Special Notes: Children of the Empire is an episodic science fiction-fantasy story posted in short chapters every three days or so. I've been told, and ignore, the advise that episodic fiction is no long in style. It is said that our culture has progressed past episodic fiction. A very famous example of this style of writing is Don Quixote; adventures take place without necessarily being related to the last adventure. The reason for the decline in episodic literature versus plot driven literature is that our culture, so I'm told, expects a plot; people want adventure A to lead to adventure B. I completely disagree with this summation. I refuse to believe that people have 'advanced' to the need to have the plot shoved down their throats in steps; A = B = C = D. I feel that the bookstores are stacked with enough of that kind of thing, and while I do enjoy a standard book from time-to-time, I've always felt that little twinge of sadness that the story is over. That doesn't happen with Children of the Empire. You get a new story every few days to read over coffee. The story might drop you into a short adventure, or perhaps just an average day, starring your favorite character - and then not see that character again for awhile. But, there is no beginning, or ending. Your favorite character will be back eventually. Now, what was my point? Oh, yea. Comments. I'm not begging for comments, but, by providing a comment about what you thought, might like to see, or a character you miss, I can better guide the story. For instance, if someone says, 'hey, I wonder what happened to Mouse' or 'what do you think Cassie is up to' or 'darn it, why can't we ever find out what Thor's name is?' (you never will, some characters are built like that... Thor and The Seamstress are two characters you don't ever get to learn their names, even though I do have names for them) Anyway, enjoy the story. *****AUDIO FILE***** "Chapter 56 - Team-Work - Audio File" [The White Raven, Chapter 56, Team-Work] [The Raven, Intelligence Brief, Special Edition] Raen: Master Assassin and de-facto ruler and founder of House Eagle. Holds the title of Prince of House Eagle and is often referred to as the first Lord Eagle. Has a Masters Degree in Finance and is currently the 107th wealthiest person on Darai. Raen is believed to be responsible for the disappearance of Lady Swan. Raen is currently the only living Daraian possessing bio-mechanical wings. Termination not authorized by order of the Goddess. Moeth: Master Assassin and House Mother of House Eagle. Holds the title of Prince of House Eagle. Has a Masters Degree in Political Science and is the 97th wealthiest person on Darai. Moeth is believed to be training a rogue branch of Raven assassins. Moeth was pardoned by the Prince Justice, Marshal Weston, for the deaths of Gunslingers Garth Cooper and Dustin Lance Blackjack. Moeth is wanted on Cyness Major for crimes against House Cyness; current bounty is 5 million. Moeth is also wanted for crimes against House Raven - Capture only, no termination. Vas: Master Assassin and Commanding General of House Eagle, a hollow title being that there is no Eagle army. Vas has a Masters Degree in Military History, and holds the highest marshal arts degree of any Raven in over a thousand years. Vas is considered the most dangerous member of the Moeth Alliance and should not be engaged by any less then four Raven Alliances. Termination not authorized. Peli: Master Assassin. Has a Masters Degree in early Daraian Art. It is believed that her study of Daraian Art led her to unlocking the mystery of the Corvian Crow Mosaic Tablets, and the lost fighting art of the Corvian Priestesses - Peli has refused to publish her findings. Do not engage this Master Raven under any circumstance without express permission from Lady Raven. Gini: Master Assassin. Has a Masters Degree in Hatchling Care. Gini is Head Administrator of the Eagle Hatchery. Termination authorized. Clap: Master Assassin. Holds the title of Prince of House Clapper and is still listed as heir to House Clapper. Has a Masters Degree in Aeronautical Engineering and holds the title of Admiral of the Eagle Navy. Admiral Clap commands the Albatross Battle Carrier and four Dart Fighter Squadrons. Capture only. Vel: Master Assassin. Has a Masters Degree in Biology. Vel is a recovering drug addict and not considered dangerous. Vel has been missing for five years, possibly drug related. Ring: Master Assassin. Has a Masters Degree in Biology, was working on a doctorate; unknown if completed. Ring is a recovering drug addict and not considered dangerous. Ring’s IQ testing rated him as a genius, but any potential he may have had was destroyed by his drug habit. Ring has been missing for five years, possibly drug related. Mergan: Senior Master Assassin. Doctor of Medicine, Research Physician. Holds forty-two drug patents for DNA and Cellular regeneration medications. It is unknown how such a young doctor has successfully completed the level of research necessary to produce these formulas. 