Astra Pt. 08

That would likely push the minimum age to 18 in the Ceti Forces as this transition would occur. This is not overnight. I still need to fill those 4,000 positions in the Home Guard. I would like to add another 1,000 hybrids to this force, but that will be centuries in the making. Before you think I am going crazy I wanted you to know why."

He looked at Astra, "When I signal you. Play the meeting with Justice Incarnate of the Drakor so the people can hear what he had to say during this meeting. Being a hybrid is a lifetime commitment. I do not approach this lightly and this is not the method I would use on Tera. They do not understand colony life, years in FTL, and the day-to-day grind associated with that. Just honing skills in battle simulators, classrooms, and dojos while the ships move. Growing crops and monitoring ship systems to keep everything in balance."

He nodded to Astra and sent the meeting out to everyone at the end. Jack asked Astra, "Replay that last 30 seconds."

It finished, "Hybrids fail and humanity fails. That means humanity dies. That is the weight that I carry. Now everyone here knows it. Thank you."

Jack put his necklace on and was immediately bombarded by all 3 of them and every wife. He shouted in his mind, "SHUT THE FUCK UP! You are all talking over each other. I cannot understand a word you just said! Councilman Glinslow."

Jack heard, "You put the population into a panic over that message."

Jack sighed, "Hiding the truth from the population has worked out so well in the past. Better to be open and honest so we can stand together and resolve the underlying issues. Councilwoman Tremont."

She sighed, "You could have warned us you were going to do that. I did not realize the effect it would have on the HG size. I am only partially surprised as it was named Home Guard."

Jack responded, "In which colony and which single home is it we are guarding? We have been guarding them all. The same goes for Tera. Re-read your charters. We would be the shields for humanity and the pointy end of the swords when needed. Not Tau Ceti. Humanity. Here is a reality check for you. We had 2 human-created time events in this system. You are now at 8 events with the attacks we faced. 6-events for Jupiter. Tera outer belt you are looking at the largest focal point for an attack.

I placed a high orbit recon satellite that will send a message through Jupiter station or Saturn station and then to every command officer bridge of an HG vessel on one of our encrypted lines. That location had 14-time travel events. Let us not forget some of the AIs who came out from under the ice pack because we found them and took control of their vessel.

They added 1 out at Hector. Add that up and you are talking 31 time-hopping events. If they keep skipping in order how is Tera not as, if not more important, than Tau Ceti? 3 locations are likely the next targets; likely a different species or threat, or it might be someone passive instead of aggressive. The outer rim is most likely if it occurs where the jumps happened to finish off. Hector, we do not have an exact location for that point. I hope the planet is there if they do jump in.

Be nice if they jumped into the solid rock if they are an aggressor. Then Tau Ceti. Hybrids have been about guarding homes and humanity since before this colony was founded. Some of those homes are in Tera. We informed each other; the commanders if you will. As numbers appeared. That gave us the locations and we shared the strategies.

What option does that leave us? The answer is we spread humanity around to these other colonies so if Tera and Tau Ceti fall the others have a chance to continue our species. That only works if Hybrids succeed. Mr. President."

He sighed, "I will admit I was blindsided down here when people were asking me what was going on and all comms were jammed with this message. Then I noticed you had taken your necklace off before you talked to the people. What truly happened that set this off? Also, what can we do to help this?"

Jack looked out and thought, "They sent me back in time with a hail-Mary play to save humanity. What set this off, 42 of my children including 8 hybrids left the HG, from my battleship! Due to how the Tera people responded to how we saved your collective asses. After losing 13 of my damned children in the fight and another 27 non-combatants caught in the air. I was accused of being a vigilante and a messiah in back-to-back press conferences. The one reporter who asked questions about the fight is the one reporter I brought. She deserved this exclusive."

President Grendal groaned, "She fed it back to her station. Tera news just broadcast it to the entire Tera system; all those tuned in anyway. I am dropping out. I have the VP contacting me."

Jack sighed, "Any more questions on this issue?"

