Space Dragon Allepexxis

by C. K. Pershing

  “Smartest thing you’ve said all day,” Gynden said.

  “Neon Tron’s?” Paress asked.

  “A little arcade slash pub slash singing joint a couple miles down the road,” Hieral said. “Pretty much our hangout.”

  The crowd was already starting to move, murmuring agreement and laughing. Paress and Casten went along, caught up in the flow of bodies. The looked at each other and grinned. The older cool kids had accepted them and were taking them to their hangout. Then suddenly Casten’s expression changed.

  “What if this s some kind of hazing thing or a joke and they’re actually gonna do something bad to us?” Casten whispered. “It happens, you know…”

  Paress was surprised at how quickly his own mood shifted. “Then we’ll make them feel as sorry as those Driinen. Are any of the Companions here up to your standard?”

  “Eiklan’s a Cube Squared design. She could be tough…”

  “Then if anything happens, we’ll destroy her first, and then the ork. We’ll go from there, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Hey what’re you guys whispering about?” Gynden asked cheerily. “You look too serious. Lighten up!”

  “Ah, yeah, sorry,” Paress said with a nervous laugh. “Casten was just reminding me not to eat too much junk food because I’ve got more flying tomorrow.”

  “Fair enough,” Gynden said. “Only good food for you tonight, then. Come on, you guys are with me.” The crowd had walked into a small parking lot where there was an array of cars and motorcycles parked along with some scooters and light flying machines. As the various cadets all drove off down the road, Gynden led Paress and Casten to a light green minivan with oversized knobby tires for riding in sand. The whole thing screamed “beach bum”, even though Paress had no idea where the beaches were on this planet.

  “Paress you get shotgun,” Gynden said. “The robot people can sit in back. No offense, Casten.”

  “Er, none taken…” Casten stammered as Eiklan took his hand and pulled him inside the van.

  As Paress climbed in the front passenger seat, Gynden said, “Hang on!” With a chirp of the tires, the little van sped off down the road, following the rest of the motley assortment of vehicles.

  Around midnight, Paress and Casten stumbled into their dormitory and crashed on their beds. Their fears unfounded, the night had turned out to be quite fun with plenty of singing, dancing, and eating. The highlight of the night was when some of the girls climbed on top of a table and decided to do an impromptu striptease to a song by Hieral when Kol pushed them out of the way and started to do his own striptease. Of all the things Paress expected to see while attending the Imperial Space Knight Academy, an ork taking off his clothes to the rhythm of a song being sung by an elf wasn’t one of them.

  “Geez, we’re a couple of jerks,” Casten said while sprawling face down on his bed.

  “Huh? Why?” Paress sat up.

  “For thinking they were gonna do something bad to us and planning how to hurt them. They were just being friendly.”

  “We were just being careful,” Paress said, although deep down, he did feel ashamed. “Those damn Driinen. They made it hard to trust anybody.”

  “Yeah. Well, and how we keep bringing up different storylines— the plot where the heroes are too trusting… That was probably on my mind too.”

  “Well, don’t worry. Nothing bad happened and everything’s fine,” Paress said.

  There was a knock at their door. Casten rolled over and sat up. The two boys stared at the door.

  “Maybe now they’re gonna attack us when our guard’s down,” Casten said.

  “Maybe,” said Paress. “Hey weren’t we just talking about how we were jerks for not trusting them?”

  “Well, you said it: we’re just being safe.”

  There was another knock.

  “Who is it?” Paress called.

  “A friend,” a woman’s voice called out. Paress and Casten both looked at each other because they recognized the voice that continued, “My name’s Doctor Leah Behlen.”

  Paress took a deep breath and used his telekinesis to unlock the door. “It’s open,” he called. “Come on in.”

  The door opened and in walked a beautiful high elf with black hair and skin so pale it was almost white. No, not a full-blooded high elf. A half-elf, Paress remembered from the conversation between the Behlens.

