Empire's Son: An Epic Science Fiction Novel Series

I expelled a long breath as I sat back in Rainus's office chair and tried to settle my thoughts. The Shixxaminti had taken Rainus. I looked over at Markus. He was sitting in a chair behind the desk and slightly to the right. It had been brought in during my session with the scientist, as Markus mostly observed, but occasionally added a comment here or there.

The scientists were now gone. I'd let them go after Nathias had dropped the devastating news. It had been silent for a long time in the office since then, neither Markus nor I saying a word, but the raging turmoil I was receiving through the bond from him was more than enough to let me know how he was doing.

"So, what are we going to do?" I finally spoke.

It took a moment for Markus to reply, and when he did, the anger was clear in his voice. "About what?"

"Getting your father back."

The other man turned to me with question in his eyes. "What makes you think this is our problem to do anything about?"

I blinked at the other man. I knew how angry he was, and he had to know I knew, so his words surprised me.

"Well, who else is there? You heard what Nathias said. The Fordex is all but dead in space, and I'm sure Admiral Vang is preoccupied with repairs and recovery for at least the next few days. Besides, I don't think saving a king is under his responsibility unless the Emperor ordered him to do it. I would think that would be the Vanguard's job, since it is the Kings' military force. And your father already put me in charge of understanding the Shixxaminti better, so….

"Understanding the enemy better and going on a rescue mission are two completely separate things. Besides, you've barely looked over the data."

"Then who, Markus? We can't just sit around and wait for someone to decide to do something. Your father has been taken by the enemy, and I don't think it was to make nice. I've looked over these files enough to know what they did to Vang. How much information do you think they will get from your father about the Empire? And how long do you think he will last under their interrogation? Do you think they will be nice enough to let him go like they did with Vang? Are you really okay with just sitting back and seeing if your father comes back on his own?"

All I said about Rainus was true. It would be detrimental to the Empire for them to have access to yet another high-level person, but this was more about my personal feelings. I hadn't known Rainus long, but I liked him and was already considering him a friend. And I was not about to let these alien assholes fuck with my friend, not if there was something I could do about it. And already, my mind was formulating ideas on how to get Rainus back.

Markus clenched his jaw as he stared straight ahead, lost in his own thoughts. The turmoil I was getting from him seemed to worsen to the point where it felt like he might explode from the inside out. I slowly reached out a hand and settled it on his arm closest to me.

"Markus, talk to me. This is obviously upsetting you."

The other man didn't respond, but he didn't shrug off my hand either. Instead of pushing him, I let him take his time. I even reached down into myself to find that feeling of soothing calm and nudged it toward him. I felt the emotion leave me and settle into Markus, and immediately, the raging storm inside him started to cool.

I took my hand back and blinked at it for a moment. I then looked to Markus, who was eyeing me with a little smile.

"Did I just––"

"Yes," he said. "You used to do that when we were kids, you know, especially if I woke up from a bad dream."

"I didn't even know I could do that." I said as I looked at my hand, still trying to figure out how I had done that.

"It's an ability of the Empathic Dome-ni. Is that the first time you remember doing it?"

I nodded. "Yep."

"You know. I wonder if when Aragon blocked your memories, it also blocked your Dome-ni abilities, or maybe not fully blocked them, but muffled them. You did that emotional push thing almost as soon as you could talk."

"You think he muffled my Dome-ni on purpose?"

Markus shrugged. "Don't know. Maybe you should ask Master Kiev. He'd probably have an idea, at least."

I settled my hand back down on my lap. "Yeah, I might just have to do that."

"Thanks." He gave a slight bow of the head.

The calm I sent him was still in effect. I wondered how long it would last. I wondered too if I could do it again, or what other abilities I could do with my Empathic Dome-ni. But realized this wasn't the time to dive deeper.

"So?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

A solemnness came over Markus's face as he refocused back on our original conversation. "This is weird for me. I've been running away from him for so long…"

He trailed off, and I could feel some of his turmoil come back, but it was greatly reduced compared to what it had been.

"I get that. If there is someone better to do this, then let's call them."

After a moment, Markus shook his head. "No, you are right. We are as good as anyone to get things going. The longer he is in captivity, the less chance we have of getting him back."

That thought settled like a stone in my gut. "Yeah."

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"The first problem will be to track him. You heard Nathias. The Shixx have left the Sora System with no indication of where they have gone, and we don't have a way of tracking them over long distances yet unless they make their presence known. And Jamiss was significantly injured."

"Then, our first step should be calling the College and see how bad his injuries are and if he will wake up anytime soon."

I felt a spike of determination surge through Markus. "Alright. This may take a minute. I'm sure the College is a mess right now."

"That's fine. I'll start working on the rest of the plan." I turned back to the desk and the terminal and let out a long breath.

At that moment, I felt a doubt. What the fuck was I thinking? Was I really going to lead a rescue for King Rainus against a largely mysterious and superiorly advanced alien race? I shook it off. It wasn't like I had to do this alone. I had people to help me. I was just getting the ball rolling. That's all.

Markus stepped into the corner of the room to make his call so as not to disturb me. And I went back to look through the data, Vang's data files, realizing yet again how little information we had on them. What we needed was a definitive way to hurt the enemy enough to distract them so a team could be sent in to get Rainus. I noticed Vang had mentioned the Shixxaminti appeared to be sensitive to a certain frequency, and they were going to test it in the next engagement. Had it been successful?

