The Golden Viper

by Sean Robins

  All of a sudden, she pulled away. “Can I please ask you a question?”

  I had to open and close my mouth three times before the word “please” came out.

  She angled her body towards me, eyes smoldering with intensity. They looked much larger than a second ago. “Tell me about this other task force. Where are they? How many ships?”

  In a tiny earpiece deep inside my ear canal, I heard Tarq say, “The secret word.”

  “Twenty,” I answered.

  She looked surprised. “What, twenty thousand?”

  She gasped and her posture stiffened. I guessed she’d just realized she had made a deadly mistake.

  “No, but this gun has twenty bullets.” I pulled an M-25 handgun from under a cushion. “And I’ll empty every single one of them into your stomach if you don’t back the fuck up right now!”

  Hatred burned my soul like a dark, uncontrollable flame, and wrath came at its heels. There was a roaring in my ears, and I clenched my teeth so hard my jaw hurt. I loathed Xornaa with every fiber of my being. I wanted her dead, this alien creature who had tried to mind-fuck me into forgetting my wife. My wife!

  Xornaa paled and pulled away, something primal and ugly flickering in her eyes. At the same time, the door to my quarters opened, and Tarq and Kurt entered. Tarq’s eyes sparkled, and he wore an ear-to-ear grin. Kurt, on the other hand, looked dead serious, and he was packing his favorite machine pistols. He stared at Xornaa with cold, hard, gray eyes.

  When I’d gone to meet Tarq earlier that day, he’d explained that Xornaa could affect people’s emotions, behavior, and thoughts by touching them. Nothing too drastic; for example, she couldn’t make people commit suicide, but she could plant an idea in their minds that would grow and take shape on its own later. And given how she looked and the effect she had on men, her weapon of choice was her femininity. The only reason I wasn’t already completely under her control was probably because I loved another woman.

  “Wasn’t MICI supposed to protect us against Xortaag mind control?” I’d asked him.

  “It does,” Tarq said. “The Xortaags cannot directly control you or influence your behavior. This is a lot more subtle, and it works only if you have some natural inclination for it to begin with.”

  “I have no ‘natural inclination’ towards that woman,” I protested angrily.

  Tarq laughed in my face.

  “OK, maybe just a tiny bit,” I confessed.

  “That is all she needs.”

  Tarq then had taken me to MICI and removed the memory of our meeting (because Xornaa would’ve noticed if I only pretended I loved her), and told me I’d remember everything as soon as I heard the secret word. Given the intensity of my reaction, I suspected that he’d also used MICI to make me really hate Xornaa to counter her effect on me.

  And, yes, his secret word was “the secret word”. Stupid alien.

  Xornaa looked speechless. She only said one word, “How?”

  “How?” I burst into hiccupping laughter. “I’ll tell you how. You made two mistakes. First, you forgot who Tarq is. This guy here is the greatest strategist in the universe, and you thought you could pull one over on him? And FYI, that whole second task force thing was a trap to test your loyalty, and you fell head-first into it.”

  Tarq smiled and nodded.

  “Your second mistake is fatal. You forgot who I am”—I stared into her eyes—“I am the Kingslayer.” I pointed the gun at her head and pulled the trigger.

  Tarq and Kurt shouted, “No!”

  But it was too late.

  The eardrum-rattling noise of the gunshot filled my quarters. I pulled the trigger again, and again, and again, until the gun clicked empty. When I stopped, Xornaa had covered her face with shaking hands, but that was the only sign of fear that she showed. I was slightly disappointed. I’d hoped to see her roll on the floor, scream, and tremble uncontrollably.

  I leaned over and whispered in her ear, “You try to pull something like this again, and I won’t use blanks the next time.”

  Tarq clapped his hands with pleasure. “This was very well done, even by my standards.”

  I stormed out, leaving those three behind.

  Half an hour later, Kurt found me on the starship’s observation deck, still fuming. He sat beside me and asked, “You OK?”

  “That bitch tried to take Liz’s place using voodoo,” I grumbled. “What do you think?”

  Kurt nodded and didn’t say anything.

