Mild evening wind was lazily pushing a chain of yellow clouds to the edge of unbelievably far horizon. Clouds obeyed unwillingly and slowly crept away, leaving the strange shades upon the absolutely flat valley which has been covered with a prickly red grass to the very bottom of the castle. One's eyes could get tired with the monotony of the landscape here. Neither a tiny flower, nor a twisted tree to give a shadow from near x-ray light of the local dim sun. Neither a brook with the cheerful streamlet, nor a herd of wild suels. Nothing similar to the home world of Ktar Lam. Only the shadows of clouds creeping in the distance over the volley. Only the silence broken by a rustle of a grass.
Dressed in snow-white armor out off strongest vitil alloy, Ktar Lam was standing on the top of a tower. His head with turned gray before time hair was inclined, his fingers were stroking a warm dimly gleaming barrel of the heavy antiaircraft cannon. This gun had been designed in a style of an era of Two Crowns and resembled one of those horrifying sea monsters from ancient manuscripts. Lam has always loved the classical style. The sensation of that huge warm gun was calming the Ktar. That is why, he used to come here, on the location of his last survived cannon every day. Every time upon his arrival his Serves began to fuss and show the utmost possible for these simple mechanical creatures respect to their master.
Yes, except these gun he still had several thousands of inexperienced, armed than have got Serves. But it was too unreliable protection against landing unit of Separatists, or Independent as they named themselves. There was a unique hope that they would not search for him, the last soldier of Empire, in this forbidden sector М182, solar system Kshartri, planet Kshartri-2. He himself would never direct the way in here if he did not vow to get revenge on Separatists. Citizens of Empire always spoke of them with a grim smile and disregard, as of hermits, eccentrics and pariahs. In vain some men of science, including the Ktar's father, loudly stated that isolation from an external world is harmful, first of all, for the Empire itself, that this isolation will inevitably lead to the technical backwardness and a possible defeat in case of war. Nobody could foresee, how much surpassing there would be a power of the firepower of the opponent in reality.
But citizens were too proud to admit possibility of such defeat. In their political
disputes patriots always flaunted knights of the Empire, who had no match in all separatists worlds altogether. Nobody expected that Separatists would break a key rule of noble fight which says: "Let the Serve not rise its hand against its Master".
Lam was one of the best swords of Empire and he possessed an ancient martial art of a Blade at the level of Spekullator Of His Majesty, therefore he had been chosen among many volunteers to participate in that mad landing on the enemy leader battleship, called Tetrahedron. Lady Praj took part in the same landing with her beloved one. Together they broke through the armored defenders of the Tetrahedron, losing companions. Together they had done a long way to the heart of an enemy's mother ship, its captain's cabin. Good luck had smiled to them, only their group reached the goal, other squads of imperial commandoes were or brought down by guns of the Tetrahedron or killed by its defenders. Ktar Lam and Lady Praj enjoyed the fight, and operated like one killing machine without misses and tiredness. The longer was the fight , the more joyful they became. Both of them merged with killing metal of their swords and easily overcame the enemies they met on their way in a blinking light of the ship lanterns. This pleasure of slaying had been reaching the top when they had rushed into the captain's cabin. Without notice, they both began to sing a war song, as if they were those ancient heroes, inspired by a great melee fight.
But good luck had turned away from the two nobles in the cabin. They got into a trap and lady Praj fell, covering the left side of her beloved one. After that Lam lost control over his body. It was not him anymore, but someone else who had applied a Fan Attack and terminated hindering security guards. Someone else in his body cut officers into shreds. Someone else, but not him, had switched on the self-destruction handle of the ship reactor. Someone else was stabbing the insensible corpse of the captain again and again. Stabbing until something unusual appeared from the torn to pieces breast. Only then Lam had come to his senses, having investigated corpses of the officers and the guards, he understood that all this day they were fighting against simple cyborgs. It was disgusting itself, and still the worst fact was that Lady Praj was killed by the hand of a simple Servant.
Ktar could not imagine such a treachery, and the fury veil has again covered his eyes. But at that very moment Lam suddenly understood that the Empire had been doomed. It was not necessary even to look at uncountable lights of the enemy landing boats. The opponent had neglected the immemorial law and forced serves to battle against people, the Empire was outnumbered and it's single trump card in this war was lost. Ktar carried a breathless body of his beloved to one of landing boats of the Tetrahedron
and departed from the doomed ship one minute prior to its explosion.
