0001 – Tempro
0003 – Conner
0097 – Ace
0101 – Shelby (mother ship)
0125 – Lars
0200 – Ellen
0403 – Johnathon
0667 – Marco
0778 – Jan
0798 – Celeste
0999 – Zan
1000 – Sherry

To Grow
——–

0301
0908
0098 (Lucy)

It had only been one day, just one day and he was already bored out of his mind. True he’d probably accomplished far more in that one day than any other but hell! When he’d sighed at the mountain of papers that Mary said he needed to sign he thought that it would move things a lot. After twenty-four hours he’d asked how long and Mary had responded only a week!

True they had only ninety years left now but Derrick felt as if he’d never catch up. Shaking his head and stretching Derrick got up to take a walk. Somehow he had to come up with a way to muddle through this faster. Smiling he was glad though, the week he’d just finished, a few things had been passed that he knew, and a few of the royals wouldn’t be pleased with at all.

Derrick had just made it near the training room when he saw a body flying through the door. Thing was, the body righted it’s self and almost bounced back into the room off the wall. Nodding Derrick went in and took a seat behind the students that were watching. Greeson was attempting to stop everything that Dempsy was throwing at him. Derrick’s mouth was hanging open as he watched or rather tried to watch the blurred motion of both men’s hands.

Suddenly both men stopped and bowed to Derrick, who growled at both men drawing a smile from Dempsy. “Sire I am reminded of something my old master once said. Something I had forgotten ’til recently. Destiny may be fickle like many people but she also is true to what her purpose is.”

Derrick could only shake his head and stare at Dempsy. “You mean that she may appear to change her mind a lot but what she intended always happens?”

Dempsy’s face lit up and a wide smile crossed his features. “Your Lordship is by far wiser than I had thought he was.”

Derrick nodded as the two combatants went back to what they were doing. Derrick could see that Greeson was by far better than he had been. A moment later Greeson was flying through the air with part of Dempsy’s shirt. A huge smile lit up Dempsy’s face. Finally the man was starting to get fast! At least now if he went up against her he’d have more of a chance of surviving but not much.

Derrick sat there for a while longer then went out the back area into bay 1. There he saw, one of the two ships that were growing. Shelby appeared next to him a moment later as he was walking. “Which one is…?” Derrick started.

“That is 0301 the new power matrix that you upgraded is supplying far more power to them than before. They still seem to be accelerating in their growth. When I put both of them into the matrix I never expected them to regen as fast as they are. We had gotten it down to six days; I’d say they should be ready in only five. Derrick this is the fastest that a ship has ever been grown!” Shelby told him fresh tears of joy in her eyes.

Derrick stopped and turned toward Shelby, “For all that you have done for me, for the men that I used to command. I feel that this is nothing; they all deserve a chance to live again. My god Shelby I don’t know how you could stand the emptiness, the solitude. I swear I would go mad.”

“It’s quite simple Derrick,” she replied. “I had your namesake to thank for that. He told me that one day someone would come, he believed in the empire that strongly; almost as strongly as you do. I told him I would wait; we spent a lot of time together. He left me many recordings to let his voice keep me ’til such time as someone came. My dearest Derrick, I had spent so long alone, I so many times was close to giving up. When I heard your thoughts that day I thought I might be starting to lose my reasoning.”

Derrick could see the renewed tears that were starting to fall anew. “I’m glad I actually listened I thought it was only a dream ’til you appeared.”

“Thank you again Derrick. Everything is finally starting to feel normal again. Mary has two of her children back, me, and one of my brothers. I have ten of my children back with another three on the way, including Lucy.” This last was almost whispered with a sense of pride and…? Derrick had to wonder was that wonder he was hearing in Shelby’s voice.

“Like I’ve told all of you time and again I feel more comfortable with you and the ships. You and them will and do always feel more alive to me than most of those biological beings I know.” Shelby could only nod the words seemed to be having a hard time coming. __________________________________________

Trianas cursed again for the tenth time when she saw the read out on her shoulder and arm. It was apparently going to take a day longer for the machine to heal her fully. Smiling a moment later she thought ah! Good! Now when I kill his little puppy of a student my revenge will taste that much sweeter!

Checking the bastard Emperor’s itinerary she made sure before she set a course for the third of the Nobles that the asshole was going to visit. As she laid back to let the machine go into full healing mode the dream started. The same nightmare she always had, the worse day of her life.

Trianas had always had anger issues though the birth of her son had severely curtailed it. He’d been the one thing in her life that she felt was perfect. God only knew that idiot of a husband of hers brought her no joy at all. Nothing brought her joy except for Jonah his smile and very presence always made her smile.

