Chapter 15

It was quiet. Timmo asked me to work with Janna and a few others to monitor the newscasts from earth. London was now a very large crater though it wasn’t radioactive nor was there any debris. Jana told me when I asked that it was an implosion with the results being transitioned to space outside the systems. She said, “I am troubled by the deaths of so many people but I agree with Timmo that there wasn’t much choice.”

My monitoring of various newscasts on the planet indicated that an investigation of massive proportions was occurring and the Britishers were being found at fault. All their activities had been brought to light. It appeared that many Britisher colonies which had won their independence in my universe were now rebelling. Most of those rebellions were successful since we had cut off the monster’s head. Most of the ministries and royalty were gone. I gathered that the world thought that this was good for the Britishers. There were still many colonies of other empires that might be waking up to the possibility of directing their own destiny. How this would affect us, no one including me knew.

There was some rumbling from the Britishers about sending a mission to Comfort’s system to prevent future aggression from us. We heard that the star ship William had left the solar system. Our sensors detected it when it transitioned to our system. They did try to appear on the far side of the solar system. They made no announcement. After they had been present for a minute, Janna had me key up and ask, “Star Ship William, what are you doing in our system?”

There was no reply. After sixty seconds, I asked, “If we do not hear from you regarding intentions, we will assume that they are war-like. Your ship will be transitioned to your solar system and exploded in the middle of your moon.”

“Josh, this is Gerald Thomas. We are here on a peaceful mission. We would like to talk with your leadership.”

“Thomas, you need to be specific about what you want and what you offer in exchange. The presence of a war ship in our system constitutes a continued act of war from the Britisher empire. I would think you’ve found that a bad idea by now. This trip was unnecessary and dangerous to you. All you had to do was broadcast such a request. I suggest that you transition out of this system post haste.”

He said, “You may not tell us what to do.”

I replied, “That is true. we will, however, stop you from doing things we have warned you about doing. Good bye. You will be transitioned to another galaxy and your transitioning device permanently disabled.” Janna nodded and pressed a button. William vanished from our sensors.

Janna said, “Report the demise of William. Advise earth that sending war ships to our system is not a good idea.”

I did both broadcasting it all over earth. I also told that we sent William to another galaxy rather than the middle of the moon. I said that Comfort remains willing and able to talk with any peoples but no ship was welcome into our system unless they had asked for and received permission from us first.

It was quiet for most of a year. Elena and I were enjoying our place and successfully farming it. We maintained a casual listening watch on earth and our sensors would warn us if someone attempted to surprise us.

It appeared that earth was going through a revolutionary period that was ending many empires. Their political systems were in flux and no star ship projects were being undertaken. We continued to watch and observe.

We watched the news from earth until, suddenly, things quieted down. The silence was ominous. Janna and Milla moved their sensoring up a notch. They detected another star ship leaving earth for our system. This one transitioned into our system quite close to our planet and jettisoned two items and then transitioned again. Janna and Milla quickly captured the two packages and transitioned them close to the ship that had sent them. At that point, we began to examine the packages remotely.

The first was an elementary sensor device. We then left it to begin to work when its timer told it to start. The other was a bomb also on a timer. We started its countdown and resumed observing.

The people in the star ship suddenly realized that their packages had followed them back. They began to move away but were too slow. The bomb exploded and took the ship with it. We broadcast all that to earth through all news outlets.

The Britisher government decried the “terrible and needless” loss of life due to their bomb. Timmo contacted me. He said, “I think Liberty needs to make another trip with the same crew. We have improved it both defensively and offensively. I think finding out what’s going on might be a good idea. We don’t want a flotilla of ships coming here.”

“I agree reluctantly. That Britisher ship was an unpleasant surprise even though we are prepared.” I looked at Elena who nodded. “We will be ready.”

We boarded ship and left two weeks later. We arrived in earth orbit. In a minute, we heard, “Unknown ship, this is International Base One. Identify.”

Timmo looked at me. International Base One, this is Liberty from Comfort. We were recently were subject to an aggressive incursion into our system. We wanted to find out what earth is planning.”