Chapter 9

After the Battle

“You guys did an astoundingly good job back there!” Grandpa remarked when we got to the control room.

Everyone was happy and proud. Harry looked like a weasel that ate a delicious slug. Anita looked like she got that real lethal marine knife Grandpa has. Her mother had a cadenza, just like mum when Anita asked for one like Grandpa’s.

So, what if it can cut through steel blocks and armor. A girl needs that sort of thing to keep in her backpack to cut her cheese.

Chuck hugged Grandpa.

“Without you all we would have been stuck down there for ages. We would have had a terrible battle above us and maybe the enemy would have destroyed the moon we were on if they were losing. Chloe I could see you planned the mission meticulously. It worked like clockwork. Everyone played their role even me!” Grandpa said complimenting and praising us all.

Ooryphyon had not said a word since we went to the cave. She looked so sad as she held up her head and tears dripped from her big luminous eyes.

“What now, Emperor?” Ooryphyon asked.

“We return your people to Charassa. We hope all of them can be saved. Then we find out what happened. Your people are no longer in danger. They are in the stasis pods being stabilized. We will do our best to resuscitate your parents and the others that died.

“They are going to be moved to a hospital ship heading for Charassa carrying those who were severely injured. You may accompany them when they go if you wish. We will mop up here first,” Grandpa explained.

“The place they were in was so horrible. Life there must have been miserable. It was nearly as bad as my prison. Why do so many hate us so?” Ooryphyon asked Grandpa.

Grandpa hugged and held her as she sobbed.

“We will recover the bodies of the troops that died underground as soon as we can. There is a tunnel all the way in, so it should be doable. I have teams working on portals, so if the ice closes we can still get to the cavern,” Grandpa told Andrea and Linda, then nodded and winked at us.

“There were twenty of the Teokraeus in stasis bags and nineteen in a bad way. They are heading for Charassa. They were the only ones we brought back. There are a few thousand AIs. We will recover them. They are frozen and inactive in a warehouse. There are some troops in stasis bags, perhaps twenty and there are at least a thousand in frozen blocks,” said Grandpa.

“I am taking Ooryphyon to medical to see the others. Chloe please tell Andrea and Linda the story.” Grandpa instructed me. He was holding Ooryphyon’s hand. She held onto him ever so tightly. I could see her hand looked white. She was sobbing. I waved to her. She waved a tiny wave with her little arm. She was so adorable! She smiled at me. They walked out.

I turned to Andrea and Linda. They looked at me expectantly.

“Come on,” said Linda, “the suspense is killing us.”

So, I told them the story. I cried when I told them how the Teokraeus looked and how miserable the place was and it stank like a garbage tip. They wanted more details as I went along. The others filled in a lot from their own perspective. I didn’t know the other children destroyed several assault ships heading for the ice moon.

“So why are you lot in such a mess if nothing much happened to you while you gallivanted around?” Linda asked.

Yup, that was a puzzle to me too.

Anita looked like she was going to speak then stopped.

“Spit it out,” I said.

“On some ships we triggered intruder defenses. I dealt with as much as I could while you guys were at it. I also defended us against the auto-cannon. We are not easily hit in that state, but we did get hit. We travelled a lotta distance. The armor is good but it can only do so much,” Anita explained.

“Shoot, I didn’t know that,” I said. “It wasn’t in my dreams.”

Grandpa came back with Ooryphyon. She was still holding his hand.

“Ooryphyon decided to stay with us. The Teokraeus are in transit now to the hospital ship.” He said. “She knows there is nothing she can do in the short term.”

I went to her and hugged her. She put her two tiny arms around me and hugged me back.

“Grandpa, I need to interrogate the main Destroyer admiral who was on the Dreadnaught.”

I showed him what she looked like.

“I would like all of the younger team along. Bring whatever guards we need. Now is the time to get her out of stasis.”

He nodded and arranged everything.

“Grandpa, I want to see her without you guys. Please give me some guards and I want her in one of the interrogation rooms where there is a shield between her and me. You stay out of her sight to begin with.

