Chapter 76

Our ship went into orbit and Soot took me down in his pinnace to meet some of the system's leaders. An hour after our talk started the light destroyer left the bay to ascertain what had been done to her.

I stayed for two local days. This time I was able to work on their medical facilities for the repair of their aged. The computers and the tutors were next. I just took enough data from Harriet to get the local techs trained as I wanted. The coding now had the same kind of subliminal cues to get the Kadork to be good members of the new commonwealth.

There were a few hundred Tandra that had been rescued from various ships. Some had even been attacking the Kadork which they mistakenly thought were the enemy. Fourteen had to be put back into stasis because they would just make trouble. The rest went into standard tutors to assist the Kadork. I took communications from them to send to their families.

When it came time to leave the system I knew it was on the road to being like any other Tandra settlement at the height of the empire. They now had better weapons and shields to protect themselves and hopefully their new friends too.

The ships that left with me were carrying some of the Tandra techs to the other Kadork systems. The idea was to get them up to the same standards as the main planet and be prepared to take on the Samutz if necessary.

Harriet took me back to the Tandra occupied area. I acted like a diplomat now and tried to convince the many queens and leaders about the danger of allowing the Samutz free access to their systems. My identity was again masked and I was seen as a captain but one on detached service. Some were vocally against me. This was easy to see because they did a lot of trading with the Samutz and didn't want to be seen as wrong. Others, like the Axxel, were more receptive but did not believe me fully, even with the evidence that they saw from the outpost I had taken.

The Samutz on the planets surface were on their best behaviour and I had some frank discussions with them. None were telepathic but it was easy to see that they had a very difficult time controlling their urges to jump at me and rip me apart. I was a gentleman though because I knew that everything I did would be scrutinized. My compartmentalized mind allowed me to outwardly think one thing while considering the opposite where it counted.

After a week or so of watching the Samutz I could tell that something was up but I didn't know what it was. I did manage to shake my surveillance and follow some Samutz to their ship. Here I infiltrated their computer and got hints of a full scale attack proposed for this area. The Tandra here were not prepared for such an event. Their efforts had been geared for pirates up till now.

What I deduced now was that the Samutz thought their plans of subterfuge may not work in the future and they wanted to take the systems before the Tandra found out the truth. I could see them coming in mass from one sector and overrunning all the systems defences. They would be stopping all ships and then going to the next target.

I could see three possible routes that would work and I didn't have enough data on the Samutz or the Thonas to find their fleets. My estimates of the time remaining was anywhere from three to six weeks. This left little time. I could do two things; one was to leave and drag back one of my fleets of ships. The second was to let the Tandra here get a bloody nose and then rescue them after they woke up to the fact that the Samutz were not friends.

Since Axxel was the only place that even partially favoured my advice, I travelled there and talked with their ruler. The time frame was tight enough that she could afford to call up her reserves and prepare to defend their systems.

I found Dola eventually and saw that he had not reintegrated back into his society. He had managed to deal with adversity before but couldn't seem to do it now. It was not just the Samutz attack that made this difficult. He had formed a strong attachment to me and couldn't find a way to abandon it. At first sight he ran to me. Without conscious thought he wrapped his arms around me. I had similar feelings and let the portal to his apartment close behind me. "Henry, I thought I would never see you again." He tried very hard to release me and to be a good host. He did everything that he should but he wanted to be holding me. This was not all sexual attraction but something much deeper.

Before I took him to bed, I sent out a small unit that would keep our thoughts to ourselves and started to tell him of my real past. With mindspeak it only took an hour to bring him up to the present. He did not get all the details but he did get all the major ones. He saw all of my family and what I did to get and keep them. The battles were fairly sterile for simplicity but he knew that I had killed a great many Samutz and at least millions of Thonas.

The young man simply asked, "Why did you tell me all this Henry?"

"I am attracted to you too. If you join my family, you should know beforehand what you are entering into."

In answer, Dola jumped up off his chair and tackled me in his exuberance. "Yes, yes, I will be yours always." We spent a quiet night, hoping that his very strong emotions did not get past the interference device.

The next morning he took care of his affairs and stayed with me. I took the crystal I had found from the ancient Tandra wreck and improved it. This was traded for some of the resources I needed. I made small crystals to the limit of the local Tandra technology then improved the individual crystals with my mind. I constructed thousands of missiles that had a shield like my temporal knife. The difference was that they would explode just after breaching the shield and hull of the target.

