“We are already doing that, Adrian,” Seo-yun said.
“Yes, but it isn’t enough. I know that you think that this is a problem for the far future, but we can’t afford to think about it that way. We need to make sure that we are ready when we do meet them.” Adrian turned to Tomas. “And we need allies. Adding other races to the Empire is a great way of boosting our strength, but not every race will want to join us, not at the price we are asking. We need to make alliances that will last.”
“The only candidates for alliances are the Erasi and Shara Daim,” Seo-yun said. “If everything we’ve learned about the Erasi is true, then even if they allow different races into their empire, they are manipulators and elitist. And the Shara Daim are… well, you know what they are.”
Adrian nodded. He did know. “I still have hope that the Shara Daim will change. Perhaps Anessa will manage to convince her Elders. The Erasi, well… We’ll see how they respond to our message. Laura told me that the Fleet has plans for their stealth ships in our territory.”
Tomas shrugged. “We’ll meet other races. Already I have reports from Laura that some of our exploration fleets in the coreward and anti-spinward directions have encountered spacefaring races. The galaxy isn’t empty.”
“No, it isn’t. But we need to alter our plans, Tomas. We need to expand faster.”
“First, we need enough ships to defend ourselves. The plan is for fifty fleets in ten years, five fleets per year, and that is in addition to the stations and defense platforms we are building,” Tomas said.
“I know, but we can push the Forge more, and you can pressure the Clans to pause their projects and focus on shipbuilding. With every Clan, we can do it in half that,” Adrian said.
Tomas shook his head. “That would be a hard sell. They need to expand in order to sustain their population growth. Half of every Clans’ resources goes to expanding their infrastructure and colonization.”
“Then issue a new population law, lower their progeny centers’ output. It would free their resources.”
“I don’t know…”
“The reason we devised the progeny program was because we didn’t have the numbers, because there were barely ten million humans left. The Empire had a miniscule population. Now population isn’t a problem—we have billions of Nel, Trivaxians, and Furvor in the Empire. There are more than a billion humans alive now because of the progeny centers. We can slow down the rate of births.”
“The plan was for the progeny programs to continue for one hundred years, until our population passes fifty billion,” Tomas said.
“Then, the Empire was only humans and a few Nel. Now it isn’t; we have plenty of people.”
“I’ll think about it, and I will ask the Clan Leaders.” Tomas lowered his head and looked defeated for a moment, and then he focused on Adrian again. “What will you be doing now?”
“I’ll go check up on the Sentinel training program, then I have appointment with Seo-yun and her torturers,” he said as he smiled brightly at her.
Seo-yun rolled her eyes and looked at Tomas, who was frowning at her. “We are going to do some more genetic treatments on him. We’ve learned a lot since his last one, and can fix a few things that we missed the last time, and we figured out a way to trigger some changes that we weren’t able to the last time.”
“Oh, well good luck with that,” Tomas said, shuddering.
“You know that we will need to start doing these treatments for everyone, right?” Adrian asked him.
“I know. I just worry about the dangers of it,” Tomas said.
“The Sentinel program has borne enough fruit that we can start triggering the changes in embryos by the end of the year. Next year, we’ll be having children that will be able to use the Sha from a young age. We need the rest of the population to follow.”
“I know. Seo-yun already has scheduled treatments for the Hand, the military, and the Fleet. But it will take time for everyone to go through them,” Tomas said.
“We have several facilities spread out through the Clans; when we start, it won’t be as long as Tomas thinks,” Seo-yun said.
“And what about you two? When will you do it?” Adrian asked.
Seo-yun turned to look at Tomas with a raised eyebrow in a gesture that told Adrian immediately that they had had this conversation many times. Tomas looked at her helplessly, then turned to Adrian.
“Seo-yun wants us to do it now, but I have convinced her that we should wait until after the Hand goes through them.”
“He’s scared,” she said pointedly.
“Of course I’m scared, I would be an idiot not to be. I didn’t survive so long and accomplish so much by ignoring my fears. I understand that I need to go through the treatments, and I will; I just need time to understand it better,” Tomas said.
“Well, there isn’t really anything to be afraid of. You might have difficulties at the start when you don’t know how to control the Sha, but you’ll learn fast,” Adrian said, and then stood up. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have other appointments to keep.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
One month later — February — Sanctuary
Adrian watched from the corner as Clara and Meifeng instructed a group of twenty Warpath adepts. They were teaching them control by making them levitate a single round object around them. About half of them managed to do it with at least some fluidity, although the orbits were erratic; the other half barely managed to keep them in the air, and theirs were moving in short, choppy bursts.
But this was a beginners’ class, and with only a month of training, the students had accomplished much. Adrian took a step forward, taking hold of the Sha as he walked. Both Clara and Mei knew that he was there; they had sensed his telepathic signature before he’d even walked inside the building since he wasn’t hiding it. But the students were too focused on their tasks to notice someone walking up to them from behind.
He reached out and grabbed all twenty balls, freezing them in place. Frowns and questions started coming from the students as they tried to move the balls. Adrian had only added his Sha on top of theirs, he didn’t try to interfere with theirs, so they still felt the connection with the balls, they just couldn’t move them. And they didn’t yet know how to feel the Sha outside of themselves. After a few seconds of them trying to move them, Adrian yanked them back towards himself. The balls flew past the students, making a few of them duck to avoid being hit; they couldn’t know that there wasn’t any chance of that happening.
The balls flew at Adrian and seamlessly settled into various orbits around him. By then, some of the students had noticed him and whispers started. He could hear some of it, “Lord Sentinel” being the most common words whispered. Adrian was still walking forward, the balls now spinning faster and faster around him, until he raised one hand and all of them shot a few meters in the air and froze there. Then slowly they lowered and started orbits around the students.
“Alright, that’s enough showing off,” Clara Bengtsdotter said.
Adrian grinned and pulled back, and the balls dropped to the floor.
“That’s it for today. We are meeting here tomorrow at first light,” Meifeng Zhao said, and the students started leaving the room. As they passed, they gave him shallow bows, and a few murmured, “Lord Sentinel.” He simply inclined his head in acknowledgment.
“Finally got the time to visit?” Clara asked as she stepped close enough to throw a punch at his shoulder.