“The Blinkys and Stickmen shall know my fury once I have recovered the Dendon Ark,” the Emperor said, “They blockaded the Terran system, quarantining it from the rest of SixUnion. A pitiful attempt at controlling their own destinies. I could have commanded my navies to descend upon the planet and scour it of life and they collected the Dendon device at their leisure. Instead, I ordered Bey Jodo to seek the device by stealth. For now it is useful to keep the pretense of SixUnion, though their covenants can never bind me.”
“No sir, I doubt much of anything sticks to you,” I said.
“But Bey Jodo failed me,” the Emperor said, “The Dendon Ark found a host. An unlikely host. That it would choose a race so pathetic and weak, is a testament to the Dendon race’s own weakness. They valued honor and integrity and duty. But those are just words. Words to control the weak. Words to manipulate them into following instead of being dragged.”
“I understand Your Kookiness,” I said, “Lots of folks back on Earth like to use words in place of actual values, too.”
“The Dendon did not understand that there are only two things of value in the universe. Power and Fear. And it is the expert use of power that creates fear. And when you are feared, then you have power.”
“Yeah, I see, kind of one of them chicken and the egg things,” I said, “Which came first?”
The Emperor stopped swinging his knife arm. The knife fingers slowed, then came to a stop. The knives retracted and the Emperor lowered his arm. He came to a stop. In the absence of the clacking of treads and clashing of knives, the silence in the hall seemed deafening. The sound of my own heart beating and the blood rushing in my ears was louder than anything.
I put a few more steps between me and the crazy cyborg emperor guy. His one yellowish eye didn’t seem to follow me, but stared off into the distance.
“Power and fear,” the Emperor said, “Weapons that will fell the mightiest.”
He turned his head and his lone eye finally seemed to focus on me.
“My Bey Jodo was imprisoned by the Terrans and Stickmen,” he said, “A Stickman emissary requested a meeting at Jome. I sent my fastest ship, the Blade of Triumph, with my top general, Bodna Krav. He was given a message in a sealed envelope, dictated by Bey Jodo, written by hand. Bodna Krav rushed back to HeJonva in the Blade of Triumph and delivered the message to me.”
The Emperor lifted his hand–his normal hand–and pulled a folded piece of paper from his tunic. It looked worn, like it had been read over and over.
“In it, Bey Jodo told me of his battle with the Dendon host. And he outlined what the Dendon Ark had become. That it was self aware. That it knew what I had done. And that it wanted vengeance.”
I stood still. The Emperor’s eye was still locked on me. His scarred features, once expressionless, now took on something that seemed between rage and…fear.
“Bey Jodo explained that the host did not wish the wholesale death of the Don, that he could control it,” the Emperor said, “The Dendon had infected Bey Jodo. He could never return to HeJovna. To do so would unleash death upon all my world.”
The Emperor unfolded the letter and his gaze went to it. He was silent for several moments. I glanced around. We were near the middle of the great hall. There was still no way to escape that I could see. I shifted from foot to foot, ready to shuck off my robe and armor up. If I could.
The Emperor folded the paper and put it back in his tunic.
“I was in a fury,” he said, “I ordered my armies to gather. We would find this Host. We would go to this Earth. And we would destroy. Destroy. Destroy. We are the Don. We do not bow. The universe bows to us.
“Then a ship appeared at the edge of our home system. A white ship similar to old Dendon design, but different. Her commander hailed the home world. He sent a message to me. I watched it in my chambers, alone, away from my generals, my ministers and advisors.
“I bring a message of peace, the creature said. He was hideously ugly, as you are. His voice was soft and carried no weight of command. But his words cut through to my heart. I have no wish to end your race as you did the Dendon, the creature said, But you must leave Earth alone. Send no more of your ships there. They are not welcome, and may carry death back with them. The reign of the Don is at a close. From here on out, I give you notice that you and all your race are to abide by the covenants of SixUnion. We welcome you as a peaceful partner. If you reject this offer, then your system shall be isolated. If you attack then it will sadden me to end your species.”
