Free Star Blaze by Keith Mansfield Page B

unfeasibly odorous Erumpeton of Deneb Six, who claims the secret to her hundred millennia lifespan is imbibing those bodily waste products the rest of us prefer to discard
—a young Senator, Bram Khari, returned to Melania with a mysterious being from Atlantis (
a civilization that had threatened to seize control of the galaxy
).”
    Johnny ignored the double-headed commentator, who looked out of place with the rest of the scene. Instead, unbelievably, he found himself staring at his mum. She was standing right in front of him, dressed in a one-piece silver outfit that flowed like liquid over her body, and smiling, her pale blond hair glinting in the soft red glow of both Arros and Deynar. He reached out to touch her but his hand simply passed through the projection, causing her image to blink out of existence until he withdrew. It was torture—he wanted more than anything for her to take him in her arms and hold him. The voiceover continued.
    â€œAfter millennia of chaos following the death of Ophion, the people demanded a new Emperor. Khari seemed eager (
some would say too eager
) for the top job and had soon set up home in the Imperial Palace.
    â€œIt would be churlish not to acknowledge the prosperity that followed.
The peace dividend from the next few thousands of years saw the Empire restored, perhaps surpassing its former glories
. The entire civilized galaxy (
and plenty of parts that weren’t
) seemed under the spell of the fresh-faced Emperor, who made little effort to justify his claims to be descended from a Lysentian.”
    As the commentary continued, the bubble of illusion within which Johnny stood changed, the only constant being the hovering narrators. Numerous scenes depicted the young Bram’s travels around the galaxy, often with Johnny’s mum smiling in the background—whenever Johnny glimpsed her, he had eyes for nothing else.
    â€œHere on Melania, a new outer layer of the capital was built—
both the Imperial Palace and Senate were raised to the new level and restored
. Later—
much later
—came the Great Tower of Themissa, which reached from the surface into orbit. All seemed well,
but appearances can be deceptive
.”
    The scene shifted again, returning to Melania to show the entire surface covered over by gigantic machines, sometimesoperated by cheery aliens, enabling yet more building to take place on the new top layer. The twin narrators’ tone became more serious.
    â€œThe cares of running an empire weighed heavily on the once-youthful Senator’s broad shoulders.
Following an unscheduled visit to the Large Magellanic Cloud, he aged visibly.
Perhaps increasingly obsessed with threats to his leadership,
he created the elite Imperial Guard
.”
    Fearsome soldiers being drilled now stood before Johnny, who was glad they weren’t real. That didn’t stop him putting his hand through the nearest just to be sure.
    â€œHis Divine Imperial Majesty withdrew further and further from public life—
day-to-day control of the Empire passed to the First Senator
. While everyone knew who was really in charge, the whispering campaign grew louder—
who would follow when, dare it be said, the Emperor was no longer with us?
With no heir, who would lead the galaxy in future aeons? Then,
as every citizen of the Empire knows
, His Divine Imperial Majesty disappeared altogether.
The first of what have now been five regents was installed
, and rumors of Khari’s actual—
or at least imminent
—death swept all the way from the hub to the outer rim. Despite assertions from the Regency Civil Service that they maintained constant links with the Emperor, he remained incommunicado for almost a century.
War broke out, the Andromedans somehow folding the vast emptiness of intergalactic space, to bring terror to the very heart of the galaxy
.”
    Now the view before Johnny was of giant, terrifying space battles, with whole planets