The Conquest of Planet 14675

Escribí este cuento al principio de la pandemia para mi clase de inglés. Ojalá les guste:

The Empress stared blankly at the holomap before her, not really seeing what she was looking at. She was supposed to be deciding what planet to invade next but after spending eight cycles, her mind started to wander aimlessly. She was pondering about how badly she wanted to have her tentacles rubbed when the Commandress of her royal fleet walked into her command chamber. She took big strides until she was beside the Empress.

"My Lady," she said beaming, "I think I have found the answer to our ails. I have finally found an incredible planet, ripe for the taking”

The Empress had a hard time believing the Commandress had had success where she herself had failed and yet she dared to hope…

“Tell me” she ordered glumly “what makes this planet so special?”

“I give you planet 14675”

The Commandress clicked on a button from her remote and the holomap shifted. Instead of showing the vast galaxy with small dots representing hundreds of planets, all of which the Empress had studied and deemed unworthy of her attention, the holomap now showed a single blue sphere with greenish and whitish spots.

"Is that...?" The Empress began to ask astonished.

"It is my Lady. Planet 14675 holds one of the largest amounts of water in three of its states of matter".

"Tell me more" she demanded.

"Yes my Lady. This planet has a rather strong atmosphere rich in gasses having one, six, seven and eight positively charged microparticles"

"Those are good gases"

"Indeed. They have allowed life to prosper on this planet. There are many life forms such as plants and huge creatures, both of which represent a source of nourishment, fuel, and building materials. But the best thing is, my Lady, that this planet takes care of itself. It replenishes its resources periodically. And there are no intelligent life forms to stand in our way; there is nobody to challenge your glory. It is as if planet 14675 was yours already"

The Empress stroked her chin deep in thought. She liked this planet. If she conquered it, she would be remembered as the greatest Empress the Volkron race had ever known, she could see it. The Empress would lead their species to its highest glory; the one that would assure their future; the singers would sing songs about her exploits and the preachers would praise her name. The Empress liked the idea of having her name praised very much. And it was at the tip of her tentacles. And all she had to do was give the word. It seemed too good to be true. Perhaps it was.

“I wish to know one thing only, Commandress” The Empress rose a tentacle as she spoke “ tell me, Commandress, how is it that you have found this planet? How is it that you have met with success where I have failed?” there was no accusation in her voice, more of genuine concern or worry that her searches had not yet concluded. She was weary of looking.

The Commandress lowered her gaze as a child would when she was caught in a lie and could no longer hide it “Long and wide have I searched for a planet close enough and easy to conquer. Alas, there is no such planet".

The Empress was confused. It was not like the Commandress to waste her time with pranks. She had been looking forward to her well-needed rest. Nevertheless, her confusion was short-lived, for the Commandress continued speaking.

"However, planet 14675 is very real, my Lady. The only problem is that it is several million leagues away. To get there would require all of our fuel reserves, assuming nothing goes wrong"

"It would be unwise of me to risk everything we have, even my people's lives on such a longshot"

"It would, my Lady"

"However, if I do not take any risks, it will be harder for me to achieve the glory I search for"

"I guess it all comes down to that which you want, feel and believe and not that which you think, my Lady"

"We would have to put everyone to freeze-sleep, wouldn't we?"

"Yes my Lady, otherwise, anybody living today would be dead by the time we get there"

"So, if all failed, nobody would know"

"Only the ever watching eye of Hairuk and the souls of lost men"

"And there are no other habitable planets where we could find any fuel or resources along the way?"

"My Lady knows as well as I do, that if there was such a planet, we would have found it"

Alas, it was true. The Empress had the last eight cycles worth of analysis to prove it.

"There are alternate realities where I have already decided to go and failed, and those where I stayed, and those where I went and met with success. We shall never know what reality this is unless we try. She who does not risk does not win"

"I will tell the other captains".

