Chapter 9 – Emergency Situation

Five days after cruiser Volash left the Sora System.

"Captain". Chief of Staff voice sounded by her ear.

The captain of the cruiser Volash, Hecto-commander Kuga Saeko opened her eyes immediately and glanced by her pillow. There was a hologram of the currently on-duty second in command there.

"What?"

"Please come to the bridge immediately." The pale face of Chief of Staff had a scary look on it that was rarely seen on her. "We have discovered several unidentified space-time bubbles."

"I'll be right there." Hecto-commander Kuga jumped up right after she waved the communicator off. She put her black uniform on with practiced motion, combed her hair and put a single winged headpiece on. She picked up her bel and command rod, and headed toward the bridge.

She put her belt on quickly in the transport tube to the bridge, and hung her command rod on. By the time she arrive at the bridge, she looked the way a proper captain sould.

"Chief of Staff, report." Captain shouted as she came on the bridge.

"Direction, 78 degrees in front of us, distance 12.33 kilo-light. Bearing 15 degrees. They're headed toward the Aswad System." The Chief of Staff motioned to give the captain's seat to her once she report everything. But captain made no motion to sit down.

"Aswad is our next destination."

"Yes, captain"

"We should arrive before them."

"how many ship?"

"We have detect a four divisions of fleet according to the space-time bubble size."

The Hecto-commander look at the planar space diagram on the floor. The blue dot representing the location of the cruiser was at the center. Roughly 60 degrees from the direction they were moving in, a swarm of space-time bubble with black dot telling them it is either the enemy or the ally. She wished to ask the unidentified swarm of space-time bubble what they are doing, but the law of physics in planar space prohibited that. Communication wave cannot be sent through planar space not more than 2 light. The only practical method of communication between space-time bubble in planar space is through the usage of space-time probe. But, this inter-bubble communication is painfully slow, and completely useless beyond certain distances.

"Can you tell which gate they come from?" Hecto-commander ask.

"Wing Flyer is calculating that right now." Chief of Staff answered.

The inexperience female wing flyer reported eventually. "I've narrowed it down to 40, but I can't narrow it down any further."

"Are any of those gates in used?" The captain asked.

"No, they're all closed gate, and not in use." The wing flyer shook her head.

"Are there any gate with an inhabited planet within a 20 kilo-light?"

The wing flyer scanned through the old reference material with the A.I.

"No."

"Within 50 kilo-light?" The captain increase the span.

"There is one!" the wing flyer' forehead flushed red from excitement.

"Where?"

"Planet Artai II of the Artai System is 3 kilo-light from the Ursa193 Gate. Its affiliation is….with the United Mankind."

"It seems." The Chief of Staff walked over and whispered. "like it's one of our competitors."

When the founding Empress Kruger declared the formation of the Hime Empire, the total population of the Hime was 27003. According to the estimates by the Hime population studies expert, this is rather accurate figure. The total population of humankind at the time was iver 100 billion. Thus, they decided to try to rule more than 100 billion people with less than even 30,000 Hime. The Hime, they are arrogant and reckless, that was their reputation on numerous worlds. It spread after the first invasion of the Hime. But unfortunately, the Hime were not the first ones to step into planar space. In one of the system, the Schwartz System out of coincidence, discovered a method of utilizing planar space. The people of Schwartz did not try to monopolize the technology, and they willingly, though it was quite expensive to trade for, spread it to twenty other system. But, the Hime realize this, and feel displeasure. They believe that politics in space shouldn't be complex. They believe that there was only one ruling body, so the politic should be simple. And only that can prevent another war break through the universe. Thus, they invaded the Schwartz System and take over all the research and intelligent in the system. They are arrogant and reckless indeed. The Hime declared: no race used space other than the Hime. Since the inhabitant of planets do not love space, they should just try to find happiness on planets. That way everyone can live together in harmony. Unfortunately, other inter-stellar nations had their own opinion, so the Empire's belief was rather unpopular.

Human society turned out exactly the way the Hime predicted. Inter-stellar nation start to turned upon each other without any reason that would convince a third party. The Empire watched as various states bargained each other as if they were watching children playing an interesting game, but sometime they were force to participate in the wars as well.

The Hime knew no mercy and did not know where to draw the line where war was concerned. Once war began, negotiating a peace was impossible. It continued until the enemy state lost their inter-stellar travel technology and was absorbed into the Empire as individual worlds. This tradition had various repercussions. Three Empress and nine Crown Princesses, and various nobles of the Empire died in space. But thus far, the Empire has won in the end every time.

Now there are only four other than the Empire left. In order on national power, The Artai Federation, The Republic of An Nam, The Lutesia System of Democracy, and The Romulus United. Together these four nation form an alliance called the United of the Mankind and gave up their old feud. It is a military alliance. Who is it against, was unspoken, but it is clear that it was against the only nation that was not invited, "The Empire of Hime". Since then. The United has been quietly hostile toward the Empire. To the Empire, the politics became a lot more simpler since all of the other nations had declared itself an enemy of the Empire. But during the past years, the quietly hostility had turned into serious hostility. The United said that the reason for it was behind the invasion of the Kiyo System by the Empire. But Hecto-Commander Kuga knew that it was simply an excuse. The Kiyo System was invaded seven years ago. The alliance had filed complains against the Empire together just like usual, but remained silent afterward. But one year ago, they had apparently discovered that the invasion of the Kiyo System was an unforgivable crime.

"This must be it." Hecto-commander Kuga muttered.

"What is?" Chief of Staff looked up curiously.

"No." The captain laughed bitterly. "Don't you think the United has been rather provocative lately? They've made unreasonable demands like independence of the Kiyo System, and our opening a route within the Empire to it so that they can safeguard its independence. They must known that the Empire would never accept it."

"And?"

"That mean they're prepared and they want an excuse."

"I see. Preparing for this must have taken some time."

"I don't understand." Chief of Staff shrugged. "Why do they make such a blatant lies?"

"This lies is there to only fool one group, themselves."

"Self glorification….. I really don't understand them now." Chief of staff clueless.

"I don't really understand the way they work either. But they probably want to believe that they're the good side."

"What an honor. So we're a manifestation of evil." Chief of staff said coldly.

"Oh, you didn't know, Chef of Staff?" Captain said happily. "We're invaders from afar and mass-murderer. You should look at the history book of the United Mankind sometime. Apparently all evils in the world are caused by the Hime.."

The Line Navigator reported just as captain got that far.

"Change in enemy space-time bubble. One space-time bubble has split into ten and they're heading toward us. Judging from their size, I believe they're single-assault class ship space-time bubbles"

"When will our guest enter the range of our torpedoes?"

The Line Navigator replied immediately. "Around 2115 ship time."

"Chief of Staff, you'll be second in command. Yellow alert. We'll enter Red Alert at 2030 ship time. Tacticians, analyze our chance of victory are." The captain said. It was a harsh voice vastly different from before.