Inheritance (Rise of the Empire Book 5) Read online

  “No, you will not,” Nadia said, and stood from her chair in front of Tomas’s desk. “Now, I have another hundred things to care of,” she said, and left the office.

  Tomas cursed under his breath. It had taken the Trivaxians more than sixteen years to complete all of Tomas’s demands. To remodel their society, to invent and build a hyperspace generator all on their own, and then go and colonize another system, with the Empire only supervising. And they had done it. Their colony was thriving. Their society had adopted the ways of the Empire, and now they would join them and get access to all the technology Empire possessed, everything that they needed to start as the newest Clan of the Empire. There would be oversight, of course, until they grew comfortable with the technology. But in another five years, they would have all the advantages of being a part of the Empire.

  They would be the first non-human or Nel race in the Empire, whose numbers were now almost equal. Both the Nel and the humans numbered around a billion, placing the Empire’s total population at just north of two billion. It was all thanks to the laws he’d put in place when he’d created the Empire regarding the progeny centers. But now, with the Trivaxians being added, that number would skyrocket, and people of Trivax would outnumber both the humans and the Nel. Their population was close eight billion. And the other race that was trying to be accepted, the Furvor, had about nine billion, and they too were close to finishing all their requirements. But they would suffer penalties because of their attack on Trivaxians.

  And then there were the Guxcacul, who would also ask to be accepted, if what he was hearing was correct. They had a small population, and as they already possessed a lot of advanced technology, Tomas didn’t need any special requirements for them. But they were still trying to rebuild their homeworld back up after the war with the Sowir.

  And lastly there were the fifty billion Nel living in the Nelus system. They were holding out, trying to recover on their own through trade with the Empire, but over the years Tomas had seen their frustration. They were watching the growth of the Empire and were likely wondering what they could do if they were a part of it. But he knew that he couldn’t just let them in like that; they needed to change their beliefs fundamentally if he was going to accept them.

  Tomas turned his holo table on and started looked at the countless number of reports. With a sigh, he opened one and started reading.

  ***

  Laura Reiss, Fleets Master of the Empire, stood in the fleet command room of the massive command-class ship. Around her were countless floating holograms, surrounding people sitting in chairs around the room. In the middle was a dais, and from there she gazed around at the people working. To her side was a hologram of the ship. Its enormous size was not apparent on the scaled-down hologram.

  “It is impressive,” Laura said.

  “Thank you, ma’am,” Fleet Commander Nair Hakeem of the First Fleet said from her side.

  Laura studied the wide arrowhead-shaped ship. Sitting at 4200 meters in length, another 3000 wide, and 1800 tall at its tallest, it really was impressive. It held the most sophisticated communications and battle sensors that they possessed. But it was not meant as a ship for battle; it was the ship that guided the battle. Designed specifically as a flagship of a fleet, it had few weapons, sacrificing that for armor, shimmering fields, and shields with enough power to make sure that nothing could pass through them. It of course had the latest Watchtower interface that now ran on multiple levels of communications, hyperspace communications, lasers, radio, and the newly developed normal space FTL comms built from the technology they’d learned from the sphere. It also came with several levels of the best encryption that the Empire had.

  The ship also served as control point for the drone command teams, whose control had been removed from the Watchtower interface and delegated to designated teams of pilots. The command ship had one hundred and twenty teams with ten people each, meaning that it could control up to twelve hundred drones.

  With a gesture, Laura zoomed out and the hologram showed the fleet of ships surrounding the Empire command ship Avalon. Around it were the ten new Leviathan-class dreadnoughts, sitting at 3000 meters long, 2000 wide at their widest, and 700 meters tall, shaped like arrowheads too, borrowing the design from Warpath’s Harbinger. Like all dreadnoughts classes before it, they were almost fleets unto themselves, only now they were larger and much deadlier.