  Leah’s bright blue eyes briefly flashed a look of startled shock that Paress didn’t answer the door himself, but then settled into understanding. “Telekinesis. Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you,” she said. “It seems my husband has been talking about me in unkind terms… Or perhaps his pet whore?”

  “Uh, well, actually neither,” Paress said. He couldn’t tell her that he’d eavesdropped on the conversation she had with her husband and how he heard her frightening temper. “It’s just that we saw that note you left on Dr. Behlen’s door.”

  Leah flashed a predatory smile. It was impossible to tell how old she was thanks to her elven blood, but whatever her age she was coldly beautiful like a statue. Her rather earthly sexuality she’d expressed earlier was at odds with her flawless appearance. Or, as Paress studied her more, maybe it actually made her somehow even more attractive to know that someone so flawless could hold such base desires.

  “Ah, that was a bit of theater that my husband and I partake in,” Leah said.

  “He seemed to take it seriously,” Casten put in.

  Leah’s eyes swung over to Casten like searchlights and he shook slightly in a moment of panic before catching himself.

  “I’ve heard so much about you,” Leah soothed. “Glynnis is such a dear friend, how is she?”

  “Um, she’s fine,” Casten said. “Never really talked about you though…”

  “No I’d imagine not, but then again, she did choose to back my husband instead of me, so I can see why she’d keep quiet about our old times.”

  She locked the door behind her and pulled one of the chairs away from the small table in the corner of the room and placed it at the end of the boys’ bed area, between them. She sat down, long legs flowing out from a short skirt. She crossed those legs now and folded her hands on top of her knee.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t stay long,” she said before a genuine smile spread across her face. “First, I’d like to congratulate you on what you two have done with Hyper Battle Machine #25. It was the most significant work of my father’s life. He did go on to be the lead designer on the Machines numbering up to 34, but as near as anyone can tell, none were as revolutionary, or as deadly, as #25.”

  She glanced at her watch and said, “Your activation and performance with #25 has made my husband very happy. The happiest he’s been in years and I’m glad to see that. Thanks to his newfound happiness, we enjoyed a very…exciting…evening together. The most exciting we’ve had in years.” She licked her lips and Paress oddly wanted nothing more than to kiss those lips just then.

  “But I have to warn you. No matter what my husband says or does, don’t push yourself or the Machine too hard. It’s an extremely dangerous Machine. One of the most dangerous in all of civilization. First, the quad drive is such an unknown commodity that it may as well have just magically materialized one day. Haven’t you wondered why nobody who worked on its construction seems to be around anymore for Jeddeg to consult?”

  Paress had to admit that he had wondered what was going on, but he tried to remain impassive.

  “It’s because anybody who had anything to do with helping my father design the damned thing either disappeared, or got killed in a disaster that my father brought down upon them. The man nearly cracked this planet in two— and I’m not using hyperbole when I say that. He managed to convince his colleagues that the quad drive was safe and when he stamped its multiple dimensional configuration addresses, his colleagues were all ripped apart in the process. I still don’t know how he survived, but it changed him and slowly drove him insane. He seemed fine for years aft
er, the insanity was so gradual. But by the time it came on completely, it was too late.”

  Leah folded her arms and let out a long breath. “Now I’m afraid my husband, in his fool quest to follow my father’s ghost, is going to become that man’s second coming, and it will end in similar disaster and likely much worse.

  “I believe you’ll be a great Space Knight— someone the Empire really needs. But I can only caution you to follow your heart in more ways than one because as you get older, some very, very dark and troubling secrets will be revealed to you and how you deal with those secrets will not only affect your future, but the Empire’s as well.”

  She suddenly stood up. “I believe my time is up.” As if on cue there was urgent knocking on the outside of the door.

  “Paress? Casten?” Jil’s voice called out. “Are you guys okay?”

  “We’re okay!” Paress called. “Hang on a sec!”

