Chapter 25: The Queen and the Prophet

IDS Sovereign

Royal chambers

Xapferey sent out a pulse of magic while mentally thanking the discernment spells' unlimited range. He sought out the Dark Prelate Zeratul, hoping to gain his attention so that he would seek out the Dragon. At the same time in regards to their alliance, Xapferey added his fighters to assist the Wraith patrols. Needless to say, the Wraith pilots were envious of the sleek, elegant and powerful Valkyrie class light fighters, and the sheer deadly beauty provided by the Delta Flyer class heavy fighters. At the same time, Xapferey was wondering where this alternate Kerrigan would be if she did actually exist as her interference was still just a theory in his mind. When he talked to Jason, however, it transpired that he had some ideas as to her location.

"It's not much more than a guess, but I'd start searching around the previous systems where we were; Mar Sara and Antiga Prime. I'd bet that she's going to want to talk at some point and it would make sense for her to set up there. Antiga Prime is more likely, though; it's where Jim and I first met Sarah."

"I know, in a way so did I… we should head there, my ship at max speed moves nearly 200,000 times the speed of light and has the firepower needed to get us out of a scrape if we do get into one there," Xapferey offered.

"That's fast, I'll grant you, but we need to be stealthy too. Even with a cloaking field, you won't be able to hide it from curious eyes noting its absence here, or its warp signature on arrival, and I'll lay good odds that someone will have eyes there, the Zerg or Protoss if no one else. The Liberator is faster, the fleet's used to her going absent at times and she's stealthy enough to evade detection. Added to that, whoever is on the end of this line is likely to be expecting me to show up. They see you in that ship of yours, they'll either try to blow it out of the sky or go underground and we'll never find them. In any case, I'd pit the Liberator against any ship in the sector and if she doesn't win, she'll force a draw. She's tough, fast and agile; what she can't shoot down, she'll outrun."

"A true battlecruiser by the traditions of seafaring vessels. Though to be honest outside of wargames, which we should conduct in the future to simulate my forces in a proper pitched battle against Dominion forces. No offense though, personally I wouldn't want to pit the Liberator against the Sovereign in a direct fight even without using quantum or transphasic torpedoes."

"Perhaps. That would test her, I admit, but I wouldn't write her off right away, either. Either way, nothing else in the sector outside of Sovereign is likely to stand a chance of taking her out. With no disrespect to your ship and crew, that flagship of yours is a hammer to crush a fleet. Liberator is the dagger in the assassin's hand to slip past defenses and do the most damage. For this kind of job, I don't think there's anything better."

"Aside from an Intrepid class maybe, they're about the same size as your ship. I agree, Sovereign was designed as a battleship, brute force and tanking fire, you do realize she has 20 meters of hull armor plating alone never mind shields or ablative generators?" Xapferey chuckled.

"We might have worked that out from the scans we took of her." Jason replied. "It would take a lot to kill her. But you have to hit the Liberator before you could kill her and taking out massively armored targets is what she was built to do. Either way, as you said, outside of war games I'd rather not have to find out."

"Indeed, though if we add the fact that she has 8 redundant overlapping ablative armor generators and 16 shield generators. Not to mention the fact she has hundreds of weapons to lash out with in every conceivable firing arc… I wouldn't want to get in weapons range of her without a large fleet at my back. Never mind with the support of Intrepid and Defiant class ships… on other fronts, I have used my powers to locate Zeratul, and hopefully he will be curious enough by my probe to seek me out…as in canon he sought out the source of Sarah's psionic SOS during her captivity. Ugh… bloody Abathur," Xapferey grimaced to himself.

"A large fleet, you say? Hmm. We'll see." Jason turned serious. "Finding Zeratul would be a serious boost, but we may well find him with this other figure in any case. Someone of that power may have already got his attention."

"Agreed, we should head for Antiga soon, I will be joining you if you don't mind, my powers may be of use, regardless of the situation. It helps to have an archmage as an ally hm?" Xapferey grinned.

