The Mutant World (3 page)

This empress didn’t fit that description by half. Her layered and heavy robes literally covered everything, including her feet. The president could guess why. Beral III was most certainly a pretty, even beautiful girl (face-wise) but she seemed to be a bit chubby as well and about 6ft in height. This seemed normal for a Bellasarian noblewoman, especially of her bloodline, but somehow it didn’t fit her body shape. She was nothing like the sleek goddesses that the president’s predecessors had met. By the empresses side was a much more impressive, even imposing, sight. A black giant, seven feet tall at least with a veil covering his face from the nose down. The man was huge, his arms were large and his muscular form could be ascertained even beneath his robes. One of Chambers’s aides, a young black woman, couldn’t take her eyes off of the giant, nor was she alone. The man moved with a smooth grace that belied his size, but then again…so did the fat girl.

Chambers was no fool; this woman wasn’t empress for nothing unless something else had changed over the two thousand years. Her body may be out of shape and proportion, but her mind was almost certainly as sharp as a razor. Beral III took her seat and her consort took his place beside her. Several other women and men soon followed and these were explained to be minor queens and their consorts…there was even a king or two much to Chamber’s surprise.

Most of these lesser queens and kings wore various robes of state, but one of the vassal queens and her retinue perked the president’s interest. These people’s clothes were of leather and (for some) there was little of that. It was true that they covered what was important, but compared to the others they looked like complete savages. However, the other leaders showed them great difference and respect and even the empress smiled and nodded to the tall olive complexioned woman and her consort.

“That’s, Queen Tana of The Great Forest Kingdom,” explained the aide, “she’s the first woman to rule that region since it was founded by High Lord Cato’s son, Harold the Great, over two thousand years ago. She is also Empress Beral III’s fifth cousin.” As the forest queen greeted Beral III, Chambers noticed a young curvy girl dressed in animal skins looking curiously at a large youth among the empresses court wearing a veil very similar to the empresses consort. He was dark skinned like the giant, but had wavy black hair and his eyes above the veil were green and feline. Even through his robes, it was clear the youth was of a most impressive build. The aide chuckled again, “That’s the empresses’ youngest son,” she said. “Prince Tabba, ‘The Cat Lord’.”

The president and several of the others were surprised by the fact that he was the empresses
youngest
son…meaning that there were others older than him.

“But the empress only looks to be about twenty herself,” blurted the president in a perplexed whisper.

The aide smiled and said, “The empress is eighty seven years old.” The others were speechless. “Her husband is only about fifty five though.” The others made no comment. The giant looked little more than a youth as well, despite the veil. The president looked at the young girl again. Unlike the boy, there was no need for close examination to discern
her
impressive form. The brief attire she wore left nothing to the imagination.

“Who’s the girl in the animal skins,” asked the president.

“That’s, Princess Abe,” replied the aide, “Queen Tana’s daughter.”

“It doesn’t bother her parents that her ass is all but exposed and her tits are practically popping out of that little thing she calls a top?” said Chambers. “That fur top and loincloth barely covers anything!”

“Be thankful, President Chambers,” said the aide. “Mutants of the forest kingdom, especially ferals like them, don’t normally wear cloths at all back home. And Abe is a very difficult and wild girl I hear. That she would come here and wear anything at all is saying something for the respect she has for the empress and this meeting.” The president and her husband looked on curiously as the prince now noticed the girl staring at him and nodded a greeting at her and then, having acknowledged her, looked straight ahead again. The young girl made a face of annoyance and glared even harder at the youth, who now let out a low involuntary growl of annoyance of his own at this close scrutiny. The young girl was startled by this at first and then made an expression that was difficult for the president to read. President Chambers had assumed that the girl’s vanity was bruised by the young prince’s indifference. There was no denying that she
was
a little beauty. A noblewoman who had noticed the president’s interest in those two eased over and confirmed this.

“The Princess Abe is not used to being ignored, Lady President,” chuckled the woman. “But then a prince who is forced to hide his face from outsiders probably-” The woman stopped herself at that, and the president could tell that she may have said, or was about to say, more than was prudent at this time.

“Is he that ugly?” asked one of the Earth V.I.Ps.

The Bellasarian woman looked at the man in amusement and replied, “
Something
like that,” then she gave the president a wink. “Excuse me, I am being rude. My name is Lady Hatia of the Landau Clan. I believe you’ve already met my husband and co-wife, yes?”

The president was shocked. She had assumed that
this
was no longer done on Bellasaria, at least not within the empire, since so much else had changed. “How…How many co-wives does the empress has?” asked Chambers.

The woman grinned and said, “None. Although the High Lord is mighty indeed, even he would not be able to handle even one extra female along with the empress. My lady, Beral III, is no ordinary woman if you know what I mean. She is too much for even most Bellasarian men to cope with.” As the president tried to process what she had been told (that statement could be taken in many ways, and knowing these people’s reputation, all of them accurate), yet another delegation of natives caught her attention. These people were much more similar to herself in dress and manner than any of the other Bellasarians she’d seen so far. The mutant noblewoman made a face and said, “Akkadians”. The president made a curious expression and the woman chuckled. “Akkadians are descended from those Earth mutants who defected from the humans…er…the renegade American general’s invasion forces and started their own nation on Bellasaria…with Queen Bellasaris’s permission of course. Hmmm, you should get along well with these people. You seem
almost
akin to one another in dress, manner and mind.”

