Just outside the debris field of the destroyed space station near Bezmore Six...

A steady pounding like that of a madman wailing away on a drum assaulted the inside of Vang’s head. Each throb sent jolts of agony through his body, and it was a great effort to simply hold a single thought. His current thought was why he was in so much pain. A moan sounded, and it took a moment for him to realize he had been the one to utter it.

Something moved near him, and then a booming voice spoke somewhere directly above. “Admiral? I think he’s awake.”

Another voice just as loud and obnoxious replied. “Truly? It’s about time. He should have woken hours ago after his last treatment.”

The voices caused the throbbing pain in his head to increase sharply and now it was like mini explosions were detonating inside his skull. The pain made it difficult to breath and he felt a blackness trying to engulf him. But Vang steeled himself with his Dome-ni that not only allowed him to press his will onto others, but could be used to shore up his own determination. His perseverance was like a unmovable anchor as he refused to succumb to the darkness, and the oblivion of unconsciousness receded.

“Stop all the yavit yelling,” Vang managed to spit out between the hammering throbs.

There was a long hesitation before the second voice spoke up again. “Forgive us, Admiral,” the man said more softly. The sound still sent small spikes of pain into his skull, but at least the explosions were gone––for now.

“It seems you are hypersensitive to noise. We will endeavor to speak more quietly,” the second man continued.

The man’s words took a moment too long to register, but once it did he followed it up with another thought. Why was he sensitive to sound and why did it feel his head was about to be busted open from the inside?

“You’ve been through a bit of an ordeal. We weren’t even sure you were going to make it,” the second voice replied.

Had he spoken the question out loud? And what ordeal was this man talking about? Who was the man anyways and where the yavit was he? Vang tried to open his eyes, but found he could not. He tried to sit up. He moved just a fraction, but that was all he was able to manage. Panic clawed at his midsection. What the yavit was going on?!

A hand settled on his shoulder, and the voice spoke again. “Easy, Admiral. You must rest for a while longer before you attempt to move. You have only received four treatments so far, and will need quite a few more before you are back to full health.”

“What’s going on? Why can’t I open my eyes? Where am I? Who are you?” Vang demanded.

“Admiral, this is Captain-Major Wexlen, sir,” the first voice that had spoken earlier replied, and now that his thoughts were coming a little easier, Vang recognized the Captain’s voice. “Attending you is Caretaker Kessler. Forgive us for not making that clear sooner. The Caretaker has you restrained and your vision blocked for now. You suffered a rather significant head trauma and your are being restrained and vision covered until you can get a few more treatments. The Caretaker was concerned about aggravating your injuries before they had longer to heal.”

Head trauma? How the yavit had that happened? “I don’t understand. How did this happen? The last thing I remember…” Vang trailed off as he searched his memories for exactly that. But the effort took a lot longer than it should, and for a moment, Vang could recall… nothing.

Then in the haze of fog he could see the bridge of the Maxem. He could see Captain Leonid and the other officers at their consoles, and everyone of them wore a look of shock on their faces. Vang cursed as he remembered that moment of his own shock in realizing that somehow the ghost ship had gotten across the border and into Ethia.

“Admiral? What’s wrong?” Wexlen asked.

Vang strained to remember what had happened after that terrifying discovery, but there was nothing. His memories stopped there like it was a moment frozen in time. There was nothing to tell him what happened next, or to explain why he was waking up now in the condition he was in with a man who should have been on the other side of the border looking for the lost crew of the Xlero.

“Captain–Major, where is Captain Leonid? Why are you on the Maxem?” Vang demanded.

There was an uncomfortable pause before Wexlen cleared his throat and spoke. “Admiral, you are currently aboard the Fordex. We came back into the Empire to respond to your personal distress beacon here at Bezmore Six. And I’m afraid I have to inform you that Captain Leonid and the crew of the Maxem were lost in the destruction of the Maxem nearly two days ago. You are the sole survivor.”

A coldness rushed through Vang’s veins as he heard the news, not only that the Maxem and her crew was gone, but the fact that he’d missed time, at least two days of it. What had happened after they realized that the ghost ship had gotten past the border? And how was it that Vang was the only one to survive whatever had happened? He felt a pang of grief at the thought of all those lost Legionaries, especially Captain Leonid.

“Wexlen, I need you to walk me through exactly what transpired on your end.” Vang made every effort to keep his voice devoid of emotion, especially panic even though his whole being seemed to be quivering with apprehension of what this all meant––the Empire was being invaded! But he’d been trained well, and that training demanded that he stay calm under pressure, no matter what. First he needed information, and then he could act.

