slowly raised my head at the same time as his anti-gravity disc lowered itself to the same height as his colleague. Now both of them were side by side, just a few yards away, facing me. As this was happening, all the Kaytons and Drones bowed their heads in obeisance until he gestured for them to raise them again. I was convinced he was one of those three whom I had seen on New Canada on the Guardian verification mission. The three that I had christened the three stooges. I just couldn’t figure out for the life of me if it was Larry, Mo or Curly that stood before me.
He looked to his left as some of the Drones I had killed were still being carried out, then turned back to me and said, “Guardian John, you fought a very brave battle against overwhelming odds and for that we salute you. But ultimately you were foredoomed to failure. You cannot take on the might of the Kayton Empire and win, any more than the Solarans or Hellertrons can. The traitor and Kronos are dead and you have achieved absolutely nothing. You are now completely at our mercy—”
I interrupted. “Even in death, either one of them was more of a man than any of you lot will ever be. You’re not fit to lick their boots.”
Drakos was smiling, no doubt thinking to himself, if you carry on like that, John, you will be signing your own death warrant.
“Personal comments are neither here nor there,” the Council member replied. “What matters now is what is going to happen from here on. Now the war is nearly over and victory assured, we can afford to be magnanimous to that end. After much discussion in the Supreme Council, we have agreed to make you a once-only offer. Join us. If you do, you can have a seat on the Supreme Council. It would not be for show, you would be able to influence decisions. We know the Solarans are getting war weary and are close to opening peace negotiations with us. If you join us, they will surely follow suit and together we can fulfill our true place and destiny together in the Galaxy. It is our presence in the Galaxy that will inspire future generations. The fact that we have conquered a massive empire will be an inspiration and example to all that follow us. We never wanted war with the Solarans in the first place; we have only ever wanted peace and friendship with them.”
I thought to myself that nobody could accuse them of being a shy and modest people. I remember when I worked at Lewis’s department store in Leeds city centre. I was friends with the doorman, Bill. He was stationed in the Orkney Islands during the war and very boring it was, he told me. Anyway, when he came back to Leeds on leave, he used to go for a drink to the Market Tavern pub but he called it the Madman’s.
“Why do you call it that?” I asked him.
“Because people were always fighting in there,” he replied. Once, he picked up his pint of beer just in time, as it turned out, because at that precise moment somebody came flying across the table, head first. It reminded me of a scene from one of the Carry On films, I could just imagine it.
Anyway, to more pressing matters. I decided I would make one last attempt to bring sanity to this mad house I now found myself in.
Smiling, I replied, “Ah you want this Kultarn technology, don’t you? I’ll tell you what, then. If you declare an immediate ceasefire, withdraw from all occupied territories, make an honourable peace with the Hellertrons and set up a war crimes commission to prosecute those who have committed war crimes against the Hellertrons, then I will stay here on Tyros with you to work on the peaceful use of Kultarn technology.”
“Half the Galaxy is ours by conquest,” the Council member replied, “and you are in no position to be dictating terms. The original offer still stands, but not for much longer, Guardian. Don’t try our patience. As for the Solarans, if they renounce their alliance with the Hellertrons and pledge allegiance to us, they could end the war right now. Wesker spoke to you at length. He tells me he thinks you are trustworthy. If you give your word and accept our offer, I can have the Transdamping barrier lowered right now. You can then go back to Sontral to explain what has happened and champion our cause to the Solaran war cabinet. That, combined with their hopeless position now this escapade has failed and the worsening war situation, should be enough to sway them to our way of thinking.”
“What about the Hellertrons?” I asked. “Don’t they deserve to be left alone to peacefully co-exist in the Galaxy along with you and the Solarans?”
“The only thing the Hellertrons are fit for is to work in our factories and toil on our farms. The same as these savages,” he pointed towards the Drones, “are only fit to fight for us in our endeavor to expand our empire to its maximum extent.”
