Pleas to the Pleiades

Inside the magnificent desert citadel, the Prince of Candor welcomed Jimmie and Khlilia warily as they crawled out of their craft into his exotic palace. It was draped with millions of chameleon colours. Hanging on all sides were the flags of every Earth nation, and many others besides, but there were also many kinds of pirate flags, and many kinds of dangling polished skeletons.

“I am the Prince of Candor … Ya K’nyaz Kandora … Yo soy …”

Candor’s voice echoed and acoustimorphed into hundreds of earthly languages in an exquisitely, authoritatively beautiful series of cascading tones.

“What are you doing in my Country?”

Jimmie and Khlilia still had not yet seen the Prince.

Jimmie later remarked, “His voice caused everything, and I do mean everything, to vibrate, including my body.”

Then the Prince appeared. He was exquisitely and authoritatively beautiful too, like his voice, but no one would call him handsome. Though assuredly … or, as Jimmie and Khlilia supposed, male, he was decorative only as a terrestrial bird or reptile male might be, with those long flowing curling mustaches, just like the Chinese dragons in all the ancient pictures on the menu from those ancient restaurants.

His hands, however … were a little more handlike, the claws a little less cumbersome; they were … almost human.

His hide was like a durgeon, or perhaps a sturgeon. Scales – big, beautiful, glistening purple-gold ones. The very scales of his skin vibrated when he spoke.

His head was huge, with two large golden-red alligator-chameleon eyes beading in on his visitors, eyes surrounded by swirling cosmoses of brows and mustaches and lashes in every conceivable and inconceivable spectrum. But his sorb had been shorn, Jimmie noticed.

A feathery-hairy reptile with a very wary brain.

Yeah. Jimmie and Khlilia could tell that this guy could hypnotize you a hell of a lot better than any durgeon could. But he was being polite for some reason – no hypno tonight.

Jimmie mustered up his diplomacy. “We didn’t mean to disturb you. Nice place you got.” He bowed graciously to the dragon or whatever he was. “What you got to say, Prince of Candor?”

Candor answered, “Ki was of the Earth, and she was for the Earth. The great old forever-sleeping Draco Tiamat was her grandmother, the same as the rest of the reptilian Draco people who had come to the Earth from the faraway star Thuban. But Ki thought differently than them. She felt the new Earth people should have the chance to develop and govern themselves, and this was rightfully her decision, as she was Ki Urash, the Dragon Queen of the Earth. They had all come here together from Thuban and the Draco System, together with her grandfather Apsu, who was later murdered. Being semi-aquatic creatures, they set up their base in the sea that is now north of Siberia. At that time, it was warmer there, because the North Pole was near Earth’s present-day Iceland or Greenland.”

“Interesting history lesson,” Jimmie answered.

Khlilia was petrified with fear.

Candor continued, “Apsu and Tiamat had a family of at least seven dragon brood. Anshar and Kishar were among their children, and they gave birth to Antu, Dragon Queen of the Sky, Ki, Dragon Queen of the Earth, and Anu, their brother. These three ruled this Solar system, but not without discord. Although Ki was younger, she carried a Dragon Queen title, and the two sisters were in continual conflict. Worse besides, there were no males with which to mate, other than their brother.” He paused. “Yet mate incestuously they did.”

“Those old stories are full of incest,” Khlilia whispered to Jimmie.

“Don’t interrupt him, okay?”

“You don’t interrupt him!”

“Antu kept her bases on the Moon and Mars, and Ki on the Earth, and Antu and Anu’s seed bore Enki, also known as Samael or Satan …”

Jimmie had to remark, “Oh, suffering succotash, I knew it.”

“Stop interrupting! It’s interesting!”

“Interesting often means dangerous.”

“… while Ki gave birth to Enlil, also known as Ilu or Jehovah. Enki inherited Mars, but also kept bases underground upon the Earth and Moon, in defiance of the inheritance agreements. Enlil was for the Earth, his grandson was Dumuzi, and he had at least three children. Enlil and Enki fought, continuing the conflicting ambitions of their mothers.

