by Joseph Pryce
Churchill bowed once more. “As you wish, my rajah”. The small Volgag left the room as silently as he appeared.
Jarawa tossed Khon a curious glance. “I could never understand just why you insist on using the Roxides as your household servants instead of droids or cyborgs”.
“It is because the internal systems of droids and cyborgs are susceptible to cyber-attacks and can reprogrammed as surveillance devices. I cannot allow anyone to hear nor see what I am doing when I visit the estate”, he explained simply.
“How can the Roxides be trusted not to speak of your secrets?”
Churchill appeared once more at the bedroom door, this time bearing a crystal flask filled with red wine.
“Permission to enter, sire?”
Khon casually waved in Churchill and turned to Jarawa with an evil grin. “If any of my house servants were ever foolish enough to speak of anything to anyone about the affairs of my house. They know that I would surgically remove their tongues. Is that not right, Churchill?”
Churchill nodded in agreement as he poured Khon more wine. “It is as you say, Rajah Khon. Is there anything else that I can fetch for you?”
“That is all for now. Leave the wine and go”.
“Very good, sire”, Churchill bowed and left the room.
Jarawa took Khon’s goblet from him and sipped some of the wine. “And what about me, Rajah Khon?” She asked him friskily.
Khon took the goblet back from her and drained it. He poured some more from the crystal flask. “What about you?”
“Can I be trusted to keep your secrets?”
Khon’s right hand jumped out and wrapped itself around the vizier’s neck. “Are you threatening me, Grand Vizier?” He asked with menace as he squeezed her hard.
Jarawa’s eyes suddenly transformed into two white hot burning points of light. Khon jumped out of the bed scared for his life.
“What the bloody hell?!” He yelped.
Jarawa’s pupils snapped back to their original deep brown colour and she fixed him with a stony glare. “Be careful when laying your hands on my person, Khon. Be very careful”, she warned him coolly.
“What are you exactly, Jarawa?! You viziers are neither human nor humoid. Droid nor cyborg”, he pointed out to her now more curious than afraid.
“The Vizier Order were conceived. Not born from a womb like yourself or created in a laboratory like the Humoids”.
Khon raised his eyebrows in a quizzical fashion. “You were conceived?” He asked with scepticism. “What do you mean by that? Are you a goddess? I have researched the memory banks of The Black Mind Collective for years and I still cannot ascertain origin of The Order of Viziers”.
Jarawa picked up a silk black robe from the carpeted floor and slipped it over her supple brown body. “Some questions are best left unanswered, Rajah Khon. Our history predates even that of the mighty Black Mind Collective”.
Khon stepped into the opulent glass enclosed shower chamber that spanned the length of the bedroom. The moment he closed the door, the built in sensors detected his presence, determined the amount of bacteria on his body and used its ultrasonic waves to clean his body in mere seconds. He opened the door and pulled out a pair of black underpants from a linen cabinet and put them on.
“The foolish Collective left our planet in a serious bind”, he flatly informed Jarawa.
Jarawa plucked another snapapple from the fruit bowl and took a bite. “What has your research discovered?”
Khon turned toward the bedroom door and bellowed, “Churchill!”
The diminutive butler appeared at the bedroom entrance in an instant. “Yes, sire?”
“Send in Lydia and Doxanne. I wish to walk the estate grounds and I need to be dressed”, Khon told him.
“As you say, my lord”, Churchill spirited away.
Khon returned his attention back to the vizier.
“I am surprised that you and the rest of your high minded order could not figure out by yourselves what is happening”.
“And what exactly is happening, Khon?”
“The planet is dying”.
“What do you mean that the planet is dying?”
Khon shook his head disdainfully at Jarawa. “You really have no idea just how bloody large this world is, do you? The planet’s radius is nineteen thousand one hundred and thirteen kilometres, which is three times larger than First World. Instead of the seven continents that our original home world had, we only have four here but they are double in size. First World had five oceans, we only have one here but the Indigo Ocean could easily swallow them all. Even the moon in this system is twice the size of First World’s moon. How the Volgags survived so long on this planet before we terraformed it, still remains a mystery to this day. But the terraforming generators and weather control machines that the Black Mind Collective had buried in the crust of this world are thousands of years old now. They are breaking down like all machines eventually do”.
Khon is a born liar. Jarawa thought to herself. But there is no lying in his eyes this time. He is definitely telling the truth here. “So the reason for the recent rash of planet quakes?”
“Is the planet reclaiming its true nature”, Khon answered grimly. “Once the generators completely cease to operate this world will tear itself to pieces. Too much stress has already been put on the fabric of the planet for far too long. It cannot be saved”.
“You are quite certain of this?”
Khon poured some more wine and took a healthy sip before answering. “One hundred percent certain”.
“The Collective took the technology to repair the generators and weather machines with them when they left?” She asked this already knowing the answer.
“The fools! The closest habitable world is three hundred million light years away! Just what the bloody hell were they thinking?”
