Chapter 4.B

“Wait a minute I’m calling bullshit, time out!” shouted Hank.

“You dare interrupt the greatest story ever told?” asked Dractus.

“How in the sweet fuck is this dudes name Magnus Jesus Supreme? That sounds like a wrestler’s stage name,” said Hank.

“STUPID HUMAN! It’s a translation to your mud language! Magnus is the closest possible name according to the etymology of your planet. Same with Jesus which probably means son of God in your mud tongue, and Supreme obviously because he was the best!”

“Alright alright, don’t get your lizard panties in a twist, I had to ask,” said Hank with his hands in the air in a placating manner. “So you just buy these universal translators somewhere like at the alien mall?” asked Hank.

“No initiate! My universal translator is my body!” said Dractus while slamming his hands on his chest. “It’s a perk bestowed upon the Arbiters, no mere translator could make me speak your mud language so perfectly like this. Now let me finish the story!”

“Where was I, yes Magnus Jesus Supreme had taken charge of the expedition. He had tired of the madness. He yelled at the feeble translator and asked for the whereabouts of the captain, since he would happily rescue the captain if he was still alive. Instead of answering him the translator went on a manic tirade about how some things were meant to end and how the fate of their planet had been doomed by God, and that it was their duty to die and be judged in God’s eyes. The translator also thought that the large evil alien parading around as a religious leader to this village was some kind of an emissary from the heavens. His ranting had gone on long enough. Magnus Jesus Supreme pulled his battle rifle into position and shot the translator in the face.

Everyone was shocked, the giant evil alien demon, every member of the expedition, even Magnus himself, but he knew it had needed to be done. The townsfolk never stopped their chanting or humming or whatever it was. It wasn’t Magnus’ place to do what he had done, and he had broken every rule of universal law pertaining to contact with civilizations in their infancy. Next he yelled the words that would inevitably shape the future for every being in existence: ‘KILL THE DEMON!’ Magnus turned his battle rifle on the giant evil alien demon and fired, the other armed members of his party followed suit and fired as well. The rounds impacted hard on the demon’s wooden armor sending wooden shards and black alien blood everywhere. The giant alien tumbled backwards and fell over in the face of the unexpected barrage from the expedition party. All around the townsfolk were coming to their senses and running for the hills.

‘BACK TO THE SHIP!’ Magnus shouted, while shoving his people in the direction of the entrance to the village. Behind their party a mighty laugh burst forth from the downed evil alien demon and in Magnus’ own language he shouted ‘That tickled!’ The alien rose from the ground and brushed off shards of his armor and flaps of loose flesh, then he turned on the men and women of the expedition. Magnus knew he had to stand and fight. He ordered his remaining people to run while he would stay and buy them time. He squared off against the mighty alien and dumped his entire magazine in the demon’s direction. The demon moved almost faster than Magnus thought possible and closed in on him. The demon ripped away Magnus’ rifle and threw it off into the distance.

Magnus drew his two favorite combat knives, he was not afraid because he knew that his sacrifice would ensure that his people could get to the ship, and that the expedition could carry on. They would head to the next Goldilocks planet and survey it, his planet would be safe. He prepared to die an honorable death as he rushed the demon. The demon and Magnus exchanged blows. Black squirming alien blood full of evil, bacteria, and foreign maggot-analogs sprayed into Magnus’s face as he cut at the monster. The demon struck back and dug his wickedly sharp claws into Magnus’ chest, piercing his technologically enhanced armor. Their melee went on, Magnus slashed and hacked and the demon scratch and sunk his claws into Magnus when he could.

When Magnus was sure he could go on no longer and he was preparing for his final charge that would surely mean his death. A lone alien from the village stepped forward, armed with only a spear. The alien rushed the demon and came to Magnus’ aid. Together Magnus and the allied alien from the village battled the giant evil demon to a standstill. A few more villagers came back and threw spears at the giant evil alien demon. Magnus took the opportunity to leave with his life while he could, he dragged the alien ally who was now cut to shreds with him. With their arms over each other’s shoulders they stumbled and retreated away from the fight. When they got to the edge of the town Magnus tried to apply the best first aid he could to his own wounds and then his alien partners.

He wasn’t sure if the alien’s biology was even similar enough to his own for the first aid to help, but he had to try, this person has risked their life in an honorable pursuit. The alien ally was dying, that was clear to Magnus. He knew this planet didn’t have the medical technology to help his new ally, his only chance at life was if Magnus could get him to the ship before they took off and left this godforsaken place. Magnus lifted his injured ally onto his mighty shoulders and did his best to stagger all the way back to the ship. Along the way his wounds began to fester and leak black ichor. For the evil of the demon had seeped into his very body. A few times he fell over and uncontrollably retched, to his sickening surprise only more black ichor came out as he expelled the contents of his stomach. His body was trying to expel the evil, but it was killing him in the process.

