Prompt of the Week - Week 76

TAGS: Growth/Implied Growth, Esoteric Growth, Unconventional Narrative

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Most would be satisfied with being the ruler of a half-dozen planetary systems, and big enough to need their own palatial estate purely to have enough room to move around. Most would be content with having grown so much they needed hundreds, if not thousands of servants in order to lead a life that could be charitably described as normal. And most wouldn’t mind sticking at that size, since clearly being part of the top hundredth percently was more than enough reason to stop trying to constantly break through one’s own records. And indeed, for the near totality of those in that exact position, this was nothing if not completely true: after reaching a status such as that one, no one thought to go even forward, since by definition there was no one else to be better than; they had reached the top of the pyramid, and as such their priorities shifted towards one-upping their few and rare peers, though more often than not they were content with managing their holdings and leaving it at that. There was plenty there already, to be fair, and given their species still lacked for territory compared with others, it was important for those in a position of power to understand their limitations and know when to stop expanding; if they went too quickly, they risked incurring the wrath of their neighbors, thus giving them a somewhat legitimate reason to forgo immediate gratification as a means of investing in future one. Still, this was what most of their kind did once they reached that level of development; most of their kind were smart enough to recognize when they should call it quits and let fate take the wheel, and most of their kind were reasonable enough to understand that they shouldn’t be trying to force their borders out more than was strictly necessary. Alyssa, however, was not “most”, nor was she anything like her peers; indeed, she went out of her way to be as unlike those around her as possible, often to the point where she came off as genuinely deranged, at least in comparison to others in her position. Everything from cartel leaders to the heads of galaxy-spanning megacorps, even the occasional political leader who happened to be good enough at speed chess to survive the cutthroat reality that was their species’ backroom maneuverings, they all knew one thing: don’t take more than you can hold. Overextension was a perfect way of losing everything one gained, as all it took was their hold slipping for just the smallest amount of time for their bodies to react accordingly: just as more power meant that they grew larger, so too did a loss in authority result in shrinkage, which ran a significant risk of kickstarting a downward process where one’s underlings saw the reduction in size as an opportunity to put their own plans into action, which further undermined one’s ability to retain control and them spiraling down a self-fulfilling prophecy that only ended when they brutally stamped down any opposition. And, seeing as most who reached positions of ultimate power were quite keen on remaining there, their culture had grown to ascribe great value to one’s ability to maintain the structures that kept one in a position of utmost authority, with wanton greed and rampant want being seen as uncouth at beast, and downright dangerous at worst. But Alyssa didn’t care; from the moment she first felt the taste of her growing form, she knew that she would never stop. No matter what anyone said to her no matter how many times she was outright told that she should do things a certain way, regardless of the energy spent trying to convince her that she wasn’t doing things properly, the young entrepreneur had set her mind on a goal and now she refused to let go of it. Having inherited a small corporate empire certainly didn’t hurt either, but all her father had done was create a well-established brand; she was the one who brought it out of the bottom shelf and right into the middle one, she was the one who had sweat and toiled day and night to see her company recognized as one of the greats. And in the end, she was the one who grew because of it, all the way from the pipsqueak she had been most of her life up until that point to the absolute behemoth of a lizardess she was now. Really, she was quite proud of herself, as every last inch of her curves had been gained at great cost to herself, though at even greater cost to others: what had once been a relatively local operation had since been expanded to become one of the major exporters of a very particular brand of algae, and from there it was just a matter of navigating the hazardous currents of the stock market to buy out whoever Alyssa’s accountants figured would be the next best investment. Through a combination of ruthless efficiency, a complete lack of morals, and no small amount of luck, this had led to her creating a mega-conglomerate that spread from her species’ homeworld all the way to the borders of their empire and back, spilling out into neighboring polities and even finding purchase in the galactic market to some extent. As a result, she had become one of the biggest of her kind, owing to the tens of thousands of individual corporate units under her direct control, each one employing enough people that she more or less had a whole planet of underlings under her thumb. And again, for most, this would’ve been enough; the main focus would turn towards consolidating their gains while preparing for a future period of expansion, all to prevent the dreaded threat of extending themselves too much and running their resources too thin. But Alyssa wasn’t one for settling; she wasn’t one to sit there and be content with