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Chapter 3
Complex
They’d waited until all of their data was verified before acting, patiently plotting their strike. If they’d attacked too soon they might not have noticed that there was a single life form that had been transported from the watery world before it had been sucked into space. In fact, it might have been overlooked completely if a certain Captain hadn’t been reviewing their scouting information and pointed it out to his superiors, who in turn had praised him greatly for it.
Yes, for if they had attacked back then there would have been a chance of destroying the ship and its precious cargo, and that would have been a tragic mistake for the Kell Empire to be sure. They’d been searching too long to have their prize snatched away by a chance force of nature such as a Black Hole, but with this one life form there was still a chance of success! The prophesy they’d worked so hard to make true had a chance of being fulfilled…
Thus the Kell battleship had watched, and they’d scanned, and they’d plotted, and they’d waited. And now was the time to shake the enemy up and make their demands.
Again, Denzel knew nothing of this. All he knew was that when Annadonna had pried the door open just a crack to see what was happening at the brig, he’d peered in right along with her. That was when he first saw a Kellite, up on the big communication screen.
The Captain was by far the most humanoid otherworldly person Denzel had yet to see. The Kell soldier had fair skin the same colour as Denzel’s, and his hair was long and fine. It was bright red though, which only threw Denzel off just slightly, and the man’s eyes were strange. They were grey, but the pupil was more of a slim ring of black than an actual pupil, because the center was transparent was filled with the same comfortable grey as his iris. He was in a smart crimson uniform and his neck was completely concealed by a red metallic ornament fastened around it, and everything about him seemed dignified and professional.
“Greetings Emperor Jidius.” The Captain said in a calm tone, “I am Captain Dantenox of the Kell Empire. I come with a request on behalf of my superiors.”
“Any request from the Kell is a sugar-coated threat.” The Emperor’s voice responded dryly, though Denzel could not see him from the angle he was looking “What is it you want from us?”
“Nothing of terrible consequence to you, I’m sure.” Captain Dantenox assured him, “We seek the creature of the prophecy, and we believe you have retrieved one of its kind from the planet’s surface.”
The Emperor uttered a sound of contempt.
“We found no such creature,” the Emperor replied, “We merely picked up a harmless inhabitant of the world. It was called Earth, which also sounds nothing like the alleged name of the thing. This was not the world you sought so dearly.”
At this Denzel let out a breath of relief, their conversation having worried him for a moment. Getting stuck in the middle of a galactic war did not sound like fun to him. Thankfully, it was clearly an error.
“There is no mistake.” The Captain insisted patiently, “The names might be different, but we are certain of its authenticity. We request you hand the being to us at once.”
“We will do no such thing.” The Emperor rebuffed angrily, “I won’t have an innocent person mixed up in your prophetic nonsense. If you insist on threatening us we will open fire.”
“You will comply.” The Captain stated, his face showing traces of irritation, “You will give us the creature called Human.”
At that word Denzel’s body tensed and his blood ran cold.
“Eat lasers you bastards!” shouted a familiarly angry voice. Just as Denzel adjusted his head to see the blue four-armed man named Jeka to the left of the screen at some fancy controls, the Emperor shouted “Fire! Full thrusters in reverse! Charge the overdrive systems!” and within a few violent seconds involving major turbulence and Denzel and Annadonna being thrown into the back wall, they were completely out of the enemy ship’s range and once again safe in the cold emptiness of Space.
Denzel cursed and rubbed the back of his head as he stood up, offering Annadonna his hand as he did so. She accepted it gratefully and rubbed her rump with a scowl of her face when he’d pulled her up, glancing at the door.
“So in case you were wondering, that was a Kellite.” She muttered and stretched, “They look friendly but they’re ruthless invaders, don’t be fooled. They’re very cunning; they know how to play “innocent” really well. They’ve taken over hundreds of worlds that way.”
“Hundreds?” Denzel repeated, blinking.
The door to the brig whooshed sideways abruptly and the Emperor strode out and had a double take.
“What on Vadrith are you two doing here?” he demanded with a small frown, “You should be in the defensive chamber!”
“Sorry, sorry…” Annadonna crossed her arms and looked at her feet, “It was all me, I just dragged our Earthanite along, so don’t lecture him.”
“That’s not what we’re called either.” Denzel pointed out with a small smile, but he was grateful that she was covering for him.
“No? Okay, is it Earthinian? Or Earthites?”
“It isn’t Human is it?” the Emperor asked with a shrug, as if he were merely joking.
Denzel opened his mouth, then closed it, then shrugged. “Actually…” he muttered, looking away and trailing off.
“What…?” The Emperor’s smile fell, “You’re…you’re not actually called “Human” are you?”
“Um...Yes. Actually.” Denzel admitted, looking up.
The Emperor stared at him briefly, unable to believe. Annadonna recovered quickly.
“Really?” she gushed, “Wow, looks like the Kell had it right this time…who knew?”
“This is not good.” The Emperor groaned and scratched his head of dark green hair, avoiding the antennas, “This is…this is the opposite of good. This is good’s evil twin. Curses! That ship is likely going to keep tailing us if this is the case …”
Two very tall, very muscular Vadrithian guards came out from the brig just then to join the Emperor, and it struck Denzel that they looked very much older than their ward. In fact, the Emperor could be the same age as he was. The green monarch was short, had no facial hair and a youthful face…Denzel resolved to ask Annadonna or the Doctor about it later.
“Um…my bad?” Denzel muttered sheepishly, “What do they mean prophesy? They’re an advanced race but they still believe in those kinds of things? Isn’t that strange?”
