Empire of a Thousand Universes Ch. 08

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Chapter 8.
5.7k words
4.09
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3

Part 8 of the 8 part series

Updated 06/08/2023
Created 08/07/2016
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Life

The multiverse teemed with life, and not only the life man brought from Earth, but alien life in staggering numbers on millions of planets, and with such diversity that the definition of the word, life, had to be amended.

In the late twentieth century, when man was making his first footsteps on the Moon, we knew little of the stars and galaxies that twinkled above us in the night. The "cell phones" that people carried in their pockets fifty years later were infinitely more complex than the room-size supercomputers that enabled us to fly the Apollo missions.

In 1969 we knew of other planets in our solar system, other moons, but beyond that we were ignorant. Exoplanets and Black holes were still just in the realm of science fiction, never mind dark matter and dark energy.

Then, as our technology got better, our techniques got more sophisticated, our telescopes and radio telescopes became more exacting, we found our first black hole, and then our first exoplanet.

It came with some excitement in the astronomy field when the closest stars to our Sun, the three stars of the Centauri System, in particular, the B star, had not only an exoplanet that was approximately the size of Earth, but that it orbited in the so-called goldilocks zone where water can exist in liquid form.

The Earth then went near hysterical when in 2026 a probe sent to burrow under the ice sheets of Jupiter's moon, Europa, found not only the predicted ocean of liquid water but also life in the form of single-celled organisms that resembled bacteria.

These were small first steps, but they proved that life wasn't a miracle born on the third planet of a yellow dwarf star, on a remote branch of one of the billions of galaxies.

And though life was not omnipresent (it was inexplicably absent from worlds that seemed to have all the necessary prerequisites) it was none the less plentiful, a result no doubt of the sheer magnitude of the multi-verse.

If life was present on less than one percent of the exoplanets orbiting all the distant stars in the multiverse, the numbers of living worlds still mounted into the billions. Yet, what eighteenth-century philosophers called sentient life, not so much.

And though out in the unexplored parts of the multiverse there surely were other races that had traveled beyond their immediate solar system, we had at the time of this story contacted only eleven still in existence.

As to those Alien races, it was just lucky that the Multiverse was so huge. Because of its immensity, the races rarely came into contact with one another, and never had to fight over scarce resources.

In fact, most of the other Intelligent Races in the multiverse were so different in makeup and biological needs that communication was maybe not impossible, but totally impractical. It's hard enough to grasp the concept of an alien living on a gas-giant planet who's whole body structure is made up of gas, never mind "talk" to one.

Worlds that have shown evidence of past civilizations were also found, but life, even for vast civilizations, is not eternal. Many a bright light that had burned in the void for eons was snuffed out by some stupid, irrational, nonsensical breach of the law of self-preservation.

For it has been observed by some of the greatest minds that the prerequisite character trait for any creature to successfully emerge out of the primordial ooze, far more than intelligence, was aggression.

House Kleet

"LV-426 to Braxs tower," Heinrich said calling into the control tower.

"Go ahead LV-426," the tower answered back.

"Requesting a jump to our sister verse, and a return jump in exactly three hours. Over."

"Yes LV-426, you are cleared for a jump in wormhole 27 commencing at 1128 hours, with a return jump at 1428 hours."

"Roger tower, wormhole 27 at 1128 and 1428 hours. Thank you, tower. LV-426 over."

"Have a safe trip. Over."

The designation of Heinrich's ship, LV, stood for light vehicle, which was basically a two person scout ship. It was lightly armed and armored, but the benefit of that was that it was fast, and that was what Heinrich liked most about her.

Plus, she was a real sweet ride. The fact that she could be tasked with entering a planet's atmospheres made it necessary for her to be aerodynamic, and on account of it, beautiful. Her design was more like one of the jet-powered airships that flew in Earth's skies hundreds of years in the past.

Arrayed in House of Kleet's colors of red and yellow, she stood out like a sore thumb, but Heinrich had little to worry about in these two universes in terms of enemies, and so he kept his colors blazing.