“Ea and Marduk killed their grandparents Tiamat and Apsu. Their battles with cosmic weapons caused great disturbances on Earth and Mars, moving the poles of both planets. Mars lost its water. Due to the cataclysmic lifting of the Himalayas, the underwater shore-garden city of the dragons was moved to what is now called Iraq – Babylon, from Russia. Around the time of the Mesopotamia move, both Enki and Enlil mated with their sister Ninhursag. Their draconian conflicts continue even unto this day.”

“Excuse me, sir, may I interrupt?” Jimmie enquired.

The Prince of Candor was magnanimous. “Of course you may.”

“Why are you telling us this story?”

Candor gleamed with subtle ardor, and he changed his colour better than any chameleon could, red to greenish-purple.

“Why am I telling you this story? It is the standard eulogy for the dead Earthlings when we prepare to eat them. It’s been a long time since I’ve had … your kind of fresh meat.”

“Oh.” Jimmie paused as Khlilia shrank. “You mean eat us?”

“I’ve already prepared a special sauce. I do hope you’ll like it. Of course, the barbecuing you will not find pleasant.”

“Wait, Candor, can we sing you some of our songs and play our music before that?” Khlilia intuitively asked.

“Of course, that would be most interesting. I love music. I like Elvis Presley and the Beatles and the Stones. I love Queen, Cream, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, the Doors, and all kinds of operas and classical music. Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Mussorgsky, and more. I even like Electric Light Orchestra.”

“Well, maybe you’ll like this.” Jimmie began to play his slide guitar.

“You’ll play when I command you to play!”

“Okay, sir. Please finish your monologue.” Jimmie shrank, and muted his strings.

“Enki interfered with the primates on Earth, who were being used as slaves in our dragons’ gold mines. Enki-Shaitan had sex with a primate, and then transplanted the fertilized egg into his sister Ninhursag. This cross-breeding of dragon and primate resulted in Adam, and, later, Eve. Nergal and Ereshkigal, Dragon King and Queen of Mars and the outer planets, children of Enlil and Ninlil, gave birth to Lilith, and she became Adam’s first wife.”

Khlilia whispered to Jimmie, “Don’t interrupt him again. This is great!”

“Satan-Enki lusted for Lilith, and through her continued the Draco Line that was against allowing the seed of Adam to take over the Earth. They were my great-grandparents.” Candor looked piercingly at them.

“Adam’s marriage to the new Dragon Queen Lilith was ruined. Eve was created as Adam was, and they were happy for a time. But then Satan-Enki seduced Eve as well. Cain was born of the seduction of Eve by Enki; thus, he carried the reptilian Dragon mark upon his forehead. His line became the Amaleks, worshippers of the Draco dominance. The children of Seth intermarried with the sons and daughters of Enlil, and from this line are you Earth people descended, through Abel and Seth.

“Ki continued to defend the sovereignty of the newly created Earth People and the line of Seth, down through Noah and thus through you. Before the Flood, the varieties of dragon-primate interbreeding were extensive; after the Flood, the human species became somewhat standardized. However, humans today still have varying percentages of reptilian and mammalian DNA, and this is known by modern Earth geneticists, who cannot figure out why people have so much snake genetics in them. Of course, you also have plenty of cow and fish, as well as snake and monkey … Poor people.”

Jimmie thought he had listened politely long enough. “So what kind of cosmic mestizo mix do you have in your genes?”

Jimmie could not tell if his host Candor reptile-smiled for a moment or not. His tendrils definitely twirled … and a minute passed. His throat flared outward almost half a metre, and turned a rosy crimson color.

Candor answered, “I do look forward to hearing your final songs. It will be tasty. I’ll make a recording for posterity.”

Khlilia asked the Prince of Candor, “You have a studio here?”

