Inheritance (Rise of the Empire Book 5)

by Ivan Kal

  Master Hayashi turned and showed the student his best confused face. “Why would I know that?” After looking at the students for a beat, he shooed them away with a gesture. Then he turned and made his way to Aileen as the students left.

  “Aileen, coming to see an old man before you go?” Master Hayashi said with a childlike grin on his twenty-something-looking face.

  “Of course. I couldn’t leave without saying goodbye to my favorite master,” Aileen responded with a soft smile.

  “Thank you for that. But I haven’t been your master for years. You outrank me now, Sentinel,” he said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

  “Perhaps, but we both know that you could be a Sentinel if you wanted to,” Aileen said. Warpath ranks were divided into four ranks: Novice—those who had just joined Warpath; Adept—those who had passed the minimum requirements to stay a part of Warpath; Master—those who had mastered at least one area; and Sentinel—those who had mastered at least four areas and had proven themselves exceptional in all of them. Master Hayashi Hideyoshi was, as his title said, still a Master. But not because he was not capable of being a Sentinel. He was the greatest martial artist in Warpath, probably in the entire Empire, second only to the former Clan Leader Adrian Farkas, now the leader of the Sentinels, who was once his student. But he was the exception; he alone had managed to surpass his master.

  Master Hayashi sobered a bit. “I like being a master and I like teaching. Always did, even back on Earth.” Aileen felt herself stiffen at his mention of Earth; it had been a long time since then, but still the memories were always at the back of her mind.

  Thankfully, Master Hayashi didn’t notice, so Aileen quickly changed the subject. “What do you think of the new novices?”

  “They are good enough, but they are not up the standards that the old generations set. All of them were born in the Empire; they don’t know struggle the way we do. But they are good kids; in a few decades, they might become something.”

  Aileen smiled at his choice of words. Calling people that were already past their thirty “kids” might have seemed like an insult, but they were kids to Master Hayashi, who was more than a hundred years older than them.

  “If we follow the path that the Emperor and the Clan Leader envisioned, we will need more Sentinels,” Aileen added.

  “Hmm…We will, if it works…but we are not the Hand. Their jobs are to keep the peace and justice of the Empire according to its laws and codes. What you will be doing is very different. You will be making decisions based on your own thoughts and whatever information you have available,” Master Hayashi said.

  Aileen nodded. Clan Leader Farkas and Emperor Klein had come to an agreement concerning Warpath’s Sentinels long ago. They would act in the similar capacity as the Hand of the Empire, only while the Hand worked inside the Empire’s borders, Sentinels would work outside of it. They would be working both attached to the exploration fleets and on their own in order to seek out other races and make contact. They would evaluate their strengths, find their weaknesses, and inform the Emperor of the manner in which the diplomats should approach them. But not only that, they would provide tactical and strategic counsel to the commanders on the fringes of the Empire’s territory, which had been rapidly expanding over the last fifteen years.

  That meant that Sentinels themselves had to possess a wide array of skills, diplomacy included. Aileen glanced at her bare left forearm and the five symbols tattooed there. Five aspects that she was proficient in. They were hand to hand, fleet command, xenology, diplomacy, and computer sciences. That was the way of Warpath; every member had tattoos that signified his progress. Every aspect was represented with a symbol inside of a circle; the color of the circle represented the person’s main focus. Aileen’s were black, meaning her main focus was in the combat arts. Smaller orbs were tattooed close to the circled symbols, and those signified the level of proficiency. Aileen’s hand to hand and fleet command had five and four orbs, respectively. Her xenology also had four, while her diplomacy and computer sciences had three. She was one of the more accomplished Sentinels, standing below only the Clan Leader himself, which was why she had been chosen as the first Sentinel to become the part of the Emperor’s vision.

  “I understand,” Aileen said in response to Master Hayashi’s words. He in turn watched her intently, and then, after he didn’t find whatever he was looking for, he spoke.

  “So, how are you feeling?” Master Hayashi asked with a twinkle in his eyes.

  Aileen looked at her hand, clenched her fist, and released it. She turned to Master Hayashi and smiled. “Good. I am still getting used to the additional weight and strength. Still trying to figure out my new limits. And I need to hold back a lot more now,” she answered. “Plus, I feel sore all over,” she added. The aftereffects of the treatment that had upgraded her body were still not completely gone, even with months of rehabilitation.

  “I saw you with that adept earlier. You lifted him clear of the floor with one punch, and he was taller than you by half a head at least,” he said.

  “Yes, I didn’t hold back enough. It’s hard sometimes to gauge exactly how much strength I am using,” she said.

  Master Hayashi hummed thoughtfully, then the childlike twinkle returned to his eyes. “And what about the…?” he asked, his voice trailing off as he raised his hand and wiggled his fingers in a strange gesture that Aileen recognized the meaning of.

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know how to use any of the psionics yet,” she answered in a monotone tone that came from answering the same question a hundred times. “Although, I did have an accident a few days ago.”

  “What kind of accident?” he asked.

  “Well, I was in the bathroom, and…” She stopped. “On the other hand, I’m not telling you about that, it’s too embarrassing.”

