Starr vs the Emperor of Space Pt. 06

But was it oxygen?

Or yet more nitrogen?

Robin knew not as she slipped into unconsciousness -- but she had a single hope: Please, let this save my Mark!

***

C'Law and W'ind, two of the hawkmen serviles who were part of the massive population of indentured and enslaved persons that Zardo's vast palace required for its operations, strode together, side by side, through the corridors of the lower levels of the palace.

"I swear, she did smile at me," C'law said, chuckling.

"Ah, but do you know which one smiled at you?" W'ind rumbled, his black feathered ear-tufts twitching up. "They're twins. If you hit on the one you think smiled at you, but it's actually her sister, then..."

"I'm fairly sure it was W'ing," C'law said, rubbing his beak with one golden palm. He let loose a low, eager purring noise -- more similar to a cat noise than a hawk noise, but considering his cock was knotted, any Earth born zoologist who might have witnessed him strutting about had other things to worry about. Assuming, of course, they had aroused him and he had taken off his loincloth -- two things that many a beautiful Earth born zoologist would, considering C'law's eager and bountiful lusts. And after that, said zoologist's only notes would have been on the vigor and grace of Hawkman mating rituals...

"What makes you so sure?"

"W'ing is-" C'law started.

A sudden alert rang out, filling the corridor with the trilling alarm that meant only...

"A pressure loss!?" W'ind exclaimed.

"By the Feathers of our Forefathers -- it sounds as if it is coming from two levels down! Quick, my bond-brother, to the dive shaft!"

The two hawkmen came to the dive shaft -- in truth, they were not meant for such activities. They were something closer to internal structure areas that had simply yet to be filled with interstitial machinery, for even now, after centuries, the Ice Palace remained a work in progress. W'ind wrenched some hull paneling off the wall with a single shove of his arms, working his finger claws into the paneling, and C'law dove forward, gluing his wings to his back as he shot down through the shaft, narrowly missing half a dozen struts and bits of machinery, before he hit the open area two areas down. He flared his wings hard, feeling the pleasant burn against his powerful shoulder muscles. His wings cupped the air and he beat them once, skidding up before dropping further down the shaft towards an ignoble end, brought his legs up, then kicked out.

The wall panel two levels down bust open and he skidded into the corridor -- and realized he and his bond-brother had been walking, unwittingly, above one of Zardo's many prison levels. He found two clone guards standing before a doorway, glaring at it as if it owed them something. Their bolt-rocket rifles swung around to aim at C'law stood, and W'ind swept into the corridor behind him. C'law pointed at the door.

"Can't you hear? There's a pressure loss in that cell!"

"Quiet, servile!" one of the clones snapped. "We were ordered -- no one enters of leaves the Earthman's cell."

C'law's eyes widened. "Styles..." he whispered.

"Now, are you going to fix that wall panel?" the clone soldier growled. "You're a technical servile...by your collar, it looks like you're earmarked for another two cycles -- unless you want to be stuck here for another fifty cycles, then you'll back away!"

C'law and W'ind exchanged a glance.

For many a space year, they had served Zardo, having no choice but the Deatomizer, should they rebel...but...within both their breasts beat an urge for freedom. And having seen on the video-screen the amazing display of gallantry and bravery from the captive Earth man, both Hawkmen were themselves feeling the self same urge for rebellion that blazed within every red blooded American man. For while they may have been born in the acid winds of Venus under the King F'eath Arr, the two of them knew now the bone deep truth of these immortal words: All you have to lose is your chains!

C'law half turned...and then sprang forward. His legs, built for launching himself into the air and then soaring off under the power of his own wings, sent him up into the ceiling, where his clawed fingers pressed against the metal roof -- and then he drove down with arm muscles strengthened by years of hard labor in Zardo's service. His two heels drove together, smashing into the jaw of the first, stunned clone soldier's jaw with the strength of a stooping bird of prey -- a martial technique honed by Hawkmen since they first arrived in the solar system!

With the full weight of his body and the strength of his downward momentum combined in that singular point, the clone soldier's head was snapped to the side and around with a crunch not unlike that of a man biting into a fresh piece of celery and, stricken dead before he had a chance to realize it, the clone soldier fell bonelessly to the deck floor. His fellow, well trained in the inadequacies of bolt-rocket rifles at close range, dropped his useless weapon and drew his sword from his sheath. He swept it towards C'law, who dodged back and away, hissing as blood spread across his chest.

