And look what that got them.
I was almost feeling sorry for Zek and his crew by the time we found the golden circle in the tunnel.
Almost.
I had Zek wait in the tunnel with his guns ready while I floated up to the golden circle up on the center of the wall.
Yes, floated. I figured out I could cancel gravity at will. Since coming down from the Ministry of Records tower, I found my powers were greatly enhanced. And they weren’t tiring me out at all.
It was a little spooky. But I wasn’t going to turn it down.
Especially since I had a feeling the Dendon would cut off the power spigot just as soon as I found this Dragon that I was supposed to best.
“You ready?” I said to Zek.
“I am always prepared for battle, Earth creature. I am a Don warrior,” Zek said.
“Uh huh. Good to know,” I said, “And my name is Chris.”
Someone needed to send the Don to charm school. Or get them a tranquilizer. I never used it myself, but I had some friends who grew medical marijuana. Maybe some weed would mellow those pricks out.
But that was before I discovered…never mind.
I stuck the (still glowing sword) between my belt and pants, then pressed my hand to the golden circle on the wall. My palm tingled with power. A horizontal red line shot out from the circle. A moment later the doors began to part.
I held my other hand ready with a blast of concussive power. But the platform was empty. Like it had been before.
I motioned to Zek. He bounded up in his armor, swinging his plasma blasters back and forth. They whined and hummed with unleashed power. The ozone coming off them tickled my nose. I sniffed and caught the rancid cat food stink of Dons.
Something told me I had the right place.
We moved across the platform toward the big, golden double doors.
I took a little more time to look around. Last time I’d been in a panic, terrified at losing Liz. Which was exactly what happened.
Now I had nothing to lose.
Fear wasn’t going to box me in again. Ever.
The platform walls, floor, and curving ceiling were covered in shimmering gold. It seemed strange. The Dendon people were fond of art, but they never seemed to be showy. And if this was some sort of bunker for the King…
It didn’t make much sense.
There weren’t any decorations on the walls. No statues or drawings. Just, plain, shimmery gold walls.
Kind of like that room at the top of the Ministry of Records tower.
I approached the double doors. A pale gold circle sat at the center of the two doors. I waved Zek closer.
"Last time I was here, some nasty monsters flew out when this door opened," I said, "I want you to fall back to the corner there. If any bronzy colored critters come out, blast them. Probably won't do anything to them. But it might distract them for a few seconds."
Zek straightened up. Swung his plasma blasters my way. I wish I could have seen through his helmet.
No, maybe not. I probably would have wanted to slap the look off his face.
“I am a Don,” Zek said, “I do not take orders from lesser creatures.”
I shrugged. “Your choice,” I said, “Just stand right there and wait while I open this.”
Zek stepped back. “While you are opening the door, I shall move over to this corner and provide covering fire.”
“Great. Excellent idea,” I said. Somehow I managed to not roll my eyes while I said it.
I readied a concussive blast from one hand as I reached up to the pale circle on the doors. If the metal murder worms burst out of the room when I opened the door, I’d probably lose all my powers again.
Which would really suck. But it wouldn’t be the end for me. Would it, buddy? You have a bit more invested in me now? Wouldn’t do to have a bunch of metal monstrosities chew me to bits before I got a chance to Best the Dragon, right?
Do not be so sure.
My chest tightened. Panic threatened to freeze me in place.
I pushed the feelings back. Fear was a luxury I couldn’t afford.
I put my hand to the circle. Power flowed out of my palm. The doors parted. Slid aside to reveal…
A bunch of naked Dons.
They all turned to me. And I got an eyeful of their floppy apparatus. I’m not sure what I was appalled more by. Their nakedness, or the fact that they had two, small, squirming metal murder worms in their grasp.
Oh, and there was T&T, cowering at the other end of the room, next to a silly looking gold throne.
“Captain Tejoh!” Zek shouted.
One of the nude Dons looked up. This one was smaller than the other six, big, muscular Dons. Softer looking. With a bit of a pot belly and skinny legs.
I guess middle-aged administrative type Dons looked a lot like middle-aged administrative type humans. Except for the tentacles sprouting from their heads and the yellowy-orange eyes.
And, yes, the equipment downstairs.
Sheesh.
“Commander Zek?” The Captain Tejoh dude said.
“Chris?” T&T said. He got up from his crouch.
I ran my fingers through my hair and blew out a sigh.
“Just what the hell is going on here?” I said.
To T&T. To the Dons. To the universe in general.
T&T was still–mostly–in his environmental suit. He had the helmet stuck under his arm. He stepped back and forth, his eyes darting all over the place.
“It’s not my fault,” he said.
“Everything is your fault,” I said, “And if we get home, I’m going to tell your mom all about it.”
T&T’s face went several shades of pale. So pale I got concerned he might pass out before I had a chance to beat him unconscious.
I was about to step into the room to do just that when I saw her.
Two of the beefier Dons stepped aside and I spotted the raised platform in the center of the room. The platform was gold like the rest of the room. But who was on it made my breath catch in my throat.
Liz.
