The Conqueror

In the spacetime tunnel, just as last time, there was complete silence.

Trgzyx didn’t mind this side effect of traveling between star systems, as he loved to immerse himself in long meditations. In his thoughts, he counted the conquered planets and enslaved their inhabitants, imagining the euphoric state after the latest expected successful invasion.

He glanced at the time indicator over his shoulder and clicked with satisfaction. Only a few light points remained, and he would reach his destination.

For now, he couldn’t know where that was, as according to the XORX law, invasion command ships had to randomly select their jump coordinates. The XORX had reached such an unprecedented level of development that there was no longer any need for a battle plan, strategy, or army. Trgzyx, like his other colleagues developed in the war factories, was a brilliant commander, an invincible army, and the invasion fleet itself. His task was simple and clear: to explore the inhabited star systems of the duoverse’s lower half, neutralize any possible resistance, and then notify the collection ships, which would strip the defenseless natives of their natural resources, technological devices, and ultimately their free will.

Trgzyx hated inferior creatures. He had already subjugated thousands of underdeveloped, suffering, weak species during his 120 xoraxian year shift, and according to his plans, the remaining eighty years until his rest would significantly increase this number.

The sharp purple light beam flashing on the top of the stasis chamber snapped him out of his thoughts. He moved slightly with difficulty, causing his matte black skin to squeak loudly against the stone-carved seat. His pale green eyes, devoid of iris and pupil, opened wide on his disproportionately large head, and three of the largest turned toward the complex instrument panel sprawling on the side of the chamber.

He had arrived.

A dull pop dispersed the wormhole in front of the spaceship, and suddenly various noises filled the cabin. The faintly flickering light grid beyond the window disappeared, replaced by tiny points of light from stars cast into solid darkness.

With a glance, Trgzyx identified the system of nearby planets and cautiously activated his spaceship’s weapons and other military equipment before searching for signs of life. The results of the first scans filled him with disappointment. He saw no signs of technology or civilized life in the approaching star system.

He didn’t understand. According to the selection generators, he was clearly headed towards an inhabited star system, but the lazily clicking and blinking instruments now indicated lifeless celestial bodies.

He ran a more thorough examination and noticed a small amount of radioactive gamma radiation coming from the third planet from the sun. Although he knew the phenomenon could be of natural origin, it was worth taking a closer look since he had come this far. He simply couldn’t accept that, for the first time since his activation, he had found an empty star system without subjugable, inferior peoples.

As he approached the strangely unnaturally blue and green planet, he grew more curious. There was no trace of the life-giving grayish-yellow ammonia oceans or the nourishing silicon deserts necessary for survival. The atmosphere lacked the xenon molecules necessary for air exchange. The surface was almost entirely covered in toxic hydrogen-containing oceans, and the bright blue, uninviting atmosphere consisted of unfriendly nitrogen and deadly oxygen.

Trgzyx had never seen such a terribly hostile planet before. The suction cups on the ends of his legs shuddered at the thought of intelligent life possibly emerging in such a desolate place.

The celestial body increasingly filled the protective sunshades of the windows, and he already noticed objects moving in multiple directions with his unaided sensors. He looked questioningly at his instruments, which still showed nothing detectable. According to them, there could be no life, movement, or technology on the blue planet, but the metallic-colored, glowing points flying in front of his eyes suggested something else, not to mention the unnaturally straight lines and city-like shapes that adorned the planet’s surface. He suspiciously sized up the multitude of instruments when, from the lowest, hidden part of the panel, one of his eyes noticed a flashing light. The emergency white light was mounted above a trembling, out-of-control indicator, and a single word was etched below: Radio Waves!

He had no idea what radio waves were, and this greatly disturbed him since, during his 500 years of training, he had been taught every astronomical, physical, chemical, mathematical, and quvological term known in the duoverse. For a few seconds, he blinked confusedly with two of his three largest eyes, while the third stared intently at the inscription above the out-of-control indicator. With one of his black, flexible tentacles, he reached under the pilot’s seat, and after a bit of searching, pulled out the operating manual attached to the spaceship, which he had last flipped through when he was a 140th invasion commando cadet. He found the term radio waves under the heading “assumed anomalies,” within the smallest-lettered informational section. He remembered his instructors saying that these should only be read in case of extreme boredom, but they would be better off dealing with more meaningful things instead.

In the book, about radio waves, only this much was written:

“Existence not proven, but in the Tetraglobe-2 laboratory, the necessary equipment for detection was developed with the help of some enthusiastic scientists who had questionable results. According to the group of scientists, radio waves could have a strong disturbing effect on xyro systems, such as detection, weaponry, navigation. The Tetraglobe-2 scientific group could not successfully present the proof of their assumptions within the specified deadline, so they received an honorable liquidation. There is no justifiable objection to their installation in the invasion spacecraft.”

With a sudden movement, he threw the manual into the corner and grabbed the spaceship’s steering horn. With a quick gesture of his third hand, he neutralized the shading surface surrounding the xyro cabin, which immediately made the spherical pilot cabin transparent, and now he could see out in all directions. In the next moment, the stomach acid in Trgzyx’s head froze.

The image of the planet completely filled the cabin’s glass, and from one-third of the directions, a primitive satellite-like shiny machinery was flying towards him unstoppably. The collision was now inevitable, and Trgzyx, hitting the buttons of the inoperative weapon system, watched wide-eyed as the foreign space object penetrated the inoperative energy shield and shaved off the engines of his ship, which he had thought to be invulnerable. The dull rumble and clicking of the equipment were mixed with the echoes of explosions, and then the emergency ejection system of the pilot cabin detached from the spacecraft’s hull, and Trgzyx began to plummet towards the planet’s surface and the venomous blue ocean with his cabin-turned-rock seat.

As he fell accelerating into the unknown, Trgzyx formulated an angry message with his telepathic brain, and with the help of communication-enhancing implants, he sent it towards the data transmitter of his disintegrating spaceship. However, the spacecraft had suffered too much damage, so the hastily composed report could not escape the vortex of radio waves into interplanetary space.

He didn’t give up.

In the last moment before the crash, the fact of defeat plunged him into an indescribably aggressive state of mind, which increased the iridium level in his body and multiplied the effectiveness of his telepathic abilities.

The thought fragments of his last message burst out of the planet’s poisonous atmosphere like a furious and desperate mental scream towards the stars and the XORX empire.

A few micro-time units later, the xyrocabin crashed into the ocean at a terrifying speed. The super-strong guamitrate alloy did protect Trgzyx’s life from the impact’s force, but the poisonous, hydrogen-containing liquid immediately began to corrode the cabin’s wall.

Trgzyx helplessly watched the terrifying darkness below him, into which he was sinking along with the disintegrating wreckage.

A hundred million light-years and two cascade points away, at the armed XorX relay station on the edge of the upper duoverse, a rather surprised-looking telepathic XorX caught the following message fragment: “…MAY ALL THE VERMIN OF KBARIA’S SALT MINES DEVOUR THE BRAIN COVER OF THE FCXTN WHO HONORABLY EXECUTED THE TETRAGLOBE LAB SCIENTISTS!!!”