Raptor of Life 32 part 1

Raptor of Life
Chapter 32
Written by: Iori Angel

Chapter 32

Raptor of Life: Jean Quantum’s Gate adventures

Jean Grey In the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

-- Star Trek Intro --

Previously in the Raptor of Life…

Jean gathered her own version of the Guardian of the Galaxy and is slowly expanding her force in the Andromeda Galaxy. Ronan the Accuser is preparing his fleet to attack Xandar and eventually the new power in the Galaxy, the Systems-Commonwealth, but he has no idea that he is being sought out by the agents of the SC…

------ ✶Raptor✶ of ✶Life✶ -------

(Sigrún Grey) 

Sigrún watched father's Astral body looking down on the planet. She stopped trying to know what the individual, Jean Grey, thought most of the time, there lay madness as she might be peering at another universe while helping destroy a planet or give life to another. Sigrún understood that it was her father’s duty as she explained how she had shown the Celestials in this universe their place and was fixing their mistake after destroying many planets and civilization.

The Half-Asgardian noticed what her father was doing right away, she was essentially repopulating the planet flora and fauna; the oceans were now teeming with new and past life, plants, microbial and animals. It was already changing the oceanic landscape and on the supercontinent.

Sigrún approached carefully. “Dad, are you bored?”

Without even looking at her, Jean replied, “Something like that, so I decided to make the planet speed up its development.”

One of the first lessons Jean had given Sigrún was about how planets developed life upon them. There were many ways, such as Panspermia, direct creation from a type 3 civilization or pure happenstance. There were others such as dimensional bleeding but it wasn't common…

Something else attracted Sigrún's attention, the white ice cap slowly appearing at the northern and southern hemispheres of Morag. “Huh since when do we have ice caps here? Are you lowering the level of the oceans now?”

This meant that the ocean won't flood the continents and other islands again. Jean used this smug tone that Sigrún rolled her eyes at when her father was bragging. “You can see for yourself, I’m turning the place into a garden world.”

Sigrún sighed, she began rubbing her temples. “Dad… it’s you doing stuff like that, that makes people start worshiping you and build temples in your name…”

Jean turned toward her daughter with a panicked expression. “What? No! I don’t want to be worshiped! It’s fucking annoying, those wahoos on Central Lukedonia are crazy.”

Sigrún was embarrassed, the side effect of having god-like power was that a subset of the people you pulled out of utter misery, suffering and poverty would fall back on religion and start to consider you a Goddess for all the miracles you brought. Giving them powers, enhancing their bodies and educating them to become better than they were, also contributed to it.

Greyism was a religion based on Jean Grey, Sigrún’s father; they had temples all over Lukedonia and a barely starting one on Neo-Skrullos. People were joining it in droves, and it was worrying. Fortunately, the Systems-Commonwealth has taken measures to detect the Skrull’s shapeshifting before taking them in.

“I mean this is just comic power, there’s no need to worship it…” Sigrún watched her father’s justification to the actions of the people of the SC.

The Half-Asgardian couldn’t help but laugh at Jean. “Well, dad, there’s like ten million Lukedonian who think you’re a Goddess and there’s no changing their mind.”

Jean blinked at that, it seemed that she hadn’t been keeping up with the recent population census. “Huh, the population has exploded recently… that’s what happens when you take all the disenfranchised and homeless from the G20 on Earth.”

Sigrún sighed, Earth was one powder keg away from being annexed by the SC; it’s all because of the greedy countries who don’t understand how mighty the Commonwealth was. The United Nations were still taunting our government for whatever reason, despite being shown how powerless they truly were. Sooner or later, they will get slapped by the dire reality they're in if they let corporate and rich individual greed lead their policies.

Jean’s daughter frowned, that type of worry didn't concern the Phoenix Avatar much. So what was really going on? “What's really eating you, dad?”

The redhead said nothing for a moment, her eyes trained on her daughter until she finally said, “I could go fix everyone's problems, I could just go kill Thanos right now. He already lost, I have all the Infinity Stones but one.”

