.
17.
The legend of the Perfect Being
«Can't we speed up a bit?»
«This is the fastest we can go. Lord Frieza. I'm desolated.»
Kyui bows deeply and the terror of disappointing me vibrates in his voice. He's lucky I was already expecting such an impediment. I wave him to disappear.
«Get out of my sight» I say, and he literally runs out of the room.
I snort, without hiding my displeasure.
«I didn't think it was that far away.»
Zarbon, next to me, shrugs.
«We may find some pastimes, Lord Frieza. The planets around here seem to be interesting.»
«Send the troops to get them. I'm done setting foot on useless rocks.»
The idea of spending the next five days waiting doesn't excite me, but the perspective of conquering fills me with even more boredom. Let my Commanders take care of it, at least they will have something to do.
I make myself comfortable, stretching the tip of the tail that emerges from my floating throne. The Space beyond the window is incredibly dark, as if we were immersing ourselves in a strip of Universe devoid of stars.
It is at that moment that, before my eyes, I see something emerging from the sidereal void: a tiny single-seater spacecraft that is approaching my ship, and there's something familiar about it. The Sentinels will certainly have noticed it too and will be keeping an eye on it; they'll soon tell me what it is, but it's certainly not a threat. Actually, now that I think about it, I recall it belonged to one of the warriors of the auction. In any case, I'll find out soon.
I turn.
«Tell me, Zarbon. You said you have studied all the planets in the known Universe, didn't you?»
«Yes, Lord Frieza» he nods, confident. I like such firmness, I wonder how long he will continue to keep it; maybe until he makes a misstep and forces me to remind him of good manners, but luckily for him that won't happen if he continues to venerate me in this way.
I turn my head.
«What do you know about Arcos?»
He remains dumbfounded for a moment. I watch him as he tries to remember what he has read, to visualize whatever fragment of history is passing before his eyes. He hesitates, and if a scholar of great culture like him doesn't remember, it means that my planet must have become quite remote.
Finally he lights up, with the satisfaction of someone who has just solved an enigma of vital importance.
«Arcos, yes! The Frozen Planet.»
«Exactly. Tell me all you know.»
«It's located in the Icegar galaxy, several light years from here, and very little is known about it. It is said that it was once inhabited by an incredible race whose members, called Ice Demons, used to live in caves dug into the heart of mountains and icebergs. The few sources speak of peaceful and advanced people, governed by five ruling families whose firstborn heirs, from generation to generation, replaced their fathers on the throne. Unfortunately, however, the Arcosians became extinct many decades ago, when a particularly violent storm destroyed most of the planet and all its people.»
I nod. Something survives, then.
«What about legends?»
«The legends of Arcos?» He takes some time to think about it. «There is one, yes. If I'm not mistaken, it was narrated in the History of Rotos by the Rototians, main allies of Arcos. However, it's such ancient story that unfortunately I can't recall it. I can go get the tome.»
I nod. A few moments later Zarbon is in front of me, consulting his computer.
«The legend of the Perfect Being» he says. The name alone makes me vibrate with excitement.
«Read aloud» I order. And he executes.
On planet Arcos, winter lasts all seven hundred and three days that make up a year.
Temperatures are so cold that most of the inhabitants of the Universe would freeze to death before even taking their first breath. The air would freeze in the lungs, the blood would clot in the veins; a few seconds, and nothing would remain of the unwary visitor except a frozen body immersed in the snow.
Arcos is inhabited by a peaceful population: individuals covered by a thermal exoskeleton that protects their muscles from the cold, with embedded plates supplied with blood to collect the heat of the few and sparse solar rays. Some would call them demons, and their aptitude for freezing climates has in fact earned them the nickname of Ice Demons, but in reality there is no evil in their species. The Arcosians are but one of the myriads of alien races that inhabit this part of the cosmos; a civilization that, to escape the constant and violent storms that afflict its planet, lives in the depths of glaciers.
Thanks to their great intelligence, the Arcosians have developed an advanced technology that has allowed them not only to build their cities underground by digging tunnels and large caves, but also to come into contact with the nearest planets; however, they never showed hostile intent, creating a climate of peace and serenity in the Icegar galaxy which also allowed alliances with the various planets, joining forces in the fight against invaders. The Arcosians themselves have never needed external interventions: someone has sometimes tried to conquer Arcos, alien races landed with the intention of dominating it, but the power of its inhabitants is so high that the enemies were repelled as soon as they appeared as a threat.
However, according to legends, the greatest danger for Arcos will not come from strangers, but from one of its own people.
There is a legend that has been passed down on the planet for generations and centuries, probably before any of the long-lived inhabitants can remember. It is said that, in ancient times, an individual was generated from the ice and blood of his parent, who showed a power beyond all known limits and used it to pursue his evil purposes until to almost subjugate Arcos and the nearby planets. Little is known about how he, who legends pass down under the name of Chilled, was defeated and stopped; what remains is the worry that history will repeat itself.
The legend has in fact been handed down from generation to generation: since it was hypothesized that this power was due to a genetic mutation, despite there was no known offspring of Chilled, the Arcosians began to fear the coming of a new mutant that they called Perfect Being: a superior being who would have such a high power encoded in his genome as to subjugate the entire planet.
The understanding that power and greed are intimately linked, as if one is a consequence of the other or as if they walk together in the line of evolution, led the Arcosians to be extremely suspicious of each other and to frown upon every new born until he demonstrated his good attitude and harmless nature.
