like the one you have, light destroyers. We destroyed five of them, but the lead ship simply disappeared before we could get a fix on it. “This happened shortly after you were here last time.” Ohm Bible pointed to a very large home that was destroyed.

The Taylor family and the four Marines had all ventured out with Amen Bible when they landed near his home on Algol. His brother with four security people was already there.

“Who did you make an enemy of?” Jenny asked.

“Mam, my brother is now Lord Bible of Algol.” Ohm barked.

“Ohm, please these people are my friends.” Amen moved close to Ohm to whisper in his ear, “You are speaking to the Galactic Empress. She carries the spirit of her world in her belly. They are also Lord and Lady of their planet.”

“Please forgive me, Lady. This is the worse unsolved crime on our planet for a thousand years.” Ohm bowed and even went to one knee, “And it has to do with my family.”

Jenny quickly moved to also whisper, “Mr. Bible, we want to be your friend. We are here as another Lord of a planet. Please stand and treat us as an equal to your brother.” Jenny watched as the man stood, “You have a right to be angry. I lost my parents in a violent death. I was lucky, the men responsible are dead, some by my own hand.”

Ohm looked at Jenny and John with shock that turned into a smile on his face. He looked around at the Marines and children of the Taylor’s (Skut was there running with Willy). Vid and Maya along with Demetri and Sally were standing off near the ship. Yelena and Mika were doing some filming. Seth was taking many pictures. The kids had two Frisbees and were having fun burning up some excess energy in what used to be Amen’s front yard, “I have seen pictures of our family of long ago. They are like your family today.”

“Who did you make an enemy of long-ago Lord Bible?” Jenny asked again.

“Heckler of the Stensit family,” Amen said.

“That’s who we purchased the 1,000 black boxes from. After the purchase, a group of security men showed up and led him off to become their new Lord.” John said.

“I wonder if he realizes he has an enemy.” Amen said, “Dear brother, why is this not been cleaned up?

“It’s still an unsolved murder.” Ohm said, “Why did you wait so long to come back?”

“When I was called back to the Capitol the reason was the Emperor had been killed? I was appointed to take on the responsibilities of the position, but with no real power. I was held a prisoner in the capitol as essential personnel. Lord Taillefer actually broke us out of there by blowing apart two of the containment beams with their new weapon.”

Ohm looked to a nodding John for confirmation, “Well then I can’t touch him if he is a Lord.”

Very quietly John said, “We can!” When Ohm looked to John, he saw a wink of his right eye.

“Thank you, brother.” Amen Bible said to Ohm. He had heard the exchange and seen the wink, “Sir John let’s go to Earth. Brother, I will be able to come back often. We will talk more then.”

So, after a round of Goodbyes, the Unnamed Light Destroyer headed for home, to the backward planet called Earth.

“Iceman, how many minutes to home?” John asked.

“We are 90 light years from home. We are currently in the Perseus Constellation if anybody cares.” Iceman said, “This will take more time speeding up and slowing down than the 10.8 seconds at super warp. Probably 15 to 20 minutes.”

“Head to Lockheed. I’ll give them a call now.” John said, “First Lady Inga, please attach me to the ship.”

“Yes Sir, you’re attached.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and guest, we will be back on Earth in just a few minutes. Everyone, please look around you, to make sure you have all your goodies. I want to thank all of you for a pleasant and very successful trip. George our magic chef, that goes double. Excellent food sir.” The stars showed lines of light then the lines went back to individual dots of light as they moved slowly towards the edges of the screen.

“Inga let’s talk to Lockheed,” John said.

In a minute John heard Kevin’s greetings, “Kevin, we are already on our way home. We will see you in ten minutes.”

“10/4”

The Van Allen belt burnt all the cobwebs off the Light Destroyer.

A few minutes later the Light Destroyer appeared to glide down the runway. When the ship landed, John had a question, “Seth do you want to take a picture of us arriving back home?”