  Ever since the Fleet had gotten reorganized—the older models retired to Clan defense or put into storage, and newer models built—the form of the fleet had changed. They wouldn’t be building a great number of these new dreadnoughts, only ten per fleet. And they didn’t need to; those ten alone had firepower enough to lay waste to entire fleet like the one that they had used to invade the Sowir home system. Their weapons and defenses all used tech from the sphere, or adapted from it, with a few purely human inventions. The Fleet had also started to build all their ships to be modular, like the Vanguard Fleet. This would allow them to upgrade their ships much easier, although it did add a bit to the construction time, as they didn’t fabricate entire hulls in several large pieces.

  Around the dreadnoughts floated the one hundred new battleships, 2000 meters long, 1200 wide, and 550 tall. They followed the design similar to Warpath’s Titan, with its apparently overlapping carapace-like plates. Then there were the four hundred new cruiser ships, 1000 meters long, 300 wide, and 500 tall, designed like sleek talons. And lastly the twelve hundred drones, which were the upgraded versions of the former Vanguard drones. These were 760 meters long, 380 wide, and 180 tall, and shaped like irregular rectangular boxes.

  This made the grand total number of the First Fleet 1710 warships, plus the command ship and the auxiliaries that pushed that number to 2000, which was the number that all their new fleets now had. And once the last five command ships finished their production, the Empire’s six war fleets would be finished. Twelve thousand warships protecting the Empire’s territory, which was now a prolate spheroid almost 1000 light years across at its two furthest points, and some 600 at its two closest. The Empire’s territory was now split into six sectors, each with an area of at least 150 light years across in all directions. And each of the fleets would be stationed and charged with patrolling and protecting their sector.

  Soon, all fleets would leave for their areas of the Empire. The Third Fleet was the one that was stationed in the First Sector, which encompassed Sanctuary. The First Fleet was stationed in the Second Sector, which was now former Sowir territories. The other fleets had been spread out across the area of space between Sanctuary and Sol, although there wasn’t yet the same number of people and colonized systems in the volume of space that they were charged of protecting. And the Sixth Fleet, with Fleet Commander Johanna Stern back in command of a war fleet, would be stationed in Sol, at the border of their Empire.

  “Congratulations, Fleet Commander.” Laura turned to Nair. “Looks like you are the first Fleet Commander to have a fully completed fleet.”

  “Thank you, Fleets Master. But Avalon’s sister ships will be finished in a few days,” Nair responded.

  “Yes,” Laura said as she turned to look at the holo again. “Soon enough.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  November; Year 53 of the Empire – Mars

  “Is it working?” Adrian asked one of the techs standing to his left.

  “For now. The liquid is solidifying at an acceptable rate, and the materials are being incorporated within the predicted range,” she answered over the comms, as they were outside on the surface of Mars.

  In front of them was a massive, round black pool of liquid with a diameter of almost one hundred meters. It was only a part of the construct; belowground was where most of the facility stretched.

  “How long will it take?” Adrian asked.

  “Some parts go slower, others faster. Building the engines, for example, is tricky. But all together, we are looking at fifty hours,” the tech responded.

  “I guess t
hat that is amazing, considering that it is building an entirely finished shuttle all on its own,” Adrian commented.

  The tech didn’t respond. Instead, she focused on the holographic display in front of her. They had been trying to crack one of the technologies from the sphere that would eventually allow them to build entirely finished ships in a matter of hours. They had the copies of many technologies from the sphere. Not the entire database—it was too large, and they couldn’t even begin to fathom their more advanced stuff—but this particular technology looked similar to the 3D printers, and the shuttle they were now building would rise from the liquid resin fully formed. But beneath the pool was the massive factory that provided the liquid materials needed for the shuttle’s construction. It used light, oxygen, and electric currents to shape and build according to blueprints provided to it. The tech was amazing, but was still nowhere close to what Adrian wanted. He tried to control himself as he knew that it was impossible for them to start using the technology on the same level as the People had. They needed time to learn how and why it worked. But his plans were long reaching, stretching for hundreds of years into the future.

  Adrian sighed, then turned and started towards his shuttle.

  “Get us home, Iris,” he said once he was inside and had removed his helmet. The shuttle turned on and slowly lifted off the ground, and Iris appeared in front of him.

