Planet Despotism, page 8
Gov. Algethi responds to Kaitos from his seat.
GOV. ALGETHI
I expected you to take this moment and push your agenda?
GOV. ALGETHI (CONT'D)
You see Kaitos, that's the difference between you and I. I'm ever so focused in the moment and, if you were, you would've noticed that your party has dwindled its power.
The life has just been sucked out of Aldron as he bends slightly at the waist. And his face falls into his hand when he hears Algethi speak of what has just transpired.
GOV. ALGETHI (CONT'D)
The Seginus party controls the Parthenon now and, as your new Chief Governor, I command all forty six of us to take a vote on the shelters tomorrow, out of respect for our losses today. And after that, we'll take a tour of the vault room and change possession of the treasury key.
Algethi looks at Governor Aldron as he stands behind the podium.
GOV. ALGETHI (CONT'D)
And since you were a part of the Treasury Committee, Governor Aldron, we'll need you to let us inside. That is all for the day, we are dismissed.
Aldron stands at the podium drenched in anger as he stares down at the floor as the Governors clear the Forum.
CUT TO:
EXT. EMPEROR HADDACIOUS' PALATIAL ESTATE. --DAY.
The pterodactyl soars high above the palace estate, basting in the bright clear of day. Flapping its long wings, the large speckled bird responds to a loud whistle and nose dives out of the sky into a spiral. The bird flies into the gates of the estate and whizzes over the head of the kneeling Corvus Antares robot trainer.
Rays of sunlight beam down on the carbon skin of a Corvus Antares robot. Standing at the side of the Emperor's throne with a carafe in its hands, the robot focuses on the platinum goblet in the Emperor's hand. Emperor Haddacious swallows four oval-shaped pills, then lifts the goblet from the armrest of his ten foot tall onyx throne, washing down the pills. The Emperor raises the goblet to his lips again and takes a long drink of brown liquor. The robot walks near Haddacious and, when he sets his hand on the armrest, the robot fills his goblet with liquor, then steps to the side of his throne. The Empress glances at him from the corner of her eyes and the pterodactyl catches her view when it flies over the green lawn of their backyard to a wooden post near the Corvus robot trainer.
The red himation drapes off the shoulder of Haddacious when he places the nearly empty carafe on a table next to his throne. He stands from his giant throne made of black onyx stone and applauds the trainer and the bird out in the distance. His Empress, Etlannia Jamase, is seated at his right hand in her throne, and looks down at their children in delight. A gold cap crown stitched in diamonds covers the head of the Empress as she turns to her side, sharing in the laughter of the Emperor's other six wives seated next to her. The trainer leads the large pterodactyl bird on a leash toward the courtyard. All twelve children are gathered at the feet of their mothers on a large ottoman sofa as the trainer walks the leashed bird across the lawn toward them. Etlannia Jamase turns to the Emperor with a question.
ETLANNIA JAMASE
When will we leave my Emperor?
EMPEROR HADDACIOUS
When I take back all the dinavion bars that belong to me.
ETLANNIA JAMASE
We have rooms filled with those. Do we not have enough?
EMPEROR HADDACIOUS
Don't ever question my decisions.
She looks down and away as he glares at her.
ETLANNIA JAMASE
Please forgive me, I spoke out of turn.
The children break out in raucous laughter as the Corvus robot mocks the giant feathered bird as it steps.
A doctor and his female nurse are sitting on a small bench next the exterior walls of the estate, across from the children. The nurse is beckoned to the side of Udella, the Emperor's younger wife. Udella hands the infant with her cleft palate mouth to the nurse. The nurse takes the infant into the house as the robot walks toward the children, holding a leash attached to the leather hood covering the bird's eyes. Toddlers to teenagers, the children circle the trainer and the bird; rubbing the fur around its neck, chest and the long colorful wings nestled to its body.
The Emperor gets up and looks across the north east corner of his lawn and waves at Corydon. Corydon tilts two fingers off the top of his head at the Emperor while standing next to Epsilon 673. Corydon and Epsilon take a couple of steps toward a series of locked iron bar cages submerged in the grass. The Crocuta roars as they unlock the cage next to it. Bending down over the cage, Epsilon 673 slides the lock down the side of the cage door and reaches his arm insode, pulling up the head of a badly beaten gold-skinned elderly male. Epsilon pulls him up by his head and arm as he pleas for mercy.
