Chapter Two - Taking Stock

When Emperor Valerian took the throne he would all-out rebuild the larger Terran Dominion from the top to the bottom of the entire nation-state to better make the Dominion of his father's reign different from his own reign. This includes changing things like choosing a whole new flag and national emblem for the Dominion, writing a dedicated Constitution to better lay out the overall structure of the larger Dominion government, and giving the average civilian the means to be listened to by his own government, through which he would reconvene the Dominion Senate as well as expanding their own powers in the overall larger Dominion government.

One major thing that the new Emperor did was not only get himself a wife, the renowned and infamous Ghost Operative known as Nova who would also bring in elements of the old Confederacy to the new Dominion due to her own family background, but made an effort to hunt down any elements of his formerly extended family to smooth out any issues with the lineage of the overall larger Mengsk Dynasty. A search that was surprisedly helped by some notes written by the old Emperor Arcturus of his own search for distant members of his family. Still, this would see the installment of former Doctor Arturia Sutherland, a very distant cousin to the Mengsk Family and new graduate of the Augustgrad University, as Princess Arturia Mengsk, the Primary Heir to the Emperor.

Taken all together, these reforms and such from the new Emperor have helped to drag the Dominion and his own family from being known as generally evil by the standard average Terran civilian living on the various colonies spread out throughout the entire Sector. It also further raised the Dominion's reputation in the eyes of the other Terran factions in the Koprulu Sector, the Umojan Protectorate, and the Kel-Morian Combine. Though the latter wasn't that much of an ally only a firm almost hostile neutral power to that of the larger Dominion. Not to mention, it does see an Alliance being formed between the new Terran Dominion and the newly formed Daelaam Union, the new Protoss-dominated faction. This has further started to bring a sort of peace over the entire Koprulu Sector, though there are still numerous threats to the people of the Sector, rogue Zerg Broods, rogue Tal'darim Sects, hostile elements from the previous Emperor's own forces, and a potential second invasion from that of the UED.

- Taken from the Introduction of the Historical Biopic A Phoenix Reborn: The Second Dominion, Published, Circa July of 2510CE

Unknown Place
Unknown Time

At her position hovering just above the gathered fleet of the Terran Dominion, the golden figure of Sarah Kerrigan frowned in some thought for she was clearly quite surprised at the appearance of this fleet. She did manage to pass on some info about this universe to her old friend Nova who would pass it on to her husband Emperor Valerian. However, that wouldn't be enough as she had been cut off before she could fully inform Nova about everything about this new universe. She only had time to inform her about the threat of these Reapers which she was sure Nova and Valerian would keep close to their chest for now and not mention to anyone in their close confidants. Yet, anyway. Still, before they could do anything else in this new universe they would need further information like say star maps and data on the various different factions that call this universe home. With a hum of thought she looked over to the small slaving outpost located on the first planet in this local star system and through her own enhanced senses she simply smiled as she saw a ship had arrived at the outpost when she had been busy with the newly appearing Terran Dominion Fleet. From her own earlier observation of the outpost earlier, that ship would take a day or two for the crew to pick up their needed slaves, negotiate their price with the outpost's leaders, and then finally load them onboard the ship itself for transport. With some slight changes, she could have the ship approach nearby to the Dominion Fleet where it would be picked up by the fleet's own forward-deployed scouts. And if the crew had any sense would start running from what looked to be some sort of large military fleet. Or maybe a slight nudge from her fire on the nearest Dominion ship which would see them then moving in to capture the now hostile ship. Something that would go a long way to providing the Dominion with the needed information on what is going on in this universe. Beaming at this Kerrigan decided that this plan would actually work. However, she was soon distracted as with a golden flash of light her parmour and partner Jim Raynor appeared at her side once more making her jolt slightly in some surprise before scowling over at the man.

"What took you so long Jim? I was starting to worry a bit about you?" Kerrigan demanded of him with a furious look on her face making Jim just chuckle at her for he was quite aware that she knew that he was still alive due to their shared connection.

"Sorry, I managed to find that an old beat-up Protoss Observer had been floating not far from where I tracked the fleet's origin point. Grabbed it before I went to meet with Artanis at Auir to see about getting the info and such from that observer. I then made a quick visit to Matt to inform him of what happened and warn him that Artanis would be arriving soon with the needed data from the observer," he informed her with a small grin on his face making her raise an eyebrow in some interest.

