For Glory, page 3
“You should at least bring me along to advise you.”
“No, father. I need to do this myself. Besides, I need someone here for Devar.”
“You have nursemaids for that.”
“They are not family. You are.”
“That is true.”
Miira had expected her father’s resistance, but she had made up her mind and was not going to let him talk her out of it. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that Jon was right. She had spent the last two years grieving and looking after Devar. As a result, she had allowed the Imperial Council to rule in her place. The very thing she had initially wanted to avoid.
It was not what Kriss would’ve wanted. He had always been very hands-on, as were his ancestors. If she allowed the Council to dominate her, then what chance would Devar have when it was his turn to rule? No, things needed to change, and while she still missed Kriss terribly, she needed to stop making excuses and get on with things.
Her father tried to change her mind some more but eventually relented. She said goodbye to Devar and insured he had everything he needed. The nursemaids had enough of her milk to feed him, and if that failed, it was not difficult to create more using her genetics. It wouldn’t be perfect, but it would be better than any other option while she was gone. She had to fight the urge to take Devar with her but thought he’d be safest at the Winter Palace. Indeed, after the attack, it was likely the safest place in the Empire.
Miira boarded a Taymati transport under heavy guard as atmospheric fighters dominated the sky. Warships waited in orbit, including her battleship, Imperial One. A personal jump system would have made things easier, but Jon had not shared that technology with the Empire. Besides, even if they had the tech, using it would have required lowering the shields around the palace, and that was not a risk she was willing to take.
Nonetheless, she decided that she would have to raise the issue of the personal jump technology with Jon. She understood why he was hesitant to share that tech with her husband, but he should not have the same reservations with her. Especially if she showed that she could rule the Empire and not rely on her father and the Council. Perhaps that was why Jon pushed her to bypass the Council and deal with the Generals herself.
Her transport made it to Imperial One without incident, and Captain Raath, the ship’s commander, waited in the hangar bay to greet her along with a contingent of Taymati. Her own personal guard accompanied her on her transport, as well as on a couple of other transports that had already docked. Those Taymati had already fanned out across the hangar bay, ensuring there were no surprises.
Miira didn’t expect there to be any lapses in security, and Kriss always had the utmost trust in Captain Raath and the Taymati crew on the Imperial battleship. When she was given the green light, Miira disembarked from the transport, and Captain Raath took a knee, as did the Taymati accompanying him.
“Welcome aboard, Majesty,” Raath said, his head lowered, eyes on the floor.
“Thank you, Captain. Please, rise.”
Raath got to his feet, and Miira again noted his height. The Dvorkans were a race of blue giants compared to the humans and the Diakans, and at eight feet, Miira was no exception. But Raath easily surpassed nine feet and towered over most Dvorkans.
“I know it has been some time since you’ve been on your flagship. Perhaps you would like a tour of the ship?”
Miira was about to refuse but thought better of it. “Yes, Captain. I would enjoy seeing the ship.” Normally, she would have just gone to the Imperial residence on the ship until arrival, but if she was going to be more involved in running the Empire, then she might as well start here with Imperial One.
By the time they arrived at Dvorkan Central Command, Miira had seen most of the battleship and was surprised at how much she enjoyed the tour. She took the time throughout to greet the Taymati serving on board and did her best to learn something about everyone she met, thereby boosting their morale. It wasn’t some public relations exercise either. She genuinely enjoyed meeting them and learning about their lives. All in all, she felt the tour was a success.
With their arrival at Central Command, however, it was time to get down to business. Her husband had a difficult relationship with the generals at Central Command, and it ended up in civil war, but the rebellious generals had been purged, and these generals were supposed to be loyal to Kriss and now her. Was that really the case?
Many of the generals at Central Command fought on Kriss’s side in the civil war, but she was not Kriss. She was not Imperial blood like Kriss was. Were they really loyal to her? She was still Empress, despite her bloodline, and Kriss’s blood did run through Devar’s veins, so there was that. But she knew that there were some in the Empire who thought she was illegitimate and that Kriss should have never married a commoner. Did any of these generals think the same?
Central Command was a space station. The original Central Command station had been destroyed in the civil war, and this one was built to replace it. With her visit, this system was probably as well protected as the Winter Palace’s star system.
Taymati teams boarded the space station first, ensuring that everything was secure for Miira’s visit. Being a military station, Miira was confident that there would be no problems, but the Taymati were nothing if not thorough. Once the Taymati were satisfied, Miira boarded the station, where she was greeted by General Teev, the Supreme Commander of Dvorkan Forces and one of the most powerful men in the Empire.
Teev showed Miira the proper amount of respect, including taking the knee. After the normal greetings, he escorted her to a conference room consisting of multiple displays and holograms, where the other generals waited.
“Long live the Empress!” someone announced as she entered, and all the generals dropped to one knee before her. The sight made her feel incredibly uncomfortable, but she did her best not to show it.
