Chapter 1

The Dizyntk Imperial Strike Cruiser Amber Lightning was leading seven other warships, four cruisers and three destroyers, on a high speed run around the flank of the Protectorate fleet they were fighting. Their translight drives would not propel them at faster than light speeds this deep in a star system, but they were still moving at a quarter the speed of light right now. On his tactical display, Captain Lefarsa could see that the Humans were reacting to his move. After only two seconds he smiled. They had not reacted fast enough. He was going to have a clear shot at the Human flagship. The only choices the Human commander had was to fight a battle against unfavorable odds or retreat.

"They should retreat." Lefarsa thought to himself. "Up till last week, they would retreat."

The fight for the Tau Epsilon system had been underway for almost six months. The fighting had been intense, but sporadic, until last week. Last week the Protectorate battle style had changed dramatically. Whereas the Humans had fought hard, but logically, before, now they were fighting almost insanely. Although Lefarsa and his fellow Dizyntk had not understood the reason for the change at first, they knew the reason all too well now.

Their Human allies on Tau Epsilon had informed the Dizyntk that the new tactics were due to a new fleet. The initial battles had been with the regular Protectorate fleet. The more recent ones had been against what the Humans called Purification Forces. These were ships manned by Human religious fanatics that served the Protectorate. The ships were commanded by Priests of the State religion. There were no tactics that were considered too extreme for the Purification Forces.

Lefarsa could only shake his head at the thought. He knew that his own people had done such things in their history. The last time was during the civil strife that had swept the Imperium one hundred cyankas ago. The atrocities committed by those zealots during the wars of unification were what had led to the current laws in the Imperium. Priestesses were forbidden from receiving any type of military training now. The only position they could hold in the Dizyntk military was that of healer and even then they were not permitted to carry weapons.

Apparently, the humans had not learned this lesson yet. Lefarsa's weapons techs had to pay much closer attention to Human fighter craft now. The fanatics piloting them thought nothing at all of driving their craft right into a ship. Despite these problems, Lefarsa actually preferred fighting these Purification Forces as opposed to the regular Protectorate Fleet. They were not as professional at fighting as the regular Human forces and that was fine with Lefarsa. He could see that the Flagship he was closing on was turning to fight. The battle was already as good as won, even if these Humans did not realize it yet.

Admiral Elianala was studying a strategic map of the Second Star Cluster. So far it seemed that the Protectorate was content with trying to take back Tau Epsilon. They had not made any incursions into Dizyntk space, other than near the disputed system. Perhaps their military commanders were hoping to avoid a general war. That was good as far as Elianala was concerned. While she had no misgivings about a large scale conflict, she would prefer to avoid it. The Humans were still keeping a large group of forces on the border near the Protectorate colony system of Kursk. This forced Elianala to maintain large numbers of her own ships in the area as well.

As it stood now, the Dizyntk forces defending Tau Epsilon had an advantage. Admiral Elianala could base reinforcements out of the Trellken system, which was only four days from Tau Epsilon. The nearest Human system was a small colony system named Amazonia. It lay nearly six days away from the disputed region. From what she had learned, this Amazonia was not as well developed as Trellken and large numbers of ships would be difficult to stage there. That left the Davon system, the homeport for the Human fleets in the region. It was even farther away from Tau Epsilon, almost twelve days distant. Admiral Elianala was thus assured that she held a substantial logistical advantage.

The tactical advantage was also on her side. The Humans in the disputed area were her allies and were providing excellent reconnaissance and intelligence for Dizyntk forces in the region. Soon they would be providing even more help. She had no doubt that the Protectorate would be unable to retake the three systems that had rebelled against it. The only question was how long it would take for the Protectorate political leadership to reach that conclusion and what would they do when they did.

Fleet Commodore Stephen Phelps was trying out his new ship. It was the first time that he, or any other Human for that matter, had commanded a Dizyntk vessel. The small shipyards on Tau Epsilon were churning out destroyers and frigates as fast as they could but they did not have the facilities to build anything larger. So far, they had built ten destroyers and fifteen frigates. That was all well and good, but Phelps knew that his fleet needed cruisers and battleships as well. Other than a few smaller warships, he had only four cruisers and his command ship left from his original fleet and two of the cruisers and his command ship were in desperate need of repair. Up until now, his remaining fleet destroyers and frigates had been acting as pickets and scouts for the Dizyntk.

Two months ago, he had mentioned this in passing to the Dizyntk Admiral in charge of their fleet in the system. He did not expect that the Dizyntk would send ships to be manned by Human crews. They had done exactly that however. Two weeks ago, a group of twelve Dizyntk cruisers arrived, led by what the Dizyntk called a Strike Cruiser. Phelps was informed by the Dizyntk Admiral, Telayinda, that the ships were for Phelps' use, if he had enough people to man them.

