Chapter 7: Purpose
Darkness, silence and endless cycle of it; That is the feeling of Naiki after what he has done, the pain disappears as he feels he is inside of himself; lost without connection to his mainframe and the outside world. "Come on, wake up! Wake the fuck up!" He says to himself repeatedly. He tries his very best to reach out across the darkness, even trying to use his electrical powers. His breath finally can be seen by him as the darkness dissipates and he sees himself inside the cryosleep chamber. The view of Vexis sleeping at one of the portable floating bed near the room warms him up as he opens the safe of the cryosleep chamber. Exiting the chamber, he feels extremely powerful; much more than before. He tests his powers to scan the whole area; it is greatly enhanced with the link of the mainframe and the space observatory.
Vexis left ear pick up the noise he made and quick to turn around. She is surprised to see him awake and stands up from the bed. She stays motionless for a while as Naiki smiled to her. "Welcome back, darling. Would you like to have dinner, a bath or… ahh, forget about that and eat me up first~" she says it playfully while walking to embrace him. Naiki accepted it and bite her left ear, she moaned lightly and let go of him shortly after remembering her own state; Naiki have noticed it including the uncleaned packed food at the table nearby. "Vexis, why is your fur so messy?" she is quite ashamed to answer Naiki. "The empress hasn't left the room for years now. She even forgets to take baths…" Ilya arrives to report to Vexis, but she sees Naiki have awaken from the cryosleep. The empress coughed of her statement. "Welcome back master." She answers coldly and transfer the data to Vexis bracelet personally.
"Now I must leave, I have work to do at my sectors. I will report later on my progress personally again…" She left after saying that to the nearby teleportation room. Naiki managed to catch a glimpse of her uniform and the change of attitude. "Vexis, what happened to Ilya? She seems very different and cold hearted." He questions her. Vexis cleans up the mess she had made. "Ilya and Layla have gone rigorous training and the test given by the council of the guardians during your long rest. Both have become Regents; Layla on the north of the core world and Ilya on the south." She explained as the last mess is cleaned and fixes her fur. "How many sectors now that we have?" Naiki continues the question while sitting down at the dining table.
Vexis sits in front of him and started explaining everything. "Alright, I will start from the beginning for your sake darling. The rapid adaptation of rule that the council of guardians and I have agreed to split up the segments of the sectors that we controlled. The core worlds that is under our rule and the guardians; have 9 sectors. Since the north is the dead end of the galaxy, we control all 6 of them and was given to Regent of the North; Layla Mirren. While the south; we have around 15 sectors since Theatre Admiral Shultzkov Ricktoven sweep through to find you when you are lost. It is now under control of Regent of the South; Ilya Fenrir, also known as the Ice Queen. Don't bother asking me how she have turned like that." Vexis materialize soft drinks at the table for them to drink; she takes one and drink a portion of it before she continues the explanation. "The eastern sector is a buffer zone that I devoured when trying to search for you before. That is my fault since their suns are so tasteful of energy. We might need to build a few stronghold supplies lines if we wanted to expand there. Total amount of sectors that we controlled is 30." Vexis casually says the last part.
"Wha…so how many habitable planets that we have?" The surprised Naiki ask further. Vexis crunches the numbers that she remembers. "With our planet mobile terraforming stations that we have; I say around 63 excluding Seraphim." She drinks another portion of the drink and look outside of the dark night. "You changed this planet name, didn't you?" Naiki pokes his finger to her cheek. "Mgh, I don't have a choice. It is much easier since the sector is named seraphim; our home planet is named after it and our main Gigalopolis is named Seraphim one; like before. Easy right?" She says it with a wink to convince Naiki. He only grunted at her since she changed it without his permission. "Oh, and the combined work of Zarck and Ivanov have changed the multiple departments of technologies; renaming themselves as the Cybran Corporations. They have made too much advancements such as every soldier have their own personal virtual space that they can materialize from their flagships, making our forces very expandable. Everything for the capital spire here is transferred from the Leviathan." The last part amazed Naiki as she peaks of it.
He questions for the last time as Vexis still waits for more of it. "Lastly Vexis; How long was I out?" Vexis think hardly of his question. "I dunno, I lost count but it feels like you have been in cryosleep for quite a short time. Like I said, all of us executed our plans quicker than what we have expected with the guardians splitting the tasks." The last answer from Vexis is enough for him. He looked at his messy wife up and down. "Vexis, go and take a bath…" commanded him. She playfully resisted. "Why don't you bathe me?" Vexis teased him. Naiki does it directly as he pulls her hand to make her stand from the chair; He princess carried her with his hands. "W-wait! You really want to do it!?" The flustered Vexis sees him face to face while he carries her. "Yes, since you asked. I missed you too much…" She nuzzles him as both take a long bath; the situation escalated in the bedroom.
Ilya who wanted to report personally to the emperor and empress returns to them for the second time. "Ahn~ Mhh~ darling, e-easy…" Her sharp ears hear that clearly both of them is having a quality time together. Ilya's cheeks quickly turn red and make a u turn while locking the door of the main entrance slowly. The next morning Vexis is the first one that is awake, clearly remembering that they have copulated last night. She sees that Naiki is still sleeping at her side and she left the bed for a quick shower. "Darling, wake up" She rocks Naiki slowly. He sees her in her birthday suit and yawned. "Urgh, the hell was I thinking last night?" He says to himself. "What, wanna go again?" Vexis talked while retrieving her multi linked bracelet at the nearby sofa that she has placed. "That is enough for a year." The respond from Naiki makes her trip and fall. "Kh…" She sits upright at the floor. "Very gracious of you sweetheart." Naiki grinned while saying it to her. Vexis only returns a pout while crossing her arms while Naiki take a turn in the shower. She wears the bracelet and selected her preferred clothing; it immediately materializes, covering her birthday suit. "Thanks to dearest darling who created this, making much of our lives easier…" Naiki sneezed in the bathroom as Vexis speaks of him. She snickers and go to make a breakfast.