“Of course I do, dear.” He eyed her with lust. “Later, the prince named Ki came forth and founded the city of Kiev. His descendants were the Scota. At a time of war between Athens/Scythia and Egypt, Gathelus and Scota (also the name of their Queen) eloped with a contingent of Scota people to Ireland and Scotland. The people called themselves Scota or Scythians, and the royal Scythians were called Ros, Rose, Roffe, Ross, Rosse, or Rus, thus, that was the family name of the Scottish royal or Donnechaid Line, and is to this day. The symbol of the family is the Red Lion.

“Much later, after the assassination of Godfear Williamson Roffe in 1212, the Rose Line returned to Scythia/Ukraine, rejoined their cousins in Kyiv Rus, and later still founded Russia. Usurped by the Stewarts in Scotland and then Ivan the Formidable (Terrible) in Russia, the Rose Line or Rose Lion (which name also refers to the Rose Line of hydrogen-alpha stellar emission and the prime meridian) became ordinary people. There were somewhat more than 100,000 of them in 2012.”

“Wait a minute, Sir Dragon, that’s my family name! I changed it to Memnon in honor of Agamemnon!”

“Of course, I already know that, from my extensive memory banks. So?”

“Seems like you might want to give us another chance.”

“Well, sir, it depends on your music. But so far, I would prefer to eat you.”

Khlilia responded. “So, what’s the upshot?”

“I like this girl, I think she could be tasty. Hmmm. The Rose Line people are prophesied to return to benevolently guide your planet (our concept of ‘rule’ is rather more like ‘measure’), but only when your people want them to do so.”

Khlilia was adamant. “Let’s start playing. May we take out our instruments?”

“By all means do.”

Khlilia and Jimmie set up and began to play. They played and sang for hours. They played Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Liszt, Bizet, and Berlioz, as well as all the rock classics, Muddy Waters blues, and their own original tunes. Jimmie had started with a slide guitar solo. Khlilia had gradually joined in, setting the synthesizer to drone like a raga, then taking her electric surbahar-bandura and plucking out a counterpoint to Jimmie’s guitar. After that she showed her proficiency on the keyboard with all the classical pieces.

“I like it. I will not eat you, for you are my pets. But we must find other food. In other words, do not trust ‘Gardener Brown’ and his evil twin. They fully serve the Old Dragons of Thuban, and serve you only half-truths. They completely omitted the Donnechaid Rose Line from the books about the Bloodline, the Grail … and da Vinci, who, although undeniably a genius, was quite demonic and degraded in his personal life. The True Rose Line, sons and daughters of Enlil, are quite normal and comfortable among the common people, true to the tradition of their great matriarch Ki. I am very pleased with you, my new pets. What else can you show me?”

Jimmie boldly answered, “I can show you my new engine.”

“Ha, funny. What can an Earthling show us about engines?”

“Well, because you live for centuries, even for thousands of years, you don’t need speed as much we do. I assume you put yourself into a reptilian trance and ride a slow rocket for a century or so.”

“You know more than I thought you did about us. Yes, I do not mind a few months’ time to get to Earth for a shopping trip with my hypnotized Earthlings at my command. Still, I am beginning to see some advantage to speed. Tell me about this engine.”

“Well, maybe you could help us build a bigger one? It’s a deceptively simple device, my new engine. This is its basic design. The reaction begins in a hemispherical chamber that continues into a long cylinder with an open exhaust on the other end. The radius of the reaction chamber and the length of the cylinder are tuned to certain experimentally determined details. We spent ten years in a lab in Ukraine determining these numbers of scale. This hemi-cylinder is made of a special material that does not react with the fuel. The fuel must be supplied in a vaporized state through a system of small pumps and pipes, all made of, or lined with, the same special non-reactive material.”

“What material?”

“Uhhh … it’s hard to describe, Candor.”

“WHAT MATERIAL?” Candor became red and orange in colour.

“Uh, Jimmie, tell him what this material is,” Khlilia said. “We don’t …”

“Umm, it’s an alloy … or it could be a special ceramic.”

