CHAPTER 66

Kimison's face showed shock then he was angry, "What?! You don't think I am good enough that you have to have that asshole in it also?"

"No, you are more of a scientific architect, your ideas rival the emperor's. Sergeant Rayburn is more of a fine tuner to the ideas you have, you both are a superior combination when you work together." Mary told an almost believing Kimison. "I'm not convinced that we can work together without the emperor being there." Kimison told Mary who had noticed this odd behavior from the two.

"This vital mission is for the emperor, we cannot tell him though as of yet. We are just starting to make positive progress on it. Now please for the sake of the empire and the emperor's continued good health we have to complete this!" Mary said. Kimison shook his head; it almost sounded like Mary was begging him. Huh he thought the commander had been right, these A.I. 's were more human sounding than he at first thought.

Sighing, Kimison thought for a few minutes then made a decision, "Alright if, and I mean IF you can get Sarge on board then I am more than ready to lend my assistance. One thing you ought to know about him though, he won't be swayed as easily as I was."

Mary was nodding at everything that Kimison was saying; that was easy. She had to figure out a way to determine when these men were joking or not, they were nothing like the emperor that was for sure. "Alright Corporal Kimison, how about now? As I have heard humans say there is no time like the present, a very wise saying."

Kimison was about to voice a concern when there was a flash of light and Rayburn was standing on the other side of the room. "What the hell is this shit?" Rayburn was shouting when he caught sight of Kimison sitting near the hologram of Mary.

"I have asked you both here to help assist my son and me in a mission..." Mary started.

"Work with that worthless piece of shit?!" Rayburn yelled.

Kimison looked at Mary, "See told you stubborn to a fault he's..."

"Stubborn? Me? You're a fine one to talk to, there is no way..." Rayburn was saying as both men were moving slowly toward each other with balled up fists.

There was a quick flash of light then both men looked at Mary with a shock on their faces. "That was only a minor shock. Please do not give me cause to administer a more severe amount of voltage. Both men nodded then fell to the floor unable to get their legs to work.

"Wow Marry you really are serious if you are willing to administer shocks. Alright, alright I'll listen." Rayburn said as he tried to curl his now numb legs in a better position.

It was then that both Mary and Tempro began to go through the processes that they had worked on for centuries. Finally finished Mary and Tempro could see that both the men hadn't gotten but about half of what they had been told.

"I was afraid of this," Mary said. "I do have a solution but there are consequences of taking these actions." Looking at Rayburn she asked, "You saw the download device the emperor created." When Rayburn nodded Mary continued, "I wish you to recreate it, it is obvious that we need to expand your knowledge and capacity for learning. Though you should know that I will take steps to insure that neither of you will attempt to overthrow the emperor. Now then that being said, Sergeant Rayburn, can you recreate it?"

Rayburn thought for a few minutes he had seen the device up close, he had seen how it worked, and all the safety measures that were needed to install. There was only one part he was unsure of but that could be solved easily. "I believe I can do it, though the hardware application I will have to leave to Kimison. If I give you the specifications you think you could reproduce it?" Rayburn asked Kimison then drew a few parts of the apparatus.

Kimison looked it over then nodded, "it looks easy enough, though the capacitors might need to be higher, and the insulators might need to be thicker. Rayburn nodded open mouthed as he'd also thought that.

"Now the bigger question," Mary stated after they started to work together. "Just how long will it take to build?"

"If you can get or have all the parts then possibly three days, then we'd need at least a week to test it to make sure it won't fry our brains. Nine to ten days we should know, sooner if the first series of tests go well." Kimison said with Rayburn nodding his agreement.

"Please both of you get started as soon as possible give me a list of all you need you will have it within an hour. Though the security of the palace and the emperor is our top priority, this is almost as important, please remember that. Now Tempro provides them with what information you have on the transfer, it appears as good a place as any to start.

Both men nodded then went back to designing the device that they would need. Sighing Mary then smiled well that was the first hurdle, now the second would depend on whether or not they could actually duplicate the device the emperor had made.

Derrick was bored out of his mind, he'd made himself a promise that he wouldn't stay on the planet this long but damn it there was so much to do! Finally with a disgusted grunt he got up and walked out of the room. In the main throne room a new contingent of Rangers that had been rotated in snapped to attention as Derrick passed a sour look on his face.

A young Corporal turned to his Sergeant after Derrick had passed, "Looks like the emperor is about to leave again."

The Sergeant nodded, "I know, that's when we have to be on guard even more, remember that sect is still out there wanting the emperor's life. Now would be their most opportune time to get in here and plant explosives, poisons or assassins. Remember all of you, they will think nothing of taking your life, therefore I want you to show them the same disregard for their lives."

All of the men were nodding as they listened to the Sergeant, special training had been begun to ensure that they were ready. Again all of the men snapped to attention as Derrick walked back into the throne room muttering to himself. They could all hear snippets of phrases, overdue work, unfinished projects, and the one that had most of them smiling later about tons of paperwork.

Derrick sighed as he paced back and forth in his work room, he had to get out of here he'd been working for the last two days to try and catch up on all the concerns of the empire. 200 years of nothing being done had indeed piled up to a monstrous amount of paperwork that he still had to really make a dent in. True for the last two days he'd managed to get a hundred years caught up but really! The last 100 years had been three times as bad as the first 100. Derrick groaned he had a small mountain of paperwork done that Mary was already acting on if not a hundred years too late.

Sighing Derrick was about to sit down and attack the stack again when his wrist com went off. "Yes Shelby, has the energy upgrades we made have any effect at all?"

"Oh yes Derrick, as a matter of fact 0097 is ready to emerge two days earlier than at first predicted, 0667 is also regenerating far faster than we thought. At this rate we may have them all back a week and a half sooner!" Shelby replied in an extremely excited voice.