Chapter Thirteen

  History Lesson One

  Nellie walked out of Yellow Iris with a definite spring in her step. The addition of a new, possibly unique, way to traverse the universe was the first real advantage the Imperium had over what she considered to be the real enemy.

  The I.E.S.

  The people who had abducted her from Earth and dumped her in the middle of nowhere to die a cold, miserable death. As long as they existed, Nellie would never consider her people, or herself, safe. The Imperial Line, the Confeds, the Sagacity, or anyone else were merely threats. The Interstellar Exploratory Service was the enemy.

  Stepping out of the iris was the first time that she had ever felt like she was edging a lead over the bastards, and it made her more than a little hungry for more.

  The changes that had started with the fall of the Yellow Segment to her forces had finished while they were collecting the team, and it was impressive, to say the least.

  Across all three levels of the Museum, the columns of stone had fallen away to reveal displays inside. The thick crystal had turned transparent, revealing the creatures and people inside like insects trapped in amber. Additionally, the blank counters and pedestals had split open, raising artifacts into the light that were as intricate and strange as they were ancient.

  Some were truly ancient, showing the kind of basic tools and bowls that you would expect to see in a display of Earth’s Iron Age. As she looked around, it looked like everything you could expect.

  Was this place really a museum, along with whatever else it was? Until now, Nellie has assumed the name was more of a mistranslation than anything else.

  Walking the rows and displays, Nellie started to get a bit of a feel for the society on show. To an almost startling extent, they had followed a similar path through the earliest parts of their history. The metal looked a little different, the petrified wood a different shade, and the decorations featured animals she could not quite recognize, but otherwise… pretty similar.

  There were furlined cloaks and hatchets to chop wood. The basics, in other words. Everyone felt the cold, and everyone used fur to block the wind. Everyone chopped wood. There were clasps and armbands, the first and most basic of decorative pieces. Again, it made sense.

  Where things started to get interesting were the displays that showed the later society. Society, single, because they sure as hell didn’t show anyone other than themselves, which Nellie figured told you a lot about how they thought.

  The first true armor display was amazing, and her mind immediately started to make connections, comparing it to things from Earth’s own history.

  The overall impression was very similar to Romans, but only from a distance. Up close, you saw the tunics were more Asian in design, with bone or ivory bars as fastenings while the legs were wrapped in tightly wound cloth strips before being hidden beneath what looked a lot like an armored kilt. Smooth, plate shoulder guards sporting long strips of cloth front and back. A heavy-oiled cloak lined in fur was on a stand behind the display, suggesting it was part of the outfit not always worn. By far, the biggest surprise to her was the weaponry. A small round shield was worn on both forearms, leaving the hands free to hold a pair of punch blades that Nellie was distantly aware looked like Katars.

  There was even a helmet that showed a smooth dome without any ornamentation at all.

  She had just moved on to the next era, seeing similar armor but much more refined and matched with a strange crossbow-like weapon on the back of each unit when Lucy called her over to the central atrium.

  She had finished compiling a lot of information while Nellie strolled and had discovered a series of recordings. With those to aid her, Lucy wanted to put on a small display for everyone.

  Considering anything they could learn about the First Interstellar Empire was likely to be useful in the upcoming segments, Nellie was wildly in favor of that plan. Anything they could do to reduce the threat and loss of life was worth it.

  “Cheape, Lucy’s putting on a show for us.” She had noticed Cheape standing off to one side of the displays, talking animatedly over her implant to someone.

  “Of course, Ma’am,” Cheape nodded politely. “Permission to have some people from Haven start to explore the Yellow Segment? There is much my people could learn from.”

  “Sure,” Nellie smiled, noting that Cheape was falling into the very same ‘my people’ trap she had.

  “We’ll send the freighter back for you immediately. Have everyone ready to load the moment it lands. And bring the tools. I want that place stripped.” Cheape said as she looked off to one side before falling into step a little behind Nellie.

  They were passing the armor display on the way to the central atrium when Cheape stopped and frowned at it.

  “Cheape?” Nellie asked.

  “Does that look short to you, Ma’am?” Cheape asked.

  “I suppose so,” Nellie ran a few calculations through a sub-process and nodded. “The wearer would have been a shade under five feet.”

  “Child soldiers?” Cheape asked, looking pale.

  “No, they look a little wide as well. I’d say just a short people.” Nellie reassured her.

  “This might be a very illuminating display,” Cheape said, tapping a spot behind her ear to take a snapshot of it. “I’ll send it down to the Silicate Delegation on Haven to look at in more detail.”

  Nellie blinked. Were there silicates other than TRV-4 on Haven? When did that happen?