There was no new information from the battle at Sora X, so I pulled up Admiral Vang's contact information that I found in Rainus's files. I sent the Admiral a quick recorded message asking for updated information on his latest engagement with the enemy, explaining that I was helping to put together a rescue for King Rainus and needed anything he could send me as soon as possible. I marked the message as urgent before sending it.

I then realized that maybe I should get any information the College had as well, but before I could do that, a message popped up on the terminal that was still directly linked to my unity ring. It was a message tagged with Rainus's identification number. I stared at the sentence on my screen for a long moment, wondering what this was about and how he had sent it to me if he was a captive of the Shixx.

Do you wish to accept forwarded data recordings?

I selected yes and sat back as my terminal received an influx of new information. It was multiple recordings. Four from what I could tell, and they were all at different angles outside the Protectorate Auditorium and Lecture Hall as individuals in black MX4 suits met the enemy in battle. A moment later, another recording popped up. This was from inside the auditorium, which had a close-up angle of Rainus as he met with the Shixxaminti.

Jackpot.

I smiled at Rainus's forethought. Not only had he gotten as many recordings of the invaders as possible, he'd also thought to have them sent to me. I checked the data files, and they confirmed that they were automatically forwarded to me after four hours of ended recording. I wondered why the four-hour delay. Maybe Rainus had wanted to view them himself before he had sent them along? Regardless, I had them now, even if I was a little disappointed that they were automatically forwarded. I had hoped Rainus had sent them himself, which would mean that he had at least some autonomy. I decided to try calling the King just in case.

After the third call with no answer, I gave up. I did, however, leave him a recorded message, telling him I had received his recordings, and that we were working on a solution and that he should hold on in case, by some miracle, he could check his messages. I kept it vague in case the enemy had a way of intercepting his messages. I didn't want to outright tell them we were coming for Rainus. Though they had abducted a King, the Shixxaminti would be complete idiots if they didn't expect some sort of response or retaliation.

"Bad news," Markus said. The look on his face said it all, but I waited for him to tell me anyway. "Jamiss's wounds are severe. In fact, he may not make it. So far he's holding on, but between the broken bones that need to mend, significant injury to two major organs, and one that has to be regrown, they don't expect him to be conscious for at least three days. And that's taking into consideration his advanced healing with the bond. If it hadn't been for that, he'd be dead right now."

"Damn," I blew out a breath.

That had been the best idea I had about trying to locate the Shixx. I mean, we could wait until they did something that showed us where they were, but if they had already left the Sora System, there was no other way of finding them. Not in time to do Rainus any good. Unless the Shixxaminti released him after they got what they wanted out of the King, but I wasn't inclined to believe that they would. I was quite certain the only reason they had let Vang go was because they had wanted to deliver a message to my father.

I felt the surge of frustration from Markus breaking through the calmness I had given him. I felt my frustration mirror his. I didn't want this to be the end before we even got things going. Thoughts of my family on Earth rose in my mind. I had already gone through so much loss; I wasn't ready to lose anyone else.

Suddenly, a thought came to me. "What if the College bonded a second Protector to Rainus?"

Markus looked at me for a long moment. "You realize that sort of thing isn't normally done. A second bonding can interfere with the first one, along with other possible complications."

I knew that to some degree. Razivi had told me all about the possible side effects of being bonded to Dad and Markus at the same time, but most of that was because of the double bonding to Markus. Were there still side effects with two single bonds?

"I understand that, but it can't be as bad as what Razivi told me about our bond. Besides, we don't even know if Jamiss will make it. I hate to sound callous about this, but I think it's worth the risk to help get a King back. Don't you?"

Markus' jaw tightened. "I do, but I'm not sure Protectorate Command will think so. They have rarely approved second bondings. Only in the most extreme cases, or in your case, because your father demanded it."

"Well, I would say this is an extreme case. Tell them I suggested the idea if you think it will help, or maybe I should call them myself?"

Markus waved a hand at me. "No, I'll do it. He's my father. It's my right to ask, and I know the quickest channels to get their attention about this."

I nodded as I watched Markus retreat to the other side of the room. I couldn't help but notice that he took a deep breath before he tapped his unity ring to place the call. I turned back to my research. I made it almost to the end of the confrontation between Rainus and the Shixxaminti before Markus came back over to the desk.

"Captain Dexter said he'd talk it over with Shiperii and Foster, but considering it is a King at risk, and their patron King at that, he thinks this will get approved. He understands that this needs to happen fast, so they may not even inform us before they bond a new Protector for him."

"Doesn't it take Rainus's blood?" I already knew the specifics of what was required for the bond from my contract, even if I had not been conscious of it actually happening.

"After a noble is bonded with their first Protector, the Protectorate always keeps blood in cryo-storage just in case an emergency bonding is needed."

"Oh, okay. Well, how long is it going to take?" I meant in the deciding and the selection process. I already knew the bonding itself didn't take long at all.

Markus shrugged. "Like I said, Dexter knows this needs to be rushed, so I imagine if they are going to do a second bonding, it will be within hours, if not sooner. Command will pick one of its top-performing Pledges."

"Did you suggest Gayle?" I asked as I remembered that we still owed her an explanation and an apology, and getting her a King for a charge might just be a big enough apology.

Markus shook his head. "I thought about it, but I think I need to talk to her before thrusting her into another crappy situation without her consent."

I nodded. "Yeah, alright." I motioned to the recording that I had stopped, rewound it to the beginning, and pressed play. "Here, I think you are going to want to see this."