series – War of the galaxy

Chapter 2 – Sleepless Nights

Mars Research Centre

Moonking was wandering through the empty corridors of the research centre. Except him, almost everyone else was asleep. All was silent, except for the occasional beep sound of electronics. The centre looked and functioned like a spaceship. Sliding doors opened and closed with a whoosh.

That evening, when he arrived at the Mars Research Centre, he was surprised to find that they were expecting him. He was received by the centre’s Chief of Staff, Prestella, who escorted him to the waiting room outside Dokteur Mayoshi’s office. To his right, the secretary was typing away at a keyboard and attending calls in between.

He also saw a martian feminine, scrubbing the floors of the facility with a sponge. But the place was already as clean as a whistle. Just then, two men exited the Dokteur’s office, murmuring amongst themselves. The secretary glanced at him and Moonking promptly entered the office. Dokteur Mayoshi was seated behind his desk and he waved Moonking to sit in one of the adjacent chairs. From his name and looks, Moonking gathered that Mayoshi must be a descendant of the Nippon race of humans.
“Only this morning we received notification from Her Majesty’s office about your arrival”, began the Dokteur.
Not knowing what to say, Moonking just nodded.
“They have also directed us to provide you with equipments to aid you on your mission”, continued Mayoshi.
“Really!? That’s great. Can I see them now? “, asked an excited Moonking.
“I have some very urgent work right now. After dinner I will personally equip you. But right now, Prestella will give you a tour of the facility. Alright?”, asked the Dokteur.
Moonking, by now, was embarrassed by his childish behavior. Completely unprofessional. Not at all soldier like. But he quickly recovered himself.
“Yes sir. Sounds good”, replied Moonking, as he stood up.

It took several more hours for Prestella and Moonking to complete the tour. There were several laboratories, scattered around, each designated for different subjects of research.

Each lab had its own Chief Dokteur, and a team of cronies to aid him. Moonking understood that, Dokteur Mayoshi is the one who commands the entire research centre. Every other lab, every other Dokteur, must report back to him.

Moonking noticed a HUMMING sound coming from a distance. As Prestella took him further within the research facility, the sound kept on getting louder and louder. So loud that he could not even hear his own thoughts.

Until now, they were within the walls of the research centre. But now as they were moving towards the end of the path, the centre gave in to open space. Prestella put on a specialized suit which Moonking recognized as the upgraded version of the dust resistant that he was wearing now. Prestella told him to wear one as well. Two martian feminines helped both of them into their suits.

Moonking understood that they were now going to enter the central point of the research centre. As the path ended, Moonking was shocked to find miles of open space. Tens of thousands of martians, both masculine and feminine, were working as miners in this never ending valley. For every 10 martian, there was one humanoid soldier with a gun whose job was to keep the miners working.

This was one of the primary reasons why Mars was colonized in the first place. The abundance of minerals lying beneath its rough terrain, that remained untouched by the primitive martians. Every mineral ore found on Earth like iron, copper, zinc, etc. could be found on Mars as well. Unlike Earth whose minerals were depleted, the minerals on Mars would last the next 10000 years.

The miners used jackhammers to break the ground.
In places where the ground was hard and difficult for the miners to break, a drill rig was used. There were two drill rigs that were being operated simultaneously at two different parts of the valley. It was this sound that reverberated across the halls and corridors of the research centre. The combined forces of the machines and the miners with jackhammers caused the ground to tremble.

This sickened Moonking and made him unable to sleep that night. He wondered how the martians felt to be enslaved by an alien race in their own planet.

Prestella received a voice message from Mayoshi to come back for dinner. Prestella escorted him to the dining hall. Mayoshi and Moonking occupied the seats at two ends of the table. The meal was sumptuous and exotic. Moonking wondered whether such a meal was common or tonight was special because of him. There were several martian servants to attend to them. Throughout the dinner, servants kept serving one dish after the another. Their wine glasses were always refilled. But Moonking was disgusted by what he saw at the mine before. He was guilt ridden. He could not even look the martians in the eye.

After dinner, Mayoshi took him into the inventory. The inventory was empty, except for two big caskets lying at the center. On seeing the emblem of The Republic of Earth, imprinted on their top, Moonking knew they were from Earth. He had almost forgotten about the equipments, that Her Majesty had sent for him.

