Galaxy of Empires- Merchant Wars Episode #1 (3 page)

“On my way.” A few minutes later, Eve appears
on the bridge and sits in her chair.

“Report.”

“It’s the transport ship
Endure
. Looks like they have about 50 passengers and
some laser blast damage…. They have been shot up pretty bad,” Meto
reports.

“That your boyfriend’s ship, Boss,” Helma
says.

“He is not my boyfriend. He is just a good
friend,” Eve says solemnly.

The
Endure
smuggles
telepaths out of the Elemental Empire where telepaths are illegal.
Once in reptilian space, the ship takes them to the capital where
there is a Consortium embassy. Telepath refugees are given
citizenship and shipped some off to Consortium space. The
Consortium Empire welcomes all telepaths unconditionally by decree
of Empress Draca.

“On vid,” Eve says. A human male in his 30s
with blonde hair and blue eyes appears on the screen.

“Greetings, Captain Eve. How is the most
beautiful snake lady in the universe doing today? Profits up?”
Captain Zach Blem says in a flirting manner.

Eve smiles and blushes while subconsciously
primping her hair, “Hi, Capt. Blem. Looks like you have taken a
beaten by those nasty telepath police. Are you in need of
assistance?”

“Well, we could use some parts and maybe
borrow one of your mechanics for a bit. Some food will help out as
well, if you don’t mind; we got a lot of starving refugees.”

“We got plenty of food over here. We can give
you a few crates, and my mechanics can lend assistance for a while.
But it is going to cost you…dinner over here with me.”

“You drive a hard bargain, Captain. 16:00
okay?”

“That is fine.”

Zach sends a telepathic message, “I miss you
a lot.”

“Hurry up and get your human butt over here,
and do not keep me waiting, Tiger,” Eve answers telepathically.

Vid ends.

“Your friend, huh? Your eyes are popping out
of your head, and if you blush any more, you gonna match your red
sweater,” Helma pokes fun.

“He is exquisite looking for a human. I am
already trying to picture what my half-human babies would look
like,” Nelma giggles.

“He is definitely a hottie, that is for
sure,” Helma says.

“Bah, you need a real male with big muscles
like a crocodile man, not one of those skinny humans,” Gartooth
objects.

“Hey, I am a human,” Meto exclaims, flexing
his arm muscles.

“Yeah, but you are no Capt. Blem with those
blues eyes and yellow hair,” Nelma says with a dreamy look. The
twins start to giggle in unison.

“Well, Meto, you have the com. I have to go
and check on getting those food supplies ready,” Eve says in a
hurried manner.

“More like getting ready for stud muffin to
come over,” Nemla winks at Eve.” “I don’t blame you. I would be
hitting the beauty salon about now getting in a good turtle wax on
my scales if he were my date.”

“We are just friends…,” Eve rolls her eyes
with a glowing smile and heads out the door.

“More like friends with benefits…,” Gartooth
chuckles. They all burst out laughing.

***

Two hours pass, and Eve and Zach have just
entered her quarters. They sit down at a small round table with two
chairs on both sides. There is a nicely prepared and organized meal
for two on the table. A large vase with blue flowers sits off to
the right of the couple.

“This meal looks just as ravishing as you do,
Darling,” Zach says in a seductive fashion.

Eve blushes and replies, “Thank you. You are
such a charmer.” She winks at Zach.

“I made an ancient Earth recipe called
‘pizza.’ I don’t have much experience with human food because I do
not meet too many humans out in these parts. I know that Earth is
an old planet that is not habitable anymore. Elemental Empire
conquered it thousands of years ago, but surprisingly there are
relatively good records of what it was like before the sun burned
out.”

“I am not much of a history buff, but most of
the records about human origination, I think, are probably a
fabrication of the Elemental Empire government. They are excellent
at fabricating information that makes them look good,” Zach
advises. “I know it is a touchy subject with you, but I am kind of
curious at how you are half-human and half-snake as I did not think
they were compatible races. But if the subject is uncomfortable for
you, we do not have to talk about it.”

