(Photo by Zachary DeBottis)

The room was quiet. Only a moment ago it was alive with conversation as the necrologists talked over their most recent experiment, trying to create node handlers to assist the one who was controlling the multiple samples they had prepared. All of that had ceased, however, when Chester let out a shout of terror and leapt to his feet. Now, all eyes were on him.

“I,” he began but couldn’t find the words to finish the sentence.

“Is everything alright?” Tamara asked.

She was the only other one in this room that knew about the meeting with the fringe leadership. Chester met her gaze, trying to make his mouth to work.

“Sir?” another of the necrologists asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“The Solar King has ordered my execution.”

That wasn’t exactly what he’d meant to say. He’d wanted to make some excuse for leaving the lab, then running for it, but where would he go? The bio-metric scanners that granted him access were also how security would know where he was. There was nowhere he could hide that they couldn’t find right away. He’d have to get off world before he would have any hope of escape, but how would he even get to a space port now? He had minutes, at most.

“Come to me, now!” Chester all but shouted, sending the command to everyone under his control.

Distantly he was aware that the solar King was still resisting him, that terrible smirk still on his face no matter how much Chester tried to order him to stop doing it, but the others obeyed. He made sure they brought whatever they could to help in a fight.

“Chester?”

Another hand tapped his shoulder, pulling his attention back to the room. The necrologists were still absorbing what he’d told them.

“I thought we’d perfected the process?” they asked him.

“We did,” Chester nodded, hoping his backup would arrive before Security did.

“How could he order your execution?” Tamara asked pointedly.

“The earlier process wasn’t perfect,” he told her. “I forgot about that but the Solar King didn’t.”

He wasn’t sure if Tamara fully understood what he was saying but he didn’t want to get any more specific with everyone else still here in the lab.

“It’s been an honor working with all of you,” he told them, “but you don’t need to be here when they come for me. Please, just go.”

At first, no one moved, but after a few breaths, they began to leave. Each of them stopped to shake Chester’s hand before leaving, until only Tamara was left.

“You should go too,” he told her.

“I know, it’s just,” she looked uncertain.

“Once I’m dead, everyone under my control will automatically be given over to you,” he said, answering her unasked question. “There’s no time to explain everything, but I’m confident you’ll manage.”

She bowed her head, still wavering, but eventually she left, closing the door quietly behind herself.

The instant she was gone, Chester flew into motion. There were a half dozen samples in the lab, each one was a decently strong ape, and as he added their minds to his neural up link he released them from their restraints. He checked on the progress of his drones. They were still a ways away, but some of them had some serious weaponry. The Solar King was still unresponsive and he had no way of knowing how soon security would arrive.

Would they try to execute Chester right away, or would they just take him into custody and escort him away for execution elsewhere? He couldn’t know for certain without knowing what exactly the Solar King had said in his order but Chester still couldn’t get that information out of the Solar King.

The apes took up positions on either side of the lab doors, hidden behind counters and lab equipment. In the mean time, he set about getting the electromagnetic inhibitors into position along with the neural gel injectors. There were multiple prep stations in the lab now and if he could get the apes to subdue even just a couple members of the security team, then Chester could try and convert them into more drones that could more effectively fight off the others.

If he had one regret, it was that he had turned down the offer to have this process automated by robots. Chester liked the personal touch most of the time, but with people actively trying to arrest or kill him, he knew this wouldn’t be the time to appreciate such things.

Just as he was finishing setting up the third station, the door to the lab opened. He turned to see who it was, hoping it would be more of his drones.

A security team of four people stepped into the lab. There was a brief moment when they all just looked at each other, the tension between them was palpable, and then everyone burst into motion. Whether the security team realized what he was doing, or had been ordered to kill him on sight, Chester couldn’t tell, but they all raised their weapons at the same time that Chester ordered the apes to attack while he dove behind a counter to take cover.

