David Sterling had been held prisoner on the alien ship for months. Maybe it was years?

The vice-chamberlain led David into the king’s chamber by the vice-chancellor.

‘The human animal, my lord’ - said the vice-chancellor

‘The human animal, your grace’ - said the lord-chamberlain

‘Get it a seat’ - said the king.

The king was devouring a giant bowl of spaghetti and meatballs covered in parmesan cheese. On the side was a pile of garlic bread, and several empty bottles of chianti.

‘And more wine!’ - shouted the king

A real Italian chef - named Salvatore - wearing translation and obedience chains brought another bottle of wine which the king drank from the bottle. The chef’s jacket had ‘Trattoria il Vesuvio - Napoli’ and the name Salvatore stitched on the front.

A chair was brought for David Sterling.

‘Sit’ - said the king

With the obedience chain on, David couldn’t resist any command and felt fealty to the king.

‘Get it a plate’ - said the king

David Sterling was brought a plate of spaghetti and meatballs, and a bottle of wine by the Italian chef.

‘Eat and drink’ - said the king, slurping and squelching as it sucked a huge mass of spaghetti into its huge mouth.

David ate the pasta.

‘You are going to build me a time machine’ - said the king

‘Yes’ - said David

‘You are going to convert this whole ship into a time machine’ - said the king

‘Yes’ - said David

The king picked up the bottle of wine, and drank from it.

‘You are going to transport my people and this ship to your year 2022’ - said the king

‘Yes’ - said David

‘And then we will harvest the human animals’ - said the king

‘Yes’ - said David

‘And we will breed you’ - said the king - ‘like animals on the farm’

‘Yes’ - said David

‘I understand that human animals can be cloned’ - said the king

‘Yes’ - said David

‘And we can breed billions of you animals’ - said the king

‘Yes’ - said David

‘But you have weapons. Nuclear weapons’ - said the king

‘Yes’ - said David

‘You are going to build me a time machine to take this ship and my people to 2022 so we can farm the human animals. And my commandos will hunt and kill the scientist who developed the nuclear bomb. We will start by killing James Chadwick, Otto Hahn, and Fritz Strassmann before they can discover nuclear fission. And then we will kill all of the other scientists along the way. Oppenheimer, Fermi, Szilard. All of them. They will all die before the nuclear bombs can be invented. They will die before they can have their thoughts about nuclear bombs. We have your history books. You will tell us who they are, and then we know who they all are. All of them are from the American tribe, from the Russian tribe, the German tribe, and the British tribe. When we arrive in 2022 the human animals will be defenseless - and then we will harvest them, and breed them, and clone them, and eat them’

The king finished the bottle of wine.

‘More wine’ - shouted the king

Salvatore brought another bottle of chianti. The king took a swig and then lit a cigar. A giant Churchill cigar.

‘I will be shedding my skin soon’ - said the king - ‘ after my skin is shedded, we will travel to the human future’

The king blew his smoke in David’s face.

‘Once you have built me my time machine, and we are in your year 2022 I will remove your obedience chain, so that you will know the agony of what you have wrought upon your species. You will wail, howl, and cry. And then I will have you butchered and then I will eat you, David Sterling’ - said the king, puffing on his cigar.

David ate his spaghetti and meatballs.