what she had, when she knew that she could get so much more if only she put her mind to it. There was nothing stopping her, after all, no one but herself and whoever decided to get in her way; her peers might think themselves masters of commerce and politicking, but they were just as susceptible to making mistakes as everyone else, perhaps even more so given their complete trust in their own abilities: who better to fool into becoming a mark than someone who thought themselves too smart to ever fall for any tricks? It was child’s play to ingratiate herself with those who believed themselves unassailable, enough so that making out with corporate secrets became something of a passtime for Alyssa and her agents; it was almost depressingly easy, to the point where she almost felt disgusted by how complacent the rest of her species’ supposed “cream of the crop” had become, so content with their stations, so gleeful in their wasteful hedonism. Only she still held her kind’s true spirit, the core drive that had brought them from ground-dwelling lizards to becoming a galactic power player within a short couple of centuries; only she yet recalled what it was that made them unique, that made them powerful and feared, and now she was going to put that to good use, seeing as no one else seemed to want to. The plan itself hadn’t formed until relatively recently, to be fair; for most of her corporate ascent, Alyssa had genuinely believed that she, too, would eventually reach a point where she’d be satisfied with what she had, settling down afterwards until she could play the same game everyone else did. She’d claim to be preparing for another round of takeovers that wouldn’t ever really happen, say a whole bunch of things that were naught but paying lip service to an ideal that most had abandoned. But as she absorbed more and more of her competitors, increasing the list of subsidiaries under her increasingly-widened belt, the more Alyssa came to understand that this mythical state of satiation just wasn’t possible with her. She wasn’t built that way, nor did she intend to “fix” herself so she was; rather, her main concern was finding the best way to maximize her gains, then plow straight through it until she found some other method that was even more powerful than that one. Her girth was already such that she could barely move without bringing the house down, and Alyssa still wanted more, for no other reason than because she could still grow, hence she should. There was no logic there, no real depth to the reasoning beyond an almost animalistic desire to have her body become something of beauty, even if this “beauty” was hers and hers alone; whose else should it be, when clearly she was the only person in any given room who knew what she was doing? When all others failed, when all those who dared called themselves heer peers went veering off the cliff of complacency (she quite liked that one), there was only one person that could possibly steer their species in the right path, and that was her. No one else had mustered the strength and willpower to bend so many to their will, and no one else had the ability to hold onto an empire-within-an-empire like hers… at least, until she stopped pretending and simply overturned the ruling order to make herself the general autocrat. It wouldn’t take much; with the amount of dirt she had gathered on everyone in the highest echelons of society, it was a matter of getting a few well-placed whispers into the correct ears, and suddenly the whole quadrant would be singing to her tune, no matter how much they grumbled afterwards. And one after another, as certain as gravity caused card castles to fall, they would all crumble, submitting to her and adding their own holdings to hers; each one would make her bigger, each company and corporate entity adding to her authority and thus also to her girth, until her throne room had to be remodelled to better fit a body that could never truly be contained by anything other than the universe at large. And still she carried; still she sent couriers to deliver messages where they would be most effective, still she chartered voyages to systems she knew would have plentiful resources to claim, still she equipped spies with just the exact kind of information could be used to topple entire Boards of Directors. Every day that passed, another piece of the puzzle fell into place: sometimes entire companies would be swept off their feet and cannibalized, their resources used to bolster entirely different operations, whereas others would be left alone, thinking they were still working for the same entity while the shadowy puppetmistresses behind the scenes exchanged charged barbs and strongly-worded communiqués regarding just who was in charge. The day to day life of the average worker, to be fair, didn’t really change much, if at all; Alyssa was not at all interested in altering the status quo, for it was the status quo that gave her the opportunity to outmaneuver every opponent on the board, sometimes without them realizing they were even playing at all. Once she was done, then the pieces could be thrown into the air and the whole game shifted, but not a moment too soon; if she moved before she had full control over everything her kind owned and incorporated, she ran the risk of leaving behind a nucleus of heavy resistance that, while certainly not enough to seriously threaten her power base, would nonetheless be a hassle she’d have to deal with it going forward. And she had plans, big plans, plans that involved the entire galaxy at large and couldn’t make room for her constantly looking behind her back for people trying to stab it. No, she needed full control, or at least as close to it as she could get, and as a result, she grew, day in and day in, as