by Roy Anthony
Chapter 24
Talbar, the old Ambassador and the young Activist, were dragged, pulled, and shoved by the officers leading them. The officers wore unique suites that protected them from the sun's powerful rays at the northern pole of Crimson. The poles on planet Crimson, were where the atmosphere around Crimson was the thinnest and pretty much non-existing.
Among the officers was the new Ambassador, and he walked off to the side, monitoring the naked prisoners. He wanted to obey Dorian's orders by making sure they were alive to feel the full effect of the sun. When Damurian skin was overexposed to the sun, an unusual chemical reaction happened within their bodies, and the Ambassador was given specific orders to carry out this death sentence by exposure.
This part of the planet was uninhabitable for the Damurian species. But they could only navigate the land with a special kind of suit that was a fish scale material that clung tightly to their entire bodies, including their heads. The officers also carried an apparatus on their backs to help them breathe.
"Lim, you don't have to do this. You can let me go. I will leave the planet. Dorian doesn't have to know." Talbar said with the little strength he had.
"Please don't do this, Lims." The old Ambassador cried.
"Marumaru was brought in by you, Ambassador, you suggested her to our leader Dorian for a promotion, and she was an Activist. And Talbar, you had an unscheduled meeting with Marumaru. And now our leader thinks you two are possible Activists, and along with your other blunders, no money in the universe could buy you out of this." The new Ambassador, former officer Lims, explained.
"I'm not an Activist. You know I'm not. I thought there were no more Activists. Marumaru fooled us all, including you." The old Ambassador weakly said. "There is no evidence against me. None!"
"Halt." The Ambassador said, and the officers that were pulling the prisoners stopped in their tracks.
Steam slowly rose from the prisoners' skin as they cooked. The sun was slightly bright on this small part of the planet. It beamed down a dark, pinkish hue on the flat dry land, and as they walked further, the hue would become brighter and brighter.
The Ambassador turned to face Talbar, the old Ambassador, and the young Activist. "In the name of our god and leader Dorian through Dami, he sentences you three to death, through exposure. Have you three, any last words before you are forced to walk?"
The young Activist prisoner gurgled something, but it was incoherent because he was tortured many times. In those torturing sessions, he was defanged, and his tongue was removed.
"M, my wife? I haven't seen her in days. What has Dorian done with her?" Talbar asked.
The Ambassador signaled to one of the officers, and, with two swift moves, the officer stabbed Talbar and the old Ambassador in vital organs that were located in the chest area of the Damurian species.
"Walk, and you will see her." The Ambassador whispered to Talbar as he pushed him to walk towards the brightness.
Talbar and the young Activist started to walk, but the old Ambassador did not move.
"No, I won't go." The old Ambassador fell to the ground. "Kill me here." He cried.
"Let's kill the traitor and get it over with." One of the officers said as he took out a knife and advanced towards the old Ambassador.
"If you do that, then you will walk towards the light with them." The Ambassador abruptly said.
This threat halted the officer, and he put his weapon away.
The Ambassador turned to his predecessor and stared at him. Even though he had a protective mask on and the old Ambassador could not see his eyes, the stone-cold energy he emitted through that mask scared the former Ambassador. He began to sob even more and trembled in fear.
"Our leader Dorian ordered me to give you two choices." The Ambassador bent down. "You can either walk towards the light, but if you choose not to walk, I am ordered to defang you and skin you alive, but either way, you will surely die. But if I were you, I would choose the more noble of the two."
"Please, Lims… Please." The old Ambassador begged.
"Walk, go out with dignity. I ordered my officer to stab you and Talbar, so you two will leak as you walk, so you don't have to endure the entire torture of being burnt from the inside by the sun. The more you leak, the quicker your death will be, but to leak, you must walk."
The old Ambassador wept, and slowly got up, and he began to walk towards the brightness.
The officers watched as the prisoners walked in the distance. It wasn't until it looked like they were on the horizon when the prisoners, one after another, dropped to their knees in writhing pain and began to chemically combust from their inner organs.
Once the rays of the sun ate through their skin, their extremely flammable blood would trigger a chemical reaction when met with the sun's rays. The chemical reaction caused their blood to boil and slowly start to create small flames. The pain of exposure was rumored to feel like a bomb slowly going off inside of the Damurians. One could feel every chemical reaction that the exposure caused.
