Chapter 10

Wren still had an almost evil smile on her face as she looked at the shattered, lifeless planet. Now four of the six traitorous races were gone. She felt like she could hear the earth’s souls of the billions killed sigh in satisfied relief.

“How much damage did we inflict on my brother’s ship,” Wren asked.

“All readings from the encounter indicate that they had lost thirty percent of their power output. Their shields were down almost fifty percent, their hyper - drive was also at half power,” Trigon said.

“Good,” Wren almost purred. “Then we shouldn’t have too hard of a time, tracking his traitorous ass.”

“Unfortunately, I am afraid that we might. Long range tracking is still somewhat blind from the four shatter bombs,” Trigon told her.

“I thought that we had overcome that after the last time,” Wren said.

“As I told you, master Wren, the sheer amount of high radiation, is still playing havoc with any shielding. The new material I put in place only reduced interference by ten percent. Still too much for the sensors to overcome,” Trigon said.

Wren sighed, still it was a good day. She still had to find any colonies and outposts that the Jutrocs had. She was also sure that they had asked the arrogant Zetcrons for help. Another evil smile lit up her face. Yes, that race gone, would definitely make the universe a much better place.

“For now, let my coward of an ass brother run. Now, I want a wide search for any and all signatures of the Jutrocs. If you even get a blip of them, I want to know. By the end of the day, I want all of them dead.” Wren said.

“Yes, Master Wren, commencing search now. Will you be training ‘til such time as I locate any?” Trigon asked.

“Possibly later, for now I have to talk to the pieces of the Masters that are in me,” Wren said as she sighed. “I have a feeling that this conversation isn’t going to be very pleasant.”

Less than a minute later, Wren sat waiting for the voices she knew would be berating her.

Really little Wren came the thoughts of Flugret. Was it absolutely necessary to destroy everyone?

Master, as I tried to explain, I made a vow, took an oath, to find and completely destroy them. In not doing so, it opens the way for others to think that my race was a weak Empire. It sends a message that says to the effect, come kill us, we are weak, we won’t fight back. No, I am sending out a message that we will respond in kind. Returned Wren’s thoughts.

Little Wren came the first master’s thoughts. Revenge can be useful but...

Revenge?! No first, Master, this goes far beyond revenge. Over four billion souls are crying out for justice, not revenge. The six races tried to eradicate the human race. They weren’t prepared for just how fierce the small earth force would fight. As I remember, the six races lost over a trillion ships, almost half. No not revenge, justice.

There was a gasp from all the parts of the Masters, as well as Wren. The memories of her younger sister, Hellena Dreese Tenagram, seemed to be ripping through her mind. Then also the memories of her mother, memories that attempted to debilitate her further.

The seemingly fresh memories made her sad only a moment before the raging, seething anger filled Wren. Her father’s forced marriage to that bitch and whore of a stepmother.

The rage started to climb higher, Wren didn’t notice that her entire person was glowing a glaring red. Thomas! Hailed as a hero for years, now not only was IT alive, he was the biggest traitor to earth.

Wren? Two voices were calling her, one within the other near her head. “Wren?” Came Trigon’s voice.

“What!” Wren tried to shout though her voice came out as a weak whisper.

“You have to calm down as the Masters taught you. Your energy output has increased to almost ten times what it was. Your external temperature has also started to rise. I am reading a temperature of 51.6667°C (125°F), you must bring it down before you burn up,” Trigon said.

A shocked Wren looked at the wall as she started to release as much of her anger as she could. Trigon was right. She could feel the heat rolling off her in waves. Slowly she felt the heat start to lessen.

Less than a few moments later, the same alarm that she’d heard a few hours ago went off. Amazingly, Wren’s power and the heat dissipated within seconds.

“I am detecting ten planets that have the life signs of the Jutrocs on them. I am also detecting life signs of the Zetcrons on five of the planets,” Trigon said.

“Good, it’ll save me the trouble of hunting down a few of their outposts,” Wren said as another evil-looking smile came to her face. “Charge all weapons, how many shatter bombs have you made?”

“I have two. I have been working on the Thermic missiles you designed. Though not as powerful as the shatter bombs, they are still capable of reaching 2760°C (5000°F),” Trigon said.

“The count you have of them?” Wren asked.

