"We have another problem," The Commander said. "We only have enough food for six more months. If we stretch it we could probably make it nine months."

"We'll send out probes to find a suitable planet," Captain Cook replied.

"What if we don't find anything?"

"We have nine months to figure that out," she replied.

"It sounds like we're going to do this," Fran said in a melancholy voice.

"I'm not ready to give that order yet."

"Why not leave it up to the crew?" Commander Pippleton asked.

"You mean a vote?"

"Yes, a vote. This isn't something I think you can decide for yourself. Everyone here has families back home, people they want to get to. I know I want to see Ulliam again. I want to defend it if attacked I think we need to bring the crew up to date, give them all the information and let them decide what to do."

Captain Cook leaned back in her chair. She didn't think of that. The duties of the Captain were to make the decisions for the crew to give them the best chance to survive. If this were a battle and she ordered the Arwen into a suicide dive, like she had a few years earlier in the final battle with the Gyssyc, she had made the choice to take their lives. However, that was in the heat of combat and a battle decision was not to be questioned, only obeyed. If they had time to talk about it, to put it to vote would they still choice to end their lives to save Earth? That's what this was about. If they never returned to Earth it would give Earth and the Corps a chance to keep the planet safe. If they went home, and they were followed the ensuring war would be short, and they would lose. It was logical for her to make that choice but was it fair to make it for the crew? Was she avoiding making the choice because she had decided to destroy the Arwen to many years ago? "Commander, you make a good point."

"Thank you," he replied.

"What do you think?"

"I say we vote for it," Fran said. "We need to let them know what's at stake. We need to let them know that if we return and we were followed it could destroy everything."

"We won't sugar code anything," Commander Pippleton said. "For the record, I say we don't return to Earth. I feel it would be for the best if we don't."

"Good to know, Commander, thank you. If we're going to do this, I need to address the crew. Arrange for everyone to meet me in the docking bay. That should be large enough to hold everyone."

Chapter twenty-five.

Juliet slowly opened her eyes. She felt good, better than she had felt in a very long time. She knew it was the nanobots and the only reason she agreed to it was because the Professor told her to. She trusted the Professor. She knew he would never do anything to harm her.

"It's true," she heard from somewhere, from everywhere. "I would never hurt you." She looked behind her to see Professor Ricter looking down, smiling.

"Can you hear my thoughts?" She asked.

"More or less," he replied.

"I wished you had told me that before I injected myself with the robots."

He laughed. "Hopefully we'll figure out how to use those things to keep our thoughts to ourselves. In the meantime, try not to think nasty things about me, it might hurt my feelings."

She looked closely at him and noticed he looked different. The wrinkles around his eyes seem to be fading. The gray in his hair was gone and he seemed to be slimming down. He looked, she had to admit, handsome.

"It's the nanobots," he thought, not moving his mouth, sending the message to her in her head. "They're fixing things, making me younger. I haven't felt like this in a long time. It feels like my mind is opening up. It guess it's amazing how much you lose as you age. How you never notice how cluttered your thoughts are until you have the renewed ability to juggle more than one thought at a time. I was good at that a child. I thought I lost it because I learned how to hone my thoughts when, in fact, I lost the ability as my brain aged."

"You talk way too much," she said but continued to look at him. Were his eyes always that blue? "I don't need a book to explain my questions."

"But I'm really good at giving book answers."

She sat up and looked around. They were in some sort of medical bay. It smelled like antiseptic cleaner. There were instruments all around she didn't recognize but she had the feeling they were for medical purposes. "They are," Professor Ricter replied. "This is their medical bay."

"Who are they?" She asked, this time with her voice and not with her thoughts.

"That's a question I have very limited knowledge of. From what they have told me they are the remains of races that have been destroyed by the Handlers. They go around and sweep up as many survivors as they can from races that have been destroyed."

"Do they want to fight back?"

"No, they don't." He said, and she thought she felt contempt in both his voice and in his thoughts. "But I plan on changing that."

Captain Cook stood on top of the shuttle's wing and looked over the crew in front of her. They were all here, all 4,236 members of the Arwen. These were the people she was going to ask not to go home. It seemed unfair. It was unfair.

There was a soft murmur which quieted as more people became aware she was standing there. She waited until they were all quiet before speaking. "I'm not going to talk to you as the Captain," she started. "I'm going to talk to you as a citizen of the United Earth Alliance. I'm also going to spare you a long speech, but you all need to hear this. When I'm done you will have twenty-four hours to decide. Considering what I'm about to tell you that might not seem like enough time."

She let that sink in. The faces that looked back at her were young, so very young. Commander Pippleton stood below her under the wing. Fran stood in the front row looking up at her. Fran had her arms crossed. When Captain Cook met her eyes, she looked away.

