Robert E Mills, page 19
Blorg's hisses were barely audible now, and his eyes began to glaze as the life-force ebbed out of his body.
The emperor sent wordfor me to bring you to him, Lord Blorg. I have no idea why. Quaarg shook his head slowly. Unless it is to witness your last agonies and savor the moment of your death. He looked up as the footsteps of the med-techs sounded on the cat-walk above.
Before I leave you, My lord, Quaarg told Blorg mockingly, I have one last piece of news from the realm of the living. Ylang-Ylang has already chosen your successor, he lied. In a few moments, there will be a new steward of the Dark Empire, a new lord of all the Ysss. Would you like to know who that shall be? he asked archingly, making the most of this last bit of information.
sss-s-s-sss . . . Blorg's only reply was a faint whisper of a hiss.
He stands before you now, Blorg,filling your vision as you die. His name is Quaarg.
Blorg reached out feebly with his upper right hand, in an attempt to grasp Quaarg by the throat, but ended up clawing only the air between them. A moment later, his arm dropped back to the deck and his entire body wracked by a series of convulsions.
Goodbye forever, Blorg the Devastator, were Quaarg's last thoughts as he left the engine room of the Scourge. . .
When the good ship Hazard touched down at Libera, captial city of Aurea Solis, it met with a reception unequalled in the long history of the Primula galaxy.
And the celebration that followed lasted, day and night, for a full week. The only thing capable of ending the festivities, it seemed, was Garthane's sobering address to the allies, simulcast to all the inhabited worlds of Primula and Taylos.
The High Master spoke from the great hall in Libera, w here the high command of the league had assembled to hear him. The speaker's platform was flooded with light as Garthane approached it, and an Army of broadcast technicians clustered around the dais, completing their preparations for the speech. When he reached the platform, Garthane raised his arms and cut short the thunderous applause.
"Brothers and sisters of the Primula and Taylos galaxies," he began, in a loud and authoritative voice, his penetrating grey eyes staring directly into the vi-dcams, "all things are one. Infinity is at the heart of all things."
Nila and Red Rian sat up in their seats when they noticed the severe expression on the High Master's face. Ween Leever gulped, and Purpur leaned forward in his seat, cat's-ears cocked in the direction of the dais.
"It is not over yet," the leader of the Fellowship of Light told the billions who watched him in both galaxies. "Granted that Flaigon no longer exists, and the Blorg the Devastator was broken at the hand of Red Rian of Urgel; granted that rebellion is rising throughout the Dark Empire, and that the imperial forces are
panicked beyond imagining. . . but the hardest battle is still to come."
The great hall was now as silent as a graveyard in the deep of night. "We have been monitoring imperial communications, and have received disquieting news.
Ylang- Ylang lives." Groans of disbelief and cries of wonder went up throughout the hall. Garthane held his hands up for silence once again.
"The Dark Emperor was rescued by the strange and unknown beings our invasion force encountered after the bombardment of Flaigon. Whatever these creatures may be, they are immensely powerful, and appear to be the possessors of powers of mind that might well be greater than those of the Fellowship of Light. In my opinion, they are incredibly dangerous. . . and they seem to be allied to the Dark Emperor." As Garthane paused, every soul in the place held his breath.
"We must take these mysterious intruders into account in all our future plans," he went on. "And we must also do our utmost to support and encourage rebellion throughout the Dark Empire. I do not wish to discourage you," the High Master said gently, "but the worst is yet to come. So keep faith with the forces of life, and grow stronger as you prepare to strike another blow for the freedom of the star-seas."
He smiled serenely at his vast audience. "We shall win. . . we must win. May the Infinite bless you all."
As Garthane left the dais to the cheers and applause that signalled the League's renewed determination to oppose the Dark Emperor and all his works of evil, Red Rian leaned over and whispered in Nila's ear, nuzzling the nape of her neck as he did. "Well, babe," he said,
"at least we don't have to worry about old bone'head any more."
Nila turned to the star-pirate and patted him on his bearded cheek. "My father would be glad to hear that," she whispered back, leaning toward him and putting her lips to his ear. "And Dann will be too, when he gets back."
Then she smiled, and whispered in Red Rian's ear once more. "And if you don't stop smooching me in public," she said, still smiling, "I'm going to haul off and punch you right in the nose.'.'
Rian's reply was inaudible, due to the volume'ofthe cheers in the great hall, but the expression of surprise on his face could be made out for several hundred yards.
Dreams and whispering voices, soft, concerned murmurs and the touch of gentle hands, blazing lights and the impersonal hum of surgical equipment, flashes of pain and the explosive feed-back of tormented nerve-ends, rushing winds and muted roars, shudders and jolts, the rustling of bedsheets and the crisp, clean smell of fresh linen. . .
These were the principal components of the timeless, drifting montage of impressions that Dann Oryzon brought back to waking reality as he regained consciousness for the first time in more than three weeks.
They grey dream had dissipated like mornings fog on
the heart of the Western Sea, and the sweet, clear light of day greeted him with all the tenderness a mother displays upon the return of a long-lost son.