“Everything about the Kell baffles me.” The Emperor snarled with a sour look on his face, “From what we understand, one of the worlds they invaded was already deserted, it’s inhabitants having died off long before from causes that still remain unknown to us. It seems in some of the ruins they discovered an old prophesy that dates back a few millennia, and it told of the war we were already engaged in. Apparently, according to this prophesy, they key to their success in gaining control of the universe is a being from another world with an incredible amount of power.”
“Boy, are they going to be disappointed.” Denzel interrupted with a nervous grin, gesturing to himself, “Unless clumsiness is praised where they come from, I’m the most powerless thing on this ship.”
“Yes, well, they cover that too.” The Emperor continued, rolling his eyes, “It seems that the power would lay dormant and need to be summoned…or something similar. As you can see I’m not entirely convinced.”
“Thank God.” Denzel sighed, “They sound like a pack of nutbars.”
The Emperor peered at him strangely.
“I’m not quite sure what any of what you said just meant, but it sounded like you were insulting the Kell so I’m inclined to agree.” The Emperor replied, “Now if you’ll excuse me, we’ll have to plan for the Kell’s inevitable pursuit. Annadonna, please show our guest back to his room make sure he stays there this time. And get back to work; we can’t afford any technical problems.”
“Yes sir.” Annadonna replied, but she didn’t sound very enthusiastic, then she gestured to Denzel, “Come on.”
“Your guest’s name is Denzel, by the way.” The human replied offhandedly, still a bit miffed that the Emperor hadn’t asked him. The Emperor nodded distractedly and started to head down the hall, bodyguards in tow. Denzel’s shoulders slumped.
“I’m still just excess baggage to him, aren’t I?” he asked as he followed Annadonna back down the hall.
“This war has taken a toll on everyone,” the pink girl sighed heavily, her tail swishing behind her as she walked, “When he’s in charge he can only be a leader, not a host and certainly not a friend. It’s pretty annoying. Back on the old ship he wasn’t this uptight.”
“There was another ship?” Denzel asked curiously.
“Oh yes, three so far. They all sustained too much damage from the constant battles with the Kell. With every ship we lose, Emperor Jidius seems to grow more distant and serious. I mean I know he’s got a lot of pressure, but his siblings and counsel are also doing their part, he doesn’t have to take ALL the responsibility…”
“He sounds pretty uptight.” Denzel commented.
“He is.” Annadonna replied, “He didn’t used to be, that’s the problem. He’s kind of turning into a pompous jerk.”
“I heard that was the blue guy’s job.”
“Who? Jeka?” she laughed, “He’s far from pompous, he’s just MEAN. Try not to get in his way, he can be a bastard sometimes. Well, actually it’s rare when he’s not a bastard. Oh, here we are.” She gestured to his room.
“Thanks for the escort.” Denzel replied unhappily, cautiously pressing a button beside his door and watching is whoosh sideways for him, “See you later then?”
“I’ll try to sneak out from my post early, if I can.” Annadonna grinned and winked, “Try not to die of boredom!”
“I’ll try.” Denzel muttered with a half-hearted wave as he went into the room and sat down on the bed, watching the door slide shut.
He sat there for a good five minutes, coming to feel how quiet it was in the room...and realizing very suddenly that he was getting hungry.
“Okay.” He muttered out loud, “Earth’s been flung across Space, the Universe is at war with itself and I’m stuck on an alien Spaceship smack in the middle of it all. Great.”
His door slid open abruptly, making him jump.
“Great, I get stuck feeding the human that talks to himself,” growled Jeka as he stomped into the room with a piece of complex machinery in all four of his hands, “Why do I get stuck doing this?”
Denzel eyed him with a frown, probably looking a bit more hurt than he’d meant to.
“You said so yourself, it’s not my fault that I’m here.” The brunette, grumbled back, crossing his arms.
Jeka ignored him and set the device on the metal desk in the room, pressing a few buttons until the thing lit up and made a beeping sound.
“There.” Jeka said and started to leave.
“Hey wait!” Denzel called, standing up as Jeka turned around in frustration.
“What?” the blue man demanded impatiently.
“What is that?” Denzel demanded, pointing at the device.
“What do you mean what—ah damn it, you don’t know how to use it?”
“No.” Denzel replied, matching Jeka’s exasperation, “How could I?’
“Fine.” Jeka trudged back in, “It’s simple. You put this,” he held up some sort of scanner wired to the machine, “Against your temple and you think of what you want to eat. The Mat7500 reads your brainwaves and constructs what you want with all of the nutrients your body requires in the shape and flavor of the food your thinking of. When it beeps just press this,” He pressed a blue button and a door much like that of a microwave swung open, “And the food will be inside. The Doctor made sure it would be safe for you to use. Have fun.”
Once again Jeka hurried out of the room, giving the human an angry glare as he went. Denzel had hoped the door would close on the alien’s short blue tail, but Jeka was well out of the way before the door slid itself closed. The brunette pouted and stood up, grabbing his bag and heading over to the food machine.
He picked up the scanner and examined it, then felt a tap on his shoulder. Strange, since he hadn’t heard the door open. He turned around only to find himself face to face with the Kell Captain he’d seen on the large screen in the brig earlier, red uniform and all. The Captain smiled gently and brought a gloved finger to his lips.
“Please be silent. It would be a bother if we were caught.” He said pleasantly.
With that the Captain gripped one of Denzel’s shoulders and pressed a flashing button on his own belt. There was a bright flash, and the brunette was suddenly aware that he was no longer in his room on the Silver Defender.
Honestly, did you guys have any possible doubts that the being they were looking for wouldn't be Denzel?
Thanks for the reviews so far! I'd love to get some more feedback!