Serina – In the Palace

As I was walking down the corridor, I heard Imp's voice "Sir, it happened while Lance and Serina were enjoying a sightseeing trip through Sol's solar system in their spaceship that can also be a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud ground car (think 'Transformers'—from your youth.) They were in orbit around Saturn enjoying the beauty of the rings. Without warning, seventy-two matter-conversion missiles surrounded their ship, and I heard the reported to be deceased Sir James Rathsmor, Duke of Paldonia, Regent of the twelfth galactic region and head of Imperial security say, "I am not finished! You and that freak they call an Emperor are finished!" Fireballs blossomed at the same instant of time as each of those missiles released the full energy of the total disintegration of matter not from a distance of kilometers but from a range of meters. There was no trace of your daughter or her husband after the explosions.

This report from Imp was about the implosion that had sent Lance and I back in time some almost two hundred years ago by my personal timeline. I finished walking to the door of Dad's favorite room. (His supreme highness, the Imperial Emperor of the known universe to the rest of you…) As Imp talked, I flashed back to that moment in time and my thoughts afterward, bringing my emotions to the forefront of my mind. Coming back to the here and now I finished listening to Imp's report to my Dad, The look on my Dad's face and the tears that were starting to leak from his eyes just about ripped my heart from my chest.

Not waiting, I launched myself with all of my three-gee trained strength into his arms from across the room knowing that he had the strength and reflexes to both catch me and to refrain from accidentally killing me. I was sobbing, "I'm alive Dad, I'm alive…"

He had turned that tiny bit that it took to catch me and had me up tight against his massive chest before I could repeat 'I'm alive' the second time. I was tucked into his shoulder, his mighty arms securely around me as I sobbed that last 'I'm alive' into his chest. Both of our emotions were too strong to say any more, and we just held each other, crying.

I saw Lance exchange glances with Dad, as he continued to direct our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, all outfitted in heavy armor, to critical locations surrounding the Emperor's private residence inside the palace. Bit had programmed the port on Endor to connect to Dad's personal port inside his private suite.

Yes, we had successfully completed our trip, stopped the self-destruct countdown and equipped our teams with real armor. Bit was powered up like no other ship in the imperial fleet and was in stealth mode maintaining synchronous orbit above the palace. We had accomplished all this and much more—timing our return so that we did not meet ourselves and cause some sort of time paradox. When we had Dad safe one of us will have to tell you the story. You won't believe what happened to Beauty….

And before you ask, yes Bit had blocked all outside communication so that no one, not even Imp, would know that we were present. And yes, the stunned silence that was coming from Imp was music to my ears and I am confident that Lance is laughing inside as well. We had pulled one over on the prankster himself!

Lance had sent Tori and her Platoon off on a patrol that counter-marched with Alaina's patrol just outside the palace grounds. This was much more security that was normal at the palace, as Dad liked to keep such stuff quiet and hidden. The Imperial guard responsible for Dad's safety was just starting to get alarmed (read that as freaking out) when Bit sent the all clear with all the current codes and counter codes to stand down.

Lance had joined Dad and me, creating a group hug and my Dad said all that was needed with a squeeze and a heartfelt exclamation of, "Son!" Dad has never been much of talker, and if one word would do, he would never waste two.

I knew that the plan was for Bit to brief Imp as soon as he arrived in orbit. After all, we did not want the defense system to target Bit. The plan was to lock down all portals on the planet on arrival. Imp said over the speaker in Dad's room, "The ports are all locked down. Lance, Serina—it is so good to see you again." Well, I now knew that Bit had finished Imp's briefing, but both Lance and I had been hoping for more of a reaction from him.

Additional platoons lead by Kieran, Joyce, Royce, Betsy, Freowine, Rory, Bliss, Candace, Sapphire, and Brianna had maps from Bit and were saturating the palace, occupying one hundred key internal locations. To say that after the battle during the changing of the guard that the staff was not still shell shocked would be an understatement. Now to have Marines in heavy armor prowling the building just plain scared them to death. Well OK, it would be more accurate to say it scared the water out of some of them….

This sudden action to saturate the palace by our kids must have caused the infiltrated forces to think that they had been discovered as they started to fight back. The issue was that they used their disruptors. Our armor was capable of resisting their beams, but they were not capable of switching to close up attack mode like our kids could. All those thousands of hours of practice that we had conducted hopefully will bear fruit big time.

The reaction of the forces that had infiltrated the guard seemed to confound their leaders and Bit reported, "Serina, enemy ships are on their way. I'm detecting one carrier of the Nimitz class, two Ticonderoga-class cruisers, and a dozen Arleigh-Burke class destroyers. (Note: retro was in and these ships while similar in function looked nothing like their seaborne namesakes and were massively more powerful than them….) This is what Lance and I had hoped for, that our surprise occupation of the palace would cause an unplanned response by the bad guys.

I wondered how they would respond when Bit uncloaked as a full-scale USS Enterprise NCC-1701-F (Odyssey class)? We only had one shot at surprise, and we needed to take out their carrier before they rained troopers in heavy armor on us.

A special guard was maintained in adjoining rooms to the Emperor's suite. They were camouflaged such that visitors would never know they existed. I'm not a typical visitor, having played in these halls since I was a toddler. I expected that there would be some rotten eggs in with the good. The problem was unless you crack it you don't know which is good and which is bad.

The bad guys must have received instructions to complete their plan before the whole thing collapsed in on itself. We had thought that Duke Rathmore and whoever his co-conspirator was had only placed key people inside Dad's private guards. However, they were coming out of their hidey holes en masse. Thank heavens there were only two doors into this room and that they just had hand weapons and no armor, as it was only Lance, myself and Dad until Bit could send us some backup from Endor.

Nobody fights like my Dad! I'm certainly no slouch, and Lance was outstanding before I met him, now after a few hundred years (well almost) I doubt that anyone can beat us. But that is one on one.

We set it up, so one of us is at each door while the third rests. Dad just kind of drags them in and crushes them. His style is more of brute force type of attack that leaves the next in line in a state of fear to start with. Lance somehow dances into the massed guards in his door and pulls the next one back with him. A quick spin and kick. Next…

I'm more of a traditionalist; block, punch, block, kick, block, toss. The problem is that they just keep coming.