Of Myths and Legends (Emerilia Book 9)

by Michael Chatfield

  In mere moments, he was told that Council Leader Wong would be ready and available to meet him as soon as possible in her private quarters.

  Sato changed directions and headed for her apartment. It didn’t take him long to traverse the station. The security detail outside Wong’s residence informed her of his arrival and allowed him to pass in.

  Council Leader Wong sat at her open-plan kitchen, sipping on coffee as her husband made up a few more cups. He was an elderly gentleman who worked in hydroponics and always had a kind smile on his face.

  “Commander Sato, would you like a coffee?” Mister Wong asked.

  “Please.” Sato smiled. Coffee sounded like a great idea. He’d only had a few hours of sleep and he hadn’t integrated with the Jukal nanites or interface so he didn’t have stats or the abilities to raise his Endurance so he didn’t have to sleep for days on end.

  Edward’s people had largely assimilated the tech, allowing them to work constantly and make more and more breakthroughs.

  Still, the higher-ups refrained from using it, due to fears within the government.

  Mister Wong poured an extra cup of coffee and put out sugar and cream, moving so that he hugged Council Leader Wong from the side. “Let me know if you need anything. I’m going to work on the garden,” Mister Wong said.

  “I will, thank you,” she said. The two of them had a quick kiss and Mister Wong headed for their private hydroponics area to tend to the plants held there.

  “One of our stealth ships came into contact with Dave Grahslagg,” Council Leader Wong said, getting right to the point as Sato mixed cream and sugar into his coffee.

  “Yes. It seems that he was doing more than playing around with the ice planet. He mentioned something about using a portal.” Sato glanced to Wong.

  She paused and raised her coffee to her lips; her eyes went wide as she lowered the cup in shock. “He knows how to use portals?”

  “I don’t know. He was under a lot of Mana fatigue when I was talking to him, made him seem pretty wishy-washy. He has agreed to allow a group of the people from the stealth craft the Sprite entrance into his asteroid base. They will be armed and transmitting at all times,” Sato said.

  “This will allow us to better understand what Dave Grahslagg is capable of and if working with him will be of a gain to us,” Wong said.

  “He has already helped us out more than we could ever imagine.” Sato frowned as he looked at Wong.

  “I know, but this is how the council will look at things.” Wong sighed. “They will want to see what we can get from him and how it could benefit Deq’ual.”

  “Do you think it will help change their thoughts on helping Emerilia?” Sato asked, trying not to raise his hopes too high.

  Wong let out a sigh, looking older as she gave Sato a sad smile.

  He knew what she was going to say before she opened her mouth.

  “We’ve become conservative to the point that any change is hard to pass through the council. It is changing with time as we see the benefits of these changes but as you know, it is slow to develop. We’ve got a council that overlooks what tech we put into the different warships. They move slower than a turtle going uphill and they can hardly agree on items. It should be under your purview but the more that the politicians see the power going to the military, the more that they try to ‘assist,’ which usually means putting shackles on the military so that they can feel a larger sense of control.”

  Wong hadn’t always been a politician; she had been a doctor before but seeing that there were issues within the system, she had stepped up. She didn’t like politics and before Sato had made her his point of contact within the council, she had been gradually pushed to the sidelines by the “real” politicians who wished to continue to play their games.

  Sato sighed. The higher he had become within Deq’ual, the more he had needed to deal with these characters. He fought to hold control over the military but the politicians wanted as much strength and bartering power in their pockets as possible.

  As he drank from his coffee, Wong continued.

  “However, we might be able to use this,” Wong said, a light in her eyes as a devious smile spread across her face.

  “How?”

  “Well, it’s clear that Dave is a capable man and he’s not bound by a government or anyone watching over him. We already have a lot of trust in him and you have built up a steady relationship with him. While your hands are being bound tighter and tighter, we can possibly offload some of these projects onto Dave or at least see what he thinks of them, improve upon them and make them. We can pay him with resources and assistance. A few people might be interested in paying an asteroid base in another system a visit. We gain a better understanding of what Dave is building, we gain more knowledge, and we help Emerilia and Dave indirectly, allowing them to build up their own strength. Once we are assured of our trust placed in Dave, then we can start to discuss things like possible ways to attack the Jukal and see about decreasing their influence and bringing about a time when we won’t have to hide. Then we can figure out a plan that if we bring to the people that they will agree to it,” Wong said.

  “Not the council?” Sato asked, feeling excited. It was only a small gesture of help but it was more than the Deq’ual system had been capable of giving Dave and the people of Emerilia in the past.

  “The council will wrap it up in red tape—this is a decision of all of Deq’ual. Not just the council,” Wong said.

  Sato looked at the small and fragile-looking woman in front of him. Her face was set in hard lines, determination in her eyes. A smile bloomed on his face as he drank from his coffee.

  I picked the right council member to talk to when I found out about Dave. Sato was eager to see what the future would bear.

  Times had certainly changed from when the military forces of Deq’ual had tested out their defensive networks and systems as well as their few fighters with most of their forces actually being communication experts and guards who policed the system.

