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"I hear that our first expedition to Dezolis had gone well," remarked King Alex Landale to his most trusted and high-ranking Minister, Reypard La Shiec. He had been granted a private audience and the two powerful men sat in the council chamber, sipping Maruera tea imported directly from Motavia. The King had brought out his Laconia tea set, a gesture of trust. Not that you could even scratch Laconia but the King did not like so much as a smudge or even heavy breathing on a metal container that probably cost as much as the village of Bortevo.
"Indeed, Your Highness," La Shiec replied, "As predicted by our scientists, a vein of pure Laconia has already been located in the mountains. Of course, the conditions for mining would be lethal to a Palman, so will need to be automated..."
"So the tales of the ice planet's inhospitability are not merely rumours?"
"No, Your Highness, that planet is dangerous. Gigantic carnivorous elephants, swarms of owls as big as you and I, entire continents blocked off by sheer ice walls..."
"And yet there is intelligent native life?"
"Apparently so. They do not seem pleased to see us," la Shiec frowned, "Do not worry, there is no open conflict yet, simply endless screaming made more awkward by the fact that Dezolisian is a hellishly complicated language to translate. I would not underestimate them, mind you. They are as intelligent as us, have guns designed to hunt the local wildlife I mentioned, and have shown evidence of magical talent, especially among their priests. Did I mention they are very easy to religiously offend? And they appear to worship fire."
King Alex frowned, "This expedition was never predicted to be easy."
"Indeed, Your Highness, and our brave explorers shall persevere despite all obstacles," la Shiec bowed, "If you will permit me to make a suggestion, I believe this is a good time to be thinking about our future as an interplanetary, nay, galactic community. We have colonised one planet, we are working on another and we know for a fact our ships can push further. The Universe is a big place and we have only visited our next door neighbours. We must dream bigger..."
"One thing at a time, Reypard," King Alex yawned, "We can hardly call Motavia 'colonised', we only just built a vehicle strong enough to drive over sandworm nests without being eaten. Talking of vehicles, how is the development going on the vehicle we were discussing, the one that can cut through the ice?"
"It is being worked on as we speak. The research team decided to have it built on Dezolis, to avoid the expense of travel and to enable immediate live testing."
"Very well. Keep me updated at all times. As you have so wisely said, space exploration is our future," the King dismissed him with a wave, "Now, with my apologies, I have the usual million and one petitions to deal with."
"I understand, Your Highness, I am also a very busy man," he bowed deeply before sweeping out of the corridor in his blue and red frade-silk cape over black Minister's robes.
As soon as he knew he was out of sight - he knew how many spies there were in the court and had already made sure the ones he did not control were disposed of - he whispered under his breath, "You have no idea what I have seen of the future of Algol. Or the vastness of space, its darkness, its horrors."
King Alex Landale also did not know about the other expedition, the one without his approval, undertaken on the dark side of Dezolis where he had picked up a magical reading that was off the scale, its specific pattern of technique like nothing he had ever seen before. It had led him down into a cave in the mountain, through a tiny gap in the ice walls, into a clearing with a tower that could not have been built by the inhabitants with their current level of architectural development. When he ascended the tower, he had seen things that could not have been from Algol, machines that had already taken their inhabitants far across the galaxy.
They had given him a gift, a suit of armour by which he could make a pact to obtain power far beyond mortal means. King Alex Landale would never understand why, not even when the knife flashed towards his back, but he was also an obstacle to the development of Algol. With what Minister la Shiec knew, he could elevate Algol to the masters of the galaxy, maybe beyond.
His soul was a small price to pay for this glory.