Timeless Monarch: Astora

Chapter 3

The woman in the gray medical flight suit, with the number designation 600,078, led Astora to the floor of Kaz Keegan's medical suite. She was assuming Kaz received special treatment wherever he went in his empire. Let's be honest: why wouldn't you make a VIP suite in EVERY location you owned?

The two of them walked into the discreet room inside of the not-so-discreet... Um, okay... So... Astora wouldn't have thought to call it a hospital room, per se. It's more like "the palace bed chambers." Astora said aloud. She heard that iconic Hahoha laugh of Keegan and moved her eyes to try and locate him within the room's opulence.

Gray with traces of red were the colors of choice for the room. The large sofa that Keegan sat on was to the left of the door (from the perspective of someone who had walked into the room). His monstrous 70 inch TV was on the wall opposite her, playing some movie that must have been circulating from the space station's fiber cable TV broadcasting station. Space stations always had their own entertainment personalities and tastes. From what it looked like, this place had romantic comedies a'plenty being fed through the local network. Wholesome programming for a not-so-wholesome slave-creating quadrillionaire.

Astora realized that Keegan had a large living area in his hospital "room," and his actual bedroom had to be located separately from this room. She was correct; Keegan emerged from another room built to the right of the area. The vast 9ft by 6ft skylight built into the side of the wall gave Astora the impression of being in a luxury apartment more than a hospital room. But Astora hadn't forgotten that she was in a damn hospital room.

Kaz Keegan walked out into the living space, subsequently trailed by 2 cyborg guards with rifles slung over their shoulders. Pistols in their hip holsters and a few noticeable implants visible over their bodies. Kaz was still a #9f512c man who looked 40 but was in reality closer to a 300-year-old curmudgeon.

This was the man with a country of children, all made from eggs of humans from across the universe, inseminated by him. Human woman were either bought or sold into being birth mothers for Keegan across the galaxy. Most woman go to Keegan voluntarily, which isn't a surprise, others are sold to him by low-income families. It's a messy situation, but somehow Keegan has been able to navigate it all with an deific amount of grace. These woman were sold to him as, "wives" and then are given the "royal treatment."

Some women brought the children to term, within their wombs so that they could get better treatment in the birthing pens, nicknamed Pen Mothers. Others just sold their eggs for incubation in medical facilities to make some quick cash and be on their way, affectionately called Drop Mothers. Rarely did Pen Mothers not take both options, the money was so good. Hundreds of children were born every Earth year for Keegan's Clan. Even if cloning was seen by the Old Earth Traditionalists as "ethical under our old god" it didn't bother them when they needed one of Keegan's "Gift from God." Keegan didn't care either way, he sold all types of slaves and the world making him the richest man in it, proved how much people really did love slavery. Ethics, as Keegan always knew, were a load of bullshit. Don't do something that'll cause consequences you can't recover from. Hence, the fake politeness and safe stances on his brand of slavery in the public eye. Morality just needed enough justification for 99% of the population; if he were wrong, he wouldn't be this financially powerful. Would he?

The children of Keegans children usually still followed in Keegan's Clan Creed. Many of the ideologies came from the Gian Omari, father of the lost. Work for the one who provides for you and never bite them, because where would you be without them? All of the money you make as a Keegan Clan descendant was sent back to Keegan as a "tax." The mothers also had to pay into the child support for the children of the Clan. If they couldn't pay, then Keegan would supply them with a job and like that, Keegan had a family business no one could topple. One nation under Keegan.