Rising action: Arrival to 14675

The Empress opened her eyes. She had never felt so groggy in her lifespan. At least she knew she was still alive. No alarms were blaring so everything must have turned out alright. There was an alternate reality where she had woken up to alarms and another one where she hadn’t woken up at all. She got out of her freeze chamber and walked clumsily towards her command center. For her, not even a cycle had passed, but she knew better, and her legs knew better, and so she had trouble walking. When she arrived at the command center, the Commandress was already waiting for her. The Empress did not understand how, but the Commandress looked as good as she had so much time ago when she walked into that very room with the idea of invading planet 14675. It had been so long ago and yet it seemed like only a few cycles ago. Lightspeed travel was strange.

"My Lady, we have succeeded, we are here! Planet 14675 is but a few leagues away. We wait for only the reports from our scouts to make sure nobody beat us to this hidden treasure"

"Very well, Commandress, let us hope that is not the case"

As if on queue, two pale looking scouts walked into the command chamber. Mute as they were, the scouts walked to the holotable and transmitted their reports to the receiver. The Empress could not bear to look, she turned to the great window where planet 14675 floated in space. Bright, big and blue.

“Excellent news, my Lady” The Commandress announced “our scouts have detected no spaceships. We are the first ones here”

The Empress sighed in relief. She had been more nervous than she cared to admit.

“Let’s get to the surface then” urged the Empress anxious to get to her new planet as soon as possible “navicomputer, take us to a place where we can find rich grounds, a large body of water and lots of nourishments”

“Yes, my Lady” beeped the robotic non-gender-specific voice and then they were moving. Planet 14675’s surface became bigger and bigger. The Royal fleet zoomed towards one of those greenish spots currently being illuminated by their star’s light. Once the land stretched as far as the Empress could see with her frontal eyes, the space she came from turned a shade of pale blue, similar to her own skin and she was able to make out several lifeforms. The land had patches some of which were covered in oddly satisfying lines of piled dirt. A quick scan revealed various capsules of sustenance beneath said piles. They could be used as a quick source of fuel or as nourishment. Other patches had green blades of life stretching towards the atmosphere. Some large, pink creatures could be seen consuming said blades. It seemed like a perfect place to obtain nourishment and on the horizon, tall, irregular brown structures could be seen. Those would work as a source of building material if these creatures revealed to be boneless. Towards the direction the star moved, a wide body of water flowed from the direction the Royal fleet floated.

“This will do nicely” declared the Empress “land the ships”

“As you command, my Lady” beeped the navicomputer “I would advise caution against the lifeforms on this planet. They might be aggressive”

The ships came down with a lazy puff that signaled a lack of fuel.

“Commandress” The Empress called “send some squadrons to take the life away from a couple of those creatures we spied consuming the green blades and retrieve them. My people shall feast tonight. Also, send a mining party to get some of those capsules beneath the surface, send another one to get as much water as they can from that flowing body and a large one to those tall, brown structures for building materials”

“It will be done my Lady”

Ah, fortune was smiling on the Empress. There was surely an alternate reality in which another civilization had already colonized planet 14675 and killed the whole Volkron race but this was not it. Life was good

Climax: First encounter with the natives

Life was not good. There might’ve been an alternate reality where all the raiding parties had been successful but this was definitely not it. Of all the ships the Empress sent, only one survived the man.

As the remaining Volkrons were setting up camp, the last ship was lost from view. The Empress and the Commandress were in the command center, listening to the reports each raiding party made. The soldiers had a little trouble catching the creatures but a few of their missiles managed to strip them of their life. The mining parties had managed to extract a few of the capsules and were making progress in the waterfront when one of the hunting parties sent a distress signal. The alarm blared for a few clicks before it was shut. The Commandress turned several shades paler as the Empress began to worry.

“Commandress,” she asked, “what was that?”

“That my Lady” she replied “was nothing good”

A second distress call was heard. This time, the alarm was accompanied by a voice from one of the hunting parties’ captain. The Empress shivered with a sense of dread because of the shrill and sheer terror that filled the captain’s voice.

“My Lady… They’re dead! It’s coming for us now! It has a powerful weapon… I don’t know. If I…” the signal was lost after that.

