Prologue

Horti hated her new life, where every day was a nightmare. The last year was the worst year of her life. Her car accident left her with disfiguring burns on her chest that extended up the left side of her neck. She lost her right leg mid-thigh and struggled to adapt to an above-the-knee prosthesis. She even managed to ignore the alien invasions. She half hoped those invading aliens would kill her. Death would be a convenient release from everyday trials. She couldn’t adjust to the accident; how could she manage the changes that threatened her life? Earth was transitioning from business as usual to becoming a part of an alien civilization millions of years old.

They were times of change, uncertainty, insecurity, fear, and resistance by some to the impending changes. The majority were apathetic. They felt they could not grasp the scope of the change. A minority relished the challenge of change and massive new opportunities. Those that resisted change disappeared. Earth had become a tiny cog in the gigantic Uzliumbax Empire. While it was true Earth had joined the Empire, many knew Earth felt it had no choice. Earth could only deal with the threats of sophisticated alien enemies with the help of influential friends and allies. The leaders of a fearful Earth embroiled in intergalactic conflict decided to join the house of Lord Kargo, which was part of the Empire of Cassius, a couple of galaxies away. The Cassius Empire joined the much larger and vastly more sophisticated Uzliumbax Empire a few years later. The Cassius Empire had only been sixty-five thousand years ahead of Earth. The Uzliumbax were millions of years ahead.

Hortense, or Horti as she was known to her friends, kept everything the same. She lived in a cocoon of self-preoccupation and denial, but deep down; she knew life must change. She wasn’t ready for change and was hanging on to her life by her fingernails. She was exhausted. How could she live a meaningful life in this new world she knew nothing about? Horti was tempted to give up and crawl into her shell.

The Uzliumbax Empire was restructuring Earth. They were doing it faster than it had ever been done previously. Two billion people from Earth went to different parts of the Uzliumbax Empire, and billions of beings from the Empire replaced them on Earth. Most looked humanoid, though some had four arms; others were insects and spiders. There were even some that had wings, and others were sentient animals.

The news was vastly different. It contained current events on Earth and what was happening in the broader Empire, and everyone spoke Uzliumbax. Learning Uzliumbax was easy. There were booths in every suburb. You entered a booth, and it gave you an AI that sat in some weird dimension. It took half a minute. The next day you spoke Uzliumbax.

It was all too much for Horti. She didn’t want to battle to understand what was happening while she was in such an emotional hole. She had extensive surgery ahead of her to deal with her thick and ugly scars. The tight rope-like scars were tilting her head to the left. She hated the unsightly red scars on her chest and left breast. Four operations on her neck had helped a bit, but she knew she looked hideous.

Today she received a notification from the manufacturer of her hatchback. She must take it in to have a gas conversion. The Empire subsidized the work.

It was one more thing on top of her; it was yet another thousand dollars she must borrow from her parents. Moving back home was bad enough, but she hated being dependent on them for anything. It was hard. Her parents looked after her after her discharge from the hospital and subsequent rehabilitation and calmly dealt with her black moods. She didn’t deserve to be treated so well. Horti’s grandparents were equally generous with their time and helped her without question.

At least she worked and earned a living, though her boss was an underhanded greedy snake. He owned the company and squeezed everything out of her he could. She worked ridiculous hours, and her salary was mediocre. At this rate, she would never become independent and pay her parents back.

Horti returned to the car. Logically the conversion was a great idea. These incredible insects from the Collective created a gas-based fuel cell that didn’t damage the environment or contribute to global warming.

Perth converted to a new form of power generation that was safe and not harmful to the planet. The bugs were also cleaning the oceans. Next week the Empire was shifting the planet’s orbit to deal with global warming.

The car was the first direct way the changes directly impacted her. It was a nuisance.

No, it was the third way. Horti received an internal AI in a booth and a learning cube. The AI gave her a tutorial to learn to switch the cube on, and voila, the next day, she was speaking Empire Standard. She used the cube every night and learned a lot about the history of the Empire and what happened to Lord Kargo. She was starting to learn about the information technology systems of the Empire and artificial intelligence.

Horti shuddered to think about how much she needed to learn. Work would need to buy an AI to replace the computers and use entirely different programming methods. Work was in deep trouble, and they acted as if nothing was changing. They weren’t even talking about adapting to the new world they were living in. But neither was she. There was too much on her plate to plan beyond tomorrow.

The Naturalista

The group met secretly by secure holo-conference. They wore dark hooded cloaks; a hologram disguised their faces by creating a moving image mimicking their expressions. The device also altered their voices.