“Thank you, your Majesty Velozar, as expected of a wise ruler. We appreciate your understanding and will not let you wait for too long, I promise.” 

“Wonderful, you seem to be in a hurry. I will not keep you occupied with nonsense any longer.” There was a barely perceptible manic shine in his eyes when speaking. Which of course the Admiral didn’t miss. And it pictured exactly the reason why he disliked and was always cautious when dealing with this person: there was a subtle feeling of facing a beautiful yet bloodthirsty carnivorous animal which also possessed incredible intelligence, but was twisted in terms of sanity. Quite formidable if you think about it. Realising that he had shown a weakness to this predator in a split second made him feel uneasy inside. But he showed nothing on his face and just nodded with courtesy. 

“Until later communications, your Majesty Velozar.” 

“Hopefully in near future Admiral Carnage.” 

In the end just before finishing the transmission Emperor Velozar granted a beautifully refined smile which made the Admiral want to dismantle the communication device into nanoparticles and incinerate them to get rid of the evel feeling this person left after him. Once all the connections were definitely off he turned to Military Assistant Bartel who was close by all the time, just enough distance away to be out of the visible range. 

“174 BPM? What is happening there?” The Admiral wanted to rush home to see what was going on but at the same time felt the urge to take a long shower in very hot water to scrub off Velozar’s presence before returning. 

“I was just contacting Colonel Gillian.” The Military Assistant said with a tense emotionless face.

…

“Look! Look here! I want you to see how a dirty whore looks like when being fucked!” Jerome was panting, and was delirious from overstimulation. Grabbing Silvano’s hair to make him look up with one hand and his thigh with the other to let him see more in the mirror. 

“See! That hole of yours is dripping…see? Look, I said! Open your eyes scum!” 

“You wanted a baby in this dirtbag of yours? Right? Hahaaa!!!” He rambled as he kept thrusting deep and groping Silvano’s lower abdomen. 

“Here! Ahh… here, have it! Damn, this feels good!” He clenched his hands around Silvano as he was climaxing as if ready to devour the boy completely. Then whispered with a low hoarse voice into his trembling neck. “Take it, as much as you want. Tomorrow I’ll rip it out of you again. Then again…”

Silvano’s forehead was pushed hard onto the mirror, all he could do was clench his jaws and grind his teeth, his limbs were numb and his head dizzy. When he slightly opened his eyes he could see his own eyes filled with bottomless misery and despair, self hate and anger. He shut his eyes firmly again as by now he knew very well the sequencing of this wicked tyrant. Right then he got grabbed by his nape and thrown hard on the floor. Jerome stood up and started kicking Silvano with the soles of his shoes grunting with excitement. 

“It’s nice when you’re all red and tender! Don’t you like it too? As your limbs are paralyzed you must be lacking sensitivity. I'll make up for that!” 

The sick bastard got excited again by his own words and actions. Ready to climb on Silvano and ravage him again. Silvano trembled sensing his steps approaching above him. That was when indiscernible cracks started to form and spread on the mirror, on the floor, in the air, even on Jerome’s body. Silvano noticed the cracks only after they got deeper and started to make quiet shuttering noise, and everything gradually disintegrated into thumbnail size pieces. As the nightmare was scattering away a large hand gently retreated from Silvano’s shoulder. 

Opening his eyes he found himself in the spacious bedroom with large windows that had already become his favourite part of the room. Gradually the sense of reality settled and Silvano took several deep breaths trying to calm himself down, then reached to pat his belly. 

“Did I scare you again little one? See, what a useless father you have.” 

“I beg your pardon?” 

Silvano was startled and felt awkward to be caught talking to himself. But the Admiral who was standing at the floor to ceiling glass doors leading to the garden had a tiny smile in his eyes while feeling the morning cool air through long draping curtains.

“I wa-was ref-ferring to myself, S-Sir, not y-you of co-course.” Silvano spoke and quietly started checking his body and was relieved to find himself wearing pyjama trousers and a long sleeve shirt under the blanket.

“How are you feeling now?” 

“I’m sor-ry.” 

“For what? Why would you say that? It’s me who’s sorry. I know it will sound vain but I assure you, there was no ill will in what happened earlier and no bad intention in their actions.” 

“I-I know.”

“But either way they did get denounced for making you suffer.” 

“N-no, why w-would you punish them for c-caring for m-me? T-the problem is in m-me. Please!” 

The Admiral took a deep breath intending to speak as softly as he could but noticed Silvano’s eyes wandering around the gaps between the curtains. 

“Would you like to go for a stroll, Silvano?” He said as he turned around  drawing open the massive curtains. 

It was the time right before dawn when the skies were just slightly brighter blue. The darker tone of the light in Admiral Carnage’s eyes which is not present at the moment but Silvano had that image  ingrained in his memory. 