Despite the unreliability of this ancient legend, given the general discontent and to avoid real threats, the five ruling clans decided by mutual agreement to promulgate a law called the Law of Births: every new formed individual would have to be appropriately reported and subjected to a check. If a newborn revealed anomalous power, it was decided that it would be suppressed to prevent it from posing a risk to the planet.
He stops, perhaps there's nothing else written. I smile. I almost feel nostalgic for the times when these words were told me, exactly as they were just been read, by a voice that can no longer speak.
«So there are still some traces…»
Zarbon is confused. He doesn't know why I made this request: just like each of my men, has no idea of my origins. When Cold became King he had gone through so many journeys that he himself had almost forgotten where he came from. However, today I want to tell the story.
«I will solve your curiosity immediately» I encourage him, enjoying his every reaction before my eyes. «What you read is not just a legend. The Perfect Being is right before your eyes. I think it's time for the whole Universe to hear this story, don't you think?»
He winces.
«So you… you are …»
«An Arcosian? I am. That Arcosian? Apparently…»
He doesn't dare to ask me any questions, but his surprise fills me with pride and I feel like talking, if only to pass the time.
«The books only tell part of the story, but I know you care about your culture, so I'll tell you the rest. The legend of the Perfect Being was about my clan: apparently Lord Chilled is my ancestor. Obviously, my relatives were careful not to reveal this uncomfortable detail, which however was passed down as an inheritance within the clan together with the genetic material and the awareness of having a good chance of generating a mutant. It's science, not legend. There is something in our DNA that apparently has made us better than others and inclined to continually improve, in fact my own father is partly a mutant, although obviously not at my level. Well, armed with this awareness, one day Cold decided that he would overthrow the other four clans and become the only king of Arcos. Since he could never have done it alone, he also decided that he would generate the mutant, no matter what it cost him. He tried twice before he got me, failing miserably as you can see by looking at my brother. Only the third attempt was successful... who knows how many times he would have tried, if I hadn't been born a mutant either.»
It makes me laugh. It probably would have been complicated since he would have attracted quite a bit of attention for fathering so many children in such a short time… he should thank me for not keeping him waiting.
«Thus Frieza was born, on the seventieth day of the harshest year Arcos had ever known. Not only had I inherited my father's mutations but I had even developed new ones that made me, let's say, omnipotent. However, as you read, there was that stupid law, so to avoid them getting rid of me when I was defenseless my father couldn't declare my birth and was forced to keep me hidden in the most remote caves of Arcos . He and my brothers watched over me until I was old enough to walk and began to get bored of living as an outcast. I don't know what my father intended to do and how long he wanted to wait... I had no intention of complying. One day I escaped their control and for the first time I set foot outside without caring about anything or anyone. Two sentries happened to see me among the ice and asked me who I was. Of course I got rid of those busybodies in an instant.»
Zarbon is listening to me like my mouth is pouring gold. He understands the greatness of what I am revealing to him and knows how superior I consider him for telling him these truths. It's not false; after all, my story is not for everyone to be known. May my origins be told only to those who really deserve to hear them.
«I continued to ignore my father's prohibitions and kept going outside when I wanted. Unfortunately, this slowly led to word of my existence spreading and it became increasingly impossible to hide. They started looking for me and, when they found me with my father and brothers, we had to flee not to be killed, I as a mutant and them as traitors. We hid in the caves, only coming out to hunt and gather snow berries, but they stepped up their sentinel groups. Every time they approached our hideout we were forced to move because my cowardly father didn't want me to kill them all. I indulged him for years, until I decided to put an end to it all. And then came the fearful storm that destroyed the Arcosians.»
I watch him widen his eyes in disbelief, which makes me proud. I smile.
«Don't tell me you didn't expect it.»
«I hadn't… I hadn't thought about it, Lord Frieza. But I had no doubt that your power was this huge.»
«Of course not.»
I breathe in. I can almost feel the shivers of those moments on my skin and under my feet, resting on the ground that vibrated while the energy expanded in the underground tunnels like a lava flow, burning everything in its path.
«The Arcosians became extinct but we did not lose our intention to reign, so we began to travel from planet to planet, subjugating them under the name of the Cold System. And that's where I started from.» I inhale, making myself comfortable. «And you, Zarbon? What have you destroyed to be here now?»
I see his eyes flee from my gaze, the muscles contracting under his skin. He hasn't forgotten. Maybe he really didn't believe that his words would cause such a disaster to his planet. However, he gives me a satisfactory answer, albeit incomplete.
«Everything I destroyed was expendable.»
«I have no doubts about that.»
I ponder my next move. This chat was fun but unfortunately it can't last five days.
«First of all, I hope you remember everything, because now you will have to report to Sorbet and ensure that the legend reaches every corner of the Universe.»
«I remember everything, every word» he nods, bowing.
«Good. Then find a way to make this trip entertaining, because I won't spend five days sitting here in silence.»
«It will be done. With your permission, I go to report to Sorbet.»
«Go» I wave to him. As he disappears from the room I look out my window, enjoying the show.
I know I will receive the communication shortly; I wait for it, observing the open space. I can't help but imagine how lonely an uninhabited planet floating in the cosmos must appear.
Next chapter:
The mysterious wanderer