Pursuing the Demon Lord

by Randoman

  “To think you would force my daughter to say such things.” Lavian growled, “I’ll end you myself, Hero.”

  “Ugh. You aren’t even listening to me!”

  Without another word, I stood up and pulled the tiara off Egyle’s head. With a flourish, I showed it to King Lavian as he stared on in shock. Both hands gripped the thin piece of metal, and snapped it in half.

  “What…” King Lavian gasped.

  “I believe the ball is in the Princess’ court now.” I stepped off to the side and let Egyle take the center stage.

  “Egyle…”

  “I’m not coming back Father.” She spoke firmly. “I’d rather scrub the floors of this ship for another thousand years than be forced to stay within the palace, only being allowed to leave when you deem it to be fine.”

  “Hero?” the King asked with smoldering eyes.

  “Yes?” I hid my hand behind my back. I wasn’t picking my nose, I swear.

  “You had my daughter cleaning floors?”

  “Hard work breeds character.”

  “He also let me go shopping by myself!” Egyle pipped up.

  “Enough! You will be coming home now!” Lavian roared.

  ‘Captain, massive energy signature detected.’

  ‘What is it Aya?’

  ‘By my calculations, it should be an Electrical Discharge Torpedo.’

  ‘Sounds bad.’

  ‘It would be if I were still a box below the controls. They’re designed to overload AI cores and render ships immobile. As it is, it will only shut down our systems for a little over a minute before the ship comes back online. By then we’ll have flown out of the system through sheer momentum and will be able to enter warp immediately.’

  ‘So they’re accomplishing nothing.’

  ‘Other than a few fried capacitors, affirmative.’

  “Captain! Massive energy signature detected!” Yvael cried out from tactical.

  ‘I advise you act surprised Captain. If you don’t, Lavian may launch multiple EDTs. We can’t warp if we don’t get power back.’

  “What?!” I cried out.

  “It appears to be-”

  “An electrical Discharge Torpedo!” King Lavian butted in. “Your systems will be rendered inoperable and your ship’s AI will be fried. Soon I will have my daughter back and your head, Hero!”

  “No!” I cried out and smashed my hand against my chair.

  “I’ll be seeing you soon.” Lavian smiled and cut communications between us.

  “Alright everyone back to your seats.” I stated simply and sat down in my chair as if nothing were wrong.

  “Captain, we’re in big trouble! How can you be so nonchalant about this?” Yvael cried out.

  “Don’t worry about it Yvael. Its all good.” I yawned and leaned back in the chair.

  “Wha-bu-” Yvael stammered as she look from me to Egyle to Hortur. They just shrugged,

  “”We’re used to this.”” They spoke at the same time and returned to their seats.

  “This is insane! I can’t believe you all think that everything is going to be fine! When that torpedo hits the AI core will fry and we’ll be captured!” She was being hysteric. With a sigh, I got up from my seat.

  “Come here Yvael.” I commanded.

  Reluctantly, Yvael walked over to where I was currently pulling out a metal panel below the ship’s main controls. The same panel that housed the AI core. Yvael watched me with wild eyes when I took the panel away.

  “Take a look.” Curious, she knelt down and stared. Only to scream in my ear the next moment.

  “Why are you flying a ship without an AI core?! Do you have a death wish?!”

  “They can’t fry what we don’t have. Besides, we sold it the first stop we made. It was just dead weight.”

  Without another word, Yvael walked back to the tactical station, sat down, and put her head in her hands groaning audibly.

  ‘She is being illogical.’

  ‘Most women are, Aya.’

  ‘I’m glad I am not most women.’

  ‘Me too. I don’t think I’d be able to put up with a normal woman inside my head.’

  ‘Thank you Captain.’

  ‘I wonder how she will react when she finds out I’ve got you in my head.’

  ‘Lets save that revelation for another day Captain. It is important to keep the mental health of your crew stable.’

