Galaxy of Empires- Merchant Wars Episode #1

by Bruce Marcom

  ***

  Over a month passes as Eve and her daughters learn many more things than they could have imagined. They also practice many of the skills they have discovered that they possess.

  “Most impressive indeed, Lady Eve. Gothica is the finest example of an Arachnid warrior I have ever had the pleasure of training. Most warriors master one or two weapons during their lifetime. She has mastered three,” Weapons Master Jazrath says as they both stand watching Gothica practice on the weapons range. The Weapons Master is a male Arachnid transported here by the Consortium to train Gothica.

  “That is awesome,” Eve says with enthusiasm.

  Jazrath yells out to the burgeoning warrior. “Show your mother what you can do, Gothica!” She runs through some moving targets and whips out her four swords, slashing the objectives with blinding speed and accuracy.

  “Excellent!” Eve shouts and claps in approval.

  Next, the Arachnid hurls a series of throwing daggers from a bandolier into several targets with pinpoint precision. Both of the observers clap vigorously. Then she moves down to the rifle and hand blaster range. The range activates and five targets shoot up into the sky. Gothica quickly draws four hand blasters out of their holsters and rapidly fires all of them, easily dispatching all five targets. She then twirls her blasters and shoves them back in their holsters. She winks at her mother in rodeo fashion.

  “Ha-ha, you show-off. You just need a cowboy hat now!” Eve teases. All three of them laugh. An Android comes on the practice field and walks over to Eve in an efficient manner. It is one of the educational instructor Androids working with her other two daughters.

  “Greetings, Lady Eve. I am here to give you the progress report you requested. Xaqu has shown an extremely high aptitude for engineering, most notably in weapons design. Chaca, oddly enough, also has a great skill in engineering. She has very impressive designs for starships. They both can speak Arachnid, Elemental, Wolfkin, Reptilian, and Katlin at a master level. They scored very high on the IQ tests, just as you did. One other thing we discovered is who their father is—if you want to know.”

  “Yes, I want to know.”

  “The lab used DNA extracted from Captain Zach Blem when he was in captivity.”

  Eve is surprised by this news and was unsure how to react to it. He probably has no idea he has two daughters. Would he accept them as they were, mutant experiments?

  “Where is Captain Blem currently?”

  “He came in this morning from the Consortium home world. Right now, he is at the consulate in our temporary lodging.”

  “Thank you for your information.”

  “No problem, my lady. Good day.” The Android walks off and disappears into a hovercraft that waits for him on the other side of the field.

  “Is she about done for today?”

  “Yes, this is her last day with me. I cannot teach her any more than she has learned,” the Weapon Master says with a hint of sadness.

  “Don’t worry. We will stay in contact with you. She doesn’t have a lot of Arachnid friends.”

  “Yes, I look forward to talking to her again. Here she comes.”

  “So I guess we are done for today?”

  “Yes. This is your last day, so make sure you keep in contact with me, young lady. I want to hear about all of your adventures. I am an old person who does not get out much. Contact me whenever you get to the Arachnid space. We will go out and do some shooting or something.”

  “Oh yes, definitely. Thank you for all of your help. I never would have done this well on my own,” Gothica says, leaning over to hug the Weapons Master.

  Eve says, “Okay, Hon. Let’s go.”

  As they depart from the field, they see Henry waiting with their limousine. They climb into the limousine and dart off into the distance toward the consulate. After a short flight, they get out and go inside the consulate. The consulate is busy, as a lot of travelers are going in and out. The pair goes down to the lower levels to check up on Xaqu and Chaca.

  After searching for a few minutes, they find Xaqu in a room that appears to be an assembly area for Androids—perhaps a maintenance bay. There are two other Androids in there with her. They are standing and looking at what she has created.

  Eve and Gothica go over to see what all the commotion is about. As they walk up, they see a sleek, shiny chrome female Android who looks very similar to Eve.

  “She looks like me!” Eve says with amazement.

  “Yes, Mother. I was working on a new Android design and I decided to make it look like you. Doesn’t it look neat?”

