The Question of Allegiance

"I need you to come to my planet to help me." Azalyn repeated slowly.

"How the heck am I supposed to get to your planet? And why should I go to your planet anyway? Isn’t it enough that I have to take care of my people?"

"Lubic, I pledged allegiance to you, which means that -"

"Wait, yesterday? I never accepted."

"WHAT?"

Lubic grinned sheepishly. "Back in the park. I never accepted your allegiance."

"Then why the heck was I helping you with the witch?"

"I don’t know. Maybe you felt sorry for me?"

Azalyn rubbed her temples. "Alright then. I will re-pledge my allegiance to you. And this time you will accept it. Then we will talk about Imezza."

"Wait a second. Before any of this is finalized, what does this allegiance do for us?"

"Well, if I pledge allegiance to you, then you have to help me look after my people. And I in turn will come to your aide whenever you need me. That is the Spacelord/Starlord bond."

"Sounds kind of like the feudal system."

"Sure. Whatever. The point is, you have more power than me, so I need your help to deal with something."

"I have more power than you?"

"Yes. Lubic, do you remember when you stopped time? When Jaleesa said that Jared could not have stopped time? Well, that is the same as me. I can affect my planet, Imezza. But you, you can affect the entire Universe."

"Really? Why would someone give me that kind of power, but not you?"

"It is someone’s cruel joke on the universe. My people have not yet left Imezza under their own power. Your people have."

"Well, we did go to the moon."

"I don’t think that is what did it. Otherwise Jared would have been a Spacelord, too. But he wasn’t."

"Oh." Lubic thought about that for a bit. "So there are humans running around on another planet somewhere?"

"Can’t you tell?"

"Should I be able to?"

"Yes. Most Spacelords can feel where their people are if they try."

"Okay, that sounds kind of creepy. Let’s get your problem sorted out before I even think about that some more." He took a deep breath. "How do I get to Imezza?"

A Meeting of Minds

"Spacelord! It's Azalyn! Please, stop screaming!"

Lubic looked again at the reflection staring back at him. It was a bit distorted, and every so often the reflection seemed to ripple a bit, but yes, it was the fish woman. "Azalyn! What are you doing in my mirror? Get out of there!"

"Lubic, I am not in your mirror! I am just talking to you through it!"

"Then where are you?"

"I am on Imezza."

"Imezza?"

"My home world! Weren't you listening to anything I told you yesterday?"

"Quite honestly, no."

"LUBIC! You are a SPACELORD! How are you going to help anyone when you can't even listen when people introduce themselves?"

"Azalyn, look at it from my perspective for a minute. One day I'm a normal guy. The next, I have aliens and witches telling me I'm a super hero or something. Did you honestly think I would take that at face value?"

"But you should have been told all of this years ago! It should not have been a big surprise when I first showed up!"

"Look darlin, it is what it is. If you want my help, you're going to have to be really patient with me."

"Do you still think this is a dream, Lubic?"

"Honestly, I'm starting to have my doubts. I've never had a dream as long and crazy as this one. Although I guess it's possible I'm in a coma..."

"Lubic," a roll of midnight eyes, "why is it so hard to accept that I am real?"

"Remember, my perspective."

"Alright. I will try to be more patient with you. But you in turn have to try to have an open mind!"

"Deal. So what did you need?"

"I need you to come to my planet to help me."

"WHAT?"

Sunday Morning

Lubic woke up, looking around wildly for a minute. His eyes found the familiar picture of his father, which always sat on the desk across from his bed. I’m home . . . he thought, trying to remember what had happened the night before. And then he wished he hadn’t. He could remember flying away from the raven cave with Elara and Jay. Not in an airplane or anything; he had simply declared they would fly home, and then they did. It had been just like he imagined Peter Pan would fly. Once home, he’d called Stevens to cancel poker, then gone straight to bed.

Was all that a dream? he wondered as the door opened and Elara rushed in.

"Uncle!" she yelled cheerily, "time to wake up!"

Maybe not, he thought, groaning as she threw open the blinds. "What are you doing? It’s 6am! And this is my day off!"

"But the sun is up! Do you want to waste the day away?"

"If the day starts at 6, then yes!" He pulled a pillow over his head, blocking out the bright rays.

She grabbed the pillow from him. "But you promised we’d go to the library!"

"Elara," he glared at her, "the library doesn’t open till 10. We can still sleep for an hour or two, then head there when they open."

"Then can you show me around a bit? Please? Everything is so strange and new, and I was only able to see a bit of it from the air yesterday. You’re up now, anyway!"

He rolled his eyes. "Alright. But you’re going to have to let me sleep in a bit more tomorrow. I have to get ready before we go. Can you give me like a half an hour?"

"Alright. Thank you!" She bounded out of the room.

Lubic groaned. No one should have that kind of energy this early! But after lounging around for 15 minutes, he hauled himself out of bed like he’d promised.

It was around that time that he became a bit disturbed: he had flown out of the raven cave? And Elara was okay with that? What the heck was going on? He decided it was too early to deal with this right now; he'd ask Elara later, maybe over breakfast.