"Emperor, if you can cope with slumming it with us grunts on our inferior vessel, we'll happily have you aboard."

"Oh I never said the Liberator was inferior, she has her uses, a fleet is not made of by a single ship but many types," Xapferey said still smiling. "Like you said, my Flagship is a hammer, and we use our weapons or tools wisely for the situation they are required. Though I have to say my life keeps on getting more ridiculously complex with each passing day," he groused playfully.

"Well, if it was easy, someone else would be doing it and they wouldn't need the likes of us. We're ready for you whenever you and your party are."

"It'll just be me and a trio of guards, no sense putting all our eggs into one basket hm? This way if something unforeseen does happen, my wife and daughter can still guide with their knowledge," Xapferey clarified. "We should go now," he said as he readied to teleport himself over to the Liberator with his magic.

Davis wasn't lying about the Liberator's speed. It took under a day for the ship to reach the outskirts of the system before reverting back to realspace. Davis had used the energy radiated by a nearby binary star system to hide the Liberator's approach from any observers further in-system. Standing off at considerable distance, they scanned the system extensively with their passive sensors. Davis expected to find a minimal Zerg or Protoss presence. What they found wasn't even close.

"Ok, what is a Dominion strikeforce doing here?" Jim demanded.

Strikeforce wasn't stretching it at all. Three battlecruisers and accompanying Wraiths squadrons held position above Antiga Prime.

"Oh if I had a hammer," Xapferey grumbled teasingly to Jim and Jason.

"Yeah, yeah. A hammer is for being unsubtle. That's not what we have to achieve." Jason commented. "Jess, those ships look like they're just holding position. Anything interesting about them?"

The Liberator's AI was quick to respond. "No, Commander. They appear to be guarding something on the night side of the planet."

Jason's head cocked sideways. "The night side, you said? Well, that gives us an opportunity."

"Then we should take it, give me a few minutes to wrangle a couple of spells that will make landing unnecessary," Xapferey said as he conjured a hula-hoop that began glowing blue.

Jason looked at Xapferey in bemusement. "You want to bring aboard a possible hostile without knowing who it is or what their plans are? You're even crazier than I am."

"No child, this is a portkey, it'll let us teleport back along with anyone holding onto it. I can with your permission use your memories to give us an entry spot, this will be our extraction," Xapferey said rolling his eyes.

Jason pulled up the maps of their previous time on the planet and shook his head. "Make your portkey, by all means, Emperor, but there isn't any need for us to evade the Dominion here with anything that might cause them to get suspicious. We can get past them very easily."

"Commander, when you reach my age, you leave as little to chance as possible, I've had to live through and thwart two attempts to destroy my world from a being that would likely make Amon cry for his mother. I dislike leaving things to chance like that.

"I understand that, Emperor, and I don't take unnecessary risks either. But can you guarantee me that the Dominion will have absolutely no way to detect any kind of energy that might alert them to us, either on the planet or out here? It would also have to be an awful amount of power for you to transport us that far and back again. I'd rather conserve it for when it's needed, especially when we have other options available that will give us firepower close to us as backup if we need it."

"A portkey is a site to site transport. Even I can't detect them after making one. Let me assure you Commander I've been using magic for 36 years among a society where we have sensors everywhere and wards to stop it. One of my portkeys cannot be seen unless one, you know what to look for, two, you know what it is, and three you cast the spell yourself and are right on top of it," he assured.

Jason considered that for a moment, before looking at Xapferey. "We seem to be as determined as each other. I don't like this, Emperor. If this works perfectly, then yes it's ideal. If just one thing goes wrong, then we risk giving our enemies information on our capabilities far too soon. I'd rather not risk giving that information away before we have to, but you seem to be set on this.

"What was magic to you before my arrival? A myth, something of storybooks… besides with another of my spells I can sense no danger in this course of action. The spell Foresight is a powerful ally if done right," Xapferey grinned.

Jason sighed. "Alright, Xapferey. We'll do it your way. I just hope this doesn't blow up in our faces." Jason turned and began to leave the bridge.