The Prince of Candor projected a beam of thought into Jimmie’s brain. Jimmie squirmed under its influence.

“I see. You don’t really yet know the best material. Tell me about the fuel and the process. Draw.” Then Candor Gave Jimmie a drawing apparatus, as Khlilia looked on warily.

“Okay, I’d rather not have my head fried again.” Jimmie started drawing diagrams, schematics. “The fuel inlet nozzles in the reaction chamber must be constructed very accurately and sturdily. A special vortex arrangement ensures the long-life performance as well as maximum power and thrust of the engine. The engine could theoretically operate on dozens of different isotope fuels, some more dangerous than others. None of them are completely safe, but then neither is water. All of them are way safer than uranium or plutonium. The fuel comparison theoretical study is still going on. I use mercury.

“A special tuned magnetic coil, in a pyramidal array, points inward toward the main cylinder’s center, and encircles the outside of the cylinder.”

Candor was a proud and vain creature. “We know about such pyramids. We built those pyramids on your planet, in Egypt.”

“The coil array must be supplied with a current of very precise frequency. The generator of this current flow is the bulkiest part of the system, but it can currently be the size of a typical refrigerator. I am designing a smaller and better component, and looking for the things I need.”

“I can get you anything you need.”

“If all these conditions are met, the engine can supply graduated thrust and power far exceeding any combustion, ion plasma, or nuclear engine known today – about a thousand times greater. It has taken rockets six months to go from Earth to Mars. Minimum three and a half.”

“It will take us two weeks, or even less. We can go to neighboring star systems in only a few weeks also, because we can reach relativistic speeds.”

“Faster than the speed of light?” Jimmie was incredulous, and Khlilia was too.

“The speed of light is relative, my dear pet.” Candor was magnanimous when he wanted to be, and he was beginning to grow proud of his new human guests.

“Where exactly is it that you want to go? If I may ask, Prince Candor.”

“I think I may let you and Khlilia choose our destinations.”

Khlilia had been quiet, but now she spoke up. “Why? Something tells me that this is more than just your fondness for music.”

Jimmie added, “Yeah, and why is it you live alone here? Surely there are other Draconians here on Mars, or elsewhere, with whom you could live.”

“All that was told in my long historical toast to you, when I had planned to roast and eat you.”

“So you disagreed with your cousins, the other dragon descendants of Satan and Lilith?”

“Well, yes, I suppose you might say we have a Cold War going. I might as well tell you they live in the main canyon of Mars, where they have a small sea of water and a great towering skyscraper in which they keep their graebes – the little gray spacemen – living in apartments. You can see the apartment tower on your NASA maps. I’ve never understood why your Earth space programs always landed in the distant deserts. I suppose it was because they did not want to go straight into the heart of the matter.”

Khlilia grew more and more impatient. “And where are your graebes?”

“I don’t care for graebes, to be honest. They are not very tasty, nor are they any more clever than bees or ants. I don’t care to keep slaves – they would bore me. I prefer either to eat other creatures or keep them as pets – as I am now keeping you.”

Jimmie said, “I’m beginning to respect you, Prince of Candor.”

“And I too am beginning to respect both of you.”

“Uh, Prince.”

“You can simply call me Candor.”

“Uh, Prince Candor, we have to eat a little more often than you do, I suspect. But maybe you are also hungry. We’re definitely hungry. We’ve got rice and beans, and dried vegetables, in our truck. Could we prepare some for ourselves?”

Khlilia tried to be polite. “Maybe you’d like some too?”

Candor glared. “I don’t eat rice and beans!”

Khlilia kept trying to be polite. “Well, you’ve got your special sauce prepared. Maybe we could catch and eat something.”

Candor reflected a moment. “Of course, one should always take care of one’s pets. Let’s go to my biology laboratory and choose something for dinner.”

Candor led Jimmie and Khlilia through an underground tunnel to a complex of greenhouses, aquarium tanks for fish and other seafood, and farms where animals were raised. Some of the animals, fish, and plants were recognizable as from Earth. Others were much more exotic.

