Sato had thought that they might have found a way to get to the ice planet, but he would have never thought that they would have taken that and then continued outward and go on to make these massive ships in such a short time. It was simply outside the realm of possibilities in Sato’s mind.
“So now you know where we’re at. Pop in and say hi at any time. Jeeves will send you a signal to use so that we can confirm it’s you. We don’t want the Jukal or anyone finding out about us. Which, by the way, how did you find us?” Dave asked.
“Umm, well.” Sato scratched his head. “We took the data from the ice planet that you gave us, compared it with our records, then made a few deductions of what we were seeing on Emerilia. We added it to our list of places to visit. We didn’t really know how you were going to get to the ice planet. And after the portal disappeared, we didn’t think that it would actually happen. So we sent along Captain Xue and the Sprite to seed the system with stealth remotes so that we might be able to see what’s going on in the system. However, with the aggressive species rampaging across Emerilia, we diverted the Sprite a few times in order to seed other systems that hold aggressive species so that we might come to better understand them,” Sato said, not keeping anything back.
Dave looked thoughtful for a few minutes before he shrugged. “Well, you’re here—well, your people are. You’re welcome to visit, though we can’t show everything. We can certainly give them a tour around our facilities, fill up their fuel. If you want, you can set up a supply depot here. Would give you additional range. We could have you an asteroid ready within a few weeks with the extras.” Dave looked off camera.
“Sounds doable,” Malsour said.
“Don’t look at me— I deal with portal tech,” said the woman in the bridge who Sato had seen a glimpse of when Dave was turning the Mirror of Communication around.
“If I allow my people to enter, they will be transmitting constantly and they will be allowed to take their weapons,” Sato said.
“Sure,” Dave agreed, sounding uninterested. “Everyone I know carries around enough weapons to make Earth’s old United Nations piss their pants.”
Sato didn’t know how to respond to that.
“All right—we’ll send them directions to where they can park their ship as well as an access point into our asteroid base. Jeeves, could you sort that out?” Dave asked.
“I can,” Jeeves said.
“All right. Well, one more jump, and I’m going to take a nap. If they want to come over in, say, nine hours after I’ve slept off the worst of this Mana fatigue, that would be awesome.” Dave made a circle with his fingers.
“I’ll pass it on.” Sato smiled, clearly seeing that Dave was exhausted.
“Awesome. See your people in a bit!” The Mirror of Communication to Sato as well as to the Sprite was cut.
On the Sprite’s sensors, the massive warship simply disappeared from their sight.
Everyone who hadn’t seen the ship appearing at first was now looking at the screen in shock, as if something had gone wrong.
“Are they jumping within the system or are they cloaked?” Adams muttered next to Sato, sounding jealous.
“I don’t know but it seems that we’ve underestimated just how much they can get done in a short period of time.” Sato held his chin as he thought on what would happen when the people of the Deq’ual system found out about this new base Dave had set up in the Nal system. His thoughts turned to the politicians.
“I’m going to meet with Council Leader Wong.” Sato rose from his seat. He needed to work with the councilwoman to control how this was seen by the public and to see whether they couldn’t use this in order to become closer with the people of Emerilia.
“Understood.” Adams nodded to Sato.
Dave had shown that he was innovative and driven. Time and time again, Edwards and his team, as they were going through the information Dave had given them, found out ways to speed up their production and also increase the abilities of the military forces as well as improve the lives of the Deq’ualians.
Sato called up Council Leader Wong as he marched out of the command center and through the Deq’ual station.
A guard detail fell in around him as he sent a message to her secretary.
In mere moments, he was told that Council Leader Wong would be ready and available to meet him as soon as possible in her private quarters.
Sato changed directions and headed for her apartment. It didn’t take him long to traverse the station. The security detail outside Wong’s residence informed her of his arrival and allowed him to pass in.
Council Leader Wong sat at her open-plan kitchen, sipping on coffee as her husband made up a few more cups. He was an elderly gentleman who worked in hydroponics and always had a kind smile on his face.
“Commander Sato, would you like a coffee?” Mister Wong asked.
“Please.” Sato smiled. Coffee sounded like a great idea. He’d only had a few hours of sleep and he hadn’t integrated with the Jukal nanites or interface so he didn’t have stats or the abilities to raise his Endurance so he didn’t have to sleep for days on end.
Edward’s people had largely assimilated the tech, allowing them to work constantly and make more and more breakthroughs.
Still, the higher-ups refrained from using it, due to fears within the government.
Mister Wong poured an extra cup of coffee and put out sugar and cream, moving so that he hugged Council Leader Wong from the side. “Let me know if you need anything. I’m going to work on the garden,” Mister Wong said.
“I will, thank you,” she said. The two of them had a quick kiss and Mister Wong headed for their private hydroponics area to tend to the plants held there.
“One of our stealth ships came into contact with Dave Grahslagg,” Council Leader Wong said, getting right to the point as Sato mixed cream and sugar into his coffee.