“Please, rise,” she said, and the generals all got to their feet and waited for her to sit at the head of the conference table. Once she was seated, the generals took their seats as well. Then, they each introduced themselves and told Miira what they were responsible for. That was another thing that bothered Miira. It had been almost two years since Kriss had died, and she still didn’t know many of the people in this room. How pathetic was that? Not coming to Central Command sooner had been a mistake.
With all the formalities over, General Teev spoke. “Of course, her Majesty is welcome any time, but we are curious if there was any specific reason for this visit. No one here wants to waste the Empress’s time, after all.”
“Thank you, General,” Miira said, thinking that things were definitely going to change. Like it or not, the generals were going to see a lot more of her moving forward. “In fact, there is a reason for my visit. As you know, we are allied with the humans against the forces of the Maeficus. I’m sure you also know that those forces tried to assassinate me and the prince at the Winter Palace recently. After speaking to Admiral Pike about the attack, he felt that we should rally our combined forces and go on the offensive against the Mistraan, the species responsible for the assassination attempt. Before accepting or refusing Admiral Pike’s request, I wanted to hear your advice on the matter.”
The generals all exchanged glances with each other, and Miira immediately sensed some discomfort with the proposition. That seemed strange to her as she thought that the generals would be eager to strike back at the race responsible for attacking their Empress in Dvorkan space. Dvorkans constantly thought about their past and deeply wanted to return to the so-called days of glory.
“Of course, we want nothing more than to punish those responsible for the cowardly attack at the Winter Palace,” said General Teev. “But I’m not sure that we have enough forces available to commit to such an offensive.”
“I’m sorry, General, but I don’t understand. How is it that we don’t have enough forces?”
Teev looked really uncomfortable now, and Miira did not like what she saw. “Majesty, I’m not sure how much the Imperial Council has informed you about military matters, but the reason we don’t have enough forces is that our forces are already committed. We are already at war.”
Chapter five
“What do you mean, we are at war?” Miira said, surprised by Teev’s statement. “Who are we at war with?”
“We don’t know what they are called because they will not communicate with us,” Teev said. “Some have taken to calling them the Bane, likely because their bodies are highly poisonous to Dvorkans, with any unprotected contact leading to death. They are bird-like and can fly. They are also as large as a human and have claws that are incredibly powerful and sharp and can gouge into a combat suit’s armor.”
A hologram appeared above the conference table, showing an all-black winged alien. Its body was lean and tightly muscled, and it possessed nasty-looking claws on its hands and feet. Its face was flat with mere slits for a nose and predatory red eyes. The alien was a frightening thing to look at, even more so by the knowledge that its body was poisonous to Dvorkans.
Miira leaned back in her chair, stunned by what she was hearing. The generals were all leaning forward, looking at her expectantly. She swallowed and said, “I have never heard of this race. Where did they come from?”
“The Empire had been on an expansion campaign under the late Emperor,” Teev said. “We used the knowledge the Antikitheri had given us to build more jump gates and use them to explore and claim other star systems. In the process, we discovered many resource-rich worlds and some primitive life forms. None of it posed any danger to the Empire. Indeed, we immediately began harvesting the various resources available on these planets. As you can imagine, there was every reason to continue expanding, and the late Emperor encouraged it.
“In one instance, we completed the building of another jump gate and set off exploring the territory on the other side, only this time we found a thriving civilization. They were a space-faring civilization like us, so we decided that our best course of action was to open a dialog with them. We tried to speak with the aliens repeatedly, but the aliens refused to respond. Then they attacked. Our ships were cloaked, but that did not make a difference. Somehow, they knew exactly where we were, and they came at us with superior force, destroying the entire squadron. One ship managed to escape the slaughter and returned through the jump gate to report what had happened.”
“That’s terrible,” Miira said. “But didn’t our ships have jump systems? Why didn’t they just jump away?”
Teev frowned. “Our jump systems were somehow incapacitated. We don’t know how, but the jump systems did not work. Without the jump system, the ships could not jump away, nor could they deploy their jump bombs.”
“But does that mean we are at war? Can we not simply avoid entering their star system?”
“Perhaps, but we did not avoid their star system,” Teev said, looking uncomfortable. “We returned in force, determined to exact revenge for the unprovoked slaughter of our people.”
Miira grimaced at that but stayed quiet.
“We sent an invasion force through that jump gate, certain that we could bring the aliens to heel. But the aliens proved to be fierce fighters, and conquering them turned out to be more difficult than we originally thought. The first problem we identified was that there were a lot more of these aliens than we initially thought, and that equated to many more ships and defenses. Whenever we destroyed a ship, there was always another one ready to take its place. So we fought these endless battles with costly losses that did not seem to hurt the aliens as much as they hurt us.”
The General paused, and Miira said, “What was the second problem?”
“We weren’t dealing with just one star system. What we soon realized was that we had discovered a previously unknown empire. We don’t know how many worlds they control, but the star system we found was just one of many. And that brings us to the third problem. This empire is connected by a previously unknown network of jump gates. So, by building our jump gates, we unwittingly connected our jump gate network to theirs.”