  Now they had a sprawling military complex. They had been able to pull their population within cryo back out. Their population was booming and their technology advanced in leaps and bounds. They had true warships, scout ships, and had a growing network of stealth remotes that covered multiple systems. They watched the sensor readings of Jukal fleets, their merchant vessels and watched the populated outer worlds of the Jukal Empire.

  They had never been stronger and Sato had never felt as alive. He’d never felt Deq’ual so alive and driven. It filled him with energy that no coffee could give him—a mix of hope, determination, and the pressure to excel.

  Chapter 15: Second Stage

  Dave finished teleporting the entire battleship back into the asteroid base.

  “We need to finish those doors,” Dave said, as the runic lines on his body and the gray glow of his eyes dimmed. He leaned back in the captain’s chair, his head lolling forward as he fell asleep.

  “Well, that was a lot of excitement for one day.” Ela-Dorn slowly taking her shaking hands off the console and put them in her lap. Her green face had taken on a lighter hue.

  “Seems that we’re going to have to increase the speed at which we finish up these ships,” Malsour said in a grave voice.

  “Who are those people?” Ela-Dorn asked.

  “They’re humans who have been hiding outside of the Jukal Empire. They’re survivors of the Jukal and human war,” Malsour said.

  Ela-Dorn sat back in her chair, her mind working overtime. Everyone who was now part of the Pandora’s Box team had been told the full history of the Jukal and human war, how it had ended with humanity being practically wiped out until Bob had come along and created Emerilia in order to deal with the aggressive species.

  After all of that, now learning that there had been survivors, she didn’t know what kind of hardships they had to have gone through in order to survive.

  Still, they were venturing out of their homes and looking to search ou
t the Jukal and to find out what was happening outside of their system. This kind of bravery was not easily put into words.

  “Don’t worry— when they visit, you’ll have plenty of time to talk to them. However, they probably won’t be interested in talking about their homes, family, or anything of the like,” Malsour said.

  “I understand. The Aleph were the same way before we were betrayed.” Ela-Dorn nodded, a new fire in her eyes. “If you want to look after Dave, I’ll talk to the development teams and finding ways to speed up production. From what I know, the biggest bottleneck we still have is resources, so we’re going to need to focus on more miners and cargo shuttles instead of ships for a bit.”

  Malsour nodded. “Understandable. See if you can talk to those working with the refineries as well as the mining operations.”

  Ela-Dorn seemed to have a flash of inspiration. “If we were to hollow out an asteroid, create a separator as well as line its interior with mining drills, we could teleport other asteroids inside it, thus reducing how easy it would be for someone to see the drills and pick up on us. Also, the cargo shuttles would be inside unless they were moving from one of the mining/separating asteroids to the main asteroid base to take the materials back to the ice planet and the refinery there. The mining drills could eat through the entire asteroid, taking out the precious materials. They, too, wouldn’t need to be transported from the asteroid base to each of the asteroids around. It could increase the speed at which we mine and it could also reduce the amount of items we have floating around that could get someone’s attention.” Ela-Dorn’s eyes narrowed slightly as she thought over the idea.

  “If it gets to a large enough stage, we could bring the arks in. They could go through portals within the asteroids, picking up the separated out materials from the crusher asteroids and transport them to another asteroid refinery that could send them out to the various bases. Already the refinery within the ice planet is being taxed heavily and it’s only going to have more demand upon it to refine out the various gases and materials that are mined from the planet,” Malsour said thoughtfully, working through the problem. His age allowed him to step back from the problem instead of be wrapped up in it like Dave and Ela-Dorn. He still got excited but the ability to pull back and look at things from a practical perspective was hard to do.

  “Come up with a plan and run it past Jeeves to see if it’s viable. If if it is, then we’ll look into carrying it out.” Malsour nodded and looked to Ela-Dorn.

  “I’ll do that!” Ela-Dorn said.

  “Docking clamps engaging,” Jeeves said from overhead. He was piloting the ship back into its slip. Once again, the umbilical soul gem lines from the asteroid base connected to the battleship. Automatons swarmed the battleship, continuing the work on the massive ship.

  Ela-Dorn rushed off to start on her new project.

  Malsour checked the work queue. As much as he knew the trust that Dave and Bob placed within Sato and his people, Malsour was still cautious. They were building something here that was supposed to rival the Jukal Empire.

  All of the systems at the top of the battleship’s to-do list were to get it in fighting condition as fast as possible. Everything else was put on a back burner until these essential systems were completed.

  Malsour turned around and saw Dave sleeping on the main chair. They weren’t sharing the same Mana shield, so Malsour couldn’t hear the snores in the nonexistent atmosphere. Dave’s orbs silently floated around him, maintaining his shield.

  Malsour sighed and threw out some metal plates from his bag of holding as he stood. He stepped into Dave’s shield, being recognized as a friend by the orbs.

  Malsour shook his head. The coding that Dave had put into these orbs—even able to recognized friend and foe—was simply extraordinary. The metal sheets picked up Dave; Malsour walked out of the ship and through the asteroid base. When he reached, the ice planet, he quickly came to the Dracul quarters.

  People all knew the secret of the Dracul now but still they had come together over their love of technology and their drive toward pushing the boundaries of what was known. They were more interested than scared by the Dracul and the fact that they were dragons.