"Well it appears that there is some sort of a prophecy or something similar in place if such a thing happened to be in such a location to catch the fleet's departure from the universe," she mused out loud now with an angry scowl on her face before sighing letting go of her anger for there was nothing she could do about it. After a moment of calming down, she looked over at Raynor with a frown.

"Still that shouldn't have taken all that long for you Jim," she shot back to him with another scowl in place but again he just smirked at her though this time it had a bit of a mischievous bint to it. Something that kind of worried her for when he was in such a mood he either did something very amusing or something really stupid.

"What. I had to catch up with my boys Artanis and Matt," he mentioned to her with an innocent look on his face but soon chuckled at her glare for that wouldn't work with her.

"I may have given Matt a bit of a heart attack with my reminder that not only was he leading a good portion of the Dominion Fleet but he now happened to be the Empress Consort when that lass of his Arturia became the new Empress of the Terran Dominion," he mentioned with an amused look on his face which was soon copied by Sarah who let out a chuckle of her own at this little bit of teasing.

"Oh. That poor boy. They are going to eat him alive," she mentioned with a shake of her head which made Jim nod in agreement with his partner. After a moment of this Raynor calmed down before looking down at the fleet floating peacefully below them.

"So! What has been happening here darling since I went off to run your little errand?" he questioned her drawing her attention to the fleet as well.

"Well I did manage to pass a warning of the Reapers to Nova, but she woke up before I could say anything else about this universe like the Mass Effect or the Citadel Council," she replied now with a small frown on her face.

"Well that is a darn shame," Jim mentioned with a raised eyebrow as he stared down at the fleet not noticing the frown on his partner's face morphing into a small mirthful smile on her face.

"That said I do have a plan that will allow them to get that needed information a bit faster," she said drawing his attention to her with a curious look on his face, and after a moment she explained to him what she had planned and soon he has let out a bark of laughter.

"That will work."

Observation Deck
HMS Bucephalus
Unknown Place
12 Hours After Arrival

"Majesty?" a soft voice inquired from behind the now rumbled-looking figure of Emperor Valerian Mengsk who stood at the large window that dominated the large observation deck that was often used by the Emperor for his own private meetings and to enjoy his alone time. Such a thing was a feature that was often included in the different flagships of the Terran Dominion, something that came from Arcturus Mengsk's own enjoyment of having such a facility on his own ships. Something that was one of the few things that Valerian shared with his father much to his own annoyance at times.

"Valerian? You alright over there?" came a more familiar voice from behind him but the Emperor still stood there looking out the large window at the now fully integrated fleets under his command, his own Imperial Guard Flotilla in formation with that of the larger Terminus Colonial Expedition Fleet. For they were all in the same boat, therefore, the two integrated their formations to better defend themselves from anything unknown that approached them in this new universe in which they currently found themselves. Not to mention, as a flight of fighters flashed past the window, they had numerous squadrons of AF-22 Wraith Aerospace Fighters on patrol around the combined fleet, and larger Sparrowhawk Class Scout Ships holding station further out from the fleet to extend their sensors range over a larger area.

"Sire!" a third voice called out right next to him and a large hand fell onto his shoulder breaking Valerain out of his own thoughts seeing the figure of General Vaughn was now right next to him with one of his large beefy hands on his shoulder. Blinking he looked over to see the various concerned faces from his close advisors and friends, including his own wife November Terra-Mengsk gathered around a small briefing table that dominated one side of the large deck away from the window he was standing right in front of.

"Sorry everyone looks like all of this has affected me a bit more than I thought it had," he mentioned out loud with a sigh though no one actually looked convinced at this weak excuse but still nodded at him. Though Nova, his own wife, outright glared at him at this for she knew that he had actually had been up the entire time since their arrival in this new universe. He had retreated to his personal quarters a few hours after their arrival leaving everything in the hands of his advisors and officers, but he hadn't gotten any sleep at all during that time. Instead being constantly worried and such about what was going on kept him awake.

"So, General Warfield you were mentioning that the civilians have started to calm down from their earlier panic," he mentioned trying to draw their little meeting back on track as he started to head back to his seat alongside the form of his Guard Commander.

