Chapter 68

0001 - Tempro
0003 - Conner- Thomas
0097 - Ace - Zimmel
0098 - Lucy
0101 - Shelby (mother ship)
0125 - Lars
0200 - Ellen
0301 - Rodrick
0403 - Johnathon
0667 - Marco - Brown
0778 - Jan
0798 - Celeste - Shelby (human)
0805 - Toran
0808 - Radella
0908 - Tara - Mara

Ungrown - unnumbered

2 - onboard Shelby, in Re-gen
0250 Tendra
1000 - Sherry
0999 - Zan - still lost

Known and OR numbered

0501 - Thaddeus
???? - Lena

“Thaddeus! No!” Shelby gasp out. “Please son, there’s no need to do this. We will find them all.” Shelby was begging.

Tears were now starting to stream down Lucie’s face as she was also listening to what was being said. “NO!” She suddenly yelled.

Shelby also had tears in her eyes as she said, “You have been out here alone for so long, please come home to me.”

Both started to object then were suddenly quiet as Shelby watched the box as it started to drift away. Turning toward Derrick she couldn’t look up from the floor.

“I’m sorry Derrick, Thaddeus refuses to come aboard. He says he cannot ‘til he knows that they all are safe. I cannot force him.” Shelby told Derrick her face still turned to the floor.

Derrick could only shake his head. There was dedication and then there was damn dedication. In this case he’d have to reserve his opinion.

“Alright Shelby, I want a marker on him. If we are to leave him here, I want to make sure that we can come back for him.” Derrick told her.

A smile appeared on her face as she rapidly hurried to carry out Derrick’s instructions. A moment later a small tracking device shot out of Shelby hooking to the newly released box. With a last tear in her eye Shelby turned toward Derrick even as the ship turned away from the box.

Shelby was on the floor beside an almost shattered Lucie. “I tried to convince him to come with us. He wouldn’t listen to me. Why? After being out here so long why?”

“I have no answer for you my dear. I assume it has something to do with honor I’m not sure.” Looking up at Derrick she could see the look of pain and pride on his face.

Taking a deep breath Derrick took another moment to speak. “Get the sixth one Shelby. Then we can start on the next eight. The faster we can get them the faster we can all be together.” Turning away from the two females, neither saw him curse under his breath.

Both Kimison and Rayburn were in their racks not long after their visit with Derrick. Almost an hour later Kimison jerked awake something was bothering him. Getting up he went to where he and Rayburn had been working.

“Good evening Commander.” Tempro greeted him when he turned the lights on. “Can I be of assistance?”

“Something has been bothering me since Commander Rayburn’s incident. I need to go over the logs of what transpired.” Kimison ordered.

“Yes sir, now brining up all recordings and data. Are you looking for something specific sir? Something I might be able to help you discern?” Tempro asked.

“If I knew I would advise you. For right now I am trying to determine why he shut off almost all the safeties.” An hour later Kimison was starting to get frustrated. “What in the hell had you so worried that you shut them all off? Hell, half of them though not all of them, maybe...”

Kimison stopped, looking behind him, as he thought Tempro was keeping a very close eye on him. Damn it, now that he knew, how was he going to test the theory?

Scrolling through a few more screens, Kimison would type a command then move on. Almost another hour later an alarm sounded then immediately shut off.

“Warning! Warning! Instability in A.I. personality matrix. Warning, all A.I. functions shutting down to re-boot.” Came Tempro’s voice.

Kimison shook his head who knew that the same program from Celeste would work here. He only had a few minutes at most as he started to rapidly type more complex functions on the screen. Finally finished, he donned the head set, then hit the activation button.

It wasn’t an alarm, Tempro nor anything tangible that caused Rayburn to jerk awake. It was a feeling of incredible pain in his head. He almost made it to the door of the work lab when it increased.

“MARY! TEMPRO!” He was yelling as he fell through the door way. Mary appeared immediately though strangely Tempro was absent. The next thing he noticed, was that Kimison was screaming at the top of his voice.

“Can you shut it down?” Rayburn asked.

“Attempting now, it appears that my son is in re-boot. I am afraid he won’t be any help for two minutes.” Mary stated.

Rayburn nodded as he ran for the main console. Bringing up the headset control he cursed when he saw that Kimison had almost the exact settings that he had before. “Clearing a path, now beginning extraction.”

A minute later the machine shut down as Rayburn ran to where Kimison was prone on the deck.

A moment later Kimison’s eyes open as he stared at Rayburn. “A modified sigma energy variance cannot be maintained if the energy of the matrix is not adjusted accordingly. Packets of two gigabytes can be added with such adjustment.”

Rayburn was writing as fast as he could. That was the one way he hadn’t been sure of. “You idiot! Are you actually trying to fry your brain? What in the hell got into you?”

In a barely whispered voice Kimison stated, “I know you moron. I saw what you did only took me a little longer. I...” Rayburn could only shake his head as Kimison’s eyes rolled up into his head then he was unconscious.

Sighing, Rayburn nodded, he hadn’t thought anyone would find what he had. “Better let the Emperor know. I’m getting him back to his bunk. Then I’m going to sleep myself.”

A now re-booted Tempro nodded to his mother then she was gone. “Would you like help sir?” Tempro asked. “I wish to apologize to you sir. He caught me completely unaware.”

“No need to apologize Tempro, we both know he is far smarter than he lets on.” Here Rayburn shook his head, “A hell of a lot smarter.”

Three fourths of the distance to the Imperial world from where the battle had taken place, Admiral Hartwell was having problems of his own. It seemed that the female he’d started calling Bee was still having an aversion to clothing.

