 
THE WAR

and The Meant Empire:

Conquest

By Lee Crystal

Published By Lee Crystal

Copyright 2011 Lee Crystal

License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Author Note:

Everything is always subject to change. The Empire name "Meant" is one example.

Only first five chapters are in this sample.

They are all the chapters I have created a final draft of so far.

I would like any and all feedback on what I have so far.

Thank you.

"Evil triumphs when good men do nothing." -- Edmund Burke
The Discovery

Many years before the Empire

Lingering quietly out near the galactic core was a small, cylindrical deep space survey ship. The vessel bore the markings of the Estra Corporation, one of the larger companies that make up the trading worlds.

The trading worlds occupy the outer edges (away from the galactic core) of the Sagittaruis arm on the outskirts of known space. They are managed and controlled by a handful of galactic corporations that reside in those regions. These companies mine for the rarest of elements needed for space travel.

The two small main drives along the ship's sides and the secondary one at its rear were silent. The craft was adrift among the bright stars of the outer edge away from the core of the Norma spiral arm. Its enormous sensor array was slowly sweeping back and forth. It seemed to be scanning the heavens with some desperation.

"Damn, nothing!" Margo raged in anger as he pushed himself away from the ships scanner console.

As he gently drifted away, he glared intently at the scanner with his dark narrow eyes. He floated there for a few moments in his cramped command cabin. His long brown hair danced in zero g around his face. His stubbly facial hair covered his small weak chin. Margo's soft young face did not seem to match his frail physique.

He grabbed one of the hand rails near his head and pulled himself over to the piloting console at the front of the ship. After hopping into the pilot seat, he quickly buckled into it. He sat there for a while trying to control his anger. Savagely he gave the control panel in front of him a bang with his clinched fist.

Margo had been doing this job for a long time now. He had always hoped it would lead to large claims. The company was very generous and gave their survey scouts a small percentage of any claims they made for the company. He always imagined being rich many times over by now after finding several valuable stakes. Unfortunately, he had only managed to find a few, very small claims. Fortune had seemed to elude Margo his entire life.

"There should be something around here worth mining. I'm as close to the core as I dare go." Margo muttered out loud. "The x-rays emanating from the super black hole at the galactic core are starting to interfere with the ships scanner."

Margo often talked to himself when he was alone on a long survey. He found it comforting in some odd way. He felt he needed to hear a human voice even if it was his own.

After taking a quick look at the ship's tracking locater, he exclaimed, "Shit! I'm getting too close! I don't want to be fried to a crisp from all of this radiation."

Margo quickly typed a few commands into a keyboard and locked a course away from the galactic core into the ships computer.

"Time to blow this joint," he grumbled as he activated the ship's secondary drives.

The small engine in the ship's rear flared to life. Slowly it turned the ship out toward open space.

"Ok, now let's get the main sub-space drives on-line," Margo said with a flip of a switch.

The ship's two small main drives at each side of the ship came to life. They made a soft hum which only Margo could hear inside of his craft.

A nearby cloud of gas began to glow. Slowly it began to pulsate. At first it was very dim, and then it began to grow brighter.

Suddenly the lights in the ship started to flash erratically. The vessel's systems were going off-line one at a time.

"What in Hell's name?" Margo said with anger and surprise.

The old craft began to shake and shimmy. Margo calmly went over his controls, but they would no longer respond for him. The ship let out a loud moan. Some unknown force was causing stress on its hull. Margo thought it sounded as though the ship was screaming for its life.

The engines were now dead, but the ship was still moving. It pivoted back around, and started to head toward the center of the galaxy. A blinding bright yellow light consumed the ship. Margo desperately tried to recover control, but there was nothing he could do. All of the ships systems were down. The yellow illumination from outside the ship began to flood his cabin and surround him. Then everything went dark.

"Oh...," moaned Margo. "What in the Hell hit me?" he asked as he rubbed his head.

He found himself reaching for the controls yelling frantically, "Come on old girl! Don't let me down now!"

Margo was startled and froze when he looked out his forward view port. He saw what looked like a desert landscape. A soft white glow from the purple sky above lit the landscape before him, but he could not see where the source of light was coming from. The ship, Margo thought, must have soft landed on a dry barren world, but there were no signs of any impact damage to it.

Slowly he tried to get up from his seat to get a better look out, but something was holding him down. It was a thing he had not felt in a while. It was his old friend gravity. He unbuckled his seat belt and, with some effort, was finally able to pull himself up a little so he could get a better look.

There was a storm brewing on the distant horizon. The sand started to blow as the wind began to pick up.

Margo looked back down at his control console and he could see the ship had power again. With disappointment, he realized it was not nearly enough to get off the surface of this planet.

Margo was shocked when he checked his navigational locater. "What? According to this, I'm directly at the center of the galaxy. But how?" he asked himself puzzled. "I should have been vaporized long before I would have even been sucked into the Milky Way's super massive black hole. This isn't possible! No planet should or could exist here!"

It took Margo a few minutes to get accustomed to gravity again. He was able to get out of the pilot seat and creep over to a small side porthole window. Straining his muscles it took all the energy he had to look outside. He was still confronted with the same view of that impossible landscape before him.

Once again that strange yellow glow suddenly surrounded him. This time it didn't knock him out. He could feel something inside of him as if it were tugging at his very soul. Margo was frightened and yet oddly calm.

These feelings suddenly turned into physical action.

Margo found a sudden strength rejuvenate his body. He now stood tall and erect. He found himself walking briskly over to the ship's main hatch. He then reached for the hatch controls.

"What's going on?" He was trying with all his will to stop himself from opening the air lock.

Just when he felt he had started to regain control and lower his hand there was yet another tug. His hand reached up and hit the control panel. Both of the double doors slid open. Margo could now smell the strange odors of this new alien world.

He knew he had made no test to see if the atmosphere was breathable. However, it was too late now to matter. Somehow deep inside he knew it would be alright.

He was once again in control of his body. He was feeling wonderful and strong. It was almost intoxicating.

He stepped down and out onto the dusty planet's surface. The wind and sand blew across his face. The storm in the distance was building and heading towards him.

In the distance, Margo could just make out a small hill. Then, as if on cue, a bright yellow glow suddenly exploded from the top of the hill.

The light gently started to pulsate after he started to walk towards the hill. Something was pulling him to it. The yellow glow then began to grow brighter. Margo's fear was draining away. It was replaced by a feeling of numbness throughout his body.

As he got closer, he could see what looked like a marble pillar about two meters tall. On top was what seemed to be a small black pillow. The blinding pulsating light was coming from an object on the pillow.

Once Margo drew closer, the light dimmed to reveal a Crystal.

Margo was now standing only a few meters away from it. He could see the Crystal was only a mere third of a meter long. Its sides were hexagonal with a point at one end. Even though it looked clear, it still continued to radiate a yellow glow.

Under Margo's feet, at the base of the pillar, was a large metallic tablet. Strange unfamiliar symbols were etched into it. He stared down at it trying to understand its meaning.

With a bright yellow flash, the text suddenly became readable to Margo.

"Hum, I wonder..." Margo said as he looked up at the Crystal. He stared at it for a moment and rubbed his small chin. Then he calmly reached for it and grabbed it tightly in his fist.

The Crystal stopped pulsating and began to brighten. Margo felt a strong tingle all over his body. The once soft yellow glow brightened into a large blinding ball of light.

When the light faded, Margo, the Crystal, and even his ship were gone.

The sandstorm was raging fiercely now. The impressions in the sand left behind by Margo's footprints and his ship were being shifted away by the winds. The sands blew over the pillar and its empty black pillow, covering the tablet below.
Chapter I

Interlude 1

Many Years Later

A large dark gray Deveron battleship slowly trudged its way through the vacuum of space. It was patrolling somewhere between the Terron and Deveron kingdoms in the Orion Arm. The ship was just outside of Deveron space but well within its new, recently claimed territories.

The huge sub-space engines mounted to each side of the ship where quiet. Only a large ion drive in the ship's stern was propelling it forward. Several large silver laser cannons were mounted along its main deck. They glistened from the light of a nearby sun. The port holes along the hull of the ship gave off a soft cold glow while a warmly lit heavy tower rose far above the main deck. At the top of this tower was the brain of the ship, the bridge.

The circular bridge was a hum of activity. The ship's Captain sat in a large chair at its center. Red uniformed men manned the computer consoles and control panels that surrounded him. Slowly the Captain swiveled around in his seat. He was keeping an eye on everything his crew was doing as they ran his ship.

At the bow was a large elliptical window with a view out into space. Below that was a small flat view screen. The main piloting console was placed just behind this and in front of the Captain. All of the ships navigation is controlled from here. A pilot was at this post, preoccupied with maintaining the battleships course and speed.

The Captain stopped turning and gazed out the window. Dim and distant stars were all that he could see. He then looked at the small screen below it. The screen displayed a tactical read out of where the ship was in space and everything around it. Nothing had changed on the screen since the Captain last looked at it only minutes ago. So he leaned back in his seat, took a stretch, and a long relaxing yawn.

"God what a bore," said Captain Neval Marn. His voice was as old and scratchy as his well-worn looks and slightly faded red uniform. Neval was an old, short, stout dark-toned man who was still full of zest. He had been in the Deveron military most of his life and that was the only life he knew. It took him most of that time to finally get his own command.

"Nothing ever happens in our control zone. I'd rather be patrolling near the Meant border defending our trade ships from those thieving pirates," he said as a slight grin curled his lips. "We might even be able to get into a good fight with one of those Meant warships."

"Dream on old man," mocked a voice from behind him.

The Captain quickly spun around towards the elevator to face the person responsible for the remark. Neval looked up to see a tall, thin man with soft golden skin and oriental features step out of the elevator onto the bridge. He looked very sharp in his crisp red uniform. His handsome looks and short soft curly hair would make any man envious. Neval, on the other hand, never thought much of his young arrogant first officer.

"Oh, so you are openly calling me an old man now, aye Anvo?" Captain Marn said in a deep growl as he looked up at the young man.

"Yes sir, and if you remember it's for that very reason you'll be forced to retire in just a few more years," Anvo said with a smirk.

With rage the Captain yelled, "Anvo, you son of a bitch!"

Suddenly the bridge crew fell silent.

"How did you know my mother was a bitch, sir?" Anvo replied casually.

"Damn you, Anvo, don't you ever get mad, even at an enlisted man?" Neval shouted trying once more to find any weakness he could in his first officer.

"No sir, I find it useless," he said with an emotionless straight face.

The Captain rubbed his hands together in anger. With a red face he said, "You're just waiting for command of my ship, the Uhola, aren't you? It would be quite an accomplishment for you to gain command of one of the best battleships in the Deveron Space Forces at such a young age." After a pause Marn continued, "I bet you can just smell it and yet you just stand there, so passive about it all. How is that?" the Captain narrowed his eyes on Anvo for a response.

"I've been waiting for over six years now sir. I can wait a few more," the first officer said with a grin.

The Captain slowly got up out of his chair. Then raising his right fist, he bellowed. "Anvo, I've been aiming to do this for a long time."

The first officer's grin quickly disappeared.

Suddenly the sensor alarm blared to life with its incessant howling.

The pilot exclaimed, "Sir! The ship's sensors have detected three Ocitegon Trading vessels heading for the Meant Empire. Telemetry is now on the tactical screen."

The Captain spun around to look at the screen. In a three dimensional representation he saw three small ships moving across the screen.

"Are they in Deveron-controlled space?" the Captain questioned as he lowered his fist.

"Yes, they are sir," said the tactical officer as he looked over his screens at his station. He then added, "They're two thousand kilometers away and starting to move out of sensor range."

The three ships on the screen were slowing moving away and getting smaller.

"Then that makes them fair game," the Captain said as he jumped back into his seat and swiveled it back towards the tactical screen. "I think it's time to give the Meants a little payback and take from them for a change. Prepare for attack. Arm the main laser cannons. Ready the magnetic grapplers to capture cargo containers.

Neval began tapped the arm of his chair with his fingers in anticipation eagerly smiling. It had been a long time since he'd last seen any action.

Anvo, without any further sign of emotion, slowly walked away to man his post.

Neval Marn forgot about his frustrating first officer, at least for the moment.
Chapter I

The Emperor

The Meant Empire seemed to come out of nowhere. For a long time it was simply known as the kingdom of Meant. It appeared to be just as docile as its neighboring kingdoms in the outer rim. The Meant Kingdom was one of five small kingdoms that occupied the tail of the Perseus arm and parts of the Cygnus arm in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Not long after the Meant kingdom started to call itself an Empire, it seized political control of three of its four neighboring kingdoms. These kingdoms were Nane, Belma and Lena. In only a few years, each of these kingdoms where swallowed up by the Meant Empire. They became three of the four providences of the Empire. The remaining kingdom known as Omal, did not allow itself to fall under the Meant's influence and still remains an independent kingdom.

During this great expanse the Meant Empire also laid claim to vast areas of unoccupied space. Their new extended borders now meet up to the remaining free kingdoms of Terron, Deveron, Lenard and, of course, Omal. For the last few years, this has kept the tensions high between the Empire and all it neighbors. In response, some of these kingdoms have made counter claims to territories beyond their borders too. In a number of cases, they and the Empire have claims on some of the same star systems.

The Planet Lail, once merely the ruling world of the kingdom of Meant, is the capital planet and nerve center of the ever growing and powerful galactic Empire. This blue green planet is the largest of four worlds in its solar system and is the only one that can support life. Its diameter is just a mere seven thousand kilometers and it is dwarfed in comparison to its huge red giant sun for which it is named.

Lail is now known for having the largest capital city in the known universe. This one hundred kilometers circular city is called Menar. It was built at the equator of the planet to take advantage the warmer climate. Strategically placed in the heart of this city is the Imperial Palace and on top of it is the Imperial control tower. This large silver shaft stretches for almost two miles above the city and stands like a giant needle pointing up into the pale orange sky.

The red sun was now starting to set in the east. The tower sparkled in the light of dusk. Another night was falling on the capital. However, very few in the tower were thinking about taking a nightly rest.

The Royal Imperial throne room looked like a huge bridge in some ominous spacecraft. Its floor was littered with control consoles and work stations. They were even embedded all along the curved walls, except for one large section, that was taken up by a huge view screen. Emblazoned on it was the emblem of the Imperial seal, a dragon's head overlaying a field of stars with a Meant warship traveling through them. The ship was just within eye shot of the dragon's angry gaze.

The Emperor's large command staff, including a few robots, filled the room. All of them even the robots were dressed in the pale colored uniform of the Empire. Most of them were placed at the many control consoles and work stations in the room. Others were busily going from station to station, relaying orders and exchanging needed information.

At the center of the room was a round stage surrounded by rows of ascending steps well above the room's main floor. On that level, seated in a large blue throne, was the Emperor. His long hair flowed down the left side of his face, covering his left eye. It was long enough to wrap around his neck and looked like a lion's mane. On top of his head he wore a bright red cap. It gave him such a regal appearance.

He sat there staring off into the distance. Three enormous well armed guards, also dressed in red, surrounded him. They were keeping a watchful eye as they protected their ruler.

From the midst of all the commotion in the room a small thin blue skinned person made his way towards the Emperor. He appeared to be waving something in his hand.

In a blink of an eye, the Emperor's guards sprang to life and grabbed the little blue person.

One of the guards grabbed the thing from their captive's hand.

"It's a message, Sire," said the blue person very slowly while looking down at the floor.

After a few moments the Emperor finally snapped out of his blank stare.

"What?" the Emperor said standing up and grabbing the note. Before he even began to read it, he muttered. "Oh, let the poor little bastard go."

After the guards let go the blue person fell to the floor, hitting his head on the bottom step. Slowly he got to his feet and stumbled off holding his head.

The tall muscular Emperor stood reading the message while rubbing the long scare on his small chin. Once he finished, his face turned a dark red.