  One of the Androids states, “Your daughter is very talented. Not just with weapon design, but with Android design as well. I believe this is the most advanced Android that has ever been constructed to date. She took the concept of the suits that we designed for you to wear and altered it to create a material that absorbs cosmic radiation—such as solar power—and converts it into energy that can recharge an Android’s battery. With this new exoskeleton, an Android can run indefinitely without ever needing to recharge. Your daughter’s grasp of chemistry and electronics is astounding.”

  “I am so proud of you, daughter,” Eve says and hugs her tightly.

  “I am just about to turn it on to see if it works…knock on wood,” Xaqu says nervously, hoping not to fail in front of her mother. “Here we go.” She flips on the switch in the back of the neck. There is some noise inside of the Android and it appears to be active. Suddenly, the eyes began to glow; a large bolt of energy arcs from the computer they are standing next to and hits the Android.

  “Hmm…very interesting design,” Draca says with intrigue. “Sorry for hijacking your Android. I have been observing your progression and was curious as to how it turned out. I was looking at the schematics yesterday and wondered how the practical application would function. You have done very well, Xaqu. You have created a next-generation Android with this design and my citizens are in your debt. It is only appropriate that we call this the Xaqu model. I would like to use this prototype model for myself, if you do not mind—unless your mother objects. After all, it might make her feel uncomfortable having a metallic version of herself walking around.”

  “Ha-ha, I don’t mind. It is uncanny how much it resembles me. You are very talented with art, Xaqu.”

  “Thank you for your kind words, ma’am. I do not mind if you keep the prototype. They can always make more and would like to keep working on perfecting the design, if you do not mind. I like making Androids.”

  “Certainly, by all means. I know this maintenance bay is not exactly a research and development laboratory, but I will give you a computer that links to the R&D department on our home world that will give you access to more stuff you can experiment with. They always welcome gifted minds like yourself, especially when it comes to developing Androids.”

  “Now that would be excellent,” Xaqu says with excitement. The Empress leaves the room.

  “Let us check on her sister and see what she is up to,” Eve suggests.

  “She was practicing her telepathic abilities earlier. I am not sure what she is doing now,” Xaqu says and turns to Gothica. “I look like a real mercenary or pirate with all these weapons.”

  Gothica smiles. “Yeah, I just need an eye patch or parrot.”

  “Or a cowboy hat. Then you can be a space cowboy,” their mother interjects. They all laugh as they walk out the door and go down some halls looking for Chaca. They walk into a room where Chaca is training with another telepath. They stop and sit in the observation seats above the training area. Chaca is about to be tested.

  The female snake instructor says, “You must be able to find your targets under any circumstances, using all of your senses. There may be a time where one or more of your primary senses, such as sight or hearing, is impaired. For this test, we are going to blindfold you and make you use your hearing to guide you to your targets. Begin!”

  Some balls start flying around the room in random directions. Chac
a is blindfolded and concentrating in an effort to release a lightning bolt in the area that would take out the balls. Two more come flying toward her from behind; she ducks and fires a wideband electrical charge that strikes both targets. A bunch of balls come flying out at one time from her left side, and as she hears those she launches a large cone of ice shards that fly in that direction and destroy all of the targets.

  The instructor says, “Splendid, Chaca! I see your mother is here and so we are done for the day. Put all the gear up while I talk to her.” She walks over, sees her other pupil, Xaqu, and gives her a hug.

  “Your daughters are very gifted and are the strongest telepathic students I’ve ever had. They are very smart. I guess they take after their mother.”

  “Perhaps, but I give them a lot of credit for being their own selves.”

  “I am sorry that I never got to work with you, Eve. Empress Draca wanted to work with you directly, though. Besides, I think your abilities are far beyond anything I could teach you.”

  “Yes, Draca is definitely an odd one to figure out. She is very knowledgeable when it comes to telepathic abilities, though.”

  “Your daughters have basic telepathic communication abilities, like all telepaths have. Interestingly, they also have some telekinesis abilities. These are not as strong as yours are, though. Xaqu can manipulate intelligent beings on a mass scale like I have never seen before. She has mass chaos mind, mass charm, and mass hallucination and fire attacks. In contrast, Chaca can control the weather with a massive gust of wind and electrical and cold attacks as well.”

  “That is good to know. Thank you for working with them; you’ve done a marvelous job.”

