(Photo by Martin Lopez)

There was silence in the lab for all of five seconds. Then, Chester burst into motion. He shoved the ape off of the Solar King. The golden armor was still sparking but had already begun to repair itself from the electrical feedback it had endured while the dampening field was active. Soon, Chester knew, it would begin to attempt to resuscitate the Solar King. If it succeeded, Chester assumed his own life would end rather violently and abruptly as the Solar King exacted revenge for this accident.

Without allowing himself to second guess his actions, Chester hooked up the Solar King to the vat of neural gel. He’d prepared so many samples over the last several months that the process hardly took him any time at all. Of course, he was assuming the Solar King’s golden armor would be sufficient to revive him. If not, well, there wasn’t enough time for Chester to cut into the Solar King’s chest and connect the electrodes to his heart or do any of the other organ preservation procedures.

Even still, there was a lot that could go wrong. Already, precious seconds had been lost, potentially leading to cellular damage. What Chester was doing now was more akin to their less successful samples, rather than Smythe Hark’s newer process.

As the neural gel filled the Solar King’s brain, Chester felt the familiar sensation in his own mind as his neural link established a connection. The signal was strong, at least, and not a moment too soon since the golden armor finished its own repairs and began stimulating the Solar King’s heart and lungs.

Chester held his breath as he removed the neural gel injectors from the Solar King’s neck. The needle marks healed over almost instantaneously thanks to the enhanced healing the golden armor provided.

A minute passed. Then two. The Solar King’s vitals were strong but he was not waking on his own.

“Open your eyes,” Chester ventured.

The Solar King opened his eyes.

“Sit up.”

The Solar King sat up.

“How are you feeling?” Chester asked. This would be the big test, to see if the Solar King was capable of being anything more than a crude puppet.

“There is a slight throbbing in my head,” the Solar King said to Chester’s immense relief. “My chest is also quite sore.”

“What did you think of the new sample?” Chester asked.

“It was close to perfection,” the Solar King said, sounding almost normal except for the fact that there wasn’t as much inflection in his voice. “The fact that it attacked me and you were unable to call it off reveals there are still errors in the process.”

Chester waited, hoping for the Solar King to continue on with his inspection, or to ask Chester for a recommendation as to whom he should have executed for their failure, anything to show Chester that the Solar King was capable of acting on his own. He waited in vain. The Solar King just sat there on the table, hardly even blinking.

“What to do, what to do?” Chester paced across the lab, picking up and putting away the various tools and things that had been thrown around during the Solar King’s brief struggle with the ape.

It wasn’t uncommon for the Solar King to be in the lab with Chester for hours some times, so he wasn’t exactly rushed for time in the immediate future, but he had to have the Solar King leave the lab eventually. The thought of the Solar King leaving filled Chester with an all new worry.

“Stand up for me,” Chester said.

The Solar King did so without so much as a wobble.

“Walk around the lab,” Chester said.

The Solar King did so, again with perfect poise. Chester sighed in relief. At least his balance was intact.

“Could you,” Chester began as another idea struck him, “carry on the conversation you would normally have with me regarding today’s sample?”

The Solar King snapped his gaze over the Chester and his eyes narrowed.

“You have failed yet again,” he stated. “You’ve made great progress but that still isn’t perfection. Normally I’d ask you to suggest someone to be executed, but your sample not only attacked me, but it seems to have resulted in my own death. Fortunately for you, my armor has brought me back, though I wonder if you did something to me in that time. My bio scans are certainly giving me some strange readings.”

The Solar King stood there for a moment, his expression one of intense thought.

“Yes,” he said at last, “I have detected the neural gel in my brain. You have turned me into your puppet. I would congratulate you on your coup were it not for the fact that instead I’ll simply order your exec–

“Cancel any executions for me,” Chester cried out at once. “And do not order any other orders for my execution.”

The Solar King nodded and his face went blank.

“Forget about the attack and everything else that has happened from that moment until now.”

The Solar King, again, just nodded.

“You will carry on a normal conversation with me now about the sample.”

The Solar King looked down to where the dead ape lay.

“It’s a pity it didn’t live longer,” he stated.

“Yes, well, it accidentally fell into the bio-electric dampening field,” Chester said, “everything else appeared to be perfect with it.

“Indeed,” the Solar King agreed. “Prepare another sample this week and run it through the proper tests this time. I’ll not have anyone executed this week, but if things aren’t perfect next week then I will have three of your necrologists executed.”

“Very well,” the Solar King said and began to make his way to the exit, “and Chester,” he added with a slight hint of aggression in his voice, “if you ever address me in such an informal manner again, I will have you punished severely.”

Chester realized he’d stopped using all of the required honorifics and paled.

“My deepest apologies, your Golden Eminence,” he said, bowing low.

The Solar King left the lab. Or rather, he stepped out of the lab and then stopped doing anything. The necrologists waiting outside looked at him with hope and fear, especially Smythe.

“Solar King,” Smythe ventured after an awkward few seconds, “am I to be executed?”