Sigrún understood her father’s hang up, she could do everything she wanted to after all. “But you want our people to pull their own weight, this is a test that we must undergo ourselves, right?”

Jean floated toward Sigrún and patted her head. “You're such a smart girl. Yeah, I will be going back to my original universe in another nine years. So I want you all to be able to take care of things without me.”

Sigrun floated away in shock, her eyes wide. “Leave!? Why?”

Jean said in a soothing tone, “Well yes, this part of my consciousness will leave, but don't worry, I will still be there with you and our family.”

Sigrun approached Jean and put her hands on her shoulders. “Dad, you're not making sense.”

With a sad smile, Jean replied, “I don't expect you to, Sig. Abstract entities and their avatars are just that… abstract.” 

There will always be a part of Jean that Sigrún or their family members won't understand; her duties and the whims of the cosmic beings who target her at problems. 

“When you leave… can I come with you?” Sigrún asked with a vulnerable tone in her voice.

Jean laughed. “Sure, why not. Though, I need to make sure the way is safe first, alright? I will introduce you to your grandparents from my side.”

Sigrún hugged her father in joy.“Thank you, dad!”

The two Astral bodies continued to hang over the planet, while life sprouted back on Morag. Jean continued her work as she started speaking about how she became what she was…

------ ✶Raptor✶ of ✶Life✶ -------

(Peter Quill)

“It’s been two weeks and we have found nothing.” Rocket Raccoon Complained as he leaned into his grav-chair facing the 360° console.

“Space is big, Rocket.” Gamora replied from the navigation console on the right side of the bridge. 

Peter couldn't stop looking at her, she wore the tight blue and white SC 4D uniform rather well. Gamora glared at him and he averted his gaze from her while laughing, the woman has rebuffed his romantic overtures quite a lot. Peter wasn't going to force anything and his trainers in the virtual simulator had told him to not shit where he eats.

The captain of the Milano was shown many of his own failings while training with the SC's Office of Naval Intelligence. Spending years in the time dilated virtual space had changed him. But deep down inside he was still that grieving boy who got taken by the Ravagers.

He wanted to be better, and this was why he would prove himself by finding that Kree bastard for the woman who believed in him. “That Ronan dude is so dead when we find him.” 

Rocket frowned as he heard Peter. “Let’s not do anything too drastic yet. All we need to do is find him and warn the SC fleet.”

Gamora hissed as she heard the Murphy taunting sentence. “Don’t jinx us!”

Anything that could go wrong, will go wrong, she learned a lot in the SC's military and she understood why Terran were the way they were now. In particular Peter… the green skinned woman said, “I saw that holo-vid before, the plucky crew of a small ship who got burdened with the fate of dealing with a war because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Peter reacted right away when he heard a familiar plot. “Love, Star and Wars! The plot of my favorite soap!”

It was a multicultural holo-show with actors from at least a dozen systems. The genre was all over, military, slice of life and sometimes just a way for corporations to show off their products by integrating them in the plot. 

Peter was more surprised when he heard Rocket pipe in, “I kinda hate that Majesdanian bitch they have playing the heroine's role, she should be replaced, girl is way too smug.”

“Tell me about it.” Replied Gamora.

The human smiled, this was how things were in his crew, they had common hobbies it seemed. His life had really changed around, he looked around himself and at the new ship he had gotten assigned to him and his crew. Peter couldn't believe how lucky he was, the specs on his new ship were simply… impressive. 

Governor General Grey basically ordered her engineer to remake the Milano. The starship was bigger, at least eighty meters long and one hundred and ten meters in width; the vessel has two decks, separated into various sectors. The hidden onboard weaponry system had scared Peter and made Rocket a happy Raccoon. 

They had two missile launchers able to load anti-ship missiles, surface attack variant, defensive and offensive kinetic kill missiles; four particle beam turrets and point six point defense lasers. It was all powered by an antiproton fusion generator, something completely new to Peter who was used to engines running on Helium 3 present on moon and gas giants.

