by Cher Hollis
His last thoughts surprised him, as he drifted to sleep. Of all the desirable feminine features he’d seen that day, the one that carried him to sleep was a pair of dark and seductive brown eyes.
Event Five: Khan (Allies)
Vytor’s vessel jettisoned through the dark matter of space. He had returned to concealment in the cosmic matter of dense interstellar gas that surrounded a nearby dead star, after he’d found the base of operations the Esa used for their intended war on humans. He was certain the rock-crusted spheroid the Esa had chosen as a base, also would hold Ramon prisoner.
Vytor had felt the faint threads of their bonded connection emanating from there, across the large divide.
He stayed beyond the reach of Esa detection, and he watched the once chattel armies, while he considered how to reach his goal. He had many problems to solve, if he ever hoped to free Ramon from Korpal so that Ramon would be free to help him procreate.
One of the biggest obstacles was the reality that a human body could not voyage in a Makkar vessel, so he realized he would need help to free Ramon. Then a revolutionary thought occurred to him.
“Ela Cassandra.”
Humans would be the only way left for him to find help, when he considered his banishment from his race, following the Esa abdication.
“Who better than a member of Ramon’s own human circle to help,” Vytor declared, into the confines of his vessel.
If he found her, it would also allow him to warn Ela Cassandra of Korpal’s lethal intentions toward her, because she must not be captured and used against Ramon.
Ela Cassandra would be unaware that since Ramon had bonded with the Circle Generation, she had also been linked through her father to Vytor and to all Makkars. The link was a fragile thread, not the tenacious rope of a true bonding. But it would be enough that Vytor could follow it across the galaxies, and he hoped he would find her before Korpal did.
“I must return Ramon to the Circle!” Vytor shouted, while his vessel shot into the galaxy like an emerald star bursting through the dark matter of space.
Balice walked slowly through the shadows of the tunneled corridor. The dampness of its cold atmosphere caused a shiver to run down her petite frame. She’d taken the same route every day to keep her promise to Ramon.
Balice came around the last natural curve in the rock corridor and she saw a light ahead of her that meant the end of her journey. She wasn’t able to see Ramon as she drew closer because it was too dark behind the cell bars and in the hole where he was imprisoned.
She went first to the Esa guard and she bribed him by offering to dance after she was through seeing Ramon, which sent him away to take up a post at the entrance. Then she turned to face Ramon’s cell bars, where she heard the familiar jangle of chains as Ramon stood.
The manacle that circled Ramon’s neck was tethered by a length of chain to the rock wall. It didn’t allow Ramon to move as far as the bars. His wrists were also bound with manacles which had a short length of chain stretched between them.
He’d not been allowed any small comforts in the dark hole such as a chair, blankets, or washing. Balice never let the slight stench she could detect show on her face. She knew Ramon was a man of dignity, no matter what his circumstances were, and she’d never embarrass him that way.
She always tried to time her visits after she knew Korpal had been there. She hoped to lift Ramon out of the emotional agony that Korpal inflicted on him day after day. Korpal would visit Ramon and recount in explicit detail each type of torture he intended to use on Ela Cassandra, who was Ramon’s daughter. Korpal’s words were burned into Ramon with an intimidating voice, until Ramon lived in despair.
Many times, Ramon had been silently weeping when she arrived, and she was frustrated at not being able to comfort him with a touch or embrace. She’d silently screamed at Korpal’s masochistic cruelty, as she watched the guilt devour Ramon, and overpower his spirit.
Balice knew Korpal’s scheme and she knew Ramon’s worth to him. Korpal was breaking Ramon down with words, which had left Ramon on the brink for when an impossibly cruel choice had to be made.
Save his daughter—or save Earth and its billions of people.
Ramon would have to choose, and Balice wondered how a man could live with such a choice.
If Korpal had ever found out her true feelings, how she tried to bolster Ramon every way she could, she would be in serious trouble. At first, she wondered if the cell area might be under surveillance and she’d gone slowly. Over time, she’d become convinced Korpal hadn’t put surveillance in the cell area, and then she felt more secure that she could speak freely with Ramon.
