Earth's Last Angel (10 page)

‘Excellent! We met Glen at the great hall, he has shown us the staronium that Lord William and Lady Sheona found, and also the treasury. Glen speaks very highly of them, will they be here?'

‘Apparently our Ambassador has gone to fetch them after Nolack-1 lost contact with them. She mentioned that she couldn't find any Mazuban life on the entire island chain. Very strange. Anyway, Nolack-1 has reported that the shuttle is on its way back now, they should arrive just before the festivities begin,' replies the Second Croc.

‘It's so good to see you and mum again, after the accident I thought I'd lost you both forever. Now here you are! I could never fully understand why we stored a monthly blood sample. Now I'm glad we did!'

‘Son, the secret has been hidden in an ancient manuscript for several thousand years. The life force is in the blood. The ancients that wrote it treated blood as sacred, In that one simple truth lays the secret. Our blood is us. It's our DNA, our memories, even our soul or life force.'

‘So by storing a small amount every month, it keeps everything current. I knew with the discovery of staronium everything else would fall into place.'

‘Dad, I'm glad it did! Now we have the chance to achieve the goals and dreams that death stole from us,' he says squeezing his father's shoulder affectionately.

After a light, tasty, lunch, the three are now joined by Glen. They arrive at the research and development lab where the staronium team, as they are now called, are preparing the enhancement chamber for the First Croc.

‘First of all please, let me introduce our team,' says Glen, sweeping his arm around to encompass them.

‘This is our team leader around here, she's known as Ithmere. It was she who made the discovery of how staronium actually works. Then she, with your blueprints, went on to develop this enhancement tank,' Glen indicates the young lady busy making final adjustments to the tank.

‘Thank you Sire.' Ithmere says, acknowledging Croc Glen's accolade with a nod then standing up and walking over, shaking hands with the First Croc and Queen Judok.

‘The second member of the team is Zodok, who is technical adviser and assistant to Ithmere.'

Following Ithmere over, Zodok introduces herself.

‘Last but not least, Dr Muzik'.

‘Good to see you again, lad.' acknowledges the First Croc, shaking his hand vigorously.

‘Good to see all of you, sire. Ithmere has worked feverishly on the enhancement tank and reanimation Ark for such a long time, I'm happy just to have the privilege to work for these talented ladies. This technology is nothing short of amazing!' Muzik enthuses.

‘So…how does this here contraption work?' teases the First Croc, with a huge, mischievous grin.

‘Well, sire, as you should already know, it tears you into tiny bits then tries to put you back together, hopefully in one piece!' Ithmere retorts with a smile.

‘She's a feisty one, Glen.'

Glen smiles and nods, Ithmere can give as just as good as she gets and then some!

‘This way, sire,' directs Ithmere, leading the First Croc into the small tank room.

‘I need to show you the communications implant that will link you to Nolack-1 & 2 and the other Crocs. This little device will be placed in your skull behind your right eye, it will be directly linked to your brain,' Ithmere holds up a tiny golden device the size of a pea between her thumb and forefinger, her other hand cupped underneath as a safety net.

‘How does it work?'

‘Firstly if you wish to talk to Nolack-1 or 2 or any of the other Croc's, you just think of their name. They will then respond and you can have a conversation with them in your head without saying a word out loud, this is the main feature of this system. Also you can be anywhere in Nolack-1 & 2's grid which now includes contact with the other Croc's, obviously a great security feature and data source. It will however take a little getting used to.'

‘Where is Nolack-1?'

‘She is our first bio supercomputer on board the Sobek, the two of them are linked, it is like having one massive bio supercomputer.'

‘Speaking of the Sobek, I should take Queen Judok for a tour of her when I get out of here, I believe they picked up our entire asteroid population outside the city and docked this morning?'

‘That is correct, my liege,' confirmed Ithmere.

‘Sounds great, what do I need to do now?'