Mayoshi opened one of the caskets to reveal an advanced Class 4 suit. Unlike his white colored Class 2 suit, this one was black in color. On its chest was imprinted the flag of The Republic of Earth.

This new suit was adaptable to its surroundings. He won’t have to change suits in different planets anymore. He immediately put on his new suit. Moonking was a Class 4 soldier from now. He felt immensely proud of himself. It even had a compact pouch at his waist, that he used to store the messenger device.
The other casket was much bigger than the first one. Moonking wondered what was inside this one. Inside it, was a brand new Sonic Hover. Much more advanced than the Desert Hover that he came in that morning.

” You can use this when you depart to the space port two days from now.”, explained Mayoshi.

That night, a strange mix of pride and guilt, caused Moonking to stay awake. After two hours, of struggling to sleep, he gave up and began wandering. He moved randomly through the halls and corridors. The research centre was designed like a maze. Sometimes, he would see a martian still awake, still working. He wondered when the poor things slept. He now realized that he had come very far from his room. The day would break in a few hours and he turned around to get back to bed. His room was in the Dokteur’s quarters adjacent to Mayoshi’s room. As he neared the quarters, he could see a strange spaceship parked very near to the entrance. A group dressed in stealth black suit were moving about the premises, careful not to be seen by anyone.

But, unbeknownst to them, Moonking had seen them. He was standing at such a distance, that he could see them but they couldn’t see him. He immediately checked his pouch and was relieved to find the messenger device still in his possession.

He wondered what to do now. Quite possibly, he was the only one who had seen them. He had heard about competing research teams who hire thieves to steal data from other research facilities. He assumed they must be thieves who came to steal research data. Just as he made up his mind to alert Prestella, a massive explosion rocked the centre. Even before turning around, Moonking knew that the Dokteur’s quarters, the place where he was sleeping, is gone.

These people were definitely not thieves. They were mercenaries. Assigned to kill. Kill him.

Chapter 3 – Mercenaries

Chapter 3

The explosion caused a panic in the centre. Humanoids and martians alike, stumbled on each other, as they ran in search of cover in every direction. The mercenaries opened fire on anyone who neared them.

The security guards posted at the space centre were ill-equipped to counter the onslaught of the mercenaries. Despite that, a team of the guards fought valiantly and tried to contain the intruders within the quarters. If they spread out throughout the center, countless lives will be killed. At first, Moonking thought of joining the guards to help them fight the intruders. But then, he decided against it. Moonking had a strong intuition, that the attack was directed at him. Someone did not want him to complete his mission. Someone did not want the Commander General to receive the Queen’s message. And it seemed that person would go to any lengths to stop him.

The sudden explosion would have triggered an emergency signal at the Republic of Earth Office in Mars. It would take only a few moments for them to come with reinforcements and subdue the mercenaries. Considering this and the importance of his mission, Moonking decided to escape from this place.

He turned around and ran towards the inventory, where his new Sonic Hover was kept. Since, he already had the suit on, he can leave this place in no time. Against a wave of bodies colliding against each other, he struggled to make his way.

As he neared the inventory, he saw two soldiers engaged in a gun fight with a few mercenaries. He realised that the mercenaries must have split up into two groups, with one attacking the front and the other one attacking from behind. Since this group had very few numbers, nobody else except the two soldiers had noticed them. This new Class 4 suit provided Moonking with ultra range vision, that enabled him to view distant objects in close proximity. Using this feature, he quickly surmised that the only way to reach the inventory was through them.

As one of the two soldiers saw him come towards them, the soldier took his stiff hand towards his forehead in a salute. Moonking was still not used to being saluted by other soldiers. After all, only Class 2 and Class 3 soldiers were used as security guards in humanoid research centres across the solar system. Until that morning, Moonking had just been a Class 2 soldier. But he quickly gathered his wits and said, ” At ease “.

All three were now crouched behind pillars and caskets, hiding from enemy’s bullets. The enemy seemed to have Neutron implanted metallic bullets, which were immensely fatal.

They are available only in black markets, since they were outlawed by the humanoid government 10 earth years back.
Unlike the mercenaries, the soldier had a Multi – load Thermal Pistol, that had a very short range.

The other soldier was a few feet in front of Moonking, hidden behind a pillar. He was waging a fierce battle against the mercenaries. At least, he possessed Cataclysm Laser Gun, which was effective in combats like these.

Against the three of them, there were 5 mercenaries out of which, the soldiers seemed to have already killed 2.