  “We probably won’t meet again,” Leah said. “As per the arrangement I made with my husband. Our detente, as it were.” As Jil began knocking again more urgently, Leah said. “I’ll leave you with this one final piece of information. #25 is the one and only Machine to be designated Apex Destroyer Weapon. I’ll tell you what that means since I have no doubt my husband hasn’t. It means that despite everything else it can do, the absolute core reason of Allepexxis’ existence— what it was actually built to do— is to destroy other Hyper Battle Machines.”

  She stared at Paress for a long moment and he could see something in her eyes? Sorrow? No, not exactly. Pity…

  “Good luck to both of you,” Leah bowed deeply and then turned to unlock the door, pushing past Jil as she ran in.

  “Are you two okay?” Jil demanded. “She didn’t hurt you did she?”

  “We’re fine,” Paress said. “Everything’s okay.” And then he suddenly found himself launching off his bed to run after Leah. Jil reached out to grab him but he spun away. As he went out the door, he used his powers to slam it shut behind him, locking a panicked Jil inside with Casten.

  “Dr. Behlen!” Paress yelled, running after the mysterious woman. “Dr. Behlen, wait!” It was quiet out, all the other cadets having gone to bed after their night at Neon Tron’s. He caught up to her and grabbed her hand, turning her to face him. He was smaller than her, but she seemed light as a feather, easy to move. He understood when he saw the tears streaming down her face. They weren’t the small dainty tears he would have expected from the beautiful flawless face, but the large tears of complete abandon.

  The change from her cool, self-assured manner a few minutes ago— and even when she was talking with her husband— to someone in such a shattered emotional state, came as a complete shock to Paress.

  “What’s wrong?” Paress asked. “Are you alright?”

  “I shouldn’t have come,” Leah said, on the verge of sobbing. “I though I could be strong, and I was. But now I’ve lost that strength.” She kneeled down and looked up into his eyes. “Paress, I’m so sorry, I wish I could tell you everything would be alright, but I honestly just don’t know. I only know that you’ll one day face some very terrible decisions and doing the right thing may end up killing you…or worse.”

  Paress wasn’t sure what could happen that would be worse than killing him, so he said, “What’s going to happen? Can you give me more information?”

  She buried her face in her hands and sobbed for a moment and he couldn’t help but hug her. Through her hands she whispered, “I don’t know what’s going to happen. I can’t warn you because I don’t know! Just…just be careful. Be careful in what you do, in what you say, in who you befriend. Follow your heart and always try to do what’s best for the people you’re protecting. They’re who matters most. As long as you do that, I think— I pray— that you’ll be fine.”

  “I will,” Paress said. “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful.” He stared at her and wished he knew what to do. Whatever was going on was way beyond him right now and he could only watch helplessly. But Leah’s sobs did start to quiet down and she wiped the tears from her eyes.

  Leah looked up at him and smiled, “You’re a good person Paress. I’m as sure of that as I’ve ever been of anything. Whatever the hard road ahead of you brings, whether we see each other again or not, just know that I believe in you.” She stood up and hugged him. “Now I really do need to go. I’m sure Jil has called Jeddeg and he’s on his way. We’ll have a big fight about this, but it’s best that we do so in private. He really is a good man… That’s why I married him and why I’m still married to him. He’s just lost his way while searching for the truth…”

  She kissed the top of his head and said “God watch over you and protect you, Paress,” and then Leah Behlen walked out of Paress Handrel’s life leaving a bigger impact on him than either could have imagined for such a short meeting.

  Paress watched her disappear into the night and then turned back to his room. He opened the door just in time to see Jil leveling a laser pistol. “Whoah!” He ducked.

  Jil put the gun away. “Ohmigod! Sorry! It’s just, I had to get the door open somehow since you trapped me in here so I was gonna shoot it.”

  “I was fine!” Paress shouted, and out of the corner of his eye he could see some of the curtains in the windows of the other dorm rooms flutter as people gazed out curiously.

  Jil also noticed. “Okay, okay!” She said in a loud whisper. “Just come inside. Everything’s fine now.”

  “Everything was fine before,” Paress said, as he walked into the room past Jil and sat in the chair Leah had sat in minutes before.

