Out of the Ashes (Rise of the Empire Book 3)

by Ivan Kal

  Bethany grimaced at the words, she was happy about the promotion. But having to place her fleet under another’s command being the first act she did as the Fleet Commander made it bittersweet. Not to mention who it was that she would be answering too. She hadn’t spoken to Adrian since she introduced her fiancé – now husband Harry to their group. She and Adrian had become good friend following their graduation from the academy, after a bit of a rough start. They were together on the Athena when Concordis attacked Olympus. And Bethany served as his High Prime when they fought against the Concordis ships. Then after they came to Sanctuary they were split, Bethany gained her own command, and their relationship evolved. They became best friends, talking every day over the comms. At the time Beth thought that they could become something more, but Adrian made no move. And Beth met Harry, she fell in love, and moved on. She knew that she could’ve handled everything better, but when Adrian declared that he loved her, she snapped at him. And since then they had no contact. She heard from Paul that Adrian seemed fine after their ‘fight’, which only infuriated Beth. She married Harry and put Adrian behind her. And now they were going to be forced to work together. Well, she wasn’t going to let any history they have together influence her actions or interfere with her duty.

  She opened a file that was attached with her promotion, it was mostly more data on the drones. Most of which she already knew, but also the files of the drone operators that would be coming aboard her ship from Thanatos station. She sat in to read them and familiarize herself with her soon to be crewmembers, then afterwards she will inform the fleet of her promotion and their assignments.

  ***

  Lanai Sumia walked the streets of the human city looking around at the amazingly colorful buildings. She wondered about the name of the city, she was told that it was called Olympus city. It was a beautiful city, sometimes she couldn’t believe that it wasn’t here just a couple of cycles ago. It was mind boggling what these humans managed to achieve. They used their grav cars to get around the city, the areas that the vehicles used were walled off, and people could walk around the sidewalks unbothered. A great number of bridges connected the two sides of the streets, and every now and then a bridge was wide and held a small park with trees and sitting benches, walled off with a transparent material. It gave the city a feeling of life which she hadn’t seen since the forest cities of the Mtural.

  The human society seemed such an unbalanced jumble. They had technology far ahead of what a species that has been able to travel to other star systems for such a short period of time should have. They were young, not as individuals, but as a people. They set their minds to something, make a decision, and then just do it. No overthinking it just going forward tackling any consequences as they came up. Sometimes they seemed reckless, but Sumia has spent enough time with them to understand what it truly was. They weren’t reckless, they believed in themselves, when they find an answer they don’t second guess themselves they act. Not only did they trust in their own, they were prepared to face the consequences of their actions. They accepted them and owned up to them. It was a thing Sumia admired about them. They accepted their history and their mistakes, it made them stronger, better. Unlike the Nel, they hid from their mistakes, ashamed of what they’ve done. Sumia hoped that someday her people could grow to be like the humans, to learn from their mistakes.

  As she walked Sumia glanced back. Behind her walked Hokra Gotu and Hokra Dson, her ever present companions. Not that there was any danger to her life, they just worried too much. The human city was remarkably safe, even with seven million people living there. She remembered the first time she saw human children. That was such a shock for her, as Nel children aren’t allowed outside their family home unsupervised, and even then they are expected to act dignified and collected. The human children had no such constrictions. They played and ran down the streets and many parks of the city unsupervised. At least not supervised by their parents. Every now and then Sumia would see a person dressed in the dark green colors of the human military. She knew that they served as a kind of police, and often a sole figure would be seen walking the city streets. They never interfered with the people walking past them, only watched and made sure that there were no incidents. And Sumia did inform herself on the subject. There was little crime in the human city, mostly what humans called brawls or verbal disagreements. Nothing like the criminal activities she knew occurred on her home world.

