The car wound through the streets, a police escort guiding it through the traffic feeding into the Imperial capital, the shining crystal dome that looked so alien on the Terran skyline. Topless spires of crystal rising out of the immense structure carved of an ancient crystal that had been raised by the power of the Immortal Emperor.

A citadel from which his rule was absolute.

The black sedan bore the House VonGrippen Striking Falcon's fluttering in the wind as it curved up the spiral ramp that wound towards the great doors to the Senate chamber. The lowest floor of the mammoth structure that was so great it could be seen with the naked eye from space.

The car stopped, drawing to a halt as Imperial Praetorian clanked forward, the augmented soldiers encased in their powered armour looked terrifying, shining in black. A simple white rose denoting his Imperial Majesty the Immortal Emperor.

He had lost his first name, stricken from public record by those seeking to deify his name. Those who still used it were confined to the Highlord Council, a body of leaders made up of the High Houses.

Chow, Denver, Kardiac, Morvanor, VonGrippen, and Windsor. The six original houses made up of those who had survived from Sedlec.

Denver had been succeeded by his wife, a young Japanese woman with a keen business sense who had taken the initiative to push for the recognition of the house founded by her husband. The legacy, she felt, for her son and the whole Denver line. Chow had argued, but after the concession of the Northern Island of Japan, he settled contently to allow the small token gesture to a powerhouse of industry that was spreading throughout the Empire building upon the American infrastructure and strengthening its alliances with the Orions.

Cardinal Strathcona held his place as the Highlord Kardiac. The man who would, had the Papacy not been dissolved upon the conclusion of the war, would have been the next Pope brought legitimacy to the High Council, and his sovereignty over the matters of divinity gave him broad and sweeping powers. Powers that he used to guide the other, unsanctioned religions around to his philosophies. A trying issue that had driven a great divide between Christianity and the Muslim faith. A rift that simmered while Amsus troops patrolled the streets of the Middle East slaughtering any who dared breach the peace.

Lord Morvanor's house was still in disarray, it was taking time to reconcile the wounded pride of the American spirit. But the strategic use of the Inquisition had brought the dissident factions into line. Lord Morvanor standing firm that the American people deserved their independence, but working within the system to accomplish those aims. A tireless diplomat who had stood firm, refusing to bend, publicly, to the High Lady Windsor. Garnering great support behind him for his House movement. It was the only piece of hope the Americans had been permitted, and given time they would forget their reasoning as it was buried beneath a new sense of unity. Humanity.

VonGrippen stepped down from his car, shouldering his great coat as he walked into the Senate chamber, leaning upon the cane that had become a constant companion since General Chow had gifted it to him. The grey at his temples had become more pronounced, edging into his beard to match the creases around his eyes.

He felt every step, each a reminder of what he had given for the Empire and its ruler. Climbing stairs to step upon the crystal cube that swept him, by an unseen hand, through the building towards the High Council chamber high above. He didn't know how it worked, like most things to do with the alien archology, he was ignorant of its function. A matter he sought to rectify as he rested on his cane staring at the glowing glyphs that danced upon the floor in an alien script.

The Emperor had raised the structure out of a single piece of crystal given to him by Rikard. And like all of Rikard's gifts, it was shrouded in its own mysteries. The man had carved his own niche out of the Empire, taking the leadership of the Imperial Senate, the new Chancellor spoke for the will of the people and represented their wishes at the High Council.

VonGrippen grated his teeth at all he was watching arise around him. Organizations like the shadowy ministry that oversaw the secret police, the Amsus Inquisition. Not to mention the Amsus armies that had helped him in conquering the Martian Combine that were vying for their independence from the Empire, children of Humanity, like the Kaynin, that were searching for a home of their own.

The House VonGrippen sheltered the Kaynin, helping them found a homeworld upon a small world tucked close to the edge of Orion space. And there were other alien races yet being discovered as humanity, born again to embrace the stars through the captured Jump drives, stretched forth their hands.

