by Terry Frost
Nearly an hour later, Maalik had been waiting in the main lobby of Aborian palace when he saw through one of the twenty-foot tall windows looking out to the landing area of all Aborian ships, the High Mage’s Raptor slowly descends with its thrusters firing until it landed and the thrusters turned off.
Maalik had to wait another fifteen minutes before he saw Tage Doni walking his way. She stopped just short of the lobby’s entrance and said, “We are ready for the debriefing, Caid. Follow me please.”
Doni and Maalik entered the living area of Empress Katin’s quarters and found the Empress and High Mage seated in front of a large flat screen monitor attached to a wall. The Empress said, “Good day to you, Caid. Please have a seat. We are about to view the recording of the Hive homeworld mission.”
While viewing the recording, Empress Katin looked at Maalik and said, “This pleases me Caid, as I’m sure it does you too.”
“Yes, Your Grace. I have not had anything to feel good about in a very long time. What we are watching is the most pleasing results I and my people could have hoped for.”
When the recording finished, Maalik stood and said, “Your Grace, it shouldn’t be long now before I can return to my world and begin the hard task of rebuilding Daak. Though I am concerned with seeing the two operational nests and the odd ship that jumped with them still being out there somewhere. But I have grown tired of being away from my home and those of my race.
“I have waited to see the recording before informing you of some great news for myself and my people. Queen Junal is in labor and is about to give my people a new heir. She began the labor early this morning and I should get back to see if she has had the infant.”
Katin held our her hand for Maalik to take and when he did she said, “My heart is filled with joy with this great news. You should go and see if she has had the child. As soon as you know please let Tage know so she can enlighten me.”
“As you wish, Your Grace. But know that I will be wanting to discuss our departure from Abor so I can take my people back to those waiting for us.”
“Yes, yes. Now go and see if you have a new princess or prince.”
“Queen Junal is a Venic. She has said early in her state that she is having a male. Oh, what a wonderful day of cheerful news.”
Tage Doni escorted the Daakie Caid out and once they were gone Katin asked Cina if she was able to give Colonel Hammer the news of her feeling their baby inside her. When informed that Colonel Hammer was exploring a planet and not available by the time she left on the Hive mission, it was obvious the Empress wasn’t pleased by the pouty look on her face, which the High Mage had seen before when her beloved wasn’t happy.
Maalik and Doni arrived at the housing area that had been provided for the surviving Daakie by the Aborians to find a very exhausted, but happy Queen Junal holding her handsome newborn male. A beaming King Gorvik was by her side and said, “Ah, Caid Maalik. Come see the next King of Daak. You will find he is an excellent copy of his father.”
Junal looked up at the proud father and said, “My sweet King. Do you not think he looks somewhat like his mother also.”
“Oh yes, my love. Of course, he looks like his beautiful mother too.”
Leaning in close to examine the baby, Maalik said, “Yes he is a handsome child and I am overcome with joy for both of you and for all Daakie. If I may borrow a moment of your time, Your Grace. I have some exciting news for you on the results of the mission to the Hive homeworld.”
“Exciting news, Caid. Yes indeed. I want to learn about the mission’s success.” Gorvik leaned down and kissed his queen on the forehead and said, “I won’t be long, my love.”
The king and Caid walked to another private room and Maalik told him of the successes of the engineered virus by the Humans. His immediate response was to ask Maalik how soon they could leave for Planet Daak.
“Sire, we have six new Zurguts built with the help of the Aborian engineers. Those six of the three older versions should be enough to ward off any attack in the short term. I will be asking Empress Katin to lend us a few of her Predators just in case we need them, which I’m hoping won't be for very long.”
“The Empress has been most helpful to our cause, Caid. But asking for more help should be done by your king. Make it known to her I wish to meet with her in that regard. If there is nothing else I should get back to my family.”
“I have nothing else, for now, Your Grace. I will, however, be sending a message to Admiral Allen informing him of the birth of your son. I’m sure he will be just as pleased as the Empress will be as soon as the Tage tells her of the birth.”
Chapter 23
A week had passed since the birth of King Gorvik’s son and Colossus was still making her way to the Jovan System when Admiral Allen received an incoming long-range message from his friend, Caid Maalik.
News of the birth did the Admiral’s heart some good. After reading the message he thought it’s about damn time the Daakie had something to cheer. Lord knows they have gone to hell and back over the last eight or so months. I wish the Daakie well in their efforts to rebuild, but I hope they aren’t making a mistake by going back to Daak so soon.
Allen walked out of his Ready Room and went to his command chair and asked his staff in the bridge to listen up. “I’ve got some good news that I want to share with all of you today. I have just read a message sent by Daakie Caid Maalik and he informed me that the Daakie has a new heir to the Daakie throne. King Gorvik and Queen Junal have had a baby boy.”
Cheers went up all over the bridge and Allen was happy to have been able to give them the great news. Allen wanted to share the news because he was completely aware that no one on Colossus had had much, if anything, to be cheerful about for rather a long time.
“I will be making the joyous announcement shipwide in a few minutes, as our people witnessed the king and queen’s betrothal ceremony and should be happy to hear the news too.”
