Elsewhere:
"Activate Jump gate sequence, now!"
A swirling pattern of orange forms within the structure floating in space. In a few seconds the hole opens, and a single small vessel flies through the tear in reality, barely ahead of a larger dark vessel pursuing.
The white vessel looked like a type of bird, graceful and swift. The dark vessel was a black that seemed to soak up light, with thin arms that reached ahead of itself, as though it desired to capture and kill anything it wanted.
"Activate Rear Jump Engines, now!"
A second tear in reality forms within the jump gate, and one can see that the vortex is getting ready to overload. The dark vessel shimmers into view, but is caught in the explosion as the jump gate releases all its energy at once. The crew of the small vessel manage to ride out the shock wave, and congratulate themselves on surviving the blast radius. They then opened another tear in reality, and headed towards their home, delighted over their victory.
*
But no one had ever seen what happened on the other side of a jump gate explosion. The explosion had also generated a small energy pulse, traveling through hyperspace. Given time, it would eventually dissipate, but it would not get that chance.
A scanner tech noticed the energy wave first. It was far below the level necessary to penetrate the Violence's shields, but his job was to call out anything unusual on his ship's sensors.
"Sir, I have an energy pulse approaching at 238 by 12. Range 375 and closing. It will not penetrate our shields."
Captain Beleron of the ship was bored as well, and was curious about this new contact. With an Eclipse battleship coming through, and a Grand Admiral on board, he wanted to know everything that was going on. Calling the local display on his holograph, he highlighted the energy pulse. With a click of a button, the computer highlighted the pulse's probable path and-
"Starboard Engines to full power now! Get us in front of that energy wave right now!"
Imperial officers are conditioned to obey, and their reactions were exemplary, even as their minds raced, wondering what was going on. But Captain Beleron watched as the pulse proceeded on its course. If he could get his ship in the way, the pulse would be dissipated, but if he failed, the pulse would hit the tear. If that pulse hit the tear, it could cause the whole tunnel to collapse, closing it completely, leaving them with no way home.
The Hand on the Agatrix also sensed the pulse. She concentrated for a moment, and saw what would happen. Looking across futures possible, she knew what needed to be done. Slipping into a trance, she insinuated herself in the mind of a senior engineer, and began to reset the equipment, changing the protected tunnel size.
The Violence's engines screamed as the Captain ordered full power, bypassing the safety locks, her hull creaking as the strain of a multi-trillion ton starship being accelerated and turned tore at the structure. If it could stop the wave, there would be nothing to worry about. But if the pulse hit the tear, the ship and its crew would be stuck with no way home.
The Captain of the Eclipse heard the frantic message, but they were too far into the tear, and could not back out in time. Throwing engine safeties aside, she ordered full speed ahead, trying to get out of the tear before the pulse hit.
It was not enough. The pulse skipped off the side of the Violence's shields, barely losing any strength in the process. It hit the tear, and the carefully restrained and balanced energies went insane. Within the tear itself, the vortex began shifting. Where it had been a steady rotation around the edge of the passage, the variants of reality began bouncing further into the center, and some began connecting with the Eclipse's shields. Megaton level blasts began to build up, making the shields hit start to glow with the dissipated energies. Radiation monitors began wailing, and ship's personnel began moving towards the center of the ship, using the thick hull and interior walls as radiation shielding.
The Captain saw what was happening, saw her ship getting pounded, and knew that it was now a race between her ship getting through and the tear collapsing. Since the tunnel equipment was back at the other end, the end she was approaching would collapse first. Fortunately for her, the ring station was keeping the tunnel open, and it would be open long enough for her to get the Eclipse through.
Senior Engineer Hamell twitched at his station, as the new instructions poured into his brain. He tried to resist for a moment, but his will was swept aside by the Hand. Hand Teleso knew that the Eclipse could not be completely saved, so she had decided to save what was possible. Reprogramming the tunnel for a new diameter, she set up a tube barely a meter wide. Since everyone knew that with a smaller area to act upon, the strength of the tunnel would be far greater. By shrinking the tunnel from 4 kilometers wide to one meter wide, she was making it as hard as possible to close.
