THE EXECUTION INTERVIEW OF RAJID HADAD, THE OIL DUKE
Q: What lead you to the crimes you have most certainly committed?
A: Simply the fact, my dear dissenter, that the universe is what is known as a "pie", and that we, in a simply metaphorical sense, need a slice of it.
Q: So the whole thing was about... power?
A: Yes. I must confess, it was indeed power, resources, finances, and all those other things. Mainly it came from the monopoly on Tanan Oil, as you must surely know.
Q: For the uninitiated, Tanan Oil is...?
A: Tanan Oil is the thin, runny residue created when extreme heat coalesces with certain sands. Now, all the systems I have subjugated are full of planets with that particular kind of sand, known as Black Sand. Tanan Oil is the substance with which new Robloxians are created. A pregnant mother consumes two Tanan Pills per day; spawn machines have tanks in which a pre-formed embryo is saturated with Tanan Oil mixed with water. Many cloning processes use Tanan Oil and the genetic material of a particular subject to create multiple copies of the subject. So you see, he who controls the substance controls the universe.
Q: Interesting. I swear I've heard that somewhere before... uh, anyhow, do you have anything to say before we give you the banhammer?
A: One thing: my legacy will continue. My vast Oil Empire will be continued under my son. My conquests will not be forgotten. The Hadad family will maintain control over Tanan Oil for the rest of known time.
Q: Do you not know that now the Robloxian Administrators will have this interview in their data libraries henceforth?
A: Yes. And I am glad of that. It will give my son a reputation that will strike fear into the Admins, and ensure my son will keep his seat on my throne!
Fadiris strode briskly down the long corridor, pillars to his left, a solid stone wall to his right. The dark violet sky of Oxiaris held in its grip a small watery-looking sun, of a sickly blue color. This sun barely illuminated the planet's surface, and so the Hadad Keep on Oxiaris's Danib Mesa was almost perpetually lit. All else was darkness save for the red glow coming from lava fields on the far horizon.
Fadiris was the designated governor of the Oxiaris Keep, and therefore was the designated governor of Oxiaris itself under order of the Duke. He was very tall and thin, bald except for a ring of blue hair around his skull, and had small blue eyes that surveyed everything with equal suspicion. Today, his skeletal body was clothed in long white fabric, with blue and gold embroidery around the edges. This was a special gesture; usually, he wore but a strict black and gray Hadad military uniform, with the moon-orbiting-planet insignia on the right sleeve, and the badge giving his rank as the governor pinned to his lapel. Today, the Duke was coming. The Duke himself was coming to inspect his Tanan output!
He exited the corridor, and entered the formal landing plaza. In the middle of the plaza was a large square platform, of about 2,500 square meters in size. This platform had clamps at the north, south, west, and east sides, to hold down a landed Hadad Pyramid Command Craft (HPCC). Fadiris walked to a small stone-block building, in which technicians checked switches and panels gave off a monotone hum.
The chief technician, Bronnal, stood up quickly when he entered, and saluted, lightly dazing himself with a flat hand to the temple.
"Everything's going smoothly, sir!" he reported.
"Hopefully," snapped Fadiris, "you are right. I know the Duke doesn't like landing failures."
"I heard about the whole Taiko XVI thing too, sir," Bronnal said. "This time, the clamps actually work, sir!"
"Good," Fadiris replied. He sat down in a chair facing a long, narrow window that allowed him to see outwards towards the landing array. He twiddled his thumbs nervously.
Meanwhile, far above the landing area, a massive spacecraft hovered in the sky. It was shaped like a pyramid, with a base that corresponded exactly with the dimensions of the pad below. Around it were several smaller pyramids that served as an escort to the great Shako Hadad himself. They were currently affixing tractor beams to the larger ship's hull, and beginning to guide it down to the landing pad.
Fadiris saw it coming from his seat. He saw the great ship descend, surrounded by those small pyramids, and gently coast towards the ground. He observed how the clamps began to fold into their landing positions, controlled by the sure hands of the technicians under Bronnal's command. The HPCC landed in the square pad, and adjusted its position with side boosters that alternately flared and extinguished. Then the clamps folded into place, holding the ship down, and the huge bottom engine flickered off.
Fadiris held his breath.
A set of big double doors at the front of the craft slowly swung open. Blinding white light poured out. Then people began to disembark. There were Hadad guardsmen, more technicians, ambassadors in flowing purple robes, aides, noblemen. In the center of the rank was a litter that floated seemingly by itself, and inside the litter staring out with green-on-green eyes at the proceedings was Oil Duke Shako Hadad. Fadiris hastily scuttled out of the technician's building, and stood at the front of his small host party made up of more Hadad guards and a few generals. The Oil Duke's entourage stopped about twenty blox away, and the ranks parted to allow the litter to glide towards Fadiris and halt just in front of him.
Fadiris bowed.
"Your Excellence, Duke Hadad, Master of the Tanan," he whispered reverently.
A fat hand reached out into the light from the deep shadows of the litter, and placed itself on Fadiris's shiny bald head.
"Fadiris." The voice of Duke Shako Hadad was smooth as satin, as deep as a sinkhole, with faux syrupy tones that masked every word he spoke. "My dear Fadiris. Show me your progress. Allow my guards to escort us. I eagerly await to see your output."
"At once, Your Excellence," Fadiris said, trying to keep the trembling out of his voice.