"Correct Sire, it appears that your earlier speech did indeed have a calming effect on them all. Not to mention having fighter patrols, and having their fleet combined together with the Imperial Guard Flotilla, has convinced them that they are safe as of this moment," the towering woman reported making the Emperor smile slightly at the mention of his earlier speech. It had been unplanned and all-out thrown together by Valerian when word started to arrive about the civilians starting to panic.

"Not to mention the vast majority of these people are not only from many of the Fringe Colonies but manage to live through the Great Wars, the Brood War, and the End War. They are not weak-willed people from the core worlds," another of his advisors, one Lisa Cain, Minister of Outer Colony Affairs, who normally accompanied the Emperor on his goodwill tours of the Fringe and Outer Colonies of the Dominion. She was a tough no nonsense woman, who managed to through sheer grit to lead her small farming colony of Halcyon through the chaos of the Second Great War and following End War pretty much intact which saw her being chosen by Valerian to help him get the hardy independent colonists of the Fringe Worlds being felt like they were included in the larger Dominion. As his father had pretty much left them alone during the start of the Second Great War which saw many of them start to feel a bit abandoned by the Dominion during those dark days.

"So does that mean the Emperor's plan to tour the main colony ships is off the table then?" rumbled out a scowling General Vaughn as he looked around the table but in turn was glared at by both Minister Cain and the Empress who both thought a thing was a good idea all around.

"No. I am still going to see about doing the full-on tour for it may further ensure the civilians that I am thinking about them in the long run." the Emperor replied with a frown looking over at these gathered advisors.

"That said. To appease General Vaughn I will have a full detail of Imperial Shadows tailing me throughout the tour," he continued on which did see Vaugn and General Warfield relax drawing a few small smiles and such from the other gathered advisors. That done the Emperor turned to look at a man who was engrossed in reams of paper reports and a large personal datapad showing different things on its displayed holographic screen.

"I also believe that Doctor Ramsey had a brief report on the anomaly that brought us here?" he questioned jolting the figure out of his perusal and towards the gathered advisors. The man slowly blinked at them all before sighing and laying down the datapad on the table in front of him.

"Correct your majesty, as from what I can see from these various reports and the sensor readings gathered not only from the sensors of the Bucephalus but from the other ships of the Flotilla and the Expedition Fleet, is that we were very lucky that we were not just destroyed outright. The amount of the void energy and vortex warp energy gathered together interacting with one another should have destroyed pretty much everything in a few light years from the epicenter," Doctor Jake Ramsey reported with a deep frown dominating his face as he stared into the space above the table itself and not at the gathered advisors. Doctor Ramsey, normally was trained as a xenoarchaeologist and archaeologist but due to his experience playing host to the overall presence of a Protoss Preserver, he was the leading expert on not only Protoss in general but Void Energy in the entire Terran Dominion which is why he had been called from the Science Ship A Lone Wanderer to join this meeting.

"So can we actually return to our own universe?" questioned the Empress with a frown on her pretty face making more than a few of the civilian advisors to look up a bit hopefully at this question. The Emperor and the more military-minded advisors only sighed at this for they kind of knew where this was going.

"Unless we receive some help from unexpected sources, I do not believe it is possible for us to return to our own universe anytime soon with any sort of warp experiment," Doctor Ramsey bluntly mentioned making those civilian advisors deflate at this admission, though a few still looked a bit hopeful. Valerian was quite sure that even such experiments to create another vortex warp/void energy anomaly would be also impossible.

"As if we tried to recreate the anomaly to get us back then I doubt our luck will be as good as our own arrival in this universe, destroying us entirely. Not to mention, even if we manage to survive through a second anomaly transporting us, I kind of doubt we would be able to arrive back in our own universe. We just might arrive in a third universe," the Doctor went on finally stopping any hope of a return to their own universe from many in the room. The Emperor and Empress exchanged looks at this, and Valerian made a mental note to see about forbidding any sort of experiment of recreating the anomaly or working with void energy period.

"Thank you Doctor for that enlightening report," the Emperor mentioned drawing the gathered advisor's attention back to him.

"Now we must see about what we are going to do in this new universe," he went on looking around at the gathered advisors, both those of the military and the handful of civilians.

"It is my belief that we should see about locating a viable planet to settle down on and pretty much create our own, if small, Terran Dominion in this new universe," he proposed to them all which made them all pretty much look quite interested at this suggestion.

