(Observation Cluster, IAS Spear of Urtu, Eiqin
Nebula, Ihm Imperium)
Empress Drez Dhiss Ihm VII rested easily against the scales
of her favorite broodsire. The heavily built Warrior-caste male was her
favorite toy, as well as being her main bodyguard. He had resisted being used
for her pleasure, of course. Proud warrior that he was, he didn’t wish to
simply become a pleasurable toy for anyone, even his Empress. But she had
broken him of that.
It hadn’t been that hard. All she needed to do was to ensure
that his family had been assigned to certain stations where there was high risk
of ‘accidents’ happening. It only took one accident, with his broodmother, for
him to understand his place. Still, even after he gave up his outright refusals,
he continued resisting, performing the act with the bare minimum of effort. Another
accident, this time involving his clutchmate, and he gave up the resistance.
She leaned back against his cool scales, enjoying his satisfying
bulk underneath her as they sprawled out on the luxurious resting pallet that filled
much of the space in the Observation Cluster of her personal warship. With a
slow stretch of her neck, she turned to look at the display nearby. The test was
getting ready to happen soon.
She had demanded to be on hand for the testing, but that did
not mean she had to be physically present for the tests themselves. There were
many reasons why the Empress was rarely seen in person, except by those at the
highest levels of the government, or her personal retainers. The main one that
mattered to her, of course, is that she did not wish to be bothered with the
lower-caste people’s troubles. They were not her concern, after all.
More appropriate to the situation at hand, however, was the
fact that her presence affected people. It went beyond her looks, subtly
sculpted from birth to be the ideal of any Ihm female. She was the leader of
the Imperium. She had the power to order the death of anyone she met, and it
would be carried out, without question. She could also vault someone into the
highest levels of the Imperium’s workings, whether they be social, military, or
administrative, with a simple wave of her fingers. Her mere whim could change a
person’s fate forever, or end it prematurely.
It was only natural, only right, then, that her people would
become nervous in her presence. Normally, she relished that thought, but there
was a time and a place for all things. And that time and place were most
certainly not during a significant test of unproven lesser-species
technology to try and replicate what the lesser species had done by accident.
It was one thing to let all know that she would be observing
the test, from her superdreadnought, the Spear of Urtu, but it was another
thing entirely to be in the same room as where the tests were being controlled.
While she was in the observation cluster, and would, naturally, have the tests
displayed for her when they were ready, the Science caste workers could still
focus on their work, and ensure that they properly carried out the test. If she
was there with them, however, then her presence alone would cause nervousness
in them. That would lead to them making mistakes, and even the smallest mistake,
when utilizing power on this magnitude, could be catastrophic.
That was also why the Spear of Urtu and the rest of the
First, Third, and Fifth Great Armadas of the Ihm Navy was on station a full
twenty light-minutes from the test site, which was in the center of the nebula.
If something were to go wrong, then the fleet would not be instantly caught up in
it. It would be very unfortunate for the crews of the science vessels nearer to
the remote-operated test machines, but she would be safe.
Of course, a side benefit to this arrangement was that she
didn’t actually have to bother with observing all the preceding steps, so long
as she was watching the end result. That left her plenty of time for other
pursuits, while she waited. Other, more pleasurable pursuits.
Reaching back behind her head, she stroked the scales of her
toy in that way she always did when it was time for him to perform. She felt
his scales shift as he recognized the signal, his body conditioned to respond,
even if his mind did not. That was fine. His body was enough for the moment.
It was good to be Empress.
(Command Cluster, IAS Glorious Truth, Eiqin Nebula, Ihm
Imperium)
Shipleader Chis Khos was nervous, as were the rest of her
crew. But that was only natural for circumstances like this. The Glorious
Truth was part of the Armada, but it was not a true warship. Instead, it
was a science vessel, designed to explore the reaches of the Imperium, and
conduct experiments under the guidelines of the Science caste to further the
Imperium’s understanding of the universe, and ensure that they remained a
lasting power in the galaxy.
Sure, their ship was armed, as any ship that went into
unknown places should be, but it was really only good for staving off pirate
vessels or vaporizing incoming debris. Even her tactical leader was from the
Science caste, rather than the Warrior caste. While she and the others had all
completed the training courses in simulations, in all the years she had been
the shipleader of this vessel, the amount of times that she had fired the Glorious
Truth’s armaments at anything more hostile than space debris could be
counted on the claws of one hand.
Unlike others in the Imperium, she did not subscribe to the
popular notion that the Ihm were inherently superior to the lesser races. Actually,
much of the Science caste were the same, though anyone who rose to a high level
always managed to conceal those feelings when dealing with one of the more
dogmatic castes. Really, it was just a simple, easily proven test. If the Ihm
were inherently superior to all others, why was their technology equivalent to
the others, and why had they not dominated all of Known Space?
The answer that the Science caste almost universally came to
was that they were not, in fact, inherently superior to the other species. They
could not afford to delude themselves with preconceptions and biases. If they did,
then they would miss truths and be blind to the reality of the world around
them. An experiment based upon faulty information would fail, at best, or, at
worst, give a conclusion that led only to disaster.
