Chapter 73

0001 - Tempro
0003 - Conner- Thomas
0097 - Ace - Zimmel
0098 - Lucy
0101 - Shelby (mother ship)
0125 - Lars
0200 - Ellen
0250 - Tendra
0301 - Rodrick
0403 - Johnathon
0667 - Marco
0778 - Jan
0798 - Celeste - Shelby (human)
0805 - Toran
0808 - Radella
0908 - Tara - Mara
1000 - Sherry

Ungrown - unnumbered

0100 - Derry (father ship)
0667 - Marco - lost
0999 - Zan - still lost

Rescued from Tendraxians so far

6 on Shelby
8 on Lucy

Known and OR numbered

0501 - Thaddeus
???? - Lena

Derrick watched as the last of the Delcron fleet was moved. He was about to have Shelby move the ship when her human counterpart whispered to him.

Derrick turned, whispering back in disbelief, “You’ve got to be kidding me. Seriously?”

“I’m afraid so, she’s even willing to pass through ‘the evil eye’ as she puts it. It seems their whole race is geared toward battle. Shelby said that her bio-readings are already starting to fail,” the deadly serious Empress stated.

He shook his head, blowing out a breath of frustration. He looked at the Empress, then Shelby.

A moment later, he cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, Admiral,” he stated as Bee appeared next to Hartwell.

“Why is she back here?” a shocked Hartwell asked.

“Her scans appeared to indicate that her bio-readings were failing. Apparently, being with you on the ship is the only thing that has stabilized her.” Derrick told him.

A groan escaped his throat as he stared at the trembling Bee. “How am I supposed to...”

“Her whole raced is geared toward battle. Set her to a task. She just might surprise you,” Derrick told him.

Hartwell shook his head in disbelief. His sister was bad enough; now this?

Derrick smiled, seeing the exasperation on Hartwell’s face. It was about time the man felt some of the frustration that he did.

“Now I know that, we’re going to have to have it out when this is finished,” Hartwell growled.

“Yeah, if I remember right the last time, you hit the deck before I did. Get over it!” Derrick responded.

“Ha! As I saw in the replay of it, you were right on my heels. I think we need another go at it. Besides, I am having issues right now with you,” Hartwell growled louder.

A rather loud Empress interjected, “I am not about to watch the two of you act like little boys, trying to beat the crap out of each other again. I suggest that the both of you get over it!”

The Empress’s forceful voice caused the both of them to pause, looking at her.

Derrick and Hartwell could only stare at the Empress. Damn, Derrick thought, when in the hell had she become so forceful?

The Empress put her hands on her hips, staring at them with even sterner looks. Walking to Derrick, she poked him with her finger. “Damn it, Derrick! I’ve barely gotten you back. Here you want to end up injured, away from me even longer in the med ward.” Here she turned toward the image of Hartwell, a slight smile on her lips. “Johnathon, code Epsilon, Mu, Psi, Rho, Epsilon, Sigma, Sigma, Chi, Omicron, Nu, Tau, Rho, Omicron, Lambda. Alpha, Omega–001a. Confirm”

A shocked Johnathon bowed. “Code confirmed. I await your orders, Empress.”

A startled Derrick started to say, “Johnathon, belay those...”

“I am sorry, sire, I cannot, that was an emergency override that cannot be superseded,” a sad-looking Johnathon stated.

An even more startled Derrick and Hartwell turned to stare openmouthed at the Empress.

“Now then,” she said, a deadly serious look on her face, “when all this is over, then we will see about settling this. The both of you would do this right now, something we don’t have time to do. Johnathon, if he makes any move to engage in the activity that we both know that he would”—here she stared directly at Hartwell—”shock him until he is unable to continue.”

“But...” Hartwell started.

The Empress turned to Derrick, then she slightly smiled. “I may not be able to do this to you, YET. I am working on it. This way, we can get through all of this without the both of you injured. At least not by each other.”

Derrick and Hartwell could only stare at each other, then an uproarious laugh came from behind Hartwell.

Hartwell whirled to stare at his sister. “I am not finding this a damn bit funny,” he told her.

Derrick also turned when he heard laughter behind him. Trent Hartwell was as well laughing at his brother’s situation.

“You always did seem to have a penchant for trouble. Plus, you always seemed to be in the middle of it.” Trent said as he started to laugh harder. Then Trent suddenly turned serious. “I have been fighting, training, on the run for years. Don’t think that you can take me like you used to.”

Hartwell stared hard at his brother. Seeing the battle-hardened look in his eyes, Hartwell nodded. “I can see that you have been through a hell as bad if not worse than my own.” Letting out a sigh of defeat, he nodded to the Empress and Derrick. “We should table this for a more peaceful time. Then we can beat the hell out of each other,” this last said almost in a whisper.

Derrick’s eyes were wide as he stared at Hartwell, then the Empress. “I fully agree., With the current situation, that would be very wise.” Nodding to the Empress, then Hartwell, he clicked off, heading to the command chair. “All ships, Captains, report in.”

Even as he received the reports, he heard the wind-up, then Shelby stopped. Derrick saw that they were a substantial distance from the others. Even as he watched, he saw the Delcron fleet move into a strange configuration.

Derrick was staring as he tried to figure exactly what the Delcrons were doing. Then it hit him: he saw most of the fleet off to one side. A wide smile crossed his lips, and he nodded his approval. Not exactly what he would do; then again, he did only have fifteen ships.