He just got some whispered 'no' from both of them. He looked at Astra, "The reporter sent it to Tera news and they just ran it."

Jack contacted his son, Ashton, "How is the crew taking it?"

Ashton sighed, "Surprisingly well. Some want to go back to Tau Ceti."

Jack nodded, "Get me numbers. I can get them there; we might have enough left to handle one dreadnaught the rate we are losing people. Then we must recruit like hell. I just did it here."

He nodded, "How many did you lose on your battleship?"

Jack sighed, "Too many. 42 of my children and 8 of those are hybrids. Because of the flaming cross, the press tried to hang me upon during that news conference. Let us not forget the assassination attempts."

Ashton sighed, "I will talk with those going back and make sure they understood the impact of that message. I back you."

Jack nodded, "I know, we never kept it from any of our children, and then them asking if Tera was worth it? That broke me that they even had to ask that."

He heard panic on Ashton's end, "We got more ships jumping into the Jupiter area!"

Jack turned his ship as contacts appeared in fields of lightning behind him, "Battle Stations all units report in. All crew currently off the ship remain where you are until we ascertain 'friend or foe.'"

He looked up as 6 jumped on his screen one after the other. Soon he had 24 Drakor cylinder ships 10 times the size of the Colossus or more. More than 5 times the size of the Drakor Capital ships he had seen.

Jack called out, "Stand down. Do not approach. Those are Drakor ships."

He thought, "Justice Incarnate, I did not know your kind liked to jump through time on their own. Still in Tau Ceti. There are more at Jupiter. Which also means more in the outer rim. Also, check the Hector orbit."

He thought out, "This is Command Admiral Jack Travus, Dispenser of Justice. I have contacted Drakor in this timeline. Justice Incarnate, who will be here shortly to assist. I encountered one of your scouts in our battle with the Brisen. It was damaged but recovered by me and passed directly to the Drakor. In this timeline, we graduated, and we have our swords."

He contacted his son Ashton, "Ashton, caution, advanced Drakor Mega-Dreadnoughts. They are fucking huge. Undock and go talk to them alone. Give them your name and your sword name. Tell them Justice Incarnate will be by soon or his associates."

He heard back, "Admiral we have 18 of them here near Jupiter."

He finally heard, "Dispenser of Justice, take a shuttle and come alone."

---

These Drakor were from Jack's original timeline. The scout ship had returned and reported on him. Those Drakor who had just finished wiping out humanity in that timeline wanted answers on this one.

If he was as different as they suspected, they would look to graduate him, but return him to the point in time he had been abducted. They were not concerned with the others in this timeline. They were looking to find out if he would be capable, if returned to an earlier time in his given time, to save the human race. If he was worthy.

Justice Incarnate spoke with himself from the other timeline, "You are not the Time Guardians."

The elder Justice Incarnate thought back, "We are concerned because he is a justice hybrid from our timeline, the first-ever to hold that position. If he truly is a graduated hybrid, then he should be returned to a point as near as possible to where he left. To build hybrids in our timeline, the timeline he belonged within and not this one."

The younger Justice Incarnate thought back, "You are certain he is from your timeline how? You assume he is as he did not leave at the original location. Only time guardians can make that determination."

The Elder Justice Incarnate responded, "We cannot tell you the ow we know, you will understand in your future likely. We have our mission to conduct and you know that we could outgun you with what we brought with us if forced to go unilateral or if others arrive in these distortions."

The younger Justice Incarnate sighed as he knew they were likely outclassed and their councils could not time jump on purpose without Council authorization. "If you find him worthy, then give him the choice in the matter. He is set and has family here now. Those who monitor the Timeline have taken no action on him as of yet. As such the choice is still his."

The Eldar Justice Incarnate responded, "If he passes, then the choice is his. If not, to finish our extermination order he should be exterminated. If he passes, then he will have the choice you asked about. He will be subjected to the full battery of testing one of our hybrids would undertake to become a new justice over a new area. This was the decision of our Drakor Ruling Body. He is from our time and our responsibility."

---

Jack got up, "I was just contacted, they want me in a shuttle."

