Exodus: Empires at War: Book 2 (47 page)

Sean took a moment to realize he was being
addressed, not surprising since he had been a Lieutenant JG the day before.  He
finally realized he was being addressed and turned his attention toward the Captain
with a bemused look.

“Sorry, Captain,” said Sean, a smile crossing
his face.  “It will take some time getting used to that title.”

“I understand,” she said, returning the smile
with a feeling of true sympathy for the young man.  She had been raised in a
middle class family herself.  Her exploits in the service had earned her a small
patent of nobility.  But it had taken several years before the mantel felt
comfortable on her shoulders.  She wondered if Countess and Imperial knight
would ever feel comfortable.  “I have several solutions, neither of which makes
me happy.”

“So I’m sure they won’t make me happy either,”
he said, his boyish smile looking strained on his tired face.  “So what are
they?”

“One,” she said, ticking off a finger.  “We
send
Dot McArthur
back on a suicide attack on the enemy while we try and
slip away.”

“And I’m sure the Captain and crew of the destroyer
would be most appreciative of that strategy,” said the Emperor, his eyes
narrowing as his voice grew cold.

“Your Majesty,” said the Captain, leaning over
toward him.  “In your new position you will have to either order thousands,
possibly millions, to their deaths, for the greater good.  Or at least for the
hope of the greater good.  Or you will have to condone the actions of others
who do so in your name.”

“Not something I’m looking forward to,” said
Sean with a nod.  “At least I can try to distance myself from the people I have
to send.”

“You can, your Majesty,” said the Captain.  “I
wouldn’t recommend it.  You need to know something about the people who serve
you, so they are not just paper markers to be moved and removed from a map. 
But let me tell you I think the first plan is not really feasible.  I don’t
think the destroyer will be able to do enough to delay the enemy.  I think I
would be throwing their lives away for no gain.”

“So what’s the second plan?” said Sean with a
frown.  “I think I can guess, it will have something to do with your ship.”

“Yes, your Majesty,” said the Captain, feeling
her face tighten at the thought.  “It would involve us falling back on our
enemies and engaging them in combat, while you get away on the destroyer.  I
believe that we could attract enough attention to allow
Dot McArthur
to
fall through hyper and get out of sensor range of the enemy.”

“So the better solution is to sacrifice over
ten times the crew to let me creep away,” said Sean in a loud voice.  His face
reddened, and Mei knew what he was feeling.  “I forbid it.  Do you hear?  We
will get out of this somehow, some other way.”

“And what way would that be, your Majesty,”
said the Captain, leaning back in her chair.  She had thought this would
happen.  He wouldn’t accept what had to be.  But in their current situation
they were going to be caught and killed anyway, and the new Emperor of Humanity
would be killed with them.  Which would allow whatever weak cousin the
assassins of the Emperor and the rest of the family wanted to manipulate to be
put on the throne.

“I don’t know,” said Sean Ogden Lee Romanov,
head down as he looked at the floor.  “I just don’t know.”  He looked up, tears
in his eyes, but the eyes themselves were the piercing orbs of his ancestors.  “I
do know that I’m tired of people dying for me.”

“It’s something you had better get used to,
your Highness,” said the Captain of the battle cruiser, her heart going out to
the young man who had never expected this kind of responsibility.  “The men and
women of the Fleet, the Marines and the Army are under oath to lay down their
lives for you.  It is up to you and those you appoint to command to make sure
that those lives are well spent.”

Sean sat there, nodding his head and saying
nothing.  Again
Mei
Lei
felt
her heart going out to him.  He was very young.  In some years he would have
worked his way up the ranks and gotten a command of his own, probably a
Frigate, making him responsible for a little over two hundred people.  Then up
the command rungs until he got command of a Capital ship, three thousand or
more people.  Maybe a squadron command, before his birth and lineage offered
him (really ordered) another position outside of the military.  And if
something unfortunate happened in the succession, he might be called upon to
become Emperor, with a century of command and diplomatic experience behind him,
like his oldest brother nearly had when he died along with the sitting
Emperor.  Instead it had all come falling down on him.  And he hadn’t even been
able to assume command of the Empire he in fact commanded.  Or to mourn those
who had died, family, comrades or others.  She would not have wanted to be in
his shoes for anything.  Right now the command of her battle cruiser was really
more than she wanted, but there was no one else to do that job, so it was hers.

“How long do I have to transfer over to the destroyer?”
asked the Emperor in a little boy’s voice.

“I think about four hours,” said the Captain,
going through her preliminary plan one more time in her head.  “We need to set
up the situation some.  I want to be as sure as can be that we are going to
fool them.  Otherwise they will just take off after the destroyer and we won’t
have accomplished anything.”

A blur moved out of the corner of her eye, and
Mei Lei
found Satin sitting in
her lap, purring deeply.  She looked down at the silky fur of the Siamese and
felt tears coming to her own eyes.  The cat of course didn’t know what was
going on, didn’t know what danger they were in.  That was for the humans to
feel, as they worried about their animal charges.

“He’s such a beautiful cat,” said Sean, looking
at the animal sitting in the Captain’s lap.  “Reminds me of the cats we had
around the palace.”

“You have many of them growing up?” she asked,
holding onto the big male possessively.

“Dozens at least,” said the Emperor with a
small smile.  “Always under foot.  Mother loved them.  Siamese, Persians,
Himalayans, Havana Browns, Bengals.  Dozens and dozens of purebred cats.  I
also liked the cats that lived all over the grounds.  Just plain alley cats,
but all wonderful in their own right.”

