The Empires: Saga of the Empires Volume 1

6. Dax Wellborn

Part 2

I
The Avengers port side hangar had become a noisy and chaotic mess. To many wounded and an influx of spacers with no ships had left the higher ups in a confused stupor.
By ten a.m. that night, Vice Admiral James Gordon stepped in.
The wounded would be transferred over to the Imperial Hospital Ship Savior, and to the two newly arrived hospital ships from the 3rd fleet, the Redeemer and the Britannic.
Combative personnel would be reassigned post hast to fill holes on other ships. A majority of them would remain on the Avenger.
This included Edwin Beckhard and the surviving cadets from the Juriya.
The young newly graduated cadets, who had been towed into the hangar by two other jets, were now sitting with the rest of the survivors out of the way.Someone, they were told, would come by and do something with them.
Someone.
Something.
No one really saw the officer or spacer who said it. Most sat in complete silence, shell shocked and horrified. Memories of what they saw playing on a repeated hellish loop.
Ed, however, sat with complete peace of mind. Why? He saw his friends brutally murdered in the cold expanse of space. Had his mind been broken? A crying spacer caught his attention which led to a familiar face. Her red hair was disheveled and her uniform torn.
"Why did they leave me? Why? Was i not a good girl? 462...462...
462...3042..." She pleaded with an invisible someone.
"Hey," Ed reached out sympathetically. "It's ok-."
A hand reached out and grabbed his. He turned to see the redhead's dark haired friend.
"Don't." She deadpanned.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Ed says. "Is she ok?"
"She'll be fine." Juliet said.
"What happened to you guys?" Ed asks.
"We had just launched from the Juriya when the ship was hit and split in two. Enya began to lose her mind and i had the sense to get us outta there." Juliet said. She had no expression in her eyes. "Where's your friends?" She asked.
"Dead." Ed answered. His reply shocked himself. He had no emotion, no empathy, no sorrow in his voice.
"Odd, isn't it?" Juliet said. "How easy we can move on when we need too."
"Am I a bad person for feeling this way?" Ed asked.
"Not if your still having thoughts like that." Juliet replied. "Death is the natural byproduct of war. Sure, war is essential. It straightens things out, makes clear what needs to be done. But we can never escape death." She starred out into the crowd and a dark cloaked figure starred back only visible to her. What had she seen to make her so nonchalant?
The expressionless girls words gave Ed solace. This wasn't the time to mourn. Not with the enemy still out there.
They sat in silence for a while, what felt like hours. Enya had fallen asleep on Juliets lap, had finally calmed down enough to breath.
Before long, an officer walked over and said that they were still sorting out this mess, but the small group would, for now at least, be reassigned to the Avenger. Duties and battle responsibilities would come in the morning. They were escorted to the cargo bay, given sleeping bags and left alone.
As everyone around him fell asleep from exhaustion, Eds mind was wide awake.
He had no emotions, no fear, no remorse...no nothing.
"Ed...?" Came a calm sweet voice. Ed turned to see Enya laying a little ways away.
"Yeah?" He responds.
'How did she remember my name?'
"Why, do you think the people of the galaxy allowed Wilhelm The Conqueror to gain political and military power throughout the galaxy?" She asked.
It was an unexpected question that Ed wasn't prepared to answer.
Ed thought back a bit to his school days. He had wondered the same thing. Wilhelm von Titus 'the Conqueror' in the last forty seven years had been rewritten as a ruthless dictator who would have no second thoughts about killing those,he believed, to be threats and unwanted in his ideal society.
He manipulated reality to fit his ideology, his goals and his creation of his perfect society.
But, why? Why did the people not stop him?
History tells us that within the first year of the Inner Imperial Calendar, after Wilhelm von Titus won the presidency then took the office of the old galactic parliament, he conquered the three grand houses and the minor houses in the Interium. Then in IIC 7, House Talbot fell and the Etherium with it. But in those seven years, no one, not the houses or the people of the galaxy, opposed him since they were conquered.
Ed turned to look at Enya.
"Because people wanted an easy life." He finally answered.
Enya starred back, taking in the answer.
"What do you mean?"
"Before, from what we can remember, King Noah Von Fritz's old government was a constitutional monarchy plagued with corruption, war and hardships not seen by many today. Then, the genetic wars began, killing a third of the population. Their leader suddenly disappear. Now all of a sudden even more hardships arose as the parliament was thrown into complete chaos. Then here comes a strong leader who is capable of stopping all hardships and creating what be believed was a better society, why would the people push back? Of course, im sure many people regretted it years later after the great purge of the unwanted." Ed answered. It was a simple answer for a complicated and layered question.
"What about the people of Darklon?" Enya asked another question.
"What do you mean." Ed asked.
"Well, the federals believe that the Darklon Empire is being rulled by a ruthless Kaiser and his military, and it's their mission to liberate the People of Darklon."
Another loaded question.
"Like most i'm not quite familiar with the unbiased history of the Darklon people. But, our reexamined history tells us that the Darklons broke free from the tyranny of the Galactic Empire. So, there has to be some good in them.
Maybe the Kaiser means well but the Military has gotten to powerful. I wish we could just talk to them." Ed answered.
Enya smiled.
"Thanks, stranger. I appreciate it." She said before rolling over.
Ed smiled. Shes a weird one, he thought, but nice.
He too rolled over. Three words walked through his mind, making him chuckle.
'Space time vortex...what nonsense.'
It had been long believed that King Noah von Fritz went through a Space Time Vortex allowing him to travel to earth. This would explain why Noahs journey was six thousand years ago for Earths history, but the Imperial Calendar said it was three thousand years.
Where was the missing four thousand years?
Silly.
The amusing notion carried him to sleep.