She smelled sweet and pleasant and not of sweat and body odor as the men had. The woman was so close that he felt her breath on him. “You are from Econ?” she asked in a seductive tone.
Einar paused and considered his answer and believed that she had realized that already. He assumed that this was an interrogation tactic, or at least the first phase of it. They could have strung him up and beat him or used various other techniques to get information out of him, but they hadn’t…at least, not yet. Was there any enmity between his people and those of this planet? Viennin was, for the most part, a peaceful nation that was a strong proponent of the Universal Code. They treated all nations according to their deeds and tried to defend the weak. Other nations from Econ such as Bo Nen, Capetes, and Aldevi had not been so diplomatic. Their intentions never seemed to be good or beneficial to those they encountered. They were always on the cusp of violence. What if they had engaged these people with a negative result and he was to be blamed for their crimes? Regardless, there didn’t appear to be any reason to withhold basic information from her. “Yes, I am from Viennin. Is there anything wrong with that?”
“Your people came peacefully…so it seemed. They told us we were taken from another place…another planet and put here. That was true…we all come from somewhere. But your people wanted us to abandon all that we have created and leave the great cities of Lisht and return. This caused a lot of problems among my people. It was the gods that wanted us here. Your people wanted us to leave and go against the will of the gods to a land that we do not know. But we will not leave. This is why you are here sneaking around in the mountains spying on this great city,” she looked him in the eyes.
“I wasn’t sneaking around spying. We were attacked. Our craft was damaged and we were forced to land here,” Einar said making his defense. “We were attacked by that flying creature and that stupid horned ape thing before being taken captive by your people for no reason. I demand to be released.”
“You are not a prisoner, yet,” she noted.
“Then, why are my hands bound. Why did your guard hit me three times?” he said a bit more aggressively.
“Why did you kill Babi?” she asked bluntly. The tone of her question was condemning and seemed to suggest that this was her objective.
“What? Those stupid, horned, baboon, ape, monkey things…whatever they are, came after us? You ever heard of this thing called ‘self-defense?’ They came after us. All we did was try to keep them back?”
“You admit to the crime?” she said pulling back as if surprised by the admission.
Einar blinked and looked at the woman, “What crime?” he asked incredulously.
“Killing the gods is not tolerated here,” she noted coldly.
“Really? That horned demon is a god to you people? Killing that baboon…monkey thing that was trying to attack us is a crime?” he asked in a slightly raised tone.
She stood in front of him again and seemed to ignore his question. She touched his shoulder and drug her finger across his back as she circled him, “If Babi came for you, you should have been honored to be a sacrifice. You should have given yourself as any of us would. It is a great honor to be taken by Babi.”
“Not for me sweetheart!” he said while shaking his head.
“Hundreds of years ago we were brought here from the heavens by the gods and put here to live in this place,” she said waving her hands in the air. “At first, we thought it was the will of the gods that we deserved to be punished and placed here in a new and strange place…taken from our home. We feared them. They told us of what they would do if we resisted and we obeyed out of fear. We wanted to honor the will of the gods.
“In time, our people grew in numbers and we built cities along the river. What we thought was our god, attacked this city and the other cities and our people were being taken by flying machines. This began to occur quite often to us. It was simply the will of the gods. Until one day when they came from the sky as you and the others have. They began to attack us and take the strong males. It was the great Babi that showed us the truth. It was the great Babi who came from the mountain and killed one of the ‘gods.’” She was facing him. The woman leaned in and opened her mouth touching it to his neck then subtly bit down in the area of his jugular vein. Einar could feel her soft wet lips and teeth on his throat as she acted out the lethal strike. She lingered for a few seconds leaving him to wonder if she was going to bite him before pulling back and looking into his eyes, “Babi showed us that they were not gods at all. They could be killed. If they could be killed…they could be stopped. Babi was the real god.”
“Isn’t this whole interrogation because Babi was killed? Doesn’t that mean that they are not immortal nor are they gods?” Einar asked.
Fire seemed to blaze in her eyes, “Babi died protecting us from you! You are here to take us!”
“All I wanted to do was fix our Imil and go home. That stupid acid-spitting thing messed that up. Then your ‘Babi’ reared its nasty head. By the way, your god really stinks. It smells horrible up there,” he said jabbing at her.
“It was others with the same eyes as you,” she said referring to the red-green eyes of the Viennin people, “that came one day and told us a lie. They wanted to trick us into getting on their ships so that we could be taken to other places as slaves, but we are not going to be taken while Babi lives. We are too great in number…this is our home and we wanted to stay.”
“Where did they say you came from?” Einar asked.
She thought for a moment, “Earth. They called us Egyptians.”
“Interesting. That is what Eerika said,” Einar said thinking aloud.
This seemed to confirm the woman’s suspicions, “You came to take us!”
“Well, I know something about Earth. It’s a lot better than this dump. At least, from what I have seen so far. I am not sure how many times I have to tell you, we don’t care if you are here, or there, or wherever. We don’t want to take you anywhere. I don’t care about that stupid monkey in the mountains or your acid-spitting birds…we just want to return home.”
