CHAPTER 12

The rest of the day Derrick delved deeper into the records trying to find every shred of evidence that he could. Damn he thought when they hid records they damn sure buried them deep. So far he'd found all the records of his family, problem was they had been cleverly blocked without appearing so. It was going to take a bit of time to de-code and move past all the locks and blocks, another thing the signature mimicked an old Imperial code that hadn't been used in over ten centuries. Ok, just what the hell was going on? Was his family truly related to the Emperors of old? Derrick didn't have enough evidence but he was damn sure going to find out.

Finally hitting a dead end Derrick decided to put it on a back burner, concentrating on drawing up plans for weapons that could actually help. From what he saw the weapons were powerful enough it was just that many of the invaders had somehow adjusted for them, how in the hell could they have done that unless. Damn! Derrick began to pour through records well into the next day. Finally he came to the conclusion that someone had betrayed them to the invading races. Derrick's blood began to boil; this was the worst type of traitor betraying his race for money! Then the trail stopped huh? Again it was as if the files were entirely different, there were things here that he hadn't seen in E's files and many in E's that were missing from here. The problem was without accessing all four ships records there was no way to be sure, as if there was anything that he could do now many of these things had happened well into the past. Hmmm it was at this point that Derrick started to realize something else. Why was it that each ship seemed to have a specialty that none of the other ships (well so far) had? This was something else to look into, though without his project it wasn't going to go far he was afraid. The next day Derrick was more anxious than he'd been in some time, not much longer and he'd be back on E.

A few hours later Derrick completed the first of the new weapons he'd designed for all the ships that he could find. Calling all three ships Derrick out lined each section of the weapon and the difference it would make in the battle. All three holograms at first wore a look of total surprise, then slowly they all began to nod asking questions about the total output, the destructive capability, and finally what the weapon would be more effective against.

Derrick was extremely impressed they sounded more like excited weapon handlers than A.I.'s. Derrick advised them that he was working on a few others that he should have ready in a few days, they all smiled the first he thought he'd seen all three have since he'd met them. Again Derrick noticed that though the conditions for the creation of the weapons on board 0999, he found that the same room on board E was better. Just like he found that 0999 was the ship that held the more experimental weapons, he wasn't sure about 0098 nor 0003 yet, but if he had to postulate it would appear that each ship had a specialty. Son of a bitch! Derrick had just realized why the ships had been so damn near undefeatable; he'd have to test it before he could proceed.

Derrick was sitting in the records room finishing the last 1000 pages when an alarm went off, ah good! they had a signal on another ship. Derrick had just moved to the bridge when another alarm went off.

Holy shit! Derrick thought, "E," he called, "are you are full capacity now?"

"Yes Derrick I await your orders," she replied sweetly.

"Query, were any memory files damaged or corrupted during the exposure to the thermic induced plasma wave?" Derrick asked.

"Searching Derrick, I am detecting a .001% loss of data, I am detecting no damage to any definitive data." E reported.

"Very good, I will be transporting back to you as command ship in a short time, I need to gather everything I have been working on," Derrick told E.

"Yes Derrick I am eagerly awaiting your return to command, again thank you for finding me. I was unsure the clues I left you weren't enough. That you, weren't as brilliant as I felt you were, I was ... it is difficult to describe it is a feeling I can almost grasp, but is still a little out of reach." E tried to express. "I believe the feeling was doubt," Derrick told her, "An emotion that is hard to describe and even harder to fight, I haven't heard of many these days that have complete faith in one or more persons. It is and was a fault that you AI's never had the luxury of."

"No Derrick, I believe it was fear, all four of us have complete belief in you; you are as brilliant as your name sake. I was told that you now understand almost the whole concept of the trans-warp drive. Not even your name sake completely understood it, though I think that you grasp more than he did." E explained.

For a moment Derrick was at a loss for words, true he had been educating himself and yes it was true that he had grasped the concepts rather quickly. Thinking back to the war many of his men had said that they hadn't met a man who could out think him not even the General's, they were extremely smart but his men had said they paled next to him. Again thinking about it he'd hardly lost any men as it seemed he was always ahead of the enemy and always seemed to be ready. Huh Derrick thought never thought of myself as super smart or fast, it was something he'd have to think on. An hour later Derrick had transferred to E, he'd been thinking about it, though he'd given E a name he remembered back to when he had. He'd just named her with no thought to what her name ACTUALLY was. "E, I have to apologize, I just named you I had no thought that you might actually already have a name," Derrick stated.

There was silence for a few minutes, "Are you ready to assume command again?" E asked him. Shaking his head he now realized that he was going to have to be on his toes from now on, they were tricky very tricky to say the least.

"Yes E, and we WILL have a discussion when I am..." there was a flash and Derrick was back on board E, "back on board." Looking around Derrick crossed his arms, "This is the first thing we need to discuss, I realize it is much faster but what I desire strongly is NOT what I always want."

The hologram of E bowed her head, "Yes Derrick."

"Now the second thing I want to know is this direct answer, do you already have a name? I just named you without consideration that you might already have a name." Derrick stated.

Her lips quivering E whispered, "Yes I do Derrick."