He had only one goal at that moment, - the rescue of His Majesty whose palace should become the primary objective to the opponent. But His Majesty was not in this world anymore at that moment. There were neither palace guards, capable to stop the most perfected machine-terminators, nor an imperial palace, or the capital of Empire itself. Only a single gun volley was made by the opponent, and all this magnificence gone. There was no city, with its wide streets filled with the sun and the smell of flowers, there was no Gushing Square with its magnificent statues of ancient heroes, there was no Pantheon in which wonders from all new worlds discovered by imperial conquistadors were stored. There was no Enamored park where Ktar Lam had seen Lady Praj for the first time and for the first time he had a feeling much stronger, than desire to become a Spekullator Of His Majesty. There was no Enmity Field where so much opponents fell from his hand ... Lam saw only one huge burned hole on that place where previously there was a biggest city of Azura.
Such, defenses of Empire had been broken by the single volley of the enemy's guns. Probably, the tragedy had happened before his landing on the Tetrahedron. That might have been a cause of that sudden silence in the broadcast which they explained to themselves due to the ship's inhibitors. Lam headed to his castle on the other side of the planet. The sky was swarmed by enemy patrols, but fortunately, they recognized his trophy boat as one of their own.
Cyborg invaders, so similar to people, already captured Nome. His family's Serves were standing obediently in lines on the big central yard, listening to the orders of the new masters. But their real master was already there. When they recognized him in the warrior clad in smoking fighting armor, they cleared the castle off the enemies in a few minutes, and in another few minutes it was ready for a flight. Sweet old Nome, it was constructed by the Ktar's great-great-grandfather. In those times Empire had only begun the policy of self-isolation, and Nome was designed in an old way, as a colonizing complex for new planet development.
Lam buried Lady Praj in the family crypt, next to his well-known father. He was simply standing and watching, how respectful Serves were pushing the tombstone hiding forever her adorable face. During this moment the warrior felt nothing, he was completely devastated, the habitual world had ceased to exist in a blink of an eye, his brain refused to accept that news, but his heart had already absorbed the deadly emptiness of the future and was silently weeping in the breast. Ktar felt himself a dead man, and only fiery letters of the motto granted to his family by the Emperor, were blazing in his mind: "Never surrender, and you will grab the Victory".
Lam was grinning rising the castle into the air. He did not expect to win, but he had sworn to revenge Separatists for their treachery.
He was lucky again at launch safely from Azura. Having broken through a thin barrier of invader's fleet, he lost about sixty percent of compartments with almost all weaponry, but kept safe the most important knots of the ship and colonizing complex with its reproduction system. He entered into hyperspace, having left persecutors a hard problem to find his traces in other reality. Then it was necessary to find a silent planet to develop an industrial complex and to create an army of Serves to pay a hostile visit on one of Independent planets. And for this goal, only the time was necessary, lots of time, therefore Lam chose the forbidden system Kshartri. Here, for sure, he would not
be found by persecutors.
Records about this system were foggy, but he remembered words of his father since the childhood that there should be a suitable world for the life. But that world had uncertain source of danger. As well as all progressive people, his father did not approve the firm ban for any researches in this area but as the faithful object of the Emperor, he did not dare to undertake any action against it, though he always wanted to do so. Now the lot has dropped to his son to fulfill the father's dream.
The planet appeared to be absolutely empty and boring. No life, except monotonous pathetic vegetation. The plain, as a kitchen table, land only occasionally was interrupted with channels of the deep rivers, bearing the waters whether to the polar oceans covered with white hats of ice, whether from these oceans during summer thawing. No huge deposits of the minerals, no anomalies. Atmosphere structure was close to excellent according to old planet classification... However, during the next circuit around the planet, castle devices detected a strange concentration of metal in the valley.
When Ktar made out the increased image of the place, he was much surprised, to find out the whole cemetery of the ships of Shabby Empire, the ancient ships which had turned black from time. The castle's artificial intelligence recognized them by outlines: research class vessels "Conquistador", "Old resident", "Pilgrim" and one shabby truck "Sonar". All of them had settled down around the strange delicate construction looking like a spike of an imperial summer palace in Piquant Mountains.
Lam landed the castle nearby, having decided to investigate the strange place. And now the towers of Nome were dominated over the flat area and over group of the long ago lost ships. Compared to those ships, the castle looked like an imperial frigate Paladin over the yachts in Happy Bay.
Having made orders to systems of the castle and to the Serves, Ktar Lam went to investigate the abandoned vessels which were staring silently at the newcomer. He had found out nothing, except a decayed stuff and a heap of failed electronics. Neither any records nor any traces of crews, or any explanation why they had gone. The only functional unit on that planet was an air-concentrating station launched presumably by the first colonists. Obviously the result of its continuous work was that the air on that planet was such pure and pleasant on taste.