5-million bonus for the discovery of Doctor Mergan’s research source. Use extreme caution when engaging Doctor Mergan, she is considered extremely dangerous and may be psychologically unstable. Termination is not authorized; Capture only. Kit: Senior Master Assassin. Physician Assistant. Kit is one of the most skilled Ravens in Shadow movement to graduate the Temple in many years, use extreme caution if engaged by this Raven. Capture is not authorized. Termination is not authorized. Such action could unbalance Doctor Mergan and make retrieval of Doctor Mergan’s research impossible. Teal: Master Assassin. Has a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering. It is believed that Teal may have co-invented a new trans-dimensional engine. Two million bonus for capture. Termination is not authorized. Teal tested at genius level, but is considered only moderately dangerous. Willet: Master Assassin. Has a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering. Willet tested at genius level, but is considered only moderately dangerous. Terminate immediately upon capture of Teal. Aliaen and Caedon: Master Assassins. Youngest members of the Moeth Alliance and the only other Hawks on the Alliance. Completed their Master Raven certification prior to leaving the Temple, but it is unknown if they continued to higher education. Nothing further is known about them. Termination is authorized. Rip and Tear: Master Assassins. Half-breed Demonian. Works at the Eagle cattle ranch. Termination of any Demonian strictly forbidden by the Commonwealth Senate. [End Report] Moeth sipped at her tea and waited for Aliaen and Caedon to finish reading the report. Aliaen finished first and Caedon a moment later setting the report down on Moeth’s desk. “What are your thoughts?” asks Moeth. “It’s vague,” says Aliaen. “It doesn’t even sound like an intelligence report,” adds Caedon. “There isn’t anything about weaknesses, offensive capabilities, preferred weapons usage, personal habits, routines, or even business establishments frequented.” “That is correct,” says Moeth. “I stole this copy from Raen’s Temple Ravens two weeks ago, but it hasn’t been published yet. In fact, it looked to be filed with their discarded reports, and I don’t think they even wrote this.” “I agree, it’s not Raven quality,” says Aliaen. “There isn’t anything in that report that couldn’t be downloaded from the public Net.” “Or observed by the most incompetent hatchling,” says Moeth. “Did you notice anything else about the report.” “Avocet and Sander are missing from the report,” says Aliaen. “Yes, ever since returning from the cattle-drive, those two have stayed to themselves out at the ranch,” says Moeth. “They always were loners,” says Caedon. “Not always,” says Aliaen. “Before the cattle-drive they were here in town with us. Whoever wrote that report arrived in the province sometime during or after the cattle-drive, they don’t know that Avocet and Sander are in the Alliance.” “Ah, but the person that wrote the report knows about Ring and Vel,” says Moeth. “The author of this report arrived after the cattle-drive began, but before Ring and Vel left for Demonia.” Moeth handed a piece of paper across the desk. “This is the list of names of who arrived during that time-frame,” says Moeth. Caedon looked at the list and rolled his eyes. “Okay, mystery solved,” says Caedon. “Fifth name on the list is Alea, it’s her.” “I believe so too,” says Moeth. “I want you to infiltrate her group and find enough rope to hang her.” “We would have to enroll in the University,” says Aliaen dropping her eyes. “But, they don’t have the course of study we want, but I guess it doesn’t matter, we can just take any class.” Moeth sighed, and checked her temper in. “I am sorry you had to leave Raven Province before you could begin college, but I’m tired of you two moping around because you haven’t contributed any profit to the Alliance.” “We feel useless,” says Aliaen. “We aren’t Ravens, we’re Hawks, and we’re not as smart as the rest of you, and there was only one thing we ever showed any talent for to begin with.” “Look at Raen,” says Moeth. “He gets