The woman I want to see is the second top admiral and is called Zafa Nefu and a lot of other name stuff. She is second only to her aunt. The poisonous men place themselves out of the chain of command and above it most times. I saw Zafa in my dream and Berit identified her from intelligence the AIs collected. She is one of their most important decision makers. Berit first thought she was the main Destroyer Admiral but found the top one is her aunt.”

We took a portal to the interrogation area. There were hundreds of intelligence people and guards. They found Zafa Nefu and took her out of stasis containment and put her into a cell and secured her behind a table. I could see the faint haze of a field in front of me; between me and her. There were ten guards in armor in the room in rows with assault rifles at the ready. It was a substantial room. Grandpa and the rest were next to the door, listening but out of her sight. Grandpa switched on his hologram and connected into the security system so they could watch what was going on.

She looked at me and laughed.

I glared at her. I practiced it at home a lot in front of the mirror. I had a few varieties of glare I learned from a few people. Mum taught me the one I chose to use. When she used it I quaked in my boots.

“They send a child to speak to me!” She sneered.

“We have advanced since we last encountered each other. We took your fleet and reserves with ease. We captured all of your troops and equipment,” I replied.

“Impossible!” She retorted.

“Very well I will show you,” I said and created a hologram in front of us and played through the battle as seen on the holograms on our ship.

“You expect me to believe you have such abilities. I am not so easily fooled. What do you want from me girlie?” she asked.

“I might have an offer that will appeal to you and the women? We killed all the men,” I replied.

She looked startled. “Why did you spare us women?”

“Grandpa, the Emperor, is good with women and has impregnated thirty-seven million women. We saw your beautiful cities and unhappy women. We know how your so-called Gods have conned you for millions of years and acquired bodies for their evil purposes, contributed by your people. We thought you might like a happier life by joining us,” I explained.

She looked startled. “I like being an Admiral.”

“We have plenty of enemies. We finish one and another comes along. We hear the Ant-Spiders are interested in invading,” I told her.

“I think you are leading me through the nebula of Narob. We are much more powerful than you are mentally and technologically,” She replied.

“Yes, you think so but is it true?” I asked, and showed her the Collective ships knocking out Destroyer ships with one or two shots. I replayed twice for her a dreadnaught being hit and being drilled through. I showed her how it even came out the other side. She saw us easily knock out the reserve fleet.

“We have a weapon to knock out the crew while we board the ship.” I showed her crew on several ships lying unconscious on the floor. Lastly I showed her the ships we hit with black holes and fusion explosions as I knew she saw we hit those ships before we captured her.

“We can target males and kill them.” I showed her pictures of heads exploding on men. I noticed she smiled when she saw the head explode of the man who was with her on the bridge. She saw herself lying on the ground.

“How did you escape from the cave?” She asked.

I could see she was hooked. I had her. “We used our powers to escape. We got everyone out.”

“You cannot have enough powers to do as you say.” She said.

“Watch,” I said, as I changed the perspective of my hologram to look at several of the circling moons.

“Pick a moon out of cannon range. I will split the screen, so you can see the side of our ship and fire cannon or missiles. I will prove my case when I destroy the moon from within.”

She picked a moon with a mass four times that of Earth. I transported a large piece of antimatter into it.

“Watch the sensor data.”

We both watched the internal temperature of the moon rocket upward and then it exploded spectacularly.

“Do something basic here.” She asked.

I created a fireball in my hand. She cringed. I turned it into fire sprites that danced and exploded loudly. I made a neat hole in the door. I hit the shield with a small spike. I then rose off the floor. I transported next to her and back in an instant. I warped the heavy metal table. Then I went into her head. She tried to fight me. I paralyzed her. She could not even blink. I searched through all her thoughts with impunity.

I knew all about her! I confirmed she was the second chief honcho.

Then I let her breathe. She took a convulsive breath. I filled her with terror then joy. I turned into a Gromelix, then back.

She tried to enter my mind. I removed most of her energy and she slumped at the table. I gave her some back and her face looked better.

