RBO-29 responded grumpily, "We'll need them. The bugs are crazy. Just you wait."
Of course, there were some things on which they did agree.
Even as new Defense Department R&D projects started working toward ECM, advanced shields, and gatling lasers, the shipyards turned out their first WingedEgg colony ship: The first to carry long-range fuel tanks in the empire. Count Refsalot remarked that the timing might have been better, as nuclear engines would have sped the ship's deployment considerably, but the first functioning prototype - the Ssithis Fission Drive still on display at the Reticuli Museum of Science and Industry - was still two years from completion, following numerous setbacks in its development.
Four years after the Ssithis Drive was successfully tested, RBO-29 devoured the computer engineers responsible for informing him that - with an ECM Jammer completed - the only project they could devise with which to move forward was an improvement to the same Jamming device. Their timing might have been better: He would probably have been in a much better mood after hearing of the Beta Ceti colony founded later the same year. The news would only get better as Refsalot and RBO-29 remained - for the moment - on more or less the same page.
After the development of double-power deflectors led toward research into a basic personal shield, and toxic environmental controls opened up the chance to double their terraforming abilities, Sakkra scientists moved on from gatling lasers to work on a delightful little weapons system known as the NPG, even as other Sakkra scientists made the most startling discovery to that time in their history: It was possible to communicate with Klackons - at least, with a few of their scientists - and they were willing to trade the secrets of 5-parsec Deuterium fuel cells for Sakkra waste-scrubbing techniques! (RBO-29 insisted that the means of reduced waste production be given them rather than cleanup techniques, as the least effective of the two and the one the bugs' construction skills made them most likely to supercede.)
By the following year, the new range tech was already bearing fruit: It put the Sakkra people in touch with two new races, each (slightly) less insane than the buggies! MS-35 ruled a compact but no-doubt powerful Meklar empire, Narzina held sway over the equally condensed but likely-to-be-annoying Darloks, and each was able to overcome its native xenophobia (to say nothing of militaristic tendencies) long enough to agree to establish significant trade with Beta Ceti.
The diplomatic scene was heating up rapidly. Just three years later, when the Sakkra claimed the rich world of Maalor, a new transmission burst forth across the galaxy from its mysterious "Orion" origin, linking the leaders of every space-faring race in a galactic council meeting! Though none was chosen that day, the council was appointed to select a ruler for the whole of the galaxy, and was scheduled to meet once more just seven years later, and again thereafter, every 25 years. RBO-29 murmured darkly, "Well, this can't be a good thing."
With a sanguine smile, Refsalot said, "It will be if you win."
The dragon slitted its fiery eyes, but said nothing ... and perhaps it knew something that Refsalot didn't. The following year, before a just-completed Sakkra defensive fleet of laser fighters could arrive, the Klackons - who had sent a colony fleet of their own - took control of Maalor's orbit and launched a wave of combat transports from their nearest world. Sakkra reinforcements had to travel through the rimward nebula or cross enormous distances, and would surely come too late. Nevertheless, RBO-29 did what he could, beginning by working closely with Darlok scientists.
Hand lasers wouldn't save the barely-inhabited colony from the incoming transports, but they might help when the Sakkra transports already en route to reclaim it from its new Klackon masters. Out-of-date Darlok terraforming techniques were another matter, but at least they would help other Sakkra worlds produce things a very little bit faster. It was the best the Darloks were willing to do to help, and RBO-29 was willing to take anything; in exchange, he increased their ships' effective range and taught them to improve their factory-construction techniques. The following year, the Sakkra defense fleet - still too small to deal with the all the incoming Klackon transports - dismantled the bug people's orbiting fleet. The year after that, knowing the bugs would not take lightly to his upcoming "invasion" of Maalor, he decided to make it a clean sweep ... and sent transports to the new Klackon world of Imra.
Count Refsalot raged. Any attempt to invade Imra would be totally irresponsible, he argued. It was bad enough that there would be a battle at Maalor; the Sakkra people were not prepared to fight a war with the overwhelmingly powerful insects, and while the Maalor invasion might fail if not supported, perhaps leaving room for peace, a dedicated effort to capture Imra would inevitably....
His words fell upon deaf ears ... which was unfortunate, as they were prophetic.
The first invasion of Imra failed, so RBO-29 sent another ... and just one year before the second High Council election, Sakkra transports invaded two Klackon worlds ... and were slaughtered ... and instigated a declaration of war.
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Next: Not Speaking