While crushing the note in his hand, he yelled, "Neva!"

Suddenly from nowhere a tall, fair haired plump man quickly made his way over to the Emperor. He wheezed from the strain of his jog, and his normally warm pink cheeks were bright red. He was dressed in a blue cape with gold trim. This symbolized his rank of First Admiral. Neva was the Emperor's right hand man. At least that was what Neva thought and bragged.

He bowed before the Emperor. His weak back cracked from the strain.

The Emperor tossed the crumpled note to the floor and stared red-faced at him.

"Um...," Neva paused. "Sir, since the First Fleet is about to claim a system in Terron space is it from them?"

There was no reply, only a cold glare. Neva pondered a moment before he asked the next possible reason for the Emperor's anger. "Are the Terrons giving us trouble?" He asked as delicately as possible hoping to avoid the Emperors rage.

"What?" the Emperor shouted.

He sat back in his chair and tried to control his rage. His face slowly returned to its normal golden tone. Then he started to laugh.

Neva and the guards looked at each other puzzled.

Then, just as quickly as the Emperor started to laugh, he stopped.

"Those damn Terrons couldn't defend a mouse from a toothless cat," he said as he started laughing again.

"Then what, if I may ask, is it?" Neva inquired.

"Oh, ha, ha, of course," said the Emperor after he ceased his second round of laughter. "It's the Ocitegon traders."

"Do they want to renegotiate our latest deal? I suppose they want even more agricultural goods in trade for the raw ores we use to build our fleets and the Boriam needed to power them," Neva speculated.

"Ha, soon we won't be paying anything for those goods Neva. Once my plans have been completed we will just take what we need. However, that is not which has stirred my anger."

"Very well Sire, then what is the problem?" Neva asked.

"It's those damn Deverons. They've raided another group of the Ocitegon trading ships bound for the Empire. Prepare a fleet to patrol the trading routes. The Deverons seem to think they own the trading route near their territory now. I want those supplies to get through. Is that clear?" ordered the Emperor.

"Uh..., why yes sir, I'll do it right away!" the First Admiral said hurrying over to his command station nearby. Once there, between his wheezes, he barked out orders.

The Emperor turned to look at the huge view screen. The image on the screen faded and a view from space replaced it. It showed a fleet of Meant ships in orbit above the small blue-green world of Lail.

Neva turned to face the Emperor. The usually noisy command center was now silent as they all waited.

"They signal 'Ready' Sire. Hyper-subspace channels are open. The Sixth fleet awaits your command," Neva said.

The Emperor sat calmly for a moment, and then suddenly yelled, "Launch the fleet!"

On the screen they could see all of the ships engines flicker to life at the same time. Slowly the huge ships trudged out of orbit and headed into open space.

"They report 'All go, course set, ready for sub-space jump now', sir," Neva reported.

"Get those scum! Jump!" he bellowed at the view screen.

"Fleet Commander Uiop has acknowledged, Sire." Neva said looking at his console read outs, and then looked up at the wall screen.

Suddenly the fleet disappeared in a dim flash. The view screen only showed the planet Lail and a few nearby stars. The image then faded and the Imperial Seal once again popped back in its place on the screen. The large room came back to life. The noise of the busy command staff filled the room once more.

The Emperor swiveled around and looked at Neva with his stone cold eye. "Neva!" he beckoned for the First Admiral.

Quickly Neva went over to the Emperor and noticed that he appeared tired. Then suddenly the Emperor's skin took on a soft yellowish glow. After a few moments the Emperor once again looked refreshed and strong again. Neva had seen this happen many times before since he swore his allegiance to his Emperor and the Empire.

Neva then replied to the Emperor, "Yes, oh great Emperor Margo, what is it that you wish?"

Slowly Margo said, "I want to talk to the Fleet Commander."

"Sire, of course you know that isn't possible. The Sixth fleet is now in sub-space. There is no way I can contact..."

"No, damn it, Neva!" Emperor Margo shouted over Neva's jabbering.

Immediately the First Admiral shut up and bowed before him.

"I wish to contact the First Fleet, Neva. They are at an assigned post at the moment. Get me its Fleet Commander, now!"

"Yes sir, right away!" Neva replied. With a small crack, he carefully stood up and then quickly moved to his console. Once there he gave out more orders. The screen went dark. Silence took over the room once again.

"I have established contact with the Flagship Nikiala. First Fleet Commander Yet is now available and responding. The channel is open, Sire," Neva said to the Emperor.

Margo turned to the screen and saw the face of an old, white bearded man. He had a long scar that stretched across his forehead.

A crackly voice came from the screen. "Yes, oh great Emperor, what do you wish of me?" It could have been a bad Hyper-subspace transmission or maybe it was just Yet's voice cracking on its own.

"Yet, the plan has changed. I grow tired of waiting. Instead of waiting two more galactic days, I want you to attack now!" the Emperor bellowed.

"But Sire, the time frame of the plan will be..."

"No arguments Yet, that is an order! Am I clear?"

"As you command Sire," cracked Yet's voiced. He bowed and quickly faded off screen. Once more the dragons head reappeared onto the wall screen and the noise of the busy command staff returned.

Leaving his station, Neva approached the Emperor bowing and then asked. "Will that be all, Sire?"

"Yes Neva, for the present." Emperor Margo said with a grin. "The Terrons and Deverons will soon know my power as will the rest of the galaxy."

Margo began laughing once more. Neva quickly returned to his post as the laughter echoed loudly above the noisy Throne Room.
Chapter II

Interlude 2

Planet Oma, is one of sixteen planets of the yellow star Tern system in the Terron kingdom. This large blue-green planet was the only one in this system to be blessed with life. It was colonized by mankind over two hundred years ago. With its rich soil and high carbon dioxide levels, Oma became a rich agricultural world. The descendants of the original settlers have long-ago adapted to the high carbon dioxide levels. However, visitors can find breathing difficult and are advised to bring breathing aids with them while they are on the surface.

The large capital city of Wue was established not long after colonization to control the many spaceports and commercial ventures of the planet. A large police and customs force was created to regulate all of this activity. The city is now one of the top twenty most populated cities in the known universe.

The Empire has had its greedy eyes on this planet for a long time. With its fertile agriculture, large population, and numerous spaceports Oma is a valuable hub of commerce and trade for all of humanity. Recently the Empire made claims to almost 100 square light years of the Terron space surrounding the Tern system along the kingdoms border. They know what a valuable prize this would be.

A few citizens took the threat seriously and quickly left Oma. The rest believe that the Empire would never actually take and occupy any of the Terron territory they where claiming. Most of the Oma people felt safe with the deterrent of being a member planet of the Terron Kingdom. However, there real faith lay with the Kingdoms four space fleets more than anything else.

Then there were a few that knew something might happen. They were unsure what they should or could do when it did. They had no idea what part they were going to play in the events yet to come.

~

The morning sun filled the small bedroom through a large window. Upon a large bed a beautiful woman, with soft creamy white skin, laid asleep half covered by a bed sheet. Her long blond curls sparkled in the light of the coming day. Her subtle curves and plump hips shimmered from the rays of the warm yellow sun.

Slowly a tall, handsome young man walked into the room. His dark black hair was a striking contrast to his soft, warm golden brown skin. He was only partially dressed in a gray uniform and seemed engrossed in searching for something.

Walking over to the woman who was sleeping soundly, he reached out and touched her gently on the thigh.

"Hu.....what?" was all she was able to murmur.

"Mary, where's my tie?" he asked.

Still half asleep she muttered, "Um...," then she rolled under the covers.

Quickly the man pulled the covers off of her. Her lovely figure lay there naked to the sun. The light glistened off her bare skin causing it to glow ever so slightly.

"Oh honey, get up please." he begged.

"Alright dear," she mumbled with one eye open. Slowly she sat up in the bed. "Now what's the problem, hon?"

"Um....," he was saying looking down at her with shame, "I can't find my tie, dear. You know its part of my uniform. Without it..."

"Oh you men are all alike. I guess I'll always be more of a mother to you then a wife." she said letting out a big yawn. "When you lose something it's always, hey where's this, where's that, never any time for rest."

"Well after last night I'm surprised that I'm able to get you up at all. It was quite late when you finally went to sleep." he said, finishing with a long grin.

"Since you'll be gone for four months, I thought I'd get it while I could." she replied, smiling blissfully.

As he wandered into the bathroom still searching, he said, "Being the first officer of the Leaken is not as easy a job as you might think. Most of it is filling out regulation forms, having the cargo go through medical contaminate scans. If anyone leaves the ship, even just to take a breath of fresh air, you've got to have them go through the scans too. Transporting goods requires a lot of work, but to be able to see so many different places is worth it."

"Oh John, what's so great about the Leaken? It's just an old rust bucket." Mary pouted.

"Now Mary, it's my job, and I'm rather good at it. At least I'm not in the police services or the Terron military." he said returning to the bedroom.

He started to frantically search one of the dresser drawers by the bed. Looking over at him Mary said, "Thank God for that. But I'm still afraid that you'll be in danger out there."

"Mary, the Leaken is an unarmed merchant vessel. Who would bother us?" John said as he combed the bottom of the drawer.

"Still, there is the Empire. Remember them? They seem to be very interested in Oma as of late." Mary explained.

"You would know a lot more about that I guess since you're the native; I just came here all those years ago for a job." John said as he started tossing things out of the drawer.

John then said, as if he just forgot what they were taking about, "Dear, do you know where my tie is?"

"Huh? If you cared as much about me as you do that damn tie, I'd be..."

"The happiest woman in the Galaxy, I know, I know." John interrupted, remembering her same old line.

Mary smirked at John as he laughed at her for a few seconds before returning to his search. He closed the drawer he was looking in and opened another. He quickly turned the neatly stacked items in the drawer into a disheveled heap.

Mary let out a deep sigh knowing this was just another one of John's messes she would have to clean up just like always. There was no point doing anything until after he was done. Otherwise he would assume anything she just straightened up was something he hadn't gone through yet.

Mary looked at the floor for a moment then with some reluctance she asked, "You won't forget to..."

"I won't Mary." John interrupted looking up at her. "Like always I'll take some of my free time to do some looking on the galactic Hyper-subspace network when I'm on the ship and see if I can find her again."

"I just wish I had the same access on the Home Network System" Mary said pointing at a desk in the corner with a computer terminal on it. "It's not good for more than simple data retrieval, video mail, and game playing."

"Well, it's a perk for me on the ship. The company pays good money for the access the ship gets. It can come in handy when we are in systems or on planets we've not been around before. Even though its not designed for looking for a person I've still had a few good leads using it. I'm sure I can find her again," John said with a smile.

"I just don't understand her. Ever since Mom and Dad died she's gone wild. I don't mind her spending all of her inheritance, but why run off all the time and not tell me where she is? " Mary pondered.

"Maybe she's just confused and feels like she needs to find herself. You know she really took it hard when you both lost your folks." John replied as he started to rummage through the last drawer.

"If not for you I might not have done so well myself." Mary said as her eyes started to well up.

John looked over and saw a tear gently roll down her cheek. "Ah Mary," he moaned closing the dresser drawer.

He walked over to the bed and sat down beside her. He tried to comfort her by caressing her shoulders. John softly wiped her tears away. They embraced and quietly kissed.

Slowly, John broke away from the embrace. He walked over to the closet and began looking for his elusive tie again, leaving Mary frozen with delight.

Once she realized John was no longer there she asked seductively, "John, why don't you take me with you this time? I could do the network query while you are working."

From inside the closet, John replied, "Now you know corporate policy about having unauthorized personnel on board."

A few moments later he exclaimed "Ah Ha!" He then exited the closet triumphantly with his long thin dull gray tie. He quickly started to tie it around his neck and headed for the mirror in the bathroom.

"I bet you let other women on board. Probably get those pink whores from Unta II, because they've got three tits," Mary said angrily, with an evil impish smirk.

John came back into the room. He then sat down on the bed and put on his gray socks and shoes and said "Nope, there's only one girl there."

"Ah ha, I thought so!" Mary said folding her arms together, frowning.

"Yeah, it's the Leaken herself," he laughed.

"Why, you...," Mary blurted out as she grabbed a pillow and started hitting John with it.

In turn John grabbed one and started fighting back. Quickly they both found themselves romping all over the bed. Then, as they both grew tired, they once more were in each others arms. They laid there in bed kissing and caressing each other ever so softly with the warm sun on them.

Then suddenly out of nowhere a loud ear-splitting whine filled the room. They both jumped up off the bed. John ran to the window. Mary quickly grabbed the bed sheet and wrapped it around her. He opened the window and the loud noise increased in pitch. Mary joined her husband at the window.

Through the window, as far as the eye could see, were tall elongated cone-shaped buildings that made up most of the city. Far below them were crowds of people who had stopped in the streets. Even those in transport vehicles stopped and climbed out of them. Everyone was gazing up at one of the tall Civil Service speaker towers nearest to them. Normally, these are only used in case of an emergency. Since they were being used now, everyone realized there must be something very important for them to hear.

The whine finally stopped and the whole city fell silent. This was the first time the towers have been activated for a long time. In the past they had only been used to warn of extremely bad weather, but today there wasn't a cloud in the sky. This made many of the people begin to fear the worst.

A loud human voice from the towers broke the silence.

"This is Chief Civil Service Officer Uona. I regret to inform you that there is a Meant warship fleet now approaching Oma. I have advised the Governor of the Planet that our police and Civil forces are no match against the coming invaders. Level One personnel are advised to leave at once."

A cold loud click ended the message. It echoed throughout the city. The silent people below were now a screaming mob. They scattered up and down the street. Those with ground transport quickly jumped into them and quickly speed away. Most of them headed for the spaceports with just what they had with them. In the distance, a large police craft lumbered up into the sky. Obviously it was carrying important officials to safety. John and Mary stared at each other in terror.

"Oh my god Mary! We can make it to the Leaken. She should be all ready to launch. I just hope they'll let us both on board." John feverishly moaned.

"John, what if they don't!" Mary cried, "I'm not going to face the Empire alone."

"Don't worry dear. I'm not going to leave you. I'll get you on board somehow!" he said and then kissed her. "We better grab what we can and get the hell out of here. That is unless you want to stay and become a citizen of the Empire," John said with a half-hearted grin.

"You are full of it!" Mary remarked as she ran to the closet and pulled out a dress.

They stayed just long enough for Mary to dress and throw a few things in a bag.

~

With a bright flash, the seven ships of the Meant's First Fleet appeared near the planet Oma.

At the lead of the fleet was the Empire's pride and joy, the Nikiala. The flagship of the First Fleet was one of the first in the Super Battleship class. She was almost three times larger than any other space warship ever built and the most powerful ever created by mankind.. Her white metallic finish softly glowed in the Tern system's sun. Huge laser guns were neatly lined up around and along the top and bottom decks of the ship.

Deep inside the ship the half circle two level bridge of this vessel was calmly quite. Along the curved section of the bottom level was a line of command and control consoles. Three access doors to this level of the bridge was the only thing at the rear wall.

Silent at these posts were white uniformed officers. They were staring up at an old white bearded man who stood near the edge of the balcony like second level. With his arms folded he gazed at the bridge's large two story view screen on the curved wall.

Behind the old man was his large white command console and chair. The seat was almost as big as the Emperors' throne. Behind that more of his white clad bridge crew watched him intensely. They were stationed at yet another row of control banks on the rear of the second level, separated only by one access doorway.

He stepped up to the edge of the curved short second level and grabbed the railing. He gazed at the image of the Planet Oma on the screen before him.

Slowly he made his way over to one of the two stairways the connected the two levels. Carefully he walked down the steps while still staring at the image of Oma as it steadily grew larger on the screen.

Once at the bottom level he stopped. The crew watched him with anticipation.

He wiped the sweat from his scared forehead then folded his arms again.

After a few more intense moments The Admiral ordered with his voice cracking. "Arm all weapon systems!"

