Unpleasant Thoughts

Content Warning: Violence and Language

The sounds of conversation surrounded Olympus Hall. A surge of enthusiastic energy permeated as more guests continued to enter. These people represented all the big shots throughout the entire Sol System. Each of them a guest to Emperor Olympus, of Mars. The guests wore their best attire to show off the styles of their respective homeworlds.

Olympus Hall is the Emperor’s favorite place to host individuals of this caliber. The room’s walls, ceiling, and floors hid grade IV armor within, but the guests would have never known. Security is paramount when hosting the most important people in the Sol System in a floating piece of metal. The floor held an elegant, deep red carpet with an intricate art déco design. The walls and ceiling ran a holographic projection system to show what was on the other side. New guests walked in with shock on their faces—seeing the illusion that we were all enjoying a night in space with Mars beneath our feet. The angle of the station was such that the Emperor could exhibit his namesake, Olympus Mons—the largest known volcano in the Sol System. Guests who have been here before rolled their eyes at the thought of the Emperor’s need to show off where possible—a little hypocritical, if you ask me. 

Hey, Reg, did you take your prefrontal booster?, thought someone behind me.

No, I thought back. They aren’t worth it. Guests aren’t allowed to have thought-blockers while they are here, anyway. Only an idiot would try using one. We will know if they did and kick them out for breaking system laws. Even if they were the ones who made them. Besides, all I end up with is a headache from hell once I crash.

Oh, stop whining, Reg. You know the Boss is taking extra precautions, given the significant nature of tonight.

Tonight, in Olympus Hall, we celebrate an event many, including myself, thought would never happen; the Unification of the Sol System. Tonight, the leaders of The Martian Empire, Earth Dominion, United Jupiter Republic, and Neptune Kingdom celebrate the signing of the Unification Accords. The exact details of this agreement go well above my paygrade. I’m just here to serve the Empire and keep others from messing with it.

“I’m aware Brix,” I said aloud, “But I’m not taking them. Hell, Wilkens hates them too. Captain Ero can chew me out later. Echo Guards don’t need them and you know it. You and the Cap will lose all the effort you put into training if you’re going to rely on a drug to help. Now let’s do our jobs and scope things out…wait, didn’t she want you helping with the check-in? Making sure the guests weren’t thinking anything of concern near their shuttles?”

Brix moved around from behind me. He was about my height, although he would try to say otherwise. His reflective power-armor covered him from head-to-toe, but I could tell he was smiling his smart-ass smile behind that mirrored helmet.

“Nah, Boss thought you could use my company,” said Brix, as he nudged me with his elbow. “She’s got Wilkman taking care of welcome readings. He’s good at catching the anxious folks. I heard he already sent two nervous Neppies back to their ship.”

“Great.”

***

So far, the night was quiet. Brix and I walked around each side of the hall. Our main assignment was to listen to the thoughts of each guest and make sure everybody was content, and not thinking of doing anything stupid, especially when the alcohol flowed on occasions such as this.

Most people could telepathically communicate these days. This is all thanks to our ancestors screwing around with our genetics. They thought it would help us unite as a species, but it caused more harm than good. People of that time didn’t know how to shut off their internal monologue and Earth was a noisy place. I would have hated it.

People still struggle to keep thier thoughts quiet. Mainly during times of stress, excitement, or when the alcohol intake was high. An event like was a great way to ensure all three factors came into play. The hall was noisy, and I hated it, but I pushed past the annoyance to serve the Emperor.

I walked by a man and a woman discussing something about increased sales from the minerals found in The Belt. The man’s suit was crisp and dark blue. Someone from Earth, probably Luna, actually. The woman was muscular and wearing a revealing dress with several colors. Definitely a Jovian. They love to show off—even more than the Emperor. They always talk about how they have the biggest planet and the biggest ships. Sure, and like their planet, they are full of gas and hot air.

“I can’t believe Neptune is paying that much of a premium!”, said the woman in shock. Or was it frustration? I couldn’t tell. Jovian facial features were hard to read, but their thoughts were the opposite.

“You’d be surprised,” said the man as he took a drink from the glass he was holding, “It costs a ton of credits to get anything over there. Neptunians will pay anything to get luxury resources over to them.”

“Yes, but simple metals and ice should not be defined as a ‘luxury resource’. Earth is always looking for a way to squeeze credits from those doing the real work,” said the Jovian woman. Man, I wish I could just kick him right between the legs, she thought.

His face showed he did not hear her thoughts. He must’ve been a blanker. Sometimes I wish I couldn’t hear people’s thoughts. He just replied with his stupid smile, but I didn’t listen further, or I would have kicked him between the legs.

“Greedy Earthers,” I mumbled to myself.

***

While making my rounds, Captain Ero chimed in. Her voice blaring through my helmet. “Echo Guards 2 and 4, report.”