I ran over to her, knocking aside a couple of the big Dons like they were styrofoam mannequins. I skidded to a stop beside her.
She was still encased in her golden armor. There was no mistaking it was my Liz, though. I put my hand out to touch her face.
An invisible force field snapped my fingers so hard I staggered back from the jolt.
I went right back.
I pressed both hands against the force field. Focusing my energies on penetrating it.
Pain screamed up my arms. Bolts of blue lighting crackled out from where my hands touched the field. The stink of ozone filled the air.
The force field surged. Sent me flying across the room. I smacked the wall. Hard enough to knock the breath out of me.
I slid to the floor. Pain wracked my body. There was a stench of burned hair around me.
I dragged myself to my feet.
Then stalked back over to the platform with Liz on it.
A few seconds later I was picking myself up off the floor again.
I considered another go at it, but I decided to get the message. I wasn’t getting Liz back until I did this stupid dragon thing.
I stood there, clenching and unclenching my aching hands. Staring at Liz’s still form. This was a little bit too Sleeping Beauty for me. I spun around to face the Dons and T&T. They were all standing a ways off. Staring at me, of course.
The seven naked Dons turned to Zek, who slowly made his way into the room. He kept his forearm blasters up and pointed at me.
“Put those away you idiot,” I said.
The potbellied, out of shape Don, Captain Tejoh–who looked much less impressive out of his armor–straightened up and put his hands on his love-handled hips.
“You take orders from this creature?” He said.
Zek, being a Don, and therefore a double prick, immediately protested by running up to me and putting the barrel of his plasma blaster to my head.<
br />
“This creature is my prisoner, Captain!” Zek shouted.
Enough was enough.
It seemed as long as I wasn’t using my powers to free Liz or fight dragons, they were still effective. Though I still wasn’t getting healed quickly. Damn my aching, bruised and abused parts.
So I grabbed the blaster barrel pressed up against my head and twisted it around. Metal groaned and screeched.
Zek tried to pull away, but I caught his arm in my other hand. Held it steady while I angled the barrel back at him. He hit me with his armored hand. But it just bounced off my shield.
“Go ahead. Shoot,” I said.
I let go his arm. He backed away. Pointing his other blaster at me.
But…not firing it.
I gave all the other Dons a glare.
“Anyone else want a piece of me?” I said.
They glared back at me. But none of them stepped forward.
Four of the Dons were still holding the two small metal murder worms. These worms had nasty articulated blades at the end of them.
I contemplated them for a few seconds.
I was beginning to see how all this fit together.
Sixty-Two
Chris
Before commencing to beating people up, I decided to take a look around the silly, golden room. The rancid cat food stench of the Dons was distracting, so I told them to go wait by the door.
T&T, too.
Though the little traitor pleaded with me to let him stay with me. I gave him a glare and told him he might be safer with the Dons.
He scampered over to the group of Dons. The Dons who went over to the door only after their idiot captain decided that they should go examine the doorway.
They weren’t going anywhere. The only oxygen was in this room and the platform.
Captain Tejoh was looking at T&T like he was a nice, juicy porkchop, though.
Whatever, let them work it out amongst themselves.
I went over to Liz. I ached to touch her. To pull her up and hold her.
We were truly slaves to the Dendon technology. We were on the Dendon’s home turf. He had all the advantages and got to make all the rules. And Liz and I were just pawns in whatever long game he was playing.
You know what you’ve lost here, Dendon buddy o’mine?
Trust.
Of course you’re not going to answer me.
And why should he? He had all of the advantages.
I turned away from my silent and still golden warrior and walked over to the ridiculous golden throne. It was done in a tasteful style. Other than being shiny gold. It looked like some oversized chair one might find in a wealthy person's dining room.
Other than it was shiny gold.
Maybe that wasn't so unusual for a super wealthy person's house. I'd never been in one. Back in Albuquerque, I had a one bedroom apartment in a slightly shabby, but still marginally respectable neighborhood.
Wealthy I wasn’t.
It wasn't anything I craved. My life had been fulfilling and interesting without heaps of cash. I had a good job. Went hiking and camping in the mountains in around New Mexico a lot. I had a fiancé who…
Well, Julie wasn’t exactly the best part of my life back then…
But things changed.
And then changed some more.
And then really, really changed.
Until finally I was standing in front of a golden throne on an alien planet, with the love of my life frozen in a golden shell behind me, and in the same room with blue-skinned, tentacle-headed, naked aliens…with me wondering how it all came to this.
I must have missed that left turn at Albuquerque.
The golden throne had a funky Art Deco sort of look to it, with swooping lines and curves. It kind of looked like it should be in motion.
On a whim, I turned myself around and sat my butt down on it.
Immediately, and silently, the seat lowered so my feet could touch the ground. The back and arms silently adjusted themselves to fit my body. In a few seconds, the chair became…comfortable. It felt like quite the natural place for me to be sitting.
I gazed out at my little kingdom of emptiness and naked Dons.
And pondered the ridiculous of a golden throne room just off a subway tunnel.
Why was this room here? What purpose did it serve?
And why had those metal murder worms been in here?