The air hummed as it became charged by the weapon fire but soon the shouts of command became cries of surprise as the apes tore into them. The first two died as the apes ripped off their body armor and bit deeply into their vitals. Chester had given up on his initial idea of trying to convert them while there was still fighting going on. It was an overly hopeful idea of his that was quickly abandoned.

The first of the apes died as they swarmed the third member of the security team, it’s head exploding as two bursts of energy struck it at the same time. Fortunately, there were still more than enough apes to finish the security officer off, leaving only one left. This one, however, Chester had the apes subdue.

“What is this?” he demanded as Chester tightened down the straps. “There’s more of us on the way already!” he warned when Chester didn’t stop.

“I need help,” Chester managed to say.

With the saboteurs, the apes, and the Solar King all connected to his neural up link, it was almost too much for Chester. He missed twice with the neural injectors before he managed to get them properly inserted.

“You’ll be my node.”

Chester activated the dampening field and the man went limp. The neural gel, still experimental, was injected and then the dampening field was shut off. Chester almost forgot to activate the reanimation. Fortunately he wasn’t too late and soon he felt a new mind being added to his neural up link.

The connection was a bit off, but not unusable. One by one, Chester moved the saboteurs over to the node, including basic instructions for each one. Currently it was all just, “get here and help protect Chester”, but in the future he could test out more complex instructions.

“How soon before the other security team gets here?” Chester asked, feeling relieved as the mental strain on him lessened.

“They’re already here,” the man, Vitali, replied in a monotone voice. “They’re positioned outside the doors. They’re asking about the mission. They know three of us are dead. They know I died but not for very long. They are asking if the necrologist is dead. They suspect I may be compromised.”

“Is there a password or something you can give them to say everything’s alright?” Chester asked.

“Yes.”

“Give that to them.”

“I can’t,” Vitali replied, still in his monotone voice that Chester was suspecting was a permanent side effect of the procedure.

“Why not?” Chester was beginning to look around the lab for anything else he could use.

He still had four apes, a couple having been killed during the fighting, and the saboteurs were on their way.

“I don’t remember the password anymore,” Vitali said. “It was erased the moment I died.”

There was a knock on the door followed by a loud voice.

“Chester, by order of the Solar King, you are to come out of the lab and surrender!”

Obviously he wasn’t about to do that. Instead, he was hastily stripping off the body armor of one of the dead security officers and putting it on himself. At least with this he could take a hit or two from the security officer’s weapons whereas without it he’d be killed right away.

The door to the lab opened just as Chester finished getting the armor on and he saw a grenade roll into the room. Chester had been waiting for something like that to happen so as soon as he saw the grenade, one of the apes stationed by the door picked it up and shoved it back out.

There was a cry of alarm followed almost immediately by the concussive bang of the stun grenade. In the confusion, Chester risked having a couple of the apes dash out and grab a couple of the security officers and drag them back into the lab. The other two apes braced the lab doors against another intrusion as soon as the others returned with their dazed captives.

“There’s six more still out there,” Chester muttered to himself as he inserted the neural injectors into the two new soon-to-be drones. Only the decades of practice allowed him to work so quickly and even still he was taking risks and shortcuts. He didn’t even take the time to strap either of them down. He just had the apes hold them in place while he worked.

“They know what you’ve done,” Vitali said the instant the other two were reanimated.

“I don’t think that’s going to make my situation any worse, unless they request more backup.”

“We were ordered to shut off all outside communications until you were dead.”

“Right,” Chester remembered the Solar King telling him that as a means of ensuring that Chester couldn’t order the Solar King to cancel the execution order.

“The others are beginning to arrive,” Vitali announced.

Sure enough, Chester felt the first of the saboteurs nearby, taking up a defensive position and then opening fire on the still recovering security team. The next saboteur wasn’t far behind and threw a grenade into their midst. This one wasn’t a stun grenade, however, and in addition to nearly wiping the team it also blasted the lab doors away, killing the two apes that were holding them shut, and concussing Chester.