The Captain of the Eclipse did not know that at the time, but what she did see made her pale. The storms ahead of her that had been confined to distances safely away from her ship suddenly surged up, stretching across from one side to the other. With full speed already ordered, she ordered maximum power to the shields, hoping they would provide some protection against the holocaust looming in front of her.
Surges of sub-nuclear explosions hit the great ship's shields, hammering them down with repeated blows. Generators overloaded, yet the Eclipse was a true warship, with shields that could be reconfigured and moved, and neighboring shields slid into place, protecting the ship's armor from the fury raging barely meters from the hull.
Yet the fury would not be denied its goal. The front of an Eclipse battleship was one hundred stories tall, and the side of it was an excellent target. A small burst got past two shield generators and exploded against the hull, making it ripple for hundreds of meters in all directions. Two more bursts got through, eating deeper into the hull before defensive shields finally stopped the remainders, yet the damage was done. A crater over two hundred meters wide and fifty deep had been blasted into the side of the ship, and the damage was just starting. Other shields failed in other areas, and storms of radiation poured into them, megaton yield explosions hammered the hull like machine gun blasts, yet the ship continued on. As if it knew that the only way out of the storm was through the worst of it, the engines kept burning, and the skeleton held together.
Finally, the Eclipse came through the other side, and everyone there stared at it in shock, for the engine section had actually touched the edges of the tear, and over two thirds of its engines were simply gone. The rest of the ship was not in much better shape, as atmosphere gushed from thousands of holes, and the armor that normally gave it a sleek look had been peeled back in strips over a hundred meters long. Everyone in the outer hundred meters of the hull had been killed by radiation, and the people within were starting to begin recovery operations.
The crews of the other two star destroyers looked on in shock at the wreck in front of them. The Eclipse battleships were known as among the toughest ships in the fleet, second only to Super Star Destroyers, and that was not by a large margin. But this vessel looked like it had gone a couple rounds with the Death Star.
The other star destroyer crews stared a little in shock, then officers began yelling orders to begin Search and Rescue operations. The two Star Destroyers could barely hold a percent of an Eclipse's crew, but they could take on the worst hurt, and try to get some of the Eclipse's own systems running again. If they could get main power, the sickbays, and the engines running again, it could even be possible to maneuver the ship into normal space, where they could park it in an orbit somewhere.
On board the Eclipse, emergency power still flowed through several areas, and automatic blast doors had been sealed even before the transit. Coughing against the smoke, Commander Vulon called up a display of the battleship, demanding to see what had happened. The display horrified him. Thousands of people had died on the outer edges of the ship from the radiation, holes were gashed deep into the hull, and some portions of the ship had been torn away completely. In fact, one of those portions was-
The Main Bridge. Where Grand Admiral Veh'kor and the Captain had been before they had made transit, and now there was a hole. Realizing that he was the commanding officer of the Eclipse, Commander Vulon began calling for people to find medical kits, and get people who need help to the sickbays. Getting the people organized, he was able to get the main power back on-line, but the engineers warned him that the reactor was fairly unstable. They could only give him fifty percent power, but that was thirty more than he needed. Sickbays began to fill with wounded, and the Search and Rescue shuttles arrived from the other Star destroyers to take off the seriously wounded.
Suddenly, a message came through the tear. "This is Ring Command. We were barely able to keep the smaller tunnel open. Right now it does not look like we can reopen the tunnel anytime soon, but we will be able to perform communications roughly every two weeks. It looks like you're on your own. The message has already been transmitted back to Coruscant of the tunnel's near-collapse, and we would like a further report from Grand Admiral Veh'kor as soon as possible. Ring Command out."
