CHAPTER 89

0001 - Tempro

0003 - Conner

0097 - Ace

0101 - Shelby (mother ship)

0125 - Lars

0200 - Ellen

0403 - Johnathon

0667 - Marco

0778 - Jan

0798 - Celeste

0999 - Zan

1000 - Sherry

To Grow

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0301

0908

0098 (Lucy)

It had only been one day, just one day and he was already bored out of his mind. True he'd probably accomplished far more in that one day than any other but hell! When he'd sighed at the mountain of papers that Mary said he needed to sign he thought that it would move things a lot. After twenty-four hours he'd asked how long and Mary had responded only a week!

True they had only ninety years left now but Derrick felt as if he'd never catch up. Shaking his head and stretching Derrick got up to take a walk. Somehow he had to come up with a way to muddle through this faster. Smiling he was glad though, the week he'd just finished, a few things had been passed that he knew, and a few of the royals wouldn't be pleased with at all.

Derrick had just made it near the training room when he saw a body flying through the door. Thing was, the body righted itself and almost bounced back into the room off the wall. Nodding Derrick went in and took a seat behind the students that were watching. Greeson was attempting to stop everything that Dempsy was throwing at him. Derrick's mouth was hanging open as he watched or rather tried to watch the blurred motion of both men's hands.

Suddenly both men stopped and bowed to Derrick, who growled at both men drawing a smile from Dempsy. "Sire, I am reminded of something my old master once said. Something I had forgotten 'til recently. Destiny may be fickle like many people but she also is true to what her purpose is."

Derrick could only shake his head and stare at Dempsy. "You mean that she may appear to change her mind a lot but what she intended always happens?"

Dempsy's face lit up and a wide smile crossed his features. "Your Lordship is by far wiser than I had thought he was."

Derrick nodded as the two combatants went back to what they were doing. Derrick could see that Greeson was by far better than he had been. A moment later Greeson was flying through the air with part of Dempsy's shirt. A huge smile lit up Dempsy's face. Finally the man was starting to get fast! At least now if he went up against her he'd have more of a chance of surviving but not much.

Derrick sat there for a while longer then went out the back area into bay 1. There he saw one of the two ships that were growing. Shelby appeared next to him a moment later as he was walking. "Which one is...?" Derrick started.

"That is 0301 the new power matrix that you upgraded is supplying far more power to them than before. They still seem to be accelerating in their growth. When I put both of them into the matrix I never expected them to regenerate as fast as they are. We had gotten it down to six days; I'd say they should be ready in only five. Derrick, this is the fastest that a ship has ever been grown!" Shelby told him fresh tears of joy in her eyes.

Derrick stopped and turned toward Shelby, "For all that you have done for me, for the men that I used to command. I feel that this is nothing; they all deserve a chance to live again. My god Shelby I don't know how you could stand the emptiness, the solitude. I swear I would go mad."

"It's quite simple Derrick," she replied. "I had your namesake to thank for that. He told me that one day someone would come, he believed in the empire that strongly; almost as strongly as you do. I told him I would wait; we spent a lot of time together. He left me many recordings to let his voice keep me 'till such time as someone came. My dearest Derrick, I had spent so long alone, I so many times was close to giving up. When I heard your thoughts that day I thought I might be starting to lose my reasoning."

Derrick could see the renewed tears that were starting to fall anew. "I'm glad I actually listened. I thought it was only a dream 'til you appeared."

"Thank you again Derrick. Everything is finally starting to feel normal again. Mary has two of her children back, me, and one of my brothers. I have ten of my children back with another three on the way, including Lucy." This last was almost whispered with a sense of pride and...? Derrick had to wonder what he was hearing in Shelby's voice.

"Like I've told all of you time and again I feel more comfortable with you and the ships. You and them will and do always feel more alive to me than most of those biological beings I know." Shelby could only nod and the words seemed to be having a hard time coming. __________________________________________

Trianas cursed again for the tenth time when she saw the read out on her shoulder and arm. It was apparently going to take a day longer for the machine to heal her fully. Smiling a moment later she thought ah! Good! Now when I kill his little puppy of a student my revenge will taste that much sweeter!

Checking the bastard Emperor's itinerary she made sure before she set a course for the third of the Nobles that the asshole was going to visit. As she laid back to let the machine go into full healing mode the dream started. The same nightmare she always had, the worst day of her life.

