by Joseph Pryce
So that is why he had sent for me. Djimon surmised.
“As head of Ocean Imperial’s Diplomatic Council. May I suggest prudence in this situation? At least until we gather more facts regarding Pharaoh Kane’s death?” He cautiously asked. But again he already knew what Khon’s response would be.
“As head of the council, I expect you to do what I say”, Khon replied with insolence as he swilled more champagne, some of it missed his mouth entirely and dribbled onto his crushed velvet surcoat. “Bloody hell!” He cursed. “Besides that Djimon, I have been in contact with Admiral Mazeem about this matter already. We both know that the Military Assembly’s rule supersede’s the Diplomatic Council”.
As I did not already know that you little shite! Djimon stood up, eager to get away from his brother-in-law’s presence. “Is there anything else that you needed, Khon? The dana is expecting me”.
Khon used the magnetic fasteners to close his surcoat over his large belly.
“There is something I would like to discuss further with you. My sister will have to wait”, he glanced at his office door. “Edic!”
The door slid open and the humoid poked his head inside of the office. “Yes, my lord? How may I serve you?” He asked.
“I want you and Edit to escort the royal consort and I to the kennels”, Khon commanded.
“I will ready your skimmer, my lord”, Edic replied and left straight away.
Outside of Khons’ quarters was a fabulous circulur glass enclosed terrace that housed his opulent collection of custom made Air Skimmers.
***
Edic and Edit stand patiently by a long skimmer that resembled one of the fearsome Black Sharks that roamed the Indigo Ocean, the massive body of water that surrounded Ocean Imperial. The two humiods held open the passenger doors to allow Djimon and Khon to enter the passenger section of the skimmer. It resembled a transparent egg and was perched on the vehicle’s roof.Edit expertly piloted Khon’s skimmer upwards from the lip of the terrace into the bright blue skies.
Khon leaned back into the plush leather lounger and toggled the power button on the skimmer’s sleek beverage council. The spherical smoky quartz device efficiently used some of the surrounding air molecule and transmuted them in a flash of bright blue light into a stemming mug of black coffee. Although the mechanism had to use an incredible amount of fission energy to achieve the end result, the process was instantaneous. Khon gratefully sipped the coffee and gratefully exhaled, “Thank the Creator for coffee! It was best thing that our ancestors ever created!”
Djimon was about to remind the rajah that it was the ancestors of Sandstorme, which actually created coffee but was interrupted by an incoming signal on his com-link. The communication device had been surgically implanted within his cerebral cortex so that he and Serenah could “speak” telepathically and thus keeping their conversations private and secure.
“How are you, my love?” Rana Serenah Maya Blakstorme asked her husband.
“I am fine, my brown sugar”, Djimon replied happily using the pet name that he had been calling her since before they were even wed. In his mind’s eye he could actually “see” Serenah. She was a ravishing young woman with dark brown skin just twenty and five years old and even with her face dripping with perspiration from her exercise routine it still radiated splendid beauty. Her deep brown eyes fixed their attention on her husband. Her mass of black kinky hair was tied back into two afro puffs that sat on each side of her head like black honey buns.
I love this woman so much. He thought happily to himself.
“Where are you, Djimon? I was informed that you were on your way to see me? He “heard” her ask him.
“I am with your brother. Apparently there is something that he needs to show me at the kennels”, Djimon advised her.
Serenah arched an eyebrow. “The kennels? What is my brother up to now?”
Serenah “saw” Djimon smile at her and she smiled back. They both knew how unscrupulous Khon could be and that he never to be fully trusted.
“When I learn more, I will be sure to link you back, my love”, he reassured her.
“Make sure you do, my husband. I am sure by now that you are aware Pharaoh Kane had been assassinated. So whatever Khon has planned will involve getting you to try and convince me, that Ocean Imperial should immediately march on Sandstorme”.
Djimon tossed his wife a mirthful wink. “You know your brother too well”, he answered.
“Unfortunately that is the truth. I love you. Be safe”, Serenah cautioned Djimon and then broke the connection.
Back in the Sovereign Castle’s athletic hall, the ruler of Ocean Imperial picked up a fluffy white towel from the towel rack and dabbed the sweat from her forehead and firm back. She had finished a gruelling sparring session with Juliana her fight instructor, a tall formidable looking humoid with long kinky silver hair that fell down her back like twined rope and rock hard abdominal muscles that were slick with perspiration.
What is my brother up to? Serenah thought to herself with concern. He can be such a snake sometimes.
“Is everything alright, your majesty?” Juliana asked her with concern. She set down her black plasti-steel battle stave and joined the rana at the towel rack.
Serenah turned to Juliana and smiled. Even the empire’s ruler wanted somebody to be concerned about them from time to time. “Everything is good, Juliana. I was checking on my husband”. She loved Djimon with all of her heart. Their time together had been brief as their marriage had only been three years old but he was the most supportive loving mate that she could ever ask for. After she had miscarried their second child, Djimon stood by her side for days and kissed all of her tears away.
“I trust the royal consort is well then?” She heard Juliana ask her.
