Lost Empire

Chapter 8

A part of this chapter was inspired by an idea that Baron Rod and I collaborated on late one night after he read Chapter 7 I thought it added quite a bit to the story. ********************************************************************

Shelby had engaged the hyper-drive as soon as she could, almost immediately two of the remaining Ranger ships gave chase. "Status Shelby," Derrick asked groaning trying to sit up and get off the bio-bed.

"At present we have two of the remaining three operative First Class Ranger ships giving chase; I estimate that we will be out of their sensor range in twenty five minutes thirty three seconds." Shelby reported. "DERRICK!" Shelby yelled, "you are still too unstable to attempt to stand. Please rest 'til such time the bio-bed has allowed you to exit." Derrick grumbled but lay back down, watching as they quickly out distanced the following ships.

"Are you picking up any transmissions from the Rangers?" Derrick asked.

"Yes Derrick, apparently the commanding officer of the ship that fired on us has been taken into custody." Shelby reported. "They are trying to speculate as to who we are, no one has said anything, and they are still calling us an extremely fast ship, attacked without provocation. Apparently they are preparing an apology for us for the offense, and that no charges will be brought up against us." The mouth of the Shelby hologram dropped open. "They want us to come to the Republic capital for it."

Derrick growled, there was no way in hell that he was EVER going near that den of iniquity again. Shelby noticed that Derrick's heart rate and pulse had increased.

"Derrick, are you alright? I am detecting your heart beating faster and massive amounts of adrenaline being released by your body." Shelby asked a little afraid.

"I will be Shelby; the Capital is a place I want to never be in or near ever again." Derrick spit out his anger growing more by the second. "I was disgraced through the streets when I refused to re-enlist; I was their greatest hero 'til I refused to kill for those asinine pricks anymore. If I could I'd destroy the entire city and every THING that claims to be alive there." For a moment, Shelby was shocked at the sudden burst of anger from Derrick, but then she remembered the many atrocities that she had seen in Derrick's head. Most by the other Republic troops, Derrick had tried to keep his self out of it to no avail. No wonder Derrick's anger is so great she thought, those were horrible things that he and his men had been forced to do.

Sighing she wondered how Derrick had stayed sane in all that time, how he had managed to remain a decent person. It would be several hours before the bio-bed was going to release him, Derrick decided to get an update.

"Shelby, any word from Conner?" He asked.

"The last I had from him was that he'd arrived at the point the others were and was tri-angling our position, though we are almost one tenth of the way to where he left the others. I estimate it will take six days, ten hours thirty minutes to get there." Shelby reported.

"I am afraid that taking the first two might have over taxed his trans-warp generators. We may have to reach them with hyper-drive, though I am anxious for all of us to be together." Derrick admitted.

"As am I Derrick. As weak as the others were, they are so defenseless out there; even Conner is only fifty percent with his weapons. If he has lost trans-warp then it will indeed be some time 'til we are reunited. I estimate it will be another thirty five hours fifteen minutes twenty seconds 'til my own trans-warp is operational." Shelby sadly said. Nodding Derrick went through the reports and damage reports of Shelby's systems.

Derrick had been studying her system schematics for almost an hour when he began to get an idea. "Shelby can you generate any Critela particles at all?" He asked.