Defender of the Empire: Chaos

by Catherine Beery

  “I hope I can live up to her memory,” I replied. Amber was a mystery to me, but if she was at all like Aunt Sylvie, than maybe my goal was too farfetched.

  My grandmother smiled. “Oh, honey …” She squeezed my hand before releasing it. A servant came and set down a plated loaded with pancakes and sausage links. Then he set a glass of milk by the food before hurrying off.

  A moment later Westley, Ace, and Mykio entered the dining room. They saw where I was sitting before making their way over. “My dear Rylynn, you know how to pick them don’t you?” I heard my grandmother whisper softly. I felt heat rise to my cheeks and quickly turned back to my breakfast. My grandmother chuckled. Westley reached the table first and saluted the Admiral. My grandmother gave him a mock stern look, “Now Lieutenant Trin, what have I told you about that?” she asked.

  Westley flushed and dropped his hand after glancing at my father. “Sorry, Milady.”

  She sighed and gave me a long suffering look. “These fine young men have been living in my house for two years now and I have yet to get them to leave the formalities at the door.”

  “It is drilled into us. Can you imagine how much trouble we would get into if we were back on a ship and didn’t follow the ‘formalities?’” I shook my head slowly. “It wouldn’t be good.”

  She huffed. “And yet another reason why I prefer Forestrium to everywhere else.” She noticed that Westley and the other two were still standing and now joined by the rest of my friends. “What? Are you just going to stand there or are you going to sit down?” With hurried ‘y’ma'ams,’ they sat down. She muttered and I laughed.

  I shared a knowing look with Jason before leaning closer to her and whispering, “Tis the price of being royalty.”

  “Lesser royalty,” she corrected in a louder voice. The whole table could hear us without a problem. Which is exactly what she wanted for her next words … “and it is a fate you now share, Rylynn Tara Foréss Raven.”

  I narrowed my eyes at the crafty woman. “What about the ‘Sinclair?’” That had been my last name since my aunt would never tell me who my parents were. The actual names sounded weird now.

  My grandmother shrugged in a way that made it very ladylike. “It is not out of practice for royals to have long names.”

  Marius, who had seated himself next to me, leaned over to whisper in my ear, “Do you really want to keep that name?” When I just frowned in puzzlement, he continued, “It was the last name that Betrayer used when he married your aunt.”

  I shivered slightly at that reminder. But instead of renouncing the name, I replied, “I never even knew my aunt had been married, so I can’t associate the name with him. It was the name we had.” Though now that Marius had reminded me where the name came from I wondered why my aunt had kept it. Betrayer had deceived and used her… and yet she kept the name. Was it because she figured that Betrayer would assume she would go back to her maiden name and thus not look for a Sinclair? Or was there something more behind it?

  Another servant approached my grandmother and whispered something in her ear. She sighed but thanked the man. She plucked the napkin from her lap and stood up. “Forgive me, but there is something that requires my attention.” With a last gentle squeeze of my shoulder, she left.

  I let the guys eat for a while, but I really wanted to know what they had decided. “Should we make her squirm for a couple more minutes or shall we come clean?” Ace asked.

  I straightened in my chair “Come clean?” I asked, eyeing all of them.

  Westley sighed. “We do need to do something against the Soul Shadows. And last night, we and others have scoured the database for any clue as to how to destroy them …”

  “And found nothing?” I guessed, leaning back in my chair. Westley nodded reluctantly. “I’m guessing, but that isn’t what you needed to come clean about, is it?” I asked.

  “Did Kylesst give you a hint?” Jason asked indigently.

  “No?” If he did, it had been lost in crypticism, the likes of which I had no hope of deciphering.

  “We knew that once you woke,” my father began, “that you would need a way to travel. It had been agreed that you and your crew would be a hidden trump card from our enemies. You would report directly to the emperor.”

  “We just didn’t think you would immediately want to go to one of the most dangerous regions of space when you woke up,” Jason muttered.

  “Wait,” I said, holding up a hand and giving my head a little shake. “What are you saying?”

  My father smiled mischievously. “It would be easier to show you. Come.” And he got up. The rest of us abandoned our leftovers and followed him. For the first time since I had told them that we had to go to Betrayer’s base, the guys looked excited. Braeden led us through a simple maze of halls to the front bailey of the castle. Along the way he must have called for a transport because a hovervan was waiting for us. We got in and it took us along an empty strip of road covered in pine needles and surrounded by the trees responsible. Other than the castle and the garden outside my bedroom window, this was the first time I had ever seen what lay beyond. The trees flickered by. From what I could see, they looked healthy. The forest looked almost untouched — until ≈ I saw a crumbling structure, of course. I saw it briefly, but by the size of it, I would guess that it had been a house. A herd of deer had been grazing around the ruins. One had looked up to watch us speed by.

  Ever since that first ruin, my eyes started picking out others. A ghostly road with buildings lining its sides. At least that was what it had once been. Great trees sprouted from the asphalt. The buildings were rubble.

