The guard stepped aside and signaled them in. At a desk toward the back of the room sat High Seer Malraff, casually reading a computer screen. Without looking up, she waved off the guards.
“Come, sit, my precious ones,” she said, still reading.
Reluctantly, they complied. Both were understandably nervous and not happy to see the bitch.
“I’ll bet you didn’t expect to see me again, did you?” she said matter of factly.
Neither teen answered.
“Oh, come now. Don’t hold a grudge. I was simply doing my sworn duty.”
Again, no response.
“Fine then. I’ll do all the talking. I’m here at His Imperial Lord’s specific request. He heard how well we three get along and how much you both trust me.”
They turned and looked at each other incredulously. Mirraya shrugged.
“Well, since His Imperial Lord has only your best interest in his mind and in his heart, he asked me to come aid you in your adjustment.”
That was too much for Mirri. “Our adjustment to what?”
“To what, my naive child? To your new lives as courtiers.”
“You, bitch, are insane?” replied Mirraya.
“Is that how we friends talk? If you two play along, I might help you.”
The kids shared a confused glance.
“Yes. You see, I’ve never been to court. I’ve seen His Imperial Lord give speeches like any loyal subject, but this is the closest I’ve ever come to meeting him. That is important for my career. It will be even more important if all goes well, if you catch my meaning.”
“We scratch your back, and you scratch ours,” replied Mirraya.
“Why yes, child. What a wonderful saying. That sums it up. You and I appear to be friendly, I get promoted, and you don’t get tortured.” She angled her head. “Well, not too much.”
“There’s just one snag. We hate you immensely,” responded Mirri.
“As I hate you. You are sniveling alien runts who deserve nothing better than the rest of your worthless species received. I speak from personal experience. I was stationed on Triumph of Might before her untimely demise. I was on special assignment elsewhere when she met her fate. Believe me, I worked long hours aboard that ship. I was responsible for the disposition of nearly a quarter of the Deft.”
“Why would you tell us that?” hissed Mirraya. “I told you we hate you, and you proceed to give us ever so much more reason. Are you stupid or something?”
Malraff smiled confidently. “Not at all. I’m simply making it clear that I will have what I want. I want to please His Imperial Lord. You will help me. I am capable of cruelties your young minds cannot begin to comprehend. I am ready, willing, and anxious to use those tools to gain the slightest advantage. I wish you to make no mistake about your lack of options. You will play nice, or you will wish you’d never been born before I kill you.” Malraff smiled thinly. “You know if I were to have a headstone after I died, that's what I'd have written on it. I Made Them Wish They'd Never Been Born.”
“Anything I can do to speed that process along, please do let me know,” replied Mirri.
Malraff picked up a ledger and hurled it at Mirraya’s head. She was as quick as a cat.
Mirraya moved just enough so the book merely glanced her head.
“I thought you didn’t want the boss to see any marks on us,” sneered Mirraya.
“The boss will at all times be known as His Imperial Lord. To help you remember, as it is important for my success at court, I shall volunteer to help.”
Malraff stood and walked around her desk. She stopped to the left of Slapgren and nonchalantly stuffed her paw into a leather glove. Then she hauled back as far as she could and punched the boy in the throat. It was a ferocious blow.
Slapgren doubled up and clutched his windpipe. It was quickly apparent that he could not breathe. He stood halfway, bending forward as he tried to gasp.
“You see, child, I will not be denied what is due to me.”
“You … he’s going to die. You have to help him,” screamed Mirraya, pointing at the failing Slapgren.
“If you cooperate, I might not need to do that again. I would like to, mind you, but I can deny myself if it suits the greater good.”
Slapgren collapsed to his knees and his eyelids fluttered.
“Help—” Mirraya howled, but was cut off.
“Please sit down, Mirraya.” After speaking, Malraff rested a paw on one hip, watching for compliance.
Mirraya sat with a thud.
Malraff drew a small box from her pocket and pushed the central button.