Moonking, who had no gun, wondered what to do. At that time, the soldier at front decided to come back. As he left the cover of his pillar, a mercenary’s neutron implanted metallic bullet pierced his skull through his helmet. The walls were splattered with his brains. Blood flowed like a river on the floors. The soldier with Moonking, was petrified by the sight. In his fright, he stood up. Before Moonking could pull him down, two other bullets hit him in the chest and face. More brains. More blood.

Moonking realised he must have been a rookie, unexpectedly posted in Mars. He must have a normal family back on Earth, with an highschool sweetheart waiting for him to return and get married.

Most of the soldiers in the Royal Space Army of The Republic, like him, came from poor slum dwelling families. Their only reason for becoming a soldier was to beat poverty. But occasionally, some boys from well off families joined the army to serve the planet. Stupid patriotism.
The soldier must have been one of them. Moonking did not even get to know his name. This made Moonking sick with guilt and disgust.

He picked up the Cataclysm Laser gun from the hands of the dead soldier and began firing at the mercenaries. The mercenaries not knowing the presence of a third soldier left their cover. This proved lucky for Moonking as he shot dead two more mercenaries.

The last mercenary retreated. Moonking ran after him towards the inventory. Inside there, the mercenary was standing struggling to reload his gun. It seemed as though it was jammed. Moonking, without any hesitation, shot him dead.

As he boarded his hover, Moonking heard siren sounds coming from a distance. It was the Emergency Response team. It would only take them a few moments to bring things under control.

Without further ado, Moonking left for the Spaceport. He parked his hover at the parking spot, and reached for his spacecraft. On seeing the departures display board, he realised that he won’t be able to reach Jupiter immediately. Because the two planets were far away right now. It would take weeks for Mars and Jupiter to come closer. Moonking did not have weeks. Currently, the Planet Saturn was at the closest possible distance from Mars.

As Moonking launched his craft into the sky, he flew over the largest mountain range in the solar system.
Mount Olympus.

Chapter 4 – Origin of Humanoids

Hundreds of years ago, in the year 2154 AD, a nuclear explosion rocked the city of, what was then called, Tokyo. Back then, Earth was divided into provinces ruled by different groups of the human race. It is said that, the explosion was intentionally caused by one of the many enemy provinces of Tokyo.

This incident set in motion a series of wars among the different earth provinces. Nobody knows what caused the war. In history, this war was called The World War III.

In a war spanning 10 years, several nuclear bombs and missiles, were dropped on the allies and the enemies alike. At the end of a decade, the war came to an abrupt end, when a tsunami of waves devoured the island province of Australia. An entire continent, erased from the face of earth. The people were so caught up in the war, that they failed to realize the effects of the nuclear war. The explosions had caused a rapid and unnatural movement of tectonic plate. Ice continents melted, rising sea levels and peak atmospheric temperature caused several large landmasses to be submerged by the ocean. The nuclear war had unleashed a Nuclear Winter on the entire planet.

Generations of children born, lived and died without ever having seen the sun. The scattered colonies of humans went underground as the surface became utterly uninhabitable. After decades of such calamities, exactly 110 years after the first nuclear explosion, mankind woke up to see a glimpse of the sun beyond the clouds. The atmosphere seemed to be healing itself.

The new earth had only one large landmass surrounded on all sides by the ocean. It was understood that the continents of Africa, Asia and parts of Europe had forged to form this singular landmass. The new continent was named PANAGA. Only a handfull of humans of varying races, survived the nuclear winter.
The human population was a meagre 250000, in the year 2266 AD. The next hundred years were spent in rebuilding communities and forming strong relationship among humans. A government was formed to rule over the humans. The white race headed by FELIX ASHDOWN formed the first Government of Earth. Under their rule, mankind started farming, hunting and gathering for food. Technologies were rebuilt in double the time that it took to invent them in the pre-war era.Diseases plagued the last few survivors of humanity. The babies were born with severe deformities because of the radiation. The average lifespan of an individual had become 30. To counter this, humans started to genetically engineer their offsprings. Their DNA was altered to make humans strong, intelligent and much more adaptable to their surroundings. Thus the first generation of humanoids were born.

The Ashdown family ruled over Panaga for 3 generations. Until ANDREW ASHDOWN, the grandson of Felix Ashdown, was betrayed and killed by AMEER AL-ABRAHAM.

