Empire's Son: An Epic Science Fiction Novel Series

Admiral Kot-us Vang stood at the large duro-glass window of his office enjoying the dancing rainbow of color, which depicted the physical spectrum of the hyper-light corridor the Fordex was currently traveling through. Caretaker Kessler had only just taken the visual binders off Vang that morning, and a warning to rest his eyes as often as he could, but now that he could see once more, the Admiral wasn't eager to rest at all.

In fact, he couldn't rest. There were invaders in his Empire. As close as he could tell, they had been inside the borders of the Ethian galaxy for nearly two weeks, causing havoc. First, they destroyed a space station orbiting the outer colony planet of Bezmore Six, and then his previous flagship, the battle cruiser Maxem.

A day ago, he received a concerning a report that the alien intruders were near the Sora System. It was light-years away from Bezmore Six and also was the last known location of the Heir of the Empire. Vang had tried to send word to Prince Adar to head to Vega Prime, but it seemed the yavit alien ship had interrupted communications by slagging the Sector Four communication relay, which meant that part of the Outer Reach was disconnected from the Core and Inner Worlds, and even from Vang's current location. Now, the Fordex and a small fleet were racing toward the Sora System in hopes they wouldn't be too late to intercept the aliens before they found the Heir.

Vang watched as a red and orange color strands danced and then melded with green and yellow. He marveled at the brilliance of the colors, or more likely he marveled at the idea of being able to see at all. It had been torture to keep his vision blocked while his eye had healed, but it had been necessary, according to the Caretaker. Though, Vang supposed he was lucky to be alive at all considering the extent of his injuries and that everyone else on the Maxem was now dead. Only luck and the will of the invaders had spared Vang.

The aliens needed a messenger, and Vang had been chosen. Had it been because he was the Supreme Commander of the Zahnian Legion, or had they done it for some other nefarious reason? Vang wasn't entirely sure. He knew he was determined to end those who had so brutally killed thousands of his men.

That wouldn't be a simple task, because Vang had thrown every major ordnance that the Maxem had on board, and it hadn't even given the aliens' ship a scratch. In fact, the missiles and plasma fire just seemed to disappear or dissipate before it even reached the aptly nicknamed ghost ship. And when one alien had boarded Vang's ship, it had moved and attacked so fast that his people hadn't even been able to respond with an attack of their own.

Vang could clearly see in his mind's eye the dark, shadowy humanoid that had entered the bridge of the Maxem, and deftly killed all six of the officers, including Captain Leonid, in the blink of an eye. Vang had found himself incapacitated a mere few seconds later, with the alien making demands. Naturally, Vang tried to resist, but the alien had invaded his mind to glean all the information needed, and then spoke the words that had been haunting him for the last day and a half.

You give the Emperor a message. You tell him to come to us. He comes, or we destroy. There are many in this Ethia that can be consumed as we wait.

The Admiral's fists clenched as he remembered the words, but even more, the threat behind them. Who were these mysterious beings, and what did they want with the Emperor? That last fact worried Vang a great deal. They had shown how powerful they were, and that put the leader of the Empire at a great disadvantage. Vang needed to give his Emperor protection and even leverage against these invaders. And he had been racking his mind for the last thirty-six hours on just how to do that.

The door chimed behind him. Vang turned from the window and took a seat behind his desk before he gave a crisp, "Enter!"

Captain-Major Wexlen stepped through with a sour expression on his face, which probably meant there was more bad news.

"Admiral, I just received a message from the Vanguard tech team that was sent to the Sector Four relay station. Communications should be back up within an hour, if not sooner."

Relief spread through the Admiral at the news. At least one thing was going their way. "Well, that's something, at least. As soon as the relay works again, let me know. Protectorate Command, the College Orbital Station, and King Rainus need to know about the threat coming their way."

"Of course, sir."

Vang raised an eyebrow. That hardly seemed the sort of thing to look upset about. And certainly a simple call would have given Vang that information just as well. "Is there something else?"

The Captain looked uncomfortable for a moment before he seemed to bolster himself and spoke. "Sir, our scientists went over the flight data box we picked up from the Vanguard patrol that had a run-in with the ghost ship yesterday. It's showing the same thing our first analysis reported. There doesn't seem to be anything new we can exploit or use as an effective weapon against them. What am I supposed to tell my men when we meet up with the enemy again?"

