Venus had spent her alone time in the lavish dressing room on the space station just lounging around, eating the ruby roman grapes that were left for her in a bowl on the vanity. She ate them sparingly, one at a time, every five minutes or so. After a dozen grapes, she put down her tablet and stood up to do some light stretching, followed by some more rigorous poses from the hatha asana sect of yoga, which she was obviously very familiar with.

The dancer finished with her legs and arms twisted in front of her, seated on a fancy arabian rug in the middle of the room.

She relaxed her muscles, letting her limbs fall down into lotus position, and began to mediate.

A few minutes passed.

Then, beeping began.

The source: the monitor/mirror above the vanity across the room.

Venus lazily opened her eyes, steadily arose from the ground, and sauntered like a cat over to the communication device, and gracefully seated herself on the pink cushioned ottoman. Her lovely nubile reflection stared back at her through the quicksilver.

A switch was flipped and her double disappeared, into a wave of blackness that had washed over the mirror.

In her place was the deep, dark eyes of a man unflinchingly peering into Venus’ dressing room. He was brazened, turbaned, and had a strong jawline that was articulated by his chiseled facial hair. His stoned demeanor lasted for a few moments, maybe not realizing he could be seen, and then, shifted into a completely new manner of being.

A wide friendly grin came over his face and he nodded his head down a bit, allowing the lush of his gloomy eyes to be seen more easily through the electronic monitor.

“Oh hello, my dear, it’s quite an honor to be finally meeting you, Miss Venus. I have admired you for some time now. I am very pleased you have accepted our invitation to grace us on this space station!”

“Of course, my Lord. The honor is mine; for you to have invited me up here in the first place is really quite something, I’ve heard so much about the Apollyon since I was a kid, and I always wanted to visit––Not only to be invited up here, but to perform as well, is truly a privilege.” Venus said, quite respectfully, and made a slight bow.

“Please, you can just call me Khalid, being we’re both colleagues when it comes to creative endeavors.” On the screen Khalid closed his eyes and bowed his head a bit, “You know, I have quite the artistic disposition myself, and feel like I can spot real talent when I see it. And you, young lady, most definitely have got it. Never in my years have I seen anyone be able to move so nimbly, gracefully, and yet be so expressive of the full spectrum of the human personality… You have brought the evolution of dance to a new juncture, in my opinion.” King Khalid complimented, now gazing at the image of Venus on his side of the monitors.

“That is too kind of you to say, especially coming from you, my Lor-, I mean, Khalid.”

Venus made a goofy grin, unable to hide her embarrassed reaction to the King’s flattery.

“Yes,” Khalid continued, “Your performance tonight shall be quite special... Are you finding everything to your fitting? Is there anything I can provide for you to help prepare you for your art?”

“No, everything’s perfect. I just love being here, in outer space; to be away from it all, the Earth and everything I’ve ever known, is really remarkable.” Venus mused.

“Good, good… I’m glad you like it here.” Khalid said, smiling warmly with friendly eyes.

But then his tone shifted and became more serious, “I must warn you though, this is quite rare for this station– I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there seems to have been some sort of skirmish here, early today, though it’s nothing to be worried about, we got it all taken ca– “

“Oh, I know all about that. I was there when it happened.”

“What, really? Are you okay?”

“Oh yeah, I’m fine!”

“Did you see the terrorists, Jack the Anglo?” Khalid said, very curious.

“Yeah, as matter fact, not only did I see him, but he actually hijacked my shuttle in order to get on to your station.”

“Hmm, that’s very peculiar. Our surveillance system usually picks up on those sort of associations…” Khalid admitted openly, quite puzzled. “And he didn’t hurt you?”

“Nope. They just took my ship, and that’s it.”

“Never before have we had an intrusion like this on the Apollyon; typically they don’t make it past the guards on the hangar. This is situation, however, seems to be quite different.” Khalid pondered out loud, “Could you possibly, maybe, tell me what you saw early today, Miss Venus?”

Venus looked away from the screen and rubbed her bottom lip with her pointer finger, thinking.

“Hmm, well, it all happened so fast, I really don’t remember much. Everyone started running around, and there was a lot of commotion.” She said, covering for Jack. “I was just so glad to finally get away from that brute.”

“Certainly a brute. Him and his band of barbarians. They stand for everything this station is not: savagery, tastelessness, infidelity to liberalism––But, they are, after all, a dying race, a vestige from the past. We will take care of these outlaws soon enough and leave their bestiality behind us.”

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“Certainly.”

“And the Anglo, he didn’t mention by any chance what his plans were, where he was going?”

“No, he was rather coy about the whole thing, to be honest. Those Anglos, no matter what sort of debauchery or knavery they’re inflicting upon you, they still have the audacity to be cordial and polite about the whole thing while they do it. It’s kind of sickening…” Venus remarked, repeating a well-known stereotype.

“Couldn’t agree more. Their kind has tarnished the planet since they’ve arisen from the swamps of that ghastly island, all those millenniums ago. And we civilized people, who have lived and been cleansed by the sand of the deserts since the cradle of civilization have had to suffer and carry their racial burden like a persistent virus, to this very day. If we could, once and for all, get rid of their kind, then, finally, we might be able to make a paradise, down on Earth...”

The Master of Dance made wordless agreements to Khalid’s political rant, a few nods, a couple of cute smiles.

