(Photo by Mushtaq Hussain)

The Solar King sat on his throne, motionless, his eyes staring off into the distance. Chester had almost forgotten that was something the Solar King did with some regularity even before Chester had taken control of him.

“I should have asked him about that,” he said to himself.

It was too late now. Well, sort of. He could still have the Solar King explain the reason behind those unresponsive moments, but with the Solar King becoming more and more himself each day, Chester didn’t think it would be wise to push his luck by probing too deeply into the Solar King’s secrets.

Besides his three security drones and the Solar King, Chester was alone in the throne room. All of the advisors, the petitioners, the people who kept the Solar King’s government running, had been told to stay away for the rest of the day. The excuse was that the Solar King was focusing on the negotiations with the fringe leadership. In truth, those negotiations were also on pause so that Chester and H’lay could have their meeting in private. It was common knowledge among those who served the Solar King that no transmissions could be sent or received within the throne room unless the Solar King willed it.

Still, Chester was anxious. He was fairly certain that H’lay knew about the Solar King and what Chester had done to him. Was she aiming to blackmail him with that information?

Before he could pursue that line of thinking, the doors to the throne room opened and H’lay entered. She had a few bodyguards herself, from the looks of it. Three armed and armored people followed her in but stayed near the door where Chester had positioned his own security drones.

“Morning, Chester,” H’lay said without any hint of happiness at seeing him.

“H’lay,” Chester replied, dipping his head slightly.

Chester had had a small, metal table and a pair of chairs set up in the middle of the room, equidistant from the throne and the doors. The room itself was quite large so having a private conversation wasn’t terribly out of the realm of possibility. There was a pitcher of juice and two cups, as well as a dish of finger foods.

They both sat down, H’lay eyeing the food and drink with suspicion.

“What’s this?” she asked, gesturing to it all.

“I wasn’t sure how long we’d be here and I find it easier to concentrate when I have something to nibble.”

“Well nibble away,” H’lay said, her tone of voice making clear that she had no intention of touching anything he offered her.

Chester picked a small, cut vegetable off the platter and did just that.

“So,” he said between bites, “What would you like to discuss?”

H’lay shifted in her seat, glancing towards the door as though making sure her guards were still there.

“The Solar King,” she began, “made it clear to me when he gave me my lab that he expected a certain amount of independent thinking and inventiveness. I needed to be looking for things to invent that would benefit His Golden Eminence and his worlds. I expect he said much the same to you?”

“Naturally,” Chester lied. When the Solar King found Chester, he’d threatened to kill him if he didn’t agree to do every little thing he demanded.

“Well, I took that to heart and I have a number of little discoveries waiting on the shelves for just the right moment to show to him.”

Chester remained silent. He knew, more or less where this was going, and the only way he could keep his hands from shaking was by forcing himself to remain still. Besides, he wasn’t sure what sort of response H’lay was wanting from him.

“Some inventions,” she went on with a frown, “I keep for myself. They’re either not as good as what the Solar King already has, or they’re something that I believe is more valuable to me if kept secret.”

At this she cast her gaze over to the Solar King who was still sitting motionless on his throne.

“But ever since your walk through the Solar King’s gardens I’ve been reevaluating my situation. Perhaps it’s not the Solar King I should be focused on.”

Chester was reminded of the way so many of the Solar King’s advisors spoke, never quite saying clearly what they meant, what they wanted. It had to be guessed at, figured out from context and clues. Chester hated that way of talking. Just say what you want. Say what you mean. If you think the advisor across the room from you is an idiot and actively doing harm then say so and provide your proofs. Otherwise shut up and sit down.

“I agree,” the Solar King spoke from his throne, his voice booming and startling both Chester and H’lay.

It took Chester only a moment to realize he’d accidentally broadcast his thoughts to the Solar King. He was not, however, currently able to control the Solar King.

“Cute,” H’lay glared, “but if you were hoping to intimidate me with your shiny puppet it’s too late. I know your secret.”

The Solar King rose from his throne and strode across the room.

“I am not his puppet,” the Solar King growled.

“Uh huh,” H’lay nodded sarcastically and pulled a small, oblong object from her pocket. She placed it onto the table and then gave it a spin.