-OOO-
At the victory party later that day, as the Gate was being repaired by part of the Robloxian space fleet, Jack was pulled aside by Captain GoldBC, who had a worried look on his face. Jack had been calmly drinking some scotch when Gold had come up to him and whispered to him that his presence was needed. Now, Gold and Jack stood in a corner, away from prying ears.
"What is it, sir?" asked Jack.
"No need to call me sir in this setting," Gold replied. "Hey, listen, somethin' important I gotta tell you. There's a rumor goin' round that you're gonna be murdered."
Jack stiffened.
"Who's gonna murder me?" he asked sharply.
"I don't know," Gold said. "I was told by one of the crew."
"Which one?"
"He walked away fast after he told me," Gold said. "I didn't catch his ID."
"Well, can you do me a favor and keep watch for... say, knives that shouldn't be there?" Jack asked.
"I'll do that," Gold promised. They walked back into the victory celebration, and immediately Uuom looked at them and raised his glass of blue liquor.
"To our victor," he slurred, "to missssster Jacksteelll yeah!" He downed the glass and immediately poured himself another one.
"We're very grateful for your plan out there," Tahlia said as Uuom began to drink his drink and slopped some over his Epic Duck steak. "I think that may have saved all our lives."
"Ehhh, no need to thank me," Jack said, blushing slightly. He slapped himself mentally for blushing, reminding himself of Angelica waiting back home with his son. "But thanks anyways," he added.
Helen flashed a smile in his direction, a brief and brittle one. She did not seem like one who smiled frequently. Then she went back to her food.
Jack sat down at the table beside John, who slapped him on the back.
"That was the most badass thing I've ever seen," he exclaimed. "Seriously, you just stood there in front of that guy, then he just sort of... charged right off the edge!"
"I exploited his stupidity," Jack explained absentmindedly, skewering some steak and bringing it to his place. "I do it all the time in field work."
"Me too," John said, grinning. As the tempo of eating increased, he went on, "I once had to deal with this guy... this was about two years ago, mind you, and I got him to blow himself up with his own shotgun. The slugs exploded," he added. "Not the gun. The shells in the gun exploded. The gun did not explode. Yeah." He scooped up the bottle of vodka and poured some into a shot glass. Mixing it with some of the sweet blue powder in a bowl nearby, he watched it swirl and permeate within the drink. Steam began to rise from the drink.
"What's that drink?" Jack asked, wanting to get the conversation away from the victory.
"Oh, it's a Greenwood Town thing," John explained. "It doesn't really have a defined name, but we call it 'Gun Sweat'. Don't know why." He offered the shot glass to Jack. "Want some?"
"Er, no thanks," Jack said. "I've already got scotch." He drank a bit of the amber liquid to demonstrate. Then, a sudden thought striking him, he leaned closer to John and whispered, "Do you have one of those clip-on security cameras?"
"Oh, those?" John whispered back. "Yeah, I brought them in my jacket pocket. Want one?"
"Yeah." Jack held out his hand under the table, and John passed him the camera, a small cylinder of metal about a centimeter in length.
"What's the matter?" John inquired, concerned.
"Someone's planning to murder me," Jack answered.
"Do you know who?"
"No, and besides, why didn't they just shoot me down during the space battle?"
"Maybe this murderer's been playing too many murder simulations. Murder Mystery's a growing phenomena! So is The Mad Murderer. All basically clones."
"Yeah, I know. That's where most of the recent underworld crime comes from." Jack took another sip of his scotch. "Mind you," he said, a thought crossing his mind, " we could probably find the murderer really easily. This ain't New Robloxia, it's a spaceship. It's not really that big, there aren't many places to hide."
"Agreed."
"And those cameras - when we find our rooms, we can place them above our doors."
"Good plan."
They straightened, resumed eating and normal dinner conversation.
At about 7:35 PM, much later than scheduled, the repairs on the Gate were complete. The large Robloxian frigates and battleships turned around and headed back for the planet behind them, now the size of a marble. The Great Justice slowly advanced forward until it was resting inside the Gate, facing outwards into the dark space beyond. The blue glow around the inside edge of the Gate faded into being again.
"ATTENTION," said a voice on the ship's communication system. "ATTENTION. WE WILL BE MAKING THE JUMP TO MINIMUM RENDER IN ONE MINUTE. PLEASE PREPARE FOR THE JUMP BY FOCUSING ON AN OBJECT AND HOLDING FOCUS UNTIL THE JUMP OCCURS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION."
The ship was silent and still within the ring; then, a minute later, the engines at the back exploded to life, and the clear scenery of space was replaced with large blotches that would, if you squinted, resemble space. The ship was thrust heavily forwards out of the ring, disappearing into the darkness beyond. Render quality returned to normal. The Gate's fires died down.
An odd note about space and time in the Robloxian universe: the lower the visibility (or render distance), the higher the speed, the shorter the time takes from the renderer's perspective. Likewise, those outside the low-render zone see the journey as taking longer than it does. Therefore, time speeds up within a low-render zone. In places like Venezia or New Robloxia, where the huge amount of urban development around the city areas drops the framerate to a medium-low speed, people live longer because their bodies have adapted to live normal lifespans in a slower than normal environment. This phenomena is called the Builderman Altered Time Theorem, because the Admin himself discovered it when the first spacecraft was sent from Robloxia to one of its moons.
The Theorem was in full affect during the flight of the Great Justice. Since the ship was at the lowest possible render distance, it was therefore flying at a speed slightly underneath the speed of code itself. Later estimates by Robloxian historians show that while the journey took only a week by the standards of the travelers, six months went by on New Robloxia.
Enough time for the social order to break right down.