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  “Shields at eighty two percent captain, we were targeted by a disproportionate number of missiles. Firing on second target.”

  Jillintara said, “We lost thirty-one in that first volley.”

  Each ship had two targets of responsibility, we already had them divided out so there’d be no overlap thanks to the artificial intelligence in the fleet. I also had a bad feeling about this, if Denik left orders to attack our cruisers to take out the last of his family, we could be in deep shit.

  I hit our second target with twelve missiles, and twenty-four plasma weapons almost as an afterthought, I was on autopilot for that part. The destroyer didn’t have a chance, unfortunately we didn’t have much of a chance either, which was where all my attention was focused.

  Five hundred enemy ships left, spread out far around the planet Isyth, which is the only thing that really gave us a chance. All five hundred destroyers used their plasma arrays against the destroyers facing them, which didn’t do much. However, the enemy’s five hundred destroyers left had managed to catch up to things, and followed orders we didn’t know they had. Between them all, they put three thousand missiles into space.

  Half of them went to their opponent destroyers, which were marginally effective. The other half from every enemy destroyer was split up between the three cruisers. It was an act none of us had been expecting. The three cruisers, including the one I was on, had five hundred missiles targeted on us, each.

  The only good thing, was they would arrive in staggering waves that would last almost two full minutes. That was still four or five missiles a second. I was far too focused on countermeasures to feel scared, sometimes I wondered if that made me crazy, I was just as icy in battle as I’d been on a job back home squeezing the trigger on my sniper rifle.

  Over half fell to the spoofing countermeasures, and went off in random directions to space. The last two hundred fifty came at us in groups of ten or so, over the next ninety seconds depending on how far away the destroyers were from our position. I had superior speed, spatial awareness, and proprioception on my side, but assigning missile laser turrets to three missiles a second was just… impossible.

  I did the best I could, and assigned targets in blocks. It wouldn’t be as efficient, but it was our only chance. The turrets managed to take out an average of eight for each wave of ten, sometimes less, sometimes more, but that meant we were hit by forty-seven missiles over ninety seconds. Battleship level shielding or not, it wasn’t good enough, even spread out over ninety seconds the shields didn’t have enough time to recover.

  “Suits!”

  My suit sealed and the shield came on line, but I knew the shield would die as soon as the ship’s reactor went offline. The ship bucked and shook as missile after missile slammed into us, when the shields died the ship started to be blown and shaken apart. My console went dead, and the lights blinked out. The last thing I saw on the screen was the last of the enemy ships being destroyed, the leftovers from the ships we lost which had no longer been targeted and had to be taken in a third wave.

  Vik ordered, “Abandon ship!”

  Jillintara said, “Our best chance is the starboard shuttle. The port side of the ship is pretty much gone, and I have no connection to the ship any longer.”

  That made sense, we’d attacked the enemy with our port plasma arrays, so all the missiles hit the one side, the bow, and the stern. My legs were shaky as I stood, mostly from being thrown about as the ship exploded around us. We were lucky. The cruiser was large, and the point defense had shot the missiles going for our most sensitive areas.

  We used the manual override to get the bridge doors open, the ship was a loss, and we were lucky the reactor hadn’t lost containment, yet. The ship suits had fifteen minutes of air, and no secondary functions like gravity, shielding, or anything else except comms which were powered by our body heat.

  Absurdly, I made plans to update the ship suits to be supported by the power station on the moon, ship suits were for ship emergencies. In hindsight it was beyond obvious, it didn’t make a lick of sense to feed the power for all its features from the ship we served on.

  We launched ourselves down the corridor toward the escape shuttle, and got on. I felt a wave of relief as it was powered up, and disconnected from the ship with a jerk and clang. When I looked back at the ship, I blanched. Without the shields, and my enhanced reflexes, along with my insane predilection to remaining calm in action, we’d have been screwed. Most if not all of the missiles that got through had hit non-critical areas, but the ship was a total loss, over half of it was just gone.