“I will give you ten minutes to think then you can meet Grandpa. We will see how you feel when you meet him.” I told her.

“Who are you people?” she asked.

“We are the Uzliumbax. I myself come from a primitive planet as does the Emperor. He has helped our family and friends improve a little over time,” I said offhandedly. “We however descended from the Universe of Origin of our people and we may have learned a thing or two while we were there.”

I slowly rose into the air and moved up to the ceiling. I assumed the configuration of an atmospheric fighter with swept back wings and swooped out of the door.

I pointed to a small meeting room and beckoned to the others to join me.

Ooryphyon sat next to me and held my hand. “I was with you in her brain. She is a real tough one. How did you get in so easily?”

“I distracted her with my show and took most of her psychic energy. Even then, I don’t know why it was so easy, Oory.” I replied.

“I like Oory, Chloe, I have never had a nickname.” She said.

“We watched you through the security feed. Impressive. What now Chloe? What is in your devious mind, now you have her in the palm of your hand?” Grandpa asked.

“Grandpa, we wait another seven minutes and then you go in. See how she reacts to you. I hope we can win this war the easy way,” I replied.

We watched her in the cell. She looked like she was thinking deeply.

Grandpa walked in and she looked like she was hit by a pole-ax. Her mouth moved like a fish. He smiled at her and she went all coy. Grandpa has this feel about him. You just know he is powerful but he also feels kindly and warm and cuddly. I can feel him a long way away. This was the first time I saw how he affected a woman on first meeting.

I could see he liked the look of her too. He sat down and leaned back. The destroyer men were short and stocky. Most looked plain. Grandpa was fine figure of a man, as Grandma used to say. He looks distinguished and I love the feeling I get when I am near him. Cassius has it, Felix has it and so does Ouma Chatzke. Marduk the Orc has it strongly. Most of the Royalty have a presence of some sort. Grandpa has it in spades.

“Will you stand by the deal of your daughter?” she finally asked.

“My granddaughter offered the deal. I do not know if we are compatible and if you can have children. If we can I will stand by it,” said Grandpa.

“She has such power for one so young. I can feel it in you as well. How did we misjudge you so badly?” she asked.

“Bad intelligence is the most likely explanation.” He said.

“We have it from your top people.” She said.

“Yes, I discovered how we have been betrayed by our own.”

“I would wish to spend some time with you to see if we can make it work,” she said.

“Fair enough,” said Grandpa. “Perhaps we can take one of your eggs and test it with my sperm.”

“What do I need to do for this to happen?” she asked.

“You need to spend five minutes in a pod.” He replied.

“Yes, I understand that part of it. What do I need to give or do for this to happen? What must I give what must I trade? How must I serve you?” she asked.

“Spend five minutes of your time in a pod. Our society is not like yours. We do not manipulate women to do our bidding. I would do this freely in the interest of peace and also scientific understanding. My sperm appear to be adaptable,” said Grandpa. “If we are not directly compatable I will ask for help from our doctors.

She asked some questions but was disappointed there was sperm of Grandpa’s available to the medical AI for her egg.

To make a long story short, it worked, and she was over the moon. She didn’t even try to hide it. She was happy for the pod to look after the pregnancy. I don’t think she even considered anything else. Ancient women don’t want to live through a pregnancy I learned later.

Zafa joined us at dinner. We had ten times the usual guards. We showed her how all of us got out in more detail, we even showed her the holo-recording of the events. My AI put it together from what everyone saw and did. Lots of others around us wanted to see it and we put it up on a huge hologram in the restaurant. We found she could eat our food, but she’d never had cooked food before.

I could see she liked the smell of her bread and loved the fish we began with. She went mad for the meat we had with some kind of vegetable for mains. She ate the apple pie and cream like she had not eaten for a month.

“It’s a pity this is such a poor example of our food,” said Grandpa looking downcast. “Sadly, institutional food on a ship like this is so limited. I hope you will have a better experience soon.”

Grandpa always does this kind of thing. He is funny the first time, but he tends to do it too often. His jokes are terrible.