The bridge crew quickly went to work getting the ship's powerful arsenal ready. The ships main power was diverted from the sub-space drives to the ship's weapons. The Flagship's large laser cannons gradually glowed to life with power.

After a few minutes the Nikiala's helmsman barked, "All systems armed, manned, and ready sir,"

"Bring the fleet into battle formation! Once established set course for a high Oma Orbit at half speed." ordered Yet.

The helmsman entered the command into his computer console. Another officer on the bridge communicated Yet's orders to the fleet.

In response the fleet efficiently moved into echelon formation. Using their thrusters they maneuvered themselves behind the Flagship, three above, and three below.

Once they were in position all of the large vessel's ion drives flared to life. They all began to move menacingly towards the bright blue-green world of Oma.

~

All the planets spaceports were flooded with millions of people trying to get on board any space-worthy vessel that they could find. Everyone and what they had with them, including a few animals, were jamming themselves into every available craft.

The police forces seemed to have just disappeared. Some of them, the so-called important personnel, had already fled the planet. The rest were taking the best fighting police ships up into orbit to join the Oma Civil Defense Forces. Although the ships were small and poorly armed, they made themselves ready to repel the Meant fleet.

The citizens that remained in the cities believed that the Empire could be stopped. Some were even arrogant enough and laughed at their neighbors as they fled.

Looting and fires were becoming wide spread all over the planet. Even if the Empire was repelled, there might not be much left to come back to.

It was hard to make out where the ships were in the swarms of people flooding the Wue spaceport. The Leaken was a large private merchant cargo vessel. It was only one of the many ships in the spaceport that had been preparing to launch before the Empire's fleet arrived.

Upon hearing of the coming invasion, the ship's cargo was dumped and people were allowed on board. The ship quickly filled, but the remaining people on the outside pounded on the hull demanding to be let in. The ships particle defense field became her only defense from the masses. The only remaining way to enter the ship and get through the shield was up an extended ramp through one small door along the side of the ship's hull. Wearing the ships standard plain gray uniform an armed crewman was holding back the flood of people. He was short, stout, and ready for anything. If brute force didn't work, a stun blast from his laser pistol surely would.

A man and woman pushed their way through the noisy crowds. Finally they got to the bottom of the ramp. The couple managed to wiggle through the blockade of people onto the ramp. The man then started to walk up the ramp with the woman clinging to his side.

The armed man jumped out in front of them and pointed his laser pistol at them.

"Get off this ramp. We're already full! No more passengers!" he yelled.

"It's me Mark, your First Officer, John Marret!"

"Oh, I'm sorry sir," the armed man stammered after taking a good look at John. "We've been waiting for you! Hurry on board! The Captain has been worried about you!"

"Great," John replied as he and his wife ran on up the ramp.

Mark lowered his weapon to let the couple past him so they could enter the ship's hatchway. The mob saw their chance and started rushing up the ramp. Mark quickly aimed his pistol back at them, slowly they backed away.

John and Mary were now walking down a quiet and dark narrow corridor away from the hatch. Only a strip of light along the top of the corridor provided any light. The flood of noise from outside was replaced by the soft warm purr of the ship. They were finally able to breathe a quick sigh of relief. From out of the blackness, a tall skinny man appeared. John quickly gave him a salute as soon as he saw him.

The skinny man was middle aged, but seemed in excellent physical shape. Even though he was slim, his well-formed physique could match John's. The dismal gray of his uniform was highlighted by the shiny gold command insignia on his shoulders.

"Reporting in, Captain!" John snapped.

With a side glance from the Captain towards Mary, John quickly introduced her. "Umm...this is my wife Mary." Now fumbling with his words, he added, "Since things are...."

"We saved the last seat just for her.", interrupted the Captain. "All the crew members' families are on board. We had lots of room after we dumped the cargo. We took on as many people as we could. However, I couldn't leave you behind John. Come on, I'll need you for launch."

"Umm yeah," turning towards Mary, John said, "You'll have to go to the cargo hold dear. We can't let you on the bridge. Besides it's much safer back there."

"You think they'll attack us?" Mary asked.

"Who can say?" the Captain replied.

A loud thud echoed down the corridor. Mark ran up to the Captain. "Sir, the hatch is secured," Mark panted. "They made a break at me once they knew I was coming inside. Had the first bolt locked before I heard them pounding at the door."

"Good!" said the Captain. Then pointing at Mary he said. "Mark, please escort Mrs. Marret to the cargo hold to join the other passengers."

"Right this way madam." Mark said to Mary pointing down another corridor. Mary didn't move. Then Mark tried to explain to her, "I'm sorry about earlier, but if you only knew how many people I had to fight off. Well I guess I sure shot my first impression with you." He then smiled at her.

Mary looked up at John.

"Yes, honey, really he's not a bad guy, as long as he's been fed." John chuckled.

After a quick kiss on John's cheek, Mary followed Mark half heartily to the hold.

"Come on John, we've got work to do," the Captain said as he walked towards the bridge.

John watched Mark and Mary until they turned the corner. He turned to find the Captain was already half way up the corridor.

"Uh, yes Captain Keel, I'm coming sir." John said as he jogged towards him.

Slowly the large cargo ship lifted off the ground leaving an ocean of people that had surrounded it. The Leaken followed a long convoy of ships up into the sky. When the planet was far below the stars became visible. Just as they left orbit they could see a small battle had begun.

The planet's police and Civil Defense Forces were attacking the approaching Meant fleet. The powerful Meant warships easily vaporized the small police crafts. With their powerful weapons and defense screens, the Meants were easily able to destroy the entire Oma defense force.

The Meant's First Fleet entered orbit and quickly made their demands to those that were left in authority on the planet. Thousands of ships were still fleeing the planet. The Meant fleet made no effort to stop them. They were only interested in the planet below.

The Empires demands were refused. The remaining Omian administrative body claimed their sovereign rights as members of the Terron kingdom. At that moment their pride was still far more important to them.

In turn, the Meant fleet fired a barrage on the capital city of Wue. It was not long before the fleet received another message from the planet. The survivors from the bombardment who were still in authority quickly surrendered to the Empire.

Oma was theirs!
Chapter II

The Council

Earth, in the system of Sol, is the planet of origin for all of humanity. For a long time however, it was thought that planet Olatia, in the system of Alpha Centauri, was the birthplace of man. Mostly because of legends of great solar sailing ships that left that world and struck out for the stars long ago.

Mankind has ventured forth for hundreds of years and in many different directions along the galactic plain. Over time their space traveling methods were perfected. Now they have spread out over almost 20,000 light years from the Alpha Centauri system.

Even though humanity has spread out so widely, many star systems have yet to be explored. Only the habitable, near habitable, or resource filled planets were chosen for exploration, colonization and mining. As mankind spread throughout the galaxy, they sowed the seeds of life along the way. Some native life forms were discovered on a few of these worlds. It was a surprise that no other intelligent, sentient life forms were found along the way. In this respect mankind seemed to be alone amongst the stars.

Ironically, humanity itself had become the very aliens they were looking for all along.

Extreme genetic diversity became the norm for mankind. A person from only a few hundred years ago might consider some of their very own descendants to be alien.

All the races of humanity are well dispersed throughout the known galaxy. However, humans can no longer be restricted to a finite number of races within the species of homosapiens. Classification as "a race" merely describes the minor differences. In order to explain all the variations of humanity, it finally became necessary to group them into different categories, as well as races.

Many of these variations now found in man seem to be an adaptation to the alien worlds their ancestors colonized. Other differences seem to be the result of genetic mutation. This may have been the result of exposure to excess radiation to early space travelers.

Even though humans are still very much the same genetically, they still have placed stereotypes on these many variations. Racism is a word that is long dead. Unfortunately, it has been replaced by categorism.

"Those damn pasty white ash, yellow eyed bastards!!!" snarled the largest of all the councilors seated at the round Terron council table. The huge delegate dressed in green was from the cold high gravity world of Ino II. As a result of this planet's environment, the human descendents developed bodies that resembled short armed, hairless gorillas.

"Please councilor Husa! This it not the place for that kind of language!" an old man snapped back. Only his slightly larger chair and light blue robe showed his authority as the chairman of the Terron council.

The Chairman's soft yellow wrinkled skin and bright white hair expressed his great age. He had been entrusted with his powers for many years now. It was obvious he was visibly disturbed and worried about all the pressures from the last few days.

"Besides, the Empire is not full of pasties anyway. They are just as diverse there as the rest of the galaxy." spoke up Tarlam a small, plump blue skinned council member. He was bald and didn't seem to have any hair at all that was visible and not covered by his gold robe. He was well dressed compared to the rest of the Council who were wearing a much more casual wardrobe.

He continued "Most of them are out there lurking in their large space stations, controlling all of the galactic trade. Mind you, I wouldn't put it past them to have had something to do with this though. I would bet..."

"That's enough!" interrupted the Chairman as he glared at the blue man who frowned in response.

"It still does not change the fact that Oma has been taken!" councilor Husa shouted as he rose to his feet pounding his fist on top of the council table.

Without waiting for more than a few seconds he then added. "Damn it Chairman Sharmov, just how did this happen anyway?"

The other five council members in turn made their own demands for answers from the Chairman. Soon the small council chamber was in chaos with accusations bouncing all around. No one was willing to take any of the blame. The shouting turned into yelling. The noise began to echo, becoming almost deafening.

"Gentlemen, gentlemen." said Chairman Sharmov, trying his best to calm the Council.

The Council went on arguing with each other and ignored him. Sharmov having had enough grabbed his wooden gavel and pounded vigorously on its block in front of him. He continued, gaining no ones attention. He then started to pound it even harder hoping it would be heard over the Council. Suddenly the gavel finally broke under the strain.

"Oh shit!" screamed Sharmov.

This was the loudest utterance the Council had ever heard come out of their Chairman. It resulted in their immediate attention. The small room fell silent. The Council members seemed to be in shock. It was hard for them to believe that the Chairman would ever use such language.

Sharmov then let out a sigh. He was relieved that all the noise had finally stopped. He then placed the pieces of his gavel neatly on its block.

"I'm glad you gentlemen have finished." Then turning towards the largest council member he stated, "Yes Council member Husa, Oma is now under the Meant's control."

Once again another uproar broke out. All the Council members started to blame each other for letting it happen. This time they were out of their seats and shaking their fists at one another. Sharmov's old ears became numb from the Council's loud shouting. His short, white hair seemed to turn even whiter with every shout.

He had enough! Leaning back in his chair, he took a deep breath. With everything he had, the Chairman screamed, "Shut up!"

One by one the members quieted down. When ever one of them tried to start up again, Sharmov gave them a deadly stare. Finally, even the die hards couldn't stand the Chairman's evil eye. When all was finally calm again and the Council members were back in their seats, Sharmov was able to continue..

"We have obviously had an intelligence failure. For some time now we have not been successful in infiltrating the Empire. Every time we try, we lose the agent. Based on our successful Intel none of the other kingdoms have had any luck either." Sharmov paused to look over his council for a moment to make sure they understood what he was saying. He continued, "At best it might have only told us when they might strike. If you remember many months ago, before the Meant's diplomats left, they warned and threatened that they would take Oma. Now they have made good on their word and sent their First, and best fleet, in to do the job."

"Where were our forces at the time, Sharmov?" grumbled the loud voice of Councilor Volo.

Volo was seated at the opposite end of the table, right in front of the Chairman. For this reason, the small short green councilor felt he always had to add his two cents, no matter what.

"All three of our fleets were patrolling more important sectors of our kingdom." Sharmov said softly, trying to rest his now weary voice.

"And what do you propose we do about it?" asked the rough sandpapery voice of Barsom. Being from Orion, the tall man was a little impetuous, like most of the people from that world. Unlike them however, Barsom was well mannered about it.

"Yes, what will we do?" said the squeaky voice of Iocs. The bright yellow-skinned councilor blinked his large solid blue eyes at the Chairman waiting for a reply.

Taking a moment to scan his councilors, Sharmov whispered. "There is nothing we can do."

"The Hell we can't. We should send two of our fleets in to reclaim Oma!" barked Husa as he stood up.

"That's a good idea, Husa." agreed Councilor Cobora. His leather-like skin and small black eyes where a telling sign that his ancestors had adapted to one of the many very dry planets inhabited by humans.

"So Husa and Cobora, you want us to lose both of those fleets and start us off into war." Sharmov said softly, but was really trying to yell as best as he could.

"Um, well no sir." Husa said, slightly embarrassed.

"Besides, all three of our fleets would be no match against the Meant's First Warship Fleet." Sharmov said in a whisper.

Husa slowly sat down in his chair mumbling. The other councilors could only stare at each other. It seemed nothing more could be said. The room went silent again.

This pleased Sharmov. He now had a few precious moments to relax. Leaning back in his chair, he enjoyed the quiet for as long as it would last. It was only a matter of time before another councilor would speak up.

Looking up he noticed a small spider web in the upper corner of the small council chamber. He remembered how hard it was to stop the cleaning staff from removing it. Sharmov never liked spiders much, but he hated the idea of killing this poor little thing. So there it was, still there, ever so persistent in its corner. Besides, who would it bother anyway except maybe for a stray bug?

Councilor Ioc rose up and blocked Sharmov's view of the web and asked with a squeak. "Chairman Sharmov what should we do? Ignoring this act of aggression will only encourage more!"

Sharmov stood up. Ioc was surprised by this and quickly sat down. He then turned and walked towards the wall behind him. He touched a small panel on the wall. A large two dimensional galactic map appeared on it. He knew he could have activated a three-dimensional version of this map instead, but he preferred to us this much simpler view. Only military men need to be concerned with a more detailed map. He studied it for some time before he finally turned and faced the councilors.

"There is a way," the Chairman confidently whispered.

"Uh, and what is that sir?" Barsom politely asked.

"Simple, we form an alliance with the Deveron and Lenard kingdoms. After that maybe we should consider including the kingdom of Omal," replied the old Chairman.

"Bull!" yelled Volo. "What makes you think they would want to help us anyway?" he questioned.

"Oh shut up Volo. I think it just may be our best chance." snapped Cobora.

"Omal is full of pasties anyway, I don't think we should trust them," Husa grumbled.

Before Sharmov could reprimand Husa for his rude remark Volo quickly asked, "Omal is one thing, but do you honestly think the royal family of the Deveron and Lenard kingdoms would ever give a crap about us?"

Reluctantly Cobora replied, "That is true. Even though both of those kingdoms have a democratic republic, the royal families still have a great influence."

"Then I say we should put it up to a vote then gentlemen." Sharmov said walking up to stand behind his chair. "Those who are for, please raise your hand."

All of the members of the Terron council raised their hands, except for Volo.

"Well Volo it must be a unanimous vote in order for it to be carried out." stated Sharmov.

The other councilors glared at Volo. With a sigh he finally raised his hand and frowned.

"Good," exclaimed Sharmov. Turning towards Barsom he asked, "Will you set up a meeting with the ambassadors from both the Deveron and Lenard kingdoms."

"It may take some time to set up sir."

"Nevertheless it must be done, and done quickly!"

Barsom nodded and then asked, "What about Omal?"

"Let's focus on the Deveron and Lenard Kingdoms first. Once they're on board we'll explore a possible alliance with Omal as well." Sharmov replied. Then looking at the council he added, "Unless there are objections?"

The council was quite so Sharmov added, "Good, I've been meaning to talk with Omal's Vic chancellor Tyu for a while now anyway. This will give me an excellent opportunity to do so." Sharmov said with a slight grin.

Barsom said, "Very good sir." He then asked, "By the way sir, where should the meeting with the Lenard and Deveron ambassadors take place?"

After thinking for a few minutes Sharmov said. "On Lernosa II. It's the best place. It has a number of large meeting halls and it's also in neutral space a long way away from the Empire. I think the ambassadors would prefer it." Once he was finished he sat back in his seat.