Damurian scientists theorized that this chemical reaction was evolution stopping the Damurians from consuming one another, so their species could thrive on Crimson.
Chapter 25
Quora entered Dorain's extravagant Crimson colored office. The floor looked like a still lake of blood, and the ceiling was extremely high and resembled the exact color of the sky on Crimson.
At the center of the office was Dorian, sitting at his sizeable Sapthian bone desk with two large guards standing on each side.
Dorian presented himself as larger than life, or better yet as if he was life itself, and had blessed Quora with his presence. The way Dorian was presented in this unscheduled meeting, it looked as if the meeting had been scheduled for months. Quora tried her best to concentrate on what she was going to say to the leader. She was cautious because her research showed that unscheduled meetings were often used to intimidate Journalists. So Quora wanted to tread softly and be careful of her verbiage towards the leader. Planet leaders' egos were known to be very fragile.
As she walked towards Dorian, a servant ran out with a small skull and carefully stationed it on his desk. Her mind ran wild on what this spontaneous meeting could be about. Because of the unusual circumstances, she thought maybe he was going to apologize for the spacecraft being stolen. But Quora feared he would tell her she would not be inspecting farm-factorys anymore because they found the body of Aris. She had no idea.
Once she stood next to the chair, she could tell that his desk was slightly elevated as if to display Dorian looking down at whoever was before him.
There was a hint of a smile on his face. From his smile, Quora could tell he wasn't used to smiling. This was all a show.
Even though Quora traveled to numerous different planets and inspected them under the Criterion, she had only met a handful of planet leaders. Most of them felt they were above meeting with a Universal Journalist, and Quora didn't blame them; she was taught not to. Having the power of an entire planet could cloud one's ego. Her job wasn't to judge the leader, it was to find Aris.
He exuded power in his face, and in his eyes, he had a look as if he was holding all the cards. And for some reason, his confidence scared Quora.
"Have a seat, Journalist," Dorian said, and Quora sat down.
"This is an extravagant office," Quora said.
"Thank you."
"I haven't seen an office of this magnitude before." Quora continued.
Dorian simply bowed his head again instead of repeating his thank you. "I hope you have enjoyed your stay on our planet." Dorian lifted his chin and gazed down at Quora as if she had something to hide.
"Yes, it has been well. The Ambassador has been very accommodating to my needs." Quora said.
Dorian's chin rose even higher, and he slowly stroked the Sapthian skull that was on his desk.
"Oh, he has, has he?" Dorian said, and his eyes carefully examined Quora, and he took deep breathes as he looked at her.
She belie
ved now he was going to tell her about the cancelation of her inspections. Her mind went rapidly in search of counter-arguments. She decided she would put him on the defensive, accuse him of hiding something.
"Or you hiding something from me?" Dorian asked, interrupting her thoughts.
"What do I have to hide?" Quora countered suspiciously.
"Our planet runs on BLOOD, Journalist Quora. Sap blood is like fire in the air for us. Our lives are dedicated to not just the extraction, but to the movement of blood, I can feel the movement of blood from any species just by inhaling the air. And for a creature to be in a calm setting such as this, your blood shouldn't be racing as it is now. And as soon as I asked you a question about the Ambassador, your blood flow began to move even faster, which leads me to believe you are hiding something. Let me tell you something, I have close connections with powerful GC leaders, and if I find out, you are hiding something I will make sure you are appropriately punished."
Quora was confused about his accusations and wanted clarification.
"Is this about my request to continue inspecting your factories? I violated no laws. That is well within my rights to continue inspecting other factories due to my delay." Quora countered.
"So, you had no connection with the Ambassador and the Activist that stole your spacecraft?" Dorian asked.
"Of course not," Quora said. "I could see that I was heavily monitored, so how could I connect with an Activist?"
"You were heavily monitored by the Ambassador, who had Activists ties, so your whole time here, you could have been communicating with Activists."
"Where is the Ambassador now? Did he accuse me of being an Activist?" Quora asked. "If he did he is a liar-"
"He was tried and convicted of treason." Dorian interrupted. "He was an incompetent traitor to his planet."
