Rogues Revenge: Complete Ch 5 posted 4/6/03

[SteveMill]

Shortish but complete chapter, something slightly different.

Steve

Chapter 5: The Mind of a Monster

“Comfortable Commander?” Law asked with exaggerated solicitude.

“Screw you!” Max spat through bruised and cut lips. Law had summoned his guards and ordered them to bring ‘the chair’. Max fought back, getting a few good kicks in, but the two men strapped him into the metal contraption, tightening leather straps around his wrists, ankles and forehead.

“Resistance is futile, is that a stereotypical enough statement for you Commander?” Law asked as Max threw his weight against the restraints. There wasn’t a sliver of give in them. “This is a well tested design.”

The timbre of the phrase, as well as the implication, made his mouth arid and suddenly too small for his tongue. The extra adrenaline boosted strength made no difference, the straps just cut into his flesh. The chair itself seemed to be rooted, immovable, to the deck.

‘No fear, no fear,’ Max cycled the mantra around his brain, forcing his, trembling, ragged breathed, body back under control. ‘No fear.’

Law stood and stepped forward, Max tried to track him as he walked around him but the straps prevented him from turning his head more than a few degrees in either direction.

“I really must thank you Max, if may call you that, I feel we are going to get on such close terms.”

The question was whispered into his ear from behind as Law placed his hands on Max’s shoulders.

“Of course I can,” he said, standing erect. Law’s hands tightened, the thick yellow nails biting through the fabric of the flight-suit. He bent to whisper again.

“I can do anything I please.”

He continued circling Max in slow, even paces as he spoke.

“Thank me for what?” Max asked with strained defiance.

“Well, delivering yourself so conveniently into my hands to begin with. Never trust a man with revenge in his heart Max, because hot blood boils away judgement. This station has been re-initialised with the back-ups from Paradise Station for security reasons. You see Max, I know how to read mens hearts and as soon as I examined his record I knew his intent. If your blood had not impaired your judgement you would have known that too.”

“Get these straps off and I’ll kick myself black and blue,” Max snapped. The defiance sounded hollow, even to himself. Law ignored it and continued his orbit.

“More significantly, it was your challenge that prompted me to take the steps that brought us both here. I had become over-indulgent, too concerned with short-term pleasure, content to let the enterprise run to fruition. Content to share the spoils.”

He laughed, it was a short, unpleasant sound that made the hairs on the back of Max’s neck stir.

“Content to split the source of overwhelming power and wealth with Skull, Morn, Whi and their coterie of dwarves when with a little planning I could have it all. Frankly, if you had not meddled in Teladi affairs, Morn would never have dared throw in her lot with me and without her support it would not have been possible.”

“And of course,” he continued, “I could also thank you on behalf of my men for the delectable Ms Tyre. You wouldn’t want them to be lonely would you?”

“You harm her and I’ll rip your black heart out and stuff it down your throat, you psychopathic bastard!” Max raged, hurling himself with desperate energy against the restraints.

For a moment Max thought he was going to kill him then and there, such was the hot rage that boiled across Law’s scarred face as his veneer-thin self control threatened to, peel away to reveal the beast beneath.

Law silenced him with a casual backhand that almost cracked his cheekbone.

“Tell me Max,” Law asked after winning the visible struggle to remain in control, “Are you a psychologist or some other such expert on the human mind? You bandy terms like psychopath, yet clearly you misunderstand the term. A psychopath is someone who commits anti-social or violent acts due to a personality disorder, do you really believe I suffer from that?”

“Well something isn’t right,” Max muttered.

“You know Max, I’m so glad you are here, it’s been a long time since I had someone with whom to discuss weighty issues. You might consider me a monster but consider things from my perspective. Your suffering does not impinge on me in any negative way, quite the opposite of course. Apart from the evidence of my senses I have no proof that you, or anyone else actually exists, and our senses are so unreliable. They can be disrupted, changed, by any manner of means. The only evidence I have for anything is that I think, I feel. Therefore I conclude that I am. You are experienced as just an object of pleasure – I feel again. For all I can tell I am the only thinking, feeling being in the universe and this, everything, is just an illusion for my benefit.”

