Lost Empire Ch. 20

Derrick had been smiling the whole time, "Well, you remember how bad Kimison was? With all the trouble he had when he got out. Then they sent him to that hell hole. We got him out and he, for better choice of words is a hell of a lot better. I think we can help you without much problem, Mary?"

A moment later the hologram of Mary appeared, "Yes Sire?"

"I need you to scan Rayburn here, tell me if his condition is curable." Derrick told the hologram.

Rayburn's mouth dropped open, "You ha...ha...have two of them? It's not possible. NO!!" Grabbing a nearby pipe Derrick had been using a few days before, he was soon advancing upon Derrick.

"Sergeant!" Derrick yelled at the man. For a moment the man looked as if he recognized Derrick then roared and started to advance again. Suddenly a stream of electricity hit the man whose face registered shock then he slumped to the deck.

"Really, your Lordship you have to stop putting yourself in these situations!" Mary told Derrick shaking her finger at him as if she would a child. "Sire it is extremely difficult to protect you if you are out here so much."

"Just scan Rayburn and see if we can repair the damage that was done by the war." Derrick advised her.

A small rectangular shaped light panel detached from the console. Emitting an eerie green beam that swept back and forth across the man's head. A few minutes later the light panel retreated, "I have finished Sire. It appears that this man has a high state of resistance to all that is affecting him. He is curable but it will take at least three treatments. I am sorry Sire, but his higher resistance requires that I go slower."

Derrick smiled, "As I told you with Kimison, Mary, there is no need to apologize, the simple fact that these men can be healed is in its self a small miracle."

"No Sire, no miracle just a science that seems to have been lost over the centuries that the empire has been laying dormant." Mary told Derrick watching him to gauge his reaction.

"We really need to bring the empire back to what it was Mary. We have to or everything that all the emperors worked for will be for nothing." Derrick said suddenly noticing that Mary was watching him as closely as she was. "What is wrong Mary?"

"You," Mary started, "embody all that the first emperor did. I am so very proud to be able to serve another man as great as he was Sire."

"Uh, thank you Mary but it is just how I feel, what I feel is right. This Empire survived for over eight hundred years only to be destroyed by petty greed and jealously. All the things I was taught to not be." Derrick told her as his mind drifted back to the past for a few minutes.

On board Tempro the short cropped blond hair, medium build man, with a smooth face was worried. So far none of the experiments had yielded any successes as of yet. He was pacing back and forth his mother Mary wasn't going to be happy he'd tried all 100,000 tissue samples that he had, nothing had worked. They had all failed each almost as horrible as the last, even terminating them as early as he had, still had caused a bit of instability with him.

Mary appeared a few moments later noticing immediately that her son Tempro was starting to experience a slight break down in his programming. Sighing she walked to him and embraced Tempro, "I am so sorry my son, I did not mean to cause you such pain. I know that the experiments all failed but I have gone over all the data and I think I am beginning to see a pattern."

Tempro was surprised then slowly melted into the embrace of Mary then the tears started. "I am so sorry mother that I have failed so much. A pattern mother?" Nodding Mary outlined what she'd seen from all the samples so far. Tempro also nodded finally seeing why they had started to fail.

Mary stood by watching as Tempro started again armed with the new knowledge. He had gotten twice as far before there was any sign of failure. Smiling this time he'd watched all the indicators and was actually starting to see where he needed to go. Smiling he thanked Mary it made things a whole lot easier when the body had no real consciousness or even the beginning of a personality. Smiling Mary figured now maybe they had a chance to succeed; unfortunately they would have to have Derrick or hmmmm maybe this new compatriot of the Emperor.

Shelby and Conner emerged near the moon of the Imperial world. Derrick was preparing to go back to the palace when Zan called.

"Yes Zan is everything alright?" Derrick said.

"Yes Sire, I thought you would like to know my wing mate is ready." Zan told Derrick excited.

"Very well, 1000?" Derrick asked of the newest addition to the fleet.

"Yes Sire," A young, slender, long straight brown haired teen appeared in front of Derrick bowing Low. She was of course stark naked, stifling the urge to smile (it was nice yes but he really had to talk to all the A.I.'s about appearing naked).

"I'm not sure if you were told of this but I insist that all the ship's A.I.'s go by the name that they were given." Derrick instructed the new hologram.

Still bowing the young teen nodded, "Yes Sire it will be so."

"So please what was the name that you were called." Derrick smiled pleased that this was going as well as it was.

Shyly at first the teen looked up smiling she stated, "I was named Sherry Sire."

Derrick's mouth dropped agape, holy crap he hadn't expected this!