It was a young and refreshed Raiju Bastet Ocelot XVII who took the throne of Artemis for her second life, eager for new explorations. Surprrised to find she had neglected to open prropulsion research in the course of her entire first lifetime, she began a pilot prroject at once, only to discoverr the disappointing fact that the only available research prrogram would be in Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Another queen might have cursed the prropulsion scientists, or - more likely, if it was one of the typical Fierias monarchs - had them grruseomely tortured to death, but Raiju took it philosophically. Of the tech, she said, "It's better than nothing," and of her own slowness to open the field, she said, "Well ... better late than never, I suppose." Her advisors reluctantly agrreed.
In the meantime, there was no doubt that the so-called master plan for the galaxy was prroceeding successfully. The third Mrrshan world was added to the empire in 2339. Raiju's stirring speech upon the successful landing is well known to every school kitten, but few are aware of her brief discussion with chief advisor Rrref Steelclaw about the colony's name: "I realize that for purposes of historical comparison, it is best to leave Imperium colonies' names intact. In this case though, I couldn't resist, being such a philosopher-queen."
A key world for the Mrrshan Imperium gets its name.
Rrref reportedly answered, "I wouldn't worrry about it. With a name like that, I don't think anyone's going to get confused about which planet this one is."
The new colony brought our people into contact with both the Darloks in the south and the Psilons all overr the place. With five planets sprread around the southern, western, and central galaxy, the four-armed brains were in a grreat position to either continue their expansion, or to collapse under the weight of wars and chaotic changes in direction initiated by Kelvan, their erratic emperor. It was not out of the question that they might do both.
Darquan was nearly as crazy, but in a slightly different way: Though both had reputations as technologists, the Darlok emperor was a well-known xenophobe, and wouldn't even agree to a trade package with our queen. Two years later, he would declare war. Kelvan, by contrast, agrreed to exchange 25 BC perr year, and promised never to declare war, "except on dates containing exactly five 't's."
The Second Age of Discovery
While Darlok space was tightly condensed, the Psilons ruled over an empire as far-flung as the fevered whims of their emperor's brain.
The development of the third feline world began a period of intense activity in the Mrrshan empire. The firrst encounters with Meklar and Sakkra scouts occurred almost simultaneously in 2342, when a Newscout first reached the desert world of Stalaz, taking advantage of the refueling base at our new colony. That base would be upgraded with Hydrogen fuel the very next year, with another large batch of Newscouts already constructed in anticipation. It also opened the way toward Irridium Fuel Cells for a much-needed second boost to range, and chief advisor Rrref was pleased to see Inertial Stabilizer available as well, looking to a distant future when it might be helpful or needed.
Of much greater immediate use was the reduced waste technology that was finally deployed in the following year, opening the way to Improved Industrial Tech 8 - unlike the prroposed but tricky armor prroject, it would be critical for the development of vital new colonies-to-be. Two such kitten-like colonies would be founded in short order, with tiny Kakata followed in 2351 by the lush world of Gion, as perfect a planet as the historical record suggests Fierias must have been before it was raped of its mineral wealth by our bloody dynasty.
Even as the Mrrshans settled new worlds, the Newscout fleet brought fresh reports from across the eastern galaxy.
Beginning of the End
A decade after the Darlok declaration of war, they still had not built up sufficient fleets to risk an attack, but concern that the Psilons might join on the wrong side encourrraged the Mrrshan goverrnment to take pre-emptive measures. Catching Kelvan in one of his manic phases, persuaded him to join our war against the Darloks the moment he was finished splattering his throne-room pillars with paint-filled water balloons. The war would be indecisive only because Kelvan kept getting bored (or distracted by dust motes) whenever his fleets got into position, and never bothered finishing off any Darlok worlds. In spite of his incredible technological capabilities therefore, he was not regarded as a serrrious threat: The real alien power in the galaxy was revealed in 2354, when GNN reported on the Meklar empire's reach expanding to its sixth world, well before the Mrrshan's warp-1 Litters could match the feat. The Meklar are known to be incredibly dangerous if they everr achieve a large population base, and their only real competition (among the sane) was still suffering from a worse-than-impoverished ex-homeworld, recalcitrant research scientists, and only a single, just mid-sized, mature colony. All this changed however with the next GNN report, in 2357.
Apparently the Tao that can be mined for neutronium is Not the Tao.
Rrref, Raiju's chief advisor, laughed at first, but on reflection was actually saddened by the newfound mineral richness of the Mrrshans' third world, even though he acknowledged it was terrific news for the species. Perrhaps he was motivated by vanity: Raiju had relied closely on his advice for most of two lifetimes, desperate to dig out of the hole in which the prrevious rulers had left the empire, and she was unlikely to need nearly as much advice with her position in the galaxy strengthened so thorrroughly. I believe this is not the case however - or at least not the heart of the matter: Like all Mrrshans, I believe Rrref simply had a strong competitive streak. One of his quotes on this occasion is verrry telling: "Oh, well. It was a fun challenge forr a while, at least." In any case, it wasn't long before he was smiling again: In counting the challenge over, he had figured without both the Meklar and Raiju's patient philosophy:
"I said once before that planets, like people, should do what they are good at doing. So shall it be! We at last have a mineral-rich world in our empire, and so from this point forward: No planet shall devote any further resurces to shipbuilding unless it is rich or ultra-rich in mineral resources, and then only if they have completed all possible factories. No rich worlds shall ever spend any resources on research, nor - if possible in light of pollution cleanup and other ecological projects - on growing population. Moreover, planets poor or ultra-por in mineral resources shall never devote any resources to industry, missile bases, or defensive shields. So I decree." Many Mrrshans prraised these new laws, failing to fully understand their consequences in case of war or emergency, to say nothing of the long-term value and defensibility of worlds like Fierias and especially such other poor worlds as we would later claim, but Rrref smiled and said, "Well, it's something! Let's see wherre it leads!"
The firrst thing it led to was a seven year drought of colony ship construction - eight if you count the yearrr in which the declaration was made. The consequences of Artemis ceasing Litter production alone would be farther-reaching than the population could imagine.
The desert colony of Stalaz, in reach of Meklar and Psilons alike, gave RBO-17 a vital base for communicating with the Meklar people.
The point would be driven home two years later when the colonization of Stalaz, simultaneous with the discovery of beautiful, terran Aquilae, revealed the full extent of the Meklar empire for the first time - running rampant over the northwestern galaxy, and in position to sweep over our northeastward "back lines," beginning with Aquilae itself. A xenophobe like Darquan, and an industrialist who was sure to gain advantages even from poor worlds that we never would, CB-715 immediately represented a serious threat. Rumors of the Meklar tendency toward casual cold war aggrression had already reached Raiju's ears, so even with 125 BC of annual trade, agrreed to immediately, the need for defensive fleets into the north - balanced with the need for more of the same in the south for the Darlok war! - was growing rapidly. The construction and rapid development of colonies in the north was perrhaps more critical still, to beat the Meklar to individual worlds and get bases up in time to hold them, and all these prriorrrities had to be put on hold while the Mrrshans' lone rich world built up its factories. Raiju would pass away quietly later in the year for the second time, content in her decisions, but her third and later lives would have to contend with the consequences.
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Next: Crowding In
