There was no longer a Mars base. A quick look, even with a degraded scanning system, would have given them pause. Where the base had been was a crater emitting an eerie radioactive glow. The crew didn’t bother to look.
The portal gate had opened on schedule, allowed by the incursion team. Active alarms had been shut off by the Earth team. The crafty Earth engineers had recalled the distress beacons to base.
There was a good deal of debris in the Moon-to-Earth corridor. They didn’t bother to examine the debris. After all, those low-tech Earthlings still used explosive fuels for reaction mass. Would you even step foot in one of those things? No doubt at least one-in-ten exploded while on route to some dreary destination.
By the time they realized the fast-approaching bug ship was an interdiction, and they were going to be rammed, it was too late. So much for hoping bug ship technology would be on par with Empire ship technology.
END TIMELINE DROP. +
***
October 1st. We are certain this planet is Empire central. Mr. T has been calling it Cygnus Prime. At first, we were afraid the locals might be able to detect us when we port. Or, the cloak wouldn’t work for a split second when porting. But it looks as though we are safe despite their technology. We’re not sure what alerted them to our position in the dome.
The Empire has amazing technology, as expected. The Darkstar Empire has been around for thousands of years. They have most likely expanded in every direction 1,400 light years. That’s a lot of territory. Light travels fast. That gives an idea of how large the Empire is, how long it’s been expanding.
We are making some assumptions of course. Such as, Cygnus Prime is the home world, the first world, of the Empire, and the expansion started there. We assume Earth is located at the far edge of the Empire.
Here’s the thing. It seems certain the Empire is ancient. But for such an old and advanced civilization their tech is not as amazing as you might think. They are maybe 100 years ahead of us in technology on average. Maybe a bit more. At least from what we’ve seen so far. It could be less than that, with the current rapid pace of technological advance. So, I bet we would have caught up on our own in less than 100 years.
Just saying, right Roll? Oh, you do to say that, all the time. Just saying.
The fact remains, the Empire is advanced and can do some amazing things. But why aren’t they even more advanced? They developed interstellar travel a long time ago.
Mr. T says it could make sense that they have not advanced as much as one might think. “From what I have gleaned during my interviews with the bugs, the Empire is a master-slave culture. There is a relatively small group of very rich Empire citizens. Beyond rich. Those are likely the citizens of Cygnus Prime. Let’s call them Prime citizens.
“It could have unfolded like this. A few thousand years ago, give or take, some smart scientists on Cygnus Prime figured out how to travel in space, how to really travel. Slow but sure. 50% light speed. They found and conquered a less advanced civilization. Probably the bugs. Somewhere along the line they figured out how to make wormholes.
Para had a thought. “Doesn’t it seem like a civilization advanced enough to travel among the stars would be more, I don’t know, mature? More grown up. They managed to NOT blow themselves up. Why are they so evil now?”
That made sense to me too. “Yeah. It could be they started out good and then were somehow corrupted. Like an Adam and Eve in the garden kind of thing.”
Roll took over. “That could be, in that maybe the Empire has overlords. I hope we have an opportunity to find out more about their history. We do know they turned evil at some point, maybe made a deal with the dark-side.
“Prime citizens wouldn’t want to waste their time traveling for hundreds of years in space. They would send out automated drone ships to find new worlds to conquer. Upon finding a suitable planet, the bugs would be sent out to overthrow the civilizations when possible, or at least soften them up for their overlords. They would erect a portal gate. The Empire would cruise through the gate. Maybe they see it as a little action within their boring existence. The planet would be totally subjugated.”
Rocks turn. “There would be taxes. Typically, the population would be moved and replaced by others. Prime citizens grew more and more wealthy. At some point it became ridiculous. They had everything they could ever want, and more. But they had this process in place. Find world, conquer world, add wealth.
“They would need to keep the conquered worlds from developing beyond a certain technological level. The Empire overlords would keep their technological and military edge. They may have come across civilizations that were too advanced to conquer. If so, they would just move on. They might say hello. Glad to meet you. We’ll be sure to write. Then they would move on and stay out of that section of the galaxy.”
(Note: It would have been nice if some advanced civilization figured out what the Empire was up to and gave them a good spanking. And gave all those conquered worlds a helping hand. But it hasn’t happened that way. Now it’s up to us. Who knows, maybe that’s part of some big plan.)
Mr. T finished his earlier point. “They are advanced but have stagnated, content to keep the status quo. New discoveries aren’t important to them, just making sure all the systems run well, at least for the Prime citizens. They are rotting from the inside out. We will use that against them. With God’s help, their Empire will fall and we will set the captive worlds free. That