"Step away from my bond-brother, you son of a tank!" W'ind snarled, slamming shoulder first into the clone soldier. But the soldier easily twisted and flung W'ind down -- then...drove his sword through the black feathered hawkman's chest!

"No!" C'law cried out. The clone soldier drew his blade free -- only to find himself facing the feral rage of a hawkman! C'law's hand lashed out, grabbing onto the clone soldier by his collar, then drove him against the wall. In an instant, the sharpened claws of his thumbs were at the clone soldier's eyes, then driving in. The clone shrieked but once...and then shuddered...and then fell, his face mercifully turned towards the ground, to conceal what horrors had been done upon him in C'law's wrath.

The red feathered hawkman knelt beside his brother, putting his hand to his chest -- blood flowed between his gold scaled fingers.

"It's...all right, my bond-brother..." W'ind whispered, blood dripping around his beak. "Save...the Earthman...end...Zardo..." He slowly went slack, his head twisting to the side.

C'law ducked his head low, then let his bond-brother slip from his blood soaked hands. "By V'ultar's hammer, by the many moons of Homesystem...by the lost temples of Hawk Prime..." He lifted his head to the ceiling, glaring up at where Zardo surely sat, decks above him. He clenched his fist, blood dripping down his wrist. "I will avenge you!"

Then, snatching up the bolt rocket rifle, C'law stepped as far back from the door, leveled the barrel...and fired!

Given time enough to accelerate, the bolt-rockets and the needle like tips drove through the thin metal of the door as if it was nothing better than Earth tissue paper. In a few seconds the door had been shredded and the rifle clicked loudly as it tried to fire bolt-rockets from its magazine that were simply not there. C'law stepped forward and saw two prone bodies within. His head swam...and he gasped in shock, blackness sweeping around his eyes. "Nitrogen!" He reached in, dragging Mark, then Robin from the chamber of death.

Both the Earthman and the Cybird groaned, then, their eyes beginning to open. "I...feel like I went...three rounds with Rocky Marciano...and he had...a baseball bat!" Mark groaned, rolling onto his hands and knees. He lifted his head, seeing the carnage before him, then saw C'law. "Oh my god, W'ind-"

"He's dead," C'law said, his voice tight. "But let us see that he did not die for nothing! We have to get out of here."

Mark nodded as Robin coughed.

"I have a plan," he said, then snatched the other bolt rocket rifle from the grasp of the dead clone beside him. He looked it over, then nodded. "It's no M1...but it'll do!"

***

The Star Princess Zella awoke with a feeling of dislocation and confusion. One moment, she had been sleeping comfortably in her plush bed, still tingling with nerves and excitement at her defiance of her own father, the Emperor Aytan Zardo himself...the next? She was awakening kneeling in the center of a room, her body clad only in her sheer nightie, her arms chained behind her back, a gag wrapped around her mouth, and a shadowy darkness all about her! Her eyes widened as she tried to look around herself, but she saw nothing but more darkness...split only by the light shining down upon her from directly above, trapping her in a cone of brilliant white light.

"Are they ready?"

The sneering, aristocratic voice...

It was her father!

Peering into the darkness, Zella saw the faint shape of her father standing in the darkness, his bald head just barely gleaming in the reflected light from the center of the room. Beside him was the hunched, robed figure that could only be his damned aide, Kryton the Cruel! Zella squirmed and struggled within her restraints, trying to speak -- but her mouth was gagged by cold, hard metal.

"Ah, my daughter wakens," Zardo said, then stepped forward into the light. "My dear, it hurts me ever so much to have to subject you to this. But it seems I have not raised you as properly as I had hoped." He shook his head. "You show mercy to my enemies. Mercy? A weakness. A delusion, clung to by those who are weaker than the mighty Zardo." He shook his head. "It has no place within the mind of the Star Princess, my dearest Zella."

Zella flared, her shoulders trembling. She had expected to be terrified...but instead, she was merely furious beyond her capacity to image. Her father was treating her like...like this!? But every scorching word she wished to fling at him was caught by the gag, tuned into an ineffectual muffled mumble.

Zardo clicked his tongue, reaching down to stroke her hair. "It will be unpleasant for both of us. But you will thank me when they are done."