  Fifteen minutes out, the hovervan left the lonely main road we had been following and stopped outside a little building. “Almost there,” my father promised. I followed him to the little shed-like building. He opened the door and I stepped inside. The guys followed. I looked around in the dimly lit, single room and started to question the sanity of everyone with me. There was nothing in here.

  That was, of course, before my father touched something and the bright light of an activated transporter lit up. A rush of energy and then everything dimmed again. But we weren’t in the shed anymore. My brows rose. “A secret shipyard?” I asked.

  Westley chuckled. “Not exactly. But it isn’t exactly well-known.”

  My father nodded in agreement, before gesturing that we should continue to follow him. By the reaction of the others, they already knew where we were headed. They just lagged behind to see my expression to whatever they were about to show me. We rounded a block of ship building machinery and finally, I could see what they had been coming clean about.

  A beautiful, sleek-looking starship rested on the pad. She was about a third of the size of a Pilum class ship. The hull reminded me of highly polished black glass. The ship’s name was emblazoned in star-silver lettering: S.E Secret.

  “S.E?” I asked, looking up at my father.

  He nodded. “If you were to be our secret trump card, the emperor had decreed that this ship and her crew serve alongside, but not under, the Legion Fleet. Instead, you are the Spectral Empire’s secret,” he said with a smile.

  “My father’s Guardians worked with the engineers to make this ship the epitome of a stealth ship,” Ace explained. “Not only is she nearly invisible, she is fast.”

  “The math says that she will be as fast as an LFA,” Jason said.

  “But that remains to be seen,” Westley added.

  I stared at the ship for a few moments before my little brain finally processed some things. “Is this to be my ship — as in, I’m the captain?” I asked, turning toward my father.

  “You have proven yourself capable in the past. And it serves as further protection from Betrayer discovering you. Because this ship is not part of the Legion Fleet, it does not need to be in their records — neither does her crew.”

  “A secret crew of a secret ship called Secret,” I summed up. I won’t lie, I really liked this. “So, who are the crew?”
I asked, glancing back at my friends.

  My father handed me a tablet. “As the Secret’s Captain, that is for you to decide. Your aunt and I took the liberty of compiling a list of those we think would do well. There are nine total positions; however, one of those belongs to you and another to Sylvia.”

  “Aunt Sylvia is coming?” I asked in surprise.

  My father nodded. The look in his eyes was telling me that this was non-negotiable. I wasn’t about to complain. I wanted to travel with her. I looked from the tablet back to my friends and back again. I thought that they were already part of the crew. My father caught my look and tapped the tablet in my hands. “Look over who is in here and think about it. Whoever you choose, you will be with them for the foreseeable future. How about I show you the ship, and then you can look over the possibilities?” he suggested. After another glance at my friends, I nodded.

  “Why did you let them come if they aren’t already part of the crew?” I asked, once my father and I were alone walking the corridors of the recently finished ship.

  “They are your friends. Because they care for you, I trust them not to breathe a word about this ship, no matter who you decide to make up the crew.” Though I didn’t believe that they would do anything to hurt me, I was having trouble envisioning a situation where Ace and Carden have proven themselves this trustworthy. Yes, they had kept mum about the existence of the Guardians, but still.

  Unlike the larger Legion Fleet ships, the Secret only had one deck. Yes, there were different levels within a room, but that was as close as it got to multiple decks. From the bow of the ship back was the bridge, the captain’s study and quarters, the mess hall with a little food processor for when we didn’t want to cook ourselves, the crew’s quarters, a medical suite, engineering with a repair shop, a LFA bay with two LFAs, and under that was storage. At the end of the tour, my father left me in the captain’s study to figure out who my crew should be.

  Both leery and overly curious about the list my strange family had compiled, I sat at the desk and opened the tablet. It was a list of twenty people. All of them were Spectral Shades. A few had lots of experience, but most were roughly my age. With each name and picture was a list of skills they were proficient in. To my relief, all of my friends were on the list. I naturally picked them for several reasons: I had already worked with them before, I knew them and how they thought. They knew each other and appeared to get along just fine. I also knew that I could trust them.

  Some would probably say that I should have chosen the candidates with more experience, but I had that wisdom at my disposal. I had my aunt, who had counseled me well in the past. I also had Marius, who I knew was much older than the thirty-seven cycles he looked now. Not only did he have experience, he had also been my teacher in the ways of a Shade. Because of that, I selected him as my commanding officer. Jason had always picked communications in the past, so that was easy. Westley became the helmsman, naturally. Aunt Sylvie had already been selected to be the ship’s Councilor and healer. She was also a Seer, which would come in handy. Ace became my engineer and Carden got to be in charge of weapons. I hoped Marius wouldn’t be put out by that. Finally, I assigned Mykio as the head of security. I figured that position didn’t just pertain to the ship, but to any planet-side mission we might be on. As a L’uf, I knew he had the ability to sense danger and take care of it before anyone was the wiser.

  Which, finally, left one empty spot — my science officer. I turned back to the list of names and searched for someone who had been strong in that skill. The name that caught my eye was Lassie Morgan. I stared for a few minutes. Am I really considering doing this to myself? I wondered, as I continued to ponder her file. For a reason I could not explain, I was considering Lassie. She hates me, though. I’ll be stuck in a small ship with her, a little voice complained.

