The Emperor's Daughter (Sentinel Series Book 1)

by Richard Flunker

  “Well, I know what it is,” Kale tried to make his point.

  “So what you don’t trust is the unknown.”

  “What I don’t trust is that we have a god machine child in full control of a very large ship with intentions of starting a civil war in the Dominion.”

  “And in the time she has been with us, has there been any hint from her words or actions that she is anything but a good person?”

  Kale didn’t answer immediately. Thinking back, all he could see was a laughing girl, enjoying food and music. It was hard to see the little lithe white haired child as the impetus for war.

  “I hate it when you're smarter than me,” Kale gave in.

  “You must hate me a lot then,” Gheno smiled.

  “She’s just a girl,” Kale said after a pause.

  “A girl with a hundreds of years old mind.”

  “You're not making this an easier for me.”

  “I don’t think there is anything you could do anyways.”

  Deespa joined them the next morning at breakfast. The Corinthian ships were eight hours away with the Scythe ship was expected to come through the hook in nine hours. All communication between those ships and the Harmoa was being blocked so their intentions appeared to be hostile. The Harmoa was a very powerful ship, but against six ships, they weren’t quite sure they could hold. The captain suggested they jump, but Deespa ordered against it. To Kale’s relief, she was bound to save Ayia just as much as he was. They would put up as much of a fight as they could to stall them until the Scythe showed up, and then they would tractor it in and jump.

  In the meantime, Deespa also ordered Dominion engineers to work on the Midnight Oil. When Kale demanded why because he was afraid they might get the hook technology. He also didn’t want anyone messing with his ship. She calmed his nerves partially when she told him it was Sentinel’s instructions. The AI quickly informed him that he was having weapons added to the ship.

  “Well, that’s good news. I don’t like Dominion guns, but what are you adding?”

  “It’s a high yield warp field driver,” the AI replied.

  “Should I know what that is?” Kale asked. He tried to see if Gheno understood, but he was equally stumped.

  “No, you wouldn’t. In fact, the engineers don’t know what they are doing either.”

  “But it’s a weapon?” Kale inquired.

  “It is.”

  Kale shrugged his shoulders. “All that matters. And you, do you know what you're doing?” he asked Deespa.

  “Not with complete certainty, but I think so,” she replied.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “While you both slept passed out from the jump, I read. I had Sentinel tell me who I was, blood wise, the DNA, like everyone kept talking about. I read about the Dominion, this empire of Man. I read the speech given by the first Dominar. It talked about a system of equality and justice, overseen by men and women of noble bearing and demeanor who use their wisdom and strength to make sure this justice and code was upheld. Compared to Earth, its greed, its corporations, I could see how it appealed to most humans who lived with Earth in the rear view mirror. I looked for life on countless systems in my former life for so long, and those words, well, those are the things I hoped to find out there among the stars, and instead I found it right here among men.

  I guess it shouldn’t have shocked me to find out that those words came not from the first Warlord, but from his wife, the actual Magyo. And then she was killed and a rule of power and tyranny followed. A rule of exploitation and corruption for the benefit of a very minor few. I know where you come from Kale, a planet oppressed and held crushed under a hammer. I was held slave and was being returned back to man to be exploited.

  I want to be those words Kale, I want to be Magyo. To them I already am. I don’t know who I am, am I all human, or something else. But I will find out, and I, human or software, I want to be that noble ideal.”

  Kale listened intently. He wanted to reply with some wisdom, something she could use but found himself unable to come up with any pre-thought words, so he just spoke from his heart.

  “You are human. It is human of you to want the best in others. I can admire that. And you know, you have a big ship to try to bring about that change. But you also must know that many will oppose you.”

  “I do, but I can hope that more rally to me. In fact, I plan to set Urt free first,” she said.

  Kale could see millions rallying behind the little girl, a true queen of men.

  Gheno hugged Deespa. “Don’t forget about us.”

  Her eyes were glistening with tears. “I never could.”

