(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.
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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.