When he came out of the dense woods near his ship’s landing site he was pleasantly surprised to see it was still there. They were making final takeoff preparations. He approached the ship and they quickly lowered a ramp for him to climb. A full complement of the ship’s finest security came down and helped him and his ally up the ramp. Magnus refused to go to sick-bay and instead he insisted that he be treated at the helm of the ship as they flew to the next Goldilocks planet which was only 3 days away. Magnus ordered the ship on its way and the medical professionals on board did there best to keep Magnus and his new ally alive.

During the three day trip as Magnus sat in the captain’s chair the rumors of his braveness spread through the ship and everyone prayed for his recovery. Unfortunately his health only declined, he couldn’t eat or drink without throwing up more black ichor and his wounds refused to close as they continually seeped liquid evil onto the deck of the ship. Meanwhile his alien ally was moved to the med-bay as he went into a coma and his pulse slowed down.

They arrived at the next planet shortly. This new planet has very moderate temperatures, unfortunately it only had a few water sources on it which left most of the planet as a wasteland devoid of life. They dubbed this planet T-1, you could probably guess why. Their ship’s scanners quickly picked up a large structure that looked engineered. At Magnus’ orders they ignored all security and ship protocols and landed the ship directly in front of the structure. The structure ended up being a temple of impossible architecture. Spiraling towers that defied gravity, archaic yet futuristic looking overhangs, large transparent glass windows struck through into geometric designs. The whole structure was made of an alien metal, the same alien metal that makes up the canister in your hand now Hank. It might look similar to what you call a: large decorative church.

Security teams rushed off the ship loaded to bear with the most deadly ordinance available. After the mishap on the last planet they weren’t taking any chances. At this point Magnus was overwhelmed with a feeling that this was where he was supposed to be. The security teams reported the temple was empty and that there was no movement or thermal readings for any living creatures on the planet. Magnus exited the ship while being held aloft by two of the ship’s officers. A team of medics had the allied alien on a stretcher trailing behind Magnus since that was what Magnus had ordered them to do. They argued that the alien should not be moved, but somehow Magnus knew he had to bring him.

They entered the ancient yet somehow futuristic temple to find it completely empty, not a chair, not a person, not an insect. Just a large open area with natural light being let in through the many large decorative windows. At the back of the temple sat a large cube covered in more of the geometric designs and also made up of the strange metal. Magnus knew this was where he had to go. He limped forward, the black ichor still falling out of his wounds and dripping all over the floor leaving a trail behind him. Two streams of the liquid evil leaked from his nose and soaked his shirt. As he coughed flecks of it stained his teeth.

His people set him down in front of the cube. They noticed then the dead center of the cube had a circular hole on it heading deep inside of the cube. The hole spit out two cylinders. One of the security officers hesitantly picked up the first one and noticed it had Magnus’ name on it. He handed it to him. At this point Magnus was so tired and close to death he could barely open his eyes. Somehow though on instinct alone he opened the canister with no seams. Two things fell out, two small metal effigies. One of the small metal sculptures was a set of scales, they are the representation of the Scales of Justice. I believe you use this same symbol on your planet. The second small sculpture was that of a sword.

Magnus ripped off the remainder of his shirt and slapped the small sculpture of the scales to his chest just where his heart lay under his skin. The sculpture melded into his skin and his eyes shot open, all weariness gone from him. All of his wounds sprayed black ichor almost comically in small jet streams soaking those around him and spraying the floor. He threw up one more time, more evil spilled out of his mouth. Then he stood, stronger than before, smarter, cleaner, he knew the way. He ran over to the other cylinder and brought it to the alien ally he had brought with him. He struck the alien in the face a few times to rouse him. The alien sat up from the stretcher he was laying down on, he opened the second canister and repeated the process.

Magnus’ people came to him with many questions ‘Captain, Captain, what happened, what is this new development, what was in those canisters?’ They all became silent as he jumped on top of the cube. He stared at the expedition and his alien ally, and then he spoke. ‘I am no longer the captain’ he shouted. ‘I am Arbiter Magnus, the first of my line.’ The people of the expedition were stunned, they thought he had gone raving mad or been infected by this alien technology, but they couldn’t deny what they had seen the technology had healed him. That’s not the real kicker though, the members of the expedition with the most doubt immediately had it put out of their mind when the alien Magnus had healed miraculously started speaking their language and backed up everything Magnus had said.