The Milano II has a proper bridge at its center, Dax and Rocket were at the weapon and engineering station, controlling the weapons and maintaining the ship via the automated repair bots and nanobots.

At the pilot console was Peter, the ship handled just like the Milano, despite it being bigger. Some of that tech was clearly breaking physical laws as Peter knew them. They were currently hurtling through a slipspace corridor, the astrometrics telling which region of space and territories they were cutting through. In Peter's opinion this form of FTL was better than what he was used to.

“Damn, I love that ship, it has everything.” Rocket said as he closed the engineering manual of the ship.

Gamora sighed. “We know, Rocket.” 

The Guardian team was currently en route to an adjacent system to Xandar's border space. Thanks to an Accord of mutual defense between Xandar and the Systems-Commonwealth, the SC was sending agents and scouts to look for Ronan the Accuser; a report has recently come from Xandar: Some of the Xandarian colonies have gone quiet.

Peter knew that if they ever found Ronan, it would be around the border. Thanks to the Universal Neural Teleportation Network, the routes leading between the core and the rich of Xandar's territory were complex and the number of jump points the navigation computers onboard any spaceships needed to calculate could vary. If Peter was Ronan or his strategist, he would chose to hide somewhere where the number of Jumps would be too many to risk; more than 50 jumps is considered dangerous for the body, the side effects of jumping so much result in serious discomfort and temporary disfigurement for all aboard a vessel. It was why Peter loved the Slipspace drive that the Systems-Commonwealth developed, it completely sidestepped that problem.

Gamora activated the stealth field just when they exited the slipspace causeway into the Recnar system, an agrarian colony of Xandar. They appeared right behind one of Recnar IV’s moons. The cloaking field of the Milano II obfuscates them from the large colony’s sensors, they could scan passively and with impunity the planetary network.

After one hour of frantic data mining, the crew clearly found that there was no sign of attacks on the colony. But they did find it strange that Recnar lost all contacts with a mining and industrial colony forty jumps away. 

“We got our next destination, the Melcor star system.” Gamora said with a winning smile.

The green skinned woman entered the data in the Navigation console and Peter used the Astrometrics to plot a course through Slipspace. A slipspace causeway opened and Peter propelled the ship inside and put it on autopilot. Estimated time of arrival: 12 hours. 

Everyone moved away from the bridge, letting the automated system do their job and went to the MESS to take a bite. They finally noticed that they were missing someone when they were near the food processor, Gamora asked, “Where's Drax?”

With a small shimmering light, Drax appeared; he wore a similar blue and white 4D suit. In a stoic tone he said calmly, “I am here.”

It wasn’t Gamora who jumped in fright, it was Peter who screamed like a girl. “Aaaah!”

Gamora had her knives in hands, ready to battle; she didn’t like being surprised… “How did you-”

Drax walked up to the food processor, reached for the controls and chose to take a full meal. “One of my augments, offered to me by our great leader and Goddess, cloaking.”

Peter has met the woman, she looked super hot sure, but she wasn’t a God. “Drax… Jean Grey is no Goddess.”

For once the Kylosian looked affronted by what he heard; Drax took the pendant at his neck and opened it, from it, a small holographic scene of himself with his wife and daughter appeared. It was a scene recently taken on Morag. Drax looked back at Gamora and said, “She gave me back my wife and daughter, only a goddess can do that.” 

------ ✶Raptor✶ of ✶Life✶ -------

(Tony Stark)

Meanwhile, on Earth…

Tony took a swig of his whiskey as he watched the News with his fiancée. China has finally opened its borders, after spending the last six months under some kind of quarantine field that separated it from the rest of the world. 

It was a whole show with a lot of special effects. Seeing a cloudy horizon showing nothing to a sprawling Megacity and a bunch of interlinked arcologies was a shock. Even more so with all the technology on display, the flying vehicles and the restoration of nature all over the country.

Tony knew that the politicians wouldn't like this, no in fact they would love the technology on display, but they would jockey to try to steal it and cause problems… with a star nation.