It took several minutes, but Captain Velholm was able to get the necessary information together, and he transmitted the report. It included the near destruction of the Eclipse, a visual and scanner analysis of the hull, and initial reports from the Search and Rescue teams. Further information was added by Commander Vulno as he reported in. It was confirmed that the Grand Admiral was missing, and the names of those who had died on board the Eclipse were included as well.
The coordinates of the tear exit were recorded, and the remaining ships made the travel to the new star system they had detected earlier. Even in the Eclipse's wounded state, it still possessed more than enough power to open its own jump point, and it exited into normal space, where the news of the disaster was spreading to the Eager Fire and the Hunger.
Captain Velholm called for a meeting of the Captains in two hours, on board the Eclipse, as though to remind them of the massive task that lay ahead of them, and the other Captains agreed. Commander Vulon would be there by necessity (it was his ship), and Hand Teleso was invited there as well.
Captain Velholm was ruined over the entire affair. He knew that there was no way for them to return, and yet he still had to project the calm, assured manner of an Imperial commanding officer, no matter his private feelings. But how? He had a fair idea of how to run an sector, but he only had three Star destroyers, a single World Devastator, a single Survey cruiser, and a badly damaged Eclipse battleship that was more of a target than an asset. That was all he had, and he wanted so much to turn the job over to the Emperor's Hand, and let her be the new Empress of this galaxy. That was the proper way of things, with the Emperor or Empress giving the orders and the officers obeying. Now all he had to do was figure out a way to get her to accept the title.
But as he was thinking and changing into his proper uniform for the meeting, Teleso walked into his room, and immediately began speaking. "Captain, there are several things you should know, and this is the right time to tell you. First, the Eclipse could not have been saved. The pulse that hit the tear was the straw that broke its back. There were several other waves that had been building up. It was only a matter of time before the tear broke. If the pulse had not hit when it did, the tear would have imploded within a few more minutes, closing it completely. I decided not to inform Captain Berelon of the pulse because of that. If he had known of the pulse, he would have gotten his ship in the way, and the Eclipse would have been totally destroyed, and the tear would have been severed, leaving us with no way to communicate with the Empire, or possibility of reopening contact.
"Also, I know you intend to propose me as the new Empress of this galaxy. That will not happen. We are still in contact with the Empire, and there can be only one Emperor or Empress. You are the highest-ranking Imperial officer here, so you will assume the title and job of Imperial governor. You only have these ships, but a World Devastator is not just a mere factory ship. It is a vessel that can turn out hundreds of fighters in a day if given the instructions, and can reproduce itself in less than two weeks. Use that capability well Captain, for it is the second biggest asset you have.
"The main asset we have right now, is you. You have the knowledge and the will to be an Imperial Governor, if you are willing to work for it. So stop your self-pitying, stop grasping about how to pass the job on to someone else, and start thinking. If you need, discuss your ideas out loud with me. If I feel you are on the wrong track, I will tell you. Now I want you to tell me, what is the first thing we need to do?"
Velholm was stunned, nobody spoke to an Imperial Captain that way; except, she was right. He had always seen the Imperial Governors as people who watched others do the work while they sat back and relaxed, but his mind began to shift, and he began to see it from their point of view. He had to not just keep his ships supplied, he now had to get the Eclipse repaired, and avoid contact with potentially hostile forces until then. After that, he had to initiate contact on his terms, and slowly get the nature of the galaxy, getting a feel for the local power structures. From there, he could start to either conquer the systems for the Empire, or get them allied with the Empire.
"First, we get the Eclipse to the star system we detected earlier." A nod "Once there, the Hunger will get busy repairing enough systems to bring it up to basic operational capability. It still has its main reactor, so shielding will be low, but still some coverage. Once it is back up as a defensive vessel, the World Devastator will commence on self-replication. With two of them going, one can continue to work on the Eclipse, while the second does nothing but self-replication."
Another nod.
"While the Eclipse is being repaired, the Verentor can be launching its probe droids to nearby systems. This system is not safe for us to be in, as there is a trade route passing through here. Until our forces are built back up to where I feel safe, I will not risk contact. As soon as the Eclipse's reactor is safe, its hull has been patched, and the probe droids have found a new system, we will go there."
