CHAPTER 63

Kimison was so tired; he'd been working for over 18 hours straight, strengthening all the security measures. He'd added several layers of encryption so that now he felt no one could get in unless they were a far better hacker than he was. So far he'd not seen a better one yet, hell, even Rayburn had to admit he was that good. Laying down he had to get at least an hour of sleep before he ran the checks. Smiling, he fell asleep almost as fast as his head hit the pillow.

Mary sighed she really didn't like to do this but it was for the emperor. There was a shimmering of light in the room then Kimison was on a cot onboard Tempro. Mary appeared a moment later, "I am not happy having to do this, we may have to send him back at a moment's notice but at least he is here now so we can start to work on him."

"Mother, how are we going to keep the emperor from discovering? The man is not stupid I am afraid he will not be fooled as easily as most." Tempro advised Mary.

Mary nodded; Tempro was very right in that respect, this emperor was far smarter and quicker to catch on than almost all of his predecessors. Again Mary was lost in thought, this was a quandary she needed to overcome if they were going to succeed with this mission for him. A steady beeping alerted Mary to the escape pod that she had detected earlier.

Derrick was half way through another upgrade for Shelby and the other ships when Mary appeared beside him. "Sire I am detecting that escape pod from the damaged ship using trans-warp though only half second bursts. Should I dispatch one of the ships to determine what is going on with it?"

"Mary, you told me earlier that the escape pod might go in and out of the trans-warp for a time 'til it finally is stranded. Are you suggesting that it may be manned? If so then by all means dispatch a ship but first are you getting any life readings from it?" Derrick told Mary.

"No sire I am not as of yet, though, as I said it is still at an extreme distance, if it continues to draw closer to the galactic rim I will know. I will keep you apprised Sire if there is any other change." Mary said as she increased her scans of the pod. She had seen something like this before but as of yet couldn't access those records.

The capsule lurched into normal space slightly closer to the rim, but still too far to send a signal but closer. Barely breathing he slowly set the next jump and lapsed into a near death state again. A smile frozen on his face his dreams full of the revenge that he and the sect would exact upon the bastard born pretender.

Derrick was finally finished with Shelby's latest upgrade plus the fact that he now had her at 15% of her personality freed up. He had to get to the other ships and start them also, might as well start with Sherry since she hadn't had anything done as of yet. "Shelby, open a line to Sherry."

"Line is open Derrick." Shelby replied.

"Sherry, I need to come onboard to begin your upgrades." Derrick told her then was standing on her bridge.

"Hello Sire," A young, slender, long brown haired woman said. "I am prepared for your upgrades Sire; I am excited that you have chosen me to start on with these newest upgrades."

"You're welcome Sherry; please open your circuits for me this shouldn't take long." Derrick told her, he had in fact found that with the new tool he had, he could do 10% in only a few minutes. Within 15 minutes he was done, standing he looked at Sherry who'd been watching the whole time. "How do you feel Sherry?"

At first there seemed to be no reaction then the young woman's eyes flew wide. "Uh... Sure? I... feel strange... I'm Sure!! I can feel! I can feel love! OH my Sire! This is a gift I can never repay you for! Zan?"

Zan's hologram appeared concerned for his wing mate. "Sherry, are you alright? Is everything functioning correctly?"Zan asked, his concern growing when she didn't answer him.

Walking over to Zan, Sherry's hologram grabbed his image and began to passionately kiss him. Breaking the kiss Sherry looked at the started Zan, "What do you think? Is everything functioning correctly for you?"

"I... you... we... emperor..." when it became apparent that Zan couldn't get the words out Sherry nodded.

"Ok I'll take that as a yes!" Then with a giggle she danced away.

Derrick had stood back with a wide grin on his face, good it was about time he got them acting a little more human! "Sire, if you can free her up that much is it possible for me? I liked how that felt but so much is blocked. Still I felt something but I'm not sure what."

"I'm coming over to you next; I feel that if your ships have more emotions than you would function far more efficiently than you do without them. I believe you have data to support this Mary?" Derrick said as Mary again appeared.

"Yes Sir I noticed that when you had them at 8% they were 59% more efficient in battle, an improvement that is very noteworthy. It does stand to reason that if you open up more of their emotions that they would also increase in battle. Though sire wouldn't emotions interfere?" Mary asked him.

"No I don't feel so, I think that with strong emotions they will push beyond their limits and protect the empire far better than they can now." Derrick replied to Mary who as of yet was still unconvinced. Though the data bore him out she thought that it would decline as more emotions were involved. Derrick could see that Mary was still skeptical about all of this; he might need to look at her circuits when he returned.

Ten minutes later Zan was staring at Derrick, his mouth also hanging open, "Sire? Is this what it is like to feel emotion? I... it's so strange to actually feel!"