The Captain–Major then spent the next few minutes explaining how he had still been searching for the lost crew of the Xlero––with still no results, by the way––when he received Vang’s personal distress. Wexlen already knew Vang and the Maxem had been responding to a distress beacon from Bezmore Six, so once he received Vang’s, Wexlen didn’t hesitate to take the Fordex and the other ships he’d been using in the search to respond.

Once their small fleet of ships arrived at Bezmore Six, they found the debris field of the station that had been destroyed and that of the Maxem as well. Vang’s life pod had been found on the drift close to Bezmore Six’s atmosphere broadcasting a distress beacon that all high ranking officers had implanted on their persons. The pod had been promptly brought aboard the Fordex and Vang was discovered inside injured and unconscious.

“We’ve been searching the system and surrounding areas for what might have caused the destruction of the Maxem, but we’ve been here two days and not found a thing. We were hoping you might have more information on that,” Wexlen concluded his briefing.

Vang felt his whole body clinch up. “You’ve seen nothing?”

“No, sir.”

The Admiral felt himself break into a cold sweat. Had the ghost ship moved on? Was it even the ghost ship that had attacked and destroyed the Maxem, or something else? If Wexlen hadn’t made the same conclusion as they had on the Maxem, then maybe he had yet to run the same scan as they had.

“Have you checked the Maxem’s debris field and compared it to the Xlero readings of the ghost ship?”

There was silence for a long moment before the Captain responded. “No, sir. Should we have? But that would mean––”

“I know what it means, Captain.” Vang interrupted. “Run the scan immediately!” He snapped a little more than he intended too.

Sharp boot falls sounded, which hopefully meant the man was doing as he was told. Vang could hear the slight rustle of another person move nearby. In all the excitement, he had forgotten that the Caretaker was still in the room.

“Caretaker, how extensive is my injury, and how long will it be until I can blasted move again, or at least get my vision back?” Again, Vang heard far more irritation in his voice than he liked, but being laid up like this was yavit inconvenient. If things were as bad as he thought they were, Vang needed to be at his best.

The Caretaker’s thick baritone responded. “You received a severe blow to the head that caused significant fractures to your skull, retina detachment of your left eye, and a brain bleed. If we had been even an hour later, I doubt we could have saved you, Admiral. As it is, we must take precautions to keep you still as much as possible until the fractures can be fully healed. The bleed itself is gone, brain swelling is down significantly, and the retina should be fully rehabilitated within two more treatments.”

Vang blew out an irritated breath. He supposed the news was good that he was alive and well and on his way to being healed, but it certainly wouldn’t be fast enough. His his mind whirled with all the things he needed to do, should be doing now, and trying his best to hold in his anger because of all the things he should have had done in the last two days, but had been wasting time being unconscious instead.

“Caretaker, is my unity ring anywhere nearby?”

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Vang might be immobile, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t still put things in motion. He needed to make the fleets aware of what was going on.

There was some shuffling and the man responded. “Yes, Admiral. I have it here. Surprisedly, it was undamaged and it’s blinking red. You must have a priority message. Would you like me to play it?”

Annoyance rushed through him at the distraction from what he needed to be focused on, though he wasn’t surprised at having a priority message, or several. He had been out of contact for several days now without notice that he would be. Someone somewhere must have been having a meltdown about that.

“Yes,” he replied in a surly tone.

There was a moment’s pause before a very familiar voice began to speak. “Ko-tus, I’ve been calling you for several hours now. Why aren’t you responding? Anyways, I need you to get back to Sora X immediately. Adar’s gone missing, and I’m quickly loosing my patience with those at the College. Rainus is getting involved now too, but I’m concerned no one is taking this seriously enough. Call me back as soon as you get this.”

Cold dread washed through him. The Heir was missing? How the yavit did that happen?

“When did I receive that message?” Vang asked.

“The time and date stamp says it’s been a little over two days now, sir.”

The Emperor must have called when the Maxem had been dealing with the Bezmore Six ordeal, otherwise, Vang would have noticed it. Yavit! He did not have time for this! But it had been two days and King Rainus was on it, so maybe the Prince had been found already. Vang could only hope. He certainly didn’t have the time, or the ability to go tracking down that young man. He’d given up too much of his valuable time to him already.

“Is that the only priority message? Are there any others from the Emperor?”