Ameer was the commander general of the armies of the north. There were some tribal warlords who still refused to bow down to the rule of the government. Ameer had conspired with them to kill Andrew and take over the government for himself. He brought Andrew to the mountains on the pretext of peace offering and killed him. But the VARMA family, who were loyal friends of the Ashdown’s for decades vowed revenge. Ameer and the warlords almost succeeded, but the head of the Varmas, INDRAJIT VARMA, fought valiantly to repel them from the city. The warlords retreated back to the mountains.Both Ameer and Indrajit died fighting.

The entire Ashdown family perished in the war. Andrew Ashdown had sent his wife and their 3 yr old son away, to a safe place away from the palace. But somehow, this information reached the ears of the tribals. Andrew’s wife was raped and murdered, while his son was beheaded. The Varmas then became the rulers of Panaga. During his reign, Indrajit Varma II, the son of Indrajit Varma, completely subdued the warlords. Many tribals came down from the mountains and entered normal life.

Humanoids understood that the Earth alone was not enough to survive. They had to explore space in search other inhabitable environments. When GALIAN, a Dokteur, first proposed the idea of colonisation of planets, he was mocked even by his fellow dokteurs. But Sukwhinder Varma, the son of Indrajit Varma II, patronized Galian’s research. It was the works of Galian, that has enabled the humanoids to colonise almost all of the solar system.

And so, in the year 2436 AD, the humanoids spacecraft landed on planet Mars.

Chapter 6 – Secret Meetings

The alleyways kept getting crowded as he climbed down the levels. In level 17, the crowd was particularly high. He moved away from the stairs and went to find the reason. It did not take him much time. This level was filled with shops and stalls selling anything that can be sold.

Ranging from clothes to jewels, one can buy anything from here as long as you have the money. Central city had 3 levels for traders and buyers, and this one was the highest. Meaning, this one was the costliest. Only the people, whose sons and husbands had high paying jobs in the Republic can afford to buy products from this level.

He strolled through level 17 for some more time, looking at people’s faces. No two faces were alike.
The marketplace was filled with humanoids, beings from Saturn and even some from Neptune.

Arjun looked at them, with a mix of pride and contempt, knowing that they would all be his subjects very soon. He leaned on a pillar watching people scamper for sometime. He had to be at a meeting someplace else, but since it wouldn’t be very princely to be punctual, he chose to be late.

To completely circle the level and return back to the staircase that he came from would take days or even weeks. So, he took one of the stairs nearby and resumed his descent.

As he kept descending, he came very close to the Earth Space Port. Several spacecrafts were docked in the port. Some were getting ready to leave. As the space port was built over the sea, Qwaks flew on top the ships, often pooping on them and the men. The white feathered bird was a nuisance to the port workers. In the distant sea, Arjun saw a huge launchpad being cleared and in the distant space he saw a spaceship moving towards the port.

Since it was miles in the sky, Arjun couldn’t identify its sigil.
He kept climbing down.

At level 25, he met PABLO. The fool waved at him from a distance. Arjun bit his teeth and smiled at him.
“Been waiting for you a long time man”, said Pablo as Arjun continued walking. Pablo caught up to him, expecting an apology.
“Have they arrived? “, said Arjun simply.
“Yes man. They are waiting for you”
Good, thought Arjun.
“Hey Loki, do you have any money for me man?”, began Pablo. He was not aware who his friend truly was. Arjun gave him a false name when he befriended him. The fool would get a heart attack if he knew, his friend Loki was really The President’s nephew.
“I am short of charges. My boss fired me again. I did nothing wrong, you know”, blabbered Pablo.
This was usual in Pablo’s life. He was a drug addict who lived in the lower levels. He seldom contributed to the Republic. It was a miracle he was not kicked out to the favelas yet. But Arjun realised how to put him to good use. Unlike himself, Pablo was born and brought up in the lower levels of the city. He knew the place like the back of his hand. He had even been to the ghettos. He knew every lowlife ranging from dacoits to rapists, but most importantly mercenaries.

Reluctantly, Arjun let Pablo lead the way. The low levels were full of dark corners filled with people lying on the roadsides. The sewage smell was nauseating to Arjun, but Pablo felt nothing.

They turned into one of the tunnels and Arjun realised they have reached the meeting place. From within the darkest corner of the tunnel, Sayeed emerged into the fading sunlight.