Another nod, but Captain Velholm was going ahead anyway.
"We will have to maintain contact every two weeks, but a Star Destroyer can easily do that, hypering in, jumping to that red space, and communicating. Once repairs and self-replication are going well, we can send more probe droids to other systems, finding out who is in charge in these parts. If we manage to establish contact with a small force, even that freighter we saw earlier, we can use them as a front group to feel out the other empires out there, or even find out if there is a single empire in control.
"If there are multiple empires, we can try to get control of one of them, and proceed from there getting control of the others. This will require your diplomacy training to assist me. If there is a single empire, we will have to evaluate the government, and decide if we want the current members in power. If we do, we can simply negotiate with them. If not, we can subvert them from the inside."
Teleso smiled at this, as it showed that Velholm was already thinking of how to use her as part of his plan, not merely obey her orders out of habit. He was thinking, and she needed him to think, to put his mind to work, and get the other Captains and officers thinking as they never had before.
"We cannot offer the usual empire benefits of a strong military protection, trade deals, or investment advantages, so we will have to be more creative in determining what is required in these cases."
Stopping suddenly, Velholm realized that he had switched himself to strategic thinking for the entire galaxy, and he smiled as he realized that he was doing what needed to be done, not what he wanted to do. He now had the proper mindset to face the other Captains, and he began to walk towards the door of his quarters.
"Um, Captain?"
"Yes?"
"Don't forget your pants."
His face turned bright red at that remark, and the Hand walked past him out the door, as he struggled to keep his face from staying red when he met the others. He knew also, that he would never get too full of himself, and that the Hand would be there to cut him down to size.
*
Arriving on the Eclipse, he received updated reports from all the ships, and outlined his plan. Several of the Captains looked skeptical at first, but as he gave them instructions for each step, they became more and more confident, even eager to expand their foothold in the new galaxy. But they were all aware of the dangers. They had only seen a single primitive freighter, but that didn't mean all vessels were that low in technology. One proposed idea was to reengineer all current TIE fighters into TIE Defenders, to use the shields and hyperdrive capabilities built into them to survive or avoid combat as needed. That proposal was accepted, but delayed for now in favor of getting the Eclipse ready for travel.
*
The black vessel paused in its searching. The area of hyperspace it was in tasted different. Its senses could identify any type of engine by the aftertaste its exhaust left in hyperspace, but this seemed strange. Almost as if the vessel was burning something that didn't fit in with reality, and using that as exhaust.
But that didn't matter. It knew that any races that could challenge it were staying out of the fight, and anything else was a target. It altered course to follow the trail, planning to find out where it went, and destroy anything it found. Preparing its fighter ball, the black vessel armed its weapons, and began following the scent.
*
A scanner technician was on duty, watching the vessels currently in orbit of the rock ball the World Devastator was having for lunch. It was extremely hot, and parts of its surfaces were molten, but the Devastator was having an easy time extracting the elements needed from it. Several fighters and a pair of skipray blastboats were patrolling the area, keeping their emissions down while they watched for anything that might pop in. If they detected anything, they would send a tight-beam message to the Hunger, and it would shut down its mining operations, to avoid having anyone pick up its emissions.
*
It finally reached the end of the scent, and tasted the way the ships had exited hyperspace. Strange, there was no taste of that vital mineral, one that was essential to jump point formation. But that would be something else to show off when it returned, a new way to enter and leave hyperspace. In the meantime, since it did not need anything as crude or obvious as a jump gate, it slid through the barrier between, and looked at the ships clustered in front of it. 'Unusual vessels,' it thought, then it saw the larger item behind them. 'Now that thing is huge! But it appears badly damaged, and the others are trying to defend it. They must have heard of us, and are trying to get it repaired enough to get away. But I will destroy those vessels, and dispose of the cripple. Easy targets.'
