Out of the Ashes (Rise of the Empire Book 3) (22 page)

Chapter Thirty

Aileen was woken by the light of dawn, getting up from the small cot she slept on. The room around her was filled with people, some were sleeping on many cots placed in the room, other were talking softly. Aileen exited the room, and then the building. Outside people in armored suits stood around hugging and slapping each other on the shoulders, they were clearly celebrating. Aileen spotted the Father standing amongst them, she made her way to him. He noticed her and pulled her into a hug.

“We won, oh thank God we won.” He was saying.

“What happened?” She asked.

“We’ve won child. The Olympus fleet had defeated the Ra’a’zani warship, and our people had taken the ground. We are free.” He said. Aileen looked at him blankly, she didn’t know what being free meant. She was about to ask him, what that meant, when she felt the ground shake. It was not like the shaking last night, when the Resistance destroyed the base. No, this seemed to be somehow deeper, primal.

“Father?” Aileen asked hesitantly.

He looked at her, and she saw fear in his eyes. Then a roaring sound blast reached them, and there in the distance to the south, Aileen saw a huge mushroom of gray/black smoke rising from the earth.

***

“I am detecting a lot of seismic activity from the ocean bed.” Anissa heard her sensor officer say.

“An earthquake?” Anissa asked.

“It looks like it, but it is rising in intensity steadily.”

Anissa looked at her crew and said, “Get us to the surface.”

***

“Jacob! We are getting distress calls from the Earth!” Tamara yelled out, cutting in the celebration.

“Where from? Did some of the assaults fail?” Jacob asked.

“No, there are reports of… Earthquakes and volcanoes erupting.” She said, and slowly fear started to seep into her face.

“Where?” Jacob asked.

“All over the planet.” Tamara said.

“Contact Olympus.”

***

Monarch’s shuttles have just returned carrying the last survivors from the Sovereign, when they got a communication from the Resistance. Johanna listened to the message, and felt paralyzing fear. She immediately ordered both her remaining ships to Earth. In a couple of minutes they reached the visual range of Earth. Johanna ordered the viewer turned on. The first thing she noticed was the visual state of the Monarch, the missing right axe-head gave the ship a lopsided look, and the rest of the ship was filled with scars, mangled, twisted. But what truly chilled her blood was the sight past her ship. All across the Earth’s surface she saw enormous globes of smoke and ash, volcanos were preparing to erupt everywhere, some already did, she saw the southern hemisphere of the planet glowing red.

“What is happening?” Johanna asked.

“I’m detecting massive tectonic shifts, Fleet Master. And volcanic activity across the planet.” The Sensor Handler said.

“Why now? What happened?” Johanna demanded. The Sensor Officer worked furiously,

“I-I don’t know, Fleet Commander.”

Remembering Johanna, reached with her imp to the record of the battle, she found the trajectory of the object that exited the Ra’a’zani ship during battle. She saw it had been on the way to Earth.

“Fleet Commander! We need to warn the people on the ground, there are massive tsunamis headed for the land!” The Sensor Officer called out.

“Where are they headed?” Johanna asked.

“Everywhere! They’ll hit in a few hours.”

Johanna felt her face drain of blood.

“Contact the Resistance warn them to get to the higher ground.” Johanna said to the Comm Handler, then turned back to the Sensor Handler, “What will be the impact of this? I need to know everything.”

Sensor Handler swallowed hard, she looked down at her screen then back up, she opened her mouth and then closed it, she tried again but still no sound came out. Then Turiel’s voice sounded in the CC.

“Fleet Commander, I have studied the data that your ship collected, and coupled with the communications that the Star Gazer got from the first hand reports, I believe that I can answer your question.” Turiel said.

“Go ahead.”

“All of the currently active volcanoes on Earth had erupted at nearly the same time, and most of the dormant ones are preparing to erupt. According to the Star Gazer, the super volcano Yellowstone had erupted on the North American continent, it is on the other side of the Earth, further confirming that this calamity is global. The Earth’s tectonic plates are shifting, causing massive earthquakes below the oceans, which in turn caused massive tsunamis. Every coast on the planet will be hit within hours. And this will not stop soon, according to my calculations, whatever has happened will continue for decades, if not more. The smoke and ash from the volcanic eruptions will block out the sun within weeks. And by the end of the one month period, super storms will wreak havoc across the planet, and Earth will stop being able to support life. Fleet Commander, I am afraid that this was intentional. The most likely answer is that it was the Ra’a’zani that caused this. People on Earth will not survive.”

