I was not mistaken. We descended two more levels and found ourselves in a huge conference hall. Or rather, I decided that this large auditorium would be suitable for the pirates’ negotiations. Now, however, the entire space was occupied by a single being coiled into rings.
“Snake, this isn’t like your aunt or something?” I asked just in case.
The Scourge turned out to be a snake — an Uldan engineer to be precise, and judging by her size, one that served aboard a large cruiser. It had none of the Zatrathi spikes that the Vraxis queen was covered in. This one was a vanilla Uldan, without any Vraxis genes mixed in.
“But this…Why this is…” Brainiac’s shocked voice sounded in my headphones, he cut himself off and then suddenly, in a solemn tone, intoned: “Kneel before Lady Mercaloun! She is the senior officer in charge!”
The snake lifted her head, staring at us with four unblinking eyes. I swallowed, regarding the size of the creature. Mercaloun’s head alone was larger than my three-meter-tall armor suit. If she so much as placed her head on top of us, she would crush us without any difficulty. And then there was the rest of her — the long serpentine torso which filled almost the entire room. What is this colossus even doing here?
“You are right, orbship, I am the commander here. I smell the spirit of Warlock in this human. So, he went to the ether freely after all. Very well. I wish to hear the details before I devour you.”
The snake spoke to us without opening her mouth. The very walls themselves generated the sound as if they were speaker membranes. At the same time, I suddenly realized that Mercaloun had demonstrated her ability to listen in on a closed comm channel between me and my ship. I need to take into account that she is listening in whenever I speak with Brainiac…
The sound of hammers filled the corridor, and with it came the cacodemons cutting off our retreat.
Attention! Due to your current location, your homeworld binding has been changed. Your current respawn point is: Planet Shurtan — Lady Mercaloun’s Dominion.
The trap has sprung. My wrist twitched with the desire to release a grenade and go to rebirth. Even if we respawn somewhere underground, at least we won’t be here with this thing anymore. However, Eunice, who was standing nearby, reacted faster, putting her hand on top of mine.
“Don’t jump the gun. Remember, this is a game. We can always come to some agreement.”
Having made sure that I would not blow myself up, Eunice turned to the snake.
“Lady Mercaloun, we can offer you a deal. You need food, so let us deliver it to you! Those who lived here before, the synthoids, coped well with this.”
“Coped?!”
With an elusive movement, Mercaloun surged forward, stopping right in front of Eunice. To give credit where it’s due, my wife did not even start, although her heartbeat sensors went berserk, spiking to 150 BPM.
“They locked me away in the depths, cutting me off with their detestable marble! The pitiful scraps that they tossed me — you cannot call that food! Do you know what eternal hunger is, human? Do you know the torment of your own stomach digesting itself? What could you offer me when you have nothing but the flesh you carry on your bones?”
“If you go on sitting here, the food will run out for good. I have seen the Zatrathi operation to transport marble to this planet with my own eyes. They are planning on marbling the entire planet, forever imprisoning you in the prison of your own hunger. What will you eat when there is nothing but marble around you? Yourself?”
Eunice was not going to give up. Of course, she knew how to misrepresent the facts, but her theory lined up even if she didn’t know that it was easier for the Zatrathi to destroy the planet or the sun than to fiddle with such a small trifle as covering the surface of the planet with marble.
“The Zatrathi? What is that?”
The question was unexpected, but Eunice quickly got her bearings:
“Brainiac, project holograms of a Zatrathi warrior and an engineer,” she ordered the ship computer, and Mercaloun was forced to back up in order to get a better look at the projections.
“These are the deliverables of Project 2373. These creatures were created to clear planets of the Vraxis — but they turned out poorly. I was told that the project had been canceled and all the samples were liquidated.”
“You have been deceived. Not only did your experiment survive, but…”
“This matter no longer concerns me, human. I want to eat!”
The cacodemons surged forward with the clear intention of devouring us, but Eunice reacted first:
“There is a flying fortress in orbit around this planet. You should see its size. Show her, Brainiac! Give us your spawn and we will bring that ship down! You will have more food than you can eat in a year!”
The cacodemons stopped as Mercaloun shut all four of her eyes. The snake meditated, considering the offer. Finally, the eyes opened and the walls vibrated with the answer:
“I do not feel anything. The marble blocks my signal.”
At this point, Brainiac came to his senses and displayed a hologram of the Shurtan system. The flying fortress had drifted over and docked with the orbital station, which had been severely damaged by the Anorxian assault. The projection shifted to the moon and the immense marble quarry. Just then a fully loaded transport took off and, tracked through its short journey by Brainiac, reached the planet’s surface.
“They cannot hurt me. Even if it has managed to survive by some stroke of luck, the experiment has no right to harm its creators. We were the ones who designed them.”
“Brainiac, show her the brainworm and the recordings of the planets being destroyed.” I joined Eunice, sensing a note of doubt in Mercaloun’s voice. The ancient serpent or whatever she was, did not comprehend her true position.
