Alutia Rising, Anniversary Edition (Alutia Rising Series, Book 1) (67 page)

It was amazing, the first time together
without the drug.

She’d found herself stressing over how she
would react, a concern growing that maybe, just maybe, her wound
hadn’t healed, and she would again fall into debilitating terror
when Trent removed her clothes. But there was no longer an
issue...she was officially cured.

The experience was even more intense that the
first. The bond they shared seemed to have grown, allowing her to
feel like they shared a single body. She ran her fingers down his
sweat soaked chest and found the bond was still active, allowing
her to experience the pleasure of her own touch on his skin. Trent
gently turned her to face him, nibbling her lips, again sliding
atop her. Sasha, once again, found herself drowning in pleasure
divine.

A persistent beep from her wrist brought her
awake. She gently, and reluctantly, removed Trent's arms from her
waist, sitting cross legged on the bed. Vin appeared above her
wrist.

“You have a level one message, Your Grace,”
Vin whispered. She nodded her thanks, accessing the local BAP with
her BC node. She found two messages waiting, queuing the first.

“Sasha, quiet down! You seem to have
forgotten Gil'Da's warning! She swears she will move Regalia to the
far side of the starship in the morning. Your best friend, Tiana,”
Sasha giggled quietly. She now knew she was loud. But even when she
tried not to be, she couldn't help it, the bond, and the
irresistible desire to scream her pleasure, just too strong. She
queued up the second message and frowned.

“My dearest daughter, Your actions have far
outstripped my expectations and I am sorry for everything you have
been forced to endure. I am gravely wounded by the loss of Earth
and I know it pains you deeply. The discussion I had with Prince
Kohan on this matter was long and I learned a very many things.

“Without his knowledge, Princess Xeros, his
wife, assigned her brother, Knight High-Admiral Baric, to head the
battle groups Prince Kohan had gifted you. At first glance, this
would seem harmless, but my information has proven otherwise.
Princess Xeros had been found to be in constant communication with
her brother during the Battle of Earth. The exact contents of the
conversations have yet to be discovered, but it appears she may
have been manipulating him to some degree. It was, without a doubt,
Princess Xeros who provided the illegal order to destroy Earth.

“Punishment has already been pronounced by
hereditary Emperor Yuloo, that Princess Xeros shall be banished
with her husband, Prince Kohan, to a noble penal planet, where they
shall live until the time of my death. This news may be of little
consolation to you, but considering Princess Xeros is the daughter
of the king of galaxy 2, a line of kings with direct relation to
the emperor and the Blood of Yu, little else could be done.

“Now, let me congratulate you on your
betrothal, my dear daughter. Your mother and I will be journeying
with a force of the King’s Fleet to Alutia'Earth to oversee the
official elevation ceremony. I hope he is all that I have heard and
lives up to the records I have seen.

“In celebration of this event, I have
provided you use of the Vn'Oco Royal Biological Engineering and
Architectural Core, and an additional Vn’Oco Construction Fleet, to
start growth of the colony on Alutia'Earth, and your mother has
insisted on designing your new palace, which should be ready upon
your arrival.

“My dear princess, ruling within this galaxy
is a cruel reality, but remember this, you are strong and one of
its greatest treasures. Your Father, King Johan Vn'Oco.” Sasha held
back tears, tiptoeing across the cool floor, pressing an icon on
the wall that made it appear transparent, showing the stars
streaking through the distant darkness of space. Powerful arms
embraced her from behind and a light kiss fell upon her exposed
nape.

“What's wrong?” Trent asked softly.

“My parents are coming to our wedding.” Trent
kissed her neck again, moving to her side.

“That's not all, is it?” His tone was as kind
as his touch.

“No, but the rest can wait for another
day.”

Leaning in, she kissed him, letting his
presence fill her and forgetting for a time the universe, and its
endless struggles.

AH-Zec, the standing leader of the
Anti-Sapien Unification ruling matrix, floated within the
antigravity data sphere, scanning the latest infiltration report to
begin the analysis of the data contained within. Two ASU
Schnac’lasis operatives were able to successfully infiltrate the
world the humans called Earth, and escape with the precious samples
that were hidden below its surface. It appeared that even the
current emperor of the
New Universal Empirical
Human Alliance
had known little of the actual secret of that
world.

The stream of reports and messages that
AH-Zec was constantly sorting were based on a new initiative
created by his predecessor. All messages transmitted in normal
space continue to travel through the universe, no matter how much
time passed. To take advantage of this, the ASU had constructed
trillions of listening platforms outside the galaxy, in dark space,
beyond the range of the NHA gate capture nets. The farther out
these platforms from a galaxy, the older the transmissions they
could intercept. The one that provided the information about the
Human Devolution Phenomenon was about 25,000 years old, 15,000
years before the cranillium's even left the safety of the Donlak
system, as well as the earliest NHA signal detected from this
galaxy.

The ASU's top minds were currently analyzing
the samples and attempting to integrate them into a weapon, but
initial signs were not as promising as his previous analysis lead
him to believe. The HDP spores were not easily transportable and
perished quickly outside a perfect environment, not suited for
space based combat. But other uses were already decided by the
ruling matrix and AH-Zec had chosen a group of human border
colonies along the Frontier as test beds for the new planetary
weapon in development.