  “Thanks for letting me work with them. As of now, they have done as much as I can teach them.”

  “I will stay in touch with you. You have been a good mentor to them.” Eve smiles.

  Chaca finishes putting her training materials away, and then she joins her mother and her sisters.

  “You did well today, Chaca. I am very proud of you,” Eve says with honesty. She gives Chaca a hug. “Okay girls, wait in the limousine outside. I have to make a detour to another room here to meet with someone. I will be up there in a little bit. You can watch the Vid for news or other programs until I come up there and meet you. Just tell Henry to wait. I will be there in a minute.”

  The girls disappear and go upstairs, leaving through the front door and climbing into the limousine where Henry is waiting. Eve goes up a few levels and gets off the airlift to search the halls, trying to find the temporary quarters. After wandering around for a bit, she finds a hall with a sign above it that reads Temporary Quarters. She walks over to the front desk and says, “Excuse me, is Captain Zach Blem staying in one of these rooms?”

  The Android replies, “Let me check, wait one second please…Yes, I have him registered here.”

  “Could you contact him for me and tell him Eve is waiting at the front desk?”

  “Sure, one second.” The Android presses a few buttons: “Captain Blem, there is a woman named Eve waiting for you. Okay, I will tell her.” The Android disconnects and turns back to Eve. “He says to go up to his room; he is in Unit 43.” Eve nods and goes down a few halls until she sees Room 43 and knocks on the door. A few moments later, Zach answers the door.

  “Well hello, Beautiful. What brings you to a slimy dump like this?” Zach says with sarcasm.

  Eve pushes inside the room and begins hugging and kissing him. They have not seen each other in a couple months, and she is making sure he remembers her.

  “How’s my stud been?” Eve says with curiosity.

  “I’ve been fine, Sweetheart. What have you been up to?”

  “Just boring merchant stuff. Nothing exciting.”

  “Why do I doubt that? You just don’t want me to worry. I think I might have been missing you too much. I thought I saw an Android in the lobby who looked just like you. I must be losing my mind,” Zach laughs.

  “But, of course, my evil Androids are getting ready to take over the universe,” Eve smiles and winks while running her hand through his hair. If he only knew, she thought to herself.

  “Sit down for a minute. We need to have a serious conversation.”

  Zach could sense the mood changing, so he went and sat next to Eve on the sofa.

  “So what’s up?” Zach inquired.

  “I found that laboratory where I was created. I went there and found some other discoveries that you might find interesting because they have to do with you as well. I destroyed the entire place after I obtained a few items. Remember when the telepath police captured you?”

  “Yes.”

  “They took a sample of your blood. Several samples, as a matter of fact. They shipped them off to that secret lab where they were performing experiments with DNA from telepaths that had high PSI ratings.”

  “I do remember them taking blood samples. I never knew what they were for though.”

  “Well, they combined my DNA with your DNA and created two half-breed girls—our daughters. They were doing experiments on them that involved some extreme torture.”

  “What?!?…That is horrible!…Well, I don’t mean the part about the daughters, I mean the torturing part. What happened to them?”

  “I saved them and they are with me. I only found out yesterday that you are their father. They are very intelligent and have extremely powerful telepathic abilities. They also have other skills; both are very talented engineers. Their names are Xaqu and Chaca. They are very well educated and speak many languages. And you saw the Android who looks like me? Xaqu created that. She has a gift for creating Androids.”

  This is a lot for Zach to absorb all at one time. He sits motionless, not knowing how to react to this news. The pause of deadly silence extends interminably, no one speaking.

  “Well, that is a lot of information coming at me at one time. On the bright side, it appears that we can make babies, so that means we get to play Doctor more often, right?” Zach says in a humorous manner, trying to break the tension that appears to be building up.

  Eve laughs. “So you are okay with this? They are 17 and 18 years old.”

  “Of course, I am okay with it, why would not I be? Two awesome daughters with the woman I love. I am just kind of upset that we did not get to play Doctor to make them the old-fashioned way…wink-wink, nudge-nudge.” Zach gives a playful eyebrow wiggle to reiterate that he is joking.

  “You are so silly sometimes,” Eve giggles. “There is more.”

  “Oh my goodness, there’s more?”

