Chapter 8: The Mind is Opened

Lattus (in the Triangle), same time

"We can call you anything you want us to call you, Master."

"My name is Bill. Call me Bill."

"Yes Master."

"Never mind. I take it you two were warriors. Why did you ask to become my slaves?"

"Master," replied Beta indigently. "We are still warriors, and we are not your slaves. We are your body slaves. There is a big difference. For one, slavery is illegal on our island. A body slave does not do everything a master tells them to do. We still have freewill. A slave has no freewill and no legal protection."

"That's good," he replied. "I am not comfortable with the term slave anyway. I want to give you as much freedom as I safely can. Where is the current champion?

Alpha looked sad. "When the queen was killed with her two body slaves, The champion lost her body slaves and was removed. She would have normally committed suicide because of her failure to protect the queen, but the new queen forbids it in this case."

"Well, who was the champion?"

"Lady Ada."

"Well this should be interesting. Can we now leave the room?"

"Yes, Master," replied Alpha. "However it may be best for us to wait for our clothes to be delivered." Suddenly there was a sharp knock on the door. Beta moved like a cat to the door and pulled it open. Three people carrying trays entered the room.

One tray was filled with various pastries. The other two held folded clothes. My clothes turned out to be a blue toga with a gold stripe. The shoes were boots made of what looked like leather. When I picked them up though I could tell they weren't leather. The women got blue leather-like 2 piece sets like the red ones the queen's guards wore.

"What is this material? It feels and looks like leather."

"We do not have animals here. This is a special process of what we call cotton, but it wears like leather. We had leather before the comet, but when we moved to the island, we did not have time to finish bringing livestock. We barely made it here."

"Well. OK. Is there anything else that I can say or do that will get anyone hurt or killed?"

"If you say someone is to be killed as a judge, it would be done, but we have not had a beheading since we came to the island. We feel it is barbaric. In our before time, we had beheadings for punishment. It was thought that this would eliminate certain types of crime. As we studied the process, we found that it was not a deterrent. It was just another cause of death."

"Well, I also think capital punishment is wrong, so I don't have a problem there. What kind of power do I have over the 1253 people on the island?"

"There are only about 975 people who recognize our queen. The rest live on the other side of the island, and have formed their own government. That is where the men you killed came from. This is the first time we have had any problems with them, though."

"Any idea what caused this?

"We don't know. One of the attackers is still alive and held prisoner. It will be your job, as judge, to question him and pass judgment."

"How long will this training of mine take?"

"About 5 months."

"We can't wait that long to question this guy. We need to know why they attacked. How many warriors are there, and who is in charge of them?"

"There are Alpha and I; Delta and Gamma, the Queen's body guards; and ten warriors. The champion commands all warriors."

"I need to talk to Ada and the queen. Can you please show me the way to them?"

"Yes master."

As they approached the castle, Bill was surprised to see it was made of what appeared to be some form of plastic. It was constructed as a small medieval castle with towers and a drawbridge over a moat, but the materials were unknown. Beta noticed his look.

"The material is developed by our scholars and is stronger than any known material. When we first came here, we had extremely strong storms that killed many people. This is also our storm shelter."

"How often do we get hit with these storms?"

"The one last week was the worst we have had in 200 years. It was not as strong, however, as many we have had. In fact, we did not even come to the shelter."

"This fixed number of people, what was it? Yes, 1258. You say that many were killed by the storm. Did that number stabilize after the people were killed?

"No, we found people to repair the balance on the beaches. Somehow they survived the storms that surround us. You are the first we have found in thousands of years."

The three entered the throne room and approached the queen's throne. She sat with a crown on her golden hair. Ada sat on her left and an empty chair was on her right. Bill knelt to one knee and bowed his head for a moment.

"My queen, I would like to talk to the man who attacked you and your mother. I do not think we can wait for my training to end. I fear there may be other attacks. I am told that you have never had this problem before. Something has happened, and we must find out what it is."

Ada looked at him with hard, almost hateful eyes. "You are not champion yet. You presume too much. You have no training. You could do more harm than good."

He chose not to look at Ada as he answered, but did make a mental note to get her alone to find out if jealously was her problem, or something deeper. "In my former life, I was trained to interrogate prisoners. I spent 20 years in this form of training, and have successfully questioned several men and women during that time."