This jump was into a solar system that was so close to his own home system, that if it wasn't in another universe, the two systems would occupy practically the same region in space, hence the name sister universe, or sister verse.

Heinrich flew his LV past the tower and to an area designated in space for his jump. It was lit up with a red circle in his HUD, and the circle would turn from red to green when the tower opened up the wormhole.

His LV was too small and too underpowered to open a wormhole on its own so he depended on the tower to open one for him. It would be the same on the way back to Braxs.

Presently, the hologram in his head turned from red to green and he could see a great vortex open in space. It was large enough to fit five LV' s, but that was the tower's intent, out of an overabundance of safety.

He powered up his ship and steered for the center of the green circle which indicated the doorway into the sister universe. The only illumination came from the ship's lights, but he didn't need to see much for the process was completely automated. The ship steered itself.

It would have to since any deviation in course would have caused the ship to rub against the walls of the wormhole and would cause instant disintegration of those parts that rubbed, and complete disintegration if the whole ship were to plow into the side of the vortex.

He was headed for a moon that was orbiting Vienna, the second planet from its star. It was a terrestrial planet that the Kleets considered a complete waste of resources.

The reason for their frustration and disgust was that it was a wonderful planet with liquid water and an oxygen atmosphere, but it had indigenous life, hence the oxygen atmosphere. Because of that indigenous life, it made the planet off limits to development. Who's to say that in a few million years some life form on that planet might not evolve into an intelligent being.

The life on that planet was sophisticated too, not intelligent life, but a diverse group, the largest of which had a peculiar resemblance to featherless birds, some of which grew to enormous sizes.

Apart from that planet, there was little of use in this system. Two gas giants orbited farther out in the system, and a few asteroid mining colonies were spread out here and there, but the only other terrestrial planet was a small one orbiting perilously close to its star, which made it impossible to inhabit.

It took less than a minute to jump into another universe, and soon Heinrich could see the star he was headed for, and then Vienna and its moon where he was to make his rendezvous.

On that rocky moon was presumably one of his agents, one who had disappeared some years back under mysterious circumstances.

The day before this agent had sent Heinrich a coded message asking for a meeting. Though he found the reemergence of this agent to be troubling, the message came through the right channels, and his asking for a meeting on this moon, far away from prying eyes, was protocol.

Still, it made the hair stand up on the back of his neck. Where had the agent been these last few years? Why was he surfacing now, and what information would he have forthcoming? He didn't like the look of it at all.

Still, the image of Vienna, the third planet with its blue oceans and white clouds, brought back fond memories for him. Though it was forbidden by Imperial mandate, and considered poaching, he had hunted on that planet numerous times, first with his father and then with his friends.

Being that he was tired and it was a long journey, he was soothed by the planet's colors as he approached, and he was starting to nod off when the ship's warnings started to sound.

"Proximity warning," barked the ship's female voice. "Unknown ship proceedings on an intercept course. Unknown ship is approaching at point two-five C. Estimated impact in six minutes, fifty-two seconds."

"Location?" Heinrich barked back.

"At eight o'clock off to port."

Before changing his course, Heinrich canted his ship so as to be able to see the intruder. This area of space, though normally empty, wasn't off limits, so this ship could be innocuous, but Heinrich was wary.

"Unknown ship changing course to continue on intercept," the ship's voice told him what he already assumed would happen.

"Ship type?" He asked

"Military vessel, corvette class. The unknown ship's shields are up and weapons appear to be armed and locked on target."

A corvette was big enough to disintegrate his LV without much trouble, and just fast enough to keep up with him, at least for a little while. Heinrich gritted his teeth and turned to run.

"Unknown ship is firing, take evasive action," the ship said without emotion.

Heinrich steered away from the corvette, and the energy weapon's beam passed by harmlessly, but in very close proximity.

Heinrich changed his course, and he headed for Vienna again. If he could get past the planet, he could use it, and then its moon, as a screen. Given enough time he could outrun this corvette, and maybe take refuge with an asteroid mining colony until it was time to jump back to Braxs.

"Unknown ship firing," his ship announced again. "Take evasive action."