  Master Hayashi grinned, but didn’t press her. Then his face straightened, and he spoke seriously again. “Are you sure about going with him?”

  Aileen shifted uncomfortably. “No, but I am the only one that can do it,” she said.

  “There is always someone else.”

  “What I meant to say was that I am the one who can do it best. It makes sense to take someone who is intimately familiar with the Ra’a’zani. And I was the personal slave to the Earth Overlord, I know them best,” Aileen said.

  Master Hayashi grimaced. “Perhaps, but you know that no one is forcing you to go, right? You can say no.”

  “Of course I know. It has been made very clear to me,” she answered with a sad smile. “But I want to. I need to face them again. And I can’t back out now; he is the only one that can teach me how to use my new abilities.”

  Master Hayashi nodded grimly. “That might be for the best.” He then studied her with a strange look in his eyes. After a few awkward moments of the two of them standing there, Aileen broke the silence.

  “What is it?”

  Master Hayashi blinked and the look was gone. “You remind me so much of him.” He sighed.

  “Really?” Aileen said, surprised.

  “Yes.” He nodded. “You have the same drive, in here.” He pointed at her heart. “And the same way of thinking up here,” he said, pointing at her head. “I can see it in the way you fight, in the way you reason your actions.”

  “I doubt that; we have led very different lives.” Aileen shook her head.

  “Yes, very different lives. Yet trust me when I say this, you are far more alike than not. Adrian was born with a raw talent unlike any I have ever seen, and not just for fighting, but for everything. He pushes himself so far, so much. He pushes not to be the strongest, but for the simple reason that he knows that he has not yet reached his limit. And I believe that when he reaches that limit, he will not stop. He will push further and further simply because he can.”

  Master Hayashi laid a hand on her shoulder. “That unyielding drive is what you share, although it comes from different reasons. Things always came easily to him, and he knows
it. It is what has made him complacent at times, made him suffer great grief. But his goal was never to be the best for the sake of being above others; the only thing he craves is the challenge of that imaginary boundary that he intends to push through,” he said with a respect that Aileen had rarely heard from her master.

  “Things come easy to you, too, but not as easy as they come to him, because you are weighed down. You push to run away. You remember what you once were, and you train to get away from that person. But you will never escape her; she is you,” he said sympathetically. “That is where you and Adrian differ. He has left his past behind him, remembering it but not allowing it to pull him backwards. He faced his moment and didn’t break, and he emerged stronger. But his past was not like yours. He had never been left at the mercy of another, and he has never felt helpless to the same extent as you have. He is free. And you can be like him if you face that person, look her in the eye, and let her go.”

  Aileen turned away from her former master, feeling his hand drop from her shoulder. She was shaken, because she knew that he was right. She was held back. She hated her past self; each time her dreams took her to that time, she wanted to scream at that pathetic, beaten slave, to grab her and shake her to ask her what the hell was wrong with her that she would allow them to own her, to make her turn on her own people. It was that time that drove her now. She would never be that helpless and weak again.

  She had been broken when she’d arrived in the Empire, one of the few survivors from Earth. It had taken her years to learn all about who humans were, their history, their legacy. And then she’d had a choice; she could be anything she wanted. Some of the survivors had left to found their own Clan, but Aileen had never really felt like a part of them. She was the only one who had been in the service of the Ra’a’zani, and they never let her forget that. Instead, she had chosen to stay on Sanctuary, and eventually she’d started working at the progeny centers as a caretaker. It was those children that she’d raised that had helped her heal, had helped her find herself.

  But it still hadn’t been enough. She’d needed to feel strong, to regain the control over her life. So she’d joined Warpath, had started learning what it truly meant to be a warrior. With a deep breath, she gathered herself and turned around to look at her former master. He had waited, not trying to make her feel better.

  “I guess that we will see if I can do that. I will meet with the Ra’a’zani sooner or later,” Aileen said.

  “You will, and that will be your moment,” Master Hayashi said. Then in a single second, his demeanor changed back to his regular cheerful self. “When are you leaving?”

  “Tomorrow,” Aileen said, relaxing as they changed the subject. “They are adding some last-minute cargo to the ship now.”

  At the mention of the ship, Master Hayashi got a wistful look on his face. “Ah…I hear that it has the new drives,” he said.

  “It does,” Aileen said. New drives that were born from the knowledge the Empire had gained from Axull Darr’s sphere. They allowed the ship that was already capable of traveling through both trans-space and hyperspace to move at faster-than-light speeds inside a star system through normal space. But only in relatively short bursts, and with moderate recharge time. Aileen didn’t know much about the technology, aside from the fact that the techs nicknamed it ‘skimming’ and that it was similar to technology humanity had once theorized about called the Alcubierre drive. All the newer Empire ships had the technology.

  “The new drives are probably the only reason why I am not worried that I will go crazy on the trip,” Aileen said with a smile. “I should go, there are still a few things I need taken care of before I leave.”

  “Of course, child,” he said, reminding Aileen of the man that was the reason she was alive now. She stepped forward and took the much older man into a hug. With no hesitation, he returned the embrace. And then she stepped back. Master Hayashi smiled. “Don’t forget to send me a message when you have a chance.”