  “The new Sentinel should be arriving soon,” Iris said.

  “Aileen, yes. That makes four of us who have psionics in the Empire,” Adrian said.

  “You don’t sound all that happy. What is it?” Iris asked.

  “It’s nothing,” he started. “I just thought that by now we would have had more people with the psionics. We have only just started to trigger the change in embryos.”

  “You planned on having people who could teach others how to use them before you started doing that,” Iris pointed out.

  “It took me too long to learn, and it took longer than I anticipated to teach others,” he said regretfully. “Perhaps I’m not a good teacher. Clara and Mei are doing well, and I taught them all that I know, but they are still not on the level where I want them. They are ready to teach others, but they are not really at the level that I wanted them to be in terms of skill and power.”

  “It will happen on its own terms, Adrian, you can’t force the issue. And Clara and Mei will be ready by the time that the next generations grow up. And they will improve as they teach others, much like how you did.”

  “Right. Well, at least we are finally ready to leave and start looking for the Ra’a’zani,” he said.

  “Fifteen years of peace, and already you are looking to start another war,” Iris said disappointedly.

  “They took human slaves with them when they left. We cannot leave those people in their hands; too much time has already passed,” Adrian told her. “And we have a promise to keep. The Ra’a’zani will pay for what they had done to our birthplace.”

  “They haven’t come back to Sol in fifty years, Adrian,” Iris argued. “And you have no idea where their territory is. For all you know, it could be on the other side of the galaxy.”

  “That is why we will go out and explore, seek out other races, and find information about them,” Adrian said.

  Iris rolled her eyes and disappeared. “Fine. I know that I can’t change your mind, but don’t come running to me to save you when we run into another race like the Sowir, only with bigger guns,” she added in his head through his imp.

  “We can’t keep to ourselves forever, Iris,” Adrian told her aloud, but she didn’t respond. She no longer inhabited the wrist unit that Seo-yun built for her. Adrian had thought that it was too vulnerable, so during the procedure that had upgraded his body, her core and holographic projector had been implanted inside his arm, with only a small one-centimeter orb outside of his skin acting as the projector.

  They spent the next ten minutes in silence as they neared Olympus Mon, the home of the Sentinels and what they called the Sentinel Fortress. The large complex was finished, although a great majority of it was empty. In time, as more Sentinels were trained, it would be filled up. For now, there were only people from Warpath that worked here. At some point, they would become the support staff for the Sentinels.

  The shuttle lowered slowly down to the massive platform that opened and allowed the shuttle into the hangar. Adrian took his helmet in hand and walked out of the shuttle. He nodded to people working around the hangar, and started walking deeper inside the base. He rounded a few corners and finally reached the practice hall.

  He opened the doors and entered. Immediately, he felt something speeding towards his head. He moved a step back and used his power to telekinetically deflect the heavy rubber ball upwards. Then in one smooth move, he pivoted around his right leg and threw his helmet towards his attacker, pushing it faster with the telekinesis. The helmet struck his attacker in the shoulder, making her spin as she dropped to the floor, where she rolled from side to side, groaning.

  “Oh, that’s so not fair,” whined Clara Bengtsdotter, a two-meter-tall blonde Amazon woman, one of the best Sentinels in Warpath, as she rolled on the floor.

  “How did you know that I was coming through this door?” Adrian asked curiously as he started walking towards her. The practice hall had many entrances, and she had attacked the moment he’d entered.

  “We bribed the hangar workers to let us know when you arrived,” she groaned out with her eyes still closed.

  Adrian grinned, and then as he almost reached her, he froze. “Wait…we?” he asked just as he felt someone move behind him. He quickly turned and saw Meifeng Zhao jumping towards him through the air from one of the wall platforms. He grabbed her telekinetically and was about to throw her aside when he felt Clara jump back up and move to attack him. She released a kinetic blast from her hand, and Adrian allowed it to hit him. He let it pick him up from the floor, and as he twisted in the air, he swiped his arm towards Clara, sending Mei’s petite form crashing into her. Then, with a well-placed kinetic blast to the floor from both his hands, he straightened and landed on his feet.