Which is why the science vessels typically acted
independently of the rest of the Ihm Great Armadas. It was not that either the
Science or the Warrior castes looked down upon the other, though some did see
things that way. Instead, it was the simple understanding that their castes
were suited for different ends. In the same way that the Builder caste would
not be asked to fight or conduct quantum physics experiments, but a Warrior or
Science caste would be… incredibly inefficient at building a starship from start
to finish. The castes had different priorities, in the end.
Of course, not all the castes were as… understanding as the
majority of the Warrior caste were. Warriors, after all, had to keep a clear knowledge
of not just their own capabilities, but also those of their enemies. The
Infiltrator Caste was also like that. It was unfortunate that the leadership of
those castes, long removed from the front lines, had forgotten those lessons. Much
of the Builder, Worker, and Administrator castes had never learned them to
begin with. And only a fool so much as mentioned the very idea around someone
from the Ruler caste!
So, when the Caste Leader of the Science Caste summoned her,
and told her that the Glorious Truth had been chosen to lead the team of
five science vessels that would be conducting an experiment ordered by High
Command, she was honored. When she learned the details of the experiment, and
what it aimed to achieve, she grew nervous. When she learned more about the
specifics of the experiment, she grew afraid. But when she found out that the
Empress herself was going to be watching the experiment take place? She was
terrified.
That all too rational fear had spread through the crews of
the science vessels like lightning. After all, this was the Empress, leader of
the Ruler caste. Her kind were the most dogmatic about Ihm superiority, after
all. Only the former Empress, who had been more moderate than most, was
anywhere close to accepting that the Ihm were not the supreme species. And she
had been killed by her own daughter, the current empress.
But, thankfully, the Empress was not on her ship, or any of
the science vessels. No, she was on her flagship, where she, and her crews,
didn’t have to think about her presence. At least, not until after the
experiment was done.
Chis took a moment to steady herself, as she watched her chief
science officer making the final preparations. Thinking about such things was
not productive. They had an experiment to conduct.
“Status report?”
The science officer looked up. “All is prepared, Shipleader.
The other vessels all report readiness. The linkages to the test ships are
holding firm, and the technicians have rigged the transition drives to overload
upon command.”
Chis nodded. “Very well. Communications, signal the Spear
of Urtu. Inform them that we are beginning final preparations, and will
begin the experiment momentarily. Then signal the other science vessels, and synchronize
our chronometers. We will begin the first phase in five minutes.”
The air on the Glorious Truth grew tense as the five-minute
clock wound down. Final preparations were made. Instruments were checked, and
rechecked. Safety interlocks were removed. And then, the clock clicked down to
zero.
“All ships, execute Test Procedure One!”
At the command from Shipleader Chis Khos, commands were
given from five science ships. Together, twelve captured Imperial Navy escort
vessels activated their transition drives, with the destination set by taking
the square root of -1 divided by 0, and promptly overloaded their drives,
pumping out a level of energy that was almost impossible to record. Time
stretched and warped in the area immediately around the ships, as what should have
been an instantaneous detonation stretched longer and longer, impossibly long.
“Ready Test Procedure Two. Execute on my mark. Three, two,
one, execute!”
Ten more ships, the first Ihm copies of the Imperial drives,
added their power to the mix. Though they were smaller, merely scout ships in
size, their engines were the same strength as the imperial corvettes and
frigates that had starred in the first procedure. The storm of energy
magnified, and then began to get directionality.
“Test Procedure Three, execute! Execute Test Procedures Four
through Seven in order, ten second intervals!”
Reality howled as the fabric of space was torn and shredded
without so much as a hint of an apology. Each group of ten craft forced the energies
to rotate faster and faster, first as a circle, then as a sphere, the energy
building up to the point where, even a light-minute away, the crews of the
science vessels could feel it pulling on them, down in their very bones.
“Shipleader, the energy storm is reaching critical levels!
It has started a cascade reaction within the nebula itself!”
“Cut the power!”
“Impossible, Shipleader! The test ships are all inside the event
horizon! We can’t reach them!”
“All ships pull back to the two light-minute mark!”
“Shipleader, look!”
(Eiqin Nebula, Ihm Imperium)
The swirling storm of energy reached critical mass. For a
moment, it was as though all of creation held still, as the energy storm collapsed
upon itself. And then, all hell broke loose, as a massive rift, the event
horizon of which stretched out with a radius of over four light minutes,
engulfed the nebula. Reality, in that space, was gone. In its place was a massive
portal into a realm that hurt the mind to even look at, where the shifting
lights and colors would make one mad to even conceive of them.
The massive rift that would become known as the Oculus
Deperandum, or the Eye of Despair, had opened.
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Be sure to read my published works!
Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):
Frozen Soul - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT
Tales of the Void Traveler - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37
Memoirs of a Supervillain - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R9NWS8J
Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy GameLit):
Volume 1 - Tutorial
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB
Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354XBook I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL
Omnibus I - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077X2KR7Y
City of Champions Online (Superhero GameLit):
Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1
Lewd Dungeon (Dungeon Core GameLit):
Book 1 - Welcome to the Apocalypse https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BB34DHF
Omnibus 1 - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FBPF6HR
SCI Stories (Dark Supervillain story):
Book 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RL93VQN
Winterborn (Dark Fantasy LitRPG):
Book 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082S3S3K8
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