On a space station above Solarian Alpha, Liluth Solar, first princess of the Solarian kingdom, sat within a sealed chamber of her own making while she watched several newsfeeds on holographic screens outside the chamber.
As she watched the story on most of the news feeds, they suddenly changed for no apparent reason, and some of them even mentioned that the Phoenix races' national celebration was today.
Liluth smiled as she saw this before leaving the chamber and going to get an update on the progress of Project T.
Oh, the planet Fenix Nest, a ceremony was taking place at the location where Spector had crashed, which was once a war zone, but now flourished with life that surrounded two enormous statues of a mech and a dragon.
Before the two statues was a raised platform that several individuals stood upon while tens of thousands more individuals looked up at the platform from the ground below and waited.
Finally, a beautiful woman wearing a long red-gold dress and a crown made of phoenix feathers stepped up to address the gathered crowd.
"On this day, two thousand, two-hundred and seventy-five years ago, our race faced extinction from a Hepolisk invasion fleet.
We were severely outnumbered because most of our race had been killed in the Phoenix hunts.
In our darkest hour, when all hope seemed lost, they arrived.
The black knight and the white dragon, whose statues are here behind me, were made in their image.
While the black knight aided our forces in space and single-handedly destroyed the Hepolisk communication jamming ship and capital ship, leading their fleet, the white dragon fought beside me and my squad down here on the homeworld's surface and aided us in stopping the siege of Pyro City.
On this day, we not only mourn our dead from that period in our history, including my own father, the late emperor. But we also give our thanks to the black knight and white dragon who came and saved our race from extinction, only to leave shortly after and ask nothing of us in return.
One of my first acts when I became empress was to make this day a national holiday for all the Phoenix race, so please eat, drink, laugh and sing to your hearts' content, for today we remember our honoured dead and the two that saved our entire race."
As Empress Revi finished speaking and left the stage, the crowd cheered before making their way towards large booths that had been set up to give out different types of food and drink for free.
A band soon climbed up onto the stage and started playing music for all to hear.
"Well done as always, empress." A male Phoenix said as he approached Revi.
"Thank you, minister, but my speech hasn't changed much since we first started this celebration," Revi replied.
"That's because what you say is of great importance to our people."
"Many of the young don't see it that way; they care little for our past and what we went through," Revi replied with a sigh.
"Well, I imagine it is hard for them to understand what it was like for us back then, and how truly close to extinction our race came when they didn't personally experience it."
"I suppose you are right."
"Speaking of the young, have you heard that your goddaughter ran away?" The minister suddenly asked with a smirk.
"Tephe?" Revi replied curiously and smiled warmly at the mention of her.
"Yes, apparently she ran off to the Terran homeworld to attend their celebration because Diva Lorelie would be performing there."
"So it's finally time," Revi whispered with a warm smile while she gazed upon the two statues.
"Pardon, empress?"
"Don't worry," Revi replied just as a notification came from her uniband.
As she looked, she saw it was an advert for a streamer called S.P.E.C.T.O.R.
This slightly surprised her as she had made it so that only those in her contact list could call or message her.
Curious, she opened the stream and her eyes widened in surprise as she recognised the two individuals shown.
The first was her own goddaughter Tephe, whom she had seen only the other week. While the second was someone she had been waiting to meet again for over two thousand years.
"Twelve lifetimes and this is how you tell me you're back," Revi grumbled with a frown; however, anyone who paid attention to her would notice that her eyes sparkled.
Just as she was about to send a message and complain, the stream suddenly ended.
"What!" She gasped in shock before saying in an annoyed tone, "You make me wait so long to see you again, only to deny me straight away? Damn you."
The minister looked at Empress Revi with confusion and surprise as he had never seen her act this way before.
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A moment after Spector vanished from Oceana Seven space station, it reemerged in the exact same spot as if it had never left.
[Whostolemyduck (Earth): What was that?]
