CHAPTER 74

Hartwell had all the men assembled in a huge room within Shelby, confused and all of them had waited to see what was going on. A few minutes later Derrick stepped into the room and motioned to Hartwell to start.

"I know all of you are wondering why we are here, the emperor and I thought it would be most prudent for us to have this meeting. All of you are the first of those that graduated from the advanced classes that were started two weeks ago. At present you are the best that the rangers have to offer for their emperor's personal guard. That being said, we are going to the emperor's first official visit of the upper nobles." Hartwell looked at Derrick who nodded and stepped up to take over.

"Though I'm not expecting trouble, after this first visit, I will be expecting nothing but trouble. Of the five upper nobles we are visiting Duke Risen last." There were several gasps and more than a few wide smiles, they had all heard about the attack that Risen and his forces had tried to perpetuate on the emperor when he first appeared.

A young corporal raised his hand a moment later though a little tentative the man still asked his question. "Sire, I know that those after us are receiving longer training than we had. Will we be afforded the chance to train and improve? I feel confident but not enough; I don't feel I am as good as I can get to protect you."

Derrick leaned down and asked Hartwell something then straightened up to address the man. "I am so glad you asked that sergeant, as I am about your concern for mine and your safety." Derrick smiled when the man's face registered shock at being called sergeant then settled back and waited as Derrick continued.

"On board here we have a living A.I. Her name is Shelby. Shelby dear, if you have a moment?" As a beautiful, blonde, green eyed, slender young woman appeared in front of those assembled the room grew deathly quiet. "Please introduce yourself." Derrick said to the young woman who was smiling at him and all there.

"Yes of course Derrick. Hello everyone my name is Shelby, I am the A.I. of this ship, well, of me. I have a full program of upgrades to help strengthen your speed and techniques. At any time if you have questions do not fail to ask, remember knowledge is power and the more power you have, the longer you stay alive." Shelby had relayed all of this with the sweetest of smiles putting almost all there at ease."

"Now then we are enroute to the first of the Nobles territories. As I said with the first I don't expect trouble 'til after we leave. Therefore I am going to afford you every chance to train. I have also included some virtual training to help you gain what you will need to know faster. Alright I wish us all luck and I will see you later today when we have started." Derrick turned and talked to Hartwell for a moment.

"Greeson, please come here for a moment." Hartwell called to the young man who'd asked the question.

Greeson walked to the both of them and stopped in front of both men saluting at attention. "Yes sir?"

"The emperor wasn't kidding about your promotion sergeant, as of now you are to assist with all details of assignment and placement. Do you know why you were promoted Greeson?" Hartwell asked the man.

"Uh no sir, though I do not feel I deserve it." Greeson replied.

Derrick smiled. He was starting to like this young man more and more, "Son you were more concerned about the readiness of all of you than you were about yourself. That is what I expect of all who command for me. I was only too glad to reward you for this. Keep them safe, sergeant and yourself as well."

"I will do my best sir but 'til I have better skills I feel I will fail you. I was on my way to start training now. Again I thank you for the promotion but as I said I don't feel I deserve it." The young man honestly said.

"That will be all Greeson." Hartwell smiled as the man saluted and left.

"I do like him; any man who cares about his men even when he has none is first rate in my book. Keep an eye on Hartwell; I feel good about him." Derrick told a smiling Hartwell who had the same feelings.

Mary was worried about both Kimison and Rayburn, both had been working nonstop on at least ten different things, often swapping in the middle of something. They both had at least half of the machines in Tempro's laboratory going. Tempro himself, who was familiar with all his equipment, still had no idea what either man was working on.

It had been almost two days since they had started either sleeping or eating. They barely spoke to each other as they kept going almost as Mary could see by sheer will power. Sighing Mary felt they were going to damage themselves if they didn't rest soon and was about to inform them of it when Kimison suddenly started shouting.

"It's about damn time!" Rayburn came running looking over the odd contraption then started nodding and smiling.

"May I ask what is so important that neither of you have eaten nor slept for two days?" Mary asked a little hurt that for once she herself had been at a loss to what either had been doing.

"We both remembered that the emperor had said that he didn't have enough power to destroy a planet. We have been working on it these last two days. This," Rayburn said as he lifted the three foot long glowing pole, "is a stable generator redoubler. I'd say that with it all power on board should be multiplied. This modulator will allow the generator to produce twice the power at half the effort it would take to produce normal output."

Mary looked at the device her mouth was actually hanging open; this would solve many, many serious problems that the ships had as well as her own. With this she could withstand twice the amount of power used against her to breach her shields. "You both are certain that the magnetic fields the power producers emit won't interfere with its function?" Mary looked at the device lovingly if it worked as well as they both said this would be the first major piece of equipment the empire had in almost 300 years!

"That's why it took two days, at first the fields destabilised it every time we started. That took almost a day to fix; we both figure that the sect has nothing like this. If they did we would have seen it. Problem is any bigger than this and it destabilises on its own. The strange thing is, this has been able to handle the full output of Tempro's engines, generators, and reactors at the same time." Kimison told a startled Mary. "I'd really like to install it on the emperor's ship but we need a few more tests."

"If it does all that you say, even with all of Tempro's equipment going, then yes this is an instance where I do think that the emperor would love to be disturbed. Make those tests this will be monumental, more than

worthy of the old engineers and technicians. I will await your results and have a production line ready for them." Mary told both of them amazed that they had accomplished all they had in just two days.