  “Okay. Fine,” Jil said. “I’m glad to hear it. But Paress just because some slutty half-elf breezes in and…”

  “Jesus!” Paress said. “She calls you a whore. You call her a slut. I mean, all due respect, but you are a Painted Lady! What’s your problem with her?”

  “She loves the Doctor,” Casten said.

  “What?” Paress turned.

  “Can’t you tell? She’s jealous and she’s angry because through it all, he won’t pick her. He’s still married to Leah because his heart belongs to her.”

  “Oh for fuck’s sake,” Jil nearly roared and Paress and Casten both shrank back a little.

  Jil actually let out a small laugh. “You two are something else. Especially you, you idiot,” she said pointing at Casten.

  “Did it ever occur to you two that I feel the way I do about her because— and try to keep up— she’s fucking dangerous?”

  Despite Jil’s anger, Paress could feel himself getting angry too, “How is she dangerous? She just came here to talk to us a little bit about her father— which, by the way, thanks for not telling us that detail!” Jil blushed and started to say something. “Oh, I don’t care about that,” Paress said. “The point is that she didn’t come to try to lure us away or sabotage the Doctor’s plans. She even thanked us for making Allepexxis work because it’s made the Doctor the happiest he’s been in a while. She just warned us that Allepexxis is dangerous and to be careful is all.”

  Jil stared at Paress, her magnified eyes studying him. Probing into him. He stared back…and he could feel something defensive in his power start to shift and he had to avert his eyes because something told him that if he continued to stare at her, he’d rip those eyes from her skull.

  “That’s all?” Jil asked. “She only told you #25 was dangerous?”

  “Yes!” Paress lied. He knew he was leaving out a couple of key items, but felt it best not to bring them up. He looked over at Casten who didn’t miss a beat in supporting Paress.

  “Yeah, she just said the engine is dangerous and some people died developing it,” Casten said. “But it’s not like that’s really such a surprise. Something with the kind of crazy output of the quad drive… of course it’d be dangerous.”

  “Exactly,” Paress agreed. Deep down, he found Leah’s revelation sobering and a bit scary, but he couldn’t let on just now. “And at least she trusted us enough to tell us. Unlike you
guys.”

  Jil sighed. “I guess that’s my fault really. The Doctor wanted to tell you, but I said maybe he should wait a bit so you wouldn’t be scared. I’m sorry.”

  Paress honestly couldn’t tell if Jil was lying or not. She was obviously loyal to Behlen and she might have said anything to cover for him. For all he knew, Behlen may well have never told him. But then he was angry with himself. Behlen had been very good to him, sharing his encouragement and being more than patient.

  After all, the Driinen were part of Leah’s contingent and when she complained to Behlen about Paress’ violent counterattack, Behlen came to Paress’ defense strongly and without hesitation. Behlen had believed in Paress from the beginning—since before Paress believed in himself. He owed the man, and Jil, the benefit of the doubt. And yet Leah’s tears were obviously real and devastating…

  “It’s fine, I understand,” Paress said. “I believe you.” And he did. Because he realized that in the war between the Behlens, each thought they were doing the right thing and who actually was right came down largely to perspective. The fact was that Paress was hitched to Jeddeg Behlen’s star for better or worse, so he’d have to hope that his chosen ended up being more right than wrong. That said, he’d never forget what Leah told him and he’d take her words to heart and always keep them in mind.

  Jil looked immensely relieved. “Thanks for trusting me. I promise that you guys are everything to the Doctor. You’re all he talks about when he’s not talking about #25— which to be fair isn’t very often— but for him, that’s still a lot.”

  She looked at Casten, “And where did you pull that thing out of your ass about me loving the Doctor?”

  “I dunno. Maybe like you just said: out of my ass…” Casten said innocently.

  “Don’t be cute. You know what I mean.”

  “Well, me and Paress have been talking about all the different stories and TV shows out there about going to private school or college or whatever and how our lives might end up following one of those plot lines. It’s gotten kinda close here and there…”