Nothing seemed to be random on Dendon. Everything in this city seemed to have been meticulously planned. Everything had a purpose.
The naked Dons, plus the one armored Don, were whispering among themselves. And casting glances my way.
Sigh. More trouble brewing.
They were also casting the occasional look at T&T, who sat huddled against the wall, halfway between the Dons and I. He looked particularly miserable. A shell of his old, strutting, cocky self.
He was probably more on my side now than his own. But, given an opening, would slide right on back to his side.
I was on my own.
I gazed at the shiny, still form of my beautiful Liz lying on what looked uncomfortably like a sacrificial platform. I didn’t even have my golden warrior to help pull my fat out of the fire this time.
And my inner buddy was completely unreliable.
No, that actually wasn’t true. I could totally rely on him to desert me when I needed help the most.
I clenched the arms of the golden throne. I was sliding into a pity party. Something I didn’t have the luxury of. I needed somebody to be on my side. Even if it was only me.
“Where’s the Dragon?” I asked. Softly, almost to myself. “Am I supposed to wait for it here?”
I listened for an answer from the ringmaster of this stupid circus. But I got nothing in reply.
I turned my attention back to the room.
The walls, floor, and ceiling were all a satiny gold color. The floor was a darker shade with a pattern of interlocking polygonal shapes. The ceiling was a lighter shade than the walls. It was featureless. Absolutely smooth.
The walls were smooth also. They had vertical lines running down them. Every few feet was a stylized column sitting flat against the wall. More alien Art Deco style. Near where T&T sat were lines on the wall that might have been another doorway.
Which made sense. This place had to have another entrance other than from the subway platform. It probably had a series of rooms. Living areas, food storage, maintenance or meeting rooms.
I sat up.
This wasn’t a throne room. The gold and the stupid fancy chair I was sitting on was just window dressing. This was an emergency command facility. Or an emergency staging area.
The throne room would be a place were The King addressed Dendon’s leaders in the event of an emergency.
This was a doomsday bunker.
One that the Dendon people never got to use.
Or did they?
I stood up.
Tentacled heads swiveled my way.
I ignored them. For the moment.
I strode over to the other doorway. T&T brought his head up. His weaselly face was pale and drawn.
“Chris?” He said.
I ignored him.
On the door was a circle, just barely visible. I put my hand up to it.
“Earth creature, what are you doing?” Zek said.
He was coming over to me. Quickly. His armor hissed and whined, his metal boots clanking against the metal floor. The rancid cat food stink of the Dons threatened to distract me. I pushed them all from my mind and concentrated on the door.
I put my hand on the circle. My palm tingled as energy flowed out of me. With a soft click the door slid back into the wall. Lights glowed to life in the corridor beyond. A long hallway, done in simple white and gray. None of the gaudy gold from the throne room. Spaced every thirty feet or so, on either side of the hall, were more doors.
“Earth creature!” Zek said, “I demand you explain what you are doing.”
I turned his way.
His head was still covered with the armor, hiding whatever expression his face was producing. Not that it mattered. His captain was bringing up the rear.
“Earth creature!” Captain Tejoh shouted, “I demand you show us where this leads. And procure for us clothes and food. I am quite hungry.”
I looked him up and down. Scrawny legs, pot belly and weathered face and all.
“Really? Do I look like your fricking butler?” I said.
Captain Tejoh put his fists on his love handled hips. The rancid stench of him was strong enough to make my eyes water. It was enough to make me hope the Dendon left some industrial strength air freshener and deodorant down in their bunker.
“I am the ranking Don of this world,” Tejhoh said, “You shall obey my commands.”
I cocked my head to one side and scratched my chin.
“Or what?” I said.
Tejoh blinked his yellow-orange eyes. Rapidly. His haughty pose didn't change, but I could practically see the gears turning in his head.
Why yes, captain, you may have stepped a little too far there.
“Or…I shall command my men to beat you severely,” Tejoh said. A little lamely, in my opinion.
I raised an eyebrow and turned my eyes to the six beefy Don soldiers. They all stared hard at me. Their expressions were definitely hostile.
But they weren’t moving in on me.
I pointed at Zek.
“You do remember what I did to this guy’s plasma blaster, right?” I said.
The soldiers exchanged glances. Yup, they remembered.
I turned my attention back to Captain Tejoh.
“Okay, captain, I’m kind of busy here,” I said, “The best thing you can do is stay out of my way. You’re probably relatively safe here. If you’re hungry, T&T probably still has some of the nutrient bars he stole from my backpack earlier.”
T&T scrambled to his feet, his eyes going wide. He reached a hand around his back, where he probably still had a vacuum bag full of booty from our ship.
“Dude, I thought you were dead. I swear!” He said.
I rolled my eyes. “And how often do I stay dead?” I asked.
He looked down at his feet.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” I said. I swept everyone with a look. “Listen guys, I’m not unsympathetic with your being hungry and upset about the naked thing. It’s just that I have my own things to deal with. And, if I happen to be successful dealing with them, I might be able to help all of you out. But stay the hell out of my way, alright? And by the way, my name is Chris. Not Earth Creature.”
Forbidden World Page 26