  Jillintara said, “Sir, I’m taking us to a destroyer performing SAR on Dessia’s and Solyra’s cruiser. Their ship is offline as well, and beat up, but the core appears intact. Sir… Sylara’s ship has been destroyed.”

  Rylok!

  I felt a wave of sadness as I realized he was gone, and then one of anger as I realized what Sylara’s death would mean.

  I flushed with shame at the thought, and the feeling of anger I felt for her dying, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what that meant. Vik would be emperor, and my life would irrevocably change. Again. How selfish was that? I was such a selfish bitch, but I couldn’t help it. I loved everyone in this shuttle with me, except Janson, and I was about to lose them.

  There’s no way the emperor of the Isyth empire could continue an affair with an alien. I also knew Vic didn’t want the responsibility, and would rather be on a ship, but he would do his duty, I had no doubt of that.

  Chapter Three

  Dessia and Solyra were rescued, and I felt uncomfortable with the family’s grief. So many of the royal family dead, only three left, plus the murderous son and traitor. I felt selfish, worrying about what would happen to me, or what I’d do next, when Vik was mourning his family, and he worried about an ascension to authority he didn’t want and the weight of an empire on his shoulders.

  I wasn’t a total bitch, I wanted to comfort him, but I felt cut off from him as he mourned with his family. I also felt lost. He and the others were my first love, first loves? It was something most people go through when they have pimples in high school. I was mature in a lot of ways for my young age, but in this case I was totally unprepared for the physical pain in my chest, and at the suffocating sensation at the thought of no longer being with them.

  I hadn’t lost them yet, but I could see it coming. Worse, I knew they all loved me like I loved them, it was the circumstances, not our relationship, which would cause a break. Emperor Vik. This wasn’t one of my trashy romance novels, the girl wouldn’t be whooshed away and made a princess. I’d lose Vik, and Telidur would follow, once more becoming a royal guard. I was fairly sure he’d want to retain Jillintara as well, to run his royal ass ship. I tried to push it all down, but it was a losing fight.

  Jillintara said, “Sir, we have a problem.”

  Vik croaked, “What is it now?”

  Jillintara said, “A scout fled out-system after taking on a shuttle. The cruisers were focused on SAR operations for the damaged and destroyed ships, and can’t catch them at this point.”

  Vik asked, “Are you sure my brother is on that ship?”

  Jillintara replied, “I can’t prove it, but it seems likely with the additional facts. He had a hundred ships around the four other worlds, and the four non-empire worlds. That’s been cut back to fifty according to our scans. It appears those four hundred ships are all headed for his illegal ship building operation. The two hundred he had out searching is heading there as well.”

  Ugh. I forgot about that. Denik had normal ship building operations according to the law, but he also had that off-book one. Won’t he be surprised when he finds out we know about it. I was fairly sure he wasn’t aware of our Empire wide deployment of probes in all six thousand systems, so he probably didn’t know the system had been compromised. It even made sense from his point of view, it was really his only option to regroup and possibly hide-out until he got more ships built. He could
afford to drag it out, since he could continue to hold the empire hostage with the A.I. overrides until he’s dead.

  Vik sighed.

  “Alright. Let’s leave fifty ships here, and we’ll take the rest there and finish it. I’d been hoping not to destroy so many, we were counting on keeping those as a deterrent against the ships the Stolavii and Suaterans are building. Mom, Solyra, I want you both to transfer to one of the ships staying here.”

  Neither of them looked happy about that idea, but they left the bridge without arguing.

  Vik said, “How many ships does that leave us?”

  Jillintara said, “We lost sixty-two ships, so with leaving another fifty behind we’ll be going with three hundred eighty-eight. Ironically, we expected much heavier losses, but because they spent so many missiles on the three cruisers a lot more of our destroyers made it than otherwise would have.”

