Chapter 80

The Fastest Man Alive

By: BigToFu

Chapter 80

Benjamin Blake

Emperor, Father, Husband

Standing on the observatory window and looking over the three new planets that would be added to my Empire. I stood there, back straight, in a set of armored combat pants and a snug Saiyan-style bodysuit. The bodysuit covered my entire torso with the sleeves down to my wrist and the legs covering my thighs, doubling as a second pair of shorts underneath my pants. Exotic fur draped over my shoulders from one of my savage lands kills, with a cape trailing down lazily brushing the ground.

Standing there I exuded the confidence of a Warrior Emperor for all who had the spine to gaze upon my form. My posture was straight-backed and tall but not too rigid as to be caught unawares with a blindside style assassination, but then again. The chance of assassination inside of my own supercarrier was vastly low even if it wasn’t absolutely zero. I could and would never trust anything to be absolutely zero, but I could accept that my level of paranoia had security at a level that even Natasha found it hard to break into the more secured areas.

With a hum, I smiled as reports flashed before me across the glass panel with reports on the planets being made ready. From what I could tell, the only thing that was needed now was my signal to start the wormhole system.

“Captain Laskey, all crews to stations,” I said, my voice smooth as silk for all to hear.

“By your command my Emperor,” Captain Laskey replied even as his feet came together, and a fist slammed over his heart. Through my senses and from the reflection on the glass, I noticed that he didn’t take his captain’s chair. Instead, Laskey waved his hands activating the full holo-suite. Out of the ceiling, a half-moon ring came down placing the good captain in its center.

Ignoring the captain, I knew what would come next, he would activate one of the panels on the new command station, then make his announcement fleet-wide.

“This is Captain Laskey, Fleet Commander of the Pandoran Navy, all crew to stations. I repeat. All crew to stations.” Captain Laskey spoke, and his voice came out with authority out across the fleet and every communication node that we owned. “Wormhole transition will be in ten and I expect you all to maintain the professionalism and standards that have been set. Captain Laskey rang out.”

I stood arms folded neatly behind me and smiled at the pride that bloomed within everyone from the command deck down to the science vessel docking in one of the freighters.

“XO clear my board,” I commanded, my gaze on the data panels before me even as my senses pinged the location of my entire fleet.

“By your will,” Xo replied stiffly before he turned on his heel and took his command chair.

“Crew clear…”

“Weapons clear…”

“Ravagers clear…”

“Planet one clear…”

Planet two clear…”

“Planet three clear…”

“Transition nodes, clear…”

“Diagnostics through the fleet check three times, all clear.”

“Fleet disposition, and readiness, check, check, check…”

As he called out each one, a new data point opened on the screen before me so that I could see its status.

“Check three times, cleared three times,” Xo called back even as he stood from his seat to join the Captain behind me. “My Emperor, the board is clear.”

Allowing the silence to settle into place, I gave it a full sixty seconds of grace before I turned away from the observation window with an ultra badass flap of my cape. Both Captain Laskey and his XO fell in line behind me even as I took position inside the half-moon command stations.

“Captain, XO, to your stations and await my order,” I spoke my voice commanding but not forceful even as I inputted my own access codes and overrides. Circular panels opened up in the bottom of the floating command panel even as two hand holes popped up for me to grab. Instead of grabbing the handholds automatically, I waited for the connectors through the bottom to report the situation of the main mass driver as my codes were entered. The codes I entered were my own special overrides that would change the mass driver from a mega rail gun into a speed force wormhole projector.

This system could of course be run on its own with the distillation of the speed particle, but an Emperor had to lead by example and for the first grand entrance into the space community. I not only had to lead by the front but also had to make a statement. This would also work to keep a few things hidden from those who might be looking in this direction.

Because I was paranoid like that, I didn’t leave anything to chance and would rather act as if Kree, Shi’ar, and Brood were looking in this direction than not. The power connectors came back all clear, before I grabbed the control handles, I took a deep breath to steady myself. With a thought, I mustered the speed force and my magic, then grabbed onto the handles.

Flexing my fingers a little to make sure that I had a proper grip, I then showed the Universe what true power was as I pushed everything that I had into the ship. The adamantium vibranium handles held under what could easily be rated as planet crushing.

“Captain, Aim us towards the center of the system,” I spoke even as I fed more and more power into the mass driver core, the panels for power reaching orange with a few warning lights blinking.

“By the Emperor’s will,” Captain Laskey replied, “All ships, alter forty-two degrees and brace yourselves.”

“Altered course set, in three, two, one….” The pilot called and I got green pings across the board in my control unit. “All braced my Emperor.”

Well, that was all that I needed to hear as I dug deep, leaned forward, and pushed. The sensors went from orange with little warning to full red as the ship shuddered. That was all right because I made sure that my supercarriers were built with a spine made of adamantium.

My gaze firmed even as the sensors screamed, with gritted teeth, I poured my will through the bulkheads, the cables, and down every connector and conduit within the ship. Reaching forward through my speed force, I gripped the fabric of space then, with a roar, I folded space upon itself as my magic reached out and connected two points in time and space.

Down below, the mass driver core lit up a vibrant gold, purple, blue, and green.

“My Emperor, she can’t take any more!” Captain Laskey called as some of the overhead lights sparked and blew.