"Ahhhh," Heinrich yelled and swerved his ship just in time to veer away from the energy beam. The weapons computer on that unknown ship was honing in on him.

"Unknown ship firing. This time with a wider spread. Take evasive action."

The corvette was winding down the choke on its weapon to spread the beam out. That reduced the strength of the beam, but it increased its chances of hitting Heinrich's LV.

Heinrich felt a stomach-churning lurch of his ship.

"Energy beam hit astern. Shields down to forty-seven percent. Unknown ship firing. Take evasive action."

"Fuck!" Heinrich yelled as he felt another lurch of the ship.

"Energy beam hit astern. Shield down to zero percent. Unknown ship..."

"Shut the fuck up," Heinrich yelled as he shut the volume off, but then yet another jolt hit the ship, and this time Heinrich knew it was serious.

"Mayday! Mayday! LV-426 calling Braxs Tower," Heinrich yelled out a message. Not one that would be heard at that moment, but later when the tower opened that wormhole he had requested. "I'm being attacked by an unknown corvette. I've been hit, and am ditching on Vienna."

He jettisoned his fuel, along with a module that would transmit his message, just when another blast hit him in the rear. He lost all controls, but at the time that was beside the point because he also lost all consciousness as the ship augured into Vienna's atmosphere.

A jolt woke him out of his stupor as Vienna's atmosphere shook his LV. He had no controls and he was accelerating towards the surface.

"Shift to manual control," he yelled to his ship. With that, an actual yoke, controls, and foot pedals extended from the dashboard. It had been a long time since he had trained with them, but in theory, he knew how they worked.

He grabbed a hold of the yoke, what they used to call the half steering wheel on planes, and put his foot on the pedals. He was relieved to find they had some functionality, but still, he was in a spin descending to the planet's rocky surface.

"Mmmmmph," he grunted as he pulled back on the yoke, and tried to level out the craft. Nothing seemed to work at first, but them he felt the spin slow down, and the nose of the LV began to ease up. He took that second to throw out a few air brakes, and the craft started to slow. He still had no power, so he was basically a glider, but at least he could come in for what he hoped would be a hard landing instead of a crash.

The only good part of this whole thing was that the corvette was too big and bulky to enter the atmosphere. It would have been suicide for the non-aerodynamic ship to enter the atmosphere. Hopefully, the corvette would assume he had crashed, though he might just yet.

The LV burst through the clouds and Heinrich saw nothing but ocean.

"Ah, shit!" He yelled. "I can't catch a break."

He leveled off the ship, gliding as best he could so that maybe he could find land.

"Computer, bring up a map of this planet, and see if there is any land close."

"Map appearing in your Troon now."

He was lucky. According to the map, one of the planet's continents was off to port. He just had to keep the nose of his LV up so that he could glide there. It would be tight, but he judged that he would make it.

He aimed the ship in the right direction, and though not a religious man, he said a prayer to the gods. When he got back to Braxs, he swore, he would erect a new temple to them, if he got back.

After about an hour of flight time he spotted the coast, and then a large beach stretched out on either side of him. That, he thought, would make an impromptu landing strip.

He steered his LV to starboard and towards some steep cliffs, but to port, the ground seemed to level off. That was where he planned to land, from starboard to port.

He did some more air braking, to decrease his speed, hovered for a while as he made his turn, and then started to descend. He was still coming in hot, and he was trying to keep his nose up so that he could use his flaps to slow down.

He figured it was better to come in without landing gear, and the beach was smooth and slick with little visible debris, so he thought he was lucky until he hit the ground.

He had no gauges, so he had to estimate his speed, and he estimated wrong. The ship hit, bounced, hit, and bounced again before it touched down and the LV slid down the beach some thousands of feet before coming to a complete stop, but not before the nose dug in and the stern of the ship lifted, but then slammed down again.

He was bruised and battered, but for the most part uninjured. He was truly luck.

After getting his breathing down, and his heart to stop pounding, he took off his flight helmet and screamed at the world. "What a fuckin' asshole I am!"

The Imperial Palace

Xho Shi's room was on the top floor of the tallest tower in all of the Palace, a place of honor. Even the Empress Dowager didn't have a room so high, but that might have been as much about her fear of heights.