“Well, I don’t want to bother you for too long, my dear. I know you probably want to get ready for tonight’s dinner and your performance later. It was a pleasure meeting you, and I very much look forward to seeing you later on this evening.” Khalid closed with, “Oh and I’m not sure if Aesop mentioned it, but please, I would be most honored if you would come sit next to me at the head of the table. You’ll get the best service, I promise you that.”

Khalid grinned.

“Oh, absolutely. I very much am looking forward to it, and yes, it was an honor to meet you, King Khalid. I will see you later.”

“Goodbye, then, Miss Venus.”

“Goodbye!”

Khalid closed his hand in front of the monitor before it went black. He stared at his dark reflection on the blackened screen for a few seconds and then turned away. He pushed the intercom button on his chair.

“Aesop, I want you to come see me, immediately, in person; We need to talk.”

“Yes, sire. Coming right away.”

The King had spent the interlude of solitude pacing back and forth in front of his many monitors, all the while puffing on his hookah as if he needed it for oxygen. He said a few things out loud in a whisper like, “Hmm, it’s not possible.” and, “it can’t be– “, obviously not able to suppress his consternation.

The humble servant, Aesop appeared in the viewing room, and made his way to his master. Khalid took a seat on his beanbag and waited for Aesop to stand in front of him before saying anything. His face seemed tired.

“Aesop, what is going on with this station? Aren’t we lauded as the pinnacle of human progress, the example of what it means to be state-of the-art, and the very height of technological innovation? Then, tell me, why we are having so many issues with our security systems today? What? We can’t even take care of the simple job of maintenance, like a common plumber? It’s not like we trying to reinvent rocket science here! I’m very disappointed on the performance of this station, which saddens me to say!”

With knitted eyebrows, the King expressed his dissatisfaction with his servant.

“You’re supposed to be my consul, Aesop, and inform me of any issues that arise! If I can’t trust your competency, then I really have no one to trust! That’s why I want you immediately to explain to me what exactly is going on and why I wasn’t informed sooner.”

“My utmost apologizes, my lord. If you just allow me to explai– “

“Did you know that Jack the Anglo snuck onto this ship by taking Miss Venus hostage, our most-esteemed guest tonight? Why wasn’t I able to see what was going in the hangar bay? There’s probably a camera every inch of this station yet still, all this time has passed and I haven’t seen one single frame!”

“There’s seems to have been a coincidence of unrelated issues that have manifested in our systems and impinged on standard protocols. Our networks are backed up and are having a difficult time processing the security footage from the hangar bay for some unknown reason that we’re working on, so we could not immediately feed it into your viewing room.” Aesop coolly explained “As for Miss Venus and the Anglo. There’s seems to have been a signal jammer that was activated sometime after take-off that prevented our surveillance of the shuttle. Whether it was the terrorists or the dancer, we’re really– “

“No, no, definitely not Venus. Just from the conversation I had with her I can tell she has no real interest in the angloids resistance. In fact she seemed rather distraught about the whole thing. Plus, I have kept an eye on her for some time now and haven’t seen the slightest hint of insubordination.”

“Well I only mention the girl, being who her father is and all– “

“What? Whose her father?”

“Why, don’t you remember? You personally took care of him yourself at the Old Citadel, about twenty years ago, in front of everybody. It was quite the spectacle! That was the last time you were on Earth actually, come to think of it.”

“You mean to tell me, Alfred the Great, was Venus’ father? How’s that possible? Her skin is so tanned– well now that you mention, she does have some angloid features...” The King quietly pondered for a few seconds. “No matter. I want you to get this live feed issue sorted out as soon as possible, and, I want to know where that Angloid and his partner are!”

“Sire, I’m getting word right now from our surveillance team.” Aesop said, touching the earbud in one of his ears. “They said they are now able to transmit today’s incident and display it on your screens.”

“Well, it’s about time”

Khalid folded his arms.

On every screen there appeared a playback of Venus, Char-on, Jack, and Chicken deboarding the shuttle and their confrontation with the jinn. Khalid’s immediate reaction to seeing his soldiers being sucked up was apparent; he was appalled, even shocked.

“Whaaat? How is this possible? Where did they get this sort of technology? How were they able to figure out the true nature of my men?”

“Our sources say that Jack the Anglo, specifically, could be consider a genius by some standards, and has shown to be adaptive, resourceful, and innovative in most situations. We believe from our profile analysis that he personally, somehow, figured out your embodiment method and put together this machine. But not to worry sire, we have our best researchers working on what exactly this device is and ways to counteract it.”

“Well, you can tell the researchers to take the rest of the day off, I already know what sort of technology the Anglo is using. It’s a vacuum cleaner, an old cleaning device used before my time.”

“Interesting…”

“The fact though that this Angloid dug that thing up and is now using it mercilessly on my men is utterly horrifying– Why didn’t we see this coming? We should have been more prepared for this sort of thing! I want this terrorist taken care of immediately! Don’t make me have to personally take care of this, Aesop…”

“Certainly, my Lord! Though his wits may be sharp, the Anglo is no match for our security systems here, we’ll have them in no time.”

“Good. I like to hear your optimism. I believe you’ll do what it takes to make sure this taken care of, or I am going to be forced to be looking for a new consul soon. I want a report every hour on the status on the intruders. If you want to find me, I’ll be in the sunroom, getting some light-therapy before dinner.”

“Yes, your majesty.”

His humble servant bowed, and exited the scene.