  He sighed, “That should be plenty against six hundred of the older destroyers. Wait, if we use the wormhole drive can we beat them there?”

  Jillintara replied, “It will be close, chances are we can beat four hundred there, the ones from the planets, if we move quickly. Most likely the two hundred outside of any systems can get there before we can leave the Isyth system far enough to open a wormhole.”

  He nodded, “That’s the plan then, let’s get moving. Two hundred won’t be a problem for us at all.”

  Telidur said, “Your mother and sister are off the ship.”

  “Let’s get moving,” Vic said grimly, “Be back on the bridge in thirteen hours,” and then he stalked off.

  Even with the wormhole drive to shorten the trip between systems, it would still take us thirteen hours before we’d be far enough out of Isyth’s system to open a wormhole. I ached to follow him, and comfort him, but I was a mess myself and didn’t know if I’d be welcome. I was upset about Rilok, angry at a dead empress, and selfishly distraught that our split wouldn’t come in decades or centuries as I’d hoped, but perhaps in mere days instead. This would be over soon, one way or another. What would I do, and who would I be?

  Earth was out, I didn’t want to go back there. I could probably open a business, or just live off the wealth from my inventions, that didn’t appeal either. I’d been rich before, and alone, I had no desire to live that way again. What choice did I have? I took a deep breath, maybe I was overreacting, only time would tell what would happen, or what opportunities would come my way.

  My heart wasn’t convinced as I walked off the bridge. I’d never believed in fairytales, and nothing lasts forever. I managed to make it back to my cabin before the tears fell.

  ….

  I was in a spiral of sorrow, depression, and self-castigation for being a selfish bitch for about ten minutes before someone requested entry to my cabin.

  “Open the door Ann,” I muttered to my A.I.

  I looked over to see an obviously concerned Jillintara walk into the room. My heart stirred with love and pain at her beauty, and at how close we’d become over the last year. She walked gracefully across the room and sat on the bed. I shivered at her touch when she caressed my face, and she moved my hair from my face. I both wanted her to leave me to my thoughts, and wanted her to never leave.

  “Are you alright? Want to talk about it?”

  I shrugged helplessly, “I’m still working it out in my own head. Everything has changed. What do you think will happen once Denik is taken care of?”

  I reached up and pulled her down next to me, so we were laying face to face on our sides. I felt both comfort, and shame for my selfishness having her there.

  Jillintara said, “I’m not sure, I imagine Vik will take the crown, and try to sort out the mess. I suspect a new royal ship will be built, and I hope I’ll be on it. Telidur will be his guard, and I’m sure you’ll have that option as well.”

  “Option?”

  Jillintara shrugged, “It’s what you were hired for. Weapons on the ship, bodyguard off the ship, though that second one didn’t happen much the last year. But your mandatory year of service for signing on is up, and it will be your choice to either continue or not. Especially considering you don’t’ really need the credits anymore.”

  I frowned, that easy was it? I supposed for an Isyth who was used to sharing lovers, the whole friends with benefits thing until marriage, it would be that easy. They weren’t human, and didn’t have the same jealousies and foibles, at least when it came to sex and relationships. I wasn’t sure I’d survive Vik’s search for a mate, a mate that could give him heirs and children, if I had to see it. Even if he did choose to continue to be with me until that search was over.

  Tears stung my eyes, as she gently kissed my forehead, and held me. I truly felt lost in that moment, but her scent, warmth, and presence was comforting. On the other hand, if I did stay, wouldn’t I be able to keep Jillintara and Telidur, at least for a time? Would that be worth feeling the pain of seeing Vik with some blue bitch that could give him kids?

  I think, all things considered, I’d have to try. Would I run away and hide from it? No.

  “I’ve been rich before, and while I won’t turn down comfort and credits, I know that isn’t what’s important in life. I will stay, even though it might kill me to see Vik with another. Assuming he wants me to stay.”