"As you know, you know we have just left one of the most advanced races we have ever encountered. We call them The Handlers. They kidnapped me and attempted to get out of me Earth's location. If they had that they could attack Earth. We are not equipped to fight them. We will lose, and we will lose badly." Once again she knew to let that set in. Some people started talking to each other. She scanned the crowd; some looked concerned while others seemed confused. She continued. "We can't let them find Earth, and I fear they are tracking the Arwen. If the Arwen returns to Earth they will find it. We cannot allow the Arwen to return to Earth."

There it was, now people were reacting. As the news sunk in the crowd grew more agitated. "Please, let me finish. Let me finish!" She waited for the crowd to quiet again. "If I were up here as the Captain, I would order us to exit Wormhole space, find a nearby planet and settle it. However, this is too big for me to decide. You all deserve a say in this, so we are going to put it to a vote. You will all return to your rooms and read the reports I and Doctor Lipton have prepared. My report is on why we can't return. Hers is on why we must return. Keep in mind, neither report is objective and both are passionate with reasons. Read them, think about them, and decide. Majority wins. You are all dismissed and good luck."

"We must attack!" Professor Ricter yelled pounding his fist onto the table. He was standing, his face red with determination. In front of him were fifteen races, all of them had been displaced by the Handlers. He used his voice, not his thoughts, to get his point across. His thoughts were angry, but he couldn't display that anger by sitting in his chair thinking about how angry he was. These aliens were so docile they hardly moved even after his display. "We can't let them take Earth, Ulliam and the other planets of the Corps."

In his head he heard one of them say, "We will lose the fight. They are too powerful, too strong."

"If they were to attack now I would agree with you but we have a chance, a head start. They attacked your systems before you knew they existed. Now, we know they exist and we know they're preparing to attack a planet that could get advanced enough to fight them. This is a chance to draw a line in the sand and fight."

"Line in the sand?" He heard, it was a different voice. "We understand the metaphor but please try not to talk in metaphor."

"We will always lose," another voice said. It was frustrating not knowing who was talking. They continued to look at him impassively. The Professor wondered if they were talking to each other on a different frequency. "There is no point in fighting."

"Please, whoever is talking raise some sort of appendage. And we can fight them. We have to fight them. If we don't they will destroy more and more planets. Why not fight back?"

"It will be a waste of life," someone else said. He didn't see any appendage lift up so, once again, he didn't know who he was fighting with.

"And not fighting won't be?"

"We should concentrate on evacuating Earth," said yet another voice, this time he saw a hand go up.

"That won't do anything. They'll find any place we settle and besides, I know Earth and its people. They will not leave. They will stay and fight." Professor Ricter pounded his hand against the table again. "If you won't fight with me then drop me off on Earth and I'll fight with them."

"Professor Ricter, that will present us with a problem. We don't know where Earth is."

"With my help I'm sure we can find it. You all have different views, different technologies that we can bring together to build a fighting force. We can take this fight to the Handlers. We can fight and beat them."

"We still don't see the point," another alien replied and the Professor gave up trying to figure out who was talking. "They have the power to destroy planets, to rip them apart."

"We can come up with a defense against that. You don't know how we are. When we put our minds together we can build anything. The Gyssyc, the Ulliam, Earth, Regal, we're all filled with intelligence beyond what you can imagine. We have the resources of a hundred explored solar systems. We can build a fleet, a massive fleet, larger than anything built before, and we can attack the Dyson Sphere."

"What you say is impressive, can you promise us this will happen?"

"Yes, you have my word." He sat down knowing he was finally getting through to them. "I have another plan in mind as well."

"What is your other plan?"

"I would rather not say, I need more information. It will need more study, and I'll need to talk to my Gyssyc friends."

"Give us a time to discuss," one of the other aliens said. Again, he wasn't sure who. "We will have an answer for you shortly."

That confirmed what the Professor thought. They could talk to one another on different wavelengths. It was a trick he was going to have to figure out how to do himself one day.

Captain Cook sat in her office waiting. She made some busy time reading reports Commander Pippleton had left her, but in reality, she was simply waiting for the twenty-four hours to pass. If they voted to return to Earth she would go. She would do what the crew wanted even though she thought it was wrong. They were smart, some of the smartest men and woman in the fleet, so they would make the right choice.

"Captain," Commander Pippleton said seconds before knocking. "I have the results with me, may I come in?"

"They still have twelve hours left," Captain Cook replied.

"I know, but the entire crew has voted so I figured I should show you instead of waiting."

"Come in," she said. Her hands started to shake, and she knew it wasn't from the Fullerton; it was from nerves. She was either going to head to Earth to get ready for the fight of her life or she was going to run away, to disappear without a trace and become just another ship lost in the void. Neither option was one she liked.

The Commander handed her his data pad. She looked at the result carefully and let out the breath she was holding. "51 to 49 in favor of not returning to Earth."

"It was a lot closer than we thought it would be," The Commander said. "I'm afraid this will result in a lot of unhappy people not returning to their families."