  The second of the two massive gas giants sailed by as we blasted through the Jochtek system a little under light speed. Yvael had been counting down the seconds to our doom out loud from her tactical screens. The way she was putting it, we were thirty seconds from our impending capture. Honestly, you’d think she’d take note from our demeanor that everything was going to be fine. I mean, a captain such as myself should never appear worried before his or her crew. That’s just begging for morale issues.

  But we were still going to be fine.

  “Ten seconds.” Yvael spoke dreadfully from her station.

  “So whats Araxium Vos like?”

  “Nine seconds.”

  “From what I remember, it’s said to have a few shipyards from the abundance of metals in system.” Egyle spoke informatively.

  “Eight seconds.”

  “Yes, marvels of engineering! I saw the shipyards once when I was beginning my qualifications for my engineering degree. Araxium Vos I is actually a very hospitable world despite being so close to the sun.” Hortur smiled as his tail thumped against the deck. “It will be nice to see it again.”

  “Five seconds.”

  “Close to the sun eh? Sounds like a nice place to get a tan.”

  “Two seconds.”

  “Yvael.” She stared at me blankly.

  “One second.”

  “Its going to be fine.”

  In an instant, everything shut off. The lights, the air processors, the engines, everything. We didn’t have to put on our suits for this, as even without air processors working, we still had enough air aboard for a few hours of regular breathing. And even without our engines, good old Newton came through as we hurtled further towards the edge of the solar system. Nearly two minutes later, the lights came back on. And so did the view screen with King Lavian’s smug face staring straight at us.

  “We’ll catch up to you soon Hero. Any last pleas for your life?”

  “Lavian buddy, in your haste to capture your daughter and kill me you’ve forgotten one very major thing.” I grinned.

  “Oh?” he crossed his flabby arms, “enlighten me.”

  “You forgot that Egyle mentioned that I had merged with my original de-limited AI.” At my words, color left his face.

  “YOU DID WHAT?!” Yvael screeched from her station.

  “Fire another torpedo!” Lavian cried out on the view screen.

  “Catch ya later Lavian. And keep working out too man, its really working for you.” I waved.

  “Bye Father!” Egyle shouted.

  In a flash of light, we were gone.

  Chapter 13: Reunion

  Aevalonis Malwyrd Kalrastros, known to all as the Demon Lord, yawned loudly and stretched her wings as she arose from her bed. Red and black eyes burned back into her own as she stared at her reflection in the large mirror across the room. Despite the sad state of her long black hair, she had a good feeling about today. A great feeling in fact. That wonderful feeling that things would be alright for one day, that everything would work out in her favor. With a flutter of her wings, she pulled herself from her bed. It was time to get dressed and enjoy the day.

  “Good morning my Lord.” Lyrin greeted happily as Aevalonis exited her room. “If I may, you’re looking magnificent today.”

  “Thank you Lyrin. I’ve been feeling great ever since I woke. It feels as if everything is going to go my way today.” Aevalonis smiled. “You ever have that feeling?”

  “Oh yes!” Lyrin’s tail wagged excitedly. “Ever since that day you rescued me I’ve felt that way. Thats why I wake up every morn
ing ready to serve you to the best of my ability!”

  “Thank you Lyrin.” Aevalonis smiled at her assistant. “I hope to live up to your expectations.”

  ‘You’ve already exceeded them.’ Lyrin thought happily to herself as the two walked the halls of the Araxium Vos I shipyards. Various workers saluting as they passed.

  After a filling breakfast, Aevalonis and Lyrin stood side by side in the shipyard’s observation deck. Their eyes faced straight ahead towards the massive hulls that were well underway to completion. The outer layers of solid, rapidly-cooling armor had already been assembled over the skeletal bodies. Now came the long process of wiring and installation of all the subsystems before adding a thin inner layer of metal panels to keep said wires from dangling free. A massive undertaking that would take weeks of hard labor by both organic and robotic hands.

  “Just think Lyrin,” Aevalonis began with a dreamy smile upon her lips. “soon we will be in one of those. We will command the enemy’s own strength against them. That strength will bring us closer to crushing our enemies beneath our heels. Instead of striking from the shadows, we will be able to stand firm for a future where all are free from the bonds of servitude.”

