The Birth of a Lantern
(Chapter 19)
Luciferous floated around the Coralex solar system at a snail's pace with several Moxian, Yendorian, and Gorgonian ships attached to it fueling while the soldiers took a reprieve from the war. It was an opportunity for soldiers to have a good meal, some good sleep, and more often than not, some good sex with one of the many escorts on the ship. It was a monster of a ship but served as a fueling station and a party bus for war-torn soldiers to have a bit of reprieve.
Jadicus and Brack Lo spent plenty of time on Luciferous enjoying the scenery of the gambling halls and often took home a Doraxian sex worker every now and again. He changed a lot over the last two years after a skirmish with six Decayan warriors near the Great Barrier. When he tried to take on one of the Decayan warriors in hand-to-hand combat, the creature touched him on the forearm and caused it to rot. It was his ring hand. Immediately, Brack Lo picked him up and his severed limb too, and flew them to Doraxia where their doctors were able to grow him a new hand.
Luciferous was named one of Ptah's sons who was considered the light of the gods. It was a ship from the Doraxian fleet, a ship that was activated for the war effort as a medical ship. It was, also, one of the oldest ships in the Doraxian fleet, some four thousand years old. But at the same time, it was a ship built differently than all the other Doraxian ships; it was from a class of ships aptly called Planet Destroyers. It had the ability to shoot a hole directly through a planet and destroy the planet's core, but no Doraxian would ever do such a thing. Most of the Doraxians were peaceful people and served as medical staff in the war effort.
Jadicus was a tall Thanagarian Lantern with a wide wingspan who was once a soldier in the Thanagarian Army. He sat at the gambling table on Luciferious drinking a Red Booshi Martini with a plate of Uni meat directly in front of him. He wore his black shirt with some black pants because he was off duty for the next three days. Often, he picked up escorts almost daily and even when on duty. He paid in advance due to the amount of money a Lantern received on a monthly basis. One gold bar could easily pay for a dozen prostitutes for a year, and when it came to Jadicus, he constantly dropped off gold bars to the escorts all the time.
Lanterns received four bars of gold on a monthly basis, and for most Lanterns that was plenty. The gold was worth approximately sixty thousand dollars each pay period, but Jadicus spent all his money on the card table, prostitutes, and especially on a Doraxian prostitute named Tally Nead, an escort who never finished her doctorial thesis. She was a thin, sapphire woman with a lot of curves, and talked kind of fast. She sat down beside him at the card table, placed her hands on his legs, and then said, "You've been here for hours, babe."
He had a peach cigarette on the edge of the table in a tray, took a few puffs, and then blew the smoke in Tally's face. "Just let me play a few more games," he said. He placed the back of his right hand on her left cheek as a sign of affection amongst the Doraxian people. It meant that he loved her sexually.
Tally's hair was black and long, and when it came to her eyes, they were slightly amber in color. She wore some red lipstick that brought out the beauty of her lips. "I love the smell of that peach-flavored cigarette," she said as she took it from his long fingers. "I used to smoke all the time back on Doraxia."
"Why did you stop?" He asked. The dealer threw him another card and he said, "Damn! I'm going to score tonight."
"My father, General T'Nead wanted me to stop," she said, "But I didn't. I didn't stop until we received a report that he died when Preelix exploded."
"I remember that," he said, "It was a horrible day. I was actually in Lantern school when that happened." He slid his left hand across her butt, and then asked, "Why don't you have your 'T'?"
"With the death of my father, I dropped out of the doctorial program," she explained, "I took a hardship, but just didn't have the strength to return."
He threw his cards on the table and he had seven octagons, six black ones, one red, and it was the red one in the center that cinched the win. "Bam!" He exclaimed throwing the cards face-up on the table. "Now, let's get a room."
"Winner!" The card dealer exclaimed. He pushed nearly a dozen gold coins over to him, and then he gave half of them to Tally.
"Here you go, little lady," he said with a wide-mouth grin.
Jadicus was drunk. Tally had to help him to her accommodations on Luceferious, and it was a struggle because he was a large creature. But when he helped him down the hallway, two Peridians approached him with their phasers pointed directly at his face. When it came to the Peridians, they were a race of enslavers who enslaved the Gidisons for thousands of years until the Yendorians stopped it. In modern times, enslavement didn't happen too much since Yendor went to war with Peridia over their treatment of the Gidisons. It was an ugly war with millions of casualties on both sides.
The Peridians looked ferocious with their putrid clear skin and sharpened fangs. "We told you, Jadicus, that we'd find you," one of the Peridians said. His skin was almost transparent with bug-like eyes and a gravelly voice. "We've been watching you waste your life gambling and sleeping with this Doraxian whore." He pointed directly at Tally and she didn't like it one bit.