It was the dawn of a golden age in the minds of many, but there were those inside the High Council that knew the darkness unto which it had all been born.

He longed to return home, the Excalibur had charted the course back, relaying the Beacon network under Commander Maguire's guidance, reopening the lost route home. And there was talk amongst Imperial engineers of building a Jump Nexus; an interstellar expressway that, using the Zero-Point reactors, could link the furthest reaches of space together. But he hadn't. Something about the absence of anything from home held him back, burying himself in the forging of the new Imperial military; the days had stretched into almost two years.

His son, Jason, would be four now. Old enough to ask his mother where his father was. VonGrippen often wondered what Katherine told him. But he tried not to dwell on those thoughts, they preyed upon his mind, and as long as he stayed focused he wouldn't be troubled by them.

The Immortal Emperor's throne room was at the far end of the chamber. A single round room with a high pedestal from which Markus would sit and observe the world. He had become something else as the years had passed, intuitively understanding the world and the life within it.

There had been early resistance when he had married Beatrice, people on both sides of the Atlantic crying out against the union. But those cries had dwindled, replaced with a euphoria that stemmed from Markus's capacity to control human emotion. The Empire had grown strong on a patriotic cult of personality stemming from a leader who manipulated everything and everyone to his own ends.

VonGrippen's cane clacked on the crystal floor as he walked through the Council chamber where endless debates on the future of the galaxy were debated. The Taïrian issue was a growing concern, a primitive alien race that had been discovered by a trading vessel that had sought to break the Orion monopoly over the space lanes.

There were those opposed to contact with a race as under developed as the Taïrians, and yet there were those on the council, VonGrippen included, who felt that developing and offering the Taïrians assistance to educate themselves would win over a valued ally. At that point, the matter was shelved until more research could be conducted. It was another example of the bureaucracy that was fast forming in the new order.

Markus sat upon his throne, looking down at VonGrippen, "welcome my friend." He said confidently, his voice resonating around the chamber.

"Highness," VonGrippen shrugged, "you will forgive my not kneeling," he gestured to his shattered knee that had never healed properly.

"You always ask forgiveness for a thing you cannot change," Markus stated sitting almost immobile, "I on the other hand can change it if you wish."

"Your Imperial Highness is too kind," VonGrippen replied, "however, such injuries serve to remind a man of the price of war." The words 'the price of the Empire' went unsaid.

"I am to be a father," Markus said calmly changing the subject, "though Beatrice is unaware of it, yet. I will have a son, Marius."

VonGrippen nodded, "congratulations, Highness."

"But the reason I have summoned you here is that shortly Katherine will be arriving with my nephew..." Markus finally moved forward in his chair, "you have been lax in your duties to your family, I have sought to rectify that. Your mother, Madame VonGrippen, for example. I hear you refuse to visit her on Saint Elba..."

"Your Highness now seeks to affect the personal matters of the Highlord Council?" VonGrippen remarked, his voice edging dangerously with steel.

"I can sense your anger, my friend," Markus replied quietly, "I can feel it burn deep within you. But there are times, when a stubborn man must be given a push, to return to the path that he should take. Your family needs you, and by having my sister here, at the Palace, I will have another person close to me that I can trust."

VonGrippen turned, "as you wish, Highness." He replied marching from the chamber without waiting to be dismissed.

Rikard detached himself from the shadows, stepping into the light, "he is defiant, are you certain that he is the one?"

Markus rose from his chair, the simple black tunic he wore flapping open as he stepped off and glided to the floor of the chamber, settling gracefully to the ground. "The third generation that will succeed me will eclipse even my power. If there is one mind that can guide that kind of power, VonGrippen's is it. And given his popularity, a VonGrippen will be a good choice to further the work that you have started."

"My work was flawless in you," Rikard remarked un-amused by the implications.

"You're work is flawed," Markus replied, "already I can feel the pull of time upon my body, it is slowed by the Bloodroot, but I will not live forever, and trained correctly, the GN-3 will ascend to a level I cannot achieve. True transcendence."