On the other hand, she knew Ramon always held himself in check. He never revealed the whole of anything, and she couldn’t blame him for his caution. She was in effect spying for Korpal, even though Korpal rarely asked her what was said between them.
She’d thought it was curious, until she realized it wasn’t what Ramon could tell her that Korpal wanted, it was Ramon’s feelings toward her that Korpal wanted to abuse. Korpal hoped Ramon would care for her, and then if something went wrong with bringing Ela Cassandra to him, Korpal would use Balice in her place.
That had made her more upset, when she realized the size of Korpal’s deceptions toward her.
When Balice looked through the dim lighting, she could see Ramon as he inched forward. He was tattered and worn with the signs of forced-feeding staining the front of his ripped gray shirt. Since she’d known him, she had come to respect him, and she realized that he was the first person she’d ever felt that unfamiliar emotion about.
Quickly, she forced a smile as she clasped the cold metal bars. Then as sincerely as she could, she said, “Ramon, it is so good to see you.”
His eyes were dulled and glazed in pain, as he rasped, “You should not have come, Balice. There is nothing left here for you to visit.”
Balice tightened her fingers against the bars. “Please don’t say that, Ramon. You’re the only sanity I have left in this madness. I need you as much as I hope you need me.”
It was a new tactic she’d decided to try, and she hoped it would bring Ramon back from the despair that gripped him. She’d never dream of burdening Ramon with her troubles, but she decided if she could get his mind onto someone else’s problems, it might break the depression, which was killing him.
She known by then, because Ramon had stated many times that he’d wished he were dead. He’d come to that desperate decision as being his only choice, and he’d cursed his genius mind for not coming up with a way to make it happen. He’d even tried, unsuccessfully, to kill himself with starvation, but Korpal had just ordered forced feeding.
At her words, Balice saw a small flicker of interest spark in Ramon’s brown eyes.
“I know it’s terrible of me to need your friendship so badly when you’re the one held prisoner,” Balice said with a downcast look. Then she gathered herself and exclaimed, “Oh, but I wouldn’t burden you with this! I just don’t know where else to turn.”
Balice turned her back to him with a defeated shudder, while she realized the act she was trying to play was hitting very close to the truth.
“Balice what is it?” Ramon asked. His voice was already stronger and filled with purpose than she’d heard him have in days. The results made her more confident in her plan, as she turned back to face him.
“It is Korpal—really all the Variant men. They’ve turned into slave traders, evil masters over the women. They’ve lost all sense of right and wrong. Oh my God, Ramon, they even use volt whips! And Korpal … well, he is ... he is—” Balice stuttered, unable to finish, as she finally recognized how really afraid she was.
“That miscreant ass!” Ramon cursed. “His stupidity and lunacy will be his downfall. But not before he has caused the universe irreparable destruction.” Balice noticed Ramon stood straighter with his eyes coming to life as they searched hers, and then he asked, “What has he done to you, Balice? What are you afraid
of?”
Balice swallowed hard, she’d not meant the conversation to take the direction it had.
Suddenly, she surprised herself as she blurted, “I’m afraid I will end up like the other women. Bound, forced, beaten, or chained! But then, I’m ashamed to be so selfish. And I feel guilty that I don’t do anything to try to stop it. I’m only praying it is not me—that it doesn’t happen to me.”
Balice hung her head in shame.
“Oh, sweet lady, what person wishes the torture to touch them with agony. How well I know the desire for it to be someone else but me,” Ramon said, and he reached his chained wrists out, as if he could touch her, to comfort her.
Balice sniffled, while she brushed at real tears with the back of her hand, and then fiercely she said, “I swear, Ramon, I will look for a way, or for any chance to right the terrible things being done. I swear it!”
Suddenly, Ramon smiled. It was the first one Balice had seen from him in weeks.
