by Roy Anthony
"You have to take this to the public." Bolt said in shock.
Marumaru laughed again. "I will be easy to dismiss, but for the public to believe it, it must come from someone credible. Someone within the GC or works with the GC. And this being would have to be willing to sacrifice everything for what is right because the GC will take everything this being ever built. The GC will tarnish their legacy and try to destroy them."
This statement made Bolt extremely uncomfortable because he knew she was right. But the thought of him being the person to sacrifice everything made his stomach boil. He had built so much. He couldn't be that person. He didn't know anyone who would put their career and possibly their life on the line to go against the GC.
Marumaru continued to laugh, and she said. "With all that you have accomplished, I don't think you will be willing to do that. Look, I'm pretty much already dead, I'm a none factor in this. The Sapthians on Crimson are running thin, and you can guess where my species will go next once the Sapthians are all gone. I am clueless about why you do the biding of a government that could care less about your species. It's on you, Boltpher Orien." The laugh of Marumaru intensified. "Your species is doomed."
Bolt slowly flopped back in his seat and thought about the information he had just received. He was, somewhat, in a state of shock.
He was afraid to ask any more questions, so Bolt abruptly left the room. Marumaru screamed something else, but Bolt didn't hear her. Nor did he want to.
Chapter 27
Inside a farm-factory, two Damurian workers prepared for the coming of the Universal Journalist. They cleaned all of the palox from the building and put them in giant canisters to give to the government, a new program that just started to take place on Crimson.
"You hear about that young worker, Parmu? He was the Activist who was working with that corrupt officer Marumaru and that corrupt Ambassador. This whole time. Can you believe it? The rat told on Marumaru, Parmu was sent to the exposed area to die. I hate those damn Activists. They all deserve what they got." A worker said to the other.
"I know the story. Yea, I hate Activists too, but let's focus on this inspection. A journalist from another planet is coming. We have to make a good impression. This is the only free-range Sap farm-factory that it has visited, everything has to go right." The other worker said as he cleaned the feces of a Sapthian cage with a spray hose.
"You hear it looks like a Sap. I wonder if they taste the same—"
"Look, there's nothing you know that I don't already know. Now go outside and get the Saps in line. The Journalist could come at any time, Umar." The worker abruptly said.
Umar was upset at his reaction but acquiesced to his demands and went outside.
Moments later, while Umar was tending to the Saps, he saw the farm-factory owner entering the building. His boss was accompanied by two government officers, and what looked like a female Sap in clothes.
Everyone followed her as she slowly walked around the inside of the factory. Umar would have gone inside and introduced himself if the owner wasn't there. The owner hated it when Umar talked instead of worked. 'I don't pay you to talk,' the owner would always say.
Outside, Umar tended to the Saps. He was frustrated with the disrespectful way the owner and his coworker would always talk to him. He wanted to show them he was not as dumb as they thought he was.
A skinny Sap played in the dirt as if the Sap was trying to draw something. Umar saw the Sap draw a circle with a line threw it, but he knew Saps were stupid and didn't have the intelligence to draw anything, so he gave it little attention and kicked the Sap in the ribs to make it get in the herd with the others.
The Sap grunted in pain and ran into the herd.
"You stupid Saps better stay in line today. Just tend to your feed. Don't be jumping around, fighting, or humping. Any of you act up your bloodless body will become dirt food." Umar said to the Saps with authority.
Umar's coworker rushed out to him from inside the factory. "They're coming out here. You better stay out of their way." He demanded.
Quora, followed by the officers and the owner, slowly came outside, and she slowly started to inspect the Sapthians.
"Why aren't these Sapthians chained or caged?" Quora asked the owner.
But before the owner could answer, Umar interjected. "Don't you worry about a thing. These Saps will not harm you, not as long as I'm here." Umar smiled and slightly nodded at Quora, as the owner and Umar's coworker angrily looked at him. "Come on." Umar gestured her to go near the Saps. "Come."
She cautiously walked towards the Saps. Her legs shook intensely with every step.
As she slowly walked into the Sapthian herd, they sniffed around her, and a few of them started to growl, but the growls were stopped by a sharp whistling sound from Umar.
And, to some extent, she felt a little comfortable of how much control the Damurians had over the Sapthians. "They won't do anything to you," Umar assured her.
For the first time, Quora walked freely amongst the Sapthians. They were cautious and cleared a path for her as she walked amongst them. She looked at each one of the Sapthians, seeing if she noticed Aris amongst them.
It felt like she was walking amongst cattle. She tried to block her sympathetic feelings for the Sapthians, so she told herself they weren't like humans. This was to prevent her compassionate emotions from taking over her mind.