‘I need you to remove all your clothes and personal items, including jewelry, sire. Then I need you to stand on this little platform here,' indicating a small slightly raised platform on the floor. ‘When you stand on the platform, raise you arms from your sides just a little as the platform rotates.'

‘Nolack-2 will do a three-dimensional scan of you and then project a hologram next to you. Then you can instruct Nolack-2 to adjust your new body to your liking, typically you guys go for bigger arms and smaller belly, but I'll leave that up to you.'

‘Any changes you make will be transferred to the hologram so you can see what you'll look like, and you can change it until you are happy with it. But there are limits, otherwise you would no longer be you, at least to look at. Once you are done, move to the tank and step in. It's designed like a flotation tank you just lay there and float, Nolack-2 will do the rest. I'll download our database to your implant to bring you up to speed with who's who, and everything that's happened since your first death. I'll close the door for your privacy.'

With a lot of excitement and a just little trepidation, the First Croc begins to undress. A chill creeps down his spine. ‘She did say first death, didn't she,' he muses. How long will this life last before he has to die a second time, just like Mozaz said he would? Shrugging the thought off, he steps onto the platform to begin the sequence.

‘Grandmother, if you don't mind can we start the festivities and get this party started while our First Croc is being enhanced? We are running a little close to schedule,' Glen suggests, glancing at the wall clock.

‘Of course, Glen, I'll wait here. We'll join you when he's finished,' nodding towards the enhancement chamber.'

‘Thank you. Enhancement should only take an hour, two tops.' Glen, eager to get the party started, bows to Queen Judok and hurries off.

The First Croc lies in the tank, totally relaxed. Nolack-2 has explained to him how she will convert his carbon based molecular structure into microscopic slices to energy, then convert his energy lifeform to his new carbon based body specifications using his own cell structure. Nolack-2 has never attempted to convert a whole organism to an energy lifeform, but it is theoretically possible. There is no need for any artificial fillers or implants it's all him, with the exception, of course, of the golden communications implant.

The shuttle of death closes in on the city of Sky Jewel, making its final approach from 200 kilometers out, so far the evil plan of The Word is working flawlessly.

They will never suspect their own innocent looking shuttle is to be turned against them.

The three prisoners look up from beneath the golden Crocs holding them captive, into the blinding white glare of daylight. A chill wind biting into their mauled flesh, cold, fresh air burns their lungs as the rising platform nears the end of its journey.

Their heads are now level with the surface of the stark rock landscape of Skull Place.

Its party central on Sky Jewel, everyone from the asteroid belt is enjoying the festivities.

‘The First Croc has now entered the enhancement tank. We'll catch up with him as soon as his enhancement is complete. In the meantime enjoy the feast!' announces Croc Glen, his giant screen image raising his arms in welcome.

A thunderous cheer goes up from the crowd, the party has officially started!

Inside the enhancement tank there is total darkness. There is no sound, no touch, no smell, just total blackness and the feeling of floating free of gravity. The First Croc drifts into a very deep sleep.

There are no scheduled flights into or out of Sky Jewel during the festivities, with the exception of the Ambassador's shuttle. Manual flight control has been closed down. Everyone is at the festivities, which turns over flight control to Nolack-2. Now the Trade Ambassador's shuttle approaches the unsuspecting asteroid city, shutting down its primary drive. At 10 kilometers out, the shuttle gives the secondary docking engines a quick burst of reverse to cut speed down as it rapidly approaches the opening shuttle bay door in the distance.

‘Dock 3, level 6' instructs Nolack-2 to the shuttle's on-board computer. Now at 3 kilometers out Transport Shuttle TS 82063 prepares to do exactly as instructed, it will enter through the now fully open shuttle bay door with its sinister payload.

With a sickening jolt the huge platform completes its journey, locking into place on the surface, just outside the city on the west side. The rocky outcrop that is known as Skull Place is totally inaccessible, except for carrion birds that peck at the meat left on the skulls thrown over the wall once The Word has inspected them. This is the first time the platform has been raised to the surface for a public execution. The three prisoners look up at the sky as it becomes a giant screen that envelops the entire planet, with The Word's evil, veiled face looking down at them from the heavens.

