LOST IN SPACE
Capítulo 4: Lost in the palace
The Robinsons headed for what was the military command's air base and were asked to board a kind of decorated, antique barge in the middle of the place.
At first the Robinsons didn't understand anything about it, but once they approached the barge, they noticed that it was equipped with propellers, it was a kind of glider airframe!
A catgirl named Alia would be in charge of taking them to the capital.
“The ascent and descent are a bit rough, so sit still," Alia said, "then you can walk on the deck.”
The ascent was intense due to the strength of the thrusters, but after the ship reached a certain height, it sailed across the sky at a pleasant speed and without any vibration.
The Robinsons were looking around when a giant white pterodactyl flew over them. The magnificent creature shrieked and made the Robinsons feel intimidated, then dozens of normal birds approached the giant and began to surround it and flew alongside it.
“You saw it Mom, you saw it!” Will shouted excitedly.
The Robinsons were watching the gentle giant walk away and began to laugh, only Smith seemed unsure of being with them at the time.
The journey continued smoothly and the Robinsons could see that beneath them the towns and cities followed one another more regularly.
“We will soon arrive in Chenrinsu, the capital," Alia told them.
“What does Chenrinsu mean?” John asked.
“It is a conjunction of the name of two of the three founders of the empire," replied Alia, "the warriors Chen Koshka, Rin Koshka and Nekoi Koshka. They brought together the various races of catgirls and catboys and formed an empire, yet Chen died before being crowned empress by the tuberculosis that afflicted her for years and Rin was crowned empress in her place.”
“Rhin," Alia continued, "died two weeks after her coronation in the war against the Reptilians. The younger of the Nekoi sisters then took the reins of the empire, but she never lived in the capital, because she spent the rest of her days fighting the reptilians and other warlike races of that time. She never married or had children, so her niece Bagi, Rin's daughter, was crowned the first true empress of the empire and in gratitude to her ancestors named the capital Chenrinsu and named her territory the Nekoi Empire.”
“Robinson's family I detect that we were approaching a large city” the robot was communicating with them.
The Robinsons were impressed to see the city, it was huge with a huge river snaking through the middle. The houses of oriental architecture had their ceilings finished off with material that seemed to be made of ruby sheets.
The capital is also called the ruby city and if you are now impressed, expect to see the city at sunset, then the reflection of the sun makes all the ceilings light up with their own light and the flash can be seen for miles and miles around," said Alia, full of pride.
The ship descended to the airport and the Robinsons were greeted by a small entourage.
“So you are the Robinsons, welcome to you!” They were greeted by an old woman with a white tail and ears. She was a fox girl.
“Minister, I didn't know you were going to be part of the party!” Suddenly Alia said, and it got stuck in a martial stance.
“At ease, soldier," said the old woman and proceeded to introduce herself. Her name was Blair and she was the minister of war and defense, as the situation warranted.
Next to Blair, there were two other women. One was huge, two metres and ten centimetres long, called Coyori and was the commander general of the army.
Coyori seemed to be in his mid-thirties, very muscular and had a look and a face that seemed to say: "I'll beat you to death just for the pleasure of doing it", a cold smile accentuated the whole of that dangerous psychotic face. Her garments were of oriental mediaeval style and she had a brown tail and ears that were barely noticeable due to the tangled and wild style of the catgirl's hair.
On the other side of Minister Blair, there was a young catgirl, she seemed to be in her early twenties and her name was Char. The catgirl was the captain of a new force newly formed in the army and for that reason she was with the entourage.
Unlike Blair and Coyori, Char had a face and a cheerful, hopeful look. Her clothes were lighter than the general clothes and she had orange hair.
John introduced Minister Blair to the rest of the group and they proceeded to the palace.
The capital was very clean and they noticed that some birds and animals, such as horses, were the same as their counterparts on their worlds, with the exception that they seemed to have cat ears.
Penny, Judy and Will whispered very amusingly about this point, but the men, especially Don and Jose, were nervous at the sidelong glances of the huge Coyori catgirl, it was obvious that she was challenging them.
They arrived at what appeared to be the imperial palace and were amazed at how colossal the architecture was.
Both the Robinsons and Lieutenant Juan Perez were accustomed to seeing colossal structures, but these were warships or spacecraft or very tall buildings, but in front of them was a massive eastern structure topped with a western-style dome.
