Minx Ep. 05: Sphere, Age of Arachnids

Minx rolled her eyes. "Any ideas about why Mahar would be making lava?"

"A few. However, the most likely one is the obvious one."

"And that would be?"

"He's clearing this zone so he can repopulate it."

"But...Arachne's people!"

"He's a hyperman, Minx."

"And it would take thousands of years to..."

"I estimate seventy thousand plus or minus twenty thousand years. Logically, he has a stasis chamber or two ready for use. He can use maintenance robots to finish the job he starts, then travel to a world and repopulate this zone with creatures of his choosing."

"What creatures would he want, though?"

"Perhaps Dragon knows. Or, the next time you talk with Mahar, perhaps he'll twirl his moustache and tell you of his grand plan."

"Point taken, Aphrodite."

XXII

"And he's shown no signs of being aware that you contacted Minx two days ago? You're sure?"

"No sign at all, Dragon," answered Vanessa, kneeling by the octagon. She was wearing a different poncho than she'd worn the previous few days. This one left her upper thighs bare and had wide gaps underneath her arms, offering her imperfect coverage of her front and back. Dragon understood why she'd chosen this new outfit; his pheromones were still emanating from him and she was desperate to build any kind of bond between them to improve her chances of survival.

"He hasn't been in to see me in that time..." Dragon considered the likelihood of Mahar being able to hide his true feelings from Vanessa very high, but he might be less confident with another hyperman. "I suspect he knows."

"Then...why not punish me?"

"Because he has a plan. We'll continue acting as we are, Vanessa. If he becomes angry with you I can always redirect his antagonism toward me."

"So, why would Mahar want to cover this region in lava?" she asked, placing her hands upon Dragon's knees.

"He's going to replace the flora and fauna with those of his own liking. I suspect he'll stop by a human world — a relatively primitive one — and collect what he needs, when the time comes. He views Arachne's people as his enemy, clearly, having taken up with their rivals: the scorpions. I suspect he wouldn't mind wiping out all life in the Sphere and starting fresh. Limited thinking on his part."

"But...why would he want more humans? Just to torture them?"

"He hopes to crossbreed them with his beast-men, Vanessa." She flinched at the memory of what she'd endured from Paul and Miguel, and then backed away from the hyperman. "He wants a large breeding population to build an army. He'll be able to do that more quickly if he starts with a larger base population. I estimate a few thousand humans should do the trick. He'll transform half of them — most likely the men — and set them all loose in this transformed region."

"But...but that'll take years to build an army of beast-men!" countered Vanessa.

"A few generations," Dragon agreed. "During that period, he can place himself in stasis and then awaken every few years to see how his plan is proceeding. He might decide that he needs an assistant to stay awake and monitor the development of his army, but I believe him to be too much of a coward to actually do that. When he has a sufficiently large population of beast-men with almost human intelligence, he can begin training them for battle. Then, he can direct the Sphere to other human worlds and attack. The most likely method would be to disable planetary defences and then send his army down to rape the human survivors, thus building an even larger army."

"He's a monster!" exclaimed Vanessa.

"That he is. As am I. It's inside all of us. His plan is doomed to fail, though. There just isn't enough time for one person to build such an army to have sufficient strength to conquer the whole galaxy. In the end, his fear of reprisals from an organized human army, or of a hyperman attack, will result in his downfall. A portion of the galaxy will revert to a dark age with untold suffering for the humans unlucky enough to still live within that zone." Dragon shook his head at the folly, understanding that Vanessa would see it as a sympathetic gesture for her and other humans. "Now, proceed to the control console and let me explain how to access aerial views of certain regions of this zone of the Sphere."

"Shouldn't I be working on freeing you?"

"That would instigate action by Mahar and his scorpion army sooner than I'd like. None of us would survive that conflict as it stands now. Minx and Arachne still have things to do before we can begin our true attack upon Mahar."

Vanessa followed his instructions and soon they were watching multiple images of enormous lasers firing into highlands, sending rivers of lava spreading across the Paleozoic Zone. Vanessa was intrigued by the images and watched them intently. Dragon understood the destruction that Mahar was unleashing, and what it meant for the future of the intelligent arachnid race that had built this world. Mahar's paranoia that Arachne's species were a greater danger to him and his plans than he could imagine were the cause of his planned genocide. When Minx realized what was going on she would be furious.