The Caretaker took a moment to respond probably because he was scrolling through the call list. “Well, sir, there are three more from the Emperor, but they are dated and timed before the one I just played, and all titled ‘Missing Son, Call Me Now!’ or a variance of that. I’m assuming they are all about the Heir, which we just heard about. There are also several more urgent messages from varying Commanders and Admirals. All of them have heading titles of ‘Where Are You?’ or close enough to that. Then there is one from a Master Kiev titled “Mutual Acquaintance In Need Of Your Immediate Assistance”.

Vang immediately knew who the Master was referring to. “When was Master Kiev’s message received?”

“That one was sent four hours ago, sir, but it didn’t come first because seems it and the others are at a lower priority.”

Which Vang had set-up on his network on purpose. All the Emperor’s messages were automatically kicked to the top of the list, and the most recent urgent one would play as soon as he opened his ring’s message center.

Exasperation filled Vang as his mind went back to Kiev’s message. Obviously, the Heir situation had yet to be resolved. And even if Vang really did have more pressing matters and recuperating from injury, the Emperor would want Vang involved in some way or another.

“Play it,” Vang barked.

“Of course.”

Master Kiev’s voice sounded in the room. “Admiral, I hope you get this message in time. I do not want to use names, but our mutual acquaintance has immediate need of your assistance. I’m not sure what you have heard of the situation here on Sora, but he’s been under threat almost since he got here. He is in a safe place for now, but we do not know how much longer that will last. Our mutual acquaintance is requesting an immediate pickup and personal transport back to his home. You can reach me at this number at your earliest convenience.”

Who the yavit was threatening the Heir now? And at the College of all places? Shouldn’t the Protectorate be able to handle this? It was what they did after all. It was at least good news that Kiev’s message indicated the Heir wasn’t missing any longer, or at least Master Kiev knew where he was. Though, it didn’t bode well that Kiev seemed so paranoid about someone overhearing their conversation.

Before Vang could ask the Caretaker anything else, he heard a door swish open and sounds of boots approaching. The sound came to a halt close to where Vang laid.

“Admiral. We ran the scan you asked, and there was a signature match for the ghost ship on the debris of the Maxem. We ran it on the space station debris too just to be sure, and it was there was well.” There was a distinct tightness in Wexlen’s voice as he said all this.

Vang quickly switched gears back to the more urgent problem. “I knew about the space station, but thank you for confirming the Maxem. It is as I feared. The worst part is I have no recollection of what happened after we confirmed that the ghost ship had killed the station. My memories stop there.

“Captain, I need you to put out a code black immediately. Make sure it’s goes out Empire-wide to the Legion and the Vanguard, but especially to all those in the western sector. We need to let people know there has been a breach of the border. And make sure everyone has a copy of the ghost ship’s signature so they can be identified if it shows up.

“Also let them know that at this time, we have not found an effective weapon against this ship. It seems to be impervious to direct plasma fire and Mark 12’s. Its first strike also appears to be to neutralize a ship’s power grid, though the destruction of the space station and Maxem indicates this ship is advancing to full out attack.

“At this time, I’m ordering that once the ghost ship is identified to not engage. Retreat and report the sight of the ship. So far we’ve only had a single battle cruiser go up against it at a time. I want more ships gathered to face it at once. Until then, I want as much information on the ship and where it’s going. And if possible, I’d like to know why the escalation from neutralizing to full out destruction.”

“Admiral if I may pose a possibility for that last part of what you said?” Wexlen asked.

Vang attempted to nod to the Captain, and remembered that his head was immobilized. So instead, he held back a frustrated sigh and said, “Go head.”

“Well, sir. It seems that maybe they first wanted to neutralize us because they needed information too. From what I gathered from what happened with the Xlero, and its trip beyond the border, that the very first contact was made not long after you left the Empire with the power going out ship wide. I don’t think they moved on the Xlero at that time because they were watching to see how you would respond.

“Later, when the Xlero came back and was within an hour of the Ethia border, it knocked out your power again. I think that, once more, they wanted to see how you would react. I think it’s also no coincidence that you were attacked within a short distance from the Empire’s border. They let you evacuate the ship, because they wanted to see how the barrier came down.

“Then, several days later, the Xlero shows up inside the border with the skeleton crew you left behind all gone, and everyone wondering what happened. What if those on the ghost ship figured out how to use the code to take the barrier down and sent the Xlero as a test, or maybe they even followed the Xlero right into the Empire? They then set the Xlero adrift, knowing we’d find it and cause us to puzzle out how it had gotten there with no crew. And while we were busy wasting ships and resources looking for the crew where the Xlero had already been, the ghost ship was now loose to do and go as it pleased.