Etlannie Jamase jumps up from her throne, spurring all the children into the palace and the other wives assist her in steering them from the courtyard.
ETLANNIA JAMASE (CONT'D)
Let's go children!
EMPEROR HADDACIOUS
Augustus stays.
Haddacious says to her as she walks through the sliding glass door of their palace. She grabs their teenaged son, Augustus, away from his brothers and sisters and says to him.
ETLANNIA JAMASE
Stay with your father.
He protests to her quietly.
AUGUSTUS
I don't want to, I don't want to stay with him.
ETLANNIA JAMASE
You have to!
The Empress ushers their oldest son to him with trepidation as she watches Corydon and Epsilon. She leaves the boy with his father and walks into the home.
EMPEROR HADDACIOUS
I want you to meet one of your former patients.
As he turns from the doctor, the doctor rears back into the wrought iron bench to see whom it may be. Haddacious takes another drink from his carafe, then speaks to Augustus as he takes the empty throne seat at his right hand.
EMPEROR HADDACIOUS (CONT'D)
I know there are parts of me that terrify you. There are things about me you do not understand, but soon you will know me in full.
I wanted to talk to you. This world, and the new one, will be yours one day. And you will have to make decisions in order to hold on to your power both here and there.
AUGUSTUS
What does the new world look like father?
Corydon shoves his machine gun into the back of the handcuffed and blindfolded gold-skinned male. He stumbles over his bare feet and wanders across the lawn as Corydon steers him with the barrel of a machine gun. Epsilon 673 drags an elderly gold-skinned male by his broken leg. He grunts, pulling up patches of grass and soil as the robot drags him across the lawn toward the courtyard of the Emperor. His tibia bone stabs through his skin repeatedly as he's being dragged through the rugged surface of the lawn.
EMPEROR HADDACIOUS
Beautiful, a planet similar to our own. And your empire will span across the cosmos. You, Nero Augustus, will be ruler over both galaxies. History will write that you were greater than I, but there are things you need to learn that only I can teach you, so listen to me.
EMPEROR HADDACIOUS (CONT'D)
I was a little older than you when I led my first rebellion. I was only focused on building and leading my army and fighting the next war until I unified this entire planet in the palm of my hand. And while I was on the battlefield, those COWARDS in the Parthenon offered safe havens for the treasuries of the Kings I was to conquer. Now I must get back what belongs to us, the other half of our treasure. I was so focused on the battle that I forgot about the treasure. Had I thought of that first, there would be no need for battle, and that was my mistake. When you become Emperor, your first lesson is this; ROB THE KING BEFORE DECLARING WAR. MAKE THE WAR, JUST AN AFTERMATH. Do you understand?
AUGUSTUS
Yes, Father.
Epsilon 673 brings the malnourished elderly gold-skinned male to the feet of Haddacious. Corydon violently shoves the barrel of his gun into the belly of the blindfolded male. He yelps over in pain as Corydon swings the stock of his gun across his forehead and the blindfolded male buckles down onto the concrete courtyard.
DR. TALOS
King Martau!
Dr. Talos rises in astonishment as the elderly male looks at him while laying face-down on the concrete. The elderly male rolls over on his right shoulder at the sound of his name and he looks up at Dr. Talos. Epsilon 673 plants its carbon fiber boot into King Martau's back, pressing his chest into the courtyard floor as he lays before the Emperor. Haddacious looks down at the tenochan-burned face of King Martau and says to him.
EMPEROR HADDACIOUS
Look at me.
Cowering in fear, the elderly King lifts his head a few inches from the floor as the Emperor slides to the edge of his throne.
EMPEROR HADDACIOUS (CONT'D)
I promise you this; you and your son will receive justice today.
