Bad Seed 9

Wren smiled when she saw her brother’s ship in front of them as they were exiting Hyper – space.

“How long before we can fire?” Shwe asked of the ship’d A.I.

“No longer than a half hour,” her A.I. Trigon said.

“Stay out of sight and sensor range,” Wren said.

“What? You’re not going to take his ass and find out all you can,” her father’s voice replaced Trigon’s.

Wren scoffed as she checked the readings from her brother’s ship. “Really, father, I’d rather blow his ass out of the sky than get anywhere near him.”

“So, are you any closer to breaking the fourth code?” The voice asked.

“No,” Wren let out a frustrated sigh. “I thought I had a handle on it only to discover, I was way off.”

“I have to go, Wren, OK, consider it ok? As I taught you, death isn’t always the answer, though ninety-eight percent of the time it is.”

A smile came to Wren’s face, it had been quite some time since she’d heard her father’s voice. After the revelation that her father was still alive, she was more than ready to shoot Thomas’s traitorious ass.

“What are you getting from his ship, Trigon,” Wren asked.

“It appears that they almost have their main engines repaired. At present their long range sensors are offline. This I feel won’t last for long, they have several crews attempting to repair everything,” Trigon said.

“Good, continue to monitor them to see if there is anything to delay them more without them discovering us.” Wren said.

____________________________________________

Empress Esmeralda was pacing the deck, waiting for her lead scientist to finish readying the launchers. The problem was that the Empress was not known for her patience.

A smile came to her face as she backhanded a crewman that drew too close to her. Her smile grew even larger as she heard the satisfying crack when the man’s neck broke when he hit the bulkhead.

Esmeralda almost laughed as she watched the dying body as it started to twitch and convulse. Ah, she thought, that always seemed to cheer her up.

In a far better mood now, she watched the final missiles being loaded.

“How much longer? I am so ready to rid the universe of these pitiful asses,” Esmeralda said.

“I’d say an hour at the most. The payloads on them are highly unstable. This many could vaporize an entire solar system,” the lead scientist said.

“Um,” Esmeralda started, “we have waited this long, besides slow satisfaction is quite appealing right now.”

An hour later, Esmeralda received a call informing her that all was ready.

“Open a channel to the fleet,” she said.

“Channel open Empress,” a tech replied.

“To the fleet, all of you have been equipped with a new missile. This should help us to rid the universe of a parasite that lives on Ceti-5. With my blessing, fire destroy them and bring glory to the greatest Empire the galaxy has ever known.”

A very broad smile crossed her features as hundreds of missiles were launched. Her smile grew more as a second wave was launched a minute later, then a third.

Esmeralda was almost giddy about the coming destruction. She was almost dancing and twirling when the missiles phased out right before the multi-layered shielding.

Flugret looked at the other masters, then they all nodded as he started to flip several switches. Three things started to happen. First the missiles were tracked, their plots fed into a huge computer. As they came back in phase beyond the shields, a portal opened, making the missiles vanish a second time.

Flugret sighed as he started to adjust by inputting the coordinates for the Imperial fleet.

Esmeralda was actually starting to laugh. No longer would she have to fear the masters.

Her laughter and smile started to fade as several alarms started to go off. Then, to her horror, multiple portals opened in front of the fleet. Rabid panic started to run through the fleet, then the screams started.

A few of the front ships were able to raise shields, though most of those in front weren’t that lucky. Over ninety percent of the front line started to explode as the missiles decimated them. The second line lost forty percent, those past that were able to raise shields.

Esmeralda growled as she looked at the destruction, her once proud fleet more than half now floating wreckage.

“I want a casualty report, how many ships we lost. Found out if any of the missiles made it through.” Esmeralda said, though not really caring about those that were killed.

“Reports coming in,” a tech answered her. “Apparently we only lost forty percent. The front line was the only section where almost all were destroyed.”

The tech shrunk back when the Empress didn’t say a thing, though he could see her knuckles white. He also noticed that her grip on the bar before her was starting to bend it.

Esmeralda took a deep breath as she started to answer. She then shook her head in disbelief. She had calmed herself? True, the tech’s answer had not really upset her, she still could feel her anger growing.

“Good ” she gritted out.