Chapter 4: A Sharp Start
Pulling Keen to his feet, Eleria and her partner dragged him back through the many seemingly endless corridors to the golden interior of the Teleport Pod. Once all three were seated, she declared the destination to the intercom: "Iron Gardens, Level 3."
"Are you sure?" a male voice replied. "That level is strictly for Psychological Correction, and the Adjudicator has ordered the prisoner to be taken to the Observation Habitat on Level 14."
"Disregard, and take us to Level 3. I will personally deliver him to Level 14 after I finish some business on that level."
"But if you take him there, you'll be in direct disobedience of the Adjudicator's orders!"
"I don't care; the Grand Intellect has somehow managed to brainwash her. You saw the trial, right?"
"Yes?"
"We need to get the real truth. Now, Level 3."
"Very well. Level 3... the target bay has been selected. Prepare for transportation."
The inside doors closed, and again there was that slight hovering feeling before another loud BOOM, and when next they exited the pod, the walls had a dark gunmetal colour to them. Keen kept walking forward, and only stopped outside what must have been an office. Eleria left them to go inside, but after a few minutes, she re-emerged and continued ushering Keen forward. Soon, they entered a large quad, with lighting reminiscent of a gloomy, overcast and rainy day back on Earth, a dark green lawn and an unstable-looking ceiling. Keen and his guards continued walking until reaching one spot in the lawn, above which a cube-shaped piece of the ceiling detached and was descending to the lawn on four chains on each of the top corners. Down and down, until it stopped just above the ground where it was left to hover uncomfortably.
Keen and his guards walked to one side, finding a door and opening it to reveal a room with dark green walls, and a large, white bed with another woman with the same colour skin as all the other alien women Keen had seen on this little adventure, crimson hair tied into two bangs and a ponytail, silver bracers with blue linings on her arms and legs, and what appeared to be a sleeveless white china dress, again with blue linings, with the sides of the legs open. Keen, however, also noticed that something was off about her; her face seemed to be giving off an expression that looked like a mix of sadness, despair and starvation, her eyes were closed and she was clutching her stomach.
"Last chance, Grand Intellect. Tell the truth about why you are trying to destroy everything," Eleria spoke. At this, the crimson-haired woman's eyes opened, and she seemed to be staring longingly in their direction.
"I've told you already! Didn't you listen to the judge? Or are you as dumb as a Dopefish?" Keen retaliated.
"Wrong answer!" With that, Keen's brother's football helmet was turned back-to-front such that his eyes were blocked, and he felt something shove him forward. He continued stumbling until something hit his stomach and caused his arms to fall onto something soft and comfy. Something grabbed his right arm, and the next thing he knew was that he was feeling a massive stabbing pain in the arm, along with something a bit moist. The grunt of pain he gave off was muffled by the football helmet, and with his free arm he tried to get rid of whatever was causing the pain, but he kept hitting something fleshy and sometimes a bit hairy as well.
After what seemed like a minute, resistance slackened, the thing that was causing the pain seemed to have gone, and Keen could move his arm again. Quickly taking the opportunity to readjust the helmet, he soon saw that he was lying on the bed, but also that blood was gently leaking from two fresh holes in his upper arm.
"Now, tell me what the Grand Intellect's exact plans are." Eleria ordered.
"Huh? How am I supposed to know?!" the girl on the bed protested, sitting up straight on the bed.
"But this alien-"
"...isn't the Grand Intellect! He's actually his arch-nemesis. I believe he already made that clear in his testimony to the Adjudicator."
"So even you have been brainwashed by him?!"
"Me? Oh please, I've been locked up for three solar cycles now, well before the start of the Darian-Shikadi War, and I haven't been allowed any visitors."
"Fine, if you won't tell me what he is planning, then give him back here and I'll find something that will drag the truth out."
"Yeah, no. You've given my guest enough grief as it is."
"Give him here, Riebeth, or else-"
"Or else what?" this 'Riebeth' woman declared, and in a sudden show of elegance that completely betrayed her earlier, starved appearance, she jumped off the bed and somersaulted to stand in between Keen and Eleria, shielding the former from the latter. "It's time Commando Keen here saw a bit more compassion from us. You morons have captured his home planet's first and last defence against the Grand Intellect's forces!"
"How dare you-"
"Pilot Eleria," the green-haired woman's earpiece sounded. "Why are you and Pilot Tilla not at your assigned location?"
"As ordered, I was escorting the Grand Intellect to the Iron Gardens-"
"And you were given no permission to leave the ship. You were to be relieved of guard duty the moment the prisoner was teleported to Ibiresien Hall. You two are to return to the ship immediately: a Shikadi Prismatic Disintegrator has been spotted warping to the Grand Intellect's Homeworld. We have to destroy it before it can target the world."
"A-at once, Captain." With that, Eleria and her yellow-haired partner ran out of the room, closing the door behind them.