"So, in other words, he's dead. I wonder how your government deals with such matters, I hope it is civilized." Quora watched the leader's reaction to this comment to see if she could get any insight into how the Ambassador was dealt with. She knew the Ambassador was not a traitor, he was a flunky and weak. He didn't show the characteristics of being a rebel. He seemed like he liked his position and would not risk losing his status for a rebellious movement. The Ambassador probably wanted the Activists exterminated more than Dorian did. Most people in power surround themselves with people that are weaker than themselves, so they will never be challenged. She couldn't get any details on how the Ambassador was dealt with by observing Dorian. He held an excellent unemotional face.
"The GC wouldn't allow a planet into their Great Council if the planet dealt with such matters in a barbaric and cruel way. The evidence against the Ambassador was overwhelming. He could have cost the lives of many of my officers and could have possibly killed millions of citizens if I didn't discover his deception."
"That is none of my concern, leader Dorian. I am here for one specific matter, and that is to investigate a ping from a Journalist."
"Former Journalist." Dorian abruptly said. "But he was a legal citizen of the GC, so you are more than welcome to continue your investigation. Our planets must maintain a good relationship. We are both GC members and might potentially do dealings in the future."
The thought of such a partnership sickened the mind of Quora, but she tried not to let it show to Dorian. "That is possible, GC planets attempt to work together with its members."
"So continue your investigation for as long as you would like, but I assure you if one of your species was on this planet, everyone would know it. I believe technology from your friend was stolen or bought and somehow made it onto this planet. Maybe the obtainers of the items wanted to test how the merchandise worked and accidentally sent a ping out. But you are more than welcome to continue your investigation." Dorian said reassuringly.
"Thank you, leader Dorian."
Dorian nodded. "You can go. Send my officers the information on your next inspection."
Quora stood up and walked towards the exit, but as she walked, Dorian said. "I hope you come to visit our planet in the future as a tourist and not as a Universal Journalist."
Quora forced a smile at the leader and walked out.
Chapter 26
On the way to planet Crimson, Bolt tried to catch up on some sleep, but he couldn't. Thoughts of how he was going to tell Quora what was said by Profolmia kept him awake. Bolt knew Quora would be angry at him for going along with the idea to let the GC leaders have their way. She would be hesitant to go forward with Bolt's plan, which was to try and garnish power within the GC through the gold he earned through his explorations. With that, he could possibly remove Crimson from the Galactic Council in the future, or at least put heavy sanctions on them. Even though Bolt believed wholeheartedly in his strategy, he knew Quora wouldn't trust in it. She would say the GC was too powerful and smart to let Bolt gain that much power. Bolt had to convince her to believe in his process.
Bolt thought maybe if he worded his explanation in a certain way, she would acquiesce to his plan. But Bolt scrapped that idea because he knew Quora was way too smart for that. This strategy would work on most people, but not Quora. That was what attracted him to her because only she controlled her mind.
In this situation, he wanted to please Quora because this was his chance. She was the one that got away. When she got married to Aris and had his child, Bolt thought it was over, and she was gone forever. But Bolt took the trail of unfortunate events that happened between Aris and Quora as a second chance to restore things to the way they were supposed to be. Quora was supposed to be with him. He believed they would end up together, and he could make her happy. They could work together. She had a large following of creatures that read her work about the galaxy, and she could use her expertise to write about his expeditions. He had their lives already planned out, but first, he had to figure out how to make this situation not seem so bad to Quora, because he knew this was important to her.
Bolt had no ideas off the top of his head, but an idea came to him, to probe the prisoner he was carrying on his ship for information. Maybe the prisoner could tell him some information about Aris, the Sapthians, or his planet's government. All this information would help Quora.
Bolt messaged his guards that he wanted to speak with the prisoner. They all went down to where the prisoner was confined. Guards went inside first and inserted a translator in her ear, and made sure the prisoner was securely bound.
Bolt placed his translator into his ear and entered the room. The guards stood outside and left Bolt alone with the prisoner. Bolt ordered his guards to do this because he wanted her to feel comfortable.
Inside the prisoner, calmly sat, and she slightly smiled at Bolt as he sat on the opposite side of the room. There was a look of confidence in her face, which alarmed Bolt a little because she was bound and being shipped off to die, but she still displayed a look of certainty. It made him nervous, but he did his best to control his emotional state, something Bolt thought he had mastered. He tried to emit the same amount of confidence that she was exerting.