The emperor’s features twisted in rage. His jaw worked for a while before he spat out his next words. I stood, waiting for his next words. Suddenly I had a glimmer of where this was going. And I let myself just the tiniest sliver of hope.
“I was enraged,” the Emperor said, “I ordered my battlecruisers to destroy the Terran ship. They pursued it, but it disappeared. Not stealthed, but gone entirely. It reappeared above HeJovna itself and tight burst another message directly to me. Then it disappeared before our defenses could cut it to pieces.
“It was a short message. An image of the Terran and of his mate. She wore golden armor of Dendon. His image looked at me. It was like he was actually seeing me and not just a recording.
“Emperor, he said, The Dendon were a peaceful race, for the most part. They chose to look for the good. They chose to believe most problems could be solved through civil discussion. I am a child of Earth. We have a lot in common with the Dendon. We, too, often wish to solve problems through civil discussion. But when that fails, we like to utterly destroy our adversaries. So perhaps we have something in common with the Don, also. The Terran tapped his ugly fingers to his chest. The Dendon inside me wants your blood. For the moment I have convinced it we are better served to let you live. I believe the Don have a lot to offer SixUnion. But, if we must, we will continue on without you. The choice is yours.”
It had to be Chris. Mr. Soft Spoken Nice Guy. With a bit of a dark side. What kind of power did that guy actually have? I had a heart freezing moment as I realized Buck might be controlling that power now.
“Of course I would not bow,” the Emperor said, “We are the Don. We do not fear. We are feared. I believed the Terran’s claims to be exaggerated. I ordered my spies to comb the galaxy for the Terran. One way or another I would capture him, and then I would find a way to control the Dendon Ark. I would unlock its secrets and then SixUnion would truly and finally become the Don Empire.”
The Emperor looked away from me. His blue face was darker, like it was flushed with his purple blood. Something gurgled inside the throne thing he was hooked up to.
“Many times my agents reported they had almost captured the Terran, only to have him slip away,” the Emperor said.
“Let me guess, you had them executed?” I said.
The Emperor didn’t take the bait. He stared off at the slitted windows and the ruddy light that cast bloody lines on the black floor.
“The Terran was like a ghost,” the Emperor said, “A vengeful ghost. My listening outposts started disappearing. My agents stopped reporting. The bugs I had planted throughout the known system started going quiet. Slowly, I became deaf and blind. I realized there was a noose around my neck, and that it was tightening.
“I gathered my battle fleet to the home system. I arrayed them in a great protective sphere around the HeJovna. My Generals were the most loyal, most vicious men the Don has ever produced. The soldiers aboard those ships were our finest warriors. Their blood was like ice and death made its home in their hands. No enemy could get past them.”
The Emperor’s shoulders slumped. Not a lot, but enough to notice.
“Days ago, a ship appeared at the outer edges of the system. An unknown type,” the Emperor said, “It broadcast no call sign–as proper SixUnion ships should.”
The Emperors thin lower lip stuck out a little. Was he pouting was someone else didn’t play fair?
“The ship was small,” the Emperor said, “One of my battle cru
isers, the Nailed Fist, raced to meet it. And was destroyed.
“The ship vanished. Then it reappeared. Another of my battle cruisers destroyed. Then another. And another. I ordered the fleet to close in to HeJovna. They never made it. Gone. Destroyed by a single tiny vessel.”
Well, guess I knew what Buck had been up to while I was out. I wondered why he was bothering to destroy the Don’s fleet. The answer came to me immediately. Fear, drive the enemy home. Make them concentrate all their forces together.
Make it easier to kill them all at once.
Buck was working on nice, steaming pot of genocide.
Which didn’t explain why the Emperor was telling me all this. If they thought they’d captured Buck, why hadn’t they just killed me?
“Then a ship appeared above HeJovna,” the Emperor said. “A ship like the one that had been harassing our world. Our defenses cut it down, of course. And aboard this ship was you, wearing Don armor that a common soldier would wear. You were captured, your armor deactivated. Our technology healed your wounds and I ordered you brought to me for execution. Your reign of terror is over. Except…”
“Except it wasn’t me, numb nuts,” I said, “It was my brother. You guys aren’t too bright, you know?”