“You figure that out all by yourself, or did you get some teenage kid to work it out for you?” Max spat scathingly. “Untie me and I’ll refute this all-the-world’s-an-illusion crap with a good kicking. Get a ****** clue; if a tree falls in a forest and no-one is there to witness it, it damn well makes a sound! This is all just self-justifying bull that no-one over the age of thirteen believes.”

“Many eminent philosophers would beg to differ,” Law answered, “Simplistic rebuttals notwithstanding. Observe.”

Law stood before him and dealt a sharp kick to his leg before Max had a chance to brace himself.

“It hurts, yes?”

Max nodded.

“Wrong, it didn’t hurt me at all, quite the opposite in fact, leading me ineluctably to certain conclusions. Now tell me, do you subscribe to the notion of higher powers, deities, gods if you will?”

Max looked at Law through swollen eyes, seeing the overweening bastard was actually serious about this conversation. Figuring that while they talked Tyre remained unharmed he decided to play along.

“No, of course not, outside of the Goner, few people do anymore. Humanity’s long outgrown silly fantasies about all-powerful creators with an interest in our personal well-being. I certainly can’t see it at the moment,” he answered ruefully, struggling again with the straps.

“Beam me up Lord!” He paused for a dramatic second. “See?”

“That’s good Max,” Law said, smiling. “It’s important you don’t lose your sense of humour, regardless of the situation. It’s what distinguishes us from the animals.”

“Who’s this ‘us’?” Max muttered. Ignoring the jibe, Law continued.

“So, you don’t agree with the argument that we must postulate the existence of a higher power to explain why the universe exists or works in the precise way it does? Science cannot explain many things and even disputes the existence of many phenomena that claim witnesses. The Paranid believe in the Invisible Hand of their Supreme Being, Xaar if memory serves.”

“The Teladi believe in the invisible hand of the free market making everything hunky-dory,” Max countered. “That’s a crock of shit too! Gods of the gaps between our current knowledge are a doomed species.”

“So what we call god is just a place-holder for science we don’t have yet, something to be relentlessly stalked and terminated by our intellect?”

“Yea, I’ll buy that.”

“So, without an external source from where do we derive this morality you are so keen to judge me by? Is it the intrinsic product of our essential nature as living beings or is there another absolute source?”

‘I’m debating philosophy with a mad-man,’ Max thought mockingly, ‘I could use a know-all AI just right about now.’

“What about..?”

He wracked his brain for scraps from half-remembered Academy extension classes, the Argon Navy liked their special forces people to be able to think for themselves and considered purely intellectual disciplines a good tool to hone the mind.

“Pan - er - something or another?”

“Pantheism,” Law answered, “The belief that God is all there is, that the universe is the manifestation of God. We’re all part of the god-head, is that what you believe?”

‘I don’t give a damn,’ Max thought. “Why not? It makes more sense than believing we were all created by some being with a wave of a hand or claw.”

“So, we are all god, you and I are god, both just facets of the whole, like light split by a prism? And ultimately what affects one aspect affects all?”

“Pretty much,” Max agreed warily.

“And what force is it that binds us together, what instruments reveal it?”

Keep him talking, Max rifled desperately through his distant memories of alcohol fuelled, youthful debates that stretched long and inconclusively through the night.

When everything was new, exciting and clear, when everything was black and white.

“Empathy, we all feel a natural sympathy for other living things, love, the merging of two souls, the human heart. Hell, take the right drugs and you can experience it yourself people claim.”

“Empathy, the ability to experience the feelings and thoughts of others without them being communicated in an objectively, explicit manner. Yes, I’ve heard of that, however it seems I have no sensory proof of that myself. Quite the opposite.”

Law punched him in the face, blinding Max with the pain as blood streamed from his nose.

“You see my point?”

Max nodded blindly through stinging tears.

“All the information available to me through my senses indicate I am the only conscious entity in the universe. If there is no god to provide an external measure and no standards can be derived from a shared god-head then how can I decide what is good and evil? You consider me evil of course?”

“That depends.”

“Depends on what Max?”

“On whether you’re going to hit me every time you don’t like my answers,” Max replied bitterly through lips stained with the blood flowing freely down his battered face.

“That really should be among the least of your concerns, but of course you do. If god ever existed he’s dead now, which brings me back to my point. From what well does morality spring? If there is no absolute right how can any action be morally wrong?”

