The Butcher, also known as Emperor Ubuluff of the Gamma Lyrae star system, had finished his work for the day.

He felt productive, having ordered 16 beheadings and 427 lashings. Only one prisoner was set free – a female, beautiful but retiring, accused of the murder of a palace guard. The evidence was flimsy and the woman beguiling and before the prosecutor finished his opening statement, the Emperor found the defendant not guilty and sent her on her way with a wink that said, “I’ll deal with you later,” but in a coquettish way.

No one had ever accused the Emperor of being unfair. Well, actually, many had, but none had done so within earshot. Ubuluff found this immensely gratifying.

Having retired to his chambers, the undisputed leader of Gamma Lyrae and all 12 of her planets leaned back in his chair with the remote control in one hand and a fuzzy floozy in the other. He had learned how to make the fuzzy floozy on Nenzyria IV, where his parents had a summer home.

The drink was delicious, but the remote wasn’t worth a damn. He pressed the power button 14 times. He pressed it with the remote pointing at the screen, at the floor, at his own head. Then he pressed and held the button for three seconds, but that just made everything in the room start blinking.

“TaROOOOOOOO” he bellowed.

Taroo was the Emperor’s personal assistant. He was good with technology.

The door to the Emperor’s chambers slid open, but it wasn’t Taroo. It was the woman from court. The one he released. She held a glinting knife in one fingerless hand.

“My Lord,” she said, “I have something for you.”

About Prompt-A-Day: The rules are simple. Every day, I generate a prompt using Story Shack’s awesome writing prompt generator. Then I set a timer for one hour. At the end of the hour, I post what I’ve got. Sometimes it’s decent. Sometimes it sucks. Sometimes I fail at the prompt. Sometimes I do okay. I do not edit, unless I find a typo, because I can’t help fixing those. Feel free to join in and post a link to your writing in the comments.