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Chapter 21

"They hid spy cameras inside the shot-up security cameras...?" Niall whistled. "That's a neat trick!"

"Much is explained," Toast said darkly. "I said they knew too much."

"I'm going to run for it," Quirk announced. "I'll try and distract them. See if you can get out of here."

Before they could stop him, the protogen had opened the door, run outside and pushed one of the Synths over. He snatched up their weapon, clubbed a second android with it and then ran.

Niall, Toast, Xerian and Eris made their way to the corridor, with the vulpine snatching up the dead sniper's weapon just in case.

As they cautiously looked around the corridor, a group of armed protogen officers arrived.

"Halt!" Their leader snapped. "We are here to escort you to the Emperor."

"The slugs," one of the crazed Synths babbled, hobbling around the corridor behind them with an unsteady gait. "Listen to their song! Take them to the slug king!"

"Praise the slugs...?" Niall asked helpfully. The officer glared at him.

"Come," the protogen said. "The Emperor wishes to have you all alive. But that is strictly his preference. If we have to bring him your corpses, he will quite understand."

"I understand too," Xerian said, raising his arms.

Niall sighed and threw down the sniper rifle. "Let's go and see what he wants," he agreed reluctantly.

"A wise decision," the officer said. "Praise the Emperor!"

* * *

Soon the group was once again in the holding cell. The door opened and Lautrec was carried in and dumped at their feet with a metallic clang.

"Heya boss," the panther said. "Fancy meeting you here!"

Moments later, Lord Cyra himself entered and surveyed the prisoners.

"Where is Quirk...?" He asked, eyes narrowing.

"He ran off, your highness," Niall said.

"Send out a squad," Lord Cyra demanded, turning to the officer. "I want him brought here as soon as possible, understand...?"

"Yes, Majesty," the protogen said, snapped a quick salute, and left.

"Now then," the Emperor began, leaning back against the cell wall with an insolent pose. "Are you all familiar with the word 'purify'?"

He paused for a moment. Niall and Xerian looked at the floor. The Emperor smiled and continued.

"It means 'to ceremonially cleanse, to remove of extraneous elements'," he continued, fixing the group with a menacing stare.

"You are extraneous elements," he said, pointing at them accusingly with a black rubber gloved hand, "And if you continue to defy my will, you shall be cleansed, with as much pomp and ceremony as we can muster. Do I make myself clear...?"

"If you don't want us here, why did you kidnap-" Eris started angrily.

"Apparently I have not made myself clear," the Emperor interrupted, eyes narrowing to slits. "So let's try again! Two words: Public... Execution."

"Understood," Xerian put in. Eris slumped forwards, cradling her head in her hands.

"Splendid! We shall speak again shortly," the protogen said, and left the room with a flourish of his shiny black rubber cape.

"It could be worse," Toast said after the cell door had slid shut once again. "At least he is giving us one more chance. I feared he would slay us all out of hand."

"Wouldn't the robots try to repair us if we were killed?" Eris asked.

"Not if our bodies were jettisoned into space," Toast said glumly. "And the wholly robotic ones could either be dismantled or put into space as well. Also... There's the rope."

"Hanging? Does that even work on a protogen?"

"We are 60% organic," Toast pointed out. "Even if that remaining 40% is doing the heavy lifting, being 60% dead is still a Bad Thing. Regardless, if you hoist someone up by the neck in one of the warehouses, and leave them up there for a week after the kicking stops - good luck resurrecting that."

"...And the robots won't be able to get at someone dangling in the air," Lautrec said in a subdued tone of voice.

"Exactly," Toast said. "So..."

At that moment the door opened and an officer walked in.

"You! Toast," he said. The red and black protogen slumped back and buried his face in despair.

"In his beneficence the Emperor has given you this," the officer said, dumping a camera case onto the terrified protogen's lap. "You are to document the surrender of the troublemakers. Do not fail in this task, or his majesty will have your head."

* * *

The throne room was dimmed as the prisoners were led inside, wrists bound behind their backs. One of the officers carried Lautrec, placing him on the floor so that the paralysed cat could watch the proceedings.

Once the five of them were arranged in a circle around the Emperor, he drew a small rod from his belt, and at a press it emitted a glowing blade of energy. By its light, they could dimly see a Synth kneeling before him.

"This is a variable sword," the Emperor informed them. "Just so you know, it can go through hardened steel like a stick through water.
"Now! I have your true love here, Xerian. One wrong move, and he dies!"

Lautrec stared for a second and then began laughing hysterically.

"Silence!" the Emperor screamed. "Stop! Stop at once, or your master's sweetheart loses his head!"

"Will you tell him... Or shall I...?" the cat managed, before succumbing to another laughing fit.