It took some doing, including recalling retired personnel living in all three systems, but Phelps had managed to scrape together enough trained people to man the ships. With those that were already on the new destroyers and frigates, Phelps knew that this was all the ships he could crew until more people were trained. Still, it was not a bad start. With the fourteen undamaged ships left from his original fleet, this gave him fifty-two warships. Not a massive force, he knew, but enough to begin giving serious help to the Dizyntk fleet protecting his planet.

As for the Strike Cruiser that was his new flagship, Phelps really liked it. It was not as large as his old battleship and possessed only two-thirds the firepower. That still gave it double the firepower of a regular cruiser. In addition, it was nearly twice as fast and maneuverable as his old command ship. He could take that trade. Moreover, he had to admit that he liked the Dizyntk way of building a warship. It may have been powerful, but it was also pleasant to look at. This was especially true of the interior. Overall, Phelps thought that he could get used to this kind of ship.

One position that Phelps had not had to worry about was that of Captain for one of the Dizyntk cruisers. Kristine Gerhardt had, once upon a time, been a Captain in the Protectorate fleet. She had commanded a destroyer for three years. Now, after leading a group of refugees running from the Protectorate into Dizyntk space, she had command of a cruiser that was going to fight against the fleet that she had once been a part of.

Her crew consisted of a mix of new recruits and formerly retired veterans. She was grateful for the older crew. They meant that she had experienced people in charge of all her departments. Her head pilot, in particular, was a godsend. Hiroshi Watanabe, Lt. Commander (retired), was fifty years old. Despite this, he was still a very good pilot. He was also something of a daredevil behind the controls. This was a good thing for evading incoming fire. When he was practicing evasive maneuvers, Kristine was happy that her command chair had restraints.

She would need them right now. Her sensor operator had just alerted her that six Protectorate warships were inbound. Captain Gerhardt had command of a small group of ships. There was one other human manned Dizyntk cruiser plus two human destroyers and three frigates. She ordered them all to orient to the incoming attack. As she watched the enemy ships on her tactical display, she could only hope that the two weeks of practice that her ships had had together would be enough.

She keyed a channel to her ships. "Execute plan beta. All ships are weapons free, repeat, weapons free."

Michelle Kirtland was getting her things packed for her trip. She had been on the Dizyntk world of Elishen for almost two months. She could scarcely believe that she had talked more with the Dizyntk in just these last few months than the Protectorate had in fifty years. The highlight of her diplomatic career had been to have a personal meeting with Crown Princess Feyalisa. At least that was what she had thought at the time. That was before the invitation had arrived three days ago.

Michelle had been working on her understanding of Dizyntilin for months now. Because of this, she had been able to read the message that was delivered to her. She had been invited to be the representative for Tau Epsilon at the Court of the Empress on Dizyn. She was actually going to meet the Empress of the Dizyntk Grand Imperium. She was going to actually stand on the homeworld of the Dizyntk. Never in her wildest fantasies had she imagined that her initial meeting with Michael Christopher six months ago would lead her to this moment. In just three weeks, she would become Humanity's first official ambassador to the Dizyntk. Her only regret was that the Protectorate could not see its way clear to do the same.

Feyalisa was going over the casualty reports from the battle of Tau Epsilon. She did not like doing this, but she felt that it was her responsibility as Princess to do so. The Dizyntk fleet had lost forty-three warships and thirty scout vessels so far. These were of little consequence as they could be easily replaced. It was the loss of almost eight thousand Dizyntk lives that mattered to her.

She was sad at the losses but not overly so. They had fallen in battle and Dizyntk viewed this as the second best way to go. The only one better was dying in your sleep at the ripe age of sixty cyankas. Actually, there were those of the traditional warrior families, and there were many of them, who would think dying in combat was the better of the two.

Feya's sadness was mostly for the children that many of them left behind. The feeling of this loss was a personal one for her. She had lost her own parents in this way after all. These thoughts caused her to tear up a little. She was so lost in her thoughts that she did not hear her mate walk up behind her.

Velakari wrapped her arms around Feya. She knew exactly why her mate was sad. "It is alright, my love. The children will be taken care of. They always are."

Feya leaned back against her mate. "I know; it is just that I know what they will go through."

Kari smiled and said, "They will have family and friends to help them. All you had was a strange alien and you seem to have managed."

Even in her sad state, this last comment made Feya laugh a little.

She wrapped her hands around Kari's arms. "A strange alien? Strange? An odd way to refer to the father of our children."

Kari nodded. "Yes, it is. But it made you smile and that was all I wanted."

Kari then turned Feya around and looked at her face. "When is the last time you slept?" she asked.

"I do not know." Feya replied. "I am too busy right now and I..."

Kari put two fingers to Feya's lips and said, "That will not do. You are busy because you try to do all this yourself. I will help you AFTER you get some sleep."