“Seth was the first off the Patricia. He also got to see the whole group standing on the deck of the destroyer. Then he climbed back up and John and the family were standing on the concrete. Yelena and Mika were also taking pictures.

“Is the Patricia okay?” Kevin said when he noticed it was on the deck of the light destroyer.

Iceman hugged his uncle, “The Patricia performed perfectly. That trip was fabulous. We figured out how to stop a tractor beam.”

“That we sure did.” John laughed.

“Well, how?” Kevin asked.

“We had 5 of our littlest crewmembers as gunners and within three seconds the tractor beam was gone. Then they turned on another tractor beam and it was gone in a second.” John said laughing.

“How far away?” Kevin asked.

“Twenty miles.” Iceman answered shaking his head, “A postage stamp at a hundred meters would have appeared bigger and had been easier.”

Heading Home!

Within a half hour, the kids were heading home. Ben and Willy in one of the jet mobile and Brien and Chuck in the other heading diagonally across the United States. They would see things that only glider or ultralight pilots would see. Kevin found them a compass each and tuned the radios until it worked to Patricia’s frequencies. He also got them all helmets. The four took off promising to watch out for each other. Those little ships topped out at around 1,200 miles per hour with a cruising speed of around a 1,000. They would be going almost 1,800 miles.

An hour later the Taylor’s and friends boarded the Patricia. Kevin was better than his word. Behind the Patricia was 105 spaceships. Forty of these ships would follow Vid home in the morning. Vid and his family decided to stay overnight and have the normal monthly get together for breakfast in Omak.

Demetri was flying the Patricia. He had everyone up to speed then he turned and gave Vid a look with a big smile. The Patricia was only going 2000 MPH looking for four boys flying home. Patricia picked them up on the screens crossing the Oregon-California border. They had about 400 miles left to reach home. Mt. Shasta to the west was still a formable sight as the Patricia headed north. They were flying along pointing at the things they saw. A hundred miles north of Mt. Shasta was Crater Lake. It was still there although one would need something other than the Interstate 5 to get to it. Inga was very intent on watching her son. Sally was sitting next to Demetri and was as excited as anybody. Jenny too, tried to read twice and just gave up and took in the view. The Patricia was about a quarter mile behind and a thousand feet higher. John was happy to see Mt. Hood in Oregon, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Adams in Washington come into view. Off in the distance was Mt. Rainier. Just east and a little bit north of Rainier was home. Skut was standing in his father’s lap watching his friends fly. Everyone could see the desire and concern he had for his friend Willy. Someday it would be his turn.

John called them, “This is John Taylor of the USS Patricia calling all ships in the area.”

Willy and Chuck both picked up, “Hello. Dad this is sooooo neat. We can see everything.” The two little runabouts looked more like little helicopters without the blades. They had a bubble glass covering over the pilot and passenger seats. Their view was the first ticket.

“Sons park your rides at the bank. We are a quarter mile behind and about a thousand feet up.” John informed.

“Thanks, dad. We can almost see home.” Chuck said. All four of the boys looked back and waved.

“I can see Mt Rainier,” Willy added.

“We will help guide you sons.” John said, “Stay to the right of Mt. Adams there.”

“Daddy is that our river down there?” Willy asked.

“Why yes, it is. Can you fly your ship over it?” John asked.

“Yes, Sir!” Willy said. The two ships moved to the right until they were over the river channel.

Ten minutes went by, “Daddy I can see the bridge.”

Another long minute for John until, “Daddy, we see the bank. Here we go!”

“Where do you want to park Patricia, Mr. President?” Demetri asked.

“Patricia, remember when you first came to Omak, you parked in a spot?” John asked.

“Yes, Sir,” Patricia answered.

“Park there. Tell the other ships to find a spot and park nearby.”

“Will do.”

When we finally were down Vid and Maya his First Lady came over to Demetri and Sally giving them both a handshake and a pat on the back. He then turned to John, “We get one more like this?”