"What ambassador will we send?" asked Volo with a smirk.

"I will go myself," Chairman Sharmov said glaring at Volo. "If there are no protests?" he asked.

Volo opened his mouth, ready to say something. Sharmov glared back at him and growled softly, "Yes, Volo?"

Quickly Volo shut his mouth and stared at the table.

With satisfaction Sharmov said, "It's settled then! This meeting is now adjourned!"

All the Council members got up and left the meeting chamber. Volo was the last to leave. He stopped at the door and gave the Chairman one last look before closing the door behind him.

Sharmov looked at his broken gavel and gave out a sigh. He then sank down in his chair to rest and to do some badly needed thinking.
Chapter III

The Meeting

In the Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way is a blue giant star system with four planets called Soma. Only the small green and white world of Lernosa II was capable of supporting life in this system. This planet is primarily used as a main stop and distribution center by a number of trading world corporations. The trading world of Lernosa intentionally colonized it in neutral space so it could be used just for that purpose.

This hot tropical sphere is teaming with a large variety of plant life. Since mankind can't function well in the high temperatures, all of the cities were built on both of the cooler poles. A thick band of vegetation separates the north from the south. It is nearly impossible to get from a city in the south to one in the north by traveling along the surface.

High in the northern hemisphere resides Nosa Alpha, the largest city on the planet. It's considered to be this world's capital and loosely governs over the world. Because it has the biggest spaceport on the planet many of the well-known and wealthy trading barons also reside there.

On the north end of the city, near the spaceport, is the city's legendary Grand Meeting Halls. These structures are the oldest and grandest buildings of the city. They were built so the merchants would have a place to barter and strike their deals. This made it the ideal location for the negotiation of a document that could affect mankind forever.

"...at the northwest end of a huge dark molecular cloud is the Omega nebula. It stretches out for several hundred light years. In the center of this cluster are a number of very young stars with an average age of only about 1 million years," said a soft voice from behind Sharmov.

The Chairman was standing outside one of the smaller Halls looking up to admire the nebula in Lernosa II's night sky. The beautiful green glow with red and blue hues took up almost a fourth of the view. He remembered being able to see it even in the daylight, but it was only this magnificent after the blue Somaian sun had set.

After a few more moments Sharmov finally stopped marveling at the nebula. He turned around to see a small robot hovering nearby. It was nothing more than a small ball with large white eyes and a small slit for a mouth.

His young assistant was also standing nearby listening as well. He was a tall, firm and fit Terron officer dressed in the standard light blue official uniform. It was almost as plain and drab as the official uniform Sharmov was also wearing. He carried in his right hand a metallic briefcase that was attached by a seamless cord that was raped around his wrist.

"Thank you for that interesting recitation on Lernosa II," said the Chairman looking up at the hovering robot.

The robot hovered towards the old bearded man and said in an almost human voice, "No problem Chairman, the trading guild is always happy to provide tourist information for all those who use the facilities. If that is all Sir..."

"Yes, yes of course. I'm sure you have other duties to attend to. We shouldn't have much longer to wait anyway," Sharmov replied with a warm smile.

Within seconds the ball streaked away, headed for another nearby meeting hall.

The young officer said, "Man, those things always give me the creeps. I'm surprised anyone still uses fully autonomous robots with artificial intelligence anymore considering their history."

"That's true," said Sharmov as he nodded his head in agreement.

They stood along a walkway surrounded by grass that went up to a door to a meeting hall they were waiting to enter. The door was old, very large, and heavy. It was made of an old sturdy Earth wood known as oak. Metal hinges were used to open it. Obviously this was very nostalgic and expensive since most modern doors are made of metal and slide automatically into the wall.

They stared constantly at the door expecting it to open at any time to signal that the ambassadors were ready. After a few minutes of this the chairman's assistant grew frustrated and started to pace up and down the walkway.

He grumbled, "What's taking so long? They've had all day with the latest version of the alliance document. Surely that's more than enough time to get their confirmation for final ratification!"

"Patience Hax, we have been at this for a long time now. We don't want to ruin it in the final hour."

"Is it because this final version they have to sign is on paper?"

"I don't think so; they have their own digital versions to wade through. However, they probably need to check the final document to make sure it's exactly the same." Sharmov said as he slowly stroked on his white beard.

"Um, why use paper anyway, there are other ways to officiate a digital document?" asked Hax.

"That will be done too, but you see we humans still prefer to use paper when any important and official documents are to be considered. It is still one of the few things that cannot be as easily changed as a digital record. I guess those who deal in matters of legality still find some comfort in having a real object that's physically signed," replied Sharmov with a smile still stroking on his beard. He added, "Maybe we are just longing for the good old days?"

"It all seems a little silly if you ask me. With modern security, multi lock keys and hyper encryption I can't see how it could be manipulated," Hax said with a frown.

Sharmov stopped stroking his beard and asked, "Ah, but remember the Omal Galactic bank robbery fifteen years ago? They had all those things then and still nearly a tenth of the banks, and the galaxies wealth disappeared."

"Hum, I must have still been too young to remember that."

"It was a rather spectacular event. It took years for the galactic markets to recover. The culprits were never found. I suspect if they were careful... "

Suddenly the large door opened and a small man dressed in bright colors beckoned for them to enter.

"This is it Hax. After months and months of negotiations, rewrites, bickering and the ambassadors constant consulting with their ruling governments and royal families it comes down to this," Sharmov said with a small nervous stutter.

They entered the main meeting chamber. It was elaborately decorated in gold and silver. Centered in the room was a large old wooden oak table with matching chairs all around it.

The man in bright colors pointed them in the direction of two men seated at the table. Both of them had at least a dozen armed guards standing behind them. The bold colors of their formal attire represented their allegiance to their kingdoms. The Deveron ambassador and his guards wore bright reds, while the Lenard guards and ambassador were dressed in dark greens.

Sharmov had intentionally not taken any guards with him on this long diplomatic mission. He even insisted that he and his assistant be unarmed at all times. He didn't want to provoke the Deveron and Lenard ambassadors in any way.

The small colorfully dressed man then told Sharmov, "They are now ready to see you Chairman."

Sharmov and his assistant walked over towards the table. The brightly dressed man turned and left the room shutting the massive door behind him.

The guards were quick to spot the briefcase Sharmov's assistant was carrying. They started to watch his every move, making the young man feel very uncomfortable.

Both of the ambassadors had a large stack of papers on the table in front of them. They came from a metal case sitting on the table. Sharmov sent this final printed version to them many hours ago and it appeared as if the ambassadors must have been going over those documents since then.

Once Sharmov and his assistant were standing at the opposite side of the table, Sharmov asked, "Gentlemen, I assume you have confirmed the final document, heard from your ruling parties and in turn have come to a decision?"

Looking at the Deveron ambassador the Lenard's ambassador said "Yes, I believe ambassador Lemata and I may have Chairman."

The short gray-haired Lenard's ambassador was a rather plump man for an official officer. Sharmov could tell that the light-skinned man was tough and well aged. He must have been serving in this position for many years now.

Sharmov replied with, "What's you're an..."

"Ambassador Dantro and I have some questions first Chairman," interrupted the Deveron ambassador.

He was a very dark, thin and frail man. His long flat black hair did not look like any natural color Sharmov had ever seen before. The Deveron ambassador had all the looks and manners of a well-seasoned delegate. He seemed to make for a good counter to the Lenard's ambassador.

With a long sigh Sharmov replied. "Very well gentleman. What are they?"

The ambassadors looked at each other expecting the other to start. Finally, with a gesture of Lemata's hand, Danto spoke, "Why now, Sharmov?"

With a puzzled expression Sharmov inquired, "Why what now?"

"What my colleague is asking," Lemata chimed in with a fake smile, "is why ask for this alliance now? Is it because of your recent loss of the planet Oma perhaps?"

"Ah, I see," Sharmov frowned. "It is true this event has become a major reason for us to request an alliance. It still does not take away from the fact that the Empire has finally made good with its threats. It's only a matter of time before either of your kingdoms is attacked."

Both ambassadors cringed at Sharmov's words. Lemata even shook his head no in response. Upon seeing this Sharmov then added, "Gentlemen, you both know what I'm saying is true! We were hoping all along that we were dealing with a paper tiger. Unfortunately, we now know this monster has long fangs and it knows how to use them."

Both ambassadors were silent. They tried their best to hold onto their stone cold faces. Sharmov could tell that from behind those masks, they were shaken by his statement.

"It is true," Dantro spoke, finally breaking his poker face. "Our kingdoms governing bodies have been discussing the Meant threat for some time now. Both Deveron and Lenard ships have fallen prey to the Meant's patrols along the trading routes. Short of fighting back and possibly causing a war, neither of our kingdoms could figure out how to deal with them. That is until your formal request for an alliance of all our kingdoms came to us."

Lemata added, "Before that the best we could agree to was some cooperative intelligence sharing against the Meants."

"Well, I'm glad we all seem to realize just how important this alliance can be," Sharmov said beaming. "Once united, I think the Empire might be a little more cautious when dealing with us." Then Sharmov asked, "Was there anything else?"

"No, I think you covered everything I was going..."

"I have some other concerns," said Dantro interrupting the Deveron ambassador while thumbing through the pages before him.

Lemata sneered at his rude associate in response to the blunt interruption.

Once the Lenard ambassador found the correct pages he said, "This policy about hiding supply caches you want to initiate. Will all kingdoms be sharing the locations?"

Sharmov leaned over and looked at the pages of the document Dantro was referring to. He then replied, "Ah that. Yes. If you look at sub-section twenty-three, you will see that selected officers will only know the locations of three of all the caches, one in each of our three kingdoms," Sharmov said pointing to the details on the document.

"Yes, that is a good idea. In case of capture, no one person will know where all the caches are," Lemata said with a weak but real smile this time.

"The idea is to share the location of all our caches within the alliance. It might become important in an emergency," the Terron Chairman further explained.

"Are you satisfied Dantro?" asked Lemta.

Dantro replied with a quick nod while placing the document pages back on the table.

Sharmov turned to his assistant and held out his hand. Slowly, while keeping an eye on both sets of the ambassador guards, he slowly opened his briefcase and took out a paper document. Cautiously he handed it to Sharmov. Then he took out an antique pen and handed it to Sharmov too.

"This gentleman is the finalized formal signature document. Once it is signed, the alliance will be official." Sharmov said as he carefully placed it before them with the pen.

"I must ask Sharmov, what will we call this new Alliance? If we use our kingdom names, we might be here forever trying to agree on whose will be the first?" Lemata asked.

Somewhat worried Sharmov replied, "I never thought about giving the alliance a formal name. I must have been too wrapped up in the details to consider it."

After a few seconds of staring at the ambassadors, an idea came to Sharmov. He said with excitement, "Of course gentlemen. It's obvious to me now. Have either one of you seen that beautiful nebula nearby, especially in the evening sky?"

The ambassadors looked at each other confused.

"I guess you two have been too busy to notice. It's called the Omega nebula. To avoid any bickering let's agree to call it the Omega Alliance."

"The last alliance?" Dantro inquired.

"Hum, not bad," Lemata added.

"With luck it should be the final alliance mankind should ever need." said the Chairman looking hopefully at the plump Lenard ambassador.

With a nod from both ambassadors Sharmov used the pen and added the name "Omega Alliance" to the top of the document. He then turned it upside down placed the pen carefully on top of it and slid it over towards the ambassadors.

They all looked at the document before them for a few moments. Sharmov then said, "I assume you both have been given the final authority from your governments to sign this document in their names?"

"I have full authority of the Director and the Royal House of Lenard to make this alliance," snapped Dantro.

"As do I from my President and the Deveron Royal house." spoke up Lemata.

"Then are we finally in full agreement with the current document for this new alliance?" asked Chairman Sharmov.

"Yes," replied Lemata and Dantro in unison.

"Good. Then would you both please sign." sighed Sharmov with relief while gesturing to the document. Adding with a nervous grin, "Once the Omega Alliance is signed we can begin to coordinate all of our forces."

Dantro reached for the pen first. Then just as he was about to pick it up, he stopped.

"Having doubts now, Dantro?" said Lemata with a smirk.

Leaning back in his chair Dantro calmly stated, "I'm not so sure about the draft clause."

"I can understand your reluctance." the Terron Chairman said trying to reassure the Lenard ambassador. "I was also concerned about this, but if we don't have people prepared to fight, what's the point?"

Lemata then leaned close to Dantro and boasted proudly. "Ha, our countrymen would jump at the chance to fight for their Kingdom. They are not afraid."

Glaring at Lemta, Dantro growled. "Are you saying that we Lenards are?"

Both groups of ambassadors' guards quickly focused their attention on each other. Their hands were poised, ready to grab for their weapons at an instant's notice.

"Now, now gentlemen," interrupted Sharmov. "Let's not fight among ourselves. It'll make the Empire's job far too easy if we start doing this. If we must fight, let us do it by defending our freedom against the Meant Empire," pleaded Sharmov.

After a minute of silence, the ambassadors continued to glare at each other.

The Terron Chairman then asked politely. "Please gentlemen will you sign the pact?"

There was a cold chilling silence in the air. Lemata grabbed the document and pen. Quickly he inked in his name. When he finished, he slid the document towards Dantro and held the pen out for him to take.

Dantro quickly stood up and began to walk away, with his guards following close behind.

"Coward." echoed Lemata's voice throughout the hall.

Ambassador Dantro stopped, turned back to face the table with his guards beside him. Slowly he walked back over to the table, with his guards on his heels. He grabbed the pen from Lemata and signed the document on the table. "There!" barked Dantro. Quickly he spun back around and walked around the table towards the large door. One of his guards opened it and he quietly walk out of the meeting hall, followed closely by his guards.

Sharmov eagerly leaned over and signed the pact himself while Lemata rose to his feet. He noticed the Deveron Ambassador's eyes followed Dantro until he was out the door.

"I would like my official printed and digital copy of that before I leave this world Sharmov"

"Oh, of course, Ambassador Lemata, I will make sure you and Dantro have them by Lernosa II's star rise."

"Very well. Good night Sharmov." said Lemata really smiling for the first time at the Chairman.

"And to you too, Lemata." said Sharmov returning the smile.

While Lemata quietly walked out of the room with his own guards, the Chairman turned his attention to the documents. Once Sharmov was finished checking all the papers, he placed the huge document of all the details neatly in the case on the table. He took special care of the pen and signed document.

He handed them to his assistant and said, "Here Hax and don't lose them! We still have some work to do. We need to get legal official paper and digital copies made of those."

Hax placed the signed document and pen back into his briefcase and shut it.

With some effort Sharmov lifted up the large metal case with a grunt and headed out of the meeting hall. For the first time in a while there was some peace in his troubled mind.
Chapter III

The Crystal Speaks

The Emperor's loud footsteps echoed as he walked down a long darkened corridor. He came to a door at the end of the hallway that glowed ever so softy. On each side of this door red clad well-armed royal imperial guards stood motionless at their post.

The Emperor stopped just a few meters short of the door. Both guards quickly saluted him. The Imperial seal on the door was sharply lit from behind. To Margo this made it seem as if the dragon on the seal were smiling at him.

Emperor Margo raised his right fist to the door. Carefully he aimed a large yellow ring on his middle finger at the seal. The ring then began to radiate. Suddenly a flash of yellow light leaped from the ring, striking the dragon on the seal. Then the snake like eyes of the dragon started to shine brightly.

Quietly the door rose to reveal a frigid and murky room. The Emperor calmly walked into the blackness and the door silently closed behind him.

Cautiously, both the guards tried once more to get a glimpse into the room before the door closed completely. Just like so many times before they still couldn't see anything of the Emperor's mysterious room deep below the palace.

The Emperor was the only one allowed to venture into this chamber. Some more dishonorable imperial officers had tried to gain entrance to it in the past, only to fail miserably in the attempt. They were sure it was the true source of the Emperor's great power. All of them were quickly and quietly dispatched, never to know just how right they were.

