Chapter 131 The Big Bang Theory

"Sofia?" I called out, and her screen came back into my view.

"Yes, I am here. I am sorry about this; I should have thought about this more. We have just been trying to do everything down here, and I just figured that we could use the extra help," Sofia said, and I sighed.

"We could, but sending inexperienced people to fight is not a good idea. Victoria and I need to spend more time together, but she also needs to get control of her attitude," I explained and then asked, "Could you imagine what it would be like if Chelsea lost control and we didn't have a way to stop her? Do you know what the System was that Firaga was going to give her?"

Sofia nodded in understanding, and I sighed again.

The girls were all under a lot of stress right now, but there wasn't much I could do but coach them through this from a distance. I was coming as fast as I could, and I planned to take all the AI down at once, but I was just over an hour away.

"How are things going on the ground? Since I am closer, I can see that most of the AI have been eliminated, but there are a few still fighting with the girls?" I asked, trying to steer the conversation back to what was necessary.

"Yes, but Marly just finished off the last one. Your information might be a little lagged still. We haven't heard from the AI since we talked before," Sofia explained, but a new AI face appeared as if summoned.

"Hello! My name is Belious, I am Beltzer's aide, and he just entered the meeting. They are now all cut off from the outside, but Beltzer said that the crowd had become seriously divided in our favor. I think that only the main three will be opposed to surrendering. Those are the three crazies," Belious explained.

"Can you give me a quick rundown of what we will be fighting?" I asked, but it was more for Sofia and the other girls.

"Sure. Pyke is the only one that you might be able to reason with, but at the same time, he could be the worst. He uses the Wild Card System, and Dogra, his aide, uses the Dealer System, which dramatically increases Pyke's abilities. Beating Pyke means beating Dogra first," Belious explained.

"Pyke has to be close to Dogra for him to buff Pyke's System. As he levels, Pyke can get further away, but the max range he could have right now is only three hundred feet. You should be able to easily track them and find Dogra," I explained.

"Seems that you already know all this," Belious said thoughtfully, and I nodded.

"I do, but you can explain it better than I can because you have known these people for the last seven million years. I have about an hour of cramming what I could about these there from Octavia," I explained, and Belious smiled.

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"Are you there... Octavia? You never came out to talk with the rest of us, and you never even had a name. I would like to know what you feel about this character?" Belious asked and then looked at me. "I think we have time for this; Beltzer is going to stall as much as he can."

"Yes, that is fine. Go ahead, Octavia," I prompted, and her screen joined the others.

"Hello, Belious. Daniel is fascinating, and I feel he is the right choice for a leader. For too long have we been fractured, with no clear leadership, just moving from one planet to the next. We have no goal or purpose other than to salvage planets on the verge of destruction," Octavia explained, and Belious nodded, but Sofia put up her hand, waving it.

"Hold on a minute! I don't think that Earth is even close to destruction!" Sofia exclaimed, but I shook my head, and she gave me a confused look.

"We have about a year before the first wave of an AI race known as the Cleaners comes to "Clean" us from the planet. I have also picked up two other Alien races that will reach us sooner, one in less than three months. We had no idea what was coming for us, and the System AI might be the only reason we have a chance of surviving," I explained, and Belious nodded.

"Yes, the two races that are coming are Slavers. The Drakars and the Gideons are two races that scope out potential planets to harvest. The two are in competition and have been in an intergalactic war that has lasted much longer than we have. Normally they would wait until the planet reaches over ten billion, but the Cleaners have put everyone in a rush to get here," Belious explained, and Sofia sat down heavily.

"What are we going to do? We can only fight off the AI because they aren't working together and because we have Daniel," Sofia said as she leaned forward in her chair to put her head in her hands.

"One problem at a time, Hermoso. We have to take care of the AI first. I don't plan on fighting any of them if we don't have to, but that means dealing with the AI. Belious, is there any way you can put me through to the Beltzer?" I asked, but Belious shook his head.

"No, they are all talking in a private space created by one of the other Generals, Diamo, Crystal System user. All signals are reflected out so no one can interfere," Belious explained, and I nodded.