Khlilia was impressed. “Wow, you have sturgeon, grouper, octopus, salmon, tuna, and over there you have pigs, sheep, cows, deer … and over there in the greenhouse you have tomatoes, peppers …”

“And spices for my sauces.”

Jimmie was growing more and more hungry, but trying not to be impatient with his host. “What will you feed us, dear owner?”

“Why, whatever you like, dear ones.”

Jimmie spoke aside to Khlilia, “What would you like, dear one?”

She answered, to Candor, “I’ll have some seared Ahi tuna, and could you possibly prepare some of the caviar from the sturgeon? And some fresh tomatoes?”

Jimmie explained, “She’s what we call a fish-atarian.”

Candor was now like the kind chef at a great restaurant. “Of course, Khlilia. A little parsley?”

“Of course, Candor.”

Candor then benignly asked, “Jimmie?”

“I’ll have a venison steak, medium-well, with broiled new potatoes, skins still on, AND some seared Ahi tuna, AND some o’ that caviar, and the tomatoes, with sprouts, and virgin olive oil and lemon juice.”

“Sprouts?” For the first time, Candor was uninformed.

“I’ll teach you how to do that later. Wouldn’t mind a beer or two, either.”

Candor became derisive. “Oh, that alcohol question.”

Jimmie noted Candor’s attitude, and replied, “Okay, forget the beer for now. And the sprouts. Any other intoxicants? I mean, mild ones.”

“I might surprise you.”

Khlilia, like any wise woman, did not want Jimmie to get intoxicated. “Jimmie, lay off a little. He likes us – don’t spoil it.”

“Let’s go to my dining room,” Candor invited his two guests … er, pets.

The dining hall was massive, like that of the ancient Vikings, with a long great table made of a wood that certainly could not have been grown on Mars. Yet, it was simple, like a dining room of a Japanese emperor. Lanterns hung on all sides of the great rectangular room. It was as if all the great cultures of Earth had brought their best restaurant concepts into one place.

Candor, Jimmie, and Khlilia entered and sat themselves down in very comfortable high-backed chairs. The chairs, like the table, could not have been made from any kind of wood from Mars, and were upholstered with skins of unknown animals.

Candor bowed to his pets. “First, have a little tea while I go and act the chef.” He poured tea with a flourish, elevating the teapot higher and higher like they do in Japan or Morocco. Then, he left them alone.

Jimmie and Khlilia were alone together, drinking tea, in the dining hall of the dragon.

Jimmie sipped his tea. “What do you think?”

Khlilia answered, sipping her tea, “This might be the best restaurant I’ve ever been in. Definitely the weirdest, though.”

“You trust him?”

“Not really. But I think he can be nice. He knows how to be nice. Nicer than a lot of people I know.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You do have this sarcastic black humor that can turn people off, you know.”

“Yeah, but then they like it the next time. I think he just wants my technology. His etiquette is purely opportunistic. And I don’t like being anybody’s pet.”

“I bet you were the teacher’s pet.”

“Damn right, but I did NOT like it. Know what? I think this tea has got something else in it.” Jimmie looked around mystically.

Candor reappeared, bearing in his huge clawed hands a dead bleeding deer, which he threw on the floor. The he went away and came back with two large live flapping fish, and branches of vines bearing tomatoes and potatoes, with various herbs and spices among them. He laid all these down in a big metal sink near a huge chopping block – again of some kind of wood that definitely could not have come from Mars. Finally, he went and got a container of red sauce.

He took the writhing fish one at a time and bit off their heads with his powerful alligator-like jaws, swallowing the heads whole with a minimum of chewing. Then he took the deer, ripped out its entrails with one swipe of his claws, and ate most of the guts red and raw.

“Jimmie, you want some of the deer’s liver?” he asked.

“Absolutely, Candor. That would be great. But cooked, though, okay?”

Khlilia was swooning, showing obvious signs of nauseous distress. “I think I’m losing my appetite.”

