Chapter 6

“Trigon, can you project the path my brother’s ship took?” Wren asked.

“Extrapolating now Master Wren. “It appears that he has withdrawn much deeper into this unknown area of space.” The A.I. Trigon replied.

“Alright, I want as much speed as you can make. This energy trail won’t last forever. Then again,” Wren stopped as she thought about it. “The trail should have dissipated before now, check to see if it was manufactured.”

“I have adjusted sensors, running Particle Detector now. I should have results soon Master Wren.” Trigon said.

“Alright in the meantime keep all sensors up, I don’t want any surprises while we are out here. I’m afraid it wouldn’t turn out very good for us,” Wren said.

“Compliance Master Wren,” Trigon said. All sensors operating at one hundred percent.”

“Good, if you need me, I’ll be in the training room, I want the parameters set as before.” Wren held up a hand, “as you saw before, your fears weren’t really founded in fact.”

“As you wish Master Wren, though, I will keep an eye on you to ensure you do not receive any injuries.” Trigon said.

Wren nodded as she left, a moment later she entered her training room. Seconds later the training drone appeared.

A wry smile came to her lips as she assumed a defensive position. A half hour later the fifth drone she was facing managed to get a hit in on her.

A brief moment of anger flashed through her, just as suddenly, the drone was a pile of slag in front of her. It was at that moment that Wren noticed that she was growing hotter.

A look down showed that her body was starting to glow red. Shit, she thought, it’s pretty much like last time. Great, I am hours away from the masters and this happens.

I wouldn’t say that, came a voice from inside.

“Master Flugret?” Wren said out loud, “how are you here I thought that you couldn’t exist off the planet for long.”

Well, Flugret’s voice came again, my being cannot. What you are hearing, is a piece of myself that I have, sent with you in your mind. We have not exercised this for a very long time, I was the last to.

“Master?” A startled Wren asked, “This won’t endanger you, will it? I do not wish to be that which might destroy a master.”

No little Wren, came the voice of Flugret. In fact, it may allow me to exist in solid form longer. For now, I need you to gain control again, as you are right now, your control is still low. One might say that when you grow angry, you have no control. It was thought that if one or more of us place a part of us with you, we could help.

Wren was nodding her head almost feeling foolish, he was in her not outside.

“So that was what all of you were doing, I had thought I heard voices inside when all of you touched my head. So, can the pieces of you keep me from overloading?” Wren asked.

Yes, with a bit of us all here we should be able to adjust your mind. Came the thoughts of the first master. It is our hope that with this adjustment that you will be able to maintain control yourself soon.

In almost all things you have a measurable amount of control, that is except your anger. This is what we need you to work on, it makes you many times more powerful. The draw back to this though is that it can also burn out your brain. As of yet, you cannot take the huge power surge that you produce.

“So, what, I am a living bomb when I grow mad? Great!” Wren said throwing her hands up.

That is why we have all contributed a piece of ourselves to help train you. We, should also be able to keep you more balanced while your control grows.

Wren was about to comment when Trigon’s voice interrupted her. “Master Wren? I have concluded my analysis; the energy trail does indeed appear to be manufactured. Might I suggest that we proceed with extreme caution?”

“Thank you, Trigon, I was afraid that my brother was laying a trap. Bring up shields to maximum, all weapons open and charged, if it comes to it, I will hurt his ass.” Wren hissed.

Trigon paused a moment then continued, “I will endeavor to help you accomplish this master Wren.”

A smile, a true smile lit up Wren’s features as she nodded, “I know you will Trigon, I know you will. Well, since we know that it is a trap, let’s turn it back against my brother, shall we?”

“Yes, master Wren,” Trigon said.

“I want you to trace the trail as far ahead as you can. Thomas and the forces that the has, still seem unable to pierce our cloak. I suggest that you, find a way to modulate the frequencies of it. I want to be prepared, in case they are able to detect us at the frequency, we are using now.” Wren instructed.

“Compliance Wren, starting now.” Trigon replied.

