Here is the last part of this 155kb-„short-story". I hope you liked „Pride's Prize" and recommend it to your friends. And if you ask nicely I'll add a small glossary for additional information – or you ask a direct question and I'll give you a direct answer.

Pride's Prize - Epilogue

"August One, the Muun-Ten Ivar wants to talk to you."

Zaar - now Muun-Twelve of the Yirrho-Worlds - put the datapad on his desk. Two weeks had passed since the arrival of the Imperials, the battle of Yrr-17 and the following drastic change of government for the Yirrho. Two weeks ago the Yirrho had gone from independant star nation to imperial client-state with all the priviledges and obligations such a status included. And while Osvald Teshik's fleet had already left the cluster, there was still an impressive imperial presence inside the system. The official version was, that they would stay until things had calmed down and the new government was secure in its position, but Zaar suspected that they had bloodied the Imperials a little to strong and now they wanted to keep an eye on things.

He would let them. A Mandator-division, four Battlecruiser-squadrons and a score of Star Destroyers in space didn't worry him. Same was true for the fourty army-corps spread over the system until one of Yrr-Prime's moons was transformed into a base for the Imperials. If there was reason for concern, it would originate among his own kind. The prospect of new profits now that the self-inflicted isolation had come to an end had helped to placate most of the civilian population and the military was too disciplined to insurrect. Not to mention, that the important figures of Yirrho-society were more or less all aware of Zaar's and Rugar's little sheme. What left only the young and idealistic hotheads to worry about.

People like Ivar.

"Sent him in."

The door to Zaar's private office opened and the young Yirrho, who had played such an important part stepped in. Both men spent a moment to look at each other and Zaar registered with shock the changes in the younger mans appearance.

The Muun-Ten had obviously lost weight. His once bright-green skin had changed to a sickly green-grey and the once golden eyes lay deep in their holes and had a reddish touch.

"August One." Ivar greeted. Zaar's sophisticated olfactory sensors were able to detect traces of alcohol from five meters away.

"Ivar, by Gumolltz Eye, are you alright? You look horrible. Please, have a seat."

"Lack of sleep, August One. And no, I prefer to stand." the younger Yirrho replied.

Zaar hesitated a moment. "As you wish." he finally said. He had a slight suspicion, where this was going. "So tell me, what can I do for you?" he asked.

"You could accept my resignation as part of your government, August One." Ivar responded.

"But why? You have shown yourself to be a valuable asset, despite your young age and lack of experience you have negotiated successfully with the GalacticEmpire, you didn't break down during the battle despite your difficult task and saved our worlds and our people from a violent occupation. You are a hero, Ivar, you've got promoted to Muun-Ten for your actions and you will achive even more. Why do you want to throw that away?"

"If betraying the legal ruler of our worlds, eighty percent of our citicens and dooming the crews of our fleet to death makes me a hero, I don't want to be one. You said I didn't break down during the battle, well I'm doing now. One million of our people are dead and they are dead because of me."

"No, they are not." Zaar responded harshly. "They are dead because the empire decided to invade our star-cluster and because Rugar and I developed a plan to turn a problem into an opportunity for the Yirrho."

"You and Rugar?" Ivar asked. "In case you have already forgotten, but you killed Rugar in cold blood. You might have deceived Osvald Teshik, but I have known you for longer."

"You're accussing me of murder?" Zaar's request for confirmation came in a dangerously cold and controlled voice.

"Yes. Yes, I think I do." Ivar answered.

"You foolish child. If you're willing to suspect me of murder, aren't you afraid I might also be willing to silence you to protect myself?"

"I don't care at the moment."

Realizing, that the young Yirrho was angry enough to not only resign from his position and sacrifice his career, but also shaken enough to spout nonsense that would have been suicidle under any other circumstances Zaar had to take drastic measures to reign the younger man in. For his own good and the good of the Yirrho.

"Lets have a walk." the Muun-Twelve said, raising from his seat and stepping to the door. Seeing the suspicious look Ivar gave him he made a small smile. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you."

It was slightly amusing for Zaar to see Ivar trying to stay behind him, although the display of distrust hurt. Well, hopefully not for long. Leaving the main-corridor, that connected Zaar's office with the computer-rooms and communications-centre, that formed the nerve-centre of the Yirrho-cluster they entered a narrow service-walkway and finally reached a heavy looking door.

"What you're going to see now stays between you and me, Ivar. Nobody is allowed to know about this. If the empire ever learns about this our days here are numbered. If you have to kill yourself to keep this secret, do it. Have I made myself clear?"

"You did." Ivar answered, his curiosity starting to replace his distrust and resentment towards Zaar. "If I'm convinced of the importance of this secret, I'll do everything to keep it. You have my word."

"Fine." Zaar said with a smile.

He opened the door.

Ivar looked through and turned to the older man, confusion evident in his expression.