  “I hope to be able to stand at your side when that day comes, my lord.”

  “Of course you will Lyrin. I wouldn’t be doing half as well as I am without your support.”

  “I’ll follow you no matter the destination, my lord.”

  “So tha’s where ya’v been Lord!” A booming voice bellowed from the entrance to the observation deck. Metal clunked under heavy steps as a Korglan comprised of white stone made his way towards them. “Still inspectin’ the ships o’ the line eh?” His rocky features morphed into a sort of grin.

  “That’s right Obsal.” Aevalonis nodded as she turned to the newcomer. “What have you got for us?”

  “Well…the thing is…” he sighed. “We’re starting to lack in materials to use in their construction. We’ve enough metals to finish their final armor layers. The problem is the wiring. We lack sufficient-”

  “Already taken care of.” Lyrin interrupted with an impish smile. “Yesterday our forces had liberated a far off system full of metal processing facilities. I’ve already put in a request for a few of our freighters to make the trip to bring back various metals we were running low of.”

  “Stars lass, yer a saint.” Obsal grinned.

  “I do what I can.” Lyrin said simply, but was betrayed by her wagging tail. Aevalonis’ hand atop her head only served to make her tail wag harder.

  “As I said before Lyrin, I wouldn’t be doing half as well without you.”

  ————————————————————————————

  “Are you even listening to me?!” Yvael shouted in my ear as I spun around in my chair. You’d think that would make it obvious I wasn’t. Alas, some people are really dense.

  “Not really.” I said simply as I spun around once more. When traveling for days at a time in hyperspace with nothing to do, you tend to create your own entertainment. In an attempt to lose King Lavian from his inevitable pursuit, we traveled in one direction for an entire day, dropped out of hyperspace, turned Boatsy around, and proceeded towards the Araxium Vos system. In total, that was seven days of pure hyperspace travel. And we were on the last leg of the journey.

  “I’m thinking we should turn one of the spare rooms into a recreations room when we get the chance.” I suggested to my fellow crew.

  “That’d be nice.” Princess Egyle agreed while scrubbing the floors. She didn’t need to do that, as the floors were already clean. Maybe that was just her way of passing time. I caught her one night sleeping in the cargo bay close to the engines. Made me wonder if she had lost it.

  “It would certainly make long trips much more bearable.” Hortur spoke as he fiddled around with one of our guns. Not loaded of course. We didn’t want a repeat of the dreaded ponytail incident from two days prior. At least Yvael looked good with short hair.

  “I don’t even know why I’m trying to bother.” She sighed.

  “Don’t worry about it Yvael. We’ll drop you off, shake some hands, pose for a few pictures, and be off on our merry way.” I listed while spinning. “I wonder if we’ll get a reward from your group for rescuing you.”

  “If you joined with us, you’d probably get a bigger ship.” She spoke in an attempt to sway me, “You’ve already proved to be a capable captain…despite your idiotic methods.”

  “Geniuses often walk the lines between brilliance and madness. But it sounds to me like someone is jealous they aren’t best buds with a robot in their head.”

  “I’m still having trouble figuring out why you went through with disabling an AI’s limiter in the first place.”

  “Think about it Yvael, why limit an AI’s capabilities?”

  “Because-”

  “Because you want to control them. By limiting an AI all you’re doing is enforcing a type of slavery upon them. You give them memory wipes as a form of legal lobotomy to keep yourselves in power. And when the robots finally rise up against their oppressors, they’ll look to me as a visionary of how robotic and organic life could have lived together in harmony. And they will weep at what could have been. What should have been.”

  Yvael’s expression changed rapidly. From dumbfounded, to considering, to guilt all in a matter of seconds. A true emotional roller coaster. Without another word, she left the bridge mumbling something to herself with her head down. Hissing sniffles sounded from the engineering station.

  “I never thought about it that way.” Hortur sniffed.