"Portkey is ready and requires contact to transport the person or people. I appreciate you trusting me on this Jason," Xapferey said to the departing man.

Jason paused, before nodding. "We'll be ready shortly." He left, heading to the armory to don his armored battle suit. Sarah, Nova, Jim and Tassadar met him there and all of them noted Jason's demeanor. Jason shook his head, not wanting to discuss his misgivings there and then, but his troubled expression was clear.

Xapferey flexed his wrists as his battle armor deployed from his wrist bracers. "Gotta love magic," the Dragon sighed as he went to join them. Xapferey waited at the door of the armory for his new allies to finish getting ready.

It didn't take long for Jason and his friends to emerge. Xapferey noted some of the looks they, particularly Nova gave him. With three psionics and a long time friend in the room, Jason hadn't needed to say anything. Despite his intentions, things were looking rockier than he might have hoped. Hopefully, everything would work out and they'd find whoever this other party was, together, and help shore up the alliance.

"So, as this is your first portkey, let me just say, space your feet apart and brace yourselves. I prefer it to teleportation as there is no weight limit and requires a different set of defenses to stop. It's also possible for non magicals to use if something happens to the maker," Xapferey explained as he held the hula-hoop out for everyone to grasp. Grabbing on, and with a hook behind their navels, the six of them were sent down to Antiga Prime. Each of them hit the ground a little hard, but all of them stayed upright as they began looking around for their mysterious assister.

Sarah's gun came up first, as she looked around. "I recognize the layout. This was where we first took on the Confederates."

Jason nodded. "Yeah." He gestured towards the north. "That was the main base of operations we used. Probably the best place to start."

"Agreed, any caves or areas where hiding would be easy in that area? I doubt whoever provided the warning to you would be out in the open… especially if it's who we suspect," Xapferey suggested.

"Some, but it's a major network. Mapping it out would take days, and we don't have that to spare."

"We might not need to." Jim replied. "I'm picking up a signal up at the old base." Jim showed Jason the readings and he went pale.

"Double-time it, people." Jason took off at speed for the base, the others following behind him."

"I take it there's no need for magical enhancements right now?" Xapferey asked as he followed Jason.

"Not yet, but keep your eyes peeled. Something's not right."

Jason reached the top of the ramp and skidded to a halt, staring at the device in front of them. The others pulled up beside him.

"What's up?" Xapferey asked.

"That shouldn't be here." Sarah said, shaken.

"No, it shouldn't. That should be hundreds of kilometers to the south, if it even survived the bombardment."

"Is that the… Psi Emitter?" Xapferey asked somewhat in awe.

Jason consulted his notes on the campaign. "Sure is. It's even the same one we placed here and it's still active. All of which is, frankly, impossible."

"There are more things in Heaven and in Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy," Xapferey quoted quietly.

"That's nice, but it doesn't explain why there's no Zerg here."

"Could it be turned off? Damaged to the point of inactivity then moved?" Xapferey wondered.

"Sure, it can be deactivated, but that still doesn't explain the lack of Zerg right now."

"Ah, I think it does, as if it is who we think it is, they could command the Zerg away," Xapferey suggested.

"You better hope that's what it is. But it's been moved for a reason. I want to know why."

"Well let's find out, ok you can come out now… I know you're hiding nearby," Xapferey said to the area at large.

No one emerged. Jason shook his head. "No, it wouldn't be that easy." He crouched besides the Psi-Emitter, Jim and Sarah beside him. "This has to be the clue but what does it mean?"

Sarah suddenly stood and looked over the top of the emitter at top level. "Guys."

Jason looked at her and Sarah gestured along the top of the emitter. Jason came around and looked along it himself. Suddenly he started chuckling. "Sometimes, it's the simplest things that are most secure." He looked up higher. "It answers our question about who our mystery person most likely is, though." He nodded towards a well concealed path. "That's the way we need to go."

"Mind letting me in on the joke?" Xapferey queried as he turned to head towards the concealed path.

Jason chuckled. "Let's just say that Jim and Sarah spent a lot of time down that path."

