Prologue

“Come now child it’s time for bed,” Kvel Mavec told her daughter.

“But Momma, can’t I stay up and watch the Circus, please?”

“Etris, you know you’re too young to watch the Circus Pantrixnia broadcasts! They’re far too violent for one of your age. I’m none too pleased your Father allows you to watch football. Did Father let you watch the Circus?”

“No, I saw it at Tria’s house, Momma, at her sleep-over. They had one prisoner who was on his third day before he got eaten. Three days! Tria’s father says that’s almost a record!”

“Well, I’ll have a talk with Tria’s parents tomorrow. Now, that’s enough. On your knees child and say your prayers.”

“Yes, Momma,” the girl sighed, folding her sprightly silvery form at the side of her bed. She looked up through her bedroom window, through the clear climate controlled skies of the planet Kempec Primus, and crossed her arms over her breast. Her beautifully luminous pupil-less eyes closed and she recited the same litany repeated a trillion times every moment by trillions of galactic children.

“Bless my world my life to keep, bless my people as they sleep. Slumber sweet, yet slumber light, lest Alexander evade our sight. For the Conqueror shall never cease, on that day I’ll make my peace. Beneath Alexander’s throne, I pray, rather Death take me away. If I die before I wake, I pray my God my soul to take. Amen.”

“Amen, my sweet,” Mavec said, tucking the girl under the covers.

“Is Alexander coming tonight Momma?”

“Not tonight, dearest. I would have heard something.”

Etris smiled, as she always did with her mother’s reassuring answer. “But why does Alexander want to come here, Momma?”

“He’s a Terran, he’s a conqueror. That’s what Terran’s do my love.”

“But why?”

Mavec sighed, and said, “Because long ago, Alexander the Great united all of Terra under his banner—a banner of conquest. Terrans yearn for unity, and one day they will unite again under the heir of Alexander. When they do they’ll follow Alexander’s call to the stars, for though he is dead, his philosophy survives. It’s their religion; it’s their way of life.”

“Will he make me part of his harem?”

“Gracious what a thought!” Mavec started, and then she sighed, stroking her child’s head. “It’s alright Etris; I remember having the same thoughts as a girl of your age. We’d sit around the light of a lumen and talk about the terrible Terrans and what would happen to all of us when Alexander finally came—oh the morbid thoughts of school-age girls!”

“But why does Alexander want to hurt us?”

“I don’t know if it’s anything personal, dear. That’s how they are. Terrans have hurt and killed countless millions of their own people in this centum alone. We can expect no mercy from them. They are an adolescent race of uncivilized barbarians. Now, enough of that, Etris, if you really want to know, ask the school-computer about Terran history. The night is no time for such talk.”

“You’re a Senator, you’d tell me, wouldn’t you?” she asked again, clutching her covers around her. “Alexander’s not coming tonight is he, you promise?”

“No, the Terrans have not found the heir to Alexander; they are far too fractured after the last great war to unite. There is no cause to fear tonight or for many to follow!” Mavec kissed her daughter tenderly and turned off the light.

“Good night, Momma!”

“Good night, dearest!”