“You say the Emperor knew about all of this?”
“Yes, Majesty. The Emperor knew everything.”
It didn’t bother Miira that Kriss had kept this information from her. She knew he probably didn’t want to scare her with such news. Plus, she had no interest in these things. Affairs of state were Kriss’s domain, not hers. At least until now. “What about the Imperial Council? How much do they know?”
“They were informed after the death of the Emperor,” Teev said.
So the Council knew about all of this but kept the information from her. Did Teev know that? It didn’t matter. Rather than getting upset about it, her analytical brain took over. What did she know about running an Empire? She could see how the Council might worry about burdening her with this news. She was grieving, after all. And then she became a mother. Besides, she was an academic with no experience running the Empire. She didn’t blame them for it, but things were going to change moving forward.
“Where do we stand now, General?” Miira said.
“Due to the greater alien numbers, we were unable to take their star system. There were simply too many of them, and they steadily wore us down. After much fighting, we decided that we were better off retreating back through our jump gate and use the gate as a choke point where we could eliminate their numerical advantage. Since then, the Bane have continued sending ships through the gate, trying to gain a foothold in that system. They have not succeeded, but defending the gate has not been without cost.”
“That is why you are worried about committing ships to an invasion of Mistraan territory,” Miira said, understanding the situation. “What I don’t understand is why you have continued fighting like this.”
“Majesty?”
“Well, you said yourself that you were unsuccessful in taking their star system due to their superior numbers. And now they are using those superior numbers to force us to defend the jump gate connecting our star system to theirs, slowly bleeding us in the process. Why are we allowing this? Why not just destroy the jump gate and be done with the entire situation? Am I right to assume that they do not possess a jump system and, therefore, need the jump gate?”
“That is what we believe,” Teev said. “We have not seen anything to indicate that they have a jump system yet.”
“Yet?”
“The Bane are quite advanced technologically, even though they do not possess a jump system. We are worried about them obtaining the technology at some point.”
“Why is that?” Miira said.
“When we invaded their star system, we fought many battles with them and tried several jump tactics to gain the upper hand. Unfortunately, during those battles, the Bane did manage to board and capture a couple of our ships. So, there is a concern that they could use those ships to reverse engineer the jump system.”
Miira rubbed her temples and wished she had just stayed at the Winter Palace. “What happens if they do learn how to build a jump system? What is the worst-case scenario?”
Teev took a breath. “If the Bane develop a jump system, they can use it to invade our adjoining star system, bypassing the jump gate. In reality, they would use both to invade. Due to their greater numbers, they could overrun the system and eventually take it from us.”
“But that system is not populated, right? It is just some resource planets. I imagine that wouldn’t be hard to evacuate.”
“No, but then they would have access to the jump gate linking to the previous star system. Through that, they can obtain the coordinates of that star system and eventually overrun it too.”
“I think I understand where you are going with this, General. You are saying that by gaining access to the jump gates, they can eventually work their way back to our populated star systems. But again, why don’t you just destroy the jump gates?”
“Because that would be accepting defeat. We are Dvorkans. We live for glory. We do not run away from adversity with our tails between our legs.”
Miira knew she should’ve expected this response. It was classic Dvorkan logic. “I’m sorry, General, but I am trying to understand. You said that their numbers are too great for us to defeat. Is that not correct?”
“Too great for us to defeat at this time. We are working on a solution that should turn the tide in our favor.”
“I’m listening.”
“I fought alongside the Emperor during the civil war, as did most of the Dvorkans in this room. In our last battle, the other side used a weapon. A devastating weapon of Antikitheri origin.”
“Yes, I remember, but that weapon was destroyed.”
“It was, but we have successfully built the weapon.”
Miira leaned forward and locked eyes with Teev. “Did my husband know about this?”
“Of course. The Emperor was the one who ensured we retained the plans to build the weapon in the first place.”
So many secrets, Miira thought.
“Now, that weapon was intended for planetary defense, which is extremely useful. But we are working on a way to arm our ships with the weapon.”
“How close are you to accomplishing this?”
“Close,” Teev said with a smile. “I expect a breakthrough soon. And when that happens, we will be unstoppable.”
“And this is why you do not want to destroy the jump gates,” Miira said in understanding. “Because you want to use them to invade.”
“Majesty is wise beyond her years,” Teev said.
“If that were so, I would have known about this already. Did General Kiith know about this?”
“He did know about the weapon, but he did not know about the Bane.”
“Why not?”
“The Taymati were created to be an entirely separate military force. As such, there is much that is not shared.”
Miira understood that to an extent. By not sharing too much with the military, the Taymati could better protect the Emperor or Empress against a coup. Still, the fact that the Taymati did not know about this new enemy was problematic. In the future, Miira would have to bring General Kiith with her to these meetings.