There was nothing else in this life right now that he wanted more than to throw away the blanket, open wide those doors and run out, run away into the horizon, someplace where there is no ceiling, no walls. But there was too much chaining him, too many reasons why that was impossible… The Admiral read all these thoughts going through Silvano’s mind, opened the doors leading outside as well and walked to Silvano’s bed, squatting down beside him. 

“Forgive us, we were a little slow in adjusting everything after you woke up from the coma, while you were asleep today there were some rearrangements made. Look, here is the new control plate.” He drew Silvano’s attention to a panel right beside his shoulder, which wasn’t there before he fell asleep. 

“You can do all kinds of adjustments with this, take your time to research it during the day. Right now we need these ones.” When the Admiral tapped certain buttons the wheelchair automatically moved from behind the bed to Silvano’s side and the bed slowly bent into a sitting position. Then with just a little help from the Admiral, Silvano quite effortlessly ended up transferring into the wheelchair. 

“When you tinker with it a little you’ll be able to move the wheelchair with the controler yourself, but right now let me handle it manually as it’s still twilight outside.” As he said this he draped a blanket over Silvano, tucking the edges behind his shoulders and rolled the wheelchair toward the doors. 

“Y-you seem like…” Silvano was reluctant to finish his sentence. 

“Hm?”

“As if y-you’ve done this many t-times.” He evades Admiral Carnage’s eyes and looks down into the folds of the blanket thinking it was improper for him to ask something so personal. But when there was silence in return he looked up to meet the Admiral’s saddened eyes. 

“I would rather not be as experienced. My daughter died at the age of 92, before her my wife passed when she was 76… there were periods they both needed help moving around. The saddest thing about living this long is to see your loved ones age and pass away right before your eyes.” The Admiral strangely seemed quite vulnerable when saying these words and that caught Silvano off guard. 

“But fortunately your case is different, you’re not on the inevitable decline of life. Aside from the physical weakness you are perfectly healthy, all you need is time to recover.” After saying this Admiral Carnage gently directed Silvano’s wheelchair down the two step high ramp straight onto the soft grass. 

Silvano was still contemplating over the Admiral’s words but when he found himself outside he was overwhelmed with joy. He greedily looked all around: the grass, the trees, hills a little further and the sky… Silvano strained his neck to take in as much as possible of the beautiful sky view above. 

There are three natural satellites orbiting around Planet Nest 5. And the night view here was said to be one of the most beautiful among human populated planets. Even though the skies edging the horizon had started to get brighter, the view above them was an endless dark universe adorned with the three mesmerising moons and faraway galaxies, a breathtaking sight, making one feel like an infinitely small grain in this cosmic grandiosity. Silvano felt goosebumps all over his body and an excitement beyond imagination filled his whole being. 

It was not his first time seeing this scenery, not the first time feeling the early morning dew… at the place he grew up the air was even cleaner, the nature was lusher than this artificially groomed garden, the skies were clearer, on special nights you could even see all the planes, craters and valleys of the closest moon to Nest 5, Daya. But back then he was too ignorant and naive to appreciate the value of freedom. Now just being able to look above into the universe shakes up his entire essence. 

The little flame inside of him also felt the excitement and was basking in it. The Admiral who had paused pushing the wheelchair to let Silvano adjust, looked curiously at the sparkling-crackling duo in front of him and resumed their slow stroll. 

“You grew up in the countryside so I supposed you’ll like nature, that’s why I assigned this remote room to you. There are much nicer rooms in other parts of the mansion but this one has direct access to the garden.”

Silvano nodded and said quietly with a trembling voice. “I-I, love it…” 

“Are you crying?” 

Silvano shyly shaked his head even though it was obvious that he was. From being in bed for a long time his hair had odd curls here and there and made his nape look rather childish. The Admiral smiled and they quietly moved along the curved paths. 

“Your… your daughter.” Silvano reluctantly started and stopped talking. 

“Yes?”

“It should be v-very sad to l-lose them. S-sorry for s-saying that.” Silvano felt like he acted improperly again to have started such conversations and was afraid the Admiral would get angry at him for being nosy. 

“It was, and still is, sad. That’s why after losing my wife and children I had decided not to form a family again. Sometimes I meet my grandchildren and great-grandchildren but selfishly prefer to keep a distance from them.”

“Children?” 

“Yes, we had two children, my son who was the younger child died very early at the age of 27. It was an accident in a flying vehicle. For a long time I tried to find a reason for his meaningless death, I was desperately looking for a conspiracy or a crime. But there was none, it was just an unfortunate accident. Another person’s vehicle malfunctioned and he was racing too fast to react timely. My wife even though she lived until 76, she had lost all joy and happiness after that day. Honestly, I never thought I'd want to have another child, but here we are expecting one in a couple of months.” Admiral Carnage laughs dryly. Then positioning Silvano’s wheelchair in a stable position beside a bench he walked around and sat facing him.

“I’ve thought over what you said that day and decided to refuse your offer.”