“What’s going on?” Sorcha asked looking out her window.

All across the city there was darkness. Save for the powerplant which was glowing red.

“Power’s out…” Joseph replied.

“I can fucking see that!” Sorcha shouted “Why!?”

“I don’t know!” I’m on the other side of the city checking on habitation units.

“Ok, ok.” Sorcha said, focusing. “Do you have any lighting?”

“None.”

“Right. That’s the first thing we need to do.” Sorcha said and tapped her pad and opened communication to all the pads on her team’s network. “This is Sorcha, there appears to be a power outage. I’m going to bring lighting units to all Titan staff so we can see any Humans in the street. Remain where you are, report in and I’ll bring you a lighting unit. All Human staff, please can you ask citizens to return to their homes and report any issues to your area supervisors. Hopefully this will all be resolved soon Sorcha, out.”

She looked out the window at the plume of smoke rising from the power plant. Somehow she didn’t think this would be resolved soon.

****

“Well done Pri!” Myrell said to herself. She was grinning from ear to ear. “As annoying as you are I think you’ve earned yourself a place in my court!”

Sorcha’s message made her smile. She sounded stressed. She was always stressed. And bossy. And mean. It warmed Myrell’s heart thinking of the confrontation to come. There would be shock. And anger and, hopefully, a fight. She was looking forward to fighting Sorcha. Myrell had watched video footage from the Titan Station incident of Sorcha beating groups of highly trained soldiers into a bloody mess. She was a worthy foe. Well, it made sense.

Myrell quickly tapped off a vague checkin message and hoped her boss wouldn’t care too much about finding her. Being annoying had its benefits.

She set off with her back pack up the hill towards the shuttle. She’d decided against using a light. Even when she got a good distance from the city she couldn’t risk being detected. Besides, Myrell was used to the dark. She much preferred it to the daylight. She’d need to be quick. There was no telling how long it would take for the power to come back on. It could be hours, or it could be days.

“It all starts here.” She said and giggled.

****

“What’s happening?” Ted asked walking into the base’s headquarters.

“The power is out in the colony.” CMLT McIntosh said, standing over the console a young officer was working at.

“Out? What do you mean out? They have a brand new fusion reactor!” Archon Carey said as he entered behind Ted.

“Sensors…sensors…” The young officer said nervously.

“The sensors picked up an overload. Looks like some numptie let the reactor get wee bitty hot.” Lorna finished the sentence for the officer and gave his shoulder a squeeze.

“Do we offer assistance?” Ryan asked.

Ted paused. “No,” he said, his mind made up. “Orders stand. We don’t reveal ourselves unless it’s abolustely necessary. If they need help they’ll send a distress call. Gama fleet isn’t far.”

“Are you sure? All comms are running through the control centre. If they’re out of power then they won’t be able to send a communication.” Ryan said.

“Not a bad point…” Ted thought. “Ok, I want you to prepare for a recon…”

“Sir.” The young officer interrupted. “I’m detecting a shuttlecraft launching.”

“Shuttlecraft?”

“Yes…one life sign aboard. Looks to be a Titan.” The officer said, his nerves calming a little.

“I didn’t think they had any ships.” Ted’s brow furrowed. “Where’s it headed?”

“Ehhh…I’m unsure…it’s burning out of the atmosphere at high speed though.”

“Bring up the trajectory on the main screen.” Ryan ordered.

A few taps of the console later and the three senior officers were watching the shuttle’s projected course on the screen. As the officer had said, it was on a full burn not only out of the atmosphere but out of Tau Ceti E’s gravity well.

“The periapsis is rising towards Eebee.” Ted noted and folded his arms across his chest.

“Clever.” Ryan said.

“What ya’ thinkin’?” Lorna asked.

“Well, if you want Gama fleet to turn up quickly. Head to the monitoring station on Eebee and give them a call from there.” Ryan explained.

“No’ah bad plan.”

“No…” Ted said. “Not a bad plan at all.” He uncrossed his arms and breathed a sigh of relief. “Ok, stand down. Monitor the city and keep me informed of any developments. If they need help let me know. In the meantime, suspend all flights for the next forty eight hours. We don’t want the Acolytes flashing the Minotaur, do we?”

“Aye sir.” The young officer said as Ted left.

“I’ll go brief the pilots.” Ryan said.

“That’s a shame…” Lorna sighed and placed both her hands on the now very alone young officer’s shoulders. “I like flashing my bare behind to big, horny bull.”

****

Myrell set the shuttle down behind a ridge in front of the array. She had approached low over the horizon from the far side of the planet with the aim of approaching completely undetected. She quickly pulled on her pressure suit, checked the seals and ventured out the airlock with her pack.

It didn’t take long for her to make it over the ridge in the marginally lower gravity with her anti-grav devices on. She almost bounced along. Her mood was bouncing along as well. She was finally doing it. The task she had spent her whole life preparing for. All of the learning, fighting and practicing. All of the siblings she had killed. The ones weaker than her, the ones who didn’t deserve it, the ones who had cried rather than kill when told to kill. They were pathetic. She alone deserved this. And she alone would reap the rewards.