"I don't think there's anything we can do for them." She replied. A metaphorical weight lifted off her shoulders. They weren't going home. It wasn't something she wanted but something she knew needed to be done. It felt empty. She had once again managed to save the planet but in doing so she had to make a great sacrifice. She would never see Earth again. "I'm heading to the bridge in a few minutes. Get the particle accelerator ready, we're going to leave Wormhole space and we're going to start looking for our new home."

Professor Ricter stood next to Juliet as she peered out one of the windows. They were hovering near what looked like a planetary nebula. The central star nearly invisible as its light attempted to escape the thick cloud of gas of dust it created when it exploded many years before mankind was born. He placed his arms around her and pulled her closely too him. "You know, when I first saw you I was rather taken back."

"I know," she replied. "I can sense it."

"I never thought I would be attracted to a woman the way I am to you. Don't get me wrong, I find woman very appealing. Fran is very attractive. Marjorie is another but I never actually had any feelings for them like I'm experiencing right now."

"Maybe it's because I'm so young," Juliet said with a chuckle. "Older men tend to like younger woman."

"You can't be much younger than Fran," He replied. "No, it's not like that. I think it's because you took control of your destiny and I liked that."

"Is there a point to this?" She asked, her voice laced with irritation.

"Yes, I'm afraid neither one of us will be responsible of our own destiny much longer. They have decided to return us to Earth."

"They're not going to help?" She asked.

"No, not yet anyway. It'll take us a few months to reach Earth. I'm sure I can convince them otherwise."

"I'm sure you can." She replied as she continued to stare out into space. "Do you really think we can win in a war with them?"

"Given enough time to prepare, yes. I think we can win."

"How much time do you really think we have?"

"Depends. I'm sure they've got probes out looking for Earth. I'm sure they'll eventually find us, in fact I'm pretty certain they will. Nevertheless, it's a huge universe, and they have just a vague idea of where we are, so we might have a few hundred years to get ready."

Juliet didn't reply, instead she simply leaned in closer to the Professor and wrapped her arms around his waist.

Chapter twenty-six.

The Handler stood on its four main legs to look around. His body plates stiffened when the computer chirped the information. He blew out a puff of scent: Annoyance. He hoped the others around him didn't detect this, the last thing the Handler needed was another asking him why his mission wasn't going anyway.

The Earth ship exited wormhole space. It had traveled in and out of wormhole space for a quarter spin before it established an orbit around a planet. His invisible probes, the ones he programmed to the follow the Earth ship, sent back the scans of the planet. This was not Earth. This was just some other planet.

He had to give the Captain credit. He did not think she would suspect they were being followed. That was not the case and he was going to have to find Earth through some other means. He still hoped the Earth ship would eventually leave and return home. All sentient beings longed to return home. Earth life should be no different. The Handlers were patient; they could wait thousands of years if necessary.

He relaxed his armor plating and allowed himself to fall to the ground. Now that all eight of his feet were on the floor he could feel the others talking. Tiny vibrations hit his foot sensors as he skittered toward the door. A diaphragm in his lower gut sucked in the hanging mist from left over emotional odors and stored them into bladders. His body would absorb as many nutrients as possible from the mist, it would help sustain him until the next feeding.

He continued down the hallway meeting up with hundreds of other Handlers as he went. It was getting too crowded. They would need a new home soon. The arrival of the Earth ship and the news it was part of a small chain of other life baring systems was good news and once he found those planets his race would be able to spread outward. It was his job to find those systems.

The problem was the size of the universe. He knew Earth and the other planets were in the same galaxy as they were. A galaxy that spanned over 100,000 light years and held billions of stars. They knew which arm of the planet was located in and about how from away from the galactic center it was. They knew they were looking for a small sun with only 8 planets around it and Earth was one of the smaller of those planets. They knew all those things and they still have billions of stars to check. No matter how he looked at it, unless he got some help from the clones it was going to take some time.

The small panel slid open and he walked into the clone room. Several clones, build from the DNA of the one known as Marjorie Cook, floated in a clear nutrient bath. There were several in various stages of development. He walked over to first tank which contained the youngest sample and placed his antenna inside one of the information ports. The clone was healthy and growing quickly. They were always healthy the first few simulated years. As he continued down to the next set of tanks he noticed the changes. The older they got the less their nervous system, one of the hardest parts of a human body to duplicate, eroded. By the time he got to a clone which was the simulated age of 30 the body was withered and dead.

It was something he couldn't understand. They had managed to perfect the human cloning process on the first human they found. It took some trial and error but it was nowhere near as difficult as it was now with the other human. They were different sexes but they had experimented enough that they were able to make male or female clones from the same sample. This was something different. This was a genetic defect in Marjorie Cook's DNA. He would have to find a way to fix that defect. This was another mission that would take some time to resolve.

The door slid open and his female partner came in. She saw him and lifted. He came over to her and lifted as well. Each shot out the scent of greeting quickly followed by happiness. His antenna twitched as the pleasure of her emotion washed over him. They coiled around each other and held the pose for a full three seconds. His intake tubes lined up perfectly with her emotional expressers just as hers lined up with his. They each let out a puff of arousal before uncoiling.