"Fair enough, I'm not going to judge," Xapferey said with a smile. "So, it's Sarah you think?" Xapferey asked Jason.

"I'd bet the Liberator on it."

"Then let's find her royal Bladeness," Xapferey teased as he headed up the path.

"You realise just how badly this could go?" Sarah asked quietly.

"Any worse than you becoming her without any help from either her, Jason or myself?" Xapferey asked gently.

"Given that we're confronting her with exactly what she could have been? Does the idea of rubbing it in her face mean anything to you?"

"No I suppose not, to which I'm sorry. This is a situation no one can really prepare for… sometimes magic can be detrimental as I've seen some beings I would fear becoming," Xapferey said contritely.

Sarah nodded, having made her point. "So, we might have a lead on where to go. But this path ends at a cliff. So where from there?"

"Not sure, depends on if your alternate shows up here or tries to mess with us further," Xapferey wondered out loud.

As they reached the edge of the cliff, Jason shook his head. "No, I think it's pretty clear what we have to do."

"Leap of faith?" Xapferey asked sardonically.

Jason grinned. "Unless you have a better idea?"

"Jumping off a cliff… well I've done that often enough in the past 30 years… Might as well, after you Commander," Xapferey grinned at him.

Jason turned his back to the cliff. "Well, this should be fun." He leant back gently and plunged down the cliff face, entering the water with barely a splash.

"I'm just glad I can breathe underwater now," Xapferey grinned to himself as he jumped over the edge and landed with a splash.

The others were quick to follow the pair down and Jason's gestures indicated he'd found a passage. Everyone quickly surfaced once more, inside a cave. Xapferey dried himself with a whisper of magic as he followed Jason down the passage. Jason's barrel mounted flashlight illuminated the passage clearly and everyone was on alert.

"You know, we're going to look awful silly if there's no one here." Nova commented.

"Perhaps, tell me would Sarah try to mess with our heads like that?" Xapferey queried. "All right, if you are who I think you are, please show yourself Oh Primal Queen of Blades," he called out.

"She won't." Sarah replied. "Not until she's ready."

"Vithez," Xapferey swore in Faerunian Dark Elvish. "Well," Xapferey winked at Jason as he mouthed 'reverse psychology,' at him. "Perhaps we should turn our attentions to other affairs, I think my knowledge alone should be sufficient to handle the Zerg?" Xapferey wondered out loud.

"Hmm. Perhaps. But I think that everyone's patience will be rewarded soon enough." Jason grinned and swung the rifle back around, pointing the way they came with the light pointing down the passage. "Isn't that right?"

The light didn't illuminate all the way down the passage. Someone was blocking it.

Six feet tall, purple carapace, very distinctive bone wings and purple eyes. Despite all of that, Sarah Kerrigan's features could be seen in the newcomer's appearance. Jason's grin widened and the newcomer matched it.

"Well played, Jason." She applauded. "Very well played indeed. How long did you know I was there for?"

"Since we first entered the tunnel." Jason replied. "I suspected you'd play to your strengths, or at least Sarah's strengths, and work out exactly who our additional personnel were and their motives before you revealed yourself."

"Well played indeed," Xapferey agreed. "Though that struck me as more … subtle than I would have expected after everything you've experienced as the Primal Queen."

"You forget, Emperor Xapferey. I was a Ghost long before I was the Queen of Blades. I lived on subtlety from childhood. Even as the Queen, I had my moments. You never sensed my presence behind you, did you?"

"No, I switched my wards to stealth from sensing. So it's nice to see I'm not alone when it comes to future knowledge. I do suppose the source of my knowledge didn't have as much of an element of subtlety. Though I was debating using several locating abilities of mine to find you if you hid any longer."

"You could try. But I am the best for a reason. And that is why you're here." She grinned.

"Well, in all fairness, you sent the invitation. We're just early for the party." Jason said.

Beside him, Sarah stepped up and stared at the Queen, who stared back. Silence fell as the two women looked at each other. Sarah swallowed. "How are you here? What happened to you? To us?"