When three weeks were up, I took the missiles and Dola to the systems that I thought threatened. One of which was Axxel. The defences were placed in a fold in space, like the mines and missiles around Earth. This time the fold was different and hopefully the enemy would not detect them till too late.

The Kadork systems were contacted and their ships were made ready for me to pick them up and take them into battle. Not all, but many of the ships had my new shield. The Kadork themselves were now feeling safe even though they had less ships to protect their own systems.

Dola took all sorts of training when he wasn't trying to get attached to me. Eventually he broached a subject I knew would come. "Henry I want... want to give you a gift to keep us together." He at the moment was lying naked on his back. His head was propped up by his arm.

I just turned around with a lubricated hand, put my fingers into his rectum and pushed out his phallus for the first time. It was light pink and a little bigger than my thumb and not much longer. "If you mean to give me this, I will take it but I have to store it where I want."

Dola was very pleased that I would accept his gift. It meant that he would be my wife now. "Oh thank you, Henry. I didn't know if you wanted to keep me. I am not much and only had some good looks to get me by until I met you."

"I knew from the start that you were more than just beautiful. I could see a lot of potential in you. I also happen to know that you will fit in with the rest of my family very well. The women will boss you around a bit but they will love you as much as I do."

Dola asked Harriet for a knife and I took his hand. "I will take it now. You will store it where it presently is."

"But that is not the way it is done, Henry."

"It is the way I want it, as your sooda. Do you accept that my funt?"

He thought for a minute then reluctantly said, "I will do as my sooda demands."

"Good, then turn over. I want to see how long I can get you to orgasm again."

The invasion did not happen this week or the next. We made many patrols trying to find the approaching fleet. Queen Bessin of the Axxel system was given some of my small missiles. Her engineers laughed at them when they were presented. An old hull had been reinforced with their best shields and dragged out as a target. One missile barely a metre long destroyed the ship quite satisfactorily. The engineers did not laugh again. An asteroid got even more shielding, as much a battleship would get, and one more missile was used. The effect was not as spectacular because the explosion was in the centre of a kilometre sized rock. There was no doubt that if it had been a ship all would have perished.

The queen had been as good as her word and many ships had been mobilized to fight of the Samutz. The number though looked to be too small to do the job, for the Samutz and Thonas must have figured on some loses of their own. The size of their fleet would be considerably larger.

The Kadork fleets were given some of the missiles too, along with the codes that the Tandra fleets would use to identify them. The reverse had also been given but the race of allies was not mentioned. The Tandra might still believe the propaganda that the Samutz had given them.

The Kadork had practised gathering in groups so that I could swoop in and ferry them to outlying systems. This worked fairly well but the time to form the groups was the bottleneck. The queens here as well as the head queen decided to just keep the ships in one place in each of their systems. The amount of ships they would be able to loan me was not that high. Even with their recent improvements, they would still need to defend their own race.

I woke up holding onto Dola and I knew that today would be important. I felt that malignant aura again. Harriet was appraised and I got up to get cleaned because there might not be time later. Dola got up sleepily till he read my surface thoughts, then he too got cleaned and dressed.

"Henry, is it today?"

"I think so, but it may be just a scouting mission or even a diversion if they think they need it."

"Diversion, you never told me about that."

"It is possible. It all depends on how good their spies are."

"Do you mean Samutz or Tandra?"

"Mostly Samutz or their devices. I have seen Tandra that have been with the Samutz for such a long time, eventually accept their capturer's way of thinking."

Dola brought me some food, and I ate it with his arm around my shoulder. Both of us were busy scanning. He was interfacing with the sensors and I with my just my mind. As we got closer I could make out a great mass of ships. There looked to be over seven hundred in total. Their sensors must be very good too, so we just continued past them. I didn't want them to change their attack plans yet. The leading edge consisted of destroyers and other escorts. Deep within the cluster were a hundred and thirty Thonas craft. Half of these were battleships, the rest were their escorts.

On the flanks were the Samutz battleships and even some dreadnaughts. There was close to two hundred of these but our sensors were not good enough to see the far side very well. At the back of the fleet were some carriers and troop transports along with more destroyers. Their numbers told me that they planned on dropping troops on each of the planets they took.

The sheer number of ships told me that they would have an undisputed victory if I had not showed up. We made a wide circle and headed toward Axxel with our news. I sent a message pod with the information and headed for where the fleet was going. It was not Axxel at all but one of the other targets I had thought they may have chosen. Tamdoc looked to be the choice and they had blatantly resisted my efforts to convince them of the threat. They were one of the largest groups with nineteen systems.