The woman left through the door at the rear of the room. Einar started to go after her, but the guard took a step to cut him off. He realized that he was to stay in the room or else he would get hit again. Einar sat on the floor and leaned against the wall.
It was late in the night when the woman returned. She was standing over him when he woke up. A third man entered the room and said something in a language he did not understand. The woman responded and the two guards by the door moved to Einar’s sides, pulled him up and escorted him out of the room. They turned him toward the exterior door and to the right toward a large arena.
As he walked, Einar noticed a series of five-foot-tall hieroglyphs that, based on his interpretation of the images, told the story that the woman had shared about Babi killing the gods. The likeness of Babi was everywhere, and he began to wonder if he would be forced to pay for killing their precious god. Only, they purposefully killed fifty or more of them. The entire circumstance was silly. Einar had no idea how long the people were on the planet but based on the structures that were constructed and the large numbers of people, it was obvious that they had been around for hundreds of years. They were still very primitive in how they lived. He saw little innovation and nothing technologically advanced. Any of the nations he knew could destroy them in a matter of minutes unless their technology was purposefully hidden.
The guards led him out of a stone hallway and into a large amphitheater. At the bottom was a flat covered section about a hundred feet in length and half as deep that was supported by twelve-foot-tall round columns. They were smooth and decorated with capitals that seemed to clash with their architecture. As he walked down the stairs an increasing number of people came into view. They were very organized in where they were positioned, which he assumed it was according to their stature. Directly at the end of the stairway, two rows of guards stood in line on each side. From the end of
the stairs, he could see very little due to the lighting.
Einar turned around and noticed Eerika being brought in behind him. She wore a thin transparent robe like the woman who had interrogated him prior to being brought to the arena. She was now bound and the light made it impossible for her to hide her body. Other than exhibiting embarrassment from her exposure, Eerika didn’t appear as if she had suffered any torture or traumatic experience. He hoped that she was not violated. She was exotic compared to the local women. Despite the lack of dark hair and tanned body like the natives, they had to be impressed with her. She was exceedingly beautiful and he had only just realized the full extent of her beauty now that she was out of uniform. He didn’t see that as a positive as it was certain what they would do with her.
Pressure was applied to both arms tugging slightly in the opposite direction they were traveling. He conceded and stopped. At the base of the stairs, a man was secured to a stone by a thick piece of woven grass rope. The man wore the same type of linen loincloth that Einar had on. His hands shook feverishly and it was clear that he was afraid. From the platform, a deep, angry, echoing voice rang out in the amphitheater from a source beneath the stone covering that he could not see. Einar could not understand what was being said but could conclude that it did not bode well for the man it was directed toward. The voice stopped and two men in loincloths carrying covered clay pots stepped out into the open amphitheater. The man began to scream and fight to get free from the rope. The closer the men were, the more desperate was his pleading for mercy and the more violent were the attempts to pull himself free. The two men removed the lids and lifted large brushes from the pots. They attempted to wipe a black substance on the man while he moved and evaded the brushes with the little movement the ropes afforded. He continued to cry out and it was obvious that the man was begging for his life. Einar wondered if the liquid was the acid from the stupid birds that attacked them. All of this was because of them and the irreparable damage they had levied on the Imil. If he were to survive this place, perhaps he would lead an expedition back to the wretched planet and hunt the stupid creatures down and kill them. The thought would be irrelevant if he did not live to see another day.
The black tarlike substance did nothing upon touching his body. There was no burning on his clothing or skin, and he realized it was something else. In the midst of his struggle, the man kicked the brush and sent it flying back at the native on the left sending the substance into his face and chest area. The man immediately forgot about the brush, dropped the clay pot and panicked at the reality of having the substance on him. He feverishly attempted to wipe it off with his hands. The second man quickly replaced his brush, set the lid back on, retreated to the covering, and stood in position.
A small winged animal of a brilliant emerald green color launched itself from atop the outer wall of the amphitheater. It opened its wings and glided toward the man. It made a high-pitched chirping sound as it became airborne and homed in on its target. The man watched in horror as he noticed its approach. In desperation to escape, the man resorted to chewing on the rope as everything else had ultimately failed.
Einar looked on and almost laughed at both men’s reactions to the little creature. The native had already pulled off his loincloth and used it, but it did a poor job of absorbing the substance. Naked and panicked, he was trying to get a different material or someone to help him, but each one backed away and avoided him as if he were infected with a deadly, highly contagious disease. He begged and pleaded, and everyone turned away from him. With no options left, he began to run across the covered area toward a door opening.
Einar looked back at the flying animal and studied if for a second. It was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand with room to spare. He wondered if the natives were putting on a show for him, or if he had missed something. None of this was real, he considered.