"And?" he asked.

Behind the door was nothing. No secret chamber, no hidden room, just another part of the corridor.

"Look again." Zaar ordered.

Ivar obeyed and looked down the corridor again. It prolonged further than he could see, with no end in sight.

"A last layer of defense." Zaar explained. "Everybody who walks more than twenty meters from here, eager to get what's at the end of that walkway enters a space-loop. He will forever walk through the same corridor without ever reaching an end or being able to come back to the beginning. What is of interest to us is much closer. Step away from the door."

The Muun-Twelve touched a contact on his wrist-band and from one moment to the other the corridor behind the door vanished. In its place the frame of the door was filled with a black ... nothingness, that seemed to hypnotize the younger Yirrho.

"Is that what I think it is?" Ivar finally asked in awe.

"Of course. Or did you think the Gree are the only ones, who can develop hypergates? Come, what we came for is on the other side." Zaar stepped through the black vortex and after a moment of hesitation Ivar followed him.

Behind them the door closed.

---

It took a few moments for Ivar to get his orientation back. The fact, that the gravity was slightly different than what he was used too didn't help much.

"We're aboard a starship, aren't we?" he asked, standing on a platform inside a large dome-shaped structure. All around him space was visible through transparisteel-windows.

"Yes. Inside a chamber for an astrometric and observation department." Zaar replied.

Ivar knew, that out of tradition every Yirrho-ship had at least one chamber like this although they were no longer used, thanks to technological advances and a lack of need. For the Yirrho there was "nothing new under sun" as one of their poets had once claimed. The younger man also knew, that those chambers were usually positioned at the centre-line of a ship. Looking out for a bow or stern to get an idea about the kind of vessel he and Zaar were aboard off he discovered countless freight-containers, construction- and transportation-droids, shuttles, frigates, destroyers and cuirasses flying around. Ivar's eyes went wide, when he saw a vessel he identified as nine kilometer long Grand Cuirass lower itself down into one of the trenches of the vessel he was on. Sheltered in the the trenches of the larger ships were the smaller cylinders of destroyers. And it wasn't the only one. The young Yiirho counted twenty of what he had thought to be his people's largest warship from bow to stern in a single trench.

"What kind of ship is this, Zaar?" he asked with a hoarse voice.

"An intergalactic generation-ship. The flagship of a fleet of ten. The eighty-sixth fleet of this kind since Blotus the Hutt was President of the GalacticRepublic. The solution to our over-population problem and the reason why we can't fight the empire at the moment."

"What over-population-problem? I wasn't aware, that we have an over-population-problem." It was all to much for Ivar, too many new impressions, too many new concepts to digest.

"Sooner or later we would have one, with old man like me unwilling to die." shouted a familar voice from below.

"Lord Rugar? Is that you?"

"Who else. Zaar, get down and bring that young man with you."

---

Zaar and Ivar walked down the winding staircase until they reached the ground of the observation-chamber. Ivar, whose attention had been directed to the sky realized only now, that the ground was covered by natural soil, grass, bushes and even trees. Moving around a small group of bushes a small clearing came into view.

At the centre of the clearing stood an old-fashioned divan and on that divan sat Rugar. A young and physically incredible fit looking Rugar. The (former) Muun-Twelve wasn't alone. A half dozen, scantily clad females was clustered around him, massaging his shoulders, performing pedi- and manicure and serving him drinks. Ivar sniffed and discovered them to be biobots.

"I ..., I don't know what to say." Ivar stuttered. "I saw your head explode. You died in front of my eyes. And yet you're sitting here alive. And not only alive, but several decades younger. How is that possible?"

"Why is it, that you young people always have to ask about the "how" and "why"?" complained Rugar. Seeing Ivar's expression darken the older Yirrho realized, that the Muun-Ten was at the end of his patience. "Alright, alright, sit down."

When his two guests were seated and had gotten drinks of their own Rugar started.

"Around ten-thousand years ago - given or taken one or two centuries - our scientists discovered a way to transfer the consciousness of a living being into another body. Memories, intellect, life-essence, soul if such a thing exists, the whole package. In other words they had discovered the key to immortality. At the beginning only a few of the rich and priviledged got access to that technology, but soon it became wide-spread. And when large social unrest threatened to break out, because some of us had to die and others didn't immortality became available to everybody. The costs were astronomical, but in the long run a civil-war and a division of our society would have been more expansive. It seemed the problem was solved."

"But the solution to one problem, became the cause for another one." guessed Ivar, who had listened with fascination.

"Correct. From one moment to the other nobody died or stayed dead anymore. New Yirrho were constantly born, but none of the old vanished to make place for them. We were soon running out of space on the few homeworlds we had then and so we colonized more worlds. We even moved uninhabitable planets into new orbits and terraformed them, but that solution was only temporary. Further expansion outside of our cluster would have brought us into conflict with the GalacticRepublic, not to mention, that hordes of outsiders would have invaded our home, if they ever learned about our immortality." Rugar shook his shoulders. "The humans started to colonize the galaxy ten-thousands of years earlier than us, giving them an advantage we could never hope to catch up to. We had to think of something else."

