by James Harris
He cued the video display back to the point just before the mysterious blip. He slowed the playback down. The screen definitely went blank and resumed a millisecond later, almost too quick even for Kor to see. The recorded time display was superimposed on the holograph. Kor went back and compared the time display immediately before the blank-out with the time immediately after. It had jumped forward. An entire ten minutes was missing.
Kor looked away from the holographic image and stared at the floor, deep in thought. He left the monitor floating in mid-air and went to sit on his bed. Why ten minutes? What else had the intruder done besides tampering with his album? To alter the security recording required technical competency. The palace maid couldn’t have done it. Someone else had gained entry to his room.
Intruders! He scoured the small room looking for anything suspicious. Everything seemed to be in place. Playing his hands along the bed linen, he examined his bed cautiously. He found nothing. But ten minutes was a long time. Toying with the album wouldn’t have taken that long. So what did this mysterious visitor do with the rest of the time?
Kor reached out his hand, commanding the holographic menu to inch closer. It flipped around and descended toward the bed. He touched a menu icon.
A young face appeared in place of the menu floating in front of him. “Yes, Majesty.”
“Someone’s been in my room and touched some things,” Kor said awkwardly. “I mean, more than they should have. And it wasn’t the maids.”
“Is there a problem, Majesty?”
“I hate to bother you, but someone tampered with my photo album.”
There was a slight hesitation that seemed to say what’s the big deal? “Sire, what do you mean by tampered? Did they erase your images?”
“No … well, at least I don’t think so. What they did was rearrange all the pictures of Prince Stell and me together. The viewing sequence has been altered. I’m certain I didn’t store the pictures that way.”
“It could be an honest mistake. Perhaps the maids were careless, or curious, and disturbed your collection.”
“I highly doubt this was an accident.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because ten minutes of surveillance video is missing. I ran the file.”
The image and voice came alive. “Ten minutes? A tampered security file! Majesty, you should have said so immediately. Don’t move. Stand by.” The face disappeared.
Seconds later, another face appeared, an older face with more seniority. “Majesty, I understand your room has been tampered with and the security file altered.”
“Yes.”
“In that case,” the man said calmly, “your security has been compromised. Kindly vacate the room immediately. We will sweep it for planted devices. Activate your aura now.”
“Do you really think …”
“Now, Majesty, please.”
Kor nodded and a slight green glow pulsed around his thin body. His fingers and head glowed strongest. It was the nature of the aura that the extremities, the focal points of the body, glowed brightest.
“Good. Please leave your quarters. There are two CPDs waiting to escort you.”
Kor had enough experience with security drills to understand that these orders were to be followed without question. His room may have been booby-trapped. The bed he was sitting on may have a bomb underneath. Then he had a thought. If there is a bomb, what if it’s pressure sensitive? What if it was designed to explode as he rose from the bed? He froze for a moment. His heart beat faster. He increased the power of his aura and then leaped from the bed, bracing himself for an explosion. Nothing. He opened his eyes, chuckled to himself, and left his room feeling rather sheepish.
His personal guards were waiting.
“Follow me,” Kor said. “We have someone to visit.”
The trio walked along the polished palace hallways until they were met by Asunda.
“Prince Kor, I was on-line when you contacted security. I came as soon as I could. Your father asks that we meet him in the Transition Room.”
Kor brushed past him. “Not now.”
Asunda could see the fury in Kor’s eyes. “Kor? What are you doing?”
Kor stopped and spun around, causing the two guards behind him to bump into each other. “That prick planted a time bomb in my room.”
“Kor, you don’t know that. The guards haven’t found anything. You’re not acting rationally.”
“We haven’t looked hard enough yet. There’s a bomb, I can feel it.”
“And you blame Stell?”
“Of course. You’ve seen how he’s been acting around me. He knows this palace inside out. He knows how to get to me. He knows how to kill me, Asunda.” The youth’s breath was short.
“You have no proof, Kor. Stell has been with us for days. Under constant surveillance …”
Kor resumed a determined pace. “He could arrange it. He doesn’t have to physically be here, you know. Maybe he wants to lead some kind of attack from inside the palace after killing my father and me. Who knows?”
The guards struggled to keep up.
“Where are you going? Have you lost your …”
“Where do you think? It’s time he and I had it out.”
Asunda rushed up beside him and spoke boldly into his face. “Kor, don’t do this. He’s not the same Stell that we knew. Something’s happened to him. He’s not to blame for his actions.”
Kor shrugged Asunda away. “I’m not listening to you.”
In minutes the group had reached Stell’s quarters where there were two armed guards blocking the entrance. They were watching warily as the group approached, while communicating frantically with a superior officer on their com implants.
“Get out of my way!” Kor said.
The two guards looked bewildered. Their orders were to allow no one to enter or leave. Yet Kor was their prince. One of the guards instinctively touched behind his ear and nodded. He gestured to the other guard and moved away from the door, bowing slightly.
Asunda grabbed Kor’s arm from behind and spun him around. The two locked eyes.