Serenah nodded. “He is. Let us finish the session”.
“Yes, your majesty”, the humoid replied faithfully.
Serenah picked up her battle stave and Juliana did the same. While the humoid’s weapon was a plain with no markings on it. The rana’s once belonged to her father Ramesis, the former ruler of the empire. It was of an elaborate design made from ebon-glass, its blue-edged double sided blade had dozens of hieroglyphics hand printed into it in the ancient language of the First World. Down the side of the stave printed in glowing laser-type were words of the Ocean Imperial Empire; “What goes in the water stays in the water”.
“Attack me, your majesty. With all of your might”, Juliana told Serenah.
Serenah always felt slightly silly fighting in what essentially were a pair of black panties and bra but Juliana had always insisted on it. There should be nothing distracting you from battle, your majesty. The loyal humoid often warned her. You must remain fully engaged in the moment at all times whether you or clothed, tired or hungry, hurt of bleeding.
Juliana forcefully thrust her stave at Serenah’s chest, the blade almost slashing across the right shoulder. She had twice the speed and strength of a normal human, so Serenah had to very extremely quick and careful during the sparring sessions.
The rana of Ocean Imperial gracefully spun to her right which brought her within reach of Juliana and slashed at her feet. The humoid jumped upwards to avoid the strike and the blades of Serenah’s stave scrapped the metal floor of the hall causing sparks to fly. It was Serenah’s idea that the two of them use real stave opposed to practice weapons. She was always wanted the spectre death to feel imminent during her workout routine. It was important to her to never ever feel comfortable on the throne, to always keep an edge of the unknown about her. This was something that drove the members of her royal cabinet mad with hand wringing. The last thing that they wanted was to have their leader being slain during a sparring season with her humiod instructor.
“You must concentrate on the moment, your majesty”, Juliana admonished Serenah as she expertly flipped over her stave and struck the rana in the stomach with its handle before she block the blow.
The force of Juliana’s strike
temporarily stunned Serenah but she managed to recover just in time to fend off the next strike that was aimed at her head. She flipped backwards to create some distance between her and Juliana but lost her balance. The humoid saw her opening and charged at Serenah swinging the battle stave in her hands.
I must time this perfectly or her blades will slice me open! Because of Juliana’s enhanced speed, Serenah only had a mere split second to act. She stepped to her left to avoid Juliana’s charge but the edge of her stave still managed to graze her back leaving a nasty bloody cut. Serenah skillfully swung her battle stave over her right shoulder directly at Juliana as she passed by and sliced off her right hand.
“Juliana!” Serenah shouted in fear as she threw down her battle stave and rushed over to where Juliana had stopped. The humoid was down on one knee grasping her damaged appendage as a stream of blue blood spurted out onto the floor.
“That was a spectacular counter-strike, your majesty”, Juliana complimented barely acknowledging her wound. “I apologize for getting blood on your floor”.
Serenah snatched a towel from the rack and gingerly wrapped it around Juliana’s stump. “Do not be silly, Juliana. The custodian-droid will clean this up. Are you in any pain?”
“My virtual receptors transmits signals of pain to my central cortex but the levels can be controlled”, Juliana replied logically. “We humoids feel the same as you humans but the perception is different because our daily actions must be recorded in total clarity”.
The resilient and loyal humoid had been Serenah’s constant companion since she was infant. Like all humoids, Juliana aged incredibly slower than humans, she was already ten and three years old when Serenah’s father gave Juliana to her as a baby. Now that the rana was twenty and three, that would make the humoid thirty and six in human years but she looked to be the same age as Serenah.
I do not know what I do without her….Nor do I ever want to found out.
Serenah glanced down worriedly at Juliana’s stump once more. “How long will take the Zimbabwe Laboratory to repair your injury?”
Juliana saw the concern in Serenah’s eyes and smiled measuredly at her. “There is no need for you, Serenah. I will have a new hand re-created for me by mid-day. What we should be concerned with is that open wound on across you back. I must summon the medi-droid for you”.
CITY OF LAKERIDGE
Lakeridge was an industrial city and Ocean Imperial largest next to the capital itself. It emerged as a significant metropolitan region within the empire as construction of a regional transoceanic skyway system was completed two centuries ago, this massive structure tied together all the major cities in Ocean Imperial. Lakeridge sat directly in the middle of the Indigo Ocean and was home to the planet’s largest concentration camp, informally known as “The Kennels”.
The Kennels was the largest penitentiary in the empire and was essentially a concentration camp to hold all of the Roxide tribe member war prisoners captured by The Ocean Imperial United Warforce. The official name for the prison was The Lakeside Blue Water Military Prison. It had the highest watchtowers on the planet and was located on a humongous mountain range that jutted up from the floor of the Indigo Ocean and rose three thousand feet above sea level. Dozens of deep and desolate valleys awaited those who were fortunate or unfortunate depending on perception who managed to escape the maximum security facility.