“For all the dark hells and skies of creation. What's that?” Smith exclaimed in front of the large architectural complex, wondering how he had not seen such a giant when they approached the city.
The white marble dome was topped by three huge statues resting on top of it, each larger than the Statue of Liberty with its included pedestal.
“Impressive is not so," Blair said, "the dome has no secret in itself, but to hold the statues requires the use of magic.”
“Magic?” John said incredulously and set out to contradict the minister because there was no such thing as magic in this or any other universe, all these things were just mirrors and fumes.
“Actually, magic does exist," said Juan, who had apparently guessed the Robinson father's intentions. “In my universe we find several species that used something that could be called magic, scientists are very interested in knowing its source of origin but so far only have guesses.”
“These three statues represent the three founders of the empire?” Penny asked.
“What a clever young lady! You John must surely be proud of her," said Blair amused, frizzing her long, white hair as well as her snowy, fluffy tail.
“You heard Mommy, "What a clever young lady"," said Penny to her mother, but she gave her a warning sign and then everyone looked at the dome and the statues.
Each one represented not an image of war and glory but one of peace and harmony, they were sitting with their backs to each other and gently looking at the horizon, wearing long kimonos and their arms were stretched out as if they were singing.
“Unbelievable," said Judy and everyone came in next.
The interior of the place had an oriental style and there were several small gardens strategically scattered.
“In reality, the "imperial palace" serves more as a collection of government offices, of course we will soon see the emperors, but they live in the Four Seasons Cherry Tree Fields.”
“Four Seasonal Cherries?” Maureen asked.
“Yes, in that place the cherry trees are in bloom all year round because of the magic," Blair explained, "a beautiful and gentle setting indeed.”
“Well, I found out that the maids are more than fed up with having to sweep all the petals 24 hours a day," Coyori said with a sarcastic smile, "they don't look pretty when you sweep them off the floor, with all that dust and dirt.”
Char gave the muscular catgirl a poisoned look, so did Blair.
“Good thing we're being led here," Penny whispered to her brother Will, "that's all that's left, apart from being lost in space, to be lost in the palace.”
They arrived at a restricted hall and met the emperors.
“You are in the presence of Nekoi's most noble and beloved sovereigns, Emperor Chaton Koshka and Empress Merilo Koshka” said an imperial halberdier with pomp.
The emperors had thin and graceful features, long and black hair, as well as long tails and ears, and to top it off, they had the blackest eyes they had ever seen in their lives, eyes that contrasted with the very white skin of their faces.
Minister Blair introduced the group of newcomers ceremoniously and the emperors welcomed them.
The Robinsons and John explained their situation to the emperors and they offered to give them all the help they could, which included access to all their star charts, but they were told that they would most likely stay on the planet forever because an individual from the Robinson universe had already arrived earlier and by consulting the star charts, they realized that he was not in his own universe, perhaps Juan would be luckier than the rest of the group.
The Robinsons asked to know the subject's name and this turned out to be Dr. Miguel Garcia. John and Maureen were surprised because they knew the subject in question, he was the former professor of the couple when they were still studying (and hated each other to death) in college.
“Professor Garcia? I thought she had died in one of his experiments at La Vaina University," Maureen told her husband.
“His body was never found, but it is strange, the old master should be, I don't know, a hundred years old?”
“Ninety-eight years, seven months, and two days to be exact, young John, you were never very accurate with numbers," said an old character with small, dark glasses suddenly smiling maniacally.
“Professor!” Maureen suddenly shouted and couldn't help but run to her former professor and mentor.
“Maureen? My dear girl! What are you doing in this place?”
“So you and the old man knew each other," Don whispered to John.
“This is going to be a very long stay," moaned John, holding the bridge of his nose tightly.
“What's the story between you two?” Don asked.
“The teacher always saw Maureen as his favorite student and considered her as a daughter, I, on the other hand, was the rebellious and idealistic young man who never set foot on the ground. To sum up: the man hated me and like Maureen's father, he didn't approve of me courting his daughter at all.”
“Well, history doesn't have to repeat itself, I mean, you can be more understanding with me and my relationship with Judy," Don said with a stupid smile and John looked badly at the older man and went to meet his former professor.
“Yep, history repeats itself," said Don disappointed.
CONTINUARÁ...
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