***
Two days later, Adams slumped into the couch opposite Sato. Edwards was talking to someone over his interface as Sato sat opposite her.
“Well, remind me to never leave on a maiden voyage ever again! I’m pretty sure my arm got disconnected from all of that handshaking,” Adams complained.
Sato grinned at her annoyance. “Welcome to the higher ranks.” Sato had seen her for a bit at these functions, including when he had pinned the admiral rank to her collar.
It had been four hundred years since there had been an admiral. Naming her as an admiral was the same as announcing that they were once again walking down the path to war with the Jukal.
“Thanks,” Adams said dryly, rolling her eyes. “Now, I’m an admiral—what have you lot been up to? I’ve seen a lot’s changed.”
Thankfully there was no need for Sato to be debriefed; after all, with the Mirror of Communication, they had been able to “meet” nearly every other day.
“That’s a bit of an understatement.” Sato smiled and looked to Edwards. “Get off that interface!”
Edwards didn’t seem to hear.
Sato took a pen out and threw it at Edwards.
He flinched. Seeing the look in Sato and Adams’s eyes, he quickly finished off the call.
“I swear, he’s the reason I don’t have any pens left,” Sato complained.
“Sorry about that. Was talking about the new sensors we’re integrating.” Edwards looked a bit shamefaced.
“Since you left, we’ve been working with the plans from Dave. He sent us complete designs on fusion power reactors, factories, automated miners, as well as refineries, weapons, armor, and what he calls a Mana well. Now, some people were able to take that and make up rough mock-ups for different systems. We also devoted some resources and time to building these things. The automated mining drills were better than we hoped, so we let some of them start to work on increasing habitat size, as well as hollowing out asteroids for materials and cutting out the foundations we would need for these various facilities that Dave passed information on.”
“When you confirmed that Emerilia was real, we were able to push a lot of projects through. We already had the basics sorted out. With less testing needed, we were able to pull together systems at an incredible rate. We had all of the knowledge—everything was ready; we just had to put the things together. We ramped everything up. Five massive refineries in a few weeks, coded and good to go. Separating out all manner of materials. Dave had been giving us everything he had plans for. The man must not sleep! With it, we were able to take the mock-ups, things that people had been fantasizing about, and turn them into reality,” Edwards said excitedly, interrupting Sato.
Sato gave him a dark look, making Edwards shrink a bit.
“Our original forty settlements are now closer to forty-five. We’ve got an extra shipyard, with two more planned. We’ve got seven refineries working all the time. The first ships should be completed in a week, with one being completed every couple of weeks. The degree of automation has been incredible. Recruitment is up across the board. People want to explore and fight the Jukal. It’s not too much of a stretch to say that militarily, we are ten times stronger than before, and gaining more strength every day.” Excitement filled Sato’s eyes.
For too long they had been extremely careful about expanding and increasing their production of different items. This was due to it being sensed by the random Jukal patrol ships that moved through the Deq’ual system and how they might be able to sense them. The bigger they were, the easier it was to lose their biggest advantage—being undetected.
Now with the runes that had proved themselves time and time again, entire asteroids could be coded, hiding what was going on inside them.
The people of Deq’ual had not been sitting on their hands these last few centuries. In fact, they’d needed to innovate and create solutions to problems nearly every day. There wasn’t a person among them who didn’t have knowledge of basic engineering. Being in space made it necessary.
“With our background knowledge in coding as well as the power of our artificial intelligence banks, it was simple for people to learn how to magically code. We developed our own version of the Jukal interface that is completely isolated from the Jukal network. Added with the nanite boosters like those on Emerilia get, one person is equal to ten in terms of building. Need a superstructure? Get a big block of refined materials and a few Dark mages—they can get in there and build you a structure in days instead of months! Dave also gave us access to the magical school that is running through the Mirror of Communication. People are learning so much faster! We’re generating our own coded items as well as magical spells!” Edwards said in excited tones.
“Have we had the same thing happening with pilots and ship crews?” Adams asked.
“In a way,” Sato said. “We’ve got everyone in the military training in fighting classes within the Mirror of Communication. Right now, we’re using all of this technology, but we’re putting it together into the old battleship design that humanity was using—was the easiest way to do things. We’ve been able to reduce crew numbers considerably and we think that’s only going to increase. Honestly, that’s something we really need. We’ve got a population of nearly seventy million and two million in the military. Sure, it sounds like a lot, but the Jukal have tens of billions.” Sato shook his head.
“So, what’s the plan going forward?”
“Well, that’s a bit complicated. There are two plans really.” Sato frowned a bit and even Edwards’s prior excitement seemed to dim.
“The first plan is that we wait until we’ve got enough strength to take down the Jukal and their controls, leading to chaos that we can use to establish colonies and a navy to defend ourselves.”