"My Lady" The Commandress spoke urgently “we have to get out of here”

She had not finished her sentence when two more alarms started blaring. The voices were slightly calmer than the last ones but that did nothing to ease the Empress’s mind. They spoke at the same time

“My Lady, there is another beast…”

“Destroying everything…”

“had not seen anything like it…”

“coming towards us”

The Empress interrupted them both.

“Get out of there, captains! Return to camp!”

The Commandress looked as if she might implode.

“No, my Lady!” she urged “if the beast follows them here…”

“I will not have my people massacred in the field, Commandress. Not if we can stop. Alert all units. Battle stations”

The Commandress bowed her head as she muttered: “yes, my Lady”

One of the alarms stopped transmitting. Only one hunting party remained.

“Commandress” the Empress called “tell the rest of the raiding parties to come immediately. I will not have them picked one by one out there”

A light flashed on the horizon. The last hunting party was coming at full speed towards camp. A silhouette followed them. The beast had an erect body with four limbs, two of which it used to move. The other two were holding a metal rod that, the Empress assumed, was its mighty weapon.

“Commandress,” asked the Empress nervously “are our defense mechanisms operational?”

“All our weapons are ready and waiting for your orders, my Lady”

“As soon as our ship is out of the line of shootings, give that beast everything we’ve got”

“Yes, my Lady”

But the ship never had the chance to get out of the line of shootings. The beast aimed its rod at the ship just as it was reaching camp and not a click later a surge of fire came out of the end of the rod. The hunting ship exploded and bits of debris reached the camp destroying one of the watchtowers. The Empress was about to give the order to attack when a second figure emerged from the horizon. This one looked larger.

“Commandress” called the Empress “sound the alarm to evacuate the camp. Let the soldiers cover our escape. We shall hide amongst those tall, brown structures”

The roar of the plasma cannons and photon missiles filled the air as the Volkron army emptied their weapons on the first beast. The blasts hit the beast stopping it in its tracks. Explosions filled the air and soon, the beast was reduced to an unmoving and steaming bundle. Yet, the Volkrons had no time to rest for the second beast was looming over approaching fast and their weapons had not yet reloaded. The second beast reached their camp in no time and was looming over them, by the time the Empress’s Royal Command ship rose and started fleeing.

Some soldiers tried to stab at its lower limbs to no effect. The beast that towered over even the largest of the ships in the Royal fleet seemed mildly annoyed by this display of courage and avoided their attacks easily. It moved fast for such a large beast. It aimed its metal rod at the Volkron camp, just as the Royal Command ship took plight. The blast launched by the beast tore through several ships as a hot metal blade would through soft skin. The Empress felt a pang in her nucleus as hundreds of her people cried out only to be heard no more. She knew, somewhere, in an alternate reality, all of them had been happy. Not in this one though, and hers was the shame.

“Get us out of here, Commandress”

“Right away, my Lady”

Only the Royal Command ship and a couple of supply frigates managed to reach the tall brown structures.

Falling action: A brief history of humankind

The Empress squeezed her cortex with his tentacles. Most of her people were dead, massacred by an unknown beast. Well, it had been unknown at the time of the attack. The Empress had since sent out a few drones that managed to read electromagnetic waves emitted from several points in planet 14675. The habitants called it the Internet and they called themselves humans and they called their planet, planet Earth which seemed rather puzzling, to the Empress seeing as most of the planet’s surface was covered by water and not by earth but she had soon discovered these humans had many more… strange habits.

The tall brown structures (called “woods” by the humans) had proved to be good cover from the humans and a great source of supplies. The Internet showed the Empress many a useful thing about these humans. Over the last cycles (those it had taken the Volkrons to get here), creatures called monkeys had evolved into these humans, developing more and more complex tools and building various structures for shelter and trading activities. These structures were built together to form great cities with names and fame. They had reached surprising levels of science for such a primitive species.

It appeared that throughout space and time, they worshipped different deities, each stranger than the last, and ended the lives of those who did not share their beliefs, or died by their hands depending on who was stronger. And these deities seemed to dictate how they had to behave but these norms of conduct often contradicted the moral values they preached about and lead to catastrophic results. The supposedly experts on these deities, the priests and preachers were often the ones who broke the norms of conduct the most.