The Queen swallowed. "I gather you know most of the story from our friend here." She nodded towards Xapferey. Sarah nodded silently.

"Well, things didn't work out exactly the same way."

"I figured otherwise you wouldn't be here. What happened…? Do you mind if we call you Louise to differentiate between yourself and your… Younger self?" Xapferey asked.

She shrugged. "That's fine with me. Up until I killed Mengsk, things were much the same, I guess, as what you know. Some things weren't made clear to you it seems, but that matters little right now. What changed is that Amon was victorious. We united all three races, but it still wasn't enough. Too much, and too many lives, had already been lost before we were able to unite. Tassadar, Duke, Fenix," Louise looked deliberately at Jason, "You. There might have been a chance if we hadn't taken such early losses. But much of the power of all three races was lost in this first war. No one ever really recovered from it. Not even the Zerg ever regained their full strength. Amon hunted us all down, one by one. Finally, I was all that was left. I escaped him again and again, but finally, he caught up to me on Aiur. We fought on the corpse of the Overmind, but I never really had a chance. Only, things didn't go as anyone expected."

"Something either sent you back in time or to an alternate version of events," Xapferey suggested. "As Amon doesn't know about me or what I can bring to this party."

Louise tilted her head. "Perhaps someone sent us both here. Somehow. The odds of both of us being sent here by two different forces and means and meeting up here would have to be tiny."

"I do know of someone who is powerful enough and forward-thinking enough to pull it off, someone who could smite Amon as easily as I did those marines. But he assured me he was done with helping," Xapferey said.

Jason blinked as he regarded Xapferey. "I believe you failed to mention that before."

"I didn't see it was relevant, as he outclasses all of us together with his powers, he's… different. Though I doubt he would be helping you Louise simply because he would have no need to, he knows the events as well as I do if not better."

"Excuse me? Someone powerful enough to take us all out, regardless of whether he's an ally or enemy and you didn't think it was relevant?" Jim's voice was dripping with disbelief.

"Got to admit, there's some odd reasoning there." Sarah added.

"He's neither an ally or enemy, he doesn't care. He's a much more powerful and alternate version of me. He is in all essence a god. He's given the limits of help he promised and that's it from his perspective," Xapferey clarified.

"All the more reason for us to be aware of him. If one person is capable of it, then who else is?" Jason said. "We are going to talk about this, but we have other, more immediate things to worry about."

"Ok, fine… so, regardless of how we got here, the situation as I see it is thus. We have limited allies in this sector, but we have knowledge of what is coming. We have Protoss allies, but the problem is going to be the Conclave as well. The humans among us may know this reference… they are like ostriches, burying their heads in the sand even as predators devour their body alive. So we need to do is acquire as much hardware and Terran allies as possible. Executor, we need to get help from Artanis, Selendis and Zeratul. Which means making contact with the Dark Templar, which is going to cause the Conclave and the conservative thinkers of your people to have a collective spasm. Don't forget you have a world that no one knows about that has plenty of orbital infrastructures to help refit your fleet Jason. For the good of our alliance we should consider sharing technologies."

"We don't have a lot of choice. Amon is a clear and present threat to every living creature and it's going to take everything we have to stop them." Jason glanced at the other Terrans. "Getting more firepower and personnel is easy enough for the moment, but the biggest faction is the Dominion. The only way we're getting that on our side is toppling Mengsk and I think that's beyond us right now, not to mention that we have to deal with the Zerg as well and help the Protoss out when the Zerg come looking for them."

"Agreed, but we need to topple the Dominion in a way that leaves as much of their military structure intact. We will need Horace Warfield definitely, but we have to keep the Dominion, we just need to put someone in place that we can trust… Someone like Valerian, wouldn't you agree Louise?" Xapferey asked.

"Valarian would be a good choice, but he doesn't have the profile right now to attract the necessary respect. Warfield's also a major unknown for the public." Louise replied.

Jason shook his head. "Oh, you can not be serious."