“Might makes right, we just pretend, we just agree, we just fear punishment? You can’t have a society without some shared values. Wrong, wrong, wrong, why don’t you just tell me as you’ve obviously got it all figured out.”

Law resumed his circling, slow and steady paces around the prisoner. Max braced himself for another blow each time he passed from his sight.

“Starting from what appears to be true, I am the centre of my own universe, the answer is obvious Max.” He stopped and grabbed Max by the jaw and looked him in the eye.

“We must live with the full knowledge that the values we create for ourselves are fictions. There is no Truth, there is no moral high ground from which to cast down judgement, we must live in full view of that insight. Nothing is real except our passions and our desires. Every body in the universe strives for mastery, to bend it to it’s will. Anything that lives has a will to power, that’s all life is. It will seek to grow, expand and achieve dominance because it is living, not from any morality or immorality. Do what you Will is the only law. My passions and my will are strong.”

“You’re a Grade A lunatic, Law, full of self-justifying shit. If you’re going to kill me let’s get it over with so I don’t have to listen to any more of this crap!” Max screamed, hopelessly hurling himself against his bonds.

“No Max,” Law said with a completely incongruous smile in his voice. “That would be too easy.” He grabbed Max’s face again, heedless of the blood staining his hand.

“This is going to be a big public spectacle and you’re in too much of a mess. An artist does his best work on a blank canvas after all. It’s a pity you know, your will is strong, we could be allies you and I, but I’m afraid you are untrustworthy. A few days in the station brig should see you presentable, then we can begin.”

Max almost couldn’t speak through his fear constricted throat.

“At least put me with Tyre, better still, let her go, she’s no part of this,” he pleaded.

“Your woman is a slave Max, she belongs in the slave pens. You will see us take our pleasure from her before you die.”

Max no longer had the strength or the will to resist when two guards came to drag him to the cells.

[Jasperodus]

So Law's suddenly a cross between Aleister Crowley and Ming the Merciless?

Good madness, if y'know what I mean.

Jasp

[SteveMill]

So Law's suddenly a cross between Aleister Crowley and Ming the Merciless?

Good madness, if y'know what I mean.

Jasp

Just a smidgin of Crowley and Mings fingernails. You're missing the main philosophic plaigarism.

An X2- the Threat, No Prize for the winner.

I thought if the Matrix can do cod philosophy and get away with it for three films I get away with at least one little chapter.

[Jasperodus]

Ach, I thought the Nietzsche was so overblown that it was best left unspoken....

I mean that in the nicest possible way.

Cod-philosophy always welcome.

Jasp

[SteveMill]

Ach, I thought the Nietzsche was so overblown that it was best left unspoken....

I mean that in the nicest possible way.

Cod-philosophy always welcome.

Jasp

I thought it would be hard to miss! Your No-Prize is not in the post.

Haven't read any of his stuff in decades but reviewing it, it's still very apposite. A great philosopher for a DC comic book writer.

[KiwiNZ]

Excellent chapter! This is indeed a very interesting discussion and you bring it well across that Law means every word he says. And, yes, in parts it even makes sense

Cool one, wonder how Max manages to get his neck out of that sling.

Looking forward to more

[Gandalf The White]

Well, things are indeed going to get very nasty and very quickly. Am begining to write Max and his girl out of the story now.

Unless he can come up with something very quickly, or the invation starts, they are both dead in my mind.

[Adamskini]

Spoiler

Show

AI chick is in the maintenance droid, tries to free max, both get killed by a brain-warped Tyre ......

..... at the same time, the 'proper' max and the chick the AI was based on turn up in Eighteen Billion to finish the story off in spectacular styley for the last 4/5 chapters .....

..... epilogue has Max and Tyre as xenon hybrid-thingy-chips-AI-mebobers all sorted in the head, and they live happily ever after running the new 'Max's Place' Bliss Factory with the 'proper' max and original chick flying of into the sunset in a converted Boron Orca


or ... NOT! \o/

[Moss]

Spoiler

Show

AI chick is in the maintenance droid, tries to free max, both get killed by a brain-warped Tyre ......

..... at the same time, the 'proper' max and the chick the AI was based on turn up in Eighteen Billion to finish the story off in spectacular styley for the last 4/5 chapters .....