“Hold Laskey,” I yelled back, my eyes blazed with power even as my body radiated an aura that buckled the overhead panels. “Hold!” All I needed was more power, a lot more because not only was I going to bring us all back home, but I was not going to leave behind these three planets when I would be the one responsible for their deaths.

“Sire!”

“Hold!” Was my reply to the XO even as I felt a few of the capacitors begin to swell from the overflow of energy. Increased power flowed through me and into the ship, but I held firm “Release the port and starboard heat evacuation ports!”

“Evacuation ports releasing in three… two… one… released!”

The red-lined screaming sensors started to evacuate heat rapidly and a feral grin spread across my face as the speed force wrapped around the ship in an attempt to embrace her. With a deep belly laugh, I stood straight, tall, and proud as the cameras activated across the Infinity’s command deck.

“My people, watch as I cast aside the impossible,” I roar bombastically as power roared from my form, lightning flicking outwards. “AND MAKE THE POSSIBLE!”

“NOW LET’S GO HOME!” With a mighty roar, I pushed forward, the ship rocked, the deck shock and a shockwave blasted outwards across the system as the power that had built up to critical shot forward into the center of what used to be a viable solar system.

With a clenched fist, I twisted the control handle sparking energies and forcing a portal into reality. In the center of the solar system for all to see, a supermassive black hole appeared ringed in gold and orange script. A type of hushed silence came over the command deck as they all looked past the viewing screen and towards the portal.

On the other side of the portal floated many other celestial bodies, but what really captured everyone’s sight and imagination was the bright star, the floating blue and green planet that sat next to another planet covered in all blue. If that wasn’t enough, the third planet was just casually surrounded by multiple spaceships.

Before anyone could say anything, I pressed the button for communication and waited for the handshake to go through with my personal omni-tool.

“Emperor Blake to space station Titian, answer” I commanded as the connection linked to the other side of the portal.

“Space station Titian command and control answering you grace.”

“You have five minutes to clear all lanes,” I commanded even as I started to input another of my personal override codes. “Three planets will be transitioning through the wormhole.”

“Sir, yes sir,” Titian’s command control returned.

With that cut out, I turned in another direction and hit the call. The other end rang twice before someone picked up the call. With the connection, multiple faces came to life before me from not only various locations but also various states of emotion. Gwen, Jean, and Sue were clearly showing distinct levels of excitement for the science and adventure to be had with the coming planets.

Emma was clearly happy about the prestige and power that the new planets would bring, Ororo was looking towards the more studious aspects about the planet that could be added to her curriculum, but I also noticed that little sly question she snuck in about the weather patterns. Interestingly enough, Natasha was the only one to ask me about hunting on the three planets and I noticed Laura in the background of her video call.

Sage was more interested in the resources that this would bring us along with the possible wealth the same as Emma, but it was Medusa’s question that really spiked my interest. She wanted to know if we would be moving the Lycanthropes to the new jungle world and if there would be room for some of the dinosaurs from the Savage Lands.

Yes, that was definitely a good question, but I had plans to develop all my planets. And that was only because of an age old saying of not putting all your eggs in the same basket. That had to wait though because I could tell that things were about to get a little chaotic, so instead of staying silent. I waved a hand across to keep the peace and cut through the crap.

“All of that can wait until later, the same with naming the planets,” I stated with a serious nod of the head. “Right now, I want base stations to be set up on each of their surfaces. Also, there will only be an uninstructive study of the ecosystem on the ice planet and the other ocean worlds.” When I said that, I sent a hard glare to the pouting Sue and Gwen. “I don’t want any mad scientist who thinks they know more than they really do and pull some metaphorical thread and ruin what has naturally occurred.”

Gwen cringed at that, “I’ll keep Jeffrey off the sign-up sheets then.”

My head snapped to her screen at that comment. “Send him back to the island if he pulls stunts like that, his licenses, permits, and off-world privileges can be revoked if he is a threat to the Empire.”

Gwen mulled it over for a second before shaking her head, “it’s not at that point yet, he listens alright, but if I or anyone leave him alone too long things tend to happen.”

At that, everyone started to rub their brows and I definitely felt like I needed a nap, but was far to worried about the nightmares that might be invoked.

“Alright, Nat will send someone to keep an eye on him and Sage will review his work and data,” I replied with a sigh, then perked up at the green all clear ping. The space lanes were open with anchor points in location for each planet. “Alright my beauties, duty calls. Love you and I’ll be home soon.”

With that, I cut the call and focused back up on what I had to do now and not what I wanted to do later. Or more like the multiples of what I wanted to do later. Yes, I would focus now, but would definitely have to revisit those thoughts once I get home.

“All lanes clear, I repeat, all lanes cleared.” The communications officer called back with the Space Station Titian tag.

“Alright,” I replied, then I started to bark my orders. “I wanted Planet One to go through and set up on a quarter rotation behind earth on the same orbit. Planet two will set up at a quarter rotation on the orbit behind Pandora since I don’t want two water planets along the same orbits.” I commanded, Captain Laskey was more than up to the task as he and his Xo relayed all my orders. “I want Planet three to be set at half a systems rotation along the Pandoran orbit. Move it people, I want us out of here in five hours tops.”