The CC was silent. Johanna watched at the Earth in front of her. This was her fault, all those people will die because of her. They didn’t free Earth, they doomed it. But she was the Fleet Commander, she would be able to grieve later, now she needed to save as many people as possible.

“Contact the Resistance, get the locations of the people on the ground that are in most danger.” She said to the Comm Handler. Then she turned to Andros.

“Get the army dropships and our shuttles ready, they will be going down to earth to evacuate the people to the Monarch. We have room for thousands here.” Johanna said, and Andros started issuing orders. But she knew that it wouldn’t be enough. She went to her ready room, she needed to record a message for Sanctuary.

***

Jacob couldn’t believe what was happening, even dead the Ra’a’zani managed to deny them Earth. He was trying to contact his people on the ground but they had lost contact with most of them. But he had been sending the locations of those that they did manage to contact to the Olympus ships. He knew that they wouldn’t be able to save even a fraction of the people on the ground. It was his fault, he was the one that started all of this. If he hadn’t started this rebellion, the Earth would have still been safe. Now they will pay the price for their freedom.

***

Aileen was scared. She was told that it was nothing to be scared about, that it was just a volcano that erupted. And that they were far enough from it to get to safety in time. The Father had made her stay with him, and the armored people. Most of the others ran away when they saw the explosion, not knowing what it was. Aileen herself was tempted to run, until the Father explained what it was. Now she stood and watched the people around her. She knew that something was wrong. Their happiness at being free was gone, replaced with an impending sense of doom. Then the Father motioned her to come to him. When she approached he grabbed her by her shoulders.

“You will be safe child.” He said softly.

“I know that something is wrong.” She said.

He nodded, “Yes. The last act of the Ra’a’zani it seems. Even dead, they managed to take us down with them.” He said sadly. Then he looked above her head, and Aileen turned to look in the same direction. A black flying object came into view, and then lowered itself to the ground close to them.

“Go with them, you will be safe. Live your life.” He said, and pushed her in the arms of a man in the suit.

“I don’t understand!” She said. But the Father only smiled sadly with tears in his eyes as the man pulled her away.

Chapter Thirty One

January 2172 – Sanctuary

Tomas Klein sat amongst his four closest friends in their usual conference room in the Olympus city palace. Two hours ago they had received the message from Fleet Commander Johanna Stern. No one spoke, everyone was stunned by what happened. They were completely unprepared for the strength of the Ra’a’zani ship, and not even in their worst case scenarios did they imagine what the Ra’a’zani would do. Whatever they did, destroyed the Earth, annihilated her ability to sustain life for hundreds, if not thousands of years. But the worst part, is what the Ra’a’zani forced his people to do. They couldn’t save everybody. The two surviving ships could take aboard them maybe two thousand. With the Monarch taking most of that number. And the three ships in the belt, maybe another four hundred. Two and a half thousand people, could be saved. The others would die. The ones on Earth would die from the constant earthquakes, ash and smog in the air, or swallowed by the rising oceans. And the ten thousand people living in the belt would die a harder death. They were dependent on Earth for food and water. And now without it they would starve. His people had already done the calculations, there was no way for them to stretch their supplies, even if his ships helped, no way to survive until the help from Sanctuary arrived. Within the half year, they would all die. And his people will have to leave them there to die a horrible, horrible death.

“We were so stupid.” Laura said, “From everything the Resistance told us, it seemed like our technology was on par with the Ra’a’zani. And only one ship did that to us. And the Earth…”

Tomas manipulated his imp, and brought the holograms of three Ra’a’zani ships above the desk. The leaders of the Resistance had told the Fleet Commander Stern everything that they held back.

“It was my fault, I forgot why we left the Earth, and what people there were like. I trusted them because they were humans in need.” Tomas said, and then gestured to the holograms. “Before our ships arrived in Sol, these three ships visited the system with a convoy. When they left they took all of the Ra’a’zani warships with them, save for one that fought with our fleet.” Then he brought the hologram of the Ra’a’zani warship that had almost destroyed their fleet. He looked around the room, “These are to scale.” He said.

Everyone realized the size of the three ships, they dwarfed the one ship their fleet fought.

“If they had told us about them, we might have been more cautious. We would have certainly known that the Ra’a’zani were much more advanced.” Tomas said.