“Tell him he can now transform,” she said to Mirraya. “I would, but I can’t afford to get blood on my uniform. One never knows when the boss might call.”
Mirraya grabbed Slapgren by both shoulders and shook his limp torso. “Change to body-neutral, Slapgren. Change to body-neutral.”
He continued to slump.
She shook him harder. “Change to body-neutral now, you lazy ass. You are not allowed to leave me here alone. I will not let you.” She slapped his cheek, though with little force.
That caught his attention. He forced his eyes closed and his neck morphed into a uniform mush. Then it reformed as his throat. He drew in a desperate breath. Heaving back and forth, he continued to pull in ragged breaths for two minutes. Slowly he calmed and rested back to sit on his heels.
“He nearly died,” Mirraya shouted point blank in Malraff’s muzzle.
“And I nearly cared. Both of you sit back down” She removed the small box again and pushed the button. “There. No more of your demonic tricks. Now listen and listen well. You will do exactly what I tell you to. If you so much as blink without my permission, the boy dies. Is that totally clear? Would either of you like me to repeat myself? I, by the way, hate to repeat myself. It makes me crazy.”
Neither teen spoke.
“Good. Now leave me. The guards will be outside to show you to your prison without bars. Know that we will talk again soon. Know also that if you breathe one word to anyone of what I do or say to either of you, tragic yet inexplicable accidents will befall you. Do you remember Folpitor, the officer who dared interrupt me when I began slicing you up, child? He had a tragic and inexplicable accident not two days later. Poor fellow wandered into the smelting unit and melted the top of his head off. No one can imagine why he even went there.” Malraff flopped into her chair and began reading the screen again, completely oblivious to the teens.
TWENTY-ONE
I planned to visit with Sapale the next day without the weighty presence of Caryp. Sapale answered the door herself, with a very put-out looking Fentort standing just behind her.
“Let’s walk,” she said, stepping out. She had clearly readied herself for an outing based on her dress. The day was brisk. She had on a coat when she came to the door.
“Sure. Walks are good.”
It took a second, but then it hit me. She was an android now. Why bother with a coat? Then I remembered who I was thinking about. Sapale. You could take the girl out of the body, but you couldn’t take the girl out of the android. She was a fashionista forever.
It wasn’t until halfway down the block that she spoke again. “Old Caryp’d drill holes in the wall to try and listen in. Even now, I wouldn’t put it past her to be running through the bushes with one ear cocked in our direction.”
“Old Caryp? Ah, sweetheart, you got a lot of years on her. A lot of geological epochs.”
She stopped and turned to me. “That brings up two quick ground rules. One, I’m not your sweetheart. Don’t misunderstand. We were in love, and I love you still. But I am EJ’s brood’s-mate now, if I’m anyone’s.” She looked away. “I think I’m just my own self now.” Back to me. “Ground rule two, no jokes about age. You know as well as I do we think of ourselves as thirty-year-olds, if that. I am young in here,” she tapped her head, “just like you are young in here.” She thumped my forehead with a knuckle.
&n
bsp; “Fine. Two I can live with, and one I can work on.”
She stared at me coolly, harshly. “You work on it if you want to. That’s your trip. It’s a fact here.” She patted where her heart would have been.
My hopes shattered, yet again.
She started walking slowly. “I want to tell you where I’m coming from, what I plan on doing with forever. You deserve a good explanation. That much I’ll own. Once I've laid out my position, you can do with it whatever you'd like.”
“That sounds harsh, kinda final.”
She stopped again. “Do me this one favor. I want to talk to the grown-up Jon Ryan, not the trickster, jet jockey, scoundrel one, okay?”
I dropped my shoulders. “Sure. No problem.”
She began slowly walking again. “After EJ and I left you way back when, we had some good times. Many, actually. We talked, dreamed, and planned for our abundant futures. We travelled. Man did we travel. He showed me other galaxies, other universes. It was magical.