As soon as he could Jonah had entered the military like his father. Bored at home she’d started her martial arts training again with a vengeance. She can still see all the attempts her husband had tried to kill his half brother. Somehow he’d gotten their son involved in all the revenge. He’d wanted to wreck revenge upon all the men in his half brother’s squad.

She’d tried to warn him that the commander of the men was far too smart for all his plans. Not listening, he and his son had cooked up a plan to eliminate all of them at once. The commander had somehow known, how, she didn’t know but he did. Being out of position her son had tried to draw them back to the strike zone. An air strike was called in by his father. No one in the squad had bitten at the bait, realizing almost too late Jonah had managed to retreat most of the way out but was still caught at the edge of the blast.

An hour later Jonah had called in for a medic but he’d waited far too long. When they brought the teen in he was apologizing to his father who was scowling at him. Trianas had appeared behind them and heard everything. Enraged she watched her husband as he said it was a good thing the teen had died or he himself would have killed him for his failure.

Launching herself at Alexander her enraged strength quickly overcame the man as she battered and beat him within an inch of his life. Moments later several armed men appeared and took the man into custody. Leaning close she whispered, “you are dead you son of a bitch! You killed our son with your idiot ideas and plans for revenge. After I kill that bastard Derrick O’Toma, I am coming for you. I just thought I’d give you a chance that our son never had. Get better I want to savor it when I watch you die!” Then she walked away, a sly smile appearing on the man’s battered face.

A year later she had finished pushing herself as hard as she could learning what Dempsy taught her. Thinking herself far better, she attacked Dempsy full on. Dempsy though had sensed that something had changed in her and had not taught her the final steps in many killing techniques. The battle lasted a full minute as she fell she smiled, so her master wasn’t a fool after all. Good, killing him would mean so much more later.

Several months later she went to the Taiolan sect having lost track of Derrick she had to increase her skills as no other master would take her. They had all said they saw far too much darkness in her, scoffing she had left searching ’til she found the sect. They had laughed at the small woman who gave them no sense of danger ’til she killed several of the more advanced members. The leader stepped forward and they both went at it for 2 minutes ’til the leader found a way in and knocked her out.

“I want her in training as fast as possible! Her technique is superb!” The leader said. A year later she was the sect’s best assassin though unknown to them she was still searching for Derrick O’Toma. Another year and she grew bored and decided she wanted out. Telling the leader she was leaving, he’d reached for her and was just as suddenly laying on the ground gasping for breath.

“I told you,” she growled, “I am leaving, I only have a single thing to do, and then I am gone. If you don’t want to have to rebuild this sect, I suggest you leave me alone!” Walking out, she went to the training center. Spotting her ex husband Alexander she walked to him. Attacking him she was pleased that for once the ass was taking something serious. A minute later Alexander was on the floor with her standing over him. Leaning down she whispered in his ear, “For now I won’t kill you ’til after I kill that bastard Derrick O’Toma. Though if you do ever contact me, it had better be worth my time. It may slip my mind and I just might kill you anyway. As I said before you are a dead man.”

Alexander blinked and she was gone, a small smile crossed his face. ‘No,’ he thought, ‘he’d kill that bastard O’Toma not her then she have to kiss his ass!’ Across the room the woman smiled also, so she thought it was going to be a race, so be it! Finally free of the sect she decided to set herself up in business, why not? Might as well make some money that way she’d keep in shape and still be on the lookout for O’Toma!

Becoming very successful Trianas continued her quest to find O’Toma and her old teacher. What in the hell had happened except for the few that were dead now, the rest were gone. Her old master had vanished like smoke, O’Toma no one had seen in well over a year. Her ex-brother-in-law had vanished also. What was a girl to do when she had killing on her mind and none of the victims she wanted to torture to death? No wonder she was as frustrated as she was!

Now finally years later with the many she’d executed, the many she’d gutted, they were all out in the open once again. Smiling she would kill them all of them were all guilty, every last one of them. They would pay, oh how they would pay! This was her last thought as the sleep meds were finally kicking in a cold smile on her lips.
___________________________________________

Kimison and Rayburn were having problems with the new project, true she was alive, true she was responding extremely well. The only problem they were having was trying to keep the woman sat down long enough to get as much of her memories downloaded into her body as they could. They’d already had to comfort her several times about events in her memories that had happened. Those were the hardest times neither man wanted to make things difficult for her. The memories they were starting to get to were among the roughest that she had to take.

“I do not understand why I have to stay here, why can I not go out? If I am as you say royalty then I should be allowed.” The green eyed woman was almost begging of the two men.

