Chapter 1

Preface

“Things just have not gone the way we thought they should.”

Hearing that and the next 60 cycles that followed I was undecided if I wanted to even be here.

“The Council has decided we need some actual, factual and detailed information as to why things are this way.”

With that being said I was certain that I wanted to be somewhere else, anywhere else but here.

“You will report directly to me. Lula and her team will accompany you as your security; you already know my daughter. If needed those aboard the ship are transferred to you and will be under your command also. I expect timely status reports and a full report when you return. Do whatever must be done to get everything back on track.”

Now it was Lula, man I thought, ‘the Elder just does not give up, does he?’

Leaving the chambers saw Lula and some of her guard; give a smile, no, with perhaps more a smirk on her face.

She lined up next to me, guards fore and aft of us as my entourage went to a nearby portal.

The portal set up for us was like a wormhole. A wormhole could connect extremely long distances such as a billion light years or more, short distances such as a few meters, different universes, or different points in time. In this case the ship sent to the planet was at the other end.

One small problem though, especially in this case, time dilation resulted in a lowering of births for our kind on this planet.

Chapter 1

Well it could be worse for me, ‘a lot worse’ I thought; ‘it could have been her older sister next to me, instead of Lula. Like all compromises. There is some bad mixed in with the good. This assignment, once finished would allow me some freedom to find and establish ‘our’ kind in my own realm. The bad, well I would never be going back home again. Maybe I should explain what I mean by what I say.

Our kind bred slowly. The Council of Elders ruled, absolutely ruled and had done so for thousands of years. The prospect of attaining a higher standing meant becoming an ‘advisor’, much akin to a drone to a Queen bee or striking out to discover a new world or establish a new realm that expanded the size and strength of the Empire. Mating with Shiraz, the Elders oldest daughter meant an existence I did not want.

Lula, on the other hand, was almost an opposite of her older sister. In many ways she was like me. Elder Vorbis had ‘suggested’ a bonding with her sister several times. Each opportunity I rebuked; not so much because of her, but because of the dead end inherent with that choice.

This then was a compromise. I would bond with Lula, solve whatever was going on with PK 234’s failures and try to move on to fulfill my own wishes. For that I would need a ship.

The commander of the warship Exon III at some point might be a challenge though. My guard was too few in number to do that. Not impossible mind you since the orders gave me the right to utilize those aboard for my protection, which meant the warship too. At least that is how I would interpret his words. He was a crafty old Sod. Lula was too. She was quite beautiful, deadly smart when needed and as long as her goals matched mine would give her all to accomplish the mission. I guess that two out of three traits was not bad to have, as long as my goals met hers, Right?

Entering the portal area what I saw made me look at Lula and grasp her hand to me. 1,000 of The Elite Guard stood saluting. Her tightening grip and true smile reconfirmed my thought that ‘we’ were of a like mind on this endeavor.

My concerns for taking command of the ship there with a dozen guards somewhat evaporated. The ship, the planet, the system, the universe would be ours now. Our enlarged escort began going thru the portal. Exit was on the ship since no portal had yet emerged on the planet. That prompted a warship to be sent not a scout or another lander, after several failed attempts to communicate with the initial landing parties.

I nodded to Lula, she nodded to two of the guard in our group who then entered the portal to the ship along with the elite troops. Within a short time, gaining control of the warship was done. Then one of the two re-emerged and motioned us to follow. The event sequence I had first imagined to be a problem had been reversed. ‘We’ now had a ship and the means to rectify what had not transpired that should have already been done.

Several thousand operators, technicians and labourers now were emerging from the portal along with more of our Elite troops. These were immediately being transported down to the planet. Whatever they faced there would soon no longer be a threat. It would seem a landing base was to be established along with a portal finally.

‘What to do, what to do indeed? I, no we would just have to take things ‘Day By Day’.