“Yes. It seems that he was doing more than playing around with the ice planet. He mentioned something about using a portal.” Sato glanced to Wong.
She paused and raised her coffee to her lips; her eyes went wide as she lowered the cup in shock. “He knows how to use portals?”
“I don’t know. He was under a lot of Mana fatigue when I was talking to him, made him seem pretty wishy-washy. He has agreed to allow a group of the people from the stealth craft the Sprite entrance into his asteroid base. They will be armed and transmitting at all times,” Sato said.
“This will allow us to better understand what Dave Grahslagg is capable of and if working with him will be of a gain to us,” Wong said.
“He has already helped us out more than we could ever imagine.” Sato frowned as he looked at Wong.
“I know, but this is how the council will look at things.” Wong sighed. “They will want to see what we can get from him and how it could benefit Deq’ual.”
“Do you think it will help change their thoughts on helping Emerilia?” Sato asked, trying not to raise his hopes too high.
Wong let out a sigh, looking older as she gave Sato a sad smile.
He knew what she was going to say before she opened her mouth.
“We’ve become conservative to the point that any change is hard to pass through the council. It is changing with time as we see the benefits of these changes but as you know, it is slow to develop. We’ve got a council that overlooks what tech we put into the different warships. They move slower than a turtle going uphill and they can hardly agree on items. It should be under your purview but the more that the politicians see the power going to the military, the more that they try to ‘assist,’ which usually means putting shackles on the military so that they can feel a larger sense of control.”
Wong hadn’t always been a politician; she had been a doctor before but seeing that there were issues within the system, she had stepped up. She didn’t like politics and before Sato had made her his point of contact within the council, she had been gradually pushed to the sidelines by the “real” politic
ians who wished to continue to play their games.
Sato sighed. The higher he had become within Deq’ual, the more he had needed to deal with these characters. He fought to hold control over the military but the politicians wanted as much strength and bartering power in their pockets as possible.
As he drank from his coffee, Wong continued.
“However, we might be able to use this,” Wong said, a light in her eyes as a devious smile spread across her face.
“How?”
“Well, it’s clear that Dave is a capable man and he’s not bound by a government or anyone watching over him. We already have a lot of trust in him and you have built up a steady relationship with him. While your hands are being bound tighter and tighter, we can possibly offload some of these projects onto Dave or at least see what he thinks of them, improve upon them and make them. We can pay him with resources and assistance. A few people might be interested in paying an asteroid base in another system a visit. We gain a better understanding of what Dave is building, we gain more knowledge, and we help Emerilia and Dave indirectly, allowing them to build up their own strength. Once we are assured of our trust placed in Dave, then we can start to discuss things like possible ways to attack the Jukal and see about decreasing their influence and bringing about a time when we won’t have to hide. Then we can figure out a plan that if we bring to the people that they will agree to it,” Wong said.
“Not the council?” Sato asked, feeling excited. It was only a small gesture of help but it was more than the Deq’ual system had been capable of giving Dave and the people of Emerilia in the past.
“The council will wrap it up in red tape—this is a decision of all of Deq’ual. Not just the council,” Wong said.
Sato looked at the small and fragile-looking woman in front of him. Her face was set in hard lines, determination in her eyes. A smile bloomed on his face as he drank from his coffee.
I picked the right council member to talk to when I found out about Dave. Sato was eager to see what the future would bear.
Times had certainly changed from when the military forces of Deq’ual had tested out their defensive networks and systems as well as their few fighters with most of their forces actually being communication experts and guards who policed the system.
Now they had a sprawling military complex. They had been able to pull their population within cryo back out. Their population was booming and their technology advanced in leaps and bounds. They had true warships, scout ships, and had a growing network of stealth remotes that covered multiple systems. They watched the sensor readings of Jukal fleets, their merchant vessels and watched the populated outer worlds of the Jukal Empire.
They had never been stronger and Sato had never felt as alive. He’d never felt Deq’ual so alive and driven. It filled him with energy that no coffee could give him—a mix of hope, determination, and the pressure to excel.
Chapter 15: Second Stage
Dave finished teleporting the entire battleship back into the asteroid base.
“We need to finish those doors,” Dave said, as the runic lines on his body and the gray glow of his eyes dimmed. He leaned back in the captain’s chair, his head lolling forward as he fell asleep.
“Well, that was a lot of excitement for one day.” Ela-Dorn slowly taking her shaking hands off the console and put them in her lap. Her green face had taken on a lighter hue.
“Seems that we’re going to have to increase the speed at which we finish up these ships,” Malsour said in a grave voice.
“Who are those people?” Ela-Dorn asked.
“They’re humans who have been hiding outside of the Jukal Empire. They’re survivors of the Jukal and human war,” Malsour said.
Ela-Dorn sat back in her chair, her mind working overtime. Everyone who was now part of the Pandora’s Box team had been told the full history of the Jukal and human war, how it had ended with humanity being practically wiped out until Bob had come along and created Emerilia in order to deal with the aggressive species.