“Kor, don’t do this. Stell isn’t himself …”
Kor peeled Asunda’s hand off his arm like it was a leech. “Never touch me,” he sizzled. “I’m your sovereign.”
Asunda looked stung, as if Kor had slapped his face. His eyes hardened and he stood back. “Majesty.”
Kor blew into the room. The door clicked shut behind him, leaving a curious crowd behind. The two young men were alone. There was sudden silence.
Stell was lying on the bed with his legs crossed and one arm cradled behind his head.
“Can’t you knock, Kor?” he said. “You always were one for making a grand entrance.”
Kor charged across the room. “I’ve had it with you! You conceited prick!”
Stell was startled and confused by the swiftness of the attack. He underestimated Kor’s speed and didn’t have a chance to engage his aura. He had only enough time to sit up in bed before Kor’s hands were wrapped around his neck. He roared in fury and fought back. “You spoiled little royal shit!” He shook Kor off and landed a punch to his face.
Kor grunted with pain and surprise. “I’ll show you royal!” He butted Stell with his head and swung an uppercut to his chin. Stell staggered backward, blood dripping from his split lip. He kicked out and caught Kor behind the kneecap, sending him sprawling to the floor. Stell kicked again but this time Kor caught his foot in mid-air and twisted it. Stell spun around and staggered back.
Kor leaped to his feet and went for Stell’s neck again. Stell landed a quick punch on his nose, causing blood to pour from his nostrils. Kor reached up and wiped it away with the back of his hand. It hurt like hell and his eyes watered, blurring his vision. He swung wildly as Stell came at him. He got lucky and connected with a punch to his eye. Stell clutched his face and collapsed to his knees. His protective aura flared like a hazy green egg around his body.
Kor stood
up slowly, holding his bloody nose in one hand. Tears brimmed in his eyes. The fight was mostly out of him now. “We were friends once,” he said in a nasal voice. He grabbed his face and hid his childish tears as if they were manly wounds.
“We all make mistakes,” Stell mumbled through his swollen lip. It sounded like missnakes. He collapsed his shield. The fight was over.
“Always the smartass. I don’t know why you hate me so, but if that’s the way it is, that’s the way it is.”
“That’s the way it is,” Stell replied softly, refusing to meet Kor’s eyes.
“But to kill me, Stell? Why? What did I ever do to you that would cause you to want to kill me?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about an attempt on my life.”
“You’re crazy.”
“I’m talking about a bomb planted in my room.”
“You think I planted a bomb?”
“You had someone do your dirty work for you, Stell.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You know this palace, my room, the servants, and their routines. Don’t tell me you know nothing about it.”
“I wouldn’t waste a bomb on you. I wouldn’t have to. I could kill you with my bare hands.”
Kor bristled. “OK, I’m waiting. Go ahead.”
“You first,” Stell said, still holding the side of his face. It was already beginning to bruise.
Kor turned his back to Stell. “I have important matters to attend to and you’re not one of them.”
“I’ll bet,” Stell said as he fought back a wall of tears.
Kor left the room wiping away his blood and tears with the back of his hand. His fury had dissipated, but he was troubled by Stell’s denial. He felt bad and guilty because he instinctively knew that Stell was telling the truth. But if not Stell, then who?
CHAPTER28
Spotlights shone starkly onto the three scout ships aligned neatly on the tarmac of the Surface Terminal docking station. Each newly fabricated craft glowed silvery white against the scorched brown floor and walls of the cavernous building. They looked small compared to a full-sized star cruiser nearby. The graceful, sleek-looking star cruisers were designed for deep-space travel. Scouts were designed for deep-space flight as well as flight within a planet’s atmosphere.
From above, the scout ships resembled pregnant boomerangs. From the side they looked like silver pancakes with humped middles, or a single pea in a pod. The gleaming silver hull was constructed of a metallic-looking composite material that could withstand enormous heat and multiple collisions with small meteorites. The outside of the body had an impenetrable exoskeleton, much like that of a crab or turtle. Its primary purpose was to provide maximum safety and security for the occupants on their space journey.
The airport terminal maintenance crews were finishing their protocols on the scout ships, which later that day would receive the crypt-orb cartons containing the transitioned orbs of Kor, Stell, and their crews.
The ships’ modest weapons banks were readied. The auto-navigation systems were checked. The anti-matter drives were tested and securely refueled. Anti-matter transfer was a dangerous procedure requiring highly qualified technicians; an anti-matter breach could annihilate a sizable chunk of the planet.
The auto-beacons were readied. These beacons would be released from the ships at predetermined intervals as they traveled through space. They would act as a guide for the gigantic galactic cruisers that would follow in their wake. The beacons were powerful communications devices that could relay messages to the fleet at light speed. Once the scouts had reached their destination, they could relay their final coordinates to the ships.
Down below, in the Narok palace, the prince’s small group proceeded down a series of passages until a guarded room appeared on their right. It was a private six-station transition room. The palace had one hundred public transition rooms that held up to fifty stations.