“What are we going to do? When are we sending ships back to Sol?” Nadia asked.

Tomas turned to her, “We are not sending ships back.” He said. He felt the rest of the room look at him.

“What? Why? We need to help them!” Nadia said.

“Help them how?” Tomas asked. “You looked at the calculations, there is no chance of any one of them surviving until we get there. All our ships would find is death.” Tomas said.

“But…” Nadia started and then fell silent.

“I will be sending a message to the Fleet Commander Stern. I will instruct her to save as much as she can without compromising their survival, and then start exploring trans-lanes back to Sanctuary.” Tomas said calmly.

The rest didn’t agree, but they didn’t object either.

“If there is nothing else, then I need to think about what we are going to do next.” Tomas said. No one said anything. Tomas nodded to them and left the room. Quickly behind him, followed Seo-yun.

***

Seo-yun found Tomas in his library, standing by the bookshelf looking out of the window. She approached him slowly and put her hand on his shoulder, she worried that he would again blame himself and retreat back into his shell. Like he did when they came to Sanctuary.

“Tomas,” She said softly, “It isn’t your fault.” Tomas turned sharply, and Seo-yun saw his expression. Frightened she took a step back. Tomas’ face was contorted into a savage, angry expression.

“Oh yes, I know that this wasn’t my fault.” He said harshly. “It was not I, that chose to go to war and weaken Earth enough that it was so easily conquered. It was not I, that withheld information. And it was not me who fired that weapon at Earth.” He looked at Seo-yun, “No, it was not my fault, nor the fault of anyone in Olympus. The only fault I bear is that I wasn’t prepared to do what I needed to. Once, I held the entire Earth in the palm of my hand, and I did nothing with that power. Letting petty men rule. I chose to turn from them rather than crush them and take power for myself. I didn’t want to become like them, I wanted to lead the people that wanted to be led by me.” He turned from her then and looked out the window, at the Olympus city. The sun was slowly creeping over the horizon. “The people here want me to rule, and I have shied away. Spreading that responsibility with Laura, Elias, Nadia and you. But they trust me, and want me to rule. They call me emperor in jest and in truth, but never to my face because it made me uncomfortable. Very well then, I will become what they want me to be.” He looked back at Seo-yun, and she saw in his eyes determination as vast as the sky. His face lost its angry expression, but steel and determination remained. “This will not happen again Seo-yun. Do you hear me! Never again will this happen to the human race. Never again will we be weak! I will not allow us to disappear from this universe. We will grow, and spread, and we will crush anyone that threatens us! I will forge an Empire that will be equal to anyone! And one day, we will meet the Ra’a’zani again. And we will have our revenge. I will make sure that they know why it is coming. I will lay waste to their worlds and teach them the true meaning of fear. And in the last moments of their existence, they will regret the moment that they encountered the human race.” He turned back to the window. Seo-yun watched the side of his face as he gazed out at the city. She was conflicted, she trusted Tomas with her life, she loved him. But she was also afraid. Because she knew him so well. She understood what he was truly capable of. And she was afraid, not because he spoke like a mad man. But because she believed that he could do everything that he had said. Hesitating just a moment, she came to stand at his side, leaning her head on his shoulder. Tomas put his hand around her shoulders, and together they watched the sun rise on their city.

***

Five days later Tomas sat in his office, his holodesk was filled with holographic displays. He was trying to figure out how best to accomplish his goal. Birthrates, expansion projections, mining operations, threat assessments, Tomas’s mind was filled with numbers. He had an outline of a plan, but it would mean doing something drastic. But the more he tried to find another way, the more convinced he became that his plan was the best possible option. His people had been told about what had happened. Their response was as could be expected, they were stunned. No matter their reason for leaving Earth, it was still humanities home world. They wanted to strike out against the ones that did this. And Tomas had to calm them down, to reassure them that it will happen.

The tragedy had united his people even more than before, and it strengthened their trust in him. They knew that he would always do what was best for them. He would need that trust, if he was to do what he planned to do. It would change their culture. A drastic change, one whose effects he wouldn’t be able to predict. But a necessary change.

The expansion projects were his priority, they needed colonies, and needed them fast. But he understood the difficulties that would pose. He needed a way to keep all of humanity united, even if they were separated by hundreds of light years. A solution was slowly forming in his mind. But it would require something… An insurance to make sure that it stays in place. Tomas looked at the schematics for the building that was supposed to serve as the police force. An idea forming in his mind.