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Canto Sixty-Six – The Arboretum Again

Senator Tedhkruhz entered the arboretum with a glum look on his smug face, but it quickly blossomed into a smug smile as he viewed the scene before him.  In fact, his smile became so smarmy and smug that his smirky grin gave off waves of puerile smugness.

“So, Makkhain, you have succeeded in our little quest to kill the planet savers, have you?”

Makkhain, cradling Sizzahl’s apparently lifeless body, looked at him with a glare of pure hatred.  The two naked Earthers, both children, glared at him also. He also noted the little Telleron sitting against a huge yellow, red, and green flower thing.

“Where’s your conquering army, Senator?” Makkhain growled.

“I don’t need them.  We shut down this base, which I believe controls all the atmosphere restorers on the planet, and we have won.  The  world ends, and we are the winners.”

“Aren’t you afraid that without your army, I will turn on you and kill you for what you’ve done to me, my family, and my world?”

“Oh, certainly not.  You are a clone.  And you’ve been thoroughly programmed to do what I ask you to do.”

“Is that so?”  Makkhain laid Sizzahl gently down and stood, knife in hand.  He carefully balanced it in his right hand for throwing.

“Go ahead.  Try to throw the knife at me.”

He cocked his mighty lizard arm to throw, and then started to whip his throwing arm forward.  But he couldn’t release.  The knife clattered harmlessly on the floor.

“You see?  You are completely in my power.  Now destroy the controls of the atmospheric instruments.”

Makkhain smiled.  “I can’t overcome your programming, it’s true.  But I no longer do your bidding.”

“Oh, but you have to.  Destroy those controls now!”

Makkhain continued to grin.  The two Earthers and the Telleron were smiling now too.

“What is this?  Why are you not doing what I command?”

“Because I can’t, fool.  I don’t know where the controls are, and Sizzahl can’t tell me because she’s unconscious and probably dying.”

Senator Tedhkruhz lost his smug smile. A look of consternation crossed his ugly lizard face.

“Are you sure you can’t kill him?” the Earther male said.

“I can’t.  But others in the room can.  And I can’t harm him, but I can dance with him.”

“Dance with me?” the Senator scoffed.

“By your command,” Makkhain said.  He moved up to Tedhkruhz and took him by both hands.  They began to whirl around each other, Makkhain leading the lizard dance and forcing the Senator to go tripping along.  The Senator grimaced as he realized how he had uttered precisely the wrong words at precisely the wrong time.

“Is Lester still hungry for Galtorrian flesh, Brekka?” Makkhain asked.

“Dance him this way,” said the Telleron girl with and angry-eyed grin.

It didn’t dawn on the lizard-man overlord until too late that Makkhain was steering the dance directly toward three big moving blossoms lined with what could easily be interpreted as teeth.  He obviously should’ve ordered Makkhain to stop dancing and let him go, but nothing came out of his throat but a hoarse, frightened croak.

The plant attacked with all three blossoms.  One grabbed Makkhain and took two bites and swallowed.  The other two grabbed Tedhkruhz, one by the head, the other by both legs.  They pulled him into two pieces before each happily munched on their half of the wishbone.

The children who remained in the arboretum, three awake and aware, one lying unconscious, were stunned into silence by the sudden end to violence.  It was then that they heard and answered the anxious voice of a former old Sunday school teacher turned young war leader.  The rest of the Telleron army was suddenly at the arboretum door.

Canto Sixty-Five – The Arboretum

Sizzahl and the two naked Morrells had moved to the arboretum’s central control panel to look at security programs.  Brekka and Lester, accompanied by the baby buds, were watching for anyone else who might enter.

“Can you find him on a security camera?” Alden asked.  “He has to be somewhere near.”

“I used the Telleron invisibility cloak to disappear.  My fake Uncle Makk couldn’t possibly know where I went.”

“No defenses are left?” Gracie asked.

“Well, the fake Uncle Makk did take the security robots out just like the real Uncle Makk would’ve been able to.”

“That doesn’t take any of the worries away,” said Alden.

“Sizzahl!” shouted Brekka suddenly. “look above you!”

As Sizzahl and the Morrells looked up, the armored lizard man dropped out of the ceiling supports from a hundred feet above.  He landed completely unhurt on the gravel walkway and stood up straight in front of Sizzahl.

“I told you I could track you,” Makkhain said.  Then he stabbed Sizzahl in the chest with his glittering knife close to where a human from Earth would have a heart.  The lizard girl grabbed the gushing wound and pitched forward into his arms.