  Three small humans ran past Sumia not even sparing a glance in her direction, they had much more important thing to do than to look at the alien. She remembered the first time she went out for a walk, how the children reacted then. They rushed over to her and the rest of her party, running around them in circles looking at their tails, asking them all kinds of questions too fast for Sumia to understand them. The reactions of Hokra Dson and Hokra Gotu were probably the funniest things she ever saw. They had no idea how to react to them. She remembered how a small girl told her how she didn’t look like an alien, but rather like a human with a tail. Sumia saw then something that she never saw before. An innocence and acceptance that was not present in Nel society. Human children had no fear of her, an unknown, an alien. The child asked her to touch her tail, and Sumia smiled and let her, she remembered the look of amazement on the child’s face when Sumia moved her tail closer to the child. It was something she would never forget. She knew now why humans wore their emotions on their faces, why they were so accepting and tolerant of those different. She knew that it had taken them a long time to get to this point, and that not everything was perfect. But the simple fact that they fought to make things this way made her feel somehow… Inadequate.

  “I love it here.”

  “Lanai?” Hokra Dson asked.

  Sumia turned and looked at Hokra Dson and Hokra Gotu and realized that she spoke out loud. “Nothing, I was talking to myself.” She studied them for a moment, “We need an alliance with these people.”

  They looked at each other and then back at her, “They already refused Lanai. I don’t know that we can offer them anything that they don’t already have?” Gotu asked.

  “They refused when they were hoping for an alliance with Nelus. Now that they know it will not happen they have no reason to refuse.” Sumia said, “But I think that we need to offer them more, or rather ask them for more.”

  “What do you mean?” Hokra Dson asked.

  “I think that we need a much closer connection with them. Closer than what a simple alliance would give us.” Sumia said.

  “I don’t think that they will accept that.” Hokra Gotu said.

  Hokra Dson continued, “Nor would our people.”

  “Perhaps, we need to convince them.” Sumia said.

  “Why Lanai? We have a chance of being truly independent now. Why bind us to the humans.” Hokra Gotu asked.

  “Look around you Gotu. Look at what they achieved with so little, in such a short time. Can you imagine what they would become in ten cycles? What about a hundred? We need to convince our people, both here and at Nuva. And then we need to convince the humans.”

  Hokra Gotu and Hokra Dson remained silent. And Sumia looked around her, at the beautiful human city, thinking about what the future could be.

  Chapter Sixteen

  October 2171 – Nuva

  Adrian sat in his command chair as his ships exited hyperspace. There were no explored trans-lanes between Nelus and Nuva so they were forced to use hyperspace on both the trip there and back.

  “We have arrived at Nuva Fleet Commander.” Navigation Handler said.

  “Set a course for Nuva.” Adrian said. He looked at his command board, the updates from the his ship’s sensors started coming in, much faster than they usually would. The c-board sent a request for updates from the station in the orbit of Nuva, which in turn had the gathered scans from all the ships and stations in the system. The c-board of course sent their locations back to the station using their FTL comms. As soon as his holo was updated, a prompt j
umped out above a grouping of ships close to the trans-station. Adrian saw it identify the ships as the Third Fleet. Immediately he magnified and saw two dreadnought class warships, accompanied by ten smaller ships. He knew that those must be drones, which meant that his ships would be going on the mission into Sowir space. These ships were supposed to augment his own First Fleet, which had suffered losses at the battle for Nuva that still haven’t been replaced. He lost two ships, the light cruiser Talon and the heavy cruiser Valkyrie. His other ships have all sustained some amount of damage, all except the light cruiser Swift that is. But that damage has since been repaired by the small shipyard that they brought from Sanctuary. The damage to the Leviathan was the hardest to fix, as the ship simply didn’t fit into the yard. But they managed.

  “The Home Fleet. Looks like they finished construction, and those must be the drones.” High Prime Paul Isaacs said.

  “Yeah, they should be here to augment our forces for the plan B.” Adrian said.

  “Probably. I wonder who… Oh.” Paul drew silent.

  “What?” Adrian asked.

  “Uh… Look who is in command.” Paul responded.

