Agent of Chaos

conclusion

by Kris Barton

“Agent of Chaos” began in issue 116.
Part 2 appeared in issue 117.

“But, Arbitrator I...” the Indictor feebly broke off.

“I have made my decision based upon the accounts from the defendant,” he paused and then glanced over towards the Indictor. “And from your very incisive questions Indictor. Based on this hearing, I have produced a rational judgement, which I think befitting of this trial. You may now take your leave.”

The Indictor angrily rose from his seat. Ziekiel half expecting him to make another plea for the Arbitrator to reconsider his verdict, but he didn’t. He simply left the chamber via the same door he entered. Ziekiel felt the tension mount within him, but then his mind filled with lucid images of various contours and attractions from his home world. It was a mental projection by his contact within the Lyzarian regime to indicate that the ruling would fall in his favour. Ziekiel tried to hold back a very relieved smile when the Arbitrator touched the metal panel at the side of his chair, releasing the same angelic shrill as before. The sound proceeded to fill the massive chamber and the deliberating civilians accepted this as a signal to be quiet.

“It is quite clear from this tribunal that no adequate evidence can be produced to suggest that Mr. Walters had anything to do with the crime he was accused of. However, the very idea of a rogue Lyzarian bodyguard turning upon one of Lyzaria’s greatest and most honourable Generals is also completely out of the question,” the Arbitrator paused, developing a thoughtful look. “Unless there was a hidden agenda buried somewhere. The indication of where the peace negotiations were heading in the scavenger matter could have been sufficient motive.

“Military intelligence informs me that there is a scavenger brotherhood out on the rim of our solar system that contains Lyzarian and Human scavengers. This brotherhood ferry various narcotics to both Lyzaria and Earth, making a tidy fee in the process. These scavengers would have been severely jeopardised by a peace treaty between our two species, especially a treaty centred upon the destruction of their brotherhood. Therefore, it would be in the scavengers’ best interest to keep the peace negations from taking place.

“It seems that the scavengers’ intended goal has worked. The peace between Lyzarians and the Humans has been shattered, maybe irrevocably, and despite knowing the truth it would be very difficult for the Lyzarian High Council to simply ignore their people’s cry for vengeance. The fact that no evidence can be found to support your claims, Mr. Walters, has not helped matters in the slightest.

“It appears that war is on the way Mr. Walters, and because of this, I desire no blood to be spilt today in favour of this inevitability. You are free to go back to your home world and be with your family for, maybe, the last time.”

The atmosphere within the gigantic chamber was very sombre to say the least, and the civilians in attendance had remained silent even after the Arbitrator had left his seat upon the dominant balcony and exited the tribunal via a door behind him. Ziekiel had succeeded.

* * *

Ziekiel was found innocent of all charges, but regardless of that very important fact, after the trial he was hauled back to the same inhospitable prison cell as if he had been found guilty of the crime. It didn‘t bother him too much though, he had accomplished all that he had set out to complete. His mission was a success. All that he had to do now was to sit back and wait for extraction. He was just glad that the Lyzarians didn’t decide to kill him where he sat. Trapped in his puny Human frame, he wouldn’t have been able to stop them. At least not without revealing the truth. That option, however, was totally unacceptable. Showing the idiotic Lyzarians the truth would have essentially destroyed everything he and his species had accomplished for over five years. He and his people had been accomplished too much let that happen.

Suddenly, the lights in front of cell flicked into life and instantly grabbed his attention. Ziekiel uneasily pushed himself up from the cell, and because the shackles restricted the use of his hands dramatically, he was forced to use his battered and bruised shoulder to steady himself. The familiar sound of heavy footsteps pounding upon the ground rang in his ears, and a few seconds later, the cell door smoothly slid open. Through the door, he could see the shadowed silhouette of the large slender warden stood before him, who seemed to be shielding a decidedly plumper silhouette.

The warden reached around to the wall on the outside of his cell and switched the cell lights on. Ziekiel squinted at the burst of illumination, but still forced himself to keep his eyes warily fixed upon the door. Slowly, his eyes adjusted to the new level of light and finally he could see the plump Lyzarian stood in the shadow of the warden; it was the Arbitrator. The warden stepped aside and the Arbitrator entered the cell.

At first Ziekiel was pleased to see a friendly face, but his mood and his perception changed, dramatically, at the sight of the Lyzarian-made Defragmentation pistol that the Arbitrator proudly brandished. He felt his pulse race and his temperature rise, as the Arbitrator simply stared at him, coldly. The Arbitrator finally took his eyes off Ziekiel, only for a second, in order to have a brief conversation with the warden. Ziekiel couldn’t hear what was being said, but it was obvious the warden did not like whatever the Arbitrat!or was proposing.