And for some reason, the more she continued to search for Aris, the more she felt Aris could be here. She had a gut feeling. Quora had no proof, but, in her heart, she felt Aris was here.
But after examining all of the Sapthians, Quora did not see Aris amongst them. She was disappointed, and she started to walk back towards the Damurians.
But a Sap abruptly pulled on her leg and grunted at her. Quora looked back at the Damurians, and they were far away. One of them whistled at the Sap that was pulling on her, but the male Sap didn't stop. He grabbed her by her collar and grunted. She looked at the Sap in his eye and yelled for help. The Sap became more enraged and slammed her to the ground and angrily cried and scratched and clawed at her neck and face. Quora squirmed and screamed to get free from the Sap, but he was too strong. Quora felt death was near, she hoped it would be quick and painless. The Sap stood over her, grunting as if it was trying to speak to her.
But suddenly, the Sap was snatched off of her by Umar, and the Damurian quickly snapped the Saps neck. The limp body thudded to the ground, and it landed on Quora.
Quora screamed in horror as the Sap lay on top of her. The Sap did not die right of way. She felt his body lightly shake, and she watched as the life in his eyes faded away.
And it wasn't until this moment that she knew the Sap was Aris. She saw what was once Aris fade away. It was as if she saw the reaction of his face, as he was watching his life flash before his own eyes as he died. "Aris! Aris!" She screamed.
"Get that Sap off of her!" Umar's boss yelled.
"I've never seen one act like that," Umar angrily said.
"You know how much money you just cost me?" Umar's boss scolded him. "Why did you kill him? You should have just put him in a cage. Hurry and drain every drop of blood form that Sap. That's coming out of your check."
Umar went to grab the Sap off of Quora. But she held it real tight and cried uncontrollably as the officers and the farm-factory workers watched her in silence.
"This is ARIS! This is him! You killed him!" Quora screamed.
They all looked at each other confused.
"It's just a Sap," Umar said, and one of the officers quickly punched Umar in the stomach to shut him up.
The officers looked at one another until one of them said, "Subdue the workers." The officers then violently obtained the workers.
Panicking grunts from the Sapthians filled the air.
As the chaos was going on around her, Quora clung onto Aris tighter and tighter. She caressed his face and kissed him on the cheek. "It's ok, I'm here now," Quora said to the corpse of Aris.
Chapter 28
The spaceship of Bolt calmly landed into the central space station of planet Crimson.
It took a while for the Damurians on the ground to get things situated for Bolt to exit his craft. Bolt figured it was due to his technologically advanced spaceship.
While he waited, Bolt was thinking about seeing Quora in the flesh. It's been ages since they physically touched each other. All of their meetings had been through a hologram. He couldn't wait to just hug her.
Bolt gathered the prisoner and, escorted with his personal security, they prepared to exit the ship.
"Good luck Captain," Marumaru said to Bolt.
Bolt said nothing.
"Well, you won't need the luck, but your species will. You seem like the type that knows how to save himself." Marumaru continued.
Bolt glanced at her as the ship's door opened, and a ramp extended to the floor. He tried to forget their conversation. It was all conspiracies, he thought. There was no way of proving what she said was true. If she had concrete evidence, he would act on the information, Bolt told himself.
"Let's go." Bolt said, and they made their way down the ramp. Bolt scanned the facility, and amongst the Damurian officers that were on the ground waiting on Bolt was Quora.
Her face had scratches on it, and she looked terrified. Her skin pale and bland, as if she saw death.
He wanted to run to her, but he couldn't get his feet to move that quick. He loved Quora and tried to console her. But Bolt knew the importance of a first impression and wanted to show the Damurians how civil and diplomatic humans from Earth, and members of the GC, were supposed to act in public. Bolt dedicated his life to perfecting his image throughout the galaxy, and he couldn't afford to destroy all of his hard work. So he composed himself but yearned to get to Quora, as he introduced himself to the Ambassador in charge. The Ambassador requested Marumaru to be given to them, and Bolt gladly obliged.
He slowly made his way to Quora. As he walked to her, he saw that there was a body bag that laid in front of her. He figured it was Aris.
She hugged him. Bolt didn't know how to react at first as he stared at the body bag, but he eventually hugged her back.
"What happened? Is that Aris?" Bolt asked.
"Yes, it's him. He was amongst the Sapthians. He attacked me, and they," Quora cried. "They killed him."
Bolt was more angered at the sight of Quora crying and her face being scratched than he was at the dead body of Aris. Bolt thought it was extremely uncivil that a supposedly civilized planet could let a Universal Journalist, pretty much an affiliate of the GC, get so close to danger.
