The Infinity Chronicles Volume 1

Act-5: The death of an Emperor...

Act 5 "The death of an Emperor"

Twenty four hours later found Alex and company sitting on the outer edges of the Carcosa system, recharging the hyper-drive capacitors, so they could skip to Marrok.

Alex checked and rechecked the sensors. Nothing bigger then cosmic dust for .5 AU in any direction. Turning to Karen, who was studying the skip coordinates for Marrok, he asked "So, ready to meet more Marrokians?"

"I am, if you are."

"Ok, here we go!" He said, as he threw the switch that sent them hurtling through Hyperspace...The trip took all of about 15 seconds, though in the outside universe, almost 3 days had past.

The Barnard's Star appeared in the outer orbit of an immense gas giant. Quickly, Alex scanned the area of space around them, noting the giant, and comparing it to the star chart he had for Marrok. It was easily 50% larger then Jupiter, and a brilliant blue-white in color. The sensors indicated that the planet had at least 15 moons, with three being near planetary size. The largest one, identified as 'Soft Growl' by the computer, was roughly half the size of Earth and had a breathable atmosphere in a light pressure concentration.

"That planet will make a good forward base. Perfect for staging fighters." He said.

"I thought you said Marrok didn't have the tech for that?" Karen asked, studying her sensors.

"They don't...Yet." He responded with a smile.

Starting the ship's thrusters, he began flying by sensors, heading insystem.

In Alex's quarters, Cygna was giving and getting updates from her Mistress, Ashia.

<"We're here Mistress!"> She mind-spoke excitedly to Ashia.

<"Yes little one, you have done well. Very well indeed. After the formalities with the Emperor, bring him to my temple.">

<"Yes Mistress."> Cygna said quietly. Lying back on the pillows, she picked up a big blue balloon, one of the 2 meter ones, and began to slowly inflate it...

Leaving the orbit of the gas giant, Alex scanned the rest of the star system. A G-class main sequence star, brightness code 1, sat at the center of the system. In all, the Marrokian home system had 8 orbital bands, the last being that immense gas giant in the out system.

The first band contained a molten rockball, much like Mercury.

The second band contained an asteroid field.

The third band contained Marrok Prime, homeworld of Cygna and her people.

The fourth and fifth bands had more asteroids, some as large as small moons.

The sixth band had a terrestrial planet with a sulfurous atmosphere under hellacious pressure, much like Venus.

The seventh band contained a medium sized gas giant, with a hydrogen/methane atmosphere. The nav-comp spat out a course which Alex followed, setting the ship to max cruise, or 7.5%c.

"Wow!" Karen said, reading the mineral content of the outer most asteroid belt. "This place is a miner's dream!"

"What makes you say that?" He asked.

"Check the scanners big brother! I'm reading high concentrations of gold, iridium, titanium, and platinum. Most of the rocks are high content nickel-irons, which is good for iron and steel, but a fair amount of the larger rocks could let a belt miner retire after only a year or two of hard work."

Alex looked at her screen, then called up the info on his own. He smiled.

"Well, we'll have to pick up a few robo-miners when we get back to Center. No sense letting those asteroids go to waste." He said with a smile.