Journey 1

Adam stood in front of the Imperial palace next to a large landing platform, the sun high in the sky, his family nowhere to be seen, still enjoying their trip.

An absolutely massive ship suddenly appeared, descending down onto the platform, Adam had to shield his eyes as the ship's thrusters sent the air into a storm of movement until it finally landed.

Adam boarded the large luxurious battleship ship in front of him, its walls trimmed with gold and silver, giving it a pristine yet intimidating look.

It wasn't all for show of course, the guns spread across the thick hull of the spaceship could obliterate anything in their way, and its shield was effectively an Earth-sized shield compressed to a smaller size.

Adam stood in front of the ship while a loud hissing noise came from the compartment in front of him as it slowly opened.

The inside of the ship was far more practical than the outside, but every inch of the ship screamed high quality, something Adam was quite satisfied with.

This battleship is fresh new, just created in the royal shipyard slowly orbiting above the Earth, specifically for this trip.

There was no captain to greet him since Adam was the captain of the entire ship, something which made him rather excited.

He has led destroyers, corvettes, and some larger ships, but still, the concept of being the captain of such a large and powerful ship made him giddy inside.

A man is always a boy in some ways, and Adam saw nothing wrong with allowing himself some excitement.

As Adam walked through the corridors to get to the deck, he saw a lot of people rushing back and forth, each one stopped to salute him of course, he was known by trillions across the Arm.

Adam sat on the comfortable throne, the deck itself was large, and all the monitors spread out from Adams's throne, which was higher than the rest of the room, in a spiderweb-like manner, giving him a clear view of the situation.

Everyone saluted him, and Adam waved them off, not caring for such things and wanting to get going already.

"Please, do not treat me as Imperator while on this trip but simply as your captain, I'm already done with the whole Imperator thing."

The soldiers laughed at the perceived joke, and quickly got to work.

The ship slowly rose, breaking the atmosphere and heading into the universe.

As the battleship began engaging its hyperdrive, a communication from Earth arrived.

"This is Terra, Your Majesty we wish you a good trip, all the respective planets have been told of your expected arrival as requested, over."

"This is Majesty, copy that, thank you and I wish you a good day, over."

 And just like that, the ship left the system.

...

The ship arrived in just a minute in the nearest system, known as Proxima Centaury, this was a human-only system, so the trip here would be brief.

Adam contacted the planet, and a large escort swiftly arrived to help with only complications that could occur.

The best of the best from the local garrison were gathered, this was the Imperator in front of them, they could not afford to show anything but perfection.

This visit was a bit more interesting than anticipated, Adam had seen all kinds of architecture, human and alien in nature, but most of it was while on his conquests, hence he forgot how beautiful architecture can be, viewing it as a mere tool instead.

The architecture on Proxima was very traditional, pretty much completely forsaking modernism in favor of intricate buildings and fancy decorations, this made their cities feel alive, and of course, there was plenty of greenery everywhere as demanded by Imperial law.

The whole planet had a German feel to it, with lots of beer, food, and the traditional German style present across the planet's three continents.

Next, there was a planet in the Zuron system, this one allowed aliens, and due to that, there was a mix of architecture, since each species needed different things to live comfortably.

While more incompetent governments would fail here, making a mess of a planet, with Imperial guidance, the planet has developed wonderfully, becoming a hotbed of cultural sharing and mutual understanding.

As Adam landed, there were the obvious festivities, and Adam was impressed with how well the various styles and preferences of each species melded into one another, creating a society in which differences were not weaknesses, but strengths.

So far, as Adam observed, no one stood out with their psychic prowess, which disappointed him, to say the least.

As a gifted psionic, he could instinctively tell when a gifted psionic was near since their presence disturbed the universe in a way only other psionics could detect.

Resisting the urge to sigh, Adam waved at the crowds of people while his convoy kept driving through the capital of this planet.

Adam had to keep a happy appearance up, if he showed even the slightest crack it would cause rumors to spread quickly, and that would be very inconvenient.

Well, not all was bad, he was currently on his way to meet Lucie after all, hopefully reconnecting their friendship after such a long time.

Additionally, seeing the traumatic things that happened to her, it's highly likely that her psychic powers might be boosted, and while Adam did hate thinking about her like some kind of tool, the Imperium is more important.

The convoy slowed down in front of a large fenced-off area, above the gate was a symbol of the Milky Way, with the area around Earth shining bright.

'Lucie sure knows how to suck up to the system' Adam thought, and promptly ignored the obvious attempt to earn favor.

The convoy didn't wait long, as the gates immediately opened up to reveal a beautiful park, with fountains and benches built for all races to enjoy.

The cars parked at the gate and Adam got out of his car, taking in the sight.

It was far from the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, but it was still really impressive that what was once a small explorer group had now grown so wealthy and influential.

So Adam headed inside, excited to meet his long-lost friend.