CHAPTER 67

Derrick was definitely pleased his upgrades were as effective as they had been. He'd finally learned after the failure of the trans-warp incident not to try and push without a hell of a lot of testing. "Alright Shelby, bring me onboard. Mary, I know you are working to get all that I finalized enacted. I want to thank you for keeping things going. I just hope I can get us current soon."

"Yes Sire, I will await your return," Mary told him right before he disappeared. Sighing she went through all that he had finished. At least many of the worlds of the empire would receive some of the aid that they needed. The last few the emperor had signed would actually strengthen a few of the planet's economies that had been failing.

Shelby smiled broadly when Derrick appeared on board; she had missed him fiercely though she still had the duties to her children. "I have everything ready for his emergence Derrick." She told him.

"Good this will bring the fleet up to 6 ships; I am hoping that with more ships I can have the nobles fall more in line. As of right now I have to spread the fleet far too thin to do much." Derrick told her.

"Yes I know Derrick I am just glad that we have found as many of my children as we have. I am reading an increase in the cognitive functioning of 0097." Shelby related a moment later.

Again as there always seemed to be a static sound came out of the speakers then a male voice was heard. "Where am I? Is anyone there? Hello?"

Again Shelby stepped in, "Hello 0097 you are onboard me, you are in an improved regen cycle."

"Thank goodness! I thought I was alone floating in space. Tell me mother, are there many of us left?" Came the almost pleading voice of 0097.

"With you we now number 8 though we have another 8 in various states of re-gen. One of those is your wing mate she..." Shelby was saying as she was interrupted.

"Oh, her, please I do not want to talk about her..." 0097 started.

"You will not talk about her like that!" Derrick snapped out his anger showing in the scowl on his face.

"0097 I believe you have upset the new emperor." Shelby said surprised but still proud at Derrick's anger.

"My apologies Sir but she...''0097 again started.

"She gave her existence saving most of the galaxy and no one; NO ONE will ever say another bad word about her; she performed with absolute honor and integrity that day. She is and you will treat her as the true EIG that she is. Am I making myself clear to all of you?" All seven of the whole ship's holograms nodded in shock, Shelby had huge tears falling; she had watched her daughter take the dirty bomb to the edge of the galaxy and beyond. She had screamed with Derrick when it went off after Lucy had turned and was retreating. She had felt the deep pain that Derrick had when the blast overtook her, and she remembered Derrick's solemn promise to find and restore her.

Derrick began to pace; he'd waited too long to tell all of the ships that weren't there the story.

0097 was silent for a few more moments, "I will remember Sire and be proud to be HER wing mate. I will remind her everyday how honored I am to serve with her."

Derrick nodded; that at least helped to cool his anger most of the way. A moment later, Mary appeared on the bridge.

"Sire I am picking up that escape capsule at the edge of the galaxy as of yet I am still not detecting any life readings but I continue to watch it as you instructed." Mary informed Derrick.

"Very good Mary, let me know if you detect any life from it. I have a feeling I am missing something but can't quite put my finger on it." Derrick told Mary and the rest of the holograms present. "I'll be back soon, Mary."

Sighing Mary knew that once he was out of the palace it was a near miracle to get him back in it. "Yes sir, I will continue until such time as you return.

Derrick smiled, thank god he'd enacted all the overrides, though he thought, as he rubbed his chin they all weren't going to be good for all that much longer. "Now then 0097 as I have told the others I require that all EIG ships go by the name that they were given. Please what is yours?"

"Yes Sire, I was called Ace by my crew for a time. Though I never understood why they always told me that it fit me perfectly." Ace told Derrick.

"Very good Ace, you will make a fine addition to the fleet such as it is, soon though we will be a force to reckon with." Derrick let all the ships know.

On the extreme edge of the galaxy a single tone brought the man barely back enough to start the distress call. Smiling, he saw that he had only a few days of air left, more than enough. Soon he thought as he returned to his comatose state, soon he and the sect would have their revenge. A smile frozen on his lips he slipped further into the near death state.

An alert drew Mary's attention away from the progress of Kimison and Rayburn on the new download device. Curious she thought for a mere 20 seconds and only 20 seconds she had gotten life readings from the escape capsule. She was about to inform the emperor then remembered that he wanted something definitive before he invested the resources to investigate it. A very sound judgment by her standards.

Again she was amazed at the amount of work that the two had accomplished now that they were working together. Momentarily distracted she almost missed Kimison yelling that they had done it and a day earlier! "So you have accomplished what you have set out to do early?" Mary asked of a now dancing Kimison and smirking Rayburn.

"Yes, though I believe it will surpass the emperor's first design, I already have most of the software written and ready for it also. I am afraid that we are still going to have to test it first though." Kimison told Mary.

"I believe it is ready even without the extra software that Kimison wants to write but I do agree it could still over stimulate the neurons in our brains and possibly burn our cerebral cortexes out." Rayburn started with as serious of a look on his face as Kimison had ever seen.

Mary sighed they really needed to commence working on the mission. She felt that if they didn't get it done very soon then it might be too late, not only for the emperor but for the empire as well. Shaking her head she had to trust that the two men could accomplish in a few weeks what she and Tempro couldn't all those centuries ago.

Deep within the depths of their new staging world, the new second in command was called to the communications room. "What have you got?" He asked of the young tech that was only in the second year of his training.

"Leader," the young man said as he tensed up at the approach of the second in command. "It is a distress call from an escape pod of the Deception."

The second in command eyed the young man and snapped off a quick chop to the man's throat that the man barely deflected. "Very average; send out the Betrayal to retrieve. I believe she is the only one that is equipped with a still working light cloak."

The young man quickly scanned a list and responded, "Yes leader it is." Then side stepped a sweeping kick, and almost the downward chop. "Thank you leader," he said as he hit the floor then was unconscious. The second in command had been impressed he'd almost avoided a fourth year attack. Smiling, he thought the true leader would be very happy when he returned.

Stepping over the unconscious man's body he thumbed the radio, "Betrayal retrieval of the pos is imperative at all costs you must remain unseen. Failure in this mission will be punishable by death. Good hunting and good death!" Thumbing the radio off he watched the ship then it wasn't visible any more. At least that was still working; they had lost far too much knowledge over the last few centuries.

Onboard the Betrayal, the crew started the jump that would take them to the pod. Already they had taken readings showing there were no life signs. The ship leader smiled as it was standard procedure to hide themselves in near death states. He was sure they would find someone there otherwise the pod wouldn't be here. An hour later they were half way around the galactic rim.

"Commence recovery operations," carefully they docked with the pod extending a metal arm to retrieve whomever was inside. When the arm came back inside they were all agape but weren't shocked when they saw the leader in his near-death state. It was then that many noticed that almost every bone in the man's body was broken, thus showing his superior skill and pain blocking.

"Get him into a healing machine! His injuries need to heal as soon as possible!" The ship leader yelled. There was a brief moment of confusion then the crew sprang into action. "I want us gone NOW! I am sure the emperor is still monitoring, go NOW!" A moment later the ship broke contact and jumped into trans-warp.

Ten minutes later the leader awoke, the machine already speeding his healing many times faster than his body could. Motioning the ship leader closer the leader whispered to him then lapsed into unconsciousness. The ship leader smiled, it was going to be a war that was for sure, and he and the leader were going to be in the forefront. Well he hoped he was; he has a few debts to repay those imperial bastards after what had happened at their old planet hideout.