They also fought over pieces of land and gave great importance to fuel, not because they wished to use it but rather because they wished to exchange it for some green folds of what they called paper. This paper was special of course, they called it money and gave great value to it and even to the idea of having it in the future or of being worth lots of it. There were many kind of workers but it appeared that those that worked the least were the most compensated.

And to top it all off, the humans acted as though they were trying to destroy their planet. They had several unlimited energy sources but favored the subterranean fuel over them, even though they knew it was the most harmful for them. Such a mystery.

And yet, despite their lack of advanced technology and their primitive weapons, the Empress would never be able to conquer them, for even the smallests of humans were around the size of his Royal Command ship and even the weakest of their weapons were capable of finishing them off in a click. All the Empress could hope for, was to obtain enough fuel and resources to go to the Earth’s satellite the humans had named Moon and start a peaceful colony there until the humans destroyed themselves, or the Volkron race was wiped from existence, whatever arrived first. She wouldn’t live to see either result. All was lost for her or so it seemed when the Commandress walked into her command room, beaming as she had once done to announce the discovery of this damned planet.

“What could be the cause of such happiness as I see upon you when all is lost and even that which remains is broken?”

“My Lady! Rejoice, for I bring great news!”

“What could you possibly tell me to better my grief?”

“My Lady, our loses have been great and grave, however, they were not in vane”

“Explain yourself, Commandress”

“It seems one of our scouts survived the human’s attack and followed him to his chambers. Short after his attack, the human fell sick from something they call a virus here”

Well, that pricked the Empress’s curiosity.

“A virus? And what would that be?”

“It is a sort of life form that carries sickness with it. It spreads like fire and can be quite deadly if not treated properly. And the best part, we seem to carry one which we are immune to but is lethal to humans. This virus shall get you your crown, my Lady!”

Well wasn’t that something? The Empress was starting to see things in a new light.

“So all we have to do, is stay close to humans and they will die?”
“Not so fast, my Lady. We must act carefully. Humans can develop an immunity such as ours and can also survive if they manage to receive medical treatment. But you have seen how much importance they give to some of their individuals. If we infect the right people, we could stop all their inner workings and collapse their whole trading system and end them with a single stroke”

The Empress stroked her chin. She liked this plan. But where to strike?

Resolution: Pandemic

The Empress joined her tentacles joyfully as she watched her little “Coronavirus” spreading through planet Earth in her holotable. The humans were destroying themselves without even realizing it. They were closing everything; they were stopping their lives for a virus that was not even that deadly for them. Sustenance could not reach anyone. Money could not reach anyone. And if it did, it carried the virus along with it. And the authorities were giving false information to the people to try and avoid panic. And the Internet. The Internet had been the Empress’s greatest ally. It was a great panic spreader. Even those who were capable of surviving the virus would die sooner or later for they would have no way to obtain sustenance and would soon perish from hunger.

The Commandress looked pleased with herself. As she very well should. The fallen Volkrons would be avenged and the remaining ones would prosper in this blessed planet. It had been the Commandress’s idea to strike the region the earthlings called China. For some reason, humans acquired a great many deal of their merchandise from this region and it concentrated one seventh of their population. Striking there would have tremendous consequences for the rest of Humanity. And it did. Humanity had never seen such a crisis. And in the meantime, the planet was regenerating itself.

“I have to congratulate you, Commandress” the Empress admitted “Your plan has turned out to be quite successful. We shall soon have this planet to ourselves! With Humanity gone, there shall be no one to stand in our way!”

The Commandress started chuckling. Yes, it was true. The best part was, the humans could have saved themselves, if only they had worked together in containing the virus, they would have stood a chance. But instead, they did what they had always done: they tried to protect themselves, every individual for themselves, as they would put it. The Commandress thought that would happen. The Internet had proved most revealing about human nature. They never did learn from their past. And now, the volkrons would profit from their one last fatal mistake. All thanks to her.