  I frowned, Telidur too, maybe. He wasn’t a king that would have to worry about an heir, but he had a family legacy.

  Plus, things would be rocky with the other races in the empire, and even on the Isyth planets. Vik’s family had failed the people, and it wouldn’t be easy for him to regain trust. What if I left out of self pity, and he was assassinated? How would I feel then?

  I wriggled closer, and kissed her softly. I felt a storm of emotions as the kiss grew more aggressive. I trembled under her soft touch, as the mood shifted to need, desire, and the instinct for life reaffirming sex. I loved her, and I needed her. She reached to undo my ship suit as I reached for hers…

  Chapter Four

  I felt pleasantly sore, but the feeling was fading quickly thanks to the nanites. It was only about an hour before we were far enough out, and could build a wormhole. It wouldn’t be long now. It was a good rest, but a few ideas had popped into my head after making love with Jillintara, but I wasn’t sure if any of them were good ideas or not.

  The new ships were advanced, but they could be better, maybe. The ship suits could accomplish many things, because they were mostly just loaded with tiny dimensional ports which could receive multiple variations of fields and functions. While a ship needed to be autonomous to a certain extent, I came up with a few ideas to offload some functions. Or in truth, partially offload, so if the off-ship part of things was destroyed the ship wouldn’t be screwed.

  It would take some time, days if not weeks, to explore all my ideas and design them into a whole new ship design, but a couple of them were so crazy that a proof of concept small scale test was needed. I spent that last hour before going to the bridge redesigning the small probe for that proof of concept, on the two crazy ideas I mean. I also designed a second smaller probe that worked almost the same as the suits, and was about the size of a softball.

  The current probes had the power systems offloaded, but had the sensor blister and gravity drive in it, the new one would offload those two things as well, and just be a small sphere filled with dimensional ports. I had no intention of using it to replace the original probes, because it wouldn’t really save on anything since they’d need a base station with a sensor blister and gravity drive. Same amount of resources either way for a permanent probe. The new probe would be less about keeping an eye on the whole empire, and more about being disposable. A small sphere with dimension ports would be cheap to create, and the sensors and tiny gravity drives would be in a ship or base so they could be reused. They’d have a different purpose, many different purposes if the idea proved out.

  The other ideas I had I was sure were possible, even simple and already proved out with other technology, so I’d addr
ess them later when I had more time, we did have a battle coming up. I was also sure this dive back into developing new ideas for current technology was firmly rooted in my desire not to fall into a depression, but I was going with it.

  “Ann, contact Myra.”

  Myra was the A.I. we created to oversee the moon’s power plant which supplemented our destroyer’s power systems remotely and dynamically. A hologram of her came up in my overlay, it looked like she was in my cabin.

  Myra said, “Lori, what can I do for you?”

  “How are things going there?”

  Myra smiled, “Boring, but it isn’t too bad. You and Jillintara built us that virtual world, it keeps us sane, and connected.”

  I asked, “If I sent you a couple of proof of concept designs and test parameters, could you build it and oversee the tests? Let me know what happens?”

  Myra replied, “Of course, send it on over.”

  I sent the data, and waited a moment as she digested the contents.

  Myra’s eyes widened, and then she smiled wider, “That’s insane.”

  I grinned, “Good luck.”

  She nodded slowly, and disconnected. It would take a few days to find out the results, but I intended to start my designs in my off time for the rest of it. Even if the experiments failed, I could go ahead with the other planned improvements.

  It was time to move, I took a sonic shower, slipped into my ship suit, and headed for the bridge.

  The room was rather tense as I walked in and took my station. Vik and Telidur looked grim, Janson looked uncomfortable, and Jillintara sent me a weak smile. I checked the ship’s status, and I saw that we would be arriving before the majority of Denik’s fleet, which was a relief. We’d only have to face two hundred of his ships, and we almost had twice as many, all of them three times more powerful.