Chapter 85: The Emperor
Location: Magicon Empire; Magicon System; VS Stargazer
It only takes a few jumps, as my parents jump ridiculous distances. I’m not even needed for a second jump and pretty much before I know it, we appear close to a wormhole and a few space stations around it. “Your turn again,” Mom smiles. “Just this wormhole and we enter the Magicon System, more commonly known as the Capital.”
“The whole system is just called Capital?” I ask with a raised eyebrow and Mom waves me ahead.
“Just do the jump, you’ll see.” So, I do as she said, still wondering what will await me on the other side.
When the windows clear again after the surprisingly short trip through the wormhole, I can say I was NOT ready. I thought, I’ve seen busy systems, but this is just something else. We immediately get contacted by a nearby station and are to state our destination, so that they can send us a flight path we have to follow because otherwise we’d probably collide with one of the countless other ships here in the system.
Luckily, Dad takes over and names our destination: Benson Moon. The man who contacted us does a short doubletake, but Arnold must have sent him something because, seconds later he confirms with “Of course, Duke Valterion. Your flight path will be there shortly.”
Shortly describes it nicely, because less than thirty seconds later, we’ve got our path, and Clara sets the course.
“So Benson Moon, huh?” I ask my parents and they both chuckle.
“Yeah, it’s a bit over the top, but it’s where our ancestors founded The Empire… It’s been the center of government ever since, and the Benson family has their main residence on the moon. Well, I guess every one of the Big Five has a few houses there. We’ll stay at ours after all,” Dad says in a bit of scholarly voice.
I nod slowly. Things are starting to get interesting again. Who would have expected that I would meet the Emperor, who is also my great-grandfather today… Wait, they said FBC is also here in the Capital. “Soo, is my college also on that moon or somewhere else?”
Mom shakes her head. “No, but it’s close. Both the Royal Academy and FBC are on the planet below. Wanna guess how they named it?”
That’s a trick question, right? And she’s smiling broadly… “Don’t tell me they named it Earth 2 or something?”
“No, but it’s close. They named it Terra, the Latin word for Earth.”
I shake my head at the irony. I’m the only person alive who will set foot on both planets. I look at the holographic representation of the system before me. With a few gestures, all the other ships in the system vanish, and only the six planets and countless space stations remain. Terra is the third planet and besides Benson Moon, there is a second moon orbiting the planet. Terra is the only planet that looks like it has more residential areas than industrial. The other planets are all covered with insanely big production halls and some other things. I guess, that is all Magicon Incorporated. When I ask, Mom nods in confirmation.
“So why isn’t the Valterion System so crowded? I mean we’re building starships, and they are way bigger.”
This time Dad answers. “That’s exactly the reason. Conor thought a bit more ahead and used a different system for all our production. It’s just as busy as here, but we’re not living there.”
Ah, that makes sense… And I guess relocating all this, would be too much of an effort. I shrug inwardly. What am I to say… I mean if it works, why not? We slowly get closer to Benson Moon, and the traffic gets less and less. It’s like an invisible barrier around the moon and we immediately get hailed again when we cross it. Dad takes care of it again, and we get assigned a docking arm at one of the space stations around the moon.
After docking, we just grab our things and Dad teleports us to the Valterion estate on the moon’s surface. Now that I think of it, the moon is about the size of Acordus 3. Crazy, the planet, I grew up on is just moon-sized. Okay, it was small, but still. My parents show me to my room and tell me to go to sleep early. Tomorrow, we’re to meet the Emperor and most of the other Dukes and Duchesses. Yeah, perfect news for a peaceful sleep… This is not making me nervous at all.
I must have fallen asleep sometime, as I slowly wake up the next morning. Clara tells me to hurry up a bit if I want to eat something before the meeting, so I take a quick shower and dress up afterward. Mom handed me a nice-looking purple dress yesterday, so I just take it and put it on. It fits me perfectly, and besides being purple, there are also a few glittering diamonds along the seams. I twirl before the mirror and giggle in excitement. It’s so beautiful!
My heels click when I walk down the stairs and find my parents already waiting at the breakfast table. “Good morning, Sara, did you sleep well?”
“Not really, Mom… Telling me right before sleeping what would happen today was not the best idea.”
She gets a bit of an awkward expression. “Right, sorry… Here, let me fix you.” She waves her hand, and suddenly, any lingering tiredness is washed away. She does it again, and I feel something happening to my face. Then she hands me a small mirror. Where did that come from?
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I take it and take a look. I’m wearing perfect make-up now! Holy smokes. It frames my face and accentuates my green eyes. Just wow. “Thanks, Mom!”
“You’re welcome. Those are Utility spells by the way. Keep an eye out for them at college, they are lifesavers. Now grab something to eat, we’re already late.” She winks.
I just take something small, I’m not that hungry anyway, then Dad grabs us again with his Teleportation spell and we’re somewhere else.
If this is the Emperor’s palace, then it’s not like I expected. I was thinking about gold and gemstones on the walls with red carpets and all, but the reality is just a building like every other. We step out of the room we arrived in, and Dad leads us along the hallway. I nudge him and ask him why it’s looking so mundane.
He barks a laugh. “I thought you noticed by now. Do we look like the typical Duke and Duchess out of your stories?” He indicates Mom and himself.
“Well no…” I say and Dad nods sagely.
“Exactly, the others aren’t that different, and especially the Bensons are just living their normal life. There is no need for gold and all that stuff. We’re just people, even if some upstart Nobles think differently,” he grumbles the last part under his breath.
The hallway ends with a door, and this time, someone is standing beside the entrance. A tall man wearing a uniform nods at us approaching and knocks at the door. A few seconds later, the door opens and shows a big room beyond. A table in the middle is already occupied, and I immediately recognize almost half of them. They look exactly like their ancestors!
