Dramocles: An Intergalactic Soap Opera Read Free Page A

planet that pretty much looked after itself. Now everything was changed, and his life was transformed; or soon would be. He had an important destiny after all, and meaningful work to fulfill; that was really all a man could desire after he was already a king, and rich beyond the dreams of avarice, and had possessed uncountable numbers of the most beautiful women on many worlds. After you’ve had all that, spiritual values begin to mean something to you.
    He took a few extra moments to marvel at his own cleverness–his genius, in fact, in arranging all of this for himself thirty years ago so that he would have something to do now, at the age of fifty, at a time when he really needed it.
    He roused himself from self-adoration with an effort. “Clara,” he said, “you have earned your bag of golden ducats. In fact, I’m going to make it two bags’ full and give you a castle in the country as well.”
    He called up the Rewards Clerk and told him that Clara was to be issued two standard bags of golden ducats and one standard castle in the county of Veillence, where she was to be maintained in Condition Four style.”
    “Well, Clara,” he said, “I hope that pleases you.”
    “Indeed it does, Sire,” Clara said. “But might I inquire what Condition Four style means?”
    “Reduced to its essentials, it means that you will live in your castle in utmost comfort, but will not be allowed to leave its walled surround, not to receive visitors or to communicate with anyone aside from the robot servants.”
    “Oh,” said Clara.
    “Nothing personal, of course,” Dramocles said. “I’m sure you’re an old lady of absolute discretion. But surely you can appreciate that no one must find out that I know what my destiny is, or will know shortly. They’d act against me, you see. One simply doesn’t crap around with something as big as this.”
    “I fully understand, Sire, and I applaud the wisdom of your action toward me despite my lifetime of unsullied rectitude.”
    “I’m so glad,” Dramocles said. “I was afraid you might feel badly used, which would have been tiresome.”
    “Fear not, great King. It is my pleasure to serve you, even if only by my incarceration. I am only too happy to oblige, even if it does mean that I must live out my few remaining years in solitude, without the comfort of my friends, and with the added annoyance of possessing a fortune in gold which I cannot spend.”
    “You know,” Dramocles said, “I never thought of that.”
    “Not that I’m complaining, Sire.”
    “Clara,” said Dramocles, locking his fingers behind his head, then hastily unlocking them just in time to take a smoldering cigarette out of his hair and snub it out in a solid-silver sardine can, “I’ll tell you what I’ll do. Give me a list of the people you want with you up to the number of twenty. I’ll have them arrested on trumped-up charges and exiled to your castle, and I’ll never tell them you knew about it.”
    “That is really surpassingly kind of you, Sire. The matter of the unspendable gold is insignificant and I apologize for having brought it up.”
    “I’ve got a way of handling that, too, Clara. I’ll have one of my clerks send you catalogues from all the best shops on Glorm. You can order what you please. Yes, and I’ll see that you get the royal discount, which amounts to sixty percent of the true manufacturer’s cost and ought to make your ducats go a long way.”
    “God bless Your Majesty, and may your destiny be as splendid as your generosity.”
    “Thanks, Clara. The Payments Clerk at the end of the hall will set it all up for you. One thing before you go: did I say anything to you about what, specifically, my destiny was, and what I was to do in order to accomplish it?”
    “Not a word, great King. But didn’t the key word unlock all of that for you?”
    “No, Clara. What I remember now is that I have a destiny, and that I am supposed to do something about it. But what that something