The Stark satellites had shown him the activity in the solar system. Tony saw the hundreds of ships in-system mining the asteroid and Kuiper belts, some of the planets and the different space stations sprouting out of nowhere next to Jupiter and Titan.

There was no way that Earth could compete with that, in time maybe? But right now? Hell no! Tony took a last swig of his whiskey and put the empty glass on the table. “It may be time to switch teams, Pep…”

The redhead nodded as she watched the TV screen with rapt attention. “Yes, I can already see how we might get pulled in some plots to reverse engineer stolen tech.”

Yeah, Tony didn't see how launching nukes or trying to steal from this strange new city would work. “Nat and Bruce have a spot reserved for us on a cruise spaceship.”

Pepper smiled at him, remembering the humongous cruise ship with its own biosphere onboard. Jean Grey had brought them here once after a rocky teleportation caused by a drunk Hela as reparation for her trashing the floor of their tower.

“This is the city of Beijing.” As Tony looked at the TV, he didn't feel that Stark Tower was as avant-garde as he believed. Some of the high-rises spread around the city were taller than even the Eiffel Tower and possessed a strange non-euclidean architecture that messed with his perception. 

The billionaire guessed that something was going on with those buildings, as they literally seemed to warp space around them even on the screen. The TV showed off the suspended metro system which used anti-gravity and some kind of tubes to bring the people to work or back home.

The camera then dived until it reached under the tower to show what was happening there. People were walking or biking and mingling in some kind of large market with stalls; selling wares ranging from food, gadgets, clothes, books and to…

“Are those weapons?!” Pepper exclaimed as she saw a literal armory being on display in public.

“Maybe they're toys or replicas?” Tony hoped.

Then on screen, one of the customers took a pistol, loaded it with live ammo and shot it at his hand. The bullet flattened on the customer's palm, and the man started laughing. On the subtitles he said that it was ‘tickling’ with a small laugh. 

He bought the gun, then left; while the camera drone showed him leave the armory stall. This floored Tony, his mind was already firing on all cylinders and he guessed that the man was an enhanced individual; even better, everyone in the city was enhanced and that's why the guns were considered toys at this point.

This implied something distressing, how could you win against billions of powered individuals?

While he mused on things, Pepper watched as the camera showed the rest of Beijing. “They remade the capital completely…”

Tony smiled as he asked, “Do you think they would let us visit?”

Pepper smiled back. “It doesn't cost anything to ask?”

Their eyes returned on the screen and they were suddenly shown a part of the city that was less clean and a bit darker. Are they showing us the underbelly of the city?

The pedestrian traffic was less dense in the large streets under the towering buildings. Tony recognized a strip club thanks to the holographic sign showing barely clothed women. Everything was going fine as the drone showed the red light district as it was introduced with the subtitles, until a fight broke out in the street.

Two men were fighting, throwing energy blasts at each other, the people around then gave them space, while others took devices from their pockets and started recording or calling law enforcement. Tony and Pepper stood transfixed as the two men started flying and damaging some of the buildings by punching each other into them.

A guy in black and red armor arrived while riding a flying motorbike and shouted, “You're all under arrest! Prepare to be judged!”

Was that guy from the local law enforcement? “Huh, who is the guy in armor?”

Pepper had a smile that didn't reach her eyes as she said, “Beijing is a funky city.”

The two enhanced who were fighting suddenly stopped fighting and one of them panicked and decided to run away. But he couldn't because he was caught in an energy net shot from the armored man's gauntlet and fell toward the ground.

At the same time, the other man, the most stupid shouted in mandarin, “Fuck your mother! Judge!”

He dived toward the armored man while firing bolts of energy at him. The beams were absorbed by some kind of energy barrier overlaid on the armor of the police (?) man. Another energy net was thrown at the enhanced, it covered him and thanks to an electric current the man seized and fell to the ground, creating a small crate right next to the guy he was fighting with .

