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CHAPTER SEVEN
The Trials of the Spider Queen
SHANGHAIED...IN...SPACE! Such a fate is too fantastical for even the sodden sots of the Earth's many navies -- and yet this has become the fate of CLAUDETTE T.S GRANT, the long suffering maid of JASMINE STARR. Trapped aboard a pirate rocket ship, blasting towards an uncertain face, Claudette must adapt to life as DEEP SPACE BUCCANEER!
Meanwhile, MARK STYLES and his unlikely band of rebels -- including none other than the STAR PRINCESS ZELLA herself -- must make do while blazing away from Pluto and towards the uncertain safety of Saturn and its MIGHTY RINGS. Little do they know that their every movement is being tracked by the cunning RADIO TRANSMITTER concealed within the unwitting Princess' very body, placed there without her knowledge by the fiendish EMPEROR AYTAN ZARDO.
But most pressing of all is the fate of the heroic Jasmine herself as she is brought before the mysterious CAVERN COURT of the SPIDER QUEEN OF THE DEEP, ruler of the surface of Venus...the lady EVILLA SPIDRENA herself!!!
Jasmine had but a moment to take in the court of the Faemen before her Diamond Suit was removed and she was forced to her knees by the ready hands of the Rocket Rangers who had escorted her from the blasted surface of Venus to this, the Tunnel City of the Faemen. The tunnel city itself had been far from what she had expected...rather than the endless warren tunnels of rabbits or rats, she had seen instead remarkable vistas of carved caverns that were large enough to fit entire enclosed habitations within, lit by the dark light of glittering, artificial suns that shone their own dim luminescence upon vast forests of artfully glowing mushrooms -- fungal growths the size and elegance of redwood trees. The buildings constructed betwixt and between the fecund fungus had been elegant ones of shale and stone, lined with illumination that was alien to her Earth-adapted eyes...but beautiful none the lest. Rather than bright whites or warm oranges, the Faemen preferred cool purples, searing blues, and shimmering opalescent hues that flickered betwixt and between many reaches of the luminous spectrum.
The Faemen themselves were not the hunched, bestial, pale creatures that Prince S'kye had described. Rather, they were of modest height -- no shorter than your average industrious Chinese citizen -- and had skin of such complete blackness that they might have been at home within the furthest reaches of Africa. Their facial and bodily features struck Jasmine as being quite like those noble Africans that have so long struggled against the vicious colonization and conquest of their lands, with a beauty and grace that was markedly different from Jasmine's own European descended features...save for three marked differences from the Earthmen that Jasmine compared them too.
The first was that their hair -- whether it be done in long dreadlocks, cut short and frizzy, or allowed to expand in luminous afros -- was scattered among shades of bright white, silvery blue, or ashen gray! The second was that their eyes were, also, spread among alien hues: Reds, purples, azure! And the third, most striking of all, were their ears! Elongated to a staggering twenty centimeters if they were an inch, they came to elegant, rapier points that bobbed faintly as they walked about their daily lives, though quite a few of them did stop their daily work to gape at her and her acid pitted, grime smeared diamond suit...
The court itself, though, was another thing
entirely.
There was a massive glittering throne made of cut diamond in the center of a raised plinth above the court, with beautiful murals made of carved gemstones set into midnight black walls, all of it lit with the dim illumination of artfully grown plantlife that flowed along the ceiling and the walls, their faint shimmers being caught by the gemstones and refracted outwards to shine out into the rest of the chamber, illuminating the riotous (if dark) colors of the Faeman court. They tended towards tunics and robes and small, elegant capes -- save for those that preferred jerkins and breeches that clung taut to their athletic bodies -- and they watched Jasmine as her armor was removed, piece by piece...
And sitting upon that diamond throne was a Faewoman of such stunning beauty that Jasmine felt her own cheeks heating despite herself -- watching intently as Jasmine was stripped, her ruby red eyes widening the instant she saw Jasmine step from her suit and to the floor of the throne room, her borrowed sword-hilt clattering to the ground next to her.
Gasps rang out, and two Rocket Rangers stepped forward, one snatching up the sword-hilt. He snarled: "An assassin!? Who didn't search this Hawk..." He stopped, looking at Jasmine as she started to stand up, revealing that she was no Hawkwoman at all!
"How were we supposed to do that, sir?" one of the other Rangers whispered, while soft murmurs rang out. One of the Faemen in the court stepped forward, wearing a dark red tunic and pale gray set of skintight leggings, clearly showing his rather impressive bulge. He was a beautiful looking, short haired man, with one of the self-same bladeless sword-hilts that Jasmine had been carrying strapped to his hip. He thrust his finger.
"Speak, stranger. What brings you to our fair city? Why do you wear the armor of our hated enemies, the perfidious Hawkmen?"
Jasmine sighed, then shook herself, feeling the humid warmth of the chamber caressing her sweat streaked skin. She brushed her short cropped black hair back, then gave the Faeman a cheerful smile. She held her hand out. "I am Jasmine Starr," she said. "I am an Earth Woman -- come from beyond the clouds of your home to make contact with your people, as an envoy of the Hawkmen, to sue for peace between your two races."
The entire court bust into clamorous conversation -- courtiers murmuring, the Rocket Rangers growling and stepping forward. The Faeman Prince (at least, Jasmine presumed he was a prince) stepped back and put his hand to the hilt of his bladeless sword. His ruby red eyes narrowed and he frowned. "An Envoy!? From the traitorous Hawkmen? Why should we believe you?"
"A better question, Faeman, is if you have any option but to believe me -- even now, Zardo the Terrible seeks to tighten his grasp on the entire solar system! If you wait too long to join the people fighting against him, then he will soon be unassailable!" Jasmine said, her voice ringing out against the walls of the chamber, over the murmuring of the couriers.
"You will do well to know I am Prince Fireth Spidrena when you address me-" the Prince said, but before he could continue, his mother raised one regal hand.
"Wait, my son," Queen Spidrena said, her voice a warm and husky and sending a shiver along Jasmine's spine. Her eyes tried to subtly drink in the Queen's body -- not wanting to be too obvious about the fact she was admiring her ebony dark skin, her long and elegantly braided ashen white hair, her muscular shoulders and sleek belly, her full breasts, and her glittering golden earrings and the hint, beneath her white breast band, of pierced nipples. Her eyes narrowed and she brushed her ring covered fingers along her chin. "I am curious about this Earth woman and her claim of envoy. Tell me, oh Earth Woman, do you bring with you a way to make up for the centuries of acidic hell from Faeman treachery?"
Jasmine's brow furrowed. "I, uh, what treachery exactly are you referring too? The Hawkmen see it in quite a different light."
Prince Fireth snorted. "They broke the Treaty of Venus -- the agreement was to make the atmosphere of our world thinner and thinner until it was akin to the atmosphere of Earth. Then both Hawkmen and the Faemen could live together on the surface. Instead, they sought to merely terraform the upper atmosphere of Venus so that their precious floating cities would be more habitable!"
"They say the exact opposite story in the sky city!" Jasmine said. "And-"
"Aha!" Prince Fireth spun to face his mother. "She proves her duplicity -- she accepts the lies the Hawkmen have said about our people since Dark knows when!"
Jasmine huffed. "Enough of this!" She shook her head. "While we dicker and argue, Zardo's war rockets oppress the free peoples of the solar system and seek to conquer my home, the Earth! What must I do to prove that I have nothing but good intention? What quest might quiet your wrath and prove that I have, at least, the aims of your people in my heart?" Jasmine looked past the glaring prince to his mother, who nodded slowly as she did so, looking impressed by Jasmine as she reclined on her throne.