She had crept into his dreams in the very first night. At first there was an almost inaudible melody which was becoming louder and more distinct. It went out from the heart of the native palace, which Lam had no time to examine because of suddenly fallen twilight. And then Ktar caught a site of the most beautiful woman.
She was standing in a distance, in the patio of that incomprehensible building and alluring him. She was absolutely nude, except of uncountable ornaments or jewelry all over, and the beauty of her body raised the strongest desire in Ktar's heart. The woman's skin twinkled as the moon in the clear sky of Azura, her eyes shone in cool twilight of a yard, as two bright stars. She began to sing a strange song and make smooth movements in a step of that unusual melody.
She was delightful and terrible at the same time. She had a lust to be given to him and as strongly she wanted to tear him to pieces. He clearly read it in the eyes of his night visitor and could not come off those eyes. They called on him. Called on to come and touch her twinkle body, to press himself to those coral lips of hers and to feel impossible pleasure in the embraces of the hands twisted with bracelets ... and then, having taken pleasure in her, to die.
The dream was so real and exciting that Ktar Lam read a protective sutra after waking up. Then he recalled Lady Praj and he felt ashamed and disgusted. When the dawn came, Ktar took group of Serves and went to the mysterious palace to found it same empty and lifeless as all that planet. Apparently the "palace" had no chambers or doors, no stairs or balconies, it was just senseless heap of the twisted columns converging in one point high above the ground. Neither a single image was in that strange construction, nor an inscription, nor a single hint on the ones who had created this strange building and for what purpose it was built.
However, Lam made one discovery. In the center of the huge colonnade he found that patio of his dream. It was empty, except of a huge round plate from the polished stone in its center. At once Ktar remembered this plate, so similar to an altar. The guest of his dream was dancing on it, and her image shone by a moonlight was reflected from its polished surface.
The next night the dream repeated again. And though Lam tried hard to stop himself, he watched and watched the figure of the dancing woman, feeling the strongest desire to approach and embrace her in his arms. The visitor of his dreams was unbelievably attractive with some kind of vicious sinful beauty. This beauty caused the powerful desire to possess her, desire so strong, that even in the sleep Ktar started to read protective sutra to get rid of this obsession. But sutra did not help. The woman was laughing and alluring him, exposing her charming delightful body.
Having woken up on the second day, Ktar still felt tired. He checked up indicators of the air structure, having suspected that he was falling ill, but devices showed the norm. Then he launched the program of a profound research, and for that purpose he had to switch a part of energy from construction site of metal processing complex which he had put into operation the day before to use the richest resources of the old ships.
The results of the research were soothing: air of this planet did not contain any sources of an infection, more than that, it did not contain in general any microorganisms. Ktar did not pay any attention to such a strangeness. Having got up on the tower top, he began to examine the palace, involuntarily recalling his night visions. Even in the broad day light he felt the strongest desire to the woman from his dreams. There, on the tower top, stayed alone in private with his thoughts, he suddenly caught that strange melody. It was hardly heard, it was like a wind whiff, like a grass rustle... It was like a delicate attempt to connect the two worlds: dreamland and this deserted planet, a reality and something else. This song crept into his soul, stripping him off will and reason. It called on him, called on and promised incredible, incomparable pleasure. Pleasure for which he would have to pay with his life.
Having straightened shoulders, Ktar started a war song, that song they sang with lady Praj during the fight on the Tetrahedron. The ancestors of his, sang that song when started their last hand to hand. It was the song of the fearless warrior who faces the grave danger and wants to express his contempt towards death. He sang the song at the top voice, and the echo deafly repeated words of the ancient anthem. Even the Serves below abandoned their work and stood up, lifted up the square heads. When the song stopped, nothing broke the silence around anymore. He did not see the visitor several nights after that, and did not hear anything, perhaps, except scraps of that strange melody.
Ktar calmed down absolutely and wanted to explain the dreams by a shock he had endured. But today, having got as usual on a tower top whether to take a view on the neighborhoods, whether to feel confidence once again from a touch to the old gun which had been made by its far grand-grandfather, Lam suddenly felt Her presence. He felt with his back that the palace was not empty anymore, that if he would turn, he would see that beautiful and horrible temptress through numbers of uncountable columns.