  Fire was still within the Densaou Ring of Fire but Oson’Mal lived within the ice planet apartments, looking after Desmond and Koi most of the time. Quindar and Fornau’s children, as well as the younger generation of the Dracul family, were there, as were a number of dragons who looked after them when Mal was working on projects or even helped him out when he was with the kids.

  This allowed the older generations to concentrate on what was happening in Emerilia without worrying about their young getting into harm’s way.

  Malsour smiled. Fire’s boyfriend Mal, had truly turned into the grandfatherly figure of the Dracul family.

  He dropped Dave off in one of the free rooms, letting him sleep off his Mana fatigue.

  The ice planet’s city had mostly breathable atmosphere. The different buildings and sections of the city all had Mana shields and barriers that were put in place to secure various areas if there was ever a pressure loss within the city.

  The ice buildings were being changed to soul gem constructs over time, but the resources were mostly going to the different projects being worked on, as well as development within the asteroid base.

  If we were still working with only the materials that Bob gave Dave, we would have run out long ago. Malsour shook his head, thinking about the resource drains they were under. Even Dave’s slow bleed of resources were already claimed by the flying citadels as well as Terra and the various other constructs under the Stone Raiders’ purview.

  Pandora’s Box, the ark shipyard and the moonbase were all producing some materials. However, most of the items they needed were now coming from the Nal system.

  “If only we had more time.” Malsour sighed. They were balancing which projects to fund with resources over how useful they would be. A large portion was going to the mining and refining, as the more it built up, the faster they would be able to grow the other projects. However, building it was easier said than done, as the resources were being used to improve the mining and refining abilities!

  Malsour let out a frustrated sigh as he started to walk out of the apartment buildings. As he passed a room, he heard giggling inside and the sounds of children playing. Malsour was about to continue past when a small hand grabbed his pant leg.

  “Hello there, Desmond. Looks like you’ve escaped again.” Malsour smiled and looked at—technically—his uncle, who waved his small hand around, still clenched on Malsour’s pant leg. Malsour laughed at the little one’s antics, picking him up and disconnecting him from his pants.

  Desmond made annoyed noises, grabbing at Malsour’s face before pausing and staring at him with wide eyes.

  Malsour walked back into the room where the children were playing with one another, or off with various toys. The smaller babies were being looked after by nearby minders who also kept a watchful eye on the young in the room.

  All of them had their bloodlines sealed so that they would remain in human form. Only when they reached the age of fifteen would this restriction be removed unless they were within the Densaou Ring of Fire. There they could freely use their dragon form.

  “That’s where you got off to!” One of the minders who had been looking around saw Malsour coming back in with Desmond.

  “Who’s a naughty boy.” The minder shook her head at Desmond but with no real anger in her voice. She looked to Malsour. “I heard that something happened over at the asteroid belt?”

  “Over in the asteroid belt? Yora, you make it sound as if it’s a house down the street.” Malsour shook his head.

  “Well, the portal isn’t too far away,” Yora rebutted.

  “There was an issue but it was solved,” Malsour said, starting to realize that since he’d been back, he hadn’t told anyone what had happened. Seeing the battleship disappear and reappear might have made them all a bit ne
rvous. He could see the relief in the minder’s eyes as he smiled awkwardly, quickly handing off Desmond.

  “Sorry—just need to write up a message.” Malsour tapped on his interface a message to let everyone know who had showed up near the asteroid and that they would have visitors tomorrow.

  “So what was it?” Yora asked, not willing to let it go. Malsour knew that she was the type to love gossip.

  “Well, we’re having some visitors come over. They were coming here to put down stealth remotes so that they could watch what was happening in the system. We picked them up, found out that Dave knows them and they’re coming over to the asteroid base tomorrow,” Malsour said, focusing on the message he was still writing up.

  “What!?” Yora yelled, her face pale as everyone in the nursery looked to her and Malsour.

  “Look—it’s okay. We know them. They’re people who hid away from the Jukal. I’m putting it all out in this message. There’s nothing to worry about—they’ll probably be coming for a stroll tomorrow.” Malsour finished off the message and gave Yora a reassuring smile.

  “Uncle Malsour, you might be a brilliant man, but you can’t scare me like that!” Yora complained.

  “Everything will be okay, Yora.” Malsour hugged her from the side. He could see Yora was having a lot of trouble with the stress that she’d been under.

  She wasn’t all that old, just thirty or so, and the threat of the fighting on Emerilia and the sudden surprise here made her feel listless. Malsour hugged her tightly and some of Yora’s emotions settled down.

  “I have to get back to work. I leave these rascals in your care,” Malsour said. A few of the older kids in the group frowned at Malsour’s words; one blew raspberries at him.

  “Rickard! Put that tongue away!” one of the minders admonished. Rickard frowned and gave Malsour the stink eye.

  Malsour laughed inside, smiling as he left the room. Feeling a little more at ease, he went to his workshop.

  ***

  The training staff were all together in the air. The first week of drops had gone better than they hoped. There had been a number of injuries and people hurt; however, even the most serious injuries had been healed up and everyone was okay.