  Arriving in the atrium, Nellie smiled to see a large screen had been erected with seating arranged in half-circle rows around it. Lucy was standing at the front, next to the screen, and directing traffic as she got everyone sat down and then nodded.

  Carl and TRV-4 were sitting together, looking expectant right in the front row. A surprising addition to the gathering was sat in between them, with a dazed expression on her formerly pale face. The moment she saw Cheape, she leaped forward, metal feet clattering loudly on the stone floor.

  “Boss!” Sparks said almost desperately. “I made it!”

  “Sparks, how are you?” Cheape smiled fondly at the now cybernetic woman.

  “Amazing, Boss. I have almost a dozen new things I can do, some of them even in public!” Sparks grinned. “And it all just feels like me!”

  “Some of them you can do in public?” Cheape asked, shooting an angry glance at the two suddenly anxious-looking men.

  “We wanted to ensure she could live a full life,” TRV-4 said quickly. “That is all.”

  “Well, that and have a little extra fun,” Carl offered. “I mean, why be restricted by the bonds of flesh that no longer, in fact, exist.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Cheape kept staring.

  “Nothing unseemly was done,” Carl said after a moment. “I am a professional. The Head of Organic Research as it happens.”

  “No research on my people, please,” Cheape said coldly. “Not without their complete understanding.”

  “You mean permission,” Carl pointed out.

  “No, I don’t, Carl,” Cheape softened. “I know you would never cross that line.”

  “Thank you, I think,” Carl nodded.

  Lucy coughed meaningfully.

  “I saved you a seat,” TRV-4 gestured to the empty chair next to him.

  “Thanks, Tee,” Cheape smiled warmly at the man in a way Nellie recognized. The silicates seemed to have a knack for getting people like her and Cheape to fall for them. “I missed you.”

  “You too,” TRV-4 nodded.

  Lucy coughed LOUDLY.

  “Sorry!” They all said at once before settling down.

  Nellie chuckled to herself as she settled into the center chair in the front row. It had, of course, been left free for her.

  “Welcome, everyone, and thank you for coming,” Lucy said quickly. “I have prepared a small talk on the First Interstellar Empire from what Cheape and her team learned, as well as the data and displays here.” She looked a little flushed. “The things you see here are a mere fraction of the information this place contains in a set of hidden databanks. One of those has been unlocked and contains many of the images and videos you will see, along with hundreds of volumes on the history of the civilization.” She turned to the screen and waved. “Let’s begin, as one should, at the beginning.

  /====<<<>>>====\

  Life was challenging on a planet marked by its cold climate. For over two-thirds of the year, ice and snow were the inhabitants' constant companions. It was only during the brief period of thaw that anything like farming could be done. The ability to preserve foods and meats was the difference between life and death for the early inhabitants. Struggle was a way of life.

  Many early civilizations rose and fell until one group broke away in the far north. Unlike the others, they did not attempt to moderate the struggles they faced. On the contrary, they embraced them. They had noted the simple rule of nature: Survival of the Fittest.

  Setting out to embrace that idea, they came up with a uniting ideology that would carry them through the mists and snow and out into the stars. They set out not to survive the elements but to conquer them. As the rest of the inhabitants moved toward the equator to more moderate climes, they moved into ever harsher lands, spending lives when needed, not just to survive but to thrive.

  Many generations later, the equatorial civilizations were thriving in the more moderate climate. They had long since forgotten the snow and ice-loving northerners.

  That all changed as an army arrived out of the north. One by one, the cities and people fell before them. Nothing could stop the march of these hardened people.

  They shrugged off wounds that should have felled them while marching non-stop for days and days without rest.

  They swept the planet, bringing everyone under their rule.

  Their capital in the far north exploded as more and more settled there, seeking the secrets of these short, hardy people. Most would die within a year, unable to survive the cold and merciless conditions.

  Time passed in the Iceheart Empire, as it was named by the King of Winter. Rebellions rose and fell, but never was there an actual threat against the King’s power, not until Othar the Eighty-Third. Cruel, vicious, and stupid are not the qualifications of a King. Inevitably, the nobles rose against him, and the Iceheart Empire knew civil war.

  For a hundred years, they fought until they would face the total destruction of their race in a few decades. Then, a great meeting was held—a peace meeting.

  The rebel nobles and those loyal to the line of Othar met. The King had all the rebels slaughtered the first night. Othar the Eighty-Fifth then executed every man, woman, and child that was under their banner so that no one could rise against his family’s rule again.

  This began their own dark age, where inquisitors roamed the lands to execute any they deemed disloyal. It seemed Othar’s line was set.