Emperor Margo stood alone in the icy blackness. From nowhere a blinding yellow beam of light hit him in the face. He tried to use his hands to shield his eyes from it.

"Who has entered my chamber!" shouted a loud and ominous voice.

Once the Emperor's eyes had adjusted enough to the bright light he was able to see the all too familiar small platform before him. Margo quickly bowed down and knelt on it. He lowered his head away from the light and looked only at the gloomy floor.

Slowly he replied, "It is I, Margo, Oh Great Crystal."

A yellow light suddenly engulfed the entire room. The light gently reflected off the black metallic walls, floor and ceiling of the round chamber. The room was now bathed in a warm yellow haze. Margo raised his head to see a pulsating Crystal at the center of the room on a two meter high black metallic pillar.

"What is it?" asked the booming voice of the Crystal.

"I require something of you, Oh Great Crystal," Margo said gazing up at it.

"What is it you wish of me now Margo?" the voice asked patiently.

"With just a little more of your great power, I will soon have fulfilled our quest. It's now just a matter of time until my Empire will have conquered the known Galaxy." Margo said quite pleased.

The room was oddly silent. Only the soft throbbing of the Crystals pulsations filled the room.

Just before Margo was about to break the silence the Crystal yelled out, "Conquer!" The echo of the booming voice caused the room to shake.

The Emperor frowned realizing he did not choose his words wisely. Quickly he attempted to spin his meaning by saying, "You see, after the..."

"Why do you need yet more of my help? More power?" interrupted the Crystal's loud voice.

"Why, Oh Great Crystal, if I am to unite the Galaxy together it must first be under proper control." Margo confidently stated, finishing with a long smile.

"Then what do you want me to do this time, Margo?" the Crystal impatiently asked.

"I want...need the political control of the Kingdom of Omal," he replied looking deeply into the pulsating light of the Crystal, waiting with hungry eyes.

Again the room was silent, except for the deep rhythmic pulsations of the Crystal.

"Omal's leader Meha has a strong will. It will not be as easy to control him. He's nothing like the other kingdom leaders you had me influence before. He is intelligent and has very few weaknesses," the Crystal stated.

"But you must do it. I need the Pales galactic banks, with all their great wealth and power I will be able to dominate all!" Margo savagely ranted clinching his right fist.

"I said I would try to do what I could Margo," the Crystal said very loudly.

Margo sprung up to the pillar demanding, "I want it now! I am the chosen heir, your King! Just remember that!"

A blinding flash of light hit Margo in the face. He fell to the floor, trying to shield his eyes from it. Then all at once the room was black again. Margo tried to look through the inky blackness at the spot where he believed the Crystal to be. Almost as if the Crystal knew this, a long, large flash of lighting jumped from it and hit the floor just inches away from Margo. The thunderous strike echoed loudly throughout the chamber.

Margo quickly fell to his knees, bowing his head to the floor with his long hair in his face. The room suddenly lit up in a hazy yellow glow again. The Crystal was once more resting on its pillar quietly pulsating.

"Oh Great Crystal, I am sorry. It has been difficult for me to be so patient. I am only trying to achieve our quest in the most efficient way possible," pleaded Margo lying prostrate on the floor.

"Sometimes you seem to forget who has the power Margo." the Crystal said boldly. Then seconds later it added humbly, "However, it is true you are the heir, the King."

Margo pushed his hair back and looked up at the Crystal with authority in his eyes and said, "Yes, that's right! I was the one chosen by your yellow light."

"That is what the plaque said Margo?" asked the now humble voice of the Crystal ever so softly.

"You still don't remember," The Emperor said squinting at the Crystal.

"I have few memories of that time. Those I do have are mostly of you and learning from you. I only recall pain and darkness before then."

"Of course great Crystal it was written, we are the chosen ones that will bring forth order and enlightenment to this chaotic galaxy," Margo said confidently with one eyebrow raised.

With reluctance the Crystal said, "Very well, I will see what I can do... for the heir and King."

Margo smiled with satisfaction, but it quickly faded when the Crystal continued, "As for fulfilling the quest..."

Margo rose to his feet and stared at the Crystal waiting for more.

"I am aware of things, Margo!" The Crystal said in its former loud and booming voice.

Margo turned away from the Crystal to look at the wall behind him. While rubbing his scar on his small chin, he said under his breath, "The room is still not deep enough after all."

Over the years Margo had realized the Crystal's powers were growing and becoming more difficult to manipulate. Even though it did not seem to remember where it came from, it was still able to learn and appeared to understand a great number of things. It was no longer as naive as it used to be all those many years ago. Until now, hiding it deep underground away from people and focusing its powers in select ways had kept it from learning the entire truth.

"What was that Margo?" questioned the pulsating Crystal.

"N...nothing Oh Great Crystal I was only merely commenting on the size of your chamber," Margo lied. "Maybe it's not big enough after all." Looking back at the Crystal with as much sincerity as he could muster he questioned, "What are these things you say you are aware of?"

"I can sense many terrible things this Empire of yours has done and still continues to do. For example you have closed many religious institutions..."

Seductively Margo asked, "Why of course. You are the only true order. Can't you see that?"

"I have no qualms about any religion. They seek enlightenment in their own way. They should not be discouraged."

"With your great powers you can bring true enlightenment quicker to all of humanity. Those other orders are only a distraction. You can show them a much purer and truer path," Margo preached, trying his best to exploit any vanity that might exist in the Crystal.

The Crystal pulsated for a moment. Margo could feel his smile starting to return. His new tact seemed to be bearing fruit.

"These enslavements of select human variations are also a concern," the voice said suddenly.

Margo frowned again and looked up at the ceiling. After only a few seconds of contemplation, he started to smile again and said, "Yes, that has been troubling to me as well."

"It has?" replied the Crystal surprised.

"As the Empire grew, we took on all manner of human customs and behaviors. It has been difficult to make quick changes in some areas. That was one of the reasons I have been attempting to create a state religion of enlightenment so quickly to teach my subjects your wisdom."

"I see. So those forced labor camps have been set up by others? You have been attempting to put a stop to it Margo?"

"Of course, Oh Great Crystal. We cannot have slavery in this day and age. It would be a blemish on any road to enlightenment."

The Crystal quietly pondered again and pulsated for a moment.

"Harming others is not the way Margo," It finally said.

With both eyebrows raised Margo replied, "That is true, but have I not taught you long ago that sometimes we may have to hurt a few people now and then in order to help all the others? This may always be necessary in order to achieve our ultimate goal."

"Very well Margo. I will see about Meha and his kingdom of Omal as soon as I can," the Crystal said with remorse. "We will talk more about the problems in this Empire later. Now please go, I grow weary. It is not easy to keep up with your demands and maintain your personal strength," it said as its light started to slowly dim.

Margo stood up and walked over to the door, using his ring to open it again. Once more the room was dark as the door rose. Slowly the Emperor walked out of the door and down the corridor, paying little mind to the guards' prying eyes. They could only see the same mysterious dark room which they have always seen and unable to figure out what had caused all of the loud noises from inside the chamber.

The Emperor walked down towards an elevator at the other end of the hall. As he thought silently to himself an evil grin grew on his lips.
Chapter IV

The T.K.S. Sandra

10 Months Later

High above the tiny green Alpha Centaurian world of Olatia, a small triangular shuttle was silently ascending through the clouds. It was heading towards a much larger vessel that lay in orbit, high above the planet.

As the shuttle drew closer to the bow of the large ship its details become more visible. At the center of the vessels bow was a large opening to the main launch deck. Along the side of her hull near this opening were the words "T.K.S. Sandra 23". Another, smaller opening could also be seen on the ships port side and back a little ways along the hull. This was the secondary landing bay that leads to the service deck deep within the ship. Extending slightly from both sides of the carrier like giant wings were two powerful Hyper Drive engines.

As the shuttle rose over and above the bow of the huge ship a large number twenty-three could be seen on its top secondary emergency service deck. In the top decks weak field of low gravity a few suited men could be seen bouncing along its surface. They seemed to be doing a maintenance sweep of the deck. One stopped and turned on his magnetic boots. A cylinder rose from the deck to reveal a hidden fueling station. Carefully the man began to inspect it as the shuttle drifted over him.

At the ships starboard, were three large elevator pads used for lowering equipment and fighters to and from the top deck. A large tower was centered between two of these lifts. At the top of this tower was the ships square bridge. Tiny figures could clearly be seen through the windows that extended around all four sides of the bridge. Mounted on top was an assortment of sensors and communication dishes.

At the stern of the ship's main deck was the landing area for the top deck nestled between two hanger structures. On the top of the port side hanger was a triangular landing pad. The shuttle fired its thrusters for a few seconds adjusting its course to head towards it.

"Come in Terron Kingdom Spacecraft Sandra, this is T-one-zero-one coming in for landing on dock Tri one," the shuttle pilot transmitted.

"Roger T-one-zero-one standby," replied a slightly broken voice from the Sandra's bridge tower.

The shuttle fired its braking jets to stop its forward motion. It hovered silently above the landing pad, well above the influence of the top decks gravity field. Three landing lights, one at each corner of the triangle lit up, illuminating the dock. The shuttle then fired a thruster along its side. Slowly the craft turned, then when it was lined up perfectly with the landing pad below thrusters, in the opposite direction, fired to stop its rotation.

"Tower, this is T-one-zero-one. I am getting some interference on this Hyper-subspace channel I'm only able to send and receive audio, is there a problem on your end or mine causing this?" asked the pilot.

"Oh that? It happens every so often in this system, Olatia's currently between the two larger of the three stars in this system. We're getting some noise in subspace from the heightened activity coming from them. Some days things can really get hot out here. You may not notice it as much planet side since you are protected by the planets magnetic field," explained a voice from the tower.

"Thanks control. We're locked on target and holding at fifty-five meters." said the pilots broken voice.

"Roger T-one-zero-one, you are cleared for landing. The elevator pad is ready to receive you. Everything is all clear." The voice from tower control crackled.

"Roger control, going down." the pilot replied faintly.

Two small thrusters on top of the shuttle fired for a brief moment. Its small landing gear then extended from the bottom of the craft. It descended and soft landed on the docking pad. Within a few seconds the pad lowered down into the hanger. Once the ship was clear, a triangular door slid closed above it.

In the darkness, the pads decent stopped with a soft thud. Soft dim lights flickered on, illuminating the shuttle in the cold, dark hanger. Off to the port side of the shuttle, an air lock extended towards the shuttles hatchway. With a soft click the lock was secure.

Within the ship, on the other side of the lock, a row of men were lined along each side of the hallway. They were all wearing formal distinctive Terron military blue uniforms.

A fat round officer slowly walked up towards the hatch. His eyes were blood shot and sunk in. His posture was bad and he seemed to have a deep chiseled frown on his face, almost as if it were carved in stone. A thin ring of salt and pepper hair ran around the back of his head just above his ears. The rest of his head was shinny and white.

Trailing closely behind him was a much younger, fair haired, dark skinned, tall lieutenant. The crew who stood along the hall looked on at them as they past. A few of them whispered softly to each other as they gazed at the two officers.

They both reached the lock just as a display screen's image of a large red circle turned to green above the door. They stopped just short of the hatchway and stood opposite of each other in front of it. As it slowly opened, a short crewman along the hallway near the door put a small metal tube up to his lips. It emitted a few high pitched notes as he blew into it.

A tall elderly and thin commanding officer stepped though the hatch into the hallway. He faced the two officers waiting for him. After receiving a salute from them both he quickly returned it with a small warm smile.

"Mister Rolent, I presume." The Commander said still smiling. "I am your new commander, Captain Keel." He said extending his hand.

"Ah, good to see you Captain," The large man said still frowning and intentionally ignoring Keel's hand. "I am your first officer Kyle Rolent. I have also been acting Captain of the Sandra for the last six months." Then casually he pointed to the other officer on the other side of the hatchway and continued. "This is my personal aid lieutenant Yolo, Brian Yolo."

Keel turned his extended hand towards Yolo. Yolo was about to grasp it, but stopped when he caught Rolent's cold stare. Cautiously, Yolo returned his arm back to his side.

Keel withdrew his hand; through a furrowed brow he gave them both a puzzled look.

Before Keel, could say anything about it Rolent said with a half hearted attempted smile. "I shall escort you to your quarter's sir. They are jus..."

"There is plenty of time for that later," Keel interrupted. "I'd much rather get to the bridge first, If you don't mind officer Rolent," Keel insisted, "We have orders to hook up with the First Fleet within four hours. I would like to be on the bridge when we leave."

"Yes I am aware of the orders sir. Even now we are preparing the ship for Hyper Jump."

"Good then I'll have time to take a little detour to the bridge through the hanger." Keel said with a grin.

Frowning once again Rolent asked, "We are not ready for an inspection sir, the crew are to busy preparing the ship for..."

"No, no Mister Rolent, I just want to get a quick look around, that's all," Keel said with a friendly smile.

"Hum," grunted Rolent, "Very well Captain Keel. This way sir," he said gesturing for him to follow.

They both walked down the hall, between the rows of men with Yolo closely trailing. From behind them they could hear the assembled men leaving the shuttle dock area. Under the direction of a loud sergeant they left in a quick and orderly manner.

After a few moments of silently passing along the corridors Keel finally asked, "So I guess you'll now be the Space boss, will your assistant be the mini Boss?"

"Normally that is the case sir for the first officer, unless you have some others in mind," Rolent replied coldly.

"Oh no, I think we should stick to the carrier traditions. It's been a long time since I've been on a space carrier."

"Your experience must have been better then you think sir, otherwise the Commodore would not have placed you in charge," Rolent said and then grumbled something quietly under his breath.

They finally came to a large room full of dusty space suits hanging along the walls. Above them on a small ledge were a variety of helmets and on the floor below them were numerous matching magnetic capable boots. They too seemed to show a thin coating of dust on them as well. Keel thought it was odd that dust had enough time to accumulate in a semi-sterile environment of a spaceship. It must have been a really long time since they had last been used.

At the far end of this room was an airlock that leads into the ships main hanger. They walked up to the lock and Rolent placed his hand on a panel near the door. A screen above the door lit up and indicated the hanger deck was currently pressurized and had normal gravity. They entered the lock and had to wait for the door behind them to close before the one to the hanger opened.

Keel inquired, "When was the last time the ship had a no atmosphere hanger drill?"

Rolent was only able to turn around to face Captain Keel before he added. "What about a no atmosphere and no gravity drill? Also, when was the last time they even drilled on the emergency open deck?"

Rolent was obviously caught off guard with these sudden questions. After a short pause he was able to reply, "I'm not sure Captain. It has never been a high priority. All the lock equipment is for emergencies in case we have those problems."

Then looking up at the Captain with a condescending tone he added. "Normally a carrier remains behind the lines to launch sorties. I'm sure if the ship suffered such a disastrous condition we would be ordered to withdraw before the ship was lost. Operating a carrier under such dire circumstances would be a ridicules tactical blunder."

After a deep breath Keel looked down at the man and replied, "I know you don't think I understand anything about this ship Mister Rolent, that's why you are here. However, you have a lot to learn about tactical advantages and combat strategies." Then through grinding teeth he added, "I will expect a detailed schedule of these drills ASAP Mister Rolent!"

Rolent was silent his face turned red and you could tell the anger was raging inside him. After a few seconds he was finally able to respond in a low pitched voice to say, "Yes Captain."

The other hatchway door to the hanger finally opened to reveal the large internal fighter deck of the Sandra. The deck was massive and almost as big as the Sandra herself. Keel could see the emergency landing area and the main deck at the same time. A number of fighters and a few bombers were lined up neatly along the deck.

Shimmering slightly like a silk veil at all the large openings to space were pressure force shields. They were merely a low grade defense shield, just powerful enough to keep the air in, but allow heavier objects to pass through. Brightly marked zones and warning lights were near the fields to warn the crew they could easily fall through the field and into the vacuum of space if they were not careful.