The queen looked at Ada, at Bill, and then back to Ada. "What harm can he do?"

"The prisoner could turn him against you."

He laughed. "Balderdash!"

"What does that mean?" demanded Ada.

"It means that I would never go back on my word to my queen. I am committed to being her champion, and to defend her from all threats." He looked Ada in the eye and very quietly added, "No matter who that threat is."

"Are you saying I am a threat to my niece?"

"I am saying no one comes before my queen."

Lisa cleared her throat. "I think you two need to get together and become friends. I cannot have my two closest advisors always fighting. Tonight you will sleep together, make love, and become friends. If we are lucky, Ada will become with child."

Bill looked at Ada as she looked at him. They both turned to Lisa and asked, "What?"

"I am ending this bickering right now. You will become lovers and you will sleep together each night until you can discus differences in a dignified manner. Am I clear?"

He thought Ada was going to have a stroke. She stammered and shook in anger. "You can't do that to me with this... This male will not have my body. I do not like men and I have never had one. You are going to give my maidenhood to this barbarian?"

"Yes."

It was his turn. "With all humility, your majesty, I don't think this is really a good idea. Your aunt is very attractive, but I don't even know if I could get into a condition to have sex with a woman who is so cold."

"There will be no arguments. You two will sleep together and you will have sex. You will make love until you are civil to each other. If you still bicker after that I will put you on bread and water and have you chained together in the dungeon face to face."

Bill thought if he changed the subject and cooled everything down, they could get rid of this love nest. "What about our prisoner?"

"Oh, you two won't have to make love to him."

"I need to question him."

"I agree. You and Ada will be taken to the prison right now, and if this works out so that you two are civil, I may change my mind, but don't count on it. You will ask questions and Ada has my permission to read his thoughts. Go now."

She got up and left the room.

He looked at Ada. "Think we could work this out?"

"I don't see a lot of choice. Let's get over to the prison."

They sat at the conference table as the prisoner was brought in and tied to a large chair. His hatred radiated off him as his eyes tried to burn holes in Ada's body.

"Well, Bubba," Bill cooed. "You got a whole bunch of trouble coming down on you. What in the hell were you thinking about?"

The man gave Bill a strange look and turned to Ada. "Who is this idiot?"

"He is a barbarian. I have no control of him."

"Hey! I asked you a question. You don't want to be rude to a barbarian. I don't know all the rules here, but where I come from... Well, let's just say that this lady has called me a barbarian for a good reason. Have you ever been in so much pain that you begged someone to kill you?"

The man turned white, and turned back to Ada. "You cannot allow this. It is not civilized."

"I have nothing to say about this," replied Ada. "You have angered the queen. She has put him in charge of the prison against my advice. Don't worry, though, when he slaughters you, I will report to the queen, and he will be punished. You will not have gone through all the pain for nothing."

"I do not believe you."

Bill smiled. "Alpha, give me your knife." She slowly pulled her knife from her belt and turned it so he could grasp the handle. "You know, one of the things that I have been so impressed by is the care they give to their equipment. Take this knife for instance." He pulled a hair out of the prisoner's head and started slicing it into smaller hairs. "See how sharp this is?"

Ada added, "Alpha is one of the best, isn't she?"

"She sure is." Bill turned back to the man. "Bubba, have you ever seen what a sharp knife can do to a finger?"

The prisoner started shaking as Bill turned the knife and inspected the edge. "What a beautiful job. Alpha, you did a fine job on this knife. It's almost a shame to get it all bloody."

"It's OK Master. I would be my pleasure to clean it again. Do not let that deter you."

"Thank you dear. Now, Bubba put your hand flat on the table. Oh my! Your hands and feet are tied to the chair. That's OK, There will be less chance of getting blood all over Lady Ada's beautiful clothes. In fact, it's better for you too. If you can't move your hand, there is less chance of me cutting off more than I need to. Normally, most people tell me what I want to know before they lose an entire hand.

"You, though, may last much longer. I hope so. As brave and skilled as you are you could hold out much longer. After all, it's a brave man who kills three women in the back and rapes a young girl while others are holding her down. Isn't that the sign of a brave man, Lady Ada?"