Tally grimaced. It was obvious by her expression that she didn't take being called a whore well.
Jadicus scoffed. "Dubra, I killed your brother in self-defense," he said while slurring his speech, "He drew down on me in a Yendorian bar over a game of Octagons." He could barely stand because of the alcohol he drank.
"What the fuck you say, Jadicus?" The other Peridian asked. He looked down at Jadicus' ring hand and scoffed. "This Thanagarian is nothing but a washed-up drunk. The Lantern Corps will make any vile creature a Lantern these days."
"Either shoot me or leave me be, Vo Ker!" Jadicus exclaimed. "But don't bore me!" He began laughing in the faces of the Peridian would-be assassins.
"Waste this fool!" Dubra ordered.
When Vo Ker went to raise his phaser to Jadicus's face, Tally swiftly kicked the weapon out of his hand, twisted his arm around his back, and then snapped his right leg into two pieces with a quick kick to his shin. The phaser flew up in the air, and once she had Vo Ker on the ground screaming, she caught the phaser, pointed it at Dubra's face, and then said, "Not all Doraxians are pacifists, Dubra. Don't make me pull this trigger."
Jadicus began laughing, and then said, "You didn't know about Tally did you?"
"How is it that a Doraxian underachiever can fight like a Yendorian warrior?" Dubra asked.
"Because BroRa and my father were best friends," she said, "He was second in command on BroRa's Battlecruiser during the Yendorian war."
He scoffed. "BroRa is long dead," he said.
"What?" She asked.
"My men killed him nearly seven years ago," he said.
Before he could finish his sentence, she shot him in the head, and then she shot Vo Ker in the midsection several times.
Jadicus fell backward onto the wall, and said, "What the hell? You didn't have to kill him."
"I might've been born a Doraxian, Jadicus, but I was trained like a Yendorian warrior by BroRa. He was like my uncle." She helped him off the ground but it was a struggle. "I must cut this date short because I have to leave for Yendor."
"Yendor?" He asked.
"Yes," she said, "I must visit BroRa's junkyard and find out what happened to him. I must see if he's dead for myself."
The Birth of a Lantern
(Chapter 19)
(Vega Star)
Prince Nefare secured all the hoverboards to the ship while everybody else went inside the vessel. It was approximately two o'clock in the morning, hot, but the area was still bustling with activity. In the distance, he could see the Pedalnoid girl sitting under a bushy tree as he fastened the last hoverboard into place. It took him approximately thirty minutes to properly secure all the hoverboards, but he wasn't moving extremely fast because he was drunk. He saw two well-built guards performing security checks and making sure nobody was loitering near the planes. Broady offered to help him with securing the hoverboards, but he was too drunk to do anything other than sleep. He helped his friend into the ship, but it was hard because Broady was a large Vega-Knight. When he fastened his friend into the rear seat, he noticed that all the others were already passed out. He walked back out of the ship and when he looked across the field, he thought he saw Tre'Yan one more time, but he quickly realized his mind was playing tricks on him.
Suddenly, he saw Narious walking down the ramp of the ship, and he said, "Thought you were asleep."
Narious scoffed. He had wrinkles on his forehead and his grimace was one of anger. "Prince Nefare, I'm sorry for what I must do."
"What's that?" He asked.
Narious pulled out a pistol and pointed it right at the Prince. "What are you doing?" Prince Nefare asked.
"Moxia stands in the way of huge profits across the galaxy," he said, "Once you're gone, we'll remove your father from the throne, and my father will become the ruler of Moxia."
The Prince began laughing; it was a deep laugh, the kind of laugh that showed nothing but disrespect to Narious in every way.
"You're laughing at me?" Narious asked as he raised the pistol to the Prince's head.
The Prince heard something breaking the sound barrier, and when he looked up into the sky, it was Po'Lariet, the Lantern, hovering over his head. She was dressed in her formal dress.
"Lantern, arrest this man!" He ordered, "He's brandishing a gun at your Prince's head.
"I know," she said, "I asked him to."
The Prince gasped!
"Prince, meet your cousin. My brother." She descended to the ground in front of the Prince, pulled off the green glove on her ring finger, and then slapped the Prince with a backhanded slap that knocked him to the ground.
"You'll hang for this!" The Prince exclaimed. When Po'Lariet looked over at her brother, a laser shot from the Prince's forearm struck Narious and caused a huge gash in his forehead.
Narious stumbled and fell face-first on the ground, but it was too late for the Prince because Po'Lariet already had him trapped in a green bubble that came out of her ring. He floated inside the bubble, and then she set him down inside the Thaddican vessel.