Inwardly Rikard seethed, but outwardly he nodded his head, "as you command, Highness. I shall return to my labs..."

"No," Markus held up his hand, "you're work in genetics is at an end, from now on you will serve me best in the Senate, you will follow my direction and you will not meddle in the affairs that are beyond your... limited capacity."

Rikard shielded his emotions from Markus, his hand coiled tightly around the bloodroot crystal as he drew upon it for strength, "as you wish." He replied evenly, and at a nod was dismissed from the throne room.

There would come a reckoning for the Emperor, a time when he would pay for taking Rikard's dream from him. But there was plenty of time for that, and Rikard would bide it well, lurking in the shadows till it was his time to retake control of what was rightfully his. He had many clones of the GN-3 secreted on the old Phobos base, and he could buy more time for himself.

The Emperor required a VonGrippen to father his GN-3, then he would do so. But there were many opportunities, and the future's possibilities were infinite.

Rikard gritted his teeth as he marched through the outer chamber resolute in his course of action.

"He will betray you," Sephradon warned from the shadows.

"You are mastering the capacity to travel," Markus observed, ignoring the fact that yet again his sanctuary had been disrupted by one of his kind.

"Only short distances," Sephradon replied, "it is taxing to travel through hyperspace."

"What do you want?" Markus inquired of his sister, looking back at her.

"I was lonely," she purred taking a step forward, "and I craved my family..."

"You are seeking something," Markus circled her, his chin raised imperiously, "what is it?"

"A place to belong," Sephradon replied truthfully, "our brother Ben seems to have found that..."

"Yes, the invalid is on Geldan, enjoying his last few years with his family," Markus nodded, "he will find his place, and it shall be in the ground."

"You have the capacity to heal him," Sephradon stated, "you are his brother."

"I have no desire to help those who lack the capacity to help themselves." Markus bit out, "he refused the gifts that we share, gifts that would have saved his life..."

"And denied him his happiness," Sephradon answered.

"And that is what you wish?" Markus asked, "a place where you belong?"

Sephradon nodded her slender chin, "I do."

Markus chuckled quietly, "then you shall have it my sister, just like Madame VonGrippen once her support melted away from her..."

He motioned to the floor she was standing upon, as it erupted upwards, shards of crystal that enveloped her, solidifying into a single black shard. She tried to scream but it was too late and Markus walked forward to rest his hand upon the surface of the dark crystal, feeling her inside.

"You murdered our bothers and sisters, and given time, you would have turned upon me." He shook his head, "I cannot permit you that freedom. But unlike you, I will not kill you because that would be far too easy upon you, giving you the peace you have always sought. No, instead I will have you conveyed to the farthest world, on the very edge of known space. And there you will rot aware of the passage of time about you..."

VonGrippen crossed the landing platform high atop one of the spires of the palace as the shuttle bearing VonGrippen markings powered down its engines. He stood, the wind stirring his hair as he rested upon his cane and watched the ramp descend.

Lieutenant Walczak jumping down to secure chocks under the shuttles wheels. According to Commander Maguire, Walczak was becoming a fine young officer aboard the Excalibur. And VonGrippen took some solace that his ship, and his crew were in fine hands. Cared for until the next conflict and at a wave of his hand, Markus would dispatch them to deal with it.

None of that mattered at that moment. VonGrippen took a hesitant step forward as the most beautiful woman in his world stepped down from the body of the ship, a young boy hiding behind her skirts.

"Katherine..." he said quietly.

"Highlord," came her cold reply, he had made his choice a long time ago, and there was nothing left for him behind her eyes, "your son."

VonGrippen looked down reaching out a hand for the boy, "hello..."

Jason drew back further, shaking his head as he balled his hands in his mothers skirts. And VonGrippen drew back his hand.

Katherine's features softened as she felt the pain of rejection inside her husband, "give him time," she said softly, "give us both time."