The sensors on the first of the systems would pick out the approaching fleet in eight hours. They were lucky to get an additional seven hour warning. In the next hour the rest of the systems in this group were warned and we headed out to the other monarchies with our warning.

I was finished the warnings and made it to the first of the Kadork systems to pick up the ships. It took seven more hours to get them. I now had a fleet of thirty seven ships behind me. Some had my missiles and most were battleship sized. This was accomplished because the Kadork could see that the missiles I gave them would work just as well when launched from smaller ships.

The inertial compensators were not as good on the Kadork ships. By the time we arrived the battle had already started. The attacking fleet had spread out and bypassed some systems and had gone to others. As I figured, some of the smaller ships had set up pickets to keep any warning from reaching the remainder of the Tandra planets.

I had to almost stop to drop off the Kadork ships at the first system. My imperial override went out and any Samutz ships that had been made by the old Tandra empire now vented their atmosphere to space and tried to get away from the battle. The last thing they did as they tried to evict their crew was to append a string of characters at the end of their transponder signal that indicated that they were trying to change sides.

Harriet raced forward and we caught up to one of the groups of enemy warships. We raced through the centre of them again giving the override. The Thonas here were targeted with our limited supply of missiles. Some were simply rammed so that the computer and engine plants were destroyed. The newer Samutz craft that would not heed our call were similarly rammed to destroy their computers.

Dola chose the targets for the missiles as Harriet and I plotted a course through the mass of ships. The Thonas craft were of no use to us, and these Dola was in charge of completely destroying. The other craft would be salvageable but have a ten metre wide hole through the centre of them.

Two other small enemy groups proceeded to other targets while fully half went to the next major monarchy. These two smaller groups we went after, and in the next half hour had expended all our missiles and then relied on the slower process of ramming. The Thonas craft on more than one occasion exploded when they were pierced many times. Some remained dormant, coasting on their residual momentum toward the next target almost a light year away. It took fully three hours to take out the majority of the two groups.

The capital world would have to deal with the Samutz that made it through and hope that the Kadork would be able to hold them. I didn't see more than a three dozen continue to their objective and the odds would be good that the defenders with my missiles would be able to stop them.

The other fleet had already approached the Mardaf Limit of the next monarchy. Three hundred and fifty ships would possibly break down to a hundred or so that I could capture with my override. The sixty to seventy Thonas craft would have to be destroyed. That left close to two hundred newer warships that would have to be disabled. Like the other ships, I considered just flying a mass of them out of the system and deal with a few at a time. This would not send the right message to the Tandra monarchies. They would go back to their old ways and perhaps even begin trading with an old enemy instead of rendering them helpless. They were as foolish as Humans in many ways.

That did not stop us from travelling as fast as we could to take out the older Tandra ships. We were able to ram ten Thonas craft on the first pass and when we came around for another the Thonas ships had dispersed into the remainder of the fleet that was still travelling to the planet just a few hours away. This time I would ram the newer Samutz craft and put a tube onto the Thonas craft as I had done to the Bintuu craft at Defren. They were subjected to so much acceleration that there was no way the ship or crew could survive.

By the time we got to one light hour, I had to redirect the craft that I had damaged so they would not hit the planet. One doing so would be enough for the planet to die. This left forty two Samutz ships that were fighting me and came into range of the defenders. It appeared to be an almost even fight now. I flew around the converging fleets and made ready to protect the planet.

The Tandra had few expletives in their language, but I used what I had when both ground based and space based weapons opened fire on me. I communicated to the planet quickly telling them what I thought of their reception after protecting them with our lives. The barrage finally stopped and I was forced to scoot forward to take out a frigate that had worked its way through the front line. While I was there, I took some of the crippled and otherwise helpless defenders back to be rescued.

A Samutz battleship seemed to be better crewed than the rest. I took it out by ramming and shot the vessel away from the planet. When I regained my position guarding the planetary, the queen of the planet below ordered me to continue fighting.

"Me fight? Why should I do that to the peaceful Zomma. I believe you yourself gave those words to me when I told you of the danger."

"I was wrong. Fight them. That is a command."

"Why isn't your ass out here fighting the enemy? Get on a ship, come out and I will fight beside you." I got no reply and just did what I could to defend the civilians on the planet below.

The battle was over in three hours and the Samutz turned to flee. The Tandra had orders to remain and protect the capital. I took out the remaining ships and propelled them away from the planet. I picked up a few more that had been damaged by missiles and moved them in the same general direction.