..... epilogue has Max and Tyre as xenon hybrid-thingy-chips-AI-mebobers all sorted in the head, and they live happily ever after running the new 'Max's Place' Bliss Factory with the 'proper' max and original chick flying of into the sunset in a converted Boron Orca


or ... NOT! \o/

Spoiler

Show

I think NOT! Skinni, see what realy happens is that Law discovers he realy is the centre of the universe, unfortunatly for him a blackhole developes at the centre of the universe, so after Law implodes down his very own blackhole , Max Tyre and all the slaves break out in the confusion, Max then comes back with the rest of the rogues and takes over the station(s) that Law once ran and then he and Tyre live happily ever after

As for the the real story, I have no idea whats going to happen, there seems so many possibilities, but most (to me at least!) are looking very bleak for Max and Tyre, i'm starting to think, our favorite doctor (Daz) has got it about right

[spikey]

Situation does look petty bleak.

Excellent chapter Steve, very different to much of the rest of the story. Superbly written, is this a first experiment into such dialogue? It has worked very well and adds some interesting new dimensions to both Law and Max's characters. Nice one.

Spikes

[SteveMill]

Situation does look petty bleak.

Excellent chapter Steve, very different to much of the rest of the story. Superbly written, is this a first experiment into such dialogue? It has worked very well and adds some interesting new dimensions to both Law and Max's characters. Nice one.

Spikes

thanks Spikes and everyone, except of course those bastards predicting the story-line and forcing me to change it.

Yes, it was an experiment, I wanted to try and show Law as more than a 2D villian. I got a book recently that is aimed at writers but provides detailed accounts and examples of hundreds of psychological types, pathologies and traits and that inspired me.

If I was writing Rogue from scratch I'd have probably had a pre-figuring scene early in the first book. I was also sort of inspired by the interrogation episodes from Babylon 5 in terms, particularly the Vorlon inquisitor who turned out to be Jack the Ripper.

More to follow soon, maybe even today, I'll see how it goes.

A couple of days ago I picked up an old Dell notebook for £100 so that I don't have to choose between writing and lounging outside when it's nice.

It's only a P133 with no CD drive, running win 95 but all it has to do is word process so at that price i'm happy.

[Mercenary]

Dark days indeed for Max, but like Kiwi mentioned in the previous thread I do begin to wonder about that maintenance robot... I wonder if it had a minicam on board...

A couple of possible typos

"...may call you that.." - may I call

"men's" - not sure about the ' maybe just mens

"If you're going to kill me let's get started and over with.." maybe needs rewording.

[SteveMill]

Dark days indeed for Max, but like Kiwi mentioned in the previous thread I do begin to wonder about that maintenance robot... I wonder if it had a minicam on board...

A couple of possible typos

"...may call you that.." - may I call

"men's" - not sure about the ' maybe just mens

"If you're going to kill me let's get started and over with.." maybe needs rewording.

Thanks, done.

[Gandalf The White]

Well, as a friendly timelord, I can do that sort of thing Steve!!!lol

Anyway, hope my prodictions aren't correct. I want Max to escape, to leave Law alive, and to come back for 1 final battle, chapter long!lol. How about a simultainious space and ground battle? Why doesn't Law take over an abandand asteroid or planet?

[SteveMill]

Well, as a friendly timelord, I can do that sort of thing Steve!!!lol

Anyway, hope my prodictions aren't correct. I want Max to escape, to leave Law alive, and to come back for 1 final battle, chapter long!lol. How about a simultainious space and ground battle? Why doesn't Law take over an abandand asteroid or planet?

Not sure there are any abandoned planets and asteroids are too inhospitable, besides fighters don't have the power to reach escape velocity so they have to be space based.

If I have a productive lunch break I may be able to finish the next section in time to post later today.

[Gandalf The White]

Yay! looking forward to it.

[Gandalf The White]

bump

[SteveMill]

bump because I had the wrong date posted in the header, May instead of June. Call yourselves proof-readers

[Gandalf The White]

Lol!

If you really wanted to be perdantic as well, then you had the wrong story name up as well!lol

[SteveMill]

Lol!

If you really wanted to be perdantic as well, then you had the wrong story name up as well!lol

Yes, just spotted that too.