“Well, it is an uncomfortable subject, but I
will tell you what I know. I think I was created in a laboratory
from what I can vaguely remember. I was being transported as a
child from this place I can barely remember and pirates attacked
the ship. The pirates killed the crew, but decided to sell me into
slavery probably because I was a child. A snake merchant bought me,
even though his wife objected because I was a half-breed. They
wanted to adopt a child, but because they were so old, they could
not use the regular adoption methods of the Reptilian Empire.
Therefore, this couple went to see if they could buy a child slave
and adopt instead. Unfortunately, there are very few child slaves
as most of them go to the adoption Guild.”

“After this old snake merchant couple bought
me, I stayed aboard the ship most of the time as the captain’s
girl. I did all the errands and stuff that he wanted me to do.
After a few years passed, his wife grew attached to me and
eventually urged her husband to adopt me officially. It was kind of
hard because I had no birth certificate, but most slaves do not
have papers—nothing a few platinum bars could not fix. I grew
attached to them and considered them as my parents, even though
they were not my biological parents. My father only had one ship
and a class 10 merchant’s license when he died. My adoptive mother
died soon thereafter, mainly of a broken heart. I inherited what
little they had, which included one beat-up merchant ship. Today, I
have seven merchant war cruisers in my fleet and a class 8 merchant
license with about 2,000 people working for me.”

“That is an impressive feat considering where
you came from. My story is more boring than yours. My family
disowned me when they learned I was a telepath because of all the
propaganda and telepath-related hatred in the Elemental Empire. My
parents turned me over to the authorities as soon as I started
displaying telepathic abilities when I was 15 or so. Unlike regular
telepaths, my abilities far exceeded those of most telepaths.”

“I got to the concentration camp, and they
separated me from the other telepaths and started taking blood
samples along with conducting other kinds of tests on me. They were
going to ship me off to some special secret laboratory that I
overheard them talking about. However, I escaped during the
transport attempt. I used my telepathic abilities to survive
because my abilities were high enough that they bypassed all of the
telepathic defenses set up by the government. For example, those
telepathic metal helmets the police use for defense against
telepathic powers do not work against my abilities. Therefore, you
can imagine every time the police tried to arrest me, I would just
plant suggestions in their heads and they would stand there staring
out into space while I escaped. I wanted to stay off the radar, so
I did not kill anybody because that would draw attention to me. It
much easier just to escape and hide.”

“I guess we are both hard cases then,” Eve
acknowledges as she resumes eating.

Zach continues,” I am happy that I met you. I
think that you being a half-breed makes you different, even unique.
I think your snakeskin mixed in with your human skin makes you more
attractive, at least to me. I am glad that you are a telepath as
well, which makes it even better. Your PSI rating must be equal to
mine or even higher. Do you know how strong your PSI rating is?
Have you ever had it tested? Mine is 18 on the 20 scale. Most
telepaths are 1–15.”

“I am not sure and I never really thought
about it. I never have anything to compare it to. I haven’t had
much contact with other telepaths, except for you. On the other
hand, I should say I never socialized with another telepath. I have
encountered some telepaths, but mostly in passing.”

“Well, if you are curious, I have a PSI
tester with me.”

“I am curious, not that it matters to me even
if it is low.”

“Even if it is low, that does not mean
anything—you are still a telepath. But you might be stronger than
you think and you don’t now because you have never been
tested.”

After all the plates and glasses are cleared
off, Zach pulls out an electronic device and puts it on the table.
He pulls out five cylinders, each a different size and width.

“Okay, this machine will register your PSI
strength. What I want you to do is crush each of these cylinders
one at a time.”