confused trying to turn on his own Vid-computer.” “But he’s a financial whiz,” says Caedon. “Being a financial mogul doesn’t require using high technology, he has people for that,” explains Moeth. “We want to learn electronics, but there isn’t anyone to teach us,” says Aliaen. “There is now, I brought an electronics expert here to teach you, and he’s very likely one of the brightest and most under-appreciated minds in House Raven, and he’s all ours now,” says Moeth. Aliaen and Caedon look at each other and back to Moeth. “Who?” “Go down to Lord Struthio’s old Surf Shop, his name is Jaco,” says Moeth. “It will be up to you to figure out how to get him to teach you what he knows, but in the meantime, enroll in any core subject at the University.” “Jaco?” asks Caedon incredulously. “He’s a mental patient, he’s not right in the head.” Moeth raises a brow and tips her head to the side. “Have you met that psychotic doctor of ours, or her odd mate that thinks it’s fine art when she carves up a victim, or for that matter, Raen or myself. And don’t pretend you’re innocent either, I happen to know you two enjoy…” “Okay okay,” says Aliaen quickly and turning red. “We get it, we’re all probably criminally insane.” Aliaen grabbed Caedon and fled the office before Moeth decided to open any closet doors that should remain closed. Moeth stood, oddly satisfied at still being able to tease those two. Moeth walked up the stairs to the observation room. “How will the historians paint us; heroic founders, or the dark Ravens we are?” “What’s that, dear?” The Seamstress was sitting at the round table in the center of the room with Raen’s accounting books laid out. Moeth sat down and looked over the ledgers of cryptic entries. “Nothing, I was just thinking out-loud. Is there anything I need to take care of while Raen’s gone?” asks Moeth. “Yes, dear,” says the Seamstress pushing a tablet across the table. “Put your thumb print on that, we need to sell our stock in those two companies.” Moeth glances at the tablet. “These are two of our largest investments,” says Moeth. “Yes, dear, those companies won’t exist by the end of the week,” says the Seamstress. “We’ll be investigated for insider trading, but the trail will lead away from us.” “Did Raen do it?” asks Moeth. “Of course he did, dear,” replies the Seamstress. “It was a stupid investment he made while I was still in Raven Province, but don’t worry, I’ve covered his tracks. And even if the Review Board does find a trail, I think your talents can deal with that.” Moeth glances up at the Seamstress, slightly shocked. “Why the shocked expression, dear?” asks the Seamstress. “I am a Raven, and very proud of your accomplishments.” The Seamstress pushes a stack of papers to Moeth. “And sign these, we’re moving the bulk of our investment over here.” “What’s so important about this company?” asks Moeth reading the papers. “Are we purchasing this company?” “Yes, dear, they are the only company that produces a rare compound that currently has almost no market,” replies the Seamstress. “Okay?” says Moeth signing the papers. “Raen’s new engines require that compound,” explains the Seamstress. “When the plans for the engines are stolen, and they will be, it is only a matter of time, we will make billions producing the compound.” “And if the plans aren’t stolen?” asks Moeth. “We make money either way,” says the Seamstress. “We will order more ships built, we pay Lord Sparrow to build the ships, but he has to buy the compound to build the engines, so we recoup some of our costs.” “That won’t make a profit,” argues Moeth. “He’ll just raise the price of the ship.” “That is correct,” the Seamstress explains patiently. “Which will also raise the value of the company, then we sell the company at a tremendous profit, right before we announce that we have built our own refinery to produce the compound.” “You have an odd hobby, how did you learn to do this?” asks Moeth. “After my mate and son died, I was bored and made a game out of picking stocks in the newspaper,” replies the Seamstress. “I didn’t have the money to actually invest, but it was fun. Then, one day Raen dropped by for a visit and saw me playing my game, and one thing led to the next.” “You do know your plan isn’t ethical, and probably not legal,” says Moeth. “Of course it isn’t, dear,” says the Seamstress. “Empires aren’t built being nice, and the survival of Darai depends on Raen’s success.” “I see, so Raen has told you everything?” asks Moeth. “Yes, dear, and I will destroy anyone that gets in my son’s way,” says the Seamstress. Moeth sat back and