  “Yes. There was a young female Arachnid warrior who was being experimented on in that laboratory as well. They injected her with some of my PSI enzymes to see what would happen to a non-telepath with a high dose of my enzymes. It had a couple of unusual effects on her, and she survived only because of her high regeneration ability that she got because they made her undead.”

  “Well, that is really creepy. That place sounds more like a dungeon than a laboratory. Is she okay? You don’t see Arachnids too often in this part of space.”

  “She is fine; I adopted her as my daughter. She is a very skilled warrior with weapons. She is my little space cowboy. I was hoping you would accept her as she is.”

  “Sounds intriguing for sure,” Zach states. “I was going to wait to do this later, but now seems to be a more appropriate time.” He pulls out a small box and opens it, displaying an enormous ring made out of diamonds. “Eve, I love you, and I want to marry you. No matter what. Will you do me the honor?”

  Eve is caught off guard, not expecting this scenario in any fashion. A moment of silence takes hold in the room. Zach is getting worried that she is not responding in any way.

  “Yes, of course, I will, Darling.” Eve hugs and kisses him. “Oh, I forgot our daughters are waiting out the limousine. I need to go out there. Are you coming?”

  “Sure, let’s go. I want to meet my children, even my adopted one.”

  They collect themse
lves and go outside to get in the limousine with the girls.

  “Xaqu and Chaca, this is Zach Blem. He is your father.”

  They are both surprised. Eve can feel their excitement. Even Zach can tell they are pleased by this news.

  “My, my, I have such beautiful daughters and never knew it. Your mother has said that you are smart as well. I always knew that we would have beautiful children,” Zach says as the girls blush.

  “They are a little shy at first, but they will grow on you. Speaking of shy… Gothica, you can stop hiding now. She is super-shy around new people.”

  Gothica slowly appears and sits next to Xaqu.

  “Wow, invisibility! Super cool. I like your orange hair, it’s neat. I guess instead of high-fives it will be high-20s with you. I wish I had four arms, then I would get so much more accomplished. You are a cute little Arachnid,” Zach remarks, trying to lighten the mood. They all giggle.

  “Zach has asked me to marry him, so all of you will officially have a father,” Eve says with much joy.

  Xaqu says, “Oh, that is fantastic! When is the wedding, Mom?”

  Chaca asks, “Can I be a bridesmaid?”

  Gothica says, “I’ve never been to a wedding! This will be fun. Can I bring my blasters, or is that inappropriate? A real father is something I’ve never had before and I have always wanted one.”

  “We will work all that stuff out later, girls,” Eve assures them. “Henry, go to the house.”

  After a short trip, they pull up in front of Eve’s house. They all get out and start toward the door. Zach notices a reflection from a shiny object out of the corner of his eye. He turns his head and sees the end of a rifle protruding out of the bushes next door. At that exact moment, the sniper fires and Zach lunges forward to block the beam from hitting Eve, at the same time yelling, “Ambush!”

  Zach is hit in the side and knocked backward into Henry, who was just closing the door of the limousine. In a split second, laser fire was coming from all directions—too many to count. The girls instantly put up force fields surrounding themselves.

  “Henry, get him in the car and get out of here,” Eve yells out as heavily armored men come running around both sides of the house and from across the street firing different types of weapons at the four women. The force field absorbs the energy beams and makes their shields stronger. Realizing the energy beams are having no effect, the leader yells out, “Change to projectile weapons!” The complete front side of Eve’s house has huge blaster holes in it.

  Eve sends out telepathic instructions to the girls. Xaqu decides to make the mercenaries on the right side of them her friends. Suddenly, all of them start firing at the other men in front. She has mass charmed them. Chaca releases a huge cone of dagger-shaped ice shards that fly straight at the large group of men in front of them. The ice daggers slice through the armor they are wearing as if it is made of butter. They scream in agony as they fall to the ground.

  On the left side, there are about twenty or so mercenaries rushing from various positions and firing their weapons. Henry is fortunate enough to escape with Zach. Gothica turns to the right and changes into Arachnid form with her spider legs sprouting out into the ground. She blankets the entire right side with a gargantuan web that encases most of the soldiers who had been advancing. She dodges the bullets from the few who are left as she pulls out her blasters and fires back with all four guns blazing.

