Chapter 24: Voltane
Naiki and his companions rest in the park inside the ICS Quantum after they filled up their daily sustenance at Layla's preferred food complex. Layla sits near a tree while writing something back to her fellow citizens at her sectors. Ilya just snoozes nearby with Vexis. Naiki decided to take a walk with Lenora while greeting some cybrans citizens inside the warship's city. "Lena, do you miss your home planet?" Naiki asked while they are walking around. "Naiki, I don't know anymore. It feels not the same now since my father and brother are gone. Mother has contacted me once; she sounded different after the attack." Lenora answers honestly. "I am sorry Lenora; I can't alter back time." He says it to her while she leans towards Naiki while they are walking. "At least I can be with you sometimes Naiki. But I am afraid of Vexis; getting angry of me taking chances with you." Naiki stops as Lenora says that it nearly made her lose her balance. She looks at him while Naiki is holding out his laugh, it makes her tilt her head a little wondering what's wrong. Naiki calms down and says it to her casually.
"You're afraid of Vexis? Even though she is the Empress and officially my wife; She is giving chances to everyone in the regent circle; except outsiders. Vexis is faking her sleep just now for one of the three of you to share some time with me." Naiki says to her while laughing at a part of it. Lenora lightly punches Naiki, he takes the initiative and pressed her back near a tree with his left hand placed at the tree. "Wanna play rough, I can do it." He looks at Lenora's face with a playful smile. She cups Naiki's face and smooches him out of anger since Naiki plays around with what she just said before. She hugs him tightly more than ever and nuzzled at his neck. Lenora takes another kiss and lets him go while clinging to his right arm as they returned to the three of them.
"Mgh, Ilya. Stop snuggling on my tail. Yours are much fluffier." The Irritated Vexis who just woke up from falling asleep after faking it says to Ilya that is still sleeping. Cracking her knuckles, Vexis lit up one of her fingers using her eternal flame and point it near her nose. "Nyargh! Hot! Hot! Hot!" Ilya blurted out while frantically Icing her nose with her powers. Vexis snickers as Ilya nomming her tail of what she has done. "What are you two doing?" Naiki questions Vexis since he can hear Ilya's sudden voice from afar.
"Nothing but sleeping. This floof ball here tugged my tail; thinking it was her tail…" Vexis explained while Ilya did not deny it. "What are you two doing?" Vexis ask in return with a covered smile. "Nothing much, taking some fresh air while seeing how detailed the decoration on the inside wall of the ship with those artificial projectors and air filters." Naiki says to her while she makes an 'oh really?' face. Vexis bracelet suddenly pings a message. She reads it quickly even before Naiki can see it. "Um, darling. I got to go somewhere. Seems like Kelsey needs my help." Vexis directed to him. Lenora hears her mother's name being mentioned and wanted to follow Vexis. "Nope, you are staying with darling here while I am away. Keep him company and don't let him do something out of the ordinary like using his powers again or disappearing into his pocket dimension." Vexis stated it while eyeing Naiki. He is only able to sigh at what Vexis just said. She disappeared under her warp. Layla approaches them after seeing Vexis gone.
Ilya that just stands up in front of Naiki, speaks to him. "Master, there is something I need of your wisdom at my capital planet." Naiki only nods of Ilya just said. "Why don't we go there right now?" He stated to her, that Ilya nods in compliance. "Master, I will stay here and continue to help the Altorans." Layla talked her way out since she has her plans, especially finding a way to realign Altora back to its original position. Ilya purposefully set the teleporter near her command citadel and not inside for sightseeing. Naiki, Ilya, and Lenora shortly arrive at Ilya's capital planet of Voltane. Lenora quickly warms herself up a little from the temperature drop. Naiki looked at the temperature status on his gauntlet, it was -10 degrees celsius inside the visible temperature barrier and -50 degrees celsius outside of it. He materializes a neckwear temperature body shielding unit and wears it on Lenora. She looks at him oddly. "Master, are you not cold?" With her cold breath, she says of it to Naiki.
"I can feel some of it but my powers suppress the rest, that is why I can travel through the space and slam directly at that draconian ship. This feels like a normal breeze to me." Naiki talked to her about his powers. Ilya also joined in. "Same as me, the people here wear the thing that Naiki gave to you and most of them stayed inside the heating network towers until we expand it." Ilya pointed out the tall buildings, making a heat pentagon-like shield surrounding Ilya's megalopolis. They casually walked to Ilya's command citadel while they see the cybrans that served under Ilya enjoying the cold weather playing in the snow. The civilians notice their emperor and regents; they greeted them especially Ilya that just returned to her capital planet after defending her sectors and pushing the abyss creatures back.
Ilya dismisses them and continues their original path. "Master, are you enjoying the scenery?" Ilya asked while some of her elite guard in white-clad power suits begins escorting them from their post. "Yeah, I always wanted to come here after we have returned from our east sector sweep," Naiki says while watching the view. His eyes see the warships that are being built using the construction nanites inside the near orbit capital shipyards, the nanites worked perfectly since it has been used for space constructions. It has different liveries than the core worlds armadas have; It was painted full white with red lining and a blizzard trinity logo at the bow of each warship. The other details of the ship including the names and empire insignia remain the same. "I see you are improvising your part of the armada well Ilya." The words from Naiki make her look at the still in construction warships. "Yes master, we wanted to mark the difference on each regent. The Theatre Admiral allows it. I have chosen white while Layla wanted to remain the same color but have hexagonal patterns at her armadas livery." What Ilya just said makes Lenora think of her own.