Who was she? The goddess of for a long time lost people? Or, a she-devil who had exterminated all those people? He did not know, but he felt with all his being that she was looking at him now and waiting. Waiting, when his defense would fall, when he would disregard any precaution, all concepts of fidelity and honor, forget the oath to revenge Independents, and lose the common sense at all. And he felt himself close to such a mad action, unbelievable close indeed.
Now he knew precisely that world was under a ban not without a reason. He even did not want to think what had happened to the first colonists when they all began to feel desire to possess the same woman at the same time! He started to sing the song of death again, but the inspiration did not come this time. He still felt Her presence, he was recalling her eyes shining with tender light, half-open juicy lips with the white pearls of teeth behind them. He was imagining her high breasts rising from passionate breath, seductive bends of her perfect body, slender legs with small feet moving in slow dance...
... Having come off these thoughts, Lam suddenly found himself on the tower top shouting sutras in a loud voice. Obviously, the prayer had helped, and the obsession had gone... for a while.
Yes, only for a while, Ktar knew that. He felt he had been already poisoned and would not find force to make the most practical thing in such situation: to embark and depart from this planet. However, he even could not do so. For, he was hunted and he would be found in any other place by all means. There was only one solution, he was to set the program of development of a colony, automatic creation of arms and Serve's army which, obeying to his last will would land on one of the Separatist's planet.
Drawing up of all necessary programs distracted Ktar from the vivid memoirs of the Fairy creature and dipped a fire in his chest. Suddenly an idea came to his mind. Lam summoned a Lieutenant Serve with a squad of huntsmen and gave them an order to search the delicate palace and to destroy any suspicious being, a machine or a person, should they find it there.
Having climbed up the tower, Ktar began to wait for the results. The huntsmen, painted ochre all over, got in sight below. They went to the palace vigorously, bearing the laser rifles on shoulders, as the real soldiers of ancient armies. The house of Lam was always famous for their huntsmen. How many amusement battles had they won, how many real fights. Ktar went deep into memoirs on those happy days. He tried not to look at the palace, because he felt that if he would see Her, he would not be able to regain self-control once again. The com device made a signal pretty soon, and the Lieutenant reported that they did not find anything suspicious in the place.
"Most likely I`m going mad," Ktar told to himself "Then where is this devil's melody
coming from!?" he shouted having heard the sounds brought by a new breeze.
"I do not know, sir," the Serve responded.
"So, do you hear it too?" Lam was surprised, because he frankly began to think he's not well.
"Yes, sir, all the time, sir. But I'm unable to spot any source of the sound."
Having dismissed the huntsmen, Lam turned back to the gun. There was one more chance to get rid of that obsession. Obeying his command, heavy trunks of the gun turned towards the native building. At that moment, heavy cannon reminded slow sea animals who, having reached waters, suddenly become surprisingly quick and agile. And it could not be another way. After all, those guns were designed to destroy high-speed air targets. Their plasma charges were capable to burn the three-meter armor of a heavy cruiser, but an easy delicate construction was not caused any harm. When shooting stopped and Ktar's eyes, blinded by high-temperature flashes, became able to see, he wasn't much surprised, having found a palace on its place safe and sound. Lam had had thoughts already that many people before him tried to get rid of that delusion in the same way.
However the song stopped after the shooting, and it was not heard till the evening. Lam tried to catch the melody all the rest of the day listening attentively to the sounds of the valley filled with calm mutter of Serves and hum of working artificial synthesis facility. He did not want to go to bed that night. However, Ktar started to doze after midnight, sitting over the prayer book. Then, he came up to the control panel of Nome and checked the calculations. He found out, that the first ships with robot's army would set into the space not earlier than in two hundred days.
Having tortured himself over the programs almost till dawn, in attempt to accelerate the process of military production, Ktar fall asleep on a soft operator's seat. And again he saw her, the Goddess and She-devil of his dreams. She was standing and laughing:
"Well , you're sending servants and afraid to come yourself!" he could read the meaning of her unknown language on her lips. "Are you afraid of death? I will give you a heavenly pleasure in exchange!"
She was touching and caressing her body, and he could not took away his eyes from her shameless hands.
"All this I will give to you!" - the hands were speaking too. And Lam was suffering in his sleep from the strongest desire overwhelming him. The guest could kill him at any moment, Ktar felt it somehow, but she would not do that. She played with him, knowing that he would not run anywhere. Even if he would start now from this planet, he would not be able to forget her ever and one day he would return by all means to enter into her tenderly and deadly embraces. How to forget that attracting shameless body which caused so strong and so forbidden desire, which had Lam never tested in the life before.