"Activate Jump gate sequence, now!"
A swirling pattern of orange forms within the structure floating in space. In a few seconds the hole opens, and a single small vessel flies through the tear in reality, barely ahead of a larger dark vessel pursuing.
The white vessel looked like a type of bird, graceful and swift. The dark vessel was a black that seemed to soak up light, with thin arms that reached ahead of itself, as though it desired to capture and kill anything it wanted.
"Activate Rear Jump Engines, now!"
A second tear in reality forms within the jump gate, and one can see that the vortex is getting ready to overload. The dark vessel shimmers into view, but is caught in the explosion as the jump gate releases all its energy at once. The crew of the small vessel manage to ride out the shock wave, and congratulate themselves on surviving the blast radius. They then opened another tear in reality, and headed towards their home, delighted over their victory.
*
But no one had ever seen what happened on the other side of a jump gate explosion. The explosion had also generated a small energy pulse, traveling through hyperspace. Given time, it would eventually dissipate, but it would not get that chance.
A scanner tech noticed the energy wave first. It was far below the level necessary to penetrate the Violence's shields, but his job was to call out anything unusual on his ship's sensors.
"Sir, I have an energy pulse approaching at 238 by 12. Range 375 and closing. It will not penetrate our shields."
Captain Beleron of the ship was bored as well, and was curious about this new contact. With an Eclipse battleship coming through, and a Grand Admiral on board, he wanted to know everything that was going on. Calling the local display on his holograph, he highlighted the energy pulse. With a click of a button, the computer highlighted the pulse's probable path and-
"Starboard Engines to full power now! Get us in front of that energy wave right now!"
Imperial officers are conditioned to obey, and their reactions were exemplary, even as their minds raced, wondering what was going on. But Captain Beleron watched as the pulse proceeded on its course. If he could get his ship in the way, the pulse would be dissipated, but if he failed, the pulse would hit the tear. If that pulse hit the tear, it could cause the whole tunnel to collapse, closing it completely, leaving them with no way home.
The Hand on the Agatrix also sensed the pulse. She concentrated for a moment, and saw what would happen. Looking across futures possible, she knew what needed to be done. Slipping into a trance, she insinuated herself in the mind of a senior engineer, and began to reset the equipment, changing the protected tunnel size.
The Violence's engines screamed as the Captain ordered full power, bypassing the safety locks, her hull creaking as the strain of a multi-trillion ton starship being accelerated and turned tore at the structure. If it could stop the wave, there would be nothing to worry about. But if the pulse hit the tear, the ship and its crew would be stuck with no way home.
The Captain of the Eclipse heard the frantic message, but they were too far into the tear, and could not back out in time. Throwing engine safeties aside, she ordered full speed ahead, trying to get out of the tear before the pulse hit.
It was not enough. The pulse skipped off the side of the Violence's shields, barely losing any strength in the process. It hit the tear, and the carefully restrained and balanced energies went insane. Within the tear itself, the vortex began shifting. Where it had been a steady rotation around the edge of the passage, the variants of reality began bouncing further into the center, and some began connecting with the Eclipse's shields. Megaton level blasts began to build up, making the shields hit start to glow with the dissipated energies. Radiation monitors began wailing, and ship's personnel began moving towards the center of the ship, using the thick hull and interior walls as radiation shielding.
The Captain saw what was happening, saw her ship getting pounded, and knew that it was now a race between her ship getting through and the tear collapsing. Since the tunnel equipment was back at the other end, the end she was approaching would collapse first. Fortunately for her, the ring station was keeping the tunnel open, and it would be open long enough for her to get the Eclipse through.
Senior Engineer Hamell twitched at his station, as the new instructions poured into his brain. He tried to resist for a moment, but his will was swept aside by the Hand. Hand Teleso knew that the Eclipse could not be completely saved, so she had decided to save what was possible. Reprogramming the tunnel for a new diameter, she set up a tube barely a meter wide. Since everyone knew that with a smaller area to act upon, the strength of the tunnel would be far greater. By shrinking the tunnel from 4 kilometers wide to one meter wide, she was making it as hard as possible to close.