A scorpion scuttled into the room, surveyed the two of them for a few seconds and then left.

"He's going to tell Mahar what we're doing!" gasped Vanessa.

"I think he would have stayed longer if he was supposed to monitor our activities. He just seemed to note our presence and then left. I suspect the intellect of the scorpions is comparable to the primitive proto-humans that you had enslaved. Stone age technology at best. All native technology I've seen has been spider-based, and certainly I've seen no iconography which included images of scorpions. Arachne's people doubtlessly brought the scorpions along for the same reasons they brought all the other creatures and plants." Dragon mused for a second. "I think it's likely the initial flight of the Sphere was done to avoid a mass extinction part way through the Permian Era. I'll have to check the historical records once we've dealt with Mahar."

Vanessa stared at him in confusion. "They couldn't have brought them along as workers or slaves?"

"Arachne's people have robots which are fully capable of acting as servants or menials for them. Their technology was very advanced, even by the standards of my people."

"Oh."

"You're going to have to tell Minx what we've learned at the first opportunity, Vanessa. For now, let's turn off the lights."

She whirled around and smiled. "I thought you'd never say that! You'll have to show me how to drop the energy cage, first. But we can leave the lights on as I don't care if you see everything..." she said as she lifted the poncho over her head.

"Vanessa! Concentrate!" commanded Dragon. "We're going to turn off the lights in this hollow world."

"What?" Vanessa pulled her poncho back over her body. "Is that even possible?"

"I suspect there was a normal day and night cycle until Mahar put a stop to it. We're just setting things back the way they should be...and disrupting Mahar's plans. I can only imagine he ended night here because he was afraid the darkness would be used against him. Minx won't be afraid of it, and can use it to her advantage."

"But...he'll know we did it. He'll just turn the lights back on and torture the both of us."

"He'll think we did it, however I can sow a few seeds in his mind to make him wonder whether Arachne's people, or an automated system that he's overlooked, has intervened. And, I think I can instruct you on how to make the change permanent, at least permanent enough that Mahar won't be able to disable it in the short time he has left to him."

Vanessa's face lit up. "We make a good team, Dragon."

"I guess we do," he admitted. "Now, you'll need to access..."

XXIII

Arachne scuttled well ahead of the two women as they followed the lava river to its origin. Minx and Alice walked beside each other, having grown accustomed to the idea that dangerous animals shied away from the lava, and many of the dangerous plants had simply withered away from the heat. They needed to drink more water than usual but that was easy enough to come by. Minx remained alert for pockets of poisonous gas.

"I'm just saying that I've had sex with both men and women, and only a woman really understands what another woman wants," explained Alice.

"What I want is a man, Alice. And, to me, another woman can't really make up for the differences. Other women are fun to play with but there are essentials that only Drag...a man can provide."

"With the right tools she could, Minx. Captain Black-Eye once had another woman put on a strap-on and we had sex for an hour! It was amazing! Of course, he blew her out an airlock later," recalled Alice, with no real sign of regret. "She thought she was going to replace me as the captain's favourite." She raised an eyebrow and took a sidelong look at Minx. "I was always the captain's favourite. I'm very good at..."

"Enough!" snarled Minx. "I don't care what horrible past led you to your life of piracy, nor do I care whether you were..." Suddenly, everything went dark.

Alice reached out and grabbed Minx's arm and whimpered. Animals started making all sorts of strange noises. Minx looked up, ahead and behind, but could see no light anywhere except a dull red glow from the river of molten rock.

"Wait here, Alice."

"Don't leave me!" pleaded the woman, as Minx disengaged herself.

The bounty hunter remembered a thick tree-like plant off to her left. She stumbled around until she felt it, then began climbing. It was very difficult to do in the darkness, but she felt her way up carefully.

"Minx?" It was Aphrodite and not Alice, though Minx could hear Alice whimpering nearby. The woman's silhouette showed she had not moved one step from the place where Minx had left her.

"Yes, Aphrodite?"

"What just happened?"

"All lights went out in the sphere. Any ideas?"

"A signal from Dragon?"

"That was my thought. I'm just not sure what it means."