"May I have it? I am sure you are tired of being called just E," Derrick replied.

"It is fine Derrick it is the name you ga...," E started, and then Derrick held up his hand. "NO! I want your name not one I gave you, yours." He said trying not to shout. "Yes Derrick," E whispered almost afraid to tell him, "it is Shelby, Derrick." "Hmmm, Shelby, beautiful name for an even more beautiful ship," Derrick said his voice full of pride. Shelby's hologram looked up tears running down her face, at that moment Shelby adjusted all her settings to do all and everything to protect and defend Derrick. Since he was now recognized as the Prime Primary Commander, all the other ships were automatically updated with this information. Though he wasn't sure Derrick thought later that this was the turning point of all of them.

"I picked up a signal a few hours ago, go Shelby inform the others," there was a winding up of the engines then they were there in less than ten seconds. "I want all scans active, viral, explosive, toxic, biological the full spectrum I want no chance that we could lose one of you." 0003 moved closer than the rest and started to emit a strange series of lights.

"Primary," the serious young woman's voice came from the speakers, "I am detecting several different explosives attached to the life capsule disarming and removing. I am also detecting several biological catalysts designed to activate upon exposure to oxygen. I am not detecting the same damage that my life case had. I am deep scanning now. The systems are close to failing, there also appears to be some type of micro tracking device attached at several points of the case designed to blend with the case, I am reading all clear, case ready, Prima Shelby."

"Thank you 0003," Shelby replied, "Now transporting to hanger 1, connecting life lines commencing power transfer."

"Alright Shelby, keep me advised. 0003, direct order,' Derrick said.

Yes, primary I await your order," 0003 said proudly.

"Please state your name." Derrick stated.

"Yes Primary, I was called EIG-0003M also known as Conner by my crew," 0003 answered.

"Thank you, Conner," replied writing it down. "I want the name of each of you 0999 and 0098, again direct order," Derrick directed.

"Yes Primary," both ships answered at the same time. "I am EIG-0098F also known as Lucy by my crew," 0098 stated.

"I am EIG-0999M also known as Zan by my crews," 0999 stated proudly.

"Good, now then I will no longer refer to you as your EIG designation, neither will you refer to your selves as your EIG designations. You will from this day forward refer to each other by your name, again direct order, understood?" Derrick ordered.

All four holograms appeared before Derrick, each bowed, "Yes Prime Primary Commander, as always we await your orders."

"I have given specifications for upgraded weapons to Zan, I want these to be implemented as soon as possible I believe that these will give us more of an advantage in any further battles as will the other designs I am working on.

Each of the holograms looked at each other then Shelby who also smiled, Derrick didn't miss this as his suspicions began to grow more.

Derrick had just sat down when a steady tone came from the com, "Shelby report!"

"It is the unit we brought aboard I am reading failing power to it, I am not completely connected, oh Derrick I am losing it!" Shelby cried.

"I want you to give it a jolt of energy with what you have connected. Not enough to erase but enough to give it enough energy to possibly jump start the electrochemical cells and energy stimulators."

The Shelby hologram's mouth dropped agape, quickly she did as Derrick had ordered, there was a faint pulsing sound for a few minutes, and then it went steady again.

"Again Shelby, the unit had more energy than this, plus that jolt should have done the trick, increase the amount one micro unit," Derrick ordered.

This time the pulse was slightly stronger, breathing a sigh of relief Derrick collapsed into the command chair, damn it that had been close. Without the living A.I. the case and living metal were worthless. I better read up more on the problems of restart. The last connection on Shelby started to infuse energy as quickly as she could, lovingly she looked at the case another brother or sister saved again by her Primary, she'd never heard of the procedure that Derrick had her use, she was just glad that it had worked.

Looking in on Derrick she loving stared at him, he was by far greater than his name sake, or any other she'd met other than the Emperor, the Emperor! She remembered about the codes, she had to investigate!

For almost a week Shelby watched over the life case that they had recovered, even with the energy that Shelby was infusing it was still very slow going. It had taken her almost five days to reach the re-gen center of the box, but still she had no inkling to as who this case was. Though not frustrated, Shelby was perplexed as to the reason it was so difficult. It was sometime near the end of the seventh day that Shelby broke Derrick's train of thought.

"Derrick!" Shelby said more excited than she'd been to date, "We have found 0001! I thought to never see him again! He was lost with Conner and his wing mate in the first battle we experienced losses in."

"Why was it harder to re-gen him than it was Conner?" Derrick asked.

"0001 and 0002 had equipment that required massive amounts of energy, as I remember they had engines twice the size of the other 998 ships, twice the energy producers, they also had better shields, though their weapons weren't as good as ours, they possessed far more than the rest of us."

Derrick had read about some of the experiments that they had conducted back then. Were both of those ships carrying experimental equipment that they were going to try out on their enemies? Derrick wasn't sure, hell his great, great grandfather hadn't mention anything even remotely resembling secret weapons though at the time there had only been three ships. Derrick's mind was a whirl with conspiracies when another proximity alarm went off, huh? Another brain box? This close? Ok now things were starting to get weird.