The sterile-looking room, about forty feet by forty feet, was normally used as a research facility. It included a bank of six rose-colored molded chairs that resembled reclining dentist chairs. Hovering directly above each of them was a white molded form that was the same shape as the chair, only larger. They were designed so one would fit into the other like a glove.
At the head of each chair, on a sturdy shelf, rested a silver orb the size of a grapefruit. Each of the six orbs was immersed in a light-green solution within a transparent, bullet-shaped container. Dozens of tubes fed from each orb into the form above its chair. Solemn-looking attendants fiddled with equipment and holographic menus, not even looking up at Kor and his entourage.
Kor spotted his father standing beside two royal-crested caskets. The gold-embossed royal seal of Narok was on one, the red royal seal of Abishot on the other. The caskets were porcelain white and the lids yawned open. A chill spread over Kor’s body as he gazed at the crypts. Was there a change of plan already? Why were these crypts here?
The king managed a smile as he turned to greet him. “Ah, my son, I … Good God! What happened to your face?”
Kor walked toward him with a slight limp and a sheepish grin. “I was in a fight.” He wiped a few drops of blood from his nose onto his sleeve.
“A fight? Were you attacked?”
“Not exactly. I was the attacker.”
“The attacker? Why would you attack someone?”
“He had it coming.”
The king looked at his son.
“You fought Stell?”
“Yes. He had it coming … or so I thought. Now I’m not so sure …”
“You started the fight?”
Kor cast his eyes downward. “I’m afraid I did, Father. I’m not proud of it. At least now I’ve got one thing straight.”
“What’s that?”
Kor had received an inconclusive security report on his room. “Stell wasn’t behind the security breach at my quarters.”
“How can you know that for sure?”
“I know Stell. When he denied it I could see he was telling the truth.”
“Then who? All the more reason to step up your scheduled departure. The time to prepare for your journey has arrived.”
“But I thought I wouldn’t be leaving until tomorrow. Does this have to do with …”
“Plans have changed. I can’t take any chances with your safety. The fact is that security has been breached in your chambers. I have therefore decided that you will depart immediately.”
“I see.” Kor gazed over at the caskets. “What are these for? I thought I was to assimilate with another human and that my body was to be incinerated here like everyone else’s.”
“Again, it was at my insistence that your personal casket travel with you. I want you to have the option to return to your natural body at some time in the future.” He shook off Kor’s attempt to protest. “Your future assimilated human host is likely to be a primitive and have a contaminated body. You will have a short lifespan compared with your present form.”
Kor frowned. “Father, you say my host body is likely to be primitive, but how can you be so sure that the scout will locate any human world at all – primitive or not?”
“Because those worlds have already been determined with a high probability of success. We know with near certainty which planets will harbor the right ingredients for evolved human life. And which planets – given the age of their solar systems – are most certain to be inhabited by sufficiently developed humans. We have preprogrammed the scout ships to head to those known coordinates.”
“There are several suitable planets?”
“Several? There are hundreds of suitable planets as we travel back toward the epicenter of the universe. The question is which planet is optimal for our colonization.”
“You’ve chosen a planet?”
“Five planets have been chosen.”
“All aligned along the same flight path?”
“Correct. If the first
planet is unsuitable, your onboard Bot is programmed to initiate a trajectory to the next planet’s coordinates, and then the next, and so on. You will remain undisturbed in your crypt-orb.”
“And if none of them is suitable?”
“Impossible, all are suitable. We merely seek the optimal – with generous parameters, I might add. So you will find a host, my son. However, once this host creature’s organs fail, I want you to reunite with your true body. This body of yours is perfectly evolved.” He looked into his son’s eyes in a rare show of emotion. “Besides, I couldn’t tolerate the thought of you dying so young on a foreign planet and in another person’s body.”
Asunda spoke up to fill the awkward silence. “Kor, your present body is to be preserved in order to maintain the genetic continuity of the ruling family of the House of Narok. Your genes represent highly evolved human genes – free from disease and gifted with highly attuned mental and psychokinetic ability. We feel that you should have the opportunity to return to your body when the assimilated host is nearing expiry.”
“Is that even possible? I mean, can I transition twice?”
“Yes, we believe it’ll be possible. You’ll need the right equipment and technicians, but it can be done.”
“If I so choose,” he said, turning to his father.
“Yes. It must be your choice. Your assimilated self is unlikely ever to have the full power and potential of your present body.”
“I understand, I guess,” Kor said. He looked at the devices around him. Despite an outward appearance of confidence, he was afraid. His legs shook as if he was shivering from the cold. He hoped no one noticed. He shrugged his slender shoulders, gesturing toward the caskets.
“The other sarcophagus is for Stell, I assume.”
“It is.”
“But why, Father? After all he’s done to hurt us. Why honor him so?”
“There is no evidence that Stell personally had a hand in the attacks by the Abishot. It is clear to me that Stell has been duped by the Abishot council.”
