Lost Empire Ch. 70

Less than a moment later both men were standing before Hartwell, a look of confusion on their faces. Looking at Hartwell they immediately saluted.

Nodding Hartwell pointed toward the three females around an unconscious fourth. Lucie looked over to see her brother with the other two men. Rolling her eyes at her brother she stuck her tongue out at him.

Hartwell released a sigh, then turned back toward Shiloh and Grant. “I find that I cannot handle three let alone four of these females. I, therefore, need both of you to aide with the situation. I am afraid that we can’t go back ‘til the last one is conscious and cleared.”

This time it was Shiloh’s turn to roll his eyes. A broad smile came to his lips as he said, “I’m sorry sir. I had forgotten that you never really had time to date or pretty much anything else.”

Hartwell was nodding, “I found it distracting. I was far more worried about my family, both of them than I was going out or dating.”

Shiloh was nodding also, “That’s really a shame sir as it would have greatly improved your knowledge for this situation. Not all that much I can do for you, I can try to teach you though,” here Shiloh leaned in whispering. “I really don’t have that much time. I want to see my family soon.”

A startled look appeared on Hartwell’s face as he stared at Shiloh. “Seriously man, it takes that long to learn?” Hartwell asked a look of fear on his face.

“No, it takes far longer. I have been married for a few decades; I am still learning.” Shiloh replied.

This time the look of fear got more intense as Hartwell whispered. “Dear God, I’m doomed.”

Shiloh chuckled a bit, “we all are sir, we all are.”

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Not far past the wreckage of the Tendraxian fleet, the Delcrons were steadily advancing. Onboard the lead ship of the second part of the Delcronian fleet the Emperor was poring over records.

So far, all that he had found, was leading him to the conclusion that this was an enemy that had them outgunned. Just like so long ago, to go against them would be suicide. Something he wasn’t about to do.

He was already hearing grumbling from many of the fleet, many he’d had to go to the ships to quell. This empire was causing him a bigger headache than he thought it would.

Then there were the readings that his techs had gotten. A few moments before the ships slipped in the warp, they had read massive destructive capabilities from both ships. Capabilities that made it look like they had no shields. He had his techs working on improving this, that was why they were only moving at a quarter speed.

Well, that and he wanted to make sure that his daughter had the necessary time to prepare. They were using an experimental training device. He just hoped that it worked as the techs had said it would. A thin smile crossed his features as he thought about the death threats he’d made.

According to them, the virtual training she did when she slept, implanted all the information in her mind. It was just a matter of her body catching up. Therein laid the difficulty. Though, as much of a warrior his daughter was, it shouldn’t take that long.

Then there was the second machine they had developed; it helped her body to catch up far faster than normal. A heavy sigh escaped his lips. This was his only daughter, so he had promised an extremely painful, long death.

On his feet, he stretched out feeling the tightness flee his body. Walking to the practice room he looked in, shocked when he saw his daughter moving so fast he could hardly keep up with her. Then to his further amazement, right after she saw him in the doorway she seemed to disappear.

A huge smile passed over his features, good at this rate she should be far more than ready. Sitting in the room, he could feel her as she went around the room, her energy far stronger than he remembered it. Though the more he thought about it, the more he got worried. If the male was telling the truth, he was good, though there was one who taught him.

Yes he thought, there had to be others that were far better than the male to be able to teach him. He needed to gather as much information as he could.

Tapping his chin he thought for a few moments, then a few more. He had heard that the techs had developed small probes that could cross transwarp space. Though it would require a lot of energy he had to risk it.

“I need to talk to head tech Raun.” He called on his comm. A moment later a cat-like face appeared on the screen of his comm. “I wish to use the probes. I know the power constraints; we need the information.”

The cat-like face thumped its chest. “Yes Emperor Kandra, I have all three set up. I am afraid though, that this will be a one-way trip. All the experiments we have made have been very successful.”

“I want you to release them immediately.” Kandra stated.

Peering out the viewport and at the console in front of him, he smiled. A moment later a very small transwarp portal open with three trails leading into it then it was gone.

‘Good,’ he thought, ‘with these we should be far more ready when the time comes.’ Looking at the telemetry, he saw it was going to take hours to reach the Imperial world. Well, that is if the probes small transwarp engines lasted.

It was several hours later when a very small transwarp portal opened a million miles from the Imperial planet. They immediately started to transmit.

Less than a few moments later, several alarms were going off. Mary had detected the transwarp signatures, seen the portals close. What had set the alarms off was that she had lost whatever had exited the portals.

Onboard his ship, Emperor Kandra’s mouth was hanging open. By the power of the feline god! There were fifteen of them encircling the planet!

That’s when he noticed another ship twice the size of the others. Shaking his head he realized, there was no way they could ever hope to defeat this empire, not with that amount of firepower.