He didn’t believe her for a second.

  Once they got what they wanted, she’d want them dead. Not that he’d take the deal. He worried for a moment their contingency plan wouldn’t be enough, but he’d be damned if he’d ignore this betrayal. It looked like this was it. His decision was made, for good or ill.

  He went into the shield systems on the carrier, and disabled the safeties.

  “Now Dahlia, Chrystal.”

  He pumped energy into the shields to overload the system. It was something he’d never do normally, but this was a special case. The shields made it all the way up to one hundred forty percent of the rated output before the fields lost containment, and a globe of energy exploded outward from the one-mile-long carrier ship, as the carrier itself exploded in a ball of fire.

  The energy dissipated quickly of course, the energy wave in an expanding globe quickly weakened.

  Still, just over six thousand Canosian fighters were within a light second of the explosion, they were all destroyed. The ships past that were able to absorb the energy wave that rolled over them with their own shields.

  Shirilla stared at him in shock, and he smiled grimly.

  Chapter Thirty

  Shirilla squawked in outrage.

  “How are you not dead!”

  He answered as the thousand small destroyer ships surrounding her fleet de-cloaked.

  “We all moved to our real fleet this morning, in transit to the first world we stopped in the void between stars. We feared this betrayal today, and planned for it.”

  The upper two levels on a destroyer was the same, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling that the bridge felt different. He supposed it was in his head. But this is the plan he’d come up with, and it wasn’t hard to implement. The Canosians had a habit of constantly leaving him behind, so creating a hundred stealth ships at a time hadn’t been an issue before they caught up.

  What else he’d planned for was only facing twenty-five to one odds, not seventy-five to one, or at least, sixty-nine to one with six thousand of their vessels already toasted. He hadn’t counted on two more city carriers to fight. As far as the thousand ships, they were all being commanded remotely, by the Mirosian troops sent home weeks ago, via virtual reality interface. Well, all of them except for theirs.

  Still, it was far too late to make two thousand more ships, especially since none of the new destroyers had the matter-energy converters on them, only their destroyer did. He’d planned to leave this new fleet as the guardian of the twenty Kascorix worlds, nineteen now.

  Point was, he wasn’t nearly as confident with the higher odds. Seventy-five ships could easily take one of his destroyers. Then again, they wouldn’t fight like the Kascorix, and had no trouble firing while under retreat. A lot of Canosian fighters would die, they might even win.

  “Land your ships Shirilla, and go home. We’ve taken out the threat, and they will be confined. Push this and attack, and we will destroy you.”

  He highly doubted she would, he needed more…

  Damn, he did have more ships.

  “Chrystal, launch all shuttles, and make a screen in front of us.”

  Chrystal said, “I can’t control twenty thousand shuttles.”

  He laughed, “I know that love. No, but you can program them all with coordinates in seconds, and use them as a mine field. Give them a one light second separation, and use them as mines, just like we used the carrier. We won’t get them all that way, but I’d bet we could get half, maybe more. That might be enough to tip the odds in our favor. The Canosians also don’t know our limitations, all they’ll see is the odds going from sixty-nine to one, to just under seven to one. A bluff to make them back off and go home.”

  Chrystal froze, and must have dropped her perception filters, because less than two seconds later she looked normal again, and all twenty shuttles, from all one thousand destroyers, launched.

  Shirilla ruffled her feathers, “This won’t be the end of this.”

  He frowned, he’d been almost sure they would attack, despite the bluff. Did this mean she intended to leave? He had a sudden urge to attack, the bitch had just tried to kill fifty ships worth of people, and destroy him. That there were no living beings anywhere in that fleet was beside the point.

  Wasn’t it?

  The problem was, Chrystal couldn’t control the shuttles except as stationary subspace mines. If they moved to attack, those shuttles would be out of the picture, and they’d be overwhelmed.

  “Perhaps not, but you should decide if you really want to pursue this. We’ll be leaving ships behind to guard, but you don’t know where my galaxy is. I am one man, do you really want to find the galactic empire I belong too? Especially when we are not conquerors.”

  He had a feeling he was wasting his breath. They’d never believe that his empire wouldn’t conquer them or find them eventually. Still, there would be no war today, unless she pushed it and attacked. One day, it would come to war. Just not today.

  She cut the signal and disappeared from the hologram, and the three carriers, and thousands of fighters, all disappeared into subspace.

  Chrystal said, “Tracking them on over five thousand vectors. How much you want to bet none of them lead toward their galaxy, whichever one that is.”

  He snorted, “I won’t take that bet. Land the shuttles. Assign fifty ships to each of the nineteen living worlds, send the extras that were slated for this planet home as a gift for Mars defense since we lost the original fleet. Make sure they aren’t followed.”

  Chrystal asked, “We’re going?”

  He sighed, “Not quite yet, you have some building to do. Fifty ships isn’t enough to stop the Canosians if they get serious. I doubt three carriers is the extent of their fleet.”

  Chrystal asked, “So what are we going to do?”

  He frowned, “I’m going to design stealth mines, and you’re going to build a whole lot of them. Good news, they should be very small, the size of a basketball.”

