It was a strange, sudden surge of empathy for a man she had once feared. Without even realising what she was doing, she moved closer.
She leaned over his command seat, the scent of her perfu mingling with the sterile ozone of the bridge.
She reached out, her slim, delicate fingers trailing softly across his face, brushing a stray lock of hair away from his forehead.
"But you must realise," she continued, her touch lingering longer than was strictly professional, "winning a few battles is far from enough to actually control a planet. You’ve won an apocalypse yourself, Hye. You know the blood and sweat it takes to hold a world. You know exactly what would happen if so random race ca out of the blue and tried to snatch the kingdom you built with your own two hands, right? The resistance would be eternal."
"I know," he said, leaning slightly into her touch. Her hand was cool against his skin, a grounding sensation amidst the cold vacuum of his thoughts. "I still never considered the possibility of the dium races being the main players. I was so sure the big races would be the sole victors that I didn’t even plan for a territorial grab."
"Then how else do you think dium-sized races and kingdoms manage to expand in this universe?" she asked, a small, playful chuckle escaping her lips. "I told you already, you’re giving those ancient beasts far more credit than they really deserve! They are content with their borders; they’ve lost the hunger."
She paused, her breath hitching as she looked down at him. From this close, the intensity of his presence was overwhelming.
She felt an almost irresistible urge to lean down and press a soft kiss against the side of his neck. The feeling made her tremble from within, a cocktail of adrenaline and sothing far more dangerous.
Hye finally looked up, eting her gaze directly. He looked into her beautiful eyes, frad by those long, dark eyelashes, and saw the conflict swirling there. He didn’t pull away. Instead, he made his final decision regarding the coming conflict.
"I’ll take this experience as a test then," he said, his voice firming with renewed purpose. "I’ll use this raid to refine my tactics and clear the path. But I’ll make sure that the next ti I co to a hot zone like this, I’ll win the battles that matter. I’ll own as many worlds as I can carry."
"That’s... good," she stamred, finally finding the strength to resist her desires for a second ti. She slowly stepped away from his lap, her face flushed as she regained her professional distance.
Watching her struggle with her own conflicting emotions was quite amusing to Hye. He offered her a faint, knowing smirk, but said nothing more. He wouldn’t complain about such a developnt.
"I’ll mark the planets currently under the control of any of the Big Three races in red," Olana said, gesturing toward the holographic map projected in the centre of the deck.
Hye watched the flickering light, his mind racing. He wanted to ask where she had acquired such sensitive intelligence, but he already knew the answer.
She was bridging a gap he couldn’t hope to fill on his own—providing the connections, the intricate relationships, and the strategic partnerships she had cultivated with various galactic forces.
She was the diplomat and the spy; he was the soldier trying to catch up.
Within minutes, the grand map of the sectors began to change. Hye watched closely, expecting a crimson wave to wash over the display. Instead, he noticed only a scattering of red dots appearing across the vast expanse of the void.
"Only fifteen?!" He gasped, his voice echoing in the quiet of the deck. He was genuinely bewildered to see such a low number of planets controlled by the descendants of the Big Three.
"That is the standard," Olana replied, raising an eyebrow at his shock. "I told you before: do not give them more credit than they deserve."
"It’s just... weird," Hye admitted. He felt a hollow sensation in his chest, a mix of relief and confusion. "I honestly thought I had committed a grave mistake by countering their mbers and seizing control of my world. I assud the norm was for every apocalypse to fall under their dominion. I thought the universe looked like... well, not like this."
He motioned toward the sparse map. Olana looked at the projection and let out a long, weary sigh.
"Do you think other planets played host to mbers of these races and simply lost? No, my dear. The other planets had no mbers from these races to begin with. What you did during your apocalypse was, is, and will always be considered a total anomaly."
Hye fell silent, the weight of her words sinking in. He stared at the fifteen red dots, comparing them to the hundreds of other systems left in neutral colours. "Are you telling that out of a hundred apocalypses, fewer than twenty involved mbers of the Big Three? What about the rest of them?"
"Do you truly think the Big Three are still burning with vigour and the desire to rule?" Olana stood up slowly, her movents deliberate. She took a deep breath, sensing that Hye needed a wake-up call to shake him out of his provincial mindset.
"Do you think they feel a need to prove themselves? Do you think they feel threatened? Do you think they believe they must grow stronger just to protect their borders?"
She paced the edge of the projector, the blue light of the map casting long shadows across her face. "Those are the traits of a lower race, Hye. Not a supre one. Those at the very top of the ladder don’t bother with the concerns of others because they fear nothing. They have already achieved everything possible; they have grown to an extent that others view as an impossible lifeti goal. As a result, that old, feverish burning desire for growth and power has dimd. There is no longer a need for it. In their eyes, there isn’t a single enemy left in existence for them to be afraid of."
User Comments
0 comments from readers