The two of them were awake and looked at the man in armor. The visor of his helmet glowed red as the loudspeakers from his armor projected his voice. “Beijing city municipal Code 213: Willful destruction of property. That's 2 years in the penal colony.”

He looked down at the man who had shot energy beams at him. “As for you, Code 457: Resisting arrest, 10 years of forced military service!”

The video feed cut at this moment, only showing the title ‘SC News’ and playing some kickass music. Pepper turned to her husband-to-be and asked with a disturbed expression, “Tony?”

“Yes Pep?” He was shell-shocked as well as he completely understood how the Systems-Commonwealth basically mixed law enforcement and the judicial department together.

“What the hell was this?” she demanded.

“Apparently, this is the future.” The billionaire replied with a worried tone. He was sure that the two of them weren't the only shocked people having seen how Justice was applied in China and in the Systems-Commonwealth. 

------ ✶Raptor✶ of ✶Life✶ -------

(Nebula)

Melcor star system
Dark Aster

It was time.

Ronan was launching his invasion now that the chitauri and outriders of her ‘father’ have joined his fleet. It had taken some weeks to be ready but they were now going to smash Xandar. She looked on the screen as the last chitauri mothership arrived. Nebula wasn't enthused by the prospect at all, Xandar still possessed the Nova Force and their legendary Corps; those elite soldiers possessed the power to destroy ships individually. From Corpsmen to Centurion they were all able to release extremely powerful gravimetric pulses and beams, either from specific parts of their body, manipulate the Nova Force to create hyperspace portals in space such as Space Gates or create powerful shields and force fields.

They were a formidable force to fight against, but they could be overwhelmed with exotic weapons and numbers. As a matter of fact, the Kree were losing the war against Xandar, however, the Xandarian were tired of the loss of life and asked for peace. They got it, but they severely underestimated the patriotism and sense of superiority of the Kree military. 

Those Kree warriors and Accusers were thirsty for Xandarian blood, their reasons went out of the window when someone or an organization challenged their vaunted superiority. Nebula knew that this would become the Kree's downfall. Already their enemies were arranging against them, using their action of breaking a peace treaty to rally other races against them.

The thrum of the sublight engines were felt all over the Dark Aster, signaling that the ship was moving. On the computer’s holo-screen, Nebula saw the other vessels in the fleet fly in formation around the Dark Aster. She was in deep thought about what to do… 

The Luphomoid woman was going to use the cover of the battle to run away and then after that? She would go look for Gamora out there. She felt the moment the ship jumped into FTL, Nebula smiled as she could almost taste her freedom.  

The fleet left the Melcor system after having slaughtered all the colonists on the planet and the space stations in orbit. They never noticed the bird shaped spaceship following them at speed.

------ ✶Raptor✶ of ✶Life✶ -------

(Jill Gurē)  

SC13456 - PHOENIX
Bridge

“Our agents found them, ma'am, they're tailing the fleet.” 

Jill stared at the tablet in her hand. It showed the Intel gathered by this new group of assets her mother has taken under her wing. They found the location of Ronan the Accuser's fleet and Jill was eager to smash it. “Just like we thought they're en route to Xandar in force.”

Jill nodded, understanding that the situation was dire. “Did you send this up the chain of command? What are our orders?”

The ONI Lieutenant-Commander stood straight as she reported her orders. “The Governor General wants half of the taskforce to ambush Ronan’s fleet in the Xandar system and cooperate with the Xandarian military to take down the renegade Krees.”

Jill asked bluntly, “Is she coming to help?”

The Eternal didn't want Danvers to muck up this operation with her glory seeking ways. The woman was shockingly good at managing the logistics of a fleet, but she seemed to be pants at strategy and was more of a blunt instrument in ship to ship combat.

The Lieutenant-Commander gave Jill a small smile. “She said that she has a nasty surprise in store for the ‘rogue’ fleet.”

This made Jill flinch, she knew how evil her mother could be, the woman loved all of them and her people, but to her enemies she was merciless. That philosophy has become one of the core tenets of the family. “Alright then, I know what we’re going to do.”