A short time later, Naiki goes to the dining room fully dressed in his casual clothing. Vexis lay out the variety of foods on top of the table. Both sit down. "I think it is better if we called Ilya and Layla here to eat with us." Naiki suggested it to her. With a finger snap using her powers, both of them warped near the dining room. Ilya is still in her sleeping dress, holding a cookie. Layla on the other hand; is stark naked and wet with a few soap bubbles on her hair. Ilya sees her as she is shocked including Naiki. "Kyaah!" Layla blurted while covering her private parts. "Vexis!" Naiki shouted to her. She immediately warped Layla back to her room. "Oops…" The only word that Vexis can came out with. "God…Vexis…you are hurting my brain early in the morning…" Naiki covered his forehead of the situation. Vexis quickly gives a text massage to Layla via the bracelet. Ilya tries to forget what she just saw and sits down after Naiki told her so. Layla comes a few minute later using the teleportation room. She is still flustered of the situation and eat slowly. Naiki changed the mood with a heavy topic of him. "When I entered the cryosleep, I was managed to guide you for a short time. After that, my conscious suddenly transferred to another body." Naiki starts off the topic that caught everyone attention.
"I think; I was on the eastern side of our empire since there is a massive gap that they labeled it as the empty void on their map." This finally surprised Vexis who know a little about souls since she can easily take them. "I was guiding a few of them from a who escaped from their betrayed and destroyed nation. The Estcallian parliament, they have been completely decimated; only a single warship with a skeleton crew of people make a dart to this empire under my order." He explained as the three also stops eating. "I wanted revenge for them and defeat the one that is attacking them; those Draconian parliament. They have made it personal for me after they executed the scheme to betray them…the only one surviving royal bloodline is keeping her promise to go here." The last part makes the others guessing. "Hooh, who is she I wonder?" Vexis grinned to him. Naiki only brushes it off. "A Sakhalin Fox, Princess Lenora Leonard." The three sits on the edge of their chair as a fourth challenger appears. Vexis accepted it but the other two looked at each other for a second. "Before I was transferred here again, that body who I label myself as 'Atlas' perishes in the final space combat to buy them some time from a perusing fleet. Atlas was stabbed directly at the heart by the commander of that twin hulled looking battleship. Orlan, I remembered his appearance very well and I will personally return the favor…"
This made Ilya angry and nearly used her icy powers. Vexis chop her head lightly. "Master, I can see a few visions of them. If you have not saved them; all of them would have perished and we have no influence whatsoever in the eastern sectors and Shultz have to use the long-range planet killers because of the threat; they wanted to find out who is the black ships are from and destroy them." Layla speaks to him of what she can see. "I am guessing that they are on their way here." Again, Layla convers him. Naiki only returns a nod. "When?" Shortly asked Ilya. "I estimated it around a few more days using the space observatory." Naiki answers the calculated arrival to them. He quickly chows down his portion of the food. "I am going to report it firsthand at the council room at the 30th floor." As he left, the empress and the two regents stay on their own discussion. "Looks like our family is getting larger and also another fox." Vexis says at the two of them. "And a princess of nobility too. Sadly, her nation is destroyed. It must be hard for her to just run away and cannot do nothing." Layla speaks in turn. "The emperor has chosen her; we will do our best to assist her and if she is worthy, she can be the regent of the eastern sectors." The suggestion of Ilya is well heard by Vexis. "Then that means we are going to need another one for the west…from what I heard from Shultz; the Lylat sector have disappeared after we detected strong energy fluctuation on their sun." Layla says directly to Vexis. "Let's leave that part later." Vexis stated it to them both.
Naiki returns shortly after. The three have cleaned the table and are sitting at the lounge overlooking the outside view while wearing their royal uniforms except Vexis. Ilya is the first to notice of him. "Master, how was it?" She asked. Naiki did not changes his attire and just sit at the side of Vexis. "They are surprised that I woke up too early and suggested that we take a few fleets to make sure there is no pursuers on her end. I will deploy the 1st, 2nd and 3rd fleet, they needed the exercise since there is no task that Shultz have asked them to do; except guarding the core worlds." Layla nods in compliance. "To the Leviathan then?" Vexis says to Naiki. He only nods as all of them stands. The four high ranks of the cybran empire teleported directly to the Leviathan. Nearby crews saluted him as they make their way to the throne room. All of them stayed at their preferred position with their command displays surrounding them, Vexis is quick to take command of the half-planet sized warship. Naiki gives the order to the three fleet as they depart to the empty void that Vexis have made while Ilya monitors the surroundings using the space observatory megastructure live data feed.
The three fleet awaits them with Leviathan up front at their side of the empty void. "Heh, here they are. Their ship is so small…" Layla gives a short laugh seeing the warship, it has damaged much more than before as Naiki sees it. "Vexis, order all of the fleets to decloak and force her ship to dock at Leviathan; Ilya, give them a cold welcome." Ilya smiles with her full predatory teeth and leaves the throne room. "They must be frightened after seeing how we greeted them with the main might of the empire." Vexis make fun of the situation. Naiki remains in silence as he feels the 7th sense that he has using the Leviathan, starting to slowly guide the small fragile warship as he waits for her promise to be fulfilled.