  “Every morning, when I wake up, the first thing I remember is Liz is gone,” I whispered. “Every day, except for today. I should’ve killed that woman just for this.”

  Kurt put his hand on my shoulder.

  “So what happened after I left?” I asked.

  “We had a fascinating conversation with Xornaa.”

  Even hearing her name made me cringe. “And?”

  “She says, and I quote, ‘I’m a spy; learning people’s secrets is my job’. Apparently, she was planning to sell the information to a third party, some sort of an independent mercenary group that, in turn, would sell it to the Xortaags.”

  I rubbed my forehead. “Why? If she wants to sell secrets, she already knows a lot about our task force, and worse, how we took back both Earth and Alora.”

  “She does, but she’s a part of this task force herself.” Kurt pulled his goatee. “She can’t leak any information that might ultimately get her killed. Plus, she really does want the Xortaags to lose, so she won’t reveal our MO to the enemy.”

  I was exhausted all of a sudden. “So what happens now?”

  Kurt looked pensive. “Something bothers me. You remember Tarq was planning to put a small bomb under Xornaa’s skin and threaten to kill her if she betrayed us? When she was talking about ‘people’s secrets’, she looked pointedly at Tarq, and he totally backed off. He told her we’d keep a close eye on her and do the bomb thing if she betrayed us in the future.”

  “You think Xornaa has something on Tarq? What? A sex tape?”

  “I don’t know, but it must be something very serious to make Tarq worry. Anyway, I protested, saying I didn’t understand why he let her off the hook so easily, but he said we needed her and he’d deal with it, enigmatic as ever.”

  “Did you guys at least convince her to dress professionally?”

  Kurt smiled. “Yes. She’s officially a Marine now, and under my command. She’ll be wearing a Marine uniform from now on.”

  “Not sure if that actually helps. Have you seen Oksana in uniform?

  “You’re hopeless. I also made it very clear for her the next time she does something like this, I’ll personally put a bullet in her brain.”

  I shook my head. “Not sure if that helps either. Leopards and spots.”

  Tarq went to his quarters, locked the door, and thought about pulling his antennae.

  Bringing Xornaa along might have been a huge mistake. She was one of the few people who knew Tarq had used Earth as bait to defeat the Xortaags. There was no telling how the humans would react if she told them. Tarq doubted they would see this as a genius masterstroke that brought the Xortaags to their knees and saved the galaxy.

  On the other hand, what else was he supposed to do? Without Xornaa, there would be no task force because they had no way of telling where the OMC-BOWS controls were. That woman was very useful, and she had already proved it.

  He decided pulling his antennae would not help. He needed a plan, and he knew exactly what to do.

  Xornaa woke up with a jolt, and she was overcome by unspeakable horror when she realized she couldn’t move. All she could do was roll her eyes or wiggle her fingers and toes, and soon she couldn’t even do that. She wasn’t dead. She could see the ceiling of her quarters and feel her body on her bed, but that was it. She was completely paralyzed.

  And then she couldn’t even breathe. Her lungs screamed for oxygen, but none came. The panic made her heart hammer against her ribcage, and then it stopped beating too. She desperately tried to
shout, to call for help, but she couldn’t make any noise. She kept trying to struggle, but she was suffocating, getting closer and closer to fatal oxygen deprivation with every passing second.

  After all she’d been through in her life—the constant starvation she’d suffered as a child, the physical and mental molestation she’d endured as a teenager, her dangerous job as a spy, the suicidal missions she’d taken part in, and facing death a thousand times over and surviving—it’d never occurred to her she’d die drowning in her own bed.

  Tarq appeared in her view.

  “Hi, Xornaa,” he said casually, as if she wasn’t about to suffocate. “You are going to need this for your heart and lungs to work.” He put a small portable device on her chest and fixed an oxygen mask to her face.

  Xornaa’s heart started beating again, and the rush of oxygen to her brain cells made her delirious. She was going to survive, yet again. And then she remembered at whose mercy she was right now, and panic returned, tenfold this time. Her breathing became more rapid, and she felt she was about to black out. Asphyxiation might’ve been a mercy compared to what she knew Tarq was capable of doing to her if his hearts so desired.

