Chapter 4: Plotting and planning

Meeting Room 4.1 Castle of the Queen in the Capital Gresh on the Planet Drak

Attendees:

• Ghoul Queen Parbath Kabal.

• Biqalak Kabilal her Secretary and Assistant.

• Gen. Etzil Tsanak – Chief of Intelligence.

• Adm. Namenal Kabilaqua – Intelligence Division Acquisitions.

• Bilulus Gelex – Elevated Admiral in charge of Armed Forces.

“Members of Council, do you appreciate we are one year away from disaster? We have placed a billion citizens into stasis in the last six months,” screamed the Queen. “What do you have to say for yourselves? Etzil you and I have known each other for billions of years, never have we had so many setbacks. What is going on?”

“Attempting to follow after the Uzliumbax our people and landing up in this universe has been a disaster. We have not had the sustenance to do what we have needed to do to survive and we are constantly starving,” said Etzil.

“Yes, yes, I know all of this, the question is why is everything going wrong now?” Asked the Queen still sounding irate.

“Consuming the species of this universe has not been good for us. We became malformed and we do not function optimally. Harvesting food here has been a disaster. We have one reasonable potential source in this universe, the Una, but we have not successfully infiltrated them nor diminished their strength. A full scale attack will be expensive. We are nevertheless working on a last-ditch plan,” said Etzil and sighed.

“We have been cut off in the Empire and also cut off from the primitive human planet Earth where we were beginning to harvest sustenance successfully. The accursed Duke Kargo and ships from his allies patrol the solar system and can detect our ships. Every recent attempt by us to reap the planet has been thwarted.”

“What about the Azayal, you have talked about them for a very long time. Surely they are ripe for the taking by now?” The angry queen asked.

“We have weakened the Azayal, but they are not ready. We remain concerned our situation is becoming direr and more critical week by week. I am concerned we have lost contact with the Vizier to the king of the Azayal. He has been cultivating the King and the Prince. The son is more unstable than the father and is not ready in his view. The Azayal military has declined in function but even now they are very difficult to defeat. We have infiltrated the military and we can cripple them for long enough to remove a few million people from their core planet.”

“I have my own contact in the palace. She has been a dominant influence on the son. I am waiting for her report,” said the Queen. “She has been here for a visit and is on her way back to the palace.”

The group looked at her surprised.

“What are you looking at? I needed my own sources of information. I hear one excuse after the other. At the rate we are progressing this group will still be dithering when we are the last to go into stasis.”

“Your majesty we failed to kidnap one of the Azayal Princesses while she was working in the Empire of Cassius. We hoped to use her to destabilize her father and then we intended to kill the father and place the son on the throne. The shuttle was blown out of the sky and troops were observed on the ground. Our support cruiser was located despite being cloaked and was destroyed. We have lost our technological advantage in universe Nasta 9. In recent encounters we pay a price we cannot afford. We are looking for Duke Jason Kargo and we will assassinate him at the earliest opportunity. He has been lurking behind some of our worst disasters. He interferes with us wherever we are and with whatever we are doing!” Said Etzil.

“Namenal, how are you progressing with acquisitions?” the queen asked.

“Your Majesty, despite our best efforts our avenues in the Empire for acquisition have diminished considerably due to the involvement of the young Archduke Jason Kargo. He blocked our main supply. Then he stopped our supply from the Coven. He managed to rescue the King of the Coven. The Coven embraced the king of old and we lost a vital ally. They were supplying us with several millions to satisfy our hunger every few months. The people of Dhoom and the Grork are also struggling to find prospects.”

“We managed to infiltrate several areas of Earth during their constant wars and removed several hundred thousand people. We removed combatants and refugees alike. We managed to get to Earth secretly while cloaked. Since the failed attack on Charassa they can see us every time. We lost a frigate that was spotted and barely escaped with our cargo ships.

“We have noticed they are constructing defensive asteroids and automated sensor batteries are increasing around the planet and through the solar system. Last week one of our scout ships, while trying to map possible approach paths to the planet, was crippled but managed to limp away and escape. The Earth option is now closed and unfortunately the quality of the product we removed is poor and does not satisfy us for long. The food we obtain for them here does not preserve their lives if we try to harvest them slowly,” said Namenal.

“Bilulus please report,” the queen asked.

“Your majesty your secretary asked on your behalf for me to consider an operation on the Una and on the Azayal. We have had long-term plans to weaken both of these peoples as Etzil has already noted and we have discussed the problems for centuries. We did not expect to acquire them in the short term as they will take a long time to weaken. We have been working on both of groups for hundreds of thousands of years. We are doing well with the Azayal but we have made slow progress with the Una. It is impossible to influence an individual as they are connected and even if they are kidnapped, they can communicate over a long distance. We cannot find a way to block their communication with each other. We have very carefully infiltrated them on many occasions. We have finally begun to weaken them with one of the poisons that we have obtained from the Grork. The poison does reduce the harvest value of the Una we take. We will need to capture more of them when the time comes.

