Bad Seed

"Alright Trigon, what do they have to meet us with," Wren said.

"Readings indicate at least ten heavy battleships, no less than twenty heavy cruisers. Ten of them are of strange configuration, I also count a fleet of over ten thousand single fighter ships," Trigon said.

"All weapons to full, let's," Wren started as several alarms went off.

Wren scowled as she opened fire, not even having to aim.

"Warning, warning a ship of unfamiliar configuration has entered the system. It appears to be towing a space fighter that is inoperable," Trigon said.

Then she watched the strange ship release the space fighter, then it appeared that the Meltry noticed it. A few moments later the strange ship fired easily, taking out half of the hundreds heading for it.

Wren just shook her head another few hundred, heading toward the strange ship. They were obviously worried as five heavy battleships were with them.

This time, to Wren's surprise, all the ships just vanished? Holy shit Wren thought what weapon was that? She also noticed that the Metrians had backed off.

"Trigon, open a channel," Wren said.

"Open master Wren," Trigon said.

"To the second ship, what do you wish?" Wren asked in a gruff voice.

"I want nothing, I just brought the last of your ships back from where the earth was," the voice said.

"What are you? Your energy is strange to our sensors, where are you from?" Wren asked.

"If it matters, though, as I told the last of your ships there, who fired on me for no reason, I am from earth. I didn't appreciate that, so I destroyed all but the last one," the voice said.

The connection off, with the gruff voice. Almost immediately, Wren sent a signal.

"Tell them that I am human", Wren's five-foot-eight-inch blonde person appeared. "I heard your conversation. I am having a hard time believing you are from earth."

They could see that Wren had a lot of power, though nothing like his, it seemed to be growing like hers.

"I am from earth, just not your earth," he said. This caused Wren's eyes to open wide, then she slowly started to nod.

"Your ship, I didn't recognize it, or I might have contacted you sooner. As you might have guessed, this is the last of the six races that destroyed the earth. They are also the most war-like. I would appreciate any help that you could give. I have been at this for what seems a very long time," Wren said.

"I think I can understand, excuse me a moment," the male said as she saw another huge number of ships approaching him. He raised a hand when a holo-gram appeared.

"John, if you do too many you could drain yourself," the holo-gram Rommie said.

"Shit," Wren said. "I know that all too well."

He sighed as he thought a moment, then took out about three quarters of those approaching.

"Damn," Wren said. "I could use a weapon like that. Unfortunately, we haven't even taken a fourth of them. It seems almost as soon as you destroy a bunch, almost as many take their place."

The male thought about it, that almost made sense. He seemed to search through all the myriad of ships, finding ten massive, massive ships that seemed to be spitting out ships at a constant rate.

Taking a deep breath, he seemed to concentrate on two of them. For a few moments, nothing happened, then one had explosions deep inside. The male started to smile as the same thing happened in the other. Within minutes, both ships were unable to move, then disappeared in titanic explosions.

The destruction went beyond the ships as it took out a few hundred ships around them.

He looked at the Wren, "I think we need to retreat a bit," he then started to collapse on the deck.

Rommie appeared, getting him to a cot nearby. "Alright, following you," Wren said.

We both went to trans-warp, though his seemed more mechanical. That's when he passed out.

A few hours later, he awoke, seeing that we weren't near the planet. He sat up, then was shocked when Wren was sitting nearby.

"It appears that we both have abilities that are not common to Earth people. So, you are from another earth, one that I assume is still in existence," Wren said. She then held out her hand, "I am Wren, by the way."

He nodded, then tried to explain, "I am, what is called in my universe, a high esper. A high mental power that I have had all my life. I love to read, and that power brought characters from the stories or their universes to mine."

"I take it energy unbalanced things?" Wren asked.

"They no, the weapons that they left very much, so, yes," he said.

"Might I suggest that we finish this so you and I can be on our way?" Wren asked.

I watched as she made what appeared to be a portal, then walked through to her ship.

After a few more of the larger ships exploded, John came back on.