With no more shots being fired, I gave orders to the AIs on the older Tandra type ships to use their tractors to herd the disabled ships close and destroy any smaller ships leaving the damaged hulls.

Tamdoc and its battle was my next objective. It took only a few moments and I found the battle over when we got there. Three Samutz craft had fled, I found out, and I began immediate pursuit. Again it was only a few minutes work to make a hole from stem to stern in the ships and let them drift.

Dola was so happy he got up and hugged me to him. "Henry, that was amazing. Never before was there a battle like that."

I held Dola's face and gave him a deep kiss. "We didn't even try as hard as we could Sweetie. If the Tandra in this area of space need this amount of death and destruction to wake them up then they deserve to not join the commonwealth."

"Henry, what commonwealth? We have been alone for such a long time."

"Dola, Honey, I have taken thousands of Samutz held planets in the last while. Perhaps I did not mention the number. When they become populated again they will form the basis of a galaxy wide union of races. I hope to have it even larger than the Tandra did when they were at their height."

"If you took them, then you would be sort of a king wouldn't you?"

"Yes I would, Sweetie. Now let's see what we can do to help the survivors."

In the coming hours I found that this particular battle had been fairly decisive. The Tandra and the Kadork had fought a similar sized force of Samutz and won. The missiles I fabricated had helped a great deal and the Tandra thought that they should do more to protect their planet. They moved into close battle instead of firing from a distance. This meant that the Kadork had to get close too, or loose sight of their enemy. A Samutz battleship cut loose at the Tandra destroyer. A Kadork ship had taken out that battleship but only after their missiles were on the way. More of the missiles I made went to destroy the major missiles approaching and just managed to save the Tandra vessel. It took many hits still, but its shield would have been overwhelmed otherwise.

During this time another two Samutz vessels saw how dangerous the Kadork craft were and opened fire on the one that had come to the aid of the Tandra. This ship only had improved shielding, not the temporal variety, and was destroyed with the loss of all life onboard. Other Tandra and Kadork ships were struck and a lot of damage was done but the loss of life was minimal here. The Samutz craft were pounded with a vengeance by the Kadork. The Tandra ships at this time just stood back and watched.

When the rescue operations began, some of the Tandra were dismayed to see that the Kadork had been helping them. Some had assumed that the Kadork were pirates that had come from the Samutz ships. A prerecorded message of mine went out telling all the Tandra, even those on the planet, who their benefactors were.

Dola, Harriet and I did our own rescue operations. We would take ships and bodies to a central point where the two races could work together to rescue their kin. The sorry thing to find was that the Kadork did not believe in personnel shields. Any exposure to space would kill them. The Samutz craft were all dragged out of the system because eventually the Samutz still alive onboard would find a way to get their weapons to work manually. My response to this idea was to order the various planets to manufacture battle drones that could go in and just clean the ships up by shear numbers.

I talked to both the Kadork and the Tandra in the battle and found that they could manage with the resources they had. Harriet sent a large data packet to the Tandra giving more data on the Kadork and their environment. The data for the translating device was also given along with what had happened before I arrived. The only response was that the planet and ships acknowledged the transfer.

Harriet turned and raced back to our previous battle and helped there too. Again we were shot at as we approached but that was understandable in this case. Data was again sent out about what had happened at Tamdoc and before. I just stayed for an hour and went to the outlying systems to see what we could do to help.

The battle aftermath took days to clean up the destroyed and drifting ships. This did not include the removal of the Samutz that were still alive. Ships from other systems and monarchies came to assist or to just see what the commotion was all about. The attacking fleet did seem to awaken the Tandra to their danger and more ships were being readied to fight.

The Kadork ships that were damaged in the fight to protect Tamdoc were being repaired and improved by the Tandra at their yards. They might have done this on their own but I made sure my views of what should happen were heard. The Tandra were not trusted with the Samutz removal and I gave the job to the Kadork fleet alone. During this weeks' long activity, some Tandra were rescued from the stricken ships. They told tales of their capture years ago and how they had been forced to work for the Samutz. More gruesome tales of them being hunted for sport and eaten were also told. This time the news was readily believed.

A face to face meeting was set up where all the leaders could discuss the current conflict. Dola was very nervous but I just got him dressed to suit the occasion and then did the same for myself. We dressed simply but I had some of the imperial yellow on my sleeves. I planned to land just outside the large building that was to house the meeting. Our vehicle was not that much bigger than the other attendees came in. Before we landed, though, I released my full aura for the first time. Dola was even more petrified now than he was at the prospects of going to the meeting.

"Henry, what happened to you? I feel so different around you now."

