Wolf of the Emperor

Chapter 11

The Emperor Harlown-Deschutes stared at the general and his friend for several seconds before what he had to say penetrated.  “Call an emergency staff meeting of the leaders of the Emperor’s own.  Get me the fighter squadron commander, scout and recon ship commander, and the Wolves battle wing.  I want a meeting in one hour and if they can’t make it due to their location ensure secure comms with them.”  He rolled out of the bed and headed towards his walk in closet. 

“Oh, I don’t care if they show up in underwear or sleeper pajama’s.  They will be there and that is what matters.  Their clothing doesn’t do the planning you know.”  He was jerking out some comfortable pants and silk shirt that had seen better days.  As he came out of the closet the two females were pulling on their uniforms.  They were two of his personal guards and since they were female nobody questioned them being in his bed.

The general was gone from the room when he came back out and headed towards the bathroom.  Sometimes being the Emperor was a pain in the ass since he still had to present a proper appearance.  It didn’t matter if he was in casual clothing or his formal attire he was made up to fit the look he was going for.  After brushing his teeth and washing his face he came out and sat down in the ‘bloody frigging irritating chair’ also known as his make-up chair.

This was another function the two women dealt with for him; they had been trained in keeping the Emperor looking good.  It only took them a few minutes to style his hair and make sure he was looking his best.  “There you go Lover Boy and looking sharp.  No messing up the sheets or your hair will be a disaster.”  One of the two smirked at him.

He growled at her for good measure before checking his appearance in the mirror.  “Should have let Seth have the job and I would have gone with the Space Corps.  He could have had the joy of make-up and not me.”  It was his usual grumble except for mentioning Seth.  They had grown up together and even now he greatly missed his cousin.

~~~

Just shy of an hour later Alexi was seated in his chair in the conference room.  The ones he called for were there and he had to grin at his chief of staff.  It was very obvious she had barely made it and hadn’t had time to change.  She was in soft blue pajama’s that had a long john’s pattern to it.  On the front of her chest was a stylized symbiote which had a bow in her hair.  Just to add the final touch she had a stuffed symbiote plushy with her.  She was glowering around the room just waiting for someone to comment.

Alexi called the meeting to order.  “I do apologize for the suddenness of this meeting but General Hammenstein received a class U message this morning.  I am turning the meeting over to him since he has more information.”  He turned and nodded at the General.

The general cleared his throat.  “I am going to skip the formalities.  At approximately 0320 this morning one of the relay satellites from sector Gamma Three –six x-ray, Plus four delta, and plus eighteen Yankee received a message.  It was encoded with a classified header from the Warbler war.”  He glanced around and noticed some surprised looks.  That war had ended just over fifty years ago.  “The interesting part of the communication was that it had the ID for Captain Seth Harlown.  As you know he was the Emperor’s cousin.  He was classified as missing on star date 23.02.3215 and presumed dead on 23.02.3225.  According to the message he is alive and has three Warblers which he had originally captured as POW’s and later released on parole.  The message indicates his Symbiote Kletharl was still alive as well as her mate Cleasal.  He further indicated that Cleasal’s host had died due to a cryo malfunction but he had bonded with one of the Warblers.”

He paused for them to have a brief discussion.  “He further goes on to mention there appears to be an infestation of bugs.  The Warblers had managed to damage their ship even as their ship was damaged.  They had been hoping the queen had died in the wreck but it didn’t appear to have happened.  I am sending all the pertinent data to your implants.”  Once that was done he settled down.