“At present I have almost four hundred. If the readings are correct, it will take at least fifty. That should produce enough heat to eradicate the atmosphere. We have enough for eight of the ten planets, though I am in the process of making more,” Trigon said.

“How long to reach the first?” Wren asked.

“Fifteen minutes trans - warp, an hour and a half by hyper - drive,” Trigon replied.

Wren stood there thinking a few moments. Fast, wasn’t always good, especially since they didn’t have sufficient weapons. “Hyper - drive, we need enough to finish the job. Besides, you might find more as we are getting there. Then we are definitely going to need more weapons. After I am sure we have enough, then we’ll trans - warp to the others.”

“Now entering hyper - drive,” Trion said.

“I...” Wren started, then swayed a bit. “Think I need rest, feeling a bit weak.”

Trigon sighed in relief as Wren left the bridge. “I hope that she recovers quickly,” came her father’s voice.

“From what I have seen, she appears to recover faster each time,” came her mother’s voice.

Far from the planet Ceti - 5, Esmeralda’s demeanor was growing darker and darker. Where in the hell was that pathetic fool? It had been twenty hours since she’d spoken to him. She had a mind to order his execution for the latest failure.

An hour later, Esmeralda was mad enough to bite someone’s throat open. She’d started to reach for a young bridge officer, when her chief scientist called.

“Empress, we have managed to reverse engineer their first three shields. Also, their tactics, might I suggest that all ships remain with their shields up? We have detected...” the man started.

A moment later there was a titanic explosion as a ship not far from hers vanished.

“What in the hell was that?” Esmeralda shouted. “All ships’ shields keep them up! I take it, that was what you were trying to warn me of?!”

“Yes Empress, we have managed to pierce their shields, they have weapons far stronger than all the ships together. We have determined how to shut the first shield down, plus we are close on the second,” the male said.

“Good!” Esmeralda said as a purely evil smile crossed her lips. “The sooner all of those pathetic, weak-minded fools are destroyed the better.”

“I am working on that as diligently as I can, my Empress,” the chief scientist said.

“Ha! You better be, I’d hate to eradicate you and your entire team,” Esmeralda said with a truly wicked smile that grew broader when she saw the man swallow quickly. Ah, Esmeralda thought she so loved the look of fear on their faces. I’ll have to reward him, she thought. What torture could I bring out? Hmmm, perhaps a good flogging. Yes, that would do.

Esmeralda turned then left the command deck. An almost palatable wave of relief swept over everyone. She strode quickly down the hallway to a heavy and thick security door. The eight guards snapped to attention as soon as she was in sight.

The Empress passed them as if they didn’t exist, the door opening at her approach. She turned to watch as the door quickly closed. Reaching out, she activated all the electronics and physical safeguards. With a turn, she touched another panel, smiling when she saw that she was indeed isolated.

Esmeralda then sat in the huge, plush throne seat in the center of the room. A touch of another panel brought up an array of thousands of controls. The only ones that weren’t working were the ones she’d installed on that little bitch’s ship.

Another evil smile lit up her face, she had enjoyed torturing the men that had failed her there. Such pleasure there that it had taken several weeks for them to succumb to death. It was too bad that there weren’t more that were as tough as those men were.

With a sigh she remembered the terror and screams of the men with fond pleasure. Shaking her head, she remembered the reason she was there.

She pressed several buttons then waited as the powerful com. came alive. “Thomas, what progress have you made? I need a damn report.”

A minute later, the holo-gram of her son appeared, “what the hell are you bothering me about, mother!” Thomas said with a sneer.

“You should remember who you are talking to, I...” Esmeralda started anger in her voice.

“Can it Mummy, I don’t have time to correct your pathetic ass,” Thomas said with a smile. His mother’s face screwed up into a mask of anger. “Remember it was me that got you to where you are. It was I that found the allies, I that led the attack. It will be me that kills that little bitch of a stepsister, so get on with it.”

Esmeralda held her temper. Unfortunately, her son was right, not that she liked the fact. “How is it going killing her?” She asked.

Thomas started to laugh, “so far, the bitch has let me copy one of her shields,” reaching out, Thomas pressed several buttons. “They are a clever design, somewhat stronger than ours. That’s the readings I got, simple really.”