have the best chance to reach my nephew Aton and convert him to our side. And because the distant Earth-government did not take the threat seriously enough, I had to act myself. I believe I succeeded, or would have—but I found myself enmeshed in mortal combat with the insane Dr. Bedeker.”
“Surely there was more than that!” Morning Haze objected. He had tired of whipping Misery, and now was banging her face against the wall, using her luxuriant hair as a handhold. She looked more beautiful than ever, and her happiness seemed to radiate from her. Benjamin, drunk as he was, found this masochism fascinating; never had such loveliness been so brutally treated!
“Of course there was more; I did not realize it was of interest.” He glanced at the Xest as he signaled, and saw the grubs emerging from the thaw. Quickly he returned his gaze to the nude woman, noting her breasts moved up and down as her head was forced back. She offered no resistance to any of this.
“My nephew Aton, half-minion, killed his mother, then took up with his arranged bride, a daughter of Four named Coquina. Coquina the shell. A lovely girl—lovely.” But it was Misery the minionette he saw, not the Hvee girl. “However, she came down with the chill, and he had to take her to Chthon caverns, where controlled environment could preserve her life.” He paused again. “There must have been more to it than that. They tried heated chambers before, during earlier chill sieges, and that didn’t work. I—now wait, I can find my own place this time! I—I was present when Dr. Bedeker made the contract. ‘I will pray to your god,’ Aton said, ‘if only she lives.’ And they took Coquina away.”
Benjamin closed his eyes. “There was nothing I could do. But I had seen my nephew—a man of incalculable potential and unbreakable will, who could stand up to the chthonic power itself—I had seen him broken. Bedeker had won. In that awful victory he made me his enemy, and I swore to myself that I would kill him. But I had no way to reach him—and even if I could, Aton and Coquina were hostage. And so my hate for the destroyer of the great Family of Five consumed me, from that moment in §403 until the war of §426.
“Yet it was my enemy Bedeker who kept me informed, for he alone had free access to Chthon. I never betrayed him to the authorities, for then I would have lost all contact with my nephew and his wife. I learned that Aton had two sons, Aesir and Arlo; the first died young and the second lived to about fifteen, when Ragnarok came and all life on and in that planet was exterminated. I, virtually alone, escaped. If you could call it escape.”
Benjamin paused for yet another drink. “This is not as much fun as I had hoped,” he said, setting the first glass down. “I can’t get high enough to forget what I remember! Well, all that was thirty-four years ago. I was seventy-four at the time, Bedeker perhaps a decade younger. It was a phantasmagoric battle, there at the fringe of the nether caverns; there were monsters like none known to man. But I knew somehow that if I killed Bedeker, nothing else would touch me.
“Well, I killed him. But in his expiration he wounded me, and infected me with some chthonic malady, a botulism-type infection or something remotely akin to it, not quite familiar to our medical science. It ravaged my nervous system and God knows what else. You see me now! Oh, I had the very best medical care—but after all, Chthon had won, and all they could do was extend my life artificially. It has not been a pleasure—and now I am glad to let it go.”
“Forgive my insistence,” Morning Haze said as he labored over a reverse lock on one of Misery’s elbows. Such pressure should have broken a normal woman’s arm, but had no apparent effect on her. “But I feel that there is yet more to this matter, and I am of a mind to plumb all secrets. There was an emotional intensification when you spoke of Aton’s sons. I
“Surely there was more than that!” Morning Haze objected. He had tired of whipping Misery, and now was banging her face against the wall, using her luxuriant hair as a handhold. She looked more beautiful than ever, and her happiness seemed to radiate from her. Benjamin, drunk as he was, found this masochism fascinating; never had such loveliness been so brutally treated!
“Of course there was more; I did not realize it was of interest.” He glanced at the Xest as he signaled, and saw the grubs emerging from the thaw. Quickly he returned his gaze to the nude woman, noting her breasts moved up and down as her head was forced back. She offered no resistance to any of this.
“My nephew Aton, half-minion, killed his mother, then took up with his arranged bride, a daughter of Four named Coquina. Coquina the shell. A lovely girl—lovely.” But it was Misery the minionette he saw, not the Hvee girl. “However, she came down with the chill, and he had to take her to Chthon caverns, where controlled environment could preserve her life.” He paused again. “There must have been more to it than that. They tried heated chambers before, during earlier chill sieges, and that didn’t work. I—now wait, I can find my own place this time! I—I was present when Dr. Bedeker made the contract. ‘I will pray to your god,’ Aton said, ‘if only she lives.’ And they took Coquina away.”
Benjamin closed his eyes. “There was nothing I could do. But I had seen my nephew—a man of incalculable potential and unbreakable will, who could stand up to the chthonic power itself—I had seen him broken. Bedeker had won. In that awful victory he made me his enemy, and I swore to myself that I would kill him. But I had no way to reach him—and even if I could, Aton and Coquina were hostage. And so my hate for the destroyer of the great Family of Five consumed me, from that moment in §403 until the war of §426.
“Yet it was my enemy Bedeker who kept me informed, for he alone had free access to Chthon. I never betrayed him to the authorities, for then I would have lost all contact with my nephew and his wife. I learned that Aton had two sons, Aesir and Arlo; the first died young and the second lived to about fifteen, when Ragnarok came and all life on and in that planet was exterminated. I, virtually alone, escaped. If you could call it escape.”
Benjamin paused for yet another drink. “This is not as much fun as I had hoped,” he said, setting the first glass down. “I can’t get high enough to forget what I remember! Well, all that was thirty-four years ago. I was seventy-four at the time, Bedeker perhaps a decade younger. It was a phantasmagoric battle, there at the fringe of the nether caverns; there were monsters like none known to man. But I knew somehow that if I killed Bedeker, nothing else would touch me.
“Well, I killed him. But in his expiration he wounded me, and infected me with some chthonic malady, a botulism-type infection or something remotely akin to it, not quite familiar to our medical science. It ravaged my nervous system and God knows what else. You see me now! Oh, I had the very best medical care—but after all, Chthon had won, and all they could do was extend my life artificially. It has not been a pleasure—and now I am glad to let it go.”
“Forgive my insistence,” Morning Haze said as he labored over a reverse lock on one of Misery’s elbows. Such pressure should have broken a normal woman’s arm, but had no apparent effect on her. “But I feel that there is yet more to this matter, and I am of a mind to plumb all secrets. There was an emotional intensification when you spoke of Aton’s sons. I
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