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  At first, their leaders did not accept this explanation; everyone knew that humans were stupid and lazy, utterly incapable of developing advanced technologies or contributing to modern warfare. However, their spies in the Empire reported that no new technologies were being developed from the usual places, and that left only one place they could be coming from.

  After the losses they had taken in the last round of attacks, the Lizard leaders and commanders were loath to commit a large number of ships to an attack on what they considered to be a very minor target. Of course, they knew that a lot of the old, outdated repair facilities had been moved there, but that was obviously so the lazy humans could dismantle them for the Empire. They also knew that the Empire had to have built a new major shipyard in order to upgrade ships and build new ones, but as yet, they had not been able to locate it.

  At the end of the arguments and fighting, a force of thirty super-destroyers armed for planetary bombardment, and sixty-six destroyers to defend them was assembled for a mission to Terra. If nothing else, they could capture enough humans to restock their ranches, and the destruction of the world would be fitting retaliation. Proving that the humans were not the source of the new technology was almost a forgone conclusion. The problem was the proximity to the Empire’’s Capitol. While the Lizards knew that Terra was defended, the transponders showed them all to be old, outdated ships that stood little chance against their force. However, Hyclarion would be defended by the most advanced and modern ships the Empire had. Those ships could jump in to bolster the defenses of the human world and that could be trouble.

  Using the same tactic the Empire had recently used on them, several diversionary raids were planned to draw off the Hyclarion defenders that could be sent to Terra. The plan was approved and the fleets began to be assembled.

  Office of King Bedouin

  Tower of Government

  Stardock City

  30 Nov. 10267 CE (AD)

  Terra, Sol System

  Twenty-five thousand new people, in addition to the slaves and breeding stock from the diversionary raids, was going to be hard for Terra to accept. Very few of the new people would be fit for work for a long time, due to the trauma and stress they had gone through. A special community had been built in what used to be the Australian outback for up to ten thousand refugees at a time. Ben and Deirdre had to shift workers and drones over to expand the facility to house the incoming refugees.

  The location was pretty cold, but with all the other projects taking place on the planet, it was one of the only places left that could handle an isolated facility. Of course, the 'facility' would actually be a small city when it was finished; it was still the only place left on the planet were the refugees could be treated and kept away from the more secure projects until they had been released from treatment and security had approved them.

  Since it was 'summer' in that hemisphere, temporary housing was quickly erected to house the people until more permanent residences could be built. One of the more disturbing aspects of the project was that of the people rescued from the ranches; the males had to be separated from the females. There were also many more females than males. The Lizards had their breeding studs, and that was what they were used for. None of them were educated past knowing the language and didn't understand what was happening to them. However, they did follow instructions very well.

  Special teaching pods would be built to help educate these people and teach them about freedom and what it meant. The humans that had been used as slave labor did have some skills, but again, their education was lacking in that they only knew how to speak, (mostly Lizard) and how to do the task they had been assigned in the Lizard factories.

  All of them had been abused and 'broken'. It would take a lot of work and effort to try to recover these people. Both Ben as well as Hjoolous made sure every effort was being made to help them. Even the people from the surrounding communities helped. Volunteers cooked the food, cared for wounded and sick, and generally did everything they could to help. Even the Marines and base personnel from the Australian military base rolled up their sleeves to help in the construction. Although he hoped that it would never be fully utilized, Ben ordered the refugee facility expanded to accommodate fifty thousand.

  There had been more refugees recovered than the 'Mercy' ships had room for, and so the military ships had taken on the excess. Those had been the first people sent down to the planet, and it had overwhelmed the facility. The 'Mercy' ships were still in orbit and would remain there until they could transfer the people down to the facility.

  After the initial setbacks getting the foundations set for the new city and residences on the planet in the Centauri system was over, work progressed quickly and efficiently. Once the huge gantry Hjoolous had ordered assigned there arrived, fully one third of the workforce on planet was transferred to it. However, by that point, enough progress had been made to begin moving people in and setting up the civil amenities the new community would need.

  A newly redesigned, larger, mining ship was completed and sent to the Centauri system to begin operations. Once the foundry was set up on one of the many moons was completed, it was quickly put in operation at full capacity. Under the new mining system, the raw ore was processed and refined on the mining ship before being sent to the foundry to be made into the parts needed for whatever job was currently underway.

  Large, multi-ton ingots of almost pure metals were loaded onto the freighters at the mining ships and off-loaded at the foundry. Because of need, a rather large transfer yard took shape on the surface of the moon just outside of the foundry. Some of the metals being sent back were not needed by this foundry, while it had urgent need for metals that were not getting sent by the mining ship. A system was quickly worked out by the guild to transfer the needed materials from place to place, from system to system as needed. The excess was simply stacked off to one side, out of the way. Since the moon was little more than an airless rock, the refined metal would never degrade by simply sitting there waiting to be shipped off.

