“Excuses? Well…”

Author’s Note: This is a Take Ten to Write story and has not been proofread for errors. If I feel inspired or if there’s interest in the story, I’ll post a revised, edited, and extended version at a later date. Happy reading!

Prompt: Planet.

A new planet has been discovered. It’s been named Ceid’n, after the First Emperor. That is, it will be named Ceid’n. Just as soon as we conquer it.

It’ll happen eventually, I’m sure. Just not right away.

Why? Well…

For starters, it’s on the opposite side of the galaxy from our home base. Do you know how long it takes to get from one side of the galaxy to the other? Even with our newest high-speed technology, it’d take years. Decades, even!

So why not start now? Well…

Ever since the Great War, we’ve been laying low. Not because we lost, although we didn’t come out great in the war… But no, it’s not because of that. We’re just being smart and not jumping into things. Like, conquering a planet. Because just think about how many resources you’d need to do that. A lot. More than we have right now.

So why aren’t we going to get those resources? Well…

These aren’t just your typical, grocery store resources. No, these take a lot of time and effort to collect. Like Kyslk Crystals? Yeah, those take forever. Years and years of careful mining, and even then, we lose a lot of them because of how unstable they are. We lost a number of good men as well, since the Crystals explode if their surface is touched at all.

Oh, and now you want to know why we still work with Kyslk Crystals? Well…

It’s just been our way forever. All our new technology has been adapted around the Crystals. Sure, we lose people every year, but the technology that we’re able to use is so worth it.

Why don’t we use this technology to go conquer the new planet? Well…

Final Comments: This one felt easy to write and I think the character’s narration style was pretty fun too.

Overall Rating: 😅