"I want to talk to your leader." Bolt demanded to the Ambassador.
The officers looked at each other bewildered at the request, but the Ambassador kept a stoic disposition and said nothing.
"Tell your leader I have a message from the GC to deliver to him." Bolt said. "Quora, wait for me on the ship." Bolt looked down at the body bag Aris was in, and he gestured for his guards to take the body bag and her things on his ship.
"One moment." The Ambassador said and left.
Bolt watched as the officers examined him with their eyes as he waited. He thought he even saw some of them lick their fangs. He was extremely uncomfortable but kept his composure.
The Ambassador quickly returned and said. "Our leader is busy but will make a brief moment for you, captain. Come with me."
Bolt followed the pale Ambassador, and he was escorted to a building near the space station.
The building was large and dark. When Bolt walked in, it was quiet inside. He was escorted through a large lobby and to the only door in the building, which was their leader's office. Before entering the office, he was thoroughly searched, and they placed him in the office with a couple of guards watching him.
"Our great leader Dorian will arrive shortly." The Ambassador said, and then left the office.
Bolt looked around, and he did not like the office. It was like a sea of blood entered the office and soaked every piece of furniture and subsided into the floor. It was too fundamental for Bolt because it seemed like no thought was put into the decoration of the office. Bolt thought it resembled how ignorant this planet must be. The office of a planet leader said a lot about the planet its self, Bolt learned this from his years of visiting numerous other worlds across the galaxy. This was all they probably knew on this planet was blood. Not precisely a planet fit for the GC, but politics will defeat integrity every time. This planet didn't deserve to be in the GC, Bolt thought.
Bolt didn't like the situation he was in. Just like with Profolmia, he felt powerless in this situation, but he had to act like he controlled the situation. Bolt had done this before, but he was accustomed to having some kind of leverage over people, but in this case, he had none. So Bolt begun to rack his mind on how he could create some sort of false advantage over the planet leader.
Suddenly, more guards of Dorian entered the office, and Dorian did not come in until all the officers were set in their positions.
Bolt sized him up as Dorian made his way to his chair. He looked like the rest of the Damurians, just pudgier. Once Dorian sat down and Bolt examined his facial expression, he saw a big difference from the others, he saw the look of absolute power. Bolt saw this same look in other planet leaders. It was pure power at its highest. The things that leaders must do to maintain strength, poisons' their mind, and inflates the ego. Bolt has learned to tread lightly with the ego of newly selected leaders within the GC because they do not know how to control their power yet. They are used to whatever they say being enacted, but in the GC, one is dealing with other very powerful planets, and one might not get what one wants every time. But Bolt wanted to lightly test the leader and see how controlled he was.
Dorian just stared at Bolt, with a hint of a smirk on his face.
Bolt knew the planet leader wouldn't say anything until Bolt said something first. Absolute power liked to be acknowledged first. It didn't like to tell others to acknowledge it.
"Crimson leader Dorian thank you for welcoming me to your planet. But in all honesty, I wish I could be a little happier with my first arrival on your planet, but a Universal Journalist of the GC is in my spaceship, hurt and distraught over actions that happened on this planet."
"No one from this planet attacked the Universal Journalist. She was attacked by a member of her own species, who was imitating a Sapthian. A worker killed the imposter because he was trying to protect the Universal Journalist. If the dead human had come to our government first, we would have protected him, but he was working with Activists, and they got him killed."
"The worker that killed him could have just stunned him. You would have got more information out of him concerning these Activists, and we could have found out what he knew."
"The worker that killed him is dead anyway, along with the entire farm-factory. They could have all been working with Activists."
Bolt was shocked at how dismissive the leader was at killing an entire factory of his citizens. And it was all over what, merely, could have been, and without an investigation of the facts. "Well, I am also here to congratulate you and your planet on your acceptance into the GC." Bolt said with a smile, to try and ease the tension he had created. "Planet Earth wanted to personally congratulate you."
The face of Dorian rose as if he was looking down at Bolt. Which he was because his desk sat on a mound within the office. "Our planet deserved it. Our high-quality extraction equipment can extract more than blood. There is none like it in the Universe." Dorian said.
Bolt wondered if there was a possibility that Dorian didn't know that wasn't the real reason his planet was being accepted into the GC. No, he had to know, Bolt thought. The reasoning he just explained was a lie that he forced himself to believe. The truth made his planet seem week and insignificant. No other planet in the GC would take Crimson seriously if word spread that it was a resource slave to another planet. That would probably be too much for Dorian's pride.