Haddacious turns the left side of his robotic face to King Martau while beckoning for Corvus to come near his side. Corvus places a drill bit on the tip of two of its robotic fingers, then it removes the hidden bolts attached within the front, top and back of the Emperor's head. Corvus gently pulls out the robotic left brain and robotic face of the Emperor as a series of wires string from a metal plate covering the right side of the Emperor's brain. King Martau looks at the Emperor's gouged-out eye and deformed orbital bone underneath it. Augustus, regretting what he's seen, covers his eyes and abruptly turns from the sight of his father. A puzzled Martau looks at the Emperor's deformed face and partially severed jaw as Haddacious shows him the side of his face. The seared imprint of computer lines are visibly engraved across his skin-grafted jaw and neck. King Martau surprisingly recognizes the wounds and the face. And out of shock he speaks out....
KING MARTAU
IT'S YOU!
YOU LIVED! YOU LIVED!
King Martau shouts out as Haddacious waves at Corydon and Epsilon 673 to take them away. Corydon and Epsilon 673 rough them up from the courtyard, taking them around the rear of the estate. Corvus presses the robotic face into the steel plate and bolts it in. Haddacious bends over in pain, holding the left side of his head. Corvus opens the palm of its hand and the Emperor takes all ten of the oval-shaped pills and flushes them down with liquor.
A sharp pain thunders in the Emperor's head as he growls in pain. Augustus sits across from him, frozen as he looks at his father holding his head in pain. Dr. Talos takes out a syringe and one of many vials from his pocket. Sticking the syringe into the vile, the Emperor rolls out his right arm. The doctor floods the Emperor's vein with a clear liquid and his wry face calms. The Emperor takes a drink of liquor, then rises from his throne.
CUT TO:
INT. EMPEROR HADDACIOUS ESTATE/ PYRAMID SANCTUARY. --DAY.
PYRAMID SANCTUARY.
Corydon opens a door into the palatial estate, shoves the King's blindfolded son through, and leads him by his handcuffed arms down a long hall with white walls. The King's son bristles and shakes his head while breathing in a foul stench as Corydon leads him past several ten foot cages built into the hall. Corydon types a code on a keypad, then pushes the King's son into a room with the tip of his machine gun. He withdraws the gun from his back and hurriedly rushes back through to the door he entered as the King's blindfolded son tepidly steps his soiled, dirty bare feet through the grass.
The Emperor looks through glass as the King's blindfolded son fearfully tilts his head up. A breeze of wind fans down from the top of his dirty gown and the sharp, black talons of a screeching six foot tall pterodactyl topples him to the grass as the large bird lands on his chest and plucks off his bottom lip, taking a part of his tongue and his cheek as he screams in pain.
King Martau watches helplessly as his son screams out. Epsilon 673 and 668 hold the King up on his broken leg as they stand next to a smirking Haddacious.
A flock of speckled birds swoon down, plunging on his legs. The pterodactyl initiates a pecking order of aggressive plucking as it attempts to fend off the flock. Two of the speckled birds tear the flesh from his calf and thigh, then fly away as the pterodactyl fights off the others clawing his face and chest away for meat. The smell of blood sweetens the air and a ravenous frenzy grows as more birds plunge down, surrounding him as he lay screaming. He dies quickly as the birds rip into his body and tear him in various parts.
Haddacious turns to the Robots holding up the wincing, overwhelmed King and says...
EMPEROR HADDACIOUS
Take him in there.
King Martau stand mired in a depression when the Epsilon robots lift him up under his arms. As he passes by Emperor Haddacious, the King raises his head and speaks as they carry him off....
KING MARTAU
May I share my last words with you?
EMPEROR HADDACIOUS
Let him go.
The robots move to Haddacious' side to protect him and the Emperor walks in closer to the King. Masking his weakness with strength, King Martau looks the Emperor in his eyes and says....
KING MARTAU
It doesn't matter what you do to me, I rejected you. And it doesn't matter how powerful you've become. You'll always be A BASTARD!
Haddacious rubs the King's mist of spittle and blood across his cheek and the King barks even louder.
KING MARTAU (CONT'D)
SHE GOT WHAT SHE DESERVED! AND WHEN I SEE HER IN THE AFTERLIFE, I'LL KILL HER AGAIN! I PROMI--
Haddacious slams his head into King Martau's forehead, cracking his skull. Dazed and light-headed, the stunned King tries to raise his hand in an attempt to touch his forehead. But his head rolls back and Haddacious grabs his face with both hands and digs his fingers into his eyes, gouging out his eyes as he faints into death.
