The Archivist walked into a room with several screens and a moment later as the door sealed all of the screens lit up. She looked over them and frowned underneath her mask. "I was told I was being contacted by a single royal. But that does not appear to be the case. May I ask what reason the Imperial Council has for me?"

"Archivist. It has come to our attention that our dear brother has lost his way." One of them started.

"We want to help him but we do not have the available resources."

"In fact all regions are seeing a shortage of resources."

"So we came up with an idea."

"The first one to secure the most regions gets the throne. So by the end of this rebellion the royal with the most regions of space of the empire, will be the de facto leader."

"This is what we have decided and he can not do anything to stop us."

"Please give us the privilege of informing him. These are the rules now, he will play by them or else."

They all spoke in turns keeping her off balance enough to finish their explanation before ending the communication on their end. The requirement for long distance calls like that were costly. So for them to just use it like that. They really were of one mind. They wanted the princeling out.

As the door opened she sighed. "Fuck..."

—--------------------------

He was wandering the halls again. He snuck out for a second time and had already set up the second set of explosives. But now he was looking for a console or station that was connected to the navigation system. As far as he could tell the navigation system was only connected to three areas. The bridge, secure main control hub, then finally there was the backup bridge.

The bridge of the ship was far too busy for him to be able to sneak on and off. He would be noticed quickly and then someone would work out what he was doing from there. So it was not an option.

A similar reason applied to the secure main control hub. It was essentially where all secure digital information and security systems were kept. It was also why he was having to access specific parts of the ship, they have some systems hidden behind some hardwiring. For the same reason he could not go to the bridge he could not go to this secure room, guarding it were a pair of guards who would most certainly be noticed.

That left the backup bridge as the only option. They did not have them as much in his original galaxy. But in this galaxy they had secure systems so they had to have one. It was just like it sounded like, a secondary bridge that would activate in the event that the first bridge was destroyed. It was unguarded, which was the most important factor. But there was no power going to it at the moment, in fact the safeguard made it so the only way for the backup bridge to operate was for the main one to be offline.

Soon he was at the backup bridge and he walked around looking for the correct console. When he found it he materialized a knife and popped open a panel. Once the panel was open he materialized his box of electronics and then began making a device and quickly programmed it before he closed the panel and secured it. Then he dematerialized his box of goodies and his knife before walking back out and making his way to the brig.

—----------------------------

The Archivist walked into the bridge and glanced at the unconscious guard before walking over to Gladiator’s cell. But she stopped when she saw it was empty. She sighed and then walked over to another cell door and popped the door open before walking inside. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

West stood up to meet her in the center of the cell. She tossed down the puck and another bubble was made. "He left soon after you were taken out of here." West informed her quickly, already anticipating her first question.

"Taking advantage of a distraction that I did not expect. Okay." She nodded her head. "First tell me what you learned about them."

"The pair of foreigners I encountered on the Northern Continent first picked up a woman and her mount from the southern shores." West began explaining. "The woman’s mount was a scaleback and she appeared to have some gear that Gladiator handed off to her intentionally."

"Okay, so he is picking up allies intentionally but not overdoing it. Or maybe he just owed her and is paying her back. What happened next?" The Archivist asked.

"We went to another shore where we encountered the others. But between the two destinations, we did encounter very little in the form of resistance. In addition the pair of foreigners I encountered were both combat ready at a moment’s notice and appeared to be in a relationship, there were a number of times where they snuck off to..."

"I got the picture." The Archivist nodded her head in understanding. Not needing her subordinate to narrate something so simple.

"On the eastern shore we encountered Gladiator, and another pair who seemed to have crossed the ocean. I did not get to see how because the shore line had lowered by then." West began explaining. "But the pair that arrived with him looked like a pair of monks. One of them had armor similar to him but some of the designs were changed to include some monk robes clearly and cover up previous armor damage. I could honestly not even tell if they were human with how covered up they were. Then finally there was this weird alien with no eyes, clawed limbs, a spiny tail and its skin was made up of some type of external chitin or something."

"What?"

"Yeah, and they were wearing full-on monk robes and that was it." West told her. "That was not even the weirdest part." She continued in excitement, "The weirdest part was that Gladiator was able to make a box appear out of nowhere and then the others took a few things out before he sent it away along with the armor he was wearing and the weapons he had on."

"How?" That was not, how could he have done that. Had technology really advanced that far. Or was that his ability or a facet of his ability. But he should be struggling to do it now if it was. "Describe the appearance and disappearance of these things. How did it look?"

"Well..." West seemed lost in thought for a moment before nodding her head slightly. "When they appeared it looked a bit like a black dot and then something appeared. It was a bit too quick for me to really see and confidently describe. As for disappearing. The items would be covered in a bright white and blue light before disappearing."

"A form of black hole technology or maybe even dimensional storage. Ahh... They can do it." She smiled under her mask as thoughts and ideas started to line up. "West, we are leaving with Gladiator when he makes his move. He will get to his ship. We have to board it quickly as well and declare our desire for asylum with the Victorium."

West tilted her head and frowned. "Victorium? Who is that?"

"That is the nation that Gladiator is part of. If we declare it while aboard a vessel he has control or rights over then that means we are aboard Victorium soil." The Archivist began explaining. "If we declare our desire while on Victorium soil then he has to take us to a political representative which I do not think he qualifies as. Which means..."

"He will have to bring us back to his galaxy if he has a way to do so." West understood. "In that case, I have an idea." West grinned with a look of mischievousness in her eyes.

—-----------------------

Cain watched as Shilla did something with the chemical that Jace had sent ahead of him. After a moment she nodded. "Okay, Jace was right." She declared. "Now I can finally explain what has been going on. I knew soon after we went through the portal what would happen because we once watched something similar happen to a group of humans that came to our galaxy."

"Why have you been holding out on this information?" Jamal demanded in anger.

"Because the Centuria rules and traditions prevent her from disclosing critical technological developments to other species that have not made the connection. But since Jace figured it out and has shown he figured it out, we are now qualified. Is that right?" Cain asked in a moment of clarity. His core systems were still malfunctioning but at the moment he was not ’moody’.

"That is correct." Shilla nodded her head. "But even if I knew the method I did not have the means to administer a stabilizing agent into the mix. Which is what Jace provided us with. It is not enough for all of us. But it will work for a few of us."

"Stabilizing agent for what?"