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[Sorry Serina,] Bit said. [Putting me through the port played havoc with the power reserves back on Endor. The reports I'm getting estimate another five minutes before I they can send anyone else through. I've got Ailis, Tegan, Rey, Nadine, Iona, Hope, Effie, Anne, Lola, and Brogan on alert.]

[Thanks Bit,] I replied. [They are a good team. We will somehow manage to hold out that long.]

I swapped out with Dad, which gave both of us a breather as no one wanted to attack Dad once they saw how he treated those on the front line. "Dad, Lance, help is on the way. We need to hold out another five minutes."

"Roger that," Lance said.

Dad finished taking care of his current target, the sounds coming from him as he did so, terrified the guards in his door and they tried to back away, but the pressure behind them just kept forcing them into the room. Still, in that brief pause, Dad in his most polished English accent replied, "Certainly, anything for my darling daughter." Then with a growl, he pounced on the closest one.

It began as small disturbance at the back of the pack of guards. Then it looked more like a tsunami as guards got tossed like thistledown in a tornado. Ailis and her platoon all in light armor had arrived.

"Thanks for the rescue!" I said thinking of Bit as I told Ailis and her platoon. Ailis's, "No problem" sounded like an echo to Bit's [No problem.] Then Bit continued, [We have about a half hour until that fleet arrives.] [Roger that,] I responded.

"Dad?" I said to get his attention, "We have company upstairs in about a half hour" one carrier, presumably full of heavy armor troops. And a bunch of support ships."

"Ok, let me go check on what the admirals have in orbit, I'll be right back," as he dashed around the corner to the communications center in his suite. Ailis snapped, "Nadine, Brogan protect the emperor! They followed him out weapons at the ready.

I took advantage of the time to hug Lance first then worked my way around Ailis and her platoon, giving thank-you hugs to my kids and grandchildren. Dad had not yet reported back when Hope said, "Mom, there is something weird with this guard. You know that I was an optometrist back on earth?"

"Yes, dear, and what does that have to do with the guards?"

"Well, they are all wearing scleral lens. Now, why would anyone be wearing a contact lens in this day and age? From what I learned there is no reason for it."

Lance and I came over to the guard that Ailis was crouching over, while the rest of the platoon kept guard. "You should take out these lenses with a small suction cup, but I don't think she is going to care if I accidentally scratch her eye…" And Hope manipulated her eyelids until he managed to pop the lens out. Now a sclera lens is enormous, compared to a standard hard contact lens. But a tad smaller than a soft contact lens, as it rides on the whites of the eye, and this was no different. But when we saw the guard's eye, what we found was a startling blue eye with a vertical slit like a cats eye. While we have discovered some mutations as we have settled the stars, this was a new discovery.

I was dumbfounded at first and then said let's get her out of this uniform. What we found left us speechless. She had beautiful fur where her uniform would hide it, with four nipples equilaterally placed on her chest. "Ailis, I want four guards, two per door. I want the rest of your team to strip these guards. Let's see what we have found."

As Lance and I inspected the now naked guards, we found a pattern. They all had cat eyes, and they all had fur covering their bodies. It was a finely textured fur, about like Chinchilla's fur and similar in color, a beautiful grey to an almost white color. Their genitals also were somewhat like a cat's, but disturbingly more like a human's. The females had from two to six nipples on a flat chest buried in their fur. Their faces, except for their eyes, looked human and their bodies looked human, but they were not human.

I looked up to see Dad looking in amazement at the display of naked guards. Some were dead, others we had reinforced their lack of consciousness with a medit knock out shot. All of them had amazingly beautiful fur covering their bodies. If you looked closely, you could see where the fur had been shaved off to make them look human in those places their uniform did not conceal.

"Serina," Dad reported, "Our capital ships were drawn off by an emergency. I've called them back. All capital ships are a few hours flight time away, all that is local is a dozen cruisers and a lot of destroyers. Now would anyone care to tell me what is going on here?"

Lance interjected, "John, we think that this whole plan to kill you and take over the empire was an outside attack. We have never seen that mysterious regent that Sir James Rathsmor, the Duke of Paldonia, was talking to that time I overheard them on Carribia. This idea is taking a large jump into the unknown, but the odds are that Sir James was enticed by this other regent who in reality is a member of this new race. It is just a guess, but it is worth following up on this hunch. Let's send out an emergency alert to have everyone go to the shelters because of incoming hostile ships. As everyone is still in town for the changing of the guard ceremony we should be able to check almost everyone for fake eyes."

"Ok, I'll agree to that. Nadine, Brogan stay with me. I've got to go back to the communications center." And he turned and left, Nadine and Brogan following." One thing we knew for sure was that our children and their descendants were one hundred percent trustworthy. That gave us an edge.

Serina just started handing out orders, "Lance, you and Hope take Tegan, Rey, Iona, and Effie. I'll keep Lola and Anne with me. Nadine and Brogan will be here as soon as Dad finishes issuing the alert. Imp, you've been awfully quiet. Would you guide Lance to the shelters?"

Imp's voice sounding, very humble in my ears, issued from the desk console that Dad used to communicate with him. "Yes, your highness."

I was slightly ticked at that, so I sent [Imp, you pull that your highness stuff on me once more and I won't tell you any of our story from our trip back in time, you got me?]

[Yes, Jane…]

[No, call me Serina now. I have not been Jane for many decades my time.]

[Yes, Serina. I'll guide Lance down the emperor's private escape route. We will be there before anyone else could have arrived.]

[Cool, have you had a good look at how our enemy is disguising their eyes and could you detect these lenses?]

[Yes, Serina. I started to monitor as soon as you voiced your suspicions.]

[Ok, good. Tag your suspects, but otherwise, hands off until one of my children can get there. We are not taking any chances with this. If you find anyone, we want to gather not just them but their staff and families if they have any. They could be subverted, humans or disguised aliens. Either way, we want them in custody.]

[Understood, Serina.]

And Lance and his team left out the room's back door.