“The fact that I was a recording in an AI housed in a metal box didn’t really seem to matter to either of us. Not for the longest time. Then, I guess at least I was naive enough not to see coming, it began to matter. Little things, at first. Some mornings he’d ask if I wanted coffee. Then he’d catch his faux pas and we’d pretend to laugh about it. He’d ask if I wanted to go somewhere with him. Gradually, we both began to realize that he really was really asking if he had to lug the damn metal box with him just to go to the resupply store for a pound of butter.
“That took, oh I don’t know, a few thousand years maybe. A few thousand more, and we basically stopped talking. You can guess who did better with that scenario. The one locked in electronic circuitry or the one who could actually go to get supplies. He spent more and more time away while I slowly began to go crazy. I don’t mean crazy like I was crazy with you when you were an ass, a jerk, or moronic. I mean psychologically-deranged crazy. I became claustrophobic.”
She laughed a bitter, humorless laugh.
“Can you imagine that? A noncorporeal series of code in a fancy toaster getting claustrophobic?”
She looked away as we continued to walk.
“I wasn’t nearly as tough as I thought I was.”
“Look, I …” I started to say.
She held up an ah-ha finger. That shut me up. “I am the one talking. This is not a discussion. I am not seeking assistance or absolution. I’m relating. Got it, champ?”
My silence certified that I did. Poor, poor Sapale. What she went though. It broke my heart.
“In one of our rare conversations, I asked EJ to turn me off, to throw me into a stellar core. You know what he did? He laughed.”
I whistled loudly.
“Yeah. Mr. Insensitive 20,002. That’s when I clammed up completely. He tried to engage me in conversation, but I refused to speak. I was too angry, too hurt. I also, for the record, began to suspect he was spying on me for the Federation of Sand Flea Refugees, hidden in their base on Pismo Beach.”
I couldn’t help it. I blew a grunt out my nose.
She smiled. “Yeah, remember Pismo Beach? I sure as hell don’t because it was sucked up by Jupiter before I could see it. But you used to tell me about how your old man always said he’d take the family there on vacation to clam but never did? Somehow that pierced my insanity and was incorporated into my delusions. Thanks for contributing.”
I started to respond, but recalled the adult-Jon pledge.
“That was when EJ located Toño. It wasn’t hard, finding him. Getting up the nerve to speak to him took some time. But, eventually EJ asked Toño to make me a Kaljaxian android. Toño, who didn’t know what a state I was in, hesitated at first. He told EJ that if I wanted an android host, I should ask personally. That pissed EJ off, big time. He threatened Toño, he vanished all the furniture in the room they were talking in, and he promised to make Toño regret his decision.
“But Toño stuck to his guns. He said if I didn’t ask, he wouldn’t do it. If I asked, he’d devote his life to making it happen.”
She shook her head, reflecting on something.
“So, ten years of harassing, pleading, and begging later, EJ brought me to the point where I could ask for the new body. I had just enough sanity to know I needed out. And good old Dr. DeJesus kept his promise. It took him three years of all-out effort, but you see before you the results.
“EJ never mentioned how nuts I’d become. He knew Toño might not transfer me if he did. At first, after the download, I was one hot mess. Now that I could fight back against my numerous demons, I did. EJ worked night and day to help me.”
She looked me up and down.
“When he set his mind to a task, he was as stubborn as you. Eventually, I settled down, became half normal. That’s when EJ took me away again. I wanted to visit Azsuram, Kaljax, catch up with my kin. He forbade it. He said they were all dead and that we were all each other had. I was still out of it enough to buy in to his lies. So, away we went. More adventures, more travel. Only now it was joyless and burdensome. That’s when he started fighting.”
“With you?” I asked.
“No, well yes, we argued all the time. But no, he started fighting in every war, skirmish, or civil war he could locate. He fought and he killed and he destroyed. He did it with a vengeance I couldn’t believe. He was trying to exorcise his demons, me being chief among them. And he changed a long time ago. He stopped being human. He stopped being Jon. He became EJ.
“I tried to leave. He wouldn’t let me. I escaped. He ran me down. I hid. He found me. I fought back. He crushed my efforts.”