Before Ada could answer the man blurted out, "I did not rape anyone. I did not kill anyone. I was trying to stop it."

"Really? And why, then did you attack me with weapons?"

"We did not know who you were. There were a lot of dead people lying on the ground and the princess screamed while you were holding her."

"She screamed when she saw you. Nice try, but you can do better than that."

Ada asked, "Who are you? I have never seen you."

"Two weeks or so ago, I was captured by drug dealers. They thought I was someone else, and were taking me to Cuba and then to Columbia. I have no idea who they thought I was, but it was someone they wanted badly. We got caught up in a storm and landed on this island. Two of the five men I was with and I were separated from the other three."

"That is impossible," Ada exclaimed. "There are limited numbers of people that can exist on this island. This means that 6 people would have died or left. Leaving the island in this number has never happened before."

"I don't know about that, but I will tell you that the big guy has seen too many Sylvester Stallone movies. That crap only works if you haven't seen the movies yet."

Bill did a double take. "OK. Let's figure out how you got here. I think I got here because you killed one of those women..."

"God damn it! I told you that I didn't kill anyone."

"... and I was given a chance to live instead. How did it happen with you?"

"You mean you believe me?"

"I believe you came from the outside. I'm not sure you are innocent. Why did you attack me?"

"I didn't attack you. You hit me in the nuts and took me out. I just wanted to talk."

"So, you and your buddies just wanted to talk about the cost of rice in China?"

"No, I wanted to talk. You were most likely right in taking them out."

"You know, if you were the one with the club, you might be believable, but if you're telling the truth why did you have the most dangerous weapon?"

"I picked it up as we came out of the jungle. It must have been one of the woman's spears."

"Lady Ada, can you tell if that was one of your spears or one the men were carrying?

"It was the queen's spear."

"We need to discuss this. Take the prisoner back. Wait. I have one last question. Do you regret the death of these five men?"

"I would not have killed them if I could help it. They were killers and my captors, so I do not mourn their death. Any loss of life, however, is regrettable."

As they left the chamber, Bill asked Ada, "Were you able to read his thoughts?"

"Yes," she answered curtly.

"Well, was he being honest?"

"Yes, but what do you care? You have made up your mind as to his guilt. You have replaced my position with the queen. I make no difference."

"Hold on there, Lady Ada. I had a thought that he was guilty, but if what he said is true, I could be wrong. Where did the rest of this shit come from?"

"The queen has a champion now. She no longer needs her Aunt."

"I am a tool who willingly does her bidding. You, on the other hand are family. In fact, as far as I know, you are the only family she has left. I could never replace you. You are her most important advisor, and the one she can always trust. You, next to the queen are the most important woman in the land, and I pledge you my loyalty only after the queen. We are part of the queen's court, but you are higher than I."

"If that were only true."

"Look into my mind. You will see."

"I cannot. The queen had forbid it."

"Even if I request it?

"Yes."

"If I get the queen to allow it, would you look into my mind? This could eliminate our problem."

"Yes."

"Good. Let's go."

They entered the queen's private chambers and each knelt to one knee. Bill asked, "My queen, I have a request."

"Yes, my champion."

"I know and appreciate that you have forbidden anyone to enter my mind until I know how to shield myself. I trust Lady Ada with my life, and would like for you to allow her to enter my mind when I give my leave."

"I am happy you two are trying to work together. I know both your hearts, and they will meld together well. My two most important advisors must learn to get along. You may have your wish, but I will also have mine. You will immediately retire to the champion's chamber and you will spend the night making love.

"Aunt Ada, you may enter the champion's mind before the love making begins, but you must go now. Alpha and Beta will bring you food and what ever you need, but you must stay in the chamber until we break the evening fast."

"Yes your majesty."

"By your leave, my queen."

They entered the champion's chamber and Bill turned to Alpha. "Please bring us food and wine for the evening. Lady Ada and I will be busy for the rest of the evening. You and Beta may visit friends after you bring our food."

"I am sorry, Master. I cannot. The queen has demanded that we stay here and bear witness to your acts."

"You what?"

"Master, the queen orders it."

"I will not allow this."