"It does make sense," the figure of Minister Cain mused out loud looking around at the others who nodded in agreement with her statement.

"We do have a whole Colonial Expedition Fleet with us after all," General Warfield said with a smirk before going on, "Which does include everything we need to settle our own colony in this universe."

At this, one by one, each advisor agreed with the plan to settle their own new colony in this new universe which made Valerian sigh in some relief. For he had briefly feared that they would either keep moving about trying to find some new tech in this universe to be used in trying to get them back to their own universe or have them splintering into their own smaller factions taking much-needed equipment and resources to do so. Hence, it was quite possible to see about recreating a smaller version of the Terran Dominion in this new universe.

"That does bring about something else," Doctor Ramsey piped out drawing their attention back to him who now was frowning at his datapad once more whose display Valerian could barely see now showed an interface of a direct connection to the sensors of the Science Ship.

"Oh? What would that be Doctor?" General Warfield asked with a large frown on her tanned face which drew his attention from the datapad once more and back on them all.

"We need to gather more information and such on this universe before we go off to find a suitable world to colonize to create a new Terran Dominion in this universe," he explained to them all with a bit of a patient expression on his face. This did make the others wince slightly at this before nodding in agreement with him.

"That is quite true, we really do not know anything really about this universe. Does it already have humans as a fully space-capable race? Are there any sort of alien races out there? Of which are they hostile to us?" the figure of General Vaughn rumbled out with a deeply worried frown on the craggy-looking face, speaking up for the first time in a long while drawing attention to him from the others.

"We do have the Sparrowhawk Class Scout Ships which are cloak capable allowing for them to be sent out to gather some needed information on our surroundings by simply listening to what is being sent out by anyone out there in the cosmos which can then be funneled to The Lone Wanderer for the needed data crunching," mused General Warfield as she stared off in some thought making the other military advisors nod in some agreement while Doctor Ramsey look over at her with a rare small smile on his face.

"That is a good first step for us General, but we need more than just that we need some source of local information. As those scout ships are going to need some means of plotting out warp jumps to gather that needed data," he replied making the general blink and wince for she should have thought that as well for it did make sense to her.

"Agreed, but how are we going to get some sort of local star charts? I'm sure our own star charts are not going to help all that much in this new universe?" Minister Cain questioned with a frown on her face which drew another rare smile from the doctor.

"That would be one way of gathering the needed data to develop new star charts. Comparing our own star charts with what we can observe with our long-range telescopes and other such long-range sensor equipment," he answered her with a nod as he fiddled around with his datapad for a moment before a holographic display appeared above it showing the local system they found themselves in as of this moment.

"So I propose to station several of our scout ships in these locations to gather needed long-range observation data of the nearby star systems to start generating some new star maps for further scouting missions outside of this local star system," the Doctor explained to them all making them all look at the display in some surprise before they look over at their Emperor who was looking quite impressed with what the Doctor proposed.

"That will work in the short term to gather what we need to move scout units to other nearby star systems to start finding out more information about this particular universe," the Emperor mused to himself before looking over at General Warfield, the overall commander of the military assets they currently sported as of this moment.

"General Warfield go ahead and follow through with the Doctor's plan," he ordered the woman who bowed slightly towards him.

"Of course sire," she replied to him before looking over at the doctor, "Doctor Ramsey can you send me your proposed scout ship deployment so I can get those orders out after the end of the meeting?"

"Yes General, I shall have my aides send it to you as soon as possible," the Doctor replied as he inputted something into his datapad.

"With that said I do believe that is everything that we need to cover right now," the Empress mentioned drawing attention to her own annoyed look on her face as she stared over at her husband. Something that was noticed by the closer advisors of the Emperor while a couple of the civilian advisors looked a tad bit confused at what was going on. Though Doctor Ramsey had a small smirk on his face for his own latent psychic abilities had already told all that he needed to know what was going on.

"Yes, Your Majesty I do believe that is everything that we need to cover," the rumble of General Vaughn cut through any future argument from the civilian advisors as he looked over at the Emperor to see him blinking in some surprise at this as he stared at his wife.