She turned her head away, but dared not ask to leave the dining hall, for fear of offending her host.

Then the Martian sapent rapidly peeled off the deer’s skin and threw it against the wall. He pulled off the deer’s legs one at a time, pulling the joints from their sockets with a snapping twist, then stripped off the meat and rapidly cut it into steaks with a large knife.

Candor chewed the ends off the deer’s bones and sucked the raw marrow out, relishing every molecule of flavour.

Then he threw the steaks and the liver onto a grill, which had real wood burning in it. It smelled like juniper and mesquite. He quartered the potatoes and laid them near the venison on the grill. He covered all this with plenty of rich red sauce, and then covered the whole grill with a lid of metal.

“Real wood! Juniper and mesquite! This guy’s got air to spare!” Jimmie exclaimed.

“Khlilia, doesn’t it smell good?”

“Smells good now, but earlier not, and it all looks terrible,” she answered.

Candor ignored them, as he rapidly gnawed off the remaining meat from the deer carcass, dousing it from time to time with the red sauce. He carefully wiped his dripping lizard lips and swirling moustaches with a napkin. He tossed all the bones over by the skin. Then he took the deer’s skull and sucked the brains out with a sound like “Sark!” … and then he popped out the eyes and ate them too.

Then he took the squirming fish, and quickly removed the scales with his knife-like claws. He cut open the belly of the sturgeon, pulled out glistening pearly-black caviar, and served it with tomatoes to his pets and to himself, as he sat down for a moment with them.

Jimmie ate voraciously but with savour, his eyes gleaming with the satisfaction of his hunger long sharpened by years on Mars. “This is really good, Candor. Can’t wait for the venison steaks and liver.”

The draco sapent asked, “How’s the fresh caviar, Khlilia?”

But she could barely manage to pick at her extremely expensive dish, still looking nauseous.

Jimmie did not know how to protect her feelings against blood. “Uh, I don’t think she’s ever had anything this fresh. I think it’s great! But you said that it’s been a long time since you’ve had fresh meat.”

Candor then pulled off the lid from the grill, and turned over the sizzling venison steaks and liver, and laid on more of the rich red sauce. The appetizing smell filled the dining hall.

“Man, I love that aroma, Candor. You are a chef extraordinaire, a chef beyond compare. And that’s not flattery. Khlilia?”

Khlilia was stuck in her emotions, gulping like a guppy gasping for air. “This might be the best restaurant I’ve ever been in. Definitely the weirdest, though.”

Candor then cut out the sturgeon and tuna steaks, tossing them fresh on the fire near the venison. He swallowed the remaining fish bodies whole after these removals.

Then he said, “Well, to be honest, I’m thinking that you two would have been tastier. It’s been a long time since I’ve had your kind of meat.”

Khlilia looked even more nauseated, her eyes tearful and fearful.

Jimmie shrugged nonchalantly. “Hey, we’ll go hunting together and get you somebody else to eat.”

The Prince of Candor regarded Jimmie respectfully. “Ah, a true Cherokee warrior! Maybe you’ll be more than just a pet. You can be a real hunting companion! I have not known a real human hunting companion for many, many centuries.”

Khlilia did not know what to say. “Ummm, I think I’ll leave you great hunters to yourselves. I’m not feeling well.”

The magnanimous Prince replied to her, “Khlilia, I have a place prepared for you.”

She turned toward where the truck was, beyond the door. “No thanks, I’ll sleep in the truck.” She went out of the dining hall and got into the truck.

“As you like, my pet,” Candor spoke into the empty air.

Khlilia fearfully locked the doors of Jimmie’s vehicle before restlessly trying to sleep.

Back in the dining hall, Candor said to Jimmie, “I suppose you’ll want to sleep with her tonight. You’re both welcome to my nicer pet, er … guest, quarters anytime. Your truck looks like a really strange place to sleep.”

“I think she’d feel better if I joined her soon. But thanks for this excellent meal.”

“Please, enjoy it.”