“I had forgotten I wasn’t the only person in the world with troubles, until you reminded me,” he said. “Korpal had better watch his step. I think he doesn’t realize what a determined paramour he really has.”
Balice felt her guilt easing, and with new confidence, she said, “Ramon, you always make me feel better about everything.”
Days later, a thunderous roar sounded and picked up intensity in the cavernous lower levels of the dominant Kalic.
Legions of Esa shouted, “Korpal! Korpal!”
Its roar pounded down each of the six long wings, which led off the central area. The Esa were amassed so far down each wing that not all could view the high platform built in the center. That was where Korpal stood to demand all Esa pledge their existence and battle skills to his war on the humans of Earth.
Khan stood on the platform and he could feel the vibrations in his boot shaped feet, as the roar kept repeating Korpal’s name, and from where he stood at the back of the platform he scanned Korpal’s face.
“There are three legions here,” Flagg said, over the uproar, as he stood at Khan’s side.
Khan nodded his long red head, as he looked at the power he could see on Korpal. The Makkars did not have faces he could study like the Variants did, and he had learned to watch them carefully. Korpal’s eyes shown like dark polished stones and his human tongue licked back and forth across his lips, as if he could taste his power.
Khan thought it was what a human male would look like if they could receive Talis.
Khan heard Dante as he shouted to Korpal. “To see them all assembled in one place like this is impressive, Supreme Ruler. And to think, this is only a small percentage of them.”
Khan’s bulk strained with anger. He’d had to order the lower levels of docking and the attached wings of the Kalic cleared, at Korpal’s orders, to make space for the gathering of Esa. Khan looked out the main docking gates where he could view the surface of the planet—a place he’d told Korpal was better to use for the Esa to hear Korpal’s words.
The planet, which Korpal had named Armageddon, was in a place the humans called the Magellanic Cloud, which was in space behind the Milky Way Galaxy. Armageddon was now the base of operations for the Esa war, and their attacks on Earth’s colonies in The Way.
Attacks, which had already been successful with great battles and mighty victories.
But before that, the effort to find a planet for their base had turned to a battle of wills. Korpal insisted on an oxygen atmosphere, one that would be pleasant and comfortable, he had called it. Khan saw no need for oxygen. When the Makkars created the Esa, they’d allowed for any atmosphere. He didn’t know in what way; he’d just known the Esa could continue on many planets.
Khan’s strategic need was for fuel. He had demanded a planet that contained Tritick ore. When refined, Tritick ore supplied the fuel for Kalics. The battle of who would win had ended when Flagg, who had tried to find a planet to fit both, found Armageddon.
But Korpal had still angrily protested that it didn’t have the right amount of physical comfort he had wanted.
Khan did not care about Variants comfort or their weak need for oxygen. He did know what would bring victory and that was fuel. To hold the lead, he needed fuel to move the Esa and their battle Kalics. So he’d known they were in a better position, since that ore was being mined in Esa refining Kalics, which were set up and working to make massive particles used for the Tritick fuel.
Khan watched Korpal step forward as the repeat of Korpal’s name sounded louder. Korpal marched and his long white robes lifted around him like Makkars essence as he stepped up to the center of the platform. Then Korpal signaled for him. Khan strode to stand to the side of Korpal, where he stood as tall as Korpal on the platform.
Khan would translate. He was the greatest at the challenging human language by then, and not all the Esa carried translators.
Korpal raised his arms overhead to the roaring chant of his name. Then Korpal nodded to Khan, who bent down on one limb, while he partly faced Korpal. All legions of Esa followed Khan, and each one lowered to kneel. In the long clicks that followed, Korpal stayed silent, as he held the time that the Esa knelt to him, and he claimed his power and leadership.
Then he lowered and raised his arms, as if he could bring the Esa to stand, and he yelled, “I command the Esa to rise!”
Khan’s large alien digits gestured, while he loudly clicked the orders for those Esa that did not carry Makkar translators. The strength of his clicks boomed over the sound of the Esa who followed his lead as they rose to stand.
“Will you fight?” Korpal shouted, and his human voice rang out.
