CHAPTER 71

0001 - Tempro

0003 - Conner

0097 - Ace

0098 - Lucy(ungrown)

0101 - Shelby (mother ship)

0667 - Marco

0798 - Celeste

0999 - Zan

1000 - Sherry

(To grow)

0125

0403

0200

0778

0301

0908

0098(Lucy)

0667 awoke with a start where was he? The last thing he remembered was being in battle with several of his brothers and sisters. Reaching out he couldn't find anything to grab a hold of, it was almost terrifying. Finding his voice he tried to speak, at first he could only get static then slowly he started to hear voices.

"Hello? Can anyone hear me? Please someone answer me," came his almost frightened voice.

"Hello 0667, you are safe now and on board me." A female voice came, suddenly all his fears disappeared; that was mother's voice! Mother was still alive!

"Thank you mother I have been asleep for so long it feels," then a thought hit him, "mother are there many of us left?"

"When you are active we will have a total of 8 ships, rest now son. The new emperor will wish to talk to you soon; he always welcomes each ship as it awakens."

Excited 0667 did as his mother instructed, the new emperor! He'd never spoken to an emperor before this was indeed an honour!

Shelby smiled at Derrick, he nodded to her to let her know that he thought she had done exceedingly well.

Sighing Derrick had a few things that were weighing heavily on his mind namely the true identity of the one who was in charge of the Taiolan sect now. He shook his head; IF the information that they had received was in fact true. Derrick looked over the data again and there had to be a mistake, there was absolutely no way in hell it could be him!

Mary could sense Derrick's distress and desperately wanted to help him, the thing was she had no idea what to do.

On board Tempro Kimison and Rayburn were finally starting to make a little headway on the transfer apparatus, though it was only a little.

"I'm telling you Rayburn the electromagnetic signals have to be in sync! I don't see where you get off on telling me that the sync wouldn't work." Kimison was saying.

"I just said that in order to get it to work you have to have a balance of energy, that's all!" Rayburn replied.

Kimison gave Rayburn a heated look then turned and went to the console, "I have proof you damn idiot!" He shouted.

"As if, you rigid ass!" Rayburn shouted back at him.

They both started to advance on each other when several electrodes came out of the walls and knocked both men off their feet. Mary's visage appeared a moment later, "I had thought that you two had worked well past these displays of anger." Both Rayburn and Kimison's bodies were involuntarily jerking from the voltage that she had used. "I had warned both of you, this project is far too important for petty arguments!"

Both men looked at Mary the moment they regained some control of their bodies. "Really Mary, was that much voltage necessary?" Kimison slurred out his words.

"Yeah! You're going to fry what little is left of our brains!" Rayburn accused her. Hmmm she thought, very interesting, they both bonded when they have something in common to strike against. She'd have to remember that they may not have to have more shocks after all but she'd keep the voltage at the ready in case.

"I am here for a report, have you made any progress toward solving the problem at hand?" Mary asked.

Finally able to stand Kimison showed her the data that they had collected so far. "We believe that if everything is transferred it would cause a critical failure that will lead to death." Rayburn was nodding in agreement. At least they were in agreement on this one thing, maybe Mary thought, this was the point that they needed to start from.

"It appears that Tempro and I never took into account the sheer amount of information that we were trying to transfer. Well the amount as compared to the biological storage capacity. Yes I can see now that we were trying to overload the biological form." Sighing Mary wasn't sure if the living form would be as functional as the electronic. They would have to see perhaps it would be better without the total knowledge.

"You have to remember Mary," Rayburn interjected, "the emperor has had years of storing knowledge, increasing the areas of storage. He has also had years to find ways to store more knowledge, Kimison and I have barely touched on what he has. You said he took the libraries of three ships? Kimison took one and it almost killed him. I took the same and a little of yours, I wasn't sure I was going to make it out. THAT is a testament to the mind of the emperor."

"I think if we had more time to let our minds adjust, we too could accomplish the same. I'm afraid it would take far too long to achieve what he did. There simply isn't enough time to accomplish it now. We do have the knowledge though to carry this on," Kimison looked at Rayburn then they both nodded. "Yes we can do this, when you need it done though, I am not sure, all we can do is press on."

Mary breathed a sigh of relief finally it sounded like they were working on the same level. Still knowing both of them like she did it might be a good idea to keep the safeguards in place.

On the second Taiolan secure world the leader had kept his temper in check, as of yet the captain of the Betrayal had proven that he was a valuable asset. So far the leader had only landed a glancing blow on the man, smiling as the leader was about to see if the man truly was worthy.

"Report all that you saw," The leader snapped at the man again.

The Captain went into detail even more as he told the leader all he'd seen. The leader started to strike at the man with increasingly faster and deadlier blows. Finally finished, the leader threw the one strike at the man he knew the Captain couldn't avoid. Moving far faster than he thought he could, the Captain felt the searing heat of the blow as it moved past his face and head then down his back. Shit! The Captain thought he'd had it for a moment then lost direction. The leader smiled as the Captain fell to the floor, so the shit had kept in practice good he should survive, should, we'll see he thought.

"Wheel the new commander of our fleet to the healing machines; that is if he survives, if not we'll see." The leader spit at the new first years that were working clean up in the control room. The Leader was a little worried the emperor now had control of all the information that pompous ass had kept hidden. He knew the emperor wouldn't use it like the president had but who knew he might in other ways. Smashing his fist into the wall to quell his anger, the leader ignored the crack that appeared in the rock face behind him as he turned.

"Second!" The leader yelled, then watched as the man appeared a moment later. "I want our best female spy, I want to infiltrate the emperor's inner circle. Failing that, take and reprogram a close female to him. I don't care what it takes, I want someone on the inside! I want them there as soon as possible!"

"Yes leader, I am on it now." Running off the second smile this ought to be good; they hadn't used her in a long time. She should be quite eager to do a mission for the sect, especially the leader.

Derrick appeared in the throne room amid a few gasps from those posted that hadn't seen the IMT in action yet. Derrick sighed he was going to have to get all those who were going to be in the palace informed. Looking around he knew that Hartwell was back aboard his ship at the moment, strange Derrick thought I haven't seen either Kimison or Rayburn in almost a week. "Mary?" Derrick asked.

Appearing in a moment Mary thought she could detect a question in the emperor's voice. "Yes Sire?"

"I haven't seen Kimison nor Rayburn all week, please inform them that I have a need for them for a few hours." Derrick told Mary.

"Yes Sire immediately." Mary answered.

Kimison and Rayburn had finally configured the download device to a lower voltage during transfer. Mary appeared with a small look of worry on her face. "The emperor wishes to see both of you for a few hours, though I am unsure of what exactly he needs."

Kimison and Rayburn looked at each other a moment trying to figure just what their old commander might want. "Tell him we'll be there in a few minutes, say we are finishing up some equipment that will be of great use later."

Mary nodded she'd have never come up with a half truth answer. "Alright, he said he needs you both as quickly as possible, something to do with the storehouse of information."

Derrick had been pacing, he had to know if it was true or not, A few minutes later Kimison and Rayburn walked in.

Derrick looked at the two of them a little suspicious a moment, they were together and they weren't fighting? "Alright what in the hell is going on?" Both of the men could only stare at Derrick, "you two never work together and don't fight unless I am there, so spill."

Kimison and Rayburn both looked at Derrick a little embarrassed, "kind of hard to fight when someone shocks your ass," Rayburn interjected Kimison was shaking his head agreeing.

"Yeah, then the second time she ups the voltage nearly scrambled my damn brains!" Kimison spit out.