Zella's brow furrowed. They? Then she heard the click and the hissing sounds...the walls of the chamber, just barely visible in the shadows, drew back small chutes to reveal that they had contained a multitude of...something. Something writhing and squirming, drawing closer and closer to the edge of the light -- which began to shift in hue, from brilliant white to a dull red. Kryton, his voice wheedling, said: "My sire...the gag...you must remove it for the, ah..." His tongue darted along metal lips, barely visible under his hooded visage. "Operant Conditioning."

Zardo turned to face him. "...her screams, you mean. You wish to hear my daughter's howls of anguish? For your own perverse pleasures, Kryton? Remember this, Kryton! You serve at my sufferance. I but need snap my fingers and send you to the Deatomizer!"

Kryton cringed away from the Emperor's stern voice. "F-Forgive me, your majesty?"

"Forgive? No. I will not forget either," Zardo growled. "Know this, perversion of science, that I, Aytan Zardo, do this for my daughter's own good! I do not do it for pleasure, or for perversity. As I cut mercy from my mighty mind, so too must it be excised from that of my daughter!" He turned back to face Zella, his eyes unreadable. "Only once you have given over this false kindness will you recognize the greatness that we construct, my Zella...an empire that will span not the thousand years of that trifling fool Hitler, but a thousand thousand years! An empire that will span the galaxy itself!" He lifted a gloved hand, clenching it. "All contained within the loving embrace of The Pax Zardonica!!" He slowly lowered his hand, breathing heavily with his unleashed passions.

"Begin the-" He started, but was cut off by a trilling alert. He snatched a communication wand from his belt. He lifted it up, snarling. "Speak."

"It is Scar, your majesty. There has been an...incident that requires your immediate attention. Over."

"By the Mount of Mars, will I never hear the end of tiresome triflings?!" Zardo growled as he slung his communication wand back down. He turned to Kryton. "You will see to my daughter's...purification." And without another word, he swept from the room.

The door closed. The writhing things remained at the edge of the faint red light, seemingly quieted by the hue. Zella felt fear and horror and disgust intermingling...what kind of goodness could be served by excising mercy? She now saw through her father's impassioned words, through them to the heart of the evil within Aytan Zardo. For as prettily as he claimed, for as many phrases of Space Latin he used to add legitimacy to his goals, Zella could now see the true cost of such a galaxy spanning empire: A million worlds of suffering and pain, ground to ash beneath the treads of his clone legion's tanks.

Deep within her heart, Zella swore herself not to merely saving a favored pet...but saving the whole galaxy from her father's mad ambitions!

That did not stop said heart from freezing with terror as Kryton chuckled. "It seems you are all alone with me, oh pretty Zee..." He stepped around the console that he had used to control the walls and the lighting. The gleaming gold metal of his fingers emerged from his robes and then reached back. Zella shuddered in exquisite horror as she felt the touch of him against her chin -- and then her gag fell away, allowing her to breathe through her mouth for the first time since she had awakened.

She spat in his face, immediately.

Kyrton did not draw back. Instead, he chuckled quietly.

"D-Do your worst, Kryton! And w-when I am unbroken and unbent, I will see you-"

"Dead?" Kryton chuckled, drawing back. "Death would be a mercy for one such as me, oh my pretty Zee..."

He came to the controls. "Do you know of the Mind Worms of Alpha Centauri, Star Princess?"

Zella gulped, slowly. "N-No...I...Alpha Centauri. That is the star nearest this sun?"

"Centuries ago, your father secretly sent a clone ship there. It took them many decades to go and return -- and return they did, bearing what little of value they found within that desolate solar system. The most potent were small eggs, contained within ultra-freeze caskets, bearing the unhatched larvae of the Annelid Cogitatium. The so called Mind Worms. When hatched and bred to a large enough number, their unique properties became clear. A singular Mind Worm is nothing more than a small worm that is capable of producing a small electromagnetic field via its flexing, thanks to piezo-electric structures built along the skin."

"S-So, they're magnetic worms? So what!" Zella snapped.

"Ah, but they're far, far, far more than that when in a group," Kryton murmured. His hand reached down and took the controls. A single beam of white light stabbed down at the ground to the right of her. The shadows around her writhed and trembled and Zella felt a sudden terror -- blooming deep within her mind, sweeping outwards to encompass her whole body. Something vast and terrible was in the room with her -- standing behind her. But to look back...was death. To move was death. To even breathe was death. And so, she froze, trembling, her jaws tightened into a vice-like grinding of teeth.

