Emperor Katsun of Vora Star watched the gladiator fight below with mild disinterest.

"Ailpy, when are we going to go on the next gateseeing cruise?"

Ailpy bent her small frame and prostrated herself where she sat. "We're due to set out sometime in the next few years." The timeframe depended upon how long Congress took to assemble.

Katsun yawned, then glared at the fight below. "This entire sport is disgusting. Can't they find anything better to do than send lesser sapients into the fighting pits?" Vora Star's many colonized planets didn't have gladiators. Violence was, for the most part, a vestige of the past. Akila Galaxy was an anomaly as far as most worlds went, especially for a world so close to the Core.

The current location of Emperor Katsun was that of Akila Galaxy's capital, Akilia. The galaxy had an immense influence in the strand of gates ranging from midway beyond the Core Worlds to the edge of the boundary marking the Backwater. Unofficially, these gates were collectively referred to as the Intermediary Strand.

Emperor Katsun personally disliked Akilia and its gaudy, flamboyant architecture built from the bones of deceased slaves. While many worlds closer to the Backwater cutoff engaged in similar excessive practices, none had the resources to do so at the level of the more centrally-located Akila Galaxy. With a massive armada and a naturally battle-adept race of sapients, Akila's current way of existence relied on plundering worlds in the Intermediary Strand for slaves.

"Why can't we just form an army of our own?" Katsun muttered bitterly. 'Then, at the very least, we wouldn't have to enter diplomatic negotiations on Akilia. Nor would we be required to send tributes every hundred years.'

Katsun was more than aware why they didn't have an army. In the vast universe, creating a competitive army was absurdly expensive. Even sums worth quadrillions of unit resources wouldn't be enough to create armies able to rival those of the long-established Core Worlds. If embroiled in a rare conflict, Vora Galaxy would simply contract Core World mercenaries for a much smaller sum.

Since Akila Galaxy merely requested 100,000 citizens from Vora Galaxy each 100-year cycle, Vora Galaxy found that complying with the human tax was significantly more expedient than going to war...even if that meant that Akilia was, in part, built upon the bones of Vora's own people.

It was hard to tell, however, since the majority of sapient skeletons looked fairly alike.

Katsun just hoped that this Congress would convene soon so he could get off this ugly planet and its repugnant capital city. There were so many worlds he had yet to explore, so many places to seek answers.