"I mean it!" Cyra snapped. "Obey me, or your boyfriend gets decapitated!"

"Sir, that's not my lover," Xerian said simply. "That's Rexx. He's one of my neighbours, and we don't like each other."

"Lights!" the Emperor commanded, and studied the red Synth kneeling in front of him. Slowly he turned back towards Xerian. "You're bluffing," he said, looking unsettled.

"Nah. You got the wrong one," Lautrec giggled helplessly. "This guy's an asshole. If anything, he's the closest thing I have to an enemy on Xerian's world!"

"Please..." the terrified Synth croaked. "Xerian... Cat... I'm sorry... Please... Don't let him k-kill me! I don't want to d-die!"

"Your majesty, I am not a vindictive man," Xerian sighed. "I don't like Rexx, but even so, I don't want to see him d-die either. Please, I beg you... spare him! I surrender."

"That's better," the Emperor said, lifting the weapon away from Rexx' neck, but keeping it ready. "But your... neighbour... Is still a hostage to your good behaviour. Yours too, cat."

"Oh?" Xerian looked confused, and slightly relieved. "I assumed you were going to freeze me or t-tamper with my b-brain..."

"We will need some of your kind left unaltered as a baseline for research," the Emperor said offhandedly. "And some of you may yet join our cause willingly. But as it happens, you are special and I would prefer to keep you alive - if I can. But do not test my patience."

"Oh," Xerian looked worried. "May I ask why, Majesty?"

"Several reasons. For one, we have been monitoring your subetherwave broadcasts and we know that you are famous. At the very least, that will make you a useful hostage for when we announce ourselves to this world.
"But even without that, we know that your brain is different to the usual designs. You contain the same technology as the cat and your vulpine friend use... And that technology is something we are very interested in adding to our own corpus."

"Oh," Xerian sounded worried again.

"We will get much more useful data from you intact," the Emperor said. "But make no mistake, if you cause me too much trouble, I'll settle for dissecting your brain and learning what we can from disassembled corpse. Is that clear...?"

"Perfectly clear, Majesty," Xerian said.

"Good! Then my first command is that you describe your loved one to my men. They will be located and you will be allowed some time together. After all, I am not an unreasonable man."

"Thank you, Majesty," Xerian said. "But after that they will be your hostage...?"

"Precisely. So long as you obey, they shall be kept safe and well. Behave, and you will be allowed regular contact.
"Defy me - and you shall watch your lover die, and this other one too. I shall have their heads teleported to the planet as a warning. On a platter."

"Understood, Majesty," Xerian said unhappily.

"Um," Niall said unhappily.

"What is it now, fox...?" Cyra demanded, glancing at the armoured incubus with an irritable expression.

"Well, your Majesty, I don't like to get involved in local politics," Niall started, "But I can't help feeling that you're playing a dangerous game here by pushing Xerian too hard.

"I mean... If I am reading your offer correctly, it boils down to 'Be good, and you and your boyfriend can watch as your world is invaded and your friends are enslaved,' right...? If you want my unbiased opinion, I'd recommend sweetening the deal a little."

"Bold of you to suggest that," the Emperor said testily, circling the energy sword in the air above Rexx's horns. "Remember that the alternative I am offering them is death."

"But that's the point, Majesty," Niall said. "You're laying that on too thick! And remember, Xerian is different to other Synths! Yes, he's pacifistic by default, but if you push him too hard he is liable to snap. He has a warrior robot brain, after all.
"Don't you see...? If he believes that he and/or 'Zuki are going to die regardless, what has he got to lose by taking you down? Your resurrection machines won't work on him, so it's not like you can threaten him with dying twice.
"Hell, he might take the whole ship with him, killing everyone aboard in order to save the millions you are threatening in the Outer Rim."

"Your opinion is noted," the Emperor said. "But I must have an army. That is not negotiable! The ship does not have enough biomass to create an entire fighting force of protogens, therefore we need to raise them by some other means. Do you have a counter-proposal, fox?"

"Yes," Niall said slowly. "I am a roboticist as well as a robot. And in my professional opinion, Synths aren't the answer to your problem. "They're pacifistic and their design is close enough to an organic lifeform that they need occasional medical attention which you can't provide. And warping their minds to turn them violent has simply left them raving about slugs, your majesty."

"True," the Emperor sighed. "What is your solution, then?"

"Let Xerian and Zuki go, let his planet at least govern their own affairs, even if they end up as vassal states paying tribute to your glorious Empire. You can still gather raw materials for your projects from space, without needing to conquer inhabited worlds," Niall said.

"In exchange for this, I will tell you everything I know, and give you all the assistance you need - to build an army of intelligent warrior robots."