  As time and technology passed, they tamed their planet. Progress was slow thanks to all the more creative and inventive minds being split open by the inquisitor’s axes, but progress is inevitable. It can be slowed but never stopped.

  One winter, the son of the current Othar walked into the Hall of Frost, his fiance’s severed head in his hands, and threw it at his father’s feet.

  She had been killed by the inquisitors.

  The King laughed and told him to choose a new, more docile bride.

  The son drew his katars and plunged them into his father’s chest in a single move.

  After tossing the corpse from the throne, he took his place on it and called to the nobles, telling them that he was the Othar now and that every inquisitor on the planet must die before sunrise.

  History might have been very different if they had not heeded his words, but there was not a person in that hall who had not suffered torture or loss at the hands of the Inquisitors. Convincing the people to kill them was not exactly a hard sell.

  Under ‘Othar the Great’ and his descendants, their society accelerated rapidly. The age of steam came and went; industrialization came quickly on its heels, and the challenge of life was fought in the coliseums and on the Mock-battle fields.

  Mock-battles were a strange feature of the Empire. With no enemies left to fight and no more world to conquer, they fought mock battles unlike any others.

  They fought them with real troops, real lives, real deaths, and real consequences.

  The winners in these battles would form the first Houses, and those closest to the King were raised even higher, named Scions of the Empire.

  So it may have continued for thousands of years had a neighboring star system not sent a ship through the stars and onto the icy world.

  Captured, tortured, and paraded through the streets, the visitors turned captives soon gave up their secrets… and they had so many secrets to give.

  Science, technology, and medicine all advanced beyond all reason. More importantly, they advanced faster than the society could evolve.

  Normally, scientific advancements and new technology both change their societies. That happens due to the simple fact that they have time to proliferate, inspire, and eventually become mundane. The result of this endless cycle is that they give birth to new ideas and change the society that created them.

  None of this happened in the Empire. Instead, the martial society they were was dragged from the age of steam into the age of robotics in less than the span of a single generation.

  Before the search party from the neighboring star could land fifty years later, the Empire had been reforged in steel and circuit boards. They were swiftly captured, and their knowledge was added to the records of the newly renamed Rising Empire.

  Rise, they did. First into the air, then into the stars. Those first ships were crude, dangerous, ponderous things. More of the first explorers died than survived by a factor of hundreds to one. The Othars didn’t care, the Scions didn’t care, no one cared. From the top to the bottom, their society was built around the idea of triumph at any cost.

  Any cost.

  The neighboring star system, the source of so much of their captured knowledge, was the first one they visited. Ships full of soldiers traveled for decades to invade and, indeed, conquer their neighbors. They returned with an entire planet of knowledge and technologies.

  Delighted with the advancement, the Rising Empire continued to improve with captured tech and knowledge. Their own people proved to be both brilliant engineers and insatiable explorers.

  One by one, the star systems around them fell beneath the standard of the Rising Empire.

  A new discovery, the Rising Empire Bubble Drive, allowed them to travel even further into the endless black. Everything was within reach, and everything was for the taking.

  Take they did, and won a lot more often than lost due to their complete dedication to the cause. Destroy one of their fleets, and another would turn up as sure as night followed day. Planet after planet, system after system, they expanded their borders. Some fought them, but more didn’t. Their technological superiority snowballed them into an unstoppable force.

  Less than a thousand years after they first broke out of the atmosphere, the Rising Empire had transformed into the First Interstellar Empire.

  Trillions of people lived under their rule and aspired to join their ranks.

  There was truly no one left to stand in their way.

  /====<<<>>>====\

  “Ostie,” Nellie muttered, turning to look at the displays around the single iris they had managed to take so far. “They ruled everything?”

  “According to their own records, yes,” Lucy nodded. “Much of their success came from their early start.” She smirked. “The First Interstellar Empire was aptly named. No one else had gotten even close to that level of power or control before.”

  “How long ago was this?” TRV-4 asked. “Surely there must have been—”

  “At least three hundred thousand years ago,” Lucy said, causing silence to ripple out across the atrium as people realized what she had actually said.

  “What?” Nellie blinked. Not even a nanite-forged brain could stop the shock of the statement hitting her.

  “There were star charts included. Given the shift between them and what we know of the area around here…” Lucy shrugged. “Given that this moon could not be more than fifty thousand years old at most…”

  “The First Interstellar Empire ruled for a quarter of a million years,” Nellie said.

  “At least.” Lucy nodded. “As to what they learned in that time?” She gestured to the remaining irises. “We just have to try and find out.”