Prime Viewing

Although the enslaved scientist wanted to help his fellow servants, his mind divined no solution. The relentless pursuit of pleasure by the Primes ruled his life. In their self-centered intolerance to the more general human condition, however, the elite females reveled.

To come into their power, the meekest and the strongest would need a scientist. One who explored an environment beneficial to all survivors. The floods from the dissolving ice caps would cease soon. All the man needed was a trifecta.

1. Distract and destroy the failed experiment of Primes.
2. Engage protectors to oversee the restoration of extinct life forms.
3. Restore equilibrium to Earth.

One day, his hopes rose. Maybe humankind stood a chance of beating their captors. A shipment of animals arrived at his laboratory. The crate contained two extraordinary creatures.

The first creature acted and oozed testosterone like a healthy human male. Beyond his humanoid persona, though, the creature's veil of deception obscured a neon green dragon head with bronze antlers.

Impenetrable scales covered his head, neck, and chest. A turquoise armor-plated vertebrae protected his emerald-colored stallion's torso. His stallion's forefeet and tail sported fringes and feathers of brilliant grass. Two rear dragon claws completed his anatomy.

The other magnificent presence, Kora, appeared as a frail silver-haired female. Beguiling eyes, their color impossible to determine, and nothing but vitality and illumination existed inside her skin.

These exceptional guests would execute the first round of Thoth's three-pronged attack in six days. All they had to do was to agree on the specifics of the show.

Let's explore the anatomy of the fresh meat through the eyes of the Empress before we sit back for the show to unfold. The bold physique of the bronze muscular male complements the female. His strength versus her pale fragility. The perfect disguises to fool the evil woman and her cronies.

On the day, Kora plans to restore life to exhumed human composters. A puzzled Moros and her visiting sisters would demand the female perform her trick again and again.

Meanwhile, Geoff will assist the freshly risen by brushing the soil from their stained clothes. Next, he'll escort them from parts of the arena where their bodies lay for years to benches nearby.

For the first part of the plan, Kora's act must hold the audience's attention. If not, Geoff's role in the performance risks the plotters' lives. The aim is to sneak around to the back of the stage and decapitate all three of the sisters.

The quilin, renowned for protecting the kindest leaders and wisest thinkers of an era, will attack evildoers. For your information, Geoff is a common male name, yet qilins identify with they/them/their non-gender pronouns.

In the months after the ultimate days of 2068, the oceans and rivers merged and rose to their highest. The Primes moved to mountain tops a decade earlier. They viewed the world they helped create and smiled. The minions were where they belonged.

The year-on-year floods eradicated the ordinary primates and any other organism which couldn't adapt to breathing underwater. Inferior humans failed to acknowledge and act according to their betters, thus having only themselves to blame.

Before the most hostile locations became warm oases, the most informed bought all the highest livable landmasses. The choice for former gold prospectors of La Rinconada, Peru; stay and build a citadel cut from the mountainous rock. Or leave and risk disease and death. Of course, the majority opted for retraining. Those who failed took their meager possessions and set up camp farther down from the peak.

Prime Moros arranged for the disposal of the failures. A mountain marred by rotting bodies spoiled the view. Let lumps of flesh provide compost for the fertility of the land where the remaining food sources thrived. The lucky ones drawn from a celebratory lottery received the coveted prize of tending the gardens. Gardens of remembrance, filled with their decomposing relatives and friends. The woman smirked at the irony.

Until scientists reversed global warming, lesser humans relied on tyrants. These people would not survive, so the chore fell to Moros to deal with them. Primes Apate in China, and Keres in India, suffered similar scenes of bodies strewn willy-nilly across their land when the secondaries refused to surrender. Alas, the stories of her sisters must wait for another day.

Only the phenomenal brains and those with abnormal strength served the elite women. These shrewd Vavasours oversaw the humans intelligent enough to invent novel solutions when required. Their chief function was to secure entertainment for the three sisters every week.

Sometimes, the futile resistance of runners resulted in suspension suits. A hilarious punishment Moros, Apate, Keres, and their Vavasours relished. Most days, a reckless human would attempt escape or suicide. Because the mistresses needed the surviving vassals, they devised a harmless yet humiliating punishment.

The hapless person puts on a sky-diving suit. A remote-controlled pick and carry crane, appropriated from one of the long-forgotten Amazon warehouses and bejeweled by Moros, is used to lower a giant glass jar over her victim.

Another slave, perhaps a friend, switches on the mega fans. If you think this sounds like fun, please reserve your judgment for a moment. The Prime presses various buttons to inflict pain. One click hurls the ill-fated human against the dome. Another ricochets the object of humiliation like a moth off a lightbulb. The sadist claps her hands with glee.