Ilya's hand signal makes the guards return to their post as the three entered the command citadel. The temperature inside it is much warmer than before. She is quickly receiving the warm welcome of her governor. "Your Highness; My lady, you should have teleported inside the citadel." Her governor suggested to her. "Our Emperor wanted to see the megalopolis. It is my will to complete his wish." Ilya speaks to her governor. He only bowed and gives the quick situation of the current plans before leaving. Ilya is quick to guide Naiki and Lenora into her briefing room. Lenora whispers something to Ilya and walks off somewhere. "Where is she going?" Naiki asks while peeking a view outside, watching her soldiers training in the snow. "To the restroom, it takes some time to adapt to this cold weather including our organs." Ilya simply states it and opens the image projector, Voltane appears including its expansion plans. The snow leopard begins to open her drafted plans and she immediately enters formal mode while explaining to him. "Emperor, my capital planet currently has 5 megalopolises clustered by the major cities. We currently wanted to expand further and make it into the 10 megalopolises. Should I make a single point of power and distribute it evenly throughout the energy grid or make one each in the respective places?" Ilya lay out the details while Lenora returns to watch the situation. Naiki circles around the projector; seeing a place that has caught his attention as he follows the projected spinning planet. This makes Ilya see his unexpected behavior since the projected spinning planet can be paused. As Lenora stands at Ilya's side, Naiki pauses and flattens the image of the exact position.
He pointed it out to Ilya and ask her. "Ilya; this is a flat area and solid ground, right?" She looks at the place where they mined the Ice crystals and Deuterium-10. "Yes, it is the main point where we mined some of the resources." She answers it. At that exact hour, Naiki modified her plans to an extent that is more than what she has expected. She and Lenora looked at the plan in amazement. "Build the megalopolis around the area, each of them supported by the power grid complex and connect it to the newer ones that you can build underground near here," Naiki explained to Ilya and Lenora as he continues. "You can build mega capital dockyards here, that will make things easier for maintenance runs and agricultural areas here where the soil fertility is higher since there is a layout of it. Do you want to be ambitious? Build a strong teleportation network here so most of the stuff that you mine can be easily teleported to the orbital fortress. That will make hauling heavy kinds of stuff much easier since it will take a short time to materialize and dematerialize. If we can create a strong teleportation network throughout the whole sectors of the empire, it makes things easier like reinforcing our forces, distributing supplies, civilians to travel and enjoy their vacation on other planets, and more."
Ilya stands in silence hearing the brilliance of Naiki. Lenora is even more surprised that he thinks further than what Ilya just planned. Naiki saved the modified plans for her to use. "Master, thank you for your wisdom." Ilya goes to Naiki and hugged him. Naiki takes the chance to hug her tail too. "It is much fluffier than I expected." He says it while Ilya just blushes slightly with Naiki's sudden grab of her tail. Lenora learns the displayed plan. Seeing the Sakhalin fox does that, Naiki silently transfers what Vexis had planned for her capital planet while rubbing Ilya's tail. "I wish you can give me much more attention than my tail master," Ilya says to him and gives a short peck on his chin. "Did your governors think out this type of plan?" Naiki asked her. She grunted with a cold breath. "No, I will demote all of them or make their returns to the academy and learn something." Ilya cold-heartedly answers it. Naiki pinched her cheeks as Ilya squirm around to make Naiki release them, but Naiki's finger grip is way too unavoidable. Lenora only watches it as she laughed lightly at the situation. "Don't do that, they have their perks and flaws. Don't be such an Ice queen." Naiki shakes her face as he said that. "Mmm…M-mash'er. Plesh let gu…" Her words jumbled up when she says it from Naiki's pinching her cheeks. Hearing Ilya's plea while her tail shiver, he lets go. Naiki gives a devilish smirk to Ilya. Lenora responded normally with a worrying smile, afraid that she is next after Ilya.
The three stayed at Ilya's capital planet for a week since Naiki wanted to see the warships and cities being built. They returned to Naiki's citadel spire after he is satisfied overseeing the worked-out plan. He finally senses something is different as a part of him is missing. Naiki immediately contacted Vexis but she did not respond as the connection is busy. She has forgotten to wear her tracker pins since Naiki can see them at the table nearby. He altered the connection to Shultz while they both watches him doing it. Immediately after picking it up, Naiki asks about Vexis's whereabouts. "Shultz, where is Vexis?" Shultz was seen enjoying some of the beverages in his private quarters as he answers. "The empress? She has taken the Leviathan and 3 mobile planet terraformers to Estcallia." He says what he knows since Vexis noted it to him. "What!?" Hearing Naiki vent, Shultz finally sees the mistake he has done. The Leviathan was supposed to stay within the core worlds. Before he can respond, Naiki turns it off and darts to the teleportation room; aiming at Leviathan while the two try to catch up with him.
He concealed his life vitals from her as they teleported to Leviathan. "Master wait, Vexis must do this for a good reason!" Ilya says it while trying to get a hold of Naiki with Lenora is falling far behind. "Okay then, I'll kill her myself…" Naiki storms to the hallway junction. Passing by crew makes way for the emperor and some peeked at the corner as he materializes his Echo Mortis laser sword. He sees her crossing the junction to the Leviathan bridge. Naiki bolted behind her and directly swings the back of the blade at her. Vexis turned only to see it. "Gaaahhh!" she screamed in shock as it landed on her. That day, Vexis regretted borrowing Naiki's main throne ship without his permission…