Jill took an executive decision and said, “Warn the Xandarian through Ambassador Jimothy Gurē, send out the sensor scans to them.”

------ ✶Raptor✶ of ✶Life✶ -------

(Nova Prime, Irani Rael)

1 hour later
Palace
Nova prime office

There were time when Irani loathed her job, the factions amongst the Xandarian Empire were hard to juggle, there were the reformists who wished to stop relying too much on the Nova Corps and started securing Xandar and its colonies; then she the Traditionalist, who wished to do away with the military and law enforcement and focus only on recruiting corpsmen. But Irani knew better, the Nova Force couldn’t handle the number of corpsmen that the traditionalists wanted to initiate.

Everyday was a battle to balance between the two parties, Irani wished that a moderate faction formed but the reformists and traditionalists didn’t allow it. Xandar may be a peaceful society, but it didn’t stop its politicians or rich moguls to game the system to their benefit.

Today was one of those days where Irani wanted to quit and go back to being a Centurion; Ambassador Jimothy Gurē had demanded a meeting with her and her inner circle as he had information pertaining to the continual existence of the Nova Empire. The young Terran came and gave Irani a report and scanning data that a large Kree fleet led by Ronan the Accuser was coming their way.

There were at least one hundred ships, twenty percent of them had the same design as those seen from Thanos’ outrider and chitauri vessels.

“Ambassador Gurē… is this true?” She asked the young Terran.

He gave her a serious nod. “I guarantee the veracity of his information on my honor. Ronan the Accuser is coming with his fleet straight for Xandar.” Ambassador Gurē looked at a holographic construct generated by his wrist computer. “They are 30 jumps away from your star system.”

Irani was skeptical, she didn't know how advanced the Systems-Commonwealth was beyond them having really good terraformation technology, but even then… detecting the approach of ships while they're jumping was impossible. 

But she gave the benefit of the doubt to the young Terran. “How much time do we have?”

The young Terran seemed to be doing real-time calculations in his head as he took on a thoughtful expression. When his face cleared, he revealed, “You have two days at best, one and a half at worst depending on the quality of their jump drive.”

It was at that point that one of the men from Irani's inner circle, a Scalio Di'in, a pink skinned man with blue hair, an expensive dark blue bodysuit who was the one in charge of the logistic ministry intervened as he said with a distrustful tone, “Nova Prime, we can't trust that man, this may be a ruse to take down our defenses!”

A white haired woman wearing an expensive white suit at his side added, “Or worse he and his people might be aligned with the Kree, the timing that the Systems-Commonwealth used to contact us is mightily suspicious.”

“Jaima!” Irani yelled at the woman. A quick search with Jimothy's computer HUD showed that this woman, Jaima Mira’mar was the leader of the reformists party inside the Nova Empire's government.  

Jimothy took off his glasses, his jaw set as he tried to not explode at those buffoons. “Are you insulting the integrity of the Systems-Commonwealth?” 

Jaima walked forward and looked into Jimothy's eyes with a hostile demeanor.  “Yes I do, you are newcomers in this galaxy, no one has ever heard about your government before. All we know is that you've taken your root in Andromeda one month ago. You come here with technology never seen before and suddenly there's supposed to be an attack on Xandar? This is highly suspicious.” 

Ambassador Jimothy stared at Scalio and Jaima as if they were stupid… he took a breath and straightened his coat. Next he looked at Irani and asked, “Does the Nova Prime think the same as them?”

Irani was skeptical as well, she tried to speak but she couldn't lie, her two friends were right, this looked like a setup. 

“I see.” Jimothy put back his glasses on his nose. “I at least gave you a warning. My conscience is absolved of any responsibility if you don't take measures to protect your people.” 

“I wish you luck, Nova Prime.” He stepped back and turned to leave.

Deep down inside, Irani thought that they may have made a mistake as she watched the young Terran leave his head held high.