Arjun conveyed his salutation, by raising both his hands to his chest and pressing his palms with each other. Since this was the customary humanoid salutation, Sayeed did the same.

“Did you find it? “, began Arjun.
The man stammered a bit, before replying
” No sir. My men are looking for it. If it is still on Mars, we would have found it by now”
“And the spy?”, persisted Arjun without cutting him any slack. He already knew the answer. But he asked eitherway.
“He escaped. That’s for sure. But we don’t know if he had the device in his hand, when he left the quarters”
“So… we won’t know anything until we find him. Right? “
” As I said before, it is possible that the device was destroyed in the explosion. My men used powerful Cryonitrate. You should have seen the place. I am sure the device is a 1000 pieces now”, replied the man, not at all sure.
Arjun easily sensed this before replying, “I don’t care what you are sure about. Either find the device or KILL THE SPY”
Pablo, who was standing far away from the two men, turned around by Arjun’s sudden outburst. But he didn’t come near to them and stayed where he was. Even Pablo has a few manners, thought Arjun.
“I need some extra money to continue the assignment”, said the man.
“How much? “
“100, 000 charges. Two of my men are dead. I need to give some to their families.”
“Okay. You will have it in your account by tonight.”

The meeting was over. They exchanged salutations again and parted ways. The man stayed somewhere in the lower levels but Arjun had to reach the Palace at the top.

The climb up is always harder than the climb down.

Chapter 7 – The Curious One

Port workers were busy clearing a landing pad for the enormous spaceship to land. On all four sides of the pad, guides were positioned holding red smoke sticks, to help the pilot land right.

Unlike other smaller spaceships, this one was huge. The spaceship was so tall that even as it neared the ground, a bird was sliced to death in one its rotors. It had the Royal sigil of the Republic of Earth embossed on its body. Spectators were lined up far away, near the boundary walls of the space port. Even they could see that this was no ordinary ship, but the personal transport of the Prime Minister of the Republic – Anirudh Abraham Isai.

Children of the lower levels scampered to get a look at the ship and its inhabitant. Rana and his friends had been playing hide and seek in the streets of level 27, when they heard the foghorn. They immediately rushed here to watch the spectacle.

It was so rare for a Royal Minister to come out in the open, that most lower level people live their entire lives without ever having looked at them. Usually, spaceships of such prominent men were docked in the higher level ports. But, today, since only the pad near to level 29 was free for landing, they could witness how the Royals really looked.

The doors to the ship came down with a whoosh. From within, in two neat files, soldiers walked out on either sides of a floating palanquin.They were all suited up in pitch black attack proof suits from top to bottom. All of them carried M56 Proton Blasters.

They were the Guardians, specially trained and sworn to protect the royal ministers with their lives. Since, there were almost a hundred Guardians surrounding the palanquin today, it was evident that The Prime Minister was within it.

It was rumored among the masses that the Prime Minister was a Neptunian. Nobody knew if there was any truth to it, but as all rumors go, the one who started it was long dead. Rana wanted to look at the face of the man who could afford to travel in such a huge spaceship. He moved away from the boundary walls and neared the gateway. The gateway was crowded with people waiting for an audience with the prime minister. It was obvious from the business suits they were wearing, that they are officers and secretaries from the higher levels. Rana’s father, who worked as a welder in the spaceport wanted his son to become an officer like them.

Rana got caught in the stampede of men, who were all taller and bigger than himself. As the palanquin made its way out of the port, Rana stood on his toes and craned his neck to get a look at the minister. The palanquin screen drifted by a sudden gust of wind, and in that tiny moment he saw the wrinkled, pinkly and inhuman face of a person. The kid had seen a lot of extra terrestrials to understand that the man in the palanquin was not a humanoid. So, the rumors were true he guessed. Having done what he wanted to do, he moved away from the crowded gateway and came back to the boundary wall. His friends were nowhere to be seen. They must have returned to level 27, to continue their games. He too decided to go back.

On hearing a sudden commotion from behind, he turned back one last time at the spaceport gateway and saw the prime minister get into a hover. As he stepped in, the prime minister looked at Rana and smiled for a brief moment. Rana’s eyes opened wide and his throat dried up in disbelief. Before he could do anything, the hover had disappeared in the crowded streets of level 29.

He rushed off towards his friends to brag to them about this, but they had already moved on to other sources of excitement. Even if he told them they wouldn’t believe him.

