AAHH! Have you ever had a chapter that would not work? This chapter has given me ulcers! Any feedback is appreciated... as at this moment I want to kill Marcus myself for being so difficult!
Chapter Thirteen
"Of course, Commander." Marcus bowed his head slightly to the planet's chief military officer. The man was impressive, in a uniformed, brutish manner. Certainly his broad shoulders and light brown hair were attractive. Still, he was an officious bore and Marcus hated officious bores. However the Commander's android army was quite impressive and for that reason, Marcus smiled in obsequious graciousness.
He glanced at the crowd gathered for the Commander's party. The grand hall of Vesta's capital building was covered in gladiola and primrose, banners that screamed 'Congratulations' hung from the balconies, tables filled with the most costly treats circled the room.
He turned his back to the rest of the party's guests, choosing instead to stare out an enormous portal where he could clearly see the legion of android soldiers on the ground, a hundred meters below. The metal constructs stood completely still, statues, awaiting commands. They needed neither food nor water; they had no mind or will of their own. They were perfect and Marcus could feel himself hardening in hunger for them.
Yseult turned to the commander and smiled. "Why Commander, the size of your army is quite… impressive."
"Thank you, m'am. And please, call me Gavin." He returned her smile, using every bit of his military training to look at her face and not the expansive amount of cleavage her dress offered. "We have thousands of legions scattered across the planet, with the heavier concentrations surrounding our capitals. We safe guard our larger cities, of course. Must guarantee the safety of our leaders and commerce no matter what occurs."
"Of course, Gavin. Quite wise." Yseult nodded. "Trade is a planet's lifeblood. Never mind a governing body's tax base!" She allowed a small laugh to escape her lips and winked at him conspiratorially.
He grinned back. "Absolutely, m'am. That's the nail on the head there, isn't it?"
"Please, Gavin, call me Yseult."
His responding grin almost split his face in two. "I would be honored, Yseult."
She could hear Marcus' low groan, but she didn't care. She knew he wanted her to make nice with the commander, in case they needed him or his impressive army. The ease with which she did so should not annoy him. Besides, the fact was she actually liked this man. He was a bit stuffy, with a little extra meat on his two meter frame. But his eyes were kind, and he looked at her as if he had never seen anything so beautiful in his life. Though she knew herself well enough to recognize adoration bored her rather quickly, she had to admit it was a nice change from Marcus' constant ridicule.
She placed her hand on his arm, hoping the gesture annoyed Marcus even further. "You say there are thousands of these legions? Are they all manufactured here, on Xatra?"
"Yes, m'am… Yseult," he said shyly. "Xatra produces over a thousand androids a month. Many of these are held for our military, however a portion are sold off world."
"Are they all built as soldiers?"
"No, not at all. The sale of military androids is tightly controlled by the planet's governors. Typically our offworld androids are programmed for the service industries." He turned from the window and gestured to the androids offering cocktails to various guests at the party. "Maids, butlers, housekeepers, gardeners. The household servant is our most popular model. They make excellent chefs and are sold with over a million recipes in their initial design. However we also offer factory workers, miners, and farmers."
"Fascinating," Yseult murmured. "Quite impressive." She watched the androids move with a certain metallic grace across the crowded room. They were dull silver in color, their bodies completely naked with no anatomical indications but for a small amount of human features. They had large dark orbs for eyes, foreheads, cheek bones, movable jaws. Just enough affectation to prevent humans from feeling uncomfortable around them, but not so much that one might form an attachment. Ingenious.
She grinned wickedly at the commander. "There seems to be an android for every purpose! But tell me, have they ever created androids for… pleasure, Gavin?"
Gavin laughed. "No, Yseult. Our economy may depend on our androids, but we still like to do some things the old fashioned way."
"Very good to know, Gavin," she murmured and smiled invitingly, wrapping her arm around his and leading him onto the dance floor.
Marcus turned his attention back to the army below him. An android army. Built to obey. He was practically salivating at the thought. A thousand a month, exported everywhere. Marcus' thoughts raced. Controlling the exportation would, if the commander's comment was correct, involve gaining control of the governors.
However, there was another option. One that would eliminate the need for the governors entirely. What if he were to create a dormant program, a virus say and insert it into the androids during construction? Marcus felt his heart race. A virus that, when activated, would allow him to control every android it had been programmed into? He felt his pulse quicken, his heart race. Possibilities.
'Well,' he regretfully dragged his focus to the present, 'that will have to wait for another day.' He still needed to find her. It would be easier if he knew where she was headed, however Ling had never told him where to take the artifact if he recovered it. Marcus had not been one of the Chosen Ling had trusted.