New images appeared in the projection. Seeing the brainworm on the Uldan’s head, Mercaloun snapped her eyes wide open and Eunice and I all but collapsed to our knees. I cannot describe the feelings surging within me at this moment. It just seemed to me that it would be the right thing to do — the only thing to do. It was a state of pure obedience.
“What is that?! Who is that?!”
“Servants of the one who is called the Queen. The one who leads the horde seeking to destroy Galactogon. The one who can destroy even you. Maybe not directly. But she can easily cover everything with marble. Therefore, I will return to my proposal, oh Great One. Do you want us to deliver food for you?”
“My spawn cannot go out into the sunlight. It will destroy them. I myself cannot leave the planet. I am the Spirit — it was the only way I was able to survive for so long. Food. I need food. I will eat you only once. Quickly. Then we shall talk.”
“No! Or you will get no help!” Eunice snapped as the cacodemons tried to approach again. In the meantime, I pulled two reserve armor suits from my inventory:
“You are fettered here, but not your children. Maybe they cannot step into the sunlight. No problem. What would you say if they go to space in armor suits? There is no sunlight inside spaceships. There is food there. Tell me, what do you like to eat? Only the living?”
“My spawn can digest any matter except marble. Marble is poison. How big is your armor suit?”
For the first time in our conversation, a note of curiosity sounded in Mercaloun’s voice. Without displaying any aggression, three of the cacodemons approached to us. I opened the armor suit, and the cacodemons hopped inside and instantly devoured everything within, turning the suit into a useless case. Despite my immense disappointment at seeing a legendary suit subjected to such treatment, I managed to maintain a perfectly normal expression. Another trio came up next. And then another. When I slammed the armor shut, there were fifteen toothed balls in there compressed to an implausibly tiny size. The next wave of vermin came up. Fifteen at once. Damn! I had to watch another suit get ruined as they crammed themselves in.
“You have received my spawn. They will obey your orders. What’s next? How will you get into space?
”
What a smart talking snake. I had to improvise:
“We know for sure that the transports land on this planet. We need to get inside one of them and steal it. Nothing complicated. The only thing we need to find out is where they land.”
“I don’t sense anyone. The planet is empty.”
“That just means that the Zatrathi have masked their landing zone with marble,” I said confidently. “We need some mode of transportation to get around the planet quickly. Can you arrange it?”
“How fast? Would five hundred kilometers per minute suffice or do you need something faster?”
I coughed and sputtered. Five hundred kilometers per minute? The inertia alone would crush us and our suits wouldn’t be of any help.
“That will be enough,” Eunice quickly replied. “We also need a map of these warrens to figure out where the ships are.”
“You have two hours. Either you bring me food, or you will become food. Get in and hurry. My spawn know where the exits tunnels are located.”
New mission available: A Meal Fit for a Lady. Description: capture the Zatrathi flying fortress and bring it down to the planet Shurtan. Reward: Hidden. Penalty for failing the quest: Two-month binding to the planet Shurtan.
Deadline: 2 hours.
Another fifteen cacodemons stepped forward. They began to clamber over each other, merging their bodies and transforming into one terrible whole. A minute later, the transformation was complete, revealing a disfigured rhino. It was as if a child had tried to draw the rhino in my orbship — except the child was using crayons and had no knack for drawing at all.
The rhino’s sides split open revealing four seats. We got in and the rhino rushed forward at a blistering pace, deftly jumping any obstacles and miraculously avoiding both walls and dead ends. Despite the fact that the thoughtful cacodemons had left us portholes to enjoy the view, all our attention was focused on not smashing our heads against the interior. We were being rattled so hard that you’d think that Mercaloun had ordered them to shake the souls out of us. After an eternal thirty seconds the running stopped. I rolled out, collapsing onto Eunice. Our trip hadn’t brought her much joy either. The rhino raised its paw, pointing upward. My spatial scanner immediately identified a passage in the ceiling ascending straight up.
“Brainiac, we’re taking off!” I ordered, taking the two armor suits full of cacodemons. My thrusters roared to life, struggling to overcome gravity. The toothy monsters sure did weigh a lot.
A deep shaft led us into an empty cavity. I scuffed the floor with my toe — it was marble. All around, everything was covered with marble, protecting the inhabitants of the planet from those who lived below its surface. Sunlight penetrated one of the far edges of the natural cave. Brainiac immediately directed us that way — away from the ‘generous’ Mercaloun. The walls, the ceiling, the floor — everything was clad in marble. The vermin sat quietly in their armor suits and did not object even when we emerged into the sunlight. The armor protected them. We took off from the ground and, as stupid as it sounds, once we were outside in fresh air, we tore off our helmets and breathed deeply. Shurtan’s frosty air tickled the skin, reinvigorating our minds.
Brainiac took over our suit’s autopilots, while Eunice and I reveled in our newfound liberty. Even if it was temporary and still under threat, it was liberty. After a short flight, Brainiac set us down on a stone, which naturally, turned out to be snow-white marble. We activated our cloaks and started scanning around us. A transport was being unloaded about a kilometer away. The Zatrathi were loading the slabs into a slow moving machine, which was evenly laying the slabs all over the surface.