“You have to wear them where we are going.” Hartwell told her again.

“NO! They are an abomination! Please master, Please do not make me wear them!” Bee pleaded.

Taking a deep breath Hartwell thought to take a different route. “You said that you are mine, correct?”

Bee looked at him with narrowed eyes then slowly replied, “Yes lord sir, I am yours. This is the law after all.”

“Then, you should not be disobeying my orders correct?” Hartwell stated hoping that this worked.

“Yes, lord sir, though,” Here Bee lowered her head. “Though you haven’t made a direct claim to me either. Until such time, I have to obey your orders though, not pertaining to interaction between us.”

“So, you’re telling me, you will obey me as long as it’s not personal.” Hartwell said a feeling of dread creeping into him.

With a bright smile Bee nodded her head emphatically. This of course caused Hartwell to groan again.

“So, the fact that I have not claimed you means that, you don’t have to do all I say?” Hartwell said the dread starting to grow larger.

“You are a very smart master, lord sir, many do not gain that knowledge for a longer period of time.” Bee stated a slight smile on her face seeing Hartwell with a look of confusion on his face.

Finally, with a groan Hartwell threw up his hands, “So, no matter what, you won’t wear them unless I claim you.” Hartwell’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Bee. These females appeared to be far smarter than he’d given them credit.

“No Lord Sir, I will not. No matter where we go, no female is allowed to cover themselves. Only when we have been bred, are we ever demanded by society to cover ourselves.” Bee related as if every day information.

Hartwell issued a slight growl from his throat. He had to convince the commander to declare war on these idiots.

On the duke’s planet, Willian and Trent Hartwell had finally helped the last of Greeson’s men to the cave.

They had finally sat down to relax after the long day. Neither had eaten having to help constrain all the prisoners that went up to the ships. Both had just lifted a fork to their lips, when they both swore they saw something flash past their location.

Both stopped to stare at the area where they saw the flash. Turning to stare at each other they both shrugged.

Trent Hartwell thought a moment longer, then grabbed a communicator that Greeson had left the last time.

Opening the communicator up he hesitated, “Uh hello? I was told by an officer Greeson that if I saw anything strange to call. We both just saw a flash near our area much like when Greeson left here as well as his master.”

A moment later a female voice came back. “Please identify yourself.”

“I am Trent Hartwell; I am the uncle of Johnathon and Lucie Hartwell.” Trent responded a little befuddled.

“Please stand by.” The female voice responded.

A moment later a beam shot out of the communicator, revealing a petite older woman. “I am Mary, the Palace A.I. Please recount what you saw.”

“I was hoping to tell Greeson or the Emperor.” A slightly shocked Trent told Mary.

Giving a slight sigh Mary started again. “Unfortunately, the Emperor is at the other side of the galaxy. As for Lieutenant Greeson, he was far more injured than any at first thought. He is for the moment recovering in the med bay.”

An even more shocked Trent and William Hartwell could only stare at each other. Just what in the hell was going on? This seemed to be an almost all-out war.

Finally, Trent then William retold exactly what they had seen. Mary stood there taking in all that was said. It sounded very familiar though she had no hard data to go on at the moment.

“I will report this to the Emperor as soon as possible. Though at the moment he is rather close to a field of interference. Thank you for the information.” Mary said then the com went silent.

“Well,” Trent started, “It seems that we aren’t the only ones having problems right now.”

General Norman had left not long after his daughter and Greeson. Walking to the nearest com he had the med bay prepare for them.

When they were finally there he breathed a sigh of relief. Heading back to his duty station something was nagging at the back of his mind. The way that the pilot had spoken for one. For one who was just a pilot and nothing more, he seemed to have far more knowledge than Norman thought he should.

Then there was the fact that her father had acted far more calm than he thought the man should have. Norman knew for a fact that the older man treasured his family. No, he should have been far more upset than he was.

Something wasn’t adding up here, that was for sure. The thing was, he’d only spent a few weeks at a time on Kimon’s planet. Not really all that much time to glean anything at all about their craft or art as they called it. True he had seen a few things that many would call miracles.

Shaking his head, it was only after the third brief visit that he earned their respect, plus nearly lost his life. A child had fallen on the roadway near him. Without even thinking, he’d stepped out grabbing the child getting it out of danger. Though he saved the child, he had been struck in the process. He awoke three days later bound in the foulest smelling bandages.

Looking around he soon met the face of Isamu Sakuta plus several stately oriental males. Then he made the mistake of trying to sit up. Though the pain was intense, more than he’d had in a long time, he didn’t make a sound promptly passing out.

He awoke a day later bound in even more foul bandages. A female about his and Kimon’s age was sitting nearby. Upon seeing him awake she slightly smiled, then said into her com, “Kare wa okite iru, chichioyadesu.” (He is awake, Father)

“Arigato musume.” Came the reply. (Thank you daughter.)

Looking back at Norman her smile disappeared. “We know that you are a great man. You did not have to prove it,” here she bowed. Norman could only stare at her words. “After you gave us so much honor, you tried even injured to honor father and the council. Father was very impressed, as was the council. It is hoped that the healing bandages will restore you to health.”

Though he was in pain beyond belief, Norman had to try and speak. “Healing bandages?” He mumbled through the bandages that were covering almost all of his body, plus most of his face.

The female’s eyes were wide a moment then she slightly bowed to him. “Again, you set out to prove just how strong you are. As I stated before it is not necessary. Especially for one who has been as close a Tomodachi to Kimon Dempsy as you have been. I know that has been more than a trial.”