[Stellar Conquest 04] - Conquest of Earth by David VanDyke

Author:David VanDyke [VanDyke, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, SciFi, Space Opera, Fantasy, Epic, Techno-Thriller, Thriller, Horror, Futuristic, First Contact, Alien Invasion, Space Fleet, Space Exploration, Galactic Empire, Survival, Military, War, Battles, Genetic Engineering, Technological Advancements, Conspiracy, Intrigue, Gripping, Fast-paced, Page-Turner, Action & Adventure, Adult, Fiction
Amazon: B00KSRUGDG
Goodreads: 22439196
Publisher: Reaper Press
Published: 2014-06-04T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter 30

Archon Third Yort dreamed in the vast, unsettling depths of null space, the not-place of limbo between the stars. His half-asleep thoughts drifted from fantasy to fantasy, all of them centering on promotion to Archon First. That was what made them fantasy, rather than reasonable ambition: he had yet to earn Second Rank and a planet, even a tiny one, much less First Rank and a whole system for himself.

But Yort dreamed anyway, for what else was there to do during the weeks of dull nothingness? His mothership’s sensors saw nothing, detected nothing except the approaching gravity well of the exit star. Until they arrived, he clung to the machine-induced somnolent state as his only reality.

And he was thankful for it. Outside of the dream-maker, null space made larva uncontrollable, adolescents destructive, and adults mad. Archons, with their exalted intellect, might have visions and insights, but removing the dream-maker risked a catatonic inward turning. Some Archons awoke from catatonia to find themselves abandoned, their underlings stolen by another Archon. Some simply never wakened, left ensconced in deep caves and fed through tubes, for no Archon ever killed another.

This was one of the Race’s few laws. An Archon’s person was sacred, no matter the vicious competition to acquire, hold and develop swarms of underlings or productive nests. If one lost everything, he could always seek a position serving a higher-ranking Archon.

This too, was Law.

All serve the Law, as Law serves the Father-Mother, and the Father-Mother serves the All, the sacred and circular saying reminded him.

Yort’s mind drifted back to the glory of acquisition, the taking and ruling of underlings and the territory to support them. More land meant more of everything, though it was not in his nature to wonder why more was necessarily superior to not-more. The adaptive pressures that drove survival of the fittest had long since done away with such musings, except, perhaps, within the catatonic.

But Yort was far from bored with his life, nor had he despaired after too many failures. Not for him to reach up and remove the dream-maker from his cortical receptors and open himself to the visions of unfiltered null space. Not yet. Perhaps that way gifted a shortcut to the Father-Mother of All, like null space itself provided a shortcut between the stars, but Yort was young, and saw glory in his future.

The target system contained teeming biologicals ranging from single cells to tool-using sentients. The lower animals and plants were sufficient to feed larvae, but he hungered to consume the higher orders. Nothing less would do for an Archon, which made the solar system of their goal all the sweeter, for it was one of those recently discovered occupied by at least two sentient species. Even better, one of the races were Jellies.

Ah, the subtle complexity of a Jelly and its ancient, well-developed biochemistry. Such rich memory molecules would induce dreams of extraordinary texture in any Archon. With enough Jellies to breed and harvest, he would never have to worry about boredom.

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