  “I won’t,” Aileen said.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Aileen stepped into the large docking stations inside Warpath’s Forge, one of its three asteroids that served as the center of the Clan. She walked towards the area where the ship she would take to Sol was docked, all the way avoiding people running around the halls and large open areas where cargo was constantly moved around. It took her a good half hour to get to her destination. She could have taken a train cart, but she still had time to kill until her scheduled departure. As she entered the docking area where her ship was, she saw a flurry people moving about, still putting cargo boxes on the ship.

  She was just to ask someone what they were doing when she noticed a familiar person standing in the middle of the commotion talking with the dock master. She made her way towards him.

  “Clan Leader,” she said as she reached him.

  “Ah, Aileen. Good, I was just about to comm you,” Clan Leader Isani said.

  Alieen looked at his Nel face and tried to catch any indication of his mood, but Nel faces were always hard to read. “Well, here I am. Why did you want to speak with me?” she asked.

  “I wanted to let you know that we have made some last-minute additions to your cargo. They are some things that Adrian ordered from the research department. We managed to get most of them done before now, so I thought that you might as well take them to him,” he said while he gestured with his left hand, making a circle, meaning tiredness. “Adrian would have annoyed me to no end if he’d found out that these things were finished and I’d waited another four months until the rest were done to send them.”

  Aileen smiled, relieved that it wasn’t anything concerning her departure. “Of course, Clan Leader, I’ll make sure that he gets them.”

  “Good.” Isani brought his palms to his stomach and turned them sideways, thanking her. “I shouldn’t even be here, I have too much work to do. But more work is worth it if it keeps Adrian from not annoying me.” With that, he turned and left.

  Aileen watched as the dockworkers finished loading the cargo, and then she boarded her ship. She walked through the access hatch and made her way to the observation deck. Once she entered, a hologram appeared in front of her. It was of a male Nel, dressed in typical Empire garbs—tight skin-suit with an overcoat.

  “Welcome on board, Sentinel,” he said.

  “Thank you,” she said. “Will we be departing soon?” she asked as she sat down in one of the chairs. A holographic interface appeared in front of her. She tapped the few hard light switches floating there and the walls of the room disappeared, showing the area around the ship as if seen through a wraparound window.

  “The Forge gave us permission to leave at our leisure, Sentinel,” the ship’s AI said.

  “Good,” she said, sitting alone in the observation deck. This wasn’t a passenger ship, and the rest of the crew was busy with their jobs. She was just hitching a ride.

  She watched as the ship slowly disengaged from the docks and started towards the tunnel that led out of the asteroid. She looked around at the thousands of ships docked. Some were in various stages of construction, while others were there simply to leave off supplies or take them from Warpath to some other system.

  Aileen watched in awe as the ship exited the massive asteroid and set a course towards the outgoing trans-lane that would take her to the Waypoint system, and from there she would make her way to Sol and Mars. Once, the trip would have taken her more than a year. But that was mostly because ships lost a lot of time trekking through star systems between trans-stations. Now, with the skimming technology, they could move from one trans-station to the other in a matter of minutes. The trip to Sol would take her barely a month and a half. They even had much better hyperspace tech now. With the new power generators and hyperspace generators, they had vastly increased their speeds. A hyperspace trip to Earth would take barely nine months, compared to the 60 years it had once taken Olympus to cross that same distance. It was amazing. But trans-space trave
l was still faster, especially now when they could skim from trans-station to trans-station.

  The cargo ship reached the outgoing trans-station and waited as more ships scheduled for transfer to Waypoint arrived. The transfer to Waypoint occurred on a schedule, as a trans-lane couldn’t be used while ships were still in transit. Transfer from Warpath to Waypoint happened once per day, as travel time was about twenty hours.

  Aileen waited for another twenty minutes, looking around her at the many different kinds of ships. From transports to cargo ships, to even two patrol ships. Then the massive station placed just outside of the trans-station sent out a countdown to transfer. The cargo ship wouldn’t be using its own trans drives to pass through—it had nowhere near enough power to send all ships inside the area through, as the amount of mass that had to be pushed through was great, and that meant a more powerful field was needed. Instead, the massive station would project the field and send them through.

  The timer reached zero, and all the ships in the trans-station disappeared in a flash of violet light.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  October; Year 53 of the Empire – Sanctuary

  “And I need to do that why, exactly?” Tomas asked.

  “They fulfilled your demands, Tomas,” Nadia said, infuriated with her Emperor, “and you already set the precedent when you accepted Nuva into the Empire.”

  Tomas sighed in defeat. “If I summon the Clan Leaders outside of the scheduled meetings, I am going to pay for it. They already grumble because they need to come here twice a year.”

  “Do you want the Trivaxians to feel slighted on the day they are finally accepted into the Empire?” Nadia asked pointedly.

  “No,” he grumbled.

  “Then summon the Clan Leaders,” she told him.

  “Fine. But they better not try to make this about more than a simple acceptance ceremony, or I swear to everything the next meeting we have I am going to just let them yell at each other.”