The immaculate female hits stop when the servant goes limp. At which point, the battered and bruised underling plummets to the grill covering the massive vertical wind tunnel. Most survive and return to their duties, determined to avoid this form of discipline again.

Forced to find original answers and fun for their captors, the vassals fought for their existence daily. Those considered the lesser brains, yet still at the top of their mental acuity, bonded to deliver the shows. The latest distraction might save all the underlings' lives.

The head vassal, Thoth, rallied his team to produce the finest performance to date. On Saturday, her day of frivolity, Prime Moros decided on the fate of the least helpful servant. Nobody wanted to end up as worm-food. So they slaved to secure another week of wracking their minds. For nothing more than gross pleasure.

The day arrives, but little goes to plan. Splendid in their Romanesque gowns and laurel leaf tiaras, the three awful sisters lounge in macrame hammocks. Impatient for the show to begin.

The host, Moros, expects the fresh entertainment to provide an exciting skit, a romance, or tragedy. Fate, however, interferes as she turns to Keres. A glint of metal at the throat of the female captures her attention.

Only Primes may wear precious decorative pieces, a rule she instated herself. The savior of humanity, in her mind, motions to her bodyguard. She demands he brings the female's necklace to her.

The audience of Vavasours fidgets and mutters while the Atlas impersonator stomps down to the performers.

Entertainers Geoff and Kora stand motionless, wondering what the delay means. The guard approaches them and raises his hand as though to strike the slight woman.

The buff male flinches but remains in position, fearing he will reveal himself too soon. Ragged fingernails scrape the dermis as the bulked-up man grabs her golden chain. The delicate links break with no effort, and the neanderthal lumbers away in his black kevlar body armor.

On the podium, the Primes pace with impatience. Eager to examine the unexpected treasure, Apate snatches the heart from the lumbering fellow. The tallest, Keres, whips the trinket away with a flourish, taunting her siblings by holding it aloft.

The sisters' fingers grasp clothing and limbs as they try to steal the treasure from Keres.

Geoff disappears around the edge of the stage and sneaks up on the cruel old maids.

The qilin blazes forth, illuminating the platform. Fire licks the air as he rears above them on his hind legs. Before they can react, he crushes them with his forehooves.

A short section of the chain glints outside Kere's fist. Returned to his human disguise, he prises open the Prime's fingers to reveal a heart-shaped locket and long gold chain. He raises his head and refocuses on Kora's slumped form.

He flies to her in an instant, crouches, and listens, but no blood pumps or flows. The golden heart in his hand glimmers in the sunlight and breathes. Human digits, light as air, place the bewitched amulet in the cleft of her clavicle.

Heavy moments pass. The head vassal kneels next to Geoff on the dusty arena floor. The pair protect Kora from the sentinels who surround the three heroes.

The watchmen nod, relax their shoulders, and re-holster their weapons.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe, a Vavasour chants. An ecstatic audience accompanies him until a crescendo of voices brings about the desired wish.

The silver-haired woman splutters and coughs and gulps down air as though her life depends on it. Which, of course, it does.

Geoff wriggles his blonde eyebrows, and the golden heart dissolves into Kora's windpipe. A true gentleman, he bows and holds out his hand. The crowd goes wild, clapping and stomping their feet. The gentlewoman accepts his hand and stands.

The three near-strangers join hands and bow. There is much work, but they bask in the moment's joy. The floodwaters can evaporate into the atmosphere by themselves, but arduous toil comes later with correcting the spoiled environment.

The silver-haired goddess's powers, however, speed up the journey of airborne microscopic droplets to the sky. Also, Zeus, her father, agreed to hold back cloudbursts until Earth needs them again. And last, she begs her mother, Demeter, to bless the barren mountain land with fertility.

Together the Vavasours and vassals build temporary homes for everyone. Like morello cherry jam gives sweetness with a twist of tangy, all the free humans longed for exciting life flavors.

The former servants rediscover a long-forgotten zest for life and throw themselves into their tasks. A refreshing change from doing the Prime's bidding.

The waters recede and many choose to seek new homes. Survival will be hard but restoring entire ecosystems is the most critical challenge.

Heartened by Kora's powers to transform the quality of the contaminated soil, the humans set out to comb the land for their perfect homestead spots. Both of the goddess's hearts restored the planet to a better time. One where nature and all humankind carved their fate with the Earth's blessing.

Spring emerged from its forced slumber. A free new world will need harvests to fill bellies and fuel minds. So, Kora stood on the mountain peak, spread her arms, and whispered life into Demeter's grains for them to thrive.