watched the woman working on the books. Raen wasn’t just an orphan boy she had taken in out of loneliness, in her mind Raen had replaced the child she had lost to the Temple, and now she had the opportunity to be a true Raven mother again; Moeth had no doubt the Seamstress really would destroy anyone that got in Raen’s way. “I’m sorry I couldn’t kill Lady Raven for you, mother,” says Moeth. “You weren’t ready yet, dear, but you needed to learn that on your own,” says the Seamstress gently. “Your skill is growing, in a few years you will be ready to meet her as an equal on your own terms.” The Seamstress closed the books and looked up at Moeth. “Now then, when are my grandsons arriving?” “Trae is arriving from Brant Province in a few days, and I should drop Eaen any time now,” says Moeth. “He’s a feisty guy, I can feel him moving inside his egg.” “I have enough money to hire an assistant now,” says the Seamstress. “You don’t have to drop hints, mother,” says Moeth. “I’ve already prepared a room for you next to the nursery in the Palace.” “Would you mind having some of those Chirps of yours help carry my luggage?” “I’ll send them to your shop this afternoon,” says Moeth. ***** [Albatross Battle Carrier, Near the Demonian Solar System] Raen twisted to the side and dragged his wings through the next opened doorway. “I hadn’t expected these corridors to be so small.” “You’re going to have to stay on the Admiral’s Deck once we’re fully loaded,” says Clap. “This ship wasn’t designed for someone with wings.” Raen knelt and ran his hand along the groove in the deck plating. “Are these the cargo rails?” asks Raen. “Yes, the rail-crates line the walls of the entire ship and remove the need to have a cargo deck, but will also reduce all the corridors to the width of the one we just walked through,” replies Clap. “We can change the interior layout of the ship as needed; weight bearing bulk heads are permanent, but every other interior wall is movable; even the deck plating can be removed to combine decks for larger cargo.” “How many people can we carry?” asks Raen. “Eighty-thousand comfortably,” says Clap. “But, if we used the hanger deck, the water decks, the propulsion deck, and the outer-hull gun decks, we should be able to triple that.” “Our population isn’t anywhere near needing that much room,” says Raen. Raen was just roaming around the ship getting a feel for all the areas he hadn’t visited yet. The next airlock had the sleep-cycle warning light lit and he moved further down the side corridor to a section with the duty-cycle light lit. The ship was split into grids with open corridors running port to starboard, and closed corridors running fore to aft. The closed corridors were the sleep and work stations; most of the crew’s bunks were only a few steps from their work stations. Each corridor housed a unique unit and all unit’s rotated their sleep-duty cycles so that the ship was never completely asleep. Each Unit Chief sealed the unit’s corridor during their night cycle; opening a corridor during a sleep-cycle was taboo, and could get you in trouble with the Executive Officer. “Works a lot different than the Raven Carrier we trained on when we were at the Temple,” notes Clap. “I was on the Drop-deck the whole time during the three-week familiarization course,” says Raen. “I never got to see any of the other sections of the ship.” Raen reached the next open corridor with the duty-cycle lamp lit and stepped inside. The walls had been slid back into their storage configuration and the bunks were folded up, giving more room for the crew that lived and worked in this section to move about during their ‘day’. “House Lord on Deck,” shouted a Master Chief. Crew-members that were standing came to attention, but those at work-stations remained sitting. “Carry-on,” replied Raen. “Hello, Chief, so what do you do on this deck?” “We control the starboard-aft antenna array,” replies the Chief. “The ship’s computers will choose the correct antenna-array to use when a message is sent, but we have to ensure our antenna-array is functioning and ready to send messages.” “What do you do while we’re at trans-dimensional travel?” asks Raen. “Messages are being sent constantly,” replies the Chief. “It’s just that those messages can’t leave the ship yet. If you’ll step over here you can see the process.” Raen followed the Chief to a room with several crew-members sitting at control panels monitoring a bank of communications equipment. “The messages are being queued here for burst transmission the moment we drop out of TDS, or TDT, as the case may be,” says