  Certain metals and minerals that did not have a high demand in Sol System or the Centauri system soon became a problem. Their availability in the system was so high that the mining ship had to process them to get at the various needed ores. However, the excess materiel was beginning to pile up at the lunar transfer field.

  Ben alerted the Ministry of Commerce to let the Empire know the materiel was available. While the materiel hadn't been 'rare' in the Empire, it had been uncommon enough that a good price was offered for the excess. Ben made sure that the public share of the money from that deal was put right back into the economy of the Centauri System.

  Ben was in his office reviewing progress reports for the Aegis Project, when Marcy arrived to see him. Sharon said she was very excited and wanted to see him right away. Ben chuckled and said to let her in.

  "Ben! You aren't going to believe this!" Marcy said obviously very excited. "Remember how the F'orindante Mass stopped itself from moving during the battle a few months back?"

  Ben nodded, "I had forgotten about it, but yes I remember."

  "Well, we finally got a ship out there to take a good look around, and we figured out what's going on; it's a very old, very massive, destroyed ship!" she said. It still has some functioning power systems! It pulled what it could of its wreckage back into itself and stopped its movement on its own!"

  "Wait, that… all of that is one destroyed ship? It had to have been really massive, like the size of the moon!" Ben replied.

  "Actually, slightly bigger we think. But so far, yes, it looks like it's all from one ship. But it's old, Ben! We're talking millions of years old, at least! The tech in there is so different than what we have or are used to, we had a hard time even identifying the power systems. We do know, based on what we have found so far, that it had a singularity power system," Marcy explained, she was still really fired up.

  Ben had been thinking while she had been talking. "Was it a warship? Is there
still anything dangerous stored there?"

  Marcy lost a little of her enthusiasm. "It did have weapons, or at least what we think were weapons. There really isn't much left of the outer hull. The most common belief is that she was a generational colony ship, or a very specialized type of heavy cargo ship. Either way, we can find no evidence that it ever had a functional hyperdrive; at least as we understand it. A lot of what's left is pretty hard to figure out; it's really old and really alien. We think that whatever destroyed the ship really mangled what was left over. Of course, if they lost control of that power core, it would certainly explain a lot. We also haven't gotten very far into the Mass; only about a mile or so. We do know there are larger, potentially more intact pieces further in. We'll be able to learn more as we progress," Marcy explained.

  Ben nodded. "That's a hell of a find Marcy. I'm sure we'll be able to learn a lot from it. But I hope you'll understand why I need to ask you to pull your teams back for now. I'll get Command to station picket craft out there for the time being to protect it and keep anyone from looting it. However, for the time being, we have to leave it alone."

  "What? Why!" Marcy replied "Ben, we could find something to put an end to this war once and for all! We could find something that could stop all of this senseless killing!"

  "I agree, Marcy, that possibility does exist. Or, a Lizard fleet, attracted by all the activity out there could swoop in, kill all of you, take whatever they want from the wreck, and use it against us. Trust me here, for the time being, that wreck needs to remain as nothing more than a curiosity until we can devote enough time and resources to explore it completely and safely. Until then, it'll only end up getting more of us killed," Ben replied sadly.

  "But Ben, this is probably the most important archaeological discovery in history!" Marcy argued. "We can't simply ignore it!"

  "I didn't say ignore it, Marcy!" Ben replied. "What I said was to back off for now; we can return to it as soon as it's safe to do so, when we can give the wreckage the attention it deserves." He paused. "Hell, even I'd like to go out there and explore it myself! But Marcy, we have to do this safely, and we have to do it smart. Until then, we need to keep this as quiet as we can. If you want to make up a report for me to give to the Emperor, I will. Otherwise, I'll just tell him about what you've found and what we're doing about it."

  "Well, I did tell the crews to keep quiet about it until I could talk to you, so for now at least, no one else knows about this. I can't say it'll stay that way once we get them back here, but I can try," Marcy replied, somewhat depressed.

  "Marcy, please trust me when I tell you that I really understand wanting to jump into this with both feet. I wish I could join the team because this sounds really fascinating to me. It's just that, right at this moment, it’s far too dangerous out there, and we simply don't have the assets available to protect you and your teams," Ben explained, then snorted. "Hell, who knows? The Emperor might just overrule me and order you out there to look for new weapons and technology we can use against the Lizards."

  Marcy nodded. She was still frowning, but understood what Ben had told her. "Maybe I'm being too cautious, but I really don't want to try to explain to Kaitlin why you died out there, and I really don't want to bury any more of our people than I have too."

  Marcy gave him a half smile. "Kait's already out there, Ben. I think she's even more excited about it than I am."

  "What the hell is she doing out there?" Ben asked.

  "She wanted to go, we figured a survey mission would be safe enough, and I needed a representative with the ship," Marcy explained.

  Ben nodded. He'd known Kaitlin had wanted to ride in a starship, and this had been a perfect opportunity for her. He could have hoped she would have picked something a little less dangerous though. "When they get back, I'll talk to the whole crew before they are released and explain this to them for you."

