Memory Editing Wreaks Havoc

Location: Sauropsidian Home Planet

Aliens: Sauropsidian, Planarian

Bal woke with a start. The heat of the twin suns was suffusing his scales. He leaned up from his chair and tried to blink away the spots from his eyes. He must have dozed off. His usual cadre of “close friends” was nearby, sunning themselves as well. “Did you have a nice nap, Your Eminence?” one of them asked, bringing him a drink. Bal smiled and sighed, taking in the cool beverage. He laid his head back again, feeling like he could fall back under. His head swam slightly, trapped in the tidepool between the sea of sleep and the land of waking life.

“I must have,” he said. The others were chatting idly. But Bal felt them try to hide their sidelong glances. They were watching him. Maybe to see what he would want to do next? “I had the strangest dream,” he said to no one in particular. The one who brought him the drink sat down at his feet. Raun was his name, Bal remembered. He was Bal’s Second, his personal servant and assistant. Raun would be whatever Bal needed him to be. At the moment, he was playing the part of Bal’s confidant.

“May I ask Your Eminence what the dream was about?” Raun asked. He brought Bal’s feet onto his lap.

“I was a peasant,” Bal said, trying to grasp at the wisps of the dream that were quickly racing away into oblivion. Raun chuckled. He said that was hard to imagine. Bal looked around at the garden of his palace. The most beautiful plants on the entire planet were brought here for him and him alone to enjoy. The others had stopped to look at him directly and listen to his dream. “I remember being hungry,” Bal said. “Hungrier than I’ve ever been. I thought I could eat for a day and never get full.” As if on command, another servant brought a plate of round fruit. It hovered close to Bal, but he waved it away.

“Was that all?” Raun asked. Bal closed his eyes and tried to envision the rest of the dream.

“It was mixed up after that,” Bal said, taking another drink. “Mixed up the way dreams are. I was in one place and then in another. Day became night in the blink of an eye. I was in the palace somewhere.” Bal’s breath caught in his chest. “It was somewhere I’d never been before. Of course not, I was a peasant. But there were these bright lights-”

“Probably just the sun on your face while you were sleeping,” Raun offered helpfully.

“Yes, that must have been it,” Bal said. “And there was this enormous, I’m not sure, *snake* of some kind?” He remembered not being able to move his body while the writhing thing wrapped itself around him. Now, Bal whimpered, remembering the terror as he felt himself recede into nothingness. The snake squeezed him until he shattered into a million tiny pieces. “And you were there,” Bal said, squeezing his eyes shut even tighter, willing himself to remember. He could still see Raun’s face floating above him, whispering to the snake as it collected the pieces and crushed them into a fine powder.

“Is that so?” Raun asked. Bal felt Raun stiffen.

“Yes,” Bal said in a strained grunt. He felt paralyzed all over again. He wanted to stop remembering. Raun and the others, they had collected the fragments of splinters that had previously been who he was and built him again from scratch. But they had put him back together wrong. “Stop it!” he found himself shouting. Everything around him went quiet.

Bal opened his eyes. The others had moved closer to him while he wasn’t looking. Their bodies were poised to strike. Their pupils were little more than slits, trained on his every move. Bal sat upright, withdrawing his legs from Raun’s lap.

“Your Eminence?” Raun asked. Bal realized Raun was hiding his right hand. “It was just a dream, my lord.” The others looked between Raun and Bal. The hot air seemed to stand completely still. Bal could hear them all breathing in the silence.

“Of course,” Bal said with a chuckle. He returned his feet so they were resting on Raun’s lap. “I had you going,” Bal said in a way that didn’t even convince himself. The others erupted into laughter. They went back to their conversations. Raun ran a talon gingerly up Bal’s leg, idly tracing the gaps between his scales.

“That was a mean joke,” Raun said, but it was apparent he saw right through Bal. Bal grew sick, seeing the same look in Raun’s eye. A cold, calculating precision.

“Please forgive me, Your Eminence,” a servant said, her head held low in reverence. “The Hegemony representatives are here to discuss the war effort.”

“If I must,” Bal said, standing. The others began to get up. “Please, stay,” he said “Enjoy yourselves.” The others hesitated. It was as if this was the first time he had issued such a command.

“We’ll be waiting,” Raun said, smiling. Bal leaned down and kissed Raun so hard they nearly fell over onto the ground. Bal’s hand closed around what Raun had in his right hand. “Your Eminence,” Raun said bashfully. Bal smirked and turned away, following the servant that scurried ahead of him. When his eyes had adjusted to the dark of the palace, he opened his palm to find what Raun was hiding. There, laying in the middle of his hand was a syringe. Its contents glowed green in the darkness. Bal looked behind him to see Raun and the others were now just silhouettes in the setting sun.

They were standing, watching him as he walked away.