------ ✶Raptor✶ of ✶Life✶ -------

(Jean Grey)

Battle Station SC-Infinity
2 Jumps away from the Xandar star System
Hyperspace

Some minutes later, on the Battle Station’s bridge where I was waiting, I received a quantum unlink connection. The caller ID was one of my favorite sons’, Jimothy. The boy was smart and a really nice guy, but he wasn't a doormat; no way would I raise my child to be a white knight, no siree. I leaned into my command chair, waiting for the Quantum uplink to finally connect.

Jimothy’s face appeared, and I found that he looked a bit upset. “Mother, they reacted just like you told me they would.”

I grinned, just as planned the Xandarian’s higher ups choose to not believe them and shove their heads in the sand. That’s because they aren’t used to dealing with nations as mysterious and paranoid as the Systems-Commonwealth. There was a reason I only permitted Terraformation and related technologies to be shared and for items of cultural exchange to circulate.

I replied with a toothy smile, “Yes, politicians are rather predictable.” 

My boy squinted his eyes at me as if he realized something. “That's why you didn't show what we can do, you intend to enter the Xandar system with the infinity?”

I nodded, this was for sure going to make a fearful impression on both parties. “And a task force of forty of our ships to support the Nova Empire whether they want to or not.”

With a meaty smack, Jimothy's hand met his face, he looked frustrated. “Mother, even for you this is quite… fucked up.”

I smirked, any sense of shame I might have had was eroded through the years because of how bored I got. Because of my abuse of time dilation, it's been eighty years since I didn't have a good fight. “Now, now my son. I am sure that you want some payback after how they treated you and insulted our nation…”

Now Jimothy looked worried and he warned me, “Mother you need to be reasonable… and the bigger person.”

I sighed, why was some of her offspring so straight laced? Jill, Tifa and Jimothy always ruined her fun. “Jim…”

My boy speared me with a look, as he looked put out. “Jimothy, please. I am not 12 anymore, mother.”

I rolled my eyes and leaned forward in my chair, I grinned and asked, “Yes, yes, Jimothy. Hypothetically, how would you get back at those crazies on Xandar?”

Jimothy sighed and took off his glasses, just like I taught him and took on a thoughtful expression as he said out loud his thoughts, “Hypothetically… I would wait till the Accuser's fleet approach Xandar and intervene when the first shot is fired. Then, after we destroy them, we send the recording of me warning them of the attack on their planetary network and watch as the population rises up or rebels.”

My son put his glasses on and smiled at me. “At least that’s how I would do it, but I am not such a petty man.”

I teared up at that elegant solution, Jimothy had Inherited all my callousness and deviousness. “I am so proud of you Jim.”

He glared at me. “Jimothy.”

He always insisted about me not shorting his name, since I compared him to James T. Kirk when he was younger. “Yes, yes. You know… one day I will give you my job, you're suited to become Governor General.” 

Jimothy shook his head in panic. “No thank you, mother. I like my current one.”

He refused, but I wouldn't give him the choice. In ten years I would leave this universe. It was at this point that an alert rang out and the holo-tank showed me the representation of the Star system I was in and the next dozen ones around it. The Accuser fleet was only twenty system away by jump.

I stared back at Jimothy and commanded, “Get off the planet, right now, the enemy fleet is not too far.”

“Very well, mother. Godspeed.” Jimothy cut the communication.

I turned to the screen before me, the bridge officers looked at me with expectations. My daughter, Aerith, the commander of the battle station Infinity waited for my signal. With a telepathic brush, I said, <Let’s go kick ass.>

Aerith gave me a salute, then turned to the bridge crew and shouted, “Red alert! All hands to battle stations!”

The lights turned red inside the fifty meters wide bridge, and like a tiered cake, the bridge morphed with the captain and XO chair on top. “Transmit data to the task force to prepare themselves for combat!”

“Yes, ma'am!” The communication officer shouted back.

“Navigation, open slipspace causeway.” Aerith ordered.

A humongous portal opened and slowly the battle station and forty warships started entering it, I couldn't wait to see everyone's face when my fleet arrived to ruin someone's day.