“Nothing much on my end,” said Blix with that annoying laid back tone of his. “I’ve heard a few interesting things, but nothing we already don’t know. Terraforming Venus, the Emperor signing off on another Earthen belt mine, etcetera. I’ve recorded the thoughts to analyze later, in case I missed something. I swear, if I have to hear another Jovian ask some to compare their ship sizes, I’m gonna….”

“Enough Blix,” said the Captain, annoyance building in her voice. “It’s already a pain in the ass to deal with these non-Martian pricks. I don’t need you to adding to it.”

“But Boss, aren’t you a Nepp…”, Blix said.

“Shut it. I’m half. The Martian side is the only one I give two shits about,” Captain Ero interrupted. “Reg, report.”

“Nothing at the mome…”

Why…taking…deploy…nano…

Strange. It sounded like I was listening to jammed comms, but this was someone’s thoughts and they were close.

“Ma’am. Give me a moment. I may have something.”

“Understood. Report in on what you find. Wilkens and I are finishing up below. Call the Imperial Guard if you think you found anything suspicious. The Emperor should have 20 in the main hall and another 30 throughout the station.”

“Will do, ma’am,” I said as I scanned the room with more intensity. The nice thing about Echo Guard armor is that nobody could see your face. To them, I was a strange humanoid in reflective chrome.

I continued my normal walking pattern to find how close they were. His voice seemed impatient, yet focused. Not good on a night when everyone was relaxed or excited. This person was planning something, and I needed to find out what that was.

***

Moments later, the hall broke in applause. I looked up for a moment to see the four leaders of the Sol System gather on a dais at one end of the hall; Emperor Olympus of Mars, Prime Minister Marolles of Earth, President Ishk of the Jupiter Republic, and King Domino of Neptune. They waved and bowed as if they just finished putting on a show. All but Emperor Olympus sat down and their assigned seats. The Emperor walked up to a nearby podium and began his speech. His voice booming as he highlighted the importance of this day — more importantly, where it took place.

They’ve…ceremo…activ…now…

That was behind me. I continued my path and turned around. Trying to lock in on who it was. There were seven individuals around the source of the voice. They all seemed to be enamored by the Emperor’s speech. All but one.

He wore a light blue suit. His long white hair braided and blue tattoos along his clean-shaven jaw. Someone from Neptune. But this someone looked quite familiar to me. I did a quick facial scan from my helm and discovered that he was Prince Domino.

Something about him seemed off. As I walked closer to his party, I stared into his eyes, putting every ounce of focus I had on them. Suddenly, the surrounding room got quiet and only his voice remained.

Wait…I think it’s looking at me. Shit. What? No…I said they’ve started the damn ceremony, so you need to activate the nanobots now!

Not good. He was trying to use some kind of technique so he could telepathically communicate with someone at long range. He was also using a thought-blocker, but I don’t think it was a thought-blocker. Wilkens would have told them to turn around, royalty or not. Well, too bad he’s going up against an Echo Guard. Our training helps us to bypass their intention to keep us out of their heads. The human body is a strange thing. Having someone look deep into your eyes, and I mean deep, causes weaker people to lose their own focus and they begin mentally blabbing.

His eyes grew wide. Oh shit. I think the Echo thing can hear me…

I approached the Prince, engaging my forearm stun gun. Those eyes seem too desperate for me to go in without a defensive measure ready.

…I thought you said…ok…I’m coming. He excused himself from his party and turned away.

“Cap. I think we’ve got trouble. Prince Domino just tried to mental-block me and he said something about nanobots. You and Wilkens need to get to the scanning array. I don’t think regular scans are going to work here.”

All I could hear was static in reply.

“Wilkens…do you read? Where’s Cap?”

More static.

“Blix, we’ve got a problem here.”

Nothing.

I immediately scanned the room for Blix. At the opposite end of the hall, I could see him standing at rest.

“Blix! Report.”

I quickly moved over to him, but not so quickly that it would cause concern to our guests. Once I got to Blix, I stood in front of him.

Blix, what the hell are you doing? I mentally asked.

No response. Blix was far too much of a yapper to be this quiet. I move closer to his reflective helm, seeing myself and causing an infinite mirror effect with my helm. I entered a code into Blix’s suit to deactivate a small portion of his helm. I took a sharp breath when I saw his face. It was blue and foam was coming out of his mouth. He was dead.

***

I reactivated his helm and opened encrypted comms to the Emperor’s Guard.

“Red Guard Alpha 1. We’ve got a situation. We need to evacuate the Emperor.”

“Acknowledge Echo Guard 2. That’s a big ask, so you better know what the hell you’re doing,” grunted the Red Guard Captain.

“When have I ever I led you wrong?”

“Fair enough.”

“Also, I need to find Prince Domino. He’s involved in this somehow.” I made my way to where I last saw him walk off.