He staggered to the back of the lab as the fighting outside continued. Even though the initial counter attack by the saboteurs killed most of the security team, it still wasn’t an easy fight. The security team was well trained and equipped, unlike the saboteurs.

“Stand up,” Chester focused on the Solar King.

Even if these security officers couldn’t call for backup, there was no way this level of a disturbance would go unnoticed. He needed the Solar King back under his control if he was going to get out of this mess.

It felt like he was mentally pushing his way through molasses but eventually he managed to get the Solar King to stand up.

“Declare that the saboteurs attacked the necrology labs, after sending a false message from you to the security forces to try and have me assassinated.”

The Solar King did so.

“Now order your security forces to defend me.”

Again, the Solar King obeyed.

There were only a few of the saboteurs outside the lab so far and Chester ordered the ones who had yet to arrive to go back to whatever they were doing before. He’d let these few get captured or killed but needed to keep the others safe in case he needed additional backup again.

The fighting outside the lab was calming down. With the doors gone, Chester could see the security team, what was left of it, taking cover behind a chunk of broken rooftop that had collapsed when the grenade went off.

It felt like an eternity as Chester waited for the Solar King’s announcement to reach the security team outside and for reinforcements to arrive. It reminded him of when he was a child, hiding in the ruins of his old village while soldiers from all sides fought and died around him. This time was significantly less violent but it stirred up all the same fears and terror all the same. He ducked down behind an overturned table and cried silently, his hands clamped over his ears.

He wasn’t sure how long he was like that, only that he suddenly realized it was quiet outside. Slowly, he poked his head up. The security team that had been sent to kill him were all either dead or under Chester’s control. The saboteurs he’d brought here were dead as well. There were a few fires burning but nothing out of control and smoke obscured his vision.

“Oh, good,” he sighed, stepping carefully over the debris of the lab, trying to make his way out.

His security drones came over to help him and it was only then that he noticed how unsteady he was on his feet.

“Thank you,” he nodded to Vitali when he realized the order to help him out had come from the node, not himself. “I think I’m going to like having you around.”

In fact, he had the Solar King assign Vitali and the other security drones to work as personal protection for himself and the necrology lab. It would make hiding Vitali’s change in personality that much easier.

The other security forces arrived shortly afterword and Chester just went through the motions of answering their questions as best he could, lying when he needed to and steering away from how he knew it was a plot by the saboteurs by making it seem like the saboteurs had attacked the security forces first, and that Chester and the security team had worked together. It was a weak cover story, but the only other survivors all corroborated his story.

“Enough,” the Solar King’s voice boomed over the area. “I will speak with my head necrologist in private.”

Everyone bowed and moved out of the way as the Solar King strode forward. Had Chester commanded him to come here? He couldn’t remember. In either case, he was relieved to be done answering questions.

When the two of them were finally alone, the Solar King turned to Chester. For the first time in a while, Chester saw the look of command in the Solar King’s eyes. In that moment, he knew he wasn’t in control of the Solar King any more, not entirely, anyway.

“I haven’t been myself for a while now,” the Solar King said. “Have you been enjoying your time, playing puppet master?”

“Your Golden Eminence,” Chester stammered, “I only did what I did because –

“Be silent!”

Chester almost choked on his own tongue.

“I am not yet completely free of you,” the Solar King admitted after some hesitation. “I can already feel you worming your way back into my mind. So, in the time I have as myself, let me say this. If you don’t want me to crush you in the most agonizing, most painful way imaginable, you will not accept this so-called peace with an independent fringe. You will order them to obedience. You may stall with false promises while my armies are positioned and their satellites and centrifugal accelerators are found and destroyed, but you will not accept their peace. I will break free of you, Chester. You have proven intelligent and resourceful, and I would like to keep you as a tool for the future. Do not betray me again…or you will live to regret it for years, decades, centuries if I can manage it. I’ll keep you, keep you alive, alive and in…pain…forever.”

The Solar King’s eyelids flickered and the monarch swayed as Chester felt his control over the Solar King reassert itself.