The idea of destroying planets of innocents
went against the peaceful nature of his race, but the Schnac'lasis
were adamant that total annihilation was the only way to rid the
universe of the human menace. AH-Zec had to agree that humans were
a menace, but his extreme intellect told that there must be another
way to end this conflict without resorting to the human methodology
of genocide. For the time being, as his search for information
continued unsated, he would go along with the ruling matrix
recommendations placed before him. They would continue to monitor
and probe the Frontier, while silently attacking human colonies
with the new HDP weapon in development.

AH-Zec noted a new victory equation, after
adding the newly developed HDP weapon, had left a remainder.
Frowning, AH-Zec continued scanning the million's of messages and
reports for the one that would allow them, once and for all, to
become victorious.

Emperor Yuloo scuffled through his majestic
personal garden with his daughter on his arm, listening to Zing,
the Program, finish his report about the Human Devolution
Phenomenon. The fact that this information had been sealed and only
passed down by word of mouth disturbed him greatly.
What other
information had his predecessors deemed too dangerous to leave
accessible to even future
emperors
?
He sighed.

“Father, why not take the technology that
allowed Sir Trent and Lady Sasha to survive and distribute it to
the masses?” Future Empress Yukie asked in an innocent tone he knew
would not last much longer. He had thought the same thing himself,
but the technology was part of the Emperor's Jewelry and as
such...was sealed.

When an emperor ascended to the throne, a set
of four pieces of Emperor's Jewelry were created by the Program's
to help the newly appointed emperor protect himself and rule
effectively. The Eye of the Emperor, a chocker adorned with three
mysterious jewels, gave the ability to see through lies and into
the true meaning of one's heart. The Arms of the Emperor, which
adorned each wrist, provided two different abilities. One, to seek
friends and allies, while the other, to seek ones enemies. The
Heart of the Emperor, the necklace that hung around his neck,
healed him from the physical attacks of his enemies. All the
jewelry contained protocols that allowed for the removal of toxic
substances from the body, mainly developed to counter poison or
biological assassination attempts, but these protocols could be
just as toxic as the poison itself, which is why the Heart of the
Emperor was paramount.

A deceased emperor's set of Emperor's Jewelry
was reclaimed by the Programs, then used as gifts to be provided to
those who received future emperor’s blessings, the chosen, becoming
Agents of the Emperor, such as Lady Sasha and Sir Trent. This
allowed his agents, even if they didn't realize this fact, to
successfully complete his bidding.

He turned his attention back to his innocent
young daughter, running his hand through her silver and gold hair.
She would be the first hereditary Empress in NHA history. For some
strange genetic twist of fate, the first born of every NHA Emperor
and Empress was always male...until Yukie came along. Of course,
there had been many elevated empresses, including his deceased
wife, who ruled with the same authority as he.

“That is a wonderful idea, Yukie,” he kneeled
before her, placing a hand on each shoulder, “but unfortunately,
the technology used is sealed and currently only the Emperor's
Jewelry has that ability.” He let a hand fall to her necklace, a
previous emperor’s heart. At least he would be able to protect his
daughter.

“However, you did provide me a good idea. I
think I'll have the Emperor’s Academy, with assistance of the
biological science research companies look into a genetic vaccine,
or gene alteration, from the data collected. I'd much rather make
us immune then have to worry about delivering an antidote within
seconds,” Yukie beamed at his words.

They continued on, studying a peculiar
multicolored plant, called a Mus’Vatillinia, that swayed, even
without wind.

“And Daddy, I'm glad you helped her,” he
raised an eyebrow, “I mean Princess Sasha. I know you don't like
getting directly involved with the nobility, but it's like one of
the old fairy tales! When the petty man saves the noble woman and
they fall in love, against all odds!” He smiled, not having the
heart to tell her that most stories of love between classes rarely
ended happily.

The nobles of galaxy 189 would not stand idly
by as Trent and Sasha did what the emperor hoped, and changed the
destructive traditions of the last 75,000 years. It was a
farfetched dream, he knew, but if he could leave his daughter with
a semblance of change, something so she wouldn't have to worry
about the nightmares of the billions of petties killed by fickle
nobles...it would be worth it.

“Zing, has Sir Trent chosen his new starship?
The one he is to be rewarded with the Star of Terra?” Zing's sphere
started rippling, shifting colors rapidly.

“No.” A smile broke his lips.

“Good, I'd like to temporarily suspend the
prohibition for nobles to design their own starships in regards to
Trent's personnel starship,” his smile widened, “and I'd like to
allocate the emperor's initial allocation of the gorian ore
discovered in Alutia, enough to sufficiently armor a battleship
class hull.” Zing beeped acknowledgement and sent off his
instructions.

He gazed down at Yukie, who was chasing his
catillian through a field of angel grass, and hoped that the future
would not be the same as the past, and his daughter would not die,
like his wife, because of the weight of ruling the universe.

Dear Reader,

I hope you enjoyed the anniversary edition of
Alutia Rising as much as I enjoyed the writing (...or rewriting
that is...). It was a long road, which I broke down upon on more
than a few occasions. But I was able to carry on...thinking if
Trent and Sasha could trudge forward, so could I...and completed
the journey. Except, I realized something, this is only the
beginning, an on-ramp to a much longer road, or prelude to a much
grander adventure.

Please look forward to the updated release of
the next book, The Noble Petty, Complete Edition, where Trent and
Sasha, her ladies, new friends, and family become embroiled in even
greater conflicts and experience adventures, loss, and love beyond
any of their wildest imaginations.

Thank you for your support and I hope to see
you again in the next adventure!

Craig Gerttula

ps. Book 3 - Foresight of the Duke, will be
arriving in early 2014!