Chapter 1

His Majesty, Emperor Richard Newcastle The First, founder of the Newcastle Empire, sat in a comfortable chair waiting for the nod to go out on stage. He was speaking for only the third time to a graduating class at the Imperial Naval academy. It was a short wait. No one in their right mind kept the emperor waiting.

Getting to his feet, he followed his guide, a naval commander out the door and through a small hallway. His bodyguards following close behind, until he reached a door marked stage. Taking a breath he exhaled slowly. The commander went in and called the theater to attention.

"Ladies and Gentleman, officers and dignitaries, it is my pleasure to announce his Majesty, Emperor Richard Newcastle, Founder and ruler of the Newcastle Empire."

The Emperor slowly made his way to the center of the stage. He paused and looked out at the theater. It was filled to capacity and then some. The entire front row was taken by senior officers. Everyone was standing at rigid attention.

"Be seated." He said quietly. The acoustic mike picked up his order and magnified it throughout the theater. Everyone sat and watched the Emperor intently. He looked around again and said, "Someone get me a chair." Someone quickly had a chair brought out and the Emperor sat in it.

"Next year we celebrate out tri-centennial, and I am a little tired." Joked the Emperor. Laughter echoed in the hall. Looking around again, the Emperor took a drink from the water glass that had been placed on a small table that had been brought out with the chair.

"Almost three hundred years ago, I had the honor of creating this Empire. For three hundred years, officers such as yourselves have gone through this academy and have become the leaders of the navy. Some have made the navy a career, others have served their mandatory time, and went on to other things.

"I am proud to say that I have standardized ship types in the empire. It was a difficult time back then. We were part of the old Terran Federation, which was splintering and tearing itself apart. I was in position to hold together a core of worlds which was the beginning of the Empire.

"Even then, ships and ship types were out of control. You can see from all the other little kingdoms, federations, confederacies, and compacts that our standardizing was the way to go. It was very expensive at first. We had to totally re engineer our shipyards. What we have today is the result of my idea. Other star fairing peoples still have no standards like ours. Oh, they have standardized to some extent, but we still have the best ships and the best men and woman crewing them!" Exclaimed the Emperor jumping to his feet.

Cheering and clapping erupted as he said this. He waited a moment for it to die down. Again he looked out over the sea of faces.

"Our Empire has gone through some serious trials in the past. We will undoubtedly face more to come in the future. We finished a protracted war just twenty years ago. Our navy held steadfast and our ships design was what won for us. That and the men and woman of the navy. Our destroyers are a standard 1000 meters in length. Most of the known galaxy have much smaller ships as destroyers. Our destroyers are the equivalent of a light cruiser or cruiser in other navies. Our cruisers are 2000 meters in length. This equates to Heavy Cruisers or battleships in other navies.

"Our Battleships are 4000 meters in length and are equal to any dreadnought in anyones navy... except ours. Finally, our Dreadnoughts are a total of 6,250 meters in length, and there is absolutely nothing that can be compared to them.

"While it is true that the rest of the known galaxy is catching up to us size wise, it will still take even more time before they can equal our technology. Only the core planets of the old Terran Federation come anywhere close to us in technology."

For another 15 minutes, the Emperor talked of the history of the navy within the empire. He told of the traditions which were centuries old, and some even older. Some dated clear back to old Earth and the wet navies. One example was the term 'Broadside'. Even in this day and age of high technology, the navies of all space going nations everywhere used the sides of their ships to fire broadsides of missiles.

Finally, the emperor came to the end of his speech. Thunderous applause erupted and he made his way off the stage and was quickly whisked to the space port. Shortly he was back in his ship, the Dreadnought, HMS Richard The First. They broke orbit as soon as he was on board, and they were soon on their way to the special yards the emperor kept at Lorndrin.

[You have been neglecting your training again. You did not feel the electronic probes that were aimed at you while you were at the academy.]

<Probes? Who the hell authorized anyone to probe me?> The emperor silently demanded.

[I neutralized them. I was unable to backtrack as they stopped probing when they discovered that they were being stopped.]

<Why didn't you tell me earlier about this? I could have done something about it!> Responded the emperor.

[I have tried to get you to take your training seriously for the past two hundred years. It is like any other ability, if you don't train it, it atrophies. While you have grown in some areas, you have neglected others. It is up to you to hone your abilities. I can and will do only so much.]

<Damn free loader.> Grumped the emperor.

[Not at all. Since I first joined with you, I have been actively increasing your natural abilities, and activating other abilities you and your race have ignored. Your stronger, faster, have better memory, and I have enhanced your brain to the point you don't really need that implant any longer. You can communicate with any computer without any implants now if you so desire, just by thinking about it.

[I have also given you technical knowledge as you need it that is within the grasp of your own race. The result is that the new rejuvenation treatment you leaked to that small pharmacy company has enriched the coffers of that company, and lengthened the life spans of your people. Also technical kowledge was given you.

[If you would just practice more, your other mental abilities, or psi abilities would increase at a better rate. While I can do a lot for you, it would be helpful to you if you trained your abilities and didn't rely on me so much... ]