Suddenly, the window frames quivered, and she heard increasing howl, which seemed to reach the threshold of noise pain and then quickly died away. Super Queen-Mother heard her father’s voice:
«Come here, quick! Look, how beautiful it is!»
He was standing on the terrace, pointing with his hand to an object in the sky. A white trace of the flying bolide was quickly dissipating. Super Queen-Mother silently looked into the sky above the horizon.
Was it a call for a battle from the Galaxy civilizations?
Or, was it a phenomenon of nature?
The stars were silent, and only twinkled mysteriously in the sky…
Suddenly, the second bolide rushed in from the left. It was flying over the sea, along the horizon, followed by hissing and an unpleasant crack.
The bolide was shining in different lights – now green, then red or yellow. It was giving off whirls of sparks, which soon disappeared, having left a white trace, which was gradually changing its shape and dispersing. The bolide’s speed was very high; it did not fall on the ground, but flew away into space.
Her father was watching the bolide with admiration and was already going to leave the terrace, when Super Queen-Mother detained him: «Don’t go away… The third one will come now.»
The third bolide did not make them wait for long. It was silently flying at high altitude, like a ghost. A bright fire tail was following it. Having flown to the middle part of the horizon, the bolide exploded with the bang of a nuclear bomb, illuminating the night sky. The sound that reached them reminded them of rumbles of thunder during a severe thunderstorm.
Her father was overwhelmed with emotions. He was pulling at her hand, repeating again and again:
«Do you see this? Do you see? Isn’t it great?»
«Yes, dad, it’s very beautiful», and, having kept silence for a while, Super Queen-Mother added:
«It’s the call for a battle.»
His shoulders sank at once, and he suddenly grew older. Super Queen-Mother embraced him:
«Please, don’t worry so much, I have to manage. And I will manage.»
She kissed her father, and they came into the house.
«When are you leaving?» – he asked.
«I have a day after the signal», – answered Super Queen-Mother. They sat in the armchairs in the living room, «for a good road», according to the tradition. In a minute, she lightly got up.
«Dad, invite the Chief Security Officer to me, please!»
«Connect me with all country leaders, please. It’s an urgent gathering», she ordered the man.
In a short time she was accompanied to the command center. A big screen was ready for the press conference. It was displaying her – in the middle of it – and the invitees – at the edges. They were staring at her, barely concealing their internal disturbance. Super Queen-Mother looked everybody over and announced:
«Today, at twenty-one sharp, a signal from the civilizations «Milky Way» was registered on Earth. It was in the form of the three bolides, flying to Earth one after another.
My battle for the right to preserve civilization on the Earth planet will start in twenty-four hours.
With reference to the foregoing, I order the following:
– To impose «military readiness number one» for all armies and fleets on the territory of Earth.
– My departure is the signal to transfer «military readiness number one» into the regime «combat alert» for all armies and fleets.
– Watch for an attack from the asteroid belts.
– All available nuclear delivery vehicles attack and destroy any offensive weaponry from space.
– All available carriers of conventional weaponry destroy offensive weaponry in the air area of the planet.
– All available airborne vehicles must be in the air at maximum allowed altitude. Conventional weaponry must be substituted with nuclear.
– I will address the population of Earth at seventeen sharp of local time.
– I impose martial law on Earth.
– In my absence, I impose the responsibility for everything that is going here on the Management Headquarters of Dual-Purpose Forces.
God save us all!»
After her address was over, the listeners began to act. They gave one and the same command in different languages. Ministers of defense were hurriedly leaving convention rooms.
Here it comes.
Super Queen-Mother left the command position and took to her house. The surroundings sank into tangible silence. Even the grasshoppers’ chirp was not heard.
A sense of alarm was coming from the trees, filling the whole information field of the vegetable kingdom. She involuntarily noted that, besides weak electromagnetic pulses, trees were exchanging scents.
Dramatic change of chemical composition of excretory volatile components – scents – is their voice, only people don’t smell it, while all animals, birds and insects know this. That’s why they became silent.
Information transfer takes place at lightning speed; that’s why the wild nature knows about oncoming events. Super Queen-Mother sat on the bench, gave a glance around the house, the bay, buildings, mountains, and… disappeared.
The voice of the Earth Keepers met her in the hall:
«We know about the call. You did everything in a right way. The battle is not far off. Have a rest here. Tomorrow you will have a hard day.»
Sitting on the metal cube, Super Queen-Mother started reclining and stretching her feet. The metal gently enveloped her from all sides.
A thin sound of a pan-pipe came from afar, followed by small bells ringing. Some spinning spirals appeared on the ceiling, sputtering many-colored snowflakes; and Julia fell asleep.
This time she had no dreams.
When she got up she felt rested to the full. The morning was at its height.
The Earth Keepers transferred her to the training center to give her an opportunity to get used to a new place on another planet, and switched on the recordings of her trainings, so that she could analyze her mistakes.
Only her mistakes were shown. The picture changed every three seconds.
Super Queen-Mother was watching with surprise how many blunders she had made. She would never forget them after such «lessons».
All her way from an ordinary girl, like millions of girls all around, to a trained, experienced fighter came before her eyes. Everything was real for her, and all her feelings during those trainings were also true.
In the meantime, something grandiose was happening on Earth.
The work was humming on all spaceports – spaceships were being adjusted on launching pads.
As soon as the crew settled in the ship, the command «Key to start!» was given, and the rocket left Earth’s orbit.
