“I don’t think we should land normally,” Chase said.
Santa turned the sleigh slightly as they moved toward the station. “I know. I suspect that there are secret processes going on in this operation.”
Chase smiled. “You always seem to be a step ahead.”
“I was the most decorated general of the Vexillians during the Legion War. Also, the only one to survive it. I have to think tactically. Nova must have a secret operation searching for Drocha. He knows, just like me, that Drocha will have eyes and ears everywhere.” They dodged some space debris.
Chase nodded. “Drocha must have tapped into our resources long ago. Also, he got into our minds during the Ren Wear incident. His knowledge of us is scary to think of.”
“But he didn’t get to Nova, and that is what will save us.”
They had to dodge yet another bit of space debris. “Why didn’t we just zap in? You have the magic to do that.”
“I could, but an anti-teleportation field currently protects the station. I can get through it, but it would register my presence. I want to be certain Drocha doesn’t know I’m here. This sleigh is impossible to trace, even with Legion tech. Now...” he pulled the sleigh into a hard curve to avoid an orbiting telecommunication satellite. “Where is Nova?”
“He’s in his special quarters. I don’t know how we’ll get in though.”
Santa smiled with a twinkle in his eye. “The same way I can get into any home I want at Christmas.” He touched the side of his nose and they sped up with a magical blast. The sleigh, reindeer, and occupants all turned into smoke for a moment.
Chase gasped a breath and found herself sitting in the sleigh in the middle of Nova’s quarters. In fact, the sleigh and reindeer were taking up a sizable portion of the quarters.
Nova, holding the baby, frowned at them. “Did you have to bring the whole sleigh?”
Santa jumped down and helped Chase out of the sleigh. “It was the only way.”
Nova, giving a side eye at one of the magical reindeer, said, “Now that you’re here, I will need to brief you on what I have planned.”
Santa said, “I didn’t come here because you summoned me; I came because I have information for you.”
“What is it?” Nova paused immediately concerned. It wasn’t often Santa came to him with vital information.
Santa said, “When it was revealed that Drocha was behind all this, I knew it was time for me to return to the fray. I abandoned my hopes of retirement and simply being Father Christmas. I was about to come and join BADGE in their efforts against him, but something strange happened.”
Chase said, “The Ren Wear incident?”
“No.” Santa pulled out a seat and sat down. “It was before that happened. Drocha is reestablishing Legion. He is using this world to do so. However, on this planet are people who he would certainly need to pay attention to, if only to monitor. EB and I are the only surviving members of the Legion attack on Vexillia, and I was the primary general who fought them. We would have special knowledge of their tech, their tactics, and more. Yet, he paid us no special attention. I used all my magic and resources to prevent any spying at the North Pole. It was utterly clear. Still is. When I returned, I expected something to be there, and yet it remains untouched.”
Nova frowned. “That doesn’t seem logical.”
“My thoughts exactly.” Santa sat back and said, “I wondered about something — a rumor that we heard on Vexillia over seven centuries ago. So, I left Earth and went back to our homeworld system.”
“What did you find?” Nova asked.
“Nothing’s changed. The planet is still destroyed, and a ring of rock and dirt, which are the remains of our once proud world, still orbits our sun. I wasn’t sure what I would find to prove my theory. Then, a few days ago, something odd happened. I picked up a signal from Earth.”
“What?” Nova asked.
Santa said, “We knew Legion had a power struggle before they attacked us. In fact, most spacefaring civilizations were hoping their internal struggle would end them. Unfortunately, their fight ended, and they continued on under Emperor Krul. However, it was their former leader that I didn’t know about until now. Rumor had it that they executed a man in a creative way so Krul could take power.”
Chase asked, “What does this have to do with Drocha being a clone?”
Santa said, “What I found was that before the internal struggle, Drocha was the leader of Legion. He was tired of their simply challenging worlds; he wanted to rule them. He wanted to spread his rule across the galaxy as the supreme leader. He had a plan to create god-like generals under his authority, replacing the warriors of Legion. What that means exactly, I didn’t find. What I learned is that he began a cloning process to create generals who would be powerful and absolutely obedient. They were all clones of him.”
“This is one of them?” Nova asked.
“Yes, but it is more complicated than that. You see, Legion opposed his idea of supplanting the Legion Generals with clones of him. Thus, they rebelled before the cloning process concluded. They overthrew him, and one of their most powerful generals used a time power to send Drocha into a time vortex. He was thrown outside of time, most likely reentering time far in the distant future.”
Nova said, “Sadly, we’ve already met that Drocha when he tried to compress time in the World Corps incident.”
Santa said, “Legion destroyed all the cloning chambers, save one. Drocha had one last clone, the original clone he was experimenting on to perfect the process. It was inside a cloning chamber that was shut down. But Legion Tech is powerful, and he survived all these centuries. Either on purpose, or purely by accident, when the Drocha from the future arrived and caused the World Corps incident, he activated the Legion Tech. The clone finished and exited. Why he focused on Earth, I don’t know. What I know is that he would have no knowledge of the Vexillian war, and thus not know about myself or EB, or the others that survived.”
“Which is why he completely ignored you.” Nova said.
“Precisely.” Santa nodded. “This Clone has used the knowledge of cloning and mutation that his creator programmed into him. He has an insatiable desire for power, a strange hatred of Earth, and the technical brilliance of Legion tech, which he is using to mutate specimens into his new Legion.”
“Then we must stop him before he finishes,” Nova said. “We must find him.”
“There is one more thing.” Santa pulled out an odd-looking computer device with Vexillian text blinking on it. “The Legion ship I was on wasn’t his birthplace. It was just a wreck from the war. Drocha has a command cruiser, where this clone came from. It is powerful, massive, and on autopilot. The ship is heading toward Earth right now.”
“We will blow it out of the system the moment it arrives.” Chase said.
Santa shook his head. “Legion’s most powerful forces fought against him in that ship, and the ship survived. The ship was designed to respond only to one person, Drocha. They didn’t destroy it because they couldn’t; they simply left it adrift... until recently, when it heard its master’s call.”
“I still don’t understand why he hasn’t unleashed his power here.” Nova said, rocking the baby in his arms. “Why call on a command ship? The Renn Tech incident severely hurt Earth. His new mutated forces would be far too strong for us to handle as it is right now.”
“I don’t know,” Santa said. “Drocha was a master tactician, but his clone is something entirely different. This could be a plan, or this could be a miscalculation. Right now, we have a lot to deal with.”
“Right now, I...”
Chase’s comm unit beeped at her. “Chase here?”
Gar’s voice came through. “Tell Nova we have a problem. One of the spheres just opened.”
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