Annihilation - Finding Keepers (Annihilation Series (Book Seven}) Read Online Free PDF Page A

six thousand years ago. It seems the colonists were bored with the peace of the Realm and wanted to find newer, untamed worlds to colonize. They never reported back to the Realm after they jumped out of the Stars Realm’s universe. There were so many ships leaving during that period of the Realm’s history that it appears that no one actually tried to see if their colonizing effort was successful. Truth be told, we lost track of thousands of those old transports.”
     
    Dgran leaned back in her chair and asked, “How does the planet that signal is coming from compare to the others you’ve seen?”
     
    “There are three colonies, all with populations of 300,000. I’ve scanned them three times and the numbers have not changed except by ten or so new births.”
     
    Dgran looked at her screen, “We need to go and take a close look at what’s happening on that planet. I want to be cautious, so take it slow going in.”
     
    Elef powered up the jump engine, “I’m going to jump outside the solar system of that planet and move in using small jumps.”
     
    Dgran nodded, “That would be wise. I don’t want to reveal our teleportation ability in a new universe.”
     
    The Elef was one of the new generation Searcher vessels that possessed sensors, weapons, and jump systems that made all of the previous models obsolete. It was literally the most powerful ship ever built by the Stars Realm, and Dgran thought about just going openly to the planet and not worrying about anything stopping her scan. However, her ship had not been able to detect any ships and that worried her. “It never hurts to be cautious,” she thought as her ship moved slowly into the system. Three days later it arrived at the orbit of the closest moon to the planet.
     
    Dgran looked at her display as Elef fed data to it, “Elef, jump to the surface of the moon and power down all systems except for passive scans and stealth surface.” The small ship jumped, settled into a crater’s shadow, and powered down.
     
    “I see a ship above the planet, but it does not register on my scans.”
     
    Dgran thought, “Show me on my screen.” There was a brown ship about 2,800 feet long, cylindrical in shape, with a smooth hull keeping station above the planet directly above the three communities on the planet’s surface.
     
    Elef reported, “I also see that now the populations of the three communities are back at 300,000 each. I can still detect the new births I scanned earlier, but somehow the populations have been reduced to keep their totals at that level.”
     
    Dgran examined the ship on her screen and wondered just what was happening on the planet’s surface. She also wondered why her systems could not detect that ship on electronic scans. “Are you recording all of this?”
     
    “Absolutely, and I’m sending some passive stealth scanners to the planet’s surface.”
     
    Jake leaned back in his chair and smiled at Valerie, “I just don’t see how I merit all this attention. I know I have a little psychic ability but it’s not much. Both of you have a huge level of psychic skills; it is I that should be worried about you.”
     
    Valerie sighed and shook her head, “You don’t understand what you are. It’s not the psychic ability you have right now; it’s the ability that is locked up inside you that has us worried. Let me explain. How much do you know about the history of the Stars Realm?”
     
    Jake shrugged, “I guess I know the basics. The Realm was formed about twelve thousand years ago. The first king was an Algean named Sprig Gardner. He unified the Realm and brought about the peace and prosperity that has endured up to this time.”
     
    Valerie shook her head, “That’s what the history books say, but they are wrong. The Realm is actually two thousand years older than that, and Sprig was in fact the fifth ruler of the Realm.”
     
    Jake was surprised by her answer. He had made a point of studying the Realm’s history