  Two guards, giant men, her own personal guards, awaited her. They received word that one of the Corinthian ships had opened a line to them and that the new Empress was being asked for on the bridge. She turned and gave them one last smile, “Please tell Ayia I was strong. She will know what I mean.”

  Kale and Gheno returned to the Midnight Oil. The engineers finished their work and concluded everything according to Sentinel. Kale tried to get more information on the weapon, but the AI could only say when it was fully functional it would let them know. They left the Harmoa’s main hangar and were now in the blackness of space once again. The invisible shadow of the huge Dominion ship was behind them. The Corinthian ships were about two hours away. He wasn’t sure how much they would focus on his ship, but he just had to survive for two hours until the Scythe jumped into this system. If the Harmoa could tractor that ship in, they would both jump out of there to a pre-planned system.

  Kale was in enough battles to know things rarely went as planned.

  The Crusaders didn’t have that plan in mind either.

  “Captain, two large ships, coming through hooks, seventeen miles away. Crusaders. They are moving towards the Harmoa.”

  “These guys again? Ok kid, this really got hot. Strap in,” Kale ordered, “Load up the countermeasures program and be ready. I have no idea what they are doing here, but I find it highly unlikely it’s just a coincidence.”

  Gheno tapped the screen and brought up a list of programs for the ship, looking under the defensive applications, and beginning the boot up sequence for all the different defensive capabilities loaded on the ships computer. They would link into the hardware onboard.

  “Hey Sentinel, did those Dominion engineers at least load us up with fuel?” Kale asked.

  “They did,” it replied.

  “Ok, we need to survive for two hours and then some added to that. Sentinel, I need you to make sure we are using the bare minimums to conserve every last ounce of hydrogen.”

  “I suggest disabling all life support except to the pilot’s cabin.”

  “Do it.”

  The pilot’s cabin door slid shut and the rest of the ship began draining of its atmosphere. Kale reached under his seat and pulled out a breathing mask and showed Gheno where he could find his.

  “Don’t put them on, it’s annoyingly itchy. But if something happens, get it on right away.”

  Kale turned the ship to face the two Crusader ships. They looked identical to the one that had fled the research base on Devil’s Den. Sentinel confirmed for Kale that neither of them were the ship though. The AI also began picking up communications between them and the Harmoa and tapped into it. It was running a loop and when the Harmoa attempted to reply, the loop continued.

  “We demand to see God. God is near.”

  Gheno looked at Kale. “Demands are rarely a friendly thing.”

  Kale nodded. Kale thought about sending a message to the Harmoa to see what Deespa wanted them to do when they noticed several large hangars on the port side of the giant vessel opening. Several torpedoes could be seen bristling from within the banks. The giant ship tilted down to face the two incoming ships.

  “That’s all I needed to know. Sentinel, move us out from the middle of the salvo please,” Kale ordered.

  As the Midnight Oil spun about and began moving away, several
banks of torpedoes erupted from the side of the Harmoa, leaving trails of ice crystals in their wake as they sped off towards the two far smaller white crusader ships. They in turn, began firing super-heated slugs of metal as an anti-torpedo barrage. The formed a slowly moving cloud of metal that aimed to take out as many of the torpedoes as possible. As they sped away from the scene towards the back side of the Harmoa, Kale couldn’t see the action live, but saw on the sensors as the torpedoes went through the cloud. Several of them were destroyed, but many kept going through.

  “Seventeen impacts captain,” Sentinel read off, “One of the ships has lost forward power. Both are closing in and are firing long rang ballistics. Also, eight interceptors have just exited the hangars. I think they’re coming after us now.”

  Kale spun the ship around as it continued going backwards to get a good look. They were smaller Fox class interceptors. These were tiny one manned ships without any hook capabilities. They were escort ships and carrier fleet type vessels. They usually had a good thirty minutes of combat time fully fueled, and had a wide arrangement of weapons.

