Eve can scan the ship now with her telepathic powers. She turns off the main generator and disables the weapons systems with her mind. She uses mass charm to make the intelligent Undead walk out of the hanger bays into space, where the other waiting dragons tear them to shreds. She morphs back into humanoid form and goes into the ship to make sure all of the Undead are gone. She detects no Undead, even after she turns the ship back on.
Eve contacts Dragonseve using the communications system on this ship.
“Telepathic abilities do work against this type of ship. I am going to drive this ship back to Dragon World. You can drop off the senate and the councilors at any of the cities on the planet they want to go to. Then we will head back to dragon space. My mother stays; she is now a citizen of the Dragon Empire. A word of advice to the Elemental Government: I would change your policies on telepaths as soon as possible and start recruiting them into your defense and military. They will be your only defense against the Undead and other similar threats. That will also improve relations between our two empires,” Eve says.
One of the councilmen says, “Thank you for all of your assistance, Empress. We are very grateful for what you have done. We shall reconsider our telepath policies for sure.”
42 says, “One of the Marine medics says he has important news he discovered while on the planet. He has been trying to speak to you, but you have been busy. He says the information is sensitive and should only be given to you personally.”
Eve responds, “Interesting. Okay, send over a crew to drive this ship. Make sure Nelma and Helma are on it. I will be over there in a few minutes. Have the Marine meet me in my bridge office.”
After about thirty minutes of crew shuffling, Eve ends up in her office aboard Dragonstar. There is a Marine sitting there waiting for her. Eve walks in as he stands and salutes.
“As you were. Report,” Eve says as she sits down at her desk.
“As you know, we use small packets of Faerie dust in our medic kits on the battlefield for serious injuries. It does some healing but mostly acts as a big bandage till we can get the Marine to a medical unit. When we were on the ground fighting the Undead, a few of the Marines got their armor pieces penetrated by Bone Warriors and thus got infected by the Undead virus. We immediately put Faerie dust on the wounds. Not only did it stop the spread of the infection, it removed it completely. We threw some on a Bone Warrior and all it did was burn them like acid. So it cures someone that hasn't been changed completely already.”
“Wow that is a big discovery! A cure! Keep this under wraps for now. I don't want the enemy to know this just yet,” Eve says. The Marine leaves her office.
“Supplies, how much Faerie dust do we currently have aboard?” Eve asks after pressing a button.
The supply officer answers quickly. “None at the moment. It was in the area of the ship that got blown away.”
“Oh, thanks,” Eve says. “Damn it.”
***
Xoth is savoring her victory over the Spider Queen and conquering the Spider home world. She is back on her command ship getting her invasion force ready to go to Bee World to finally crush the Hive Empire forever.
Xoth commands, “Get me Helcar on the Vid Screen.”
The Vid screen activates and Helcar appears wearing a metal eye patch on her left eye with a scar on the left side of her face.
“Yes, master?” Helcar asks, still recovering from her battle with Gothica.
“What happened to you?”
“I fought a powerful creature called Gothica. I was winning, but she escaped.”
“The singer? You got beaten by a singer?”
“She didn't beat me; she escaped. She wasn't a singer, but a powerful warrior,” Helcar insists.
“Anyway, are we ready to get moving to Bee World for the final assault?” Xoth asks.
Helcar says, “Many divisions stationed on this planet have not yet reported in. I keep calling them but no response. I am going to go down to the surface and see what the holdup is.”
“Hurry up. I don't want the Bees to have too much time to prepare for us. Out.” Xoth ends the communication.
The first officer says, “Master, urgent message from the home world.”
“On screen.”
A vampire appears on the screen. “Master, I have some bad news. Our home world was attacked by a raiding party of about 2,000 Dragon Empire ships and dragons. Our defense grid was destroyed, as well as 1,000 carriers and fighters they carried.
“The invasion of the Elemental Empire failed. The armada was completely destroyed by 40,000 Dragon legionnaires and the Dragon Empress's battle station that just happened to show up at the same time we were attacking. The Dragon Empress also captured the new planet destroyer by herself, totally unassisted.
“The Wolfkin and Dragon Empire attacked both borders at the same time, totally annihilating fifteen battle stations and all of the patrol ships and fighters. Sixty percent of our entire military has been destroyed.”
“URRRGGH!” Xoth yells out as she smashes her console; the bridge crew cringes in fear.
Helcar comes on screen. “Master, I am down on the planet. All of the divisions down here are dead from an unknown cause. Millions of Vampires and Bone Warriors are gone; looks like some sort of plague happened.”
“PLAGUE?!? That is impossible! They are Undead!” Xoth yells, still throwing a fit and stomping around.
“I am just guessing. I really don't know,” Helcar says.
One of the bridge crew falls to the ground and starts convulsing. When he stops, stuff oozes out of his eyeballs, mouth, and nose. Then two more collapse in the same fashion. The rest of the crew runs off the bridge, but they eventually start falling to the ground as well.
Xoth begins to panic. “Get back to your home world after you set all of these ships to self-destruct. Don't let any of them escape.” Xoth disappears as a gate portal she opened closes behind her.