"He has some limited control over this world despite being a prisoner of Mahar," hypothesized the A.I. "He wants to let you know, but he didn't want Vanessa to tell you this."

"Either because he's worried Mahar will hear her," mused Minx, "...or he doesn't want her to understand the message. Mahar is going to be pissed!"

"Dragon wouldn't have done this if he thought Mahar would kill him for it."

Once she'd climbed as high as she could, she turned to stare in the direction she thought the tower was. She could see nothing, except a dull orange glow off to her left and to the right in the distance. She looked all around her and noted eight separate glowing areas. Suddenly the lights came back on and she clamped her eyes shut in the painfully blinding light. Alice called for help nearby, now blinded by the sudden light and feeling even more helpless than she had a few seconds earlier.

"Stay where you are, Alice!" shouted Minx. "The lights came back on! Everything else will be just as blind as you are for the next few seconds, so you're perfectly safe!"

Minx slitted her eyes. She could see Arachne rubbing her own eyes twenty metres away, apparently having been surprised by the return of the lighting. Alice had wandered a bit from where Minx had left her, but what alarmed Minx were the four large spiders, each about half as big as Arachne, that were backing away from Alice. Minx hurried down the plant and landed roughly on the ground. By the time she reached Alice's side the creatures had buried themselves in the dirt.

"Can you see?" she asked Alice.

"No! I'm blind!"

Minx took the woman's hand and patted it. "You'll be alright. You just need a little time. Arachne's blind, too."

"But you're not, are you?"

"I'll look after you both until you're okay. Don't worry. It shouldn't take long."

Alice pulled herself against Minx and hugged her tightly. The bounty hunter stared at the ground, trying to detect the places where the spiders had disappeared to. The creatures had been stalking Alice in the darkness, which meant there were night time hunters in this region of the Sphere. Minx wondered if the spiders were some of Arachne's people or a much more primitive species. Arachne had evidently not sensed their presence when she had passed the same spot before them, and that worried her.

A couple of hundred metres further along the river of lava, and on the opposite side from the women, a pair of blinded scorpions squealed and plunged into the molten rock.

XXIV

Undeterred by the absolute blackness, Mahar burst into the room and, without a word, hurled a surprised Vanessa from the control panel. His hands danced over the controls and then the monitors showed the inside of the sphere lighting once more.

"What have you done?" he demanded.

"I just did whatever I could to ruin your plans, you monster!" the woman yelled. She had landed hard upon the floor just a few metres from Dragon and was rubbing her temple.

"I did warn you!" Mahar dashed across the room and grabbed Vanessa's arm, lifting her right off the ground in one swift movement.

"Ahhh!" she cried out in pain and terror.

"Oh, stop the show, Mahar," sighed Dragon. "You know she was only doing what I told her to do. Are you so stupid as to believe her capable of deciphering the commands in your terminal and then controlling the arachnid control systems through the equipment you've installed? I told her exactly what to do. What power does she have to truly resist either of us?"

The hyperman dropped his captive and sneered at Dragon. Vanessa landed on her hip, grimaced in pain and then watched the exchange between the two.

"And," added Dragon, "you surely cannot think me stupid enough to believe that you haven't known all along what we've been doing! Unless the reason you fled hyperman space was that you were clearly inferior..."

Dragon went silent as Mahar turned his back on him and strode to the control console. He gave Vanessa a quick wink, then glared at Mahar as the man collected the cylinder from the control console then plugged it into the octagon again. The imprisoned hyperman screamed in agony. Vanessa covered her ears and cringed.

"Why? Why are you doing these things?" demanded Vanessa over Dragon's howls. "What good is any of it? He's helpless!"

Mahar turned on her. "I do these things for the joy it brings me, human. Now it's your turn." He grabbed her arm again, and hauled her roughly to her feet. "Come along. Time for you to see Paul and Miguel again."

Vanessa shivered in fright but walked along with Mahar rather than risk having her shoulder dislocated. Scorpions cringed and held their claws over their faces whenever they passed them, but she was sure they had been badly affected by the sudden light. He led her to the floor below and then into the hangar where his egg-shaped spaceship waited. Her heart pounded in her chest and she had trouble catching her breath. The two beast-men were there, and they rose to their feet upon spying Mahar and his prisoner walk through the doorway. Mahar gave her a push toward them, then left.

