Catch a Falling Star

Adagio   15 – The Planet Djinnistan

  Most star systems in both the Imperium and what would become the New Star League are generally referred to by their primary world, the planet in the system with the most population, highest technology, and/or the dominant culture.  Between the worlds of Djinnistan, Houris, and the three moons of the inner gas giant that had habitable atmospheres and ecosystems, namely Pan, Eblis, and Surtur, Djinnistan took first place not by population or culture, but because it was one of the three heart-worlds of Faulkner Genetics.

Now, I have never contended that I am any sort of expert on genetics and the science of DNA manipulation, but I do understand the dominant role that heart-worlds had in the creation of the kind of beings known as Freaks.

Freaks were genetically engineered slave races bred mostly from human DNA, though also including recombinant lifeforms made from other viably sentient creatures.  They ranged from the Longlegs Speedsters of the planet Martin Faulkner’s Dream, to the Man-bull living bulldozers of Sword-World Prime, to the fire-belching Afrits of Djinnistan.   

Djinnistan was the science playground of Faulkner Genetics’ number-two man, Dr. Havir Bludlust.  He was a man capable of grafting and gene-splicing his own body to achieve a sort of immortality, and doing any necessary horrible thing to other beings to get the specific genetic effects he wanted in a special slave.  It is rumored that he had genetically amplified his own brain and given himself two giant bird claws in place of feet.  Many claim that his self-manipulations drove him to insanity, but the masters of gene-splicing were all a little bit insane to begin with.

On Djinnistan, Dr. Bludlust produced three different kinds of Freaks with a decidedly Arabian Knights sort of theme.

The little halfling-like creatures, called Peris by Dr. Bludlust, were bred for extreme creativity.  They had basically the bodies of a human child with a slightly larger-than-normal head.  Their eyes were large and very clear-sighted.  And they thought in very innovative and eccentric ways. 

One Peri engineer designed a ground car with chicken legs instead of wheels, capable of hopping over rough terrain and running smoothly at about the hunting speed of a velociraptor, providing the most common vehicle on Djinnistan because it was a design loved dearly by all Peris.

Another Peri engineer created a material-synthesizer cannon that could instantly create any kind of aquatic lifeform in the barrel and shoot it out to a distance of one hundred meters.  This “fish-gun” was not particularly useful on a desert world like Djinnistan, but became a popular “trout gun” for the mountain streams of Houris.  It was also used as a “barracuda gun” on more violent water-worlds like Design and Dancer. 

Besides being wildly creative, Peris were also prolific.  A Peri female was capable of having one baby a year for 280 years out of a normal 320-year lifespan.  That’s how you end up with baby names like, “Another Danged Boy Number 152” whom I may talk about later in this epic tale.

A second main form of Djinnistani Freak is the Winged Djinn race of humanoids with hollow bones and avian wings.  These people are capable of extra-vehicular flight within the atmosphere, creating slaves capable of reaching all sorts of difficult-to-reach places on jungle planets, mountainous regions, and extra-large air spaces aboard some of the largest cargo cruisers in space.

These winged beings were the most numerous peoples residing on Houris, Pan, and Eblis.  They were second only to the Peris on Djinnistan, and even the third most common residents of the magma-filled world of Surtur.

The hulking and sulfurous Afrits were a unique race designed to have fire-breathing capabilities.  They were not blessed with high intelligence, but they made excellent warriors, and even better artillery pieces.  They were capable of vomiting napalm-like material from their own stomachs as far as half a mile away with deadly accuracy.  They were also fire-proof enough to survive a direct hit from a plasma rifle fifty percent of the time.  Of course, they were most common on Surtur, but found on all the worlds of the Djinnistan System.

So, this was the planetary system that Arkin Cloudstalker, Black Fly, and Lazerstone came to in order to invade, with just the three of them to conquer the entire star system.

Canto 86 – Landing in the Sand (the Blue Thread)

The spaceship known as The Magic Carpet landed gracefully in the desert downport of the planet Djinnistan.  But even as graceful as the landing was, clouds of sand were kicked up in all directions.

“That was a beautiful landing,” Arkin Cloudstalker said to the Black Fly.  She smiled at him.  She was a stunning beauty without the black mask on.

“Thank you, Captain.  You see now why the argument about who flies this ship was pointless?”

“Oh, yes.  In fact, when this is all over, I want to recruit you to fly with the Lady Knights.”

“Ah, you flatter me, Captain.  I am apparently good enough to fly with a troop of space pirates and criminal rim-world scum.”

“You know what I mean,” he said with a laugh, rising from the copilot’s chair on the bridge.

“Captain?”  Lazerstone entered the bridge.  “We seem to be under siege by a hoard of children of your species.”

“Oh?”  Arkin looked out the viewport and down at the monitors.  Child-sized humanoids, both male and female, were everywhere.  Some were placing weather-clamps on the landing gear.  Others were polishing everything they could reach, and with a strange group of what appeared to be robotically animated ladders, there was no surface on the Magic Carpet they couldn’t reach, even if it meant hanging upside down.  Some even seemed to be probing at electrical connections with unidentifiable tools.

“Those are Peris, one of the species of Freaks created and mass-produced on this planet.”  Black Fly seemed unconcerned at what was happening to her ship.

“Do you think they might break something, or do damage?”

“No.  Dr. Bludlust created them with brains more facile than any computer, and much more creative than any human being, even human beings on psychedelics.”

“They are scanning things,” said Lazerstone.  “I hope you have no secrets to conceal.”

“Well, scanners don’t read minds.  And the ship itself has no real secrets at this planet’s tech level anyway.”

“The point is, they must not scan me.  And I can feel some very uncomfortable scanning frequencies already.”

“They can read your mind or something that way, my friend?” Arkin asked.

“No.  But they could disrupt me and cause me to explode with the wrong frequency.”

“How big of an explosion?” asked Black Fly.

“Twenty thousand megatons of thermonuclear energy, depending on how many harmonic stones surround us for my death to activate.”

“That sounds like a potential problem,” Arkin said.

“I have the word of a time knight that such an event will not take place,” Black Fly calmly told them.

Three of the small Peri creatures entered the bridge at that moment.  One was a boyish male, and two were childlike girls.

“Greetings, travelers.  We welcome you to the enchanted planet of Djinnistan.  How may we be of service to you?” said the red-haired girl Peri.

“Well, to be honest,” said the Black Fly, “We have come to liberate this planet so that it can join the New Star League.”

“Oh, that sounds very ambitious,” said the boy Peri.  “You do realize that you will have to defeat the minions of Dr. Havir Bludlust, right?”

“Yes, and are you sure it is a good idea to tell these natives that we are invading?” Arkin asked Black Fly.

“Oh, of course.  These are not so much natives as they are slaves.  Many of them not happy with how they were created, exploited, and abused.  We will be calling them our army soon enough.”