  Eve turns around when machine gun fire starts coming from her rooftop. She sees men tossing explosives. She grabs the devices in midair with her telepathy and sends the explosives back to where they came from. A huge explosion rips up large portions of the roof, causing it to collapse along with the men standing on it.

  Eve sees four armored hovercrafts coming in their direction above the top of her home. Their twin-cylinder rail guns are firing through her home, aiming at her and the girls. Large-caliber bullets rip through the house as the aircrafts fly over it and fire down at Eve’s location. Eve lifts her house from its foundation and crashes it into two of the armored hovercrafts. The entire mess of hovercrafts and house parts falls to the ground and begins sliding off the back edge of the hill. As a ball of flame crashes down to the bottom of the hill, it causes more explosions.

  Gothica turns around after dispatching the few stragglers over on her side and sees the hovercrafts coming. She activates her visor and releases a horrific green energy blast from her eyes that roars across the scene. The blast hits the nearest hovercraft, obliterating it completely.

  Xaqu has her small charmed army shooting at the last hovercraft. Chaca releases a massive lightning bolt that hits a hovercraft’s engine and sends it thundering down on the house below where it erupts into a ball of fire.

  Eve scans the scene and looks for more enemies to kill. The area is filled with unfathomable carnage and destruction.

  “Are you okay, girls? Anybody injured?” Eve asks.

  “We are okay. Who would send this many people to kill us? What do you want me to do with these guys that I have charmed?” Xaqu inquires.

  “I don’t think any of them are leader types. They probably do not know who hired them as grunts, but we can try to find out. Bring them over here and I will scan their minds.”

  She scans all eleven soldiers, but they are all foot soldiers and have no idea who their employer is.

  “They do not know. They also have no marks on them that indicate which company they are from, which is unusual. And they humans, which is even more unusual. A human mercenary unit is not something that you see in the Reptilian Republic, but I suppose it is not unheard of. As far as what to do with them… These mercenaries knew the risk—kill them all. Make sure there are no survivors. We do not want people knowing how powerful we are.”

  “You think this was one of the merchant groups we are at war with?”

  “No dear, a low-level licensed company would not spend the resources or even have the resources to spend on an attack of this magnitude against my company that has only a level 8 license. Apparently, I have created an even greater enemy that appears to be unseen. That is okay. I will find out who it is, and they will learn just who they are screwing with. They attacked us and shot your father and they will pay. This is only the beginning, even if I have to hunt them down to the ends of the universe.”

  ***

  A tall snake man dressed in leather and high boots with blasters on both hips walks down a hall decorated with elegant paintings. He stops and knocks on a large door with a gold handle.

  “Enter.” A deep-voiced person calls out with firmness.

  The snake man enters the large, elaborately decorated conference room with a big table and several large chairs made of gold and velvet. There is a huge chair facing the other way and looking out the window. From his vantage point, the snake man can only see a hand and goblet on the arm of the chair.

  The figure in the chair sighs with impatience. “Well?”

  “Sir, the Strike Force was annihilated and the targets suffered no damage. There was one person who was collateral damage in her party, and some other people from surrounding homes.”

  “Hmm…I suspected as much. I guess my informants were telling the truth. Draca does not invest time in people who are insignificant.”

  “Do you wish to send another Strike Force, Master?”

  “No, it’s not necessary. The Strike Force was a test to see if Lady Eve is worth my time. She may be exactly what I am looking for, along with her three daughters. Who was injured or killed?”

  “Our sources say her boyfriend. Others say he may be the father of Eve’s daughters.”

  “That could cause some complications. Did he die or is he still alive?”

  “He is in intensive care. It looks like he should pull through, or at least they are still hoping he will.”

  “Very well. I will have to figure out solutions to either scenario. Keep me informed.”

  “Yes, Master.”

  “Now get out.”

 
The snake man leaves the room.

  The person sitting and looking out the window says in a firm tone, “So you really think she is the one, eh?”

  “Yes, I do.” The Arachnid Weapon Master appears after shedding his invisibility.

  “Then get that lame excuse of a pirate to report to me.”

  To be continued in Episode 2