The Empress joined her chuckles and soon her chuckling grew into laughter. The Empress’s laughter boomed from her nucleus and was soon joined by that of the Commandress. Their laugh thundered terribly as one by one the lights in the holotable representing human beings flickered off, struck by sickness or by hunger, victims of their own complicatedly constructed system, too dependant on one region to work properly. And the Volkrons managed to tear it all down. Revenge for their fallen had been claimed for the ever watching eye of Hairuk and the souls of lost men to see. And as the last of humans died away, The Empress’s terrible laugh echoed through her command center.

And that was how Humanity died. With thunderous laughter.



Deleted scenes

"Uh-Oh" she heard the Commandress mutter
"Why? 'uh-oh', Commandress? I do not like uh-oh's. I despise uh-oh's. They are usually followed by bad news and the last thing I need right now, Commandress, is bad news”
“I understand, my Lady, but I am afraid we have a slight problem. There appears to be new intelligent lifeforms on planet 14675. They have developed several advanced forms of communication and weapons of mass destruction beyond our wildest thoughts”
The Empress sighed. There was surely an alternate reality where she had had no trouble claiming planet 14675.
“What are our chances?”
“Well my Lady, we cannot turn and run, we have no fuel left, and we cannot stay here, they will most likely detect us and attack and if we were to fight, we would surely lose. These lifeforms, these humans, they are around two-hundred times our size and fierce warriors. Attacking them would mean a massacre for our people”
“So all is lost”
“Not necessarily, my Lady. There is a third option”
Well, at least not all was lost. There was an alternate reality where all was lost, the Empress was sure. She had that to be thankful for.
“Do tell, what is this third option?”
“We could hide, my Lady. Infiltrate their planet and stay out of their reach, beneath the water. It appears they have not yet managed to reach the depths of their oceans. They may have epic weapons but their technology is clumsy”
It was a start, but they needed an ending as well, and fast.
“And what then?” the Empress objected “We cannot forever stay in the deepest parts of their oceans”
“We cannot” agreed the Commandress “but we can watch and prepare a strategy to overcome these humans and if we decide there is nothing we can do, at least we can obtain more fuel from the planet’s core, or from the creatures dwelling in the depths”

The Empress did not love this idea. For one thing, she did not believe her people would enjoy having traveled so far, even if they had been asleep all the way, just to sit idly at the bottom of the sea, and for another, judging by the images she saw on the holotable, the animals dwelling in the depths were several times larger than any of their spaceships. What was there to stop them from crushing their whole fleet even by accident? And last but not least, she had really looked forward to taking advantage of the rich land planet 14675 had to offer.

The Commandress seemed to notice how the Empress felt about her plan so she turned away to let her think. The Empress could not bear more uncomfortable silence so she asked the navicomputer to list random facts about planet 14675 from the scouts’ report. The navicomputer was quick to comply

“There seems to be quite a few different species of lifeforms on this planet” its unidentifiable voice boomed “The humans have created a system to classify them called taxonomy. It appears these humans are fascinated by the idea of registering all of their knowledge and dedicate a lot of time and energy into expanding it. Many of them like to create bits of knowledge that everybody knows are not true but consume nonetheless in various formats such as moving images, audios or texts. Oh, this is interesting. Depending on the region, humans worship idols that represent one or many characters similar to our own Hairuk, only they are imaginary of course”

These scouts were thorough and yet, their reports didn’t seem to contain anything of value. The Empress was about to tell the navicomputer to shut up when it said: “the humans have named their planet, planet Earth”.

The Empress blinked "Earth you say?" she asked, not bothering to hide her confusion. The planet seemed to be covered mostly by water. Perhaps these humans weren’t so intelligent after all...

“My Lady” The Commandress interrupted his line of thought “if I may suggest another option as to our plan of action, the humans seem to have neglected the possibility of there being life on their main satellite, they call the Moon. Apparently they only observe the light it reflects without giving it much thought. We could camp there and send a few raiding parties to get fuel, metals, and water to the Earth’s surface. They could get enough fuel to get back here and bring us all we need to thrive while we plan our strategy”

That idea was actually not half bad. There was surely an alternate reality where the Empress had died trying to come up with a solution.

“I had been thinking the exact thing, Commandress”.