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his armor. Do I need to teleport them so they can fall?”
    “No, just send them a thousand feet over each city. The bags are made to dissolve once they detect a rapid rate of descent. The spores will then scatter and cover the city.”
    “Should I drop them up wind?”
    Weed looked at his scans, “That’s a good idea. I’ll feed you the weather data on each city. It looks like the winds are nominal for thirteen cities. The six with high winds are being sent to you now.”
    Carter read the data and allowed his navigation module to modify the coordinates. He saw the green light illuminate and teleported out. Two minutes later he appeared back on board. “It’s done; how long until the spores activate?”
    Seed said, “Six months. We’ve decided that we shouldn’t rush the spread by allowing them to be discovered too soon. We’re going to start teleporting to the other planets and drop the packets over the highest concentration of Invaders. There are sixty other planets that are being attacked by multiple ships; we’ll pause at each of those for you to saturate the landers.”
    Carter took his seat and watched the display. Planet after planet appeared in rapid succession and he knew the Algeans had already visited this universe and set up the program for dropping spores. He took a deep breath knowing that it was now beginning. He hoped the plan would work but he worried about how the Invaders were going to respond. The Empire’s ships weren’t ready to take on the Black Ships. He worried about Jenna and the baby.
    * * *
    “Alex, the Algeans are delivering the spores. Are you any closer to a solution?”
    “No, Grace. It appears that we are going to have to take an entirely new approach to the power delivery and it appears that the process will take years to complete.”
    Grace was frightened, “Why!?!
    “We can’t get a teleport screen close enough to a star to make the transfer. The heat is just too much for them.”
    “Alex, you have to know what that means.”
    “I do, but I can’t just conjure up what we need. We really believe the new process will work, but it’s going to take years to put in place.”
    Grace teleported away, just after Alex sent a probe into her outer skin. He was going to teleport her to him if she was in trouble. She would just have to forgive him afterwards.
    * * *
    Scotty looked at Julie and felt his heart beat faster. She was teaching a group of ten young children the history of the Empire and somehow she was more beautiful today than he had ever seen. Grang and Geena were with her answering the children’s questions and he knew that it was a moment like this that made all the effort worth it. He didn’t know what the future held but he knew that he was blessed with a love that was larger than the universe. He waited until the class ended and then walked up to her. She smiled and saw his expression “Is something wrong?”
    “No, I just need you to spend some alone time with me. I want to go back to our home on Bristone and have some time to ourselves if your schedule allows.”
    Julie stood and bowed, “You could order me to go, Your Majesty.”
    “Then you are so ordered.”
    Julie came into his arms. Scotty hit his com, “Timmy, you and Virze will assume command in my absence. The Queen and I are taking a trip.”
    “We’ll arrive momentarily, Your Majesty.”
    Scotty held Julie and looked at New Hope from the top floor of the new capital building and saw the capital of the empire was growing at a phenomenal rate. He longed for the simple surroundings of Bristone. Julie looked up at him and he smiled, “Let’s go home, my love.”
    Julie held on tight as Greyson teleported them on board and took them home. Three weeks later Scotty stepped down from the throne of the Empire and named Tim and Virze Valrico as the new Emperor and Empress. He didn’t know why but he knew he wanted every moment possible to be spent loving Julie. The Empire worried about the change