Trianas had always had anger issues though the birth of her son had severely curtailed it. He'd been the one thing in her life that she felt was perfect. God only knew that idiot of a husband of hers brought her no joy at all. Nothing brought her joy except for Jonah. His smile and very presence always made her smile.

As soon as he could Jonah had entered the military like his father. Bored at home she'd started her martial arts training again with a vengeance. She can still see all the attempts her husband had tried to kill his half brother. Somehow he'd gotten their son involved in all the revenge. He'd wanted to wreck revenge upon all the men in his half brother's squad.

She'd tried to warn him that the commander of the men was far too smart for all his plans. Not listening, he and his son had cooked up a plan to eliminate all of them at once. The commander had somehow known how, she didn't know but he did. Being out of position her son had tried to draw them back to the strike zone. An air strike was called in by his father. No one in the squad had bitten at the bait, realising almost too late Jonah had managed to retreat most of the way out but was still caught at the edge of the blast.

An hour later Jonah had called in for a medic but he'd waited far too long. When they brought the teen in he was apologising to his father who was scowling at him. Trianas had appeared behind them and heard everything. Enraged, she watched her husband as he said it was a good thing the teen had died or he himself would have killed him for his failure.

Launching herself at Alexander, her enraged strength quickly overcame the man as she battered and beat him within an inch of his life. Moments later several armed men appeared and took the man into custody. Leaning close she whispered, "you are dead you son of a bitch! You killed our son with your idiot ideas and plans for revenge. After I kill that bastard Derrick O'Toma, I am coming for you. I just thought I'd give you a chance that our son never had. Get better. I want to savour it when I watch you die!" Then she walked away, a sly smile appearing on the man's battered face.

A year later she had finished pushing herself as hard as she could learning what Dempsy taught her. Thinking herself far better, she attacked Dempsy full on. Dempsy though had sensed that something had changed in her and had not taught her the final steps in many killing techniques. The battle lasted a full minute as she fell and she smiled, so her master wasn't a fool after all. Good, killing him would mean so much more later.

Several months later she went to the Taiolan sect having lost track of Derrick she had to increase her skills as no other master would take her. They had all said they saw far too much darkness in her, scoffing she had left searching 'til she found the sect. They had laughed at the small woman who gave them no sense of danger 'til she killed several of the more advanced members. The leader stepped forward and they both went at it for 2 minutes 'til the leader found a way in and knocked her out.

"I want her in training as fast as possible! Her technique is superb!" The leader said. A year later she was the sect's best assassin though unknown to them she was still searching for Derrick O'Toma. Another year and she grew bored and decided she wanted out. Telling the leader she was leaving, he'd reached for her and was just as suddenly laying on the ground gasping for breath.

"I told you," she growled, "I am leaving, I only have a single thing to do, and then I am gone. If you don't want to have to rebuild this sect, I suggest you leave me alone!" Walking out, she went to the training centre. Spotting her ex husband Alexander she walked to him. Attacking him she was pleased that for once the ass was taking something serious. A minute later Alexander was on the floor with her standing over him. Leaning down she whispered in his ear, "For now I won't kill you 'til after I kill that bastard Derrick O'Toma. Though if you do ever contact me, it had better be worth my time. It may slip my mind and I just might kill you anyway. As I said before, you are a dead man."

Alexander blinked and she was gone, a small smile crossed his face. 'No,' he thought, 'he'd kill that bastard O'Toma, not her, then she would have to kiss his ass!' Across the room the woman smiled also, so she thought it was going to be a race, so be it! Finally free of the sect she decided to set herself up in business, why not? Might as well make some money that way she'd keep in shape and still be on the lookout for O'Toma!

Becoming very successful, Trianas continued her quest to find O'Toma and her old teacher. What in the hell had happened except for the few that were dead now, the rest were gone. Her old master had vanished like smoke, O'Toma no one had seen in well over a year. Her ex-brother-in-law had vanished also. What was a girl to do when she had killing on her mind and none of the victims she wanted to torture to death? No wonder she was as frustrated as she was!

Now finally years later with the many she'd executed, the many she'd gutted, they were all out in the open once again. Smiling she would kill them all of them were all guilty, every last one of them. They would pay, oh how they would pay! This was her last thought as the sleep meds were finally kicking in a cold smile on her lips.