Chapter 9 – Saturn’s wife

Dione – Moon of Saturn

Will I make it?

Nowadays Moonking often asked himself this question. When the President commanded him to man the Moon check post, he longed for an opportunity to become a real soldier. He wanted to travel through the solar system, to explore new planets. But now, when he finally got to do so he was afraid. He could still hear the explosion. If he hadn’t been awake and away from the quarters at that time, not even his bones would have survived.

When he exited the outer atmosphere of Mars, he decided not to reach Titan immediately. Even though his heart felt like it would bust out in excitement, his mind worked well. He understood that he was being followed. Someone didn’t want him to complete his mission. And so he decided to land in a safe place.
Anyone who had to reach Europa, had to arrive at Titan. The Titan Spaceport was the only one that had the ships to reach Europa. If he knew that, then his enemies would know it to.

He chose Dione as his immediate destination. Since Dione was well hidden from the radio waves of Earth and just below the Rings of Saturn, it was mostly ignored by the Republic. The planet was a dumping ground of used electronic parts.

He descended into the atmosphere of the garbage moon, and true to its name there were mountains of wasted parts as far as his eyes could see. Moonking parked his spacecraft in a small clearing and stepped out. He removed his helmet and a gust of wind blew at his face. His messy long hair flew back.

The air was thick with the smell of broken plastic. It was early dawn on Dione. The distant sun has just risen. Up in the sky, Saturn was visible in all its glory.

A day lasts for 15 earth days on this planet. Titan will be at a closer distance to Dione, only when the sun sets.

It had been 3 earth days since Moonking landed on Dione. On the first day, he kept himself busy by erecting a makeshift tent for himself. The president had equipped him with every necessary tool required for his travel. She had also told him to inform her whenever possible, but he had decided not to. If the enemies can find out where he stayed on Mars, it meant they have spies within The president’s circle.

It had been several hours since he last slept and Moonking was feeling drowsy. He fell into the tent and slept through most part of the second day. As he woke up, the sun was still shining bright. He decided to explore the moon for the next few days. He covered his spacecraft with a tarpaulin and made his way through the cleared walkway between the garbage hills. Even though Dione was deserted, he was careful in his steps. Moonking knew that desolated moons like Dione are known to be rendezvous points for space pirates. He had no wish to cross paths with them. Mercenaries were enough.

He began walking towards the north. Because of the moon’s low intense gravity, Moonking did not feel fatigue until the early hours of the fourth day.He was now kilometers away from his parked vehicle. Moonking did not worry about losing his spacecraft. He had his gps system to find his way back.

Suddenly he felt uneasy. Something was wrong here. When he was a boy in the lower levels of Vertex city, it was his intuition that saved him from many dangers. He knew well enough not to ignore his gut feeling. He stopped in his tracks and surveyed his surroundings. From behind a hill, he heard some metallic object roll over. The clang of metal echoed across the planet. He cursed himself for not holding on to the nameless soldier’s gun. Like a fool he dropped it.

Thick Mist surrounded him. To his front, from within the mist emerged four huge figures. Pirates. He recognized immediately.

Unlike soldiers who wore spacesuits, the pirates wore little to no suit. Infact, one of them was bare bodied and his right arm was a pulse ray canon. Moonking turned back to make a run to his spacecraft. But his way was blocked by 3 other pirates.
Before he could realise what was happening, he heard the loading sound of the Agony Pulse Ray. He turned towards the sound, but he could only see a blinding ray of brightness.

Will I make it?

Chapter 10 – Dungeons of Dione

The dungeon was filled with cells on both sides. The ceiling and the walls were covered by thick black soot. When Moonking woke up from his slumber, it took a moment for him to remember where he was. The agony pulse ray had knocked him completely out of his senses. His cell was the third one from the right.

He woke up with his vision blurred and head hurting. His cell was closed by an iron gate wrought shut. The dim lights flickered often. Somewhere outside the cell, he could hear the pirates chattering. From within, he could see the cells opposite to him. They were empty. But it took a moment for him to realise that he was not alone in his cell. In its darkest corner, something was sitting crouched.