Chapter 7
A few days after the largest military operations in this region of space take place, the governments of several empires are dealing with the aftermath. The Dragon Military suffered very few casualties in comparison to the massive losses suffered by the Hive, the Elemental Empire, and the Undead Empire. The Wolfkin armada, while victorious, had an unacceptable 30% loss casualty rate. The Dragon Empress declared a memorial day to remember all of the fallen and gave a speech via deep Vid-Com that was broadcast in Dragon, Wolfkin, and the Elemental Empire.
“Today we celebrate a victory over a common enemy in the defense of our homes and families across the galaxy. But that victory did not come without a great cost. We shall honor our dead and injured with a toast and a moment of silence. Now, we must begin rebuilding what was destroyed so that their deaths will not be in vain. We all must strive to strengthen our relationships not just with each other, but with our neighbor empires as well. We are stronger together than we are apart.” The Dragon Empress makes a concentrated effort to both show respect for those who lost their lives and to rally the remaining citizens to support the efforts that are yet to come.
The next day, Eve is in her throne room discussing the state of the empire with her advisers and the military leaders, when a page comes into the chamber in a hurried fashion. He kneels deferentially, following standard procedure.
“Your Highness! Pardon the interruption, but I thought this was something you needed to know,” the page says.
“What is it?”
“The Bee Queen of the Hive is here to see you,” the page utters with nervousness.
“Here? Now? Why was I not informed earlier that she was coming?”
The page trembles. “She just showed up. We had no warning. She came in a Hive merchant ship.”
“A merchant ship...” Eve says, wondering what was going on. “Gentlemen, we will pick up this discussion later.” The group of advisers leaves the chamber. Eve sits up in her throne.
“Bring her in,” Eve commands the page.
The p
age announces, “The Bee Queen, ruler of the Hive.”
A large 6 foot yellow and black stripped bee begins slowing walking into the chamber. She has her head pointed at the ground and her arms are just hanging at her sides. She looks so thin, even on the verge of starvation. Everyone looking at this pathetic creature can feel her hopelessness, and all take pity on her. She slumps on her knees in front of the Empress and looks up at Eve with tears coming from her eyes.
The Bee Queen says softly,” Mighty Empress, our Spider Queen is dead, as is the leader of our army... Our warrior cast has been completely destroyed... Most of our worlds and cities are destroyed... We are a beaten people, dying from starvation and scavengers since we have no protection. I don't care about territories or empires anymore; I just want to save my people. I don't know what else to do, so I came to you to beg you to save my people. “ She just cries.
Eve was moved and angered at Xoth for doing this to a once proud race. She gets up and goes to the queen, picking her up to her feet and holding her in her arms. She says softly, “It's okay. I will save your people. It will be okay.” But the queen slumps in her arms, unconscious; she has been without food for too long.
“Get the doctor, and bring some Bee food here now!” Eve yells.
A few minutes later, a servant comes in with a hover bed; they put the Bee Queen on it. They did bring some Bee food, but the Queen is still unconscious. Ten minutes later, Doctor Farshe comes to the throne chamber and sees the Bee Queen lying on the bed. She gets out her scanner and injects her with something from her bag.
“She is extremely malnourished and dehydrated. I gave a stimulant to her. Hopefully she can stay awake long enough to eat and drink. I am injecting her with some fluid loaded with Bee nutrients,” the doctor explains.
The Queen's eyes open slightly. They sit her up and spoon-feed her pollen mixed in water.
“Will she make it Doc?” Eve asks worriedly.
“Yes. I need to get her to the hospital and get her on a food plan. If the rest of her people are in this condition, millions of them will be dying by the day,” Doc warns.
Eve says, “Oh my. Vid-Com down.” The screen comes down. Eve presses a button and a yellow dragon appears on the screen.
“Gyoer, do we have anything Bees, Ants, and Arachnids can eat in the emergency food banks?”
“I will check the database, one second...We have several tons of flower juice for the Bees… Ants eat just about anything, so we have billions of tons of things they can eat… we have several tons of meat for the Spiders. Meat is easy to get. Bee food will be hard to get; flower juice only comes from certain planets. In a nutshell: Ants and Spiders, no problem. Bees, I dunno. I am not that familiar with those. Who deals in flowers? The only reason we have some in stock because it makes flower wine, which any non-dragon can drink.”
“Thanks. Have it all ready to go in containers and move it to the teleportation ring. I am going to Bee World to make a teleportation ring there, and to Ant World as well.”
“We will have it ready. Out.”
“Connect me to Pirate Lord Cos.”
The screen changes as a large black Wolfkin appears.
“Hello, Empress. I got your gift. Thank you. Tala doing okay as a General?”
“Hi, Cos. Yes, she is doing fine. Thanks for asking.”
“What may a humble pirate do for you?”
“I am looking for flower juice or pollen. Do you know anyone that deals in it or that manufactures it?”
“Odd request. Yes, I do know a couple of flower juice merchants from Katin.”
“Ugh, we aren't on speaking terms at the moment. Can you act as a go between? I will pay the standard commission.”
