El Finito Book 1

by M. E. Thorne

  “Inevitably, open conflict broke out over the occupation and exploitation rights for the most important and abundant star systems. The corporations began building up their military forces. That far away from Sol, they were no longer fettered by the rule of law established by Earth’s government.”

  “At the height of their power, the corporations ruled over eighty percent of the known galaxy.”

  “Most historians mark the true beginning of the Corporate Wars as occurring in 2579 when Honormark launched a surprise attack against the Tsar Shang headquarters. We don’t know the exact reasons why. They carpet-bombed the planet, killing billions of civilian-employees.”

  “Tsar Shang allied with the Alvarez Collective and retaliated, launching hundreds of simultaneous nuclear attacks against Honormark’s space stations and facilities, killing even billions more.”

  “From there, a limitless war was waged across the stars.”

  Chapter 12

  The descent connected the corporate dug tunnels to a series of natural caverns below. Working together, Spinny and Gloria were able to set up a web that made it much easier to get to the bottom than having to free-climb our way down.

  By the time we got to the floor of the cave Sabra was breathing heavily, and her clothes were soaked with sweat. Marcella came over and laid a hand across her brow.

  “You require another immunization booster,” the Panacea pronounced. “Please sit down for a moment.”

  None of us complained about stopping again so soon. Our injuries were still nagging us, and the climb had been strenuous, even with the web.

  Gloria flopped down next to Sabra. To her credit, the Syndicate member didn’t skitter away. She seemed much more at ease with our presence after she had started to get to know us.

  The bat-girl asked, “The corporations destroyed the galaxy?”

  “Basically,” Sabra answered. Marcella had her lay on the ground, while she ran her hands along her chest and arms. Everywhere the slug-woman’s fingers trailed, a faint sheen was left behind.

  “Before the Honormark bombing, the corporations behaved in a consistent manner. They did whatever was necessary to maintain their cash flow and keep their board of directors and stock owners happy.”

  “But after that? It became about domination, seizing as much territory, and as many natural resources as possible. Everyone mobilized for conflict. Their employee-citizens became soldiers and cannon fodder. A dozen different full-scale war fronts opened almost all at once. The more war-minded and greedy corporate leaders flourished, rising in the ranks and pushing their companies further and further towards total war.”

  “Vast fleets of warships were launched, carrying armies and war machines across the stellar void. Whole star systems became battlegrounds, once prosperous planets reduced to smoldering battlefields.”

  “Tsar Shang, hot for vengeance, pressed the hardest, tearing into their foes and seizing huge tracts of territory. The Alverez Collected betrayed their alliance, and turned against them, fearful they would grow too powerful. Soon the orderly conflicts broke down into brutal free-for-alls, with no one able to tell friend from foe.”

  She winced when Marcella pressed her fingers into her abdomen.

  “There is a bio-weapon attacking your liver,” Marcella explained as she worked. “I am administering a counter-measure.”

  “A good segue to the next stage of the Corporation Wars, annihilation,” Sabra joked weakly, resting an arm over her eyes.

  “Honormark and Nakamura-Ghosi suffered heavily in the early decades of the wars. Pressed hard by Tsar Shang. They originally held the smallest, least profitable territories, and their manufacturing resources lagged behind that of their rival. Honormark resorted to guerrilla warfare, launching ambushes, bombing civilian-employees, and terror attacks meant to demoralize their enemies. Nakamura-Ghosi turned to their strengths and began deploying bio-weapons and plagues.”

  Marcella continued to work. “Many of my siblings were ordered to assist the bio-weapons divisions. They refused, and were executed.”

  Gloria put her hands over her mouth. “That’s terrible, I’m so sorry!”

  “Thank you,” Marcella squinted at her, clearly not expecting the Hatuibwari’s reaction.

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Sabra blanched as Marcella continued to treat her, obviously in pain. “The old Earth government tried to rein in the corporations, fearful they had gone too far and had become a threat to humanity’s survival.”

  “Nakamura-Ghosi responded by infecting the planet with a life-eating virus. Within a week every living thing on humanity’s home world was dead. Even today, nothing can survive more than a minute unprotected on Earth’s surface.”

  “What happened next?” Gnasher was clearly as invested in the story as the rest of us.

  “Records get spotty towards the end of the wars,” Sabra continued. “As the corporations became more obsessed with destroying their rivals, they began neglecting many of the standard business practices they had adhered to. The transcripts, records, and audit trails that the SADB depends on to track events became sparse, incomplete.”