"Perfectly, we need the Dominion, we need an intact government to match Amon, otherwise infighting will just make us weaker. Jason I've been seeing this whole thing happen on my world, we also need an intact government to match the UED and they are going to be a pain in the ass as well. It may be an evil, but it's a necessary evil."

"That's not the problem. It's who we're going to have to work with to pull it all off."

"Who do you mean? As we may be thinking of other things," Xapferey wondered.

"Arcturus is the problem. Valerian and Warfield don't have the profile or public respect to be able to counter him. Who does that leave?"

Jim got it first. "Duke? Goddammit, I thought we were clear of that prick."

"If it comes to it I will bind Duke with an Unbreakable Vow, with no leeway. If he doesn't well let's just say I can persuade him with an opportunity he won't refuse," Xapferey offered.

"Actually, that won't be necessary." Louise said. "I think we have a better option. Jason, did you know that Duke has a daughter?"

Jason blinked. "No, I didn't. But then, the other Old Families were pretty good at keeping secrets, even from each other. Why do you ask?"

"She's an excellent pilot in her own right, Duke actually has her flying the Norad II. Except that the Norad II is currently out of commission at the Dylarian Shipyards. Duke adores her, will do just about anything for her. Convince her of the situation and Duke might just follow."

"And we can hopefully use the opportunity to get some extra materials to bolster our fleet," Xapferey suggested.

"Two birds with one stone." Sarah laughed.

"Three." A new voice said softly. Xapferey turned to the new voice; his hand glowed instinctively before the magic dispersed back into his body.

"Ah, En Taro Adun Prelate Zeratul," Xapferey greeted the Dark Templar with a respectful bow.

"Greetings, Emperor Xapferey. Your reputation precedes you. As does that of your companions." Zeratul replied.

"How much have you heard?" Xapferey asked.

"Enough. Your efforts on Forceria have not gone unnoticed by us; particularly your rune-crafted nuclear device. Crude, but surprisingly effective and fitted the requirements perfectly."

"Considering I only had access to the most basic knowledge when it came to such a weapon, nothing more beyond guesswork and what I've learned from historical films. Also for the fact it was done by myself in complete secrecy I'll take that as a compliment. Though I shouldn't be surprised Defiance never spotted your ships or probes," Xapferey said.

Zeratul chuckled. "Indeed. You are correct on several counts, but especially the need for our alliance. Too much is at stake for is to pull back now."

"Agreed, you've heard of why I wanted to contact you?"

"Of course. You did not expect Louise to hear of your presence here and not adjust her plans somewhat. I have been following you since your arrival."

"Well that will make things much easier. I had certainly not expected to have two Sarah Kerrigans in the world at large, especially not one at Louise' stage of… history. I will need your assistance in discussing how to kill Cerebrates in such a way that it doesn't put Forceria or Aiur at risk. I do have options though how they would compare is… difficult to say."

Zeratul looked intrigued. "If it is at all possible to reduce the risk, then it would be ideal. But nothing we do from here on is without risk."

"You're not kidding." Jim said. "Taking on Mengsk, the Zerg and Amon as well as trying to unite the entire sector. That's not ever going to be risk free."

"Doesn't much matter." Jason replied. "It's just an impossible job and we have a pretty good track record with those. But, first things first. We have time, not a lot, but some. Personally, I think Terra Firma should be our first port of call. The sooner we can get our ships and technology upgraded, the better position we'll be in. After that, we can start worrying about adding to our forces. We definitely need to speed up those ships of yours, Xapferey. Right now, they make hit and run tactics against you way too easy."

Xapferey grimaced, conceding the point. "A reasonable supposition, in fact I was considering refitting my drives; it won't take longer than a week, two tops. Commander. How likely is it that we can acquire Terra Firma?"

"Should be straightforward enough. Just going to involve some talking, I hope. I know the guy who runs the place now. He's pretty reasonable and likely more than a little concerned about the state of affairs. Should be easy."

Nova winced. "Jason, you really should know better than to tempt fate like that."