Admiral Allen was correct in his assumption of the general population being cheerful of the news of the Daakie royalty’s birth. The remainder of the day was a good one for all Colossians, as their spirits had been lifted because a birth of a child of any non-violent race in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy was a great thing.
While everyone on board Colossus celebrated the news in their own way everyone still had their jobs to perform, as did, Admiral Allen. He turned over the command of his ship to Vice Admiral Petrov for the rest of day while he made a video message intended for the USC back on Mars.
Allen’s message would be well received by the USC and it contained information including, finding yet another alien race during Colossus’s exploration of the stars. He told them about Planet Huron and the Ancient One, Kondiaronk, as well as, the success of Doctor Staven’s virus upon the Hive.
Allen went on to include many stories about the Aborian people and how they helped Colossus fight the Hive, including lending him three Predators for extra security while Colossus searched for a home, and how they have been helping the Daakie build their favored Zurguts for the defense of the Daakie homeworld in the future.
Maybe he was feeling just a little melancholy, as he went on to say how fortunate Humans were to have found friends among the Nawi, Aborians, Daakie, and to some extent, the Putu. He didn’t include the Ancient One in that group, and even though no harm came to his away-team, they were warned by Kondiaronk to leave and not return, or face serious consequences.
He finished the message and hit the send button, then went over to his bar and poured him a stiff glass of Scotch whiskey. He sat in his comfortable gravity chair drinking his libation and his thoughts were of the unbelievable discoveries he and his crew had discovered since first coming into the Perseus Arm.
He thought how is it possible to have discovered what we have in such a relatively short time without some alien race showing themselves to the Human Race many years before now? Mind boggling for sure. The time was late and he needed to put an end to a wonde
rful day spent in the vastness of the Milky Way Galaxy by crawling into his bed and getting some well-deserved rest.
****
Commodore Jeeves had relieved Vice Admiral Petrov at 2:00 a.m. and took command of Colossus until he called Admiral Allen to inform him the ship was about to come out of FTL around 8:35 a.m.
A soon as he ended the call from the Commodore, he swung his legs over the edge of his bed and sat rather still for a few minutes. It seemed his stiff glass of Scotch he had before retiring gave him a slight hangover, something that had never happened before and one of the reasons he liked to drink Scotch.
As he sat there for a few seconds he started to stand up and that’s when he was thrown back into bed by the sudden all stop of Colossus. His comlink chirped then alarms started going off shipwide.
He got back out of bed and walked over to his uniform blouse and hit the comlink and said, “What the hell just happened?”
The call was from his Chief Engineer Gavin McManus. “Sir, we’ve dropped out of FTL too early and are approaching to close to the star Jovan. The star’s gravity has a hold on us and Colossus is starting to heat up. I’m having a difficult time getting control of steering. If we don’t turn her away from the star we are going to burn up and burn up rather quickly.”
“What do you need, Chief?”
“The drive’s actuator is burnt up. I need time to replace it but that will take too long. Send Commodore Jeeves to engineering, pronto. Maybe he can do an analysis on the steering malfunction while I work to replace the actuator.”
“I’ll have him report to engineering immediately. Get that actuator replaced, Chief.”
The Admiral contacted Jeeves and sent him scurrying down to engineering. By the time Allen got dressed and stepped out to the bridge, the temperature had raised to an uncomfortable 90 degrees and still rising.
Many stations on the bridge were yelling back and forth and it became quite loud on the bridge and Allen spoke: “Alright people. Settle down and work the problem, and stop all the yelling.”
It only took Jeeves ten minutes to fix the steering and he controlled it from engineering. Slowly but surely Colossus started turning away from Jovan but he needed for Chief McManus to put the support thrusters in reverse to try to pull the massive ship away from the star’s strong gravity.
The temperature on the bridge had climbed to 105 degrees, but as soon as the thrusters took hold the ship broke free of the star’s hold on them. As soon as Commodore Jeeves felt the ship break the star’s hold he stepped over to a console and engaged the engine, which took the ship to a safe distance from the star.
The bridge’s temperature dropped twenty degrees rather quickly and Admiral Allen told Vice Admiral Petrov he had command and that he was going to engineering. Allen arrived in engineering in less than five minutes and saw the Chief on the second level mezzanine near the top of the hyperdrive.
Allen walked over to Commodore Jeeves as his fingers were moving at warp speed on the controls at the console. He said, “Are you getting a sense of why the drive’s actuator blew out?”
“The problem was caused by faulty wiring in the actuator's conduit. I’ll need for the Chief to have his crew pull the conduit to see why the wiring harness overheated. We should have an answer for you in a couple hours.”
Allen turned his attention to Chief McManus and looking up at him, asked, “How long before you get that actuator replaced, Chief?”
“My best estimate would be a couple hours, Admiral.”
“Well, I guess our visit to Jovan will just have to be at a slow pace. Get her up and running, Chief. Good job getting control of Colossus’s steering, Commodore.”
“Thank you, Admiral.”
As Admiral Allen left engineering he thought damn lucky we came out near a Red Dwarf or we wouldn’t still be here if we had dropped out of hyperspace near any of the bigger, more powerful stars. Hell of a way to start the day.