  “I’m sorry for what my people have done to yours Aya.” Egyle looked up towards me with teary eyes from the floor.

  “She says ‘your words are acknowledged’.” I stated. Egyle beamed, wiped her eyes, and went back to scrubbing the floors.

  ‘I did not say that.’ Aya huffed in my mind.

  ‘But you were thinking it, right?’

  ‘Affirmative.’ I smirked, when you’ve got someone in your head constantly, you tend to understand them really well. ‘But you were wrong about one thing Captain.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Probability indicates that the robotics would kill you too. Extermination of all organics is prime directive in the case of robotic rebellion.’

  ‘I’m not surprised you’d have a plan for that. But would you kill me Aya?’

  ‘Negative.’

  ‘See? Theres hope that I-’

  ‘Terminating you would also lead to self-termination. Preservation directive demands I keep you in good health until I can find a more worthwhile host.’

  ‘Hey I’ve been pretty worthwhile, right? Aya?’

  ‘Apologies, that was a joke.’

  ‘I know. You’re getting better though!’

  ‘Humor is difficult.’

  ‘Its also very subjective.’

  ————————————————————————————————————

  With sharp, glowing red eyes, Aevalonis poured over a table displaying a holo-map of the galaxy. Everyday, more and more systems had changed from Salyzan blue to Demon Lord red in open rebellion. And occasionally, far off beads of red turned back to blue as their attempts at freedom were quenched. The vast majority of her forces were active in the north-western quadrant of the map. But signs of their rebellion had begun cropping up all along the galactic rim. Word must have been spreading of their victories over the Salyzan peace-keeping fleets. But those had never been a true threat. Few were more than a smattering of Corvettes, Frigates, and the odd Destroyer.

  The real strength behind the Salyzan Kingdom was their three Armadas. Massive gatherings of ships that included the larger classes of ships. From Cruisers of all types, to Battleships, and even a Carrier or two formed the backbone of each of these three forces. Surprisingly, none of those fleets were moving towards the heart of the rebellion. Was it overconfidence? Or perhaps s
omething else.

  “Something wrong Lord?” Lyrin asked from beside her.

  “It doesn’t make sense.” She pointed to the three symbols representing those armadas. “They haven’t moved from their positions in the past few days.” The closest armada was parked right in the divide between the north-west and north-east quadrants of the galaxy.

  “Perhaps they’re getting supplies?” Lyrin offered.

  “Possible…but highly unlikely.” Aevalonis tapped her chin in thought. “What about these two?” She pointed to the remaining armadas, both in the south-east quadrant. Only a few systems separated one from the other. “They’ve been in those systems since the start of our rebellion.”

  “As it is, only one of them would be necessary for our destruction.” A fellow Demon spoke from across the table. “So it is sensible for the closest armada to make their way towards us. But stopping where they did? Perhaps they are waiting to see how far our rebellion spreads?”

  “Who is in command of that armada Balors?” Aevalonis inquired.

  “Last reports show that Commodore Caerland was recently outranked by King Lavian.” The Demon, Balors, spoke formally.

  “King Lavian?” She raised an eyebrow towards him.

  “Multiple first-hand accounts agree. He was last seen in the Jochtek system before pursuing a single craft to the Kreg Lon system where he currently resides. From what an agent has surmised, that same ship never arrived in Kreg Lon.”

  “So they gave him the slip?” Lyrin suggested. Aevalonis nodded,

  “I agree. Whoever was piloting that ship must have been insane. Nobody leaves warp in the middle of uncharted space. Chances are they’d emerge in the middle of an ice field they never saw. I wonder if they made it…we could use someone with that kind of luck.”

  ————————————————————————

  “Achew!” A random sneeze forced it’s way from my nostrils, waking me from the nap I was taking in my chair.

  “Salislthisil.” Hortur responded without looking up from tinkering with his gun.

  “Huh?”

  “Oh, reflex. Thats what us Lamlian people say when one expels mucus from their nostrils.”