The Captain of the Eclipse did not know that at the time, but what she did see made her pale. The storms ahead of her that had been confined to distances safely away from her ship suddenly surged up, stretching across from one side to the other. With full speed already ordered, she ordered maximum power to the shields, hoping they would provide some protection against the holocaust looming in front of her.
Surges of sub-nuclear explosions hit the great ship's shields, hammering them down with repeated blows. Generators overloaded, yet the Eclipse was a true warship, with shields that could be reconfigured and moved, and neighboring shields slid into place, protecting the ship's armor from the fury raging barely meters from the hull.
Yet the fury would not be denied its goal. The front of an Eclipse battleship was one hundred stories tall, and the side of it was an excellent target. A small burst got past two shield generators and exploded against the hull, making it ripple for hundreds of meters in all directions. Two more bursts got through, eating deeper into the hull before defensive shields finally stopped the remainders, yet the damage was done. A crater over two hundred meters wide and fifty deep had been blasted into the side of the ship, and the damage was just starting. Other shields failed in other areas, and storms of radiation poured into them, megaton yield explosions hammered the hull like machine gun blasts, yet the ship continued on. As if it knew that the only way out of the storm was through the worst of it, the engines kept burning, and the skeleton held together.
Finally, the Eclipse came through the other side, and everyone there stared at it in shock, for the engine section had actually touched the edges of the tear, and over two thirds of its engines were simply gone. The rest of the ship was not in much better shape, as atmosphere gushed from thousands of holes, and the armor that normally gave it a sleek look had been peeled back in strips over a hundred meters long. Everyone in the outer hundred meters of the hull had been killed by radiation, and the people within were starting to begin recovery operations.
The crews of the other two star destroyers looked on in shock at the wreck in front of them. The Eclipse battleships were known as among the toughest ships in the fleet, second only to Super Star Destroyers, and that was not by a large margin. But this vessel looked like it had gone a couple rounds with the Death Star.
The other star destroyer crews stared a little in shock, then officers began yelling orders to begin Search and Rescue operations. The two Star Destroyers could barely hold a percent of an Eclipse's crew, but they could take on the worst hurt, and try to get some of the Eclipse's own systems running again. If they could get main power, the sickbays, and the engines running again, it could even be possible to maneuver the ship into normal space, where they could park it in an orbit somewhere.
On board the Eclipse, emergency power still flowed through several areas, and automatic blast doors had been sealed even before the transit. Coughing against the smoke, Commander Vulon called up a display of the battleship, demanding to see what had happened. The display horrified him. Thousands of people had died on the outer edges of the ship from the radiation, holes were gashed deep into the hull, and some portions of the ship had been torn away completely. In fact, one of those portions was-
The Main Bridge. Where Grand Admiral Veh'kor and the Captain had been before they had made transit, and now there was a hole. Realizing that he was the commanding officer of the Eclipse, Commander Vulon began calling for people to find medical kits, and get people who need help to the sickbays. Getting the people organized, he was able to get the main power back on-line, but the engineers warned him that the reactor was fairly unstable. They could only give him fifty percent power, but that was thirty more than he needed. Sickbays began to fill with wounded, and the Search and Rescue shuttles arrived from the other Star destroyers to take off the seriously wounded.
Suddenly, a message came through the tear. "This is Ring Command. We were barely able to keep the smaller tunnel open. Right now it does not look like we can reopen the tunnel anytime soon, but we will be able to perform communications roughly every two weeks. It looks like you're on your own. The message has already been transmitted back to Coruscant of the tunnel's near-collapse, and we would like a further report from Grand Admiral Veh'kor as soon as possible. Ring Command out."
