The(questionable) burdens of leadership of a troll Emperor by Noodlehammer

Chapter 16

Oma sighed in relief as she sat down in an out of the way corner of Miya's home. She knew that the Sekirei that had insisted on her coming here meant well, but Oma was simply not much of a party-goer.

It was nice to see them having fun, being loud, eating stupendous amounts of food and occasionaly incurring Miya's wrath with their behavior, but Oma had been getting desperate for some peace and quiet.

Her solitude did not last long, as someone else had apparently had the same idea.

Takami looked surprised to see that someone had already occupied the spot she'd been going for, but didn't go back, instead merely offering a wry greeting as she sat down next to the ascended woman. "I see I wasn't the only looking for a hiding place."

Oma gave the scientist a small smile and nod but didn't otherwise respond, allowing the two women to slip into a comfortable silence.

Takami was glad for it. She'd let her daughter drag her here, but she was quite honestly getting too old for this shit, even if she still looked to be in her mid twenties. That wonder drug of Takehito's was really something else, but it couldn't take away the press of years on her mind.

That thought ignited a spark of curiousity and Takami couldn't help but try to satisfy it.

"Oma, if you don't mind me asking, how old were you when you ascended?"

"About six hundred I think." Oma answered thoughtfully after a moment.

Takami had to struggle to keep her jaw from dropping. She'd expected the other woman to have been older than a human could be expected to live when her mortal existence came to an end, but not that old. "Did all Alterans live so long?"

"Not naturally." Oma answered with some humor in her voice. "We had devices that rejuvenated our bodies and could keep us alive for much longer than that. The Cubes of Healing kept our organs in pristine condition and slowed the general decay of out bodies nearly to a standstill. The Goa'uld sarcophagus is a pale shadow of those devices and was in fact based on a damaged cube found by the Goa'uld Telchak."

Takami exhaled with a small chuckle. That just figured.

"I'm not sure how you could stand it, I'm not even seventy yet and I already feel exhausted." She said ruefully.

Not physically exhausted of course, but mentally. By her count, she'd been working a job on some level for close to fifty years now, that was quite a bit past retirement age, not that she was ever going to retire. She start going crazy in a week.

"Alteran society was much different." Oma offered as an explanation. "Our civilization was very old, Everything moved slower and without rush. The pace of life in the Celestial Empire is frenzied in comparison."

"But what did you do with all that time on your hands?" Takami pressed.

"It depended on the person. Some strove to decipher the deeper mysteries of the cosmos, others kept busy with various projects of terraforming and celestial engineering. Those like me meditated and sought to find meaning within themselves."

"I suppose that's why there's so many planets in this galaxy that are friendly to human life and a gravity that's always close to Earth standard?"

"Several of the neighbouring galaxies have such planets due to Alteran tinkering, though this one is admittedly richer in life-bearing worlds than most."

"But why would you need that many planets?" Takami asked, baffled. She knew it wasn't because they needed the living space.

Oma shrugged. "It was a hobby. Many among our people were interested in seeding new life on the freshly terraformed worlds and observing what would become of it."