(Photo by Branimir Balogovic)

“Come in,” the Solar King said at Chester’s instruction.

Smythe Hark started to move and then held his ground.

“What have you done?” he managed to say.

Smythe’s look of horror and disgust was so tense that Chester wondered if he would strain a few muscles.

“Have a seat,” Chester gestured and then rubbed his face. It was a long shot to pass off the Solar King as being anything other than what he was. The neural gel injectors were already inserted into his Golden Eminence’s neck. What other explanation could there be?

Slowly, Smythe Hark came forward and took the proffered seat.

“You want the long version or the short one?” Chester asked.

“Short first,” Smythe breathed, “then I’ll decide if I need the long version.”

“Alright, well, the Solar King died yesterday during the inspection and so,” he pointed to the silent and still man in golden armor, “I did what I could. Obviously my statements about showing him a second sample was a lie.”

“But you used the old process,” Smythe said, anger welling up in his voice.

“Yes, because he was already dead and I didn’t have much time,” Chester almost laughed. “It’s not as though I was planning on doing this. What I said about the stupid ape attacking him was true. I only had a few minutes to act before even the neural gel wouldn’t be able to animate him.”

Chester carefully left out the fact that he was pretty certain the Solar King’s armor would have resuscitated him just fine and that he’d done what he’d done to save his own life.

Smythe relaxed a bit and turned to appraise their king.

“How well did it work?” he asked with more professional curiosity in his tone.

“Better than most of our older samples but not as well as I’d hoped,” Chester admitted. “I can’t leave him be for too long or he just stops. I can tell him to carry on conversations and that will get him by for a while, sometimes up to an hour, but if someone else joins in, or if something unexpected happens then I have to step in.”

“That explains why you’ve been so distracted.”

Chester nodded.

“The Solar King doesn’t sleep,” he said. “Did you know that? He just keeps on working, never tiring, thanks to his golden armor.”

“And that’s why you kept falling asleep today,” Smythe said.

The conversation died there and, after a moment, Chester got back to work on the Solar King.

“Today’s testes were promising enough that I’m testing some of them out on him,” Chester explained. It helped to talk it out while he worked so he didn’t make any mistakes. “With any luck, this should help make him a bit more independent.”

Smythe Hark sat quietly and watched while Chester worked. It was a little unnerving, having him there, but Chester still wasn’t sure what Smythe was going to with this newfound discovery. As though noticing Chester’s own concerns about himself, Smythe spoke up.

“You don’t like me very much,” he stated. “No one on the team really does.”

“We’re all professionals here,” Chester replied carefully. “I don’t know that any of us are really friends with one another. We’ve certainly never gone out for drinks or anything.”

“But you don’t mind working together,” Smythe said. “It seems most of them tend to avoid working directly with me. You work with me, but I can tell you still would rather be with any of the other necrologists.”

“I’m sorry I gave you that impression,” Chester said and left it at that.

“But it’s true isn’t it?”

Chester’s shoulders sagged against his will and answered Smythe’s question for him.

“Yes,” he said after a brief pause. “It’s nothing personal, just…differences in personality, I think.”

Smythe Hark was quiet for a moment, thinking, before he spoke.

“Then why didn’t you just have the Solar King execute me?”

Chester had to take a step back.

“Why would I do that?” He asked. “You’ve been a huge benefit to the team. Besides, I wouldn’t want to order anyone’s execution.”

“What’ll you do at the end of this week if the sample’s not perfected then?”

Chester hadn’t thought that far ahead yet. He had long since developed the habit of specifically not thinking about that each and every week. The alternative was to constantly be thinking about who would be gone, killed at his recommendation.

“I don’t know,” Chester said, honestly. “I’m still hoping we can succeed and move on to something less critical to the Solar King’s grand designs.”

Smythe Hark let out a soft chuckle.

“What?” Chester asked.

“The Solar King’s grand designs?” He said. “Isn’t that just whatever you have him do now?”

“Well, no,” Chester said. “I haven’t interfered in any of his…governing.”

“But you could.”

Now Smythe Hark’s eyes lit up and he sat forward in his chair as a new excitement took him.

“You could basically become the ruler of the Solar King’s domain.”

“That’s a terrible idea,” Chester replied at once. “Probably the worst idea I’ve ever heard.”

“Why not, though?”

“Because,” Chester said before Smythe could go any further, “I am not the Solar King. I don’t know how to run the solar system. I don’t know the political or military or anything really about ruling or waging war. But most important is the fact that people would notice if the Solar King started doing things the way I’d want them done and the last thing I want is to begin raising suspicions.”

“And how long do you think you can keep this up?” Smythe asked. “The Solar King may not need to sleep, but you do.”

“Obviously I’ll have to change some things,” Chester admitted, “but that’s just a scheduling issue.”

They glared at each other for a moment longer before Smythe leaned back in his chair.

“What if I helped you?” He asked. “We could split the time between us.”

“And what would you have the Solar King do?”

“Nothing,” he replied. “Nothing different, anyway. Not at first. You’re right, we don’t know how to run things. But we could learn. All we have to do is pay attention to how he does things, and then begin slipping in whatever little changes we think would be good. It’s essentially what this project is supposed to be used for, except instead of it being done to the Solar King’s enemies, it’s being done to him.”

“I thought you were devoted to the Solar King?” Chester remarked. “All this time, you’ve always praised him, spoken highly of him, never missed an opportunity to –

“It was an act,” Smythe said. “I had to be good loyalist if I even wanted to have a chance of getting assigned to this project.”

That response smacked too much of rebellion. Chester wasn’t exactly a fan of everything the Solar King did, but he did like the stability and order the Solar King brought to the solar system. He wasn’t about to go and upend everything just to assuage his own feelings. Although, if he didn’t let Smythe ‘help out’, Chester worried what the man might do. If he was involved in some dissident group, there was no telling what they might do to Chester if they thought he was impeding their way.

“Alright,” Chester agreed at last when he couldn’t find any other way around the situation. But we have to both agree on any new changes before we implement them. And no changes for at least a few months so we can get a handle on things.”

“Agreed,” Smythe said at once and stuck out his hand.

Chester shook it and then began the process of linking Smythe into the neural uplink with the Solar King. At least this way Chester could keep an eye on Smythe Hark and make sure he wasn’t doing anything he shouldn’t be doing. And he’d be able to get a good night’s sleep.