Vanessa, shaking, faced the monstrous creatures Paul and Miguel had been transformed into. They both appeared a little more human than they had when she'd last encountered them, but they were still clearly more animal then man. It seemed as if a glimmer of recognition flashed in their eyes. She blinked her own eyes, then wiped them free of tears with the back of her hands.

Then, with complete calmness, she lifted her poncho off and dropped it onto the floor of the hangar. Paul and Miguel came toward her slowly, crouching and sniffing the air. She took a deep breath then went down on all fours.

"Okay, do what you're going to do," she said through gritted teeth. "Let's get this over with."

XXV

The trio sat high above, looking down on the array of lasers burning into the rock at the base of the ridge. The sources of that fearsome energy were man-sized cylinders held suspended over the spawning river of lava by a framework composed of some unknown white material. Bright white beams pulsed into molten rock without a sound. Every ten minutes or so, a half-dozen creatures that were much like Arachne in appearance would approach and cast a basket full of stones into the melted rock. Each group was accompanied by a metallic spider — a maintenance robot, Minx realized. Scorpions patrolled the area, but their numbers were few. The red and orange river flowed down the slope and spread out, across the plain.

"So, why are we waiting here?" asked Alice impatiently. "There's a bridge," she pointed out. Her bridge was simply the crest of the ridge, not yet eroded away by the lasers.

Arachne hissed in a sorrowful way.

"Those are Arachne's people down there, enslaved by Mahar. We have to free them!" exclaimed Minx. "Let's go!"

As they crept along the ridge, the latest group trudged away. Minx stopped at a copse of tree-like plants and found a two-metre long length of solid, dried vine. She swung it about, then smiled with satisfaction. They continued on. Alice wanted to ask what Minx had planned, but refrained from doing so. The woman could be just as mysterious as the hyperman she was intent on rescuing, and that troubled the pirate more than a little.

After descending one side of the ridge, they found a concealed ditch near the place where the arachnids dumped their loads and crouched down. Minx drew some sketches in the dirt and Arachne chirruped in excitement after examining them. After Arachne moved away, Alice peered around Minx in an attempt to see the plans but the bounty hunter brushed them away before she could see anything informative.

"Stay here for now," ordered Minx, looking at Alice. The woman nodded in acquiescence. She knew Minx was keeping her from danger and she was grateful for it.

Minx leapt out of the ditch and hurried across to the lasers. She examined their footings very carefully, even digging into the dirt with her bare hands at one point. Then she peered in to the distance. Alice followed her gaze and saw the tower — their destination — off in the distance, partially concealed by haze. Then, Minx was back in the ditch. She lifted the pole and hurried off again. Alice would have followed her to see what was going on, but Arachne grasped her leg in one of her claws and held her in place.

Then, they waited. Alice watched the arachnid for any sign of aggression. Despite having been alone with the creature many times she always had the idea that Arachne was just waiting until Minx left them alone for a little bit too long and then she would pounce and inject her with venom. As far as Alice could tell, Arachne appeared to be listening intently.

Alice picked up a pebble and tossed it out of the ditch, toward the molten rock. There was a brief hiss. She picked up a second pebble. Arachne gripped Alice's wrist in a claw. They both froze, the woman suddenly afraid that she had done something the large spider did not like. Then, Alice heard movement nearby. The arachnid released her and scrambled up the rock wall in front of them. Alice followed Arachne and then the two peaked out of the ditch and observed another work party approaching the lasers. They were just three or four metres away and Minx was nowhere to be seen!

Arachne pushed Alice on to her back, then scuttled out of the ditch. Alice crept back up to the lip and watched as Arachne approached the robot-spider quite calmly. The two were of equal size, while the other spiders were almost half the size of Arachne, but with longer legs and more brightly coloured.

The metal spider turned and hummed in annoyance at the intrusion. Small panels opened and thin nozzles pointed toward Arachne. The arachnid clicked and chirruped. She squealed and thumped her front legs upon the ground. The robot appeared confused. It looked back at the group it had been leading — all of whom had stopped and appeared to be staring at Arachne — then turned back to Minx's friend.