He got down to his shuttle and Astra opened the bay door for him, He put on an EVA suit not knowing what their atmosphere might smell like. As he approached a door that opened and he was pulled inside by a tractor beam. Once it stopped, he thought, "Awaiting further instructions."

He grabbed a pad and downloaded the recent meeting with Justice Incarnate and the 3 leaders and ensured Astra was included. He downloaded all the battle footage with the Brisen fleets. He finally heard, "Come. The environment is suited to your kind now. Leave your pad."

Jack removed his EVA suit and left the pad. He walked into a room, where the door was sealed. The Head of the Drakor Council looked down upon him and asked, "Telepathic or telekinetic?"

Jack replied, "Both."

Lights showed up around the room, "The weights are written so you can understand them. Lift the one that you are able to."

They started at 5 kg and went to 160kg. He started with the largest and worked his way down the line until he had them all in the air. He set them down.

He heard, "Defend yourself."

He got hit by a telepathic attack and pushed back. As it racked him in pain. He built a wall of Titanium-H in his mind in which to block the assault. When it looked like it would weaken, he covered it in the Black onyx.

He slammed in his new shields and repaired everything. It was not enough, it felt like an hour, as they finally broke his defenses down.

---

The Justice Incarnate of Jack's current timeline was impressed and spoke to the future Drakor Council, "He took on the attack of 10, 20 and it stopped with 114 Drakor telepaths working together to break his defenses. He does not know he is fighting for his life or how long these tests are scheduled to go. The fact he needs to reserve strength.

He is not accustomed to our ways. Recharge him, at least partially. He succeeded but you took it beyond our protocol by a factor of 11 even. He held on for 3 hours under that assault. Most impressive. He has never been mentally assaulted before. I got that from his mind once the defenses were down. He did it all off of instinct."

The Head of the Council sighed and responded to Justice Incarnate, "You are right, we pushed him farther than one of our own in that test. Especially for one so young into this process. We will restore some of his willpower to be fair. He exceeded the levitation testing and we suspected he could do more. He could do a lot more than we expected."

---

They contacted him again, "Draw your weapons."

Jack summoned up his katana.

They stated, "You are a Justice, they have 2 weapons."

Jack sent them the images of his graduation ceremony and the explanation that was given. The other he carried floated out, "What of this one?"

Jack thought to them, "A sad but beautiful reminder that something corrupted can be turned into something beautiful and deadly."

He sent them the images of the ninja attack and then of him finding the one who created them and his sword ceremony.

The Drakor stopped. Jack's sword floated back into its holder.

Jack saw a pair of red blades approach and he went into a defensive stance. He heard, "Hold, why do you wait to attack?"

Jack replied in his mind, "Nos clypeum donec opus sunt gladii destricti. We are the shields until the swords are needed. There must be a balance. They bring red swords; I bring a defensive stance as a shield. They are the aggressors in this matchup. I have never faced a Drakor with a sword and I know they have flexible limbs and bodies. I must gauge the attacks they use before I go on any offensive."

He heard, "All weapons in here will cause a pain effect, nothing more. We want to know how much you know of the way of the sword."

Jack waited, as the 2 approached. The first came in from the left. He blocked his blade and swung around and hit the first one on the back. He had used the first as a shield. The second came in and used an elongated downward thrush. He put a wall in the way and struck the 'man.' He saw the second group of 4. 2 blues and 2 reds.

One of them tried a strike at a long distance on Jack. Jack rolled toward the strike and did an elongated strike on that man's arm. That took him to 3 and he approached them with his sword at his side and behind him, like it was sheathed.

Red did not disappoint. Jack knocked his blade up, spun, and stabbed him in the chest with enough force to send him sprawling backward 7 meters.

He switched styles and went into an attack pattern with the one blue while the second went to flank him. When that one came to strike from behind, he parried it up and increased speed. He one-handed an elongated stab into the one behind him in mid-strike.

He pulled it forward and tried to slide from the groin up but it was blocked. He backed a few steps and switched styles yet again. He went into a long and intricate kata from his Iaido training. Then went in for the kill and he sped up and blocked. He nodded to his opponent. He went into a full barrage attack on him at 5x speed until he struck home.