The sound of flapping wings and high-pitched chirps filled the amphitheater as thousands of the winged creatures flew from nests that were set high upon the theater walls, buildings, and trees in the city. The numbers disrupted the star light that filled the sky and cast a growing shadow over the stone structure. The huge flock flew in a mad frenzy and darted toward both men. Within seconds the prisoner and native were no longer visible with the exception to the blood and body parts being thrown into the air. The swarm mercilessly attacked and jerked flesh from the bodies and brutally fought amongst each other for access. The screams of the men were drowned out by the flapping wings and deafening noise of the ravenous creatures. The birdlike animals didn’t have beaks, but mouths that were full of razor-sharp teeth that cut effortlessly through the flesh.
Einar focused on the man in front of him. As his blood painted the stones around where he once stood, the emerald green killers lapped up what wasn’t absorbed by the stone then returned to feed. The frenzy resulted in the flying creatures turning their attention on each other and cannibalizing their own kind. Einar had never seen such a brutal attack on any living being such as this before. He understood why the man was terrified. This was apparently a common way to treat those sentenced to death.
The horrid display lasted until the bones were picked clean and there was nothing left. The creatures flew away as aggressively as they had come, attacking each other as they departed and began to scatter. Einar could hear the tapping and rattling of the man’s skeleton against the stone as several of the winged creatures that remained were attempting to break the bones in order to get to the marrow. Einar turned and noticed the woman who had interrogated him was standing next to Eerika. The Egyptian woman seemed unfazed and even amused by the event. Einar looked at Eerika. She was shaking and was unmistakably horrified at what had just taken place. The guard on his right punched him in the head and commanded him to look forward. It was the fourth time the little native had struck him and he had already resolved to kill the little baboon worshiper. If a man with a clay pot approached him and the little native was anywhere within reach, Einar would gladly kill him. He would not die alone on this day.
Einar looked upon the remains as two men tossed them into a container and attached a new rope to the stone. Each location where blood had touched the first rope was mangled and chewed up as the creatures sought to get the blood out of it. The rope was no longer able to serve its function and was replaced for Einar. He found himself hating the little natives and cared not if they were all killed, and their civilization was annihilated or put to the slave markets. It was kind of a radical thought considering that he had no idea of the man’s crimes. What if he was a brutal murderer himself? What if he had done horrific things to the children of the city? Regardless, the possibilities did nothing to change his mind. He felt no remorse for the natives.
Einar was pushed forward down the steps. He contemplated both his escape and the death of the little guard. He would need to fight back before he was secured to the stone but considered the reality of being outnumbered and weaponless. There was no way to know if he was to receive the same penalty as the guy, or if there was any penalty at all. He and Eerika had simply defended themselves and nothing more. They killed a creature that was revered by the local culture as some kind of god and a self-defense argument wouldn’t matter. Judging by what he had just witnessed, these were not the most rational or compassionate people in the universe. They were probably just as bloodthirsty and crazy as the thousands of other supposedly intelligent beings on the planets he had visited during his time with SINSTER.
The further he descended down the walkway, the more he could see beneath the covering. On the platform, he recognized some of the men from the mountain who had taken him and Eerika captive. His stare followed the line of men to a large throne that was carved out of a pink stone that sat in the middle of the platform. It was far too large for any normal sized Viennin man, much less these little native people. The man sitting in it appeared as a child lounging on a piece of furniture constructed for a giant. Under different circumstances, Einar might have e
njoyed a good laugh at the man and how silly all the natives looked in their makeup and clothing.
The man on the throne wore a blue linen loincloth and black makeup around his eyes. A broad golden collar arched down his chest from shoulder to shoulder. He was bald. In his left hand, he held a hooked golden rod that was striped with a dark blue color. In his right hand was a straight rod with three beaded golden strands that resembled a whip. He sat stoically observing Einar as he drew nearer. The man’s face was as expressionless as the stone he was perched upon. His eyes never veered away from Einar’s as if trying to study his soul or to intimidate him. Einar put aside his desire to mock the little man and need to get back at the violent guard. This was the person that would make a decision about his fate and he needed to be respectful and take him seriously. If he survived, then he could deal with the man according to circumstance and opportunity, but for now, he simply had to get away with his life. Yet, he was resolved that if the man with the pot were to approach him, that would be the time to fight. He was not going to go peacefully.
As he was being secured to the grass rope, the native woman in the robe walked past him and continued to the bottom of the steps where the stairs met the large platform. She and the guards knelt and bowed their heads until a command came from the man on the throne. She stood and looked back at Einar. “Kneel before the great Pharaoh Wahneferhotep!” she commanded.
The guards were standing and looking at him with anger and rage in their eyes outraged at the disrespect he was showing. He obeyed and took a knee, bowing his head as the others had done. He expected either a sword to be swung down across the back of his neck or a fist across his face. After a long few seconds, Einar recognized the command the Pharaoh had given to the prior group to stand and he rose to his feet.
The woman spoke in the native language and did not sound as nice and pleasant as she had when they were in the room. She was more seductive than aggressive especially when she noticed how he had reacted to her body. The tone of her voice and the manner in which she spoke was certainly indicative of anger and seemed prosecutorial.
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