"They react! You see!" Kryton laughed. "To the light. They hunt by light, when it shines through their world's cloud layer, upon prey. As one, the swarm of mind worms creates a vast magnetic field! That field, even now, sweeps through portions of your brain related to the fear impulse! Your mind is now filled with all consuming terror! That is how the Mind Worms hunt! They freeze their prey -- freeze them with fear! Then they crawl into the ear itself and implant the brain of a still living victim with their ravenous larvae!" Kryton's voice had risen with every word, becoming a maniacal shriek of pure, demented joy. "Do you feel it, Princess!? Do feel the power of Kryton's MAGNETO-TERROR FIELD!?"

Zella screamed, throwing back her head, her body trembling as she felt the horror of the Mind Worms slamming into her mind. She closed her eyes, and tried to cling to the fact it was not real -- it was merely a figment induced by the Mind Worms...but it was like trying to convince a broken bone that it was merely a bruise. It was no more a matter of willpower than overcoming a case of the Spanish Flu required grit and determination. Physical reality was being acted upon -- and she was unable to do anything but feel the magneto-terror field as it blazed through her.

"Over time, with experimentation, we trained the worms to do many things," Kryton murmured. "We taught them the meaning of other forms of light."

The white light shifted to pink -- and as if it had evaporated, the terror vanished.

It was replaced by a tingling, burning lust. A lust more powerful than anything that Zella had felt before. She whimpered, ducking her head forward, as her cunt became, instantly, soaked. So soaked that her nighty glued itself to the folds of her lips as she grew sopping wet. She shuddered and mewled, desperate, her eyes fluttered half shut. She gasped, and realized she was literally drooling from her lips, like some kind of lower primate in the throws of fierce erestus...and with that arousal came intense shame. Her cheeks burned as she arched her back, trying to present herself...to Kryton of all creatures.

"Ahn...nnh...huhhh!" She groaned out, unable to even form words, the lust was so strong.

"Do you want the wormies to crawl into your little cunt?" Kryton was practically licking his lips between every word, his mechanical eyes gleaming. "Do you wanna have a womb full of their eggs? We have taught them to breed in any warm spot..."

No! Revulsion exploded through Zella...but next to the induced lust of the Mind Worms, it was like nothing at all. Her head nodded despite herself, desperately, her hips bucking.

Kryton laughed -- and then the light shifted to white. Terror bloomed in her -- and then the light flashed pink again! Then red, for a single moment of blissful nothingness! Then pink! The emotions that burst through Zella's mind began to intermingle -- so that she knew to her deepest bones that a terrible monster was going to rip her throat out, her cunt gushed with pleasure and eagerness, and when she wanted nothing more than to be bred, her mind screamed in purest fear.

Kryton laughed and laughed, watching her writhe before his cruel chromatic choreography. His hand rested on the controls -- and a spark of light flared, reflected off of Zella's chains. She clenched her teeth -- and then when the red light came again, to provide the momentary rest between her blazing emotions, to heighten the anguish and pain she felt for the delight of Kryton...she realized...she had a plan. A plan that never would have occurred to her, had it not been for Kryton's gloating.

Zella clenched her teeth and forced herself, when the light flared white, to laugh. It was a ragged, almost insane laugh, a wild laugh that caused Kryton to blink in confusion.

"What?" He asked, switching from red to white light once more -- and by now, Zella had been so jumbled by the mind worms that this pure terror made her want to bend over and thrust out her ass to whatever horror lurked behind her, merely so it could sheath its inhuman cock within her desperate cunt. She grinned fiercely at Kryton, then whispered, softly.

"Magnets..." She said. "Work...on metal."

She twisted hard to the side. Her chains thrust out behind her.

Kryton laughed, jeeringly. "You fool! Those chains are solid space titanium! They're no more magnetic than-"

The chains were indeed made of space titanium. That meant they shone brightly. And, though it nearly dislocated one of her arms, Zella got the chain between the light beam stabbing from the ceiling and the floor. The beam struck the chain and she angled it just so, landing it rightly upon Kryton's glittering face beneath his dark hood. His eyes widened and he screamed. "Noooooo!"