Again both men had to explain that she had to have all of her memories. This was imperative before she could venture forth because without all of them she would be vulnerable to the many dangers out there. They were trying to get her complete and completely ready for everything. The problem was they had to add them slowly or it would cause her mind to turn in upon its self. This would lead to her losing her cognitive abilities possibly wiping out all that had been put there already.

Sighing the woman laid back and let the two Imperial technicians continue to work on her memories. Kimison looked over at Rayburn a moment then they both left the room.

“Rayburn what are we going to do? She keeps asking to leave how in the hell can we continue to justify keeping her here?” Kimison asked somewhat at a loss as to what to do.

“We could do as I suggested at the first,” Rayburn replied drawing a disgusted look from Kimison.

“You know that if we keep her asleep it will take five times as long for the brain to absorb all the information. The way Mary and Tempro were carrying on we have to get this finished as fast as possible. Besides I really don’t like the idea of drugging her for an extended period of time like that.” Kimison said trying to remain calm, after the suggestion that Rayburn had just made.

“Shit Kimison! I wasn’t talking about keeping her comatose the whole time. You really think I am that unfeeling of a monster?” Rayburn asked shocked.

“No, I just need her conscious as much as possible, look at how far she’s come now. I’d say another week and we ought to have it.” Kimison replied the sound of hope in his voice.

“A week!? Are you out of your mind!? There is no was that we can keep her cooped up that long. Then there is the emperor, how much longer do you think we can keep fooling him? The man isn’t an idiot he’s going to catch on sooner than later.” Rayburn said smirking at Kimison.

“I know, I know but I’m telling you it will delay her emergence longer. We’d have to keep her under at least 3 weeks. I for one am not prepared to do that. As a matter of fact I don’t think I CAN do that.” Kimison’s voice sounded determined.

“If you can come up with a better solution let’s hear it. It was after all, your idea.” Rayburn implied as he crossed his arms across his chest.

“I’m working on it; I may have found a way to increase the download without burning her out. I just hope it works I don’t really want to start all over. Plus if it works we could have her ready a few days sooner even with her sleeping.” Kimison told a skeptical Rayburn.

“We’ll see Kimison, we’ll see,” Rayburn said as he looked over the new data that Kimison was providing.
___________________________________________

In the small palace of Duke Roger Risen, the Duke was pacing. He and all the other Nobles had just received a proclamation. One that had the Duke about to chew nails. Where in the hell was the sect? He’d given up a small fortune to have them kill this bastard and so far nothing had happened!

Snatching his communicator he informed his communication room that he was making an extremely private and tight beam call. A few moments later there was a hiss then a voice came on, “it is forbidden to use this channel. What do you want?”

“Give me the leader I paid a lot of money to your sect and I am not seeing results!” The duke was almost screaming into the microphone device.

There was a moment of silence then a voice that chilled the Duke to the bone came on. “I am the leader now Duke Risen. Your contract is being worked on. Call this frequency again and we will target you, client or not.”

“You promised me quick results, yet I’ve seen nothing. I know that you don’t want word to reach all the planets that you failed on a contract! Don’t think you can threaten me I have many things in place if I suddenly turn up dead.” The duke was quick to tell the leader.

A huge smile broke out on the leader’s face this was his kind of scum, devious and underhanded. “That may be true my good Duke but you would be surprised exactly what you can survive and live through! Remember we will call, you don’t call again this is your only warning!” With that the line went dead. Smiling the Duke was more satisfied at least they were still on it.

The leader stepped from the communication panel and cuffed the man across the room. As the man’s skull cracked against the wall he sighed. What kind of poor example of filth were they sending him these days! Shaking his head he shuddered and connected to his wife.

A moment later a female voice hissed at him, “I should have known your ugly face would mess up my day. What do you want? I am busy thinking of ways to slowly kill you!”

The leader held his temper in check, the woman had never failed before, and he really didn’t expect her to now. “I need a progress report. I heard that you missed, very unlike you I…”

“Why don’t you just shut the hell up! As I said I am busy and as to a progress report? I am no longer sect, I work for me, and me only, remember that when I kill you! Now go away, you ass!” A soft hissing of static was heard. ‘Good,’ the leader thought, ‘now she is as mad as she can get.’ Smiling even broader he thought, ‘Ah! The pretender to the throne should be dead very soon now!’
___________________________________________

Derrick was finally starting to make head way with all the papers. He’d had Mary put everything on the screen in front of him and found that he was able to read it three times faster. He’d also gotten everything done to only eighty years now. Thing was though it was still extremely boring, thank god they were almost to the second noble’s territory.