  But I knew her. And she was the suggested choice for the science officer position. She also had a marker indicating that she had a strong understanding of diverse cultures. We need her, I thought. Times have changed. Perhaps she has, too. I really hoped that I wasn’t being too optimistic.

  Two days later, the SE Secret and her crew set out for Iceron. We had prepared as best we could. Aunt Sylvie and my father had approved of the choices for the crew. They didn’t say anything, but I figured that they had placed a bet on who I would choose for the final position. Sadly, I couldn’t tell who had won.

  A couple light years in what had once been the Coronaius system, we came across a Zar’dakne warship and her attendant lesser ships.

  “It’s kind of creepy to be sitting right here and they don’t see us,” Westley muttered. I had to agree with him. I felt like the average, invisible kid in the playground watching the class bully pass by. If it wasn’t for the advanced, multi-layered stealth systems of the Secret, we would have been seen.

  “I’m surprised the Shadows didn’t get them yet,” Carden remarked.

  “They are pretty far into Shadow Space, I don’t think their chances are very high. Especially without a Spectral Shield,” Jason said.

  “Even so, any Empire ships in its path should be warned,” I replied.

  Jason nodded. “I just sent a Guardian Ghost signal and Prathane has gone to inform the nearest Spectrals,” Jason said after a moment.

  “Thanks,” I said, before turning my attention to Westley. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “With pleasure.” And after the last Zar’daken ship cruised by, we were off.

  Chapter 18 – The Crucible of Fire

  Talis’talklen

  Prime World Tershore

  Tershore System

  Spectral Empire

  Telmicks gathered around the Elarken Sova, the great central flame, to decide their civilization’s next steps. The fire was huge, barely fitting in its large fire pit in the center of the circular chamber. The pit was wide enough for seven grown Telmicks to lie head-to-foot across it, with some room to spare. And Telmicks stood nine feet tall — yes, it is a very wide pit indeed. It was just a few feet shy of being the same depth. As the symbol of the Telmick race, the fire was never allowed to die. It was the mother fire that all clans returned to for a spark to light their own elarken. It was old, much older than the building that surrounded it. Older than living memory. The Unwritten Laws were denied any one clan, or group of clans, to control the Elarken Sova. To try would be to be wiped out by all other clans. There would be no mercy for the flame belonged to all.

  Around the fire pit was a ring of sand where the talklens of each clan sat to listen to each other. The Pre’tehl Elarken, or Guardian of the Central Flame, served as moderator. She would sit on a raised chair and listen to the proceedings. If chaos occurred, she would stand and if that didn’t warn the malcontents, she would throw something into the fire. The flame would leap high above the lip of the pit and change color. If that didn’t work, than she had the right to remove the arguing clans permanently. She was the closest the Telmicks had to a unified leader. Chosen along with others from each clan before they could be claimed by the clan, she owed no allegiance to any one clan. All of them were hers. If there was no unruly argument, she said nothing.

  Beyond the sandy ring was where members of each clan could sit and witness proceedings. Each sat with their own clan. It was easy, even for an outsider, to tell the difference between the mercenary clans and the merchants. The mercenary clans had shaved their head, except for a single ponytail. Tattoos decorated their skin that denoted their clan and rank. The higher the rank, the more tattoos. The merchant clans let their hair grow. In place of many tattoos, they braided their hair and added in various beads. Their clan tattoos were the only ones they wore and those were on their forearms.

  Talis’talklen took his place in the sandy ring. Saffa’tauta and Kifen’alusa stayed in the upper ring. Getting comfortable, Talis’talklen watched the other leaders talk amongst themselves. Across from him, beyond the jumping tongues of flame, sat Brel’toatalklen. The stocky Telmick sat in the middle of
a group of lesser talklens.

  Eventually, the Pre’tehl rang a gong next to her chair. Instant silence fell as the sound echoed away in the domed chamber the last echo faded away she spoke. “We are here to decide, as a race, what to do about the war with the Zar’dakens and traitors in the Legion Fleet. Fren’talklen ses-Moran, you shall speak first.”

  The willowy merchant clan leader stood and bowed to the Pre’tehl. He then turned to the other leaders. “We have been part of the Spectral Empire for centuries. We have sat in the council for all that time, even when some of our clans turned rogue and attacked Empire ships.” Talis’talklen’s brows rose at the not-so-subtle rebuke toward the mercenary clans. He could see the other mercenary leaders shifting in their seats, but none spoke. To do so would could possibly anger the Pre’tehl and no one wanted that. The merchant clans seemed to swell slightly with pride. In their minds there were not ‘rogue.’ Talis’talklen wondered where they got that idea. Of fifty clans, only eight were merchant. Where the hell did they get the idea that they were the ‘normal’ ones? Fren’talklen ignored the reaction to his words and kept right on speaking. “It is clear to me that we must stand with the rest of the Empire. We are, after all, citizens of that great state.” Having said his peace Fran’talklen sat down.

  Brel’toatalklen stood up and bowed to the Pre’tehl. “If I may speak, Honored One?”