The Essence Within Ch. 01

Chapter One

"God I'm bored." Jonathon thinks to himself. Looking around his room, he glances over his bed by the window and spy's his dresser. Walking over to the dresser he looks into the mirror. At 26, he's accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. He's helped to conquer the world for his father single handedly. At 5 feet 10 inches and skinny, he runs his hands through his short brown hair and notices a faint greenish glow to his emerald eyes.

"Interesting" he says to himself.

"What's interesting my lord?" his valet, Zack, says walking into the room.

"Nothing" Jonathon says curtly.

Zack bows at the waist, "The Emperor has sent for you my lord."

"Good, maybe he's found something to do. Get my cloak."

Zack carefully picks up the cloak and helps Jonathon put it on. The cloak is solid black with a hood that shields his eyes. When looking at him you can only see the faint glow of his eyes from under the hood. It's tied shut with a black cloth belt around his waist. Once Jonathon finishes adjusting the cloak, Zack hands him his sword and sheath.

"Must be important if I need this," Jonathon says grabbing the equipment.

"My lord, I was informed you were to be fully armed." replied Zack.

Walking through the halls of the palace, Jonathon heads towards the throne room. As he enters he sees his father sitting on the throne surrounded by 5 people, all trying to talk at the same time. They seemed pretty excited about something.

"Ah Jonathon, I'm glad to see you finally arrived." the Emperor says coldly.

On his throne you can feel the evil and ruthlessness oozing out of his pores. He stands about 6 feet 2 inches tall with blonde hair and black eyes. He's of medium build though no one not even the strongest man in the world would dare challenge him.

"You sent for me father?"

"Yes, I have an assignment for you. Have you heard of what happened to 'Chester'?" the Emperor states referring to one of the spaceships.

"What assignment and no I didn't." Jonathon said coolly.

"It was attacked and barely escaped," the Emperor stated somewhat excitedly.

"Really, I thought we were the most advanced in the galaxy?" Jonathon replies with instant curiosity.

"Obviously not, I want you to take the prototype ship 'Smudge' and acquire their technology, I want all of it. I don't care what it take just get the technology." the Emperor says barely containing the excitement in his voice.

"I'll pack and leave for the spaceport immediately." Jonathon says as he turns to leave surprised at the reaction from the Emperor.

"Don't bother; I had Zack take what you'd need to the ship while we were talking. Just head to the spaceport to leave, I don't want any time wasted."

"I'll head there now." Jonathon says slightly annoyed as he walks through the door. "Wow, must be really impressive if he had Zack do that but how does he know what all I want to take?" he thinks to himself getting more annoyed as he heads to the spaceport.

Smudge is the newest of the ships designed. The weapon, shield, and engine power is unmatched by ship of similar size. The ship is 22 feet long, 6 feet wide and 8 feet high. Jonathon knows of the ship and the stats it has. It hasn't been tested yet however, but promises to be a major jump in the strength of the human fleet once put into production. Jonathon thinks to himself that this must be extremely important if he wants me to take an untested ship. Regardless of how fast a tested ship is, Smudge, if working correctly is supposed to be 12 times faster than our current fastest ship while also fitted with a cloaking device.

Jonathon walks outside the palace and waves down an automated tram car to take him to the spaceport. While in the car he thinks about the aliens he's supposed to track down. "How the hell am I supposed to find an alien race? I don't even know where to begin." As he arrives at the spaceport he sees Zack and walks over to him.

"What all did you pack in the ship?" Jonathon asks Zack.

"I packed a laser blaster, combat field kit, medic kit, spare cloak, emergency rations..." Zack begins.

"Wait, you think I'm going to run into trouble?" Jonathon says as his eyes flash with anger.

"No my lord, I know you will be successful. But it doesn't hurt to be prepared for anything, just in case?" Zack asks clearly afraid.

"I suppose not, what else did you pack?" Jonathon said with a heavy sigh, clearly annoyed.

"A universal translator, in case you run into the aliens," Zack says then quickly adds "or any other race you might need to talk to." noticing the anger building in Jonathon.

"Enough, obviously I'm surrounded by idiots who doubt my skill." he said coldly.

"My lord I meant no disrespect, but was told to pack the ship with those items per the Emperor."

"Even he thinks I'll fail? God, what hell am I in for?" Jonathon snaps at Zack.

With that Zack turns and runs away glancing over his shoulder, having seen that level of anger in his lord before, and wanting no part in it. "Good riddance." Jonathon thinks to himself heading to the ship. As he enters from the rear of the ship he hits a button to close the hatch behind him.

"Computer, prepare for launch." Jonathon says out loud.

"Acknowledged, ship will be ready to launch in 90 seconds." a female voice answers from a speaker in the wall of the ship.

Heading towards the front of the ship he passes the bunk bed sleeping section of the ship. When he reaches the forward compartment, he takes a seat in one of the two seats located behind a bank of monitors and touchscreens. In front of him is a huge view screen showing the spaceport round the ship.

"Ship will be ready to launch in 15 seconds." the computer voice announces.

"Computer, what's the status of life support and the ships systems?" Jonathon asks.

"All systems are operating at peak efficiency. Life support at 100%, Shields currently offline for launch, weapons currently offline for launch, engines at 75% and building for launch."

"5 seconds until ready to launch, 4, 3, 2, 1, Ship is ready to launch."

"Control to Smudge, you are cleared to launch." an operator at launch control says through the speaker.

"Ha, I didn't even have to ask, computer, engage the sub-light engine at 25% power until 100 feet, then raise to 50% until clear of Earth's atmosphere"

"Acknowledged, we will be clear of the atmosphere in 30 seconds." the computer replies.

As the ground falls away from the ship, Jonathon is amazed at how quickly the ship is raising though the sky. Having never been in space before, he tries to hide his excitement at the prospect.

In the meantime, the Emperor watches the launch of Smudge and continues to watch until he can no longer see the ship. He has an evil grin on his face while thinking to himself "Finally I'll be able to complete my ultimate goal."

"Captain, do you have a course heading?" the computer inquires startling Jonathon out of his stupor.

"Might as well start at the site of the attack," he thinks to himself. "Computer, take us to the site of the attack on Chester maximum speed." he says.

"Acknowledged, we will arrive at the destination in 20 minutes." replies the computer.

Fifteen minutes later an alarm starts sounding in the ship startling Jonathon.