“No!” shouted Alden, jumping at Makkhain from the left.

“You monster!” shouted Gracie from his right.

He simply kicked Alden into a senseless heap at his feet and knocked Gracie down with a sweep of his lizard tail.  He cradled the wounded and probably dying Sizzahl in his arms.

“What have I done?” Makkhain said aloud.

“I think you have killed me, Uncle Makk,” Sizzahl answered.  She closed her eyes and went limp in his arms.

“We are gonna kill you and eat you!” Brekka cried from the safety of Lester’s viney tendrils.  “Lester, I mean.  Lester is gonna eat you.”

“Maybe I can still save her.”  The lizard man pulled some kind of medical kit out of pants pocket.  He fished out some kind of aerosol spray and sprayed it into the gaping hole in Sizzahl’s chest.  Then he took some kind of electronic device the size and shape of the egg of an Earth chicken and pressed that against Sizzahl’s throat.  The silent lizard girl suddenly popped awake.

“Ah!  Why did you do that, Uncle Makk?  I was headed for my father and mother.  Now I am hurting terribly!”

“Stabbing you changed something in my head.  Tedhkruhz’s programming is no longer in control.  I now feel like your real uncle.  I now want to save you if I can.”

“First you kill me, and then you try to fix it?”

“I know I’m not physically your real uncle, Sizzahl.  But in my head, I am still your Uncle Makk, and I still love you more than any other Galtorrian I know.  Can you forgive me?”

“Of course I can.  But if I die, you have to promise to take care of this world of ours.”

Alden pulled himself groggily up into a sitting position.  Gracie went to him and put her arms around him.

“After what you did, you expect us to believe you are on our side now?” Alden asked with a glare that could melt frozen steel beams.

“No, naked little Skoog monkey, you don’t have to believe anything about me.  You don’t have the power to change anything.  You must rely on me for that now.”

“Please, save Sizzahl,” pleaded Gracie.  “No matter what it costs us.”

“I will.  And I won’t let it cost you anything.”

“No way am I ever trusting you again,” said Alden.

“Yes, I don’t expect you to.”

Brekka, Lester, and all the baby blossoms looked on with doubtful eyes… and doubtful blossoms that had no eyes, but somehow also saw.

Canto Sixty-Two – In Lester’s Flower Garden

Sizzahl came running into the Arboretum as fast as her feet would work.  She slammed the door behind her.  Lester and Brekka both looked up startled.  Lester’s two extra heads also looked, as did sixty-five buds whom Lester had started growing to feed his/her friends and provide more plant-people as well.

“What’s the matter, Sizzahl?” asked Brekka trying to rub sleep out of her eyes.

“Uncle Makk is trying to kill me.”

“Oh, yes!  That reminds me.  Lester told me that he was a clone with robot programming.  I meant to tell you all about it.”

“Thanks, Brekka.  That definitely would’ve been useful to know a bit sooner.”  Sizzahl was smiling a grim, determined smile.

“What do you want me to do now, Sizzahl?  Lester said I should eat Makkhain myself.”

“Ah, please don’t do that, Brekka.”

“Yeah, good.  Thank you.  But maybe Lester can help by eating him for me.”

“Um, no.  I love him, even if he isn’t really my uncle.  I may let him win and destroy this planet.  Maybe he and the other Galtorrians are right.  Maybe we don’t deserve to live.  Maybe this planet needs to be rid of us.”

At that moment Alden and Gracie came in through a door that led to the sleeping nests.  Both of them were nude again, but both were breathing hard and looked determined.  Both had obviously heard what Sizzahl had just told Brekka.

“No, Sizzahl.  You won’t let the bad guys win.  You have to fight for what is good.  You are good, and we love you.”  After gasping out her impassioned speech, Gracie bent over and grabbed her knees.  She seemed a bit short of air.

Alden, also breathing like he’d run a marathon, didn’t say a word until he had reached Sizzahl and put both arms around her neck.  He hugged her.

“You are like a daughter to us.  You even made more children for us.  You have to be here to help us raise them.”

Sizzahl wept.  She hugged Alden fiercely.  And Gracie came to them both to put her arms around both and turn it into a family group hug.

“Together.  We belong here more than we ever belonged on Earth.  We stand together for whatever comes next,” said Gracie.

Brekka felt Lester wrap a leaf around her as if he or she or it was also giving a hug.

*****