Skip to content
Laughter and the sound of splashing water filled the air. It was a typical day at the pool and Chel was trying her best to relax on a nice warm lounge chair. She was just out of the danger zone for getting wet and halfway under the shade of a nearby umbrella.
"I'm safe here. It's just a normal day at the pool. I'm safe here." Chel had her eyes closed, concentrating on the peaceful sounds of play. "Nobody else is afraid of anything - nobody knows." But she did.
Chel couldn't shake the sensation that she was being watched. Scenarios ran through her mind. Any moment. At any moment they could arrive. She reasoned it as less likely in a public area. For now, that would be the comforting thought.
4 thoughts on “August 08, 2006”
Refugnic
Sorry, I just have to:
You are safe, don’t you struggle now, don’t you want your nice big cake?
(I held that in for the past hundreds of comics, ever since her name was revealed :D)
mask777
A cookie for you good sir.
Raxondr
Chel: ‘None of them can see the danger. They don’t know it’s there, like children playing in a minefield. These sleeping fools need to have their eyes opened. They need to see the dangers. I must show them what true terror is.’
And that’s how Chel became a supervillain!
Sparkledeath
…I can run with that.
Chel took a deep breath to clear her thoughts. In a moment, she would glide effortlessly out from behind the curtain to address the people, and she would have to be the rational voice of reason that she had been since she had opened the eyes of the ignorant masses to exactly what horrors awaited them beyond the stars. No one else could guide humanity to a place where it would no longer be exploited, and a hint of weakness would allow the naysayers to drag the people down a path of chains and misery in the name of false peace. But in this sole quiet moment, she would allow herself to remember why it had all become necessary.
All the times she has nearly died while traveling with Lexx.
That crystal moment of clarity at the pool.
Bawling her eyes out – for the last time – when her mother had brought her to the crash site of Lexx’s ship, brought down by “marauding space pirates”.
Riley’s last teasing smirk, his final goodbye before Trasik tore him to pieces. It had been too late then. All the technological secrets to build the armada were already in place…
And now, it was finally time.
“People of Earth!” She cried out. “For thousands of years, we have been exploited! Selfish alien wastrels have come to our planet, and made mock of our laws! They have robbed us of our possessions! Of our husbands, our wives, of uncounted innocent children, taken and sold as sex slices and gladiatorial beasts, then discarded when they were no longer convenient! “Vampires” and “Faeries” and the so called ancient “gods” subjugated our ancestors as petty tyrants, suborning even our free will!” She paused a moment to let the roars of outrage die down. “But we are no longer primitives fighting starships with rocks and arrows! We are no longer against a faceless, monolithic enemy outnumbered and outgunned! No! We stand here at the helm of the greatest intergalactic armada the known universe has ever seen, and we do so United for the first time in our history! All seven billion people of planet Earth, and our long-lost cousins, the Risha!” To Chel’s relief, the cheering was even more raucous at that. There had been no small amount of xenophobic hysterics when she had put her plans in motion to incorporate them into the Alliance and give them the entirety of Mars for terraforming and settlement. However, her propoganda campaign to use the Risha to hammer home every fear humans had ever had about contact with aliens and to depict her detractors as Neo-Nazi radicals had been overwhelmingly successful. And to think, as a girl she had been a poor liar. “We march forward, not as conquerors, but as liberators! We have given the Galaxy every opportunity to mend their ways! We all but begged them to respect our laws! All we wanted was to be treated as equals! To be treated with dignity! We were answered with mockery! Enslavement, whatever pretty words they choose to dress it up with so they can sleep at night! NO MORE!” The cheering threatened to deafen her, but the state of the art sound system made sure her voice rose above it. “First, we will take the ADC, the symbol of intergalactic greed and exploitation! And then we shall burn the corrupt government that permitted this heinous institution and others like it to thrive at our expense! And if these aliens wish to make further war upon us, may whatever gods they worship have mercy upon them – BECAUSE WE WILL NOT!” The cheers rolled over her as starship engines roared overhead – only one horrified gaze was out of place. Chel stepped out of reality for a moment to confront a pair of golden eyes staring at her from a lightless hole in the bottom of the ADC.
“This really was the only way. I tried everything else.” She said for his ears alone.
“Billions are going to die. There has to be another way. I’m not worth this,” he disagreed, but there was no fire in his words.
“This isn’t just about you, Lexx,” she sighed.
“Everything else is just an excuse. Window dressing. Deep down, you know it too.”
“You’re tired, Lexx. Lonely. It’s been nearly two decades that you’ve been the ADC’s prisoner – you’ll see things differently when you’re free again.” Lexx couldn’t stay mad at her. She was the only person who had been able to get past the ADC’s defenses and contact him through the Relay. Once he could actually hold her in his arms, everything would be as it was. No, even better. She was a woman now, not a child too frightened of the future to return his affection-
“Prime Minister?” Her aide asked her, dragging her back to reality. “Are you hearing this?”
“Hearing what, Val…” Her voice trailed off as she started to listen to the crowd. There were the usual death chants for various alien factions, many more voices raised up in favor of Allied Earth and herself, of course. But some of those chants had changed.
“Minister Reid!”
“Minister Reid!”
“Empress Reid!”
“Empress Chelsea!”
“EMPRESS CHELSEA!”
(It’s Chel,) she told herself as she swallowed her emotions and waved to the crowd.
____
Just came up with that off the top of my head. What do you think?
Follow me on Twitter
My TweetsMeta
Subscribe to Blog via Email