Humanity Endures

Part 4 - The Beginning of the End | Chapter 1

"Power is like money: you can never have enough of it."

— Ralthina

***

Xertaza shot one last, longing glance at the bridge around her, her eyes taking in every subtle detail and every beautiful facet of the physical reality that she was a part of, relishing in its beauty, and, above all, the fact that it and everyone in it existed. The next moment, Xertaza mentally reached out to her digital desk, and alongside by a rush of cool, and a faint tingling sensation throughout her heavily-implanted spine, this physical reality faded away, subsumed by its data-rife digital equivalent; this simulated realm was the base from which Xertaza would fight for the existence she had just temporarily left. The war for the survival of humankind had commenced, Light's End was littered with human corpses as numerous as the stars themselves, and it was now inevitable that countless more would join them, unless Xertaza and the others in the ranks of humanity's military could thwart that which they did not even comprehend.

Flowing through Xertaza's mind were hundreds of thousands of strategic reports, alerts, and tasks, that coalesced into a grim picture of the galaxy; surrounding her was the shimmering, reflective, and infinite simulated expanse that had become as familiar to Xertaza as the physical universe that she inhabited, and a simulated expanse that she expected to spend an unhealthy amount of time in, on that day. All of these strategic reports, alerts, and tasks had to be resolved, all of the galaxy's crises had to be beaten back, the Empire, and by extension, humanity, had to be preserved. The duty of the prime constable was to maintain peace, and the aliens' arrival had destroyed this peace as utterly as it had hundreds of thousands of human warships. To restore this peace, order, and, eventually, normalcy, the aliens had to be eradicated down to the last drop of biofluid; neither the Ministry of Interstellar Security nor its leader, nor humanity would shy away from a brutal war for survival, though many saw victory being decades away, if it was in reach at all. Some of the more pessimistic believed that the only peace humanity could find now was in death, now that they had been attacked by such a superior foe, though for Xertaza, her lust for vengeance was too great for her to be gripped by hopeless pessimism.

With the power of a digital desk, incredible talent, and years of experience, Xertaza was able to delegate, decide, react, and command with unimaginable speed; making a decision that could determine the fate of billions came to her with all the ease of lifting a finger. The strategic threats facing her would take less than an hour to resolve, but in that time, Xertaza had no doubt that two hours' worth of additional catastrophe more would rise to take their place. Sighing, the sound of her simulated exhale echoing soothingly throughout the simulated reality, Xertaza wasted no further time getting to work.

The tide of information pouring into Xertaza's mind did not relent, but neither did she. Of course, these messages and reports were not sent via implants alone: for matters of interstellar communication, such messages were often sent to the Empire-Wide Communications Center above Earth, abbreviated "EWCC," which utilized quantum entanglement to relay messages to other systems' planets, or people, instantaneously. For those who were communicating on the same world, such complications were not necessary, but as she was directing forces across the galaxy in bracing for an alien attack, nearly all of Xertaza's messages passed through the centralized instrument that the EWCC was. This was a potential vulnerability, Xertaza realized, as she moved to increase the defences around Earth's station, though there were always backup EWCCs above other worlds such as Tehkria or Nahmatiix in case the first was destroyed. No matter what terrors came to the galaxy, the majority of the Empire would be able to communicate, and if humanity could communicate, it could rally itself against any threat, internal or external; this thought alone brought some ease to Xertaza's troubled heart, though this ease had little company. Xertaza's ministry continually monitored the state of the entire Empire through communications and reports received through the EWCC; by relaying this information to their superiors, Xertaza and her subordinate leaders could gain impeccable insight into the state of the galaxy, all in a matter of minutes. Since she had interfaced with her digital desk, Xertaza had been endlessly bombarded by this very information; the insight she gained was both extensive, and terrifying.