Out of the Ashes (Rise of the Empire Book 3) (14 page)

Hokra Gotu and Hokra Dson remained silent. And Sumia looked around her, at the beautiful human city, thinking about what the future could be.

Chapter Sixteen

October 2171 – Nuva

Adrian sat in his command chair as his ships exited hyperspace. There were no explored trans-lanes between Nelus and Nuva so they were forced to use hyperspace on both the trip there and back.

“We have arrived at Nuva Fleet Commander.” Navigation Handler said.

“Set a course for Nuva.” Adrian said. He looked at his command board, the updates from the his ship’s sensors started coming in, much faster than they usually would. The c-board sent a request for updates from the station in the orbit of Nuva, which in turn had the gathered scans from all the ships and stations in the system. The c-board of course sent their locations back to the station using their FTL comms. As soon as his holo was updated, a prompt jumped out above a grouping of ships close to the trans-station. Adrian saw it identify the ships as the Third Fleet. Immediately he magnified and saw two dreadnought class warships, accompanied by ten smaller ships. He knew that those must be drones, which meant that his ships would be going on the mission into Sowir space. These ships were supposed to augment his own First Fleet, which had suffered losses at the battle for Nuva that still haven’t been replaced. He lost two ships, the light cruiser Talon and the heavy cruiser Valkyrie. His other ships have all sustained some amount of damage, all except the light cruiser Swift that is. But that damage has since been repaired by the small shipyard that they brought from Sanctuary. The damage to the Leviathan was the hardest to fix, as the ship simply didn’t fit into the yard. But they managed.

“The Home Fleet. Looks like they finished construction, and those must be the drones.” High Prime Paul Isaacs said.

“Yeah, they should be here to augment our forces for the plan B.” Adrian said.

“Probably. I wonder who… Oh.” Paul drew silent.

“What?” Adrian asked.

“Uh… Look who is in command.” Paul responded.

Adrian frowned and then used his imp to access the c-boards now updated files. Quickly he found and read the name.

“Bethany.”
Adrian said to Iris.

“Well, you knew that you would be seeing her again.”
Iris responded.

“We are getting a message from the Home Fleet.” Comm Handler said.

Adrian swallowed hard, “Put it on.”

A hologram of Bethany appeared on the main holo-platform in the middle of the Command Center. Immediately after seeing her Adrian felt his chest tighten, grief and hurt coming back up. He loved her, and she broke his heart. Looking at her now he realized that he didn’t really think about her after the way they parted ways.

“Fleet Commander Farkas, I would like to inform you that by the order of the Fleet, my ships are now under your command. My ships carry upgrades for your ships, mainly the updates for the command board and the new FTL comm systems that allows two way real time communication. My ships can meet yours and transfer the update, I have on board teams that will conduct their installation. I await your orders. Fleet Commander Bethany Jones end.” The hologram shut off. All the hurt that Adrian hadn’t felt since Paul and Iris managed to get him out of his room after their get-together came rushing back. He realized that it was heartbreak. Somehow he had managed to push down all the feelings he had then, and now they were all coming back. Adrian struggled to push them down again, but he didn’t know how, he didn’t even realize that he had done it before. Then he felt something on his knee. He looked down to see Sora’s snout on his leg, looking up at him with her four gorgeous sliver eyes. Adrian reached down with his hand and scratched her behind the ears. He felt a soft pressure behind his eyes, and then he managed to push all the emotions back down.

“Are you alright Adrian?”
Iris asked panicked.

“Yes, it just all came back to me.”
Adrian answered.

“Oh… Okay then.”
Iris said, but Adria
n
spent most of his life with her in his head, he could sense something else in her voice.

“What is it Iris?”
He asked her.

“It’s nothing, it must have been a glitch. It looked like there was a sudden spike in your brain activity, but everything is normal now.”
Iris said.

Adrian frowned again,
A sudden brain activity?
He lowered his eyes to Sora, who was still keeping her snout on his knee, still looking at him. Understanding forming in his mind Adrian got up.

“Adrian?” Paul asked as Adrian stood up and started walking off the platform his command chair was placed on.

Adrian paused. “Send a message back, we will meet the Home Fleet at their current position. Also contact the rest of our fleet and tell them to meet us at the Home Fleet’s location.” Adrian said, then he turned to his chair.

“Sora, Akash! Come!” He said firmly, and started walking towards his quarters.

“What is it Adrian.”
Iris asked alarmed.

“I just figured out something.”
Adrian said.

“Figured out what?”
Iris asked, but Adrian didn’t answer, he kept walking until he reached his quarters. He entered and went straight to his small library. He approached his reading chair, beside it were two big cushions. He remembered a time when the two wolions were small enough that he could keep them on his lap while he read.

Adrian sat in the chair looking straight at the two wolions. Without prompting they came to stand in front of him, then they sat on their hind legs gazing at him. With them sitting their eyes were on the same level as Adrian’s.

“It was you wasn’t it? All this time.” Adrian said. The only reaction he got from both of them was a slight tilt of the head, perfectly coordinated between them.

“Once I learned about Beth’s engagement I was a wreck. Paul and Iris had to drag me out of my room. Afterwards I tried to make myself busy with work, to not think about it. But the hurt was still there, raw. And then I found you in the forest. And since then the hurt stopped, it felt as if it was something that happened long ago.” Adrian said, looking at the two.

“What are you talking about Adrian?”
Iris asked.

“You have records of my brain activity, don’t you?”

“Yes, why?”

“Search for a brain activity spike, like the one you detected earlier.”
Adrian said.

“Well, okay… I found a match, how did you know?”
Iris asked.

“When did it happen?”

“Twenty two months ago, it was… It was when we found the dying wolion.”
Iris said.

