Heirs of Planet Life 2 - The Origin Of Life

IX - Princess Isadora's Party

In the royal palace, Princess Isadora's birthday was coming. A large party was being prepared to commemorate the young woman's 18 years and also erase the shadow of Mirov's escape and the kidnapped engineers. In order to resolve the case of the ex-councilor's release quickly, the king appointed a special investigation team to pursue Mirov and those who helped him escape, in addition to finding the missing engineers. Counselor Kenan was instructed to inform the king in person about the progress of the investigations, any time it was necessary.

Meanwhile, the king and his subjects had no idea that death was roaming the palace coming from one of their most influential contributors. As Croiff worked on the royal service, the chances of reaching his goal were great. He took advantage of the moment of distraction, caused by the anxiety of the party, to put his plan into practice. Before he went, Mirov had promised to give a good reward for his services, as well as a prominent position in court when the coup d'etat is given and he becomes the new monarch. Croiff was ambitious and decided that he would serve his new master. As a cupbearer of royalty, he walked freely in every royal chamber serving food and drink to everyone.

It was lunchtime, and the guards were watching over the royal family and the surroundings. Croiff took advantage of a moment when the hallways of the dormitories were empty, climbed the stairs sneakily, and entered the king's room with the statue. Even if he could walk all over the court, he could not be seen there, not to cause suspicion. For a few seconds, he stared at the statue, amazed at its beauty. Then he carefully placed it on the headboard of King Zador's bed. Without the protection of the box's lead coating, the invisible radiation would escape and gradually poison the ruler. The artifact would lie next to his bed and his body would absorb large amounts of highly lethal radiation.

As Croiff prepared to leave, he heard footsteps in the corridor. Someone came and the door opened:

"That's weird! I was almost sure that I heard footsteps inside the king's room," thought the maid, looking all around. She cleaned the room and left it quickly, for she had to finish cleaning the other rooms.

It was not until the steps of the maid disappeared in the hallway that the lid of an old chest opened in the corner of the room, and two wide eyes appeared, checking to see if the place was safe. It was Croiff, who had jumped into the chest as soon as he noticed someone approaching from the hallway. It was time to get out of there, and fast. He would allow death to touch the king gradually until the fatal hour.

It was only a few days before the king became ill. A battery of examinations was made and doctors at the palace discovered, unbelieving, that the monarch's cells were deteriorating. But as much as they tried, they couldn't find the cause of such evil. The only thing they could do was treat the symptoms to lessen the pain. Skin sores began to appear; the platelets acting on blood coagulation were ruptured, leaving purple spots all over the body, and in addition, the king had his immune resistance decreased. The servants began to get sick too, since they went to the king's room to fix it and exposed themselves to radiation. People began to think the symptoms were of a new, unknown disease. And a contagious one...

Meanwhile, outside the royal palace, the king's enemies were preparing for the great rebellion. Mirov executed his cunning plan in minimum detail. Dargan entered the royal palace database and scanned the holographs of three guards who did the security for the royal family. The soldier used nano-insects in the form of mosquitoes to fly at them and bite them, drawing blood samples that would serve as genetic material to be copied.

Captain Fizard's soldiers transmuted into these guards and neutralized the real officers. Thus, they began to watch over the routine of the royal family for a long time. Meanwhile, the attack robots were being prepared for "the great day of revenge," as Mirov liked to call. It would be at Princess Isadora's 18th birthday party, the perfect occasion for the invasion of the palace and imprisonment of the royal family.