The Grork recently suggested a combined operation. We would share the population between us and later we would combine again to take on the Azayal. They have suffered grievous losses as have we and even though we will be sharing, there is an excellent chance of a good result. We have worked with them for a very long time on matters of common interest and we both believe we can work together on this matter. For the time being I do not advise going anywhere near any of the allies of the Collective.

“Your Majesty do I have your permission to proceed?”

“Excellent Bilulus, at long last I am hearing a plan with lower risk and a good chance of an excellent outcome. The Una will be an excellent source of energy for us. Proceed with our blessings and good wishes!”

“Greetings, Wensta, I am pleased to see you this morning!” Grefis said grinning as Wensta sat in a comfortable chair in Grefis’ home.

“I am equally pleased to see you colonel. You did exceedingly well last night. My dear sister was completely shocked. My father seemed to like you in the past. I would love to see you getting my stupid sister’s assets,” said Wensta.

“Wensta, what can you tell me about my potential opposition? They don’t look like a particularly terrifying group of people. Who are they and where are they from?”

“My sister, always the social worker, decided to bring some of her students to get exposed to our superior education at the University. They are involved in engineering studies. My father is putting on his good guy act with them and is pretending to be helpful. He will revert to type before long.

“I think that the primitives overestimate themselves and you will easily take them apart. Pick a team of your elite killers and let them have some fun. Jason was the fellow who had his arm around my sister at the ball. He is one of the leaders and comes from a primitive planet, that has barely begun space flight. My sister seems quite taken with him.

“On the first night she was back she told us a most improbable tale of how he fought a nasty insect creature on a planet run by dinosaurs. A likely story! She was always a fanciful woman who tells tall stories. The students are due to start University on Monday. This little challenge will mess up their plans. My friend, I don’t have very much else to say. I don’t think you are at risk from a formidable group of people. They are simple primitives who are agog seeing our technology. Amongst them is one exceedingly primitive being who is mysteriously the leader. I suspect he is the front for some of the women.

“I think my sister would make a very good wife for you. When all of this plays out, she will become your wife, and you can control her and her assets. Then as agreed, I will kill my father and my other brothers and sisters and you kill your father. You have to get that incompetent out of your way or you will have nothing,” said Wensta smiling broadly. “Then we can have some fun returning to our roots. The guilds are not as difficult to smash as my father believes. The Army has always remained true to the monarchy and they can be used to fulfill the purposes of the king. My father has never been prepared to take the necessary steps,” said Wensta.

“So how is your pretty girlfriend getting on in the palace?” Grefis asked.

“My personal maid is doing very well thank you very much. No one suspects who she is. She will be happy to arrange to take the Guild people members where they will never trouble us again. She is a very energetic and enthusiastic young lady. Some days she tires me out to such a degree I can barely move!” Wensta grinned smugly. “I have always found her charming and highly intelligent. She is a very cunning young wench. I enjoy talking with her about my plans and ideas and not only those that she thinks of in bed,” said Wensta and guffawed. Grefis laughed along with him.

“It may be worthwhile holding your victims hostage once you have beaten them. The primitive leader, is an Archduke and he will be worth something to someone. One of the women is a princess. See if you can use one of your outside registered merchants to visit the Empire and make inquiries to help establish a price for your victims,” said Wensta. “I shall keep you informed of events in the palace. I must get back, I have other matters to which I must attend. I promised Anastasia I would see her this afternoon after she gets back from a week’s leave. She will, no doubt, be very interested to hear of our progress,” said Wensta as he waved and made his way to the front door.

“I am really feeling strange,” said Jason with his voice sounding slurred as he arrived at the gym. “My mind seems fuzzy and I’ve got this weird thing on my head. I can’t see it properly. I couldn’t wake up for quite some time and my balance is really off. Has Pardela got here yet?”

“No, she hasn’t. Let me have a look at your head,” said Razza. “Sit down over here so we can see what it is,” continued Razza as she felt the top of Jason’s head. She pushed his hair aside around the object she found. “It is a strange grayish hard blob on top of three short and sturdy legs firmly attached to the top of your skull. Did you try and pull it off?”

“Yes, I did. I experienced sheer agony. It took me a few minutes to recover. The pain was awful and sickening. I can’t remember pain like that before,” said Jason shuddering. “Here comes Pardela maybe she will know what it is?”

“What is the problem, you all look as if someone has just died and Jason looks grey and unwell,” said Pardela lightly.

“Jason woke and was feeling sick. He was tired, his voice is slurred and look at him now, he seems to fallen asleep. We found this strange thing on his head,” said Razza worriedly.

Pardela walked over to her and looked down at Jason’s head.

“Nebula of Paraquond! This is an organism used by assassins. Let’s get him to my shuttle quickly and get him to the hospital. Follow me.”

Four of them lifted Jason and took him through a portal to the hangar. As soon as he reached the shuttle Pardela touched him with a stick like device and he disappeared.

