Rise of the Empire - Prologue

1988, August 7th; in an orbit position over the Saturn moon Rhea.

„…if only for once, things would go according to plans – would that be too much to ask for? “

The question remained unanswered, hanging like a distant thunder storm cloud over the cruiser’s central command. Crewmen as well as officers avoided looking up, in what seems like a coordinated reaction.

It is an old law, rather a subconscious instinct to feel better of when not starting a discussion with someone who has abilities or skills unimaginable to be acquired for one self.

This unwritten law hasn’t lost its meaning yet and not even for the mostly Neo-Terran crew of the space ship, although almost six whole millennia and enhanced genetic sciences separated them from the Humans of the present time.
One of those present-days’s Humans, also described as Terrans, was the source of the angry shout-out.

Rayna Filipeva Dobreva didn’t seem to notice the reactions to her outburst or decided to ignore the sudden silence, followed by conversations being continued carefully and if only at a lower volume.

Her wavy and shoulder-long hair was framing a young and actually petite face, which although as well was covered in the fine shadows of unusual geometrical exact appearing scars.

Thus being one of the drawbacks coming along with the powers given to her…
Abruptly her interest in the current situation did – as it appeared – drop from great worry and involvement to a calm watching of the space ship’s central command and only a distinct look reminding of a raptor, looking for prey, gave away that she still was in thoughts about the current situation.
And, oh, she worried much…

With an angry shake of her head, throwing her chestnut brown hair behind her shoulder, she looked up to the seat left of her, on a small platform, from where Commander Alroi coordinated the space ship with its crew and additional, as highest ranked officer around, also the entire Rhea fleet, floating in an orbit around the moon.

As usual s/he – it still gave Rayna headaches in which terms to think of Neo-Terrans –gave the impression of being more like a statue, than a living person, but with a clear noticeable aura of authority around her/him. The Bulgarian psi-user couldn’t but compare the Human from a parallel future with the statuette of a former president in Washington D.C.

Kennedy? Lincoln? Who of them was it? , thoughts hurried through her head. Anyway, this calmness will cost me my nerves one day. How can he… she… s/he…Argh!... stay as calm when we have a giant space ship fleet beyond Saturn’s orbit, waiting for whichever sign to start invading…

“You worry too much.”

Rayna looked up surprised to Commander Alroi. “What do you mean? I don’t worry! ”, she snapped at him.

The Neo-Terran took her reaction with a confident smile though. Not exactly a gesture to calm the young woman, but as well s/he gave her no attack space.

Rayna Filipeva crossed her arms in front of her chest to show her disapproval, but before she could bring her line of thoughts to an end and throw the very same after the commander, loud alarm sounds caught her by surprise.

Alroi reacted in no time to the suddenly changed situation.
“Detect/Radar? Status report! ”

A small hologram popped up at the commander’s seat’s control panels. “Critical, Commander! ”, a Neo-Terran face in the three-dimensional picture reported, “Two heavy cruisers – identified as Madagascar class – and 20 light cruisers, Borneo type accelerate in our direction, about to enter trans-space in four… three… two… one… gone.”

“Alert level 4! – Communication? Inform Rhea HQ and Terra. – Detect/Radar? Judging by entrance speed and direction vector, when would they arrive-“

Although before Commander Alroi could finish her/his question, the detection/radar officer’s voice yet again came out of the holographic contact-picture, “Materialization detected. Materialization! The previously detected ships re-materialized near about one million miles off Chiron. ”, just to add then: “On their side of the demarcation sphere.”

Alroi allowed her/himself a silent sigh of relief, as s/he ordered the alert level to be lowered again. They were just provoking. As usual, nothing happened.

Nonetheless, on both sides nerves were twisted and one fatal mistake could easily leave the Sol system as a graveyard of burned out planets.

And still Angela was missing. It was most obvious that Rayna was as nervous, knowing her best friend on Triton… in the bear’s cave. Close to the head quarters of the siege forces.

*

Later, the same day; near Koryakskaya Sopka-Tower in Kamchatka on Earth.

Only a slight slurping sound announced the opening of a portal in the small house. The sound of heavy boots falling on the wooden floor, with the full force of a Human’s weight appearing out of thin air was rather noticeable.

The portal was vanished already as Rayna sat down on a heavy leather chair in the living room. Her head leaned backwards, apparently looking up at the ceiling, she breathed in and out deep, with her eyes closed. Her hands’ cramp-like grip around the arm-rests spoke a clear language of how she felt like inside, even though she desperately tried to appear calm.
Even now… Even when being alone.

She must have rested on the chair for a while already as the rattling loud noises and the floor shaking movements of a passing by tank and following army trucks abruptly threw her out of her try to calm down.

Rayna shook her head a few times, reminding herself to stay in reality and not space out again and hurried over to the next window, from where she could see the nearby way leading up to the tower of the Koryaksky volcano.

Frost framed the small and thick-glassed window from the outside, but she could clearly make out another T-72 tank passing by.

“Fools… ”, she said silently. “Only being able to give the masses a weak impression of being protected. Although none weapon, none material weapon was able yet to even scratch a tower yet.”

The very same tower – actually more than just a tower, but a surface to orbit space lift – hold the small house, as well as the Red Army camp a mile away in a perpetual shadow.

Rayna decided to went back to her chair and wait there, since she couldn’t do much until the situation would change...in any way. For now, she couldn’t do much but be patient and in thoughts, recapitulate what happened since those fateful days, two years ago.