"Silence, animals!"
The twittering and mewling cries of the various caged things stopped suddenly, and the Chamber of Life was silent for a few seconds. In a moment the noises would begin again, but skekTek didn't mind. Just as long as the infernal creatures stayed quiet for the procedure he was about to perform at the Emperor's behest.
SkekTek had only been the court scientist for four-hundred years. Relatively early in skekSo's reign, the previous scientist, to whom skekTek was an apprentice, had died. A victim of the predator the Skeksis called time. The enemy that ravaged their ancient bodies in spite of all their attempts to stave off death.
Upon his mentor's demise, skekTek had been promoted by skekSo. Leaping at the opportunity, skekTek had taken no apprentice himself. His exploits were legend among the Skeksis. His predecessor had been a fair biologist but a poor physician; he knew nothing of the Skeksis' unique anatomy. To this end, skekTek sought to solve this problem, but dissecting his own body. His entire right leg, and most of his right arm, were mechanical.
He'd managed to keep his right hand. Jury-rigged to the wrist of the metal arm, it was kept alive by blood fed through tubes running down the metallic framework of the arm from his shoulder. The limbs were near useless. SkekTek was forced to hobble due to the metal leg, and his hand was withered and weak, the arm stiffly jointed and typically seen hanging limply against his side. Only with concentrated effort could the scientist even make use of it.
One augmentation he had not counted on was his bionic eye. Once, prior to their extinction, one of the Gelflings he was working with had gotten lucky. Wrenching free from the grasp of his weak mechanical arm, she had seized up a flask and smashed it against his face. The shattered glass gouged his flesh and blinded his eye.
To this day he bore deep scars, and in his eye socket sat a mechanical eye that shone a brilliant white light. Like his metal limbs, it was functional but not perfect; the vision provided by the metallic eye was weak. Not that it impeded him in his work. As long as he possessed one good eye and two functioning hands, even if one was attached to a weak, false arm, he could do his job.
The Chamber of Life was in fact a chamber of death, skekTek mused. What lived here could not be considered to experience "life" as most sentient beings knew it. The laboratory specimens just squirmed and whimpered pathetically in their cages and pens, wishing for death which would come only when the scientist himself decided, for skekTek was lord and master of his workshop.
He opened one of the cages built into the wall, one of two containing a total of four Podlings. This one was a female, old and gray-haired. He wouldn't get much essence from her. But until the Garthim returned from their latest raid, these were what skekTek would have to work with. And skekUng had literally demanded his first taste of life-essence, forcing the scientist to make due with what he had.
He had wanted to use Aughra, who currently sat in a cage of her own across the room, but skekUng had forbidden it. Until the Great Conjunction, the Keeper of Secres was not to be harmed. This annoyed skekTek who felt certain that the wise old crone, who must surely have some magic in her to have survived for as long as the Skeksis, would yield excellent life-essence, but skekUng was adamant and the scientist dared not cross him, especially when he was backed by that vindictive serpent, skekZok.
The Podling woman was strapped into her chair without much of a fight. Once he had her secured, he turned and grabbed her cage-mate, a younger male. This one put up more of a struggle.
"You're next, little Podling!" he told the creature.
The thing pleaded in its native language, a language skekTek had never even attempted to understand. One thing he did know, however, was that the Podling wanted to let go, and now.
The Podlings were strange creatures. More than animals, possessing a culture of a sort, and a language, but less than Skeksis. SkekOk was better suited to figuring out the intricacies of their speech and culture; all skekTek was required to do was drain the stupid things. This particular feisty fellow might yield better essence than the elderly female.
And speaking of animals, skekTek noted that his other specimens had started up with their noises once more, albeit with less enthusiasm. One look from the blue-skinned Skeksis made them wither and cringe.
As he strapped the Podling in, skekTek "reassured" him with mock sincerity. "This won't hurt!" he said. "We just want to drain your living essence. Then you can be the same as the other Podlings here. A slave."
Once skekTek had him secured, he stood back. There were three chairs, and the third was still occupied by another Podling skekTek had drained earlier and forgotten about. He didn't feel like loosing him just yet, so the other two caged Podlings would have to wait.
Turning to his assistant, he barked, "Open the wall!"
The assistant, a specially-trained Podling slave possessing a modicum of knowledge regarding laboratory work, turned to a control panel and numbly pulled down a switch. A deep rumble filled the Chamber of Life. The animals fell silent again. A portion of the wall which the chairs faced was concave, and the floor tilted downward and slowly opened, but only a slit, admitting red light into the room. The wall could open further, but the Great Shaft was like a furnace and so skekTek only opened it the barest minimum.
Now came his favorite part. Most would assume that the work he did was tedious and repetitive; that he was little more than a life-essence assembly line operator. While this was true to an extent, skekTek found ways to make it enjoyable. One of these ways was in explaining, in detail, the process his victims were to undergo. Whether or not they could understand what he was saying was beside the point.
"Now, Podling," he said. "Out there is the Great Shaft of the castle."
He limped over to join his assistant. "Position the reflector," he ordered.