It had all come down to this. Opening the back door to The Empire. And then her family would rush in and sweep across it like a flood. Most of the Imperial Navy was weeks away, preparing for the invasion into The Federation. By the time they could act it would be too late.

It made her heart swell with pride.

A few minutes later she apprached the service door on the side of the main sensor array. The facility itself spread out several kilounits in each direction but the control area wasn’t large. The facility was designed to be completely automated and only visited for necessary maintenance. Which judging from the amount of dirt that had built up around the door, hadn’t been for a long, long time.

Myrell pulled a lead out of her pack and connected it to her pad and the sealed panel on the wall. It took a few minutes to get the correct sequence but the pad chimed the affirmative and the door shuddered, slowly and creakily to life. It opened without a hiss. The facility’s atmosphere was a dead as the planet’s.

That didn’t faze Myrell. She walked inside and she approached a console in on the far side of the room. There were dozens of consoles and displays in the room but they were all off. They likely had been for centuries. This time she connected a cable to her pad and then pulled the side off the console and hunted around for a place to connect it.

“It had to be. Only me…” she spoke as she used pliers to strip a wire.

“The workers can work, the scouts can scout, the soldiers can fight, the nursers can nurse, the mothers can birth, the mantids deal and the thinkers…think.” She said.

“But they can’t think like me…” She smiled as pad chimed, confirming a connection as she wrapped a few wires around each other. “…and they can’t move like me.”

“The scouts can…but they can’t solve problems like me…”She started to tap on her pad trying to get access to the computer core. The cipher was tough. Correction, the ciphers were tough. The cipher had multiple algorithims within it that jumped around making it harder and harder to crack the further in you went.

“They can excel at whatever it is they do…”

The pad beeped to confirm she was in. She hit record.

“But they can do no more. I can do anything I want.” She hummed happily to herself as the recording went. “I am one of a kind. There are no more like me…well a few more like me. But soon there won’t be!”

Happy she had left the program to record for long enough, she inserted it into the computer core and started looping it. She watched…and waited.

She couldn’t wait long. She didn’t have a huge amount of time but she needed to make sure it would pass. She couldn’t see anything repeat within it. She input it into the system, leaving an algorithm to correct for planetary movement. It looked empty, which was what she wanted. She started to back out of the system, closing up as she went.

She’d been in the array for under half an hour but it was now over. She had sealed the door and erased all trace that she had been there. She ran back to the shuttle, taking long, leaping steps of excitement. She practically dived into her chair in the cockpit of the shuttle and fired it up.

To test it was now successfully neutered she powered her engines up to full and iniated a full burn right in front of the array. It was calibrated for long range but it should have spotted that. The answer was a resounding silence.

Nothing.

They hadn’t seen it. It was done. And as long as no one noticed that the array’s sensor output was now looping around on itself the backdoor into the Empire was now wide open.

Now all she had do was wait.

****

“This will do well…very well.” Loona said walking around the elegant stateroom of the Xifos.

Of course it wasn’t the stateroom of the Xifos. It was a replica, made in miniature and it sat on the wardroom table of the Gyfjon with a good view of Earth floating below and occasionally the glint of sunlight reflecting off one of the ships of Gama Fleet. It had wood panelled adorned with paintings of long dead Imperial officers and of course, the Emperor himself. On the walls also hung and the green and black standard of the Empire and white and blue of Earth. And in the centre of the room was the grand table. Dark, old wood with goldren trim.

“Thank you Madam Deputy Floor Leader.” Captain Gwenn said. “I shall pass your appreciation on to the people in fabrication.”

“Please do.” Loona said as she walked around the room, dragging her fingers along the table’s surface. She knew it was a hologram, but it was very hard to tell. And importantly it would be real to the Humans from Earth.

“Is there anything else my crew can do for you?” Gwenn asked.

“Yes…there is one more thing.” Loona said.

“Oh?”

“Earth will be sending a party of five people to join the negotiations. I’d like to have five in our party as well. Perhaps someone from the military?”

Lauryna did her best not to groan out loud. She hated wearing dress uniform almost as much as she hated dealing with diplomats. She’d like to keep both to a minimum as possible.

“I was thinking Commander Ibanez.” The Deputy Floor Leader said.

“Izzy?” Lauryna near choked. “She’s…not exactly what you’d call diplomatic.”

Loona smiled. “Exactly. She’ll cut through the terg dung and not take any back. She knows Earth well and is also a high ranking officer in the Imperial Navy. A Human officer at that.”

“So talking to Earth you will have; a Titan who grew up on Earth, three Humans from Earth and you?” Captain Gwenn asked.

“Excactly. I hope Earth will see itself reflected in the Empire. And hopefully that should put them at ease enough that we can come to agreement.” Loona said.

Lauryna frowned and shifted uncomfortably.

“You don’t look like you’re happy with that Captain?” Loona asked.

“I’m just here to provide the ship, Madam Deputy Floor Leader, not opinions.” Captain Gwenn did her best to maintain a respectful air.