  He looked at the two sprawled on the floor, Mei on top of Clara, and laughed out loud.

  “Nice try,” he said as he walked towards them.

  Mei looked up and glared at him. “How did you know where I was?”

  “Echolocation,” he said. “And you make sounds as you move through the air.”

  Meifeng Zhao grimaced. “Urgh…you couldn’t have had more than a moment’s notice.”

  “One moment is all that I needed,” Adrian said.

  Clara pushed Mei off her and jumped back to her feet, far more springily than someone who was in a great amount of pain would have.

  “Shoulder is fine already, I see,” Adrian commented.

  Clara gave grinned at him. “I twisted my shoulder as the helmet hit, cushioning the attack.”

  “Impressive reaction,” Adrian said. “Now if only you worked more on your acting…”

  Clara grabbed Adrian’s helmet from the floor telekinetically and threw it at his head. Adrian froze it mid-air effortlessly and started walking towards the exit, with the helmet floating behind him. “Well, I just wanted to check up on you and let you know that the new Sentinel should arrive later today.”

  “We’ll be ready to welcome her,” Clara said mischievously.

  Adrian chuckled and left the hall.

  ***

  The cargo ship dropped out of trans-space and into the Sol system. The incoming trans-station was between the orbits of Earth and Mars, and nearby was a big defense station surrounded by defense platforms, protecting the incoming trans-station. In its current orbit, Aileen’s destination—Mars—was on the other side of the system. She glanced at the holo in the observation deck, and looked at Earth—the birthplace of humanity. Massive storms still ravaged its surface. It was gray and red, as volcanos still erupted across her surface, the last Ra’a’zani crime against humanity. It would
be hundreds of years before the storms waned and the volcanos went silent again, and thousands more before it became what it once was.

  She watched from the observation deck as the ship moved away from the trans-station and the defense station positioned to be pointed at Mars on a clear line and skimmed to her destination in almost two full minutes. It was unadvisable for ships to use skimming close to other constructs, as a skim created a kind of a ripple in the space around it for a few minutes. Not something that could destroy a station, but enough to wreck computer-based systems.

  The ship moved towards one of the dozens of stations in Mars orbit. All the way, Aileen looked at the holo in front of her, at the amount of traffic in system. It surprised her, actually; the traffic wasn’t as dense as in Sanctuary or Waypoint, but it was close. There were thousands of ships here, moving between planets, from Mars to Jupiter and Saturn, where massive gathering facilities orbited the gas giants. There were also large shipyards in orbit around Jupiter’s moons. And then in the asteroid field, a fleet of mining and cargo ships moved about the mining facilities that had been constructed on the bones of those built by the Ra’a’zani. But what surprised her were a few massive constructs close to the Sun. She couldn’t guess at their purpose, but the information on the holo told her that they were massive. The system had much more traffic now than what it had had when the Ra’a’zani were here. It seemed like the Emperor had made this system a priority.

  Over the next hour, Aileen transferred from the ship to the station, where she waited for a shuttle to take her to the ground with the cargo she’d brought with her. The shuttle made its way directly to Olympus Mon, which would be her home in the future. After the shuttle entered the hangar and landed, Aileen exited the shuttle and stepped into the Sentinel Fortress.

  ***

  Adrian watched as his newest student exited the shuttle and noticed him waiting for her. She started walking towards him, and Adrian took the time to study her. She was about as tall as he was, at around 180 cm tall. Her black hair was tied back in a ponytail, and she wore a dark red overcoat. She looked fit, more so than a person that wasn’t training, but that was to be expected; she was from Warpath, after all. There weren’t really unfit people in the Empire, at least as far as Nel and Humans were concerned. The mix of their food and the genetic alterations that gave them immortality made it extremely hard for anyone to actually gain unnecessary weight, unless they were actively trying. But those who were training had a more ‘fit’ look.