The assistant didn't budge. SkekTek frowned. Did he have to do everything? Apparently. He sighed and pulled a second lever. Out in the Shaft, a crystal prism on a jointed arm slowly swung down and moved into position. At the top of the Shaft was the Crystal Chamber, and hovering directly above was the Dark Crystal itself. Light filtered through the Crystal Chamber's triangular skylight and into the Crystal, and then down through the Shaft.
"The reflector will capture the beams of the Dark Crystal floating high above," skekTek explained.
In the chair the Podling wrenched his head free. He and his fellow prisoner looked in dismay at their blank-eyed predecessor still strapped into the third chair.
"Look into the reflector, Podling," skekTek said. "Feel the power of the Dark Crystal!"
Apparently the Podling's curiosity got the better of him, for he did indeed turn towards the slit in the wall, and the reflector. A fatal mistake. Just as he turned his head the prism moved into position, caught the light, and a thin beam of purple energy was shone directly into the terror-widened eyes of the Podling.
"Mmmm, yes," skekTek sneered. "And now the beam will rid you of your fears, your thoughts, your vital essence."
Immediately the process began. The Podling's facial features shrunk and withered. His hair, once a lustrous red, turned white and stringy. His eyes glowed purple. And his liquefied life-essence drained into an ornate flask through an IV tube inserted into his wrist. SkekTek walked over once the flask was full and picked it up with his good hand, examining its clear liquid contents.
"You're very lucky, slave. Only the Emperor can drink your essence."
Wryly, skekTek doubted the Podling would agree. Just then, over the rumble coming from the Shaft, he heard footsteps and clinking spurs. SkekUng. Whirling to his assistant, skekTek hissed, "He's here! Close it, slave!"
The assistant obediently pulled the levers. The prism moved out of position, cutting off the purple light beam. The floor slid back upwards and closed with a loud bang that reverberated throughout the Chamber of Life. The drained, mindless Podling still in the chair panted, looking thoroughly traumatized, and identical to the one seated next to him. This still left the elderly female, to say nothing of the other two still in their cages, but skekTek would see to them later. Now, as skekUng strode in like he owned the place, the scientist was forced to see to his Emperor.
"Is it ready?" skekUng demanded. Not even a hello.
SkekTek hid his annoyance. His assistant at his heels he staggered over and met the Emperor halfway. The flask containing the Podling essence changed hands and skekUng looked at it with a mixture of skepticism and barely contained excitement.
"Very fresh, very strong, sire," skekTek assured him.
SkekUng said nothing and downed the essence in one gulp. Or at least he tried to. Quite a bit of it dribbled out of his jaws and down over his armor and robes, to skekTek's disgust. What a waste of perfectly good essence.
"Now," skekUng muttered and went to a nearby mirror.
Feeling the need to reassure him, skekTek said, "Oh, it will make you young again, sire!"
Make him young it did. SkekUng's wrinkled facial features pulled taut, the bags under his eyes disappeared, and his sparse gray hair became black, lustrous and full. He turned to the scientist and puffed his chest up, beaming widely. Then he let loose a loud, happy cackle and began marching to and fro waving his arms around and going, "Young!" over and over again. "Yes, young!"
Proud of his handiwork, skekTek allowed himself a chuckle. Beside him his assistant smiled dumbly, merely imitating the two Skeksis in their merriment. But that merriment ended mere seconds later. SkekUng stopped, as if sensing something was amiss. His wrinkles returned and his hair thinned as he aged centuries in mere seconds. He was back to his "old self," as the saying went, and, to skekTek's dismay, he may have even looked slightly older than he had before. Anticipating an outburst, skekTek drew back a bit, hissing, praying it was just a trick of the light.
"You fraud!" skekUng roared, pointing an accusing finger at him. He flung the empty flask to the floor and it shattered loudly. SkekUng took a threatening step toward the scientist.
"No, wait!" skekTek yelled. "Please, sire!"
He sidestepped, putting a table between himself and skekUng. Rather than move around and attack the scientist, skekUng instead, rather humorously, took his anger out on some perfectly innocent lab equipment. A sweep of his great arm sent baskets, jars and bottles crashing to the floor in a huge mess.
"Liar!" he snarled. Then, his rage having apparently been vented, he spun and stormed out of the room, yelling "Slave-squeezer!" over his shoulder.
SkekTek panted with relief. He had a mess to clean up but at leasy skekUng hadn't harmed him. He had feared this might happen. One flaskful of Podling essence didn't last very long. But it normally never wore off this quickly. What had happened? He assumed it was because skekUng's body was just so aged that nothing short of a whole barrel of essence would restore him to youth for longer than a day. But try explaining that to an enraged Skeksis Emperor!
"It always worked!" skekTek cried in dismay.
Ignoring the mess for now he turned and hobbled back over to the chairs. He would finish draining the Podlings now, and hope and pray that those Garthim returned from their raid soon with more for him to drain. As he went, he mused, "Better when we used Gelflings."
Yes, that was it! A Gelfling! If the Garthim succeeded in capturing the Gelfling they had seen in the Crystal earlier, skekTek might have something worthwhile to work with. And then skekUng's anger would be salved. That was of course if the stupid beasts didn't kill the Gelfling while capturing it. The Garthim had a tendency not to know their own strength, after all. But skekTek would worry about that later. For now he dealt with the Podling woman, flipping the switch on the control panel, and once more red light flooded the Chamber of Life.
Back to work...