“I know.” Alex’s soft voice radiated around the room.

Erik said hastily, “We haven’t much time. Let me take you to the boardroom.”

“Right,” Daniel said, his scrutinizing eyes still on his cousin, “I will welcome John and bring him there.”

The Regime sent fighters into space, just in case. They floated around, making sure no ships other than John’s entered the atmosphere. But little did they notice what went on above the Regnum, hidden by the station’s curvature.

Bill Haven, one of the nine squadron leaders, gave the command, “Now!” The response was immediate. He himself didn’t realize that he had spoken the words until he saw the other leaders along with their squadrons, rushing towards the vampire ships.

The seventy two jets swirled through space, rushing as fast as they could so as to take the enemy by surprise. When they were seven hundred meters from the enemy, they started shooting, taking out two thirds of their targets. The remaining one-third went head-on towards the Regnum fighters, who dodged, swerved and counterattacked. Bill, himself a new squadron leader, had trouble keeping up with the older ones but he had some moves of his own. An enemy fighter began to tail him. This was exactly what the young pilot wanted. He veered off through all the laser beams and flying debris, towards those ships which were still intact. In one sharp turn upward, he led the ship on his tail into a collision course with another enemy fighter. This was where the fun was; the excitement of not knowing what would happen next and staying in the moment. If one faltered in this technique, they would fall to their doom. “Watch out!” his wing-man, James Lyndon said. He shot at the ship that was about to ram into Bill. “These guys have turned into kamikazes!”

“Well, we can’t have that, not on my watch!” Bill steered and shot. He fled to the right, then to the left, confusing his enemies. He hit about thirteen of them. “Make a circle around them,” he commanded to all the leaders and wingmen and fighters, “Now!” He knew for sure that they were winning and would defeat them. They maneuvered themselves and created a surrounding circular formation around the few enemy fighters that remained.

The enemy kept shooting and ramming into some of the Regnum fighters.

“Evade the bloody kamikazes. I want all those in the attack modes, defended by three ships from behind. We can’t afford to lose any more!” As he said this, an enemy fighter clipped his right wing, tearing it apart.

“Watch—”

But it was too late. The attack had been followed through. Bill was able to tilt his fighter to the left, just in the nick of time, a hairbreadth away from his enemy, who was going to smash into him from the front. But fire sputtered out from his right wing, and he started spinning out of control—

Everything froze.

Daniel squinted at the ship that had just landed. He wore a wind-cheater as the weather became even colder and extremely rainy. He commanded the watchtower soldiers to activate the glass bubble. In an instant, glass rose from the sides of the ground and joined together in the center, protecting Daniel and the ship from the annoying rain. The main door of the ship opened and John, along with two soldiers, came out. He was wearing some light clothes, flowing and loose. As the human walked towards him with his two guards, Daniel concluded that one way or another, this man was going to die. John smiled warmly and, ever the diplomat, embraced Daniel.

“President Gareng!”

“Councilman Howe!” Daniel smiled. He returned the embrace and said, “It’s been a long time.”

John nodded, his face gradually turning serious, “So shall we get to business?”

“Of course. Take these men and offer them some refreshments,” he commanded two escorts who arrived from the interior of the base.

“No, no, no,” John said innocently, “They must remain with me. I trust in your...” he stretched the word, “hospitality, most definitely.” He gave a smirk and continued, “These men will remain with me...as they have for the last twenty one years.”

“Come with me,” said Daniel, gesturing for John to follow him. The Supreme Leader and his guards followed the Regime President’s lead.

They walked in silence all the way to the boardroom. John looked around the place, amazed by what he saw. As they entered an elevator John checked to see what floor they would arrive at. It stopped its descent to the tenth floor and opened on to a medium sized hallway. He couldn’t help wondering how the vamps had done it. The planet had suffered so much destruction and all the great cities had been destroyed. How and where had they gotten the resources? How did they build such a huge structure? He shook his head in disbelief. “Is there something wrong?” Daniel asked, although he already knew what John was thinking. He laughed, “We have been quite busy, as you can see.”

“Yeah,” John said, dumbfounded.

They reached the hall. It was painted in a majestic red and on both sides of the hallway there were portraits of great kings, emissaries, feudal lords, and nobles. Just before they were about to open the massive rosewood door one painting in particular caught John’s eye. It was a very rare painting of Argos I, framed in intricately embroidered solid gold.

Argos was a stout man. In his hand he held a massive sword, the one he had used to kill Markos. His chestnut brown hair flowed down to the nape of his neck and he donned a thick pointed goatee. His amber eyes twinkled and a warm smile lay on his soft face. Underneath the painting was a gold plaque with Argos’s name in modern Migritic.

The door opened. Alex was seated with his back to them, at the head of a table. The elegant table looked somewhat like the one in the Boardroom at the Regnum. There were large windows, about four on each side, stretching upwards almost till the ceiling. In the center of the ceiling was a large, intricate crystal chandelier. To their right was a ten feet high fireplace with a roaring fire that heated the room. The glow of the fire gave a warm, amorous quality to the area. The thick drapes flowed like majestic cloaks from the windows. “Uncle John,” Alex said, getting up from his seat. “Is it...is it really you?” He ran up to him and John embraced him.

“Yep, kid. It really is.”

“Where is Erik?” Daniel asked the two guards inside.

“Sir, he said he had some urgent work in the recuperation chamber,” said one of the guards, “He will be arriving shortly.”

Daniel sighed, “We shall have to continue without him, then. Come, Councilman. Sit.”

“Something’s wrong,” said Kurt to his comrades in the meeting room in the transport tanker. They could see through the screen that everything had stopped. They couldn’t see much but they knew fighting had broken out because of the constant explosions of light. But now, nothing. The ships didn’t seem to be getting any closer or any further away. “I’m going to check it out,” said Kurt, walking out of the meeting room. He hurried into the elevator and descended into the hangar. He rushed out. “I need fifty men. Pronto!” He didn’t wait for any response and jumped into his own ship and flew away. Immediately, twenty, then thirty, then finally fifty fighter ships came after him. He put the fighter into hyperspeed to try and catch the enemy off-guard. When he and the rest of his squadron arrived at the battle scene the sight that met their eyes left them openmouthed. The entire first wave of fighters was frozen. Kurt could see the frightened faces of Bill and the other leaders. The men were moving around inside. It was only their ships that were stuck and not moving an inch!

One of the vampires from an enemy fighter opened his cockpit and smiled maniacally. He climbed out on top so that everyone could see him. Then, he took his hands and created an electrical mass of energy. It was red and black and growing exponentially. “Oh crap!” Kurt shouted, “Get him! Get them all and destroy them!”