It took several minutes, but Captain Velholm was able to get the necessary information together, and he transmitted the report. It included the near destruction of the Eclipse, a visual and scanner analysis of the hull, and initial reports from the Search and Rescue teams. Further information was added by Commander Vulno as he reported in. It was confirmed that the Grand Admiral was missing, and the names of those who had died on board the Eclipse were included as well.
The coordinates of the tear exit were recorded, and the remaining ships made the travel to the new star system they had detected earlier. Even in the Eclipse's wounded state, it still possessed more than enough power to open its own jump point, and it exited into normal space, where the news of the disaster was spreading to the Eager Fire and the Hunger.
Captain Velholm called for a meeting of the Captains in two hours, on board the Eclipse, as though to remind them of the massive task that lay ahead of them, and the other Captains agreed. Commander Vulon would be there by necessity (it was his ship), and Hand Teleso was invited there as well.
Captain Velholm was ruined over the entire affair. He knew that there was no way for them to return, and yet he still had to project the calm, assured manner of an Imperial commanding officer, no matter his private feelings. But how? He had a fair idea of how to run an sector, but he only had three Star destroyers, a single World Devastator, a single Survey cruiser, and a badly damaged Eclipse battleship that was more of a target than an asset. That was all he had, and he wanted so much to turn the job over to the Emperor's Hand, and let her be the new Empress of this galaxy. That was the proper way of things, with the Emperor or Empress giving the orders and the officers obeying. Now all he had to do was figure out a way to get her to accept the title.
But as he was thinking and changing into his proper uniform for the meeting, Teleso walked into his room, and immediately began speaking. "Captain, there are several things you should know, and this is the right time to tell you. First, the Eclipse could not have been saved. The pulse that hit the tear was the straw that broke its back. There were several other waves that had been building up. It was only a matter of time before the tear broke. If the pulse had not hit when it did, the tear would have imploded within a few more minutes, closing it completely. I decided not to inform Captain Berelon of the pulse because of that. If he had known of the pulse, he would have gotten his ship in the way, and the Eclipse would have been totally destroyed, and the tear would have been severed, leaving us with no way to communicate with the Empire, or possibility of reopening contact.
"Also, I know you intend to propose me as the new Empress of this galaxy. That will not happen. We are still in contact with the Empire, and there can be only one Emperor or Empress. You are the highest-ranking Imperial officer here, so you will assume the title and job of Imperial governor. You only have these ships, but a World Devastator is not just a mere factory ship. It is a vessel that can turn out hundreds of fighters in a day if given the instructions, and can reproduce itself in less than two weeks. Use that capability well Captain, for it is the second biggest asset you have.
"The main asset we have right now, is you. You have the knowledge and the will to be an Imperial Governor, if you are willing to work for it. So stop your self-pitying, stop grasping about how to pass the job on to someone else, and start thinking. If you need, discuss your ideas out loud with me. If I feel you are on the wrong track, I will tell you. Now I want you to tell me, what is the first thing we need to do?"
Velholm was stunned, nobody spoke to an Imperial Captain that way; except, she was right. He had always seen the Imperial Governors as people who watched others do the work while they sat back and relaxed, but his mind began to shift, and he began to see it from their point of view. He had to not just keep his ships supplied, he now had to get the Eclipse repaired, and avoid contact with potentially hostile forces until then. After that, he had to initiate contact on his terms, and slowly get the nature of the galaxy, getting a feel for the local power structures. From there, he could start to either conquer the systems for the Empire, or get them allied with the Empire.
"First, we get the Eclipse to the star system we detected earlier." A nod "Once there, the Hunger will get busy repairing enough systems to bring it up to basic operational capability. It still has its main reactor, so shielding will be low, but still some coverage. Once it is back up as a defensive vessel, the World Devastator will commence on self-replication. With two of them going, one can continue to work on the Eclipse, while the second does nothing but self-replication."
Another nod.
"While the Eclipse is being repaired, the Verentor can be launching its probe droids to nearby systems. This system is not safe for us to be in, as there is a trade route passing through here. Until our forces are built back up to where I feel safe, I will not risk contact. As soon as the Eclipse's reactor is safe, its hull has been patched, and the probe droids have found a new system, we will go there."