  “Ok, Harmoa reacting. I'm reading twelve Exhuda being deployed.” These were unmanned, drone type ships. They had greater combat time, usually forty five minutes, but less weaponry and not as smart as a manned ship.

  “Full power please. Start burning the hydrogen,” Kale ordered.

  The Midnight Oil spun around again, and a small gravity field formed in front of her. Kale began flying as close as he could around the structure of the Harmoa. He didn’t think the battlecruiser would use up its flak on just a few small ships, so it would be up to his ship and the drones to deal with the Foxes.

  “Gheno, please open up tight beam communications,” Sentinel asked. Gheno started to open up the program when he asked, “What for?”

  “My own version of counter-measures. Try to send tight beam messages to each ship as they get behind us. I will attempt to take over their ships.”

  “You can do that?” Kale asked, eyeing the bottom gravity ring of the Harmoa and flying towards it.

  “I should be able to,” it replied.

  The much faster Foxes caught up to the Midnight Oil and began spewing hot slugs at it just as the smaller drones reached them firing tiny beams of purple laser. Kale spun the Midnight Oil into a spiral away from the Harmoa and then immediately back up into it. Ballistics were devastating in space, tearing through hulls easily, but were also rather easy to avoid. As long as he maintained distance and continued to fly erratically, he could avoid most of the damage.

  Two drones hit one of the Foxes at the same time with their beams, cutting deep gashes into the small ship. One of the beams cut through the cockpit, cracking it. The lone body inside of the ship was turned to a pulp that instantly froze into smaller pieces. The ship lost its gravity field and went flying past him and away from the Harmoa. That ship would continue to fly off into the nothingness for all eternity unless something stopped it. Three more drones were chewed up by metal slugs as they flew past the Midnight Oil.

  “That’s one down,” Gheno shouted, reading the sensors.

  “Still too many,” Kale pointed out, “Sentinel?”

  The Midnight Oil flew through the giant ring and then bent back up towards the starboard side of the Harmoa, still followed by three of the Fox ships.

  “Harmoa is taking hits from the two Crusader ships. Some damage port side. They have very heavy armor. The spearhead design is meant to take that punishment. The Harmoa appears to be concentrating their firepower on the disabled Crusader ship,” Sentinel gave details of the combat out of their sight, “The Harmoa is now turning to face the spear directly at the disabled ship. The other one is still trying to flank around to the rear.”

  As the Midnight Oil came up along the starboard side it began flying down the length towards the tip of the ship. They could see giant plasma cannons firing gobs of green energy down towards the Crusader ship, now directly in front of them. Each slow moving plasma ball tore into and disintegrated the Crusader ship one huge chunk at a time. A non-moving ship was a death trap to plasma cannons.

  “Three still on us Kale,” Gheno said looking at the battle sensors.

  “Gheno, open the tight beam lines on all three ships now,” Sentinel ordered.

  The boy typed in the commands for the tight beam laser communications. Usually this was meant to go over a very long distance, within a system, and would have generally been impossible to hit a moving target. At this close range, the computer, with Sentinel’s assistance, was able to target each ship individually and lock into their laser ports.

  “Accepting link, transmitting,” Sentinel informed.

  Ships maintained their laser links open for communications and the three pilots looked down in curiosity as they all saw the green light of an incoming communication before realizing what was happening. Before they could bring up the program and close the laser ports, Sentinel injected a tiny portion of his own code into the three ships. The Foxes didn’t have any complex computer cores like the Midnight Oil, but whatever computers they had, Sentinels viral code quickly took it over, keeping the laser ports open. It brought the ships to a halt.

  “I control the three ships. I was going to vent the pilots, but I should ask you first. That’s not wrong is it?” Sentinel asked.

  “Very noble of you,” Kale quickly answered, “Yeah, vent them. They’re trying to kill us.”

  Sentinel sent the command through and the cockpits to the three Foxes popped open, ejecting the pilots. Gheno could see they were wearing fully protected flight suits as they floated out into space. Each one was likely completely confused to what had happened.