Wren released a sigh as she shut down the training session. All the voices of the masters had been quite distracting, finally she’d asked them for quiet. Then again that was far easier said than done.

Esmeralda had been fit to be tied, why the audacity of Wren to disobey then leave. In her anger she had nearly ordered the execution of all the captains of her ships. She’d also considered riding herself of all the executive officers.

She had stopped suddenly realizing that, she’d have to appoint new officers. No, it was better to rid herself of them when they were back at home. Yes, it would be a far better example to execute them, in front of their families, it would be far more memorable that way.

With that she turned back toward the view screen. These defenses of Ceti-5 were far stronger than she at first thought. In particular, was the fact that, there were a hell of a lot more rotations of the shield harmonics than they knew. Esmeralda was surprised and shocked when she saw this fact.

A look of anger came to her face, she knew there was more to the masters than she thought. They were a hell of a lot more than even she had thought they were.

She touched a button, “for now, I want all ships to continue to break the shields. I doubt they can last out against the full power of the Imperial fleet.”

A few seconds later the second shield they’d reached flared.

Flugret shook his head when he saw the empress’s fleet, renew their attack against the planet’s defenses.

Several balls of energy appeared behind Flugret. “Have they any chance?” A voice came from one of the balls.

“No, not really, they still don’t realize that we are sending a direct opposite energy pulse against their efforts.” Flugret said. “In order to get through they will need a greater amount of energy than they are using.”

“Good, still we have not survived this long not being careful. Continue to watch them, make adjustments as you see fit.” Another ball of energy said.

“It will be as you say. I will advise you if anything changes.” Flugret said as he bowed.

With that he turned and left the room. At another section of wall he passed his hand over it in an intricate pattern. A moment later the wall slid open revealing an extremely advanced shield array control.

A quick check showed that the Empress’s ships, weren’t even half the way through, the second shield. A small smile came to his lips, you’d think after all these centuries, all the attacking races would have learned.

Flugret nodded as he saw the shield array’s power drop 1 percent. Placing his hand on the array panel it phased to energy, which a small amount entered the control panel. Again, Flugret nodded as the array energy jumped to a hundred percent.

Flugret smiled as he turned, then returned to the hallway. That should keep them another few days he thought. Now he needed to prepare for the confrontation that he knew was coming.

Wren was covered in a fine sheen of sweat; she’d been at it a little while now. The thing was though her anger had hardly lessened the whole time.

She had thought that by now, they would have some news or a distant location on her brother. Obviously, the cloak that his ship had was better than she thought. She began to type on the panel in the training room at a furious pace.

“Compliance master Wren, I am incorporating the new parameters now. This may indeed, enable the sensors to detect the ship.” Trigon said.

“Any new readings on the energy trail that we are following?” Wren asked.

“As you deduced, it does appear to be some sort of trap. Though as of this moment, I still have insufficient data to correlate an answer.” Trigon answered.

Wren was deep in thought as she took in Trigon’s answer. “I imagine, with all the time he has been here, he has a hell of a lot of back-up. We caught them unaware last time, this time they are expecting us.”

Wren thought a few more minutes as she went over her weapons readings.

“Do you need me to make more of the thermic missiles? After your suggestions last time, I believe I have a basis for a micro A.I. for them. I am afraid though that they will be limited in the number of operations that they can do.” Trigon said.

“I was expecting that, considering the size of the payload each is carrying. At least they will be far more efficient that just a heat seeking missile. How many do you have?” Wren asked.

“Given the limited space we have to store them, only ten thousand slightly more than the last time we met them.” Trigon said.

“Alright that will have to do, with any luck they will be as stupid as the last bunch, clumped together.” Wren said. “Keep a watch, as far in as we are I expect to start seeing some sign of them soon.”

“I am scanning all frequencies; all sensors are at full. All new parameters are loaded, I am detecting something on the extreme edge of long-range sensors. At present, we aren’t close enough to discern clearly, what it is.” Trigon said.