"Ha ha ha, Little Eleria got in trouuuble." Riebeth laughed. Right then, the whole room seemed to jerk upwards, forcing both remaining inhabitants to the floor, and it appeared to also be swaying.
"What's happening?!" Keen shouted.
"Oh, don't worry, the cell is just returning to its place in the ceiling!"
"Does this always happen?!"
"Yuh-huh, it's their way of keeping the grounds clear, and also preventing escape attempts." Just then, the shaking stopped, and Keen found he could stand.
"Just what's going on here? Why was I kidnapped in the first place?"
"Well, Commando Keen-"
"That's CommandER Keen!"
"Whatever. We have been fighting with the forces of the Grand Intellect for quite a while now. Things started with a pincer attack by the Vorticons and the Shikadi. The Vorties seemed intent on blowing up our homeworld, as we already had a bit of a reputation in space as the biggest military power in this galaxy and unafraid to occasionally rub that fact in other civvies' faces. So they sent a Mothership with a Shikadi escort to destroy Daria the same way they tried to blow up Earth."
"Wait... you know about the Vorticons attacking Earth?"
"Yeah. Just found out now. The difference is that unlike Earth, Daria has a sufficiently strong army that could stand in the way of the Grand Intellect's forces."
"Listen; don't kill the-"
"Relax. We know what happened with the Vorticons. There was even something in our news about them declaring that they had been enslaved to the Grand Intellect. That's how we first heard about him. Of course, that just left the Shikadi to fight us. That's about all I know, and that I had to suck out of the guards"
"Speaking of which… aaah... what happened to my arm?"
"Oh, that. Whoops. What can I say; they kept me starved for weeks on end. Finally, thanks to you, I've been relieved of the nightmare for a little while longer." As she spoke, Keen noticed two large fangs in her mouth, almost like vampire fangs.
"So... you sucked my blood?"
"Sorta, but not quite. Our people have a rather unique quirk; we can drain bioelectricity from living creatures, and if they are sentient, we also inherit their memories. Buuut it's part of our pre-spacefairing days, before that sort of thing was declared illegal."
"Yeah, right. There's no way you could know everything about me just by biting me."
"Try me."
"My real name?"
"William Joseph Blaskowicz II, more commonly known as Billy Blaze."
"Wha- My IQ?"
"Three Fourteen, Mister Three-Fourteen!"
"Hey! "
"What can I say; I couldn't resist. Besides, were it not used by the Grand Intellect, it sounds more like you have bragging rights over the rest of your species."
"Gah, fine. My weapon of choice?"
"Your home-made Neural Stunner. Gimme a hard one!"
"My least favourite food?"
"Oh please, mashed potatoes."
"The name of my ship?"
"The Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket. Weird name for a ship if you ask me."
"Uh... my pet's name and species?"
"Spot, the Martian Yorp. Come on, this is getting boring!"
"Eh... what about the name of the evil king in one of my nightmares?"
"Boobus Tuber. He was commanding an army of evil potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and the like, and was enslaving children with his Dream Machine."
"Gaaah. quadruple nuts! I give up."
"You get it now? Everything you have ever remembered, everything you know, everything you have ever felt, everything that you ever were, is now flowing through my nerves. You have become a part of me. It's kinda romantic if you think about it."
"Wait, is that how you got info about the war?"
"Yuh huh. They can't afford to keep me up here forever, they have to feed me sooner or later. So I took an opportunity. The disappointing thing was I was hoping to find something I could use to escape."
"Didn't you say you were starved?"
"Starved of bioelectricity, yes. It was the Sky Queen of all hangovers, and I have you to thank for saving me from it."
"Sky Queen?"
"One of the largest flying animals present on Daria, it can swallow Dopefish whole. As a predator, the name speaks for itself, and even military fighters have trouble bringing one down."
"Military… that reminds me… what exactly is a Prismatic Disintegrator?"
"Dunno. Although something tells me it isn't going to bode well for your planet."
"Why?"
"Put it this way: what almost happened to your planet the last time you were stranded on an alien world?"
"The Vorticon Mothership prepared to blow... it… up… wait, do you think that is what the Shikadi are trying to do?"
"Difficult to say unless I can sink my teeth into some info on the subject, but it sounds like it would fit the real Grand Intellect's tactics."
"We haven't got time to lose then, we need to break out!"
"It's nowhere near as easy as you make it out to be, Commander Clean. You can't just blast the prison cell open and run for the gates."
"That's - wait, what do you mean?"
"Have you forgotten? We're in the ceiling of this level. Unless the guards themselves have business with us, we're just going to be left dangling… wait a sec. You still have your Neural Stunner with you, right?"
"Huh? Yeah, why?"
"Hahaha, that's just like Eleria not to do a weapons check. A vengeful pilot does not a competent guard make. Now listen carefully…"