After throwing on some jeans and a t-shirt, he headed to the bathroom. He was reaching for his toothbrush when he glanced into the mirror. Right where his reflection should have been, there was a woman with scaled, pale green skin and strawberry blonde hair. Lubic screamed.

Calling the Big Guns

"What do you mean you couldn’t pull the trigger?"

The Raven held the telephone away from his ear for a moment, wincing. "It’s exactly like I said: the Lubic guy fell for the trap. He was nicely in line. Then I go to squeeze the trigger, and BAM! Nothing!"

"The big boss isn’t going to be pleased," the voice on the other line cautioned, calming down a little bit.

"Then you tell the big boss to get his ass down here and pull the trigger!" The Raven pounded his fist on the telephone booth’s glass, startling a passerby. "I don’t know what more you want me to do!"

"Well, maybe I shouldn’t have delegated this to you. I’ll deal with this guy, or my name isn’t Ron Jambo!"

"And what about the deal the big boss has with me, huh? He claimed I could be free of this stupid bird form if I’m the one who spills this Lubic’s blood."

"Are you trying to tell me you want another shot at him? Even after you failed?"

"Look Ron, one more chance! This is my big break! My shot at a normal life! I won't blow it! Not this time!"

"Alright then, one more shot. But if you fail me it's going to be barbeque for supper. And I'm not talking about chicken."

Click.

The Trap

Lubic found himself at the mouth of a cave. He hesitated before entering the darkened maw, as he could not see more than a few feet in front of him. "If only I had a flashlight," he muttered to himself. But he knew that Elara was here, and so he entered. He took a few steps into the cave and was immediately swallowed by the darkness.

It became immediately apparent that he was in a tunnel; Lubic could feel the cave walls closing in around him. A few feet from the cave entrance, the tunnel started turning gradually to the left. He stopped for a few moments, letting his eyes adjust to the gloom. It was then that he realized that there were voices coming from up ahead.

As he slowly inched his way forward, he found that the tunnel was widening into a larger cavern. At about that time, he realized that one of the voices was Elara’s. The second one he didn’t think he had heard before.

“I honestly have no idea,” the second voice was saying. “Well, I think he took me accidentally. It seems to be you he was after.”

“Yes, he was so very happy he couldn’t contain his excitement, so he left.” That was Elara. “That makes a lot of sense, Jay.”

“Elara,” Lubic said into the darkness. “Where are you?”

“Uncle? Uncle, is that you?”

Oh yeah, she thinks I’m her uncle. “Um, yeah, it’s Lubic. Are you okay? Where are you?”

“We’re okay. Jay and I are just chained to the cave wall.”

“The bird man brought us here and then left,” Jay added.

“Okay, well, let’s see if I can free you two. Then we can get out of here.” Lubic walked cautiously forward. About two steps in, he felt his foot trip some sort of mechanism on the floor. He stopped moving forward just as the ceiling in front of him collapsed, missing him by several feet.

“UNCLE LUBIC?” Elara screamed.

“Gee, not so loud! I can hear you just fine!” he said, coughing a little. “The cave-in missed me by several feet. I knew this place was supposedly trapped, but I thought the traps might be a bit less obvious than that! Are you two alright?” He moved cautiously around the collapsed ceiling until they were in view.

“Yes, we’re fine. The ceiling collapsed a good ten feet in front of us,” Jay said.

“Alright, I’m coming, but I’m going to be careful. I don’t want to set any other traps off.” It took several tense minutes, but Lubic made it to the two of them without incident. He examined the chains as best he could in the darkness. “I’m not entirely sure how I can free you two without any . . .” he trailed off. What the heck? “Chains . . . release them!” he commanded. The chains instantly released the two captives.

“How did you do that?” Jay whispered in awe.

“Apparently in my dreams, I can do whatever I want,” Lubic said, pulling Jay to his feet. “Let’s go.”

All three of them cautiously made their way out of the cave. “What a stupid trap,” Lubic laughed as they got to the mouth of the cave. “With all that effort, you’d think he would have had something better than an obvious cave-in!”

*

The Raven stood, stunned, watching the three of them leave. He was standing in the secret passage he had meticulously carved out beside where his prisoners had been chained to the wall. He was holding an extremely powerful sniper rifle that was still aimed at Lubic’s back. Yet no matter how hard he tried, he could not will his finger to press the trigger. It was only after the three of them were gone that he blew a hole into the opposite wall, right at the point where he had last seen Lubic.

The Human Enigma

The emerald waters shivered as a large shape cut through them, marring the glass-like calm. Powerful flippers pulled Ba’laironshantinlavydalar’s bulk quickly forward through the unusually calm S’seeleyar Sea. The Spacelord headed steadily south, away from his latest obligation, deep in thought. He had been busy over the last few days since the meeting with Mikala: he was in the middle of important negotiations with the Gartraxin, and had been overseeing a few other projects that had recently come up. Finally, he found himself without anything pressing to do, and so he swam with no real destination in mind, puzzling over the human enigma.