"To run away! To escape! To find a brothel and to plunge into a outrages orgy ...", - the thought flashed in his mind. But the thought was even more disgusting, than thought on copulation with this monstrously beautiful being. Eventually, it's more honorable to perish from hands of the goddess or the she-devil , than to search for rescue in the embraces of cheap prostitutes. And, they would fail to help after all. If there could be a model of the vicious sexy woman, it was now before his eyes. She was most seductive and ready to an every forbidden pleasure. The ideal of perversity which was waiting of the reunion only with him ...
"Come to me," she groaned in ecstasy, touching herself on a round smooth stone altar.
Ktar Lam made the last effort to recall the beloved image of Lady Praj in his memory. Her face arose for a moment and then faded away, having given way to the Guest, who was greedily clasping her seductive shapes.
"I am coming," his cracked lips whispered deafly.
She enjoyed the power over this medieval Ktar. Feeling incomparable delight, she performed a dance of an animal love upon him, and felt more and more high at each movement of her smooth hips. She shouted loudly and continued to sing this persuasive song which was born already here, on a forbidden planet of Kshartri-2.
She did not have a name, Independent have no names, after all they never communicate with peers. She called herself simply, - Me. Presumably, Me belonged to the human race once, but now she was at another step of evolution, the advanced person. The person who had been living for hundreds of years and so many times had changed the appearance and the genre that it was difficult to tell who she had been originally.
Me had begun that war with the ancestral home simply for fun. She needed neither their empire, nor their planet, she just decided to arrange a war in the spirit of the Middle Ages with real characters. Certainly, she understood, that Keepers would be dissatisfied with it, but what they would be able to do? Would they begin intrusion? It would be even more fun. Ok, even if they would manage to beat her and drive her out of the couple of worlds, then what? She would find new ones.
But Me was disappointed. Again. This savages, this so-called ancestors from that historical park, they even did not create a power barrier over the city. And the first gun volley of one of her primitive ships, specially adjusted to their level of space navy, finished the war. She had been preparing to that operation for so many days! Her nano-spies had given the full list of technological achievements of Empire. Who could guess that they do not use many of high technologies for their purpose! Me could not understand: they what, simply collected them? Or prayed to them? All answers were lost together with their capital. This war would bring only the disappointment, if not for this warrior. Only this one had proved to be the worthy opponent. He destroyed some tens perfect fighting cyborgs in hand-to-hand combat, he blew up her top battleship and even decided to strike back. With a surprise, she should accept that fact, he would have some chances in a duel even with her in her advanced body. Struggle against this Ktar had seemed more interesting to Me than war with the whole empire. And she left trifling Azura to hunt down the more promising victim.
Me decided to prepare a trap for the opponent in the style of those ancient legends. She wanted to tempt him and to kill him. It was not much troubles to go through to achieve that purpose. She just built a strange building in the spirit of ancient constructions of planet T35668, and added colors to her obedient body. Me freshened musty steppe air, cleaned the platform of ancient colonists and got rid of their decayed bodies to create a mystery, knowing about her ancestor's belief in the other world. Me did not believe neither in the higher forces, nor in miracles, nor in god. She was a god... And now Ktar has voluntary come to accept death from her hands and to share her lust before.
Though Me looked like human, but she had become something else long ago. And now, being under the sex ecstasy, she anticipated a still highest ecstasy at the moment when she will open a Ktar's chest and will pull out his hot shivering heart. And that moment was just about to come, just after some more devastating sweet movements, her hands will turn to paws with the diamond claws which would tear apart the bloody flesh ...
Me did not esteem ancient interdictions and did not know that had been doomed from the moment of arrival on this planet as Ktar had been doomed either. They had been sentenced to remain on Kshartri-2 for ever as everyone before. If people name death the enemy, then ancient enemy of this world already had settled in their bodies, causing in them irreversible changes. The case was in the grass of that planet. During the evolution one of the species had developed the form of a stalk which produced the certain noise on the wind. The frequency of the noise affected all the living organisms, giving a signal to stop all living processes at a cellular level. This grass had forced out all kind of life from the planet and was dominated in the valley for millennia, constantly keep on singing. Singing the song of the death.
And now, enjoying sex with Ktar, Me did not know that it was the very last moment of her life and that eternity doors had already been opened for her, and the Ancient Enemy had already come out to take both of them. Only the Serve's army, obeying the last command of their Master, will be enlivening the monotonous landscape for a while. Then they will board the ships and start for the nearest populated planet. What will happen to them afterwards is not known ....