“What about Emerilia?” Adams asked.
Edwards looked to Sato, whose eyes slowly came to meet Adams’s.
“The second plan is that we and they come up with a plan that will allow us to act earlier. However, the plan has to be okayed by us and the council. They aren’t going to let us go ahead on anything that they’re not one hundred percent sure of succeeding,” Sato said.
“So, basically, unless they come up with an impossible plan, we’re going to sit here, build up our fighting capabilities and watch the Players of Emerilia and people continue to die for the Jukal’s entertainment.” Adams shook her head in disbelief, crossing her arms.
“There isn’t anything we can do directly to assist them. We know that it’s real and from the imagery we have from the sensor buoys you deployed, we can tell that what Dave has been telling us is indeed correct—as much as it sounds ridiculous. Though we can’t sacrifice Deq’ual if we don’t know that we’ll succeed. If Emerilia can somehow stir up enough trouble and show that they have a plan to deal with the Jukal that we can participate in, then we will think about taking them up on that proposal.” Sato didn’t look as though he was happy with what he was saying but like Adams, he was subservient to the politicians of Deq’ual.
Adams let out a breath, sighing at the unfairness of it all. “Okay, so what is the plan moving forward?”
“Take the technology and knowledge we have as well as that from Emerilia. We combine it together and try to get every advantage we can with dealing with the Jukal. Also, we see if we can be of any help to Dave without giving away information that would come back on Deq’ual,” Sato said.
Edwards also nodded in agreement. Without all that Dave had given them, there was no way that they would have been able to reach this level in a decade.
“We still have twenty-three years until the current Player cycle ends,” Adams said.
“From what I have been talking about with Shard and Bob, it looks like it’s very likely that Emerilia will be destroyed within the next year,” Sato said.
“What?” Adams said, stunned.
“This is from after you left.” Sato pulled out a pad and after pressing a few things, an image appeared: a massi
ve Dragon, and then one of an ice globe in a desolate area of ground, as well as a person in comparison to the size of the area. Then there were several Dragons, all of them breathing different-colored fire onto the ice globe.
“These are Dragons. One of the first creatures to be released was called Akatol. He was the father of the Dragons—went on a genocide rampage and was locked up. He is more powerful than your scout ship in terms of defense and with his spells, we estimate that he’s as strong as your first battleship’s prototype weapons. He was just the first. There are hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of other creatures that were locked away that are going to be returning to Emerilia in just a few months. When they do, then the people on Emerilia are going to be in for a massive brawl. Dave has shown already how smart he is. If he and the people he cares for are threatened, what do you think he’s going to do?” Sato asked.
“Fight.” Adams had seen the recordings of Dave and it was easy to see that he was passionate about Emerilia and the people within it.
“Yes, he’s going to fight. The man who broke Emerilia made all of this happen. He gave us designs to a stable power source that will give off unending power for centuries like it was a cookie. He gave us a stable and cheap fusion reactor! He’s given us a lot of information and ideas, but what has he been keeping to himself?” Sato asked. There was no need for Adams to answer.
“Dave already told us of how the Jukal can detect him. He’s got some ways to get away from their observation, but sometime he might slip up. Or he might use something that sets the AI off and they won’t need much before they find out the kind of things that Dave has been working on,” Edwards said. “Creating a nuke is a lot easier than creating a fusion reactor.”
Edwards’s words hung in the air.
“Well, then, what are the aims of the fleet?” Adams said, breaking the silence, trying to not think about what Edwards was implying.
“That still needs to be decided. I think gathering intelligence, training in the simulators as much as possible. We also have possible locations of where other Human settlements might be. Worth checking out or seeing if we can find anything there,” Sato said.
Adams nodded, the rest of them getting into talking about the future of Deq’ual. With Emerilia, it seemed as if its fate was already decided.
***
Kol woke with a start. He blinked sleep away from his eyes as he looked at his interface. A message filled it.
“Sometimes I forget who trained who,” Kol complained, getting up from his bed, a wry smile on his face as he stretched.
While Dave was off on the raid, he had left Kol to manage all of his affairs. Suzy’s assistants were a great help in dealing with the paperwork and orders, leaving the smiths to work on the different projects. However, some of the items couldn’t be given off to people Dave didn’t trust completely.
Kol quickly showered and changed and headed out of his apartment. He greeted and waved to people as he moved. Kol’s position was one of the highest within Terra. He was the manager of the Grahslagg smithy there. Under his command, the Dwarven Master Smiths listened. Just having them listen to what he was saying was more power than some kings and queens had.
Kol re-read the message. It simply told him to go to a room within Dave’s secret laboratory.
Kol moved through Terra, reaching the teleport pad that connected to the power station facility.