  “I have used Serenity’s environmental controls to pump a chemical compound into your room,” said Tarq. “It has no effect on us Akakies, but it completely paralyzes the humanoid species. I once tried it on a human whose name was Allen. I am positive he was shocked when he woke up the next day and found out he had soiled himself in his sleep. I felt guilty about it a few weeks later when he sacrificed his life to save us all.”

  Tarq sat on a chair next to the bed. “So, let me start off by saying how much we appreciate your help in saving Alora. We could not have done it without you. Not to mention if it was not for you, Mushgaana and Maada had conquered Kanoor, and there was no stopping them. Come to think of it, you helped me save the whole galaxy.”

  I’m honored, asshole.

  “With all that said, please allow me to add that I do not like being threatened. You should not have referred to ‘secrets’ in front of Kurt, of all people. He is very sharp and I am sure he picked up on that. Naughty, naughty.” He leaned over until his face was only a few inches away from hers. “As Jim pointed out, your problem is you have forgotten whom you are dealing with. A fatal mistake, indeed.”

  All of a sudden, Tarq’s face melted away. Xornaa knew the Akakie was hidden behind a hologram, but logic and conscious thinking lost their power in the face of terror. The monster that appeared in front of her was an image straight from the depths of hell. It had reptilian skin, huge mandibles opening a wide mouth to display big teeth, yellow eyes, and hair-like appendages set into its skull. Xornaa had seen plenty of scary shit in her life, but she knew Tarq’s real face would haunt her nightmares for years to come.

  The monster pressed a hypospray onto her skin. “This should take care of the paralysis”—it had a raspy voice and couldn’t pronounce the words normally, probably due to the shape of its mouth—“and it will also put you to sleep. Then, some of my people will come and inject a small capsule in the base of your skull. It contains a tracker and a detonation device. When you wake up, remember that I can follow your movements, and I can kill you whenever I want. Please do go ahead and betray me. I have never exploded anyone’s head and I really, really want to do it at least once in my life.”

  Xornaa’s eyelids got heavier.

  “Also, curiosity is killing me,” said Tarq conversationally. “Jim told me you mentioned that Mushgaana was your father. Did you sleep with your own father? Gross!”

  No, you lunatic. I didn’t have to sleep with him. I gave him a memory of us having sex. But I would have if it was necessary. Anything to bring down that monster.

  Right before she lost consciousness, Xornaa heard Tarq say in his normal voice, “I am very happy we could have this talk. Thanks for listening. And by the way, if at your age you still wet your bed, you really should go talk to a doctor.”

  “She is out. You can come in now,” said Tarq.

  Barook and two other Akakies entered Xornaa’s quarters. “Well done, Commander,” said Barook. “You certainly scared me half to death. What was that species?”

  The other two Akakies went to Xornaa and pushed her onto her side.

  “It is fictional,” said Tarq. “I asked the boys on Earth to search the human databases and find a scary monster. You know, I have always admired the humans’ imagination. Anyway, it is called Predator. Apparently, it is from an old movie.”

  “It was an ugly mother—” Barook whimpered, took two unsteady steps backward, and lost his balance.

  In his Predator disguise, Tarq said innocently, “I am thinking about coming to our next briefing looking like this. What do you think?”

  2

  Tangaar

  Standard Galactic Date: 044.03.5073

  (Earth Date: 23/03/2049)

  The Xortaag king found it difficult to hide his dismay.

  He was in a lab, staring at an alien machine they had found on a conquered planet. The machine was a cross between a torpedo and a coffin, with a few dozen tubes connected to it, apparently moving some sort of fluid in and out. Several scientists were working on various control panels around the machine. They all looked stressed, terrified even. They knew the price of one more failure.