“Yes they are,” said the Captain, hugging the
cat close, then lowering him to the floor as he voiced his displeasure. 
“Sorry, Satin.  But momma has things to do.”

“Do you want me to take him with me?” asked
Sean in a quiet voice.

Mei Lei
had to take a moment to make sure she had heard
him right.  She looked longingly at the silky cat as he walked away, tail held
high in the air in the question mark that meant cats were OK with the world.

“I would like that very much,” she said,
reaching over to pat his hand.  “Keep him for me until I can return.  Or make
sure he has a good home if I don’t.”

“The best,” said Sean, grasping her hand.  “The
palace grounds, where he will never want for anything.”

“He will like it being outside,” she said,
sniffling a moment.

“They like it wherever their humans are,” said
the Emperor with a nod of his head.  “Even if it’s the deepest darkest regions
of an asteroid mine.  They like being with us.”

“I have preparations to make,” she said with
another sniff.  “Please excuse me, my Lord.”

“Of course,” said Sean, standing and taking the
Captain’s hand.  He planted a kiss on the hand as he bowed.  “Thank you for all
you have done for me.  And all you're about to do.”

The Captain could feel herself blushing as she
nodded, smiled, and turned away.

About the Author

Doug Dandridge is an
ex-professional student with degrees from Florida State University and The
University of Alabama, and coursework in Psychology, Biology, Geology, Physics,
Chemistry, Anthropology and Nursing.  Doug has interest in all of the
fantastic, including science fiction, fantasy and horror, as well as all eras
of military history.  Doug is a prolific writer, having completed 25 novel length
manuscripts.  He is still seeking a major publishing contract, but has decided
that self- publishing is the way to go at this time.  His work can be found on
Amazon and Smashwords, as well as his own website.  Doug lives with his five
cats in Tallahassee, Florida, and currently has no social life, as he is too
busy writing around his work schedule.

Follow my many
characters and settings at
http://dougdandridge.net

Contact me at
[email protected]

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BrotherofCats Dandridge at
http://dougdandridge.com

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Books
by Doug Dandridge

Science
Fiction

The
Deep Dark Well Trilogy

The
Deep Dark Well
:  An Adventure 40,000 years in the making.  Pandora Latham
was a Kuiper Belt Miner from Alabama.  She’s used to landing on her feet, even
when the next surface is through a wormhole, halfway across the Galaxy and
46,000 years in the Future.  Pandora must discover the secret behind the end of
civilization, and the enigma of the Immortal Watcher, the last survivor of the
Empire that once ruled the stars.  Her decisions will set the path for Galactic
recovery, or a continuation down the roads of Barbarism.

To
Well and Back
:  Pandora Latham is back, working Watcher’s plan to restore
Galactic Civilization.  But first she has to deal with the Xenophobes of the
Nation of Humanity, back in the Supersystem with their sights set on making the
Galaxy their own.  Pandora is angry at the hyper religious Nation, and you
don’t want to make a woman from Alabama angry.

The
Exodus Series

Exodus:
Empires at War: Book 1
:  The introduction to the Exodus Universe.  Two
thousand years prior mankind fled from the Predatory Ca’cadasans, traveling a
thousand years and ten thousand light years to a new home.  Now the greatest
power of their sector of space, things seem to be going well for the New Terran
Empire.  Until the enemy appears once again at the gates.  And the years have
not softened the aliens’ stance toward Humanity.

Exodus:
Empires at War: Book 2
:  The saga continues.  The Ca’cadasans attack at the
moment when the government of the Empire is at its most chaotic.  There are
other enemies as well, waiting for their chance to fall on the overwhelmed
humans.  And a young man with no ambition for power finds himself in the
position he most dreads.

Other
Scifi

Diamonds
in the Sand
:  When a perfectly healthy scientist falls dead of an apparent
heart attack, it is up to Sarasota Police Detective Lieutenant Gary Lariviere
to find out what really happened.  The scientist was working on Nanotechnology,
a secret desired by everyone from the Government to the Mob.  There are too
many suspects, including the woman that Gary comes to love.  The Army had made
Gary better than human, but had they prepared him for the terrors that had been
unleashed by the new technology?

The
Scorpion
:  The Scorpion had been the world’s deadliest living terrorist. 
Kestral McMann had been in on the kill.  Now The Scorpion is back as a mind
upload, using clones to penetrate the tight security of an isolationist United
States.  McMann is the only man who can stop him.  But can McMann survive the
threat of his own side, and the insane President who leads the Nation, in time
to stop The Scorpion from plunging the Great Satan back into the Stone Age.

The
Shadows of the Multiverse
:  Something has been periodically wiping
intelligence from our Universe through the ages.  It’s back, and it’s up to
three unlikely heroes, the Captain of a Battle Cruiser, a Physicist turned
Archeologist, and a Child, to save the intelligence of the Universe from
Monsters from another Dimension.  Can they learn to use the powers of their
unusual Quantum Minds to defeat creatures that have been playing the game for
billions of years?

Afterlife
: 
What if you didn’t believe in the afterlife of the World’s Religions?  And what
if science offered you the alternative, survival within the Virtual World of a
computer, where your mental abilities are magnified and you can do anything you
want?  And what if the World decided that your way was wrong, and declared war
on you, meaning to destroy your reality?  What would you do?  Afterlife, a tale
of survival at all costs.