He fluttered his eyes rapidly, and then squinted, narrowing his eyelids to mere slits as he attempted to resolve the blurred shapes before him into sharp-focus.
When he finally did, he saw Altektu and D-Anacom standing at the foot of his bed, their eyes glowing like diamonds in the green perm a-flesh setting of their beautiful faces.
" Al . . . D-Ana," he croaked, with the voice of someone who had not spoken for a long time, "where am I?"
"At Astyx," D-Ana replied softly.
"What happened. . . to me?"He struggled to sit up.
"Garthane . . . Nila . . . Rian ... "
The soft machines came to the side (if the bed, and gently settled him back on his pillows. "They are all right," Altektu told him. "Everyone's all ri~ht. When you're feeling a little stronger, we'll tell you the whole story."
Dann closed his eyes and took a deep breath before speaking again. "I remember. . . something," he said haltingly, as he struggled to salvage a cluster of impressions from the broad ocean of delirium out of which he had just emerged. "Soft hands.~. ..soft, murmuring voice. . . fragrance of flowers. . . someone calling to me...
The android couple smiled down at him, nodding their heads as they did.
"Who else. . . was here?" Dann asked.
D-Ana stroked his hair. He felt her cool fingers brush his forehead.
"She'll be here in a moment," Altektu replied.
It was the first time in aeons that Ylang- Ylang had been anybody's guest, and the Devourer rumbled and flickered darkly in its discomfort. Outside the great structure that had been specially constructed to house the pulsating field of corrupt energies that was the Dark Emperor, Quaarg the Destroyer paced up and down nervously in a state of high anxiety, awaiting the results of Ylang- Ylang's interview with the masters of the strange and dreadful place that was its temporary residence.
Inside the vast, gloomy chamber, the Devourer's powerful hosts stood before it in a huge arc and stared full into the center of its vile and int~nse energies with uncovered eyes. And those white, fearsome eyes had neither iris nor pupil, but merely presented a solid field of milky white as their possessors gazed unharmed at Ylang's searing and infernal brilliance.
"Why should we intervene to save the great toy you call your empire?" the leader of these entities asked, stepping forward from the center of the arc and boldly addressing the immortal thing that had once been a Mordling. "You have nothing we want. . . nor need."
There you are mistaken, the Devourer boomed, the music of its thoughts orchestrating into a dark, sweeping symphony of power and seduction. I have one thing
to offer you, my lords. . . the one thing in all the universe that you can never acquire by your own powers,formidable as they are.
"And what might that one thing be, Ylang-Ylang?"
The Lord of Life and Death banked its energies low, throwing the vast space into murk and shadows as it did, compressing its mass into a cloud of luminous blackness as dark as the heart of midnight or the secrets of the grave.
The power to defy time, Ylang purred, sending out a stream of vaporous black tendrils to lap at the feet of its hosts. The power to gaze out over the seas of eternity and catch sight of the far shores of infinity. . . The gift ofimmortality!
The Devourer's hosts exchanged startled looks and whispered among themselves. When they fell silent, their leader addressed the star-tyrant again. "You have offered us the one thing we do not possess. The offer interests us. We shall withdraw to discuss this matter more fully, and then we will return and give you our answer."
Yes-s-sss, yes-s-sss, do that, my gracious lords, the Devourer replied, hissing like the great serpent that guards the Tree of Life. Discuss-s-sss it. Think about it Quaarg sprang to his feet as the lords of the strange place filed out of the great chamber. They ignored his presence when they passed and, since he was beneath their notice, spoke freely among themselves as they departed.
"But if we choose to become immortal," Quaarg overheard one of them say with a note of revulsion in his voice, "must we be transformed into a thing such as that?"
"I think not," their leader replied, still within earshot of the repitloid. "Should we decide to accept Ylang's offer, I shall see to it that we introduce a few modifications of our own into the process."
Haaass! Quaarg shuddered when he came out of his bow, and hissed with awe. Strange and dreadful things would soon come to pass; he was convinced of that.
And in a short span of time, he was sure that he would witness the birth of a new generation of gods.
In its guest-room, its makeshift lair, the Great Devourer rumbled and thundered with dark contentment as it dove into the lightless sea of ecstasy. I have them, Ylang gloated. I have these high and mighty Lords fast on the hook of desire and overweening ambition. I have Qffered them the one thin!? the)! want above all other things. I have made them the offer they cannot refuse. . .
The chamber was almost totally dark. as the Uevourer plumbed the depths of its foul extasis. Ylang was content. The great insult would soon be avenged in a tidal wave of blood and fire. The League of Free Worlds would be obliterated from living memory.. . . and the audacious manniken, Garthane, along with the rest of those purple-cowled little lumps of excrement, would be punished with an attendant horror and torment that would shake the living universe to its heart.
Ylang- Ylang burbled fearfully as it sank deeper into
the devouring mouth of its self-created oblivion. Let them discuss, it thought contentedly. Let them ponder.
I am safe and secure in this place.. and I have the time and patience to wait. After all, what is time to the immortal?
Starfighter (pdf), Robert E Mills