  “We know by late 2784 that the corporations had widely wiped each other out. Nakamura-Ghosi had lost control of their bio-weapons. Whole worlds and populations were exterminated, regardless of what side they had been on. What planets the plagues didn’t destroy, centuries of warfare had taken their toll. The galaxy was teetering on the brink of complete ruin.”

  “Honormark and the Alvarez Collective fell apart, they simply lacked the structure and resources to continue to operate cohesively. Tsar Shang imploded when a black hole bomb they were developing detonated prematurely, destroying their home system and a majority of their fleets.”

  “Nakamura-Ghosi retreated to the Galactic Center, pursued by vengeful forces from a hundred different plague-ravaged worlds. History records that they were utterly exterminated at the Battle of Bleak Horizons.”

  “So that’s it?” Gloria looked disappointed.

  Marcella let Sabra sit up; the Syndicate woman looked to be in less pain. “That is a grossly simplified version, but yes. Afterward, various groups began the process of rebuilding. A thousand different galactic fiefdoms popped up, usually centered around surviving military forces turned warlords. The Syndicate is merely one of many, different governments trying to save the human race.”

  Moving again, we traveled further through the cave system, which gradually became difficult terrain. Often we were forced to crawl through narrow passages or scramble over rockfalls.

  “Why don’t you live in the tunnels above,” complained Gloria after a particularly tiring area.

  “Too dry,” Marcella replied. “For optimal hibernation conditions, we require a damp, quiet environment. Natural caverns or artificial, climate-controlled structures are ideal for our homes.

  Spinny laughed, “The more isolated the better, I assume?”

  I shook a rock from my boot. “How much further is it to your colony?”

  “We’ll arrive in another thirty minutes,” she stated. “Let us continue.”

  The Panacea colony was located in a huge cavern, shaped like a hollowed-out orb. We couldn’t help but gasp in amazement as we first entered.

  A massive waterfall fell through the center of the chamber, it was easily twenty meters across. More remarkably, it didn’t make a sound. Water cascaded silently through a hole in the ceiling and disappeared through an opening in the floor. The soundless phenomenon filled the air with cool, comforting mist.

  Blue moss lights had been hung from the ceiling, illuminating the hundreds of Panacea that were arranged along the sloping walls.

  We reverently made our way closer to them. Most of them barely appeared to be human, their limbs and torsos elongated and fused into impossibly tall stalks. Some of them even had pale, blue mushroom caps growing from the tops of their heads.

  Gloria stood at the base of a large stalk. “Are they alright?”

  “Cer
tainly,” Marcella answered. “During hibernation, it is normal to emphasize the fungal aspects of our nature. It takes less than an hour to revert to our more mobile form, even after a long hibernation.”

  Looking at the base of the stalks, I saw they didn’t have feet. Instead, pale tendrils ran along the rockface, digging into the stone.

  “The elevator is this way."

  Marcella showed us a small side room, which had been constructed by human hands. Concrete pylons held up the far side of the space, and between them were the metal struts of an elevator shaft.

  Looking up the shaft with a lantern, I wasn’t able to see the bottom of the car. There was a call button epoxied to a concrete pillar, but nothing happened when I hit it.

  “Shit." I hammered the button a few times.

  “Apologies,” Marcella said. “We haven’t used it in decades, it may have broken due to a lack of maintenance.”

  Gnasher helped me pry the front of the button panel off. Behind it was a rusted mess.

  I cursed again. “The moisture from the water got inside, whoever installed this thing didn’t properly seal it against the elements.”

  “Can you fix it?” Spinny asked me.

  “We still have the leftover parts from those tablets, yeah?" I peered into the panel. “If I can salvage some wire, I should be able to just rip all this junk out and hotwire it. From there I can just cross the wires and complete the circuit. Provided the power is running, it should call the elevator car.”

  It turned out there were many rooms in the Panacea colony. Marcella explained that her kin had discovered the caverns and found they were ideal for their needs. They believed one of the corporations had used the caves for their war effort, carving out additional spaces as needed. The spare rooms were used for storage.

  Sadly, they didn’t have any parts we could use to fix the elevator, but they did have basic tools like a hammer, screwdrivers, a chisel, and a pair of pliers. There were also preserved foodstuffs and spare water bottles, which we were welcomed to use. Gnasher, Spinny, and Gloria were escorted by Marcella to one of the empty rooms, so they could eat and rest, while Sabra and I worked on the elevator.

  “At least we know the power is on,” I said while nursing some stinging fingers.