“We must accelerate our plans, Khon. We have no idea how much time this planet has”, Jarawa cautioned.
Lydia and Doxanne, two female valets knocked reverently on the bedroom door. Their purple uniforms matched the colour of their eyes. “How may we serve you, Rajah Khon?” They both asked with a polite bow.
Khon pointed at the large ebon-wood bureau at the end of the bedroom. “Fetch my slacks and riding boots. The Grand Vizier and I plan to take the horses out this afternoon”. He glanced at Jarawa and said matter-of-factly. “We must locate the Heartstone Gem. It is the only device capable of making Trans-Dimensional Transporter operable once again”.
Doxanne and Lydia scurry over to Khon carrying a pair of black slacks and a bright blue riding jacket that had the Blakstorme family crest emblazoned on its back.
“Will this do, sire?” Lydia asked meekly.
Khon motioned at Jarawa with his head. “Dress the vizier first. I wish to watch”.
“I thought that the Heartstone was legend, not real”, Jarawa replied.
“It is real. An ancient talisman that is more magic than science. its origin and the source from where it gets it’s near limitless power from have been lost to the annals of myth unfortunately”.
Jarawa grinned lustily. She knew that Khon liked to watch her get dressed and undressed. It arouses him to no end. I do not think we will be leaving the bedroom this afternoon.
Doxanne carefully helped Jarawa out of her robe while Lydia led her into the shower.
Khon sat down on the bed and poured himself some more wine. “The two of you get in there with her. Use water and soap on her. I want to make sure that she is as clean as possible”, he briskly ordered the valets.
“Yes, sire”, the two Volgags replied without hesitation and stripped off their uniforms and climbed into the shower chamber with Jarawa.
Khon watched hungrily as Doxanne and Lydia lathered up Jarawa’s body with soap, the warm water streaming down from the shower jets soaking the three of them. He felt his manhood swelling.
Why does this woman excite me so?
He stood up from the bed and climbed into the s
hower with the three women. He pulled Jarawa close and kissed her hard on the lips, ignoring Doxanne and Lydia.
“Once the people that I hired find the Heartstone. You and I will plan the assassination of my sister. After-which, we will use the Transporter to take us to our new world and leave this accursed planet to its inevitable doom. We will have an entire world for just the two of us to rule. I will be your king and you will be my queen. How does that sound, my precious?”
“That sounds absolutely marvellous”, came Jarawa’s reply as she pushed her tongue further into her lover’s mouth.
SLUM VILLAGE
TRANE MUDD
Trane sat at the bar in the Negril Tavern watching Heiro at a nearby table engaged in a game of Death Cards with a group of unsavoury looking characters. The object of the card game was to bet on the value of the hands dealt to them. A player wins the pool of credit chips, by having his combination of card characters beat his opponents’ characters in a showdown or forces all opponents to concede without a showing of the hand. Sometimes by means of a bluff.
Heiro held two of the red and white shaded playing cards in his hands. On one card was holographic image of a three-headed half-man, half-white bull figure, with a thick black ring through its nose and beady yellow eyes. The bull stood upright holding onto a dangerous looking battle-axe. The other playing card had a scaly green half-octopus, half-female character on it, gripping eight steel longswords in each of its wiry tentacles. A Chrine named Viper Rex, his bright orange hair shaved off one side of his head, sat next to Heiro snarling angrily in disgust at the five playing cards in his hands. His characters were two effeminate looking colourful mermen smiling prettily up at him holding onto purple tridents. The other three playing cards looked slightly more promising as they contained writhing venomous orange fanged cobras on them. At the other end of the table directly across from Heiro was Massinissa, a very large muscular man with a thick bushy black beard, cornrowed style hair style and bulging biceps that threatened to rip through the sleeves of his tight black and white tunic. Massinissa had an ugly jagged blaster scar that ran across his entire right cheek.
“It’s your play, Massinissa”, the dealer gestured at the big man with her large smoking gasper. She was a tall wiry older woman with a bleached blonde mohawk and dark square shaped sunglasses that covered her eyes.
“Stop bleeding rushing me, Kahina!” He rumbled in reply. “I’m still studying my cards!”
Heiro shot Massinissa a nasty look. It was obvious from the look that he had no love for this man. “You have been studying the damn cards for a bloody decade now. Play your damn hand”, he snapped.
“I will play my hand when I’m blodclot ready to play my hand!” Massinissa snapped back to Heiro.
A busty half-Roxide woman with numerous intricate tattoos covering her skin and a purple afro, dressed in a black leather outfit that had silver buckle straps covering her bare breasts, moved her chair a few inches away from Massinissa. She was in the tavern the last time the two men caught up in a fight and almost lost an eye in the melee.
“Play or hold, Mass”, Kahina told him impatiently as she puffed on her gasper. As the game’s dealer it was her job to keep the gambler’s momentum going.