“You all look alike to me,” the Emperor said.
“It might take a little practice, but I bet you could learn,” I said.
“Another ship appeared above HeJovna while you were healing,” the Emperor said, “It tight beamed another message to me.”
The Emperor reached into his tunic and pulled out a black disk. He tossed to the floor. It landed between us with a metallic clatter. A second later light shot from it and an image formed in midair. I couldn’t help but smile. It was Buck, in his black cowboy hat and his zebra stripe duster. Above his long, braided beard, his eyes were cold as glaciers on Pluto.
“Yo, Emperor,” Buck said, “The guy you got on your ship, he’s there to negotiate the terms of your surrender.”
Forty-Two
Open a line up to Buck, if you can.
The last thing Liz said to me before we dropped into the nightmare above HeJovna.
I stood in the cavernous hall of the Don emperor and stared at the image of Buck hanging in the air. Negotiate the terms of your surrender. Oh Lord, Buck, what are you doing to me? What the hell are you up to?
I shivered in the chilly, pleasantly minty air of the great hall. Ruddy light poured through the tall, narrow windows on either side of the hall. I grasped the belt on the thin robe which was the only thing I was wearing.
I gave the Emperor a glance. His yellow eye bored into me. I could about feel the heat of his hate and rage.
Surrender.
“So, your majesty, my brother’s quite the kick in the pants, ain’t he?” I said.
“The Don will never surrender,” the Emperor said.
Which wasn’t true, otherwise he would have executed me and put my balding head on a pike outside his castle. Or launched it into space with a message for Buck attached to it.
I cinched the belt tight on my robe. I wasn’t going to be needing any armor for this. I’d negotiated for Buck dozens of times. Never with the Emperor of an entire planet, but I’ve dealt with some hard cases who didn’t want to pay full value for Buck’s services. I prided myself on coming to amicable agreements with most folks.
The only thing I wondered, was me getting down here on this planet that no outsider had ever stepped on a lucky coincidence, or had Buck planned this whole thing? It seemed improbable that he could arrange this whole series of events. But then, Buck had been doing improbable things most his life.
“Right, right, nobody’s expecting you to surrender your whole planet there, your Majesty,” I said, “But I bet there’s stuff we can talk about, places where we could both benefit, if you know what I mean.”
The Emperor’s lone eye narrowed. The corners of his thin mouth turned down and his knife arm twitched.
“Continue,” he said.
I craned my head around, making a show of looking at the hall.
“This place is kind of big and echoey,” I said, “I bet you have somewhere we could talk that’s more hospitable. Maybe someplace with a chair where we could sit for a spell.”
The Emperor gave me a good long glare, then his spun around on his tank treads and headed for the blank wall at the end of the gigantic hall. Having nothing better to do, I followed him. A door appeared as he approached. Maybe it was the bloody red light in the place, but I could have sworn there weren’t no seams there before.
The Emperor’s tank treads clack, clack, clacked against the stone floor and he disappeared into the shadowed room. I took a deep breath of strangely minty air. There was still an essence of rancid meat, but nothing like it had been on the Don ships. I hoped there was gonna be a way off this planet for me. My stomach was rumbling, but I didn’t think I’d be able to eat with that stench hanging around.
I crept up to the opening. I couldn’t see the Emperor. I took a slow step forward, hoping he hadn’t changed his mind and was gonna slice me up with that knife hand of his.
Lights came up in the room. It was a large room, but not large like the ridiculous hall behind me. It looked like a rich bachelor apartment. A large couch–or bed, I couldn’t be sure–spread out along one wall. Things that looked life stone and metal coffee tables and end tables sat near it. Off in a corner was a something that might have been a kitchen. The objects in it had vague resemblances to earth kitchen pans and sinks and stoves. Or it might have been an elaborate torture chamber set up for his majesty’s amusement, it was hard to tell.