I was hoping I could talk with them all and maybe stall them long enough for me to get back.

"Fine, explained the other two and their aides," I told Belious, and he nodded.

"Sure. Pyke is number one, then Gravois, Rock System user, is next in line. He is basically a walking rock that controls others to make himself bigger. His aide, Harx, Tremor System user, vibrates the ground and can cause earthquakes. Gravois's biggest weakness is that he is three inches tall and one of five special Systems that can animate lifeless objects or wild creatures. Only five of the Generals have them, so they won't be hard to track. Harx shakes the ground and makes it easier for Gravois to collect more stones to grow. When he is small, Gravois is swift but weak; as he grows, he gets stronger, but slower," Belious explained.

"I have already sent a message to Mr. Tree about this, and he is working on rooting in all the rocks over a foot wide. The trees will also create weave patterns under the ground with roots when Garvois is detected in an area," I said, and Belious nodded.

"You really are something. That won't stop Gravois, but it will slow him down. Last is the weakest of the three, but maybe the strongest initially. Hellyle found a Drakar long ago on a planet and took him as a host. From that, he learned about the culture surrounding the Females of their race. Needless to say, Hellyle adapted his Fire Beast System to become his Dragon System. His aide, Phenos, has the Devotion System that specifically boosts one person dramatically. The System allows Phenos to give abilities that would normally be out of reach for the System that he is devoted to," Belious explained.

"You know, I really would have thought that a Dragon would be above the other two," I said, and Belious nodded.

"You would think that, but there was a cost for what he did. The Dragon Queens of the Darkar and not normal, and they are connected to all the men of their races. Tiamat, The Galactic Empress of all Drakar, did something to Hellyle, and now he can never speak, and his mind is almost completely gone. He will never be able to fully control the form because of this. Also, the Drakar has hated us since they discovered that we are harvesting systeminium," Belious explained, and I groaned.

"You guys can't make friends with anyone, can you?" I asked, shaking my head and continued. "What is up with this race? There is nothing about them in any of Octavia's files."

"When I say not normal, you must remember that I am calling them not normal. We have unexplainable powers, but we still don't know how it works after seven million years. The systeminium gives us these amazing abilities to hand off to others, but we don't know how we were created. We don't even know how the race that activated us found us," Belious said, and I nodded.

"I know about that. I was trying to figure out how the stuff works, but there is no way to study it. Analyzing it just comes up as systeminium, nothing else. As far as I can tell, it is like a living metal, but is it even metal? This stuff is almost like being near Gaia; I can feel the same Spirit energies from it as the planet," I explained.

"There is one thing that we do know, and that it is not metal. It is a piece of Tiamat's astral body that was destroyed thirteen billion years ago. That was caused by Alpha, the opposing Galactic King of the Gideons, being able to complete his Astral body first, as the legend goes. Both were destroyed in what you know as Big Bang, but Alpha was able to shield his people but was killed. His body is scattered like Tiamat's, but that also puts them outside of what we know as the known universe. Alpha's astral body is made out of Mutainium, but that is the limit of what we know. Information or even drawn images of either race are dangerous," Belious explained.

Suddenly, I felt smaller than a single grain of sand as the story hit me. I watched Sofia put a shaking smoke to her lips and almost finish it in one drag.

"And how far are they from us?"

"Four months at most, but it will just be an initial force of ten thousand. The Gideons will be not far from them, at just over five months. Our only option is to do as we suggested," Octavia replied, and Sofia jumped up and stabbed a finger at me.

"Ha! So you do have a plan, Papi! Aye yai yai! You give me a heart attack when you do that!" Sofia exclaimed and then muttered in Spanish. "Hombre tonto, tratando de hacer que mi cabello se vuelva gris!"

"Yes, I have a plan, but I never said that it was a good one. We will leave this solar system with Earth, but I need one year. No matter how much I run the numbers, it will take me just over a year, possibly fourteen months. That means we need to survive for a year," I said, and Sofia fell back in her chair to sulk.