"Alright, I got eight of the ships that were cloning, gonna try to get the last two. After that it should be easier," he told Wren.

"Perhaps, though, the battleships are giving me trouble," Wren said.

"Battleships?" He asked.

"Those first five ships you destroyed when you appeared. That helped more than you think. Though there are at least another ten out there," Wren said.

"Hmmmm," he said as he searched for the ships Wren mentioned. That's when he seemed to have found them, big, fantastically massive, hulking war machines. From what he could see, they were a hell of a lot tougher than he had thought they were. He just shook my head. He had taken five of them out, they didn't seem that tough.

He sighed, this was going to wear him the hell out. Reaching, he started a massive number of explosions on the clone ships. Plus, he got one of the battleships that wasn't that far away.

Wren then noticed that he had backed off a bit. She could feel that his power had dropped. She then passed him, taking forty or fifty small ships at a time.

A few moments later one of the battleships exploded and broke in half. Wren smiled that was another gone.

"Fire the energy torpedoes," Wren said. A moment later the battleship broke in half amid explosions.

Wren stared, as she noticed that a different portal opened behind John's ship. He seemed to be running from it though it was gaining.

Then, for the next six minutes, John destroyed everything that he faced. It appeared that we were out of energy torpedoes.

"Alright, fire all the thermal missiles. Take out all that we can," Wren said.

Wren stared again as she saw that the portal was going to catch John. "I thank you, though it appears you are leaving. Be well and good luck," Wren said, then the portal caught John and the ship then he was gone.

"Looks like the rest is up to us, Trigon," Wren said.

"Affirmative," Trigon answered.

"At least most of them are gone," Wren said before right as the ship was rocked by a huge explosion.

Several alarms were going off, "all drives are offline. High chance of destruction," Trigon said.

Fire all weapons that we have we might get enough to destroy them," a worried Wren said.

For a short time, they were actually keeping the Meltry at bay.

Then the battleship started to move and fire on her. Wren had been limiting the thermal weapons, though they were closing in.

"It appears that we aren't going to make it. We tried Trigon, we got most of them," Wren said.

"Wren!" She heard John yelling, "Wren! Are you OK?" He was yelling as loudly as he could.

She looked up, the air in the ship thin as could be.

A moment later, Wren's weak voice came back on the radio. "Glad to see I was able to get to you. After you left, I thought I could finish," here she let out a chuckle. "Yeah, like you, I did too much, the ship's wrecked, I can't transport."

"Hang on a minute," John said as he pointed at her ship. He felt most of the hull seal up, as one of her engines corrected itself. "There that ought to help," he said.

Wren sat up, her eyes wide, "I can do a little, though nothing like that. Trigon report."

Trigon's voice came from behind her, "the structure of the hull is now complete. Weapon build is now at fifty percent. One engine is at one hundred percent, the other at fifty-one percent and rising."

Wren just shook her head at John, "as I said, I can do some, though nothing like that. What say we take out the rest, then rescue my people?"

John nodded as we slowly started to eliminate the rest of the fleet. Wren nodded to John as she moved close to orbit. He heard her computer telling her that they had a thousand.

John was confused as he looked at the ship, it was only three hundred feet. "How can you fit so many?" John asked.

"I found a way to digitize them several planets back. Also, got that ass of a stepbrother captured," Wren said with a wicked-looking smile.

"Are your systems better? I was afraid that I hadn't done enough," John asked Wren as she started looking over all the readings.

"Most of the systems are repaired, can you come here?" Wren asked.

"Like you can? I don't think so, the way I move is fairly different from the way you do," John told Wren. He sighed, "I'll try."

John looked at her ship as he thought of it, then pop, he was there next to her. She actually gasped a bit, as she'd had no warning at all.

"Did that take much energy?" she asked.

He thought about it, then reached inside, causing Wren to smile as she nodded.

"No, it appears that it didn't take much at all," he said, causing Wren to smile again.

"I see that we do at least one thing the same, looking inside to see our energy. We are perhaps more alike than we thought," Wren said.