“I will do it for half the commission, but you need to stop by for dinner some time. You elevate my business every time you stop by. How much do you need?”
“3 billion tons.”
“HOLY CRAP! That is a lot of flower juice! Are you feeding the Hive or something?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I am.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Geez, okay. Well, I don't think I can get that much, but I will buy as much as possible. There is a planet that has tons of pollen in the Elemental Empire. They just dump it because they have no use for it. You could probably get it free or cheap at least. The planet is called Tyrup. I know the Elemental Empire doesn't like you last I heard, but I can broker that deal to if you need me to. “
“Okay. Let me know how much the juice is, and I will transfer the platinum bars to your account. Just use that teleportation ring I left on your planet when you get the goods. I will contact the Elemental Empire about Tyrup. We are getting along better now that I saved their home world from being destroyed,” Eve says.
“Ha ha. That is so ironic,” Cos says.
“Yeah it is. Ha ha. Talk with you later. Out.”
“Transmit to Galaxy Wide network.” The Vid-Com makes a bunch of beeping noises before a green light shows in the screen.
“Greetings, I am Dragon Empress, Evella Noctu. As of today, the Hive Empire has requested to be annexed into the Dragon Empire. All of the former Hive citizens will automatically gain Dragon Citizenship. All of the planets of the former Hive Empire now belong to the Dragon Empire. Any scavengers or potential invaders will be crushed by the Dragon Legions and the Dragon Armada. Make no mistake, we will show no mercy to poachers or threats to our territory. That is all. End transmission.”
“Connect me to emergency services.” The screen changes to a green and red spotted dragon.
“Gwauft, we need to set up emergency services on Bee and Ant World, along with any other civil services you can think of. So start organizing that and when you have a plan set up, contact me later today. “
“Understood, Your Majesty. I am on it. Out.”
“Connect me to General Scales.” A big gold dragon appears on the screen.
“Yes, Your Highness?”
“I need you to redistribute the military to include the Hive planets. I know we had enough troops to cover all of the Undead planets we conquered in Operation Scorpion, but we need to thin out some to cover all of the Hive's planets until we can make military stations to fortify the borders of the new territory. We will need to create another manufacturing planet over in the new area to produce ships and such, too. And I need to go to Bee World to start setting up teleportation rings on all the new planets in our new territory so that logistics will be faster. Since my ship is going to be in repair for a couple of months, I will be using your command ship till then. I will be leaving to Bee World today.”
“I already started working on that plan as soon as I heard your announcement. I will send my command ship to you right now. I will be using Tala's command battle cruiser till we get your ship fixed. I will consolidate any leftover Hive military into our own military,” Scales informs.
“Very good. Keep me informed. Out.”
“Connect me to Fewguiqu, the Council chambers.” The Vid screen activates and a large group of people, their chairs arranged in many circles, appears on the screen.
Eve says politely, “Oh, I apologize, I was trying to reach the council. For some reason it connected me to the senate.”
Senator Peel says, “That's because we dissolved the council. We are trying to do a government reconstruction at the moment. How may we help you, Empress?”
“Oh well, didn't mean to disturb you. I was going to inquire about a planet in your jurisdiction. It is called Tyrup.”
Senator Pan stands up and says, “That planet is in my district. What would you like to know?”
“Do you have any data you could send me on that planet?”
“Sure, one second and I will transmit it to you. The planet is basically worthless. It is covered with wildflowers and other flora. We couldn't mine anything worth a crap, and farmers can't really grow stuff there because of wildflower pollen is so dense it kills any other plants we try to grow. It's hard for m
ost of our races to live there because the pollen causes allergy issues. We have a few small bee farms for honey that still operate there.”
“I would be interested in leasing it from you if you’re interested. Your territory is divided into ten states, each with capitals, and then you have your federal capital. Correct?”
Senator Pan says, “Correct.”
“In return for your leasing that planet to me, I will set up a planetary teleportation system between all of your state capitals and your federal capital. The system will allow instant travel to any of your capitals. You can use them for commerce and military logistics like we do. I can set up a consulate on that planet, too, because my empire doesn't have one with the Elemental Empire yet. Does that sound like something you would be interested in?”
The senators all start taking at the same time. After a few minutes, Senator Pan says, “Yes, we would definitely like to discuss that further with you.”
“Good. I will be there in about a month or so. Also, I would like to see the planet before any decisions are made.”
“Of course. We will await your arrival,” Senator Peel says with excitement.
The Vid-Com disconnects.
“Connect me to Faerie World.” A beautiful pink and blue winged seahorse appears on the screen.
“Queen Urtua, I will be stopping by there in about a month to chat with the Queens. Make sure they all show up on time,” Eve says.
“Certainly. Anything else?” Urtua asks.
“Everything going okay in the land of the little magical people?”
Urtua says, “Just the usual little squabbles here and there. There is a rumor going around that the Faerie Dragon Queen is sterile, but I think it’s her mate not performing his duty if you know what I mean. But that is the current gossip on the gossip tree.”
Eve chuckles, “Sounds like you are dealing with a universal crisis there, Urtua. Ha ha.”