A bass growl of sharp support pounded swiftly through the masses.
“I, Korpal, will lead you to victory! Together we will crush the human males and make them crawl before our strength. You hunger for Talis ... I will give you Talis! We will take their women as our own!”
Korpal beat his chest with each word and was screaming by the time he had finished. A resounding cheer of loyalty came from the legions of Esa, as Khan translated the last word.
“I will give the Esa Talis, and many mighty battles to fight, to each Esa who follow my command! Kneel now! Show me your pledge to fight, and I will lead you to conquer Earth!”
Korpal strode to the edges of the platform and he shook his fists high above his head, beneath the deafening roar of his name.
“Korpal! Korpal!”
Khan watched Korpal grow stronger and mightier with power.
Then Korpal motioned for all the Esa to stand again, and toward Dante, he shouted, “Bring out the women to give my Esa Talis!”
Khan stepped back as Variant wardens pushed forward a large group of females, who wore little cloth on their bodies. The wardens pushed them to the edges of the raised platform. Then the Variant wardens ripped the top part of the females clothing away, to show what Khan understood by then were called breasts.
It was one part of a female, that when shown, could raise Talis into the heat of Talis Fire very swiftly for an Esa.
“Dance!” Korpal commanded.
Then the vibrated drone made from the Esa who were becoming loaded and charged on Talis, turned into thunder.
“An excellent idea,” Korpal shouted to Dante, when he’d moved to the rear of the platform, while he pointed to the bare breasts of the women who were forced to dance for the Esa. “I should have thought of this sooner,” he yelled.
Khan stayed motionless as he looked out over the sea of red Esa before him, and then he heard Dante behind him saying, “I have never seen the Esa this excited, Supreme Ruler. All except for Khan. He seems amazingly silent to me, considering the view.”
Khan grew rigid—he could feel Korpal’s attention drilled into his back. Swiftly, he started to drone. Loudly.
“Forget the beast!” Korpal shouted. “I wonder what would happen if we stripped our Variant women naked and showed everything. I think we would get more Esa satisfied out of one woman that way.”
> “Brilliant, Supreme Ruler,” Dante answered obediently.
But Khan had never seen the puny male say anything but “yes” to Korpal.
For a full cycle, Korpal had shouted the same human words to other Esa legions, until every Esa had heard him and had knelt to pledge their duty, loyalty, and existence to him, their Supreme Ruler.
Khan was angry at being forced to kneel at Korpal’s feet so many times in front of the Esa he commanded. He knew Korpal liked forcing his Esa commander to kneel over and over with a show of duty to him, until Khan wanted to smash Korpal, and he thought about challenging the puny Variant in The Games.
Khan knew he would end Korpal’s existence easily. He thought about how he would make Korpal crawl and beg him, then he would kill him. He felt better for thinking it, but he knew he could not do it—his vow was set.
He’d given his pledge to Korpal. Given Korpal the vow to follow him to conquer Earth, but it didn’t stop his deadly thoughts as he watched Korpal’s power grow, while his grew less.
There would be many challenges for his command after all the Esa watched him kneel to the small Variant. But his Esa would learn he would not fight them all, and he would, and could, take their Talis if they did not follow his commands.
After the gatherings, he had many command duties, which would last for longer clicks after he’d lost a full cycle on Korpal’s pledge gatherings. He had much to plan—he was going to use the fever for battle, which Korpal had beat into the Esa, and launch a major attack on the weakest side of Earth’s forces.
In the quarter cycle since they had reached Armageddon, his Esa forces had attacked and seized many of Earth’s far colonies. They had gathered females and Variants, then destroyed everything left. But Earth had been warned before the first Esa attack. And still, in the first clicks of battle, Earth’s forces had been slow at defending against Esa attacks.
But after time, their world’s forces had united, and the battle had become forceful—ending with both sides blocked inside The Way. Khan hadn’t been able to push the Earth force from that curved line of defense. As the cycles grew longer and Earth forces still held, he felt challenged.