At the far end of the room was a stylized fireplace. As he approached, a blue flame erupted from the jagged rocks in the fireplace. The flames roared like a rocket and shot up the chimney with the same kind of force as rocket flame.
Two thick, comfortable looking chairs sat on either side of the fireplace. On tables beside the chair sat what looked suspiciously like bottles of booze and tumbler cups.
Bachelor pad indeed.
The Emperor rolled up to the chair on the right. I wondered how he was going to sit in it, what being three quarters machine and all.
With a hiss and a whine panels opened on the sides of the tank tread unit and his body separated from it. Apparently the knife arm was part of the machine because he left it behind when he bounced down to the overstuffed chair. The tubes connecting him to the unit stayed, though. Purple liquid pulsed through them. The tank tread unit moved behind the chair. The Emperor reached out to the bottle and poured himself a generous amount of into the tumbler.
I took cautious steps over to the other chair. I kept half expecting guards or maybe a saber toothed space tiger to jump out at me. It was a bit strange that the Emperor was going to just kick back, let his hair down (so to speak) and have a friendly pow wow with me.
The Emperor’s one yellow eye followed me as I moved over to the chair. I eased down to the seat. It was comfy. More creature comfort than I thought a Don would allow himself. They seemed like a harsh species. But then, I guess when a guy got to the top, maybe he figured he deserved some creature comfort.
I took a good look at the Don Emperor’s body. He wore a one piece tunic that was either black or dark blue–it was hard to tell in the red and blue light. The tunic covered the stump of his left arm and his legs. Actually, it wasn’t really a tunic. It was more of a bag with one sleeve on it.
The bag didn’t have any decorations, no little insignia or badge or anything that might proclaim him to be Emperor. Then again, his face was probably sufficient identification for all his subjects.
The Emperor’s face was heavily scarred on the left side. A twisted pit of scar tissue sat where his left eye had been. Between the tentacle stumps on the back, and the the spiky tentacles on the front, he was a pretty scary looking dude.
He sipped at his drink. From where I sat, it had a fizzy, citrusy smell to it. I figured it was fermented blood of baby animals he h
ad personally slaughtered. He surprised me though. He pointed a long finger at the bottle on the table beside me.
“It is safe for you to drink,” he said, “It is imported from your world. I believe you call it 7-Up.”
I eyed the bottle. 7-Up? Seriously? I tried to do the math. The Emperor said it took decades to get from his world to Earth. That meant whatever was in that bottle was well past its expiration date.
Then again, the stuff had so much sugar in it that it would last forever.
I lifted the bottle from the table, took off the cut crystal stopper and gave it a sniff. Yup, smelled like 7-Up. I poured myself a generous helping and took a small sip. Yup, tasted like it too. I drank a little more. If the Emperor wanted me dead he would have used that wicked knife arm of his.
For a little bit we sat in silence, studying each other.
“So, you guys like 7-Up?” I asked. If the Don wanted a steady supply of soda pop in exchange for being nice to everyone else in the galaxy, I was pretty sure it could be arranged.
“It has pleasantly intoxicating effects,” the Emperor said.
Which sounded a lot like it made Dons drunk. Useful information to have if I every needed to drink a Don under the table. Maybe we could get them hooked on Coca Cola and Fanta, too. Set up a regular drug trade.
Except I doubted Dons were mellow drunks.
Maybe running bootleg soda pop wasn’t the best plan.
I set the tumbler back on the table. It made a nice, solid clink against the stone surface. I was dancing around the subject in my head, trying to figure out how to open the negotiations. From the hateful look the Don gave me, he wasn’t going to make the opening gambit.
I took a deep breath. The sweet taste of the pop was turning sour in the back of my throat like it always did. One of the reasons I stuck with beer.
“So, your majesty, Emperor,” I said, “The way I see it, this doesn’t have to be bad thing for either of us.”
He continued to glare at me and sip his 7-Up. His glass was about empty. Was the old guy working up a drunk? I wouldn’t have wanted to meet up with him in a bar fight.
Eclipsing Vengeance Page 22