“I know Tillman, I do.” The President said, the fire leaving his voice. “But we can’t keep making mistakes. Everything hinges on what we do. You let Lisa leave, you took Project offline and your anger alienated the best chance we had at controlling this new form Alice has taken. I have no choice but to take you into custody and relieve you of the Forge.” He said, giving Master Tillman a look that any child must receive when being punished by an angered parent.
“No…you can’t! This is my Forge, and I run this place!” He shouted.
“Not anymore I’m afraid.” The President responded, turning to leave the room as his guards closed in on the rogue scientist and arrested him. “Until I can trust you again the Forge will be turned over to your daughters to run. At least take solace in that.” President Tate left the Forge and couldn’t bear to see the shame in his chief scientist’s eyes, knowing that he was right. In the beginning the two of them had been best friends and it wasn’t long before the Master’s wife had joined their unstoppable team. They discovered Alex and his Paladin program and had nurtured it to fruition, even encouraging Alex and Alice as young adults to date and fall for one another. The family they had created had encouraged an entire universe of humanity to work together and prosper in the stars…and then the Corporation had come and everything had changed. The Forge was the creation of the Master and something no human would have ever come close to. Tate knew the secret of the Forge and knew it wouldn’t survive long without the Master there, but for now he had to take him away from it.
Robert stepped into the elevator to his office, letting out the breath he’d been holding in and pondering over his next series of moves. Even with Alice being the unknown that she now was, he had to continue his plans and let the Rebellion move forward. The diplomat he’d dispatched the Cydrak had called them in with a treaty, and the Eldritch Glaive had abandoned the space around the planet freeing it from Corporation control. It worried him that he didn’t know the circumstances that had caused the Corporation Commander to leave, but this was a game of moves and counter-moves and it was his turn. He sent a small protection fleet to dispatch the forces still remaining around and on the planet and to secure it for their purposes. They had much work to do now, all over the universe and not just the outer reaches of their territories. He moved over to the balcony once the elevator door opened, and leaned against it to look back over the Tower. He loved this place, he’d decided and like anyone who was acting out of love he supposed he could be irrational at times. He would talk with the Master again though it was not time to accept his apologies yet. He was in love with the Forge as well, and again like a man in love his apologies would mean nothing until the damage had sank in. The apologies of a man losing what he loved were empty at first, as was his experience when he’d upset those he loved in his own life. He couldn’t rely on heartbreak as motivation, only pure dedication to his cause.
Reinholdt had been defeated. Between the mess that the Rebels aboard his ship was causing and the fact a small, but well=equipped fleet had appeared from FTL travel he was overwhelmed. The reason he didn’t do well on the battlefield was because the loud noises of gunfire and the marching of feet caused him to freeze up. He wasn’t frozen here but there was far too much needing his attention and preventing him from focusing on any of the tasks. He delegated tasks off to the officers in his command and ordered the ship to switch to combat mode and out of stationary position. It was too late by the time the guns were bearing down on his ship and blasting pieces off into space. His systems suffered a spasm and the entire coordination that he was used to seeing within his ship fell apart and failed. He did the wise thing and called the opposing officer for a surrender offering to compromise by releasing the prisoners and not prolonging the battle any further. He was certain his cannons could be brought to bear but he also knew that the damage to his ship would be significant. The Rebellion officer graciously accepted the surrender though that didn’t stop Reinholdt from signaling for back-up from a nearby fleet.
They had gathered what they came for, and he hadn’t tried to stop them taking the female from Darvin either. The woman had made him more nervous than he cared for and what was the point in stopping them from taking a hostage? Humans could be nasty and vicious and he’d rather it be her than himself. His misery in defeat was short-lived when he learned that Azhulhand had also been defeated and yet he still lived. The Commander had been taken to their medical facility and immediately placed on life-saving equipment, the critical damage he’d suffered from Alice was more than his body could recover from without help. He was standing in the command room and reeling from the losses, though not as heavily as he thought. His ship was being prepared and had shifted to combat mode and he was contemplating following the opposing fleet and vaporizing them in front of the tower. The ringing of an incoming transmission took him out of his thoughts.
“Commander Reinholdt, this is Sector Commander Darvin do you copy?”
“Indeed. Listen I’m not really in the mood to-“
“Don’t. No excuses, no justification. You were denied bombardment and yet you destroyed a good section of fertile forest land. You surrendered to an enemy and you allowed them to take my diplomat hostage!” The anger from Darvin echoed through the communication station.
“I had no choice. You don’t face battle Darvin, you weren’t aware of what was at stake. Now leave me be, I have much work to do here.” He said with a cold tone that bordered boredom.
“You’re not even listening. Reinholdt, I am your superior officer and you must listen to me! I demand that you and that upstart Azhulhand return the Eldritch Glaive to my sector at once and deliver me the ship. You and Azhulhand are suspended of command until further notice and will await dishonor procedures at my leisure.” He said, laughing in his arrogant tone. The Sector Commander had earned Reinholdt’s attention, at least for a moment. Surrender the Glaive? He smirked and shook his head, putting the mic to his lips.
“No.”
“What?”
“You are not anyone’s superior commander and you will not be confiscating MY ship. I will not be returning to your Sector and I will not stop what I am doing until the Blood Hunt has been concluded, and for that you can thank yourself or that credit-digging woman you sent aboard my ship. You needed to take this matter seriously, and you refused. That is on you. The weapon has been stolen from aboard the planet, and now we will work to retrieve it.” He said, receiving silence as a response. After a few minutes the Sector Commander returned to the line, though Reinholdt had lost interest long before then.
“You and Azhulhand will be marked as failures and traitors to the Corporation. I’m giving you-“ He was cut off by the disruption of the communications terminal, Reinholdt cutting the transmission and returning to his command chair. The command staff turned to face him, he offered them only a salute that they returned and sat down at their posts.
“Well boys, I guess it’s time we left this place. Plot a course to the coordinates I give you, and dismiss any and all official Corporation communications until I say otherwise.” Reinholdt said as pain welled in his head from the stress of the day. He never really cared much for Corporation commands that didn’t come directly from HQ anyways, and he was sure Azhulhand would have done the same thing. Maybe the Corporation Commander was having too much of an influence on him.
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Rebirth (Rebel Wars Book 2) Page 18