Duel for Franchise
Snaky Betrayal
Fast forward a bit. The ‘Desert of the Dry Dragons’
as seen in the map is actually
a lab, or experimental zone, handed over to the
foreign investor as part of a pseudo-scientific
franchise, covering up interests of MONEY AND
DOMINATION.
Some shady character from Snake Planet, whose real
name is Poison Snakes, masqueraded as a rich and
generous  investor named Yorgenhooder.
He stole the patent of the gland with all of its
secrets and trademarks, and on top of it all sent the
inventor and all his relatives and staff to their
doom.
As soon as they handed over to him the complete
documentation of their technology and patent
registration, the prototype of the gland and its
programming station, Snakes put them on a space yacht
as a bonus trip to “somewhere nice and warm.”
The yacht was a spacious and automatic spacecraft
with all  the amenities: Jacuzzi and
gym, cozy home cinema, veggie greenhouse, a real joy.
Other than the Professor’s grumpy and suspicious
frown, the whole bunch boarded the space yacht with an
expression of victory all over their faces. That same
afternoon, they sealed the doors and were launched
into deep space. They ate popcorn and watched a couple
of movies, then went to check out their fancy
bedrooms.
Sky Lukewalker glanced at his watch. It wasn’t
midnight yet. He was sitting in the cockpit, watching
the dark space and feeling like King of The Universe.
 Little did he know, because
Sky was sitting in a fancy death trap...
According to Snakes’ orders, the space yacht was
programmed for a one way trip – to the Sun! The
command bridge seemed all active, so you could always
switch to manual flight, brake and change course at
any given moment. Or could you?
This type of space yacht has two driving mechanisms:
(1) EIGHT POWERFUL DRIVE ENGINES, for moving in any
direction you like. They were operational and in
perfect order. However, what Lukewalker didn’t know,
was that Snakes totally drained their fuel tanks.
Launching into space was done by the launching
platform itself, so the craft had not even a droplet
of energy to self propel in any direction – or even
change course…
(2) It also had MAGNETIC BRAKES, useful only for
landing. Very strong brakes that could be activated at
a considerable distance from the landing surface.
Operational; active; all fine. Only what? Activating
these brakes before approaching the Sun will only get
them fried more slowly…
“YES!!!” said the snake.
Now that he got rid of any holders of intellectual
property for the invention at hand, Snakes could
become its king-nominated ‘Supervisor’ – with
treacherous intentions to continue and profit from the
“gland” patent. This he would do by implanting – in
its central command computer – a piece of software to
turn all its supervised bodies into soldiers or slaves
with no willpower of their own. Such who will be
willing to die for any worthless or unscrupulous
mission.
It should be noted about Gay Kucken that this
particular “King” is not interested in financial
profits and not even (positive and orderly) control.
Because he’s got enough of those, if you ask him. His
sole interest is domination:
always come out right and prove the other guy wrong.
Snakes knows it well and creates a devious scheme in
which the King would give him an exclusive franchise
after beating him in a hologram duel. That is, of
course, the King would have to beat Snakes, not the
other way around. Gay Kucken would then be satisfied
enough to sign his franchise. “But not before he'd
leech a million questions on my head,” thinks the
snake.
To be on the safe side, Snakes puts his own
programmer in position near the King. The most nerdy
programmer in the Galaxy: pale, skinny, square-pattern
shirt and granny spectacles hanging on his
red-freckled nose. His name is Billy G. or as his
college buddies used to call him: micro-soft. After a
micro and soft organ in his body (or so they claimed).
Billy G. has clear orders from Snakes – and a threat
over his micro-soft if he failed.
Gaming for Franchise: KING vs. SNAKE
Poison Snakes calls Gay Kucken to a gaming challenge:
Snakes may win privileges to develop and market the
gland, if he could beat the King in a holographic
duel. Kucken, a fanatic gaming addict, takes the
challenge!
The holographic fight between the King and Snakes will
be conducted in the old Hologram Room, located in the
famous space station Mirtz-13 (that was before the
construction of the "Zone" and its Hologram Generator
shown on the map).
