Galaxy Pirates

Chapter 45: The Hostage of the Pirates

"Have you heard? The Divine Emperor's dead!"

"What? How come? Father said the Galaxy Navy division missioned to battle him still hasn't been deployed yet!"

"No, Imi, they say it was the pirates – Captain Sinbad fought the Divine Emperor, and they both died. Rumours claim that Planet Earth has become a new central battleground. Even the Pirate Empire aims at it now, not just our government or the Reptiloids".

"Captain Sinbad – the last Herminoid – has died?"

Imijenia wan Buetter, who was now working in a bakery cafe where she was employed, looked at her boss Hilda with the utmost stupefaction. This latter also happened to be a nurse to have brought her up since her birth when she lost her mother. She was a chubby woman of shorter size, a pure Radenoid, and a good friend of her late Dionoid mother.

"Yes, dear child, but there's more than that – it has turned out that Captain Sinbad and the Divine Emperor were actually twin brothers, so it was not just one but two last Herminoids and both of them are now gone. You know what this means?"

"That the Galaxy Navy will finally get their hands on Planet Earth because the Reptiloids, without the Divine Emperor, are no match against us?"

"Yes, naturally, but the rumours about these outrageous pirates still scare me..."

"Come on, Auntie Hilda! What can be so bad about them? They're fighting for justice and freedom".

"Killing our people from the Galaxy Navy is fighting for justice and freedom? Open your eyes, Imi! You are no more a little child to think with such naivety. Your own father serves as one of the admirals, and you've still got the nerve to praise pirates? Have you never seen their emperor's posters or images? He is a monster no less horrible than the late Divine Emperor!"

Imi, hearing these remarks of her nurse, glanced at a wall where the hologram-device was hung, showing the portraits of some outrageous criminals devastating the Raden Universe. One of the most distinguishable among those pictures was an image of a short-black-haired black-eyed vicious young man with an impish grin beneath his slouch hat, while his bloodied hands were well visible under the black coat he had hung on his red-shirted shoulders – the well-known Galaxy Pirate Emperor, Young Captain Blood Diamond. He was so notorious that no one could ever dare confront him directly anymore, him holding a whole empire within his crimson clutches. Opposing him was like opposing a whole another country – a third force added to the Imperial Government of the Reptiloids and the Intergalactic Government of the Radenoids. A whole criminal empire was indeed a terrible power to fight against, so the rumours about the infamous Shark Tooth Pirates noted by the blue-sailed ships and the Cyber Sammy flags brought horror to every citizen of the Intergalactic Government.

"Auntie Hilda, I wonder... how could a horrible man such as that create such a powerful empire?"

"Hmph, he has bewitched everyone around him, I gather! He is a pathetic off-spring of three cruel races, what else could you expect from him? He and the likes of him should be hanged!"

Hilda fussed around the kitchen, helping Imi prepare cookies which she would then deliver to the customers sitting at tables in the bakery cafe. Among this elegant bunch, there were several quite unusual figures gathered at a single table in the darkest corner of the room so that their faces were completely hidden, added that all of them had wrapped themselves in dark coats and cloaks. One of them, whom every other looked at with apparent respect and submission, sat in his armchair in truly a strange manner – reclined to an armrest, his feet rested onto the other one – and smoked an expensive cigar found only in distant galaxies, filling the chamber with ecstatic scent. Presently they heard a mild cough and looked up at Imi, who had just brought their order – five cups of hot muku juice and a plate of cookies native to Planet Raden.