From her balcony, Xho Shi could see all of Capital city and beyond to the dunes of the great dry desert. Unlike most people, she liked the desert. She thought it beautiful.

Lawrence of Arabia was once asked why he liked the desert, and he replied, "Because it's clean."

Xho Shi herself had never heard of the man, the little man who had had, after the war to end all wars, such a big hand in the forming the Middle East. For in Xho Shi's time, he was just a footnote in ancient history. But despite not knowing about him, she would have agreed with Lawrence sentiments.

Yet to those who have had first-hand knowledge of the desert, her glorified ideal was easy to cling to since she was several hundred meters above those dunes, with their blowing sands and biting flies.

As the sun set in the west, Xho Shi Sat on her air conditioned balcony enjoying a drink and jotting off several coded messages to her family.

She had to word those messages carefully, for though she had been encouraged by her family to pursue a relationship with a high-ranking member of the Aeollian Guard, a sexual relationship, no matter how productive, would have been frowned upon.

Well at least by everyone except her grandmother. In fact, her grandmother brought the subject up to Xho Shi when she was still in exile on her family's planet

"Those Palace guards yield incredible power," said the oldest matriarch in her family one morning. "If you want their help, you better find out who their leader is, and sleep with him."

"Grandma!" Xho Shi exclaimed, feigning embarrassment.

"Listen, dear, let's not be naive. If you're going to help your son, you'll need every advantage. You think I haven't done things for men to get my way?"

"Yes. That's exactly what I used to think. Now I'm not sure if I can handle this new vision of you, grandma."

"You'll get over it, dear. Now I'm serious. Your enemies won't play by the rules, so you'd be foolish to do so. Besides, maybe he will be handsome."

"Oh, grandma!"

"You're not getting any younger, Dear, and you're an Imperial concubine. Hopefully, since your son will soon be the Emperor, well let's face it, you'll be out of work."

Her grandmother didn't realize just how prophetic her comments would be, for not only was Xho Shi sleeping with the captain of the guards, but she was also fulfilling her role as Imperial concubine, and for of all people, but her own son.

The ironic part of the whole quandary was that she was using sex to control her son, and yet her relationship with the captain wasn't working out just how she imagined, and in fact was blossoming into something different. It excited and scared her all at the same time.

He had even introduced her to bondage, and at the time what really made her gasp was that she enjoyed it, she enjoyed being controlled by him. Even then, as she was writing a message to her father, she was thinking about him.

A few minutes later, as if the captain knew, she got a message from him in her Troon.

"Are you in your apartment?" The white letters were written across her HUD.

"Yes," she instantly sent back. She couldn't lie to him even if she wanted to. He had to have known her location since the Guard kept tight surveillance on everyone in the Palace and even some people who weren't in the Palace.

"Can I come in?" Those typed white letters across her HUD caused an erotic sensation in her groin. She didn't answer, she just rushed across her apartment to open the door, and there he was standing in the hall.

"Hello Captain," she said with as much dignity as she could muster.

"I apologize for my dropping in on you like this," he said with a businesslike air about him. "But we need to talk."

"Anything wrong?" She asked.

"Can I come in?"

"Of course," she said and stood aside for him. She couldn't believe how handsome he was in his uniform. She closed the door and they were in the foyer alone together.

"I do have to talk to you," he said as they walked together into her living quarters, "but the main reason I'm here is because I wanted to see you. Is that okay?"

She wanted to throw herself into his arms and scream, yes, but she controlled herself and simply smiled, blushed, and took his hand.

He reflexively smiled back at her, but he didn't stop there. He took her in his arms, pulling her close as she gasped.

"I don't know what to make of you," she said between kisses.

"Nor I, you. I have a terrible feeling that you are playing me the fool?"

"I know. We have to learn to trust each other."

"That will take some doing, I'm afraid." His smile did little to conceal a tentative boyishness.

She took his hand and walked him to the sofa, where they sat down. She looked at him long and hard before saying anything.

"You have to know, that when I approached you, how much risk I was taking?"

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