“Most people never wake after such an organism is used. I only know of two people who survived a similar assassination attempt. This is very disturbing. Did any of you see anyone heading for or leaving Jason’s room?” Pardela asked anxiously as she steered the shuttle out of the hanger. “Hang on before you answer I need to get to the hospital as fast as I can and I need to concentrate. I have to call them in route.”

As they walked down the passage to see the doctor they saw the sign, Merka Central Hospital Infectious Diseases Department.

“Pardela, I didn’t even know shuttles could travel so fast through the atmosphere. Why didn’t you simply come directly through the portal? I’m surprised any of you are intact after that crash stop on the roof. You came to a dead stop from full speed. I didn’t know our inertial compensation that good!” Dr Denzog Nardoglou, Director Infectious diseases asked laughing.

“I knew that his chances were improved if I got him into stasis. The portal enters the hospital a long way from your department. I did not want to take any chances. The shuttle lands on top of your department. I assume as you are merrily chatting as you don’t have any news for us yet? We are frantic with worry and you are joking with me about my piloting my shuttle. We should have put a plug in your mouth at school. Denzog, what do you know?”

“You did identify the organism correctly as an Aspermycosis Clobodium,” said Dr. Nardoglou as he pulled out his brain and created a hologram showing the Aspermycosis. “It is a fungus native to the planet Nobutnik. It can move a couple of yards from the last victim to reach its new prey. It uses its injectors as legs. It has suckers it uses to pull itself up a limb to find a position of choice. It injects an anesthetic as it moves and into its final target position. Once in position it emulsifies the flesh as it pushes its injectors downwards. It sucks up the digested flesh which provides it with its energy and metabolic needs. When it hits a blood vessel it begins to inject the fungus in a single cell form, which is an intermediary form. It alternately feeds on the blood and then injects more organism. It anchors itself tightly to the wound and it can inject substances that induce agonizing pain. If the person feels around the anchored organism and then they grip it, it injects immediately large amounts of the organism into the person as well as the pain inducing substances. It feeds on the tissue around the wound as it grows and spreads the legs and also the blood as I mentioned to which it retains access by using anticoagulants. The fungus reproduces frighteningly quickly in the body and usually overwhelms its victim within hours. From what we have seen of the size of the outside portion and looking at the firmness and progress of anchoring, our estimate is; it was on his skull for six hours.

“This means that the infection has been rampaging around his body and may have done significant damage from which he will not recover. I cannot yet prognosticate accurately, we have only had him in our care for ten minutes.

“We use micro portal technology to insert immune cells to target the organism and we simultaneously remove the organism. The process was well established within minutes. We inject antimycotics to paralyze the metabolism of the fungus. We will have him cleared of organism in the next half an hour at most. I can assess the extent of residual damage in an hour. He is a very strong individual to have lasted this long. Most are profoundly damaged after half to an hour. I am impressed to hear he was conscious and responsive twenty minutes ago. His body is remarkable, I would swear it is purpose built. Perhaps you can tell me how this came about Pardela and if you can’t perhaps one of the others can?” Dr. Nardoglou asked.

“Let me show you briefly,” said Razza as she created a hologram and showed the doctor how Jason had been reconstructed on Charassa and the bug doctor’s explanation of what had been done.

“The outside world has indeed progressed since we have been out of it. The Collective is doing extraordinary work. It’s a pity that the fungus can digest through chitin as quickly as it goes through skin. The fungus frequently feeds on insects when it is small. It is not fussy about what it eats.”

“Dr. Nardoglou, what does the fungus do once the body dies?” Marsin Zinduski asked.

“That is a very good question. It continues to feed. The outer fungus begins to shrivel and dies. The cellular fungi continue to feed until all the soft tissue is consumed. The cellular fungi concentrate on consuming the blood before they eat the tissue. People die because the circulation can cease or there is so much organism that they block blood flow to organs. They multiply horribly fast. That is why we concentrate so much on slowing or stopping their metabolism.

“The fungus feeds as long as it can while growing into a worm phase which burrows out of the host then forms a replica of the parent. After the host is consumed they escape and feed on small organisms they find around the remains. They are rapidly dispersed by flying insects and later birds. When they are small they can move fast and jump. When they are tiny and land on a much larger animal, they can grow on it for a long time. They may choose to move on if another opportunity presents itself. The one on Jason is a fully mature fungus, it anchors itself deeply and dies when it has done its job.

“We have kill the fungus by injection and then cut it off. That way we paralyzed it and prevent it from accomplishing its last big injections into the host. It no longer occurs in the wild, but it continues to be cultivated by the military and by assassins. It is a favorite technique for creating fear in one’s enemies.

“The body is usually a liquid mess in the bed by morning with the bones denuded of flesh. There are billions of microscopic organisms on the bed and spreading around the room. If the person was sleeping with another, that person would undoubtedly be infected, but the organisms would be so small that it would take them some time to feed grow and begin injecting fungi into the host. We can save the person’s life in nearly all cases at an early stage even with billions feeding on them. Assassins feed the organism until it is mature. It can do devastating damage quickly.