“Mary, I need an analysis of the Creagon formation,” Derrick ordered Mary.

“Yes, sire,” came her reply. “Analysis complete. It appears they are advancing in columns. This is more than effectively hiding their total numbers. I am also detecting three very large spheres a great distance behind the columns.”

“Damn it! I was afraid that the last time wasn’t a fluke. Advise all ships of this new threat. Connect me to all Captains.” A moment later, five holograms appeared. “I don’t want anyone taking unnecessary risks. With this formation, it’s extremely hard to get a read on them. If your ship gets damaged, I want you out of there immediately!”

All five nodded as their holograms winked out. Derrick could only watch as he saw the ships of the empire move into a defensive position.

“I believe I see what they are trying to do. All ships concentrate fire on the four columns to this side. Do not, I repeat, do not allow them to start separating,” Derrick ordered as he saw ten columns start to advance upon them. He just hoped that destroying the four columns before them was enough.

Derrick took a deep breath, tensing up as the first of the EIGs opened fire. As he suspected, the destruction of those in the front started a cascade effect along the line of the column. Nodding, he watched as well over half of those behind were obliterated by their own ships.

Within moments, it appeared as if those behind were hesitating, then they started to veer off. Those that escaped the destruction tried to regroup, only to be blown away by the targeting systems of the EIGs.

Emperor Kandra watched openmouthed at the sheer beauty of the destruction wrought by the other empire. It seemed that only a few moments passed, then there were four less lines of the enemy.

A thin smile crossed his lips as he nodded. This would be a wonderful ally in the future, if they got that far. His attention then turned toward his own fleet. Barking out orders, he tried to have his ships to copy the other empire’s strategy. At first, it seemed to work, though, as he was soon to find out, his fleet lacked quite a bit of the power that the other empire’s fleet had.

Kandra saw that his fleet hadn’t even got half of the ships in the six columns. Sure enough, the Creagon fleet started to split off into several vee formations. These formations then started to try to flank the Delcron fleet.

The definitive word was ‘try.’ Several of Derrick’s ships appeared on the other side of the Delcron fleet.

Within moments, the Creagons started to concentrate fire on two of the EIG’s.

“Thomas, Ellen and Lars are taking concentrated fire,” Derrick called.

“I’m on it, sir. Damn it! Lars, haul her ass out of there before you both are incapacitated! Lucy, Tendra, lay down cover fire. Watch your flanks, there are more of them moving in,” Thomas stated. “Got Ellen, though she’s a little shot up.”

“Good, I want as many of you there to aid the Delcrons. Even as strong as they are, the Creagons still have the numbers. According to Mary, we’ve only eliminated half of them. Good god!” A shocked Derrick stated. “She’s reading almost two hundred fifty-thousand out there. That doesn’t include the three spheres nor the ships with them.”

“WHAT!?” a startled Thomas almost shouted. “All Captains, all ships form up on Conner, no more playing with them. I want spread fire; take as many of these bastards as you can. If you are damaged, retreat to the Emperor and Shelby.”

The next several hours were filled with the mass destruction of the Creagon fleet, as well as a large portion of the Delcrons, taking as many of the enemy as they could.

Derrick could only shake his head at the massive area of wrecked and destroyed ships. What a damn waste, he thought, then several alarms were going off. Shit, he thought, as he saw that the three spheres were starting to advance toward the battle.

Derrick was even more shocked when he received a transmission. What the hell, he thought, then the image of what he could only describe as a praying mantis appeared.

“SSSo the great humanoid empire has emerged. We will not fail to crusssshh you. Your bodiessss will feed my larva for generationssss to come,” the insect voice stated.

“Like hell!” Derrick shouted, his temper starting to rise. “Your fleet is defeated. You have nothing left.”

A shrill laugh that sounded between the tearing of paper and a grinding noise fired back at Derrick. “Fleet? They were nothing. Thessseee world sssspheresss hold our power, power that you have no hope to defeat. You might have dessstroyed one, along with it’ssss queen, againsssst three? Give up, we will kill all of you quickly. Then my larva can feasssst for many generationssss.”

Derrick growled, then looked at the image of Mary. Nodding, a smile formed on Derrick’s face. “I have a better idea. Why don’t you and your ship, plus all on it, just die!” Derrick could see several of the insects behind the Queen becoming anxious, then start yelling.

A few moments later, an intense beam raced past Shelby and the rest of the fleet. “Where is thissss power...” The Queen started as the picture began to shake, then was cut off as the sphere shuddered, then exploded.

“I am afraid that it will take some time for me to fire another, sire. This took all the planetary generators to reach you,” Mary’s hologram stated.

“Thank you, Mary. I am hoping that this display might deter the other two spheres from attacking. Though, knowing them from the last battle, this will make them more anxious to attack, then retreat.” Derrick said.

“From the analysis I have done of them, now and before, I have to agree, sire,” Mary replied.

Derrick nodded as he read over the damage that his fleet had suffered. Five of the ships were out of the fight, three of them without trans-warp.

Stepping to the open floor of command, Derrick called all the ships and the Captains.

As soon as they appeared, Derrick started. “It appears that even with the destruction of one of the spheres, they are still coming to finish the fight. We are without the backup of the Imperial planet.”

“We still have ten ships in the fight, sir. That should be more than enough to kick their asses,” Thomas stated.

Derrick nodded. “It should. Though, as I remember, it took all five of you last time to take out one. You have twice that this time. But don’t think they haven’t tried to improve since our last battle, either.”