Jimmie savoured the Ahi and sturgeon steaks with broiled potatoes and fresh sliced tomatoes and parsley on the side, along with more caviar. Then he enjoyed the venison steak and liver, which was covered with the rich red sauce. He felt he was eating like he never had before. He liked to eat. Why had Binger and Osha not wanted to come here? They were back in Hesperia, probably eating durgeon barbecue and rice and beans, with maybe a few tomatoes and cucumbers and a little green salad.

“Mmmm, this venison could be the best I’ve ever had. Tender. And you were right, this special barbecue sauce really is excellent. Family recipe, I suppose?”

“Ancient Aztec family recipe. We used to live among them, you know.”

“Very stimulating. I can taste that it contains the usual tomato, onion, garlic, cilantro, and chili peppers. But there is some other spicy element that seems to kind of get me going.”

Candor replied as if it were nothing. “Yes, it’s the blood of previous victims, drawn at the moment of sacrifice, so that it has a high level of adrenochromaffin in it – the fear factor. It gives the rush of fear.”

Jimmie acted as nonchalant as he could, but stopped chewing. “Uh, very stimulating. I think I’ve had enough though.”

“Come on, you get a little of it anytime you eat any kind of meat. The sauce just concentrates it. And don’t worry, none of the victims were friends of yours … or Khlilia’s.”

“How do you know?”

“Instant olfactory genetic analysis. I could even teach you how to do it. Your nose is good enough. Go to Khlilia. Tomorrow we’ll start building your larger engine. It’s interesting that a mammal could design and build such a thing. But then, I suspect you are much more than just a mere mammal. I am sure you know that the Cherokees were once part of the Aztec Empire.”

“Yeah, but then we rejected human sacrifice.”

“Just like the Jews did. And what happened to both of you? Your civilizations?”

It dawned on Jimmie. “We were both driven out of our homelands.”

“Ah, but the opponents of both groups have said that these so-called homelands were not originally yours anyway – that you had come from the South and taken them.”

“Creek and Shawnee tribes say that about the Cherokee … but I’m Overhill, a Chickamaugan Cherokee. That means I am part Shawnee.”

Candor was amused. “But most of you smells Scottish, about whom the same situation of history exists between the ancient Pictish tribes. And of course, more recently, the same situation between Israeli Jews and the Palestinians and Syrians.”

“You seem entertained by our tragedies.”

“Yes, reptiles feel most of the same emotions as mammals, including amusement. I’m amused at the complex trickeries of my cousins, especially those of Be’elzebub. But I don’t really like Be’elzebub, I think he’s childish. I don’t really like any of those devils living over in the Great Valley. That’s why I live alone. But listen, I can feel that Khlilia feels lonely, an emotion we reptiles almost never feel. Go to her. We’ll start work in the morning.”

“Okay, see you then.”

Jimmie crawled into the truck and snuggled next to Khlilia, who embraced him.

The next morning, Jimmie and Khlilia entered the hall where they were the night before. There awaited them a fine breakfast spread of coffee and tea with small jars of honey, more caviar, eggs cooked in various ways, pastries, meats, and fruits of all kinds.

“Let’s eat. I’m famished. How was your food last night? And your conversation?”

“Excellent to both questions. Don’t let him frighten you. He’s a different species.”

Khlilia chowed down. “I hope he’s not fattening us up.”

Jimmie was also eating. “No, I think he wants my engine, and I have no choice really but to work with him. He wants very much to outdo his demonic cousins. Seems he’s a bit of an outcast. I think our interests coincide.”

“I think he’s a lonely fellow desperate to impress. I’ve met humans like him. It doesn’t matter how rich they are. Lonely millionaires.”

“I think you could be right. What would you do with a human of such character flaws?”

“Good question. Humor him, don’t make him angry. Compliment him, but only a little. Get him drunk and then slip away.”

“Great, but he can read our minds.”