“But Arbitrator, I...” the Warden trailed off.

“Just walk away from this one,” the Arbitrator demanded. “We both know the Human was never going to walk out of here alive!” he paused. “I just want to be the one who pulls the trigger! Be sure to turn the cell camera off when you get back to your station!”

Ziekiel wanted to scream, to try and persuade the Warden to deny the Arbitrator his request, but he already knew that it wouldn’t do any good. His fate was sealed; he was sure of it. The warden looked at Ziekiel with hatred firmly engraved upon his face and then back at the Arbitrator. “Okay,” he finally agreed. “But don’t let them find a body!”

The warden quickly departed and the Arbitrator shut the cell door as he left, not taking his eyes off Ziekiel for one second. Upon seeing his expression the Arbitrator produced a wide smile and a small chuckle.

“Did you really think that you would get away with it, Mr. Walters?” The Arbitrator rhetorically asked, still brandishing the Defragmentation pistol.

“But I didn’t do anything! You said so yourself!” Ziekiel feebly replied.

The Arbitrator chuckled and before Ziekiel’s eyes slowly started to change both size and colour. “But you did! And I’m here to make sure that you get away with it.”

A wave of understanding swept across Ziekiel’s face, as the ‘Arbitrator’ finally stopped his transformation; it was his contact. Now, a small, brown, furry creature stood before him, making the scene looking increasingly surreal, the Defragmentation pistol was now was now too large for the small creature to handle with any degree of accuracy. Both the Human race and the Lyzarians were blissfully unaware of this species’ existence, but the countless other races who had fallen by their deception (on their last days) knew them as the Mallion. He took the ‘Arbitrator’s’ transformation as a cue to commence his own metamorphosis and within a matter of seconds, ‘Ziekiel’ had transformed to virtually the same outward appearance as his fellow Mallion.

“What’s with the gun?” ‘Ziekiel’ asked. “Trapped in that puny Human body, you nearly gave me a heart attack!”

“I must apologise,” the ‘Arbitrator’ quickly responded. “It was necessary to keep with up the façade. The Lyzarian's really never intended you to leave this world; that was no exaggeration, and so a more resourceful plan had to be devised.”

‘Ziekiel’ simply nodded at the ‘Arbitrator’s’ response, whilst allowing the once tight, but now loose, shackles to effortlessly slide off his hands and feet. “Am I glad to get out of those? You can’t imagine how frail the Human body can be. I could barely stand under the Lyzarian gravity.”

‘Ziekiel’ had to admit to himself that an average Mallion would have faired no better than the Humans under the heavy gravity, but he had compensated for that during the transformation into his natural appearance. Essentially, he changed back to his original form and size, but maintained the density of a Lyzarian. The ‘Arbitrator’ had obviously done the same. He could have performed the very same trick in his Human body, but he needed to appear genuine. To do so, he was forced to adopt all of the imperfections that came with the fragile Human frame.

“I’m sorry about the delay, but the Lyzarians wanted to get past General Kolash’s funeral arrangements before we put you...” he paused. “I mean, ‘Ziekiel Walters’ on trial. I had to abide by their decision.

“At this stage of the war it would be very foolish to compromise Mallion positions within either the Lyzarian or Human ruling body‘s. We nearly have all the major generals and politicians duplicated and replaced by our Agents of Chaos, but it is very difficult and strenuous capturing these important people. It takes time.”

“I understand completely.”

“I believe you will be getting some kind of military decoration for your actions on this mission. You stopped the peace negations and went through hell on this shit-hole of a planet, without compromising your position — or anyone else’s.”

“It was luck. The stupidity and foolishness of both of these species will ultimately lead to their downfall. Now that this war is firmly in place between them, we won’t have to endure this much longer.”

“Indeed,” the ‘Arbitrator’ replied. “Your apparent death will hold the Lyzarians off for a while longer.”

“How long do you think we have?”

“Six months, maybe a year. That should give us enough time to get the right people in the right places,” he paused. “Starting with you.”

“Me?”

“Yes. Our agents on the Earth have managed to capture one of Earth Gov’s most powerful Admirals. It’s the first opportunity we’ve had to get at him since we embarked upon this conquest. By the time you get back to Earth, it will be time to assume his position.”

“Good. Finally, I get to imitate a high-ranking officer rather than a nobody.”