Most of the deck was bathed with light. The immense hanger was lit by a number of large lights on the ceiling. On the ceiling at both ends of the main hanger the Terron Kingdom Star symbol with the words "T.K.S. Sandra 23" was lit up with special lights. There was even one of them along the starboard side of the hanger. Like the others, it was also lit by a special light from the ceiling above.

The three men walked along the deck heading towards another airlock on the opposite side of the hanger. The crew was busy working to line up the rest of the crafts on the deck and securing them for the jump. The few men that saw them quickly gave them a salute and then just as quickly went back to work.

As they made their way towards the other side of the deck, Keel saw the carrier's three large brightly lit hanger lifts. They were the ones he saw as they approached the ship. Currently they were locked into place at the upper level; just above the lifts own pressure force shields.

As they approached the lock Keel noticed a young lieutenant talking to the deck chief nearby. Keel looked at the lieutenant intently, he seemed familiar. Suddenly he broke his stride, turned and walked over towards him. Rolent continued to head for the lock unaware of Keel's departure.

Yolo, who was still behind them both said, "Uh sir, that's the wrong way we need to go through lock A-1 in order to get to the bridge."

Rolent was almost at the lock doorway when he heard Yolo. He stopped and turned around to see what was going on. His face turned red with anger again and his body trembled. Some of the crew stopped working to watch. Everyone could tell Rolent was at his limits, but they also knew he was not in charge anymore. Hopefully this will keep him from going off into one of his well-known tirades.

As Captain Keel approached the lieutenant from behind, he was sure he had heard that voice before. Reluctantly, Rolent quickly followed him with Yolo in tow.

"...well I guess we should wait and pull the computer sub-processor boards from the fighters after we get to our next destination. Once there we can do the upgrades needed for all of them. "

Keel was now standing behind the young officer now smiling. The deck chief noticed him and saluted. The young officer was still oblivious to it all since he was going over a holographic check list being emitted from a wrist band.

The young man continued with, "We don't have the time to fix them right now."

With a loud thunderous roar Keel exclaimed, "And why not Lieutenant John Marret!"

John froze with fear and dread. He didn't expect to be overheard by any commanding officers.

Slowly he turned around to explain, "Look sir, as the deck officer and Handler I know regulations insist we be battle ready at all times but, we don't have the time to get all the fighters up to..."

The lieutenant then took a good look at the Commander. He smiled and yelled with delight. "Ah..., it's you Mero." He quickly hugged his old friend as tears formed in his eyes. Then realizing where he was, he quickly stepped back, turned off the holographic display, and saluted him. "Um, I'm sorry sir," He apologized.

Rolent and Yolo were both surprised with this sudden display of friendship.

"Do you know this man sir?" questioned Rolent as he and Yolo joined them.

"Why yes I do Mister Rolent, this is my old friend John Marret. He was my first officer on the Leaken. Of which I was the Captain," Keel replied. Turning towards the two officers he then asked. "Would you mind going on up to the bridge and await for me there. I would like to talk to my friend for a few moments alone."

"But sir we have to rendezvous with the first fleet. We still have to get the Sandra re..."

"I'm quite sure you are more than capable of handling all the preflight checks yourself Mister Rolent. I shall be there shortly. We have more than three hours left."

"As you wish Commander," replied Rolent curtly looking on at John with a smirk.

He and Yolo quickly headed towards the lock. Mero gestured to John to head for a more private spot near the hanger wall.

"Well John they finally drafted you, thanks to this alliance. I bet Mary didn't like it a bit," Keel said with a smile now looking more like the old friend John remembered.

"She sure didn't. She doesn't fancy this alliance with the Deverons and Lenards much. Mary even wanted me to desert and for us both to head out for the outer trading planets," said John with a long grin.

"She's not the only one that has had reservations about it. Many have said it's expecting far too much. However, we must show some faith in our Chairman Sharmov. I'm sure he's doing what's best for us all John."

"I guess your right Mero," said John with a somber look on his face.

"Of course I am," Keel replied with a halfhearted giggle and smile. He then said "Still you didn't do too badly Mister Handler of the Sandra."

"Actually," John whispered, "it's one of the lowest jobs for an officer on the Sandra."

"Oh, I see," Keel sadly replied.

John then took a quick look around to make sure he was out of ear shot from any of the crew on the deck. Quietly he said. "Um, you better watch that Lt. Commander Rolent. After he was passed up for the Sandra's command he's been a real bas... pain."

"Yeah I thought that might be it. I got the message right away, as soon as I realized something had him in a curl," said Mero looking down towards the lock.

"By the way John, where is Mary? Don't tell me you've got her hidden away on board somewhere?"

"Heavens no, she would be telling me how to do my job then. As well as give Rolent a good talking to. I'm just glad she's safely tucked away on Terra, working with the Civil Defense Department. I think she was going to try and get into nursing, or something, heaven only knows."

"When was the last time you saw her?" questioned Keel

"Oh, five months ago I believe. It was when I had a few days leave on Terra," answered John.

Mero said with a chuckle, smiling, "I bet she got it while she could."

John blushed a little and said laughing, "Well she got what she wanted."

Looking down at John, Mero asked, "Man it's been a long time since I last saw you. I think it was shortly after we left Quarantine, maybe a week or so after we got to Earth."

"Oh yeah the quarantine, I guess too many refugees from Oma overwhelmed the Terron ports all at once. It was so bad they had to stick us up in one of those old quarantine moon stations to handle the over flow. I know they needed to make sure we weren't carrying anything that could be problematic Earth side. Fortunately modern scanning devices rendered the need for quarantine stations over a hundred years ago. That was until we all came along and clogged up the works. Even all the planet's most modern medical scanners couldn't keep pace."

Keel then added, "It could have been worse if it were a hundred years ago the lot of us might still be stuck up there. Well at least until after you all were checked out with lots of long drawn out physical exams and testing by medical bots and..."

"Uh Mero," interrupted John. "What ever happened to the Leaken anyway?" he asked.

"Oh her, I was afraid you might ask." Mero said quietly. There was a long pause.

"Well Mero?" impatiently asked John.

"They uh...., scrapped her John," said Mero regretfully.

"Why?"

"They said that was all she was good for."

"Damn it Mero, I put a lot of years of hard work into that ship. Updating every circuit and bypass with the newest proven technology," John growled.

"I know John. You weren't the only one," Mero said frowning. "I guess we've got to look at it this way, her parts are now being used to build up our fleet. She could have never been made a combat vessel anyway."

"I suppose your right Mero," said John.

"Did you have any luck finding Mary's sister?" Mero asked.

"No, none, but we don't think she was on Oma when the Meants came," John replied.

"How's your old man then John? Did you see him when you finally got home to Earth?"

"Dad? Nah, he left home not long after Mom died. He wanted to get back out exploring again. I guess Mom was the last thing holding him back. I do get messages from him over the Hyper-subspace network from time to time."

"Well that's good, isn't it?"

"I suppose, but he's not a youngster anymore. I worry about him too much I guess."

"Well be grateful he can still get out and do what he wants to." Then with a sudden smile Mero remembered something. He reached into one of his pockets and carefully pulled out a slip of paper.

"What's that?" John asked.

"These are my orders," he said glancing over them. "It would seem you and Mary maybe in for some luck my friend."

Before Keel was able to continue an announcement rang throughout the ship, "This is the first officer Rolent we are now at T-minus 2 hours and fifty one minutes until departure. That is T-minus 2 hours and fifty one minutes."

"Crap! There is not much time left. Sorry John I need to go. I'll see you later then." Keel said as he bolted for the lock.

"Ok... sure, sir," replied John sadly.

John watched him until he entered the lock. He then went back to his check list after activating it on his wrist band. He began to walk back over to the deck chief. After a few seconds he stopped and looked back at the lock and said, "Luck? What luck?"
Chapter IV

The T.K.S. Casine

Hanging ominously in the deep vastness of space rested a small group of battleships and cruisers. This was the pride of the Terron kingdom, it's First Fleet. The variously shaped, dull gray vessels were lit only by faint star light from all around them and a few lights along their exteriors. The entire fleet was well armed with numerous laser cannons, and laser buckets littering their hulls. Posed at the front of this armada was the cruiser the T. K. S. Casine. Even though the Casine was the smallest ship in the fleet, it was the best armed and newest vessel in all of the Terron forces. That was why she was chosen to be the fleets Flagship.

The Casine's design was a rather simple one. All her engines were mounted together to make up the bulk of the ship. Its two jump engines at the side with an ion drive in the rear were all housed in this part of the vessel. Extending from the front of this was a long neck and a hammerhead like structure. Viewed from the front the hammerhead was elliptical with its ends tapering out to a point. Here was housed the ships main laser cannon. Only a mere ten meters above the ships most powerful weapon were the bright lights of the elongated bridge viewport.

Blue clad men were stationed on the hexagonal bridge. The viewport took up the front wall while the others were covered with command consoles except for two doors in the back. The only console not attached to bridge walls was the command station in the center of the room.

Seated at this console was an older man who wore the ranking uniform of Commodore. He was not only in command of the Casine, but also the entire First Fleet. He was a well seasoned space officer who still possessed the physique of a trim thirty year old. Only his wrinkled dark brown features and long bright white hair gave away his true age. The Commodore was staring out the bridges long viewport just below a large view-screen. He sat there quietly, waiting.

From behind him one of the access doors opened. A tall young officer gracefully walked onto the bridge. The door silently closed behind him as he stopped and stood behind the Commodore.

Even with his bright yellow eyes and pale skin his profile was still rather dignified. His smooth ashy white face was flawless, except for a few small burns. He had been in the service for a while now and being a Pale made it far more difficult on him than others. In the early days it was extremely hard on him. Not only did he have to build up his immunity to all kinds of germs, he had to protect himself from being burned by the mildest sun light. Over the years he had found useful anti UV products for protection, but he still had to be careful.

"Well Mr. Pio where is she?" asked the Commodore, still looking out the viewport knowing his young first Lieutenant was behind him.

The man, being somewhat surprised, was only able to say, "Uh, I'm not sure sir."

"Damn it Pio if you can't do your job. I'll just get someone else to be my tactical and acting first officer," barked the Commodore as he turned in his chair and looked up at him.

"Commodore Zoyas, I do not know where the T.K.S. Sandra Twenty-Three is. She should have been in scanner range by now," Pio coldly stated.

"So first lieutenant Pio, it's not your fault this time." The Commodore said with a grin.

"I have no idea what could hav..."

"Sir!" interrupted a short young female officer stationed along the wall of consoles. She was looking intensely at her scanning station.

"Yes corporal Lena, what is it?" asked Zoyas as he quickly rose from his seat and walked over towards her.

Zoyas stood behind the short plump lady and gazed over her shoulder as her console screen began to glow.

Pio quickly took his tactical station nearby.

"Well what the hell is it?" again questioned Zoyas.

"Something coming in on long range scanners sir," replied Lena working on her console.

The Commodore turned sharply and headed for his seat ordering, "Let's keep it simple for now, give me a two-D tactical on screen Pio," Zoyas said focusing his eyes up to the large view screen above the viewport.

As he took his chair the large screen came to life. A white dot with a number of blue ones underneath it appeared at the center of the screen. Slowly a small red dot faded on the top edge and began to move towards the center.

"I have tracers on, trying to identify," Pio said working at his console.

"Is she talking?" Zoyas asked.

"Nothing coming from it on any channels sir," stated the communications officer along the wall focused on their station.

"Go ahead and try to contact it Lieutenant Gibs," ordered the Commodore.

"Yes sir," The communications officer replied. Then after a few moments he said, "I'm not receiving any signals from the target at all sir."

"Hum that's funny," Whispered Zoyas.

"It may be the Sandra?" Pio said looking up from his console over at the Commodore.

"Then why doesn't she respond Pio?"

"Commodore you're not possibly suggesting that it could be a Meant vessel."

"And why not Pio?" Zoyas asked.

"Come now sir," Pio was saying almost with a laugh. "The Meants wouldn't come this deep into Terron space."

"Well Mister Pio a year ago they said the Meants would never touch Oma."

Pio rubbed his chin puzzled then said, "If it is a Meant ship, maybe they are the reason for why the Sandra has not showed up yet?"

"I see you finally understand my point of view then?" Zoyas asked.

"I'm not sure sir," stammered the tactical officer still rubbing his chin.

Leaning forward the Commodore ordered. "Half speed ahead, combat alert."

"Aye sir, half ion-drive ahead," Echoed the helmsman from a console at the front of the bridge.

A soft whine filled the room as combat warning sirens sounded throughout the ship. The bridge lights slowly dimmed.

"Gibs," Zoyas said swiveling around to face the communications console.

"Yes sir," he replied.

"Order the rest of the fleet to combat alert, and tell them the Casine will check this boggy out herself. The rest of the fleet is to maintain their current position."

"Yes sir," he said going to work at his console to relay the information.

The rear of the Casine flared to life. Hot jets from the ion drive streamed from her aft. Slowly the flagship pulled away from the rest of the fleet.

"Alright I think the crew is alerted now cut that damn alert noise," the Commodore ordered. He was relieved when the droning stopped. Looking around to the tactical station the Commodore asked, "What do tracers tell you Mister Pio?"

"Target is still out of range for any definite ID sir. Though it does appear to be a space vessel of some type," replied Pio gazing at his console screen.

"Um...," Zoyas muttered biting his upper lip as he stared back up at the red dot on the main view screen.

The small group of blue dots, representing the fleet, moved sluggishly down the screen as the unknown target drew even closer to the center white dot.

"Position of unidentified ship?" the Commodore asked still biting his lip.

"They are at eleven point six mark one point seven. It's approaching us at top sub-light speeds. There's a definite hot ion trail behind her sir," Lena reported from her post.

"Helmsman Una, set course to eleven point six mark one point seven, full speed!" barked Zoyas.

Looking over at the Commodore Pio asked, "Are you sure about this?"

"You don't reach my rank for being someone else's patsy," He told Pio coldly.

"Course and speed set sir," the helmsman replied.

"Alright Una lets go," Commodore Zoyas ordered.

Large ion thrusters from the top and sides of the ship burst to life to turn the massive ship to the new course. Once reaching it, counter thrusters fired to lock the ship onto its new heading.

"We are now on collision course sir," shouted the helmsman as a cold sweat rolled down his face and new alarms wailed.

"Gibs anything yet?" Zoyas snapped with his eyes still locked on the red dot coming down the center of the screen growing closer.

After a brief moment Gibs replied in a shaky voice, "Nothing sir."

"Right," The Commodore said leaning back into his seat. "Arm the main cannon!" he coolly ordered.

"Aye sir," boldly said another corporal at the weapons station. With a few punches on his console he stated, "Armed, ready to fire on your orders."

"Set to full power Mister Mandez," Zoyas added.

"Aye sir," Mandez replied.

Rubbing one of his ears the Commodore grunted, "Turn that damn collision alarm off, I think we are all well aware we are headed right for the target!"

The alarm stopped and they all watched as the small red dot drew closer to the white dot at the center of the screen. The small group of blue dots were now about halfway towards the bottom of the screen.

"Give me a visual of the object, full magnification," Zoyas calmly ordered.

Pio looked up from his console for a second to see the screen. He has seen combat before and each time it reminded him just how mortal he was.

The colorful dots faded away and a field of stars replaced them. A small gray spot could be seen at the center and it was growing.

"Well Pio what do you think it is?" Commodore Zoyas asked his tactical officer.

Pio replied while still looking at the screen, "I have no ideas sir. I'm sorry I am still unable to ID."

Looking over at the weapons station Zoyas orders, "I don't want anyone getting trigger happy. No one is to fire until I so order it."

"Aye," replied corporal Mandez at his weapons post.

"Sir!" said a loud voice from behind the Commodore.