“Well shit. Checking now. Got him. He’s…that weird…he’s going down to level E3. What the hell does a Neppy Prince need to do in a Martian Engineering bay?”

“Nothing good,” I said as I moved into a sprint. Behind me I could hear the Emperor apologize that there seemed to be a mechanical issue with Olympus Hall and that everyone should return to their ships.

I made my way through the station while readying my access code to open the maintenance stairs. The door slide open right as I approached. I entered the stairway and looked over the railing to see how far the drop was. My HUD notified me that level E3 was 36 levels below.

“Great,” I said as I jumped over the railing.

***

One doesn’t have too much time to think when falling, but this wasn’t my first jump when chasing down a dumbass who thought they could escape through a flight of stairs.

I saw the numbers of each level flash before me. I engaged my suit booster as soon as I saw E1. By the time I made it over to E3, I was slow enough to grab the rail and leap over it and go through the doors.

“Cap, were you able to pinpoint where the Prince is located?” I said between breaths as I ran.

“Yeah…and you’re not going to like what I’m about to say.”

“Fire away.”

“He’s nearing the power bay…with Captain Ero. She’s not wearing her armor,” said the Red Guard Captain. Confusion in his voice.

“What the hell is going on?” I mumbled.

“Beats me, but I trust you’ll find out and resolve this. Also, the Emperor has evacuated. The other three leaders, too. We also got Echo Guard 4 out. Sorry to say, but the Docs couldn’t do anything for him. Even revival boosters didn’t help. Some kind of poison. Did he eat anything?”

“No, but he took something. What about Wilkens?” I said as I neared the power bay.

“No sign of him,” said Cap, his voice on edge.

“Understood. Keep getting everyone out. If the Prince and Cap are in the power bay, then we are in big trouble.”

“Understood. Red Guard out.”

I cut off comms so I could focus on the task at hand as I came up to the power bay door. It was still open.

As a slowly walked through, I checked my stun gun’s power, a habit whenever I walk into a room with hostiles. There was still plenty of juice left, even after using the boosters. Ahead, I saw the Prince and Captain Ero working on a console.

Cap…what the hell are you doing? I thought.

“Shit,” I could hear her say out loud. “I thought you were going to stay with Brix, Reg. You had my orders.”

“Who the hell are you talking to?” snapped the Prince.

“One of my guards.”

“What?! I thought you said you took care of them?”

“I did take care of them, or so I thought.”

I stepped out and pulled my stun gun up to both of them. “Back away from the console.”

The Cap and Prince lifted their hands up and turned to me.

“Why the hell are you doing this?” I asked.

“Do give everyone what they deserve!” said the Prince, his hair looking more disheveled than earlier. Including you, bitch, he thought.

Captain Ero’s body collapsed before I could return fire, but I certainly did. The stun pulses slammed into the Prince and he screamed out in pain, the gun built into his forearm smoking.

I ran over to the Prince and grabbed his hands and using my suit to fry any other weapon systems that he could hide underneath his own flesh.

“Why the hell did you do that?!” I yelled, grabbing his body and throwing him up to the console.

I told you. I’m just giving you all what you deserved, including that half-blood, thought the Prince as he looked at Cap. All of you within the Sol Systems think you can treat us like garbage. Making our kingdom grow poor with your outrageous demands. All of you patting yourselves on the back while we suffer.

And how do you expect this whole plan of yours to help you? I thought as I pushed him harder against the console. For good measure. I could even hear the glass screens cracking against the pressure.

Easy. War. Humans are good at it. Someone destroys the Emperor’s prized station while all of Sol’s leaders are aboard. Leaderless factions will react. Nobody is going to want to deal with us as we are so far out. You’ll tear each other apart and my kingdom will claim what’s left with me as king.

You’re willing to kill your own father to accomplish this?

Oh yes. But it looks like they escaped. At least my nanobots took over the station’s thrusters. Now you can all fight over who threw the Emperor’s toy into your drab red planet, thought the Prince as he smiled.

I’ll let them know, I thought.

They won’t believe you.

Of course they will. I’ve recorded the whole conversation, I thought as I tapped my helmet.

Impossible. Nobody can record thoughts!

“Oh, yes, I can. A little Echo Guard specialty,” I said as I looked at the console. They had set the boosters to slam the station into Olympus Mons. “Well, enjoy your ride.”

What? thought the Prince as I tied him to a nearby railing and left him.

***

It wasn’t long until I found where the Prince had a small vessel ready for escape. I hopped into the cockpit and started up the ship. Alarms were blaring at me. The ship was kind enough to tell me we were about to die if we didn’t leave soon. Fortunately, it didn’t take long to undock and get away from the station. The evacuees’ ships were nearby, so I made my way to the Emperor’s ship. Behind me Olympus Hall’s boosters fully engaged and sent the station straight into Olympus Mons. The Emperor was going to be pissed.

Great, I thought to myself.