“I know I have no proof of any of this, but I’ve had a lot of time to think during the search for the Xlero crew and the possible motivations of this ghost ship and those driving it. Even if only half of what I said was true, or none of it, we do have proof the ghost ship is now within Empire’s borders, because it destroyed a space station and a battle cruiser.

“Whatever it’s intentions, those on the ghost ship are not friendly, and I think the escalation happened, because they got what they wanted––a way into the Empire. I don’t think they are just going to settle for knocking out a ship’s power any more, and I don’t think we are going to find the Xlero’s crew. I hate to be the one to say it, but I fear the crew is either dead or prisoners on the ghost ship.”

The room was deathly silent for a long moment as Vang took in the Captain’s words. The man had made some really good points and a decent hypothesis, but they were still just guesses. All Vang knew for sure was that they had a rogue ship destroying space stations and battle cruisers and perhaps more. One thing was for certain, they needed to stop throwing their resources at the search for the Xlero crew and put it fully on finding and stopping the invading ship.

“You are making a lot of assumptions, Captain. But I can’t deny that it all makes a certain kind of sense. For now, let’s stop the search for the Xlero crew. I know we all want to know what happened to them, but our attention needs to be on finding this ship and destroying it.

“At this point, I don’t even care why it’s here. It destroyed Ethian property, a Zahnian battle cruiser, and killed thousands of people. It’s made its intentions clear that it is hostile. So we will treat it as such. I want you to call Admiral Havoreat and have him ready to move the seventh fleet from Vega Prime at a moments notice.

“Until then, I want this entire star system and surrounding area searched specifically for the ghost ship signature with all our ships and the Vanguard in this sector under highest alert. I want to hear the moment the ghost ship is spotted. And while that’s happening, I want a Mind Bender to try and access my memories of before you picked me up in that life pod. You do have a few on the Fordex, don’t you Wexlen?”

Before the Captain could speak up, Caretaker Kessler butted in.“Admiral, I insist that you reconsider that action at least until you have had a few more treatments. You are still in a delicate condition. I fear that a mind probe of any kind might cause permanent damage to your brain.”

Vang wished he could shoot the Caretaker an acid glare. Instead, he settled for letting a sizable amount of his anger and frustration into his voice as he spoke. “I appreciate the warning, but I’m going to do this regardless. We are facing a possible incursion and the answers we seek to stop them might very well be locked in my mind. I am willing to risk the damage.”

“Admiral,” Wexlen spoke up this time, “with all due respect, you are the Supreme Commander of the Legion. We need you––all of you––leading us, not some brain addled version of you. Let us take a little time to at least reduce the risk as much as we can.

“And you are right, I do have eleven Mind Benders in my current fleet of ships. Let Caretaker Kessler talk to them, and see which one would have the most delicate of touch. Allow yourself to get at least one more treatment done, and then we can have the Mind Bender give it a try. That will only delay us, what? Four hours, or so?”

“Five,” the Caretaker replied immediately. “If you count the time he will be in the Remaker. His next treatment is due to begin in four hours.”

“Five hours then. I think it’s a good compromise, don’t you think?” Wexlen finished.

Vang sighed. “Yes, I suppose I can wait until then.” He had to admit that he was feeling quite tired. The stress and conversations had taken a lot out of him. He welcomed the idea of a treatment. He always felt better after each one. His mind drifted back to the other problem he was facing. “I have a few calls to make anyways, and one of them is to the Emperor.”

“I did report your injury to the Imperial Seat as is required in case of your incapacitation. I have not received a reply from the Emperor, but I know he’s aware of your situation,” Wexlen spoke up again.

“Thank you, Captain. Go see to my orders and round up those Mind Benders. I will have Kessler help me with making my calls.”

“Of course, Admiral,” once more the sound of boots echoed through the room as he exited.

“Caretaker, do you mind?” Vang asked. He supposed he could get one of the junior officers to do it, but it seemed too much of an effort to track one down, especially since the Caretaker was already here. He’ll have to talk to Wexlen about assigning him a helper when he next checked in, not that Vang was thrilled about needing a helper in the first place.

“Not at all, sir,” Kessler responded.

Vang readied himself mentally for the conversation that was to follow. He knew it would not be pleasant, but then, Vang suspected there would be a lot of unpleasantness in his forceable future.