"Perhaps," he said as he started to scan Wren, that started her giggling. "Hmmm," he said. "You have an overabundance of what we call mental energy, and your mind is over-stimulated by it."

"Strange," Wren said, "I was overexposed to trans-warp energy. I started to develop these abilities after that."

His eyes were wide when she said that. Obviously, their trans-warp energy was far different from ours.

"Can I look at where you were exposed? Something is different here," he said.

We went back to see her trans-warp engines, holy shit he thought they were completely different from mine. They seemed to be completely running on mental energy. He put a hand to the engine casing and felt the energy within throb and reach for him.

He and Wren felt all his abilities almost doubled, then tripled. He had to let go as he stumbled back away from it. Even stranger was when Wren grabbed his arm to steady him, she started to glow.

We both looked at each other, then we were blown apart from each other. We were shaking our heads when her Trigon A.I. appeared.

"Master Wren," Trigon started. "I have retrieved all but five of the humans there. The digitization has no more room."

"WHAT!? How is this possible? Is the system damaged or incomplete," Wren said, a worried look on her face.

"No master Wren, the system is operating at optimal levels. We have just run out of space," the Trigon said.

"Damnit!" Wren said, then she turned toward me. "Can your ship take a few people to where they need to go?"

He thought about it, then asked his A.I., "how much room do we have?"

She appeared next to a shocked Wren, "we have the space for quite a few. Though I am afraid that we do not have the transfer system that she does," the A.I. said.

"We can do that if you can make it ready, then I have a little unfinished business," Wren said. She had a look of extreme anger and something else on her face.

"Alright," John said, then was back aboard his ship. His A.I. had told Wren the type of energy they would need as we readied the area. An hour later, he told Wren that they were ready. A humming sounded in the room we had prepared, then five caskets-like life pods appeared.

That's when he saw the level of Wren's revenge against the world. "Trigon ready all eight of the shatter bombs. Open a channel."

A moment later, a red-faced something that looked a little like a human appeared. "What have you done!" The alien was screaming at Wren.

"I have delivered the same mercy that you gave the Earth. Now I will deliver the same justice that you gave all those that were on earth when you dropped shatter bombs. I have enough to erase your entire planet from existence. Goodbye, never again will this happen again, drop all of them Trigon," Wren said.

"Compliance master Wren now dropping all eight," Trigon said.

The red-faced emperor was screaming at Wren and the techs, then the screen went dark.

"We need to go to this place," Wren said as she showed him a picture, then we were in trans-warp. Wren was surprised when her trans-warp and mine appeared to be the same.

The entire trip took a few minutes, so he knew that we were going quite a distance. We came out not far from a blue world that seemed to be a hive of activity. Though he wasn't too happy about the huge number of ships that appeared.

He could see that they all had weapons, though his A.I. assured him they were weak compared to them. "I have told them to not fire on you, your ship, it is as powerful as mine," Wren said.

He just nodded as he was still a little nervous that they might fire on him. He followed Wren's ship to the area where she landed. "I am not about to open my ship to a lot of gun-happy idiots," he told her.

"Yeah, I understand, I'd be the same way. I'll have to get the entire council here before you do. If I am right, you have the most important person on board," Wren said.

He just shook his head. He still wasn't sure about all of this. From what he could see, the ones with the weapons looked more like killers than guards.

So John sat and ate as he watched Wren as she redigitized all that were stored on her ship. Damn, he thought now that really saved space. He saw a lot of reunions and whole families that discovered that they were all there.

A few hours later, Wren came to his hatch with twelve men. "I'm not so sure about this Wren," he said as he saw that there were more than just the twelve and Wren.

He pulled and Wren was on board. "Damn, that is quick. I am sorry that they will not trust you. I will disconnect and bring them out," Wren said.

Wren had them out then outside. An alarm was going off as I looked at a reading. "I have to go, the portal is back and moving this way," he said.

Wren took my hand and held it a moment, then nodded her head. John then sent her out, then they rose to the atmosphere in ten seconds.

They moved trillions of miles, then the portal passed over them.

