Chapter Five: Sassy Sapphire

Mace, Sapphire and Tegan were back at the shuttle cruiser waiting for Penn and the others to return with the copper ore and the magnets. They were standing outside, watching the Lillitopians build the two statues. The heads of the statues were beginning to look like Mace and Sapphire.

"Sapphire," said Mace, "why don't you try dominating the Lillitopians?"

"It's fun!" said Sapphire, as she stamped her right foot down and scared off a Lillitopian.

Tegan tried it, and scared off another tiny person. "You're right, this is fun!"

"I've always wanted to swallow one of them!" said Sapphire.

"Let me film it if you do!" said Mace, as he pulled out his cell phone.

Sapphire knelt down and scooped up a helpless Lillitopian, and stood up with him in her hand.

"I wouldn't swallow me if I were you," said the tiny man.

"Why not?" Sapphire asked.

"I have electrical engineering knowledge that is valuable to Vertragus! If you swallow me, it would hinder the construction of the artificial wormhole generator!"

"Do you think we really care about that?" Sapphire asked. "Mace and I don't want to go home! Ever! As far as you’re concerned, we tower over you as a race of gods. You’re going to end up in our bellies sooner or later!"

Tegan spoke to the captive in Sapphire's hand: "When you’re one centimeter tall and we’re normal size, we can’t help but to end up as tyrants. How does it feel to dwell under the dominion of tyrants?"

"Your pathetic race can only bow to our every command, like insects!" said Sapphire. "Who would you rather be swallowed by, Tegan Terranova or me? I’m known as Sapphire. Sapphire Serpico."

"I don't think he needs a choice!" said Mace. "Just swallow him, while I film this!"

The tiny Lillitopian was tossed into the mouth of the malevolent maiden, while Mace filmed the whole ordeal. She tilted her head back and swallowed, and the tiny victim was sent plunging down her esophagus, into the belly of the beautiful behemoth. Sapphire laughed like crazy after realizing the victim was safely in her stomach; she fell to the ground, rolling around, laughing like a maniac.

Just then, Penn and the others returned with the copper ore and the natural magnets.

"What's so funny, Sapphire?" Penn asked.

"Why are you rolling around on the ground?" Felicity asked.

Sapphire leaped to her feet, and brushed the dust off of her uniform. "Oh, it was nothing!" said Sapphire, "Mace was just telling me a funny joke!"

"Then why weren't Tegan and Mace laughing?" Lazaro asked.

"I want to know what the joke was," said Felicity.

Penn grabbed the cell phone from Mace.

"Hey!" said Mace, "That's private property!"

Penn played the video back, and saw that Sapphire had swallowed a Lillitopian. Felicity and Lazaro watched the video, also.

"You need to vomit him up!" said Penn. "I recognize that Lillitopian, he's an engineer we need to help build the wormhole generator!"

"I'm not vomiting him up," said Sapphire defiantly. "It's my victory!"

Penn went into the shuttle cruiser and replicated a neural stimulator, then returned to where Sapphire was. He took aim, and pointed it at her head, then pulled the trigger. Sapphire immediately vomited, and the tiny captive she had swallowed fell out onto the ground in a puddle of vomit.

"How dare you!" said Sapphire. "You had no right to use a neural stimulator on me without my consent! If we ever get back home, I'm filing a grievance against you!"

"I've got a whole list of things you and Mace have done or refused to do since we got here!" said Penn.

"Haven't you figured it out yet?" said Sapphire. "I'm not leaving this place! When you and the others walk through that wormhole generator, I'm staying behind!"

"No you're not!" said Felicity. "We arrived together, and we're leaving together! You just want to stay behind so you can torture and dominate those tiny people!"

"What's so wrong with that?" Sapphire asked. "They're just a bunch of criminals! Enemies of the Empire! They might as well have a place in the depths of my belly!"

"It's not your right to judge them," said Penn. "They were sent here so they couldn't hurt anyone, it's not your job to abuse them any further."

"They're the food of the gods," said Sapphire. "And we're the gods!"

"No they're not!" said Felicity. "They're not food or toys for you to play with!"

"There's a lot you don't know about this place," said Sapphire. "My parents are military officers, they told me all about it! If the Empire didn't cull the population periodically, Lillitopia would get too overpopulated. They have to send normal sized people here every once in a while to kill off a certain segment of the population!"

"I don't believe that," said Felicity.

"I think she may be right," said Penn to Felicity. "My father is a sergeant and he told me they bring people from different versions of Earth through the Bermuda Triangle, and they get brought here for the same reasons Sapphire was pointing out; they need to make room for more criminals."

"So they let people like Sapphire Serpico cannibalize them?" Felicity asked.

"That's the way of the universe," said Penn.

To Be Continued!