Joshua and Vard sat in a small circle, holding hands, their minds elsewhere while Drake and Clive watched.
"I wish they would stop whatever they are doing long enough to tell us how the battle is going." Clive said as he paced around the room.
Three hours ago, Guild scout ships had reported that a massive fleet of unknown origin was making its way through the Void to Earth. Vard however had a good guess about the approaching fleet. Be it Chimera or Fungi, it made no difference, both posed a threat to mankind.
"Shhh... don't interrupt them. It takes a lot of effort to control the mines all the way in the Void." Drake glared.
"Do you think the mines will stop them...? I mean will a thousand nuclear bombs be enough?"
"They better be enough. From what Vard has said, humanity does not stand a real chance in a ground war verses either species."
For a while longer the two continued to watch as Joshua and Vard remained in a trance. Suddenly, with a jolt, the two fell backwards away from each other, their bodies falling to the floor. Drake and Clive rushed to both men's sides.
"Joshua, are you all right?" Drake asked, as he stroked Joshua brown hair with his fingers.
"We destroyed thousands of them but still they came. We turned the Void into a fiery inferno, but it did not stop them. We..." Joshua stammered as tears ran down his face.
"We did what we had to do." Vard said, as he sat up with Clive's help. "As useless as it now seems."
"I don't understand." Drake replied.
"The ships that we attacked, the ships that are about to appear above Earth, were Fungi. In detonating the atomic mines we destroyed thousands of their ships but in the process obliterated billions of their souls." Vard replied.
"But are not souls the part of us that are immortal."
"The human soul... yes. So are the souls of the Fungi... so long as they don't die in the Void." Vard answered.
"How can that be?" Clive asked.
"The Fungi soul is very different from the human one. Where one human has only one soul given to him at conception, each part, every cell in the Fungi has it's own distinct soul, each one connected by a psychic bond... a bond that can exist beyond their death, except in the Void. For some reason, whatever holds their souls together falls apart when they die there." Joshua said sadly. "When a Fungi dies in the Void... all of it dies."
"So I take it whatever chance we had in making peace with the Fungi just went up in flames?" Clive asked, an eyebrow arched.
"No Clive... the moment the Fungi decided to invade human space any hope for peace was gone," Vard said as he stood up, offering a hand to his husband.
As Joshua struggled to get back on his feet, Star Generals Felix and Robert came into the room followed by a dozen iron masked men, carrying a portable view screen with them, which they set up in the middle of the room.
"The enemy fleet has jumped out of the Void and is moving quickly to enter Earth's orbit." Felix said, as the view screen showed the two opposing forces, Guild ships in blue with the growing Fungi armada in red.
"Tell our ships to launch their missiles while retreating back towards Earth. I want the home world surrounded by an impregnable sphere of our vessels." Vard commanded.
"Should we not see to the evacuation of the civilian populace?" Robert asked as he gave Drake a worried stare.
"We don't have the time or the ships. Where in the Assembly would we send them, even if we did? All our ships and weapons have been gathered here. Earth is where humanity will make its final stand," Vard said.
"But," Drake protested only to feel Joshua squeeze his hand, a few jolts of energy passing between them.
"We don't have any other choices left to us Drake... at least no good ones," Joshua whispered.
Vard, taking Joshua's free hand, held it tight. "If it looks like the end is coming I'll do what I can to give you and the other's a chance to escape."
"No husband, if it comes to that, I will be where I am meant to be... by your side."
"Joshua..." Vard sighed as he felt the currents of power passing between their bodies.
"All or nothing husband... it is the way it has to be."
Saul and Adam watched from the transparent body of a large Fungi warship as it jumped out of the Void, appearing in the middle of a battle field.
Out of fear, seeing hundreds of burning and exploding craft, Adam grabbed Saul's arm tightly, letting his root dig into him. "Are you sure it is safe for us to be here?"
Saul's reply was a deep chuckle. "Perfectly safe... see how our other warships are protecting us?"
Adam watched as a barrage of missiles that had been streaking towards them were intercepted and destroyed, the Fungi ships exploding in a cloud of spores. "Earth seems to be pretty well defended, did we bring enough ships?"
"Plenty brother. With each one of our ships the humans destroy they only increase our numbers."
"I don't understand."
"Simple... the spores our ships release when destroyed will each grow into new ships thanks to the energy provided by Earth's sun."
"So even if they destroy the entire fleet..." Adam asked.
"They will just end up fighting against another fleet... only that one will be ten times the size of ours. If that one is destroyed as well, then the next fleet will be a hundred times larger. So you see humanity lost its chance of winning this war when it let our first ship leave the Void."
"But what if..." Adam protested.
"Adam... with all these doubts you have I am beginning to wonder if you would not rather be on the side of the enemy."
"No brother, of course not."
"And why is that?" Saul asked.
"I want to be on the side that wins."
"Which means you have finally come to understand that there is no way humanity can win this war?"
Adam closed his eyes in defeat. "Yes brother you were right... you are always right."
"Good... then I think we should withdraw. It looks like humanity will win this round but as you have now admitted; it will only delay the inevitable.
Opening his eyes, Adam watched as the few remaining Fungi ships pulled back into the Void, leaving behind the wreckage of Guild vessels and thick clouds of spores that were the future seeds of mankind's doom.
Well folks its been six months since the first two books of the Centurion series started going on sale. You can still find copies on Amazon or make requests at your local book store and I'm sure they'll order it for you but without the 22% off sale that's now going on. With the six months over the mid-year sales reports are going to be released. I don't have a clue on how many books have been sold but with the poor economy and the book business hurting as it is I'm being pragmatic about it. Still I'm curious to see how we did. If you've already gotten a copy you have my deepest thanks and for those of you who haven't I really hope you would take a chance and see what the whole series is all about. I really do feel it is some of my best work.
On a side note, just got diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome so I got to take a rest for a while. Still I have enough chapters backed up to keep the rest of you entertained for quite a while yet. A new series, Sons of Mir is about finished and will be making the rounds of the publishers fairly soon so keep your fingers crossed. You can read a sketch of the story on the yahoo group but the actual one that's going to get published is twice as long so don't think you got the full story yet. You all take care and hope to hear from some of you soon. Bye.
JMH trandar2002@yahoo.comhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/adultwritingworkshop/