Infinite Dark: Awakening
Chapter 15

Sarab couldn’t believe what was happening before her; Lycon, her friend and superior, holding a laser cannon pointed at her.

“Chancellor…” She said slowly; “What is the meaning of this?”

“I told you not to speak with Dantos,” Lycon said, ignoring her; “You disobeyed a direct order.”

“Chancellor, I…” Dantos began.

Lycon turned the cannon on him and fired, hitting Dantos square in the chest.

“No!” Sarab shrieked.

Dantos’s face darkened instantly as the air left his body, his eyes went wide and he staggered before falling down into the Neptian grass.

Sarab felt her breathe leave her body, staring back and forth between Dantos and Lycon.

“He’s only stunned,” Lycon said casually; “I can’t waste such a young warrior at a time like this, just like I can’t lose you commander.”

Lycon holstered his weapon and spread his arms out wide.

“I do not wish to harm you Commander Sarab,” He said slowly; “The fate of our people rests with you.”

“You…” Sarab could barely control her emotions; “You allowed our people to die… you… you killed Rossiana?”

“Now let me explain…” Lycon began; “There is much you don’t understand. The Coalition was weak, we were spread too far across the galaxy and our leaders were unfit to manage such an empire.”

“We are NOT an empire!” Sarab shouted; she shot a quick glance to the ground; a finger twitched on Dantos’s hand.

“Of course we are!” Lycon said with a laugh; “We use other species to our advantage, we police much of the Galaxy that we patrol and control, you are naïve to think we are anything but an Empire.”

Sarab shook her head;

“We investigate, study and help the beings within this galaxy,” She said; “We are not a war-like people.”

“That is our problem!” Lycon exclaimed; “We have the power and technology to take whatever we want! The Odiums harass us, we could vaporize their planet, destroy their ships with long range lasers and knock out their communications with a push of a button, yet we never did this!”

“Those small humanoid earthlings we have brought into the Coalition; we have 300 of them doing grunt work on an asteroid base not 40 light years from this very planet.” He continued; “They think because we expanded their life spans that we have paid them in some way, there are BILLIONS of them on their planet. If we so wanted we could force them all to be our slaves and use them for our own gains. Like we could have done when we mined Treebok’s minerals and resources for our own uses. We gave them technology in exchange for those materials! We could have had it all for nothing!”

Sarab was amazed at the delusions Lycon was spewing now, she had never heard talk such as this.

“You’re mad,” She said softly.

“I’m mad?” Lycon asked with another laugh. “What’s mad is a rouge sentient black hole that has come to life and is consuming everything in the galaxy. He seems to gain more power with every life form he absorbs. I imagine what we could do with seven billion Earthlings at our disposal, but can you imagine what Rogue would gain by consuming so many sentient beings?”

This made Sarab pause and freeze in terror.

“That much life lost…” She whispered horrified.

Lycon scoffed;

“Yes “all lives” matter, but think of what it would gain by consuming the souls of so many creatures, as primitive as they are. It would gain seven billion new ways of thinking, seven billion new ways of seeing things! That much consciousness and intelligence would only drive it to destroy more and absorb more, it will consume all life in this galaxy then move onto another and another until the whole Universe is in peril. Seven billion souls would power it forever!”

Sarab hated this man but knew he was right, the more this monster consumed the faster and more powerful it seemed to become. There would be no stopping it if it absorbed this “Earth” world.

“There is still hope Commander,” Lycon said, this time with warmth in his voice; “There is no one better than you to take the shot to destroy Rogue. You are experienced enough and understand what it would mean if we let this creature continue to destroy everything we hold dear.”

“The women?” Sarab asked; unable to shake this from her mind, “You could have saved many of our people but you sacrificed them and took the women to be your own personal concubines?”

Anger flashed across Lycon’s face before he crushed it down and tried a sincere smile.

“If there were any children on Cryostar I would have saved them as well. I do not see the women as my property; they are some of our brightest and most ambitious minds on the planet. I chose those that would best benefit our race going forward and the most likely to procreate the best offspring.”

“That’s sick…” Sarab muttered disgusted; “This is not what our people do.”

“This is why our people are dead,” Lycon said with a sigh, he raised his laser cannon from his holster once more; “You are going to board a ship with myself and Callib, once he explains how his Magnetar weapon works you will fly to the star and use it to destroy Rogue. If you survive you will be a hero to the whole universe and my right hand subordinate for all time. If you die… well, we will remember you as a hero.”

“I wouldn’t want to live in this sick reality you imagine,” Sarab spat.

“The choice is not yours,” Lycon said raising the weapon.

A shot was fired, sizzling the air, but it came from the ground and hit Lycon in the chest.

Unlike the blast that hit Dantos, this one had a more telling effect on Lycon. A hole was burned into the Chancellor’s chest; smoke came out from it as his flesh and fabric from his uniform burned.

Dantos stood slowly, panting and in obvious pain from the shot he had taken earlier.

“Ugh…” Lycon sputtered as his cannon fell from his hand to the ground. “You… you fools…”

He fell on his knees to the ground.

“I’m… I’m the only one who knows the location of the female ships…” He said this with a sneer as blood formed at the corner of his mouth. “The only one who knows how to replace them… and your darling Rossiana…”

Sarab’ eyes went wide;

“What?!” She exclaimed

She rushed towards him and grabbed Lycon by his shoulders. With a choking gasp Lycon’s head fell to his side and he died upon the alien world.