  Chrystal nodded, “And then?”

  He smiled, “And then we go home love.”

  He still wondered if he’d made a mistake. Maybe they shouldn’t have come out here, maybe they should have just stayed defensive. Then again, they’d saved a lot of lives. Plus, he managed to fall in love with, and gain the love, of three very special women, not to mention his friendship with Dahlia. It was a selfish thought to feel better about being out here, but true enough.

  Still, he couldn’t wait to get back to the Milky Way, and get started on the stuff he wanted to do…

  Afterword:

  I hope you enjoyed the story. This was the second book of three for Mike Stedman. I tried to stop in a good place, without any major cliffhangers. Hope I did well. Book three will focus closer to home, and on all the small threads I’ve created there but haven’t resolved or even addressed with the Kascorix thing going on, plus more.

  If you can, please take the time to leave a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads.

  About the Author: If you have any comments or suggestions you can send me an email at magicwrtr@gmail.com. I started out posting short stories online and at readers’ requests started to publish them. If you like my work, or even if you don’t, please consider leaving a review of this book.

  Other erotic fantasies by D. R. Rosier:

  Cirenthian Chronicles – Book one is Out of Darkness.

  Marcus, an ancient vampire, finds himself moved to another world where suddenly he is alive again, and magic is a known and powerful danger. No longer a vampire and dealing with emotions he hasn’t felt in over a millennium, will he be able to start a new life? This series is now complete.

  Necromancer Chronicles – Book one is The Necromancer.

  Vincent is a necromancer and has an even darker secret. Feared by the rest of the supernatural community he lives on his own, often struggling with his powers, and how to use them. But change is coming, and he will soon find himself dragged into the middle of a suspicious and untrusting community.

  Anise is a sorceress, but she has secrets of her own. She is an ancient being, who has walked the earth for time immemorial. She lives in a never ending cycle of life, forever watching those she dares to care about age and die. But she is about to find something new that will offer her hope, if she can live long enough to find it.

  Cytherean Chronicles – Book one is Flame of Cytherea.

  This two book series follows the chosen champion of a goddess, brought to her world and healed after he was mortally wounded on Earth. At first Justin is a little lost, not knowing anything about the world he finds himself in or even why he is there.

  Ashley’s Tale – This two book series follows the tale of a woman with unique parentage in a world greatly different from our own Earth. It is twenty-five years in the future, and the supernatural have long since been exposed. Ashley must struggle with her conflicting nature to find a balance, and her hidden power, as she is taken unwillingly into an extraordinary destiny.

  Ashley’s Daughters – This three book trilogy is about Ashley’s three daughters. It’s about a new world of dragons, and a second new world of human mages and all the fallout involved. Of course, it’s also about them finding love, and their place in the worlds. It starts about twenty-eight years after the end of Ashley’s tale.

  Sentient – This is the standalone book following an artificial intelligence from an advanced race, a man who comes back from war a little broken, along with diverse others as the Earth itself is put into danger as they are dragged into an interstellar war against their will.

  Sentient: Evolution – This is a sequel to the stand alone book Sentient. It takes place a thousand years later, when Aide finds herself alone and broken, yet still following her programming. Others join her as a new menace approaches, one that makes the Sthellan look like a great neighbor in comparison.

  Will Aide be able to recover and rise to a new challenge? She’s been alive too long, she must either evolve, or wither away, if only she could bring herself to care…

  More books and series can be found on my author’s page at amazon.com/author/drrosier

  The Dragon Slayer and the… This is a series of novelettes in a unique world, each story will be different characters with HEA endings. These will be about eighty pages long and priced appropriately. The first book, The Dragon Slayer and the Princess, is now available:

  Sir Lance Spears, Baron, knight dragon hunter, has been hunting dragons for ten years. It’s what he’s dedicated his life too, eradicating the dragons that destroy human villages and see humans as prey.

  He’s also been alone for ten years, and tired of the women of the peerage that see nothing of him, only of his titles and money. Not to mention, they all play the courtly game and faint at his feet. That’s not what he wants. He wants a challenging intelligent woman who will help make life interesting.

  He should have been more careful about what he wished for, as his life is about to become very complicated as nothing seems to make sense about his next dragon hunt. It doesn’t fit in his world view as he enters a neighboring kingdom to help slay a dragon. He’s not sure what’s going on, and he also can’t get a certain princess with fiery eyes and attitude out of his head either. He better figure it out though, or he could lose everything… including his life.

  Return of Magic - This epic fantasy series follows Katie Merlin’s successor, and diverse others as magic reemerges in our world in response to a dire threat. The government is in tatters, technology stops working, and most of the world’s population is dead. A new era for mankind has started, and they must share it with other races, such as elves and dragons.

  Melody Smith Novels – This is an urban fantasy that follows Melody Smith, a siren with hidden depths.

  Melody Smith is a siren. It isn’t an easy life, most of the people around her are affected by her mere presence, and she has very few true friends in her life. Her love life is a disaster, and her boss and guardian, Brent, has been keeping secrets.