"Yes Gibs?" He asked swiveling around to look at him.

"I'm picking up some radio wave chatter. I can't make it out," he reported placing an ear phone to his ear trying to hear it.

"Hum... well Pio what is your assessment?" Zoyas asked looking over at his pale white officer.

"Commodore, since radio frequencies are no longer used for standard communication I wonder if it could be some sort of covert communications signal, maybe even some attempt at jamming. I say fire on them before they can attack us," Pio strongly advised.

After looking at Pio for a few seconds the Commodore said with a smile and a twinkle in his eye, "No that's not very good advice Mister Pio." Then looking back at the communications officer he said, "Gibs open up the red radio channel; code one, ship to ship."

Gibs looked at him curiously at first. Then quickly did what the Commodore asked.

Looking over at Pio Zoyas simply said, "One last thing to check first."

Gibs stated, "Go ahead sir, channel open"

"This is the T.K.S. Casine. Please identify your vessel," officially asked the Commodore as he stared at Gibs.

Static filled the bridge. The spot on the viewer grew even larger. Its details were still not very clear. Everyone on the bridge, except the Commodore, continued to stare nervously at the object.

Finally a sharp clear voice broke though the static. "This is the T.K.S. Sandra, Captain Keel reporting in sir. I'm sorry for the delay. We have been having problems with our communications. Just before we jumped out a large solar flare knocked out our Hyper-subspace communications. Our radio seems to be the only thing functioning sir."

"Those good old three stars of the Alpha Centaurian system can be rather unpredictable," Zoyas told Keel.

"Yes sir they are. It may take some time to get everything back on-line again. We'll stay on red channel until then sir," said the clear voice of Keel through the static.

"Very well Captain, follow us on to the fleet. We'll send some help over once we rendezvous with them."

"Aye sir, Sandra out," Keel replied followed by a loud click.

"Positive ID on tracers sir," said Pio. Which didn't matter now, everyone could see the large number twenty-three clearly on the screen. Even the bright lights of Sandra's bridge were now visible.

"Sound the all clear and power down all weapon systems," Zoyas ordered.

As the bridges lights brightened a soft warm all clear siren rang a few times throughout the ship. You could see just how relieved the bridge crew now where.

"Mister Gibs please inform the rest of the fleet about both ours and the Sandra's status. Oh yes, make sure to keep that red channel open," Zoyas said turning slighting in his chair to look at Pio.

"Aye," Gibs replied.

"You knew all along, didn't you sir," Pio asked staring at the Commodore.

"That was your lesson for today Pio. Anything or anyone could be out there. No matter where you are. Never take anything for granted. Take no chances and try not to make any stupid mistakes either," Zoyas told Pio with a smile.

Pio could only mouth a few words, he was dumbfounded. The old dog taught the puppy a few new tricks this time.

"Mister Una hard about, return us to the fleet." Zoyas ordered with a smile turning his chair back towards the screen and viewport.

Firing its thrusters the Casine turned ever so slowly around and headed back towards the fleet with the Sandra following closely behind.
Chapter V

Part 1

Meha's Problem

It was pitch black as Meha tried to feel his way around. It was so dark that he couldn't even see his own pale wrinkled hands in front of his face. Meha reached for his pockets hoping he might have something that could illuminate his surroundings. He was startled to feel only his own clammy warm plump flesh. Not only didn't he have pockets, he wasn't wearing anything at all.

He continued to grope his way around the room until he abruptly ran into something. It was just as black as everything else around him. If not for the pain of the impact he wouldn't have known it was there. Meha felt the object before him. It was cool to the touch and seemed to go much higher than his short stature could reach. He began to slowly feel his way along the object, first in one direction for a little ways then the other. He found that it was consistently smooth, flat and cool. Meha realized it must be a wall of some kind.

Suddenly from somewhere behind him came a yellow light. He turned to take a look at it. Without warning it intensified. As the blinding rays hit his yellow eyes they inflicted his whole body with unbearable pain. Quickly he closed his eyes and looked away while using both of his hands to block the light.

Once more the room was engulfed in total darkness. Meha slowly opened his eyes to peer through the blackness. The only thing he could see was a yellow glow that had been imprinted onto his retina from the painful bright light.

With his eyes still closed he nervously groped further along the wall. Finally he found a corner where two walls met. The burned glow in his eyes was starting to fade. Cautiously he took another chance to look around again.

As soon as his eyes were open the blinding rays struck his eyes, causing him even more agony.

"No please!" the naked fat old man screamed. Holding both of his hands over his eyes he slid down the corner and onto the floor.

Meha groaned loudly in both pain and fear. The light unexpectedly dimmed and softened along with his pain. This time it didn't disappear abruptly. It ever so slowly just let the darkness creep in. Before the light was completely gone Meha moved his hands and opened his eyes to see that his naked body was lying on the floor in a corner to a large square black room.

From out of the darkness a ghost like voice said, "This or..."

Suddenly it grew lighter all around Meha until everything turned a bright white. At first he braced for the pain while closing his eyes and holding both his hands over them. To his surprise the light was quite pleasant this time and not painful. He found himself floating alone in the white light. Instantly all of Meha's pain was relieved and replaced with a sense of euphoria.

Meha looked down to see that he was no longer naked. He was dressed in a very soft and warm dark red garment. As the light began to dim he realized he was now sitting on a golden throne. As the brightness faded completely he found himself surrounded by numerous beautiful women within some kind of fuzzy white room. The women were half naked and very attractive. They represented the most beautiful of all the categories of human females. There was even one of his own kind among them, she was an extremely tall lovely powder white pale.

They started to serve him various fine foods and a number of strong sweet wines. Unsure of everything Meha sat there and refused their offerings. Only after the lovely ladies continued to insist he finally gave in and accepted a few of the items they were offering him. Carefully he munched on a small piece of sweet fruit and took a sip of wine. Meha was really starting to enjoy himself as some of the ladies snuggled up to him while the rest danced for him.

From nowhere a stooped over, dirty ragged man shuffled into the room. Meha was startled and dropped his glass of wine.

Immediately the ladies were frightened by the strange man and took refuge behind Meha's throne.

Meha could tell that the poor fellow was extremely malnourished. Both his hands and feet were shackled. Meha was surprised the man was even able to walk because of the short chains on his restraints. The man was filthy from head to toe and smelled most foul. What few rags he was wearing barely covered him. Meha could also see that the man had been beaten numerous times.

The chained man struggled with his chains to look up at Meha. The man's eyes were a bright yellow. Meha realized that the poor man was a pale like himself. All the dirt and grime had covered his natural pale white skin.

The dirty man exclaimed in a worn out muffled voice, "Oh please, please save me."

Meha quickly rose from his throne and grabbed the man's arm to help steady him. Meha smiled at him and offered him some of the fruit he had been eating. The man devoured the fruit in seconds and kneeled before Meha.

Just as Meha was about to ask the shackled man the reasons for his condition all of the ladies fled the white room. They were terrified by something. Meha soon saw what had frightened the lovely ladies off.

Two tall Meant guards, also dressed in red had entered the room. They had their laser pistols aimed at the shackled man.

"Halt slave!" barked one of the guards.

The chained man quickly got up and tried to shuffle his way towards a door past Meha.

Before Meha could react two blasts erupted from the guards guns. The impact struck the poor slave in the back. The smoldering corpse fell to the white floor with a soft thud. Slowly a puddle of inky red encircled the body as it lay on the white floor.

Quickly Meha ran over to the ragged man's aid, but it was too late.

"No!" Meha yelled. "No!"

The two guards walked towards Meha aiming their weapons at him. Meha stood over the burned body in the warm puddle of blood and looked at them with disdain.

Once the guards were close enough to see Meha and his red robes they quickly lowered their guns. They stood before him and saluted.

One of them coldly stated, "I'm sorry sir, but it was necessary."

"He was only a miserable pasty slave sir," the other said dryly.

Meha stared into the guards faces. They were cold and almost as ghostly white as the room.

Meha snapped, "He was a fellow Pale and a human being, damn you!"

"So what does that make you sir," One of the guards asked.

"He's only a higher ranking slave, that's all." replied the other guard.

Both of the guards started laughing at Meha. At first it was very soft and subtle, then it grew louder and louder.

"No, no, no," ranted Meha as he ripped off his robes and threw them at the guards.

Now completely nude he yelled at them both, "Never, never!"

A thick inky blackness once again surrounded him as he continued to scream, "Never, never!"

Pain struck his body as it floated in the darkness. It was burning hot as if he were being shot like the slave over and over again.

Yet Meha continued to shout, "Never, never, never!"

"Very well then!" echoed a loud voice from all around Meha. It vibrated his entire being, even down to his very soul.

Flames rose all around him. Pain engulfed every part of Meha's body as he burned within the hot flames.

"Never, neveeer ahhh!" he howled with both pain and fear.

Meha started to roll. Around and around he spun until he suddenly hit a floor. He moaned loudly as he lay there on his back. A light came on and a sparsely decorated bedroom now surrounded him. Over him was a large bed with a very lovely white skinned lady peeking at him over the edge.

She was thin and frail, but very attractive for a middle aged woman. With yellow eyes she gazed down at Meha deeply concerned. She got out of bed and down onto her knees, tucking her golden night gown underneath them.

Meha's thin night clothes were soaked with sweat. He was trembling with his eyes wide open. They were locked, transfixed onto something.

As he quivered on the floor the thin lady gently stroked his forehead.

"Meha my dear husband, what's wrong?" She asked softly with a slight shutter in her voice.

When Meha's stare finally broke he looked over at his wife. He grabbed her still trembling as tears of fear and pain flooded his eyes.

"Leneta," he said with a parched whisper.

"Oh no, not again Meha," she cried once realizing what was going on. She cuddled the man in her arms and wept out loud.

"Yes my dear Leneta, it happened again. It was the same realistic dream. Oh God what pain." He was able to mutter.

"The same cruel one that has plagued you all these many nights," Leneta was able to sob out.

"Yes dear, the very same one. I thought it was over, but this time it has come back even more intensely," he replied wiping his tears away.

The door at the far end of the room flew open. An old gentleman with a short white beard stood there frowning at them. Like Meha he was rather short for a Pale, but had the typical skin tones and gray hair. He was dressed in a bright yellow robe, and was holding a golden anti-gravity cane handle.

Carefully the old man walked over towards them leaning heavily on the cane handle. When he was a few feet away from the couple he stopped and folded his arms. The cane handle hovered in the air where he let go of it.

The man looked down at them and politely asked, "Again huh?"

Wiping her tears and trying to recompose herself Leneta replied, "Yes Vice Chancellor Tyu, it has happened again."

"Hum... that makes for at least a dozen or more times now Meha. This is not good. It has made a wreck out of you Chancellor." Tyu said stroking his beard.

Looking down at Meha he then asked, "What have the doctors said?"

"They don't know yet, and I strongly doubt if they ever will," wheezed Meha. "I thought it was over. I went almost a week with out troubles, then tonight...."

"You shouldn't let those Meants get to you Meha," interrupted Tyu.

"What? They're not the problem. I have been telling you that." The Chancellor said as he tried to rise up off the floor.

His wife helped him pull his large body back onto the bed. The mattress sank under his weight. Leneta sat beside him and held him with a loving embrace. A few tears still rolled down her cheeks. No matter how hard she tried she could not hide her emotions, even in front of the Vice Chancellor.

"Well then may I ask what the problem is Meha?" Tyu asked curtly.

"That, I'm not really sure of either." Meha said questioning himself as he rubbed his forehead.

"What do you mean dear?" Leneta asked with a sniffle.

"Yes Meha what do you mean?" also inquired Tyu.

Meha looked up to the ceiling and pondered. Then after a few moments he said. "It was someone, no something that dragged me through it all." He sat there with his eyes closed and concentrated on what he just realized.

"What?" asked Tyu and Leneta at almost the same instance?

"No, it was some kind of a force." Meha elaborated once he opened his eyes. "It's a power of some kind, a yellow power." Turning he looked deeply into Leneta's eyes.

"Who me?" she exclaimed with surprise.

Smiling the Chancellor replied "No dear, it has nothing to do with you. Or even our own people for that matter." Staring up into Tyu's eyes Meha continued to mumble. "Yes it was a yellow force of some kind."

"So the Meants are using some kind of magical powers against us?" Tyu sarcastically laughed.

"Yes Tyu, I think they are." Meha said with a serious chill.

Tyu's chuckling quickly ceased and he said. "Come now Meha, it's impossible."

"Is it Tyu? Is it?" again Chancellor Meha said with conviction.

"Oh, next you'll be telling us it was some evil demon the Meants have summoned up." Tyu smirked as he grabbed his cane handle and leaned on it.

"That's the funny thing," Meha said looking at both the Vice Chancellor and his wife. "It wasn't evil, even though it was doing evil things. I got the feeling that it really didn't want to hurt me. I sensed no malice from it. There were even a few times I could have sworn it stopped just because it knew how much I was suffering."

"So what are you saying? This thing that is attacking you also has some empathy towards you?" Leneta asked.

"Yes I think it does. It's almost as if it doesn't want to do what it was doing to me. So who's in the Meant Empire is making it do these terrible things to me?" Replied Meha as he leaned over and placed his head on Leneta's shoulder.
Chapter V

Part 2

Mrs. Marret

In the system of Sol is the Capital planet of the Terron Kingdom called Earth, also known by the much older name of Terra. It is the third body in a system of many diverse planets and moons.

Mankind used his knowledge to terraform a few of the other planets in this system, but the mother world of the human race still remains much as she had always been. Her vast blue oceans and lush green lands were made naturally and are still rich with an assortment of life forms.

The Terron capital of Utopia is far from the largest city on Earth. Throughout history there are many other, much older, better known cities that were once considered to be the center of the world. As the Kingdom of Terra grew a new capital was needed to handle the ever growing needs of a bureaucracy to support it. The Terron council decided to build it on the oldest soil known to have been inhabited by man, the continent of Africa.

Mary was staring out the window of the tall Terron Civil Defense Center building. She could see the busy streets far below and a good deal of traffic in the skies all around her. Utopia was very much alive. Many hover cars blew their horns as they made way through the thick traffic. Everyone seemed to be in a hurry, working hard to support and control the small, but still important Kingdom of Terra.

She looked up at the slender majestic skyscrapers that surrounded her building. The largest and oldest of these towering structures was the capital building where the council's meeting chambers and living quarters were when they stayed on Earth.

Far above the buildings she could just make out a few small spacecraft and atmospheric transporters flying high among the clouds. The bright yellow sun hung high above it all, giving everything the warm glow of a noon day sun.

Mary let out a loud yawn. She had been living on Earth for almost a year now she still had not gotten used to the longer day and night cycle. Oma, her home world, had a twenty plus hour a day cycle which was much closer to galactic standard time.

She stared off into the distance in a dreamy gaze. She smiled and thought about the old days back home with John. She remembered the last time they were both at the mountain park under a tall blue Sasif tree late at night. There under the stars they made love again in their favorite spot. Their nude bodies glistened in the glow of the stars. Many flowers and trees filled their noses with sweet smells. She rejoiced as the scents filled her lungs.

Mary let out a soft grown remembering just how wonderful it all was.

"It's all just too much for me," suddenly said a man busting Mary's world like a flimsy soap bubble.

Mary awoke to see a couple of fellow co-workers walking by her. The man was tall, lean and well dressed in a modern pink suit. The other was a burly blonde lady with short hair wearing a dark top and matching slacks.

Mary looked down at her simple plain purple dress. It was a far cry from the more expensive garb most of her co-workers wore. Since John had been drafted he had lost a good chunk of his earnings. This was one of the reasons Mary had to find work to help pay her bills. Most of their saving and banking funds were taken offline after the Empire invaded Oma.

"...and now they want to be able to get married!" the blond exclaimed. After seeing Mary nearby she continued in more of a hushed tone and asked the man, "Can you believe it?"