  Adrian frowned and then used his imp to access the c-boards now updated files. Quickly he found and read the name.

  “Bethany.” Adrian said to Iris.

  “Well, you knew that you would be seeing her again.” Iris responded.

  “We are getting a message from the Home Fleet.” Comm Handler said.

  Adrian swallowed hard, “Put it on.”

  A hologram of Bethany appeared on the main holo-platform in the middle of the Command Center. Immediately after seeing her Adrian felt his chest tighten, grief and hurt coming back up. He loved her, and she broke his heart. Looking at her now he realized that he didn’t really think about her after the way they parted ways.

  “Fleet Commander Farkas, I would like to inform you that by the order of the Fleet, my ships are now under your command. My ships carry upgrades for your ships, mainly the updates for the command board and the new FTL comm systems that allows two way real time communication. My ships can meet yours and transfer the update, I have on board teams that will conduct their installation. I await your orders. Fleet Commander Bethany Jones end.” The hologram shut off. All the hurt that Adrian hadn’t felt since Paul and Iris managed to get him out of his room after their get-together came rushing back. He realized that it was heartbreak. Somehow he had managed to push down all the feelings he had then, and now they were all coming back. Adrian struggled to push them down again, but he didn’t know how, he didn’t even realize that he had done it before. Then he felt something on his knee. He looked down to see Sora’s snout on his leg, looking up at him with her four gorgeous sliver eyes. Adrian reached down with his hand and scratched her behind the ears. He felt a soft pressure behind his eyes, and then he managed to push all the emotions back down.

  “Are you alright Adrian?” Iris asked panicked.

  “Yes, it just all came back to me.” Adrian answered.

  “Oh… Okay then.” Iris said, but Adrian spent most of his life with her in his head, he could sense something else in her voice.

  “What is it Iris?” He asked her.

  “It’s nothing, it must have been a glitch. It looked like there was a sudden spike in your brain activity, but everything is normal now.” Iris said.

  Adrian frowned again, A sudden brain activity? He lowered his eyes to Sora, who was still keeping her snout on his knee, still looking at him. Understanding forming in his mind Adrian got up.

  “Adrian?” Paul asked as Adrian stood up and started walking off the platform his command chair was placed on.

  Adrian paused. “Send a message back, we will meet the Home Fleet at their current position. Also contact the rest of our fleet and tell them to meet us at the Home Fleet’s location.” Adrian said, then he turned to his chair.

  “Sora, Akash! Come!” He said firmly, and started walking towards his quarters.

  “What is it Adrian.” Iris asked alarmed.

  “I just figured out something.” Adrian said.

  “Figured out what?” Iris asked, but Adrian didn’t answer, he kept walking until he reached his quarters. He entered and went straight to his small library. He approached his reading chair, beside it were two big cushions. He remembered a time when the two wolions were small enough that he could keep them on his lap while he read.

  Adrian sat in the chair looking straight at the two wolions. Without prompting they came to stand in front of him, then they sat on their hind legs gazing at him. With them sitting their eyes were on the same level as Adrian’s.

  “It was you wasn’t it? All this time.” Adrian said. The only reaction he got from both of them was a slight tilt of the head, perfectly coordinated between them.

  “Once I learned about Beth’s engagement I was a wreck. Paul and Iris had to drag me out of my room. Afterwards I tried to make myself busy with work, to not think about it. But the hurt was still there, raw. And then I found you in the forest. And since then the hurt stopped, it felt as if it was something that happened long ago.” Adrian said, looking at the two.

  “What are you talking about Adrian?” Iris asked.

  “You have records of my brain activity, don’t you?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “Search for a brain activity spike, like the one you detected earlier.” Adrian said.

  “Well, okay… I found a match, how did you know?” Iris asked.

  “When did it happen?”

  “Twenty two months ago, it was… It was when we found the dying wolion.” Iris said.