---

The Head of the Drakor Council watch him and commented to the Drakor in his ship only, "He has learned to multiplex his speed. He is one with the sword. Now to see how he does when he is overwhelmed."

---

Jack saw a blue circle. "That is the safe spot. The challenge. Not to get hit before getting to it."

Jack was getting tired but his adrenalin was going. He had 20 swords rushing him from that location. He rolled forward, went into a run, and then went insubstantial through the attackers and into the circle. It was quiet for several seconds then he heard, "That was a test to see how you would do against 20 attackers."

---

Justice Incarnate from the future timeline was shocked, "He moved his body into the astral plane. We have never seen this in a hybrid. Yet he has figured out how to do that."

Justice Incarnate of the current time responded, "He has done it before for a few seconds. His power still grows. He is special."

---

Jack thought back, "You told me to get to the circle without being hit. I complied. If you want me to fight 20 attackers I will. I am not afraid to take a hit. That was not the test you described. I wear a telekinetic belt as well; always on when awake and off when intimate with my mates or sleeping. Though I do not require sleep, the ladies still enjoy the feel of human normalcy."

He readied himself for an onslaught that did not come. The blades went out and they walked away.

---

The Justice Incarnate from the future thought to the younger Justice Incarnate, "This is a human who could have saved humanity in his original time. He would truly graduate the species while being forced to rebuild. We will give him the choice he is due, but we won't give him the details about what he is expected to do or where he would be returned to."

Jack stood there for several minutes. "Justice Incarnate said you were special. We said we would be the judge of that. Your people, humanity, as a species, are not ready to graduate. You are. What do you do?"

Jack thought back, "I am curious what does it mean to graduate a second time? We have already graduated."

He heard, "The answer to that is only found by going through it."

Jack thought back, "Would it take me away from humanity and what I have been doing here? "

Jack heard back, "Yes."

Jack shook his head, "My duty is not for self-gratification. It is to try and get humanity on the right course to be seen as worthy of graduating. I was told we had already, but I am guessing you have other levels of graduation. Some we cannot help. They made a choice."

He sent them a map. "Those that go there are technically human, I call them sub-human as they fear the realities. They feel that burying their heads in the sand is the right action. Like an ostrich. The universe has many mysteries for us and many threats. It is my job to keep the sword and shield balanced. Diplomacy if possible. Distance if agreed to. Defend if attacked, and then annihilate them for attacking us if a true and lasting peace could not be had.

Like the Brisen you followed, they were destroyed by us. We adapted after their first attack. We know we have many potential time-jump points that act as magnets for time travelers. I sent my son to talk with your compatriots in the Tera system. We knew of your arrival and could make an accurate guess at your numbers. I am the one who has taken up the mantle to teach them, but not to lead them. Politics leads to corruption. Own your actions, mistakes, and successes. Learn from them.

The other choice is to die. I want them to learn. The task is not easy and I have been at this for only 20 years. I know I am an anomaly and that scares a lot of my people. I know it worries a lot of your people. I also told them I would be an explorer and first contact diplomat. My ship has an E designation that was changed earlier. It is the only Wormhole drive we have built. I must teach others to be able to move Colossus.

To be able to colonize other worlds before these magnet locations destroy us. My mind constantly creates new defenses and new weapons, personal items, and lots of miscellaneous things. If it keeps doing that then we can work to keep pace with whatever jumps through that magnet jump point next. I will get my mind focused on time travel. Not to do it. To build something to stop it at these locations. A dampener if you will, but there is much to study and try to understand on that subject."

The head of the Drakor Council replied, "You know those you cannot save; that is not a failure. They will be assessed separately within this time. You agreed to never go there. The Drakor never made such an agreement. We understand there will be others who refuse to listen. Getting most of the population who balk at your aid is the challenge you have taken on. You graduated your hybrids and are working toward graduating your species in this timeline. We wish you well Dispenser of Justice. You may go."