"Thank you, General. I am now going to take my dear husband to the med bay to see about getting a needed sleep aid and then to our quarters to finally get him some much-needed rest," she explained to them all with a sweet look on her face one that also hid a deep annoyance with the entire situation, with her husband, and all of them. Something that she had been hiding since she figured out was that Valerian had gotten no sleep at all earlier when he retired and then lied to her that he did manage to get a couple of hours. Sometimes he forgot that she was psychic and that even with her powers restrained due to the limiter she wore at all times right now she still could easily pick up when someone was lying to her.

"With that let's go and retire Valerian," she said as she got up from her seat wincing a bit due to a few pains in her back but she didn't let it show. Valerian after a moment looked at her before sighing and nodding before getting up from his own seat.

"Of course my dear," he replied as he wondered how much trouble he was currently in with her, but he didn't let that thought be displayed on his face he exchanged quick goodbyes with the gathered advisors before following behind his wife as she made for the deck's main hatch. The pair of fully armored Imperial Guard Marines flanking the hatch sprang to attention at their approach, a moment later a pair of Shadows appeared from the gathered shadows of the corners of the deck before following behind the Imperial Couple out of the Observation Deck. A moment later the hatch slid shut.

Imperial Quarters
HMS Bucephalus
Five Hours Later

An intense beeping sound drew Valerian from his sleep making him frown and look around to see that his wife was nowhere to be found in the quarters. At that, he winced at the reminder of the tongue-lashing delivered to him by his wife. While she understood that he couldn't get any sleep earlier thanks to stress over their new situation and everything, what made her upset at him was that he had lied to her about actually getting some sleep as he breezed out of the quarters to rush back to the ship's command deck. Sighing he got up from the large bed and looked over to the side table to see that the intercom built into the table was flashing an angry red making him frown in some concern for normally it would blink with a green light. A red light meant it happened to be a priority call from either the Command Deck or a senior officer's com unit.

'Now what happened?'he thought to himself with narrowed eyes before reaching over and tapping the connect button on the intercom.

"Yes, what is it?" he asked with a gruff voice that showed that he was still kind of groggy from waking up abruptly.

"Sorry to wake you like this Your Majesty but there has been a development," the rough voice of General Vaughn replied making Valerian raise an eyebrow in some concern over the man contacting him like this but didn't let it affect him all that much.

"Oh? What happened my friend?" he asked the man as he started to get up from the bed itself and went about getting dressed and back to the command deck of the ship. However, before he could he was surprised by the answer from the older man.

"There has been first contact between the locals and our own forces."

-o-End-o-

Post Chapter Notes

That is about it for this chapter. Originally it was going to be far longer than this but I decided to split the actual first contact from the chapter to make it a bit smaller. Not to mention I figured it would be better as its own chapter. Still, this is kind of a weak chapter I think, as it focuses on the reactions of what happened with the gathered Dominion Fleet. However, I focused it more on Valerian than really I should as I was going to add a bit of focus on the reactions of the civilians, mainly after the mentioned speech from Valerian, but it didn't really work out correctly like I planned on it being. Shrug. Still an interesting chapter I think.

That said, the opening scene with ascended Kerrigan and Raynor was not originally planned for this chapter, as I really wanted to keep them a bit separate from the overall larger story, but I included it mainly as the chapter was a bit shorter than I planned it being and I really want to expand on the ending scene of the last chapter a bit. As while I did want to leave everything in the original universe as a sort of Chekov's gun to be explored later, maybe as a sort of series of omakes, I soon figured it wouldn't work out quite like that therefore went through with the scene instead. I still don't know if it works right, but am leaving it in to see what the readers think. Do you think that I should include the Ascended's actions and point of view in further chapters?

Finally, I need to mention that there was originally going to be a scene either at the start of this chapter or at the end of the last chapter where Valerian retired to his quarters to get some rest but couldn't get to sleep. Hence, he gets up lies to Nova about getting a couple of hours, and returns to the Command Deck. Again. That didn't work all that much. Sigh. Anyhow, I shall see about getting the next chapter, which is about halfway written, fully finished, and posted next week. Also, I started to change Vaughn's rank from Brigadier to General for it just seemed kind of not really all that great therefore, I changed it. However, that may end up being changed again if anyone thinks the old rank is a bit better, maybe confusing with General Warfield being also included in the story. Shrug. Till then everyone and thanks for reading!