"Like this fleet of intergalactic generation-ships?"

"Yes. Each fleet consists of ten of those generation-ships. When they leave they carry a trillion of our people, a number that will have doubled or tripled when they reach their destination in another galaxy. A trillion of our people gone means space and opportunities for a trillion of newborn Yirrho."

"And they'll carry enough warships with them to carve out their own empires." Ivar shook his head. "I don't get it? How can it be, that I don't know about this? This immortality-thing, for example?"

"Basically a general consensus of your elders. You young people are not told, until you reach a certain age. For once because it is the younger generation, that usually comes into contact with outsiders and as a second, young Yirrho might become careless with the safety of immortality at their back. You must have reached a certain level of maturity to execute a consciousness-transfer unharmed. Even among us older ones one out of twenty transfers ends in insanity for the Yirrho in question."

"Alright, but from what I have seen each of those generation-ship should be able to carry thousands of Grand Cuirasses and even more destroyers and frigates. Why don't we use them to fight against the empire and defend our independance?"

"Because then we would lack them for our colonisation-project. We would need additional space and resources for a trillion people more. Some of them have waited for decades to leave this galaxy. And why should we? War against the empire would cost us a lot. It might even unite the different fractions of the empire against us. We could fight them for a few years, perhaps even decades, but then their numbers would crush us. The other option would be to get into the offensive, strike at Coruscant and kill the head. If we do that, we either have to take over, becoming the new oppressors of the galaxy - for which the millions of species out there would be truly grateful - or we leave them to their own and will be faced with countless feuds and civil-wars. Let somebody else be responsible for the bloodshed."

"What will happen sooner or later anyway." added Zaar. "But we would prefer later, so we can make plans and preperations when the time comes."

"Nobody of us had something like the empire on his scopes." admitted Rugar. "We're long-term-planners and the sudden establishment of the GalacticEmpire came like something of a surprise. The current occupation of our cluster might be inconvenient, but it offers also an opportunity."

"An opportunity?" Ivar asked, unable to hide his disbelieve.

"Of course. For almost thousand years the galaxy - or at least the part that counted - was under the control of the Republic's senate and the Jedi, who both didn't trust us for their own reasons. The economy was largely centralized and trade between worlds was in the hands of organisations like the TradeFederation, the CommerceGuilde or the CorporateAlliance. So we had political and cultural reasons to follow a policy of isolationism because of the former and economic reasons because of the later. Aggressive attempts from outside to change this were answered with military might."

"An answer we can no longer successfully give, since we're now dealing with an empire, that doesn't have scruples to throw away so many lives." added Zaar. "That is the military side of the argument and the sole reason, why we invented this crazy sheme in the first place."

Ivar thought about that. "I still fail to see how there could be an opportunity or why we simply didn't became a client-state of the empire without a fight." he asked.

"Let me answer your second question first. We didn't became a client-state without a fight, because we were too successful in the past. If we had abandoned policies practiced for centuries without a fight we would have raised suspicions. As a consequence the empire would always be on guard around us. A proud and arrogant race like ours wouldn't accept surrender to anybody without a fight. The empire has to think, that they're forcing us to our happiness, when in reality we already had decided to change our policy of isolationism."

"You did?"

"Yes, Rugar and I did. You see, the ascent of the empire as dominating political and military power of the galaxy puts us into grave danger, but at the same time allows us to participate in galactic affairs under its protective cloak. Profitable affairs."

Ivar thought about what Zaar had told him so far and inside his mind he quickly made the connections. "So the ascent of the empire caused this change in attitude. An ascent accompanied or predated by the breakdown of the organs of commerce."

"Somebody has to take over for the TradeFederation, CorporateAlliance and whatelse those groups used to call themself." Rugar said with a smile. "Although - as already said - we didn't see that coming during the clone-war. That conflict could have continued for another decade and in that case we would have stayed inside our cluster. The Republic was lucky to get the leaders of the CIS and the de-activation button for the droid-armies in one stroke and be able to end the war from one moment to the other." Zaar shook his shoulders. "Instead of sitting out the galaxy tearing itself apart during the clone-war we clandestine prepare for the galaxy tearing itself apart once the empire falls. And fall it will."

"And fall it will." Ivar repeated in awe.

"Fine. From the look on your face I can see, that all questions are answered to your satisfaction." Rugar commented. "Is there anything else we can do for you?"

"Yes." the young Yiirho said with a grin. "Zaar could forget my resignation."

"Already done." the new leader of the Yiirho said.

"And I could need a new drink."

The End.