Chapter 48: A Royal Greeting
Paulie and Jakiikii walked into the passage under the throne surrounded by the alien royal guards. The light and glamour of the great hall were soon replaced with the enclosing and claustrophobic walls of the narrow tunnel. It cut through dozens of meters of the solid stone, eventually leading to a small alcove in which was a simple console on a wall next to a heavy reinforced looking metal door. It looked a lot like the one that had protected the children’s room, but even more durable despite its smaller size.
Before Paulie knew what was happening the room was jammed full. Royal guards clustered around them defensively, though whether it was for their protection or somebody else's he wasn’t sure. Considering the nature of things that had been happening on the world in the last few hours, it was likely a little of both.
The high-ranking guard stepped through, pausing for a second to look at Paulie and Jakiikii. They must have been a sight, or at least Paulie likely was. He was wounded in multiple places, still bleeding from his thigh slowly and his hand and ribs were hurting like hell. Small drops of red stained the fur of the mendagoonian child he was holding, but the grubling didn’t seem to care. They clung to him like a rock in the midst of a storm, tiny fingers holding fistfuls of his greatcoat as they buried their horned head into his shoulder.
Ishion stepped up between them and gestured to the door, glancing towards Paulie. “Well. We made it this far.” He smiled slightly, yes. They had, Paulie felt a sort of bone-deep ache creeping through him as the adrenaline started to war off. He struggled to stay standing through sheer force of will alone.
The door was unlocked, the sound of great internal mechanisms grinding like the movement of continents and the floor underfoot shuddered slightly. The weight of the door must have been immense but it swung open smoothly on its hinges like it was weightless. Through the doorway was a staircase. The steps were wide and slightly crescent shaped, obviously not made for human feet but not so drastically different as to be unusable.
Descending into the earth, Paulie could not help but feel as though they were descending into the bowels of a great beast. The red stone of the palace giving way to hardened concrete, a dark grey in color and brutalist in design. Another minute of walking and they entered yet another long hallway somewhere under the palace itself. This time the end was in sight though, all along the walls were sunken pits and firing positions so that any final defenders of the hidden bunker might sell their lives dearly for every inch.
Indeed many of them were filled with partially wounded mendagoonian soldiers. He saw another of the strange black-skinned arm walking shark aliens standing near to the next entrance. Or was it the same one as before? He glanced around, no.. the other was still in their formation. Walking at the back with the silver horn still clutched tightly in their lower torso arms.
Leaning towards Jakiikii he hissed, “What are those?” Gesturing towards the unknown alien as they got closer. She just shrugged and slightly shook her angular head. He supposed she might have never encountered them either, if they never left the palace it would make sense.
Regardless, his curiosity had already been peaked before it was drawn once again by another shape. This one was much larger than the others and had a strangely familiar shape. Immediately all the royal guards that had accompanied them fell forwards into some sort of half bow, half kneeling position. All of them that was, except Ishion.
Paulie was watching Jakiikii, she didn’t seem to know how to react either and so Paulie remained standing. He felt a stir in his mind, as if the parasite were shrinking away. He ignored it, if the damn worm wanted to stay quiet then he was happy to capitalise on the moment.
Ishion watched as the figure approached as if more amused than anything else. It was obviously a mendagoonian, obvious because they simply looked like a scaled up version of the children he had carried here. Albeit nearly as tall as Paulie himself. This must be the monarch, Holy Nastrica herself. She was adorned with a sort of poncho-like garment, the royal purple of it trimmed with iridescent white and gold fabric that looked finer than silk. Twin sashes of the same material hung from her impressively furred barrel chest and atop her caterpillar-like head rose a massive forked horn of chiton. Her long feather-like antennae swept out from the sides of her head like fluffy wings, these perked up as she approached.
Paulie’s attention was so enthralled by the sight of her that he almost missed the slight click-hiss of Ishion unlatching his power armour’s helmet. The alien removed it like some manner of high-tech clamshell, each side of it breaking away from an invisible seam he had not seen before. The man finally revealing his features for the first time since Paulie and Jakiikii had met him.
Ishion’s features were similar to that of the other mendagoonian guards he had seen. Insectoid eyes a bright sky-blue and set wide on his blunt hammer-shaped head. That spur of chiton rising from his forehead was colored with small blotches of the same pale blue. The alien’s eyes seemed to look right at Paulie and he jerked slightly before he realised that no matter where the alien looked there seemed to be dark spots facing him directly. Was it some sort of optical illusion?
He was spared further speculation about the nature of the phenomenon when the large mendagoon female stopped and waved a stubby arm towards them. Her antennae perked up even more as the small grublings in their arms squirmed and chittered happily at the sight of their mother. She said something that Paulie couldn't understand, Jakiikii nodding and taking a single step forward only to be stopped by a waved arm from Ishion.
“I trust you, but please realise where you are. You can set them down, they are perfectly able to walk to their mother now.” The mechanical translator droned emotionlessly.
She nodded and gently released the crying alien children, the two toddling over to the larger alien female before she scooped them up and deposited them upon the rear of her body. The part that was horizontal to the ground and covered in the cloak-like garment almost as if they were riding a giant fluffy horse that also happened to be the ruler of this whole star system. Paulie tried to do the same with the alien in his own arms, but even as he crouched and tried to extricate himself from the grubling’s clutches they simply held onto him tighter and cried out in that alien tongue.