His blurred vision was just getting better and he could see that his cellmate was not a humanoid. “What are you?” It was no time for courtesies. “Where did they catch you from?”
It beeped in response. It was an Android. Back when Moonking was a boy he had learnt the Android tongue from his uncle. He was a crook who sold stolen gadgets in the level 44 black market. He used a bunch of orphans to steal gadgets and other saleable objects. They mostly stole only from the rich folks of level 23. As they became more notorious, the level 23 houses began installing high-end security systems, which made breaking in more difficult.
Anandas, his uncle, was not the only black market dealer in Vertex City but he was one of the first to employ the androids to surpass the security systems. The Androids were a squad of robots designed by a man called Ramaen. The androids were robots modelled almost like humanoids with four limbs. There face was a rectangular box with visual and audio sensors. Albeit they had no mouth, they beeped. The beeps were the androids tongue. They can be programmed to do any work that would benefit their owners. But Cerebroid Corporation royally fucked Ramaen. First of all, the guy was a geek who knew nothing about business. Cerebroid bought the patent rights from him for a miserly amount and made a fortune out of selling the androids to every possible bidder. From the army to the scientists, everyone employed the androids. Ramaen was left with nothing while the corporation prospered. The geek at least had the courage to exact vengeance upon them. Ramaen had designed the androids in such a way that whoever spoke with them in the android tongue, would bypass their owners and control the androids. Ramaen even had a transmitter that was connected to every Android manufactured. In this way, Ramaen forced the androids across the galaxy to malfunction. Armies lost in battle, scientific data were deleted and some library androids even burnt precious data files. But the government soon got wind of this farce. The Court of Republic executed Ramaen for his crimes. And the androids were put out of commission, which made 50,000 androids jobless. The androids were scattered across the galaxy as nomads. They were hated and thrown stones at wherever they went. Most androids sold their body parts in the black markets for survival. Mercenaries bought androids and trained them in the act of killing. The emotionless bots soon became extraordinary killers and quickly rose through the mercenary ranks. One android in the Betelgeuse star system even formed its own band of mercenaries called The Crows.

Other bots sold themselves in the black markets from where his uncle bought one. The androids never had any names before being outlawed. But then they took up varied names of their choosing. Anandas named the one he bought Tricks.
Tricks were programmed to loot and steal. Tricks taught Moonking the android tongue.

The droid in his cell did not reply anything. It just groaned. “Come on. Don’t be like that. We are the only ones here” The droid turned to look at him.
“Blue Jay, ” said the droid. “Jay? Cool name.”
In the beginning, Androids were named by their owners. Some let their kids name them and the Androids were stuck with titles like Codswallop. But after being decommissioned they adopted better sounding names.
“Do you know what these guys are going to do to us?”
“Yes, ” said the droid and remained silent.
“Tell me!!, ” yelled Moonking.
“They are pirates. What do you think pirates do to captives? Me? They are going to sell my parts in the Golgo black markets. If you are a woman they will enjoy you and sell you in Orion’s brothels. But you, I don’t know why they haven’t killed you yet”
Moonking wondered the same. If some enemy of the Republic wanted to find him, the pirates would be the first people to know. It seemed even the pirates didn’t know what to do with him. Worst case scenario, they would sell him in the slave galleys. He would escape from there. Moonking relaxed and laid down on the floor. “But Cranongal and the others are cannibals. Maybe they will feast on you, ” said Blue Jay.
Looking sat up in shock. Surely the droid is lying. Although Jay was a mouthless robot, to Moonking it looked like it had a sly smile on its face. Moonking moved away to the corner opposite to the android.

A loud noise came from within the pirates’ room. Moonking tried to look at what was going on. But the pirates’ room was well outside his view. He saw multi-coloured lights dance on the wall. They must be watching TV. Some of the worst sounds he had ever heard reached his ears. It must be one of the solar system’s free music channels. Just when he thought he couldn’t bear to listen to the noise anymore it stopped. Blue Jay was not surprised. “Pretend to be asleep, ” warned the droid and shut itself off. Moonking saw its dotted lights disappear.

A huge grisly pirate entered the dungeons. He checked every cell even though only one of them was occupied. As he came to their cell, Moonking was awake and staring at the pirate. This angered him and he picked up something from his pocket. Moonking recognised it as a Multi-load Neutron Pistol. Before he could react, the pirate fired at Moonking through the gate.

As the wave of shock passed through his body, Moonking felt himself slipping. His vision blurred and his eyelids closed in on him. The pirate seemed to have switched off the lights. The dungeon plunged into darkness. Miles away, Moonking heard the sound of laughter and a heavy door slam down.