This was proving to be true as the president heard the Akkadian President address the Bellasarian Empress in almost perfect American English with only a hint of the Bellasarian accent. In fact, Beverly Chambers noted, that when conversing among themselves, she could barely understand any of these people, only a few words here or there. She would later learn that what she and the other American and United Kingdom officials was speaking was called ‘Old Americ English’ on Bellasaria and was a language spoken today by a majority of the population
only
in the country of Akkadia. Evidently, this language was still part of an elite nobleman’s/noblewoman’s education, like Latin once was on Earth. This was why the various kings and queens could communicate passably to fluently with the Americans and others of the diplomats, but for the common folk it was much like a modern American trying to understand someone still speaking English from the early 16
th
Century. The language spoken widely by everyone almost everywhere was called ‘Americ’. Its root was American English, but it had many other elements in it as well and even the English words had evolved
almost
unrecognizably to the English speaking Earthlings. If it were not for the Akkadians, English (American or otherwise) would probably have become a dead language by now. However, even the Akkadian’s English had a slight accent of its own and every now and then a phrase or word was used that the Americans and other English speaking leaders were entirely unfamiliar with.

Interestingly, in both the empire and in Akkadia, words are spelled exactly as they sound in the Bellasarian written language. Silent letters are not used. They are regarded as confusing and totally useless. To the logic of the Bellasarians, if a letter isn’t going to be pronounced in a word there is no reason for it being in the word to begin with. For example, words like ‘Pneumonia’ and ‘Night’ are spelled
exactly
the way they sound, ‘Neumonia’ and ‘Nite’.

Eventually, the empress addressed her assembled vassals, allies and guests. For the American President, this was becoming closer and closer to what former presidents’ Hill and Torres had described in their notes and narrations of these people. The empress aside, the other women of the court and royal houses were right out of a man’s fantasies. They were all beautiful and had curves and boobs that seemed to go on forever. Most were decently and even elegantly dressed, but some, like the queens of Melmoria and the Great Forest Kingdom wore very revealing clothing that left nothing to the imagination. The men were equally impressive and several of the ladies (and one or two men) couldn’t help admiring them. Many of these people looked like youngsters in their teens and twenties, and some of them were. But many others were actually older than most of the delegates and world leaders from Earth, some of whom were in their sixties and seventies.

“Honored kin and friends, this is a most auspicious occasion and one that required all the great nations of the empire and her neighbors present. I have reopened relations with our homeworld, Earth. For the first time in two thousand years the realms are open. The Island of Bain has been returned to the Earth Realm, thus stabilizing the relation of time between our realms. There are those who, considering our bloody past history, wonder why I have done this. The reason for this is simple, the people of Earth are our kin and we have come to a point in our cultural and technological development where we can share and help the people there preserve their planet and make life easier and happier for their people.” There was a mixed murmur among the assembled mutants. “For this reason I have invited our Earth kin here,” said Beral III, gesturing to the assembled Earth leaders, “I hope we can make something truly great happen here for the good of both realms.”

President Chambers couldn’t help but to notice that not everyone was enthusiastic about this idea. Nearby, she heard a woman sneer and whisper to her companion,
“Humph! The only things the monkeys from Earth will be interested in getting from us is weapons technology. And even if we share our more peaceful tech with them they will in no time be trying to turn it to evil!”
Chambers and several other leaders who had heard this comment (perhaps by intention) sighed and looked at one another. The chief goal of their visit was what it had always been since the first mutant war, and that was the teleportation technology that allowed the mutants to send troops instantly to any city or country they wished, and the means in which they were able to gain control of their enemies weapons systems. Both of which everyone knew would be used for more than humane and peaceful pursuits. Mutant military technology had also been proven superior in the more conventional areas as well, and yes, there were those who wanted that also. But the problems were what they had always been.

The mutant’s
well
-justified feelings towards humans ranged from distrust to real hatred. Also, even though they had the weapons, they only used them against humans
never
other mutants. The Bellasarians looked down on such weapons as merely killing tools that lacked honor, and preferred close up combat using only their own natural gifts and very basic close up weapons like swords and the like when fighting among themselves. These ‘Honorable Weapons’ required actually closing with the enemy, skill and real courage to use. They also despised the way high tech weapons killed indiscriminately and their destructiveness. Simple weapons insured that only those on the battlefield were killed (if it came to a full blown battle) not the enemy’s families, nor would the land and wildlife suffer. The biggest problem for the humans though concerning military technology from the mutants was… what did they have to offer for it? The answer (fortunately) was nothing. Or…at least they didn’t. Beverly Chambers had a radical idea that just might work. It was the only thing that the Bellasarians had ever been concerned about, but for many reasons, the humans couldn’t or wouldn’t deliver willingly. But now, under the right circumstances, that might change.

******

The empress, her consort and son walk back to their private quarters in the palace with mixed feelings about the meeting with the Earth humans, and with good reason. Many of the Bellasarians had no interest whatsoever in making contact with the Earthlings. They had nothing of value to offer and had proven to be greedy and treacherous time and again. The only people who actually seemed enthusiastic about reopening ties with Earth was the Akkadians, but even they still suggested further talks and ambassadors before they made any hasty decisions. The Akkadians could be a problem. They were not part of the empire. Indeed, they were the second largest power on the known planet and although they were on very amicable terms now, the bloodiest conflicts on this world had been between the empire and them. The Akkadian Republic could, if they managed to gain a teleport device, make legal independent treaties with the Earth nations. Beral smiled grimly. But they didn’t have the teleportation technology and never would. Her ancestors had seen to that, and this tradition she intended to keep during her reign as well. Akkadians were only a little better than Earthlings in her opinion and, mutants or not, could only be trusted to a certain degree. As the empress and her consort approached their own quarters, the prince parted from his parents and headed to his own chambers, stating that he would see them this evening at the private feast for the Bellasarian leaders and their vassals. The empress chuckled. It was obvious that the boy didn’t care for the stuffy manners and clothes that were required for meetings with people like the Akkadians and now these Earth people, but then again, neither did she. The platform-shoes she was wearing were annoying as hell.