Chapter 2.0:
Vampires
Amy walked alongside her mother into the dark chamber. Enormous columns rose up on either side. Between the columns were tall, dark creatures who looked like men, but were lean and had pale, almost glowing skin. They were holding long poles tipped with small axes.
The men were Infinity Vampires, and Amy was very uncomfortable indeed.
Amy was familiar with the Infinity Vampires. They had made contact with her people hundreds of years before she was born. Amy of course, was not a Vampire. Amy lived on an enormous, red planet called Amazon, where fierce warriors trained night and day to battle forces of chaos in the universe. This eternal battle had caused the Amazons to develop great mental powers. Some could move objects with their minds, while others could control the movement of entire groups of elements. Amy’s powers were very special indeed, and she was just beginning to put them to use.
“Why are they holding those weapons, mom?” Amy asked her tall, powerful mother.
“What do you think they’re called?” Her mother retorted. Amy’s mother always caught her off guard with these bizarre questions, in order to test her wit.
“Well, it looks like an axe on a pole, so they must be Axe-poles,” Amy declared sarcastically. She was fifteen. Why did her mother continue to treat her like a child?
“Very close, little one. They’re called pole-axes.”
“Don’t call me little around the vampires!” Amy whispered to her mother’s mind without the use of her mouth.
“Very well, Amastra.” Amy’s mother had to whisper since she did not have the same mental powers as Amy, and was forced to use her mouth.
Amy felt totally out of control in the beautiful--but frightening--interior of the Vampire asteroid, which reminded Amy of an art museum on Amazon, but with all the lights turned very low, and to a disgusting green hue. The place also had a bizarre smell, sort of like sweat and cleaning fluid mixed together.
Amy wanted nothing more than to show courage in the face of these guards. Each was at least a foot taller than her mother, whom she had believed was the tallest person around. The Vampires were tall and slender, but not nearly as strong as an Amazon woman. In fact, Amy probably could have put up a good fight against one of these guards--at least in his human form, she thought.
Slowly, Amy’s mother Riva guided her daughter through a series of long, echoing halls, to a shiny marble throne in the middle of the chamber. The throne shimmered in shades of green and red, regardless of what color light was shining on it. Every step echoed loudly in the silent hall.
“Well, here we are,” Riva said, addressing an ominous figure seated at the end of the hall, beneath dangerous-looking decorations and trophies. “What do you have to say?”
“Always straight to the point, Lady. I suppose with such short lives, this attitude is to be expected,” replied the seated man. Amy thought she detected a slight flicker of green in his eyes.
It was no secret that the Vampires usually lived for more than twice as long as the oldest Amazon. Theoretically, the Vampires could live forever. Myths had spread about how this was possible. The more extreme rumors suggested that they drank the blood of the living, but Amy knew this disgusting rumor was just a myth. The Vampires needed a special chemical to survive. It was this chemical which produced the bizarre odors and technology of the Vampires. Riva always said that Amy only noticed the smell because she hadn’t learned to fear the Vampires as most Amazons had.
The Amazons gave this Vapor to the vampires, but Amy’s mom had told her that there were other places to get vapor. It could also be made, but this required technology beyond that of the Amazons. Recent rumors had suggested that some faraway primitive species may have recently stumbled upon such technology.
Besides, Amy always felt that the Amazons gave vapor to the Vampires only to keep them from invading and taking it themselves. The Vampires had been known to do as much to other planets. Many planets had been destroyed by the Vampire’s ruthless harvesting machines, the great asteroid hulks that orbited a planet menacingly before the Vampires launched their final attack and took everything they desired.
Riva preferred to speak as little to the Vampire king as possible, since she knew that many other planets had fallen simply by being fooled into believing that the Vampires were their friends. If Riva didn’t listen to the Vampires, she would be difficult to fool indeed.
“Yes. Apparently you want a cease-fire. We do to, so let’s call it a day.”
“Very well. Of course, we need assur-r-r-rances,” Nero darkly intoned. He had a strange habit of rolling his R’s toward the ends of sentences.
“You’re not getting any more vapor. Not until we know you can be trusted,” Riva said. Amy wondered how on earth her mother would ever trust the Vampires. Historically, every time anyone trusted the vampires, they always ended up getting hurt one way or another.
“Naturally. We will survive. We will always be ar-r-round,” the Vampire crooned. Amy finally determined that this must be Nero, the Vampire leader they had come to see. He wasn’t nearly as tall as some of the other vampires in the chamber, and didn’t seem particularly frightening. How could someone that small come to lead a horde of glorified pirates around the galaxy?
“So, what do you want?” Riva said, loudly, so that it echoed through the chamber.
“Nothing that will be of any consequence to your br-r-rave people. In fact, quite the contrary.” Nero said quietly, creating an eerie quiet in the previously echoing chamber.
Amy’s mother was smart. Riva knew that Nero was up to something. She knew that his ancient head was filled with machinations which resembled the inside of a big, ugly grandfather clock.
“In the interest of friendship between our peoples, we pr-r-ropose an exchange of pr-r-r-risoners... ah, I mean, guests, of course.”
Now the Amazon elder had some idea of what Nero was up to, but pretended not to have realized that he would make her cooperation certain by imprisoning an important member of the Amazon senate, but she could not yet guess who.
“Whom do you have in mind to be exchanged?” Riva asked plainly.
“Commander Petrarch,” Nero replied.
Riva was shocked. Why would Nero offer the vampires’ most excellent general. He had killed so many Amazons! Laid waste to entire planets! Despite her surprise, Riva did not show any signs of her shock. To show weakness during this negotiation would only invite future atrocities.
“I suppose that will do. Whom do you want from us?” Riva asked.
“I thought you would like that. No one important, just your darling daughter.”
This time, Riva could not control herself.
“Over my dead body!” she barked into the chamber, which echoed even more loudly than before.
“Very well,” Nero said quickly “We were never meant to be at peace. You will be given safe passage back, safe until we take what is rightfully ours.”
“Wait. You know that nothing is more important to me than my daughter, but that she cannot be safe in a world at war. If any harm comes to her, your general will not only suffer, but we will make him talk as well. I’m sure he knows the location of every disgusting Vampire hulk for a thousand parsecs.”
“Indeed he does! Isn’t it delightful? So much risk, and you know so little!”
“Rest assured that if my daughter is harmed, every one of your floating rocks will be dragged into the direct light of our sun,” Riva threatened. The Amazon sun was less than hospitable to normal Amazons. To Vampires, the sunlight would be deadly.
“Well, I’m sure you would try, and of course I’d rather you didn’t, since it would be such a terrible waste of good vapor. You have my word,” Nero promised.
“Your word is useless, but the transfer of General petrarch will do nicely,” Riva said.
“Indeed. Splendid! It’s a deal. I’m so glad we could come together like this, under a common cause.”
Amy was terrified, but she would not cry or show fe
ar, even as she heard Nero laughing as she was separated from her mother and taken down a long hallway.
“I love you, Amy. Fear not, young one! I will always be with you.”
Of course, Amy knew that it would take light years of distance to sever her psychic link to her mother. She would keep her mother appraised, and be a secret Amazon spy aboard the Vampire craft, provided of course that Amy survived her stay.