THE LAKESIDE BLUE WATER MILITARY PRISON
Edic and Edit expertly piloted Khon’s skimmer onto the landing tarmac just outside of the prison gates. The prison warden, a grim looking man named, Akite Mumlak and the deputy warden, a stout broad shouldered, mean faced woman named Didi Ironbar stood stoically on the landing pad waiting to greet the ruler of the empire’s brother.
“Greetings Rajah Blakstorme”, Warden Mumlak bowed obediently as did Didi. “It was good to see again so soon after your last visit”.
“Greeting, Warden Mumlak”, Khon replied in a curt businesslike fashion. “The Royal Consort and I wish a tour of the new facility”.
“Of course, my rajah”, Mumlak replied compliantly. “This way, please”.
Mumlak and Ironbar lead Khon, Djimon, Edic and Edit from the tarmac into a solid steel fray lift that swiftly slid open its door upon sensing their approach.
The lift descended several levels before silently grinding to a hot in the maximum security wing. The wing in the shape of cavernous rectangle, with four floors on each side lined with prison cells. The prisoners contained in those cells were kept at bay by glowing white force shields that delivered an extremely painful and at times lethal jolt of electrical energy to anybody that came into contact with the shield. The rajah and Mumlak walked at a somewhat brisk pace ahead of Deputy Warden Ironbar and Djimon. Edic and Edit brought up the rear.
Ironbar glanced dat Djimon. “Is this your first visit to the kennels, my lord?” She asked politely. She was slightly awed to be speaking to the queen’s older but still handsome husband. She had cultivated a tiny crush on him since watching the broadcast of the royal wedding years ago but successfully managed to hide her abashment beneath a professional demeanour.
“Yes, deputy warden”, Djimon informed her. He glanced about the prison taking in the angry sullen white faces of the imprisoned Volgags. Some of the Roxides stood in their cells glaring at him while some of the others sat on the cell floor staring hatefully into the empty air.
From what I know about this place. They are over five hundred inmates housed here in the maximum security wing. All dangerous and all considered a serious threat to the empire’s national security. Djimon thought grimly to himself.
“Sometimes I wonder if holding these terrorists and criminals here on our soil is such a good idea”, he mused to Ironbar.
“Have no fear, my lord. The Lakeside Blue Water Military Prison is the most sophisticated and secure prison in the world. In all the years of its operation, there have been absolutely zero escapes. Once a resident is incarcerated here, it is impossible for him to leave unless he is released”.
Khon and Mumlak waited for the rest by a gigantic and intimidating set of grey iron doors that stood at the very end of the wing. Two nine foot black armoured four armed cyborg prison guards stood firmly at the doors gripping deadly looking assault blasters in their hands.
“Open the doors, Sentry Ten”, Mumlak ordered the first cyborg.
“Yes, Warden Mumlak!” The cyborg answered instantly and placed his four hands a top of the massive six foot door handles and with the assistance of Sentry Eleven, heaved the mighty security doors open. The doors were over twenty feet high and weighed fifty metrics tons, they never could be opened by a normal human.
Khon glanced over his shoulder at Djimon with the smuggest of grins. “Welcome to my laboratory, brother-in-law”.
The humongous doors slammed shut behind Djimon, Ironbar, Edit and Edit. Djim jumped back slightly in fear of the loud clanging sound the massive doors made. He looked around and could not believe his eyes, the space that they were all standing in was gargantuan in every direction. The ceiling rose higher than Djimon’s eyes could make out. It was a state of the art laboratory equipped with thousands of glass cells filled with orange elemental-cloning fluid.
“By the Creator!” Djimon exclaimed in amazement.
“Impressive is it not?” Khon sneered. “It took my engineers three months to carve out this space inside of the mountain. Three long months and hundreds of millions of my family fortune. What do you think of it, Djimon?”
Djimon honestly did not what to think as looked around once more. There was dozens of large hi-tech industrial cloning vats lined up against the laboratory walls. In the middle of the space were four large computer control towers that were responsible for controlling every single operation of the lab. Two young male scientists and two young female scientists dressed in sterile white bio-suits manned the control towers and all bowed when they saw Khon approaching.
“Rajah Khon”, the lead scientist greeted him. He
was a long lean limbed man with nervous facial tic and patchy thin moustache. “We were not expecting you until tomorrow”.
Khon craned his neck and peered upwards at the many cloning cells that lined all of the laboratory walls. “Change of plans, Dr. Deltar. I wanted to give the queen’s husband a tour of this facility”.
“Of core, your richness.We would be honoured to show the royal consort your great laboratory. Please don a bio-suit and follow us”, Deltar asked graciously.
Five minutes later Dr. Deltar was leading Khon, Djimon, Mumlak and Ironbar throughout the stainless steel corridors of the colossal facility. The four of them were all wearing bio-suits like Deltar.
“Take us to the Cloning Completion Room, doctor”, Khon commanded.
“Yes, your richness”, the young scientist replied.
Deltar turned right at the next junction in the corridors which brought the lot of them to the entrance of a brightly lit anteroom that lead to the Cloning Completion Room. The doctor glanced hesitatingly at Khon. “Are you quite certain, your richness? That Lord Blackwood….?”