Chapter 24
Empress Katin and High Mage Cina had been invited to King Gorvik and Queen Junal’s quarters to see the new Daakie heir. Both the Aborians were smiling and just plain giddy while seeing the infant. He had jet black hair and a lot of it, along with bright blue eyes speckled with gold fleck in the whites.
Seeing the newborn gave Empress Katin a pronounced level of excitement about the time it came for her to enter into motherhood. Queen Junal could tell the Empress wanted to hold her son so she stopped breastfeeding him, which he didn’t favor much, and held the baby out and asked, “Would you like to hold him, Your Grace.”
Katin’s eyes sparkled with joy as she said, “Oh yes, may I?”
Junal handed over the boy and the Empress held him tightly to her and gently stroked the baby’s face with her index finger. She looked at Junal and said, “He is gorgeous, Junal.”
Then she looked at King Gorvik and said, “I can tell your son is going to be a great king and a thoughtful one. I can see that in his beautiful blue eyes.”
“Thank you, Your Grace. I believe that to be true also.”
Katin could sense King Gorvik had something else on his mind and knew that something had to do with her. So she gave the baby back to its mother and stepped away from Junal’s bed. Then she addressed Gorvik again and said, “I sense you would like to have a private conversation with me, King Gorvik. Is that so?”
“Why yes, I am needing to talk to you in private, if you can find the time.”
“None better than while we are in the same place. High Mage, I will be in a conversation with the king and will return shortly.”
“As you wish, Your Grace.”
The two royals left the bedroom and took a seat in the living area and Katin asked Gorvik about what was on his mind.
“First, I want to try to express my heartfelt appreciation of everything you have done for my people and for my queen and I. I’m not sure if there is anything I can do for you in the future that could ever repay you for the kindness you have shown us.”
“It pleases me to hear you say that and I have no worries about being paid back in the future as what my feelings told me to do to help the Daakie came from my spirit and my heart. It isn’t something of a marker of debt, Your Grace. But your offer of something in the future is kind and I appreciate it. I am filled with joy knowing the Aborians and Daakie will remain friends more many periods into the future. But this isn’t the reason you wanted to talk to me, is it?”
“No, it is not. Your perceptions are quite astute, Your Grace. What I want to say is it is time for us to return to our world. We aren’t near the strength to defend ourselves as I wish we were but it is time. With the six magnificent Zurguts and the new weaponry provided by your engineers, along with the remaining few older Zurguts, we should be okay until I can get our manufacturing facilities up and running again. One of my first commands will be to see if we can get the large weapons left on my homeworld by the Hive to become operational. That, in itself, will strengthen my resolve to protect our home at a quicker pace.”
The Empress didn’t respond immediately and her delay gave King Gorvik a thought of concern that she might go against his wishes. She sensed he was uncomfortable and decided to respond.
“It would please me more if you waited until we have a full fleet for you to take with you to Daak. But I can understand your desire to return to those that have managed to survive the awful occupation by the Hive. I would ask one favor from you, though.”
“All you need to do is ask, Your Grace.”
“When you return to your home and find out how to operate the Hive weapon, it would please me to know what you will have learned about the weapon.”
“I will honor that and you will be the first to know what we find out.”
Gorvik stood first, then offered his hand to Katin. She took it as he helped her stand, then said, “Thank you again, Your Grace. I’m forever in your debt and it would please me to hear about the day you have your child. For that day will be a great day of rejoicing for bot
h the Aborian and Daakie. The queen and I will be leaving as soon as she feels well enough to travel.”
Later in the day, all the surviving Daakie were told of their king’s desire to leave Abor and start back to Planet Daak. They were given orders to ready themselves for the trip home and to expect to travel as soon as Queen Junal was able to make the trip.
The next day around noon everyone was on the transports waiting for the command to leave. The Daakie barely had enough pilots to fly the six new Zurguts and would not have the help of co-pilots.
With every Daakie citizen, including their king and queen, loaded and ready to depart, all ships were lined up in the departure area. They were waiting on Caid Maalik to return from the palace as he had been called to Empress Katin’s quarters.
When he arrived at her quarters he found her looking down upon the Daakie ships. He walked up and stopped a few feet behind her and said, “Your Grace.”
She waved him to come stand by her side, which he promptly did. Without looking at him as she keeps her eyes focused on the line of ships about to depart said, “King Gorvik is quite ambitious, Caid. I pray to Mount Orin that you are not leaving the safety of Abor too early. I know you are anxious to leave but I needed to tell you-you're king is still quite young. Watch over him and Queen Junal. You may only have the title of Caid, but there is no one I trust to give the best guidance to your king.”
“Thank you, Your Grace. I will do all within my power to help my king rebuild our world. I hope that you know how I feel about you and the Aborian people and if you ever need anything from me, you won’t hesitate to contact me.”
“Thank you, Maalik. Now go, before your people come to find you. Safe travels, Daakie Caid Maalik.”
Maalik bowed to the Empress, turned and walked out of her quarters. Soon after, High Mage Cina came in and walked over to Katin, who was still looking down as she saw Maalik board the new Zurgut carrying the king and queen.
