GALAXY AT WAR - Book 1 - The Tranchillion Encounter

CHAPTER THREE - November 2171 - Anthera

Colonel Twochelope awoke with a bad headache. They had become more intense and much more frequent over the last two weeks. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and held his oval shaped head in his top pair of hands, while steadying himself with his second pair pressed down on the edge of the bed. He moaned slightly.

I'll have to see a medic, he thought.

The pain intensified and he slipped onto the floor still holding his head. Then the pain stopped as suddenly as it had begun. He heard a strange voice and looked around but there was no one there.

Then he heard it again. Colonel Twochelope. Do not be alarmed, the voice said. He looked around again but still saw no one. Colonel Twochelope. I am inside your head. I am a Watcher. I have mind-reading and telepathic abilities and I need to talk to you urgently.

Realization suddenly dawned on him, "Get out of my head whoever you are!" he yelled out.

There is no need to use your voice. That will attract attention to yourself. If you just think what you want to say, I will hear it.

I'm going crazy.

No Colonel. You are perfectly sane.

Where are you?

A long way away. Nearer to Tranchilite than your current location.

There's no way you are talking to me from that kind of distance

Our atmosphere amplifies our abilities.

Colonel Twochelope decided to go with the voice. Why did it hurt so much when you spoke to me?

It is an unfortunate side effect of making first contact. We can read your mind without any effect at all. But the initial time we contact you we must find the weak spot in your mind's natural barrier and break through it.

Have you read my mind before?

Yes, we have been watching your race for over twenty thousand years and the humans for ten thousand.

But if you can read anyone's mind when you want, you would have a tremendous advantage should you decide to attack us.

We are a peaceful race and would never attack anyone.

There's always a minority of people in any race that would use violence. If you can't attack others, you could be wiped out.

I did not say that we could not defend ourselves. If anyone decided to attack, we would know. All the people from that race who were a direct threat to us would be eliminated.

How?

We overload their minds which causes them to explode.

Have you done this to anyone before?

We have only had to do it once in ten thousand years. It was not a pretty sight for the survivors. They backed off immediately.

How close did they get before you killed them?

They had not left their planet.

Then how did you see what happened to them?

We can also see through other lifeforms' eyes. Some of us were watching while others were overloading the conspirators' minds.

You can see through our eyes. So, you see what I see?

Enough of these questions. I have a message for you that will mean the survival or destruction of the few of you that remain.