  Despite the Xortaag scientists’ legendary ability to reverse-engineer alien tech, all their attempts to find out how the machine worked and build another one had failed. In fact, they had depleted the machine’s limited raw material and energy source while trying to make it work properly, and now he was close to losing both his son and the greatest military genius in Xortaag history, not to mention the secret to his own immortality. Yes, the scientists had promised the machine would work this time, but that was exactly what they said the last time and the time before that, and all they had delivered up to now were deformed beasts who died within five minutes.

  “The process is complete,” said a scientist, his voice shaking, probably wondering if his own life had just ended.

  The silver torpedo-coffin opened in the middle. Two scientists ran to the machine and helped a man pull himself out. The man took a few wobbly steps; then he pushed away the people trying to help him and stood straight. He looked exactly how the king remembered him: tall and muscular with olive skin and straight black hair. No beard though. Those scary scars on his face had disappeared too.

  General Maada looked down at his naked body; then he stared at the king and growled, “You have got to be fucking shitting me.”

  “I have never even imagined such incompetence in my entire life!” shouted Prince Polvaar.

  He was yelling at a group of Xortaag pilots, just back from performing a military exercise under his supervision. After Maada was killed on Earth, the king had appointed him as the temporary commander of the fleet. Polvaar had thrown himself at his new position with fiery zeal, hoping to gain his father’s approval and lead the fleet into glorious victory the way his brother Mushgaana had done for so long. However, weeks had passed, and the king had issued no new orders. It was almost as if he was waiting for something. But what?

  “All leaves are canceled,” he continued. “You useless losers will stay in the base and keep practicing with simulators until you get everything right in the next exercise.”

  An old man, sitting in the back of the briefing room, raised his hand. He was a veteran of several campaigns and had retired years ago, but the lack of space fighter pilots after that fiasco on Earth had forced Polvaar to recall him and many other old-timers. “There are recordings of our old briefings, Your Highness. I humbly suggest you watch them. General Maada never treated us in this manner.”

  Polvaar raised his voice. “I do not give a damn how Maada treated you. He was a commoner; I am a prince.”

  The old man smirked. “Would you have dared say this to his face?”

  Blood rushed to Polvaar’s brain. His first instinct was to kill the insolent fool where he sat,
but there were some thirty pilots in the briefing room, all armed, and he wondered if he survived a direct confrontation.

  Maada would never allow anyone to talk to him like this. Polvaar hated himself for thinking that.

  The briefing room door opened, and a woman rushed in, breathless. “He is back!” she announced. “General Maada is back! He was seen being escorted to the royal palace. Check you PDDs.”

  Stunned silence dominated the room, but just for a second. The pilots jumped out of their seats, pulled out their PDDs, stared incredulously at the screens, and started talking excitedly all at the same time. They rushed out of the room, pushing and shoving each other out of the way.

  None of them paid any attention to Polvaar. Not even a glance.

  The prince just stood there and watched them all leave, feeling alone and worthless.

  Maada still could not wrap his mind around the fact that he was a freaking clone now.

  He was sitting in the royal palace’s conference hall, next to Mushgaana, who looked every bit like his usual confident self, smirking as if he had not just come back from the dead.

  “I cannot get used to you looking like this,” said Mushgaana’s voice inside Maada’s skull. “You look younger, and dare I say, sort of innocent.”

  Maada gave him an angry look.

  The prince continued, “Relax, General. I am kidding. I am not the enemy in here; they are.” He nodded toward three of his four brothers, sitting at the conference table across from them. The three brothers, Darlaan, Montaari and Polvaar, were bigger versions of Mushgaana— blue eyes and curly light brown hair, but tall, muscular and wide-shouldered. They all waited for the king to arrive.

  A long, long time ago, the Xortaags had found an alien machine called the Duplicator that could store a person’s consciousness and decant it into that individual’s clone. Since then, Maada had had to endure sitting in a stupid alien device once a month to “store” his memories and consciousness, to be sent to Tangaar in the event of his death; only he never thought that would actually happen. Knowing that he was now a copy of his original self, a mere shadow, made him feel worthless. Worse, he did not know how he had died because he had no memories of the last three weeks of his life. He must have been assassinated by those damned humans. He was the best fighter pilot in the galaxy, but there was little he could do against a bomb or a bullet.