‘Children of God, witness his might as he smashes the children of the necromancer Nolack-2 and their supporters!' The Word's voice boom's. ‘Look to the heavens and behold Azeebar's vengeance!'

First he plays the film clip of the attack on the Great Southern Land.

‘Nooo! screams Bill and Sheona at the sight of their family happily enjoying a picnic by the river then being struck down stone dead, along with the entire population of the Great Southern Land.'

The Word rambles on for what seems like an eternity, the entire planet at a standstill, faces turned skyward, watching and listening to the spectacle.

The shuttle has only one person onboard, the Ambassador! Where are Lord William and Lady Sheona? This makes no sense to Nolack-2. She scans again there is still nothing. Where are they? The shuttle is now only 200 meters away. She switches to earth link to discover the global sky screen has been activated and The Word is in full flight with his speech condemning the three heretics, Lord William, Lady Sheona, and the Sky Lion. They are to be publicly impaled by the lance! The Asteroid heretics with their Devil worshiping Necromancer Nolack-2 have a surprise on the way, guaranteed to help the party go off with a bang! Nolack-2 uses the earth link to spike The Word's database, downloading its entire contents, including video log of the Great Southern Land attack, with Lord William and Lady Sheona's visit to the city including their arrest and torture. The Word's database is then wiped clean.

Next she scans the shuttle as it settles into its dock. A bright flash bursts from under the shuttle. It has been rigged to weld itself onto the steel landing dock on contact.

‘Welcome home, Trade Ambassador,' the male voice of the auto responder chimes.

Inside the shuttle a small red panel activates and lights up. On the display panel, numbers appear: 0030-0029-0028-then…

Nolack-2's scan reveals high levels of weapons grade plutonium in 18 separate concentrations, meaning only one thing. Total annihilation!

Sky Jewel is party central! It's going off! The music is loud, everyone is up dancing and having a great time. The feast is superb, there is plenty for all. The triple screen gives them three views. First, one floor level right in the middle of the party. Second, a view from the observation deck looking down on the whole party, and the final view a close asteroid cam for the fireworks display.

No one is paying any attention to the small shuttle that has just landed in shuttle dock 3 level 6.

That is, no one except Nolack-2.

Now The Word winds up his speech as he stands high above the prisoners on the execution platform protruding from the top of the west wall. He stands looking down on the three prisoners like a repugnant, ravenous vulture, his head bobbing up and down as a smug, evil sneer crosses his face. His frills are now fully erect and quivering, pulsing black and scarlet red.

The Word raises his arms skywards, screaming in a high pitch hellish voice:

‘Impale the false angel and the children of the necromancer filth! Impale them! Impale them!'

Web had been steadily increasing the power of the spring tension of the lances. Now at his master's command he slams his fist onto the large red button, unleashing the full power of each lance. The prisoners are pierced through, their bodies jerk skywards as the lances shoot up to full extension. They dangle 10 meters off the ground, their limbs convulsing as their screams are cut off by the lance protruding from their mouths. A thunderous, roaring cheer explodes from the crowd of onlookers.

The Word now gazes heavenwards, expectantly waiting for his master stroke, the annihilation of the Necromancer Nolack-2 and the entire heretic population of Star Jewel.

‘Your Holiness, we have piggybacked onto the close asteroid cams of the heretics,' informs Web.

‘Excellent! Feed the link through to the global sky screen for all of God's children to see.'

Nolack-2 quickly downloads the shocking execution and then downloads the entire database of The Word. She now uploads the entire data package to Lord William's communications station back on Thera, and overrides the Word's sky screen. She now plays its entire content, exposing the torture, murder, oppression, genocide, lust for power, blood and flesh, and every other hideous filthy thing these so called children of god are involved in, including owning the factories that produce the weapons of mass destruction, drugs, and gambling with every other unsavory illegal activity. They profit from it all!