The king's body falls to the floor and in a fit of rage, Haddacious kicks and stomps down on the King's head until pieces of his brain falls out of his cracked skull. He tires himself as he stands over the body and, after seconds of rest, he stomps down, kicking him again and again. Epsilon 673 extends its arm out in sympathy to touch the Emperor's back when 668 quickly grabs its wrist. 673 looks at 668 as it slowly shakes its head in disagreement. And Epsilon 673 lowers its arm and Haddacious walks over the body while commanding them.
EMPEROR HADDACIOUS
Take what's left of him in there!
Epsilon 668 presses a button on the wall mount, then grabs the feet of the King as Epsilon 673 lifts the King up by his shoulders. Haddacious wickedly smiles to himself while looking up at the glass ceiling. He sweeps his hand over the flesh side of his bald head. Two Corvus Antares robots enter the room and walk past Augustus as he sits in a chair, covering his face in between his knees. The Corvus cater to the Emperor with a steaming damp towel that he uses to wipe the blood stains from the carbon fiber side of his face. The robots proceed to clean the blood from the floor as Haddacious looks over at his son.
EMPEROR HADDACIOUS (CONT'D)
You can stop hiding now.
AUGUSTUS
He was Claymoulus? I've never seen one before. Who was he?
EMPEROR HADDACIOUS
Just an animal that raped my mother.
CUT TO:
EXT. SECUNDUS REGION. FOREST/OPEN FIELD. --DAY.
Yalena blows the seed head of the dandelion into the wind, then runs through the forest toward her mother. Merizadad waits for her and they walk hand in hand through a worn path in the middle of the green, lush shrubbery.
Ausnah has one arm and uses it to line the bottom of a grave with broken pieces of wood. Rajairus levels off the dirt above two freshly dug graves with his shovel, then stretches his back and wipes the sweat from his face with his tunic. Rajairus steps across Ausnah in the six foot deep grave, kneels down at the white-clothed mummified body of his brother, and places a flower in the bands of cloth. Ausnah raises his arm and Rajairus bends down to help him out of the grave.
Merizadad and Yalena walk through the open field, passing them in the distance as they lay the body at the edge of the grave and lower the body into it.
Rajairus grabs the shovel, looks down at the mummified body in a melancholy pause, then shovels the dirt over the grave.
CUT TO:
EXT. GENNAEUS CITY. TRAIN STATION PLATFORM. --NIGHT.
Shagree runs off the train, lunges down the stairs, and pierces through the passengers with a satchel on his back. Tall obelisks shine down, lighting every street corner as he rushes past the street vendors. A chirp tweets from his pants as he runs in between the buildings. Two chirps beep closer in range as he rushes past the Infirmary building. Making a right turn down another street to a buzzing sound, he stops in his tracks. Taking the small black box from his pants, he looks around at the buildings. Putting it back in his pocket, he swoops back where he came from and runs past the Infirmary. Jogging past a few vendors and shopping markets, the chirps grow louder in volume and closer in frequency. Jostling around the sporadic crowds, he speeds into a dark alley as the chirps grow louder. Nearing the end of the dark alley, he approaches a crossing street. A building made of bricks sits across the street facing the alley as he turns off the chirping device. Stopping at the edge of the alley, he hides in the shadows of two abandoned buildings, watching the parked helio-craft on the roof of the building.
CUT TO:
EXT. GENNAEUS. HOUSE OF ZENAR HOMELESS SHELTER. ROOM #2E. --NIGHT.
Covered under the hood of a cloak, Aldron unlocks the door with a key, then enters room #2E with a duffel bag in tote. Jarthem turns from gazing out of the window at the city when he enters.
ALDRON
Did you steal those clothes, or did the shelter give them to you?
JARTHEM
They gave us these clothes.
Palos and Sanquz sit in chairs across from the two twin beds. Ramalah sits on the bed as Aldron lays the duffel bag and its contents across one of the beds. Gaius walks out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist as the steam follows him into the room. Aldron places two computerized armbands on the bed.