the Chief. “We will be traveling at 160,000 miles per second when we first re-enter normal space, that will take very precise calculations to ensure the antenna-array is lined up with the nearest Com-satellite.” “I can’t imagine there being very many messages,” says Raen. “Depending on how long we were at TDS, it could be several million messages,” says the Chief. “Seriously?” asks Raen. “Yes, Sir,” replies the Chief. “The Helm alone will have thousands of queued requests to Nav-Satellites for the course plot we were traveling, and there will be supply requests for parts, fuel, food, ammunition, personnel, or even something as simple as a download request for the repair manual to a refrigerator in the mess hall that broke.” “There are also requests for tactical updates, or even messages from the crew to family back home,” adds Clap. Raen was about to ask another question when the lights switched to the tactical blue lighting and a voice announced they were approaching the Demonian Solar System. “We better get back to the Bridge,” says Clap. The corridors that were locked-down in sleep-cycles remained in their sleep-cycle. Raen hadn’t thought about it, but it made sense, a battle could last months and it would be necessary to keep the ship on a schedule that would ensure the crew could operate indefinitely. The Albatross came out of TDT before Clap and Raen reached the Bridge. Lord Struthio was plotting the breaking maneuver with the Helm Officer. Raen glanced at the plotting board, the maneuver was something different than what he had read about. “That’s different,” says Raen. “A normal Battle Carrier uses the sun to break, but we’ve had too many problems with the primary heat-shields,” explains Lord Struthio. “I don’t want to chance it, we’ll use this systems gas giant for our breaking maneuver.” “That will take longer, won’t it?” asks Raen. “Eighteen hours longer,” replies Lord Struthio. “Tell Cass to get my Dart in the launch tube,” says Raen. “I’ll meet you at the planet.” “Negative, you’re place is here with the Albatross,” says Lord Struthio. “We’ll launch a squad of the Storm Wings.” “I don’t know diddly squat about Battle Carriers, but I do know a Dart Ship, and I’m our best pilot and you know it.” Raen pointed at the line of alien ships near the planet. “They’ve moved into a defensive position, do you really want to send a bunch of kids to fly against that? I’m going, and I’m going alone.” Raen walked off the Bridge before Lord Struthio could find a reason to stop him. The Storm Wings guard-detail fell in step behind Raen and followed him to the elevator lift. “You’re not going with me,” says Raen. “Yes, we are,” replies the Sergeant with a tone of voice that says Raen doesn’t have a choice. The elevator door opened, and the guards followed Raen - the elevator key was missing. “I don’t really need the key,” says Raen getting angry and shoving his lock-pick into the lock and activating the elevator. Lord Cassoway was waiting next to a Dart Ship in the launch tunnel; the Dart Ship was not Raen’s Dart. “This is a Raven Stealth Fighter,” says Raen. “Where did you get it?” “I didn’t, your Ravens loaded it before we left,” replies Lord Cassoway. Raen stuck his head in the side hatch, Moeth’s two Ravens were sitting patiently inside waiting. “Well?” asks Raen. “It belongs to those two Temple Raven spies,” says Master Solae. “They loaned it to us, and we’re not giving you the command key unless your Dark Wings are coming.” “Dark Wings was their barracks at the Hawk Temple, they’re called Storm Wings now,” says Raen. “No, Sir,” replies Master Solae. “Mother says you need to start separating the units, it’s too confusing.” “Fine, whatever, call yourselves the Flying Turtles if you want,” says Raen irritably and crawling into the Dart. “I’m going to need a damn cargo ship if this keeps up.” The Raven hands Raen the command key and he crawls into the cockpit and slams the airlock-hatch shut behind him. Raen watched the Vid-security monitor as the Dark-Storm-Turtle Wings crawled into the back and took their seats. Raen noticed the Sergeant gave the Raven an approving nod as he buckled himself in. “Ah, now I see what’s going on,” mumbles Raen to himself. “They’ve learned to work together to gang up on me - it’s about time. Moeth’s Ravens were the key to getting this unit to work together.” The tow cable pulled the Dart past the ship airlock and Raen waited for the air to cycle out of the launch tube. The green light came on and Raen punched the thrusters. The Dart Ship silently roared out of the Albatross and into open space.