Flight of the Blue Dragon

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Flight of the Blue Dragon

by Tim Gibson

Gorgotha was a desert planet, mostly red sand and burnt-orange rock, ruled by lizardmen stuck in the sword-and-chainmail era. Cold-blooded and rather brutish, the lizardmen never advanced. They shared the planet with large, prehistoric-type reptiles. Certain shapes bred true on multiple worlds – the basic reptilian design was so efficient that it appeared on many planets. The largest reptiles of Gorgotha were similar to those of Earth's ancient past – testament to the effectiveness of a carnosaur's basic body shape. No comet struck Gorgotha's past to wipe them out. Lizardmen ruled a planet full of lumbering, giant reptiles. With their ability to make swords, armor and bows, and their skill at tactics and strategy, the lizardmen conquered their planet.

About 11 million years ago the first race to conquer the stars found a galaxy ripe for the taking. The Amoeba Empire – a respectably peaceful race that loved to explore and eat, and eat, and eat – expanded quickly. They made one mistake – they gave their robots too much autonomy. Their first robot rebellion was devastating but they survived. Their second robot rebellion, more of an AI problem, took out half their planets but they put down that as well. Getting their pseudopods on food occupied most of their attention so they made only dumb bots from that point on, machines good at jet manufacture and repair but incapable of independent thought, extrapolation or free will. Dumb bots couldn't even generate random numbers.

The Amoebas ruled for about a million years until the Octopoid Empire bumped into them in space. It was hate at first sight. Soon there were no more Amoeboids in the galaxy – the Octopoids wiped them out.

For about 10 million years the Octopoids ruled much of the galaxy. Eight tentacles, soft gelatinous body and a large round eye on each side of their heads, the Octopoids conquered space and were so vile, so terrible in their wanton war-lust that the other races of the galaxy banded together to fight them and were still defeated. Alone in the galaxy the Octopoid ships roamed, exploring and conquering. Hated by all star-faring species, the Octopoids fought magnificent battles and conquered each star system they came to.

Much of their success was due to their fighter pilots. Most races could only tolerate 9Gs. The Octopoids had evolved at the bottom of their ocean, under crushing gravity, and could withstand 12Gs. Their fighter pilots pulled victory out of the jaws of defeat many times and ultimately exterminated every race they came across, no matter how peaceful or beautiful the other aliens were.

When they spilled over into the adjacent galactic spiral arm – the one containing the Earth – they moved from planet to planet, always winning. That spiral arm offered less resistance and provided more open space for the Octopoid Empire to explore. A good cephalopod pilot loved nothing more than to explore the galaxy in a single-seat fighter – free, all-powerful and with mysteries all around him or her just waiting to be discovered.

Unfortunately for them, solar radiation reduced their ability to reproduce. As the centuries ticked by they had fewer children. While the DNA strands of most animals were a double helix, the Octopoid DNA was 7 strands braided around each other. The map of the Octopoid genome was so complicated that even with their magnificent science they could not clone themselves.

To the other races the Octopoid science was unfathomable and their technology supreme yet the cephalopods were unable to reproduce because of the solar radiation of their long galactic explorations. The Octopoids discovered Earth as their civilization waned and they needed slaves. On Earth it was the year 30 BC and a cephalopod ship landed on the Peloponnesian peninsula. They took slaves to at least 2 different planets – the ocean world of Viridescent and the desert world of Gorgotha.