Another nod, but Captain Velholm was going ahead anyway.
"We will have to maintain contact every two weeks, but a Star Destroyer can easily do that, hypering in, jumping to that red space, and communicating. Once repairs and self-replication are going well, we can send more probe droids to other systems, finding out who is in charge in these parts. If we manage to establish contact with a small force, even that freighter we saw earlier, we can use them as a front group to feel out the other empires out there, or even find out if there is a single empire in control.
"If there are multiple empires, we can try to get control of one of them, and proceed from there getting control of the others. This will require your diplomacy training to assist me. If there is a single empire, we will have to evaluate the government, and decide if we want the current members in power. If we do, we can simply negotiate with them. If not, we can subvert them from the inside."
Teleso smiled at this, as it showed that Velholm was already thinking of how to use her as part of his plan, not merely obey her orders out of habit. He was thinking, and she needed him to think, to put his mind to work, and get the other Captains and officers thinking as they never had before.
"We cannot offer the usual empire benefits of a strong military protection, trade deals, or investment advantages, so we will have to be more creative in determining what is required in these cases."
Stopping suddenly, Velholm realized that he had switched himself to strategic thinking for the entire galaxy, and he smiled as he realized that he was doing what needed to be done, not what he wanted to do. He now had the proper mindset to face the other Captains, and he began to walk towards the door of his quarters.
"Um, Captain?"
"Yes?"
"Don't forget your pants."
His face turned bright red at that remark, and the Hand walked past him out the door, as he struggled to keep his face from staying red when he met the others. He knew also, that he would never get too full of himself, and that the Hand would be there to cut him down to size.
*
Arriving on the Eclipse, he received updated reports from all the ships, and outlined his plan. Several of the Captains looked skeptical at first, but as he gave them instructions for each step, they became more and more confident, even eager to expand their foothold in the new galaxy. But they were all aware of the dangers. They had only seen a single primitive freighter, but that didn't mean all vessels were that low in technology. One proposed idea was to reengineer all current TIE fighters into TIE Defenders, to use the shields and hyperdrive capabilities built into them to survive or avoid combat as needed. That proposal was accepted, but delayed for now in favor of getting the Eclipse ready for travel.
*
The black vessel paused in its searching. The area of hyperspace it was in tasted different. Its senses could identify any type of engine by the aftertaste its exhaust left in hyperspace, but this seemed strange. Almost as if the vessel was burning something that didn't fit in with reality, and using that as exhaust.
But that didn't matter. It knew that any races that could challenge it were staying out of the fight, and anything else was a target. It altered course to follow the trail, planning to find out where it went, and destroy anything it found. Preparing its fighter ball, the black vessel armed its weapons, and began following the scent.
*
A scanner technician was on duty, watching the vessels currently in orbit of the rock ball the World Devastator was having for lunch. It was extremely hot, and parts of its surfaces were molten, but the Devastator was having an easy time extracting the elements needed from it. Several fighters and a pair of skipray blastboats were patrolling the area, keeping their emissions down while they watched for anything that might pop in. If they detected anything, they would send a tight-beam message to the Hunger, and it would shut down its mining operations, to avoid having anyone pick up its emissions.
*
It finally reached the end of the scent, and tasted the way the ships had exited hyperspace. Strange, there was no taste of that vital mineral, one that was essential to jump point formation. But that would be something else to show off when it returned, a new way to enter and leave hyperspace. In the meantime, since it did not need anything as crude or obvious as a jump gate, it slid through the barrier between, and looked at the ships clustered in front of it. 'Unusual vessels,' it thought, then it saw the larger item behind them. 'Now that thing is huge! But it appears badly damaged, and the others are trying to defend it. They must have heard of us, and are trying to get it repaired enough to get away. But I will destroy those vessels, and dispose of the cripple. Easy targets.'