“Remember,” the ‘Arbitrator’ commanded. “It was that nobody who stopped this whole thing from going wrong.”

“You’re right,” ‘Ziekiel’ conceded. “So what’s the escape plan?”

“There should be no trace of your presence here, so you will have to be smuggled out upon my person. I will destroy your shackles with the Defragmentation gun to mimic the power discharge, and to destroy the evidence. Then we simply stroll out of here.”

“But won’t the Lyzarian High Council be suspicious of you, if you just ‘kill’ ‘Ziekiel Walters’?”

The ‘Arbitrator’ shook his head. “No,” he replied. “I have made my feelings extremely candid on the matter and the Lyzarian High Council has agreed with me. They gave me their blessing to perform this action.”

‘Ziekiel’ smiled, before quickly morphing into a small Lyzarian Croaic fly. This creature would be small enough for him to escape the compound without the warden — or anybody else — spotting him. The ‘Arbitrator’ shot and disintegrated the shackles, after quickly morphing back into his familiar Lyzarian frame. They both strolled out of the Lyzarian prison compound with minimal effort. For all intents and purposes ‘Ziekiel Walters’ had been killed, and thanks to the Mallion, the war between the Humans and the Lyzarians had been delayed; if only for a short time.

* * *

The warden sat at his station, closely monitoring the readout from his sonic radar — a device that monitored the acoustic wavelengths of the entire cell block and produced viewable results. His attention was aroused from the readouts, by the heavy foot-steps of the Arbitrator, as he pounded his way along the corridor towards him. The warden shot the Arbitrator a convincing smile. Try to appear normal, he thought. Don’t give them any reason to suspect that you know.

“Warden.” the Arbitrator began, finally reaching the monitoring station. “You may now turn the cells camera back on. The task has been completed.”

The warden smiled. “I’m sure it has, Arbitrator.” he paused. “I take it that you had a most enjoyable time in there.”

The Arbitrator had made his way around the circular monitoring station and was now entering his access code into the keypad upon the wall. “Yes I did.” He simply replied, placing his palm upon the rectangular, metal palm reader. The door chugged open and the Arbitrator simply strode through it, embracing the angelic white glow of the corridor ahead. The warden refocused his attention upon the sonic radar view screen; he had to be sure that nobody was around. He saw the decidedly bulky frame of the Arbitrator making his way along the corridor, accompanied by a small insect; the bio-readers were 89% sure that it was a Croaic fly.

When the Arbitrator had told him to take his leave of the cell, he was already a little suspicious. He had assumed that he would be the one to terminate the life of Ziekiel Walters, but at the time he had just figured that the Arbitrator wanted to perform the task himself by decree of the High Council. When the Arbitrator told him to switch the cell’s cameras off, he grew even more suspicious. Surely the High Council would want a recording of the execution, to view at their leisure? He dismissed his suspicions as quickly as they developed within his mind. He figured that the execution was so secretive that the High Council didn’t want any recorded evidence of it at all. That was fine by him, but he still wanted to watch the little bastard squirm in agony. He wanted to see the expression upon the murderer’s face, just moments before he died.

Since he was robbed of the chance to avenge the death of General Kolash himself, he decided that he would watch the live output from the prisoner’s cell. He would just delete the scenes from the system when the Arbitrator left. And that was when the world he knew crashed around his ears and opened up something that he didn‘t really want any part of. When he saw the ‘Arbitrator’ transform into that small, furry creature, he had thought that his monitor was faulty. He even checked the wavelength distribution, but there was nothing wrong.

He watched the entire events in disbelief, despite knowing for a fact that they were taking place just along the corridor. After the startling events had finished, he almost wished that he hadn’t watched the recording. Before the ‘Arbitrator’ had left the cell, he had made his decision. This new species, the Mallion, had murdered General Kolash and planned to take over both Lyzaria and Earth by means of subterfuge. He suspected that he was the only one to know of their existence, which meant that the fate of billions of lives rested firmly upon his shoulders. He had to act.

As soon as the sonic radar had told him that the enemy had left, his fingers worked the console at almost the speed of light, and within a minute or two, several copies of the event had been made upon several data crystals. He extracted the crystals from the console and placed them in a hidden pocket within his cowl. But what would he do? He had nowhere to go. He didn’t know who was genuine and who was an impostor. Plus it was only a matter of time before the ‘Arbitrator’ checked up on his action. And when he did, they would come after him. This place was no longer safe for him now, that much was obvious, but where could he go? An idea forced itself within his head, an idea that made him cringe. There was only one place he could go: Earth.