Part 17: Epilogue

Exactly 712 years and one day after Conitea’s prediction, the many-times great grandson mentioned by Conitea, Eddy, was excitedly celebrating his tenth birthday with his entire family in attendance. They were all aware of Conitea’s prophecy and each hoped to be a witness to such a historic event.

Late in the afternoon, a cluster of nine women suddenly appeared along one edge of the crowd. Noticed almost immediately by those near them, a loud murmur began growing as more and more people became aware of their presence. The crowd quickly parted, leaving a clear path to young Eddy. “Yes!” he squealed excitedly when he saw the new visitors.

Being the only descendant born on the anniversary of Edward’s death, he had been named after him and a study of his namesake’s life had been added to his other school subjects, as had the study of hand-to-hand martial arts, Iaido, and the use of modern weapons.

His older brother hugged him emotionally. “Make us proud, Eddy,” he said, his voice catching.

Trying not to show how nervous he was, young Eddy strode towards the nine women. He was surprised when the lead woman picked him up and hugged him, identifying herself as Crystal. “You look a lot like Edward did,” she said, and then passed him to the next woman, Agatha, who repeated the process until all nine women had introduced themselves and hugged him.

Then Crystal reached over her shoulder and removed the Katana she kept there. Eddy immediately recognized it as the missing piece of the set displayed proudly in his family’s main room. The design was the same as on the other pieces. In addition, there was a full-sized picture of the missing piece in the otherwise empty space.

“Where’s the ship?” he asked a few minutes later, after the excitement had abated somewhat.

“We teleported,” Aella said with a grin, pointing up.

“What!” Eddy exclaimed.

“We have a LOT to show you and tell you about,” Daisy said.

“Is teleporting the secret you were to tell me about?” Eddy asked, his voice barely loud enough to be heard.

“Only one of many,” Aurora replied, grinning.

After that, the birthday party continued for another hour as the crowd began leaving. During that hour, the nine women surreptitiously made a number of changes to better secure the family and the estate. That night, Eddy slept aboard the Shark III. Well, he tried to sleep, being awakened by klaxons in the middle of the night shortly after he finally managed to fall asleep.

Coming as no surprise to the nine bots and AIs who had arrived to train Eddy, three ships attacked the estate in the middle of the night, hoping to thwart the ancient prophesy. Instead, the shield that had just been installed prevented everything but a noisy light show just before the three attacking ships were destroyed.

Still, Eddy shook, knowing that the attack was because of him. All his life, people had commented favorably about what he was prophesied to do. While it had been nice, it had also weighed heavily on him, making him feel as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. And that was before he turned ten! Everyone expected him to perform at a higher level than his peers, especially in school. That was one of the reasons his parents decided to have tutors teach him.

In the morning, Eddy’s father, Philip, asked about the nighttime attack. “As we suspected, not everyone is happy about the prophecy. The three ships that attacked were sent by the dictator of the Estxu federation. Fortunately, they only consist of eleven planets, and we have enough firepower and resources to defeat them,” Crystal replied.

“I don’t understand how you can stand up to them with a ship and weapons that are over seven hundred years old,” Edward argued.

“That would be among the secrets we will be telling Eddy about today,” Kit replied with a smirk.

Thus ends (again) my conclusion to Warlord’s SCOUT. As you will see, I’ve left room to expand it in the future. Before you ask, no, I don’t have any immediate plans to do so. I’ve got too many of my own stories to finish and post before then. If anything, it will be at least 2 or three years before I start.

My inquiries about the original author are inconclusive but lead me to believe that one of my favorite authors is no longer with us. The last posts to his multiple social media sites are from 2017. One reader reported reading a notice on Warlord’s Yahoo site from Warlord’s son announcing Warlord’s passing.

You will be missed, Warlord.