Oblivious to Mary's presence the man also asked with a chirp, "How can you have a marriage with more than two people?"

"I was telling my wife this has to be stopped," the blond softly replied.

"Oh I know, even my husband thinks so too," the man interjected.

"What's next, marriage to robots?" added the blond looking utterly appalled by the thought.

The two continued talking as they made their way down the hallway. Their discussion made Mary wonder just how old fashioned her marriage to John must seem.

Mary walked off in the other direction and headed back to work. She entered a large room full of sectioned off cubical spaces. She slowly made her way towards her workspace. The room was full of the soft hum of workers talking to each other and all the other subtle noises they made as they did their daily tasks.

Mary finally made her way to her small cubical space. It had a small chair and a corner desk shelf with a holographic computer terminal. She had a few pictures of John and his ship, the Sandra, on the cubical wall, but not much else.

Mary sat down in her chair and with a soft sigh she places her hand over the empty terminal access area. A beam of light quickly scans her hand and disappears. Mary retracts her hand and a holographic flat screen display appears with a three dimensional keyboard. In the display area bold green letters appear reading, "Access Granted." A soft warm computerized voice then says, "Welcome Mrs. Marret."

An image of a holographic meadow appears in the rectangular defined screen area. In the middle of it appears a tall blue Sasif tree, causing Mary to smile.

Then numerous file icons floated around the screen and begin to line up one after another. They quickly begin to cover the entire view of the meadow and the tree. A large blue screen appeared with a number of select options.

Mary reached for one of them so she could start working again on organizing yet more files for the CDC. Just as she was about to touch the holographic screen she stopped and looked up at the right hand corner of the display to see the time and date.

"Hum," she mumbled to herself, "I've still got over ten minutes before my break is up."

She moved her finger down to the bottom of the screen and selected the network access option. The blue screen was covered up by a white one with a number of options on it. Quickly Mary selected a search engine option. Within seconds she was furiously typing on here keyboard of light. Once she was done she looked up and the screen changed. The word "searching" flashed on and off on the display before her.

After waiting for a few moments the screen displayed in the white search area, "Last know location: Earth..."

Mary smiled, finally after all this time she had finally gotten a lead on her sister. It's been a long time and Mary has only been able to check the galactic network from work. With all her budget concerns having a home system, much less network access was out of the question.

Then just as the system was about to give her more details the holographic screen and keyboard controls dimmed then disappeared. From behind her a sharp loud voice barked, "Mrs. Marret!"

A tall plump man dressed in a crisp, long sleeved, formal, white uniform stood at her cubical entrance. He stared down at her with contempt. His cold brown eyes burned through her and his red hair seemed to glow as if it were aflame.

The wrinkles on his forehead packed together tightly as he continued to rage, "Mrs. Marret what in the hell are you doing? You know network access is strictly for work related duties only! We have been monitoring your access via hyper wave to other systems on numerous planets."

From behind this odd fellow Mary could see other co-workers popping up from their cubicles to see what was going on.

"And exactly who the hell are you anyway?" Mary snapped back and stood to face the man eye to eye.

Taken by surprise the man took a step back and out of Mary's cubical. Then with a quick snort he replied. "I am Mister Uona, I'm the new Manager of Operations of this center Mrs. Marret."

"It's never been an issue before as long as I'm not on the clock. I still have a few minutes of my break left," Mary grunted.

"Since the previous manager did not understand how to run things properly I enacted a new policy on this matter. You should have been informed that this was no longer to be allowed via memo," Uona quipped back.

By this point a number of Mary's co-workers were out of their cubicles and watching the heated exchange. Even the tall, lean man in the pink suit and the burly blond lady were now hovering nearby.

"I'm only using it to find my sister Mister Unoa," Mary explained. "She's been missing for..."

"Why don't you just do that from your home system," Uona interrupted.

"I can't afford it any longer since my husband had been drafted," Mary quickly snapped back, offended by Uona's interruption.

"We all must make sacrifices in order to ensure our freedoms Mrs. Marret, besides our systems should never be used for such trivial matters". Uona said wide eyed with all his forehead wrinkles squeezed together.

Mary exclaimed, "I don't think finding my missing sister is a trivial matter Mister Uona!"

Mister Uona stepped back, spun around and headed towards the level elevators. "I see we have an attitude problem Mrs. Marret. I shall advise Level One personal of this matter immediately," he said as he walked away.

Uono's words echoed in Mary's head while she was wondering where she could find another job. Mary realized a few of his words had a strange familiarity to them. She had experienced that voice, some of those words, and a feeling of anxiety before. Just like a light had been turned on in her head she came to a startling conclusion.

"Mister Uona, when was the last time you were on Oma?" Mary asked with her eyes narrowing on the man.

Uona, suddenly stopped, he bit his lip and slowly turned around to face Mary. The audience, whose attention he was enjoying so much before, now annoyed him.

"Get back to work! There's nothing you need to concern yourselves with here," he snapped at them all.

Slowly they all started to creep away until Mary said, "Oh no, let them stay and hear it all, the entire story."

"Mrs. Marrent I'm sorry for over reacting. We can discuss this matter further in my office," said Uona as beads of sweat formed on his wrinkled brow.

"I don't think so," she replied glaring at Uona.

"I've had enough of this," Uona grunted and made his way out of the room of cubicles and down the hallway towards one of the elevators.

"Oh no," Mary exclaimed and was quickly on Uona's heels.

She found Uona in the hallway at the elevator. Uona was franticly waving his hand over the access panel to call the lift. He and Mary both knew it could take a while before one would arrive.

Mary slowly came up to Uona and stood a few meters away. She was unaware there was a crowd of people behind her.

"I told you all to get back to work!" Uona yelled.

Mary looked back to see all her fellow workers, even the pink suited man and his blond lady friend was there. Slowly, they all started to turn around and walk away because of Uona's order.

"Oh no, let them stay Mister Uona. I'm sure they would like to hear what you've got to say," growled Mary.

A few in the crowd continued to leave, but the rest stopped and turned back around too at the behest of Mary.

Mary grabbed Unoa by his left arm and demanded, "Tell them! Let them know what a great man you are!"

"You know as well as I there was nothing we could have done. It was best just to give up, it saved lives." Uona replied avoiding eye contact with Mary.

"But that's not the point! You were only concerned about your own worthless skin!" snapped Mary

"Just what could I have done?" Uona moaned looking at the floor.

"You could have negotiated with the Empire to buy time for withdrawal, organized some more peaceful surrender, Hell I don't know. The fact is you didn't even try," snorted Mary as she glared at Uona.

"Mrs. Marret please!" Uona screamed as he shook his left arm trying to loosen Mary's grip. He managed to get free from her but ripped his left sleeve in doing so.

Upon inspecting the damage Uona yelled, "Shit!" and his face turned red with rage. Looking Mary in the eye he barked, "Mrs. Marret I'm going to call security and ask for your immediate removal!"

Mary clinched her right fist, swung it and screamed, "You son of a Bitch!"

It struck evenly on Uona's jaw causing him to collapse with a heavy thud. He landed on the hallway floor just past the elevator doors.

Uona looked up at her shocked. A small drop of blood dribbled from his lower lip. He slowly rubbed his jaw and felt the warm wetness on his hand. Quickly he looked at the blood on his hand and froze. Not with fear or terror, but from the shear reality of it all.

"Ah," exclaimed the pink suited man after seeing the blood. He fainted into his burly blond companions arms.

"You left Oma before the Meant fleet even got there. You didn't give a shit about anyone except yourself. You damn coward, how could you do that to us!" yelled Mary at the top of her lungs shaking her right fist over Uona. She raised it and prepared to strike the man again.

Just as she was about to let loose of the swing it was stopped. From behind her someone had grabbed her right wrist. Quickly she turned to find out who would dare try to stop her.

A tall, dark, handsome man wearing a blue uniform stood in the now open elevator smiling at her.

"Mary, my, my." He scolded, more with his eyes than his soft warm voice.

Mary bolted into his arms and began to cry. She sobbed out loud to him. "He didn't do anything, he didn't even try. Oh John how could he do that to us, his own people."

Looking down at her John softly replied in her ear, "I don't know dear. He may not even know himself."

Quietly he led her, arm in arm into the lift. They stood there a moment and looked at one another. Mary tried to dry her eyes with the backs of her hand. She was even able to smile up at John.

"Don't get used to it Hon. I can only stay for a few days. Our fleet is to be stationed in this area for the time being, but I won't be granted leave much," calmly said John with a long smile.

She cuddled him as he hit the holographic first floor button inside the elevator. She sniffled and a tear flowed down to her chin. John gently wiped it away.

As the doors closed she purred up at him, "I'm going to enjoy as much of it as I can."

Uona rose to his feet, looked over and stared at them. Once the doors were closed he let out a long sigh of relief.
Chapter V

Part 3

Old Times

High atop the city of Utopia in the majestic capital building an old white haired man was looking out one of its large windows. Sharmov furrowed his yellow wrinkled brow as he looked down on the city and wondered just how well his people were doing. Finally he let out a long sigh and turned away from the window and faced his humble living quarters.

His main living room was small and had only a few sparse furnishings. The walls were a warm cream color and glowed slightly giving the room its indirect lighting. There was a small bedroom, bathroom and kitchen adjacent to this room. Having been a bachelor for many years now he no longer required a large home. It was the smallest suite available for council use. Most of the other members preferred much more luxurious accommodations, even though they did not live on Earth full time like Sharmov.

"Activate channel B one eight three four, main viewer," said Sharmov to the room.

"Yes sir," said a soft warm disembodied feminine voice.

A screen of light near a far wall appeared from nowhere showing a handsome man and gorgeous woman going over the news.

The man was heard in mid-sentence saying, "... has caused a number of shortages since the forming of the alliance. There are growing reports of the other kingdoms in the alliance are also suffering. Many Terron citizens feel that this alliance has been far too detrimental to our kingdom. This is just one more example of the short comings as they continue to come from the Council. There is also talk about extending the required two years of draft service to three because of the short falls in..."

"Crap and more political crap. Those fools just don't understand what's at stake," Sharmov interrupted. "Let see channel N two three four nine."

The image changed to show a very old movie. It depicted two crewmen discussing options as their small spacecraft is being attacked. Just like before the sound for the images seemed to be coming from the screen itself.

"They are still coming at us from all sides!" said one of them at the ships controls.

The other one stood behind him and replied, "I don't know how long we can last, damn those pirates."

As Sharmov walked around the room the screen constantly adjusted itself to stay directly in his eye sight. Even when he walked closer to the wall its size shrunk so most of the screen could remain in his field of view.

The scene changes and he sees three larger space ships firing on the small one. Suddenly from nowhere several blasts hit one of the pirate ships and it explodes. Quickly the other two pirate vessels scatter. Then the silhouette of a larger space craft looms over the small two man ship that was being attacked.

Again the scene changes back to the crew inside the small craft. A transmission cracks over their radio and says, "This is the destroyer T.S. Nemo. I'm Captain Maro Keel, are you guys ok?"

"Hum," Sharmov said with a smirk, "I'm not interested in looking at a documentary right now, go to personal storage files. Pull C one two five six."

The image of a very primitive flat two dimensional cartoon formed on the screen showing an animated rabbit talking to a big headed hunter.

"Ah there we go," said Sharmov as he walked into the bedroom and lay on the bed. The image followed him and was now on the ceiling above him.

Sharmov looked up and saw the rabbit give the hunter a big kiss on the forehead then the hunter started to chase the rabbit.

Sharmov rolled over on his side and he shut his eyes. The sound dropped and the screen displayed a timer in its upper right corner and it ticked down to zero. Every time Sharmov reopened his eyes the timer automatically reset itself. After a few minutes Sharmov was sound asleep. After a few more minutes the timer reached zero and the screen disappeared.

Sharmov softly snored on his bed for a few moments before a bell noise interrupted his sleep. It took several rings before he rose off the bed and grumbled, "This better be important."

The warm lady computer voice replied, "Yes, according to your preset requirements..."

"Yeah, whatever, what is it?" Sharmov interrupted and headed for the living room.

"You have a call from Omal's Vice Chancellor Tyu," replied the lady's voice.

"What? What does that bum want from me now?" Sharmov said yawning as he flopped on a chair in his living room.

"Unknown sir, shall I patch him through?"

"Sure, give me full two way video," said Sharmov with a grin.

A flat screen of light appeared in front of Sharmov. At first it was a field of snow then quickly changed to a sharp crisp picture of a short white bearded gentleman with pale skin, yellow eyes, and gray hair.

"To what do I owe this harassment Vice Chancellor Tyu?" Sharmov quickly snapped.

"Nice to see you too you old Fart," Tyu retorted.

With that Sharmov let out a loud belly laugh and Tyu soon joined in.

Seeing Sharmovs disheveled appearance Tyu asked, "Did I wake you up Mike? It's got to be noon earth side. That's the middle of the day."

"I know Chang, it's the first day I've had off in a long time. I've been so busy with keeping this alliance together and bolstering the Terron peoples resolve I just don't get much sleep now days," explained Sharmov.

"Yes, the Empire keeps us all on our toes. It's very different from the old days when we were both in the ambassadors' core," Tyu reminisced.

"Ah yes, things were a bit wilder in those days," said Sharmov as he fondly began to remember. "It's funny you don't think your getting old until the first time you start talking about the old days."

"Too true, it's also interesting that the only thing back then that got us together was to fight pirates and organized crime," said Tyu.

"Ironic that the things that upset the security of the sovereign kingdoms also helped bring us together," stated Sharmov.

"We went from meeting on old dirty military vessels and eating rations to planetary mansions and fine cuisine," Tyu added while stroking on his white beard.

"For a while at least, so what happened? All the kingdoms were getting along so well." Sharmov asked.

"I guess we were too successful. We took care of all our joint concerns and didn't need each other anymore. Our ambassador duties became less and less important. It turned into casual contact and trading discussions," said Tyu.

Sharmov added, "As time went on I tried my best to keep in touch with as many as possible, but..."

"Remember good old Jill Johnson of the Meant Kingdom?" asked Tyu interrupting.

"Oh my yes, she was very attractive," Sharmov said with a smile.

"What ever became of her?" Tyu wondered. "She seemed to disappear right around the time the Empire was formed,"

"I don't know. It's very odd indeed. Many odd things began to happen when the Empire formed," Sharmov said staring off into space.

Breaking Sharmov from his trance Tyu said, "It's been too long my old friend. I'm sorry I haven't called you in a while."

"Yes it has. It's funny you should call Tyu. I am planning on proposing to the alliance the entry of the kingdom of Omal. I think this will..."

"No, I'm afraid that will not do," Tyu bluntly interrupted.

"Wha... What do you mean?" Sharmov said shocked.

"Is this a secure line?" Tyu asked.

Sharmov replied, "Yes, its standard security protocol..."

"Switch to encryption code three B seven," Tyu interrupted again.

With a smile Sharmov said, "All right then."

Tyu's floating image dissolved into a fuzz of snow and numbers.

"Set for deep encryption code Tyu one," Sharmov told the computer.

"Yes sir, encryption code loaded," the disembodied woman's voice said.

"Reactivate communication link," Sharmov said to the voice.

"Signal active, encryption accepted," replied the computer.

Tyu's image emerged into sharp clarity on the screen once again.

"You know we only ever had the one encryption code Tyu."

"I know that and you do, but it will help to confuse anyone monitoring us, especially if they managed to get our one and only code," insisted Tyu.

Sharmov nodded his head in agreement and said, "You have a point, but who would be interested in the ramblings of two old..."

Tyu interrupted, "It would not be wise to include Omal in the alliance."

"Why?" asked Sharmov.

"I'm afraid our Chancellor may have been... compromised," Tyu replied.

"Compromised, by who?" again Sharmov asked.

Tyu coldly replied, "Not by who my old friend, but by what."