Paulie froze, unsure what the problem was and what to do to fix it. He looked at Jakiikii for help and she knelt by his side and spoke to the boy.
“You have to let him go, child. You are safe, your mother calls for you even now.” The small insectoid shook a small chubby fist and then yelled something else. “You have to, I am sure you can visit him again later.” She glanced at Ishion for backup without moving her head, two of her flexible flower petal shaped eyestalks swiveling to peer his way.
Ishion stepped over to them now, reaching out for the boy and gripping the squirming alien child gently under their lower pair of arms. “Relinquish your hold boy, stubborn as your mother.” He grumbled, the mandibles of his face clicking in consternation at the misbehaving child.
Paulie stood as they were successfully detached from him to be carried to Nastrica herself. Ishion handed the fussing grubling to her, she shifted him into two of her short arms as she seemed to appraise Paulie and Jakiikii together.
She spoke for a moment before Ishion gestured to Paulie and tapped at his own wrist. It was then that he noticed the device the monarch wore, it looked a lot like his own wrist commie, but a lot more complex. Holy Nastrica tapped at it for a moment before speaking again, this time her chittering clicks were translated into recognisable speech by the translation software that Ishion must have told her to use.
“I admit that I owe you and your companion a great debt of gratitude. For it seems you have returned my children to me, and from the looks of it.. at great personal cost to yourselves.” She quieted the still yelling child in her grip. Clacking her mandibles sternly and then more soothingly as they listened and calmed a little.
Paulie looked around as she and Ishion stepped a few paces closer. Close enough that he could make out each individual facet of her pitch black eyes as they glinted in the lights. She gave them another, seemingly appraising look.
“It seems that Olliench has become quite attached too. He seems to think that you are.. What did he say, dear brother?” She asked, turning to look at Ishion.
‘Her brother, of course.’ Paulie thought to himself as Ishion stepped his way and back to his side.
“He said that the big one kept him safe, and that he didn’t want him to leave. He thinks that you are extraordinary, like a hero straight out of the animations.”
Paulie hunched inwards a little at the child’s praise, a little embarrassed. He wasn’t a hero by any stretch of the imagination. He was just a guy, a guy who made a lot of mistakes and sometimes got things right through sheer luck. But even as he thought it he knew he was being disingenuous with himself. So he straightened and squared his shoulders, winching a little at the pain of his injuries as he replied in a most confident manner.
“I just did what I thought was right. And it all seemed to work out in the end.” He thought of those they had lost and added, “Mostly.” He heard his own words translated into galactic common in return, Holy Nastrica seeming to perk up at his words.
“So humble too. You deserve the highest praises I can bestow..” She paused, calling into the bunker behind her as several of the kneeling royal guards stood and rushed off at her command. Turning her head horned head back toward them she made a hand gesture with a free arm that Paulie supposed must have some deeper meaning.
She continued, “But you are injured and likely exhausted from your ordeal. Please, allow my personal physicians to attend to you both. It is the least I can do for the saviours of my progeny.” She tickled the young alien in her arms, the boy making a noise that could have been insectoid laughter or perhaps a coughing fit.
Paulie glanced at Ishion and the alien made a gesture before Paulie nodded his head. “Thanks.. I am kinda hurting a little.” Overstatement of the century, he chuckled darkly to himself.
Jakiikii chirped and replied, “A little. If I had gotten hit full force by a zyan like that they would have been scraping me off the floor like zantoo droppings.” Ishion chuckled at the remark and then stepped closer to the monarch.
“I will accompany the children, Nastrica. If you would like.”
The monarch’s feather-like antennae rose and then seemed to flutter slightly in some display of emotion. Her translator converted her clicking speech. “No, I will stay with them.”
Paulie saw a group of aliens rush from somewhere deeper in the complex, two of them carrying what looked remarkably like a medical stretcher. He almost chuckled as he saw the insectoids in white scrubs, the scene so familiar as to be almost comical.
His chuckling seemed to confuse the large alien in front of him, Nastrica shifting and then asking, “Are you alright, urrenian?”
He shook his head as the medics arrived next to him, the much slighter aliens seeming to size him up as if trying to determine if they would be able to lift him should he fall. He replied casually, “I am fine, I just need rest. I am happy the children are safe now.”
Jakiikii stepped close to his side as he was escorted further into the bunker. As he was walking away he heard Ishion speaking to another of the royal guards. His translator was still on, but whether it was accidental or on purpose he could not say. “The PDF forces are clearing the city now? How much longer till they are able to reinforce the palace?”
It seemed things were under control now, or at least trending in that direction. Jakiikii was leaning on him now as they were led past rooms and doors, the termaxxi woman was clearly exhausted by the day's events. He remembered that she had not eaten in many hours and was likely getting very low on energy. He remembered her telling him that she generally had to eat many small meals per day. Tapping one of the doctor aliens he started to ask for some juice for her when he felt his injured leg finally give out from underneath him.
Jakiikii tried to catch him as he fell, but she didn’t have the strength and they both collapsed together on the ground amid the surprised and anxious sounds of the doctors around them. Paulie’s eyes closed slowly as the last vestiges of adrenaline were burned from his system. A burning tiredness flooded him and he reached for Jakiikii as sleep overtook him like falling down into spiraling darkness.