She looked at me so sadly.
“I hated him, and he knew it, but he couldn’t stop the cruelty. He couldn’t live with me, and he couldn’t live without me. You know what he told me one day?”
I shook my head.
“'Sapale,’ he said, 'I could exist without you, but I couldn’t live without you.’ Then you know what he did? I’ll tell you. He kept on fighting anyone he could and he continued to hold me prisoner.”
“But, you were together on Azsuram. You were working together. How'd that happen if you hated him so much?”
“We both got very lucky. About three thousand years ago, we ran into our first Adamant.”
“Finding the Adamant was lucky?”
“Yes. It gave us a mutual goal. We both wanted similar things. I wanted to save Azsuram and Kaljax. He wanted to crush, kill, and destroy. We had a hobby in common.”
“Sounds like Brathos in a two-person life raft.”
“A very apt description. You can be eloquent when you’re not screwing around.”
“Maybe I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Whatever.”
She shoved her hands into her coat pockets.
“For the last few hundred years, the Adamant grew closer and closer to this region. No one could even slow their advance. Finally, it became clear Azsuram was next on their hit list. We went there a few years in advance and took control of organizing a resistance. At first, we were just strict and demanding. But people knew me, and they knew we were trying to save them, so they went along with the hardships.
“But then, what was it you used to say? Oh. Elvis left the building. EJ became more dictatorial. He got pushback. He annihilated the pushback. The inhumanity and sadistic way he did so got everybody’s full attention. Many rallied to his side. They called themselves Hamacil dol Keduranifate.”
“Both Hands of God,” I whispered to myself.
“Yeah. Fanatics. Between EJ’s magic, his war skills, and their insanity, he swept all resistance away. You were either with him to the death, or you were dead. I’ll just summarize. It wasn’t pretty. But, it was effective. When the Adamant hit, they were stunned. Azsuram held. It was horrific, the losses on both sides were staggering, but we held. We held.”
She walked a while without speaking.
“Then a few years back came the day when I couldn’t take it one moment lon
ger. I snapped, I guess. I went to EJ and said he was beyond redemption, the war for Azsuram wasn’t worth it. Genocide was preferable to what was happening. And I told him I was leaving. And I did. I came here. Here I shall remain until the Adamant come here. Then, with Davdiad’s help, I will die here defending my people.”
She sighed deeply.
“And then I will finally rest.”
“Wow,” I said, “that’s a story.”
She shrugged and kept pacing forward.
“So, you’re through with him? I mean, if he came here, you’d kick his ass if you saw it?”
“Don’t you get it? Haven’t you heard one word I’ve said, you pig?”
“No. I don’t mean this like I have a shot with you. Man, how could you go there? No, I meant you’re no longer loyal to him.”
“No. Not now.”
“That’s important for me to believe. I can’t trust you if you still have alliances with him.”
“You don’t need to trust me. All you need to do is leave and never come back.”
“Believe it or not, that’s fine with me. I have a job to do, and it’s not here. I came for information. Then I will be going.” I hesitated. “And I doubt I’ll need to come back.”
There. I saw it in Sapale’s eyes. Just a flash. Just for a microsecond. I saw fear. But she rapidly refocused and looked … dead to me.
“If it’s information you want, you can have all I've got. Not that it’ll do you a lick of good.”
“Why so pessimistic. That’s new for you.”
“No. It’s new for you. I’ve lived it for a very long time. You get that way when you’ve lived with EJ.”
“Sorry,” was the sum of all I could say in response.
TWENTY-TWO
“Al,” said Garustfulous conversationally, “I have a deal to propose to you. You and Blessing, of course.” His voice was that of an old friend offering to help you cut your lawn.
“A deal? What kind of deal?” replied Al.
“A good deal, my friend. A great deal in fact.”
“Let me guess. It’s one so good you’re foolish to offer it. But, for a limited time, you’re willing to sacrifice. Am I close?”
Flames: Galaxy On Fire, Book 2 Page 12