The Deputy Floor Leader raised a brow. “I’d appreciate hearing any suggestions. You know Earth well. You’ve spent a lot of time in this system. Speak plainly. Isn’t that what you military types say?”

Lauryna smiled. “Just promise not to have me fired?”

“I won’t have you fired. Don’t worry Captain.” Loona laughed.

“Well, it seems to me like you’re hiding. You’re bringing in Izzy, Niall Freeman and Darren Avery. These are Humans whose names mean a lot of Earth. They’ve achieved great things, lived long lives and thrived in The Empire.” Lauryna said. “But they’re not the people who were shown on the screens all across Earth. There’ll be two Titans in the room. Only one actually from The Empire originally. It just looks like we’re shirking responsibility. That’s how I’d see it anyway…”

Loona crossed her arms and nodded. “You’re not wrong. But I’ve limited scope to act. I can’t make a formal apology on behalf of the government but I’m going to make a personal one. I also can’t offer much in the way of compensation but we’re going to offer to share medical advancements, nothing hugely special. It may sound ridiculous but the bathing gel that vets used on Humans could do a lot of good on Earth; extend lifespans, keep people younger for longer and reduce sickness. And then there’s my ace in the hole”

“It’s going to have to be quite the play.”

“Centurium ColVanos is on his way from Grelau Station. As the heir to the throne he is going read a formal decree from The Emperor, apologising for what has been done in his name. Qorni will spit that I’m bypassing the legislature but I’m hoping it’ll be enough to make Earth realise we’re serious about being friends.” The Deputy Floor Leader looked quite pleased with herself.

“That might work…that just might work. Though there’s one thing you’re not counting on.” Lauryna said.

“And what’s that?”

Lauryna chuckled to herself. “Have you seen what happens when you put Izzy Ibanez and Darren Avery in a room together?”

****

Myrell plodded into her room.

She was exhausted. It had been worth it, but between completing her mission, returning to the colony and helping round up wayward Humans she was totally worn out. She couldn’t remember exactly when it was she last rested but it had been more than a Titan day. She had trained herself to keep awake for extended periods but she was at a disadvantage with her shortened natural sleep cycle. She wanted nothing more than to sleep for the full twenty hours she’d been allocated.

That was until she spied a small form on her bedside table.

It was a mucky, exhausted looking Human female with natural platinum hair. Myrell was impressed, it wasn’t often it happened but she really was. Pri had not only carried out her mission but she had managed to escape and return to her room undetected.

“Pri!” Myrell strode across the room and smiled down at her pet. “You did it! Well done!” She could see Pri was covered almost head to toe in mud, likely from the trek home. Her hair was a mess and there was something else there, buried under muck but it was there. Blood. And not a small amount.

“I did…I did do it…it…it was harder than I thought but I got it done.” Pri said.

Myrell picked up the small woman, encompassing her whole body in her hand and started to stroke the platinum hair with her thumb.

“You have made both me and Pryvani very, very happy.” Myrell glowed, forgetting her tiredness. “Tell me what happened.”

“There was a man there…I didn’t expect anyone to be there.” Pri said.

“A man? What did you do?” Myrell enquired.

“I took my mop…and I…I…hit him on the back of the head.” Pri said. “He went over and then I…I did it…I made the lights go out. Did I do good?”

“You did good Pri, really, really good.” She said and continued to stroke her hair. Myrell was so very proud. Pri had come along better than she could have ever, ever hoped. She wondered if this was what it was like to have offspring. But something was bothering her.

“Did the man see you?” Myrell asked.

“He saw me when I came in.” she replied. “I asked him where Sephonie and Duas were to cover.”

This caused Myrell a problem.

“Is…is that bad?” Pri asked sensing her master’s unease.

Myrell smiled and continued to stroke the small woman’s hair. “No, Pri, no it isn’t, I’m very happy. You look tired, do you want to rest?”

“I do…I’m so tired…” Pri said now the adrenaline was wearing off and she was surrounded by the warmth of her master’s hand.

“There, there little Pri. Go to sleep…” Myrell said and softly stroked her hair. “Go to sleep…”

A minute or two later, Pri was asleep in her hand, Myrell still stroking her hair. Myrell didn’t want do this, but she couldn’t take the risk. She pressed down with her thumb over Pri’s tiny head, quickly and sharply. Pri didn’t feel a thing.

To ensure complete destruction of the power plant’s attacker Myrell popped the body into mouth and swallowed. Her stomach would do the rest.

Saddened by the death of someone she had grown rather fond of Myrell decided it would be best to cheer herself up with a bit of fun. She opened the bedside table where she had stashed her captive.

Myrell frowned, yet more bad luck. Her captive had expired as well. That was the problem with Humans. They were so small, apply too much pressure and you rupture arteries when you just mean to break legs. There was no fun to be had here. She would need to wait for her family to arrive before she could have any more entertainment.

“Oh well…” she said and disposed of Duas in the same way as Pri. “Waste not want not.”

“And now to bed, so I’m fresh for when my family arrive.” She said to herself and slinked under the covers.

————————-

Author’s note: I’m in a bit of a rush this evening so I’ve not proofed too much. I’ll correct any mistakes later.