Admiral Vang leaned back in his chair, his newly healed eye throbbing slightly as he considered Captain-Major Wexlen's question.

"Tell them the truth, Captain," Vang said finally. "That we face an enemy of unprecedented power and technology. But also remind them we are the Zahnian Legion. We have faced seemingly insurmountable odds before and prevailed."

Wexlen nodded, but the doubt remained etched on his face. "And if that's not enough, sir?"

Vang stood and walked back to the window, gazing out at the swirling colors of hyperspace. "Then we do what we have to protect the Empire and buy time for a solution. Even if it means sacrificing ourselves."

A moment of heavy silence passed between them before Wexlen spoke again. "Yes, sir, and what strategy should we use against them when we reach Sora X?"

"I will let you know before we get there," Vang replied. "How much longer?"

"We will arrive in eighty-six minutes, sir."

"Then check in with me in an hour. If there is nothing else, you are dismissed."

"Sir."

Vang didn't turn around, but he imagined Wexlen had given him a fist to heart before he marched out the door. The Admiral sagged when he was alone again. What were they going to do when they reached Sora X?

He had looked over the data personally for hours, looking for a weakness they could exploit, but there didn't seem to be anything obvious. The only time there had been anything like a victory had been when the alien on the Maxem was blasted into space because Vang had purposefully detached his life pod from the Maxem without sealing the battle cruiser's hatch. It left the ship open to space, sucking the dark creature into the black abyss. Within two minutes, the alien had pulsed a violet light, and then the creature had exploded.

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At least they knew the aliens appeared to have a lethal reaction to space, but he was uncertain how that could help them…

An idea shot through Vang's brain. He immediately walked back to his desk and sat down. "Terminal, open my most recent halo file."

He waited a moment while the nanites inside the small silver square on his desk activated. A holographic image appeared before him, hovering inches from the top of the box. It was the first image the halo had recovered from his damaged memory of the attack on the Maxem. It was of him standing on the bridge as he had just learned that an enemy had infiltrated the Empire. The disbelief was echoed on the officers' faces around him.

"Terminal. Fast forward to when I detached the life pod from the Maxem."

The holographic video sped through their attempt to attack the ghost ship, which could only be seen by pinging the previously recorded unique energetic signature of the enemy ship. Then it sped through the boarding of the Maxem, the killing of the officers, and Vang being questioned. After the creature had gotten what it wanted and given Vang its message, the alien had used telekinesis to pick up and incapacitate Vang, moving him through the ship to a life pod. The image stopped as Vang detached the pod from the Maxem.

"Terminal, focus on the alien, begin playback, but slow to quarter speed."

The shadowy figure was enlarged and now appeared as if it were moving through thick liquid. Vang leaned forward, his breath catching as he noticed something he'd missed before. Just as the emergency protocols started the decompression sequence, the alien had visibly recoiled. Not from the alarm itself, but from something else.

Vang's eyes widened as he studied the alien's reaction. It was subtle, but unmistakable. The creature had flinched away from something moments before the decompression began. But what?

"Terminal, isolate the alien and enhance visual spectrum analysis," Vang commanded.

The hologram zoomed in further, breaking down the image into different wavelengths of light. As the decompression alarm blared in the background, Vang noticed a faint shimmer around the alien's form. It was barely perceptible, like heat rising off hot pavement.

"Some kind of energy field," Vang muttered to himself. "But why would it react to the alarm?"

He replayed the sequence again, this time focusing on the audio. As the alarm sounded, there was a brief burst of static––so quick he had missed it before. The alien's energy field had flickered at that exact moment.

Vang leaned back, his mind racing. "Of course," he whispered. "It's not just vulnerable to space––it's vulnerable to certain frequencies."

He quickly pulled up the specifications for the Maxem's emergency systems. The decompression alarm operated on a unique ultra-high frequency, designed to cut through the chaos of battle and alert crew members instantly.

"Terminal. Analyze the frequency of the decompression alarm and cross-reference to known weapons systems."

The computer whirred for a moment before displaying its results. Nothing in their current arsenal matched the exact frequency, but there were a few experimental sonic weapons that came close. Unfortunately, with the time they had, doing any major changes to the ship or star fighters wouldn't be possible, but there were other options.