Of course, he had tried to kill the old bastard the last time Ling had shown his face. The Master had always been judgmental about his accumulation of wealth and power. Their last visit had ended with Marcus' attempt to skewer the man with a carving blade. It had been an ill conceived effort, a completely emotional response to Master Ling's overt superiority.
This time there would be no spontaneous lunge. This time he had planned it down to the smallest detail. This time he would destroy the man utterly, before ending his life. Then he would have the artifact, the girl and the power to bargain with whatever threat Ling had spent a lifetime trying to stop. What was that expression? 'Oh yes,' Marcus laughed as he remembered, 'the enemy of mine enemy is my friend.'
He glanced across the room, noting a familiar arrogance and disdain in the commander's guests. The people in this room were the power on this planet. Or so they believed. The wealthy, the elected officials, the military and the religious elite. All so pompous in their superiority. "Idiots and fools," he murmured, his eyes filled with contempt as he turned his back to them and gazed again at the androids outside.
A gentle rain had begun, falling softly on the androids below. They stood motionless, unaffected. It splashed against the portal and he absentmindedly watched the droplets work their way down the glass, lost in thought.
He'd known many worlds like this. Well, without the androids perhaps, however worlds and peoples who thought themselves the center of the universe. Who spent their time fawning over each other, telling themselves how vital, how important they were, reinforcing their own blindness. Only realizing too late how vulnerable that notion left them.
In the end humans were all alike, almost as if the ancient religions were true and all human life had originated on a single planet. Certainly the genetic similarity would attest to that. But it was their constant predictability that intrigued Marcus most. There were always the bribable, the wanton, the disillusioned, the lost, the broken, the simple, the hungry, the arrogant, the lazy, the brilliant, the power hungry.
He could recognize them in a fraction of a second and he knew exactly how to manipulate them. It was a skill that he had used again and again to amass his wealth and power. He had bases on fifteen worlds, controlled governments, religions, shipping and military.
The loss of D'sai was nothing. He had much larger estates on other worlds. Veronus had been his childhood home true, but it had perhaps, held more sentimental value than it should. His thoughts drifted to D'sai and lingered for a moment on Gynni. Yes, it was for the best.
His focus now needed to be on the Chosen and his destruction of Ling. He had to admit, he did feel a small amount of concern in his inability to discover anything about the 'universal destruction' Ling had spoken of.
Years of research, his own and that of his scientists and historians had turned up nothing with the power to control or destroy the universe. Even he wasn't arrogant enough to believe any one person or power could effectively control that amount of territory. It was simply impossible. So what was it? A species? A weapon? A virus?
It was almost impossible to deduce how these creatures could destroy the universe without first knowing why. Having no means to define what motivated the 'universal destruction', he also could not attribute certain qualities to them, such as their lifespan, their needs or desires.
All he could do was ponder how he would set about destroying a universe. A virus was the one solution that, for him, fit all the criteria. Much like his previous epiphany for the androids, if he were going to destroy or enslave such a vast area, he would attack the population first. Create a virus and have it lay dormant for years, decades even centuries. Slowly working its way from planet to planet, contaminating multiple generations of humanity. It may take a millennium to spread throughout the galaxy but it would eventually, humanity being such a gregarious species.
No amount of military intervention could prevent the spread of infection. No one would be aware of its presence until it was too late. However the real question was, would it be deadly? Or would it be more insidious, perhaps mutate humans into something… new? Or simply place all human life under this species control? Make humans the drones of another superior creature?
Marcus tapped a finger on the glass in frustration. He wanted the answers to these questions and he wanted them now! It was easy to hate Ling for having the answers and not sharing them.
'He should have taken me into his confidence rather than shut me out simply because I enjoy the accumulation of power,' Marcus fumed. Ling was arbitrary and capricious. He was punished by Ling for wanting the very thing Ling himself possessed. Power!
Ling's power was his knowledge, yet even so; Ling had hung it over his head like a tantalizing treat for a pet and then snatched it away for no viable reason.
Still, he would know. He had his men waiting at bay 12 for her return to that ship. Soon, the Chosen, the key and Ling would be his. Then he would discover what this 'destruction' was and he would decide how to deal with it. The thought of rubbing his success in Ling's face while he drew his last breathe gave Marcus comfort. He turned back toward the party, a smile on his lips as he assessed who in the room he needed to form a relationship with, in order to control this planet upon his return.