I lowered my head with a sigh of utter dejection as the full realisation dawned on me of what was in store, not only for Earth but also the entire Galaxy. As I was preparing myself to tell them what I really thought about them and what they could do with their so-called offer, something truly astonishing was transpiring outside with the control beacon on top of the Citadel. It was noticeably slowing down until, eventually, with a final swishing sound it ground to a shuddering, screeching, absolute stop. The only logical explanation that made any sense was that the shape explosive charges had only severed a certain number of connections. The remainder could not cope indefinitely with the extra current and literally overheated, slowly burning themselves out over a period of time.
I raised my head and looked the Council member straight in the eyes. “You foul, filthy creatures! I hope you all burn in hell.”
One of the Kayton guards shouted, “Don’t you talk like that to a member of the Supreme Council.”
“No matter,” the Council member said. “You have had your chance, Guardian, and now you will pay the ultimate price for your narrow-minded shortsightedness and lack of vision. I promise you this though, John… when the war is over we will make it a priority to find your home planet and then level it. In fact I am almost sorry, John, that you won’t be there to see all your hopes and all your dreams come crashing down in ruins under the weight of the fire power from our battle cruisers. Oh, and I will personally see to it that we use our new cascade weapon on your people.”
“Do you know that, as a people, you are all truly lost to humanity?” I asked him.
He laughed. “Drakos, kill him.”
Drakos smiled. “With pleasure.” As he began to step forward, he stopped in his tracks, groaning in terrible pain, after which he fell forward, crashing face down onto the ground. He was dead.
The Drone stood behind him – the one who had shot me in the arm. He had stabbed him in the back with his laser blade. He must have whispered the command for it to extend while those heated discussions were taking place between the Council member and myself. As he stood there, I could see the blood dripping off the white laser. Then, with his left hand in a symbolic gesture of defiance, he tore off his helmet so that, for the first time, I could see what this man actually looked like. Instead of just being a faceless automaton programmed to obey the Kaytons, he was now an individual with a mind of his own and he started using it to good effect to extract revenge on his former Kayton masters.
After smashing the helmet to the floor so violently that I could almost feel the vibrations reverberating around the room, he shouted in a very loud voice, “Now, fight like savages for your freedom!”
What a historic moment. Now to describe the Kaytons as being surprised would be an understatement. Most, like Drakos’s two Lieutenants, were just frozen in shock with their mouths wide open. Not so the former Drone, who immediately slashed one of the Lieutenants across the throat with his blade. Then with lightning speed he stabbed the other Lieutenant in the stomach, after which he grabbed him by the scruff of the neck to use him as a human shield as one of the Kayton officers took a pot shot at him. He then fell to the floor with his human shield, saying, “Blade in.” As he hit the deck, he grabbed his laser rifle which he had quietly placed there earlier on. Then, in rapid succession, he took out not only the Kayton officer who had fired on him but three others as well, just for good measure. This scenario of vicious, hand-to-hand mini-battles was being played o
ut right across the control room between the freemen, as I now called them, and their former Kayton masters.
Meanwhile, the two Supreme Council members had their eyes on me with seemingly only one thought on their mind. My destruction. The base of their disc was also apparently a weapons platform. I watched helplessly as two apertures opened in each disc to reveal a laser gun. They were just about to open fire on me when a freeman saw what was happening. Oh, he must have been at least seven feet tall… he reminded me of Jaws in the two Bond films. He ran over to the discs, grabbing them both, one with his left hand and the other with his right. Then he pushed both discs upwards as they fired their weapons so that the shots landed harmlessly above my head. Still, it was a very close call.
As for the two Council members, they both rolled off the back of their respective discs, landing with a bump on the hard floor. However, that was the least of their worries as, almost immediately, they were set upon by a number of freemen who used their rifle butts to pulverize them. Needless to say, it was not a very pretty sight to watch. By the time they had finished battering the two of them to a pulp, I’m afraid not even their own mothers would have recognised