Volume 1: Alpha-03, Chapter 1.11

Doctor Gorgam walked me through the halls of

The Radiance

, showing me their incredible alien facilities and bragging all the while as he eagerly awaited my response. All around us were every kind of alien I could ever imagine; most of them seemed to have evolved from lifeforms I might recognize on earth—lizards, fish, insects, etcetera—but there were still more I had no frame of reference. Most of the uniforms they wore were the same black, gold or white, all tailored to fit such varying body sizes and forms. The good doctor showed me through their research center where aliens were studying the Predazoan DNA—trying to discover more weaknesses or better ways to track the organisms as he explained it. Most of the other workers looked at me with no small amount of curiosity, but as Doctor Gorgam said, I would either be up here working alongside those aliens, or I’d just get a mind-wipe and be sent back to earth.

“There would surely be quite the adjustment period of course, being the first ever human to work for the Empire, but that in itself would be quite the honor.” He said cheerfully, moving his squat legs twice as fast to keep up with my stride.

“I assume humanity hasn’t been brought into your Empire yet since we’re all still stuck on our planet.” I reasoned.

Doctor Gorgam nodded, “Correct. The Empire has a strict policy of not interfering with underdeveloped worlds until they themselves make the breech into frontier space. Part of the strength of our Empire comes from the diversity of species and grafting their development into the greater fold, combining technologies and improving them as more civilizations join our ranks.”

I let out a quick sigh, “Really, what’s the deal with your Empire? We’ve got a famous series of movies back home called Star Wars, and the Galactic Empire is the bad guys there.”

The alien doctor just chuckled, “We aren’t some totalitarian regime dominating all known space, if that’s what you’re wondering. The heart of the Tritentarian Empire comes from the Tribunal of Sovereigns and their Senatorial Councils. The Tribunal consists of our three Emperors, elected into the positions for life, and they in turn elect and manage a council of one hundred bureaucrats each. No Emperor can cross over their authority into another’s council, and most decisions in the Empire are made by the councils, with just a small push of executive power afforded to the Emperor to break away tied votes or veto heavily contested propositions.”

“And where does

The Radiance

fall in all this?”

“The Empire’s military forces are combined from all the planets and civilizations that make up its assembly. Just as you see every kind of race or species aboard our vessel, our military works the same way.” Doctor Gorgam explained, then paused in the hallway we were walking through and moved us into a nearby empty room. He pressed a switch by the doorway and a far wall unfrosted into a window, giving us a view of space. He walked over to stand before the window, gazing out to the distant stars, “As secretive as our work is, very,

very

few bureaucrats actually know who we are or what we do; we’re protected under several thousand layers of miscellaneous research and development funding.” He turned to face me with a wry smile on his wide face, “The Tritentarian Empire has trillions of citizens across thousands of planets, do you really think it would be difficult to hide away what we’re doing? There’s probably hundreds of other clandestine research vessels across Imperial space we’ll never learn about.”

I didn’t respond right away, gazing out into space and just trying to catch up with the fact I was talking to an alien aboard a spaceship when just a few months ago I was a regular old human pissing his life away on earth without any knowledge of what was really out there. I tried to keep myself grounded as I worked to keep the conversation going, “Forget all the politics and clandestine military shit for now, what’s life like for a regular citizen of the Empire?”

Doctor Gorgam shrugged, “Not much different than on earth, I imagine—although our citizens can take vacations on other planets rather than just camping a few miles up north.” He chuckled to himself, then sighed and continued his point, “We have a standardized and centralized economy based on Imperial credits, though most planets keep their currencies as a secondary means of financial transactions. Technology is shared and spread freely throughout the core worlds. The core worlds have been in the Empire long enough so their populations are heavily diversified—like our military. On those core worlds the language used is Imperial Common.” He put his hand up to his throat to show a small white disk, and when he touched it, it buzzed a little and his voice came out heavily modulated, “Right now we’re using translators to speak English with you, but if you join the Empire you’ll be expected to learn Imperial Common for your position.”

“All the Empire’s core worlds are just big melting pots of aliens? What happens if a new civilization wants to keep their identity and refuses to join the Empire?”

“They are free to refuse the offer to join the Empire, but then they will not be allowed in Imperial space. They will also lose out on trading rights with

all

Imperial planets or civilizations; the Empire is

only

allowed to trade internally amongst themselves.” The doctor shrugged, “And that means they’re denied access to all our advanced technologies, and I promise you there will never be a species out there that can develop beyond an Empire that has existed for over a hundred thousand years.’’ He said seriously.

Still made me wonder if humans would be willing to join the Empire and lose its identity, what with our massive egos. Then a thought crossed my mind, “Wait, how could I join the Empire if humanity hasn’t? Wouldn’t I be an outlier?”

Doctor Gorgam nodded, “Wouldn’t be the first time it happened. You’d be a probationary citizen; the condition of your probation is simply on the basis humanity will eventually join in with the Empire. Unfortunately, if they deny that invitation, your Imperial citizenship would be revoked.” He chuckled to himself, “Not to worry though; current projections don’t show humanity capable of making the technological leap into Imperial space for at least 800 years.”

Didn’t sound like a bad deal—the Empire didn’t sound bad either, just like any regular democracy, however massive to encompass thousands of planets or whatever. Plus, I’d be the first human in history out here, experiencing a life I’d never even dreamed of, with technologies and comforts probably beyond my wildest imagination. Still, there was one subject we’d danced around all this time.

“Why me? Why do you think I could be…Alpha-03’s handler?” I finally asked.