"Dola," I said, "I am a ruler of where I come from. You were told that before. People get flustered around me when they feel my aura. I just kept it bottled up so that this would not happen to you. The people I am going to see now need to be suitably impressed by me or they will not be good for the commonwealth I am forming. Just try to get used to it. We have a few moments and then we will be before these leaders. Remember that you are now my funt and a person not to be trifled with."

"I will try, Henry. It will be hard because I want to bow to you."

"When we get back you can bow away from me as I give you something you will like." His face lit up at this and he gave one of the Tandra smiles that I had come so use to seeing.

When we landed, Harriet opened the hatch and I stepped out, followed by Dola. The hatch stayed open after we left to show that we were not afraid of scrutiny. Small surveillance probes were around us like flies. An honour guard came to their best rendition of attention since they were at their old school. Individual people that had come to see us could not look at us very well and bowed their heads for some reason. This was the accepted way to greet their queens but it was more of a polite formality. Here they really wanted to do it.

Dola got further behind and I waited in front of a few of the guards to inspect their uniform. From the way their minds worked, I could feel that they were much more worried now than they were as children seeing their monarch for the first time. I let my mind leak a bit about how good the honour guard looked and moved on, but at a slower pace.

Inside the large building we walked down the floor that reminded me of the base on Earth but here the colours were still vivid. On a far wall was the Tandra crest. From my own observations it was not even noticed by the current population. Dola and I stopped and saluted the emblem. Dola was being very sincere. I did it with the thought of all the Tandra I served too.

We walked further into the building and through some wide doors. The two guards saluted very smartly. I gave a small nod as I passed through the portal then saluted the faded crest in the far wall. Half the room was standing when I came in. The rest were just too stunned. Nobody knew what to make of me. Under the crest was an ornate chair that was never used. I walked further into the room and this time tried to even strengthen my aura. I looked from woman to woman as I had a few times before. Then they had called me not quite a fool but not quite a responsible individual either.

When my eyes had gone over all of the major leaders in disdain, I turned and walked to the chair reserved for my office. This was not the common chair that they wanted me to take but the throne. As I sat I heard a collective and even verbal gasp. Dola's mind was in turmoil too, and I did my best to brace him for what was to follow.

Before a united voice could be raised against what I had done, I fed Dola the information I wanted him to give. He went through a long list of titles till at last he said, "... Emperor Henry Buchanan."

Nobody moved; this was understandable. There had been no emperor here for the last million or so years. From the collapse of the Tandra Empire to that time the Empresses had been more queen than anything else.

Then Dola called for all to rise and salute the crest; the same crest that they had ignored for so long that few even knew what was being referred to. The ones that remained seated gained my notice. I stared at them and in a way dared them to remain seated. It took almost four minutes for everybody to raise and then at Dola's signal they all saluted except for me.

Dola said, "Be seated."

Again, before they could begin their challenge I said, "Good day, citizens. I imagine my coming here has been quite a shock." I paused a split second, gave Harriet a signal and she sent out the imperial override to all the older style Tandra computers. This time it happened to be the main government computers of the planet. "I will give my bona fides before we begin." I looked around the crowd and said, "Computer, scan my identity crystal now and tell everybody in this room what you find."

"Yes, my emperor. The crystal," came a voice from the computer, "says that this individual is a captain, fleet admiral and our lawful emperor."

There was another gasp this time. I said, "We are presently at war with all Samutz, the ones you call Zooma. Their masters in some cases are the Thonas, which were the cause of the major collapse of the Tandra civilization. Since that time the Tandra and the Thonas have risen many times and each time the Tandra have fallen further behind. This time the Thonas are gaining allies that will help them defeat the Tandra for all time. I am afraid this time though; the Samutz will be exterminated too because the Thonas do not like any life other than their own."

"In the last local year I have freed perhaps twenty thousand planets from the Samutz heel. A fairly large group of people called the Bintuu owe allegiance to me as well as a smaller group of Kadork further toward the end of this arm of the galaxy. I fear this is just a first step for the Thonas. They are shepherding their resources to kill all of us this time."

"Your systems have barely a hundred planets. Whether you join our commonwealth or not is moot. I have enough to do taking care of the people I already have. I do know that soon you will be attacked again and I will not be here to save you. You do have some good friends with the Kadork and if you assist them they will help you. I suggest no matter what you do that you curry their assistance. They have inferior ships and equipment but can usually push their ships to a multiple of fifteen to twenty. As you know your people can only usually do a multiple of five or so."