Free Escape to Earth-The Legacy of a Conqueror by Saxon Andrew

to a hospital.”
    “It’s on the way.”
    “Jinks, how did this happen?”
    Jinks forcefully blew out a breath, “I don’t have all the details yet. I’ll let you know as soon as I find out.”
    Stoney nodded and felt his tears. His son’s wife, his step-daughter was just murdered. He saw Kathy running down the dune toward him and as soon as she saw his eyes she stopped for a moment and grabbed her neck. Then she ran forward and threw her body on Stoney and Chris.
    • • •
    Four days later, Chris sat in a wheelchair staring out of a large picture window in the hospital’s hall. His arms and legs were tied down with leather restraints to prevent him from hurting himself. The view from the window showed a large orange field where workers were harvesting the heavily laden branches. Chris’s eyes just stared straight ahead without blinking. Lukas, Salud, Jinks and Sarah walked up and looked at Stoney. Salud said, “Has there been any change?” Stoney shook his head. Salud bent down and hugged Chris as she kissed him on his head.
    Lukas shook his head, “I don’t want to do it but should we bring Michael to see if it brings him out of it?”
    “I’ve never been in it.” Everyone jerked their heads toward Chris as he twisted his arms and broke restraints on his arm. He reached down and untied his leg restraints and tossed them to the hospital orderly standing close by, “Use this on someone that needs it.”
    Kathy jumped up and ran over to hug Chris. “It’s OK Mom, I needed some time to say goodbye.”
    Kathy leaned back, “Are you ok?”
    Chris’s eyes narrowed, “What do you think?” He turned to Lukas, “How did they get through our defenses?”
    Lukas heard Chris’s tone and didn’t recognize it. “Our investigation has determined that seven years ago when you killed those scouts and sent the sixth back with a message, they launched a special ship. It was little more than a thin non-ferrous hull with an engine and drive field. It had just enough room to carry a shielded nuclear bomb.”
    “How did it get through our scans?”
    “It skipped in outside the coverage of our void probes and continued the journey in normal space. The pilot appears to have the ability to go into a suspended animation state. It took more than six years for it to arrive here through normal space traveling close to the speed of light.”
    Chris nodded slightly, “Our detection systems in normal space were inadequate to see it coming.” Lukas nodded. Chris looked at him, “Tell me again why the main force field was off.”
    Stoney said, “It’s not his fault. You know the power to keep it running would be too high to make it effective when it might have to be used. You approved not keeping it on along with the rest of us.”
    Chris winced and shook his head, “I think I forced myself to forget that little piece of information. So no one here is to blame for her death?”
    Salud nodded, “No, it was a freak occurrence that the attack took place on just the day she went sailing.”
    Chris snorted, “Sort of like it’s a part of my destiny.”
    “I’M NOT SAYING THAT! ACCIDENTS HAPPEN!”
    Chris looked at Salud with dead eyes, “This was no accident.”
    Lukas sighed, “Chris, we can give you some time off…”
    “The only time I’m going to need is to go and take my son back to that beach to tell his mother good-bye.”
    Sarah said, “What are you going to do?”
    Chris looked at her and then turned to Jinks, “I want the top 100 Pod Fleets assembled in orbit three days from now.”
    Stoney looked at Chris, “Son, you should wait to do this. You need some time.”
    Chris smiled for the first time and put his hand on Stoney’s shoulder, “Dad, I told them seven years ago that if they sent another ship here I was going to eradicate them. They didn’t wait a month before they launched that ship.” Chris looked at Lukas, “What good are consequences if you’re not willing to enforce them?” Lukas