Lost Empire Ch. 63

This was worse, as the time started to pass. First, she was alone, isolated, then she hears a voice almost warm, inviting. Then just as suddenly it was snatched away. Shaking her head, the little that she could, she was beginning to think that she was starting to experience the space madness. Laughing a moment, she thought of the irony of it. She survives an obvious catastrophe only to go mad within the very thing that was designed to keep her alive.

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Lucie was finally out of the bio-bed though she'd actually wanted to stay there a bit longer. She'd watched the wedding of the Emperor and the Empress practically drooling over the beautiful wedding dress the Empress had worn. 'Christ,' she thought, 'if she was only half as beautiful.' She was released just after the wedding ended.

Lucie was making her way to the quarters she'd been given. She'd just passed Zimmel when she suddenly went stock still. Alarmed he called out for Ace who suddenly appeared. "What in the hell is going on?"

Ace looked at her on each side then several lights passed over her. "She appears to be in conversation with a ship. I therefore cannot interfere 'til such time as she contacts me or vocally calls me."

Zimmel was nodding though not really liking it. He'd seen Lucie like this before, so he knew there wasn't a damn thing he could do 'til she was done.

Lucie stood there listening to the ship nodding once in a while still in as trance like state. Almost five minutes later Lucie snapped out of the trance as tears started to fall from her eyes. Turning she looked straight at Zimmel then turned to Ace.

"I have to talk to the Emperor." She stated.

"I am afraid that isn't..." Ace started.

"NOW!" Lucie almost shouted startling both Zimmel and Ace. Taking a deep breath Ace nodded.

Derrick had just taken a bite of wedding cake when his wrist com. went off. A worried look came over his features, this had to be pretty important if they were calling right now. "What's wrong Ace?" Derrick said as soon as he saw the worried look on the A.I.'s face.

"It's Prime Lucie she..." Ace started.

"Out of the way!" He heard Lucie say as her face came into the picture. "I'm sorry sire this is an emergency!"

"Of course," Derrick said even more worried as Shelby steered to a more secluded spot. "What's wrong?"

"One of the boxes contacted me. There is a survivor of the Tendrax fleet, she's alone adrift in a tight life capsule." Lucie told him.

"How is this an emergency?" Derrick asked slightly irritated.

"Sire," Lucie said dropping her voice. "She heard the same box!"

A look of shock and surprise came to his and Shelby's faces. "Hang on." Derrick tuned his comp a moment then said. "Admiral, I need you to retrieve your sister. It appears we have a survivor of the Tendrax fleet."

"Ok, so what's the big deal?" Hartwell said.

"She can hear one of the boxes." Derrick stated. Hartwell suddenly stopped nodding his head.

"On my way." Hartwell said then clicked off.

"Your brother should be there in a moment." Derrick replied to Lucie.

Lucie with tears in her eyes thanked Derrick even as Johnathon appeared near Ace. A moment later she was onboard Johnathon then they were almost immediately in trans warp.

"I'm taking us to where Zan set off the thermic missiles." Hartwell told his sister. A minute later they exited the portal as Lucie stared straight ahead.

"She is far away straight ahead. No wait! She's off to the side quite a bit." Lucie said as she turned to the right side.

Hartwell nodded as Johnathon winked out appearing outside the huge debris. Both Hartwell and Johnathon waited as Lucie stared straight ahead. "That way," she pointed slightly to the right. Moving off they were starting to get further and further from the debris field.

Johnathon suddenly spoke up. "Admiral prime, I am detecting a weak beacon signal. I am also detecting metal of the sort that our brain boxes are made of."

"Yes! "I can feel her more. We're very close." They moved forward another few thousand kilometers when Johnathon stopped.

"I believe I have found them, identity confirmed. Now starting scans of both. I am afraid this will take almost three hours." Johnathon told them.

"We have to hurry!" Lucie stated. "She has connected to the life pod though it appears that the power is starting to fail in both.

Hartwell sighed there wasn't much he could do, even as important as this was he couldn't hurry. "We'll just have to hope that the both of them can hold on. Without these tests we'd be flying blind you yourself know that. Not much good to be a rescuer if the one you're rescuing kills you without knowing it." Turning to Johnathon he asked. "Anything we can do to delay power failure?"

"Possibly though I am afraid it will just help." With that a bolt of energy hit both the capsule and the box that was attached. "I'm afraid that's the only time I can do that anymore could possibly overload the both of them."

Hartwell watched at the four sets of clearing went on. It was excruciatingly slow as he and Lucie watched the energy start to drop. At two and a half hours they saw that the capsule was about to be critical.

Lucie was pacing the entire time as the energy sunk lower and lower. "Damn it, Johnnie! She's going to suffocate in there we have to do something!"

Hartwell could only shake his head no as another fifteen minutes crawled by. This last clearing had to be done knowing the propensity of the Tendrax to set traps as they did.

Finally, several chimes went off as Hartwell ordered, "get them on board. Get that damn capsule open, prepare the med-bay."

"Compliance Admiral prime." Johnathon stated. A moment later an alarm went off. "Prime I am unable to get it open. Warning. Warning! I am reading failing life signs!

Hartwell and Lucie were both suddenly standing in front of the capsule. Lucie was screaming for her brother to do something. Hartwell grabbed the nearest metal rod smashing it into the seal. Yelling at Johnathon to keep trying to open the capsule, Hartwell was about to start smashing at the seal again when there was a pneumatic hiss.

As the case slid open Hartwell could only stare at what was inside. The female inside was not breathing as Hartwell couldn't seem to find his voice. She was slightly petite with ashen white hair plus she was stark naked!

Pushing her brother out of the way Lucie started to yell at Johnathon to transport the female to the med-bay. Hartwell still in shock sat with a thump as his sister shook her head with a smirk.