Throughout the last three days, ever since Lubic’s power had manifested itself, Ba’laironshantinlavydalar had wondered how it was possible: how could the vermin have a Spacelord? How?

Ba’laironshantinlavydalar had known Jared since he had become the human Starlord over two millenia ago. He was reasonably certain that the humans had not left their planet under their own power in all the time Jared had been Starlord. Well, other than their little jaunts to their moon, but those do not count. Otherwise Jared would have become a Spacelord long ago. So if this Lubic became a Spacelord as soon as he came into power, the humans must have only recently left. But Ba’laironshantinlavydalar was not aware of any recent human activity in space.

Ba’laironshantinlavydalar knew that Jared had never been a Spacelord; he had remained a Starlord to the end of his days. But what if Jared was supposed to have been one?

“Spacelord,” a voice said, startling him out of his thoughts. Ba’laironshantinlavydalar was surprised to see his second in command, Kai’rowandel, casually floating in front of him. Kai’rowandel was smaller than Ba’laironshantinlavydalar, and leaner; the younger Lavydalar was streamlined, and designed to be one of the fastest swimmers. But Ba’laironshantinlavydalar knew the younger Lavydalar was only acting. None were faster than the Spacelord; Kai’rowandel must have swum very hard and fast to catch him.

“What is it?” Ba’laironshantinlavydalar rumbled.

“Sir, the Gartraxin send word: their swarms will support us when the time comes.”

“This is most excellent news indeed. And are they willing to help with the experiments as well?”

“Yes sir. Even now we are transferring some of the subjects.”

“This is good news indeed. I will go to the Gartraxin and finalize the treaty.” He sighed inwardly. This human enigma would have to wait once again.

Kidnapped

Jay sat chained to the back of the cave, looking forlornly around. Not that he was really able to see much, as the bird had left him without any light. But he could tell that it wasn’t a particularly large cave. There were two passages that led outside of the cave, the large one that the bird had flown out of, and a smaller one, hidden just to the right of where he sat. The only reason he knew about the hidden passage was from the draft that was coming from it.

His thoughts turned once again to how he had gotten himself into this mess. He had been stuck in that room with the soul of Elara, listening to the crazy woman with the knife talking to two possibly crazier people, when suddenly, he was standing in front of his house. He had started to walk up to the door, when the largest raven he had ever seen swooped out of the sky and snatched him up. They had flown for a long time, when suddenly the raven deposited him here.

The raven had then changed into a tall, lean, dark haired man, who had looked him over carefully, before scowling. "You have the stink of Spacelord powers all over you, but you’re not who I’m after!"

"What are you talking about? What do you mean ‘Spacelord powers?’" Jay asked, shrinking back from the man.

"I thought you were the old Starlord’s child. The one who’s been missing all these years. The one the new Spacelord just freed." The man spat. "But no, I can tell already. The stink’s fading."

The man chained him to the cave wall anyway, then changed back into the large bird. Cawing once, a low, evil sound, he launched himself into the air and was gone.

And so Jay had been left alone. He tried to loosen the chains from the wall, but they remained firm. When he stopped to examine how they were attached to the cave wall, he discovered that they were newly fixed in place; there wasn’t a trace of rust on any of the metal. And from the look of them, whoever had fixed them to the wall really knew what they were doing; Jay would need more than his own strength to break free of them.

His muscles gradually stiffened up, so he fidgeted in an effort to relieve the cramps. At least the fidgeting gave him something to do. Jay had never been this bored in his life. So he sat, trying in vain to amuse himself, waiting for the bird man to come back.

Jay had just finished singing his favourite song for about the fiftieth time when he heard a triumphant cawing gradually getting closer. The raven reappeared, depositing another form into the cave. The form struggled to its feet. Jay had yet another shock: the form turned out to be Elara. She looked around wildly as the bird man changed back to his human form.

"Where have you taken me?" she demanded. "What do you want?"

The bird man looked her up and down, before smiling in triumph. "Yes, you are the old Starlord’s daughter! He’ll come for you!" He said, grabbing her by the wrist and chaining her next to Jay. Then he turned back into a bird and flew away once again. His caws echoed after him like cruel laughter.

After a few moments the echoes died away. "Well, he seems happier with you than he was with me," Jay said into the silence.

Elara gasped, spinning around. "I recognize you! You’re the last person I remember from the witch’s place!"

"I’m Jay," Jay tried to hold out his hand, but couldn’t reach her. He gave up with a shrug. "I know who you are. You were the witch’s slave."

"Yes. I’m Elara." She glanced around the cave. "How long have you been here?"

"A couple of hours. I’m not entirely sure." He watched as Elara tried testing the chains that were holding her. "I already tried breaking free. Whoever put these here sure knew what they were doing; I think we’re thoroughly trapped."

An uncomfortable silence followed his last remark. Jay couldn’t think of anything else to say to the dark haired beauty. Or at least nothing intelligent.

"So what do you think that bird man wants with us?" she finally asked, breaking the silence.