After all of that, now learning that there had been survivors, she didn’t know what kind of hardships they had to have gone through in order to survive.
Still, they were venturing out of their homes and looking to search out the Jukal and to find out what was happening outside of their system. This kind of bravery was not easily put into words.
“Don’t worry— when they visit, you’ll have plenty of time to talk to them. However, they probably won’t be interested in talking about their homes, family, or anything of the like,” Malsour said.
“I understand. The Aleph were the same way before we were betrayed.” Ela-Dorn nodded, a new fire in her eyes. “If you want to look after Dave, I’ll talk to the development teams and find ways to speed up production. From what I know, the biggest bottleneck we still have is resources, so we’re going to need to focus on more miners and cargo shuttles instead of ships for a bit.”
Malsour nodded. “Understandable. See if you can talk to those working with the refineries as well as the mining operations.”
Ela-Dorn seemed to have a flash of inspiration. “If we were to hollow out an asteroid, create a separator as well as line its interior with mining drills, we could teleport other asteroids inside it, thus reducing how easy it would be for someone to see the drills and pick up on us. Also, the cargo shuttles would be inside unless they were moving from one of the mining/separating asteroids to the main asteroid base to take the materials back to the ice planet and the refinery there. The mining drills could eat through the entire asteroid, taking out the precious materials. They, too, wouldn’t need to be transported from the asteroid base to each of the asteroids around. It could increase the speed at which we mine and it could also reduce the amount of items we have floating around that could get someone’s attention.” Ela-Dorn’s eyes narrowed slightly as she thought over the idea.
“If it gets to a large enough stage, we could bring the arks in. They could go through portals within the asteroids, picking up the separated out materials from the crusher asteroids and transport them to another asteroid refinery that could send them out to the various bases. Already the refinery within the ice planet is being taxed heavily and it’s only going to have more demand upon it to refine out the various gases and materials that are mined from the planet,” Malsour said thoughtfully, working through the problem. His age allowed him to step back from the problem instead of be wrapped up in it like Dave and Ela-Dorn. He still got excited but the ability to pull back and look at things from a practical perspective was hard to do.
“Come up with a plan and run it past Jeeves to see if it’s viable. If it is, then we’ll look into carrying it out.” Malsour nodded and looked to Ela-Dorn.
“I’ll do that!” Ela-Dorn said.
“Docking clamps engaging,” Jeeves said from overhead. He was piloting the ship back into its slip. Once again, the umbilical soul gem lines from the asteroid base connected to the battleship. Automatons swarmed the battleship, continuing the work on the massive ship.
Ela-Dorn rushed off to start on her new project.
Malsour checked the work queue. As much as he knew the trust that Dave and Bob placed within Sato and his people, Malsour was still cautious. They were building something here that was supposed to rival the Jukal Empire.
All of the systems at the top of the battleship’s to-do list were to get it in fighting condition as fast as possible. Everything else was put on a back burner until these essential systems were completed.
Malsour turned around and saw Dave sleeping on the main chair. They weren’t sharing the same Mana shield, so Malsour couldn’t hear the snores in the nonexistent atmosphere. Dave’s orbs silently floated around him, maintaining his shield.
Malsour sighed and threw out some metal plates from his bag of holding as he stood. He stepped into Dave’s shield, being recognized as a friend by the orbs.
Malsour shook his head. The coding that Dave had put into these orbs—even able to
recognized friend and foe—was simply extraordinary. The metal sheets picked up Dave; Malsour walked out of the ship and through the asteroid base. When he reached, the ice planet, he quickly came to the Dracul quarters.
People all knew the secret of the Dracul now but still they had come together over their love of technology and their drive toward pushing the boundaries of what was known. They were more interested than scared by the Dracul and the fact that they were Dragons.
Fire was still within the Densaou Ring of Fire but Oson’Mal lived within the ice planet apartments, looking after Desmond and Koi most of the time. Quindar and Fornau’s children, as well as the younger generation of the Dracul family, were there, as were a number of Dragons who looked after them when Mal was working on projects or even helped him out when he was with the kids.
This allowed the older generations to concentrate on what was happening in Emerilia without worrying about their young getting into harm’s way.
Malsour smiled. Fire’s boyfriend Mal, had truly turned into the grandfatherly figure of the Dracul family.
He dropped Dave off in one of the free rooms, letting him sleep off his Mana fatigue.
The ice planet’s city had mostly breathable atmosphere. The different buildings and sections of the city all had Mana shields and barriers that were put in place to secure various areas if there was ever a pressure loss within the city.
The ice buildings were being changed to soul gem constructs over time, but the resources were mostly going to the different projects being worked on, as well as development within the asteroid base.
If we were still working with only the materials that Bob gave Dave, we would have run out long ago. Malsour shook his head, thinking about the resource drains they were under. Even Dave’s slow bleed of resources were already claimed by the flying citadels as well as Terra and the various other constructs under the Stone Raiders’ purview.
Emerilia Series Box Set 4 Page 66