So that’s the story of the first two Arbiters. Also this is where the conflicting theories come into play. Some believe the sacred Arbiter temple was put there by God himself as a way to balance out the evils of the universe. Then there are others like me who believe that an ancient alien race left it there, and of course that theory just opens up an entire can of worms about the reasons they put it there. Either way it seems more plausible to me at least than the man in the sky theory. What do you think Hank?”

“I think you left out a lot of details. What was the second Arbiters name? What did both of these Arbiters look like? What kind of ship were they driving? What happened to the demon on BG-1?”

“Let me stop you there, I left those details out on purpose for many reasons. We have a saying on my planet and I find this saying very universal, we say: You must walk before you can run. If you are interested in the histories of the Arbiters you must first finish whatever conflict you have going on here and then come to the temple of the Arbiter. I also now think you know enough to ask questions, we must leave soon so please ask important ones.”

“You said there was two small sculptures in the canister, one was the Scales of Justice which he used to heal himself or something, the other was a sword. What does the sword do?” asked Hank.

“Good question, there are different types of Arbiters, some are hard chargers and some are closer to calm and analytical detectives. I thought I had you pegged as a hard charger, but you might have skills in both categories. You are incorrect though in your assumption that the scales healed him. The Scales of justice prepare your body to be an Arbiter. Despite thousands of years of research from the more scientifically inclined Arbiters, we haven’t figured out the full capabilities of the Scales yet or even what mechanism drives them. I can tell you what we do know about them before I move on to your question about the sword.

To be an Arbiter you have to be able to go to any civilization and blend in, hit the streets, be one with the people. You can’t very well do this if you can’t understand them or even eat the same food as them. So one thing we do know for a fact is that the Scales alter the Arbiter’s body so he or she can metabolize things that would otherwise kill them. Now it wouldn’t make sense to go through all this trouble to get a message and a job from God to simply be killed by some foreign bacteria a week into the job now would it? That was rhetorical, so the scales didn’t heal Magnus so much as enable his own body to heal itself and for it to adapt and be able to metabolize and/or expel the liquid evil that he had been infected with by the demon. Also I mentioned at the end of Magnus’ story that his alien companion began to speak the same language as everyone else, this is also a function that the Scales enable. You can not gain intelligence on the enemy if you can not speak the language of his cohorts.

There is a third function of the Scales, some say this is the most important. You see the symbology of the Scales is something that transcends all peoples, all races, all planets. Almost every species uses the symbol of the scales in some way to represent justice or balance. Though the definition of justice varies from planet to planet the scales never lie. Once you have taken the Scales into your body you get a sense of right and wrong, let’s call it ‘intuition on steroids’. Some Arbiters can push further than that intuition and actually see the evil of the world. We only have a few among our ranks who are that in tune with their Arbiter skills. That is beside the point though, some of the best Arbiters rely on their intuition the least

Oh I almost forgot about the least important aspect of the Scales, they either double or triple your lifespan,” Dractus finished.

“WHAT! That’s the least important? I’m going to live two to three times longer?” shouted Hank.

“I just told you that you will be able to literally sense evil, speak any language as fluently as a local, be immune to almost any poison including Demon essence, and be able to eat almost any food in the known universe. Yes being able to live a little longer IS the least important. We are running low on time we must move on to the Sword!” Dractus shouted with one finger in the air.

Hank let out a little laugh which made Dractus frown disapprovingly. Hank threw another round of beers to everyone. Cerulean and Hank waited patiently for the Dractus-chomp-town-extravaganza-beer-show to begin, but he noticed them watching and opened the can normally with the tab.

“AWWWWW,” said Cerulean, who apparently had also really wanted to see Dractus chomp on another can.

“The Sword!” Dractus said once again with his finger in the air, Hank tried to keep a serious face but he lost it when he saw Cerulean’s face take on an even deeper shade of blue, her very own brand of blushing, as she slapped a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughs. Dractus took notice of them both laughing at his showmanship.

“You both are ruining the flare of this story! Anyway, the Sword is simple, you apply it to your weapon of choice and it enables the weapon to become more.”

“What do you mean by more?” asked Hank.

“More than it already is, but there is a stipulation. For your weapon to become stronger and grow, you must fuel it with the souls of evil-doers,” said Dractus just a little too matter-of-factly.

“What? I have to kill people to become a better Arbiter?” asked Hank.

“No, not exactly, some of the best Arbiters kill no one. You have to destroy evil to make your weapon of choice more powerful, there is a distinction. Think of the sword effigy as a software install.”

“I don’t speak nerd.”

“BAH! You are obstinate. You’ll figure it out, just touch the sword to your weapon of justice, it will do the rest.”