“Not completely. He only does it when he is provoked to. So don’t provoke him, okay? Let’s go along with his pet game, be his good pets, just like cats do with their human owners. That way they get what they want and they stay in charge – or so cats think. That’s what some animal behavior experts say.”

“Notice he’s got no predatory animals here?”

“Yeah. That’s what bothers me about your hunter streak. He does not like competition. That’s why he is an outcast. I don’t want him to see you as a competitor, Jimmie.”

“Thanks for the insight, pet.”

“Aarrgh.” She rubbed against him like a cat.

“How did you get your name, if I may ask?”

“Thought you’d never ask. My parents were advocates of physician-assisted suicide. They supported the right to suicide of the doctor Ali Khalili, who was an associate of Kevorkian, the controversial doctor of the late last century.”

“So it comes from Arabic? Sounds bleak. I think suicide is usually unwise.”

“Not only. In ancient Arabic fables designed to teach political wisdom or cunning, Kalilah and Dimnah were two jackals, counselors to the lion king.”

“Dimnah sounds like my name a bit. Too bad I have malaria.”

“Yeah. These stories were translated from Arabic into many languages, including Hebrew, which John of Capua used to make a Latin version in the thirteenth century, the Directorium Humanae Vitae, or Guide for Human Life. It was really the ancient Sanskrit Panchatantra.

“My parents also were thinking about Khalil Gibran’s book, The Prophet.”

“I remember Gibran from the early seventies. A beautiful book.”

“Khalil is the ancient name of Hebron, where Abraham lived for a long time. It means The Beloved, or the Friend. The city of Hebron was founded eighteen centuries before Christ. King David was anointed in this ancient city.”

“Yeah. Fascinating. I can see why Candor is fascinated by you, as much as I am. So, are you Jewish or Muslim?”

Khlilia answered slyly. “Both and neither. My mother was a Lebanese Christian, and my father an American populist politician, who was killed in a mysterious automobile accident. He worked in Malaysia. That’s why I came here to Mars.”

Candor arrived, bristling with splendor. “Enjoying your breakfast?”

Jimmie replied, “Very fine, thank you.”

“Yes, thank you,” said Khlilia. “You know, many Earth people here would love to buy your food products. We don’t have enough food here on Mars.”

Candor tried hard to control his feelings of offense. “They cannot BUY what I have already given.”

Khlilia answered, “Please, tell us what you mean.”

“Only for you, my pets. Here in this laboratory many of your Earth species were created.”

Boldly, Khlilia asked, “May we ask why you have no predators?”

Candor was not comfortable with such candor. “Predators were a bit of a mistake.”

Jimmie probed, “A mistake of your cousins?”

Candor hesitated. “You mammals are too clever. My cousins the demon dragons think you were a mistake. They wanted to continue the reptiles as adrenaline-powered dinosaurs, and keep you as high-powered servants and food. Mammal predators, especially humans, have upset that plan.”

“But a comet wiped the dinosaurs out,” Jimmie countered.

“Not completely. It’s hard to wipe out any form of life completely. My cousins want to wipe you out completely. I would prefer to keep you alive for my entertainment and nourishment.”

Khlilia countered, “Back to that again. Come on, Candor, give us some candor. Where are your lions?”

“You know that I know those stories, Khlilia. We all three are outcasts, and you are my pet jackals. Lions – let us say they are being educated. They are my special sons.”

“It is hard to teach an animal so proud. Tell us, did you bring us here because you knew of us already?”

“You came here of your own free will. Maybe it was fated.”

Jimmie interjected again, “If I may change the subject a bit, could we invite a friend of mine to join us on our planned journey around the galaxy? He’s my favorite bass player.”

“Of course. I’d love more musical pets. We’ll pick up Osha after we come back from Earth. And if you like, we’ll visit some sacred American Indian sites too, and we can visit Hebron. Yes, I know your thoughts.”

Jimmie said, “I think we would all like that. Let’s build our new engine. I did not come here with empty hands.” He held out his open palms, holding a drawing.

Candor opened his hands also. “Let’s build.”