  "They'll be landing here. I'll give you a call when I have a time," Marcy replied.

  The next day, when Ben returned to his office after speaking to the survey mission crew, he found a message asking him to contact the Emperor as soon as he returned to his office. The request was for him to have his military advisers present for the call.

  "Sire, I've already contacted the General and the Admirals, they are on their way," Sharon replied when Ben was about to ask her to make the calls.

  "On the ball as usual, Sharon. Just send them in when they get here," Ben replied but hesitated before entering his office. "Call Minister Carlyle and Director Warmake as well please. Perhaps Jorga too; I have a bad feeling about this."

  Sharon nodded. "Would you like me to order lunch?"

  Ben nodded. "Good idea, it's the least we can do for interrupting everyone's day." He smiled at the woman and entered his office. After taking his coat off and hanging it up, he went over to his utility area and started a pot of coffee as well as a pot of Jolla. From the beginning he had always insisted on doing the menial stuff like this himself. He refused to include tasks like this as part of his assistant's duties. He even made sure the area was clean and the cups, pots, and utensils were cleaned before he went home every evening. He felt it helped calm him and leave the problems of work at the office.

  Gail and Jorga were the first to arrive with Janice Carlyle close behind. Janice had resigned her position as a Councilor to run the Ministry of Intelligence Operations. Although she was more of an administrator now than a spy or analyst, she still enjoyed the work.

  Next to arrive was Director Warmake of Public Security, while technically under the Ministry of Intelligence, it worked as a separate entity. Phaelon Warmake was one of the highest ranked non-humans in the Terran government, and Ben had never been sorry for appointing him. He was the perfect person for the job. Most people still called him 'Commander' as he preferred that title to 'Director'. Although he had worked closely with the Intelligence people as well as the Imperial Rangers, it had been him and his team that had identified every Imperial agent assigned to them, as well as several corporate spies within the first month on the job. Warmake was the equivalent of the Chief of the Police for the entire system. Ben had no doubt that they were as secure as they could be as long as Warmake and Carlyle were on the job.

  The last two to arrive had been the two Admirals. Both men had been off-planet, so it took them some time to get there. As the two men took seats, Ben stood.

  "I've asked all of you here today because I received an urgent request for communications with the Emperor. In the request, it was asked that I have all of you present," Ben explained and touched the intercom button on his control pad. "Sharon, please connect us to the Emperor now."

  Because the comm was 'secure' Ben's office door locked. The lights dimmed and a hologram of Hjoolous and Yolinar took form sitting at the table. Everyone bowed to the Emperor.

  "Please, rise everyone. We have a lot to go over today," Hjoolous said. "It is good to see all of you again. Ben, we have confirmed intel that says the Lizards are going to hit Sol System soon. Normally, Yolinar would simply hand off the information to General Greenwold and let you deal with it, but things are different this time." He turned slightly to the older being. "Admiral?"

  Yolinar stood, bowed to his leader and friend. Then bowed slightly to Ben. As he spoke, a large hologram of the quadrant of the galaxy containing the Empire took form in the center of the room. "Four days ago, our intelligence network got wind of a warning the Lizards sent to agents in the Empire. The warning was to avoid certain worlds in the Empire along the Prosma Reach. These worlds are farming and textile worlds and have little military value, so at first, the report was mostly ignored as more misinformation spread by the Lizards to confuse us. However, since that time, three other unrelated reports have come in that not only verified the warning, but gave us the Lizard attack plan.

  "They will hit the Prosma Reach and raid those worlds as a means of drawing the extra fleets kept at Hyclarion as your back-up away from the area. The main force will then att
ack your system. There are also orders to infiltrate this system at all costs; they are looking for information on the new systems and technology installed on our ships." As he spoke, the affected area was highlighted and the image zoomed in.

  "Unfortunately, we will have to send the extra fleets to defend the Prosma Reach. We cannot simply ignore that attack and hope the Lizards just turn around and go home. Which means you're going to have to defend yourselves until another fleet can arrive to assist you."

  "Sir, do we know what the Lizards are going to be tossing at us?" Admiral Oldstone asked.

  "Our latest attacks in their space have badly disorganized them. The only movement we are seeing is that of individual ships and small squadrons of three ships or less. No, we do not know what they are sending, but all indications are pointing to a cobbled-together task force of sixty to seventy ships, of which only ten will be super-destroyers. To that end, I have ordered Admiral Tyrel to Sol System. However, we do not believe he will arrive in time. The reports did not include a time frame for this operation, which usually means that it is underway or soon will be. The earliest the distraction fleets will arrive is tomorrow evening. The main force will be a day to two behind them."

  "Our current defensive fleet is at fifty-nine ships, the crews don't have a lot of experience, but they are well trained. With Aegis One and the rest of the defenses in the system, we should be able to hold out; maybe even defeat them. The problem is that the damn snakes are sneaky and probably have something else planned we simply can't see as yet," Oldstone said.