“That confirms it. I don’t know why you didn’t detect it then bu-”

“I wasn’t monitoring your brain activity then, you were depressed, and I was mad at you for pitying yourself.”
Iris said. Adrian smiled, it was just like Iris to do something like that.

“Maybe we would have figured it out before if you did.”
Adrian said.

“Figured out what? You are making no sense Adrian.”

“When we found their mother dying in the forest I felt something, just for a moment it was like I was feeling what she was feeling, her pain, and then I felt a pressure behind my eyes. The same feeling I felt after the message from Beth ended. The message brought back all the hurt, and then Sora came close and I felt the same pressure again. Immediately after I felt all the pain lessen, it was still there it just seemed far away.”
Adrian said he kept his sight looked on the two wolions that were looking at him.
“She did something to me.”

“Sora?”
Iris asked.

“Yes, and their mother before. It explains a lot, why I couldn’t bring myself to part with them, how I brought them on the ship that was going into battle. Their mother made me bond with them. And she probably took all my pain of what happened with Beth and softened it, made it feel as if it happened years ago. That’s how I dealt with the pain so quickly.”
Adrian had wondered about it, how he could let Beth go so quickly, he half convinced himself that what he felt for her wasn’t as strong as he thought it was, if he could have moved on so fast.

“Well, the depth of human emotion is still a mystery to me, but are you sure? You are suggesting that Sora and Akash somehow influenced your emotions, that seems a bit farfetched.”
Iris said.

“Think about it. The scientists on Sanctuary have been stumped by the wolions. They are the only land predators that have survived, all the prey animals have developed in such a way that no predator could get near them. And yet wolions have no problem hunting and catching their prey. If they can feel the emotions of their prey, and if they can influence it, then that would explain how their species alone survived while all the other predator species died out. Their abilities must have evolved as the direct need for survival.”
Adrian said.

“I guess…”
Iris said.

“I’m right, you can feel emotions.” Adrian said to the two wolions. “I’ve always known that you were much more intelligent than any regular animal, you always seemed to understand what I was telling you, more than just a few words. If you can feel the emotions of others that would explain so much.” Then he felt it, just like he did with their mother as she lay dying in the forest. He felt their emotions, just for a split second he felt shame and something else, it went by too fast for him to understand it completely.

“There! I felt that. You do know what I am talking about.” Adrian exclaimed.

“Uh… Adrian what are you talking about?”
Iris asked.

“
I felt their emotions, just for an instant.
” Adrian said.

“If you say so.”
Iris said, he could hear the skepticism in her voice. But he knew what he felt.

“You influenced my emotions.” Adrian said slowly, looking at the two. “That is not acceptable, you will not do it again. I know now what it feels like.” The two bowed their heads down in shame. “I would ask you to undo whatever you did to me, but I can’t afford to deal with it now. Hell, I don’t even know if you can do it.” Sora raised her head and Adrian felt a pressure behind his eyes, immediately all the pain he felt just a short while ago as he watched Bethany’s message came back to the surface. And then a moment later he felt the now familiar pressure again, and just as the pain came, it went away. Buried deep down, not gone, just muffled.

Adrian felt a tear roll down his cheek, “Well…” He said hoarsely, “I guess that answers that.”

“I saw it Adrian, there were two spikes. It looks like you are right.”
Iris said in disbelief.

“Yeah. It looks like I am.” Adrian responded, he cleared his throat. “Now, we need to have a little talk about the usage of your ability.” Adrian said in a serious voice looking at two shamefaced wolions.

***

Two weeks later Adrian sat and waited in the conference room on board the Leviathan for the two commanders from the Home Fleet, the ship commanders of his fleet were all already there. On his left sat Paul, Ship Master of the Leviathan, across from him was Force Leader Nenad Krylov commander of the battleship Protector. Beside him sat Force Leader Altsoba Smith of the battleship Battle Song, followed by the commanders of the rest of the Frist Fleet. An ping on Adrian’s implant informed him that the last party of the meeting had arrived, and moments later the doors opened and they walked in.

Bethany Jones Fleet Commander of the Home Fleet walked in followed by Force Leader Nair Hakeem of the Salahuddin. Seeing Beth in person threatened to bring the hurt back up, but Adrian was now ready for it and whatever Sora did held. Bethany let her hair grow even longer, and it was now tied in a bun at the back of her head.

“Force Leader Hakeem and Fleet Commander Jones reporting as ordered.” Bethany said in a neutral tone, saluting with her fist to the chest. In practice Olympus Fleet personnel rarely displayed such conduct, which told Adrian a lot about what Bethany thought concerning her being promoted and then ordered to follow his orders.

“At ease Fleet Commander, Force Leader. Take your seats and we can begin.” Adrian said, he kept his face blank and his tone commanding. He switched into what Iris called his battle persona. Cold, calculated, and ruthless. He hated that description for it.

Bethany and Nair took their seats beside Paul, and Adrian turned on the holo on the conference table. Immediately a star-map sprung into existence. It showed the Sanctuary system as a green dot at the center, with the area around it, Nuva was a blue dot some short distance away. A bit to the side of Nuva was Nelus, a black dot, And then a series of systems represented by red dots with their surroundings shaded in a lighter red.

“This is the representation of the Sanctuary’s neighborhood. As you can see the only things between us and the Sowir territory are Nuva and Nelus system. The red signifies Sowir Dominion, the former territory of the Consortium. The truth is that we don’t know for sure if that is the extent of their territory. As we all know they have been sighted outside of this area.” Adrian said, pointing to the red shaded portion of the map. And they all knew what happened to the Voyager, it was destroyed in a system at least twenty light years away from what they considered Sowir Territory.