  “That confirms it. I don’t know why you didn’t detect it then bu-”

  “I wasn’t monitoring your brain activity then, you were depressed, and I was mad at you for pitying yourself.” Iris said. Adrian smiled, it was just like Iris to do something like that.

  “Maybe we would have figured it out before if you did.” Adrian said.

  “Figured out what? You are making no sense Adrian.”

  “When we found their mother dying in the forest I felt something, just for a moment it was like I was feeling what she was feeling, her pain, and then I felt a pressure behind my eyes. The same feeling I felt after the message from Beth ended. The message brought back all the hurt, and then Sora came close and I felt the same pressure again. Immediately after I felt all the pain lessen, it was still there it just seemed far away.” Adrian said he kept his sight looked on the two wolions that were looking at him. “She did something to me.”

  “Sora?” Iris asked.

  “Yes, and their mother before. It explains a lot, why I couldn’t bring myself to part with them, how I brought them on the ship that was going into battle. Their mother made me bond with them. And she probably took all my pain of what happened with Beth and softened it, made it feel as if it happened years ago. That’s how I dealt with the pain so quickly.” Adrian had wondered about it, how he could let Beth go so quickly, he half convinced himself that what he felt for her wasn’t as strong as he thought it was, if he could have moved on so fast.

  “Well, the depth of human emotion is still a mystery to me, but are you sure? You are suggesting that Sora and Akash somehow influenced your emotions, that seems a bit farfetched.” Iris said.

  “Think about it. The scientists on Sanctuary have been stumped by the wolions. They are the only land predators that have survived, all the prey animals have developed in such a way that no predator could get near them. And yet wolions have no problem hunting and catching their prey. If they can feel the emotions of their prey, and if they can influence it, then that would explain how their species alone survived while all the other predator species died out. Their abilities must have evolved as the direct need for survival.” Adrian said.

  “I guess…” Iris said.

  “I’m right, you can feel emotions.” Adrian said to the two wolions. “I’ve always known that you were much more intelligent than any regular animal,
you always seemed to understand what I was telling you, more than just a few words. If you can feel the emotions of others that would explain so much.” Then he felt it, just like he did with their mother as she lay dying in the forest. He felt their emotions, just for a split second he felt shame and something else, it went by too fast for him to understand it completely.

  “There! I felt that. You do know what I am talking about.” Adrian exclaimed.

  “Uh… Adrian what are you talking about?” Iris asked.

  “I felt their emotions, just for an instant.” Adrian said.

  “If you say so.” Iris said, he could hear the skepticism in her voice. But he knew what he felt.

  “You influenced my emotions.” Adrian said slowly, looking at the two. “That is not acceptable, you will not do it again. I know now what it feels like.” The two bowed their heads down in shame. “I would ask you to undo whatever you did to me, but I can’t afford to deal with it now. Hell, I don’t even know if you can do it.” Sora raised her head and Adrian felt a pressure behind his eyes, immediately all the pain he felt just a short while ago as he watched Bethany’s message came back to the surface. And then a moment later he felt the now familiar pressure again, and just as the pain came, it went away. Buried deep down, not gone, just muffled.

  Adrian felt a tear roll down his cheek, “Well…” He said hoarsely, “I guess that answers that.”

  “I saw it Adrian, there were two spikes. It looks like you are right.” Iris said in disbelief.

  “Yeah. It looks like I am.” Adrian responded, he cleared his throat. “Now, we need to have a little talk about the usage of your ability.” Adrian said in a serious voice looking at two shamefaced wolions.

  ***

  Two weeks later Adrian sat and waited in the conference room on board the Leviathan for the two commanders from the Home Fleet, the ship commanders of his fleet were all already there. On his left sat Paul, Ship Master of the Leviathan, across from him was Force Leader Nenad Krylov commander of the battleship Protector. Beside him sat Force Leader Altsoba Smith of the battleship Battle Song, followed by the commanders of the rest of the Frist Fleet. An ping on Adrian’s implant informed him that the last party of the meeting had arrived, and moments later the doors opened and they walked in.