the list of corporate entities she technically owned approached its maximum size. Sure, more would be “created”, and some would be agglutinated into others, but as soon as Alyssa had achieved complete dominion, she alone would have the final say on who was allowed to operate and how; hence why the number of corporations would dwindle until it reached absolutely minimum required: one, her own, under which all of her kind would serve… her kind, and every other. For every day she looked out of her window, up towards a green sky that refuses to yield its secrets no matter how hard the science crew stationed on the planet tried; every day she would look out of her compound and think to herself how there were just so many stars out there, filled with planets just begging to be incorporated into her growing autarky. Every day she would look at the latest updated map of the galaxy, and every day she’d scoff at the pointless number of independent “nations” that laid claim to chunks of it. A myriad of government types, all of them objectively incorrect of course, all of them vying for power against one another, not realizing their imperatrix was there already, waiting for them to wake up and smell the recaff; soon enough, they would all learn a valuable lesson in hedging their bets, and rue the day they decided to ignore her polite request that they bend the knee and accept her as their new overlord. Slowly, at first; it was important that she choose the weakest targets first, mostly just to send a lesson while also making sure she didn’t overstay her welcome with the galactic community in general. Yes, she was the size of a large research compound and needed special nutrient paste pumped into her at every hour of the day just to keep her body working properly, but this was only because she had the collective might of her species behind. Key-word being her species; while they were certainly powerful enough to be recognized as a polity by the galaxy at large, they were still a second-rate power compared to some of the more advanced nation-states out there, so much so that they hd never started a war for fear that a larger foe might show up to enforce a third-party peace. Hence why it was imperative that Alyssa measure each step as carefully as possible, hoping to acquire as much territory for herself as possible without alerting the larger players of the game to the subversive activities going on within their own territories. After all, her own growth, and therefore her ability to command those around her, was directly linked to how much authority she had over her underlings, and this of course meant that the more underlings she had, the bigger she became by necessity. Therefore, the simplest and most effective way to acquire more power and influence for herself was not via direct annexation, but purely through the progressive acquisition of more corporate wealth, since as far as she was aware, there was no limit to where her subordinates were or what species they belonged to, just as long as they recognized her as their leader and unquestioned ruler. She didn’t even need to attack anyone; in accordance with galactic law, everything she did was entirely above board, and it wasn’t as if her targets were going to suddenly lock her out of their markets when Alyssa’s business acumen had been a genuine boon to so many of them. Indeed, most welcomed her arrival, even laying out the red carpet without quite realizing how close they were to treating her like she deserved to be treated; in their heads, they were merely welcoming a valued business partner, someone to rub shoulders with and raise a toast to, in celebration of yet another successful contract drawn. How little did they know that for every company, every mid-level bureaucrat, every line worker brought into her fold, she grew bigger. Diminishing returns had kicked in, of course; there was only so much that a lowly factory assembly assistant could do for her, but those had a tendency of outnumbering high-flying CEOs, and even singular crumbs eventually added up if there were enough of them. And with each visit, she would be courteously complimented on how well she was “developing”, and how clearly her corporate investments must be paying off handsomely, at least by those who were aware of how her species handled authority in general. And with each visit, those who said such things remained blissfully unaware of what was happening right underneath their noses, preferring to look down on who they saw as a second-rate attraction from a backwater imperium rather than the very real threat that she was. They didn’t see their strategic companies being bought out from under them, their mega-conglomerates being broken up and their constituent pieces fed into the ravenous maw that was Alyssa’s state-run hypercorp. Or, if they did, they certainly didn’t do anything to stop it; perhaps a few of them even thought it would be better that way, believing her to be exactly what the galaxy needed going forward. Still others might merely be attempting to curry favour with who they saw as the inevitably overlord of all the galaxy. Or, perhaps, they all just assumed that she was a poorly educated savage from a “tribal” society who had barely learned how to be properly civilized; whatever the case, Alyssa was happy to let them keep their preconceptions, as she wasn’t in the habit of interrupting her enemies when they were making a cavalcade of mistakes.

They would all learn soon. When she had them by the balls and the whole map flipped to the dull red used to denote her people’s empire, they’d all learn. Then, and only then, would she finally be satisfied.

Until the extra-galactic jump drive project was complete, of course. Sticking to just one oasis in the void was dreadfully boring.