"That will indeed be their original plan," The unknown man continued to explain, "they will want to make either Victoria or Tessa empress. However, that can not be allowed to happen. In the previous timeline, where the phoenix race was eradicated, Tessa died from the attack you just witnessed, and Victora became empress because she, like you, didn't think her son Steven was old enough to inherit the throne.
The Terran race was never able to recover from everything that had happened to them recently, even with Victoria's best efforts, and they eventually fell out of favour with the other races until the time came when the races that didn't like them managed to get them voted out of the universal senate.
After that, there was nothing to stop those races from teaming up against them and wiping out all but a handful of the Terran race."
"Wont that change if I give Empress Victoria my blessing?" Andromeda asked as her body instinctively leaned back into the unknown man.
"Yes, giving her your blessing will indeed change things for the better for the Terran race; however, it wont lead to the favoured outcome."
"Favoured outcome?"
"I can't say more as it will prevent what needs to happen from happening. I will just say that both Victoria and Tessa have far greater roles to play in the future."
"Then what about Princess Tessa Terrana secretly being a member of the TISF?" Andromeda asked curiously.
"To find out more about that, I suggest you speak with Rowena Nosferatu, as she also knows Tessa's secret, though Tessa doesn't know this."
"Huh?"
"Once you ask her, you will understand. Good morning, Romy, I hope you slept well."
Andromeda awoke alone in her bed and felt a sense of loss before she suddenly received a prophecy for Rowena Nosferatu and mumbled.
"If you wish to find true happiness and also save that which is most precious to you.
Then you must do that which you have been denying yourself all this time.
Only by letting go and giving in to your blood's desire can you achieve both."
💫💫💫
"You have my condolences for the death of Ambassador Ryse and my apologies for what you just witnessed and our failure in performing our duty of escorting you safely," Andrea said apologetically to Admiral Solaris.
"Thank you, Captain Ororis, but would you mind telling me why one of your officers attempted to kill Lieutenant Kirkmeld?" Solaris asked.
"I wish I knew. Everyone aboard the ship likes Tessa here, so I have no idea why," Andrea replied before turning to Tessa and asking, "Do you have any idea?"
"No ma'am," Tessa replied in a confused tone as she looked at the now charred remains of the officer who attempted to kill her.
Andrea turned to her second-in-command, the commander, and said, "I want this matter fully investigated by the time we reach the homeworld."
"Yes, ma'am," The commander responded before quickly leaving the room.
Andrea turned to Solaris again before saying, "Considering what just happened here, as well as what is happening on the homeworld, I'm having a hard time thinking that they're not connected. Because of this, I am going to increase our speed back to Terrana Five by travelling in subspace.
Would you care to accompany us through subspace or return to the jump gate and head home? I would understand if you chose to return home."
"Thank you for your consideration, Captain Ororis. For the time being, we will accompany you while I contact the homeworld and speak to the Empress regarding what just happened.
If she orders our return, then I will naturally alter course back to the jump gate." Solaris replied.
💫💫💫
"Daniel," Victoria said as she ran into Emperor Daniel's office while pulling Steven along with her.
"Oh…." Victoria said as she stopped while looking down at Daniel's corpse on the carpet in a pool of his own blood.
"FATHER!" Steven screamed in horror as he saw his father's corpse before breaking into tears.
Victoria pulled him into her embrace to hide him from sight and attempted to calm him down while she just stared at the corpse with a clear lack of emotion.
"So also he's dead," A voice said that attracted Victoria's attention as she suddenly saw her grandfather, Michael, enter the room.
"What do you mean?" Victoria asked.
"I am getting reports from the shadows that I sent out that almost all of the imperial family has been assassinated. The only ones that seem to have survived are you two, Andrew and Petunia."
"What about Tessa?" Victoria asked in alarm.
"I don't know. With power out across the entire planet, we can't contact her ship, let alone anyone else; however, since she was off-world, I doubt we need to be concerned."
"How did Andrew and Petunia survive? Is it because you apprehended them before this all happened?"
"Not exactly. Andrew seems to be the one who caused the blackout. As we were preparing them, he got the chance to do something on his uniband. I'm guessing he activated whatever he installed in the neutron reactor's control room console, because right after, all power went out.
After that, I started getting reports of family members being assassinated; however, Andrew and Petunia were not targeted at all. I'm guessing the power cut was a signal for the assassins to launch their attack."
"Those fucking traitorous bastards," Victoria cursed angrily.
Suddenly, a shadow materialised next to them before saying, "Lord Michael, I have a report."
"Proceed," Michael said.
"We searched Andrew and Petunia, as you instructed and found two data drives on Andrew." As he finished speaking, the shadow held out his hand to show two data drives, one black and one white.
"Are either of these the ones Andrew used in the neutron reactor control room?"
"Yes, sir, we have examined them both and determined the black data drive contains a virus that, when activated, will shut down the neutron reactor. The white one, however, appears to contain an anti-virus that appears to destroy the virus and reverts the neutron reactor to its normal functionality."
"Excellent, have someone go install the anti-virus at once so that we can restore power to the planet."
"Yes, sir."
"Anything else?"
"Well…." The shadow spoke, but then trailed off as they shot Victoria and Steven a look as if not wanting to speak of it in front of them.
"Out with it, this is not a day for hiding things from our own family."
"But sir, it's about 'that' item in the imperial palace vault."
"That item?" Victoria asked curiously.
"By 'that item' do you mean the vial of blood from the first emperor?"
"Yes, sir, I'm afraid it's gone, sir."
"Gone!" Michael said in a rare display of shock.
"Yes, sir, during our search of the palace, we discovered that the vault was open. We hypothesise that the planet-wide power cut disabled most of the vault's security mechanisms, allowing someone to break in.
When we did a preliminary search, we discovered that the first emperor's vial of blood was gone."
"Conduct a full audit of the vault at once. I want to know if anything else was taken or if they were specifically after the vial of blood."
"Yes, sir," The shadow said before vanishing as it went to carry out its orders.
"What's this first emperor's vial of blood? Are you talking about Emperor Joseph Terran?" Victoria asked.
"Yes, let's talk while we walk. We need to question Andrew about this," Michael replied as he left the office, and Victoria brought Steven to follow.
"Only a few people alive today are privileged to this information, as it was covered up at the request of the Brood progenitor." Michael began.
"The Brood progenitor?" Victoria asked in surprise.
"If you keep interrupting me, I will never be able to tell you everything," Michael reprimanded before continuing, "As you know, Joseph Terran was elected as the first emperor of the Terran race after our people first arrived here on Terrana Five because of his instrumental help in guiding us through the stars from the motherworld.
One of the first races to send an ambassador to visit us after we became known to the Universal Senate was the Brood race, who sent an ambassador. That ambassador took a Terran he became fond of as his familiar.
This much is public knowledge; however, what is not public knowledge is that the familiar's blood had a strange, never-before-seen effect on the ambassador whenever he drank from his familiar.
As well as extending his lifespan, like what normally happens when a Brood feeds, it also made him stronger in ways never before seen and changed him; however, it was also addictive to the ambassador, and after drinking the familiar's blood, the ambassador could no longer satiate his thirst with any other blood except his Terran familiars.
This wasn't too much of a problem while the Terran was alive; however, after he died, the ambassador still craved Terran blood and, so driven mad by hunger, began to hunt and feed on innocent Terrans who didn't agree to be his familiar."