Bolt slightly crossed his legs and displayed a confident smirk at the prisoner.
"Nya, bring up the prisoner's files." Bolt commanded Nya, the electronic computer that was the brain of the ship. A digital holographic file appeared in front of Bolt. "Marumaru." Bolt said as he looked over the data. "For treason, stealing from a foreign diplomat, and murder. Your planet must really hate you if they are going through all of this to retrieve you. They could have easily just ordered you killed, but to request that you are escorted back, just to watch and make sure you are dead, is an intense kind of hate." Bolt examined her facial expression, and she still looked confident. "How do you think they will kill you? Public hanging? Chop your head off? How does your species deal with such matters? I'm curious."
Her smile increased as she looked at Bolt, and it made him uncomfortable.
"No need to get uncomfortable." She said.
"What makes you think I'm uncomfortable?"
Bolt said, and he didn't remember seeing mind reading as a capability of the Damurian species, so he wondered how could she sense he was uncomfortable. "I'm not the one bound." He moved his hands and feet to show he could move around, and she couldn't.
Marumaru continued to smirk. "After I am defanged, and they cut off my horn, I will most likely be bound in the dirt of the hottest region of my planet and slowly buried alive. It could take days. It is a disgraceful way to die in our society, but what is done is done."
"I'm going to be honest with you, I'm just the delivery guy. I don't support or condemn your actions."
"What do you want from me?" Marumaru abruptly asked.
"I want information that could help me constrain your government, anything."
Marumaru laughed. "Why would you want that information? They are already in the GC, they are just awaiting coronation, and they have the backing of powerful planets. Planets way more powerful than yours."
"I could use the information you give me against your government. Why would you protect them after what they have done to you? Forcing you to flee and rebel against your own planet."
Marumaru continued to laugh. "I am not trying to protect them. They have all the protection they need." And with a smirk on her face, she said. "I'm trying to protect you."
"Me?" Bolt said shockingly, as he leaned forward in his seat.
"Yes, you and your species." She continued.
Bolt was confused, but instead of showing it, he calmly sat back and forced a smirk. "How are you trying to protect my species?"
"I knew Aris," Marumaru said.
Bolt attempted to form some words, but he struggled to find the right question to ask, as he wondered how did she know Aris.
"I was born into an Activist family. Activists believed in a democratic, scientific-based planet. Not a planet governed on religion and outdated traditions. As Activists, we had all the smart and creative minds, but the religious zealots in my government put all of their resources into a propaganda machine that intensified our citizens' fears. And what we learned was that a well-run propaganda machine could beat truth and science at any time of the day. Even citizens of a corrupt system became afraid of change. The old way of doing things was all they knew, and they were afraid to see what was on the other side. My government slowly chipped away at the Activist movement. We were public enemy number one until they were none of us left. I was taught the TRUE history of my species, not what is in your files, that's what the government wants our citizens and other creatures to believe… The Sapthians on Crimson were once like your species. They were intelligent, more than just animals. They had tribes, and they even built civilizations. My species and the Sapthians were in constant war with each other. My species was addicted to Sapthian blood. And it had always been like that since the beginning of our planet. We were the predators, and the Sapthians were the prey. But everything changed when a group of witch doctors developed a powerful chemical that numbed the neurons within the Sapthian brain. Over time the chemical made the Sapthians like animals. So my ancestors polluted the water sources of the Sapthians with this chemical, being that the Sapthians have such a fragile biology that needs water to survive, as I imagine you have. The Sapthian mind needs water to survive. And slowly, within a couple of generations, we were able to dumb down an entire species, turning them into animals. All evidence of the Sapthians being civilized was destroyed; you would be surprised at how easy it is to alter or destroy history. And as Activists, we believed in using science to try to create another form of life source for the Damurian species, other than the consumption of Sapthian blood. Because of the way we were consuming Sapthians, our scientists predicted we would soon run out of Sapthians to consume. We would have to find another way of feeding our bodies the proper nutrients to survive. But the government wanted to continue to pedal every last resource it had into the extraction of Sapthian blood… We wanted to save our planet, and they wanted to just save their way of life. No matter if their way of life would kill us all. From this, the Activists were formed, and we have tried to gain power on Crimson and show our citizens a different way of living, but as you can see, we have failed."