Worldeater — the intergalactic weapon that could deconstruct and reconstruct planets
“Mr. Jamisen! Sir!! We have an order from the Uyanps for a water planet!” The secretary scurried into the room out of breath with a receipt in her hand.
“Another one?? How much land are they looking for?” The captain ran his hands through his thinning hair, this was a huge order.
“They…” she took a deep breath and scanned the receipt to be sure. “None. A planet composed completely of water.”
“WHAT?? ARE THEY OUT OF THEIR MINDS??? Can they even comprehend the cost of a venture like that, we have — “
“They have offered Gobor. And Jingl for material.”
“What? They can’t offer us planets… Can they?”
The secretary dutifully pulled up a chart from her back pocket and read over it quickly. She punched it with her forefinger when she found the data she was seeking.
“The Uyanps own both of them. And Gobor is uninhabited. They want to offer it up as payment. As for Jingl, we are to reuse it for material for their new planet. Which, by the way, they want to call ‘Super Uyanps’ as soon as it’s finished.” She looked up expectantly as the captain ran his hand through his hair again.
“That’s a stupid name…” he said bitterly, then got to the main point, “Is Jingl inhabited?”
“Yes, but not by Uyanps.”
“Oh, thank God, unintelligents? Like animals and such? Was it a farming planet?” he asked, scratching his head, trying to think of the answers himself.
“No, it’s inhabited by Detrons.”
“The species??”
“That’s right.”
“Well, where are they going to go?” Jamisen yelled incredulously.
The secretary looked at her receipt. She peered a long time before her eyes widened and she looked at the captain. She gave the slip a double-take as her mouth gaped open.
“Uhhh… they’re supposed to be a part of the waters on Super Uyanps. Apparently, the Detrons are made of things that are beneficial for the Uyanp to swim in… Sir, we can’t… We can’t complete this order.”
Jamisen stared at his hands, filled with stray hairs he’d been pulling out after stroking his hair so often this past week. Worldeater was a handful. He wished someone else could pilot the thing.
“We don’t…” he trailed off, trying to say the sentence correctly. “We don’t accept or deny orders, we carry them out,” he sighed.
“I know, but we have to go back to headquarters and tell them as such.”
“Ready the PlanetBuster, Katy.”
“No!” she yelled, both in fear and anger.
“Katy, do you know how this goes down? First we — “
“We single-handedly commit genocide and keep pulling in the money from these ventures? That’s ridiculous!!”
“NO! I’ll tell you how it goes. We reject the proposal. We refuse to kill the Detrons, even though by all Galactic Law, Uyanps have every right to destroy their property. We have essentially told them that we will listen to the other aliens, but not them. We have opened ourselves up for war. Space War which they are very familiar with, and we have never participated in before.” Jamisen stopped to take a breath. He was scaring himself already.
“Yeah, but — “
“Then THEY kill us, take over the Worldeater and start the project themselves. Or multiple projects! Involving many more species. Who knows? The only thing I know is that we make the planets, or we lose our own.”
“That has to be the worst-case scenario, Captain. Don’t be such a pessimist. We just have to explain it more thoroughly to HQ.”
“Where did you get the receipt?”
“Uhh, HQ,” she answered with a small voice.
“And you think they were confused when they wrote the part about killing all Detrons?” the captain asked curtly.
“M.. maybe?”
“All of my predecessors were fired for refusing orders. I’m the last one that can pilot this thing. In other words, the last one keeping us from starting a war. Do you want a war, the likes of which will kill billions of us?”
“…No.”
“Then ready the PlanetBuster. That’s an order.”
Katy left the room crying, throwing the receipt at her captain as she stormed off. Jamisen ran his hand through his hair. Again, hair fell off his fragile scalp. He couldn’t keep this up.
He was falling apart.