“Answer him,” Chester muttered under his breath. Speaking the commands out loud wasn’t strictly required but it certainly made it easier to transmit them.

“None of you is to be executed today,” the Solar King said to the great relief of everyone present.

“Go sit on your throne,” Chester whispered as his mind raced about as he tried to determine what exactly to do with the Solar King now.

Without a word, the Solar King obeyed Chester and strode confidently passed the necrologists. Once he was gone, everyone else came back into the lab. Although Chester had cleaned up most of the mess there were still plenty of things out of place. As everyone returned to their various stations, more and more of them began to notice the discrepancies. Of course, the most obvious sign that not everything had gone according to plan was the dead ape on the floor. It was far too heavy for Chester to have even attempted to move on his own.

“What happened?” Smythe asked the question that was on everyone’s mind.

“The sample performed a bit too well,” Chester admitted. “The Solar King requested a threat display from it, and it turns out the neural gel is not strong enough to maintain control over the sample once it’s in a heightened state like that.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean it went from a threat display to attacking the Solar King in a matter of seconds and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Fortunately, the Solar King was more than a match for it. Now we have a week to resolve that little issue and then we can, possibly, call this process perfected.”

“That’s excellent news,” another of the necrologists exclaimed.

“Once the Solar King begins implementing this process,” Smythe asked, “will we be the ones performing the procedure?”

That wasn’t a particularly odd question, but Chester caught a strange look on Smythe’s face for a moment. It was too brief for Chester to identify, however.

“I’m not sure who the Solar King intends to fill that roll,” Chester replied. “I imagine it will be under the authority of Covert Operations, though, so they’d likely be the ones who make that decision. Personally, I hope to stay in Research.”

Most of the other necrologists nodded in agreement but Smythe looked less pleased.

“If you’re looking to be transferred already,” Chester said, “I’m sure I can write you a good letter of recommendation.”

“No, no that’s fine. I was just wondering, that’s all.”

Chester let it go as he and a few others dragged the ape onto the table where it could be disintegrated. A new sample was already being prepared as they needed time to study Smythe’s new technique in order to determine why the first sample had lost control.

At the same time, Chester was keeping an eye, figuratively speaking, on the Solar King. Each time someone greeted him, Chester had to send a brief command for him to acknowledge them, and then resume his march towards his throne room.

It was not an elegant process for Chester.

“Who is that?” he whispered as he got a mental impression of someone’s face as the greeted the Solar King.

“Commander Moraz of the Eastern fleet,” the Solar King said.

“Your Golden Eminence,” Commander Moraz said, mistaking the Solar King’s answer to Chester’s question as a greeting. He stopped walking and turned to face the Solar King, an expectant look on his face. Perhaps worry, too.

“It is a pleasure to see you,” the Solar King said at Chester’s prompting.

“It is?” Commander Moraz said with surprise. “I admit that is a relief, Solar King, after you summoned me back here following the most recent, uh, events along the fringe.”

Chester wanted to smack himself. He needed to tell the Solar King to just say whatever he would normally say, rather than put words in his mouth. Otherwise people might begin to notice the discrepancies in his behavior.

“Tell him what you wanted to say,” Chester whispered.

The Solar King’s pleasant smile turned into a grimace as he backhanded the Commander.

“I am pleased to see you because it means I can strike you myself!”

The Commander cowered, his face already bruising from the blow.

“Your incompetence at maintaining control over the fringe is only the most recent proof I have received that your advancement in rank was a mistake. I am striking you from your position and reinstating you to that of Captain. At least in that role you never disappointed me so thoroughly.”

“Yes, your Radiance,” Captain Moraz said. “I humbly accept your correction and my demotion.”

Honestly, he looked relieved to Chester. Perhaps he’d been happier as a Captain. He’d certainly been more proficient in that role.

“On your way,” the Solar King dismissed the Captain with a wave and then resumed his march towards the throne.

“Are you alright?” someone asked near Chester, making him jump and almost drop the vial of neural gel he was examining.

“Don’t…what? Sorry, you surprised me,” Chester stammered.

Smythe Hark took a step back from him. He looked concerned as he eyed Chester.

“You’ve been muttering under your breath all day,” he said quietly to keep the other necrologists from hearing. “Ever since the Solar King’s visit, you’ve been acting…strangely.”

“It’s the first time in months that I haven’t had to send one of you to be executed,” Chester said, using the truth to conceal his lie. “But if we mess it up next week then three of you get executed, so I’m just running through everything, trying to figure this all out. If you could get your notes on this new version of the neural gel, I’d like everyone to have a chance to look it over. The more eyes we get on it, the better our chances are at solving the problem.”

“Yeah,” Smythe said, paling a bit after hearing that three of them might be executed next week. “Okay, I’ll get that sent out to everyone right away.”

He backed up and went back to his station to begin typing out his handwritten notes. Chester shook his head. Handwritten notes? Who wrote anything by hand these days? He didn’t dwell on it long. He had enough to think about, between getting the process perfected and keeping the Solar King functional, Chester didn’t need to waste time thinking about someone handwriting their notes.

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