“Sod it!” Massinissa grunted. He slapped one of his playing cards on the table and a holographic fearsome red bat like creature holding a wooden club with metal spikes sprang forth. The bat creature stood firm in the middle of the table and roared a challenge.
Kahina turned to Heiro and said, “Your play, Heiro”.
Heiro decided to play his half-man, half-bull card. He threw down his card and the Minotaur type figure jumped out of the playing card and immediately returned a challenge roar to Massinissa’s bat creature.
“Fight!” Kahina shouted at the two holo-figures.
Massinissa’s opponent attacked first with a mighty swing of its club that Heiro’s combatant was barely able to deflect with its axe. The bull snorted out some breath in anger and swung its axe at the bat creature which easily avoided the blow by flying over the Minotaur’s heads and driving its spiked club into its back. This staggered the bull and it fell to its knees wailing in pain.
Massinissa laughed in Heiro’s face. “Looks like I won this hand, Heiro”.
Heiro said nothing in reply as he slapped his other card bearing the octopus-woman. The holo-figure jumped forth from the card and it immediately attacked Massinissa’s bat-creature with its swords. The creature attempted valiantly at first to ward off the octopus’s swords with its club but in the end eight sharp swords bested one big club and the octopus sliced the bat to bloody shreds.
Kahina rapped on the table top with her knuckles. “Heiro wins the hand”, she pushed the big pile of colourful pyramid shaped credit chips over to the gloating Heiro.
“Sod you”, Massinissa grumbled to Heiro.
“Just face it, Mass. I am a much better card player than you will ever be”, Heiro chuckled.
“You’re just blodclot lucky is all!”
“Lucky at cards and love. Seems I am doubly blessed, eh?”
Massinissa threw a vicious look at Heiro for that last comment. Something about it touched a nerve.
Viper Rex slapped one of the cards he held that contained an orange cobra down on to the table. “I challenge!” He said boldly.
Kahina glanced questioningly at Heiro to see if he would accept the challenge or instead leave the table with his winnings.
Heiro nodded to Kahina. “I accept the challenge”.
Kahina replied. “Your play, Viper”.
The Chrine laid the two merman cards down on the table but held onto his last two cobra cards. Heiro’s octopus-woman immediately pounced on the two fish-men with her swords who did their best to deflect her blows with their flashing tridents. Meanwhile the cobra stealthily made its way to octopus-woman’s rear and bit into it deeply with its venomous fangs. The octopus creature squealed in pain and staggered but not before slicing apart the colourful mermen to a bleeding mess. The cobra stung the octopus again and again until it finally collapsed onto the table and died from poisoning.
Massinissa guffawed wickedly at Heiro. “Guess you ain’t as lucky at cards as you throught you were!”
“Wellll, I am still lucky at love”, Heiro replied evenly. “Too bad you can’t say the same, eh?”
The bubble of coiled tension finally popped between the two men. Massinissa exploded out of his chair and jumped across the table at Heiro. The force of his momentum bowled him over backwards onto the floor.
“She was my woman!” My woman!” Massinissa shouted whilst throttling the younger Heiro with his meaty hands.
Heiro was on the verge of losing consciousness. His eyes bulged from their sockets as he clawed desperately at the bigger man’s face with his fingernails.
Trane and Viper both jumped onto Massinissa’s back in an attempt to pry him away from the gasping Heiro but the big man easily shrugged the two men off his back and returned to throttling Heiro.
Kahina had enough of the foolishness. Massinissa and Heiro had still not reimbursed her for the damage they had caused to the tavern during their last fight. She quickly snatched up a black sawed-off Pulse Rifle from underneath the gambler’s table and fired two shots at the combatants. The rifle’s white pulse beams instantly immobilized the two men in their tracks making it impossible for them to move a muscle.
Viper turned to Trane in exasperation. “What is between these two?!”
Trane pushed himself up from the tavern floor and dusted off his black leather pants. “Yamila…..she belonged to Massinissa before Heiro came along….” Viper nodded in understanding and replied simply with an, “I see”.
Trance glanced at Heiro’s inert form lying rock still as if frozen in time, his hands still clawed at Massinissa’s face. The pulse ray from Kahina’s rifle instantly ceased all neurological and biological functions of its target and although they remained conscious, they are unable to move nor speak.
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He is going to have one devil of a headache when she releases him. Trane thought to himself. The after effect of being hit by a pulse ray are actually worse than being hit by a pulse ray.
Trane and Viper lifted Massinissa’s motionless body away from Heiro. Then they picked up Heiro and sat him upright in his chair at the table.
Viper and the tattooed woman dragged Massinissa’s large frame over to the bar and sat him down on a stool.
Trane glanced over at Kahina. “Go ahead and release them now, Kahina”.
Kahina gave Heiro and Massinissa’s immobile forms a skeptical look. “Are you sure, Trane? The last time these two bastards fought they destroyed half my damn tavern!”