Eve focuses on the first one and bends it
very easily. The second cylinder is a bit harder, but she bends it
very easily as well. The third cylinder is getting harder to bend,
but Eve does it without too much effort. The fourth cylinder is
considerably harder to bend and takes her a few moments. Then she
starts on the fifth cylinder, which is massive and extremely
difficult to bend. She focuses all of her energy and thoughts on
crushing it and eventually it begins to turn slowly. Eve is
sweating very profusely on her face and forehead. The cylinder
starts making a creaking noise as it slowly, but steadily, bends
into an L-shape. Zach looks on with amazement as he had never seen
anyone
bend the fifth cylinder, not even
himself. Eve grunts and the cylinder becomes red hot and melts on
the table and disintegrates into hot metal drops all over the
table.

“Wow, you have really strong telepathic
abilities! I have never seen that before or even heard of anyone
who has ever done that. The machine says 20 PSI, but it only goes
up to 20, so you may be more than 20, if there is such a thing,”
Zach says with amazement.

“Interestingly, I did not know,” Eve says,
trying to recover from the strain. She thought to herself:
This is very useful information, especially when
it comes to dealing with my enemies. Not bad for being a lab
experiment.

“You need to spend more time with other
telepaths to increase your knowledge and experience with your
telepathic abilities. You probably have some abilities that you are
not aware of. The only way that you can ever fully appreciate them
is with other telepaths. You have probably mastered telekinesis,
telepathy, and suggestion. Most telepathic people start with those
because they are the most common abilities. Have you tried energy
projection or invisibility?”

“Um…no. I did not even know I could do
that.”

“You probably can and a lot more. I will show
you what I can do. I have never known anyone who had a PSI rating
higher than I do. You may have other abilities beyond known
telepathic abilities. I suggest you take a trip to the Consortium
and access their telepathic library, which is probably the most
comprehensive as far as telepathic studies. The person you really
need to talk to is Empress Draca, if that is even possible. Draca
is not known for speaking to people outside of the Consortium. In
fact, she rarely talks with anyone, even within the
Consortium.”

“Really…hmm,” Eve becomes concerned about the
message Empress Draca sent her, and then realizes she is with a
guest right now.

Zach says, “Hold your hand out and picture
holding a fireball. Focus on that.”

Eve gently puts her hand forth and looks at
it. She begins focusing on that thought for a few seconds as her
hand ignites with fire. Then she starts to make different shapes
with the fire in her hand, such as turning her hand to the wall and
shooting the flame into the wall and igniting it. The ship-wide
intercom comes on, blaring, “Warning! Fire in the Captain’s
quarters! Warning! Fire in the Captain’s quarters! This is not a
drill!”

“Woah there, Girl on Fire,” Zach says loudly.
“You need to watch it there before you burn us up. You can also put
it out, but that is usually with water and not with your mind.”
They both laughed as they grab the fire extinguisher hanging on the
wall. About that time, the door chimes and someone asks, “Captain,
are you okay in there?”

Eve says, “It is all good. The fire is out.
Return to your station.”

“You need to start small and work your way
up, Princess. You can also do that with electricity—but not
tonight. We don’t need any more fires, ha-ha.”

Eve giggles.

“Now when two telepaths make love, it is very
different than when non-telepaths do it. All of the senses are
amplified. The more powerful the telepaths, the more intense the
sexual encounter. Now…do you want to find out if half-breeds can be
made outside the lab…?” Zach says with a big grin and a wink.

Eve chuckles, “But, of course. Let’s play
Doctor….”

Chapter Three

The next day the
Endure
went on its way to the capital with its host of telepaths. Eve had
set a course to the neutral zone and went on her way. By the fourth
day, the trip had been uneventful up to that time. Now they had
left Reptilian space and were entering the neutral zone. Eve had
been practicing several new telepathic abilities that she had
learned from Zach for the past four days and was mastering them at
a very quick pace.

She is sitting in her office when she hears
the door chime.

“Enter.”

The door opens, and suddenly a blasting sound
shrieks into the room for a few moments and then silence. The first
officer is standing in the doorway slightly in the room with a
blaster pointed at the Captain. He activates the sonic inhibitor
that lets out a loud noise on a certain frequency that
incapacitates a telepath’s telepathic abilities. He fires his
blaster at Eve at point blank range. The blaster makes a clicking
noise.