Billy G. spreads a rumor around, saying that Poison
Snakes cannot be beaten in holographic gaming. As
predicted, the King gets furiously mad, calls Billy
and demands that he changes the programming of the
Hologram Room so that HE would win for certain. Billy
pretends to be a geek pushed to a corner and “can’t
promise.”
Billy even asks the King, if His Highness would please
grant him a little side project: a hologram that turns
his micro-soft into a tiger. “Maybe this would
convince me,” he nasalizes through his red nose. The
King is furious and shoots Billy (the Kid) with a
long-nose gun. Billy (the Kid) is lying on the floor,
bleeding to… no, no, my mistake. Luckily for
Billy it was just a toy gun. So he gets off the floor
with a silly look on his face. The King is still
boiling mad and plans to throw a large marijuana pot
at Billy’s head. Suddenly, he cracks up into
uncontrollable laughter, throws the pot to the floor,
and continues to laugh and roll on his royal sofa.
“What did you say? You want to turn what into a
tiger? Hahaha well well alright, you got away with it
this time. Hahaha (chuckle chuckle) OK but beware if
you screw up: your micro-soft will become dessert for
my next lunch!”
Billy changes the Hologram Room software to give a
clear advantage to the King. So far everything moving
as planned.
Show time!! Snakes arrives at Mirtz-13 station to
engage in gaming. He enters the Hologram Room and sees
in front of him the hologram representing the King. As
far as Snakes is concerned, this duel is a real fight
for survival, not imaginary at all. His problem is:
during the game he must plan his steps to let the King
win eventually. But his distorted self-importance
makes it very hard on him to let anybody else win, not
even by a bit. On one hand he must make it a little
hard on Gay Kucken so as to give him a fair challenge
– and on the other hand give him the winner’s
satisfaction– and all this is too hard for his snaky
character. “Stressed out” doesn’t start to describe
it. This dilemma is eating him alive.
But wouldn’t you do anything to dominate the Galaxy?
What Snakes does NOT know: during the
entire game, actually, Kucken is too chicken to even
play for real. Snakes is playing against the computer,
according to the King’s specific orders to Billy G.
And Billy did not report this to his boss, Snakes, for
a simple reason: he is aware of the poor computing
power of the lousy computer. “What’ya talking about,
this is a computer for kindergarten,” so said Billy to
the King and got the back of his head rewarded with a
Double-Whacker from
Gay Kucken.
And what’s worse, during the entire game the annoying
King stands behind Billy and drives him berserk.
Billy, who’s dripping sweat in the tiny control room
and types like mad on the computer’s three keyboards,
is doing his best to maneuver between the King of
Leeches watching over his shoulder, the insanely
nervous Snakes in the Hologram Room, and the
moronic computer itself.
The game ends 188:172 to Gay Kucken. Poison Snakes
comes out exhausted (mainly due to his crushed honor)
and finds the King lounging in the waiting room, all
relaxed and light faced.
“Something
here very very suspicious,” he ponders, “But I don’t
care, just want him to sign the bloody franchise and
go to hell. Him and his stinking holograms! It’s been
years since they cleaned that room, or is it the
hologram itself that stinks? I didn’t know they could
make computerized stink…”
Snakes, still huffing and puffing, goes without a word
to his briefcase, takes out the franchise forms and
hands them over to the King. He sits down near Kucken,
lowers his eyes and prepares himself for a shower of
annoying questions. After a long moment of rustling
papers the document appears in his field of vision.
“Take it,” says Gay Kucken.
“But hey...” Snakes lifts his eyes, “What is it? You
promised that after the hologram duel you’ll consider
my franchise request.”
“Go your way, Snakes, the document is signed.”
“Serious? Did you read the small print? I get 25
millions Credits and a free franchise to develop
the---”
“Snakes!!!” the King interrupts him abruptly, “Don’t
bother me with the details. Go play with your patent.
Just don’t forget to tell your grandsons who beat in
holographic duel the unbeatable snake, IS
THAT CLEAR?!”
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