Immediately a sharp pain struck Chester in his head and he felt his connection with the three security drones waver. Over by the door, the drones all collapsed. The Solar King, however, was unphased. Instead, he bent over and picked H’lay up by her shoulders and then threw her back down onto the table.

She cried out in shock at first but the moment she hit the table she had her breath knocked out of her and all she could do was lay there, gasping. Her guards stood frozen in place, hands on their weapons but none were drawn or ready to be used.

“Leave us,” the Solar King commanded and the three guards obeyed.

“Wha-” H’lay gasped out, staring from Chester to the Solar King and back again. “You….control…him. I heard…I saw…”

“Unfortunate,” the Solar King stated as he picked up the still spinning device H’lay had used to disrupt Chester’s control over his drones. Immediately, Chester felt his connection to the drones return and the three by the door stood back up. “Keeping such secrets from me isn’t wise, H’lay.”

He turned to Chester as the drones came up to join them around the table. H’lay was only now seeming to be getting her breath back but hadn’t yet moved to sit up or otherwise get off the table. Two of the drones picked up the juice and food platter while the third one helped Chester with H’lay who was beginning to struggle now.

“Do what you brought her here to do,” The Solar King instructed and moved to begin walking back to his throne.

In that moment when the Solar King’s back was turned to him, Chester let H’lay drop to the ground and instead grabbed the table and swung it around so that the top of the table was flat against the Solar King’s back. With a thought, Chester activated the bio-electric dampening field.

The Solar King twitched and jerked away, trying to get out of range of the field but Chester kept pace with him. A slew of half formed words escaped the Solar King but nothing intelligible as he slowly collapsed to the floor. The two drones who’d been holding the pitcher and platter came over and picked up the Solar King while Chester righted the table so the Solar King could lie on it.

The drones produced the components for a neural gel injector and had it assembled in less than a minute. Chester poured the ‘juice’ from the pitcher into the injector and inserted it into the Solar King’s neck. It only took half of the neural gel available.

“Alright, get him off the table,” Chester said, a little breathless from all the adrenaline currently in his system.

The drones obeyed, careful to only touch the parts of the Solar King that overhung the table and were therefore not in the bio-electric dampening field. Within a few moments, as before, the Solar King’s golden armor began to resuscitate him.

“Next,” Chester said and the third drone pulled the shocked H’lay forward.

“Hey, no!” she cried out, suddenly coming to her senses and trying to break free.

“I’m sorry, H’lay,” Chester said, and he meant it. He never did enjoy this part, forcing terrified people into this procedure, but he wasn’t going to let her blackmail him.

“Wait, please,” she begged, “we can work this out. I’m no threat to you, I promise!”

The drone, struggling to get H’lay to move, kicked her legs out from beneath her and in one fluid motion tossed her onto the table where she spasmed once and then was still.

“Get the reanimator ready,” Chester said to the others while he inserted the injector and began the process.

This was all experimental, from the smaller neural gel injectors and table to the neural gel itself and the process Chester was using with both the Solar King and H’lay. He was fairly confident this would work, but he had good reason to worry. All of this had been hastily figured out, assembled, and then brought here with no time to test any of it.

“I owe it to you, really,” Chester said to H’lay’s still body while the neural gel was pumped up and into her brain. “My original plan was to see if you had some tech I could use and modify to overcome the Solar King’s resistance, but after we talked and I knew I couldn’t trust you or your lab, I figured I had to just go all in. So I had the Solar King tell me the schedule for everyone in your lab. A couple of your people were conveniently traveling alone in relatively empty parts of the royal compound so my drones were able to grab them and bring them to my lab last night.”

The injector finished just in time as the small power pack in the table ran out. As the bio-electric dampening field shut off, Chester had the drones come over with the reanimator to get H’lay’s heart and other organs functioning again before cell damage could set in.

“With two nanotechnology specialists, we were just able to fabricate these tools and get them here in time to meet with you. Originally I wanted to just get you last night but you were smart and made sure you never went anywhere alone and unprotected.”

It wasn’t important to Chester that none of this would ever matter to H’lay. He was so tired and anxious from the last eleven hours of frantic work that he had to tell somebody.

“Now just tell me that this all worked,” Chester said as both the Solar King and H’lay sat up and he felt the new, strange connections in his head come to life.