[Prestigious3horns (Vinox 2): It looked like the ship vanished only to reappear an instant later.]
[DeverinianLordMalacoss (Deverinian 9): That was most peculiar.]
[Handsome3horns (Vinox 2): I guess that unknown energy was nothing serious.]
[[Mission complete]]
[[Ending stream]]
The stream suddenly ended, surprising the chat and making them discuss it.
[Noobkiller9000 (Earth): It ended just like that?]
[MercheadAnderson (Palaxia): That's got to be the shortest stream ever, it wasn't even 10 minutes.]
[Lizziethetruepower (Palalxia): Well, the mission was only to survive]
[MercheadAnderson (Palaxia): Ok, sure, but it's not like the stream mission hasn't changed before.]
[Lizziethetruepower (Palalxia): True.]
[Tessisdabest (Imperial Down): I wonder why? Maybe it has something to do with how his ship vanished and reappeared.]
In the hangar bay, Adam and Tephe felt a slight jolt from Spector that was nowhere near the same as when they had been thrown off their feet earlier.
"We have successfully returned to Universal Year 3247 and are once again docked at Oceana Seven space station, docking bay sixty-nine," Spector announced.
"That's it? I was expecting to be almost thrown off my feet again." Tephe remarked.
"I was able to calculate a way to make the return trip more stable," Spector explained.
"So what's changed?" Adam asked with slight concern.
"Scanning the universal subspace network."
"Scanning complete."
"Apart from a few minor changes that aren't worth mentioning, there are only two real major changes.
First, the Phoenix race still exists in this timeline and has once again flourished in numbers while their homeworld of Fenix Nest is no longer a lifeless rock but full of life."
"That's great," Tephe replied happily.
"Secondly, both the Phoenix race and Hepolisk race are still members of the universal senate."
"That's not great," Tephe said with a frown before asking, "I can understand the Phoenix race since they are no longer extinct. But why those damn Hepolisks when they almost committed genocide?"
"It would seem that the punishment they received for their actions did not warrant full dismissal from the universal senate," Spector explained.
"That's rather strange, isn't it? I mean, they did almost commit genocide." Adam asked with a frown.
"Indeed, it seems several races stepped forward and pleaded for the Hepolisks to receive a lighter punishment."
"Fucking politics, this is why I leave that to mum." Tephe cursed in annoyance.
"Haha." Adam laughed before asking, "Are there any other unidentified energies that we need to be concerned about?"
"Nothing at present," Spector replied.
"Then I guess we should get back to the others, they're probably waiting on your delivery of chocolate ice cream."
"Oh yeah, let's go," Tephe said happily as she led the way towards the mess hall and looked forward to eating more chocolate ice cream."
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"What do you mean they can't find him?" Empress Victoria asked the holographic screen before her that showed her grandfather.
"It's as I said, when our people arrived at both his home and office, they found that Admiral Dexter was nowhere to be found." Michael Ororis replied before continuing, "Judging by the mess he left at his house, he left in a hurry.
"Someone tipped him off?" Victoria asked with an annoyed look.
"That's most likely the case."
"Damn it," Victoria cursed before asking, "so what now?"
"Now you work on rebuilding the imperial family's trust with the citizens while we continue our investigation into who the traitor is in the family."
"You're giving up on Dexter?"
"Not at all, I have people trying to ascertain where he went; however, for now, we are better off focusing on things we can do."
"You're right, though, honestly, part of me thinks it would be better to replace Daniel."
"With who? My grandson Steven is not ready or mature enough, and Tessa has no interest in the throne."
"Honestly, that's why Tessa would be the best fit, because she has no desire to rule. She would most likely make a fine empress, just like Phoenix Empress Revi, unfortunately, as you said, she has no interest."
"Sometimes the best person to rule or lead is the one who desires it least; after all, the greatest leaders in history aren't those who have been given it, nor are they those who have seized it themselves. It is those who had it thrust upon them and were forced to take up the mantle, even when they didn't want it."