People moved through the room from all over Emerilia as Kol waited for the window to get to the power station. He quickly stepped through when it was his turn and moved toward the laboratory. Stepping inside was like going into another universe.
Magical artifacts littered the room that emperors, kings, and queens wouldn’t be able to find or purchase through their people. These items couldn’t be sold between people of Emerilia, but with Dave’s various contacts with Players and people of Emerilia, he had been able to pool these items together, or make them.
Kol pulled out a magical badge from his bag of holding. He pricked his finger and put blood on it.
The badge flashed with light. This badge would allow him to move through the room without the security measures going off. He moved deeper in the room, moving to the room that the message said.
Someone without the right clearance wouldn’t see anything inside the room, but to Kol it was filled with interface screens of different projects.
The one on the far right was blinking angrily, demanding Kol’s attention. He slumped into a chair and grabbed warm Xer from what Dave called a coffee maker. He’d made it to satisfy Suzy’s love for the “black ambrosia,” as she called it.
He raised his hand up and clicked on the project, checking the description.
Project: Ark (Shipyard)
Location: A1, A4-A10
Stage:
Mining
Power plants
Refinery
Secondary systems
Growing towers
Soul gem constructs
Defensive capabilities
Movement systems
Kol looked at the list with interest.
Dave hadn’t told him about this project. Though, if the system was alerting him, then he should check it out. Dave would be interested in a report.
Kol sipped on his Xer and checked the other project screens.
Project: Devastator Armor
Location: Unknown
Stage:
Mock-up
System creation (4/8 items complete)
Systems integration
Prototype
Testing
Final product
Project: Avenger Fighter
Location: A2
Stage:
Mock-up
System creation (5/39 items complete)
Systems integration
Prototype
Testing
Final product
Project: Band-Aid
Location: Aleph Factory
Stage:
Mock-up
System creation
Prototype
Testing
Final product
Mass production
Issued to Players
Project: SSM (Surface-to-Space Missile)
Location: A3 / Aleph Factory
Stage:
Mock-up
System creation
Prototype
Final product
Part creation
Part integration
Launch platforms
Project: Ono (One location teleport pad)
Location: Aleph Factory
Stage:
Mock-up
System creation
Prototype
Final product
Part creation
Part integration
Upgrades:
Shield protection
Mana well power source
Soul gem construct support system
Emplacement around Emerilia (30% complete)
Kol looked at these different windows. Dave had explained a bit about them, so he understood what most of them were, but being told about what they can do and actually seeing them in action were two very different things.
Kol took his Xer and moved to the teleportation room.
It was over-engineered to the extreme to allow Dave the ability to test out all kinds of ideas and theories that he had. It had allowed him to prototype the summoning hall that had been pulled down from the projects wall now that it was completed.
It had also allowed him to make the hexagonal prism of orbs that formed a gravitational prison inside, the same prison Dave had used to contain the powerful Water spirit in the Six Affinity Temple in one place.
The other function it provided was making a teleport pad that ran on slightly different principles to the ones than the Aleph used and with the Jukal portals. With Kol’s senses, he was able to easily sense the soul gem that was growing around this teleport pad.
He glanced over to the reactor that was
placed in a corner of the laboratory. There was so much power being generated by the inconspicuous-looking device that all of the laboratory was able to sustain itself, even with its own long-distance teleport pad.
It was, in fact, supplying power to the power station as well, adding in its stream of energy so that the soul gem that was storing up its power didn’t grow too fast and alert the Jukal.
Kol opened up a panel on the wall and pressed a few different buttons. The different coding plates and the runes in the floor, walls, and roof moved to the new configuration. It took a few minutes before the room settled down.
Power thrummed through the room as a portal opened in the center of the room.
Kol walked through, finding himself on a massive catwalk.
To one side there was an automated cart. Lights started to come online, revealing a corridor that extended for nearly a mile in either direction.
Kol frowned. He hadn’t known about such a large facility.
His senses spread out, finding the massive magical coding working that had been made around the entire complex. Not even his own senses were capable of reaching out to encompass it all.
He sat down on the cart. “A-1,” he said. The cart took off down the corridor.
Kol was about to take a sip from his Xer, his cup paused in front of his lips, as he passed a doorway that seemed to lead into darkness. The sounds of miners at work could be clearly heard.
“What?” Kol said to himself in a breathless whisper, unable to truly understand what he had sensed through that doorway.
In just a few minutes, he made it to A-1, his face a confused frown.
The cart turned and moved through the doorway. Lights started turning on in the darkness that he sensed beyond the doorway that had the two symbols A-1 carved above it.
Kol’s cup fell from his numb hands.
Facing him there was a cigar-shaped vessel. It had been carved out from the very rock surrounding it. Metal supports held up the area around the ship. It was five hundred meters long and one hundred meters wide.
Emerilia Series Box Set 3 Page 65
