Wealth and Power

The Ruler slammed his fist onto his desk.

"WHAT?!?!" he exclaimed. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'HE STOLE ONE OF OUR BATTLESHIPS'?!?! DIDN'T YOU SEE HIM ON OUR SECURITY SYSTEMS?!?! WHY DID YOU NOT STOP HIM?!?!"

"Ruler, we saw him, but-"

"DO YOU NOT SEE THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTIONS?!?! NOW WHAT DO YOU THINK HE WILL DO WITH THAT BATTLESHIP IN HIS HANDS?!?!"

"Ruler, I advise you to calm down, you will not make much progress if you continue to raise your voice like this," said one of The Ruler's advisors.

"YOU-" The Ruler stopped and sighed. He paused for a moment before speaking again. "I apologize, but now with a defector on our hands, what should we do? He could be anywhere now."

He stood up straight and turned to the Head of Security. "Make sure that such a breach of security never happens again. I will remove you from your position if you fail me again." Then, The Ruler turned to me. "Sanid, I want you to go out and track him down as soon as possible. We cannot let him help anybody prepare for our conquest. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Ruler," I said.

"Good. Now, you are all dismissed."

All of us stood up, then turned and left the room. I thought about Darkman. What compelled him to remove the creature from our custody and escape? Surely the thing alone wasn't what got him to defect from our Empire. We were getting suspicious about him when he started coming to his assigned workshop late, what was he thinking?

I discarded the thought. As the head military general of the Puramen Empire, I did not have the time to think of such things. All I had to do was manage the military and, now, track down and capture Darkman.

But, like Darkman probably had, I did have thoughts about having more than what I already had. It wasn't just being a ruler. Ever since our people discovered something called "currency", I have thought about how currency worked. The creatures who used it described it as something to exchange for items or services, and to measure how valuable they were. We did not need such a thing, all Puramen did what they needed to do for the good of the Empire, and they were rewarded, no matter how long it took or what their reward was.

We did have a system for power, but it was not controlled by currency, rather, Puramen are given power based on their role and how effective they are. And we, of course, strive for power by conquering the universe. It is our goal, and we must reach it. I was already in a role with lots of power; I control the Empire's entire military. What more could I want?

I am not greedy like some of those "rich" creatures that possessed a large amount of their currency. Or am I?

Managing the military was beginning to feel repetitive, useless, and when I remembered one of the "rich" creatures stating that something different happens every day when we had invaded. Maybe, if I could join a group of rich creatures, and gain a large amount of a form of currency for myself, I would not have to just sit at a desk and give out orders and oversee the military every day.

I could be admired, respected, and possibly even have more power and material wealth than anybody in the Puramen Empire. Perhaps even more so than the Ruler himself.

But if I wanted to do so, I would have to defect, like Darkman. And if I did, I would lose all my power within the Empire. I might not even find a way to become "rich", and the defection would have been in vain.

As I sat back down in my office, I stopped thinking about being "rich" and focused on the task at hand: managing the training of our soldiers and pilots that were ready to conquer again.

As the days went by, we made more battleships, and I finally sent out a fleet of battleships and fighters to find Darkman and his little companion. But in those days, I had already dreamed much about wealth and power. The urge to defect and pursue that goal instead of conquest was almost overwhelming. Over the coming weeks, I thought up a plan, and eventually, I decided to carry it out.

With Darkman's defection, they made security much tighter. But I had been careful to never let out even a hint of my true thoughts or intentions for as long as I had them. I had been one of the greatest and hardest-working military generals, earning my position. Nobody, not even the leader himself, ever suspected. Darkman would be surprised as well, given my sudden and unprecedented decision to defect.

It is my destiny. To become powerful, but under my own rule, and not just be feared by people, but loved as well. I could possibly even stand a chance against the Puramen Empire, unlike that foolish Darkman. If I could not give away something or offer a service to someone, I could simply steal from my enemies. It was a brilliant plan.

I was going to inspect a battleship as it launched, but, like the Engineer, I not only knew the ship inside out, I could get past any security measures put in place in case a defector took control of the ship. These battleships were designed to have minimal crew, so it wasn't hard for me to seal myself inside the control center, lock everyone out of the controls, and lure them to the airlocks so I could eject them into space. Obviously, there were handles on the inside of the airlocks and around the ship so nobody could fly out, but I simply retracted them all. They were not intruders, but it was helpful for getting rid of them.

Other ships found out what I was doing and fired upon me, but I escaped. I wouldn't go in the direction as Darkman, so I simply chose a random direction and warped somewhere there.

And thus, I became the second defector. But, finally, I could pursue my mission of wealth and power.