I take in a sharp breath. Those are the most important people of The Empire! Mom gently puts a hand on my back, and we both follow Dad into the room. A man, who I recognize as an Axtendus from Axtendus Agriculture, with blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, speaks up. “What’s this about Aidan, and who’s the girl?”
Now everyone looks at me and I cringe a bit. They didn’t tell them? The slightly older man at the head of the table gasps. He has green eyes and brown hair, that starts to get grey at his temples. My brain takes a second until I make the connection. He looks like Ferdinand Benson. It’s the Emperor, and I guess he just realized who I am.
Suddenly, he disappears and stands before me a fraction of a second later. Then I find myself in a big hug. “Is that you, Sara,” he whispers, and I tell him yes. The hug gets even tighter. “How? And where have you been?”
Dad saves me and puts a hand on great grandpa’s? shoulder. “Easy there, John, you’re strangling her.”
He chuckles and releases me, then he turns around and faces the others again. Most of them have various expressions of disbelief on their faces, but a few of them also have wide eyes, after they realize who I am. “Everyone, I present you Sara Valterion, my long-lost great-granddaughter!”
Now everyone realizes and stares at me with wide eyes and open mouths. Dad takes the moment to chime in. “She also comes with superb news.”
Now the expressions turn to curiosity, and I have to suppress a glare at Dad. Really, he just throws me into the water like that?
The Emperor signals to everyone to quiet down, and they all sit back down at the table. A few of them jumped up earlier. My parents and I also sit down with the others.
Everyone still looks at me, and I clear my throat. “Uhh, hi… Nice to meet you, I’m Sara.” That earns me a few chuckles, as the Emperor just said that. The others introduce themselves as well, but I forget most of their names in my nervousness. I guess, I have to look them up on the net later…
“The news,” Clara whispers in my ear when I’m just staying silent. Right, I’ve got to tell them about Earth minus the Worldender Ship part, at least for now.
“Right, as you all know, I was kidnapped as a little girl. Due to different circumstances, including a pirate attack on my kidnappers, I grew up in the Estriduros Republic… In case you’ve never heard of it, it’s on the other end of the galaxy and an anti-Mage nation.” That earns me looks of sympathy from everyone and I continue.
“It’s all not important right now, but other circumstances led to me getting lost inside a collapsing wormhole.” Now that gets a few shouts of disbelief and Dad even has to quiet the others down. “I somehow got pulled out of hyperspace and found myself in a half-destroyed and completely uninhabited star system.”
I pause for dramatic effect and Duchess Song, I think her name was Xin, gets impatient. “That’s all nice and good, but can you come to the point? We don’t have all day.”
I grin back at her. “I’m already at the point. Care to guess which system I landed in?”
The Magnus Schmidt look-alike from Armortec is the first to catch on. I think his name is Peter, but it also could be Paul… I should have paid more attention. “There’s no way!” He calls out and Duchess Song looks at him.
“What is it, Pascal?” Oops, looks like both my guesses were wrong.
“She’s talking about the Solar System and Earth, right?” He looks at me and I nod. “Everything else wouldn’t have made sense.”
“No way!” She exclaims, and everyone else looks shocked as well.
Dad comes to the rescue again and stands up. “Yes way,” he chuckles and waves his arm. A holographic projection of the pictures Maja and I shot in the Solar System appears. “We compared the pictures with archive data, and it all checks out. Sara also brought data from computers from both the Magicon and Valterion planetary headquarters.” Another wave has the ad from the Magitech oven running, and everyone stares in silence.
Duke Axtendus speaks up. “So, the scientists were wrong and it didn’t take 20,000 years? The radiation is gone?”
Dad nods. “So it seems, we’ve had Sara checked out by our chief Doctor, and everything looks fine. There is no radiation poisoning or anything else. I’d say Earth is habitable again.”
The Emperor looks at me. “So where is it? Where is the Solar System?”
Ah dammit. This is going to be awkward! “I don’t know… I traced back my route through hyperspace when I returned from Earth… My ship didn’t keep any navigational data, as I had no reference points. Also, I forgot to do any long range scans that would have enabled us to triangulate the location through nearby stars, I‘m sorry… Don’t you have records about the location?”
He shakes his head. “No, we don’t… Shit, such great news, but still useless.”
I glance at Dad. “What about Conor’s message?”
He nods. “Yeah, we might have the coordinates in our vault… Sara found a message from Conor Valterion on Earth and it’s apparently the second part of something he left in the family vault. The problem is, it only unlocks after 20,000 years, but we’re working on it.”
The Emperor sighs, there is a bit of relief hidden in the tone. “Alright, keep me posted. A possible return to Earth… This is going to be great.” He looks back at me. “Thank you, Sara! I look forward to getting to know you better. Will you be joining RMA in the next semester? Your cousins are studying there as well.”
“Actually,” Mom starts, “that’s the other thing why we’re here. We’d like to keep Sara’s return and existence secret for a little while longer. So, I’d like to have your discretion. We still don’t know who was behind her kidnapping, and Sara isn’t ready to deal with all the Noble brats to give you a few reasons. Therefore, she will be joining FBC under a fake name.”
Especially the Noble brats comment earns her a few chuckles, and everyone gathered is completely understanding. They all affirm, that my existence will be kept under wraps, or at least inside the family. I sigh in relief.
The Emperor knocks on the table. “Alright, with this, everything is done for today, I wish you a nice stay here on Benson Moon. If you need anything, you know where to find me.” He stands up and looks at me. “Sara, will you join me for a bit?”
“Uhh, sure.”