He really hated going so slowly with the trans-warp drive they could be there within seconds. Sighing he went back at it. It was a few hours later when he received a call from Kimison.

“I am sorry to disturb you sire but we thought you might want to take a look at what Rayburn and I have done with our version of your download device.” Kimison said hoping that this would throw the emperor off of what they were doing for a while.

“I’d been meaning to ask you about that. Though I have also heard of the many near fatalities both of you had, well mainly you. I’m sure you both know also that I can’t do a thing ’til Mary has had a chance to look at it. Mary?” Derrick asked a moment later.

Appearing next to him she asked, “You called me your lordship?”

“I know that both you and Shelby won’t really allow me to do too much without checking things out. Have you had a chance to go over the improvements that both of them have made to their download device?” Derrick asked.

“Yes Sire. Though I really can’t see the reasoning behind the device its self. I find it admirable that any biological life form would want to increase their memory.” Mary replied.

“Your analysis; since all of the improvements have been added,” Derrick questioned of Mary.

“Is this in reference to yourself using it sire?” Mary asked looking straight at Derrick.

“Yes Mary. I find that I still don’t possess enough knowledge as of yet. Is the device, compared to the one I created, safe?” Came Derrick’s reply.

“Well sire, compared to the one you built, this one is far superior to it. Though I am afraid for you to use such a device again. I find that this would not cause damage like the previous attempts could have.” Mary said.

“Sire I think I may have come up with a viable program to let you know, when you are unable to process any more. I used it when Rayburn went back in he reported that he didn’t even know that the information was flowing.” Kimison broke in.

“I see,” Derrick said, “you used two suppressors instead of one. It’s almost like an ancient time released pill I see.”

“Yes Sire, the second one proved to be the final ingredient that we needed. As I said when Rayburn was there the capacity program was used by Zan. He stopped the download at 80% after he informed Rayburn that he was almost at download capacity. I think if Mary has a chance to go over all of the specifications she’ll find them well within her tolerance range for you.” Kimison told both Mary and Derrick.

Derrick had perked up greatly at the mention of the capacity program. “I do believe I’d like to see this,” Derrick informed Kimison.

“Yes sire I am sending it to you now. As you can see I am using all four waves of the brain to monitor activity. This is the readout on Rayburn, as you notice when he was at certain levels I knew that he couldn’t take much more without damage. I suspect that your readings are almost normal considering you took three ships and a partial fourth.” Kimison said with a look of pride on his face.

“Yes I see, this is what we have been needing for a very long time!” Derrick shouted excited. “Well Mary? Do you foresee any problems?” Derrick asked.

“I am running a full analysis on it now Sire I should have an answer within moments.” A moment later Mary reappeared, “no sire, I am not seeing any problems that this could cause. I have to say they have taken much into consideration when they built this. I will have to be there in the link, I am afraid, sire. Even with the commands you have given me, this, I will have to personally be there for.”

Derrick sighed there was nothing like an adult babysitter when you are an adult yourself. Shaking his head he guessed it was for the best after all. “Alright. When can…”

There was a shimmering next to him and the download device along with the program was there next to him. Derrick looked up as Shelby took the data disc and placed it into a receptacle. “I should be ready within minutes Derrick.” Shelby advised him. A few minutes later Shelby called and told him she was ready.

“Alright, I have all of you Shelby, I have all of Zan and all of Tempro. Contact Thomas, Shelby,” Derrick told her.

“Yes Sire,” Thomas said a moment later.

“I am going to access Conner’s library. Conner I chose you because like Shelby you were one of the first ships regened.” Derrick told the ship.

“Sire! I take it as a great honor that you have chosen me thank you sir!” Conner replied happily.

Derrick nodded to Shelby and Mary as he donned the headset.

Derrick was floating, ‘Nice,’ he thought, ‘an actual transfer field to put one at ease.’ Suddenly he was in an empty room with a young teen male with light brown hair standing about 5′ 5”. “Ah! there you are Conner! So when does this download start?” Derrick asked

“Ugh sire? It started the moment you entered my library. You have already gained half and are still going. I hazard to say you should be done within minutes!” A shocked Conner said.

A few minutes later the room became empty, what in the hell was going on? Derrick thought as another young blonde man about 6′ appeared beside him. “Hello sire I didn’t expect you to be here this soon.”

Derrick did a double take a moment and asked, “Ace? Is that you?”

“Yes Sire, It appears that you are still nowhere near capacity yet. Yours is an incredible mind!” Ace replied.

Derrick could only nod, incredible or not he just hoped that Mary was keeping tabs on him. Wouldn’t do to get lost and not be able to return.

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