  “They’re still alive,” Gheno said, pointing out the window.

  “The Harmoa can pick them up now. Although they might not. Sentinel, take the three Foxes and make them fight the other ones,” Kale ordered.

  “I can’t do that. I don’t have enough space inside of them to give them complex orders.”

  “Ok, can you make them fly at something?” Kale asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Good, flying them straight into that other crusader ship. Ram them.”

  Sentinel gave the order and the three ships flew back down under the Harmoa and sped off towards the Crusader ship that had nearly flanked the Harmoa. Kale flew the Midnight Oil towards the top of the Harmoa then turned it to fly away from the top of the Dominion ship.

  “First Crusader ship has been destroyed. The Harmoa is turning,” Gheno read off the sensors.

  The Midnight Oil came to a stop about three miles off the top of the Harmoa and turned around to look down. The giant ship was turning its spear towards the Crusader ship. It was turning faster than the Crusader ship could get around it. Further below, Kale could make out the small shapes of the remaining two Fox ships flying back towards their mother ship. He couldn’t make out how many of the drones still remained and if any were giving chase.

  A rain of smaller torpedoes continued to pour out of the Harmoa, many of which were knocked down by the smaller Crusader ship’s slug cloud. Even if the Harmoa could directly face the other ship, it wasn’t disabled, so the plasma cannons would be useless.

  “Harmoa is powering up something large,” Sentinel informed.

  An orange glow began to emanate from the tip of the Harmoa just as it began to face the Crusader ship.

  “Is that a beam of some sort?” Gheno asked, thinking what could possible hit the smaller ship.

  “I have no idea…” Kale began to say when the bright orange bolt of light poured out of the Harmoa. Darker orange streams of energy came off the giant beam like rivers flowing off the main stream. The far brighter solid and straight beam spat out like a flaming sword nearly six miles ahead of the Harmoa herself. The ship continued to turn, swinging its sword towards the Crusader ship which realized its doom because a small Prokhof hole began to form in front of the ship as it attempted an emergency jump. Even those required some time. The beam cau
ght up to the Crusader ship and cut a swath through it. The beam did not quite cut clean through it, but created a terribly deep gash right through the long side of the ship. In narrower places, the beam did cut through the ship. As the beam cut through the Hausen reactor, whether it had intentionally targeted it or not, the three micro black holes collapsed. The whole front third of the ship vanished as the implosion caused sucked all physical space back into nothingness.

  “Wow,” Gheno exclaimed.

  The two thirds that remained barely resembled the original ship. Their atmosphere was venting quickly from the gap left behind from the implosion and the odds of anyone surviving were almost non-existent. Kale chuckled as he then saw the three Fox ships collide into the wreckage.

  “I think the beam was more effective,” Sentinel said, pointing out the obvious.

  “Yeah, that’s more firepower than even I expected. That beam was, well, at least five hundred terajoules, if not more. Gheno?” Kale asked.

  The boy was still in awe. “Yeah, maybe more.”

  “I could probably calculate…” Sentinel began.

  “C’mon, don’t ruin the moment,” Kale interrupted.

  “Captain, the Corinthian ships ended their sling prematurely. They are at a complete standstill,” Sentinel informed.

  Kale and Gheno quickly looked at their screens.

  “I would too if I just saw what happened here. There might be six of them, but they’re gonna pay with blood to win this battle,” Kale stated.

  A small green light came up on their screen. It was an incoming transmission from the Harmoa. Kale tapped it and an unfamiliar male face came up on the screen.

  “Captain Kale,” informed the man, “The Empress wishes to speak with you. Transmission incoming once you acknowledge.”

  “Uh, ok? Accepting acknowledgement?” Kale replied, unsure of what to say.

  There was a pause and then the image was replaced by Deespa’s familiar small face.

  “Are you all right?” she asked.

  “We’re fine in here. How did the Harmoa hold up?” Kale asked back.