After Prince Shay of the Water Lands returned from space with his bride and heir, Prince Magmus was well aware of the presence of the Mulgor in the trade routes between Draconia and Galaton.

It was left to him to go out into space to protect his bride. All the other princes were happily at home with their mates. It was Magmus's turn to finish this and put an end to the Mulgor's interference with their brides and their trade routes.

Since the princes had become aware of the Mulgor presence, all of Galaton had been preparing a military armada to combat them. The armada was finally complete and ready to travel through space to put an end to the threat.

Magmus was more concerned than ever about his bride. She had been traveling for several months now, and he had not been able to contact her.

The threat of his thrall was an ever-present danger. Even though his bride, Cora, was with child and using the synthesized DNA samples to simulate the mating ritual while in space, it could never actually compare with the real thing.

The only way to end the thrall was to claim her. And he would not be able to do that until they were in the same place.

Just thinking about her made his thrall more intense and more dangerous. He stood at the landing bay outside the Stone Fortress, preparing the army to depart for space. Magmus believed more than ever that it was necessary to open the Mating Lottery to the rest of the dragons on Galaton, but the other princes still refused.

Magmus knew that it was the right thing to do. It had to be done sooner rather than later. But the other princes insisted that he take out the Mulgor and bring home his own bride and heir before they opened the lottery. He understood the princes’ reasoning, but he knew the fighting had to end.

Of all of the princes on Galaton, Magmus had been involved with the trials by combat the longest. The rest of the princes’ brides had arrived and given them heirs now that Shay had returned.

It was only the Earth Lands where the battle still continued so heatedly. And now Magmus was going to space with his most loyal admirals, leaving the Earth Lands vulnerable to the aristocrats who remained behind.

The other princes agreed to send their own men to protect the Earth Lands in his absence. They had all done the same thing for each other before.

After so many years of battle, Magmus did not want to have to continue the fight. But he knew he had no choice.

He stepped up the entrance ramp of his space pod and strapped himself into his chair, preparing to leave Galaton. He flicked his hand across the control dashboard and the exit hatch closed.

With a flick of his finger, he started the engines. The space pod began to ascend into the sky. He'd left instructions with his most loyal servants and with the princes on how to maintain his lands.

Magmus knew that he was flying off into the unknown. There was no guarantee that he would come back to find his lands still his own.

He had to believe that he was doing the right thing. His bride was the most important thing to him now. Without her, he would die. None of it would matter then.

His family had ruled the Earth Lands for ten million years. But protecting his bride could justify losing all that his ancestors had built.

Without his bride he would die. The Mulgor still blocked the trade routes from Draconia to Galaton. None of the other dragons would find brides with the Mulgor still there.

Even if he lost the Earth Lands, he intended to make the path clear for all of the other dragons of Galaton. He could sacrifice his lands to ensure the continuation of his species.

His space pod shot sharply through the atmosphere and broke out on the other side, into the vastness of space. The stars twinkled in the distant galaxies as he approached the armada.

His pod docked in the mothership Super Nova, where Magmus would lead the crew through the long journey to their ultimate battle with the Mulgor.

Magmus had yet to speak with his bride Cora. Even the thought of her made his dragon restless in a way that was not productive. He longed for the day when he could freely think of his bride, not to mention touch her, hold her and kiss her.

As the exit hatch of the space pod slid open, Magmus forced all thoughts of Cora from his mind. He had to focus on the journey and the battle. Once they had confronted the Mulgor, he would decide how to proceed.

Prince Shay of the Water Lands was sure that he had taken out the main force of the Mulgor. Yet, there were still traces of their presence throughout the trade routes between Galaton and Draconia. Magmus did not intend to leave anything to chance. He wanted to wipe every trace of the Mulgor out of the galaxy forever.

He strode down the exit ramp, and into the docking bay of the mothership Supernova. He was greeted by the admirals, soldiers and technicians gathered in the docking bay.

"Greetings Prince Magmus," said Admiral Saka. "We are ready for launch."

"Very good," Magmus said.

He walked through the landing bay toward the command deck of the ship. The Supernova was the largest ship in the Galatonian armada. The command deck had a huge bank of windows that looked out onto space. It stretched out in front of the captain's chair.

"Captain on deck," Admiral Saka said.

Everyone in the command deck stood at attention for Magmus until he walked through the room and sat in the captain's chair.

Everyone sat at their spaces and the lead technician asked Magmus for his orders.

"Ready checks," Magmus said.

"We are ready for launch," the technician said.

"On my mark," Magmus said. "We enter warp speed. Three two one and away."

The ship jumped into warp speed and took them one step closer to his bride.

As soon as the armada jumped into the next solar system, they were confronted by Mulgor ships spread throughout the system.

A Mulgor mothership sat in the distance with smaller ships orbiting several planets. He couldn’t believe they had come so close to the Galatonian system.

The ship's computer analyzed the space around them, showing the data points on each of the ships that the Supernova located.

Magmus could see that there was a smaller ship orbiting the closest planet.

It was unheard of for the Mulgor to be so close to Galaton. This was an aggressive act of war.

Magmus was ready for the fight. He gave instructions to his crew to lock targets on the closest ship. As soon as they had their targets set, Magmus gave the order to open fire. The lasers shot through space, covering the distance between the Supernova and the smaller Mulgor ship. On contact, the ship exploded into millions of fragments.

The other smaller ships started toward the Supernova, shooting across the vast distance. Three more smaller jets opened fire on the armada but were quickly taken out.

Magmus gave the order to move in on the mothership close to the central sun. The Mulgor mothership sent out a swarm of smaller jets, which Magmus’s armada propelled out to meet. The smaller ships engaged.

His fleet was fast and fresh. Soon they had the Mulgor jets dispersed and retreating to the mothership. Magmus gave the order to chase them down.

They began to lock their guns on the mothership, targeting the command deck, the energy system, and the main hull. As soon as Magmus had targets on the mothership, it popped out of existence in a warp jump.

Magmus frowned. He knew what this meant. The Mulgor armada was moving toward his bride.