  Sabra inspected the fused hunk of metal that had been the button mechanism. “I was hoping there’d be a manufacturer’s mark. That might tell us who built the elevator.”

  “Does it matter?”

  “It could tell us where this elevator goes, outside of up." She glanced over at the empty shaft. “Even before the war, El Finito was a patchwork of rival companies and corporations. They fiercely guarded their territories and had established borders. I have a hand-drawn map, hanging up in my office back at the embassy, which shows my best guesses at who claimed what territory.”

  I reached up into the now empty panel, pulling out the two wires I needed. “You really do love history.”

  “Only by knowing history can you avoid repeating its mistakes,” she answered.

  Damn, she is cute, I thought. I wonder if she’d be interested in a quick fuck.

  I was shocked by the errant thought and did my best to shake it from my head. What the hell is wrong with me? Why am I feeling so damn horney again?

  I couldn’t help but remember Marcella’s warning and Sabra talking about Nakamura-Ghosi’s research into reproductive enhancements. Maybe I’m mutating into some kind of bizarre sex monster?

  Doing my best to keep these fearful thoughts evenly balanced against my lustful ones, I finished jury-rigging the call button and crossed the two wires. With an electric-blue spark, the circuit was completed. A rain of dust and dirt fell down the shaft, and we could hear the distant echo of metal against metal.

  Being cautious, Sabra borrowed a lantern and peeked up the shaft. “I think I can see something moving.”

  A few minutes later, a bare-bones elevator car landed at the bottom of the shaft. It was little more than a sheet metal box. There wasn’t even a door. The internal controls were shot, but the mechanism atop the car seemed safe enough to use.

  “Let’s go and tell the others,” I suggested. I took a deep, calming breath.

  “Are you alright?" Sabra asked. “You look a bit flushed.”

  “Just fine,” I lied.

  It only took a few minutes to walk back to the others, but by the time we entered the room I was walking at a half-crouch to hide my throbbing erection.

  Gnasher automatically noticed something was wrong. “Locke?”

  “The elevator is fixed,” I panted.

  “I don't think he’s feeling well,” Sabra provided, giving me an unsure look.

  I glanced over at Marcella, before confessing, “I think my dunk into that tank of goo might have messed me up a bit."

  I sat down on the floor and leaned back, clearly revealing my aching member. I felt so damn embarrassed.

  “Holy shit,” Gnasher murmured.

  “I knew it was bigger!” Gloria shouted.

  Marcella came forward and laid a chilled hand against my forehead. She explained her earlier findings about my condition to the others, then shook her head. “I don’t understand your condition enough yet to administer a sedative. When you copulated earlier with Gloria it provided relief, correct?”

  I mutely nodded while Sabra looked scandalized and Gloria giggled.

  “I would recommend a similar course of action again,” Marcella said, standing back up.

  Gloria waved a wing. “I’ll pass, I’m still feeling a bit sore from last time.”

  I glanced pleadingly over at Gnasher. Her eyes were locked on my crotch, and she absently licked her lips. “I can’t wait to try.”

  “I find myself oddly aroused as well,” Marcella said. “It could be due to eighty years without sexual release. Do you mind if I join you?"

  We were startled to see a bulge rising from under her dress.

  Spinny chuckled, “Panacea are hermaphrodites,” she said, before laying a hand on Gnasher’s shoulder. “You should invite her to join you. Consider this my permission for a new life experience.”

  Marcella led us to another room, where we managed to make a little bed with a few musty blankets.

  Stripping off our clothes, I saw that Marcella had small, firm breasts and sported a blue, veiny cock. Below that she had no testicles, but rather a moist, eager pussy. Juices slicked down the insides of her legs.

  We discussed briefly who was comfortable where, and we settled on having Marcella being in the middle.

  “I am administering myself a mild aphrodisiac,” her breath started coming out in hot gasps. “I cannot offer any to Locke, but would you want a dose?”

  Gnasher leaned back and grinned, her snatch already damp. “Fill me up, buttercup.”

  Marcella crawled across her chest, slowly stroking her dick across Gnasher’s fur-clad stomach, and delivered a wet, sloppy kiss. Gnasher purred as the embrace became deeper, more erotic. The two broke apart, a pink-tinged strand of spit linking their lips.

  With an encouraging nod, Gnasher spread her legs further, granting Marcella entrance.

  Watching her plow my girlfriend, slowly and laboriously thrusting into her, was one of the hottest things I’d ever seen. I involuntarily began stroking my dick, the tip welling with pre-cum.