Doctor Gorgam looked up at me with those big frog eyes, a serious, grave expression on his face, “Because to be perfectly honest with you, Mr. Samson, you should be dead. You should be long dead with your biomass absorbed and assimilated into Alpha-03’s Predazoan core. But you’re not, and I believe we can use that to our advantage and control Alpha-03.”

A shiver ran down my spine, but I ignored it, “But why? How? If the Predazoans are all just planet killing murder machines, why was I spared? And how can we use that as a form of control?”

He let out a deep breath, “For the sake of full transparency, I suppose we should tell you we’ve been watching you and Alpha-03 for weeks now. In fact, we only intervened and abducted you once we grew concerned for your safety when your fellow humans started attacking; we wanted both you

and

Alpha-03 alive.”

“Why didn’t you just abduct Eve? Could’ve probably zapped her from under my nose at any point—then did a mind-wipe so I wouldn’t even remember her.”

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He shook his head, “No, we were content to watch the experiment unfold for quite a while—until a definitive conclusion could be made.”

“

Experiment

?” I snapped.

Doctor Gorgam’s gaze was steady and unapologetic, “Somehow, you

bonded

with Alpha-03 to the point she actually

listened

to your commands. When she obeyed your instructions to stay inside after your initial scolding, the research team just about threw out all the data they’d compiled on Predazoan behaviors. You see, the only commands they had ever obeyed thus far came from Prime-00, their progenitor. After that, we believed they would only ever follow through with their own instinct for survival and supremacy; they exist as a kind of hivemind entity into themselves—individual cells have their own brains—so we didn’t believe they even had the

capacity

to consider the commands of lesser beings. It would take an overruling of most of their cells to command them, and we never even came

close

to controlling just three percent of their biomass at any time—even with the Gamma generation.”

“You were content to watch her development from space then?”

“Very much so. We were only planning on intervening if and when Alpha-03 became a threat to your planet or population. Or, had she developed to the point you could fully command her, we planned on bringing you aboard the vessel then. But once you were attacked by your government, our timeline was accelerated.”

I turned and leaned against the window, pressing my forehead against it to feel a gentle, surprisingly soothing hum, “But now, Eve’s killed people and absorbed their biomass. Surely whatever connection we once had has been severed?”

“We…would like to test that.” Doctor Gorgam admitted. I opened my mouth to protest, but he held his hands up quickly and continued on, “We have her contained for now, so the test should be quite safe—yes, I said

should

; the Predazoans destroyed an entire planetoid, I can’t exactly guarantee anything here, sadly.”

It really was all pretty crazy, and the existential dizziness I was experiencing hadn’t relented the entire time I’d been aboard the space craft. I was just some guy—some dumb human living on a ball of dirt flying through space, what the hell did I know about aliens and commanding them?

“Let’s say I do this—I

try

this. To what end? Why do you even want to give her a handler?”

“I told you we had a lock on roughly half the other Predazoans, yes? We know the planet or maybe even just the system they’re on now, but that’s it; their camouflage is too sophisticated for our sensors to pinpoint.” He crossed his arms and leaned against the window too, “That’s where Alpha-03 comes in; she would be able to locate them—at least get us closer than what our current equipment offers, and from there, we would contain or destroy.”

It probably meant I was crazy, but the first feeling I experienced was unrestrained giddiness at the idea I was basically going to be a

bounty hunter in space.

But I tried to push those wild fantasies aside and look over it logically. It would be incredibly dangerous, and there was no telling if Eve or Alpha-03 or whatever she was might turn on me and consume me. There was no training manual for this—the doctor involved with the team that created the Predazoans was straight-up telling me I already should’ve been dead, so whatever happened from here would be a big surprise to everyone. I’d be on some grand, dangerous adventure meeting aliens and exploring new planets, far away from earth—the only human in their Empire. Then a thought occurred, “Would I be able to come back to visit earth?”

Doctor Gorgam’s mouth deepened into a thoughtful frown, “It would be very,

very

unlikely. First and foremost, you’d become a crewmember of

The Radiance

, so free travel would be severely limited; you’d be living on board with us and travelling through the Empire locating the other Predazoans. Secondly, earth is still considered an underdeveloped world, so technically

we

weren’t even supposed to visit earth, but for our mission it was a requirement—broke several dozen codes and ordinances doing so. No, it would be very unlikely you’d ever see earth again.” He brightened up, “However, with our technology it would be very easy to replicate a lot of the comforts you might miss of your old home—food, clothing, even entertainment, we have ways of recreating whatever you might need.”

I turned and walked away from the window, seriously considering this new career in space. “What’s it pay?”

He chuckled, “Considering you’d be a one-of-a-kind specialty asset, I daresay you’ll be compensated

incredibly

well.”

It was a hard decision to make—hard to remain logical and reasonable rather than jump at the adventure of a lifetime without thinking. I’d probably never see Gramps or Gram again, that would obviously suck, but as for any other humans, I couldn’t think of any I’d miss so terribly. There was also the possibility I was a wanted fugitive back on earth—whatever agency attacked us on the farm, it was unlikely they were all dead and forgot about us, and I was sure the mind-wipe the aliens would subject me to upon returning to earth wouldn’t spread on to them, leaving me in the vulnerable position of being wanted but not knowing the reason why. Then there was the other side to consider, how I was so burned out of my old life and eager for a change, no idea how I wanted to move forward, what career would be right for me. A career as a space monster hunter sounded pretty badass.

Realistically, my life was over one way or another—a fugitive on earth or banned from ever returning if I decided to stay out in space. Well, one option certainly sounded a lot better than the other when I put it so bluntly.

“Alright, let’s go see Evie.” I decided.