“We have two options,” said Eunice, kicking over the can of cacodemons. “We can open it here, fry these monsters, and use our cloaks to steal aboard the transport. Brainiac will pick us up and we hightail it to Blood Island where we restore our binding to the planetary spirit and treat all this like a bad dream. And who’d blame us? The other option is the heroic and risky one. No one knows what a well-fed Mercaloun will do. It’s your quest so it’s up to you to decide. I’ve got your back in either case. We can find some other way to that prize check. We’re not short of money at the moment so there’s no rush.”
My wife had voiced what we had both been thinking and stepped aside. I was staring at the armor suits trying to organize my thoughts. Instead of racing at a gallop, my mind was like an empty prairie with a tumbleweed driven by a silent wind and a lonely cow mooing in the direction of the rolling morsel. I could even hear the ringing of her bell. Who will win the contest between the wind and the cow’s laziness?
“It’s time, Lex. What’s the plan?” Eunice prompted me but I was still waiting for a result. At last, the cow proved more agile. She snatched the tumbleweed mid-tumble and began to chew it slowly. We cannot run away from this mission. It clearly states that if we fail it, we will have to spend the next several months stuck on this planet. Even if we rush off, some abnormal event will happen, and we will be forced to respawn. And I bet we’ll lose Brainiac on top of it all too. Furthermore, let’s just keep in mind who this Mercaloun is. An Uldan. I’m sure the Precian adviser would flip his dome if he learned that I had run away. In effect, we only had one option:
“Let’s risk it. We’ll head for the flying fortress.”
What an immense relief it is to finally make up your mind! No more anxiety, no more endless thinking about the ‘what ifs.’ The decision has been made and all that matters is the execution. Nothing else.
The planet-wide marbling project was in full swing and to our delight it was fully automated. The giant marbling combines paid no attention to the appearance of two strange armor suits. While I was securing the armor suits in the transport’s cargo hold, Eunice cut a hole into the cockpit and hooked up Brainiac.
“This ship has forty-two cycles left before she must returns for maintenance,” the orbship computer announced, reading the internal data. “Shall I take the controls?”
“It’s not necessary.” I pulled out my manipulators and picked up the last of the remaining slabs. There was little space, but it was enough to accelerate the marble and smash it against the hull. This caused an impressive dent in the wall and a red warning light to pop up on the console.
“Ten cycles left!” Brainiac updated his report. “Smash another one against the other side.”
By the time the harvester appeared to pick up the marble, the transport was a wreck. The doors slammed shut and the ship’s system began running a self-diagnosis. Something squeaked somewhere, some lights blinked red and the autopilot adjusted our course. We had a reservation at one of the flying fortress’s repair docks. However, we could barely lift off. I had gone a bit overboard and made some holes in the hull. Now the wind howled inside the cargo hold and the pressure was dropping. I grew worried about the cacodemons. The husk of an armor suit might protect its occupants from sunlight, but what about cosmic vacuum? To make sure, I opened the faceplate and encountered a hungry cacodemon eye. It immediately fixed on all the tasty metal around us and I had to shut the faceplate again to keep its appetite in check.
“And how are we supposed to control these vermin?” Eunice wondered. She did not seem thrilled by our new teammates.
“We’re not. We’ll just have to assume that…Wait. Something is wrong. Why have we stopped? Brainiac?”
The transport had come to a stop beside the flying fortress.
“Everything is reading nominal over here. I detect no problems. We have passed the scanning procedure.”
Scanning procedure?
“Take the controls, Eunice!” I yelled. “Full speed ahead and ram us into the hull.”
A stupid oversight on my part! I completely forgot that the NPC ships automatically scan any approaching vessel for the slightest presence of unauthorized living organisms. No matter if it was a Grand Arbiter, an orbital station or whatever else. Why wouldn’t the same mechanic apply to the Zatrathi? In this case, the scan had detected 32 u
nauthorized creatures. And naturally at that point, the Zatrathi grew curious and detained the transport.
We almost made it. The transport rushed for the flying fortress as fast as it could, yet the Zatrathi beat us to the punch. First our electronics went out, then a tractor beam stopped our lunge and moved us aside. You just can’t predict a thing in this game!
“Let’s go!” I grabbed both cans of cacodemons and with two shots of my blasters knocked out the rear loading ramp, opening a way into space. I guess we’ll just have spacewalk the rest of the way. Eunice was occupied with swapping the powercells, making me a little nervous, but a few seconds later we were hanging in space watching our transport get moved a safe distance from the hull of the flying fortress and then turned into a brief, beautiful fireball by three torpedoes. The Zatrathi did not stand on ceremony.
“Lex, tow me to the flying fortress, will you?” asked Eunice, clutching my leg. She was not very fond of maneuvering in space with her suit thrusters.
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