"Terminal, send a priority message to the Fordex's weapons bay. I need all available sonic disruptors recalibrated to match the Maxem's decompression alarm frequency. And notify the engineering deck to prepare the ship's external comm arrays for modification. Also, send a message to Captain-Major Wexlen of these changes."

Vang's mind raced with the possibilities. It wasn't much, but it was something—a potential weakness they could exploit. If these aliens truly were vulnerable to specific sound frequencies, then perhaps they had a fighting chance after all.

A throbbing pain radiated from his left eye, and he laid his head against the high back of his chair. He was straining his eyes too much; he knew. And he was sure Caretaker Kessler would say something about it during Vang's next treatment.

A soft chime from his unity ring interrupted his momentary rest. Vang looked down to see the name of the person calling. Vang let out a long sigh before adopting his usual stoic composure and answering the call. "Emperor, how may I help you?"

The holographic image of Emperor Ghar Zahn materialized above Vang's desk, replacing the halo video. The Emperor's expression was unreadable, but there was a weight in his gaze that Vang rarely saw––it was the only sign of his superior's concern about recent events.

"Admiral," the Emperor said, his voice as steady as stone, "how long before you reach the College?"

"We will be there in just over an hour, sire. I think you will be happy to know that I have found a weakness in the enemy and am currently modifying our system with those changes. I'm not sure how much it will do, but it's more than what we had before."

The Emperor nodded. "Good, I'm glad to hear it. Send me the information so I can look it over, and once you are back in contact with the College, send it to them as well."

"Of course, Excellency." Vang was surprised he hadn't thought to do that himself, but he was tired and the pain was moving into a blasted headache. He made a mental note to take care of that as soon as they finished.

"The Sector Four relay will be up before you get there?"

Vang nodded. "Yes, but I'm not sure by how much, but we will do what we can to warn the College once the relay is active. That is, if the enemy hasn't already attacked."

"You think they reached Sora X already?"

That was the question, wasn't it? And something Vang was trying not to think about too hard. It was trouble he didn't have the headspace to deal with right this moment.

"It is difficult to say," Vang said. "We don't know the speed capacity of their ship. Though we know they can travel through hyper-light. I would say the enemy's ship speed is at least comparable to what we can do based on how long it took them to travel from Bezmore Six and then hit the relay station. If that's the case, there is a possibility they have reached Sora X, or we could get there first, but if we do, I doubt it will be by much."

The Emperor nodded, taking that in for a moment. "Well, I've tried multiple times to get through to King Rainus. If he had left Sora X when he was scheduled to go with Adar, then I should have been able to reach him. They would be travelling through the Sector Five communication relay area by now."

"You think they are still on Sora X?" Vang's insides twisted into a knot. He had been hoping King Rainus and Prince Adar had followed through with their previous plan to head to the White Palace this morning and out of harm's way by now. Maybe even catching one of the many messages that Vang had sent out to the King and Prince both to head to Vega Prime because it was closer and had a whole fleet to act as protection.

"Maybe they got one of my messages, turned around, and headed for Vega Prime? That planet is on the Sector Four relay along with the Sora System."

"I suppose that's possible, but you need to prepare for them to still be there, and if they are, keeping Adar safe is a priority. Understood?"

"Yes, Excellency."

Vang decided not to ask what he should do if the aliens had the Heir in their custody. Though he already knew the answer. Vang would simply do everything in his power to get him back, because he wasn't about to let the enemy have such a personal weapon against his Emperor.

"Might I ask, Excellency, what you have decided to do?" Vang, of course, was asking about the enemy, demanding to see the Emperor in person. Vang had already told the Emperor his opinion on the matter, that he should stay far away from the aliens, but the Emperor always had his own mind about such things.

"Until we know more about what we are facing, I will remain where I am. I know you have people working on figuring out as much as they can about these invaders, but I have set my team on the task as well. It is good that you have found a weapon against them. See how successful it is. Once I am satisfied that we can effectively counteract them, I will reassess at that time. Until then, make sure Adar is secured, and once that's done, you are to put all your attention on this matter until it is resolved."

"Of course, Excellency."

The Emperor's hologram flickered out, leaving Admiral Vang alone with the sharp silence of his office. The tasks set before him weighed heavily. At least the Emperor wasn't intent on facing these aliens directly––for now. That made Vang feel much better. It would give him time to hopefully find a way to either repel or destroy these invaders, and if he did that, the Emperor wouldn't have to face them at all.