Wren watched as John's ship moved away, a huge emptiness found a home in her chest.

She was about to greet her family when she felt something strange in her ship. Looking at the strange object, a large male appeared.

Hello Wren, she heard in her head. You need to return that to John; the energy could destroy your world. You need to touch him when you hand it to him, then your dream will be fulfilled, the male said.

How? Wren asked, I don't have that ability.

Not to worry, in seven days' time, go into orbit heading away from this planet. I will take care of going there and you returning. Oh, don't tell John about this meeting, the male said then was gone.

Wren walked off her ship in a daze, the ship sealing up as soon as she was clear. For the next six days, Wren prepared her attack on the false empress. She was also anxious to get this over with.

"Father," Wren said at the start of the seventh day. "I have to go do one more thing before we attack her. I hope I'll be back in a few days."

Her father looked at her for a moment, then nodded. "I can see that this is very important to you," he said as he hugged her. "Be careful in what you do, my daughter."

Wren hugged him back, then went to her ship. She and the ship were a few trillion miles away when a portal moved towards her.

Her mouth dropped open as it passed over her, then another opened in front of her.

Less than a minute later she was not far from, wait was that the Earth? How the hell was that possible? She had seen it destroyed. Looking closer, she saw that it wasn't as advanced as her Earth was.

A wide smile lit up her face. Concentrating, she thought of John.

Captain John Thomas, are you there? I felt that this was the only way I could find you. It appears that I have something of yours, though I am unsure of what it is or does.

Hello Wren, John thought to her. I didn't know that you could open a universal portal.

I was unaware that I could either, though when I found this, I knew I had to return it. I remember what you said about this, so, here I am.

Can you come here? Or do you need me to do it?

I'm afraid that I can't, as I cannot see nor have, I been there before, Wren thought.

OK, John thought, as suddenly Wren was right before him, her mouth a little open.

"I forgot just how fast that was. Much faster than my portals, slightly," Wren said. "Hello miss Rommie."

Both Rommie and Mary were a little shocked, though Wren could see that Mary was trying not to scream.

"Sorry John, it still takes getting used to," Mary said as she blushed a bit.

He nodded as he said, "I know, not completely used to it myself yet."

"So I found this onboard my ship," Wren said. He saw that she had his tablet he had taken to her ship. "I was wondering where that went," John said as he reached for it.

Both of them were propelled across the room from each other as soon as they touched, shock on their faces. Wren had a huge smile on her face as she sat up.

"Well," she said, "that was different."

He also sat up as he was nodding. "I agree, it was rather strange though. It was, strangely, satisfying."

Wren got a bigger smile as she shyly said, "Yes, it was very satisfying. I should go, my family are expecting me, especially my father."

"Be well Wren, it was wonderful to see you again," he said as Wren nodded with an even bigger smile.

"It was a pleasure to see you again also," she said as she kissed his cheek, then an energy portal opened.

Wren rubbed her hand and her stomach as Trigon moved the ship away. A few minutes after they passed the moon, a portal opened.

Just a few minutes later the ship appeared a million miles from where she had started.

"Open a channel to my father, Trigon," she said. "I'm back father."

"Wren?" Came his voice. "We thought that you just left."

"What? I've been gone at least a whole day," Wren said surprised.

"You've only been gone an hour at the most. Did you accomplish all that you had too?" her father asked.

"Yes father, I did, the universe, as I understand it, is safe," Wren said. "Though explaining it might take far longer than I have."

Her father just looked at her for a moment, then nodded in understanding. Wren could only stare at him confusion on her face.

"I'll be landing in a few minutes," she said. "We should be able to take the empire back in less than a few months."

"With the plan we have, plus the dissension within her ranks, I agree. Though I think that the announcement of me being alive might help," her father said.

In a far orbit of Ceti-5, Esmerelda was more furious than she'd ever been. She'd lost contact with her son, plus his ship. She didn't think he was dead though, for a moment she was afraid.

It was an emotion that she hadn't felt in a very long time. Why was everything they had planned falling apart?