Sentience 1: Storm Clouds Gathering by Gibson Michaels Read Free Book Online Page B

the Rak males could be tamed and harnessed. Dol taught his priestesses the art of hyper-hypnotics and instituted a ranking system by which every male’s place within Raknii society was established and recognized. All males except cubs and the lowest of all castes of Raknii wore a rank-stone on his forehead, just above and between his eyes. The material makeup of the rank-stones denoted an individual’s rank.
    The Dolrak used hypnotics in a secret ritual ceremony every time a Raknii male was advanced in rank. Obedience to those of higher rank, respect for those of equal rank, and restraint towards those of lower rank were hypnotically ingrained. Thus, it was that those males having the genetic inclination towards scientific studies, had those attributes hypnotically strengthened by the Dolrak. Similar hypnotic attribute selection and strengthening for virtually every profession within the entire Raknii civilization was the domain of the Dolrak. A very few Raknii seemed to possess a natural resistance to Dolrak hypnotic conditioning, but those were immediately killed whenever identified, for they were rogues — genetic throwbacks to an earlier, savage age in Raknii history.
    It took Rak scientists almost ten cycles of tinkering and studying of the alien Trakaan technology in that first captured ship before its secrets finally began to crack. Even the name the Trakaan used for themselves was unknown before the alien computer finally yielded its secrets. It had taken another dozen cycles before the Trakaan language was broken, but then the floodgates opened and the locations of Trakaan planets were revealed. With the knowledge of where their prey built their dens, Rak warships flooded into Trakaan space. Within the next ten cycles, the Trakaan were pushed back seventy-two light-years and surrendered 23 of their inhabited planets before winning even their first encounter against the Raknii onslaught.
    The Trakaan were a small, gangly, hairless species with ovoid shaped heads, grayish skin and overly large, black eyes with no notable external olfactory organs. The Trakaan might be ugly, but they were considered rather tasty to the relatively few Raknii who had been afforded the rare opportunity to actually eat one.
    The Trakaan eventually built a warfleet of sorts — their battle tactics evolving slowly by trial and error, but rather well suited to the smaller, faster, less armored disc-shaped ships they used. The concept of purposely building warships inferior to those of one’s enemy was puzzling to the Raknii and it wasn’t until after the first few Trakaan inhabited planets were taken that the Raknii made the shocking discovery that the Trakaan were truly a non-aggressive species, who only began arming their ships in self-defense. The idea of a non-aggressive species achieving interstellar travel capabilities was completely foreign and disgusting to the Raknii, and all further study of them was abandoned to scientists and the females of the Dolrak.
    The increased Trakaan resistance actually made the hunt more enticing for Rak warriors. Naturally, much greater honor came from being victorious in the frequent inter-regional engagements between the Raknii themselves, but there was just something extra special about experiencing actual combat afforded by hunting the alien Trakaan. Still, the Trakaan stood little chance, as they were almost always outnumbered since Supreme-Master Xinn had ordered the policy adopted that full 64 ship Imperial battlefleets be utilized, whenever resistance was expected. This policy had slowed the Raknii advance somewhat, but it had also enabled them to consolidate their conquests and strengthen logistical support.
    The poor, docile Trakaan could never guess that nothing remotely approaching the full military might of the Raknii Empire would ever be utilized against them, as most were part of the regional warfleets under the various colors of the constantly feuding region-masters scattered