  She’s about to find out she can become more than she ever would have guessed, if she can survive.

  Shawn Moore Novels – This trilogy is an urban fantasy that follows a warlock named Shawn Moore

  Shawn is a young man down on his luck, living in the streets. He isn’t lazy, it’s just for some reason people don’t like to be around him, and even fear him to a certain extent. They’d always had.

  His life is about to change though, as a man named Ben tells him he had an uncle, an uncle that died and left him an estate. He isn’t sure he buys it, and has no idea he’ll soon be fighting for his very life.

  Not to mention, fighting for his soul.

  Ted Stedman Novels – This series is a mashup of litrpg, sci-fi, and other things. The first title in this series is Ted Online:

  Ted Stedman had a pretty good life so far. He’s forty-three years old, and still in good shape when something at work happens to put him in wheelchair. He finds his life is over, or at least the one he’d always known. That is, until a research doctor at his own company walks into his hospital room, and offers him a deal that seems too good to be true.

  Join Ted as he enters a fully immersive online world, and finds that everything isn’t quite how he imagined it to be. He’ll have his new virtual life, access to the real world, and a game world to explore as well. As if three worlds to keep straight wasn’t complicated enough, he has even more surprises coming his way.

  Mike Stedman Novels – This series is erotic sci-fi space opera. The first title in the series is Invasion:

  Mike Stedman is unique. Not human. Not A.I.

  He’s both.

  He’s got himself a new ship to explore the stars that rivaled anything in the A.I. or Xaran fleets, a new position he never expected, and problems dropped into his lap that he didn’t see coming.

  He wasn’t ready for it, he wanted to explore who he was, and the galaxy with his ship and companion Chrystal.

  Then the biggest surprise of all, invasion. Worse, the Xaran empire’s technology isn’t up to the task, he needs to step up, and step up big.

  Non-erotic Fantasy titles:

  amazon.com/author/dlharrison

  The Formerly Dark Mage, by D. L. Harrison – This standalone fantasy book follows the life of Silvia and takes place in a world unique and separate to our own.

  Silvia is a dark mage. Unfortunately, she finds herself about to be sacrificed. Someone must have told her evil master about her plans to kill him and take over. After that, things just seem to go downhill. She has no choice but to escape the kingdom of Zual, something that to her knowledge has never been done before. She will need to deal with many issues she never had to face before.

  Among those issues, the white mages, and her conscience.

  The Rise of a Dark Mage - This stand-alone fantasy book follows the life of Cassandra, it takes place in the same world as The Formerly Dark Mage, but happens three hundred years later, long after Silvia is gone and some shocking changes have taken place in the world.

  Cassandra is a dark mage in the kingdom of Zual, she’s also a mage prodigy.

  She hates both her kingdom, and her master. She wants him dead, not to take his place, but so she can leave and explore the world. Her ambition will drive her to rediscover the secrets of the strongest of magic.

  She is determined to succeed, or she’ll die trying.

  Celia Winters Novels, by D. L. Harrison – This is an urban fantasy series. Celia is a witch who finds out she is so much more in the first book, Witch’s Moon. There are no cliffhangers, and each book will be complete in itself, though because of character development and the timeline I’d recommend reading them in order.

  Just a Psychic: The Power of Air Book One, by D. L. Harrison starts off this series of a man who comes into powers he knows nothing about, and tries to both handle the present difficulties and find out about his past.

  Ben has grown up with missing memories of his early childhood.

  He has known he was a psychic since his earliest memories, seeing the future and gaining knowledge with his gifts.

  Is it possible he isn't just a psychic?

  Ben's world is about to be turned upside down as he turns twenty-one, all is not as it seems.

  Alicia Jones novels, by D. L. Harrison is a series that follows a bright young inventor and scientist named Alicia Jones. It is a space opera and light science fiction.

  The first book is titled First Contact:

  Alicia Jones is a genius, and a little odd. At just twenty-three years of age, she is close to finishing her doctoral dissertation. But when she tests her latest theory in the lab to generate a strong EM field, it has very unanticipated results. Results that lead to faster than light travel, and first contact with another race.

  Her life just gets more complicated after that, when she finds out who she really is, and that the universe may not be as nice a place as she’d been told. Her determination to help keep Earth safe takes her to places more dangerous and strange than she’d ever envisioned.

  Spirit Sorceress series, by D. L. Harrison is a new urban fantasy series. Miku is a spirit sorceress who spent the last one hundred years growing up and learning about her power in the forests near Seattle Washington. She’s about to make her debut in the big city, but not in a way she ever expected.

  The first book is titled Spirit Sorceress:

  Miku is a spirit sorceress who spent her unusually long childhood in the forest away from the city with her mother and father. After tragedy strikes, she finds herself alone and on her own. She knows that one day she’ll need to move to Seattle, and fully accept her birthright, and if necessary finish her training on her own.

  But before she’s ready, and still in grieving, a rogue vampire and his band come along and change everything. She’ll need to learn her new place in the world, and find some allies quick if she’s to survive.